ElementalPassion [Anthology]

ELEMENTAL PASSION

…They made it to the first landing. Devon tugged at her jacket, but it caught on her elbows. Her shirt had buttons down the front. He hadn’t noticed that before. He yanked it open. Two buttons flew off, giving him access. The black lace of her bra would have been sexy any other time. Now, it was just in his way. He pulled it down, exposing her heavy breast and swollen nipple, which was in his mouth before he even knew he’d moved. He sucked, and Maggie cried out. She held his head in both hands, her arms half trapped by her jacket. He sucked harder, then bit, and then something strange happened. Their energy joined. He sensed it merging, felt the burn through his veins, sensed the rush of air through hers. The edge fell off their desire, but it in no way subsided. Devon backed up a step. His eyes met Maggie’s. “We’re in serious trouble.” “I know, dammit. I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t think this building is empty. I can feel eddies in the energy. We need to find someplace to hide.” “And fuck.”

ALSO BY NATALIE J. DAMSCHRODER Cat’s Claw Institutional Sex Kira’s Best Friend The Passion Of Tanner Black Sophie’s Playboy The TreeKeeper

ELEMENTAL PASSION BY NATALIE J. DAMSCHRODER

AMBER QUILL PRESS, LLC http://www.amberquill.com

ELEMENTAL PASSION AN AMBER QUILL PRESS BOOK This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. Amber Quill Press, LLC http://www.amberquill.com All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review. Copyright © 2005 by Natalie J. Damschroder ISBN 1-59279-439-4 Cover Art © 2005 Trace Edward Zaber

Layout and Formatting provided by: ElementalAlchemy.com

PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Dedicated in memory of Margaret Henry, my first kick-ass heroine and the best great-grandmother ever.

ELEMENTAL PASSION

ELEMENTAL PASSION

Maggie Gronick slowly lowered herself through the warehouse window, the padded palms of her fingerless gloves protecting her from the sharp edge of the sill. When her arms were fully extended, she was about eight feet from the floor. She hung a moment, then dropped, landing lightly on the balls of her feet and sinking instantly to a crouch. The interior was in shadowy silence, but she remained frozen behind a stack of boxes, listening. Nothing. She closed her eyes and assessed the energy levels in the building. Earth energy was abundant, but she couldn’t use the heavy streams that collected in corners and under pallets. She couldn’t detect any water energy, which wasn’t surprising in a place like this. Water energy was rare, and tended to be near real water. Maggie smiled when she felt the swirling masses of air energy over her head. She could use fire and water energy, but she was an air mage, 1

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and wielded the most power with its use. Assured of her resources, she peered around the end of the stack and surveyed what she could see of the warehouse floor. Tall shelves stacked with boxes obstructed much of her view. The aisles in between were clear, though shadowed. A low murmur reached her ears just as she was about to activate her communicator, and she snapped her mouth closed, listening. She couldn’t tell who was speaking, or how many, but the voices came from the right. Hopefully, her target was down there. She eased along the wall, keeping behind boxes, pallet stacks, and forklifts. As she moved, she drew the air energy closer to her. The voices grew louder, then erupted into laughter, followed by the smack of flesh on flesh. Her heartbeat quickened and she picked up her pace. She had no idea if the asset she was tasked to retrieve was likely to withstand much abuse. The worse shape she was in when Maggie got there, the harder it would be to get her out. At the far end of the building, fluorescent light glared through a doorway. A hulking figure moved across it. Between her and that doorway was about thirty feet of open space. The grit on the floor would make crossing it silently nearly impossible. So she waited, watching and listening. After a few minutes she’d determined her asset was definitely in that room, along with at least three men. But since she couldn’t see much of the room from her position, she had no idea how big it was, where in the room her asset was, and how many other people might be inside. She’d have to go closer. She’d shifted barely a foot when a movement in her peripheral vision stilled her. She turned her eyes first, then her head, very slowly, expecting to see another big goon or maybe even the second level boss himself. But no, the man coming up the other side of the warehouse was crouched like her, moving stealthily, but without the advantage of 2

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boxes to hide behind. “Dammit,” she mouthed. It only took her a half a second to identify the black-headed, black-hearted Devon Ruger. What the hell was he doing here, horning in on her mission? He hadn’t spotted her, though he had to know she was here. The Guild wouldn’t have assigned anyone but her. But why Kight Street would have sent Devon, she couldn’t figure. What would they want with this asset? Impulse wanted to send her into the room before him, make sure he didn’t get close to the woman inside. But common sense held her back. She’d let him go in first and clear the room, allowing her to get to her target with minimal risk. He had a better angle and could see more of the room from where he was, and she trusted his skills, if not his purpose. He wouldn’t get Liana killed. Voices rose inside the room, and she used the cover to activate her communicator. “Base one, this is Skylark.” “Go ahead, Skylark,” King’s voice sounded in her ear. “I’m inside, and I have a bead on the target. But there’s a glitch. Devon Ruger. What’s the deal?” “We have no intel that indicated anyone else would be after this asset.” “Does he have backup?” “Maintain your position.” Maggie waited, listening to silence in her ear and an ever-escalating argument inside the room in front of her. The goons apparently disagreed about who Liana was and what to do with her. Good. Maggie could extract her no matter what her condition, but it would be much easier if she was ambulatory. “Skylark, we have a positive ID on Devon’s base. He does have backup, and they are ready to move.” 3

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“Fine. You be ready, too. I’ll let you know where we’re coming out.” Devon had shifted to the balls of his feet and braced his hands. He was moving in. “It’s showtime.” Her competitor launched himself through the doorway, pushing a wave of flame ahead of him. There was a yell, followed by a scream. Then he was through and she couldn’t see him any more. She raced forward, using the commotion as cover. More yells, a lot of thuds, and then—fuck—gunshots. So much for letting him clear the room. She ran faster, going low through the doorway and assessing the scene in an instant. Devon had small fireballs flying about the room, distracting and frightening the four—no, six men inside. Two others lay slumped against the wall, one with a bullet wound in his chest. Devon didn’t use guns any more than she did, so one of the panicked bad guys must have done it. Liana sat tied to a chair in the center of the room, her body frozen but her gaze darting everywhere. She looked pale but relatively unhurt, thank goodness. Maggie barreled into the nearest guard, hitting him low and knocking him off balance. She rose as she made contact, expecting him to recover and attack her, but instead he tumbled forward and to the side, cracking his head on the cement floor and crumpling into a heap. “Lucky shot,” she muttered, crouching near Liana. Two guys had spotted her and headed her way. She grabbed a thick stream of energy and snapped it like a whip, snatching first one, then the other gun out of their hands and sending them flying to an unoccupied corner. She closed her eyes to concentrate, setting a thinner stream in a complicated twisting motion to work on the ropes binding Liana, who immediately started to wriggle out of them as they loosened. When Maggie opened her eyes, the goons had recovered from their surprise and were right over her. She swept their legs. One underestimated her and crashed onto his 4

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back, knocking the wind out of him. It stimulated energy over his body, which Maggie immediately took advantage of, balling it and sending it slamming against the chest of his savvier colleague. “I’m free,” Liana gasped, pushing to her feet. “Let’s go.” Maggie grabbed her arm and ran, not bothering to check Devon’s status. He seemed to be trying to take out every guard in there, rather than acquiring his asset as soon as he had an opening. Of course, if she hadn’t taken out three of them, maybe he wouldn’t have had an opening. He should thank her. “Goddamnit, Maggie!” Okay, maybe not thank her. His outraged roar followed her down the left side of the warehouse, back the way she’d come. She alternately urged Liana ahead of her and pushed her behind, unsure which was the safer position. “Base, this is Skylark. We’re coming out the north exit.” The door had been locked, but she hoped it had a crash bar and wasn’t chained shut. It had been installed as an emergency exit, but the current owners of the warehouse, concentrating on the activities OSHA didn’t know about, might be more concerned with security than safety. She could hear the crackle of flame and knew Devon had set something on fire. “Go!” She pushed Liana to run faster and sprinted past a towering shelf, then whirled, holding up her arms to direct as much air energy as she could gather. Her eyes widened when she saw a crowd of men pounding down the aisle behind Devon. She hesitated only an instant. He was a good guy. Kight Street and The Guild often cooperated against a variety of enemies. She couldn’t let him get killed or worse just because he’d horned in on her action. She started counting his steps as he ran. He was about fifteen strides away. On ten, she heaved at the shelving. It teetered. On seven, she shoved. It rocked. Five more steps. With an escalating yell, she twisted and pushed, letting go of all the energy she’d gathered. Devon reached 5

