Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1 (18 page)

Kara shook her head. “Not every detail, but unless there’s a quiz later, I think I’d like to take a break. I’ve learned enough for one night…
day
…whatever the hell this is.” She turned her attention to Gavin. “You said you had something to show me about my parents. I’d like to see it now so I can go home and get some sleep while it’s still dark in San Diego.”

If she ever needed to go out with Abbey and see a mindless chick flick, tonight was the night, or today
was the
…
Whatever.

Gavin’s hands fisted at his sides. “That’s not all you need to see, Kara. I want you to stay for dinner, meet the court. I’ll take you home afterward.”

“Yeah, I’m not hungry. The whole getting-sucked-into-oblivion-and-spit-out-on-a-tropical-island thing doesn’t do wonders for my appetite.”

“You’re not eating enough.” Julian pulled her against his side, a frown line marring his perfect face. “Are you ill? Do you need to lie down?”

Kara shook her head and tried to hold back a snort, but she nestled into the crook of his arm just the same. “Seriously, Julian, are you trying to get me in bed again? Is two times in one night not enough for you? Not to mention the last time we had sex, you sprouted wings and almost ate up Gavin with smoke monsters.”

She couldn’t believe she was making light of it. She’d blame it on sleep deprivation—and remembering the mind-blowing sensation of Julian’s hard length driving into her as she came.

As the image flashed in her mind of how he’d taken her roughly against the wall, she could easily imagine her nails running down his tan back tonight as she called his name over and over. She’d never been with a man like him. He wasn’t simply talented in bed, he was passionate and hung like a friggin’ horse. Against her better judgment, the more she had him, the more she wanted him.

As Julian searched her eyes, she smiled and conceded, “Well, I am sort of sleepy.”

His chest expanded with a slow lungful of air, as if he dared not hope it might lead to more. “I can take you to the palace. You can rest and freshen up before dinner.”

“
Julian
,” Gavin warned. “Why don’t you let me take her? I seem to do a better job of controlling myself.”

Kara’s jaw dropped. “Hello, Gavin, I’m right here.” She waved her hand to get his attention. “You make it sound like I have no choice in the matter, that if Julian’s alone with me we’re going to screw like rabbits.” Not a bad idea. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way, but I’m an adult and I know what I’m doing.”

Gavin’s jaw tightened. “Do you, Kara? You just learned you’re a different species than you’ve always believed, but you still think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”

Kara opened her mouth to fire off some choice words, but Julian picked her up like a child in his arms as his wings expanded to their full breadth. “To hell with you, Gavin. The lady needs her rest.”

He clutched Kara to his chest and pushed off from the ground using his strong thighs, but they hovered for a moment over the clearing, slowly sinking lower as if he was having trouble gaining altitude. Then suddenly, they rocketed into the sky like someone had loosed their leash. Definitely not the smooth ride she’d had with Gavin.

“Julian!” Gavin called after him.

But her dark-haired lover never looked back.

Chapter Thirteen

“I wanted to show you something before I take you to the palace.”

The cool wind in her hair and Julian’s warm breath on her neck sent chills racing over Kara’s skin. “Show me, then.”

He touched down on a small meadow with a large deciduous tree in the middle, more what she would expect to find in a Northeastern town than here on the island. Julian landed and took Kara’s hand, hauling her under the sprawling canopy. “You asked about my symbol, the gold leaf I wear around my neck. Well, this is it.”

“It’s beautiful.” Kara didn’t know what else to say. The big, rounded tree looked out of place in the vast expanse of palms and sand and tropical things. “What kind is it?”

He smiled, as if he were letting her in on a secret. “A balsam poplar.”

She had to assume there was something more to this whole tree thing unless he moonlighted as a botanist. “Is it special because it’s the only one like it on the island?”

He pulled her close. “It’s special because this tree—well, this type, not this specific one—was sacred to my mother. She used them in her magic and wanted to pass along a love for her heritage. She was Native American. Iroquois, actually.”

Kara smiled and turned to peer up at him. “Is that where you get your dark hair and complexion? I wondered if it was from your father or your mother.”

