Page 18 of Possess Me at Midnight (Doomsday Brethren #4)

“Ice.” I remove my hand from the wheel and lay it on his forearm. The muscles beneath my fingers are hard. He radiates heat through my palm, up my arm, and straight into my veins.

He pierces me with a fiery green gaze. “I don’t recommend touching me now.”

His words blast a dangerous heat low in my belly, flashing unbidden images—his large body covering mine, his mouth claiming every inch of me until I’m trembling and begging beneath him. The burn of his skin under my palm spreads through my body in a molten wave.

For prudence’s sake, I lift my hand away to grip the steering wheel again. Instantly, I feel cold without him. “Sorry.”

“I’m already fighting the instinct to take you in every way possible.”

“I’ve done nothing to arouse you.” In fact, I look so dirty and bedraggled today, I doubt even my siren abilities could make most men want me.

“You breathed.”

Then he turns to me, jaw clenched, eyes on fire.

Oh, my days. This road trip must end soon—before I run out of strength to resist and things between us take an irrevocable turn. “Ice…”

“Too honest?” He raises a brow at me. “Don’t worry. I won’t assault you.”

“I never thought you would. It’s just this whole situation is making me tense.”

In the back seat, Bram moans softly, a rare sound from him lately. I glance in the rearview mirror, but he’s still unconscious, face drawn with pain even in his unnatural sleep.

“I swiped a blanket from the cottage. It’s on the floor behind you,” Ice says, his voice gentler than before. “Want me to cover him?”

He would see to my brother’s comfort, despite their mutual hatred? That adds to the confusing tangle of emotions Ice stirs in me. “Please.”

Ice slams the last of his pastry in his mouth, then twists in his seat, his big body brushing mine as he tucks the quilt around Bram.

The wizard’s musky scent envelops me. My pulse quickens.

For a moment, he hovers against me, searing me with his body heat.

I’m caught again between duty to my dying brother and the half mad wizard I should never want.

When he settles back in his seat, I can finally breathe easier. “Thank you.”

He gives me a curt nod, as if he’d rather I not mention the gesture.

“I’d feel better if we headed for MacKinnett’s estate,” I press, needing to focus on something practical. “It’s closer. And he’ll have plenty of ways to contact Duke and the others. There’s more civilization in the area for us to lose ourselves in until we’re all reunited.”

“Yes, and more civilization for the Anarki to blend into, as well,” Ice counters, tapping his fingers in a restless rhythm against his thigh. “We should go to Swansea. Stay there with the book. I will teleport to MacKinnett’s, warn him, then find Duke.”

“Do you know him?”

“No, but I’d like to believe that if one of the Doomsday Brethren arrived to tell him that Mathias is plotting to kill him, he wouldn’t be daft enough to ignore it.

” A sardonic smile twists his lips. “Since the pisshead murdered his daughter, I’m guessing he’s one of the few on the Council who believes Mathias has returned? ”

Ice hasn’t said anything funny, per se, but his blunt assessment and colorful description make me smile. Ice’s grin widens in return, and for a moment, we’re just two people sharing a dark joke, united against a common enemy.

“He’s old, not stupid. He believes, but Auropha’s murder made him paranoid,” I say, referring to the young witch Mathias killed his first night out of exile.

“He won’t see anyone he doesn’t know. Since his daughter’s death, I’ve spent a great deal of time with the man, devising a way to convince the rest of the Council that Mathias is, indeed, back.

But if you’ve never met him, you won’t step toe on his land, at least not peaceably. ”

“I don’t care. I won’t put this Council prick’s safety above yours.”

I swallow back a rebuke and count to ten. Ice means well, but I have to make him see reason. “Without the Council, chaos will ensue—prime conditions for Mathias to overtake magickind. Then there would be no safe place anywhere.”

Ice gnashes his teeth as if grinding up glass.

“They’re a necessary evil, and you know it.” My soft murmur closes the lid on his argument.

“Ludlow it is, then,” he grumbles. “But you’ll stay close to me. Every moment. I won’t have you in additional danger.”

Not only do his words make my heart flutter foolishly, but I’m touched by his concession, which I know wasn’t easy for him.

I see it in the rigid set of his jaw and the way his fingers drum restlessly against his thigh.

Ice’s world is black-and-white. He’ll protect what’s his at all costs.

Mine is filled with shades of gray—duty, politics, compromise.

We’re approaching the same danger from different perspectives.

Yet this dangerous, stubborn wizard just put my priorities above his own.

He would only fight his own instinct to please me. “Of course. I’ll be right beside you.”

“Where you belong, princess.”

Our eyes lock. His gaze drops to my lips, lingering with such hunger, I have to catch my breath.

Doing my best to ignore his stare, I watch the sun break fully above the horizon, pouring golden light through the windshield and illuminating his sharply angled face. For a moment, I imagine a different world where circumstances don’t stand between us, and Ice is my everything.

Then Bram moans again from the back seat, and reality crashes back.

Ice returns his attention to the road ahead, jaw set like stone. “When we get there, I’m going in first. No arguments.”

As I drive onward, I shove aside my fears and watch the countryside roll by. For this brief interlude between one danger and the next, I feel almost…content. The diary is in my backpack, my brother breathes in the back seat, and Ice sits beside me—solid, present, unwavering.

Morning light catches on the dashboard where Ice’s hand rests, highlighting a small scar crossing his knuckle.

One of many mysteries about this man who’s turned my world upside down.

Despite logic, my brother, and everything else, I find myself wondering what it would be like to say yes to his Call. To be his. To let him be mine.

The thought should terrify me.

Instead, it feels like coming home.