Chapter 27
Jonah
The comments pop up under the news clip faster than I can read them.
We’re going to bomb our own city with no idea how that’ll solve the problem? Yeah, that sounds smart. /s
Did anyone tell the military bozos that bombs don’t fix things, they destroy them?
Why the fuck are the monsters on our side more than our own soldiers? Come on, people!
Sure, there are a few comments mixed in that are supportive of the military plans—people saying no one should trust the “monsters” and that they’re only looking out for themselves, others claiming it’s all a big conspiracy and the shadows hazing the city are actually a top-secret experiment by humans that’s gotten out of control. But that’s to be expected.
Peri comes up behind me and leans her arms against my shoulders, peering past me at the laptop screen. “You feel relieved. Is the response good?”
One corner of my mouth kicks up. “Nothing’s resolved yet, but if the military tried to suppress that broadcast, they didn’t manage to. The clips that’ve been uploaded on video-sharing sites have gotten millions of views. Most of the commenters are very against blowing cities up.”
I catch a whiff of Peri’s delight through our bond. “It worked, then! Colonel Hueber will have to rethink his plans if people are upset, won’t he?”
“I hope so. It seems like he was figuring he could slip the bombing mission under the public’s radar, and no one would mind the destruction if it got rid of the problem at the same time.
With people already knowing about it and raising an outcry…
Especially when you pointed out that it’s likely to make the situation even worse instead of better… I think we’re going to be okay.”
Okay in the sense that no bombs should be dropping in our vicinity in the next few days. We still have a massive, warped rift belching shadows all over the city to deal with while avoiding all the hostile humans who’ve shown up to get in Peri’s way.
That thought brings back the memory of the sorcerers we saw compelling the attacking shadowkind to take physical form… so the tanks could blow them apart. I swallow thickly, a sour flavor coating my mouth.
Peri tips her head next to mine. “Did you see some bad news? You got upset all of a sudden.”
I’m never going to be able to keep any real secrets from her. Old habits die hard, though—a lie slips off my tongue automatically. “It’s nothing.”
Peri gives a soft little huff and pecks my cheek. “I know that’s not true. What’s bothering you? If you don’t tell me, it’ll only bother me too that something’s wrong.”
I exhale slowly and turn away from the little desk I’ve set up in my personal trailer. Peri swivels automatically to perch on my lap, her soft weight a comforting presence in my arms.
Why am I trying to hide anything from her? I know she doesn’t judge me—she never has.
I’ve always been the person who’s hardest on me.
“I was thinking about the sorcerers who were working with the army,” I admit. “The way they set up the shadowkind so they’d die… I know the shadowkind started that fight, but I hate how most people who have the same power I do use it. They’re always hurting shadowkind one way or another.”
“That’s because of who they are, not the power they have, right?
” Peri nuzzles the edge of my jaw with a waft of affection.
“Most of them were either brought up seeing shadowkind as inhuman monsters or went to the trouble of developing their powers because that’s what they believed once they found out about us.
You’re lucky you got another perspective. ”
I grapple with the right words to explain how I’m feeling. “The talent still feels… tainted somehow. The whole point of it is to take away your will, to force you to do what I say. I’m always going to have that ability.”
“You’d never use it in any way that would bother me, though. So it doesn’t matter.”
She says it as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. I can’t pick up on a trace of discomfort from her.
I shift Peri in my arms so I can look into her bright blue eyes. “It really doesn’t get under your skin at all? Knowing that I have something so fundamental in common with so many people who want to manipulate and destroy beings like you?”
She doesn’t hesitate even a split-second in her answer.
“I don’t see it that way even a little bit.
The sorcery is like… like a gun or a tank.
You can use it to hurt people or to protect them when they’re threatened.
Just because lots of other people decide to do the first thing doesn’t mean it’s not obvious to me that you’d always do the second. ”
She speaks so confidently the twist in my gut eases, but only partly. “I’m glad you feel that way. I don’t know whether I’ll ever be completely convinced.”
Peri tsks her tongue at me. “Doesn’t it make a difference that none of the shadowkind who’ve worked with you are unsettled by how you use sorcery anymore? When even Hail’s okay with a human, you must be doing something right.”
Her tone has turned teasing, but she does have a point.
A chuckle slips out of me, and I hug her tighter again. “I guess it’s just something I’ll have to keep working through in my own head. I’ll try not to let it get to me in any way that’ll worry you.”
Peri hums. Her hand comes up to trace the line of my jaw, and heat sparks through my skin.
A thread of desire winds from her into me, stirring more of my own.
“Maybe you need to practice the better parts of sorcery more,” she says in a voice that’s still sweet but with a husky quality that sends a tingle of electricity straight to my groin. “It could be fun. People tie each other up with ropes and handcuffs to spice things up in the bedroom, don’t they?”
My mouth has gone abruptly dry. “You want me to tie you up with sorcery?”
My heart is suddenly thumping twice as fast, but I can’t say it isn’t as much with a thrill at the thought as with nerves.
Peri presses a kiss to the side of my neck before answering. “I know you’d never put me in danger or treat me unkindly. How would you approach it if you were going to bind me with sorcery, for fun?”
The ideas flit through my mind giddingly fast. “I—I guess I’d start… by giving you a command not to follow any other commands that you don’t actually want to. That would give you a safety measure. I couldn’t bend your will against your actual preferences.”
Her voice drops to a whisper. “Then why don’t you do that and take it from there?”
I swallow again in a moment of uncertainty, but the slight shift of her ass on my lap makes me starkly aware of how hard I am.
It wouldn’t be risky to try this if I handle it the way I said, would it? Peri’s asking me to give it a shot.
