“Wait,” I said breathlessly. Hunter lifted his head and his look said
seriously
? I almost laughed. “What about protection?”
A smile quirked his lips. “I can’t get you pregnant and we don’t get diseases. Doesn’t work that way.”
“Human. Alien,” I said, letting out a nervous laugh. “I should’ve thought of that.”
“I doubt it’s something normally considered.” With his free hand, he traced the line of my jaw and then slid it down between my breasts to the flare of my hip, eliciting a shiver from me. “You’re beautiful. Every part of you.”
I felt that way when he touched me like this. “I want to touch you.”
“I know.”
But he didn’t let go of my wrists. He held them above my head as my breath froze, then redoubled as I felt him against me, pushing in inch by delicious inch. The initial stretch held a delicious bite.
Hunter lowered his head, nuzzling my throat. “Goddamn, you feel so good. You kill me, you know? Fucking kill me.”
I was sure he was the one doing the killing. Tipping my hips up, I took him in fully. My gasp of pleasure was lost in his groan as my back arched clear. He was a tremendous presence in my body, stretching me until the feeling of sublime fullness curled my toes against the sheets.
“Oh God, Hunter…”
I yearned to wrap my arms around him, but he held me still. A fine tremor worked its way through him and his grip tightened on my wrists until the bite became almost painful.
Opening my eyes, I sucked in air.
His features were sharper, taut
,
and his eyes were churning brighter flecks of blue. The temp of his skin seemed to drop. “Hunter?”
He stretched his head to the side
,
and the thick cords of muscle stood out. His eyes closed, and I could tell he was fighting it; the darker need in him to feed. An eternity passed before his lashes lifted. His eyes were brighter than normal, but his face had lost the sharpness. He began to move, pulling back until just the tip of him pressed in
,
and then thrusting forward until there wasn’t an inch between us. The friction of each withdrawal and subsequent return built a crazy storm of emotion that quickly turned into a swirling knot of deep tension
.
Hunter maintained that slow, torturous tempo until a fine sheen of sweat broke out over his forehead and bare, hairless chest. I was close, my fingers twisting around empty air as the rhythm increased.
“You feel so perfect,” he said, kissing me again as one hand settled on my hip, and I knew at that moment he’d wrangled in the beast.
In response, I wrapped my legs around his waist, seeming to seat him even deeper. Hunter growled low in his throat as I hooked my ankles.
He caught the edge of my lips in a little nip and then growled, “I’m going to fuck you. Hard.”
Before I could point out that he were doing just that, Hunter drove into me over and over again, stopping in between thrusts to grind against me. Each time he did so, the friction licked through me like sweet flames. Then his head dipped, his teeth catching a rosy bud as he drove into me again. The release shattered through me as I called out his name in a hoarse shout, and I felt him shudder around me, in me
,
and then he joined me, toppling over the edge in a powerful rush
.
And I knew that neither of us would be the same again.
Chapter 21
My heart was still racing minutes later
,
even when he pulled out of me, causing tiny sparks of ecstasy to ricochet through my body. He let go of my wrists, but I didn’t move my arms. I was nothing more than jelly at that point.
Clasping the sides of my face gently, he tipped my chin up and kissed me again, a long and deep kiss that was more like staking a claim than anything else. When he rolled off me, I expected him to put space between us, but he brought me along with him, tucking my body against his side.
I placed my hand on his cool chest, surprised to feel a heart thudding under it. One of these days I was really going to need to figure out the whole alien/human body thing and how it worked, but right now wasn’t the time for a physiology lesson.
“That…that was amazing,” I said, closing my eyes.
“I know.” He traced an idle circle over my hip. “It was even better than what I imagined
,
and I have a pretty ferocious imagination.”
I smiled at that. In the back of my head, I had so many questions. What did this mean for us? Did having sex change anything? I still needed to reclaim my life with or without Hunter, but did he want to be a part of that life? Could he? And was the warmth blossoming deep in my chest a signal of something more than post-orgasmic bliss?
But I wasn’t ready to give voice to those questions.