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her just as the shelving and all its contents toppled onto the group. Not all would be hurt badly enough to stop them from chasing, but it would buy them time, she hoped. “Well done,” Devon admired, his smooth British accent sliding down the back of her neck. She didn’t waste time in thanks. Liana had reached the door and was trying to push through it. The crash bar went down, but the door itself didn’t budge. “Move.” Devon elbowed past her and raised an arm. The air around his hand shimmered with heat. “Wait!” But he didn’t listen to her. He hurled the ball of fire against the door. It slammed against the metal, ringing deeply, but dispersed without doing any damage. He cursed. “I tried to tell you.” Maggie looked around. There were no windows at this end. “Earth energy is solid enough to unlock it, but we can’t see the mechanism and I can’t manipulate it.” “I can, but—” The clang of the door hitting the wall outside interrupted him. “You gonna brainstorm all day,” Liana asked, “or finish rescuing me?” Maggie and Devon shared a grin and a shrug, then ran out the door after her. They stopped a few feet outside. Matching white vans sat at angles, engines revving, sliding side doors open. In the left-hand van Maggie’s backup beckoned. On the right, a tall black man Maggie had never seen stepped out and called to Devon. Liana looked at them, eyebrows raised. “Well? Who’s got dibs?” Maggie moved between Liana and Devon. “I do. I was here first.” Devon tried to grab Liana’s elbow. “Bullshit. I went in long before you got there.” “I was in the building, Mr. Observant. I saw you sneaking down 6

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your wall and let you do the hard work. Your loss.” She elbowed him in the solar plexus as she moved past and tried to usher Liana toward King, who held out her arm toward them. “Hold on.” Liana balked. “What do you want with me?” “We don’t have time for this!” Maggie’s skin prickled. The goons would be on them any second. “Can we debate the merits of our cases later?” The door banged open again behind them. Shots rang out, and they scattered. King dove back into the van. Devon ducked between the vehicles, while Maggie and Liana ran toward King and Devon’s backup yelled at his driver. But a tire had been shot out, and the other vehicle didn’t want to move. No one had to debate now. King pulled Liana into the van as Maggie snatched whatever energy she could and flung it at their attackers along with the flames and fireballs Devon aimed over her head. His people abandoned their van and climbed into The Guild’s. Maggie and Devon retreated behind the disabled vehicle as her driver pulled around it, then jumped into it as it rolled by. As soon as they were in, Steve, the driver, slammed the accelerator to the floor. Maggie took quick inventory. Everyone was upright and alert. “Everyone all right?” They nodded. Her eyes met Devon’s, and she opened her mouth to demand he tell her what he was doing there. But the words never formed. Her brain seemed to lock up. Her mouth went dry. And the oddest sensation she’d ever felt in her life started to move up her body. Heat, she thought vaguely, but that wasn’t quite right. Fire, but it didn’t burn. Not as it slid from the soles of her feet over her ankles, up her calves, then faster over her thighs. A moment later it started at the top of her head and moved downward. Like a caress, but encompassing her scalp, her face and neck, her shoulders, all at once. When it reached her breasts, her nipples instantly hardened and began to tingle. It swept 7

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over her belly and met the wave from below, right at her center. And there it began to burn. That was when she understood. *

*

*

“Hell, no.” Devon blurted the words, but they echoed in Maggie’s head. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not when bullets ricocheted off the steel panels at the back of the van. Not when Liana, the asset she was supposed to protect, opened one of those same doors, exposing them all. King and Devon’s partner—Shark, Devon called him—yelled at her, but she ignored them, looking serene and determined at the same time. Maggie tried to concentrate, tried to gather energy, but she was toward the front of the van and couldn’t get it past the four people behind her without hurting someone. Devon, next to her, was in no better position. “King, get down!” Maggie shouted at the woman trying to pull Liana away from the door. She was making herself a target. The heat wave had ended but was focused now, building between Maggie’s legs, distracting her. She felt uncoordinated and stupid. Devon lurched toward the back of the van. “Alex, grab the door.” The guy who’d been driving the Kight Street van reached for it, but was too far away. In the meantime, Liana moved her hands and fingers in some complicated combination Maggie had never seen. Outside, the SUV pursuing them bounced over a bump that hadn’t been there a second before. Another one appeared in the road, forcing only the left tire up and over and throwing the truck off balance. It swung sideways trying to compensate, only to encounter another, higher hill. “Holy…” Maggie breathed. They were all still now, watching Liana. She was the most skilled earth mage Maggie had ever seen. But that wasn’t all, because the SUV bounced over a series of bumps so 8

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high the macadam not only cracked but crumbled, then instantly skidded on a water slick, helped by a gust of wind. The road was too narrow, and the vehicle crashed into a Dumpster. It hadn’t been hard enough to ignite any fuel, but the engine burst into flame anyway. Unlike any mage Maggie had ever known or heard of, Liana could control all the energy elements. Not only that, she could make them all manifest in their solid forms rather than simply use them to manipulate objects. No one moved except Liana, who closed the door and settled onto the floor of the van, dusting off her hands. “All right, now what?” Everyone stared at her. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug, hands palm up. “What?” “I didn’t know you could do that,” Maggie finally said. The others nodded. “They didn’t tell you why you wanted me?” She shook her head. “It was a simple retrieval. I didn’t need to know who you are and what you can do to get you out of there.” She looked at Devon. The burning intensified and she grew short of breath. Shit. “Kight Street got word that you were compromised and sent me in, but I’m not sure they even know why you’re important.” “Well, since no one seems to know what’s going on, give me a phone. I’ll call my own agency and get their orders.” Maggie pulled out her phone and handed it over. “You’re an agent?” “Yes. So you can all chill.” Great. She could chill. Sit there and let her body heat up and make an energetic connection to Devon’s. Fret over the implications of it. What she really needed was distraction, but it looked like Liana was taking over this op. 9

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Against her better judgment, she looked at Devon again. *

*

*

Devon bit down hard on another curse when Maggie turned and her eyes met his. He’d been hoping she’d have more strength than that, because he bloody hell didn’t. He’d understood immediately what the rush of energy through his body had meant. What they were in for. Maggie had, too. He’d seen it in her eyes. And now here they were, next to each other, boiling each other’s blood, with no control over what was happening. There was never any way to stop it, but usually they could get away from each other and ease the agony for a little while. Devon had never felt this before, of course. His mother thought mages were lucky. Normal people didn’t have this physical manifestation of…of…damn it, there was no other word for it. The soul connection. They had to guess if the rush of desire they felt was real or pedestrian. But his mother had the luxury of being a florist, and when his father, the sot, had wandered into her shop, they’d had ages to deal with their recognition. They could control the intensity. Not like now. He shifted so he sat with his back against the seat behind him, his feet braced on the floor and his hands dangling over his knees. In this position, he couldn’t see Maggie next to him. He knew, though, that she had one leg bent under her, the other knee in front of her, so she could launch into action at a moment’s notice. He felt every tiny movement she made, could smell her skin so strongly it was all he could do not to bend and bury his face in her neck. She was an air mage, so he felt like wind was rushing through his body, flowing up and down his arms and legs, stroking his cock so that it stretched and grew under the attention. He couldn’t work with a boner, for Christ’s sake. He gritted his teeth and fought against the sensations, against the erection, against the images that were starting to fill his mind of Maggie under him, over him, partly naked, completely 10