“I’m not sure who fathered me, but from my mother’s accounts, he must have been Aniliáre—and amazingly handsome.” He laughed. “When we left your father’s kingdom and made a life on Mercury Island, I planted a sapling here to symbolize my new home, and the tree has done better than I ever imagined it would.” He paused and fingered the leaf charm around his neck, as if deep in thought. “I wondered if you might…”

Kara cocked her head, waiting. “What?”

Julian smiled and dropped the charm. “Never mind. You’ve had a long day. We can talk about it tomorrow. Come on.” He picked her up again and lifted off.

She felt like a child being carried around so much. Did she need to let Gavin and Julian know she’d been walking on her own two feet since she was ten months old? She turned her face toward Julian, only half admitting to herself she sort of liked it. “Thank you for showing me your tree. I can tell it means a lot to you. Your mother must have been a wonderful woman.”

He snorted. “My mother was one hell of a shamaness. Everyone in her tribe was frightened of her, including me. But she taught me what she could before they finally…” He frowned, his eyes haunted as he looked back at the tree from a hundred feet above.

“Finally what?” The wind made her hair fly into her eyes, but she tucked it back to look at him.

“The Iroquois thought she was cursed. Evil. And they ‘cleansed the earth of her spirit’. I didn’t know what to think. To me, she was simply my mother. But when I was old enough, I ‘cleansed the earth’ of the ones who’d touched her.”

“That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”

“She’d been gone too long to move her grave, so I planted her sacred tree where she died. They only live about a hundred and fifty years, so I plant a new one in the same spot every hundred years or so.”

Her face went slack. “How old are you, Julian?”

He grinned. “Ten trees’ worth.”

“Wow.” She’d thought she was a witch since she was a little girl, and her dreams had followed accordingly. Kick some ass, settle down, find her lifemate, have some brats, die when she got old and wrinkly and the joint cream wasn’t working anymore. But Julian had lived unchanged for a thousand years.

“I’ve had a good life.” He paused, deep in thought, and his wings slowed. “I do wonder sometimes…who will plant them when I’m gone.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

Julian snickered and kissed her temple. “Do you know what a demibreed is?”

“Gavin told me they’re the children of Aniliáre and humans. But if I have this right, that’s also what you get with a silver-wing father and a Demiáre mother.”

“Yes, they both produce
half-breeds
.” He said it as though it was a bad word. “But Gavin left out one thing. Witches.”

“He never mentioned witches.”

“I’m sure your friends have told you that witches, while they appear human and have similar physical qualities, cannot produce offspring with humans.”

She gave him a look. “Julian, I grew up thinking I was a witch. I spent my junior high years passing notes with Abbey, relaying stories of hot, nasty witch sex.”

He smiled. “When that hot, nasty witch sex happens with one of our kind, usually nothing comes of it. But rarely—very rarely—the breeding takes.”

Kara’s breath came out in a soft hush. “And your mother was a shamaness…a witch.”

He nodded. “Yes. In this case, I was born with wings even though I am, in reality, a demibreed.”

Dread curled in the pit of her stomach. “But I thought demibreeds didn’t live as long as the highborn. Gavin said four or five hundred years, and you’re already long past that.”

“I am the oldest living demibreed and the only Demiáre still alive with any witch blood at all. But look hard, love.” He held his wrists and arms up for her inspection. “You won’t find an expiration date anywhere on me.”

She squeezed him tighter and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for telling me. But you know it doesn’t matter to me that you’re a demibreed, right? I wouldn’t care if your wings were purple—or if you didn’t have wings at all.”

He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and smiled. “Tonight is a night of new beginnings. I have you here with me. I don’t need anything else.”

Kara wasn’t what she would consider overly emotional or prone to fall for pick-up lines, but she could tell Julian had given her a part of himself with that story. The knowledge wedged a lump in her throat. “You’re amazing.”

He smiled and met her gaze as his strong wings beat against the wind, rising higher, chasing a string of long, thin clouds. “Amazing is how you smell with my scent on your skin. Damnation, Kara, you’ll be my undoing.” He pulled her close and dragged his nose along the curve of her neck. When he caught the closest cloud, he plunged inside, surrounding them with thin, cool mist.

