When the Starrs Align (7 page)

“Groupies?” Chance murmured, focused on her breasts.

“Yours?” Warrick asked, hoarse with need.

“Yeah, mine. You two belong to me. I’m a cat, and I’m territorial. I’m claiming you. Accept it.” She released a subtle scent, a band of what smelt like vanilla and felt like a fist to his solar plexus, pushing for entry.

“You?” Warrick asked, nearly choking at the insistent prodding for entry into his core.

“Me.”

Chance rubbed his chest, his gaze thoughtful. “You mean it. You want us. Forever?”

Warrick realised Chance had been holding back on him. His brother wasn’t as sure about Regan as he’d pretended. He feared losing her the way they had so long ago.

“Did I stutter?” Regan bit her lower lip and spread her legs. Then she fingered herself, right damn there in front of them. “My pussy’s wet and hungry. Feed me, Chance. Come on. You know you want to. Just open up and let me in.”

Warrick felt another push at his power base as well. But unlike Chance, he didn’t intend to miss out on the best thing in his life. “I’m yours. But that means you’re mine. I don’t share.”

“Oh?” She looked at Chance.

“He’s me. I’m him. You see us. You know.”

She nodded, confirming the truth they’d suspected. “I do. But you need to see
me
. I’m not afraid, and I’m not willing to lose you because you feel guilty for the past or don’t want to risk losing me in your Becoming. It’s all of us or none of us. Choose.”

Warrick had never imagined this possibility, that he’d be strong-armed into a mating with the one woman he couldn’t live without. He turned to Chance. “Open up, bro. Because we’re doing this.”

“But—”

“No buts,” he and Regan said at the same time.

He grinned, and she slowly smiled and walked to them. “For me, Chance. Do it for me.”

Chance groaned. “I fucking love you. You have to know that. I’m just… I don’t want to lose you again. No more hurting.”

“You won’t.” She cupped his cheeks. Then she did the same to Warrick. “My warlocks bow to no one. And certainly not to blood-hungry monsters. Look, if I can deal with jealous witches, you can Become what you’re meant to. That means having me at your side.”

“I want nothing more,” Warrick and he said as one, their physical bodies aligning as their soul flared, touching Regan’s and allowing her inside.

The heat that lit him from within was nothing compared to the sudden connection that snapped in place. His cat, his woman, the familiar and his lover, suddenly opened a pathway for him and Chance to a centre he’d felt all his life but had never been able to touch.

“Holy shit. That’s…the Great Mother, isn’t it?”

She sighed. “Yes. She’s welcoming and wonderful. And she likes you two a lot.”

“Not as much as we like you,” Chance murmured. “We are wearing way too many clothes, bro.”

Warrick agreed. “Time to get naked and seal the deal.” They undressed while she watched.

Then she shocked them again. “But this time, I want you both inside me when we come. And I’m not talking about my mouth, either.”

Warrick froze. He’d been dreaming about taking her that way, but they’d wanted to move slowly, so as not to scare her. “You sure?”

“Yes. And hurry. I need to feel you.”

He understood. The power they shared had turned carnal between one blink and the next. “Oh yeah. Fuck.” He snapped his fingers and teleported a bottle of oil from his nightstand.

“Come over me. Sit right on my cock,” Chance was saying as he lay on the floor and tugged Regan with him. He latched on to her nipples and sucked her while she rubbed her pussy over his dick.

His brother was groaning and sucking and licking, and Warrick wanted to thrust in Regan like yesterday. He hurried to lube himself while he watched her slide down his brother, taking him deep inside her.

“Oh yeah,” Chance whispered around her breasts. “I need to fill you.”

And it was more than just his sharing his seed, but a need to give her back the power and love she gave just by being her. Warrick felt it, that desire. But he worried he might be too much for her first time.

“Come on, Warrick. Fuck my ass,” she demanded, and Chance laughed.

“Pushy, isn’t she?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Warrick growled as he knelt by them.

“You won’t. I’m not exactly a virgin there.”

He blinked. “You are one kinky cat, aren’t you?”

She laughed, then groaned as Chance kissed her breasts again.

