Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (13 page)

“Meaning, our
people will need to give up some goods on the Amadis to prove they’ve
switched their loyalty,” Charlotte added. “Information
that looks important, but isn’t crucial to our plans.”

“We can come up
with some good stuff,” Owen said.

“What about those
super-soldiers you spoke of?” Minh asked.

“We’ll be
working on that in the meantime,” Tristan replied. “While
the rest of the Amadis looks like it’s disintegrated, we need
you and your top people to be prepared for action with those soldiers
when we give the go. Lucas will expect us to attack the DoD building
in Virginia right away. He planted that seed on purpose, but he’s
probably moved everyone away from there and is setting us up for an
ambush. So we’ll be seeking out intelligence and looking for
the most unexpected way to strike. But removing those stones and
breaking the connections between Lucas and the Summoned, and between
the Summoned and the Norman soldiers is still a top priority.”

We spent several more
hours going over specific plans for how each council member would
lead their region and our people within it. Many of those plans made
my heart ache. Some of my own people would think Tristan and I had
abandoned them. Others would be asked to leave the Amadis protection
on a volunteer basis, although nobody would be truly unprotected as
far as we could help it.

“There sure is a
lot of deception going on,” Sheree said at one point.

Tristan nodded.
“Deception is necessary in a war.”

“There are tens
of thousands of Amadis,” Vanessa said. “If they all knew
the truth, someone would be bound to slip to the Daemoni or to the
wrong Norman.”

“We’ve all
kept our secrets about our very existences for this long,”
Chandra pointed out.

“Because doing so
protected their lives,” Tristan said. “Now, if the
Daemoni get a hold of them, self-preservation will come from
divulging
. The Daemoni invented torture, so the less our
people know about our plans, the better for them and for us.”

Once we finally
finished with the council members scattered around the world, my core
team developed our own plans for hunting down the Summoned and their
offspring, destroying the stones, and severing Lucas’s control
of the Summoned and the Normans. Then we could worry about how to
bring the Normans to our side before taking on Lucas himself. Of
course, like the rest of the Amadis, we’d be converting along
the way. Regardless of how discombobulated we appeared to be on the
surface, we’d always be connected by our prime directive:
protect souls.

We couldn’t act
yet, though. We needed to give our people time to stage our show and
for Lucas to let down his guard. In the meantime, others began
gathering intelligence, and Solomon tried to track down any prominent
Normans who remained on our side and could possibly use their
influence to sway others. I spent time in the Sacred Archives looking
for more answers, reading the books and messages the Angels allowed
me to decipher. Mostly just history, with a few lessons to gain here
and there. What I did come to learn was no matriarch before me had
faced war on this scale.

“Why me?” I
muttered under my breath as I headed for the stairs and my suite
where my husband waited for me.

“Alexis,”
Blossom said softly as I rounded the corner between my office and the
kitchen. She held a large mug in her hands as she fell into step next
to me, and I cringed at the smell.

“Aren’t you
out of those herbs yet?” I complained as we continued toward
the foyer.

“Nope. Don’t
you worry. We have plenty.” She held the mug out to me, and I
pulled back, wrinkling my nose. “Drink up.”

I reluctantly took the
cup from her and tried not to gag from the gasoline smell wafting up
from what looked like innocent green tea. “I don’t know
why anyone thinks bringing a baby into the world right now is a good
idea.”

“
You
bringing a baby into the world is an excellent idea. Exactly what we
need more than anything.”

“Her very
existence would destroy our plans.”

“Well, yes, I
imagine the Amadis will rally together at the news, despite orders.”
Blossom put a hand on my arm, stopping me at the bottom of the steps.
She looked directly into my eyes, her brow lifted. “But then
we’ll make new plans. Drink, Alexis.”

I almost made a comment
about her sounding like my mother, but the thought hurt too much. In
fact, the ache in my heart exploded, and the only way I knew how to
rein it in again was by distracting myself with other, different
pain. So I held the mug to my lips and tilted my head back.

“Blech. That shit
is nasty,” I said with a full body shudder before I gave the
cup back to her.

