The COMPLETE Witching Pen Series, Boxed Set (45 page)

Shit. Every single thought? Every hot, sexy thought about what she wanted to do to him? About how he made her feel?

“Yeah. Sorry ‘bout that,” he teased. “I should have told you earlier. But I was trying not to be an overbearing arse.”

She smirked. “It
is
a little daunting that I can’t hide from you at all… But I’d rather have you in my mind, than all the sins of mankind.”

He looked at her quizzically, before his expression grew sombre. “Is that what the nightmares are?”

“Yes. Turns out, I’m some kind of cleansing vessel for evil. Mankind does bad things, I get to see, hear and feel it, and channel it all into Hell where the fires burn brighter with every sin I purge.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I don’t want to think about it.” She pressed herself into him and nuzzled the crook of his neck.

He moaned, his hips jerking against her abdomen.

Fiery want unfurled within her, and her words came out way more huskily than she’d intended. “I want to bond with you again. I want to take your blood into me.”

“Mary—”

“No buts. This is it for me. You’re it. And I’m it for you.” The words came out of her mouth so matter-of-factly, but it was simply the truth. She couldn’t change it, nor did she want to.

Gwain smiled at her, tenderly, then nodded. “As long as you’re sure. You’re a very individual person. To share yourself with me – you may feel your identity compromised if we do this.”

Compromised. She knew compromised. Her life had been compromised since she’d suffered her first nightmare. Merging with Gwain wasn’t a compromise, it was a bona fide luxury.

“I’m sure.” But before she drank his blood, there was something else she wanted first. She grinned wickedly. “Can you tell what I’m thinking now? ’Cause I’ve got a pretty vivid image in my head.” She made her way down his chest with her mouth and tongue, following the trails of the pelting hot water, and trying her darnedest not to hurry the fuck up and claim her prize.

He groaned. One of his hands found its way into her hair and gently tugged. “Mary, wait—”

“Don’t you dare – don’t you dare deny me again. I want you. I want to taste you. I want to know who you are – who
we
are. Do you know how many things I’ve ever wanted in my life? Only two. For my nightmares to stop; and you. And now I discover that I’ve always had you… So don’t fuck with me, Gwain.”

He pulled her upwards again. “I’m not. It’s just that I haven’t … I haven’t—”

“If you’re about to tell me you’ve been celibate for over ten thousand years, you may have to revive me with the hose again.”

Her teasing stopped the minute she looked into his eyes. Vulnerability shone in them, and he seemed so completely lost it caught her off-guard. Gwain? Lost?

I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to him.
And that wasn’t a bad thing – not if they were going to be inside each other’s heads for all of eternity.

“No – I’ve had lots of sex … with lots of women, and some men—”

“I don’t need the details… Men?”

“I’ve been living on Earth for exactly 10,278 years. Do you think I haven’t tried everything at least once?” He studied her, then took in a deep breath. “It’s not that I’m celibate … it’s that I can’t climax. Or at least, I can’t climax with anyone but you.”

She stared at him blankly.

“Mary, did you hear me? I haven’t had an orgasm for 10,278 years.”

Chapter Nine

“The angel shall lay with the dragon? So … Gwain’s going to … er … what exactly with a dragon?”

Karl looked at Pueblo with the same confusion that he was feeling, and shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, so what have dragons got to do with the apocalypse?”

“Dragons are widely connected with creation myths in many traditions and religions,” said Amy. “In the west, they’re mostly feared, but in the east, they’re more often than not revered. In most creation myths, dragons are said to have breathed the world into being. And then of course, they got slain – because that’s what new Gods do to old Gods – and now, there’s just one left that lies sleeping in the core of the earth until the day comes when it can rise again. Sometimes, the great dragon, or serpent, is depicted as lying at the bottom of the ocean, and the dragon has also been associated with The Beast, which is another term for Satan. Maybe that’s the connection with The Demon Bride prophecy.”

Everyone stared at her.

“What?”

Pueblo was impressed. “Girl, you know a lot about dragons.”

She smiled. “I’m Wiccan. Creation myths across all pantheons are standard learning within Wicca, and dragons feature quite a lot.”

