Page 29

CHAPTER 29

C ece sipped at the coffee and grimaced at the bitter, stale taste. Christ, she’d hoped the coffee in the hospital cafeteria would be better than the stuff from the machine, but it tasted the same.

With a sigh, she left the cafeteria, sipping the coffee again despite its taste. Bren and Jonah had been gone for nearly two hours, and neither had replied to her texts or calls.

She stopped in the middle of the hallway to dig her phone out of her pocket. Staring at her screen, she scrolled to Bren’s number as she walked toward the elevator. She grunted when she ran into a hard wall of flesh and hissed out an expletive when hot coffee sloshed from the hole in the lid and landed on her hand.

She wiped it away before saying, “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going and I….”

Her voice died in her throat as she looked up, then up some more, at the absolute giant of a blond man she had bumped into. He had to be a bear shifter. Probably a grizzly shifter. He was over seven feet tall, and…holy shit, there were two of them. A dark-haired man who rivaled the blond in size stood beside him, and while the blond gave her a brief, disinterested look before turning away, the dark-haired one let his gaze linger first on her tits and then her hips.

She flushed bright red, butterflies bursting to life in her stomach as he studied her face before moving up to her hair. She resisted the urge to touch her hair. She knew what it looked like - she’d shoved it into a messy bun on top of her head and ran out the door after she’d read Jonah’s texts. On some girls, a messy bun looked adorable. On Cece, it just looked like she hadn’t brushed her hair in a week.

“Let’s go,” the blond man said. “They’re waiting for us.”

The dark-haired man grunted and gave Cece’s breasts one final glance before walking away with his friend. Those butterflies still swooping and dipping in her stomach, Cece trailed behind them.

“Once we have her, we’ll take her down the back stairwell and out the service entrance at the back. It’s quieter and less busy this time of night,” the blond one said in a low voice as he pushed the button for the elevator.

The dark-haired man nodded. “He’ll be waiting for us in the parking lot?”

“Yeah,” his blond friend said.

The elevators opened with a soft ding, and they stepped inside, both grunting in surprise when they turned and saw Cece behind them. Before she could step into the elevator, the dark-haired man held out his hand to block her and said, “This one is full. Grab the next one.”

He pushed the close button as Cece glared at him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she muttered as the doors closed.

She jabbed her finger on the elevator button, glancing at her phone and debating whether to try Jonah again. The elevator doors across the hallway opened, and she hurried across the hallway and stepped inside.

When the doors opened on the ICU floor, she tucked her phone into her pocket and headed toward Elora’s room.

“Baby, I’m telling you, we’re on the wrong floor! They ain’t gonna fix my busted nose in the ICU.”

Cece slowed to a stop, cocking her head and staring at the large man with blood all over his face and the tiny woman standing in front of the nurses’ desk. They looked oddly familiar, and after a moment, she placed them. They’d come to Elora’s apartment looking for an amnesia spell to be broken. He was a bear shifter, and she was a bunny shifter. Judd and, oh crap, what was her name again? Cori…no… Tori. Her name was Tori.

“Your boyfriend is right.” Gretchen stood beside them, looking exasperated as hell as the other nurses at the desk watched in amusement. “You need to go back downstairs to emergency. They’ll help him there.”

Cece blinked in surprise as she watched the two giant-sized men from downstairs step out of a side hallway and slip into Elora’s room. What the fuck were they doing in there?

“There’s, like, sick people everywhere down there,” Tori spoke with a valley girl accent that sounded nothing like her speaking voice at Elora’s. “It’s, like, so gross.”

“It’s a hospital, ma’am,” Gretchen said. She studied Judd, who was bleeding heavily from his nose. “Go back downstairs to emergency, and they’ll look after you. We can’t do anything here for you. How did you break it anyway?”

“She broke it!” Judd jabbed his thumb at Tori.

“You shouldn’t have, like, slept with my cousin then, asshole,” Tori said.

“Oh my God,” one of the nurses said. “You slept with her cousin?”

“Lana,” Gretchen said with a scowl. “Don’t engage.”

“He totally slept with my cousin,” Tori said with an exaggerated pout.