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naked, biting him, crying out— Fuck. The van lurched, throwing him sideways into Maggie. She shifted and supported him. Her mouth was inches from his. She licked it, and he drew in a sharp breath. He had to have that tongue in his mouth. Or his tongue in her mouth, it didn’t much matter. “Okay, here’s the deal,” Liana said, snapping her phone shut. “I was on a reconnaissance mission for Le Faucon.” Devon had figured she had to belong to their French counterpart, though her accent was barely detectable. Why the American Guild and the British Kight Street agencies had gone after her instead of her own people, he didn’t know. Liana continued. “The mission was to gather intelligence about the cartel who own that building. Obviously, I got caught.” She shrugged. “The low-level thugs who caught me had no clue of my abilities, but clearly their boss did. I may have more power than all of you, but I have a more severe limitation. I must use my hands to guide the energy.” “Which explains why you didn’t get yourself out of there,” Maggie observed. “Correct. Now, Le Faucon wishes me to—” The van lurched again, and this time Steve couldn’t hold the road. “Hang on!” he yelled, much too late. Something hit the van on the left side and it swerved right, skidding onto two wheels. Steve tried to compensate, but they slammed onto their side, tumbling over each other. Devon threw his arms up, trying to protect his head from flying equipment and feet. Something sliced across his lower leg, and his hair caught briefly in something else that rolled by. They slid forever, the scream and scrape of metal on pavement punctuated by gun shots. “The gas tank! It’s exposed!” Devon tried to yell, but what good 11

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would it do? There was too much chaos for any of them to pool their skills and turn the van. They couldn’t see the guns to jam them or remove them from the enemy. And even Liana couldn’t stop bullets. Finally, they rocked to a halt. The sliding door was downward, with all of them piled on top of it. Devon had no clue what their orientation was, but he assumed the driver’s door would be too high profile to get out that way. “Out the back,” he croaked, echoed by King, Maggie’s partner. Liana was closest—most on top—and, gasping, managed to kick the door open. Shark, his own partner, went next, followed by King and Alex. Then Devon could breathe. He realized he was crushing Maggie against the wall of the van, and her breathing was distinctly shallow. But the way he was lying, his head and shoulders bent forward, his legs toward the roof, he couldn’t get leverage to get off her. One good thing, his erection had subsided. Steve groaned, and Maggie gasped. “Steve! Are you all right?” He groaned again. “Yeah. Hit my head, but I’m okay. Blood…” His voice got a little fainter, then firmed up. “I’m fine. Let me help you.” He unclicked his seat belt and nearly fell all the way across the van, making so much racket Devon couldn’t hear what was happening outside. Were they surrounded? Were the others in enemy custody already? Steve grasped Devon’s left arm around the wrist, and he let him pull him half upright. He dragged his legs underneath him and pushed off of Maggie, who sucked in a long breath. “You all right?” “Brilliant,” she muttered, making him smile. They struggled as much to their feet as they could, all trying to see outside. There were no lights visible, no more gunshots, no bodies lying on the ground. Or moving around outside. Or trying to help them get out, for that matter. 12

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“I’ll go out first,” Devon said in a low voice. “Be ready for anything.” He tuned in to the environment. “Not much to work with around here. I can’t use the water energy.” “I can.” Maggie had gotten behind him, and she shoved gently at his back. “Go ahead. We’re right behind you.” He’d thought the desire stroked by her air energy had ebbed, but with her touch it flared again, rushing through him with the same force as if he was skydiving, but internally. It didn’t matter that he was wearing a leather jacket—he could feel the individual imprints of her fingers on his skin. Focus. This was going to get them killed, and then they’d be in trouble. He gritted his teeth, gathered the little fire energy he could, and eased out the half-open doors at the back of the van. For a moment, nothing happened. He sensed Maggie exit behind him, and they looked around. Nothing. No people, no vehicles, no signs of anyone. The silence deafened. “Give me your phone,” Devon whispered as Steve emerged, a gun in his hand. “I gave it to Liana,” Maggie answered, her hands still up and ready in front of her. “Let me try King on the com.” She tapped her ear and murmured King’s name. After a moment, she shook her head. Devon grabbed her arm and bent so his mouth was near her ear. “Why does Steve have a gun?” The Alliance of Mage Agencies, a very loose cooperation between agencies all over the world, advised against mages using firearms because their powers could not only increase the damage the weapons could do, but also rendered them unpredictable. Streams of air energy, reacting to the presence of the mages as well as their commands, could send bullets off course. Fire energy could make bullets explode in midair. It risked the lives of innocents as well as the agents themselves. Maggie didn’t answer right away, and he saw her eyelids drift 13

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closed. Her scent filled him, and he couldn’t help himself. He licked her ear. She gasped. When her lips parted, he grabbed the back of her head, turned her face to his, and slammed his mouth against hers. The kiss was explosive, sending waves of desire through him. Maggie moaned, and one hand clutched his shirt. He wanted that hand on his bare skin. “What the fuck, man?” It took Devon a minute to realize that was Steve yelling at them. His head was too heavy to lift. His mouth wouldn’t leave Maggie’s. And he sensed she was having the same problems, struggling to pull away yet unable to do so. Her lower body was pressing against his, her chest heaving. “Break it up! This is not the time, for Christ’s sake!” Steve forced his way between them and shoved them apart. Maggie looked like her legs were going to collapse, and Devon wasn’t sure how long he could stand, himself. His jeans rubbed his dick when he shifted his weight, and the pleasure was so intense, he could barely see. Gradually, the rest of the world came back into focus. Steve stared at him, then at Maggie. “Aw, fuck. Not now.” “That’s what I’ve been saying,” Maggie panted, turning away and bracing her hand on the van. Devon couldn’t take his eyes off her ass. He wanted to tear her clothes off and drive into her from behind, and didn’t care who saw. His imagination, fueled by the drive to join with his soulmate, made him see clearly how it would be. In any other circumstances, he’d have no choice but to act on it. With a growl he tore himself away, stumbling across the macadam until he landed up against the brick wall of the nearest building. Agony ripped through him, his body’s protest to the distance from Maggie. He felt whipped by wind, shredded by air, and gasped against the pain. They had to do something. “Steve!” He drew in as large a breath as he could, and the pain 14

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subsided just a little. The other man ran to him. “We need to separate. You and Maggie get out of here. I’ll look for the others. Tell her to radio in to HQ as soon as she can and find out what’s happening. Then she can send someone back here to let me know what’s going on, or to join me in the search.” “Can’t you reach Alex?” “Maggie, get back!” She didn’t, and the pain faded completely, leaving his head clearer but his erection bigger than ever. “We don’t have time for this now,” he squeezed out, struggling not to grab himself in front of her driver. “We’ve got to find the others.” “Devon, nothing we do is going to help. Can’t you reach Alex?” she repeated. He shook his head. “Lost my com before I got in the van. Didn’t worry about it then, since we were all together. Asshole,” he reprimanded himself. “It’s okay.” Maggie snuggled in to his side, the full front of her body pressed against his, her hand on his chest, her right thigh rising over his own. Her words were clear and direct, though, and he realized she was thinking better than he was. “Steve, you get out of here. Make contact with The Guild and see what they know. Check on everyone’s status. If no one knows anything, mobilize a joint team to come out here and analyze the scene. We’re going to be worthless for a while.” Steve took off down the road and soon disappeared, his footsteps fading. Maggie seemed to prop Devon up. Her heat seeped into his hip. Her knee rode higher, pressing against his balls. He was going to explode. “We’re vulnerable, Maggie. And I don’t think we can get very far.” “Don’t worry,” she murmured against his neck, where her teeth bit down lightly. “We’ll be okay. We just need to get inside.” She pulled away slightly, tugging at him. He shoved away from the wall and they 15

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staggered toward the alley at the back of the building. “How are you thinking so bloody clearly?” he grumbled, shaking his head violently to no great effect. “I’m a woman. We think clearly at all times, even when we’re having mind-blowing sex.” She reached for a door he hadn’t noticed. It was locked. She pulled her left arm away from his waist, where she’d been pulling his shirt out of his jeans, and pointed her fingers toward the door handle. A moment later it opened with a click, and she pulled him through. “Wait.” She turned, and he hauled her against him. That wasn’t why he wanted her to wait. He wanted to tell her their enemies could be in here. But there she was, right in front of him, and he couldn’t talk. He crushed his mouth to hers again, one hand holding her head in place while his other hand filled itself with her breast. Hell, yeah, that was what he needed. “Devon. Honey, wait. We can’t do this here.” She turned in his arms and pressed his hand harder to her breast as they started to climb the stairs. “We need to find somewhere…a room. Something.” “Here.” He pinched her hard nipple. Her steps faltered and her head fell back. He tucked his shoulder onto it and sucked on her neck, pinching again. Her gasps were getting louder. He slid his free hand down the front of her, into her jeans. Her knickers were sopping. “We can do this here,” he said against her neck. “Please, Maggie.” “God, yes.” She pressed her hips upward. The door behind them, a few feet down the stairs, banged in the wind. They hadn’t closed it. “No. Not here. Up. Inside. Safer.” She dragged his hand out of her jeans and held it so tightly his joints ground. Her feet were faster but no more stable as they pounded up the stairs. They made it to the first landing. Devon tugged at her jacket, but it caught on her elbows. Her shirt had buttons down the front. He hadn’t 16