Elena turned to face Karl. “This dragon prophecy wasn’t written with the Pen, was it? So, is there any chance that it’s based on an abstract vision? We have two seers at The Witch Council, but it’s rare that they see
actual
things. Mostly they see symbols and impressions. For example, while the dragon represents Satan, Hell and destruction, the angel could represent God, Heaven and peace.”

“So,” added Pueblo, “when the angel lays with the dragon … what? God lays with Satan?”

“Or, it symbolises a mergence of the two; of Heaven and Hell.”

“All good points, and all valid,” said Karl, “but I don’t think it’s just abstract. In the Book of Revelation, the War in Heaven takes place between Archangel Michael, and ‘the dragon’, the dragon specifically being a reference to Satan.”

“But don’t forget the creation myths, okay?” pressed Amy. “Dragons were the first Gods according to those, or at the very least, protectors of the first Gods.”

“And what about the angel taking all sin from the world?” asked Pueblo.

Everyone turned to Karl. “I don’t know. I can’t find any reference to that at all, but to take sin from the world, is to take it from mankind. That’s a good thing. If this dragon prophecy is associated with what Lokoli wrote, there may even be a chance that the apocalypse will
benefit
the human race. That throws everything into a whole new light. Whatever the answer, we don’t have long to come up with a plan on what to do when it happens. All of these notes and prophecies say that it all comes to pass in the latter half of 2011.”

“If you’re interpreting them right,” mumbled Katarra.

“I admit that I’m new to angelic script, but Gwain’s already begun teaching me the language, and with the angel blood in me, it’s making sense more easily than I would have imagined. And I’m not new to translating foreign languages and symbols on antique objects. It’s all about the pattern in the language. Once you find it, and you have a point of reference for it, it’s just about putting the pieces together.”

“Is that why you think this dragon prophecy might also have something to do with the apocalypse?” asked Elena. “Because of the date on the notes?”

Karl nodded. “That, and the fact that it was hidden amongst The Demon Bride prophecy.” His face reddened with what looked like guilt. “It was hidden in such a way that suggested no one was supposed to find it.”

Elena gave him a pointed stare.

He cleared his throat. “I got all these from the Angelic Court Library. Gwain showed me how to gain access when we were hunting through the Akasha for info on Amy.”

“I was gonna ask how you got all this stuff,” said Pueblo.

“Yeah. If you’re an angel, you say a chant, some kind of light-door opens, and you walk into wherever in the angelic realms you need to be. Except, I’m not a full-blooded angel, so I don’t get allowed in most places, and Gwain’s fallen, so neither does he. The library’s permissible though. That’s where I got these.” He gestured to the mess on the kitchen table.

“So … you have an angel library card, or what?”

Karl’s face turned the colour of a beetroot.

“Oh, my God,” voiced Elena. “You
stole
them?”

“Er…”

“You
stole
these from
God?
You stole when … thou aren’t supposed to steal?”

Despite Karl’s new shade of red, Pueblo didn’t miss the determination in the man’s eyes.

“Elena, up until tonight, we all thought you were going to end the world. I was searching for something, anything, to prevent it; to save you from that and to make sure you don’t end up dead. If I have to steal from God to protect you, I will, and we found some important information in the process. If I had to do it again, I would.”

Elena blinked back tears, and Pueblo guessed they were of love, given that she didn’t look that angry.

Katarra smiled sweetly at Karl. “You know, Adam did anything for Eve, too.”

Amy punched her in the arm.

“Ouch!”

“Will you shut the fuck up? Just ‘cause you don’t have anyone who loves you…”

The demon’s eyes flashed in anger. “So tell me, is that better or worse than having
two
men who love you?”

Amy shrank back and turned a shade of green.

Pueblo’s fangs had elongated before he even realised he’d half-shifted.

Amy laid a hand on his chest. “Don’t. She’s not worth it.”

“You know,” said the Brujii, her own fangs displayed, “earlier I felt a little ripple of magic radiate from somewhere near the centre of Scotland.” She let her gaze fall on Amy. “But I’ve got a feeling
you
already knew it wasn’t over.”

