Page 12

Neith

“D oes it say anything else?” Reed asks.

I nod, “Yeah, it says that very little is known about what he is capable of but that he is known to let off magical blasts to protect his wielder and that he can adapt,” I pull a face. “I’m not actually sure what that means, but I am glad that we got some answers about him.”

“Yeah, it’s nice to be able to shut one mystery down,” Evander agrees. “At least now, it's just what you can learn about him and what he’s capable of.”

“Yeah,” I reply, shutting the book. “I think I’m going to leave my research on a high because I’m not sure that I’m going to get too many of those when it comes to researching anything else. Did you guys find anything?”

“I think I’ve found the language that it’s written in actually,” River says and he turns the book that he is reading around so that we can all compare.

After a moment, I shake my head, “It definitely looks like it. It's close, but these here aren't the same.”

River frowns, “Damn it, I really thought that I had found it then. I guess it's going to take even longer than we thought."

“To be honest, I'm beginning to expect that now,” I reply.

“I’m hungry,” Ransom says with a smile. “Why don’t we do as Neith suggested and end this research session on a high, order takeout, and watch a movie?”

“Sounds perfect to me,” I reply, standing up and shutting the book I was reading.

As excited as I am to find out what kind of supernatural my mom was, it's going to take a while to find thelanguage that the book is written in and then most likely even longer to translate it. I am more than happy to leave it where it is for today, and come back to it later.

Everyone else quickly agrees as well, and we help tidy up the library, leaving the books that we want to come back to on the table and putting away the rest.

By the time that I decide I should go to bed and head up, I am happy and full of good food. I’m also extremely pleased that I managed to actually get some answers today.

Ransom

N eith headed up to bed not that long ago, and we are all getting ready to head up to bed ourselves. The majority of us already in our sleep stuff, which for most of us means that we’re shirtless while we grab drinks, phone chargers that were brought down from our rooms, and in River’s case snacks. How he can still be hungry is beyond me. The sound of the front door opening has us pausing, and Doc walks into the kitchen moments later.

“Hey, man,” Evander says, glancing up at the clock. “You’re back early.”

He sighs, “Yeah.”

I share a look with the others when he doesn’t continue, this isn’t normal behavior for him.

“Spit it out, man,” Raiden says.

“I couldn’t hunt,” he mutters.

“What? Why?” I ask with concern.

Doc shrugs, “I don’t know. It might be because I used the suppressor twice in a row, but I have done that before, and it’s not had this effect.”

“You couldn’t even get a hit from sex?” Reed asks.

Doc glances away, “I, er, couldn’t bring myself to have sex with anyone. It just didn’t feel right.”

We all know what he means and why it didn’t feel right, because quite honestly it wouldn’t feel right for any of us either. Because we know this, we don’t question him, and we instead move on.

“How low are you?” Evander asks sharply, concern heavy in his tone.

Before Doc can answer though we hear humming, and since we are all in here, that can only be one person.

“Hey guys,” Neith grins when she steps into the kitchen. Her eyes widen, and her mouth drops open as heat fills her eyes and her thighs clench. “Damn, you guys are going to have to warn a girl if you’re going to walk around shirtless regularly because it's going to be really hard for me not to want to do the naked tango with you all and keep my very dirty thoughts to myself if you don’t.”

Her eyes widen as she smacks a hand over her mouth and starts to slowly back out of the room.

“Well, if that’s your reaction,” Griff starts, “I think we should probably walk around shirtless more often, what do you say guys?”

As one we all reply, “Agreed.”

“My damn mouth,” she mutters as she starts to turn back around. She looks over us all one last time, desire flaring in her eyes as she licks her lip and bites down, making my cock twitch, and judging from the groans around the room, I’m not the only one she is having this effect on.

She physically shakes herself and then spins on her heel, hurrying off; my eyes watch her perfect ass in her tiny shorts.

Damn.

“Shit,” Doc curses and turns back to him, remembering that before Neith interrupted us, we were dealing with a pretty serious issue.

When I get a good look at him though, I realize his eyes are gold.

“Doc?” River asks.

Doc shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“What’s going on?” Raiden asks.

Doc’s face is conflicted as he says, “I think I have figured out why I couldn’t feed at the club. Apparently, my magic is being stubborn, and it only wants Neith.”

“The desire in the air then was accepted by your magic?” Griff clarifies.

Doc nods, “Yeah, you guys were kicking off a fuck load of desire, and it was like as soon as Neith’s was triggered, it was just like normal.”

“Maybe that’s it,” Raiden says. “Maybe you need Neith first and then it’s like normal afterward?”

