DemonicPersuasion (7 page)

“
Your net will interfere with the merging. This will
hurt.
”

A bitter smile pulled at Foster’s mouth. “Don’t say you
won’t enjoy my pain.”

“
Should I begin our partnership with a lie?
”

Foster snorted. “I’m ready.”

“
Fade.
” Athanasios’ thought brushed her mind even as
his kiss touched her lips in a light breath of bitter-scented air. “
Stay
back. Don’t try to help him. Understood?
”

She jerked a nod and knotted her fingers at her waist, her
feet taking her away from Foster. Her heart drummed. Her life kept on getting
stranger, but this hopefully was the last touch of bizarreness. Her gaze darted
to the screen and the flashed warning of the weapons ready to fire. If they
survived, of course.

Foster’s sudden scream jolted into her stomach. His spine
arched and his knuckles strained. His face bloomed red, the tension in his jaw,
in his mouth running seams of thin, pressured white. He labored to breathe,
hard breaths that flared his nostrils. His eyes, still focused on the light
screen, leaked tears.

He was suffering more pain…because of her. Fade pressed her
hand to her mouth, the other gripping her waist, holding herself against the
need to run. To hold him and promise that the pain could stop, that he didn’t
need to do this for her.

His skin bubbled and a low, animal moan broke through his
clenched jaw. Something writhed under his skin, wrapping around muscle and
through bone. She could almost see the alien form that was merging with him, as
he had always seen Athanasios. Dark sinuous shapes, the hint of silver, of
claws and scales pushing deeper and deeper into his flesh.

Apologies and promises shot through her thoughts over and
over, her legs liquid, her nerves stretched. Seconds ticked by. The screen flashed
that the transport had released its load, firing on the apartment. They had
shielding. She knew they had shielding. Still, she had to look to the windows.

The impact slammed around the apartment, vibrating through
the walls and floor. Fade fell back onto the couch with a shriek, but Foster
only swayed. Athanasios moved within him, the push against Foster’s body less
obvious, but still a slow, inexorable twist of alien energy.

On the screen the shield indicator flashed amber. One more
hit would obliterate them. What would happen after? How could a merged Foster
be any different? Already another transport had moved into range, its weaponry
almost fully charged as the first transport built up its reserves again. A
blast from either would destroy them. From both, it would take out half the
mountain complex.

The second transport burned red, the first following it from
a deep orange. They were ready. Fade’s heart lodged in her throat. This was it.
The end. She should’ve known she could never outrun Dolon however hard she
tried.

A warning flared across the screen. Weapons released.

Time slowed, every thud of her heart a hollow drum. She
looked up to Foster, a man she loved, suffering, and now dying because of her—

“Fade…”

Foster, his dark eyes ringed with silver, held out his hand.
As if she were a puppet on strings, Fade found her feet, her fingers slipping
into his warm hold. He felt…different. More. She couldn’t explain it.

His smile was hot and dark as around her the world exploded
into white.

Bright sunlight warmed her bare skin and Fade stretched
against smooth, clean sheets. She pulled in a breath and the salted scent of
the ocean slid into her lungs. She let out a long, slow sigh and kept her eyes
closed. Light played against her lids, but she refused to open them. When she
did, the dream would be over and she’d be in her stinking, metal-walled hole of
a flat, with a day in a sealed suit ahead of her.

Sea breezes chased over her skin, gentle, cool and achingly
real, bringing with them a hint of unknown perfumes. All the fantasy needed was
a naked Taras Foster—

Fade jerked upright, her legs tangled in the thin sheets.
The dream didn’t fracture. She sat on a wide bed in the center of a white,
vaulted bedroom. Lattice doors stood open and were draped with a delicate,
sheer fabric that billowed and flapped in the sea winds. Beyond them, a deck
and empty blue-green ocean stretching to the horizon.

“Foster?” She planted her bare feet on the cool boards of
the floor and grabbed a sheet from the bed to knot over her breasts.
“Athanasios?”

