Savage Shifters Box Set, page 98
“Not bad,” he muttered after a while.
“I have great taste in food. Come on. Let’s go for a walk.”
They did, and it wasn’t as awkward as Crimson thought it would be. He kept asking her questions that she readily answered, and the way she did was so candid and no-nonsense that he began to realize he might have been mistaken with his earlier judgment. There was just something so…honest in her tone, and he didn’t think she was lying at this point.
Ali shot him questions back, almost like a sly return. He did his best to answer what he could, but Crimson realized that it was him who was being secretive now. Guilt seeped in, even while he tried to brush it off.
“Have you and Khalil been friends for long?”
“Not really. But you know how some friendships are strong even from the start?”
“I don’t have that many friends,” she said sheepishly. “But that sounds pretty amazing. Do you guys dye your hair or are you both naturally red?”
“I’m natural. I’m still debating if he is.”
The even response elicited an answering one: Ali throwing her head back in amused laughter. Because he was so preoccupied with how it lit her face up and she was so preoccupied with her laughter, they were too late in noticing that her ice cream had fallen from her cone…straight into her dress, where it landed with a plop. Automatically, he stepped forward, hand already reaching out to wipe it off.
Realization slid in that the stain was just below her breasts, and his hand stopped an inch and a second in time.
They looked at each other in frozen suspension. Ali’s eyes flared, but whatever the emotion was went away quickly, leaving behind a softening that turned the color lighter. His stomach tightened.
“I’ve got this,” she murmured.
Crimson cleared his throat and stepped back, feeling foolish. “Yeah. I think I should take you home.”
She smiled. “Good idea.”
They walked some more, and this time the silence was a companionable one. Whatever space was between them during their first walk out of that art gallery was reduced to a few inches now, the warmth from her shoulder passing on to him and vice versa. They stopped in a fairly quiet area where a series of iron-cast buildings stood in line, like little soldiers out and about. She turned to him, that whisper of a smile still on her mouth, where her lipstick had been completely wiped off by the food they gorged on.
“Why do you want a third date with Khalil?”
The question was curious, and as light as he tried. But the smile left her mouth, and something heavy replaced it as she seemed to search for words. Finally, she met his gaze again.
“He’s odd, but he seems real. Like this grand person who just knows how to treat women right and would respect them for being strong.”
“And you’re a strong one.”
“I am,” she admitted. “Hell will freeze over before I let a man dictate what I need to be. Khalil is…decent.”
“He is.”
“Hence the third date.”
“Even if there is no spark?”
“Even if there is no—” She clamped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are we talking about sparks?”
“Because you don’t have it with Khalil and you still want that third date.”
“Didn’t I already tell you why I wanted the third date?”
“Hmm.”
She shrugged and turned around, waving at him as she walked further to one of the buildings. Crimson told himself just to let it go.
But like they had a mind of their own, the words kept coming.
“And is that enough for you?”
Ali turned around, surprise on her face. He stepped closer and she stepped back, her eyes flaring.
“So we’re not done with the interview yet?” she asked, and there was almost defense in her tone.
“I was just asking.”
“Fine. It’s enough for me. Just because two people do not have the spark doesn’t mean they won’t get along.”
“So your definition of a relationship is getting along.”
“And respect.”
“There can still be respect and sparks. Chemistry. That passion that makes your toes curl. That kiss that makes you tingle. Has Khalil kissed you like that?”
Her eyes flared again, drawing him in. Then they frosted over, which transferred to her tone when she responded.
“Whether or not I kissed Khalil is none of your business,” she clipped out. “Were you going to ask me the details? What if we made out? What if we had sex?”
The thought of Khalil’s hands on her…it made something in him flash, the beast calling for something that he couldn’t understand. But he moved, anyway, stepping even closer until only inches separated them. The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife, and perhaps that tension had been there all along, but just hadn’t been showing itself fully.
“You couldn’t have,” he finally muttered.
“Why not?”
“Because then you wouldn’t have come with me.”
Ali’s eyes practically burned as she stepped forward. “Oh, yeah? Tell me, Mr. Fox, what makes a relationship work for you?”
Crimson shrugged. “Sparks, of course. A connection—that deep connection that you have when you just talk, when you just stand next to each other. Have you ever felt that?”
“Maybe. With Khalil. Someday.”
“You’ll never feel it with him.”
“You don’t know that!” she argued. “Besides, how difficult can it be? It’s just a kiss.”
“It’s not just a kiss.”
“It’s exactly just like any kiss. I could kiss you right now, and there may be sparks, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Prove it,” he murmured.
He didn’t exactly think she would.
But the next thing he knew, they were leaning on each other, and it wasn’t just her. Time stood still as Crimson pressed his lips against Ali’s, telling himself it was just a kiss to prove that whatever jolt he’d been feeling around her was nothing. He expected maybe a light tingle, nothing else.
Instead, what he got was an explosion.
