[M__M 03] Misery Loves Company (26 page)

Lucen pulled me into the room, then shut and locked the door behind me. “Everything settled with your case?”

“Mostly. There are still a few souls at large, but the Gryphons continue to track them down.”

I watched him head behind the bar, admiring the way the warm lighting caught the palest streaks in his golden hair, how his dusty T-shirt clung to his broad chest, and the way his jeans hugged his ass.

Angelia had been right about that. It was a very nice ass.

Lucen glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow, giving me the impression that he knew exactly what I’d been staring at. “Something to drink, little siren? I’m not going to be reopening for a couple days, I expect.”

“Water would be good.”

“Water?” He snorted in disbelief. “We’re not doing that again, are we? I remember a time when you wouldn’t accept alcohol from me.”

I wandered over to the table where he’d obviously been working before I arrived. “I had a beer earlier.”

Lucen’s insurance policy was spread out across the table, and he appeared to have been making damage estimates. Although he’d already done a lot to clean the place up, it still was in disarray. Besides the boarded-up window, a stack of broken chairs sat in the far corner, and one table was covered with the random artwork that used to hang on the walls. Nearly all the glassware was gone too. Smashed along with the liquor bottles.

Lucen set a glass of water down by me. “It’s truly exciting stuff you’re looking at.”

“Enough to make you wish you were fighting sylphs again?”

He pulled a chair over. “I’d love another fight with the sylphs. I dream of being the one to beat the ever-loving shit out of Assym.” He swung his leg around the chair and sat backward on it. “Have you come to save me from my paperwork? Tell me you have.”

“Maybe.” I slipped my fingers through his hair, but the chairback dug into me as I tried to get closer. Damn his habit of sitting stupidly.

On the other hand, his face was about breast height, and he nuzzled me through my shirt.

I sucked in a breath as Lucen kissed me through the fabric, his teeth lightly biting at my nipple. “I think you have.”

I bent closer, gliding my nails over the back of his neck, burrowing my nose in his hair. I could detect rosemary among his natural cinnamon, the scent of his shampoo.

“More nails,” he murmured into me, and when I pressed them deeper into the lightly sweaty skin on his upper back, I could hear his breath catch. He suckled me harder, and I gasped, every muscle clenching with my building desire.

“You’re going to get my shirt all wet.”

“Fuck your shirt. I want to get
you
wet. Take it off. In fact, can we just agree that whenever we’re alone together, you should be naked? That would make me very happy.” He glanced up at me with his most endearingly puppylike expression. “You want to make me happy, don’t you?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Always. But we do live in a cold climate.”

“Yes, but it’s summer.” He reached around the chair and grazed the skin just below my shirt hem with his fingertips.

I shivered. I swore I could feel that touch everywhere, shooting up my nerves into my breasts and down to my stomach and my sensitive skin below. My nipples ached as they hardened, and I tossed my shirt on top of his papers. When he touched me that way, I wanted to do everything he asked. “Better?”

He licked his lips. “It’s a start.”

I could feel his gaze roaming over me as I drank some of the water. Heavy and hungry. I longed to give in to it, but not yet. I’d come over for a reason, and I couldn’t let myself be distracted. No matter how hot my blood burned for him.

“Strip for me, Jess. I’ve been cleaning up this disaster area all day. I want to see something beautiful.”

I closed my eyes. I loved the way he watched me when I did that for him. The way his eyes devoured me. The way he made me feel like I was the single most amazing thing on this planet.

I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, my jeans suddenly chafing as heat gathered between my legs. “Not yet.” I set the water down and returned to him, tousling his hair once more but keeping enough distance so that he couldn’t touch his lips to my bare skin. I might lose the will to continue if he did. “Did Devon tell you what we talked about when I was at Purgatory the other night?”

Lucen sighed. “I take it you’re not referring to the conversation in which he rhapsodized about your ass?”

“Um, no.”

Lucen shook with silent laughter. “Yes, little siren, he told me your feminine wiles seduced him into spilling all our darkest satyr secrets.”

