Jackson (9 page)

He lifted his head to watch her face as he put his thumb to her, and rubbed her pearl in time with the thrusts of his fingers.
 

“Look at me, Audrey. I want to see your eyes. Yes, that’s my lovely girl. Show me your pleasure. Show me everything I give you.”

It took only another moment to bring her to the brink, and then he put his mouth on her to finish her with his tongue. She came with a low, ragged cry, her slim thighs tightening and her body quivering, and he rode her hard into another, and then another, until she uttered his name with an exhausted sigh and went limp.

Jackson got on his knees, fisting his cock and stroking it from root to tip and back again as he looked down on her. She reached up to encircle his shaft with her cool fingers, and his hand fell away as she began to steadily pump him.
 

“You like me jerking you off, don’t you?” she asked, squeezing his cockhead before rolling her hand back along his shaft. “I want you to come all over me this time. Come on, give it to me.”
 

Seeing and feeling her hand on him made his balls clench, but it was her sexy demand that brought him over the edge. With one hard, wrenching grunt after another he came, and as he jetted she held his cock so that his creamy ejaculate laced her belly and breasts.

As he collapsed beside her, Audrey sighed and languorously rubbed his seed into her skin.
 

“Everything you do to me is pleasure, Jackson,” she whispered. “Everything.”

HANNAH PACED BACK and forth in front of her antique full-length mirror, eyeing her reflection as she called Audrey’s mobile for the third time. One of the things she hated most about being made mortal again was suffering human afflictions; after all the drama with the girl she had a splitting tension headache.

As before the line went to voice mail, and with a hiss of impatience she switched it off. She didn’t have time to wait for the girl any longer, and she was rather glad she wouldn’t have to deal with Audrey in Portland while trying to placate Marquette. Soon enough she wouldn’t need the conflict gems to help with her problem; she had to refine her transfer charm only a little more before it would help her regain her immortality.
 

She summoned the maid to take her overnight luggage down to the car, and phoned Mariah to inform her mentor about the change of plans. “Audrey left two hours ago and hasn’t returned. I can only assume she’s off sulking somewhere. You’ll have to attend to her while I’m out of town.”

“Audrey has been seen to,” the old lady said. “Hannah, before you go there is something I must give you.”

She pressed the heel of her hand against her throbbing forehead. “Not another protective talisman, I beg you.”

“No, but it will help you regain some of what you have lost,” Mariah said. “Please come by the shop before you go.”

Hannah made no promises as she bid her mentor good-bye, but hanging up the phone drew her closer to the mirror, and she automatically studied her face. As powerful as the souls trapped in the gems were, their restorative effect waned quickly, and already she detected a tiny ray of fine lines spreading from the corners of her eyes. She lifted her chin to study the flesh beneath it, which had acquired a faint bulge, and then glanced down at her breasts. Although they looked the same she could almost feel them shriveling inside the satin cups of her brasserie.
 

“No, no, no,” she muttered as she slid on her sunglasses and stalked downstairs to the waiting car. She told the driver to take her to Mariah’s as she climbed into the back.

Hannah took out her compact and removed her shades to examine the beginnings of the crow’s feet around her eyes. They looked a little deeper, and she snapped the little mirror shut before she gnawed at her ragged-edged thumbnail. Whatever Mariah had done to Audrey wouldn’t harm the girl; the old lady was still convinced she could bring her into the circle. It would make handling Marquette more difficult in the short term, but she was so close to perfecting the charm soon she wouldn’t need him or Audrey or anyone.
 

“I won’t have to stay here,” she muttered, spitting out a chip of polish onto the seat. “I could go anywhere I please. London. Paris. Milan.”

She would be glad to get away from Audrey. Every time she looked at her the girl resembled her mother more, with the same serene green eyes that Justine had so often turned on Hannah in disappointment and censure. Her best friend had always poked her nose in what was none of her business, especially when Hannah had begun working for the governor’s campaign. She’d found out that Hannah was not only using her power to help the candidate but she had taken him as her lover.
 