“Good.” She
gave me a smile, and I returned it with a glare. “The more
potent it is, the better. Good night, Alexis.”

She turned and headed
back toward the kitchen. I blurred my way up the steps, trying to
outrun the disgusting taste in my mouth. I flew into our suite, right
past Tristan, who lay on the bed reading, and into the bathroom to
brush my teeth while the liquid settled in my belly and the warmth
spread. I wondered if that meant the potion was working. Part of me
hoped it wasn’t—that my ovaries and other girl parts
couldn’t be primed for conception by magic or anything else. I
meant what I’d said to Blossom: nobody should be bringing a
baby into this world right now, especially not me. Not when we
couldn’t promise a future for anyone, including the Amadis.

Minutes had gone by
while I brushed my teeth and tongue, eradicating the gross flavor of
the potion from every taste bud, and only now did I notice a bath had
been drawn in the pool-sized tub. Candle flames bobbed and weaved
around the bathroom. I stepped toward the door and leaned back to see
Tristan sprawled out on the bed, wearing only black boxer briefs. He
gave me a smile that made my bones melt and my thighs quiver.

“What’s
going on?” I asked hesitantly, returning his smile because I
had no choice. He made my body react in all kinds of ways I had no
control over.

In a flash, he stood in
front of me and his hands cupped my jaw. He tilted my head back and
leaned in, close enough for me to feel his breath on my lips. Thank
goodness I’d just brushed my teeth. Otherwise, I’d be
assaulting him with horrible potion-breath.

“I thought you
could use a relaxing soak,” he murmured before brushing his
mouth across mine.

I slid my hands around
his neck and up into his hair. “Oh. Is that all? I get to sit
in a bath by myself?”

I pretended to pout,
and he sucked my protruding bottom lip in between his. My knees
nearly buckled.

“Most definitely
not,” he said as his fingers flew through the tie of my leather
corset and down the laces to loosen it. “I’ll be joining
you. And there will certainly be more than sitting involved.”

“If only.”
I let out a sigh as I closed my eyes while he pulled the corset away
from my body, freeing my breasts. My fighting leathers, worn pretty
much at all times now, felt like a second skin—until the moment
my boobs were freed from the bustier. Only then did I realize just
how confining the corsets were. And normal women complained about
bras …

“Open your mind
and tell me what you hear,” Tristan murmured before his lips
explored my collarbone.

I didn’t need to
count the mind signatures to know too many people were way too close
for me to truly enjoy making love with him, and I couldn’t have
counted even if I wanted to. Because now his tongue swiped over my
breast and around my nipple and his hands gripped my hips, his
fingers digging into my pants as he pulled me closer. Pleasure jolted
in every direction across my body. I opened my eyes just enough to
see him on his knees in front of me, his lips now skating over my
chest to my other breast.

“You don’t
hear anything do you?” he asked before rolling his tongue over
the dark pink tip, his hazel eyes trained on my face, an eyebrow
lifted.

What?
He’d
asked me a question, but I was already so turned on, I couldn’t
focus.
Mind signatures
. That’s what he was talking
about. Right. But I found none. I leaned back, pulling my breast away
from his reach and missing the warmth already, but panic tried to
slide its way into my peaceful and lovely moment.

“Where is
everyone?” I demanded.

“Relax, my love,”
he murmured as his arms snaked around my back and he pulled me to
him. “There’s a super-duty muffling spell on our suite.
And just in case, they all went to the village to search for any
supplies they could find.”

“In the middle of
the night? And Dorian, too?”

“It’s the
best time to hide from any Normans who may be watching the island,
but Owen and Char have cloaked everyone anyway. Don’t worry.
Please relax, Lexi, and let us have this night together. It might be
our last good one in a long time.”

The idea of Owen
muffling our suite so we could have uninhibited sex made my stomach
twist with embarrassment, but I couldn’t resist the beautiful
man in front of me or the thought of a blissful night of making mad
love to him. It had been way too long since I’d really been
able to enjoy our time together. My whole body suddenly flushed with
excitement.

“Make it count,”
I said, my voice already husky.

“Oh, I plan on
it.”