“Yeah. That would make sense, but why? Why do I need Neith first?” Doc replies. “I have only heard it happening between bonded incubi and succubi, but only when bonded with our kind. They can no longer get sustenance from anything other than each other. It’s a part of the bond, and because they find that they no longer want the desire from anyone but their other half. Neith isn’t one of us. I know that for sure, and even if it impossibly was the bond, then I shouldn’t have been able to get the desire from you guys then too. It should have only been her.”

We’re all silent for a moment. None of us really have an explanation for him.

“You really like her,” Raiden guesses, “maybe that’s enough in this case? I mean Neith doesn’t do anything like she’s supposed to, and we don’t know what kind of supe she is, just that she can hear thousands of the dead but isn’t a reaper. We have no idea if what she is could make things like bonds misbehave.”

Doc thinks about it for a moment, “Yeah. Maybe. I have never heard of it happening before, but I may be wrong. His smile widens, “And you’re right about Neith.”

“If it helps, I think she likes us, too,” I blurt out.

“I hope so, we’re her team, and she lives with us it would be a bit awkward if she didn’t like us,” Reed replies, not really getting what I’m saying but then again, I didn’t really explain it properly did I?

“No, I mean she really likes us,” I clarify.

Evander sits up a little bit straighter, “All of us?”

I nod, “I think so. She didn’t directly say it, but we got interrupted by the damn door.”

“Well, that’s interesting,” Doc mutters. “I know that Raiden’s kissed her, but I think that we should probably limit it to kissing for the time being if she does feel that way about all of us.”

“We know Doc,” Griff reassures him, “none of us want to risk hurting her, and she hasn’t completely got her supe side out yet, although she is closer than she was when we first met.”

“Her scent is beginning to change,” River tells us.

“It is?” I ask.

River nods, “Yeah, I keep getting a stronger scent of what I smelt in the bar.”

“Can you identify it?” Raiden asks.

He shakes his head, “It’s not like anything that I have smelt before, which makes sense since her mother is a kind of supernatural being that is supposed to be extinct.”

“Yeah.” Raiden replies, he looks at Doc, “Don’t worry, it’s probably a one time thing because you weren’t feeling it tonight and your magic probably sensed that.”

He nods, “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll start worrying if it becomes a consistent thing.”

Evander nods, “Yeah, I agree. Keep us in the loop but I imagine its stress and your magic as Raiden said.”

The tension has gone from his posture when he replies, “I will, don’t worry. I’m heading up to bed. We’ve got to be up early for the academy tomorrow.”

“Something else that we need to worry about. I think we are all going to need our wits about us tomorrow. I’m hoping that the Draconian team isn’t there,” Evander says.

“I think that might be wishful thinking,” I point out.

There’s a hum of agreement as we all head upstairs.

Neith

A fter embarrassing myself in the kitchen, I lay in bed for a long time, berating myself before I decide that the guys have probably all gone to bed by now and that I really do need a drink.

Getting up, I quickly pad my way across my room and then make my way to the kitchen as quietly as possible. I try to search through the cupboards as stealthily as possible to find where the guys keep their water bottles.

“Fuck sake, of course it’s on the top shelf,” I mutter as I start to climb up onto the counter. I have absolutely no chance of reaching it otherwise.

“Need some help,” Doc asks me.

“Shit,” I curse, his voice startling me so badly that it makes me jump, and my foot slips off the counter.

Instead of landing in a painful heap, half on the counter and half off, though, I find myself cocooned in Doc’s arms.

“Fuck,” Doc says, looking down at me with his gorgeous eyes, “I didn’t mean to make you fall. Are you okay?”

“That was really hot,” is, of course, what my mouth decides to say. That’s apparently the least of my problems though because, I then realize that my hand is resting on his chest, his very naked and very tattooed chest. “Fucking hell.”

“Neith, I’m going to need you to stop looking at me like that,” Doc says, his eyes flashing gold and his hands clenching where they’re holding me.

I decide to play with fire.

“Yeah? What are you going to do if I don’t, Camden?”

The use of his real name seems to light an inferno in him, and in one smooth move, he has managed to shift me in his arms so that my chest is pressed against his and my legs are wrapped around his waist. He moves, sitting me on the counter, his mouth a millimeter from mine and his hands planted on the counter next to my hips. He doesn’t step back, and I figure that since I have him here, I may as well let my hands explore the defined dips and ridges of his chest and stomach.

His muscles tense underneath my touch, and desire scorches through me.

“Fuck,” he growls.

His lips crash down on mine, and I can’t help the moan that escapes me. Our kiss is hot and wild, fanning the flames of desire as his hands move from the counter to grip my ass, pulling me closer so that I can feel his hard cock straining against the material of his pants. My hands move up his chest and wrap around his neck, holding him to me. He groans, the sound deep and turning me on even more.

Fucking hell.

He begins to pull away before thinking better of it and kissing me again.

When he pulls away again, he mutters, “We need to stop.”

“Why?” I ask and then add, “because of the guys and the team?”