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noticed that before. He yanked it open. Two buttons flew off, giving him access. The black lace of her bra would have been sexy any other time. Now, it was just in his way. He pulled it down, exposing her heavy breast and swollen nipple, which was in his mouth before he even knew he’d moved. He sucked, and Maggie cried out. She held his head in both hands, her arms half trapped by her jacket. He sucked harder, then bit, and then something strange happened. Their energy joined. He sensed it merging, felt the burn through his veins, sensed the rush of air through hers. The edge fell off their desire, but it in no way subsided. Devon backed up a step. His eyes met Maggie’s. “We’re in serious trouble.” “I know, dammit. I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t think this building is empty. I can feel eddies in the energy. We need to find someplace to hide.” “And fuck.” He figured usually that would make Maggie deck him. But her eyes heated even more, and she threaded her fingers through his. “And fuck.” They raced up the rest of the stairs, then paused at the doorway to the second floor. They listened as well as they could over their harsh breathing, neither seeming able to control it. There was no window to look through, so Devon studied her cleavage. She was bent forward slightly, and her breasts were perfect. He reached… And she slapped his hand. “Damn, woman, you’re recovering well.” He half turned from her and leaned back against the wall. The hand that had just slapped him covered his erection, stroked once, and pressed hard. “Or not.” He moaned and put his hand over hers, stroking it up and down. The burning rush of air inside him felt like it was pulled inward, 17

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centered on that one point. “God, Maggie, I can’t stand this.” He spun and shoved her backwards by the shoulders, into the corner of the stairwell behind the door. He kissed her, his tongue driving into her mouth, where she sucked on it. Hard. His dick throbbed. To hell with finding a safe place. He was taking her here. Now. If someone killed them, so be it. He’d be where he belonged. He’d pulled both breasts from her bra while she unbuttoned his fly, her tongue now dueling with his. His penis was in her hands now, being squeezed and stroked and growing even harder. He’d never felt so powerful, like he could actually pound stone. But she still had her jeans on. Opening her jeans meant he had to leave her breasts. As he shoved her trousers down, he caught her other nipple in his mouth. She used her feet to get one leg out of her jeans and her hand to put his penis between her legs. She was so wet he slid past the opening, adjusted, and drove himself up into her. They both sighed and sagged into each other as sweet relief fell over them. It didn’t last long. Devon grabbed Maggie’s thigh and hitched it higher, and wrapped his other arm around her waist. They buried their faces in each other’s necks as he withdrew, then slid slowly back into her. He’d never felt such intensity. The pleasure radiated from his penis up into his body until it tingled in his fingers and toes. He slid out, then in again, sending another wave of pleasure through him. This time, urgency returned. Maggie clutched at his shoulders and rubbed her chest against his, thrusting her hips upward, interrupting his rhythm. “Easy, love. I’ve got it.” He held her hip, pulled out, and slammed home. She screamed, and he felt his orgasm approaching. He thrust hard and fast. “Oh, babe, I’m getting there. Tell me you are, too.” But he didn’t give her a chance to answer. His vision went red and he arched, losing all awareness of everything except the ecstasy that raced 18

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through him. The orgasm built and built, far beyond anything he’d felt before. Everything tightened in his groin, intensified to the point of pain, and then exploded in a shower of light. It went on and on, throb after throb, and slowly he became aware of Maggie. Her cunt clenched around him, releasing and squeezing in time to his aftershocks. Her head was thrown back now, her breasts thrust upward, and he realized he was still as hard as before. He lifted one hand to her breast, and she shuddered. “Holy Mary Mother of God,” he breathed, leaning forward and trying to cradle her. His leg muscles quivered, no longer willing to support them both. “We need to get out of here,” Maggie said, squirming. But it wasn’t an uncomfortable, I’m-slimy-and-cold-and-this-wall-is-rough kind of squirm. It was an I-can’t-get-close-enough-to-you squirm. And he realized that however good her orgasm had been, too, this wasn’t over. Bloody hell. *

*

*

They hadn’t had time to move before a door above them clanged and deep voices echoed in the stairwell. Their movements were sluggish, their bodies disobedient. As Maggie pushed Devon away, her pelvis followed, keeping them joined. He throbbed inside her and she bit back a moan, closed her eyes at the answering pulse of her vaginal wall, then drew in a deep breath and yanked her lower body away from him. Footsteps thudded. It was hard to tell how many with the echoes. Maybe five people. Maggie struggled to get her leg back into her thong and pull it up, but one leg of her jeans was inside out. Hopping on one foot, she pulled the other leg off while Devon buttoned half his fly, then tried to ease the door open. It caught and released with a metallic thump when he pulled harder. They winced and glanced upward, but the voices and feet hadn’t paused. 19

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Devon peered up and down the hall, then ducked through. She followed, her jeans clutched in her left hand, her right reaching to pull energy from wherever she could find it. “Could that have been the others?” she whispered, following close on Devon’s heels. He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I didn’t hear any feminine voices. We don’t want to take the chance.” He reached back and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up next to him. “Find cover. I’ll—” “You’ll come with me. Again,” she couldn’t help adding. The idea wasn’t funny, though. It was arousing. Her breasts ached, and she wanted his mouth on her clit so bad she was about to kick his feet out from under him and sit on his face. She barely had any sense of selfpreservation left, and even when the door thumped again behind them, it was all she could do to duck into the office they were miraculously passing. Office was a loose term, she thought vaguely as they eased the door closed. It had a limp floral curtain over the window in the top half of the door, but that was the extent of the decorating scheme. An old metal schoolteacher desk sat in the middle of the room, covered with and surrounded by junk that spilled out of boxes and equally old file cabinets. Didn’t matter. Décor was irrelevant. What was relevant was the burning between her legs. She leaned into Devon, who fell back against the door, then grabbed him by the back of the neck and shoved him downward. Smart boy, he knew instantly what she wanted. He sank to his knees, ripped off the thong, and plunged in. Maggie gasped and grabbed the door, spreading her legs wide. His tongue flattened and stroked slowly from her cunt upward, then speared inside her, then, still pointed, sped back and forth over a clit swollen to Concord grape size. “God, Devon. Suck me.” He did, and she held her breath so she wouldn’t scream. She felt the 20

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tightening that preceded her orgasm and tensed against it, but it grew slowly, never peaking. Devon clutched her left cheek in one hand, but probed at her opening with the fingers of his other. The impending orgasm sharpened. God, she wanted it. She dropped, forcing his fingers inside her. He scraped his teeth over her clit and it sharpened even more, but still didn’t explode. She was going insane! Movement outside the room caught her attention and her entire body clenched, and not in the good way. All the tingling and rushing of her blood in the rest of her body disappeared, though her center didn’t change. Through a centimeter slit in the curtain she saw people walk by. Two men she didn’t know. Liana, looking tense. Devon’s Alex. Another strange man, and then King and Shark. King had blood on the side of her face, but went by too fast for Maggie to see how badly hurt she was. Devon had paused when she tensed, but the rest of him moved slightly, rhythmically. His tongue still pressed against her nub. No one else passed the door, and she realized he was masturbating. She wanted him inside her. Wanted to taste him. Wanted him to stand over her and jerk off, coming all over her. And she had never wanted any of those things, with anyone, like she did right now. She started to sink down, but he caught her, lifting her right thigh to his shoulder while he rubbed himself harder with his other hand. Then he shoved his fingers deep inside her again, pressing upward and wiggling while his tongue went crazy. He grunted and shuddered, and she knew he was coming. It sent her finally, amazingly, over the edge. This orgasm was harder, stronger, and longer than the last. The first one had seemed huge, but this one rendered the first one normal. It built into a giant thundercloud, boiling upward, spearing her, then roaring through her every vein. Her ears buzzed. Her vision glittered in gold lights, and her center, where it all began, throbbed in time to Devon’s gentling strokes. 21

