Heat scoured her palm, but not painfully. Rather, it was as if shed placed her hand in a bowl of warm water. With a tightening of her skin, CJ then kissed her palm and relented.
The abrasion had healed. Vika had been witness to witches who could heal before, but never so quickly. If this was his magic depleted, then she would marvel to see him at full potential. Yet it had been his perceived power that had compelled her to explore the dark witch. Indeed, a witchs greatest power originated in the minds of others.
Thank you. A few more sips of tea slowed her frantic heartbeats. Those healing tattoos are amazing. Your cuts are healed, as well. Is it just the one tattoo on your arm?
Here. He touched his biceps where the circular healing sigil had been tattooed in black. Ive also one on my hip and my right foot.
She sat upright and moved closer to Certainlys body, not quite touching. To look over the artwork on his skin distracted from other devastating experiences. Youve so many tattoos. You said from the ink witch?
Yes, Sayne. One of few ink witches remaining in the world.
Tapping the back of his tattooed hand, she then traced the design carefully. Are they all spells?
All, save one. He held up his right arm to display the wrist. Vika studied the delicate design of a rose with barbed wire twisted throughout its petals. Thoroughly and Merrilymy twin brother and our older sisterhave the same. Its in remembrance of our mother. Witch hunters got her like they got your grandmother.
A hot tear wobbled in Vikas eye. Im sorry. The tattoo is beautiful. Though she didnt ask why the barbed wire. She could guess, knowing how the ignorant tortured witches, and it was unsettling. Someday, Id like to learn about all your tattoos. Especially the ones on your hand.
She traced the innate lines on his palm that had been there since birth, and then the black spellwork. The center featured a sak yant design in an eye shape with scribbles she guessed could be Arabic, but could be some demonic tongue for all she knew.
What does this one do? She traced the eye.
Entrance and closure. Opens me to receive, and as well, when combined with other spells on my body, can give me access to another witchs spells. But I can also use it to repel magics.
And these lines around your thumb?
Focus. I can trap a persons focus with a snap of my finger. Or deepen my concentration beyond a meditative state.
That sounds dangerous. Like you could go into a catatonic state.
Almost. I use it now on the nights when I lie awake under the lights.
They held gazes for so long, Vika thought she heard her heart cry out. It was a small cry, one she found unfamiliar. A needy, yet understanding vocalization pulsing through her veins. She turned on the couch to face him and slid a palm along his cool cheek.
Bruised internally, but so ready to heal.
CJs hair was wet still, and his skin so cool. His gaze did not sway as she followed her fingers along the stubble edging his jaw, and before his ear and along the hairline, framing his masculine structure. The demon mark remained, a modena of violence marring his neck. She touched his lips and found them as cool as hers felt. The rain had been relentless, scouring their bodies as mercilessly as Pain had tortured this dark one.
We survived, she whispered. One, along with the other, cushlamocree.
Kissing him was the only thing she wanted to do. Ever. Settling softly against his mouth, hushing her breath against his, breathing in his careful sigh. Legs coiled up to her chest beneath the blanket, she leaned against his chest and spread her fingers over his jaw.
His utter sadness at having hurt her and pushed her around wavered out from him in tangible vibrations. He regretted deeply. She kissed away the regret, hoping to polish his confidence. Quietly, she told him the trust between them had been tried, and it had survived, albeit tattered.
My sister Eternitie believes nothing is coincidence, she said. That the people who pass in and out of our lives, no matter how fleeting, do so for a reason. So maybe youre here to mess up my life.
It needed mussing. But not like this, Vika. He touched her shoulder, and she winced. Its bruised here. Hell, Im so sorry.
Apology accepted. She kissed him and held there, unwilling to break the contact, the blissful connection of their lives breathing in and out from one another.
Outside, a streak of lightning flashed, but no thunder followed. The storm had retreated. As had the chaos occupying this dark witchs soul.
Vika let the blanket fall off one shoulder, and she nuzzled her body as close as she could against his, her breasts cushioning against his hard chest.
I saw the demon in your eyes, she whispered. Do you think I could capture it with a soul gaze?
When two witches held each others stare, it was called a soul gaze. They could read the others soul, all the goodness and evil painted across it.
You dont want to look into anything Ive residing within my soul, Vika. Great Hecate, havent you seen enough?
Closing her eyes, she nodded and whispered against his mouth, Touch me. She clasped her hand within his and pressed his knuckles against her breast. Make me yours.
I... Vika?