“Clouds look fluffier from a distance.” Trying to form a coherent sentence with him nuzzling and nipping her throat wasn’t easy. “Inside, they’re damp and foggy.”

“Yes, but there are advantages to the fog.” He rolled to his back and sat so she was straddling his lap.

From underneath both shoulders spread his wings, more powder gray than silver in the milky light filtering in through the clouds. They were thicker at the base, but then tapered to fine points. If she could have reached, she would have run the final feather of each wing between her thumb and middle finger, just to memorize what it felt like. Being up here with him, feeling the power of his body under hers as he suspended them in the sky by his will alone, it was intoxicating.

He slowly leaned up and kissed her. He was gentle this time, staring into her face as if he was memorizing every line. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you stepped foot on the island.” He kissed her again, his tongue so soft and sweet as he explored her mouth.

She pulled back while she still could. “Julian…”

His lips were swollen and his eyes feverish—kind of like how she was feeling. “Yes?”

“It means a lot to me…what you shared about your mother and yourself. But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you for hiding things from me in the first place.”

“I understand. I’ll give you as long as you need.” He gathered her to him, chest to chest, and simply held her.

Despite how much he wanted her and the evidence of it pressing between her thighs, she felt his easy resignation and his contentment just being with her. It was strange how she was beginning to sense Julian’s emotions in a way she never had with any other man. She shifted restlessly against him as he stroked her damp hair.

After a few minutes of cuddling, the scent of his desire and the feel of his hard muscles under her fingertips were driving her insane. She was quivering with need and her skin was hot and sticky by the time he spoke. “It’s probably time to get going.”

She ground against his erection. “Okay.”

“I think it would be best for you to rest now,” he said quietly, his eyes closed as she pressed into his lap.

“Sure.” She tightened her hold around his waist and leaned up to lick the rim of his ear.

“We should probably go, then.” But he made no attempt to move.

“Probably.” She carefully shifted to her side and reached between them, untying his pants and freeing his shaft.

When she ran her hand up and down his length, he hissed in a breath. “Kara…I’ll give you as long as you need. I want to make this right.”

She squeezed his crown, using the moisture there to slide her fist over him. “This is what I need.”

As though she’d loosed his chains, Julian spun her around and draped her knees over his shoulders. Her breasts rubbed over the sparse hair covering his abdomen through her thin white shirt as he hiked her skirt higher. He pulled her panties to the side, and the next thing she knew, she was moaning as his tongue plunged through her wet folds.

She licked the pearl of moisture from his crown, then ran her tongue over him as if he were an exotic delicacy. His responding groan against her heated core sent shivers racing through her. She took him in her mouth, opening wide to fit his massive girth past her lips and tongue as he nuzzled his face against her throbbing clit.

Suddenly, the beat of wings and the hush of voices brought her head up. “Is somebody there?” a man called.

Julian’s head dropped away from the juncture of Kara’s thighs.
“Hellfire and half-cocks,”
he ground out.

“Huh?” she murmured, sounding as alert as a drugged camel. “Julian?”

He turned her in his arms until her head was again on his chest and put his fingers to her lips. “Shhh, love,” he whispered. “Not here.”

When he wrapped his wings around her, blocking her from view, she had an instant of panic again, thinking they would fall at any moment. And then they did.

Julian plunged from the sky, streaking past two curious warriors who seemed to be out for a leisurely stroll through the clouds.

As they rocketed toward the earth, Kara gripped Julian’s shoulders, digging her nails into his flesh. She was pretty sure she’d left her stomach somewhere above them. Just when she thought they were going to crash into the side of what looked like a massive white box, Julian’s wings unfurled and caught the wind, whipping them horizontally through the air to land on the marble steps of what had to be the palace.

“Here,”
he said, then crushed his mouth to hers.

She was momentarily stunned by the flight and the taste of her own juices on his lips, but then she pressed into him with a growl. He quickly lifted her in his arms and stalked through the entrance.