Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (20 page)

Hanging upside down over Conner’s shoulder, Hannah was treated to a front row view of his tight ass. His hands making her come had been delicious, but she hadn’t been able to touch him back. Now that she was free, she couldn’t resist. She closed her palms over his taut cheeks and squeezed, feeling the muscle flex as he walked. Before she could enjoy it, she was flying through the air. Hannah landed on the mattress with a bounce. Conner stood at the end of the bed, pulling at the hem of his t-shirt.

“Take off your clothes,” he said, hot eyes pinning her to the bed.

“Bossy,” Hannah said.

“Take them off or I’ll tear them off.” His shirt cleared his head and hit the ground. Conner’s hands went to his belt. Hannah knew she had only seconds. As she barely had more than one outfit, she opted not to mess with him and get undressed. Teasing could be fun, but not with such a limited wardrobe. Fumbling as fast as she could, Hannah pulled her shirt and bra over her head. The collar of the shirt tangled with the bra, getting stuck in her hair. She groaned in frustration, yanking at the fabric.

The mattress dipped and hard hands gripped the waist of her jeans, pulling them off with a smooth tug. She shivered when she felt those hands on her inner thighs, pushing her legs wide. Cool air moved across her heated flesh, reminding Hannah how wet she was. A groan escaped when Conner’s hands were replaced with his shoulders. He settled between her legs, the stubble on his cheek a sensual rasp against her tender skin.

“Help me,” Hannah pleaded, still trying to pull her shirt and bra over her head. The strap of the bra had twisted around both the shirt and her hair, making it nearly impossible to remove. “I can’t get this off.”

“You’re fine how you are,” Conner said, a smile in his voice. “I’m busy down here.” He rubbed his cheek against her inner thigh again, his face almost where she wanted it. Groaning again in frustration, Hannah wiggled her hips in an effort to get closer, momentarily forgetting her struggle with the shirt. In response, Conner’s hands clamped to her upper thighs, holding her still. In a painful tease, he drew his nose along her damp folds.

“You smell good,” he said. His tongue followed in a lazy swipe. “Taste good too.”

Hannah gasped, the pleasure of his touch unexpectedly intense. She’d abandoned the effort of taking off her shirt. Her arms were free and she could breathe—that was about all she could bother with at the moment. Everywhere Conner touched her, her skin went up in flames. His hands, the spot where his shoulders spread her inner thighs, the press of his tongue as he licked and sucked; every place his flesh touched hers burned with sensual heat. Hannah had never experienced anything like it before. It wasn’t just pleasure, it was something more. A connection that went beyond the surface, beyond sex, into the deepest part of her self.

Conner’s mouth worked her harder, a long finger joining his tongue. Spiky sweet bolts of pleasure gathered between her legs. Her eyes still covered by her twisted shirt and bra, Hannah reached for Conner blindly. Fingers grazing his hair, she grabbed hold. With a sharp tug, she got his attention.

“I want you inside me,” she said in a gasp. “I want it with you inside me. Please, Conner.”

His heat left her for a moment before he came down on top of her, skin touching everywhere, setting her alight. He was burning her alive with pleasure. Her orgasm began before he even pushed inside, ecstasy rolling through her, taking over every cell in her body. Somehow she could still feel every inch of his cock stretch her, as he pulled back slowly once, then powered deep over and over. It was impossible to say if the next wave was a second orgasm or simply more of the first.

Conner moaned in her ear, breath panting, one hand gripping her ass to pull her harder against him. Her lips left bare by the tangled shirt, Hannah dragged in air, faintly aware that she was screaming through another peak. Conner shifted his head and his mouth closed over hers. His kiss was one touch too far. Hannah detonated from the inside out in an explosion of blinding light.

Chapter Twelve

Kate sat cross-legged on the floor of her attic bedroom, facing Zach across the carpet. Their great-grandmother Iris, one of the most revered of the elder generation of Shadows, had given Kate the hand-woven rug on her sixteenth birthday. Woven in an intricate pattern of green, blue and lavender wool, not only was it visually stunning, the most potent energy in the universe was bound into every inch. Kate had lived in a number of different places in her life and the rug followed her to each one. It wasn’t just a treasured gift from the woman who raised her. It was a powerful base from which to practice spell craft.

No Shadow alive had Kate’s skill with spell craft. She was unique in the world—the single living being who combined both Shadow and Warder bloodlines into a Shadow-Warder. For reasons no one understood, only Kate’s line had produced Shadow-Warders. One at a time. There wouldn’t be another until Kate died. It could be a year later, might be twenty. Usually a female, but not always. They were so rare, most of the Warders thought the Shadow-Warder was a myth.

Kate liked it that way. She wasn’t much of a joiner and the hierarchical structure of Warder society was a huge turn off. For most of her childhood and youth she’d lived as a typical Shadow, indulging in the skills of her Warder side in private. Lately, since her life had taken a nose dive into solitary self-destruction, Kate hadn’t cared who saw her messing around with spell craft. If she hadn’t already been living like a hermit, she might have been shunned. Shadows had direct access to the energy of the universe. Spell craft was a crude skill that sullied the purity of their power.

Kate laughed at the Shadows’ attitude. If they could translate their energy manipulation into spell craft, they’d get over their snobbery in a heartbeat. The ancients who’d created the Shadows and the Warders had known what they were doing. Both sides possessed immense power, combined with ironclad limits. The Shadows could take direct action on their surroundings, but they couldn’t harness their abilities into more sophisticated and long-lasting spells. Warders could do spell craft, but they were unable to control energy without it and any powerful spell craft required years of training. The Shadow-Warder was the one being who had all the power and none of the limits. At least not the traditional limits. No one knew better than Kate that she had the most effective leash of all wrapped tightly around her neck.

