Page 74 of Winter Unleashed
“That reminds me. Why does my Alpha power wipe me out? Well… it happened only that one time.” I smiled as I accepted a glass of tea from Ciara.
“That was a side effect of Celeste’s spell,” Astrid explained. “You should feel tired but not so exhausted you lose consciousness.”
“I can’t wait to take care of her next.” I nibbled my lip as I thought about what would happen after we killed the ancient fairy.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked as he slid his arm around my waist.
“Just wondering what else lies in wait.” Liam’s touch was comforting, and I leaned into him. “After we got Stella figured out, it was Cybil. We lock Cybil up, now it’s Celeste. Who or what else is out there waiting behind Celeste?”
“The only thing waiting for you after her are your seats in Ulfurjord,” Astrid said. “Artemis can’t fill in for you two forever. It’s been long enough. She can’t handle it anymore.”
“Huh, so managing the supes is that stressful?” Cybil’s vampires, which I assumed had dropped dead when she had, weren’t the only vamps out there. “Are Cybil’s babies dead now? Who’s going to clean all that up? We can’t just leave random vampire bodies lying around.”
“Yes, Cybil’s vampires are dead, but they weren’t the only ones in the world,” Astrid said, reminding me Cybil hadn’t been the only ‘queen’ out there. It was another reminder of my impending Vinura duties.
Liam cleared his throat to pull our attention to him… and stop me from saying something I shouldn’t. “Vampire bodies don’t decompose the same way a shifter or a human body would. They’ll turn to dust before anyone notices them.”
“How did I not know that? What if they were in a public place?” The way the world worked it takes one human with a phone to film a decomposing vampire body. It’d go viral before you could say ‘bloodsucker’. Then we’d be spending our honeymoon as the Vinur and Vinura cleaning that shit up.
“It’ll be okay,” Liam said. “My men are on full alert. If there’s even a whisper of a human having seen anything out of the ordinary, they will take care of it before it goes too far.” He gave me a quick kiss. “Remember Stella televised shifters turning into wolves. We took care of that mess, and we can handle this.”
I pursed my lips and nodded. “That’s right. I forgot about that for a second,” I said, looking up at him. “You’ve been doing more Vinur stuff than I think anyone realizes.”
“Oh, Artemis realizes it, it’s just not enough for her.” He gave me another, not so quick kiss. “Cybil’s gone. Let’s take that win for tonight. We can worry about everything else tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe she’s finally gone,” I mumbled. “Why haven’t I been able to use my Vinura power? I could have taken her out the first time I saw her.” I had a strong suspicion even Celeste wouldn’t be able to block that power.
“You aren’t ready.” Astrid’s tone made it seem like it was a simple answer. “The mate bond had to take hold first, and you must be ready. Artemis made it so the power decides when its ready for use.”
I scoffed. Liam had said something similar. “Of course she did. Everything that leads back to the Fae is so twisted and odd.”
“We prefer eccentric,” the fairy said with a smile. “You two need to go home and rest up. You’ll need your full strength to go to Alfurgrund. It’s a nasty place.”
I yawned and put my glass down, and before we could even say goodbye to our friends, we popped up in our bedroom.
Liam took me into his arms and looked down at me with smoldering eyes. “Alone at last,” he said before touching his lips to mine.
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning, I woke up in Liam’s arms. When I opened my eyes to look at him, he was already staring back at me. I leaned in to touch my lips to his, deepening the kiss when he opened to me. I smoothed my hand over the side of his body to rest on his hip. His hand moved down my back to my bottom.
We caressed each other, stopping where we knew it would delight the other most. He massaged my breast while I trailed my finger over his ear then down his neck. He teased my nipple, and I ran my fingers along his inner thigh. His fingers found my center, lingering over my most sensitive flesh. I sighed as I shifted to open my legs for him. He inhaled when his fingers slid deep inside me. A moan escaped us both when I let my hand travel over his hard abdomen to glide over his erection.
After our fingers and hands left us both breathless, we stayed where we were, kissing and holding each other. When our need grew again, he moved to settle between my legs and slide himself inside me. Our lips never parted as we moved with each other. I wrapped my legs around his waist to pull him closer to me, deeper inside me and my hands went to his upper arms.
Feeling his muscles flex each time he thrust into me sent a bolt of desire to my core. That hard strength under smooth skin was intoxicating, and I couldn’t stop my hips from moving with his. The kiss grew more passionate, and we fell into a rhythm that soon had us both crying out our pleasure.
He held himself inside me as he nuzzled his nose in my neck. My hands drifted up and down his back as he pressed light kisses to my skin. I moaned when the warmth of his tongue ran over the spot right under my ear.
Neither of us spoke about what lie ahead of us. Everything we could say to each other we’d said the night before. We knew it would be dangerous and one or both of us could be hurt. We’d talked through every scenario we could imagine, including telling our friends we wanted them to stay home. There wasn’t a chance in hell they’d stay, but we had to try though. Celeste was dirty. She would kill any one of them without pause.
We still hadn’t spoken a word to each other as we got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Our friends were waiting for us and looked up expectantly as we entered the dining room.
We all silently nodded at each other. Then we sipped coffee and stared at the table in front of us for a long time.
“Ember and I want you all to stay here,” Liam said without preamble.
Four faces with identical looks turned to him at the same time. It would have been funny had the situation not been so serious.