Authors: Sylvia Day
“Do you?” He caught her face in his hands, studying her. “You can fight it off, sweetheart. Let me help you.”
“You can help me now,” she said, parroting what he'd said to her earlier.
Why should he get to have all the fun?
“I've wanted you tied to a bed since the first night we met.”
“That's not how things work, Victoria. Not between warlock and Familiar, and certainly not between us. This isn't you talking.”
“But it is!” She wrenched away from him.
You should listen to your instincts, Victoria St. John, they're telling you what you already know.
“You've been trying to change me since we met. You want me to be something I'm not!”
His jaw tightened. “We've been together almost two years. You don't strike me as the type of woman to put up with a man that long if he wasn't pleasing you.”
“That was before.”
Remember who you were before Westin hunted you down. Remember the power you had. The High Council let Darius Whitacre die. Did you ever make them pay for that? Have you used Westin the way he's used you?
“Before what?”
“Before I saw what you really want!” She turned her back to him. “Jezebel was a real eye-opener for me.”
Max could picture his kitten's tail swishing restlessly. He didn't have to picture the darkness of her aura; he could almost taste it in the air. “I want
you
.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, as sly as a cat. “You can have me . . . if you're a good boy, Max.”
He changed tactics. “All right. Let's catch up with Xander Barnes first. We deal with him, then we've got all the time in the world.”
Tossing her head back, she laughed and walked toward the wall displaying his selection of floggers and crops. “
Now
you want me to hunt with you? After I practically begged you?”
Max shoved a hand through his hair, frustrated by his own contribution to the disaster he faced. He'd left Victoria wide open magically, physically, and emotionally. Even when they'd first met, they'd never been this far apart. He couldn't stand it.
He also couldn't let it affect his judgment. Hunters who allowed emotion to overrule reason were doomed to failure and he couldn't fail in this.
“I make mistakes, Victoria,” he conceded. “In this case, I underestimated how much I need your help. And I underestimated Powell.”
She walked to the chest of drawers where he kept the toys he put inside her. “Don't blame our problems on your hunt.”
“I seem to have lost something in translation, then. Why don't you remind me what happened today? What's the last thing you remember before I came home?”
“I remember your mistress making herself at home in my house! Wearing a damned collar with your name on it!”
“And how did you get from that to where we are now?” With her dressed in an over-the-top dominatrix outfit he hadn't known she owned. Then again, he hadn't bothered researching how things had gone with her and the Hunters previously assigned to collar her.
But even jealousy couldn't make his dick stop throbbing as he looked at her. Despite everything that had gone wrongâor maybe because of it and his desperate need to reconnectâhe was achingly attracted to this new side of her.
She pulled a glass dildo out of a drawer and ran her fingers up and down the length of it. Then she lifted it to her lips and licked the tip. Max bit back a groan.
“I realized I should start out the way I mean to go on,” she said, looking at him from beneath spiked lashes. “Relationships go both ways, Max.”
“I've given you everything I've got.” He reached out with his magic and slammed into the wall of power radiating off her. She was siphoning from him by the moment, an irrefutable sign that she'd been tainted by black magic. “And I'll keep giving it until I draw my last breath.”
“Everything except your submission.”
“I'm not a switch, kitten.”
Her foot tapped a rapid staccato against the cement. “Maybe I am. Does that mean we're incompatible?”
“You didn't think so an hour ago.”
She narrowed her gaze at him, then disappeared, winking away before his eyes.
“Victoria!” he shouted, his fists clenching.
It was diabolically clever what Barnes had done, taking away Max's anchor while she was still breathing. Death would've been more merciful than losing her to black magic. And he couldn't take her to the Council as he had Jezebel, not just because he was weakened to a dangerously low state, but because he feared they would vanquish her to mitigate any threat he might be perceived to be.
He racked his mind for options, trying to narrow down what spells Barnes might have used to turn Jezebel and Victoria.
“Blood magic,” he muttered, knowing how powerful it could be.
But only as long as Barnes was alive.
Is Westin really the right man for you? Or is there someone out there who would suit you better?
Victoria hit the clubs. Restless and driven by urges she couldn't fight, she prowled the city searching for something she couldn't put her finger on. It irritated her that she felt the need to return to Max. A driving, spurring need. She'd never felt so torn before, as if she was warring with herself.
“Looks like you're in the mood to play, gorgeous.”
She turned her head toward the man speaking to her. He was tall and fit, sandy-haired and mischievous-eyed. Her gaze raked him from head to toe, as did her magic. He was human.
Her mouth curved, her thoughts turning to how much fun it would be to dominate such a strapping male. It had been far too long since she'd been allowed to take the reins.
“Are
you
in the mood to play?” she purred.
“Always. Can I buy you a drink?”
She shook her head, debating where to take him. Max's place would be ideal, but she ruled it out. Her apartment was an option, especially since Max had seen fit to take his
ex
-mistress there. But an unwelcome and unwarranted stab of guilt held her back.
Damn it.
“Let's go somewhere,” she said, deciding it was best to leave the decision to him. Maybe he had his own toys.
He grinned and thrust out his hand. “Steve. Feeling seriously lucky to have met you tonight.”
“Victoria.” Her fingers brushed over his palm, but his touch lacked the heat and magical connection she'd come to feel with Max. A sense of hollowness grew in her belly. The club's music pounded out of the speakers, spurring customers to hook up. Couples and triples writhed against one another on the dance floor, flooding the air with the scent of arousal and pheromones, but she felt oddly disconnected.
“Come on, Vicky.” He caught her hand before it fell to her side and linked their fingers together. “I've got a room around the corner.”
Westin's got you under his spell, Victoria. Whitacre never controlled you like that.
