Page 122

Not quite one year later

Sorsha

It was never a bad idea to blow off some steam before a heist. You wanted to go into the operation with a clear head and absolute focus. And, lucky me, I now had four sexy shadowkind to contribute to the blowing and the steaming—generally by indulging in all the fun and thrilling ways our bodies could come together.

I’d never get tired of the way Omen’s breath broke when I slicked my tongue around his cock, I guarantee. The hellhound shifter’s brimstone scent laced his nether regions with a sharper smoky tang that was nearly as delicious as hearing him come apart under my attentions.

More delicious still? The tingling pulses of pleasure that shot through me with each stroke of Thorn’s tongue over my clit, alongside Snap driving into me from behind, hitting the perfect spot of bliss every time.

Thorn lapped harder, and I gasped over Omen’s erection, a quiver running through my body. The hellhound shifter growled at the loss of contact, his fingers tightening in my hair. I smiled and pressed my lips around his length again, and he thanked me with a groan and the teasing of his tail across one already stiffened nipple.

Snap dipped his head to flick his forked tongue against my spine. Thorn squeezed my ass with a scrape of his hardened knuckles that I’d discovered sparked their own bonus thrill, and at the devourer’s next thrust, the final wave of ecstasy sent me soaring.

I sucked Omen down, determined to bring him with me. A groan reverberated out of him as he gushed smoky heat into my mouth. I swallowed gleefully and clutched on to him as Snap sped up. The devourer finished with a swift plunge that sent me cartwheeling over the edge all over again.

As we sagged together into a sated tangle of bodies, I glanced up at Ruse, who’d chosen to stick to watching this time. He met my questioning gaze with a smirk and a heated glint in his eyes.

“That was quite the show,” he said.

I grinned back at him. “As long as you don’t feel left out.”

“It isn’t as if I haven’t gotten plenty of mine before. And I’m calling dibs on the bed tonight.”

“ My peach,” Snap murmured in protest, slinging his slim arm around one of my legs.

If he could have, the devourer would have cuddled up with me every night, but as impressive as the Everymobile was, this bed was barely big enough for two bodies to sleep next to each other. When one of those bodies was Thorn’s, it was barely big enough for one. My lovers had come up with some sort of schedule of fairness in which they switched off who got snuggle benefits, other than the occasional night when I wanted my space and kicked out the whole bunch of them.

Omen chuckled, his tail still tracing lazy lines over my ribs. “The next time we have an opportunity to barter for some magical renovations, we should see about having this room—and its furniture—expanded.”

I wouldn’t have thought he would ever be one to complain about missed opportunities to cozy up to me, but the hellhound shifter had proven unexpectedly cuddle-happy—possibly even to his own surprise. The nights he spent with me, he always started out on the far side of the bed, only a hand resting against my shoulder or curled around my wrist. Then I’d wake up to find myself tucked against him from head to toe, wrapped in his limbs and our matching fiery heat.

The first time it’d happened was the only time I’d swear I saw him actually blush, but the sheet-scorching sex we’d had afterward seemed to have reassured him that what his body got up to when he let it sleep wasn’t so bad.

“Sounds good to me,” I said, and squirmed around to get up. Thorn grasped my elbow to help, and I leaned over to give him a quick kiss.

“Are you sure you want to charge ahead with this mission tonight?” Ruse asked. “It is your birthday. The creatures can survive in their cages another day.”

I wagged a finger at him. “How selfish would I be to leave them to another day of torment at this collector’s hands when I can celebrate just as easily tomorrow? We’re here now. You can carry out whatever grand plans you’ve been putting together once we’ve taught this asshole a lesson.”

“Well spoken, m’lady,” Thorn said with one of his rare smiles that it still made me giddy to see on his stern face.

“Thank you.” I grabbed a robe to maintain a little modesty around our RV-mates. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to skip my shower. I’ll be a clean cat burglar.”

“A little dip into the shadows would accomplish the same thing,” Omen reminded me with a teasing note in his voice.