The last thing she remembered was the transports attacking,
Foster’s eyes ringed with a fierce and brilliant silver and then…whiteness.

She pinched her wrist and pain spiked on her skin. Not a
dream. So she was alive at least. She stepped out onto the deck and into the
first fresh light to touch her skin in months.

Thin white clouds chased over the pale-blue sky and a great
yellow sun shone down. It wasn’t Earth. The star was a little too big, and the
sky on that crowded planet couldn’t be so…empty.

Waves lapped against the shore and Fade leaned on a wooden
railing. White rippled sand curved around a huge bay. A dark-green line of
wide-fronded palms ringed the beach, but there was no other sign of life. Something
moved in the clear water, caught in the white roll of the surf…

“Foster!”

She snatched up the billowing train of her sheet and ran
down the steps to the hot sand, darting back into the shade cast by the deck.
Shit. She was trapped against the house, while Foster pulled himself out of the
sea. But it was worth it. Water slid in slow rivulets down his sculpted chest
and Fade’s breath caught. “Shorts, Foster? Hardly fair.”

He slicked back his hair and grinned at her, something free,
open and deliciously wicked. “I could say the same. A sheet, Fadeyka?”

He strode across the sand and her heart kicked up. She
wetted her lips. “Where are we?”

“Beta-Sagittae-7. Eastern hemisphere. Quiet and exclusive.”
His fingers teased along the edge of her knotted sheet and her skin prickled at
the cool, wet glide. The need to question him was starting to slip away. And he
knew it. It was there in the increasing ring of fire circling his irises. “The
power of the Yalene brought us here.”

“They can do that?” Fade caught her sleep-tangled hair and
felt the blush rising. “Of course they can. We’re here.” Her fingers itched to
follow the path of a drop of water sliding over the curve of his collarbone, to
lick it and taste salt and skin on her tongue. She fought to bring her mind
back to their problem. Aleander Dolon. “So what now? Are we safe?”

“Perfectly safe.” Foster brushed her cheek, a simple, light
touch with the edge of his finger but it slid heat and want fast through her
flesh. “The threat has been…neutralized.”

Fade stared up at him, her gaze moving over his familiar
features. He looked the same, still that hard beauty that’d had her fingers
working overtime in the months he’d been ignoring her. No, not ignoring her.
Working to protect her. “You don’t look any different.”

His light touch moved to her chin, teasing a line under her
lip. “I am different.”

She frowned. Was this another aspect to the power of the
Yalene? She could see him as he was, but to everyone else he wore a different
face. Her fingers itched to examine her own features, to try to feel the
difference in her skull. “Am I changed?”

He dipped his head to pull a kiss from her lips. “In a way.”

Fade ignored the rapid surge of want threatening to drop her
to the shaded sand like a sack. His fusing with Athanasios had made him purely
irresistible. “Will I ever get a straight answer from you?”

“We could talk.” He took a step closer and the tormenting
heat of his body washed over her. His low, deep voice was liquid want in her
flesh. “We could find shade, a drink, and I could explain how you’re completely
safe.” He lifted an eyebrow and the ring of silver gleaming in his eyes caused
her heart to skip. “Or I could stretch you out naked on our bed.”

Fade swallowed, her mouth dry. “Is that all?”

His sudden smile was wicked. Sure. The silver in his eyes
increased. “I’ve tormented him with taking you. Shown him so many ways we can
have you—”

“Athanasios?”

The depraved smile deepened, seeming alien on Foster’s stark
face. “We had…rights and business to complete, but we’ve come to an
understanding.”

“And me?”

The smile faded back, like a cloud moving across the sharp
sun, and Foster was with her again. “I promised you you’d be safe. You are. Now
the choice is yours. What life you want.” He gritted his teeth, rolling his neck
as a silver gleam flared and died in his gaze. “Your choice.”