I can taste her eagerness the way she must be able to pick up on mine, with none of my apprehension mixed in. The magical bondage might make the experience extra enjoyable for her, just as she pointed out other kinds of bondage can for people.
The thought of her face flushing with pleasure convinces me.
The sorcerous syllables spill off my tongue, the meaning clear in my mind even if I couldn’t explain why those sounds will have their intended effect. “Only follow commands that you’d want to do even without sorcery.”
Peri’s expression doesn’t so much as tick. Of course, I haven’t compelled her to do anything concrete right now, only set a boundary for future commands.
She squirms around on my legs so she can straddle me on the chair. The friction makes my dick ache.
The flush I imagined is already spreading across her cheeks, but she cups her hands against my jaw ever so tenderly. “What would you like me to do for you, my sorcerer?”
The answer comes to me like a bolt straight to my cock, tingling through my heart at the same time. And I understand why she’s right to trust me. Why she’s totally right in what she said about how the people we are use the talents we have.
Not one part of me wants me to ask her to do something for my benefit. All my thoughts immediately focus on what I can suggest that’ll let me give her as much pleasure out of this encounter as possible.
My breath hitches around the heady thump of my pulse. My next command tumbles out in indecipherable syllables that nonetheless both our bodies understand. “Tilt your head to one side.”
Peri follows the instruction automatically, peering at me only with curiosity. I take a second to confirm her cooperation before bringing my mouth to the crook of her neck now temptingly on display.
As I meld my lips to her soft skin with a flick of my tongue, Peri gasps. More desire flutters through our bond.
She runs her fingers up into my hair from the base of my skull, setting my scalp quivering with heady tingles. Her other hand grips the front of my shirt.
The slight tug gives me a suspicion of what she’d like to do with that shirt, but she doesn’t proceed of her own accord. She’s letting me call all the shots.
I tease my tongue from the corner of her jaw down to the hollow of her throat and murmur another command. “Take off my shirt and touch whatever parts of me you’d like to.”
It’s the loosest of orders—she could remove my clothes and then stop if she wasn’t particularly inclined to cop a feel.
But Peri makes an enthusiastic sound as she peels the shirt off my torso.
The second she’s tossed it aside, her hands are tracing over the lines of the muscles I’ve worked so hard to sculpt.
I’ve thrown myself into those workouts mainly to keep my strength somewhere close to what most shadowkind can wield. Feeling my mate caress my skin is an even better reward.
And the sight of the glow that beams from the small spot in the middle of my chest only lifts my spirits now. It’s another reminder of just how much I earned this woman’s trust.
I catch Peri’s mouth in a kiss I didn’t demand but that she gives herself over to happily. For a few minutes, I lose myself in the heat of her mouth and her exploring hands.
The throb of my erection brings me back to our supposed goal. I’m meant to be practicing—and even if the most recent crisis is averted, I don’t know how much longer we’ll have before we’re called back to one duty or another.
I nip the lobe of her ear. “Vanish your clothes.”
I’ve barely finished speaking before Peri blinks in and out of the shadows, returning in her full naked glory. Her own bond mark glimmers between her voluptuous breasts.
Mine. In this moment, all mine.
I can’t restrain a groan before I bow down to lap one of her nipples into my mouth.
Peri whimpers, her hips rocking over me to torturous effect. When I dip one hand between her legs, her arousal slicks over my fingers.
I delve two fingers right inside her while strumming her clit with my thumb. A deeper moan reverberates up Peri’s throat. She clutches my shoulders, swaying with my attentions.
Her voice comes out breathless but as tantalizingly heated as the emotions flowing between us. “You always make me feel amazing, Jonah. I want to do the same for you.”
“You do,” I promise, lifting my head so I can kiss her on the lips again. “So fucking good, Peri. It’s never been like this with anyone else.”
The pleased noise that emanates from her chest sounds like a purr. Her breath is fracturing with the pumping of my hand, but I know I can make her feel even better than this.
“Push up on your knees,” I murmur.
When she lifts her ass, I have just enough room to unzip my fly and wriggle my jeans partway down. It takes barely any effort at all for my cock to spring free, aching to stand at attention for her.
“Sink down until I stop you.”
She lowers herself, but I catch her with a squeeze of her hip before she goes too far. Ever so carefully, I slide the head of my cock along her soaked slit.
Peri whimpers, burrowing her face against my shoulder. I exhale shakily. There’s only one possible order I can give now.
“Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she mumbles immediately. “Inside me. All the way. So deep. Please.”
God, does she really think she has to beg? There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be.
I guide her down onto me with a swift thrust that propels a groan out of our lungs. Peri’s mouth crashes into mine again. We buck together, the pleasure of our merging radiating through my body and hers. The sensations swirl together into a whirlwind of bliss.
I can’t tell where I end and she begins anymore. All I can do is chase my release and the ecstasy I can feel building in her all the way to the end.
Kissing her hard, I fondle her breast in time with my thrusts. Peri’s gasp stutters across my lips. I barely hold on until she clamps around me with a cry and a flare of brilliant pink all through her hair.
At the clenching of her channel, my cock erupts. I spill myself into her with a few more pumps of my hips before easing us both down together.
Peri slumps into my arms with the most satisfied sigh I can imagine. A flutter that’s not desire but something sweeter passes through my chest.
There really wasn’t anything the least bit horrifying about the sorcery I worked here this evening.
It’s all in how you use it.
I’d like to revel in that understanding and the feel of the woman I love in my embrace for a while longer. Unfortunately, it’s less than a minute before Mirage bursts out of the shadows by the door with an audible pop.
The fox shifter takes in our combined position with an upward twitch of his lips that fades just as quickly. “No more time for playing around. The bombs are coming.”