Technically he was right. With some trial and error, we’d determined that I could meld with darkness like a full shadowkind, although I still didn’t enjoy the clammy sensation that came with it, and I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of jumping from one patch to another yet. Still, my answer was the same as always. “Some things are better enjoyed in a physical body—as I’m sure you know.” I let my gaze trail down his naked form in all its muscular glory.

“And thank all things dark for that,” Ruse said.

As I reached for the door, Snap made a soft noise in his throat. “We should still—on her real birthday?—”

When I glanced back, he was shooting a meaningful glance around at the other men. Thorn had set his face into an expression that seemed designed to indicate he had no idea what the devourer was talking about, but so obviously it had the opposite effect. Ruse’s smirk widened.

Omen rolled his eyes and prodded Snap in the ribs with his heel. “Let her take her shower first. There’ll be time.”

Time for some kind of shadowkind surprise? Intriguing. I’d better make this shower a fast one.

Of course, that was easier said than done in our current accommodations. The sylph who’d conducted our initial renovations in gratitude for getting her out of the Company’s clutches had possessed an aptitude for airiness but not for plumbing, and the beings who’d attempted to pitch in since then had only partly solved the Everymobile’s quirks. Any time I turned on the shower, I had a fifty-percent chance of first getting pelted with hot cocoa, sesame oil, or a rainbow of tiny gumdrops. And every now and then, even after I got the water to start, it turned into a dust shower partway through.

Today I received a gulp of coffee and a mouthful of gumdrops—both caught in the mug I kept on hand for such occasions, because why not make the best of it?—before the showerhead resigned itself to a spray of standard water.

I washed quickly, keeping an ear out for the faint hissing sound that usually warned of impending dust, and then pulled on my standard burglar gear. My tastes hadn’t changed in that department: all black all over, though I wasn’t bothering with my hat yet. And I didn’t need a scorch-knife anymore now that I could melt metal by force of will alone.

As I stepped into the hall, giving my hair one last rub of the towel, Vivi emerged from the RV’s new upstairs, which was the main result of the sylph’s help. The Everymobile didn’t look any taller from the outside, but inside, a narrow spiral staircase beside the bathroom now led to a loft bedroom.

Vivi’s eyebrows leapt up, an eager gleam coming into her eyes. “Is it time to get started already?”

I poked her in the arm playfully. “It’s only just getting dark. We go by cover of night, remember?”

She bobbed on her feet in a gesture so like Antic I reminded myself I shouldn’t be surprised she and the imp got along well. “Right, right. I still get so pumped up even though I’m not the one going out there!”

The destruction of the Company of Light hadn’t rid the world of independent hunters and collectors. When my quartet of shadowkind and I had decided to take the Everymobile on tour as a sort of traveling Shadowkind Defense Fund, I’d known I had to invite my bestie.

It was hard to put any stake in the doubts I’d once had about whether Vivi would accept my less-than-legal hobbies after the way she’d pitched in against the Company—and all the other things she’d accepted about me. So, we’d arranged an extra bedroom for her, and she was getting the adventure she’d always dreamed of, coordinating with our various contacts, monitoring security systems, and doing reconnaissance whenever we needed someone who could pull off “normal” better than the rest of us.

She was clearly having the time of her life. I was sure it didn’t hurt that she and Cori had started getting awfully chummy during his regular visits mortal-side.

Antic herself dashed past us then, giggling as she sprinted after Pickle in a game of hall tag. The little dragon appeared to have prompted it by stealing one of the jelly bracelets the imp had stolen from a tween fashion stall in a mall several cities ago. Pickle waved it at me from his jaws with a puff of smoke and dove past us into one of the kitchen cupboards.

Vivi laughed. “Always an exciting time around here.”

I nudged her with my elbow. “I’ll let you know when it’s about to get even more exciting.”

I stepped back into my bedroom to find all four of my lovers crammed along the edge of the bed, back in their clothes, with an air of anticipation that made my skin twitch. Were they nervous or just eager about whatever they were up to—or maybe a little of both?

Snap jumped up, beaming bright, apparently the ringleader of this particular venture. “We have something for you,” he announced, and held out his hand to take mine.

It’d never been easy for me to deny the devourer, and I had no interest in doing so now. I reached for him, but rather than twining his fingers through mine, he gently folded them all toward my palm except my index finger. In his other hand, he produced a glinting band that he slid down my finger to the root.