“Baby, I told you, it was an accident.” Judd’s voice was nasally from his broken nose.

The men from the elevator stepped out of Elora’s room. Cece’s gaze widened when she saw Elora in the blond one’s arms.

“Hey!” She started forward. “Hey, they’ve got -”

“An accident?” Tori screeched at the top of her lungs, drowning out Cece’s voice. “Your dick did not accidentally fall into my cousin!”

She stomped on Judd’s foot before kneeing him in the stomach. Judd bellowed a curse, shaking his head wildly as blood flew from his broken nose and splattered across Gretchen, the nurses’ desk, and several of the other nurses.

“For the love of God,” Gretchen sighed as Tori jumped on Judd’s back, wrapped one arm around his thick neck and tried to choke him.

The nurses screamed, and even the unflappable Gretchen took a step back when Judd growled and fur sprouted on his face.

“If you shift in here, I’ll call security!” Gretchen snapped. “Both of you stop it right now!”

Cece watched in dismay as the two men disappeared into the stairwell at the far end of the hall. She stared at Judd and Tori, tussling in the hallway as Gretchen shouted at them, before Cece dropped her coffee, turned, and bolted toward the stairwell at the other end of the hallway.

* * *

Her lungs screaming for air, Cece burst out of the hospital’s back entrance. She scanned the area wildly, looking for any sign of the two men and Elora.

“No, God, please no,” she muttered as she ran down the sidewalk toward the dimly lit parking lot. Slender birch trees and a few of the old-fashioned lamp posts that were so popular in style lined the sidewalk. The lamps glowed with a dull yellow light as Cece tried not to slip on the icy sidewalk.

The hospital door opened behind her, and she instinctively darted off the sidewalk to hide in the shadow of an enormous pine tree. The two men stepped onto the sidewalk, Elora hanging limply in the blond one’s arms.

As they started down the sidewalk, Cece took a deep breath and stepped out from under the pine tree.

“I don’t know who the hell you are, but take my friend back to her hospital room right now.” Cece stood in front of the massive men. Could they tell she was terrified? Probably.

The men stopped beside one of the birch trees, staring silently at her. The dark-haired one glanced at the blond before sniffing in her direction. “She’s only human.”

The blond shifted Elora in his arms. “If she’s your friend, then you‘ll let us leave with her. We’re trying to help her.”

“Bullshit,” she spat. Her fear had spiked her magic, and it flowed hot and wild in her veins. She clenched her hands into fists as the birch tree’s slender branches shivered and bent toward the two shifters.

“We don’t have time for this,” the dark-haired one said impatiently. “Your friend is dying. Move, little human, or I’ll make you move.”

“Fuck you,” she snapped. “Take my friend back into the hospital, or I’ll make you wish you were dying.”

A grin crossed the blond one’s face. “She’s got balls for a human, Briggs.”

Briggs snorted. “Or no brains.”

“Did you just call me stupid?” Cece said. The magic snapped and sparked in her veins, and it felt good. It felt… right.

The thin birch branches slithered closer to Briggs, and he grunted in surprise when they wound around his arms and his thighs. He studied them before staring at the blond man. “Witch?”

The blond nodded. “Definitely a witch.”

Briggs turned back to Cece as the branches wound tighter across his thick biceps and massive thighs. “Walk away, little witch.”

“When your oaf friend returns Elora to the hospital, I’ll release you. Until then…” She flicked her hand, and another branch slid around Briggs’ thick neck. It tightened, and Briggs rolled his eyes.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “Hudson, let’s go.”

He flexed his arms, snapping the thin branches around them like rubber bands before grabbing the branch around his neck and tearing it in two. He stepped forward, his thigh muscles bulging, and the branches around them tightened before giving way like the others.

Well, shit. He had to be a bear shifter for sure… they were the most powerful of shifters.

Maybe he’s a dragon shifter. Maybe you’re about to get burned to a crisp.

She staved off the hot fear that wanted to appear. He had no streaks of colour in his hair that all dragons had.

He could dye it, Cece! For fuck’s sake, both you and Elora are about to be dead.

“Stay back!” Cece demanded, her trembling limbs and voice betraying her fear as Briggs stomped toward her.

