Page 37 of Reaper Unhinged
He hissed at me, pulled his hand from his face, and went for my neck. Crap. I knocked his arm away, grabbed his chin, and kissed him hard.
He stilled beneath me, every muscle in his body tensing. I kept my mouth on his, lips pressed to his, and slowly released his dagger wrist. He didn’t move. Okay, this was good. I brought my hand to his cheek and laid my palm against it. A sigh rattled his chest, and his mouth softened beneath mine. Was it working?
“Keon?” I spoke against his mouth, maintaining contact. “It’s me. Fee. You awake now?”
His hand was on my hip, and then he was pulling me closer, and yes, yes, he was definitely awake and hard, very hard, and—
He pushed his hips up into me, rubbing against me.
My eyes rolled at the sensation. No. Shit. I needed to pull away, but his hand was on the back of my head, holding me immobile. His lips parted, and his tongue flicked out and dipped into my mouth.
My moan mingled with the steady vibration of his chest. My body clenched, thighs squeezing his hips reflexively as his flavor invaded my mouth. Cinnamon. He tasted positively edible. And I was kissing him, licking the inside of his mouth and sucking on his long thick tongue before the chill of reality seeped past the heat in my limbs to bring common sense back online.
I pulled away from him, sitting up to look down at his parted mouth and heavy-lidded eyes.
“I almost killed you,” he said.
“Yeah, but you didn’t.”
“You fought well.” He swept his tongue across his lips. “You kiss better.”
My cheeks heated, and I quickly scrambled off him. “I needed to wake you up.”
He stood in a fluid motion and adjusted his erection. “It worked.”
I looked away, cheeks hot. “We need to find Uriel.”
A light bloomed up ahead, and Keon and I exchanged glances.
“Could be another trap,” Keon said.
“What choice do we have?”
“I go first,” he said, and then he slipped ahead of me, tail swishing as he led the way into the light.
The gray cemetery of statues melted away as if they’d been a dream, and the light engulfed us. It spit us back out in the clearing with the cabin, the tree holding Uriel captive, and the man in rags.
He was standing on the ground by the porch steps now, his expression closed and unreadable. Wraiths made of silver smoke drifted out from the tree line to surround us, cutting off our exit.
I was tired and fed up, and anger rushed through me. “Why are you doing this? I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to save my world.”
“And you think this kind of power comes without a price?” He looked…frustrated. “You think that you can walk in here and just take what you want?”
I didn’t have time for his questions because I needed answers to mine. “Do you know where it is or not?”
“Oh, I have it. It’s mine to keep and mine to give.”
A guardian, maybe? “Tell me what I need to do to take it, please. No more games.”
He gave me a pitying smile, as if I’d already failed, as if he was done with this whole drama. Done with going through the motions. “To obtain the power, a sacrifice must be made,” he said.
“What kind of sacrifice?”
“A soul must burn.”
What? I turned to Keon for counsel. He took a step toward me, but then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he toppled forward. I caught him before he could hit the ground and lowered him carefully onto his side.
“What have you done to him?”