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But she didn’t come down. That is, she didn’t have that sated, satisfied, ready-to-snuggle feeling. Her body came down, hard, onto cracked and curled linoleum that probably sliced a few choice body parts, but she didn’t feel that. All she felt was the reality of her desire, unebbed. God, would it never end? Devon panted hard, his head tilted back, his knees braced wide, and still gripping his cock. His giant, rock-hard cock. Maggie raised herself enough to reach him with her mouth, and began licking his juice off his hand. He moaned. Her tongue swirled over his fingers, dipping in between and brushing against his penis. God, he tasted good. Her movements became quicker. When she reached the top of his hand, he released himself, and she engulfed him with her mouth, taking him deep in one smooth, sucking motion. Normally, she hated blow jobs. They made her mouth ache almost immediately, and she didn’t think she was very good at it. It took forever to get a guy off that way. But tonight, she thought she could go forever. She shifted so she could touch herself with her right hand, and so Devon could see that she was doing it. “God, Maggie. This is a fucking dream.” She grinned around the head of his cock, her teeth scraping, and he hissed. She twisted her head so her tongue swept back and forth over the sensitive triangle at the tip, then drifted slowly down until her lips reached his balls. She cupped them, then squeezed, and they tightened. Well, that hadn’t taken long at all. She moved faster, lifting her head up and down and rubbing herself harder and harder. Devon arched, spurting himself into her, just as her third orgasm rolled over her. This one was calm, slow, and endless. She sucked him harder and squeezed his balls tighter, wanting it to be as good for him. 22

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A moment later he relaxed, but his penis didn’t. When Maggie backed away and licked her lips, he stayed as hard as ever. “Magic penis,” she joked, then wished she hadn’t. This wasn’t funny. They could kill each other like this. She knew how they could end it. How they had to end it. But the part of her that was normal, that was pure human, rebelled against it. She didn’t like having her choices taken away from her, and that was exactly what the joining did. There wasn’t time to fret over it. Her colleagues might be in danger. They didn’t know where she and Devon were, or what their condition was. She would never forgive herself if they died or were badly hurt because she was fucking in a junk room. No matter how little she could resist it. They had to get this over and done with, now. “Maggie,” Devon breathed. He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her, slowly, deeply, just like she’d blown him. He stroked her hair back, tenderly, and looked into her eyes. And she saw it. The mating drive had stripped away all pretense, all professional facades and childish baiting. His soul was exposed, and hers answered. He loved her. So be it. They could finish this now. She’d accept reality and deal with the consequences and emotions later. “…in here.” The voice came out of nowhere, and the doorknob rattled. Maggie grabbed her jeans and Devon grabbed her, and they dove behind a pile of junk, lying flat behind it. Devon landed on top of her, his cock finding its way between her legs. Just that quickly, she wanted him again as badly as she’d wanted his mouth on her a few minutes ago. But someone had come into the room and was searching, loudly, for something. “It was here last time I looked,” one male voice said. Something crashed, like it had been tossed aside. 23

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“You better be right,” the other voice grumbled. Papers rustled. What sounded like a box lid slid, then slapped to the floor. “It’s Farley’s ace in the hole with this bunch. They’s mages, in case you didn’t get that.” He didn’t sound too happy about it. “Yeah, I got that. Farley’ll handle ’em.” More stuff fell. The two men argued. And Devon pushed his hands under Maggie and squeezed her breasts, stroked and tugged her nipples, and then pinched. Her head came up, but she didn’t otherwise dare move and reveal their presence. Devon slowly, quietly, shifted his hips and entered her from behind. He felt even harder this way, longer, with her legs straight and his covering her. He pushed deeper, then moved his hips back and forth to make short, intense strokes that pressed directly on her g-spot. Wait! she wanted to scream. This wasn’t going to end it, not like this. But she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t stop. She pressed back and upward in time to his rhythm as the men in the room moved around the desk toward them, searching as they went. Her heart beat harder, partly in fear, partly in pleasure. A stack of textbooks fell not three feet in front of her face. They were about to be discovered, rutting like animals behind piles of junk. She started to come, and bit hard on her lip. “Got it!” The triumph echoed Devon’s groan in her ear. There was no way the men could hear it—it was too low and they were too loud in their self-congratulations, but the terror of expecting them to hear it sent her over the edge, into another blinding orgasm. A moment later Devon flipped her over and propped himself over her. “Are you okay?” he asked, but his eyes blazed and his penis still sought her. She could feel its heaviness against her clit, which seemed to vibrate under the slightest touch. “No. You know what we have to do, Devon, or this will never end.” 24

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She reached up and touched his face, slid her thumb along his lip. Let him see in her eyes what she’d already seen in his. “I never would have asked this of you, Maggie.” He kissed the pad of her thumb, then drew it into his mouth. She shivered. “I know. I wouldn’t have asked it of you, either.” She managed a grin. “Your knees must be killing you.” “Not yet.” She sobered. “Did you hear what they found?” “Yeah.” He looked grim. The chambering of a round was unmistakable to an agent, even an agent mage who didn’t use guns. “They need us.” “Yes, but we can’t even leave each other, and afterward we might not be any good to them.” Her hands had, of their own accord, wandered over his back and buttocks. “I know. Our best bet is to focus everything we’ve got here, just in this room, on doing this, and then—” He stopped, his face contorting, and then suddenly thrust himself inside her, making her gasp in shock. “I’m sorry. God, Maggie, it hurts.” He pulled out and thrust again, harder, pushing her across the floor. “I’m sorry. I can’t…I can’t…” “It’s okay.” Now she was feeling it, too. When they’d interrupted the chain of orgasms, the magic had turned on them, trying to make them consummate their union for good. The pleasure she’d felt with his penis rubbing her turned into sharp pain that radiated outward the same way the ecstasy had, only now it felt like blades. “Now, Devon. Start it.” His eyes were closed and he looked like he was fighting the pain. “Devon, no! Open your eyes. Embrace it. You know how it starts!” She writhed beneath him as his thrusts came harder and faster. “Devon!” “In fire,” he gasped, his eyes springing open and locking with hers. “In air,” she answered, drawing all the air energy in the room to her, 25

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and internalizing it. It was something she’d never done before, though her early teachers had explained how to do it, had drilled her on the method. It rushed through her, cold and fast, blending with the heat that poured into her through Devon. “With earth,” she moaned, finding and pulling the earth energy that had nearly killed her the first time she tried to use it. The pain intensified, and the energy rushing through them, joining them, grew heavy. Devon’s body pressed hers hard into the floor. He shifted and laced his fingers through hers, where her hands lay next to her head. They tightened their hold on each other. “And water,” Devon added. Maggie braced for the onslaught and wrapped her legs around his hips. Still, he pounded against her. Smooth water energy joined the other three. She saw the agony in his face, felt it in his grip on her hands, echoed it deep in her womb where it all coalesced. “With eternal love and unbreakable loyalty we proclaim,” they said together, “ourselves,” three enormous thrusts, and then the final one. “Joined!” The last word, in two voices, sounded like a hundred in the room. Wind howled, sending papers flying around them and tossing Maggie’s hair in her face. Flame crackled, a halo around Devon that he probably saw around her, too. The floor rose beneath them, and she felt water flowing past her body, soaking into the few clothes she still wore. This time, when the orgasm hit them, it was simultaneous and mutual. She felt what he felt, and he felt with her. It boiled through them, racing up and down their bodies, intensity she’d never felt, ever, in her entire life. And never would again. She and Devon were bonded. Forever. *

*

*

“Maggie.” “Don’t talk to me.” She refused to look at him as she dressed, 26

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shoving her ruined thong into her jeans pocket. She couldn’t believe the men who’d come in here hadn’t seen the thong by the door, or the mess they’d left on the linoleum. And they both had to be smokers if they didn’t recognize the scent in the air. She could smell it, and she’d helped create it. “Don’t, love, we can—” She whirled on him. “Don’t tell me what to do. I can’t deal with what this means right now. Members of my team are in trouble. That’s my priority. Now that this is done, we can wait.” He grabbed her shoulders. “I just don’t want to lose you now, Mags. Please, promise me you won’t disappear.” His eyes were haunted, but otherwise he looked completely normal. That pissed her off most of all. She was going sticky-commando, her hair had to be a bird’s nest, her face likely mapped out exactly what they’d done, and her shirt was missing buttons. Not exactly professional. But despite her anger at what had happened, her desperation at the knowledge that she’d been trapped into this, her fear for the future, she couldn’t take it out on Devon. He sat exactly where she did. “I won’t disappear.” “Good.” The air went out of him, taking his tension with it. Then he straightened, and the spy mage was back. “Let’s go.” “They went to the right.” She told him what she’d seen while he was fucking her with his mouth, and they headed down the now-empty hall. They couldn’t hear any voices or other noises, and Maggie worried they’d be too late. That they’d used the gun, or taken them somewhere else. “If only we could have followed them.” “No self-recrimination, Mags. That’s one of the rules of the bonding.” “Yeah, because all choice is taken from us. Dammit!” When they reached the end of the hall, they could hear faint murmurings behind a solid metal door on the left. On the right was 27

