Page 21 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

HEMLOCK

A crash jolts me out of sleep, and I’m moving toward Orina’s room even before I’m fully awake. I throw open the door and freeze as my brain attempts to comprehend what I’m seeing.

Ezekiel is on the ground with Orina on top of him, dagger clasped in her hands, its tip a few inches from his heart as he attempts to hold her off.

But he won’t be able to for long.

Her rage can nullify his power. It weakens him. It momentarily makes him mortal.

That is the curse.

Like this, she’s almost unstoppable.

Almost.

I run and tackle her, throwing her off Ezekiel. “ Go! Get out! Now!”

He’s smart enough not to argue and mists to shadow before vanishing out of the window.

I manage to knock the dagger under the bed and pin Orina to the floor. She thrashes and tries to buck me off, her face contorted with rage, her eyes dark with Loviator’s poison.

“No! No! Enough!” I crush my mouth to hers hard enough to taste blood and pin her to the floor with my body. She thrashes and growls, wild with untamed rage. She rakes at me with her nails, cutting a burning path across my shoulders, and I’m immediately painfully hard.

I pull my mouth free and flip her onto her front so her ass is at my crotch, then pin her wrists above her head with one hand, leaving the other free to brace her hip. “Calm the fuck down.”

“Fuck you. Fuck you. You want this. You want me like this, don’t you? I bet you get off on it. I bet you?—”

I shove my hand down the front of her waistband and cup her pussy. She hisses and bucks against me, and fuck she’s wet. I thrust against her ass and work her at the same time, but it’s not enough. I can feel her rage surging again as if we’re fucking connected. As if she’s a radio and I’m the receiver.

Shit.

I turn her to face me and kiss her again, crushing her to me and stealing her breath. Hands free, she claws and scratches, pulling me closer and pushing me away at the same time. My heart expands, echoing the fury rushing through her. I grip her throat and squeeze, and she gasps, eyes rolling as the fury ebbs a little.

“Dammit, Orina, fight it.”

She focuses on me through tears of wrath and frustration. “I need…I need you…” She sounds torn and conflicted and desperate. And I know what she’s asking. What she needs. Loviator’s signature cocktail of pleasure and pain is the only thing that will soothe the beast, and oh God, I want to give it to her.

Bury myself deep in her and come so hard I see stars, but I can’t. I?—

She grabs me through my jeans and squeezes my length.

A strangled groan leaves my lips as a wave of darkness fills my mind, and my body reacts like a moth to a flame.

My control snaps.

I tear at her clothes, and she tears back. The world is a hazy, faraway thing, and there’s only us. The heat of skin and taste of salt. Her juices on my fingers isn’t enough. I slide down and punish her with my mouth, ignoring her wicked cries as I pinch her thighs and suck on her clit until I’m sure my cock will explode because she tastes like peaches. I want her all over my face.

She rakes my scalp with her nails, burning me, and somehow we’re tangled and half naked, and it still isn’t enough. She sobs in desperate frustration, begging me to fuck her. Over and over.

But this isn’t her.

This is the darkness.

This is Loviator’s influence, and if I succumb, if I give her what she’s asking for now, she’ll regret it.

She’ll regret me.

I pin her to me, my chest to her back, and hold firm while she writhes and sobs.

“Hush, let me…let me help.” I touch her, rubbing and sliding and thrusting with my fingers until she’s thrusting back, and my cock is nestled between her ass cheeks and fuck…Fuck me.

We come together, bodies vibrating with the aftershocks of climax.

She relaxes in my arms, increment by increment, and the darkness is gone.

She’s back.

We lie there amidst the ruins of our boundaries and the mess of climax.

I should say something, but my mind is blank, my heart pounding against her spine with such force I’m sure it will bruise her.

Finally, she moves, shifting her body in a way that tells me she wants me to let go.

So I do.

I let go and watch her scramble away to the bathroom and close the door.

What have I done?

ORINA

My eyes were bright. Lips swollen and bruised. There was crusted blood on them too. My arms ached, my throat hurt, and I had bruises on my wrists from how hard Hemlock had held me, and it felt…fucking awesome.

I was so messed up.

My body sang with sensation. Every inch of me alive from Hemlock’s brutal touch. But it was a touch I’d forced from him. Begged him to give me, leaving him little choice.

Fuck…I’d torn off his clothes.