I... Vika?
Its just us now. And a gazillion chandeliers. Take me beneath the glamorous light that keeps us safe. I want to feel you inside me, CJ. Chase away the dark and fill me with the light I know you possess.
His fingers curled over her breast, sliding down the blanket, and he gave her one last questioning lookwhich she answered with a nodand then bent to kiss the swell beneath his hand. She tilted back a shoulder, lifting her breast, and stretched a leg out across his lap. With a shift of her hip, she slid onto his lap.
Drawing a finger down his chest, she traced the triple scythes curved under his right nipple. They formed a sort of tribal claw mark. Isnt this a werewolf symbol?
It is, but its inked with silver.
You dont like werewolves? I find them quite gentle. She kissed the silvery scythe below his chest and then brushed her lips over the tiny nipple.
CJ inhaled and spread his hands over her breasts, his fingers playing softly over her hard nipples. Compelled toward him, she arched her back, giving him all of her to hold.
And this one? She glided her fingertips down his rigid abs to the three parallel lines slashed through with shorter horizontal lines.
A grounding spell. My skin is marred with ink while yours is unstained. Pure. He leaned forward and claimed her nipple between his lips, softly, then dashed his tongue around it.
Vika tilted back her head, her wet hair a thick mass down her spine. Reaching down, she stroked the hardness straining against his jeans. He hadnt buttoned but had zipped, and with a finger she teased the tuft of hair exposed in the V-shaped opening.
CJs forehead nudged her at the base of her neck and he hissed. Grandmother is watching.
Should I take it off?
No, never. Its a part of you. Ill be careful.
Your wards against other magics are off?
Took care of that when I tossed your clothes in the dryer. I am ever open to you, Vika. Oh, yeah, right there.
Massaging his erection through the fabric, she wanted to get to it, to release him so she could feel him inside her. But she took her time, enjoying every lick, every kiss to her breast, every squeeze of his hands, and the subtle glisten of magic humming between the two of them.
It was the dark hand covered in tattoos that scattered a shimmer over her skin as it glided her flesh. She wondered if he was aware of it, and then figured he must be. On the other hand, if hed been more focused on magic than women...
Its like fire, she gasped as his fingers glided down her mons and teased at her folds. Any of those tattoos designed for the sensual arts?
Ah? He tapped her thigh with his fingers, which electrified the intensity of his touch. I hadnt thought about that.
Seriously? CJ, when our skin touches it hums with our combined magic. But this hand covered in spellwork? Its the same touch, but quadrupled in intensity.
I had no idea. How about this?
He glided between her legs and inside her, and it was as if an instrument heated and hardened and designed to get her off. Two fingers, not a sex toy. Vika worked her hips and glided up and down upon him, wanting to own every sensation, to steal his magic for her own pleasure. Oh, yes, touch me like that.
Youre so hot, he murmured against her breast, his tongue slipping across her nipple. I can feel our combined magic, too. Makes every part of me burn. Show me how you like it, Vika.
Id like it with your pants off and you inside me. Quickly, I want to come with you deep inside me.
He shuffled out of his pants and Vika straddled him. His face was a riot of color from the overhead crystals, his eyes closed as he glided inside her, his hands gripping her hips firmly. Seared by his heat, Vika slapped her hands to the back of the couch, feeling him deep within her, so thick, filling her, radiating within as their magics joined forces and the hum of their connection reached a heady vibration.
He had but to shift his hips and thrust inside her once, twice, then the climax overwhelmed and he bucked her up and down upon his body as the dark witch swore to Hecate and then blessed her in the same breath.
Pax, sax, sarax, she whispered. An Elizabethan chant to prolong orgasm.
CJ thrust back his head, growling in delicious pleasure as she sensed the orgasm renewed, surrounding him in its stunning grip. She surrendered and got wrapped in the threads of giddiness. They seemed to float, wrapped together, soaring over the floor, entwined in rapture.
Skin against skin, Vika breathed in CJs being, his breaths, his rapid heartbeats. She felt him, knew himand then she felt the infestation. It roiled in wicked delight, snatching at her with claws that couldnt reach yet were so close.
Pulling away from him, she leaned over his blissful smile. Breathing heavily, she shook her head. What a way to come down. Chased by demons. He couldnt be aware of what she had felt. She didnt want him to know.
Amazing, he murmured, and blew her a kiss.
Vika nodded and had to struggle with her sudden fear to lean forward and rest her head against his shoulder. They were safe under the light. She hoped.