He was an honorable man. She’d always loved that about him
and now he was willing to let her walk away from him, from them. He’d
sacrificed his body, his
soul
for her…and yet he still gave her a
choice. “I choose…” She ran her finger along the hard plane of his chest, the
warm air drying the seawater from his skin but leaving tantalizing patterns of
salt. She licked him and he hissed. Her tongue teased around his nipple and a
tremor ran through his frame. Fade grinned up at him, finding his shadowed face
tight, but the burn of silver in his eyes. “Both of you.”

Foster wrapped his arms around her, hauling her against him,
and found her mouth. He pulled her up, his hands tight on her ass and she wrapped
her legs around his hips, glorying in the press of him against her body and
that they—both he and Athanasios—were hers.

Foster broke away, his breath short. “I’m sorry.” His
forehead touched hers and for a moment he closed his eyes. “I had to stay away
from you. Your cover—Fadeyka Bryce—was so thin. I couldn’t shore it up and have
you.”

“Have me?” Fade grazed his bottom lip with her teeth and his
fingers dug hard and sweet into her ass. Her chest tightened at Foster
willingly sharing with her. “You wanted me?”

His gaze speared her. Hot, dark and not one line of silver.
“From the moment you stood in my office. Only that there was something off in
your records, or I would’ve bent you over my desk. Fucked you there.” He ground
against her, the hard ridge of his dick a delicious press against her sex.
“Never let you out of my sight.”

She rolled against him. “Never?”

Foster groaned and turned, carrying her easily up the steps
to the deck. “It’s our new mission.”

“Yours and Athanasios’?” She ran her fingers though his
tangled, wet hair, finding a sharp pleasure in being able to touch him so
easily. “And you did all this, because in your office you wanted to fuck me?”

“I
also
wanted to fuck you.”

The warm sunlight swept across her face and she squinted.
There was only the rush and pull of the waves and the sound of Foster’s feet on
the wooden deck. Nothing else. Everywhere was silence. “Where are we, Foster?”

“I said. Beta-Sagittae-7. My secret bolt hole.”

“You’re rich?”

She smirked at him and he leveled a cool look at her. “Yes,
we’re rich.”

“We?”

A ring of silver flared around the blue of his eyes and a
wry smile tugged at Foster’s mouth, again so alien on the man’s starkly
handsome face. “Nothing is beyond my reach. It took him long enough to realize
that.”

Fade bit his lip and he hissed. “Now play nice, Athanasios.”

Eyes narrowed on her and her chest tightened. The dark heat
and silver fire forced a pulse low in her belly and the familiar ache burned
sweet. “
Nice
is the last thing either of us are.”

“Is that a promise?”

Foster’s reply was low and guttural and he strode into the
bedroom to stand at the end of the bed. With little finesse, he dropped her
onto the high mattress and she hit it with a surprised squeal.

The lattice doors slammed shut. Fade blinked. That hadn’t
been an act of technology. It had moved through her, Foster and Athanasios
willing the wood to jerk into place. Golden light striped the floor and cut
across the shadowed form of the man who stood over her. She resisted the sudden
urge to scramble back over the bed, her heart tight and her breath short. The
mix of fear and arousal was exhilarating.

“What should I call you?”

Fade frowned. “Call me?”

Foster’s fingertips traced a slow pattern over her knee as
it hung over the end of the bed, the slight touch skittering under her skin and
forcing her pulse to race. The rarity of his bare fingers when he had always
worn gloves around her sizzled. “Your real name is Zoya Dolon. Fadeyka Bryce is
a name, an identity you bought.”

She hadn’t thought of herself as Zoya for months. That woman
had another life, not the one she was hoping to live. Neither Foster nor
Athanasios had used anything other than Fadeyka. “Fadeyka Bryce. Fade. That’s
who I am. Who I want to be.”

“Fade it is.”