His mouth clamped down
on my breast again, and his tongue swirled around the hard tip of my
nipple. He easily undid the button of my pants, and in a moment, they
lay on the floor in a heap. His hands traveled all over my body,
leaving a trail of electric sparks, as his mouth continued to work on
my breast, sucking and biting, pulling a direct line of pleasure all
the way from my core. By the time his fingers slid up the insides of
my calves, then my thighs, to the pulsing junction in between, I was
soaking wet and trembling with need. But he only gave me two teasing
strokes of his fingers before he rose to his feet and took a step
back to gaze appreciatively at me. His eyes may as well have been
hands touching me everywhere with the way my body reacted.

“You look as
though you’ve never seen me naked before,” I said,
practically panting.
Can he just touch me already?

“Your beauty
astounds me every time, as if it is the first,” he murmured. “I
still always have to wonder how you can be mine.”

He still didn’t
move. Only his eyes, the gold sparkling as they swept over me and
then lingered down low, and his tongue, as it slid tauntingly over
his bottom lip. Intense need jolted through me.

“If you don’t
come here and kiss me and touch me and make love to me fast, I will
only be my own,” I growled, one of my hands reaching out for
him as the other slid down my belly, ready to take care of things if
he didn’t.

He chuckled as he came
back in, and then crushed his mouth to mine. His lips moved hungrily
with mine, our tongues licking and twisting together, tasting and
consuming each other as though we were the other’s last meal.
And then his mouth was gone again, traveling downward, over my chin,
down my throat, to my chest. His hands slid down my sides to grip my
waist, and he easily lifted me, setting me on the counter. I leaned
back on my elbows, and he dove down.

Warm wetness engulfed
each hardened nipple, one at a time, as his palms skated over my hips
and thighs and to the backs of my knees. He pushed my legs up and
out, opening me for him as he lowered himself to his knees again. His
head dipped down, and mine fell backwards. I already hovered on the
edge of an orgasm before his tongue made its first swipe. My body
quaked uncontrollably with the second one. And I hovered on the edge,
shaking and gripping the counter, as his tongue swirled and flicked
at the pulsing bundle of nerves in that one small nub while his
fingers stroked and entered.

“Let go, Lexi,”
he murmured against me. “Be mine.”

He sucked then, and his
fingers slid in deeper and curled upward. And I more than let go. I
exploded, screaming his name over and over as his lips and tongue and
fingers continued to lift me up, up, up until I burst again and
again, lights popping before my eyes and my muscles seizing. His
mouth pulled away, and all at once, I was grateful for the relief yet
still wanting more, more, more. He kissed the inside of one thigh,
his tongue swirling against my skin, and I almost came again.

He stood, and I reached
out for him, but he wouldn’t let me touch him. He lifted me by
the waist again and carried me over to the tub, where he set me down.
My legs gave in, too weak to hold me, and I slid into the warm water.
My eyes never left his perfectly sculpted body as he pushed off his
boxer briefs and stepped into the tub with me. I took hold of him
before he could immerse himself completely in the water, and he
groaned as I stroked the thick length a few times and then took him
the way he’d just taken me.

“Lex … I
can’t …” He moaned again, and his hooded eyes slid
all the way closed.

“Don’t,”
I said.

“Not yet. I want
inside you.”

Before I could stop
him, he sank all the way into the water. I glared at him, but he
returned it with a smirk.

“Turn around,”
he whispered, leaving me no choice but to obey as his hands again
gripped me and turned me so my back faced him.

He pulled me in between
his legs, then slid his wet, bubbly hands up my spine and pushed my
hair over my shoulder. His mouth and tongue tickled the nape of my
neck as he scooped warm water over my skin. His erection pressed
against my butt and up the small of my back. I curled my legs
underneath me and rocked forward slightly onto my knees, teasing his
tip as his hands and mouth continued to caress my shoulders and back.
Anticipation built again, pulling my breasts tight and pulsing
between my legs. I leaned forward further and lifted up. His hands
grasped my butt and squeezed right before I moved down and over him,
pulling him inside me. We both let out a quiet cry.