“Oh, yeah. I seduced him. You’re both hilarious.” I slid my hand down his cheek, trying to turn this conversation serious. “I wish you’d been the one to tell me these things.”

He grabbed my hand and pressed it deeper against him. Stubble bristled against my sore palm, but I made no move to withdraw it. Touching him would always be better than not touching him. No pain could change that. “I should have. You’re right. And it’s not that I didn’t think you deserved to know, it’s just…”

I waited while he closed his eyes. “Just what?”

Lucen swallowed. “I didn’t know how to tell you that I chose to forget.”

“Do you wish you could still remember your old life?” His expression was killing me inside. So sad. I wanted to drape his face with kisses until he smiled again, but he held my hand tightly.

“No, it’s not that. How can you care about things you don’t remember?” At last he loosened his grip on me, bringing my hand to his lips and gently kissing my knuckles. But he wouldn’t look at me. He cast his gaze on the spot of floor between us. “I didn’t want to tell you because I made the weak choice. I chose to lose part of myself rather than deal with the regret, the pain of knowing what I’d lost on top of the physical pain of the transformation. I didn’t have the strength to see the whole thing through. I don’t doubt that I chose this life for myself, little siren. But I was too weak to deal with the consequences of my choice. That’s why I didn’t want to talk about it.”

There was no mischief, not even hunger, in his eyes when he raised his head to me now. Only regret and embarrassment.

But that was wrong. So utterly wrong for him to feel that way.

I removed my hand from his and cupped his cheeks. “You’re not weak.” I kissed his forehead, leaving my lips pressed to his skin. “I’ve felt that physical pain, or something close to it when Lucrezia cursed me. It was horrible. Torture. Wanting to forget what you had before makes perfect sense. There’s nothing weak about that.”

The memory of it, the thought of Lucen suffering with that same insatiable agony, made my heart wail, and I burned with this fierce desire to shield him from any more pain.

In that moment, it no longer mattered to me if he chose this life. I didn’t care. He was right that the past was in the past, and the person he was before was not the person he was now. And it was the person he was now who I needed in my life.

I kissed him again and again, drawing my lips over his eyelids, his nose, the blond hairs on his cheeks and chin. I took his bottom lip in mine and caressed it with my tongue. I kissed him to chase away any notion that he should regret what he’d done or be ashamed of it.

And although I intended the kisses to be sweet and chaste, desire stirred in me again, sparked by this hint of vulnerability I’d discovered. I’d always felt like I was laying myself bare before him, the one who needed him to assure me that everything was going to be okay.

Learning he had his own insecurities, that there were parts of his life he was nervous baring to me, just made my heart cry out for him more. And made me want him more. To show him how strong and sexy and perfect I thought he was.

“You’re not weak, and you will never convince me otherwise after all you’ve done.”

“I don’t think you’d have done it. You’re strong, Jess.”

“We don’t know what I’d have done. And you’re plenty strong. However you started off, you rose to become Dezzi’s number two, and then you risked that position to help me. You could have blasted me with your magic any time over these last ten years, and instead you waited patiently until I saw how amazing you are. Those aren’t the things weak people do. They don’t risk everything for others. They don’t refuse to take advantage of others when they have the means.” I crouched down to eye level with him. “And you put up with my shit. Not many people seem capable of that.”

Lucen allowed himself to smirk. “It’s only fair given what you have to put up with for me.”

“That’s true. Fucking your best friend was hard.”

“It wouldn’t have been a good fuck if it wasn’t.” He bounded off the chair and swept me up in his arms before I knew what he was doing. I put my head on his chest, feeling it rise and fall beneath me. “Thank you, Jess. Thank you for trying.”

I clutched him tighter. “I’d try anything for you. I just don’t know if I’ll always be so successful.”

“All that’s important is that we keep trying. If we never give up, we never fail.”

His hands slipped up my back, and he tangled his fingers through my hair. Warm lips found mine, a slow, lingering kiss that grew until I parted my mouth, taking him in, and he greedily stole my breath. A moan escaped my lips, and I dug my nails into his back. His erection pressed against me, hot through our clothing.

