Jackson (8 page)

Now he knew she was hiding something from him. Calling her a liar wouldn’t get him released from the chains, however.
 

“Then let me help you. Free me, and I will take Audrey to the Corps safe house I’m using. She’ll be completely protected there until I find the real killer.” When she didn’t reply, he added, “I give you my word as a Magus Corps officer.”

Mariah gave him a suspicious look. “You would do that for me?”

“No.” His mouth hitched. “I will do it for her.”

Slowly the old woman set down the fire extinguisher, and then made a sweeping motion with her hand. The manacles around his wrists opened and fell away.

He moved toward her until he loomed over her. “You know it is within my rights to punish you for this.”

She gave him a tired look. “Do what you must. I will not resist.”

Jackson knew he could cast an interrogation spell to force her to reveal whatever she had not told him, but that could wait until after he moved Audrey to the safe house.
 

“Where is Audrey now?”

“She left with Hannah a few minutes ago to return to the estate. Captain,” she said when Jackson headed for the stairs, and held out his mobile and the keys to his truck. “Your vehicle is parked in the back of the shop. You also should know that Audrey called your phone while you were unconscious. I answered it after bespelling my voice and made her believe that I was your girlfriend.”

He swiped the phone from her. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“For the same reason I bashed you in the head,” the old woman admitted. “To protect her from you.”
 

Jackson sprinted up the stairs and found himself inside a small herbal shop, and raced out the back door to the alley to get in his truck. As he drove out to the main road he dialed the number for the guest house, which rang through to the voice mail box. He then dialed her mobile, and when she picked up he said, “Audrey, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“That’s funny,” she said in a remote tone. “I chatted with Becky just this morning.”

“It was a tasteless joke by someone hoping to keep us apart,” he assured her. “That’s all.”

“Look, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now,” she said. “Why don’t we talk about this later?”

Arguing with her might only aggravate the situation, so he said, “I need to see you for a few minutes. Are you at home?”

She sighed. “Yes, but I’m leaving to go with Aunt Hannah to Portland.”

He was only a few miles from the estate. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Wait for me.”

“Jackson, I’ll be back tomorrow–”

“Please, Audrey.” When she didn’t say anything, he added, “It won’t take long, but it’s important.”

After another long silence she finally said, “I’ll tell Aunt Hannah I have to buy some stuff for the trip. Pick me up at the corner with the big pine tree.”

Jackson drove past the estate and stopped at the corner, but first saw no sign of Audrey. Then she emerged from behind the tree with her barn owl on her arm, and had to shoo him away before she climbed into the truck.

“What’s wrong with your famil– pet?” he asked.

“You can say familiar. Mariah told me you were one of them.” Audrey stared ahead with a stony expression. “And Aunt Hannah explained the whole animal bonding deal.”

He took a left turn and headed for the safe house. “What did Mariah say I was?”

She waved her hand. “A witch, or Wiccan, or whatever.” She eyed him. “Are you saying you’re not?”

It was almost a relief to tell her. “I am a warlock, and a captain in the Magus Corps.”

She blinked. “Is that a witch soldier, or a witch cop?”

“Females are witches, males are warlocks––and no, I am not a soldier or a police officer. I am an investigator.
 
I was sent to Seattle to determine who is killing and burning humans in the south end.” Jackson suspected she was already suffering from information overload, so he said, “I also have a familiar like your Plato. She’s a red hawk named Dallas.”

“That’s nice.” She returned to staring through the windshield. “So why are you investigating me, Captain Warlock? Is it because I won’t dance naked with you in the moonlight, or something else?”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Trust me, Audrey, if I dance naked with you, it will be in a bed.”

“That reminds me,” she said, “should you really be screwing kinda-sorta witches like me? Because you know what that does, right? I mean, after the unimaginable bliss and ecstasy and all that crap.”

Jackson wanted to pull over and drag her under him and fuck her until the only thing she could say was his name. “I protected you last night.”

She nodded. “Good policy. Use condoms, keep them human. Makes half-baked witches so much easier to dump.”