I snuggled closer, sliding my leg along his. “There’s something I can’t figure out.”
“Just one thing?” The amusement in his tone increased the smile on my face.
“Why would the government allow an alien to achieve such power by becoming a senator?” I asked. “Seems like they’re just asking for trouble.”
Hunter rolled onto his side, facing me. “I think the government believes that they can always control them, that by allowing them to obtain power by human standards, the Luxen will be satisfied.”
The whole Luxen/human/Arum politics fascinated me. “And they’re not? Being a senator is a pretty powerful gig.”
“Being a senator is nothing to a race of aliens that ruled their galaxy for thousands of years.” He reached out, spreading his large hand along my shoulder. “But humans—no offense—still think they’re top of the food chain. Just like the Luxen did when we first came along. It’s their ignorance that has blinded them to what the Luxen are truly capable of.”
I shivered, partly due to what he said and partly due to the skimming of his hand down my arm. The back of his knuckles brushed my breasts and I wiggled closer. His sex was hard again or maybe it had never softened. A thick and demanding proud length that jutted between us
.
Oh wow.
Refocusing on his face, I flushed when I saw his knowing smirk. “What are the Luxen truly capable of?”
“Anything. Everything.” His hand drifted over my thigh. “If they wanted to take over Earth, they could.”
“Would they?” When he tugged me against him, I let out a little gasp. “Would they do that?”
Hunter gave a lopsided shrug. “I don’t know, but one day the Luxen population will grow. They could outnumber the humans.”
His hand had slid around the curve of my rear, his finger slipping dangerously close. “What about the Arum?”
“Do we want to rule Earth?” His other arm, the one I’d been lying on, tightened around me. “Arum care very little to rule an entire species. We’re much more concerned about things that pleasure us.”
My brows rose at that.
“We need to get on the road soon,” he said. “There’s a place I need to go.”
“Okay.”
“But we have a couple more minutes.”
Heat flowed through my body. “For…?”
Another smile tipped his lips
,
and then he rolled me on top of him in one fluid motion, seating himself in one hard thrust. “This.”
Arching my back, I placed my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as he grasped my hips. Through half open eyes, I saw him watch where we were joined as he lifted me up and slid me back down. Then his eyes flicked up, meeting mine. In that moment, the world seemed to stop
,
as cheesy as that sounded— it was just us. There was nothing else
,
and I was lost in him.
…
Sex had never felt like this before. Instead of being all about satisfying an urge and getting off, it became about completion of a different sort. Even in those moments while I held her after the first time, I knew how unalike this was from my previous exploits. And after the second time, I wanted her close…and I wanted her again.
Hell, I wanted her about a hundred times more.
As I watched her change into a pair of jeans and a plain shirt
,
I wanted to take her again. From behind. Against the wall. On the floor. Wherever.
If I kept thinking like this, we’d never get on the road and I needed to badly. I’d come close to feeding off her earlier. How I didn’t was beyond me, but I wasn’t pushing my luck.
“You ready?” I asked, voice coming off a little gruff.
She glanced at me and nodded. “Ready when you are.”
It was late afternoon, but the heat was picking up, promising there’d be a long and hot summer ahead. She was buckling herself in when I climbed into the Porsche.
Sitting back, she turned to me. “Where are we going?”
“To a place outside of Martinsburg,” I answered, scanning the front of the motel before pulling out. “We’re a couple hours out from there.”
“Martinsburg?” She frowned. “What’s there?”
“Someone who can give me what I need.”
“Really?” She folded her arms, and a cute expression pinched her face. “Do tell.”
I chuckled. “Opal.”
Confusion swept across her face. “Opal? Like in the gemstone opal or some old lady named Opal?”
“Gemstones have a weird effect on us and the Luxen. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. It has to do with the refracting and absorption of light.”
Serena stared at me like I had started speaking in a different language
.
A smile pulled at my lips. “Obsidian is deadly to the Arum. I carry one, but I have to be careful with it. The gemstone fractures lights and shadows and it cuts through us like nothing else. One good swipe and that’s all you need.”