“I can’t hold this against him for much longer,” she said to Zach, gesturing to the pattern she’d drawn in black sand on the large square of parchment between them. The sigil took up most of the stiff paper. Composed of swirls and long lines, it was punctuated with smooth stones at certain intersections. The sigil seemed like a random pattern yet it vibrated with energy, pulsing harder in some loops and lines than in others.

She raised her hand to tuck back a nonexistent strand of hair. Her long, dark brown hair had been braided, then tightly coiled on the back of her head to prevent any stray hairs from drifting into the pattern of the sand. Likewise, she wore yoga pants and a snug t-shirt that kept extra fabric to a minimum. Accidental interruption in her pattern could destroy hours or days of work.

“How close is he to breaking it?” Zach asked, studying the spell with concern. He looked like someone with car trouble popping his hood and staring at the tangle of metal that runs a car. Clueless. Zach was all Shadow. Spell craft didn’t just look like a confusing mess to his eyes, its energy grated uncomfortably against his skin. Kate felt his intent gaze as she nudged one of the curving lines with a slender ebony stick. With painstaking precision, she sprinkled more sand on the pattern to widen the curve. Lines of strain were etched around her mouth. She’d been going without much sleep, doing everything she could to cloud the vision of those looking for Conner and Hannah.

“A few days. Whoever he’s working with isn’t skilled enough to help, but Druj mastered spell craft a thousand years ago. I’m good, but I haven’t had the time to learn half of what he’s forgotten.”

“A few days meaning what, exactly?” Zach asked. He pulled out his cell and checked the screen. “One day? Three?”

“Maybe. Holding the spell against Druj isn’t the only problem. Its been three weeks since I’ve had a visit. I’m way overdue.” She bit into her lower lip, leaning deep, her nose almost touching one of the stones in the pattern. Muttering to herself, she said, “Two clocks ticking down at the same time.”

“Can he trace your energy?”

“He will. Whatever it is you need them to do before he finds them, I hope they do it fast.”

“So do I,” Zach said, getting to his feet. Kate looked up from her work, tilting her head to the side and smiling in an attempt to charm him.

“Still not going to tell me what’s going on?”

“You know I can’t,” Zach answered with a patient smile that made his youthful features look ancient. “He’ll come here if he tracks you?”

“Yes.” Kate sat up and met his eyes. For the first time in hours, her awareness was present instead of absorbed in her spell. “You need to leave here soon,” she said. “Don’t come home until I call.”

“Will you be all right? I don’t like leaving you alone. He’s going to be pissed.”

“Pissed doesn’t cover it. But he won’t kill me. Anything I can survive I’ll get over. He’d enjoy an excuse to kill you. You need to get away from here so I can concentrate.”

“I’m going. I’m staying in town for the next few days,” Zach said. Kate made a disapproving sound.

“Farther away would be better. Why don’t you go to Tennessee and see Iris?”

“I’m not going that far away when I know he’s going to be gunning for you.”

“You can’t save me from this.” She raised a hand to the back of her neck and rubbed the tired muscles. She’d been leaning over for too long. “I’m more worried about why he hasn’t come yet than what he’ll do when he gets here. I’m trying to mask my energy signature, but I’m surprised he hasn’t found me already.”

Zach lingered at the door, meeting her eyes. “I wouldn’t have asked you to do this if it wasn’t important.”

“I know that,” she said with an affectionate smile. “Now get the hell out of here so I can get back to work. I’ll call you when it’s clear. Unless you get a vision from on high giving you the all-clear first.”

“I’m gone,” Zach said, turning to head down the stairs. Kate barely registered the echo of his sneakers, already absorbed in the shifting pulses of energy spread before her.

Chapter Thirteen

Sunlight sifted through the tree limbs outside the window, dappling the bed and Hannah’s back in dancing spots of light. Conner reached out to trace his fingers along her soft skin, connecting the bright dots. Hannah sighed in her sleep, shifting closer. After the most intense orgasm he’d ever had, they’d both passed out. Conner wasn’t sure how long he’d slept. Not more than an hour. Hannah was still out cold. For the moment, that was fine. Conner needed a few minutes to get a grip on what had happened. He’d never had sex like that. He’d bet everything that Hannah hadn’t either.

Since the first moment he’d seen her, poised to run in the farmhouse—defiant, terrified and angelically beautiful—Conner had wanted Hannah. It was more than attraction or lust. Now that his head had cleared, Conner could see that. He wouldn’t have betrayed his duty over simple lust. And there was no bullshitting himself—sleeping with Hannah was a betrayal. Shadows were off-limits to Warders. No exceptions. He wasn’t supposed to have spoken to her, much less taken her to bed and fucked her into unconsciousness.

Trailing his fingers down her spine to the curve of her lower back, Conner accepted that he’d been sliding down a slippery path since the moment he took the Oracle’s phone call. Still, he found himself unable to stop touching her. What he should do was get out of bed, take a shower to wash off the sex, load Hannah into the SUV, deliver her to Alexa, confess his questionable decision-making, and walk away. It was that easy. Everything in his life thus far told him it was the only option.

He wasn’t going to do it. Conner didn’t see the point in lying to himself. Eventually he was going to have to bring her in. Not just because it was his duty, but more than that. Hannah needed to be with other Shadows. Their efforts at training had highlighted her need for her own kind. Conner had taught her basic shields, but they’d already pretty much exhausted what he could give her in one afternoon. Conner’s time with her was draining away, moment by moment.