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another stairwell. Devon took up position next to the metal door and motioned for Maggie to check the stairwell. She did, running silently one flight in both directions and peeking into the hallways on both floors. She gave Devon the all-clear. He beckoned, and bent to her ear when she neared. “It sounds like they’re okay. They’ve got the gun on them, but it’s just a threat. They’re waiting for someone.” “Like they were waiting for someone back in the warehouse.” “Right.” “Okay, let’s go in.” “And become hostages ourselves?” He shook his head. “You go find a phone and call your HQ. They can call Kight Street and send another joint team to back us up.” “Steve is doing that,” she said. “We need to act now, before the bigwig shows up. These guys don’t know what they’re doing.” Devon raised his eyebrows at her. She shrugged in concession. They had managed to overturn the van, she’d give them that. Then she frowned. “This can’t be the same gang. They knew there was a gun in that room.” “Good point.” He angled his head toward the door. Voices, indistinct a moment ago, were getting louder. Someone shouted, and there was the unmistakable hiss of a fireball soaring across the room. Something thudded against the door. In unison, they moved into position on opposite sides of the door, both gathering energy—what little there was left after their colleagues had drawn on it—and preparing to use it. A loud bang sounded, and the door splintered in front of their eyes. The narrow window in the door of the stairwell shattered, and Maggie realized a bullet had just gone through. She crouched, trying to become a smaller target. The door flew open. She counted beats, holding her power in check. Liana ran through and banged open the stairwell door. Two. Alex 28

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followed, limping slightly but not hampered by it. Three! Maggie was close enough to trip the man that barreled after them, so instead of wasting magic she did so. He lurched, stumbled three steps, and slammed headfirst into the wall, landing in a heap. Devon already had the next guy. Two guys, actually, bumblers who’d gotten hung up on each other at the door. Their eyes widened when Devon pivoted to face them, his hands up. One backed into the room, the other jerked forward, and both fell. Shark kicked one on his way through the door, and Maggie craned her neck trying to see behind him. To her relief, King jumped over the pair on the floor and grinned at her. “Nice timing.” “The gun?” “Out the window.” “Let’s go.” They ran out the door, Devon covering their backs. At the bottom of the stairs they all ran outside where, to Maggie’s amazement, Steve waited. “Who are these guys?” Maggie asked Liana. “Small time drug runners, I think. They had no idea what we were. They were trying to rob us.” “Why did you bother with them, then?” “I thought they were with the last bunch. I wanted to know who their boss was. But it turns out ‘Farley’ is just another normal smalltimer.” She looked at Steve. “We got wheels?” “You know it. This way.” He jogged off toward the far end of the building, where they’d crashed. Maggie caught up with him, and he said, “I couldn’t find a phone and none of the coms left in the van worked. The radio was busted in the crash. So I just liberated another vehicle and came back for you all.” They skidded to a halt at the alley entrance. Dwarfing the overturned van beside it, an eighteen-wheeler idled in the alley. 29

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“Well, that’s inconspicuous,” Devon remarked. “All I could find that would hold all of us.” They moved toward a door in the side of it. Alex and King climbed up and in, but Devon paused. “You sure you can drive this?” “I can drive anything.” “He can,” Maggie confirmed, pulling herself up into the truck. Devon followed, but grabbed her arm before she moved inside. “You never told me why Steve had a gun.” She turned her head so her mouth was against his ear. He shivered. “He’s not a mage. His parents are, they were agents, so he joined The Guild as a driver. He normally keeps the gun for when he’s alone, but—” “I got it.” Maggie nodded. Things hadn’t been normal. Devon closed the door behind them and plunged the interior into darkness. She glimpsed shrink-wrapped pallets of boxes just before the door clicked shut, and groaned. This was a federal crime. She hoped to hell Steve had a plan for returning the rig. The engine chuffed and ground, and they slowly started moving. When the gears shifted the truck lurched, and they all tilted and stumbled into each other. It was stuffy and hot in there, too. She was sweating already. “Ouch.” That was King, Maggie knew. Someone else cursed—Alex or Devon, she wasn’t sure. She tried to brace herself on a group of boxes and grabbed someone’s breast, instead. “Sorry!” “How about a little light,” Devon remarked, murmuring something under his breath. A red glow illuminated their corner of the maze of pathways between pallets. Maggie gaped at him. He held his left hand up, encased in a pulsing red flame that was much more subtle than the 30

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fireballs he usually tossed around. “Refinement,” he said, noting her surprise. “Try it.” She closed her eyes, trying to sense a stream of air energy. It was hard to find any in these close confines, but finally she caught a curl of it at the far end of the trailer. The others had grown quiet. She wasn’t sure what to do, at first. She usually used the power of the energy as it existed, but there wasn’t any way to be gentle with it like that. She spun it, coiled it, stretched it out…then, inspired, tried to separate strands of it. They split easily, and she pulled six separate threads from the original stream. With her eyes still closed, she connected the ends of the six until it formed a twisted loop, then sent it flowing around the group. Sighs hissed out of everyone as the stream acted like a breeze, cooling them. Maggie opened her eyes to find Devon grinning at her. She glanced around, and the others didn’t look quite so happy. Shark glowered at her. King narrowed her eyes. Liana shook her head. Alex smirked, but it was a high-school jock’s smirk at the girl his best friend had laid the night before, not real amusement. “What?” she asked. “While we were running for our lives, you two were fucking?” “Hey—” Maggie moved faster than Devon. While her mate prepared to defend her verbally, she slammed Alex backward against the metal of the trailer wall, her forearm at his throat and a ball of water energy turning icy in her hand. She could feel crystals forming on his stubble. His eyes widened. “I could kill you right now for leaving team members behind in the van, you asshole, but I understand extenuating circumstances. That’s something you’d better learn damned fast, or what Devon and I were doing half an hour ago will be the last thing you’ll be worried about. You feelin’ me?” 31

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“Uh, yeah, Maggie, I’m feelin’ you. A little too hard, actually.” He shifted his legs, and she realized she also had her knee against his balls. She pressed a little harder before backing off. “Anyone else got a problem with us?” They shook their heads. “Good. Now, we need a plan.” The truck accelerated up an incline, and Maggie figured they were getting onto the freeway. That gave them more speed and more flexibility, but she hated not knowing where they were going. She didn’t want Steve to cross state lines. “All right. I need to get up front with Steve. He’s as blind as we are. Where are we going?” She looked at Liana, who shrugged. “I was instructed to complete my mission. That means determining who held me in that building.” “We were to extract her and deliver her to Kight Street,” Shark said in his gruff tone. “Our instructions said nothing of the cartel leader.” “Same here,” said King. “Seems to me The Guild and Kight Street can’t fulfill their goals, not without doing a lot of damage to each other. Besides the usual foolishness of such an action,” she looked pointedly between Devon and Maggie, “I’m thinking the team leaders would be against that.” “So we help Liana complete her mission,” Maggie said. “Back to the warehouse, then.” She started to unbar the door. Devon caught her arm. “Let someone else do it,” he murmured. “Nope.” She threw open the door, relieved there were no vehicles next to them. “Thought so. Hang on.” He held his hand open, called a load of earth energy to him, and closed his fist around the end of it. He tugged, the energy wrapped itself around her waist, and he grabbed the other end, taking in the slack. He nodded and braced his feet. Maggie hadn’t seen this done before, but the energy did feel 32