Her taste exploded in his mouth, a combination of feminine heat and the ice cream she had earlier. Sweet. Warm. It had him pulling her closer before he could even think about it, angling his head and taking the kiss deeper until he was sinking into her bit by bit.
Sparks flew, electrified, regrouped and flew again. Her mouth opened for him, and his tongue slid in and tasted the warm cavern of her even further. Her body pressed against his, a feather-light touch at first that grew and made him want to just keep pressing. Her taste was intoxicating, and so was her scent. He could practically hear his blood roaring as his body pounded with so much need, it was insane.
His cock stirred as that blood sank down and singed him with intense desire.
Something nagged at him: to end this and tell her that he’d been mistaken all along because he hadn’t stopped the date just for Khalil’s sake. There had been this niggling in the background, and now it was coming at them both in full force, and there was nothing they could do. Some sound came out of her throat: a moan that was soft and full of pleasure. Another moan.
Jesus. Fuck. Damn it.
His hands slid up her hair, changing the kiss again and practically devouring her. She went with him, body softening, willing. He backed her against the wall…
Something hit the back of his head, so excruciatingly painful.
The kiss was cut off as darkness took over.
Chapter 144
The sight of Crimson looking gray and hardly breathing made Ali feel just a little bit sick, especially when what she’d done was still so fresh in her mind. Blasting that spell on him when she’d been all but drowning in his kisses was the hardest thing she had to do, and the sight of him crumpling down unconscious made her want to give up altogether. But she remembered her mother, and she remembered that she had no time to feel sorry for anyone while her mother’s life was on the line.
And so Ali swallowed whatever bile she felt and dragged Crimson behind the row of buildings and into the abandoned one, straight into her hidden room where she used her magic to lift his weight up on the bed. There was a bruise turning purple on his forehead, where her magic had concentrated during her little blast. Unable to resist, she sat down beside him and placed her hand there, calling on to the energy inside her until her hand glowed. That glow transferred to the purpling area.
Slowly, the purple disappeared until only his actual skin remained, all tanned and smooth. She brushed his hair off of his forehead, then froze when an image of their kiss earlier flashed in her mind.
Ali snatched back her hand as if it was burning, feeling her cheeks heating up. It was her first kiss, and it was one that changed her perspective completely and made her realize that there was so much more she didn’t know about the female-male interaction. She’d read about kisses and watched a movie or two when she came here, but that kiss…
It was wrong on so many levels, but so…right.
It was the kiss, a breath of fresh air, and hot salvation.
Khalil had been all wrong for her because there hadn’t been any spark. But Crimson?
The sparks would have burned them both.
Regret filled her, but she pushed it away until what was left was only resolve. She held on to that resolve as if her life depended on it, and she took deep breaths and tried not to feel overwhelmed at the decision she had to make. Her mind scanned for other ideas, other options that didn’t involve giving this man up. None came, because those black witches were smarter than most and would be able to see through whatever excuses she made.
And her mother would pay the price.
But what did the black witches plan to do with Crimson?
She wished she knew. She wished she was more powerful and could solve this with a snap of her fingers but wishing got her nowhere. Ali straightened her shoulders.
Then she stood up from the bed and lifted her palm up to the same wall where she created the watery mirror, intending to create something else this time: a portal straight to her destination.
Portals were a tricky thing, and as far as she knew, only two kinds of creatures had the ability to open them: shifters and witches, with the shifters needing to use special devices and limited to only one portal-travel per day. Because only a few knew of the human world’s existence, that meant even fewer opened portals here, and most of them were monitored by the so-called shifter guardians who tried to keep the humans safe and vice versa. Ali didn’t know the whole history, but apparently, these guardians hated black witches, which made what she was doing now illegal.
Which meant she needed to hurry and just get this over with.
Ali recalled all that she knew about opening portals and gathered her energy again before redirecting it. Her hand glowed, and her mind pictured a door in front of her that led to the black witches’ domain, which she only saw through the watery mirror once or twice. The glow in her hand transferred to the wall, where it started as a dot and steadily kept growing.
Movement came from her right, jarring her from her concentration and making her blast more energy than was necessary. Shock filled her at the sight of Khalil, whose face was a painted mask of coldness as he strode over to her in fast movements.
He’d broken through her room’s shield.
The decision came before she could think because there was no time to think. Ali lifted her other hand, letting it glow and jerk Crimson up from the bed. She let him float near the portal and prepared herself to jump.
Her hair was jerked back, making her yelp. Ali watched as wings snapped up in the air, right before she used the rest of her magic to get Khalil’s hands off her. Then she jumped with Crimson, intending to leave the fairy behind.
Except Khalil grabbed her again and jumped into the portal with her.
Panic seized Ali as gold glitter flew everywhere and slid up her nose, making her sneeze just before the portal swallowed her up. There were colors everywhere, along with a certain coldness that made her teeth chatter. She held on to Crimson with one hand as she tried to balance out her free fall through the darkness, but her other hand was being held, and she knew without a doubt Khalil wasn’t going to let go. The struggle was a mass of confusion and plenty of floating, excruciatingly slow but gone in the flash on an eye. Then she was crashing hard on a flat surface, pain hitting her butt before she rolled around and saw grass everywhere.