I backed away from his mouth, gasping, my hands wrapped around fistfuls of his shirt. “I need you. Now.”

Lucen took my face in his hands and kissed me harder still. I clawed at his back, tearing his shirt out of his waistband, desperate for his skin, desperate to grasp that bulge I felt in his pants and make it mine.

He pulled my arms away and spun me around, pushing my back up against the bar. “I need you too, little siren. You have no idea how much.”

Then his mouth was on my throat, his hot tongue sliding over my skin. He unfastened my jeans and yanked them down.

I tore into his pants, vaguely aware of my vision blurring. My eyes were getting watery? For the love of dragons, why were my eyes tearing up for a second time in one night? My breath hitched in my throat as my fingers danced over his hard length, and Lucen let out a most delicious moan.

His lips nibbled lower and lower down my chest. Firm hands cupped my breasts until his tongue found them, and he shoved aside the lace of my bra, his hungry mouth sucking and tugging relentlessly.

I collapsed on him, and we tumbled to the floor. Landing on top of him, I kicked my pants and shoes off so I could straddle him. Lucen reached for me, his mouth open for more, but I had to keep my distance. My ache was too strong, and I wasn’t ready to be pushed over the edge yet. I wanted him inside me for that.

Breathing hard, I drew my nails down his abs, lightening my touch as I reached the more sensitive skin around his hips. His whole body twitched, and his sex rubbed against mine in a maddeningly enticing way. Teasing me, reminding me that I wasn’t whole until he filled me.

“Damn it, Jess. Come closer.” Lucen lunged for me, fingers digging into my thighs and just brushing the edge of my folds. I writhed under his touch but slid farther away, and he fell back to the floor. “I can feel your wetness on my legs. I need more of you. Please.”

Slipping my fingers around his length, I gave it to him. I ran my tongue up his hard shaft, swirled it around his head, and licked the bead of wetness from the tip. Each moan, each time he growled out my name, stoked my desire hotter.

“You always say how you like to make me scream,” I whispered, rubbing my face against him. “I want to do the same for you. I think I’m starting to get it now, this thing that we have. I want you to know that, but I want you to need my touch like I need yours.”

“You think I don’t?”

No, I thought he did, but I hadn’t until tonight. Not until I realized he wasn’t invulnerable, after all.

I kissed him deeper, harder, reveling in every gorgeous noise that he couldn’t restrain. Only when he begged again did I pause, my tongue flicking the tip of his cock. “I’m learning.”

“You’ve learned too well. Now take me inside you.” His eyes blazed with raw power.

No, he wasn’t invulnerable, but he was still capable of making my body obey his will. My thighs clenched, and I could feel my pulse throbbing between my legs. I couldn’t hold out any longer. I climbed over him and glided him inside, and the last of my rational thoughts slipped out of me with a whimper as I enveloped his thickness. Lucen sighed my name, and I was complete. The ache I felt without him filled.

He grabbed my hips, hands sliding lower as he thrust deeper again and again, and his thumbs pushed aside my folds so he could stroke my clit. My heavy breaths became cries, and I closed my eyes as the room blurred around me. My hands pinched and hugged at his body, craving more.

Usually I let Lucen guide our rhythm because I liked him taking control. He was so good at it since he could feel my needs. But tonight I insisted, listening to his breaths and his moans for direction, pounding myself against him until he yelled my name and I exploded with him, helpless to resist that command.

When I laid my whole body on top of him afterward, he refused to pull out, and I realized how uncomfortable the floor must have been beneath him. But Lucen said nothing of it, he just kissed me and ran his hands down my back. Surrounded by the clutter and dust—and most importantly his body—I reveled in the contentment and safety of his arms, and hoped I roused the same emotions in him.

Because it wasn’t going to last.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I’d chosen Vine as my meeting spot. It was far from Shadowtown and far from Gryphon headquarters, making it about as close to neutral territory within the city as I could get. And besides, why not? The place was pricey, but we were all going to need a drink to get through this meeting. Myself included.