That man is just using you, Hannah. He’s never going to discard his wealthy wife for you, and once he’s elected governor he won’t need you anymore.
   

So Justine had been right, and Hannah had been tossed aside as soon as the governor had taken his oath of office. She could have done something about that, and made him pay for abusing her love, but no, her best friend had then gone to Mariah and told her everything. It had all come to a hateful, horrible end that night.
   

 
Sister, what have you done?
 

What was necessary.
 

The car stopped at the curb outside Mariah’s shop, but Hannah didn’t wait for the driver to help her out. She told him to wait and hurried inside, where she found her mentor sitting at her work bench and working some foul-smelling mixture with her mortar and pestle.

“That had better not be what you promised,” Hannah said, covering her nose with her handkerchief. “It’s vile.”

The High Priestess set aside the mixture and regarded her with a strange look. “Your hand is bleeding.”

Hannah eyed the thumbnail she had been chewing at and saw the thick red clot oozing over the remains of it. “A minor accident.” She wrapped her handkerchief around it. “Now what do you have for me?”

“A confession,” the old lady said. “When I gave you the potion for Marquette I deliberately changed it so that it would not heal him entirely.”

Hannah’s jaw dropped. “Why would you do something so reckless?”

“That does not matter.” Mariah looked miserable now. “It made me discover that I have failed you, dearest. I thought in time you would forgive what Justine did to you, and come to accept your affliction. Since it happened I have been trying to guide you on the path to peace. I thought Audrey would help you, but having you appointed as her guardian was also a mistake.”

Hannah squinted at her mentor. “How does any of this help me?”

“I am taking responsibility for my part in this.” Mariah produced the black velvet pouch of yellow diamonds Marquette had given her and poured them out onto her work table. “You left these behind earlier. They must have fallen out of your bag. I know what you have been doing with them.”
           

“You knew Marquette paid me in gems.” Sweating now, Hannah managed a shrug. “I’ve used them to take care of Audrey.”

“No, dearest. You have used them to restore your body by absorbing the power of the wretched souls trapped within.” Mariah took out a tiny vial that contained a single, brilliant canary diamond. “But this time, you missed one.”

Hannah lunged across the work bench and snatched the vial out of her mentor’s hand, closing her fist around it until the glass shattered. Absorbing the soul writhing inside the gem took only a moment, and she dropped the now-useless rock.
 

“There. No more problem.” She touched the now-smooth corner of her eye and smiled. “Can I pick up anything for you while I’m in Portland? Colombian emeralds? Cambodian sapphires?”

Mariah recoiled before she recovered her composure and straightened. “You’re not going anywhere, dearest. I am bringing you before the circle tonight to be judged.”

“Judged? By those sniveling bitches who cower at your cracked heels?” Hannah trilled a laugh. “I don’t think so.”

“I cannot permit this to go on,” the old woman said with great dignity. “I will speak for you before the sisters, and ask for mercy.”
 

“Screw the sisters,” Hannah screeched. “And
damn
you.”

The High Priestess dropped her concealment spell to reveal her younger, beautiful true form, and began to murmur under her breath.

“I suppose you’ll want more proof to use to condemn me. Well, here.” Hannah reached into her purse and took out one of her charms, which she tossed at her mentor, and activated with one word. “Catch.”
 

As soon as Mariah reflexively caught the small bundle of fur she was rendered immobile.

 
“Interesting, isn’t it? I had a devil of a time with the paralyzing and muting aspects.” Hannah watched with interest as the transference spell contained in the charm absorbed the power glowing around her mentor. “Children work best, but you have to keep them from crying out or scampering away to give the spell time to suck the youth and life out of them and transfer it to me.”
 

As her mentor’s hair began to turn white, Hannah’s grew fuller and sleeker.

“I actually found the original spell in one of those old guild books you never allowed any of us to study,” she said. “You were holding out on me, Priestess. I tinkered with it, and tried it on animals first, but the energy was wrong.”