Their will moved over her and the sheet tucked around her
breasts, the shadows of clawed hands skimming her curves and deliberately
raking across her nipples. She sucked in a quick breath, her gaze riveted to
him. Silver chased through the shadows on his skin, a flicker of brilliance
before it sank back into his muscle and bone. Was that a sign of their merging?
“What happens now you’re together?”

The shadows shifted and heat bloomed in her chest. They
weren’t shadows. The shape of something moved around Foster’s tall frame, darkening
the room as if they ate the sunlight. Her heart kicked up, the strangeness of
the moment, the need and the fear was a wild rush in her flesh.

“No,
we’re
together.”

She caught Foster’s dark smile, his eyes a burning silver.
“Foster?”

“He’s here.”

The hollow tone ran goose bumps over her skin. That hadn’t
been Athanasios. Her mouth thinned. “Very funny.”

“When we have you like this.” Foster’s hand glided over her
knee, his thumb chasing sensitive points along her inner thigh. And it was
Foster. She could feel the difference in his touch. “We’re meshed. Both
feeling. Both needing you.”

A tongue licked over her pussy, sure and slow and her spine
arched at the sudden, unexpected contact.

“You taste so sweet.” Foster’s voice was raw and thick with
want. “Athanasios has tormented me with how they’ve fucked you.” He
straightened his shoulders. “Move her.”

Fade’s heart hammered as shadows of clawed hands gripped her
hips and shoulders, another large hand moving between her legs, a rough-padded
thumb stroking down over her clit as spread fingers and a strong palm lifted
her ass.

Foster’s dark, heated gaze never left her and the knowledge
that he wanted her, that he had always wanted her had her nerves tingling and
raw. He moved, something slow and predatory, and crawled toward her, the
mattress dipping under his weight.

The ghostly lick of a tongue lapped against her pussy and
firm hands gripped her thighs, spreading her for a waiting Foster. She fought
to breathe, her head light, the need so hard in her flesh she had to will
herself not to come under the hot look Foster ran over her body.

“I love to watch them fuck you.”

“Then why…” The question came out on a quick breath, her
body twisting against the sudden tongue and teeth and lips finding her nipples.
It was a live wire down to her pussy and for a moment her brain stuttered. “Did
you fight it?”

“I wanted you for myself. I don’t share.”

“But…” He threaded his fingers through the hands already
gripping her thighs and the spark of his combined touch flashed over her.
Curses escaped her. “Now. Now you are.”

His head dipped and he watched her along the plane of her
body, still and waiting. “I saw the Cage feeds. Athanasios fucked so many. It
did nothing for me. I thought their having you would be the same. Something…degrading.
I couldn’t watch that. Feel that.”

His breath stirred against her skin and Fade ached to push
into the promise of his mouth, but firm hands pinned her and she could almost
feel Athanasios’ wicked joy in trapping her.

“But just before. In your apartment.”

His thumbs stroked a hard line over her thighs, his fingers
biting into firm flesh. “You were incredible. But having Athanasios bound to
me, binding you. Having to share you… I still wasn’t ready.” His breath warmed
her skin and rippled a shiver through her. “But then to lose you? It made it
all easy.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Done asking questions?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Foster’s mouth brushed against her mons, his lips light and
cool and Fade groaned. The tip of his tongue licked her, slipping through her folds
to tease her clit…as another tongue lapped her, before darting its thick length
into her pussy.

A wild and unexpected burst of release shot over, quick, but
not enough. Nowhere near enough. Not anymore.

“
Delicious…
” Athanasios’ chorus of voices brushed
against her mind, his hot breath tickling her ear. “
We have you now. And
we’re not letting either of you go.
”

“
Promise?
” It was more of a mental moan as
Athanasios’ clever fingers slipped over her ass, opening her up to another
eager tongue. “
Please…
”

A satisfied sigh washed over her as he sank deep into her
ass and began the achingly slow rhythm of stroking into her flesh. The soft
kiss that brushed her lips twisted around her heart. “
How could we ever give
this up?
”