I made sure I got there early and explained to Cat, the manager I’d met last time, that I needed a quiet corner for a group. Vine didn’t normally rearrange seating for guests, but my gift allowed me to be persuasive. I hit her with a touch of my satyr magic, and she acquiesced as easily as butter to a warm knife.

Like Steph had said, I
mostly
used my gift for good purposes. If the direct purpose here was a touch shifty, I still thought it should count because my goal with the meeting was nothing but good.

I sat with my back against the wall, watching the door and making the most of my overpriced glass of merlot. It was yummy, but no doubt I could have bought the entire bottle in any liquor store for the cost of this one glass.

Tom arrived first. He paused by the door, and judging by his confusion, he was counting the number of chairs surrounding me.

“Welcome back to Boston.”

Tom pulled out the chair across from me. “You’re saying that now?”

“I was too tired when you called yesterday.” I passed him the extensive wine menu.

“Might I ask who the other chairs are for?”

“You might. They’re for friends of mine. Well, friends and one business associate.”

“When I said I wanted a meeting to discuss the material I gave you—”

“Trust me, we’re discussing it and more. But this isn’t just about you giving me stuff to read to make me buy into your crazy end-of-the-world nonsense. This is me sharing what I’ve found out as well.”

Tom pressed his hands together, his face strained. “With other people.”

“Did you or did you not tell me
Le Confrérie de l’Aile
created me to be some kind of secret weapon to fight the good fight when everything goes to hell?”

“I don’t recall saying it quite like that, but yes, that was the idea.”

I sipped my wine with great satisfaction. “Good. Then this is me being all badass and warriorly. The first rule of battle is know your enemies. That’s why we’re here. To get acquainted.”

“I see.” He opened the wine menu snappishly.

Yup, this was why I’d chosen a bar.

The door opened again, and this time Olef appeared. Thank dragons. I hoped the magi’s presence would calm down Tom.

I waved to Olef, and the owl shifter headed over. Belatedly, I wondered if magi drank wine. I knew they ate some human food, but their drinking habits were not something I’d ever had any reason to pay attention to. It was too late to worry about such a minor thing though. Of all the people I’d invited to this meeting, I trusted Olef would have the least demanding temperament.

He chose a seat by Tom, the brown and white feathers on top of his head narrowing in surprise. “Ms. Moore, it’s good to see you looking well after what happened in Shadowtown the other day.”

“Thanks.” I shook his four-fingered hand.

“I brought my notes on the information you asked me to look up,” he added before turning to Tom. “You’re Agent Kassin?”

Tom closed the menu. “Yes. How did you know that?”

Because Olef knows everything, I thought. But I let the magi answer for himself.

“I understand you’ve been in contact with Xander regarding certain information,” Olef said. “He’s mentioned it to me, although he may not have mentioned me by name to you.”

Tom’s eyes widened. “You’re the prophet Xander’s been telling me about.”

I sipped smugly while they did their introductions.

After they finished, Olef turned to me. “Will Xander be coming?”

“No. This is about your visions. Frankly, I don’t want Xander within a five-mile radius of me after what he once did.”

Olef shrugged helplessly, but Tom frowned. “What did Xander do to you?”

“Insulted me, assaulted me and held me captive.”

“He thought Ms. Moore was guilty of Victor Aubrey’s murders,” Olef explained.

“He also told me I was evil because I had a pred’s gift.”

Tom coughed into his hand. “That’s unfortunate.”

“No kidding. Oh, look.” I smiled, anticipating—evilly—how all hell was going to break loose in a moment. “Our next three guests have arrived.”

Olef and Tom twisted around in their seats. The magi were cut off to me emotionally, but I could taste the exact moment when Tom’s curiosity turned to bewilderment and horror.

He spun around to face me. “Those are satyrs. What are you doing?” He kept his voice so low I could barely hear him.

I couldn’t help but be impressed. Tom controlled his fear well. Mostly, now that his initial shock had passed, I sensed anger from him.