“And you carry one?” She looked at me like I was insane. “Does it affect the Luxen the same?”
“Nope, but onyx—another type of gemstone—really messes them up. In large quantities it could probably put them down or make them wish they were dead, but opal is different.” I had to admit; it felt strange talking about these things with a human. “Opal is a whole different story.”
“How?” she asked.
Taking the exit to the main highway heading east, the tires of the Porsche smoothly ate away the miles as I explained exactly what a piece, even the tiniest, could do.
“Opal has the ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light, changing the speed and direction. For the Luxen, it’s like a power booster. Even for a hybrid, because their human DNA is now encased in wavelengths of light.” I paused, glancing at Serena.
She looked absolutely dumbfounded.
I smiled. “It enhances their ability to refract light and also to reflect. For example, if a Luxen is wearing a piece of opal, they can use it to mirror things around them, like a one
-
way window.”
Her brows pinched. “So they could become invisible in a way, since they’d be mirroring what’s around them?”
“Correct. They can also move faster and create stronger blasts of energy.”
She let out a low whistle. “Okay. Assuming that I totally understand the whole alien gemstone stuff, I don’t get how a piece of opal works on the Arum. You’re not like the Luxen.”
I opened my mouth, but closed it. Eyes narrowing on the road, I realized I wanted to lie to her. To make up some cockamamie tale about how it worked for the Arum instead of telling her that when we drained the Luxen, in most cases, we killed them. I never lied about it before, but I never had a reason to lie.
And now it seemed that I did have a reason, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her. My hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Opal can enhance an Arum’s abilities, too. Making us faster and stronger, but we have to do something first. We have to feed on a Luxen or a hybrid. When we do that, we take in their essence. That part reacts to the opal.”
She nodded slowly, looking away. “The whole incubuslike thing?”
“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “Opal can also maintain our energy levels.”
There was a pregnant pause and then I felt her eyes on me again. “With opal, we don’t have to feed that much,” I said, feeling itchy. All the talk of feeding was making me
hungry
. “The DOD outfits their Arum with the opal. Helps keep us better under control when we aren’t running amuck, draining unsuspecting Luxen.”
“That’s good, I guess.” She stretched out her legs
,
then tipped her head back. I didn’t have to look at her to tell that she was anxious. “Do you kill the Luxen when you feed off them?” she asked.
“Not always, but most Arum do because they want to kill them. But we can feed without killing.”
“And you’re going to have to feed for this opal to work, aren’t you?”
“If I don’t feed soon, I won’t be safe. Around anyone.” I glanced at Serena. Her face was pale but her gaze steady. I didn’t lie. “So yes, I will need to feed.”
Chapter 22
I will need to feed
.
I wasn’t sure how to really deal with that. How he said it, so dead
-
on and unapologetic, was unnerving. And he hadn’t clarified if he would kill or not. The whole feeding thing was hard to swallow. It was like sitting next to a vampire or something. He’d already fed from me before—twice—but he hadn’t since I’d asked him not to do it again. He stopped himself
,
and I believed he could stop himself again
.
I just hoped I didn’t turn into the biggest idiot ever for believing that.
As we traveled the rest of the afternoon, he explained we were going to this club where he’d be able to find this guy named Luc. He didn’t say anything more about him
,
and I figured that Luc was another Arum, hopefully a friendly one like Dex.
Eventually the rolling hills and thick wooded areas cleared from the interstate, and the road became more congested as we neared the town of Martinsburg at dusk.
We entered through the south, passing a mall and several restaurants, which woke my stomach up. I was hungry but too wired to really consider eating. A couple of miles later, Hunter took the Spring Mills exit and hung a right, heading toward a town named Back Creek. With names like that, this should be fun.
Two miles off the exit, Hunter slowed down as an old, abandoned gas station came into view. My brow rose as I took in the overgrown weeds. The road wasn’t much better, really a hodgepodge of potholes and gravel.
“Are you sure the club is back here?” I asked, peering out the window. Dust plumed into the air, cloudy like fog.