Camden chuckles and kisses me again before he replies, “No. Because you’re human.”

I frown, my brain clearly not working properly after his kiss because even though I know the answer I ask, “What does that have to do with it?”

“I’m a really strong supe. We all are.” He says, “We’re too strong for this to go further without risking it hurting you.”

“Oh fuck, yeah,” I reply as I resist the urge to facepalm. I know that. “Damn it. Stupid human, not human shit.”

He chuckles and kisses me again.

“I’m stopping,” he mutters as if he is trying to convince himself.

I smirk, “Uh huh.”

Sighing, he steps back again. “Alright.”

Hopping down from the counter I say, “As soon as my supernatural side is out, this is back on.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he grins.

I let my eyes trail over him again, “Damn.”

“Neith,” Doc’s voice holds a warning in it, and I really want to say fuck it, let's test the theory, but I’m not stupid, and it's not safe.

My smile is decidedly dirty as I shrug and walk out of the room, putting extra sway in my hips, aware that he’s watching me.

As soon as I make it up to my room, I let out the most girly giggle sound that I have ever made. That was a seriously hot kiss, like damn. That one is going to stay with me for a while, just like Raiden’s.

I know I should feel bad that I have kissed two of them now, but just like with Raiden, I think so long as I don’t expect any more than just a kiss, then it should be okay. If I start to allow feelings and emotions to get involved in all this then things are going to get messy, they always do as soon as anything that comes close to a feeling starts to stir, feelings get hurt.

It's going to be okay though, because I’m not going to allow any feelings to get involved. I frown, yeah I have to admit that’s going to be easier said than done because I like these men, they’re funny, kind, lethal and hot as fuck.

Shit.

It better be fucking okay because I am not going to allow stupid feelings and my needy vagina to fuck up the first good thing I have had in a long time. I don’t want to go back to being on my own with only Betty for company. Granted, I could see Sully and the others every now and then, but that was pretty much the highlight of my week, and I missed more poker games than I wanted to because of jobs for HID; I don’t want to go back to being lonely, and doing absolutely everything by myself. I can’t. So, I’m going to tread really fucking carefully from now on.

“You’re thinking rather hard about something,” Winston says as he appears on the bed beside me and scares the absolute shit out of me.

“Winston!” I exclaim, “For fuck sake, man, I thought we had been over this. You’ve got to announce your arrival somehow, you scare the crap out of me every fucking time.”

Winston isn’t apologetic in the slightest and even chuckles before he replies, “I’m not really sure how you think I’m going to be able to announce my presence to you.”

I shrug, “I don’t know, send a text or something. What if you pop up, and I’m on the toilet or in the shower or something?”

Winston shakes his head, “I know where you are before I appear. It’s a spirit guide thing.”

I pull a face, “Oh, so it’s alright for you. Anyway, I found out about Asael, oh and I’m sure you know about the voices since you know everything, but according to Sully, they are the voices of the dead, like thousands of dead, and it’s a skill I get from my mother, but he couldn’t tell me what kind of supe she is.”

Winston’s little eyebrows rise, “That silencing spell won’t even allow him to tell you what species your mother was?”

I shake my head, “No, he tried really fucking hard as well. He managed to give us a book, but we’re currently trying to decipher the language that it is written in, and it's taking a while.”

“Well, I think now that you know what you do, I can tell you what your mother was, she is a . . .” There's a sudden burst of power and Winston’s eyes widen, as he tries to speak and can’t.

Just as quickly as it appeared it disappears again and after a few moments where I expect the guys to come bursting through the door, I have to assume that the power was limited to this room only.

“What the fuck was that?” I ask Winston incredulously.

“That was me being told that I can’t tell you,” Winston says, “I’m sorry but even if I wanted to I now can’t.”

I sigh, “For fuck sake.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, looking genuinely apologetic.

I nod, “That’s okay. I know there’s a reason why I can’t know these things yet, it’s just really fucking frustrating.”

“I know. I’m going to go and take a look at the book in the library and see if I can help you decipher it, and then I’m going to talk to some people and see if I can convince them to let me tell you at least a few things. I think you deserve to know.”

My eyes widen, “You would do that?”

“Of course. It’s going to take me a while, so you aren't going to see me for some time. Wallace is doing something at the moment as well so he isn’t going to be around but if you really need us call and he will come,” Winston explains.

I smile, “Okay, thank you.”

He nods, “No problem.”

Once he has disappeared, I’m left with thoughts swirling through my mind. I really hope that he is going to be able to convince someone to let him tell me something. I may actually get answers now instead of waiting fuck knows how long.

Right now though, I really need to try and get some sleep because we have to get to the training academy tomorrow super early and I am nervous as hell.

Of course, I toss and turn for a while, my mind refusing to quiet, before sleep finally claims me.