“Yeah, they’re like me, remember? And they’ve been part of what’s going on since the beginning.”

Lucen, Dezzi and Devon were all wearing charms to disguise their horns, but their magical auras nevertheless managed to ensnare the attention of everyone they passed. We’d have an enthralled server over here any second, offering him or herself up with the drinks.

Lucen and Devon both insisted on making a show of hugging me in greeting, but Dezzi narrowed her dark eyes at Tom and Olef. The human and magi didn’t appear any more pleased. Magi and preds notoriously didn’t like each other, and, well, preds and Gryphons. Enough said.

Although Tom wasn’t in uniform, Dezzi picked up on what he was just as easily as he had seen through their disguise charms. “Jessica, what is the meaning of this? He’s a Gryphon.”

“Yes, I am.” Tom frowned. “And that’s a very good question.”

I shot him a nasty look. “It’s called a temporary alliance. Kind of like what you had on Sunday. We can all sit and drink and have a conversation.”

“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” Devon said cheerfully. “You do know how to keep everyone on their toes.”

I smiled at Lucen and he returned it with a
why me
expression before taking the seat on my right.

Devon sat on my left, and Dezzi sat next to him. That left one chair belonging to the person who I was most worried wouldn’t show.

As predicted, our server showed up the instant everyone got settled. I tapped my fingers together impatiently, my gaze glued to the door and my hopes rising and falling each time it opened. We descended into an uncomfortable recitation of what I’d already gone over with Tom and Olef until the server returned with everyone’s drinks.

As the server left, the door opened one more time. In walked a short, elderly woman with iron-gray hair. Her clothes were extremely formal and old-fashioned, but her eyes were alert. Behind her were two short men of the same vintage.

Not a single one of them gave off any sort of emotions that I could sense.

I smiled.

Gunthra made a weird face. If she weren’t disguised, I imagined her ears would have perked up or something. But although she could disguise her face as a human’s with the assistance of some powerful magic, she had less success with her mannerisms.

She spoke to her companions, who headed over to the bar, then she joined us. Six heads turned her way as she stiffly took the last chair. “Miss Moore, you have piqued my curiosity with your choice of company.”

“Not just yours,” Lucen muttered.

I squeezed his arm to quiet him. “Thank you for coming.”

“How long I stay,” Gunthra replied, “will depend on where this conversation goes.”

I squeezed Lucen again, sensing that another comment was dancing on his tongue. “Then let’s get started.”

I did a round of introductions after our server returned to take Gunthra’s order. Most everyone here ought to know everyone else, if not by name then by face. Gunthra’s borrowed face excepted. The tension around the table was as thick as dragon hide and as dangerous as an uncontained salamander. Not even the wine could help that. The only thing that might would be reminding everyone that they all had one thing in common.

Me.

And Devon had accused me of self-hatred. Please. I must have an ego the size of Massachusetts to think I could pull this off, and yet I was strangely calm. Convinced I knew what I was doing.

Of course, it could also have been the result of having finished my wine so quickly.

I folded my hands. “I asked everyone together because I believe we’re all investigating or chasing after or worrying about the same thing. It’s taken me a while to figure that out for several reasons.” Like I was in denial or too filled with rage to consider what I was being told. But hey, that was life.

No one questioned me, which was a touch unnerving. So I plundered on. “Here’s what I know. I’ll start with the magi. For hundreds of years, they’ve been having visions of an apocalypse. Enough of them, including Olef, have had these visions that over time they’ve been called a prophecy.”

Olef nodded. “This is correct. And the role you—”

I held up a finger. “Sorry. I don’t want to cut you off, but I think it would help if I go chronologically.”

The magi threaded his fingers together. “As you wish.”

I gazed longingly into my glass. My wish was that our server could read my mind and bring me a refill.

“In response to that prophecy, and believing preds were going to cause this apocalypse, the Gryphons began experimenting, trying to create super-Gryphons.” Tom winced at my word choice but didn’t interrupt. “They finally figured out how to turn gifted humans into preds, like I am. We look like humans, and preds can feed off us like humans, but we’re not normal humans. The thing was, the Gryphons who were working on this—Agent Kassin’s group—didn’t realize their experiment had worked, and so they released a bunch of us into the wild. Me, Victor Aubrey and possibly several other people.”