“Yes. No one goes back here.”
“I can imagine,” I muttered.
Passing several run
-
down buildings with boarded
-
up windows, I was convinced we’d taken a wrong turn somewhere, but before I could point that out, the trees cleared and a makeshift parking lot overflowing with cars came into view
.
“Christ,” I said, shaking my head.
A sea of cars were parked around the building, and not piece of crap vehicles
,
either. Brand
-
new trucks, Hummers that could mow down entire villages, BMWs, and Jaguars parked side by side. It was like the nicer part of a used
-
car dealership.
Hunter grinned at me. “Looks can be deceiving.”
“No doubt,” I said as Hunter parked the car.
“I want you to stay close to me in here, okay?” Hunter killed the engine. “I sense others of my kind and a few Luxen. They shouldn’t bother us
,
but you never know.”
My brows rose. “Luxen and Arum together?”
“Stranger things have been known to happen
,
and strange shit always happens here. This is a no
-
kill zone.”
I should’ve been relieved by that. Hunter started to open the door, but I grasped his arm. “Wait a second. What happens after you get the opal and do your thing here?”
“We leave.”
I shot him a bland look. “I figured we weren’t camping out here. What are we going to do?”
Hunter looked away, his profile stoic. “We’re going to head south, to just outside of Atlanta. It should be safe there.”
“Safe from what?” I asked, my fingers digging into my knees. “I need—”
“Can we talk about this afterward?” he interrupted, his eyes sheltered.
I wanted to protest, but this really wasn’t the moment. Relenting, I climbed out of the car and followed Hunter through the maze of cars. The one thing I noticed, which was weird as hell, was I didn’t hear any sounds coming from the club or anything around us.
It was unnaturally quiet.
A shiver crept over my shoulders and I folded my arms. Hunter slowed until I was beside him. He didn’t say anything about my slow progress
,
and having a good idea I was about to get another shock of my life in this club, I was slowing down.
“Remember,” Hunter said, placing his hand on my lower back. “Stay close to me inside here. Okay?”
I nodded. “Gotcha.”
We stopped at a steel
-
gray door. Two seconds later, the door opened and a huge mammoth of a man stepped out, wearing blue jean overalls and nothing else.
My eyes widened. The man’s arms were the size of tree trunks and he was looking at us like he wasn’t happy in the least bit to see us.
Hunter shifted ever so slightly, blocking me. “I need to see Luc. It’s an emergency.”
Overalls folded his muscular arms. “Everyone says it’s an emergency when they come a-knocking. Rarely is.”
“This is.”
“Yeah
.
” Overalls drew the word out. “That’s what they all say
,
and ain’t like Luc has a lot free time, ya know?”
I’d been around Hunter long enough to recognize when he was starting to lose his patience. His shoulders tensed, spine stiffened. And then he smiled. Only one side of his lips curved up.
Oh no.
“How about this?” Hunter started, and I cringed inwardly. “I know he’s listening in right now.” He paused, flicked the black wire behind Overall’s ears. Huh. Hadn’t even noticed that, but there it was, a slim, black earpiece. “The little fuck owes me. And we know how he is with favors. So unless he wants me to rip through everyone in there, including your big ass, and hang
y’alls
entrails from the rafters, he’s going to make time for me.”
Oh dear.
I turned to Hunter slowly, wondering if he ever heard of the saying
you catch more bears with honey
because
,
Jesus, he just sprayed Overalls in the face with battery acid.
Expecting Overalls to tell us to hit the road or come to some kind of blows, I nearly fell over when the big man revealed a toothy smile.
“He’s waiting for you,
Hunter
.” Overalls stepped aside, holding the door open, and we brushed past him
.
I saw him check out Hunter. “I love when they get all bossy.”
A smile raced across my face, but it froze as we stepped out of the narrow black hallway. “Holy…”
I’d never seen anything like this, not in real life. It’s not like I didn’t know they existed. I just never visited them. Clubs like this were more up Mel’s alley.