Elena threw her magic at Pueblo half a second after he lunged at Katarra. He froze in mid-air, still able to see and hear everything, just unable to move.

I’m going to
kill
you when this wears off!
he mentally hurled at her. Maybe he could kill her with the ferocity of his thoughts alone.

Katarra laughed … until Elena mumbled something, and the demon’s mouth disappeared, replaced by nothing but smooth skin.

“Mmmm!” she mumbled, eyes blazing, as she pointed a finger that sparked magic at Elena.

“Oh, you wanna try me?” she warned. And like the true all-powerful witch she was, the air around her became electric – the woman didn’t even break a sweat.

Katarra’s hand shook, wavered, then fell to her side, although her whole body still trembled with anger.

“I want you out of this room. And if you don’t think you can keep your mouth shut without my help, I want you out of this house.”

The two women stared each other down, then with as much poise as she could manage, Her Highness left the room.

Elena turned to Pueblo and released him. He landed with a thump on his feet, grateful that his natural balance saved him from landing on his arse.

It took all his willpower to contain himself, and
not
take after the Brujii bitch. It was Elena’s concerned voice that earthed him.

“Amy? Are you all right?”

His beautiful woman – ‘cause yeah, she was
his
woman – looked positively ill. Her right hand clutched her stomach, and her other one went to her throat. “I’m … er … I’m gonna—”

She flew out of her chair, practically landed head-first in the kitchen sink, and vomited.

~*~

Mary couldn’t even move enough to blink the water out of her eyes. “You … haven’t had an orgasm for … what did you say? 10,278 years?
You haven’t had an orgasm for 10,278 years?
”

Gwain sighed. “It’s a condition of merging. We can only give ourselves to the ones we merge with. We can love other people; we can have sex with other people; we just can’t ever give ourselves
wholly
.” He looked down at her hands. “Are you okay?”

She followed his gaze and realised she was gripping his biceps so hard her fingers had turned white. And, actually, she was pretty sure she was about to cry with joy, or have a total meltdown. “Is that why…” Shit, she could barely get the words out. “Oh, my God, is that why I’ve never been able to come? With
anyone
? Because I merged with
you
?”

He looked at her sheepishly. “It must be. I thought our bond had been torn to pieces when that black hole took you … but evidently not – not completely anyway.”

Abaddon had said as much, hadn’t he?
“Traces of his scent remain on you. Your human incarnation can’t have fully destroyed your tie to him – remnants of your betrayal still linger…”
 

“But, what about Abaddon? How was I able to bond with you, when he and I were already bonded?”

“I don’t have an answer for that. You shouldn’t have been able to.”

Jesus Christ. All this time she’d thought she was the fuck-up – that she could only orgasm when in incredible pain – and now it turned out that that wasn’t true. There was another explanation. Maybe not a
normal
explanation, but it was certainly a valid one that made more sense … well, as much sense as any of this did.

Somewhere inside herself, she was plummeting; falling into all the pieces of her life … falling into Gwain. Because all those pieces were finally coming together, and the picture had never looked so clear.

She smashed herself against his lips, kissing him ferociously, feeding on the urgency that had taken hold of her. His rigid cock bumped against her belly, and she moaned into his mouth. God, he felt good – hot, hard and smooth. Reaching down, she rubbed her palm against the tip of his shaft.

Gwain bellowed swear words into her mouth and grabbed her wrist.

She let out a lust-filled cry of frustration. What the
hell
was the matter now?

“For Christ’s sake, I don’t remember what it’s like to orgasm, okay?” There was that lost boy in his stare again. “I want to do this, but I’m super-strong in case you hadn’t noticed.” His eyes bore into hers. “I’m scared I’ll hurt you.”

How. Fucking. Ironic.

Did he not drive safety pins through her breasts just the other day? “Gwain, I’ve spent the last ten years of my life asking people to hurt me.”

He didn’t back down. “I’m serious. Try to understand. I
don’t remember
. I don’t know if I can control myself; I don’t know if I’ll be screwing you through the damn floor because I can’t stop. And whatever your original make-up, you’re in a human body right now. You could die.”