“I am not dumping you.” He tightened his jaw, and then tried again. “What more did Hannah say?”

“Oh, apparently my mother was like this, and I have absolutely no choice but to become some herb-slinging naked-dancing moon worshipper like Mom.” She uttered a sour chuckle. “Did I mention that I’m actually a direct descendent of the moon goddess, what’s-her-name?”

Beneath her sarcasm Jackson heard a note of despair, and his anger evaporated. “She has many names and aspects, but I was taught to call her The Lady Diana.”

“That’s her.” She propped her arm against the door and rested her hand on her head. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. I’m a paramedic, for God’s sake.” She squinted at him. “Wait, do we even have a God?”

“We have two,” he said gently. “The Lord and Lady.”

 
“Gender equality, huh? Cool.” As he slowed down she eyed the front of the safe house. “What’s this?”

“My place.” He parked at the curb and switched off the engine. “I want you to come inside with me.”

“And I want to move to Key West.” She didn’t move but closed her eyes. “Take me home, Jackson. My godmother is waiting and honestly, I’ve had enough of Witch 101.”

He quickly cast a brief containment spell over her that silenced her and pinned her against the seat long enough for him to get out and go around to the passenger side. When he opened the door to lift her out Audrey’s eyes shifted to his face.
 

“It’s all right, my heart. I’m going to carry you inside, and then I’ll release you.”

Jackson moved her quickly into the house, and once he had secured and warded the door he took Audrey into the bedroom he occupied. Placing her carefully on the bed, he lifted the spell.

She didn’t move for a full minute but simply stared at him, her face almost completely white with shock and anguish.
 

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing.” He took a step toward her, and stopped when she recoiled. “Audrey, I will never harm you.”

“You already have.”
 

She crawled backward on the bed, rolling off the opposite side as she measured the distance to the door.

“I’ve warded the house.” When she gave him a blank look, he added, “It’s a spell that prevents anyone except the caster from entering or leaving.”

She hugged her waist with her arms. “Is that why you carried me inside?”

“I had to, or you would have been burned and repelled by the wards.” He didn’t like the frantic look in her eyes, or the amount of power he felt roiling inside her. “Audrey, calm down.”
 

“You carried me inside the guesthouse last night, too.” She backed into a corner. “You warded
my
house?”

“I thought you had. I thought you were…it doesn’t matter.” He came around the bed and reached out his hand. “Come here. Please. I can help you regain control.”

“No.” Her green irises began to turn a silvery white and her pupils shrank to pinpoints. Long, thick streaks of dazzling white sprouted from her scalp and raced through her hair as the thick tresses billowed softly around her head. Crackles of the silvery blue light of her power filled the air between them. When she spoke again, a thousand invisible bells rang out with her words. “Stay away from me.”

Jackson had never seen an untutored witch undergo such a transformation, but felt an answering heat race through him. Just as Audrey was a descendent of The Lady, his own ancient lineage came from The Lord. The goddess manifesting in her was calling to the god to come through him, and he couldn’t resist it anymore than she could. Dimly he recalled the only way to prevent them from being made vessels of the Wiccan deities, and as his own skin illuminated with a burnished amber glow he strode to her and jerked her into his arms.

Her mouth under his felt as cool as a night breeze, and when he parted her lips with his tongue he tasted the electric wine of her power spilling into him. He poured his own into her as he dragged her to the bed and fell on top of her, pinning her writhing body to the mattress with his heavy body. As they kissed the light of their powers blazed around them ever brighter and hotter.

Jackson wrenched his mouth from hers to look into her eyes, which had filled with moonlight, and saw in them the solid golden flame of his own. “My lady,” he said, filling the air with the rumble of the deepest of brass horns. He dragged in a deep breath and tried again. “Audrey.”

“I’m still here,” she said, her voice trembling. “But it’s so strong, Jackson. Whatever it is, it’s trying to take over me.”

“We must appease them before they do.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “We have to merge our powers and our bodies.”

