Page 51 of Death Warden
Spectre.
“I’ve got you, Adi.” He gathered me in an embrace.
I wanted to hold onto him, to snuggle close, but my limbs refused to work.
“She’s tapped out,” Riley said. “She used everything to beat back the ghosts.”
“Ghosts attacked you?” another voice said.
Logan?
“Yeah, and she made them stop.”
“She must have expended all her mystical energy to do it,” Curo said.
“Our mystical energy is what keeps our physical in balance,” Logan added.
Spectre smoothed my hair back from my face. I wanted to open my eyes and look at him but all I managed was a soft moan.
“How long will it take for her to recover?” Spectre asked.
“I’m don’t know if she can,” Logan said. “Her heartbeat is too slow. The leylines are probably the only thing holding her here right now. She pushed to the edge, Spec. I’m not sure she’s gonna make—”
“No. Don’t say it.”
“You can help her,” Logan said. “You’re the only one who has the power to.”
“What?” Riley sounded confused. “Wait, does that mean that you’re—”
“Don’t say it,” Spectre ordered.
Everyone started to talk at once and I couldn’t follow the threads; all I knew was that I was dying. I couldn’t die. I couldn’t let Dralos free. I moaned again, desperate to explain why I had to live.
Spectre cupped my jaw with his large hand. My pulse jumped.
“You’re not going anywhere, Adi. I won’t let you.” Warm lips pressed to mine, hot breath mingling with my reedy gasps. My mouth tingled and tendrils of warmth snaked outward from the contact, spreading across my cheeks and my face, down my neck and breasts, seeping into my skin, into my blood. The cold spot in my solar plexus warmed. I parted my lips on a sigh, tilting my chin up to offer myself to him and swallowing his ragged groan as he filled me with raw power.
It thrummed beneath my skin, tingled across my scalp, and settled between my thighs like a second heartbeat.
My fingers found their way into his thick hair, fisting and pulling him closer, and the lip-to-lip contact morphed into a wrestling of tongues. Synapses firing, nerves singing, demanding more. The need was a twist in my belly, an ache deep inside of me, and our kisses became open-mouthed, hungry things until I was on him, straddling him, clawing at him for more.
“Spectre!”
Spectre tore his mouth from mine, but his hands remained on me, touching, rubbing, and squeezing.
I leaned into him, trying to claim his mouth again, head fuzzy with desire.
“Take her,” Spectre said gruffly.
But when another’s arms tried to claim me, he held me tighter, growling menacingly.
“Dammit, Spec,” Logan said.
“Let me.” Curo’s cool, fresh scent filled my head and his chest pressed to my back as he hugged me close. “I’ve got you, Adi.”
I reached for Spectre. I needed him. Wanted him.
His eyes burned like flames as they locked with mine. He stood, slowly unfurling his epic naked form from the frosty ground. His body vibrated as he held back from claiming me.
