I was stuck. My body was full of cement, and I was stuck at the bottom of a well. Opening my eyes, I could see a wavery slice of light, but it was so far away. My mind reeled as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me. I remembered the ritual. That was normal.Wait. Something about the ritual had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. A zing of electricity flashed through my tired and aching body. Tasting the coppery flavor of fear, my mind cleared in an instant.I'd touched him. Without precaution. Without ritual. Without safeguards in place. And the biggest issue of all: the fucker had magic of his own.I was so screwed. So freaking screwed.Damn it! I'd known this was going to be a big, fat failure. From the changed duration of the ritual, to him not playing by the rules. Hell, he hadn't even known what was going to happen. How the fuck did Mother and Father think this was going to be okay?They might have broken their golden goose. A harsh bark of laug
Wiping my lips with the back of my hand, I stood up. An embarrassed smile pulled at my mouth. Good thing the guys weren't here to see that one. I turned on the faucet, leaned down and took a drink from the stream. Swishing the water around in my mouth, I spit it out. Repeating the process until my mouth no longer tasted like vomit. Getting a good grip on my stomach, I turned and examined what was in the toilet again. I covered my mouth and nose with one hand as I leaned over the edge of the sink.My brain couldn't figure out what my eyes were trying to tell me. Whatever Kiema had thrown up was actually pulsing in the water. Like a sluggish heart, it beat and throbbed, causing ripples in the shallow bowl of dirty, chunk-filled water. There's no way she could still be alive after throwing up an organ, right? I took my phone from my pocket, switched it to video and took a short shot of...whatever that thing was. I would send the video to Atlas later.Right now, I needed to
I woke up on the couch again. Damn man moved me around like I was a mannequin. Dusk had fallen, the looming shapes of the trees just on the border of the yard stiff fingers spearing into the sky. When I was a kid, I'd been afraid of them. I thought something was trying to rise up from under the ground to come capture me.As an adult, I wished a mythical beast would come capture me, spiriting me away from the hell of my life. Those monsters had to have been better than the ones I called Mother and Father. "Shit!" Ransom said from somewhere behind me. I pushed myself up on one arm, looked over the back of the couch. "What are you doing?""You're awake!""No, I'm not. You're hallucinating." I laid back down. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you feeling better? Does the house still stink like sweaty man-ass?" He leaned over the back of the couch into my line of view."Yes, I'm feeling better. Yes, the house still stinks," I said, my tone flat.He snorted. "I think I am hallu
I pushed through the doors to my suite. I hadn't been lying to Kiema. There was something going on in my body, but it wasn't something I was familiar with. Crossing the few steps to the oversized bed, I fell face down, my feet hanging off the end. The whole day ran through my mind again. If Kiema reacted to every healing like she did today, I don't know that I would want her magic. The cost/benefits didn't really add up in my mind. But then again, I'd been called a cold-hearted bastard by more than a few exes. I laughed and curled up on my side. My legs and chest felt like they were growing, almost like the growing pains I got when I was younger. I looked at my legs and arms. Nothing looks different.I pushed the weirdness from my mind. I'd deal with whatever happened in the morning. Other than the weirdness, I honestly haven't felt this good in my entire life. I wanted to tell the guys but didn't want to raise their hopes in case this was just a false positive. They d
I heard a yell. A couple seconds later, there was a pounding at my door the next morning."Give me a second." I pulled my shirt over my head as I yelled through the closed door to my suite of rooms. Tugging my long hair out from under the shirt, I stomped to the door. Yanking it open, I stared in shock at the mostly naked Ransom. From the ridged abs and bunched thighs, he looked good enough to eat. He also looked like he'd gained about thirty pounds of muscle since I saw him last night. Narrowing my eyes, "Why are you in your underwear in the living room?"He chuckled, the sound tugging at the feminine part of me. "I told you. I think something is happening to me."As I watched, he ran his hand over his abs. The muscles twitched and rippled with every lazy swipe of his hand. I had the almost overwhelming urge to trace my tongue in the wake of his hand.I shook my head. Touching him the last time had almost killed me. I didn't care how lickable his skin looked, or how good
I couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. But the look on her face told me her story was true. Her parents were her slave owners. That explained her father's remark about her only having the thoughts he gave her. And why her mother had dismissed her from the dinner. They didn't see her as real. Just a thing to parade in front of others. Make her perform tricks and then put her back in her cage when she finished. I felt my blood start to heat. My fist clenched around the skillet handle. Those bastards. They pimped her out. For mind-boggling sums of money. Not a penny of which she saw. I would bet my own meager fortune. I'm just glad they don't pimp her out for sex. I stopped that train of thought before it could go any further.Not even my life had been that bad, and my life sucked ass. I gritted my teeth. Soon, that life would be nothing but a memory. But Kiema's? After this ritual, she would go back to that prison. Her entire life depended on her parents. I shuddered.
I sat there in shock. My heart in my throat. I couldn't blink. Afraid to even breathe. "Fuck. Kiema, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Are you in any pain? What can I do? Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He pulled his hand back and had it behind his back before the words tumbled out of his mouth. I did a scan of my body. Nothing. No pain, no dizziness, no narrowing vision. Nothing. I wet my throat with a quick drink of water. "Do..." I had to swallow. "Do that again.""What?" He looked like he hadn't heard me right. A hysterical laugh threatened to close my throat. I lifted my hand, gave him the come ahead gesture. "I'm not touching you." I must be going crazy because it almost sounded like he was sad about that fact. "You didn't hurt me." I shook my head. "Do it again. Please." I edged my face forward the tiniest degree. He was shaking his head. "The last time we touched, you ended up vomiting and passing out. Call me crazy, but I'm not really in the mood to repeat that
I needed to get my head examined. The woman had been stalking me, fucking stalking me around the kitchen, and I had scuttled back like she had the plague. The skin I'd wanted to touch and taste had been within my grasp and I turned into a fucking saint. Banging my fists against the solid wood door, I lowered my head to the surface. "Kiema. Come on. Talk to me."No answer. "Shit." I turned and slid down to my ass, back against the door. All I could see was her convulsing body as she emptied herself into the toilet. The toilet that looked like it held a piece of her internal organs. I squeezed my eyes closed, rubbing my fingers against them. The scene played out in my mind again. The taut body bowed back like a crescent moon. The pale skin that held none of the life I'd come to expect of her honeyed tones. The blank eyes. I won't be the one to cause that again. Not in this lifetime. But what if she was right? What if my touch doesn't hurt her anymore?I knocked my h