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ropelike around her. Maybe it would work. She leaned out the door, her fingers gripping the jamb. There was a lot of space between her and the tractor, but she could do it. Hardest would be traversing the smooth expanse between the door and the end of the trailer. She put her right foot on the edge of the opening and, still holding on to the jamb, stretched out with her left arm and foot. She was several inches shy of the edge of the trailer, where a narrow pipe ran up the side. “Go ahead, I’ve got you.” With the roar of wind past her ears and the distance between them, she should never have been able to hear Devon. But she could, and she trusted him without thought. She let go with her right hand and tilted her whole body to the left, her right toes barely keeping their position on the floor. The energy tightened around her, keeping her from falling. She pushed her left foot a little farther, and her foot landed on a U-brace bolting the pipe to the corner. Another tilt, and she had the pipe in her left hand. Pushing with the little leverage she had on the right, she switched hands and feet, then immediately jumped onto the metal chassis in the narrow space where the tractor and trailer connected. The road raced by under her, giving her an instant of vertigo. The reassuring weight of Devon’s “rope” was gone. She caught her balance, then swiftly moved to the side and front of the rig, where she caught a grab bar and stood on the running board, opened the door, and slithered inside. “Holy hell!” Steve yelled, swerving as she squeezed over and behind him to get to the passenger seat. “Where the fuck did you come from?” “We’re going back.” “What?” “We’ve got to go back to the warehouse. And return this truck,” she added. “I got the truck from the warehouse. We didn’t get very far from it the first time.” He scowled and changed lanes so he could take the next 33

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exit and change direction. “Good. We can kill two birds with one stone. Liana has a mission to complete, and if she doesn’t complete hers, we don’t complete ours. So we go back.” The air brakes vibrated in the dark. Steve slowed but didn’t stop at the end of the ramp, and swung the truck into a tight turn. “Jesus, don’t jackknife us!” She reached for the oh-shit strap and hung on, hoping the others were okay in the back. “I want to get this over with. This is the worst mission I’ve ever been on.” “Me, too.” He glanced at her. “Yeah, I bet. You two okay?” She shrugged. “We allowed the bonding to occur, if that’s what you’re asking. We should be okay for a couple of hours before the reinforcement phase kicks in.” The truck accelerated back onto the highway. “About ten minutes to get back there,” Steve said. “Okay.” Maggie settled into the seat, trying to get comfortable. Already the burn was back. It was why she’d volunteered to come up here. To get away from Devon, from the passion building in her again. She was entering the reinforcement phase. They would face the same onslaught of desire as they had prior to bonding, but unlike the initial wave, the intensity varied from couple to couple. For some it took weeks to occur, and it was often much less intense. But it had been less than an hour since their bonding and was already happening again. Maggie was afraid it would overtake them and endanger their team, themselves, and maybe even their agencies. She wasn’t sure they had a choice, but she’d fight as long as she could. *

*

*

Devon didn’t breathe until Maggie disappeared into the cab. Even then, his lungs wouldn’t inflate fully. He’d had to fight the urge to pull 34

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her back into his arms when she’d gone out onto the side of the lorry. He wouldn’t have cared about all the agents in there with them. He craved the taste of her like a rich ale; his hands clenched around emptiness, wanting to hold her. He’d thought it was normal desire until she leapt across the empty space and he’d almost leapt after her, pursuing not a vision of her splattered under the wheels, but screaming under him. They were already in reinforcement. He sank onto his haunches against the wall, letting the others plan around him. It had happened this way for his parents. He’d heard the story often, once he’d been old enough. They’d had the luxury of distancing themselves during the initial recognition phase, but once they’d bonded, reinforcement descended on them that same night. It had been their wedding night, and his mother thought the tale bloody romantic. It didn’t seem so romantic to him, bouncing in the back of a lorry while agent mages planned a raid that he could blow to hell just by his inability to concentrate. He closed his eyes. He could sense her, meters away. Sense her potency rising, reaching out to him. Bloody hell. “Devon, you’ll be point—” “No.” “Look—” He looked. “I said no. I’m a danger to you lot. Maggie is likely to be, as well. I’m afraid you’ll have to go into this without us.” It killed him to say so, and he knew they knew it. It was in his eyes, he could feel it. It was in his trousers, should they care to take a glance. There was no other way. Maybe they couldn’t reinforce the bonding, but they had to stay out of their teammates’ way. “Here’s what’s going to happen.” He struggled to stand against the sudden leaning of the vehicle. Shark reached and helped him up. “Maggie and I will create a diversion. I don’t know what yet, we’ll 35

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figure it out when we get there. You’ll recognize it. That’s when you’ll move in on the honcho. Maggie and I will clear out. You all concentrate on the mission and getting back to base. We’ll reconnoiter tomorrow.” They slowly nodded, then went back to planning their part of the operation. Devon sank back to the floor and struggled to think of possible diversions. He was clapped out, but that didn’t interfere with the building need. Nothing went through his head but erotic images. Maggie’s breasts, hard-nippled and deep red, in front of his face as she pumped herself over him. Her ass against his abdomen while he drove into her from behind. Her slickness drenching his cock before he even got inside her. Sweat beaded his forehead and he stifled a moan. He’d been up since dawn, and without looking at his watch, he’d guess it was about twenty-two hours past that. The adrenaline of the mission, the running and fucking, and the extensive manipulation of magic all served to weaken him. How was Maggie faring? He had no way to check, no way to tell her the plan. Together they might come up with a diversion, but alone he was worthless. He snorted. That was a telling statement. “You all right, mate?” Shark crouched beside him, frowning. “Yeah,” he croaked. “Fine and dandy.” “Right.” “Don’t bother with me, just make sure the rest of you get in and out okay. We have no coms, no surveillance, no getaway vehicle. This is the bloody stupidest job we’ve ever pulled. And I have the easiest part of it.” The engine groaned as they slowed. “We must be nearly there. Get ready.” He took three deep breaths and clambered to his feet, moving to the side so the others could get out first. He hoped Maggie 36

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was in better shape than he was. *

*

*

She was, but only marginally. She waited next to the giant tires while the others dropped out of the truck and faded into the darkness. When Devon appeared in the black entrance, she gasped. Even in the dim orange light of the sodium vapor lamps in front of the building they were now parked behind, he looked pale and waxy. His skin shone with sweat, and his eyes were wild, darting back and forth until they landed on her. His body sagged a little when he found her, then he, too, dropped nimbly out of the truck. “They need a diversion,” they said together, then grinned at each other. Maggie wondered if that was their training, their similarities in approach, or the bonding. The last didn’t bother her as much as it would have a couple of hours ago. “When I was here before, I saw a bin of those little popper things. You know, during holidays, kids throw them on the ground and they pop? Like a firecracker without the flame.” “Right, I know what you’re talking about.” They started walking around to the far entrance. They had to let the others get into position. “I saw that, too. You want to blow it?” “I’m thinking I can send them flying in the air, and you can flame them. What do you think?” He shrugged. She realized his hand was on her hip and tunneling under her shirt. She hadn’t noticed because she’d been so busy trying not to bite his neck. “Worth a try, anyway,” he said, stopping her and bending to kiss her. It was supposed to be a quick kiss, judging by the way he swooped in and started to pull back immediately, but the instant their lips met, the flames and torrents and gale forces took over. Maggie couldn’t see, hear, or smell anything but Devon. 37

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His tongue delved deep into her mouth and both hands now stroked her sides, her bare skin. She swirled her tongue around his, across his lips, over his teeth, to stroke the roof of his mouth. He jerked, his hands tightening. Then, abruptly, rational thought slammed back into Maggie. She shoved Devon, hard, and he stared at her. “Holy God,” he breathed. “We’re going to kill them.” “Let’s go.” She ran toward the door they’d exited earlier that night. The bin she remembered was about ten feet to the left. Liana had managed to get the door open, she saw, and it hung slightly ajar. She paused, listening and peering through the crack, motioning Devon to keep back. Her breasts felt heavy, her bra abrading her nipples like sand. She wanted his hands on her, and if he came near, she didn’t know if she’d be able to stop this time. She could see their colleagues moving stealthily down her initial route on the side of the warehouse, easing past the tumble of inventory they’d sent crashing down on their way out the first time. She moved to the left, finding the bin right where she’d seen it. She glanced back and waved Devon in. “We’ve got to empty all these boxes,” she whispered, flipping open one box of twenty-five snappers. “Be gentle. We don’t want any to go off.” She tipped it and dumped the contents onto the floor. They established a rhythm, reaching, opening, and dumping. As the pile grew bigger, the distance between them shrank until every time Devon reached into the bin his arm rubbed her breast, and every time she emptied a box her knuckles stroked his erection. Within moments she was alternately panting and gritting her teeth against her need. Her lower body was so swollen and ready, she wasn’t sure she could walk out of there. Soon they had emptied half the bin. “That’s going to have to do,” Maggie said under her breath. “Ready?” 38

