He swelled inside her, groaning roughly. A weird sense of déjà vu settled over him as her hand came up, holding the back of his neck, guiding him to her throat. Out of his mind with need and hunger, he struck. The familiar, ripe taste of her blood flooded his mouth.
A warning tingle raced through him, centering in his groin, drawing his balls tight. The climax started at the base of his spine, spreading outward like liquid fire. Sliding one hand down her side, he cupped her ass and tilted her hips upward, riding her harder as he started to come.
As he pumped into her, he pulled his teeth from her neck and laved the wound with his tongue. It was already half-closed as he pulled away, burying his face in her hair.
Kelsey continued to shudder and buck under him, her pussy rippling convulsively around his cock, drawing his climax out until it felt like she had wrung him completely dry.
Drained and sated, Malachi pulled away from her slowly. But he didn’t roll off of her. Instead, he lay between her sprawled thighs, his head on her belly. He could hear the rapid, staccato beat of her heart. A blissful lassitude settled over him, and he closed his eyes, a smile curling his lips.
Sweat still gleamed on her body, and Kelsey couldn’t seem to still her breathing, but her brain was once more functioning. She pushed at his shoulders. It took several tries to get him to move, and she jerked away as quick as she could, rolling from the bed.
Her thighs wobbled as she stood, and she swore hotly, reaching out with a hand and grabbing onto the one of the wooden bed-posts. Her legs still protested her weight, but she sure as hell wasn’t lying down again. She wasn’t going to be on that bed with him.
Damn it, I’ll probably have to get rid of it and buy a new one.
No way she could sleep there again without remembering this. The memory wouldn’t be an issue, had it not been for the memory of the last time she’d had sex with the big, arrogant vamp.
Bending over, Kelsey grabbed the baggy black fleece from the ground. She started to jerk it over her head and realized it was inside out. After turning it right side out, she pulled it over her head and stalked away from the bed.
She couldn’t believe she had just done that.
Especially after the way he’d left her last time. She shot him a dark glare over her shoulder and demanded, “Aren’t you going to disappear now?”
His lids drooped low as he stared at her. The hot, satisfied gleam in his eyes did little to help cool her temper. Hell, that look had her belly tightening, had her wanting to rip her shirt back off and pounce on him.
“I wasna planning on goin’ anywhere,” he murmured, his voice a rough, sexy growl.
Kelsey spun around on her heel to glare at him. He was sprawled on his back, one knee bent, the other leg stretched out in front of him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and Malachi hadn’t bothered to fasten his jeans. The smooth, pale skin of his chest gleamed like ivory against the deep midnight blue of her comforter. The deep red of his hair seemed nearly black in the dim room.
This is so unfair
, she thought darkly. He’d hurt her when he disappeared like he had, although she’d kept it buried. Now it was forcing its way to the surface, and she was caught between screaming at him or flouncing off to go and sulk. And he lay there looking completely bitable.
“I don’t see why you feel the need to hang around this time. What in the hell are you doing here, anyway?” Then fear flooded her as reality resurfaced once more.
Nessa . . .
“Damn it, where is she?” She stalked over to him and bent down over him, jabbing a finger into his chest. “Where in the hell is she?”
His hand came up and closed over her wrist. Kelsey tried to jerk her hand away, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he sat up and pulled her against him. “Calm down, love. She is safe.” He stroked his hand up her back, and that light, innocent touch had made her start to burn all over again.
That infuriated her. She’d told herself, years ago, she wouldn’t get involved with him. Not like this. He was too intoxicating, too addictive . . . and he was shielding. That thought sprang up out of her subconscious, nearly stunning her into speechlessness as she realized he hadn’t dropped his shields. Ever. Not even while he had been still asleep as he started to touch her.
Focus
, she told herself.
Focus. You don’t have time to deal with this right now.
“You better not have brought her back here,” she snapped, struggling to get away from him. “You don’t understand what has happened.”
“Will you be still? I have to go and speak with Tobias, but if you keep wiggling that cute little arse of yours, the only thing I’m going to be capable of is fucking you again.”