“Several other people that we’re now aware of,” Tom said. “But this was not information meant to be shared, especially not with the present company.”

“This is nothing that they didn’t already know or figure out.”

Tom’s knuckles whitened around his glass. I hoped he wouldn’t break it.

“Anyway.” I drained my wine dregs. “One of us—Victor—was enamored with his misery-sucking power, and that’s probably what brought him to the furies’ attention. He became an addict, and as we all know, he murdered several vanity addicts at their behest and then framed me for it. Once we figured out the furies were behind those murders, we wanted to know why. I first heard the theory from Lucen that the sort of chaos and suffering caused by a magical war would be ideal for them to feed on, and I know the satyrs took that theory seriously, at least at the time.”

I glanced at Dezzi, who nodded. Her face was calm, but the way she held herself suggested she wasn’t pleased with something.

“You said the furies’ behavior was unusual too,” I told Tom, “when you first came here, although that was a cover story for investigating me.”

“Not just a cover story.”

I gave him a chance to explain, but he didn’t. Big surprise.

Moving on then. “Gunthra also suspected the furies were up to something, and now I know for certain that they’re up to something because one of them practically told me as much on Sunday.”

“Who?” Dezzi asked sharply. “Why didn’t I know this?”

“You were busy.”

All three satyrs and Gunthra leaned closer to me. Lucen put his hand on my arm. “What did they say?”

“It was Mace-head.” I answered Dezzi’s question first. “You know the one with the spiky hair, dresses like he wants to be Sid Vicious?”

“His real name is Nyles,” Devon said. “He was recently promoted to be Raj’s lieutenant.”

“I liked calling him Mace-head better.”

“What did he say?” Lucen asked again.

I tucked my hair behind my ears, sensing I was about to make at least one person here unhappy. “He said he didn’t want me getting hurt. Right after he shot Assym in order to protect me.”

Lucen groaned.

“Your enjoyment of keeping us on our toes is starting to get irksome,” Devon told me.

“A fury was protecting you?” Tom repeated. “Why?”

“Well, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. This wasn’t the first time it happened either.” I searched the bar. “I need more wine. I’ve been talking too much.”

Lucen pushed his half-filled glass my way. “Keep talking.”

“Fine.” I took a sip and continued. “So let’s jump back to the magi’s apocalyptic prophecy for a moment. Olef had let me know a couple weeks ago that he’d had visions—similar ones to all the others—but in his, he’d seen me.”

Everyone but Lucen cast surprised glances at the magi. Olef modestly cleaned his glasses and said nothing.

“So,” I continued, “to rehash—the Gryphons created me because of this prophecy, we have confirmation from Olef that I’m part of it, and the furies are acting weird, and as part of that weirdness, they want to keep me alive. Somewhere in the middle of all this, a pred war breaks out in Buenos Aires, very similar to what the furies tried to do here. Now we get to the part that explains why I invited Gunthra to join us. Still want to leave?” I asked her.

Gunthra spun the strand of pearls she wore around her wrist. “No. Proceed.”

I blinked away my surprise. Gunthra did not strike me as the sort to cede the floor. Often enough she talked over people. I really did have everyone’s attention.

“Gunthra’s also been interested in finding out what the furies are up to, and she’s interested in finding out more about the Vessels of Making. I’m going to assume everyone here is familiar with them.” When no one objected, I went on. “I didn’t realize the two might be connected until I saw a mention of the Vessels in one of the books Tom lent me. Since they all dealt, one way or another, with the prophecy, I’m going ahead and making a leap that somehow everything I’ve talked about here is related. I just don’t know how. And now anyone can jump in and fill in the gaps for me because I need more wine.”

Honestly, I needed something stronger at this point. The six faces staring at me around the table suggested their owners felt the same.

“Don’t everyone start talking at once,” I said when the silence grew too heavy.