His brother had a thing for tits, and Warrick couldn’t blame him. Regan’s were perfect. Not too big or too small, but plenty for his hands and mouth. “Fine. I’m done being nice.”

“Finally.”

He snorted and positioned his slick tip at her ass. Chance stopped moving, and Regan waited. Warrick slid just a fraction into her heat, then moved deeper as she told him what she could handle and how much to give her.

When he’d pushed the whole of himself inside her, he thought he’d lose his mind. Bombarded with sensation, he found the half of himself that was usually absent and linked. Now he and Chance felt the same things, dual sensations. It was like heaven being inside Regan, and he never wanted it to end.

“So fucking
good
. Need to take you,” he and Chance spoke as one and began moving in sync.

“Oh God. You two are going to kill me.” She moaned as Chance pinched her nipples while Warrick kept his hands on her hips, guiding her as he took her.

The rhythm grew frenzied, Warrick’s need to share his deepest self an all-consuming hunger. Then she was coming around them, crying out and clamping down hard, and her inner feline slashed at the bonds of his mental shields holding any part of himself back. He surged harder just as Chance did, and they came on a shared shout as they poured all of themselves into her.

The mating took root and grew, blossoming into a love that wound around them, creating a new shield of protection and power.

“Fuck.” He moaned and withdrew, shaking and unable to stop. He felt both weak and strong, and the knowledge that Regan loved them filled him with joy.

“Jesus. That’s so good, so right.” Chance kissed her and sighed. “So why do I feel as if I’m about to pass out?”

“And why is the room so dark? Or am I on the verge of unconsciousness and don’t know it?” she asked.

Warrick looked up, shocked to see she was right. “What the hell?”

They all pulled themselves to their feet, and while Regan used a shirt to clean herself up, he and Chance looked out of the window.

“Impossible.” Chance gaped. “The blood moon? It’s a week early.”

“I don’t understand.”

Warrick thought he might. “Get dressed. And arm yourselves. We’re going to have company very soon.”

Chance hurried to redress in jeans and his shoes. Regan had used his shirt, so he’d go without. “What the hell? Why the blood moon now?”

“We’ve entered the Becoming,” Warrick answered.

“So?”

“So it
is
next week. Look.” Warrick nodded to their hourglass timer, the magical device they’d used to mark their days until the sacred rite. The sand had run out.

“Hold on, now.” Regan had returned from the bedroom but still wore nothing. And damn, she screwed with his concentration, all smooth and flushed and
naked
. “We just had sex for
a week
? And here I was thinking I rushed us.”

“No. It’s part of the magic. Time elapsed.” Warrick pointed at the moon. “We shared and we Became. Now we deal with what’s coming, because I can feel something at the edge of my mind. And it’s not friendly.”

Regan didn’t wait. She shifted into a large black jaguar and roared at them to hurry up.

“Yeah, I understand. Stop being bitchy and wait for us. I mean it. You ground us, but the power comes from here.” Chance thumped his chest. When she roared again, he frowned. “Yes, I know it’s our love that makes us stronger. But damn it, woman, just keep yourself safe and back from the danger. Trust me. Warrick and I have been training for this for years.”

Warrick held out his hand and his sword fell into it. While he readied to battle the hordes coming for their blood, Chance closed his eyes and called on his abilities. Spells flared at his fingertips, ready for use. And the knowledge sprang at him from the Great Mother.

“We need to go to Black Rock. The others are there waiting.”

Warrick nodded. To Chance he ordered, “Hold my arm. Regan, put your mouth around my wrist. Gently.” He grinned. “Don’t want to damage my sword arm just yet.” In a blink, he teleported them to the grand amphitheatre and set them on the centre stage, a slab of black granite rock on the outskirts of town. Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, they could commune better with the Great Mother from this place of power.

Witches and warlocks sat around waiting and, seeing the three of them, began clapping.

His parents watched from the elevated side box, where his mother nodded, not seeming all that surprised to see her sons and a huge black cat ready for battle.

They didn’t wait long. Clouds parted to fully reveal the blood moon. It cast everything in a reddish glow, and from a spot just above them, a darker red swirled and grew until it became a portal through which dozens of vamps poured.