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Devon collected himself and nodded. As he raised his hands, she watched the glazed look fade from his eyes, but not the heat. God, she wanted him. Now. Instead she turned away and called the air energy, directing it under the pile of snappers and up into the empty main aisle of the warehouse, spreading them as far as she could. “Go.” Devon pushed his hands forward, and from them went a sheet of flame. It spread and expanded, heating the snappers and making them explode. They sounded like gunshots echoing through the building. Shouts came from the other end, and shadows moved toward them, hovering on the other side of the flames. “Let’s get out of here,” Devon urged, lowering his arms. “They’re—” He was cut off by an explosion of sound and light. Something zinged over their heads, bounced off the wall, and careened back toward the people-shaped shadows. Someone yelled and ducked. Sparks flew sideways in a shower like a roman candle, and then Maggie realized it was a roman candle. “Jesus, this place is full of fireworks,” Devon said. He grabbed her arm. “Come on.” They ran for the door amid screams of bottle rockets and whumps of larger fireworks. Sulfur drifted through the air around their heads. Maggie cursed her stupidity. Of course, if they had poppers, they had regular fireworks! For God’s sake! Where was her head? In her pants, of course. Even running for their lives, her body hummed with need. Every step stimulated her clit and made her feel emptier. She wanted his cock inside her…and her desperation was obvious in the language she was using even in her own head. “There’s a train station a few blocks away,” she gasped at Devon as they rounded a corner. “Will they be running at this hour?” 39

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“I hope so.” They were in luck. They shoved money into the ticket machines, snatched their tickets, and slithered through the booths just as a train pulled into the station. Maggie didn’t care where it was going, as long as it took them away from here. Three transfers and an hour and a half later, they trudged up the steps of the last station, the one closest to Maggie’s apartment. They’d traveled in a haze of sensuality, even though they’d stayed half a car apart. Maggie had known exactly where he sat, when he looked at her, that he breathed in time with her. It was different than the initial rush of need, before they’d bonded. Now she craved being near him, holding him, loving him, but not with the same carnality. Devon followed her up the stairs. She had to turn almost sideways to keep her coat from catching on the splintered handrail. The bulb over them flickered. “Nice digs,” Devon muttered, his hand sliding up her thigh. “Shush. It suits my purposes.” HQ was less than a mile away, a warren of cubicles and briefing rooms below an abandoned office building. The crime rate was actually lower than the rundown neighborhood would indicate. And she could do what she wanted inside the apartment. She doubted Devon would notice, though. As she fit her key into the loose knob of the apartment door, he plastered himself against her back and pressed his face against her neck. “Maggie.” No, he definitely didn’t see the finished hardwood floors, the plush microfiber sectional in front of a flat panel TV, the Gary Benfield print of ethereal, erotic figures. As soon as the door closed and she engaged the deadbolt and electronic lock he started dragging her jacket off, then her shirt. His mouth touched her everywhere his fingertips didn’t, sending tiny flames dancing across her skin. She led him in a slow dance across the living room, toward the tiny 40

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bedroom at the back. Dropped her keys on the refinished sideboard against one wall. Kicked off her boots in the corner. And drew him by the sides of his own jacket into her sanctuary. They removed all their clothes before coming together. Devon stopped her next to her bed, cupping her jaw in his hands to kiss her slowly and tenderly. She gripped his wrists, reveling in the taste of him, in the slow swirl of energy around them. They tipped onto the bed and sighed. “Wow.” Devon rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. “This is a great bed.” “The best.” Maggie levered herself up over him. Her hip stuck to his, then released with a schnicking sound. “I think we should shower first.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Wanna join me?” But Devon looked serious. “No, actually. You’re right, we should clean up. But I want the next time to be right and complete, Maggie. Not against the wall or on the floor, but in this awesome bed, where we can fall asleep afterward, safe in each other’s arms.” She swallowed hard against the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. “Okay. You go first.” She pointed to the bathroom door. “I’ll call in and make sure the others are okay.” “Thanks.” He kissed her, then groaned as he pulled himself off the bed. “I’m getting old.” “Not from where I’m sitting.” She grinned and winked when he strutted into the bathroom, then reached for the phone. “Where the hell are you?” Her boss didn’t wait for an answer. His bellow went on without a breath, but somehow she gleaned that he was furiously terrified that he’d lost the whole team when they hadn’t been reachable for hours past their check-in time. When he wound down, she asked about the others. Her reaming had just finished when Devon came out of the steamy bathroom. “They call in?” He sounded casual, but she could see the tension in 41

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his jaw and the skin next to his eyes. “Yes, everyone’s accounted for. Liana got her information and an extraction team picked them all up half an hour ago.” “Casualties?” “King got some burns from the fireworks.” She cringed. “That was my fault. I should have thought—” “Stop, Mags. Neither of us was in our right mind tonight. Everyone’s going to be okay, that’s all that matters.” He swallowed hard. “Get your shower. I can’t wait much longer.” She wanted to take a fast shower, but made herself go slow, shaving and conditioning and then moisturizing after she dried off. She wanted to be soft and smooth and smell nice, something she had never in her life cared about before. She must be in love. “Dammit.” She’d avoided that word as much as possible all night, but now, with the sunlight pouring through her high windows and filling the room with a golden glow—giving Devon that same golden glow—she couldn’t deny it. The bonding was only a magical manifestation of something her heart had already known. He had pulled back the covers and stacked the pillows and lay against them, one arm outstretched toward her. She stepped forward and let her towel fall to the floor. Water dropped off the ends of her hair, trickling over her breasts and down her abdomen. Her nipples peaked from the cold, but Devon’s gaze didn’t leave her face. Something warm moved through her, and it wasn’t elemental energy. It was much more basic and human. This guy loved her. It wasn’t just about sex, and she didn’t need the bonding to know that, now that she could see the way he looked at her. She moved slowly to the bed, all reservations and concerns gone. Even the haze she’d been in for the last two hours had faded. She was ready for reinforcement. *

* 42

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As Maggie walked toward him, Devon felt all the tension seep out of him. It had started in the shower, surrounded by her scent, her habits. He’d begun to feel as comfortable as he felt in his own place, though he hadn’t been sappy enough to call it home. The tension had returned when he left the bathroom and saw her on the phone. Worry over their teammates and guilt for leaving them had temporarily overwhelmed everything else, and relief that everyone was okay was immediately replaced by need again. Now, though, certainty was all he felt. That, and the kind of love no one ever believes in until it happens. Maggie lay down on the bed and he immediately rolled over her. Anyone else would have needed foreplay, tender touches, murmured reassurances. But in reinforcement, especially when delayed after the compulsion had started, no preparation was necessary. He could feel her heat and moisture as she parted her legs and welcomed him. He threaded his fingers through hers and they clutched tightly, gazes locked, as he slid into her. Maggie hummed in the back of her throat, and Devon felt an answering echo in his chest. No words were necessary this time, only the smooth rhythm of their loving. Their magic swirled together, opening channels so each knew what the other felt. A tear spilled down Maggie’s cheek, and without shame, Devon let his own fall as they became irrevocably one.

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NATALIE J. DAMSCHRODER Natalie J. Damschroder became a writer the hard way—by avoiding it. Though she wrote her first book at age five (appropriately titled, My Very First Book) and received accolades for her academic writing (Ruth Davies Award for Excellence in Writing for a paper on deforestation her senior year in college), she hated doing it. Colonial food and the habits of the European Starling just weren’t her thing. Shortly after graduating from college, however, she found her niche— romantic fiction. After an internship with the National Geographic Society, customer service for a phone company just wasn’t that exciting. So she began learning how to write the books she’d loved to read all her life. Four books and six years later, she finally sold. Now she struggles to balance her frenetic writing life (how else can she get all the stories in her head on paper?) with her family, the most supportive husband in the world and two beautiful, intelligent, stubborn, independent daughters (one of whom has already declared her desire to be a writer, too). She somehow also fits in a day job and various volunteer positions in and out of the writing industry. More can be found at www.nataliedamschroder.com. *

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