I covered my face and stifled a scream.

I hated this. Hated the darkness and what it turned me into. Hated Loviator and what she was doing to me.

Breathe, Orina. Just wash up and head out there and talk to Hemlock. Just apologize.

He was attracted to me, I knew that much, but that didn’t mean he wanted to fuck me. I’d forced his hand tonight, and I owed him an apology.

I stepped into the shower and washed quickly before tugging on my bathrobe and heading back into the bedroom, which was awash with the first gray light of dawn.

But the bedroom was empty .

Hemlock was gone.

I stared at my phone as my freshly brewed coffee grew cold.

I should call Hemlock. I’d sent a text asking if he was all right and had gotten nothing back, but that made sense if he’d gone to the castle in Old Town where phones didn’t work. And then there was Ezekiel…What had he been thinking coming to the apartment? No, that was my fault. Hemlock had warned me about telling him what happened, and I’d gone one step further and shown him.

God, this was such a mess.

I’d talk to Ezekiel tonight, but when would I get to talk to Hemlock? We needed to clear the air. But what would I say? Sorry I begged you to finger-fuck me?

No. Urgh.

My phone buzzed, and Ordell’s name flashed on caller ID.

My stomach hollowed with guilt. Ordell and I weren’t exclusive, I mean I’d been dating Kaster when we got together, and he knew how I felt about Ezekiel and Lorenzo, but we’d never spoken about Hemlock. I had to tell him what we’d done.

I answered, “Hey.”

“Are you all right?” he asked .

No surprise that I was back…Wait, he didn’t know I was back, so the fact he was calling meant?—

“Hemlock told me what happened,” he said.

“Oh…” But what had he told him? About the Isle or about our almost naked wrestling. “What did he say?”

He sighed heavily. “You were taken by darkness, and he helped you come back.”

“Did he…did he tell you how he…er…helped?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re not mad?”

“Do you feel violated, Orina?”

“What? No!”

He exhaled. “Then I’m not mad. It seems that the rage has a cure, and that cure is Hemlock. He can feel your wrath and temper it, which gives us an advantage that we must use.” He made a gruff sound of annoyance. “I wish the tempering could come from me, but…We should take what we can get. I did feel something, though. Around the time your darkness hit. An awful clenching in my gut accompanied by a swell of foreboding. It woke me at around four this morning. I thought it was something to do with the kids, but I checked on them, and they were fine. The feeling passed, and I went back to bed, and…I should have realized it was you. I’ve just never had a mate, well, not one that lived. And the beast…I keep him buried so deep that I?—”

“It’s all right. I’m all right.” He didn’t need to explain it to me. To dive deep into that part of himself that he abhorred. “And it’s not the connection to the beast that makes me love you. That part is just a necessity.”

“I know, but I need to pay attention, especially if it can warn me if you’re in trouble.”

“Please don’t do anything that might give it more control over you.”

“I promise I’ll be careful if you promise to use Hemlock whenever you need to quell the darkness.”

“It sounds awful when you say use .”

“You know what I mean.”

To let him touch me. Fuck me even? I didn’t want to think about it right now. Hemlock and I…it was complicated. At least it felt that way. Heck, everything was complicated and would stay that way until the curse ended. “I wish Hemlock had stayed so we could talk about it.”

“I told him the same when he called,” Ordell said. “But he felt you could do with some privacy after…well, after.”

So he wasn’t upset with me? The knot in my belly eased. “I’ll speak to him the next time I see him.”

“Good. He also told me what happened on the Isle.” There was a growl to his tone now. “I assume that’s why Ezekiel showed up?”

“I didn’t tell Ezekiel, but the memory just appeared in our vista.”

“The witches will pay,” Ordell said. “Believe that. ”

I didn’t have the energy to argue with him about it as well. “I just want to forget it happened.”

He exhaled down the phone. “Come here and stay with me.”

“What?”

“I have the triplets for another day and night while Bella and Dash are away. You should come stay at the house with us.”

The clouds outside parted, and sunshine bathed the kitchen island.

“Yes, I’d love that.”

“We can come pick you up.”

“No, I’ll get a taxi after work.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me either.”

A comfortable silence settled between us, and I heard one of the triplets in the background calling for Ordell.

“I’ve got to go,” he said. “But I’ll see you tonight.”

We hung up, and I drained my cold coffee.

Today would be a great day.