Multicolored strobe lights pulsed over the teeming crowd of dancers. Cages hung from the ceiling. Scantily clad women danced in them, swaying their hips to the heavy beat of the music. And when I say scantily, I mean the only parts of their bodies I didn’t see were their nipples and hoohah.
Dim lights hid more than revealed the outskirts of the club. I could tell there were tables
,
and maybe even couches, but that was all. The whole atmosphere was otherworldly.
Hunter’s hand found mine as he guided me through the throngs of people. He parted the crowd like a freight train. Women stopped dancing to stare at him. So did some of the men
,
and not all the stares were lascivious. Some were downright hostile. Were they Luxen? Humans who knew what he was or other Arum? I couldn’t tell in the flashing lights.
There was a strange clove scent to the air, and with the dizzying lights, loud music, and the low
-
level fog that seemed to creep along the floor, swirling up our legs, I felt like I was walking in a dream.
A tall
,
dark mass stepped out of the cluster of people, blocking our path. The guy looked to be around my age, hair thick and dark, spiked up. Skin pale and eyes heavily lined in kohl, his lips curved in a tight half-smile as his light blue eyes flickered from Hunter to me.
Didn’t take an alien expert to figure out he was an Arum.
Hunter didn’t stop, shouldering the younger Arum out of the way. “I don’t have time for this.”
Looking over my shoulder, I expected the other Arum to do or say something, but his grin spread as he slipped back into the dancers crowding the floor. I shivered at the weirdness of it all.
We skirted a bar and hit a narrow, empty hallway. At the end, there was a door with a sign that said
FREAKS ONLY
. Nice.
Hunter knocked with his free hand and a heartbeat passed. The door opened, revealing an extraordinarily tall and good-looking man.
And boy was he all kinds of golden.
Golden skin. Golden hair. Golden shirt.
Incredibly unreal blue eyes widened just the slightest as the man’s lips curved down. “And here I was having a good night…”
Hunter smirked. “Nice to see you
,
too, Paris.”
Paris?
All I could think of was Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt.
The man opened the door. “You know the rules.”
We stepped into an office. There was a couch and desk and nothing else but a closed door leading to where, I didn’t know
,
and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. The door we came through shut behind us, cutting off all sound. Paris stood there, his arms folded. His gaze dropped to where Hunter’s hand joined with mine. He let out a soft, little laugh.
Hunter’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t drop my hand. “You’re making me feel like I need to rebel against the rules.”
“Try it,” Paris replied, leaning against the closed door. “But I doubt your lady friend would want to witness the kind of mess we’ll leave in our wake.”
It hit me then
,
and my heart tripped over itself. “You’re a Luxen.”
Paris winked. “And you’re a human.”
My mouth worked on a response, but Hunter squeezed my hand. “He’s not going to try anything,” he said in a low voice, but his eyes were trained on the Luxen. “Isn’t that right, Paris.”
“Depends on what you do, Arum.” Paris looked at me and smiled. It was a nice smile, charming even, but fear trickled through my veins like ice. “But you, my dear, have nothing to fear from me. I won’t judge you for your obvious lapse in judgment when it comes to who you associate with.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my judgment,” I snapped. “But thanks for your input.”
“Oh.” Paris’ brows rose. “She’s defending you, Hunter. How sweet.”
“Shut up,” Hunter replied.
Paris snickered.
In spite of their exchange, I realized Hunter wasn’t tense or preparing to break out a bundle of kickass. It seemed like they were just mouthing off at each other…for the fun of it. I relaxed a little.
“Well, wrap me up and call me a Christmas baby. Hunter with a female—a
human
female.”
I startled at the voice and turned to the door behind the desk. I hadn’t even heard it open, but there stood a tall teenage boy no older than fifteen or so. His blond hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, showing off an angelic face that was asymmetrically perfect, but his eyes…whoa. They were purple.
Who in the hell had
purple
eyes?
Aliens. Duh.
Hunter let out a long-suffering breath. “Luc.”
My mouth dropped open. Holy shit, Luc was a kid.