Before she could react or even stumble away, his big hands spanned her waist, and he lifted her. Cece gasped as her magic became a bright, glorious green fire. Her back arched as the addictive power sizzled through her. Green light erupted from her hands, and the enormous pine tree beside them made a creaking groan.

“What the fuck?” Briggs said when its thick branches shot toward them. The branches wrapped around them both, lifting them off their feet and dragging them toward the trunk. Briggs twisted in the tight grip, somehow turning enough to protect Cece by taking the force of the impact against his left shoulder and hip as they slammed into the tree trunk hard enough to make him grunt and wince.

The tree’s needles poked Cece’s face and body as she stared wide-eyed at Briggs. The branches weaved together in a circle around them until the branches and needles were so thick and dense they hid them from Hudson and the rest of the world.

She stared in mute surprise at Briggs’ grim face as he studied the tightly interwoven branches. “Let me go,” he said.

“This isn’t me,” she said.

He scowled. “The fuck it isn’t.”

“It isn’t,” she said.

He growled at her, and her anxiety flashed hot and bright within her. The shifter would kill her if she didn’t do something. He’d rip out her throat and drink her blood.

Her magic flared, the beautiful green light within her obliterating her fear. The branches groaned, creaked, and tightened around them, pressing her against Briggs’ hard body.

“Stop, little witch!” Briggs shouted as the branches squeezed harder. “You’ll crush us both.”

She should stop. She needed to stop. But she had never felt her magic so strongly before, and it was magnificent, exquisite… sublime.

She fixed her gaze on the man she was pressed so intimately against in their cocoon of rough branches and sharp pine needles. His broad chest, those pretty blue eyes, and the angular jawline didn’t send just magic rushing through her veins.

Arousal mixed in with the magic, the two twining together until she didn’t know which she wanted more. That heady rush of power or the man before her.

She cocked her head and studied his lips. “You’re so pretty,” she said as the magic flared through her, pulsing and demanding its freedom.

Branches wrapped around his arms, too thick for him to break. They pulled his arms away from her body and lashed him to the tree trunk. Despite that, he stared at her without even a hint of fear in those blue eyes as she bent her head toward him. She had to kiss him. She needed to kiss him. She would go mad if she didn’t.

Cece, no! He doesn’t want this and can’t stop you, not with your magic.

His body swelled as a deep growl in his chest vibrated the air around him. The branches that lashed him to the tree creaked and groaned, and she heard the ripping sound as his jacket tore across his shoulders. He was starting to shift, and if she wanted her kiss, she needed to do it now.

She pressed her mouth against his firm lips, and the magic within her hummed its approval. The man before her was the key to her magic.

Take him. Fuck him. Claim him.

She pulled back, staring wide-eyed at him. He was no longer on the verge of shifting, but his big chest heaved for air, and she could feel something hard and insistent pressing against her belly. He returned her look, his pupils blown completely wide as he licked his lips. With a low groan, he kissed her this time, his mouth demanding and insistent, his tongue pushing at her lips. She parted them and welcomed his tongue into the wet heat of her mouth.

Bright magic flared within her, and she moaned at the perfectness of it, the hard demand of his mouth, the soft caress of his tongue. He was hers, and she was his, and her magic hummed through them as images of soft carpets of green grass, wavering meadows of daisies, and forests of towering trees covered in ancient moss flickered through Cece’s head.

Briggs’ kisses were everything she’d ever wanted, and she didn’t care that he was a stranger. The cold air heated around them , and a clump of snow that clung tenuously to a branch fell on Briggs’ shoulder with a soft flump.

She needed him inside of her, needed what would undoubtedly be a thick cock spearing into her over and over until that sudden ravenous ache deep between her legs was finally satisfied. Until he gave her what she needed to turn her puny attempts at magic into something so real and powerful that the whole world trembled before her.

The branches shivered against their bodies and loosened just enough for Cece to shove her hands between them and work at Briggs’ belt. The branches slid back and released his arms, and with a low growl, he immediately tugged at the button of Cece’s jeans. White hair threaded through the dark stubble on his jaw, and she could see fangs peeking out from between his perfect lips.