The ring was delicate, so light I could barely feel its weight, rose and white gold woven together in a vine-like pattern. “It’s beautiful,” I said, meaning it even if I didn’t totally understand what had sparked this fervor for jewelry.

Ruse had gotten up too. He took my hand from Snap and eased a ring of his own down my middle finger, equally light but this one with a pattern that looked like merging waves. I stared down at the two rings side by side, a fizzy feeling collecting in my stomach.

Before I could say anything, Thorn loomed over me. His broad fingers clasped mine less deftly but with just as much affection as the other two. The band he fit onto my ring finger shone with the same contrasting metals in an intricate spiral.

As Omen stood, the fizzing sensation welled into my chest. The hellhound shifter lifted my hand and guided a final ring over my pinkie. The strands of rose and white gold merged together like flames.

Snap touched my shoulder, leaning in to nuzzle my hair. “You told me before that humans give each other rings to show their highest form of commitment. When they want to be with only that person and no one else, always.”

“Not that we haven’t made our devotion to you awfully clear, Miss Blaze,” Ruse added. “But our devourer here felt a concrete token was in order, and the rest of us could see his point.”

Thorn rested his hand on my back and ran his thumb up and down with a stroke of warmth. “Obviously we wouldn’t require that you wear them, especially when they might interfere with your endeavours. I must say it’s pleasing to see them all together like this on your lovely hand, though.”

I raised my eyes to meet Omen’s. Maybe there wasn’t any literal magic in this gesture, but it was a symbolic binding, one I could feel in the fizzing sensation that had now spread through my whole body. It’d been less than a year since the hellhound shifter had sensed the official severing of his deal with the Highest—no acknowledgment from them, just a sudden falling away of their hold that had made him jump up with a joyfully relieved cry he hadn’t been able to restrain.

Less than a year since he’d won the freedom he’d lost for centuries.

“And you’re ready to commit too, are you?” I said.

All it would have taken was for him to shrug it off or make some disparaging remark, and he could have shattered any meaning the ring contained. Instead, he gazed right back at me, a hint of a smile playing with his lips. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, Disaster. Be glad I went subtle—I could have pulled out the chains again.”

Any tension to the giddiness inside me broke with that joke. I knuckled his chest, unable to contain a huge smile of my own. “Hey, chains have their place. Just as long as you don’t mind that you ended up with the little finger.”

Omen tapped Thorn and Snap on either side of him, both of them standing half a foot taller than the shifter’s well-built frame. “I think I’ve amply proven that smaller isn’t necessarily lesser.”

“Hey!” Snap said.

The wingéd let out a rumbling chuckle, and a second later we were all laughing. I closed my hand, admiring my rings shimmering next to each other and reveling in the warmth from the larger circle formed by my lovers around me.

“Thank you. You picked them well. I don’t think they’ll get in the way under my gloves.” I tugged my lovers one by one into a kiss. “That’s to hold you over until I can return the gesture, which you’d better believe I will. Here’s to some good thieving tonight!”

“Scouting complete!” Gisele hollered from where she must have just emerged in the RV’s main room, her melodic voice carrying through the wall. “Who’s ready to take this prick down?”

As the equines and Flint shared their observations and we discussed our final strategy, I gathered all my gear. Tonight’s target was a prick supreme—not just a collector but a hunter as well, keeping the rarest of his catches while selling the others. I was looking forward to sending that mansion of his up in flames. And the trinkets I pilfered would let us enjoy all our other indulgences while paying those who deserved it.

When the street was fully dark beyond the windows, we set off with a wave good-bye and a “Ditto!” to Vivi. I slunk through the night, melding with the shadows nearly as well as my companions did.

They might be invisible, but I felt their presence all around me, their goals and their love entwined with mine like the metals on the rings they’d chosen. Tomorrow, we’d celebrate the start of the next year in my life. Tonight, we were meting out justice for those who couldn’t claim it on their own.

Just call me the Robin Hood of monster emancipation. And now that I had my band of merry men, our future together would be both legendary and endless.

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