“How do we…oh.” She glanced down between them. “Right.”
 

“I will be quick,” he promised as he took a condom from his pocket and opened it.
 

Once he had the protection ready he jerked down her trousers and panties, and unfastened his own so he could pull out his shaft, which was so swollen and hard it felt as if it might burst.

Audrey kicked her legs free and spread them wide, exposing the plump, slick folds of her sex to him. “Hurry.”

There was no time to prepare her, but as he brought his cockhead to her he felt her honey flow against the straining bulb to ease his path. He wanted to fuck her bare, and impale her beautiful pussy with every inch of his rod until he spilled inside her, but then her power would manifest along with her immortality, and make matters much worse.
 

Jackson forced himself to go slowly as he parted her folds to press between them, and then forged inside until she engulfed his tip.

Audrey’s body bowed as she gasped, and Jackson couldn’t help tearing open her blouse to expose her heaving breasts. He wanted to suck them, but it was all he could do to control his penetration of her.
 

She unfastened her bra and he cupped her mounds like two ripe offerings.
 

“Do it,” she gasped.

With a wrenching groan he lowered his mouth to one reddened peak, which was so hard it felt like stone against his tongue. At the same time he began thrusting deeper into her clenching opening, working more and more of his shaft into the deliciously wet vise of her pussy until she whimpered.

“Please, Jack,” she whispered. “More, give me more.”

“I will,” he told her, and gave her another stroke, pressing in this time to his root. He drew back out to the ridge of his glans and then grunted as he gave her his full length again. “Yes, my lovely one, that’s it. Take what you need.”

Audrey drew his head down to her breasts, rubbing her nipples against his lips before she reached down and slipped her hands into the back of his jeans. She clutched his tight buttocks and pulled him harder between her thighs on his next foray into her, adding to the primitive pleasure of shafting her so deeply.

“You make my cock feel like iron,” he crooned against her breasts as he fucked her steadily. “I never want to stop giving it to you, my heart.” He nuzzled his way to the side of her throat, and caught her ear lobe between his teeth before he murmured, “I could bury myself inside this hot pussy of yours forever.”

His confession and his pounding cock set Audrey to trembling violently, but when he glided his mouth to hers she clasped his head between her hands and kissed him with raw passion. He saw the silvery blue and hot amber of their light begin to flare and merge all around them as she stiffened beneath him and uttered a sharp, sweet sound. He drank her cry down and plowed as deep as he could before holding his pulsing shaft there to feel her muscles squeeze him over and over as she climaxed. The rhythmic contractions were so strong they pushed him over the edge as well, and he grunted helplessly as he surrendered to the pleasure.

When he could think again he disengaged their bodies and disposed of the condom before stretching out beside her. Audrey lay with her arm flung across her eyes, a fine sheen of sweat gleaming on her naked breasts. Idly he reached over to trace a circle around one nipple, and watched it tighten beneath his touch. His cock stirred, but he ignored it as he let his hand wander, following the line of her long torso to the ellipse of her navel.

Audrey lowered her arm, and he saw that her hair and her eyes had reverted to their normal color.
 

“So that was different.” She tucked in her chin. “What are you doing down there?”

“Touching you.” He slid his fingers down to sift through her damp patch of curls, relishing the heated silky wetness of her. “I can’t seem to stop.” He deftly found her swollen pearl and circled it gently. “Even when I should.”

“Jackson.” She looked as if she wanted to say more, but only shook her head and looked away.

“This is your doing, my heart,” he told her as he moved over her, and shifted down until he could kiss her belly. “I touch your nipples, and they pucker for me.” He parted her with his thumbs and gazed at her clit. “I finger this pretty pearl, and it throbs for me.”

Jackson set his mouth against her and began to slowly lick, savoring the taste of her honey as he worked the very tip of his tongue back and forth. Her clit swelled and hardened, and he had to grip her thighs to control the roll of her hips as she shook, and then moaned as he brought two fingers and pressed them inside her, pumping them in and out of her pussy as he worked her with his tongue.