They weren’t empty words, either. Against her thigh, she could feel the stiffening length of his cock. Her mouth went dry, and for a minute, her brain stopped functioning again. She stopped struggling in his arms, holding herself stiffly. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. But she’s safe. You don’t remember leaving Vax’s?”
“No,” she said stiffly. Shoot, the last clear thing she remembered was the wall collapsing on her—and the pain as Vax healed her. He’d warned her. She had to give him that. Healing was a refined skill, and it wasn’t one many warrior witches ever really mastered. But the remembered pain was enough to make her flinch.
The dark black fleece she wore had Vax’s scent on it. She plucked at it, scowling, trying to work through the dark fog of her memories.
Nothing.
“I did not care to find you there with him.”
Kelsey shrugged. “I had to get someone to help. Since you insisted on acting like yourself and being a stubborn ass.” She looked up to find Malachi scowling at her, his eyes glittering.
He reached up and fisted a hand in the fleece, tugging on it lightly. “You should take that off—before I do,” he muttered. His eyes were glowing slightly, and behind his lips she could see the slight bulge of fangs.
Kelsey sniffed and tried once more to pull away from him. “No. It’s comfortable.”
She could feel it as he fisted a hand in the back of the fleece. Sliding her eyes his way, she said with a smile, “You rip it off, I’ll just put it back together again.”
“You are the most contrary—”
As his voice broke off, Kelsey arched her brows. “
I’m
contrary? Now if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black. I don’t see why in the hell you care what I’m wearing anyway.”
Malachi’s eyes narrowed to slits, and he slid his hand up her back until he could fist it in her hair. Jerking her head back, he stared at her, a possessive look in his eyes as he whispered, “You’re wearing a shirt that belongs to another man. Covering your body with his scent. And you don’t see why I care.”
“No.” She tried to pull away, but that hand fisted in her hair wouldn’t budge, and when she tried to wiggle away, he clamped his other arm around her hips, locking her in place. His mouth came down on hers, rough and brutal. She still felt swollen and sore from him, but that greedy kiss had her aching inside all over again.
But damn it, she wasn’t going to melt so easily this time. She hoped. As he pushed his tongue inside her mouth, Kelsey bit down, quick and hard. Then she tried once more to jerk away, and this time, he let her.
After he had grabbed the shirt at the neckline and rent it down the back, using both hands. Kelsey stared down at her naked body with a scowl on her face. Spinning on her heel, she glared at him.
But instead of delivering some scathing line that she knew was on the tip of her tongue, Kelsey felt her head start to spin. Her knees turned to water, and she started to weave. Before she could fall down and hit the floor, though, hard, cool hands closed around her waist.
The hot glow in her eyes would have had Malachi grinning, but then her eyes went glassy, and her face paled. Just as she started to sink to the floor, he caught her against him. Automatically, he checked her pulse. It was pounding too fast and erratic. Her skin felt a little too cool.
He began to swear, a long, steady stream of colorful cuss words as he lay her down on the bed. It didn’t take too much to figure out what was wrong. She was still weak from the healed injuries. Instead of letting her rest while he went to take care of their problem, he’d been fucking her.
And feeding.
He hadn’t needed to feed, but the temptation, with her, was irresistible, and he’d taken too much. Not dangerously so, but far more than she could afford to lose in her weakened state.
Her lashes still lay against her cheeks. Rising from the bed, Malachi grabbed one of the tangled sheets and pulled it over her. Then he stood and fastened his jeans before striding to the door.
It took two minutes to find a witch and nearly ten to find one of the students who helped in the kitchen. He left orders for food and sweet tea to be brought to Kelsey’s room. Sweet tea—there was only one person here who drank the vile stuff, and that was Kelsey.
He left the student scurrying to get a tray together and headed back to Kelsey’s room. “Ass,” he muttered to himself. His system was buzzing from the blood he’d taken from Kelsey, and that just made his guilt worse.
Malachi entered the room to find Regina helping Kelsey sit up. Regina was nondescript, middle-aged, soft-spoken, with average-looking brown eyes, brown hair, and a gift for healing that was way beyond average. For nearly forty years, she’d been an instructor at Brendain, and he knew that Kelsey was in good hands.