She unbuckled his belt, her trembling fingers working hard to unbutton his pants. He raked down her zipper and nipped her jaw before kissing his way to her ear. “Do you want to be fucked, little witch?”

“Yes,” she moaned. “Yes, fuck me.”

Green light glowed brightly in their cocoon of needles and branches, turning the snow at their feet an eerie green colour. The magic pulsed between them, and Briggs gave her a dazed look that sent tendrils of unease skittering up her spine. She was doing this to him with her magic. He wanted her only because her magic commanded he did.

The light dimmed, and her magic receded as the branches trembled lightly. Common sense made an appearance as the horror and, yes, disgust that she was using her magic this way spiked in her brain.

This was wrong.

This was dark magic.

Nothing that felt this good could be allowed.

“Wait,” she gasped, “we can’t -”

His mouth slammed down on hers, his tongue thrusting deep into her mouth as he cupped her pussy through her jeans and squeezed tight. The magic blasted through her body, and the all-encompassing need to make this man hers sang a siren call she couldn’t resist.

Through the thick branches surrounding them, she could hear someone calling her name, calling Briggs’ name, but it was muffled and unimportant. Nothing mattered but getting Briggs’ cock into her immediately.

Fresh hot lust with just the tiniest hint of fear pulsed through her when he grabbed her hand and pressed it against the thick ridge of his cock.

“Gonna fuck your sweet little pussy,” he growled into her ear. “Gonna fill you up with my cock, make you scream my name when you come, make your magic change the fucking world.”

Yes.

Oh, fuck yes .

He growled again and shoved his hand inside her panties. She would fuck him right here, surrounded by Mother Earth as it was meant to be. She would fuck him, and when he came, when he gave her his seed, the seductive magic that flowed in her veins would finally do what she was born to do.

Elora is dying.

The errant thought flashed through her brain, and that heady rush of lust and magic disappeared in an instant. The light blinked out, and Briggs’ eyes cleared. He stared at her as the tree groaned and creaked, and the branches that sheltered and cocooned them eased back, shrinking to their former size and leaving Cece and Briggs standing exposed and silent beneath the pine tree.

“Holy fuck.” Hudson stood only a few feet away, Elora still in his arms. “What the fuck was that?”

Cece stared at Bren, who was standing beside Hudson. He had a look on his face that she couldn’t decipher, and while his gun wasn’t out, his leather jacket was pushed back, and his hand rested on the butt of his gun. “Cece,” he said, his voice carefully neutral, “step away from Briggs, please.”

She blinked at the slight tremor of nerves she heard in Bren’s voice before turning her gaze to Briggs. He stared at her before their gazes dropped simultaneously to where his hand was shoved deep into her pants. His fingers cupped her bare pussy, and she stumbled back as he muttered a curse and yanked his hand out of her pants.

She was mortified to see the wetness that coated his fingers and hurriedly zipped up her pants as, oh thank you, sweet Jesus , Briggs thrust his hand into his jacket pocket, hiding the evidence of Cece’s arousal from the others.

“Cece, what did you do?” Bren asked with that cautious tone still in his voice.

“I - I didn’t do anything,” she said. “That wasn’t… I mean, I don’t think… my magic isn’t that strong, Bren. I couldn’t have done this.”

He studied her before flipping his gaze to Briggs. “You good?”

“Fine,” Briggs growled. Giving Cece a wide berth, he moved past her and joined Hudson, buckling his belt and adjusting the prominent bulge at his crotch.

“We need to get her to the bird,” Hudson said to Bren. “I don’t think she has much time left.”

“I know,” Bren said.

“Why are they taking Elora?” Cece said, fresh fear overriding her shame. “Bren, she’s dying.”

“She is,” he said grimly. “But I can help her. We can save her, Cece. But I need to take her right now, and… you can’t come with us. I need you to trust that I’ll save her, okay?”

She swallowed hard, her gaze flickering to Elora’s too pale face and then back to Bren. “Do you promise?”

“I promise,” Bren said.

She nodded and folded her arms across her torso as Bren dropped his hand from his gun. “Go home, Cece. Come to Jonah’s place in a few hours, okay? I promise she’ll be there, and she’ll be… good.”