Something felt off, which clarified a few seconds later when she realized she wasn’t at her intended destination. Ali scrambled up, looking at the forest area that was actually near her home before wings caught her line of vision again.
Her hand whipped up and blasted at him, but Khalil dodged it as he flew around and tried to approach her. Beside her, Crimson lay unconscious, and she prayed under her breath that he wouldn’t wake up and ambush her. Khalil dodged another blast, then zoomed straight down, either to punch her or to grab her.
Just as his hands brushed her shoulders, she twisted her body to the side and slammed straight into the ground again, holding on to his wrist and pulling him down with her. He crashed beside her, but not before she twisted again and wrapped her hands around his wrist, which tensed and tried to get away.
But it was too late because her magic was surging and sinking into him in the blink of an eye.
Dark blue eyes met hers, and she saw the betrayal sink there and accuse her. His red hair shifted and turned brighter, almost orange and flaming. Then those eyes blanked, and his mouth opened—maybe to accuse her, to rage at her, to tell her in that cool tone of his that she was going to pay—
“Who are you?”
The words and the innocence in them made her blink. Horror had her stumbling back as his eyes closed, which made her stumble right on Crimson’s body and fall all over again.
Shit, shit, shit.
What did she do to Khalil?
She crawled over to him and tried to gather her energy again to check, but she came up short. Ali began to comprehend that the sudden switch of destination in the middle of her portal-opening, along with using her magic to render both Crimson and Khalil unconscious…they used up most of her energy, leaving her with only a bit now. There was no weariness yet, but her body was beginning to feel numb, and she knew it wouldn’t be long before that would take over and render her useless here.
How could she have made such a mess of things?
There was no point dwelling on it now—not when she didn’t even know how long the two men would be unconscious. Before anything else could go amiss, Ali called on to whatever magic there was left in her, cajoling it out and resting her hands on the two men again, where they sparked.
Chains appeared on their wrists, ones that were special and wouldn’t let them use their own special abilities, like shift or fly. Then she used the rest to put an invisible charm on their feet and on hers, binding them together so that they wouldn’t be able to run away from her.
When that was done and over with, Ali still refused to slump in exhaustion. She stood up instead and observed the forest again, studying the trees and the layout. Maybe this wasn’t her home after all, but the familiarity made her get that it was one of her mother’s stories and there was only one direction she could head that wouldn’t get her in danger.
North was heavy winter. South was goblin territory. East was unfamiliar territory.
But there were some kingdoms in the west, and her mother didn’t warn her not to go there.
So Ali walked in that direction, feeling the pull of magic as it dragged Crimson and Khalil behind her. The heavy weight made her wince, but it was better than actually carrying them, and she soon found a rhythm that she followed and made every step manageable. The thought of leaving Khalil behind flashed in her mind before she stomped it right off.
No. No one was going to be left behind, not even the fairy who wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan.
*****
Walking took hours, and whatever energy she acquired that returned her magic back was used on strengthening her feet and getting rid of the exhaustion she was starting to feel. It wasn’t enough energy for opening a new portal or accessing a watery mirror, and she figured she still needed to get some decent amount of rest before she could attempt that again. No predator or sinister aura came at her, which made her relieved that she didn’t have to confront anyone else.
A few more hours later, that relief was gone as she realized she hadn’t passed by a single sign of life. Ali stifled a yawn as she still kept walking, one foot over another until it all became monotonous. She needed to find shelter, just a tavern room she could rent—or hey, she’d settle for an abandoned house, because abandoned places were definitely up her alley.
About another hour later, Ali gave up and dragged the rest of her energy into the only temporary shelter she could find: tall bushes that crouched down to form a circle in the middle. She crawled through them to get to the middle, where she found an area filled with dried grass, soil and enough space for about four people to lie down on. She then dragged the two men inside, laying them down on one side before she slid to the other, closer to the main pathways.
Then Ali passed out from exhaustion.
Dreams filled her sleep: of her running away from something, of her running to something, of her mother screaming and begging for her help. Then Crimson’s face appeared, gray eyes so cloudy and dark with desire, just like they were when they kissed.
Ali woke up with a start just as her lips touched Crimson’s again, her heart thudding in her chest and her mind clouded. A blur of movement streaked from her right side before a slamming sound made her blink.
Realization set in and woke her up, and Ali sat up just in time to watch Crimson stare at her in disbelief. He reached a hand out again—
An invisible barrier knocked his hand back before it could reach her.
Relief slid in that her magic had worked and was still effective right now, the chains as binding as they had been yesterday. Then she sobered up as she watched his face hold so many emotions: disbelief, realization, betrayal…right before a deep, dark fury flashed and almost made her tremble. Even with the invisible barrier, she could feel the power emanating from him, so heavy that it coated her skin without touching it. But it felt like a brand, and it wasn’t a pleasant one.