She frowned as she allowed Steve to lead her through the crush to the exit. Listening to her conscience had never been more difficult. And Steve's use of the nickname “Vicky” only made things worse. Only Darius had ever called her that.
Max's voice echoed in her mind.
This isn't you talking.
Her hand tightened on Steve's. The warlock had twisted her mind . . . made her confused. She'd never been more conflicted.
“Do you live in the city?” Steve asked when they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“Yes.” She'd moved in after Darius died, closer to the central hub of magic in the country, so that she would have greater opportunities to provoke the Council.
“I like it here,” he went on, filling the void left by her short answer. “First-time trip for me. I'll have to thank my boss for suggesting this conference.”
Forcing herself to focus on the man she was with, she said, “Maybe I'll have to thank him, too.”
His eyes sparkled in the light of the streetlamps. “Do I have to ask if you'll be gentle with me?”
“Is that what you want?”
“No.”
She smiled genuinely. “Good. I'm not sure I can be gentle tonight.”
A ripple of desire moved through his big body. His skin heated to her touch. “Having one of those nights, sweetheart?”
Her nostrils flared, filling her senses with the scent of his lust and excitement. “Yeah . . . you could say that.”
M
ax hit the streets. Barnes would be sticking close by, knowing Max was vulnerable now in a way he'd never been before. This hunt had turned into a game for Barnes, one he was willing to risk capture for. Vanquishing Max wasn't going to stop the Council from coming after him; other Hunters would follow. It wouldn't even buy the warlock time, because Max was fairly certain the Council had already widened the hunt. They probably didn't trust him now, and Jezebel's susceptibility would raise further alarm.
Coming after Max was sport for Barnes, a chance to get a little piece of his own back after the years of incarceration he'd suffered.
Victoria, where are you?
He ruthlessly suppressed the urge to find her. It would be pointless while she was under the fog of blood magic. Whatever programming Barnes had given her would be impossible to break through while the warlock was living.
But he couldn't fight the fear for her. For
them,
as a couple, because there had been an opening for Barnes to exploit. All this time Max had believed it was simply a matter of acclimation that caused the resistance Victoria displayed occasionally. He'd assumed that at heart she was like all Familiars. But perhaps she was unique beyond the magic Darius had given her. Perhaps she truly needed to share control rather than give it up completely.
Could he be the man she needed if that were the case?
“Westin. You look so forlorn.”
Stiffening, Max slowed and looked for his quarry. A wry smile twisted his mouth at the thought. Really,
he
was the one being hunted. “It's been a rough day.”
Barnes stepped out of the shadows. He looked harmless enough on the surface, like a thirty-year-old man out for a stroll, but dark power poured off him, buffeting Max with such fury it nearly sent him stumbling back a step. “That's too bad. It's been a great day for me.”
Max nodded. “You wanted Powell dead.”
“He would've become a liability eventually,” Barnes said with a shrug. He dressed better these days. When Max first caught him, he'd been a thug. Now he wore tailored slacks and shirt, with polished oxfords and tie. “And he was stupid enough to think he was smarter than me.”
“I underestimated you, too.”
Barnes liked that. He grinned. “I was hoping you'd be more of a challenge.”
“I'm sorry to disappoint.” Max tried to tap into Victoria, to tug at least a little of his magic back, but there was nothing on the other end of their connection. It was as if it'd been severed completely.
An old man walking his Chihuahua passed them, giving them a wide berth and suspicious eye. The dog began yipping at Barnes and tugging at its leash, baring its teeth at the warlock. Barnes crouched and smiled. The dog whined and pissed itself.
“Remy!” the old man scolded. “Bad dog. Come on.”
The warlock stood, laughing. “The world is full of pathetic creatures, isn't it, Westin?”
“Scaring small dogs should be beneath you,” Max said, allowing the wand tucked into the sleeve of his shirt to slide out and into his palm. It was a child's learning tool, one he hadn't used in centuries, and only briefly then. Serving only to help focus magic in the training stage, it bore no power itself, but Max needed all the help he could get. He'd used the bulk of the magic he had left to reach out to the Transcendual Realm for help.
He wasn't the only one who loved Victoria and would do anything to keep her safe.
“Nothing is beneath me. That's why I'm as powerful as I am today.” Barnes scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Putting rules on magic is where the Council went wrong. Magic is
alive,
it breathes. Caging it is a crime.”
“You don't give a shit about magic. It's power you want. You're drunk with it.”
“I don't think you'd sound so disdainful if you still had yours,” Barnes goaded, his gaze hard.
“And I don't think you'd sound so smug if you knew that the Council was about to hunt me Themselves, because They believe Victoria made me too powerful. If I were you, I would've considered that a better punishment than this. An eye for an eye. Instead, you're doing Them a favor.”
Barnes
didn't
like that. His smile faded. “You must have a death wish, Westin.”
“Maybe.” He played up his vulnerability. “I don't want to live without Victoria and you've taken her away from me. So it's either you or me, Barnes.”
“Well, I think we both know how that's going to end.”
Max thrust out his hand, sending magic racing along the length of the wand to strike Barnes in the chest. The warlock stumbled back, spinning, but quickly righted himself and fired back.
The weight of the blow lifted Max off his feet and sent him flying several feet. Winded and in terrible pain, he curled in on himself, making as small a target as possible. The next blow of magic seized his heart and lungs, blackening his vision. His surroundings dimmed and roaring filled his ears. The next strike would kill him.
Victoria
. . . His eyes squeezed shut as agony twisted his body. How would she survive losing two warlocks she loved?
Be safe, kitten,
he whispered to her.
I love you.
“Here we are,” Steve said, stopping in front of an InterContinental hotel. Setting his hand at the small of Victoria's back, he urged her through the revolving doors in front of him.