Chance immediately called on arcs of electricity and blasted through the first line. Warrick held back and stayed near Regan, who growled and hissed as more came to the blood moon’s call.

But when a new portal behind Warrick opened, Chance knew this wouldn’t be so easy.

His brother started slashing through vampires and what looked like demons—dark creatures made of shadow that let out bloodcurdling shrieks as they hunted prey.

Regan took a chunk out of one and swiped at another. Satisfied Warrick would watch out for her, and that Regan could hold her own, he continued to fight the multitude pouring from the portal.

“Go home. This place is not for you.” He zapped more. Then two took him by surprise and clawed into his side. “Fuck.” He burned them with a wave of his hand and set a mass of those entering Darkton on fire.

They screamed for mercy even as more entered, multiplying like roaches.

He saw Warrick take a hit, then Regan leapt to his aid and bit through a demon aiming for Warrick’s unprotected side.

The vamps and demons overflowed the stage and began attacking those watching the Becoming faster than Chance had thought they would. Witches and warlocks engaged, mages and conjurers fighting alongside their familiars and doppelgangers. Everyone was coming together to fight this threat that he and Warrick had brought to their town. Their people.

He took a blow to the head that had him seeing stars. But when he saw demons latch on to Regan, he lost it.

“Warrick, close that portal!” he yelled.

“Great idea, genius,” Warrick snapped back. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do? But I can’t with so many of them attacking me and Regan. I’m in defensive mode.”

“Use
us
.” Chance opened the spiritual door to his brother, previously closed until Regan had shown him the way to open it. A great boom shook the sky, and he overflowed with power. Warrick felt the same, for he laughed and wiped the demons from the skies with a blast of dark magic that shot from his eyes, his hands and his sword.

As he killed the demons and worked on closing the portal, Regan continued to take on those who thought to challenge him.

“Nice work, sweetheart. You’re doing terrific, you great big kitty,” Chance called to her and grinned when she snarled at his platitudes.

Unfortunately, when he turned, he noticed the vamps’ portal getting bigger. The number of fangers pouring through staggered him. Not wanting the threat to reach insurmountable proportions, he knew he had to do something.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He dived through.

Regan swiped through another demon and hissed when it scored a row of talons down her flank.
Bastard.
She tore into it with her claws. A normal familiar wouldn’t do much more than provide a conduit for her magic users, but Regan’s witch base allowed her to do magical damage with her claws and fangs. She might not be able to chant spells, but she could hurt the demons all the same.

Warrick had nearly managed to close the demon portal with his dark power when she saw Chance glance at her, then
dive through
the vamp portal and
disappear
.

She screamed her displeasure.
“Chance!”

Warrick turned after having closed the demon portal, just in time to see his brother vanish. “Stupid asshole.” He raced after him, with Regan leading the way. She didn’t give it another thought as she jumped up and into the portal. Warrick landed on top of her when they hit the ground, hard.

They’d left their friends and families fighting the vamps behind, but here, in this alien place, nothing seemed real. Not even Chance fighting to keep an astronomically massive number of vamps from eating him alive. From his fingers white-hot fury poured, incinerating any vamp that drew too close. The white warlock had gained his power—he looked like an angelic warrior fighting off the irredeemable.

Then he yelled, “About time. Well? A little help here.” His crazy grin took her aback, because he seemed as if he were enjoying the carnage, which wasn’t like the Chance she knew and loved.

Warrick leapt into the fray, laughing and swinging, like his nutty brother. He cut an impressive swathe through the numbers, but in this place, they couldn’t hope to win.

Here, the Great Mother seemed far away. Trees and mountains and red skies made it seem as if this place was a mirror image of the one they’d left, but there was no wind. No scent that she could taste other than the coppery flavour of blood.

“Oh, a present. Look, Veel.” Some of the vamps turned their attention from the warlocks to her. One of them drew closer. It looked human, until she saw the eyes. Like the demons, this thing was pure evil. Its eyes were a dark black with no iris or pupil to be seen. Pale skin and huge fangs gave it that undead look, as did the stark black clothing all vamps seemed to favour.

When the thing swept out its talons to poke her, she bit its hand clean off. A strange thing happened as it howled. The thing’s body took flame and burned instead of regenerating the limb.