Mariah shuddered as her skin turned ashen.

“Once I began using it on children I had to sneak in and hide it somewhere in their room so I could go back at night to do the work while everyone was sleeping.” Hannah breathed in the rich energy being funneled into her and sighed as she rubbed her fingers over the taut, nubile skin of her cheek. “I got caught one night and had to deal with the parents. Burning the bodies set the house on fire, of course, but it also wiped out all the evidence that I had killed them. Just as it did with Audrey’s dear mama and that kid.”

Mariah’s breathing rattled as her throat withered.

“Yes, it was actually the other way around––Justine found me right after I sacrificed the boy,” Hannah said sadly. “I needed his life force for the revenge spell I planned to unleash on the governor after he dumped me. Only the nosy twat interrupted before I could and ruined it. I didn’t mean to stab her, of course, but she caught me off-guard and there was all the energy flying around, and well, here we are.”

 
The High Priestess’s muscles withered, and her crumbling bones began poking through her rotting skin. Agony filled her eyes before cataracts blinded her.

“I know, it’s a very painful death,” Hannah told her while her mentor could still hear. “But you wanted to take responsibility for what you’ve done to me, and restoring my youth is a lovely way to do it. And once I’ve perfected the spell, I’m going to use it to kill the Templar by transferring his immortality to me. Oh, and don’t worry about his curse––it was cast to forever torture his flesh and form, not mine.” As she watched Mariah’s arms break off and smash into moldering pieces on the floor, she smiled. “So you needn’t worry about leaving me behind to fend for myself, dearest. Once I kill Marquette,
nothing
will ever harm me again.”

The muting aspect of the spell proved itself once more as Mariah made no sound when what was left of her body collapsed in on itself and crumbled in a cloud of dust.

AUDREY STEPPED OUT of Jackson’s shower and smiled as he used a huge towel to haul her wet, naked body against his.
 

“If you keep messing with me we’re going to have to take another one.”

“That’s what you said about the first shower.” He bent his head to nuzzle her neck. “I thought you liked the smell of me on your skin.”

“I love it. Everyone else who gets close to me, probably not so much.” She curled her arm around his neck. “Besides, don’t you need to give my new favorite toy some rest there, Fire Man?”

He gave her a slow, deep kiss and rubbed his erection against her belly.
 

“Oh, he’s wide awake and ready to go again.”

She chuckled as Jackson swept her up in his arms, but when he started for the bed she tried to wriggle free.
 

“Hang on. I need food. I should call my Aunt Hannah.” As he stopped and scowled down at her she tapped her finger against his lips. “And I want some answers from you, especially about these fires, okay?”

He sighed heavily and put her down on her feet. “I will tell you what I can, my little moon witch.”

Once they dressed Jackson took her out to the kitchen, where she found his fridge packed with fresh fruit, vegetables and soy cheese. “No hot dogs or three-day-old pizza? I’m impressed.”

“Serving in the East taught me to appreciate a simple diet,” he admitted. “Watching Dallas feed has also made it difficult to eat most meat.”

Audrey winced in sympathy. “I know. I kept apologizing to the squirrels at the estate until Plato ate the last one.”
   

While he brewed a pot of tea she tossed together a green salad and made quickie grilled cheese by melting cheese on toast in the microwave.

“I never thought of that,” Jackson said as he watched her plate the sandwiches and carry them and the salad bowl to the table.

“Paramedics do everything fast,” she joked as she set down the food. “I can shower, do my hair and iron my uniform in under three minutes. While singing Radioactive along with Imagine Dragons, no less.”

“You don’t do everything fast.”
 

He came up behind her and encircled her waist with his arms, and whispered a reminder in her ear of something she’d done for him.

“Okay,
that
I do slowly. I have to. Teeth are involved.” She leaned back against him. “Just FYI, I am not having sex with you on this table. We need to eat. And talk about things, like the fires you were sent to investigate. How did you even hear about them?”

Jackson sighed heavily before he released her and went to pour their tea.