But that didn’t make him feel any better as he stared at Kelsey’s pale face. “She shouldn’t be sitting up.”
Regina murmured, “She’s fine. A little low on blood.” Malachi felt his own blood rush to his cheeks as Regina looked at him with mild eyes. Looking away from her, he glanced at Kelsey, but she was focused on her hands. “Drained, as well. You were . . . ah . . . - injured recently, weren’t you?”
YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT,
KELSEY TOLD HERSELF silently. She should have known something was wrong. Malachi was pacing the edges of the room, a dark, angry look on his face, and there were fragmented, scattered bits of emotion coming from him. Guilt. Self-directed anger.
As Regina helped her sit up and slip a shirt on, Kelsey blew out a breath. Regina looked up and met her eyes with a smile. Judging by the look in her eyes, the other witch was picking up on Mal’s chaotic emotions as well. Kelsey smiled a little and murmured, “Go on. I’m fine.”
“She is not going anywhere,” Malachi said, his voice cold and flat. “I want her to stay with you until I get back. You do not need to be alone.”
Narrowing her eyes, Kelsey said, “I’m fine. I’ll eat. I’ll drink. I’ll take a nap. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Bloody hell, you need your head examined! What in the hell were you thinking?” he demanded.
Arching her brows, Kelsey demanded, “Me? I wake up and you’re pawing me. I wasn’t exactly
thinking
.”
“Pawing you?” His brows lowered over his glittering eyes. “I wake up and you’re—”
“Ahem.” Regina cleared her throat, but the soft sound had both Malachi and Kelsey closing their mouths. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, and Kelsey closed her eyes, sinking back against the pillows piled at her back. She had to fight not to pull a pillow over her face as Regina continued speaking.
“Malachi, I’ll stay with Kelsey while she eats. Once she’s resting, I’ll leave her alone so she can rest. Now, perhaps you two could please stop blaming each other . . . and yourselves?”
Malachi muttered something under his breath in a voice far too low for her to understand. He stalked toward the door, and Kelsey followed him with her gaze. He slammed the door behind him so hard, it shuddered in its frame.
“Men like that do not like feeling guilty,” Regina murmured.
Kelsey looked at Regina with a faint smile. “Men don’t like feeling anything that they can’t control, do they?”
“No.” Then Regina grinned, her brows arching over her eyes. She looked twenty years younger. “So tell me one thing . . . How is he?”
TOBIAS SCRUBBED HIS HANDS OVER HIS FACE. “THIS IS unreal,” he muttered.
“Tell me about it,” Malachi drawled, staring into the fire-place. The firelight flickered and danced, casting light and shadows. The heat it gave out didn’t seem to even penetrate the chill of his skin.
“How in the hell can you expect me to believe this?”
“Talk to Kelsey. Hell, talk to
her
. She even smells like Nessa,” Malachi said, shoving a hand through his hair.
“How can we talk to her? Where in the hell is she?”
Lifting a big shoulder in a halfhearted shrug, Malachi said, “Honestly? I don’t know. She’s in safe hands.”
Tobias cocked a brow. “I imagine she is. And how is Vax?”
Crooking a grin, Mal drawled, “I wondered how long it would be before you figured it out.”
Tobias lifted a shoulder. “He wasn’t here long—not many people here that still remember him.”
“That is a good thing. People start going after him, then there is going to be a high body count.”
“Which is why you pulled him into this mess.”
Glancing at Tobias, Malachi shook his head. “No. I did not drag him into anything. That would be Kelsey’s doing.” After Mal had refused . . . yet another guilty burden he was going to have to bear. If he had listened, even for five seconds, maybe he would have been here with her when she came to get Nessa out. And maybe she wouldn’t have been injured.
His stomach twisted as he remembered the healing scars on her back before Nessa had added her own magick.
“So what are we to do?”
Tobias’s level voice pulled Malachi out of his reverie, and he looked up, staring into his old friend’s steady, unwavering gaze. Meeting that dark, level gaze, Malachi said quietly, “We need to withdraw the order for her execution.”