He pushed the memory away and focused solely on her. Focused on the feel of her and the strength of her. He tried to introduce himself into her gradually, in order to give her better pleasure, but in the end it was so easy. She was so sexual, so passionate, that she simply couldn’t help herself.

With every deep, languorous thrust into her he felt his own control spinning away like a frenetic little top. There was no particular rhythm to the way he moved, but there was a beat to it. Deep. Hard. Punctuating.

“Oh yes,” he ground out. “You’re so fine, my wee Kat. Sometimes it feels like making love tae daylight, the way you harden me, the way you make me feel invulnerable and able to conquer the world.”

Her reply was a soft, ramping sound of pleasure. Every time she made it, it grew in intensity. He could hear it … feel the place she was cresting to. He knew then that if she came there would be no helping him. He would be equally thrown into it. And it was a fight he willingly gave himself over to. He never sped up, only moved deeper, harder, making her body shimmy with each impact. It wasn’t a frenetic orgasm like the ones before, but it was a deeper one … and a more soulful one … as he forced her to look dead into his eyes the entire time.

He kept her head between his hands, directing her gaze to his as she cried out and tried to close her eyes and roll away into it. But he refused to let her, forced her to be present, with him, in every single instant of it. She tightened around him, making it beautifully hard to push into her. In the end, though, it was watching her pleasure explode in her eyes that sent him over the edge. Knowing she was there with him was all the aphrodisiac, all the foreplay, he would ever need.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Leo has sent word from the court of the Demon King,” Jackson said. “I hung up with him a little while ago. Apparently,” he said with bemusement, “several of their Nightwalker races don’t get along with technology and basic things like electricity. So he has to leave the court and travel a distance in order to make a call. It brings to mind Wraiths. They too have difficulties with advanced technologies. Normally this might worry me, but Leo is more convinced than ever that these are good, honest Nightwalkers. And Leo, as you know, does not trust anyone. That impresses me. He’s not of a mind to turn his back on them just yet, that kind of trust will take time, but on the surface he has a pretty good feeling.”

“So what’s the next step?” Kamen asked.

“You and the Druid Bella are the next step,” Jackson said. “She will be researching in their library, since she can read any language apparently, and you will research in ours, since you would know more about identifying and reversing magics of that magnitude.”

“The key is to figure out its origin. Once we do that the rest should fall into place,” Kamen said.

“My thoughts exactly.” Jackson paused a beat. “However, I agree with Ahnvil and am unwilling to extend complete trust to you. You will have a keeper. A warden, if I have to put a name to it. Another former Templar like Docia’s Bodywalker, Tameri, who will keep you honest and will make certain you are not working merely for your own ends … or for the ends of the Templars.”

“I would expect no less,” Kamen said quietly.

“Well then”—Jackson clapped his hands together and rubbed them almost eagerly—“let the games begin. We’ll see if we can figure out this curse before Apep gives birth to … gods know what he will bring forth onto this planet. The very thought of it scares the hell out of me.”

The entire household had to agree. They were all sitting around the living area after Jackson had called them there. Even Grey and SingSing had joined them. And apparently Faith, Leo’s Night Angel lover, had joined him in the court of the Demon King.

“There was one other thing I wanted to mention. According to Faith, her brother, a Night Angel of great power and ability, was … raped by a powerful Bodywalker recently. We believe this was Apep and that Faith’s brother was being forced to father this child Apep now carries. We must take the creation of this child even more seriously because of that. Faith reports that if his offspring has any fraction of his father’s power, plus whatever he will gain by being Apep’s offspring … soon we will be facing the potential of an even greater threat than before.

“A being of this much power alone might be a challenging adversary, but in tandem with Apep’s power it could make them unstoppable and, curse or no curse, we might not have a chance in hell of defeating him. Apep is, after all, a god. No one knows the bounds of his power yet, but I have a feeling that we will find out very soon.”

“We will find a way,” Marissa reassured them, remaining calm and sure in the face of it. Much in the way her mate was responding to it. There was a reason each was Pharaoh in their own right. They were meant to be leaders and had proven themselves over and over throughout their many incarnations.

“We need to,” Grey said quietly. “My magic is powerful, to be sure, but on its own it would be no match for a god. I am not so vain as to think it would be.”

“That’s just it. We can’t think in terms of individuality. The whole point of lifting this curse is to allow us the ability to join with others in order to defeat a common enemy,” Marissa said.

“I will feel better once this curse is lifted,” Grey said. Although, if he had not voiced it, Kat wouldn’t have had a clue that he was feeling any unease. The Marid Djynn was lacking in any affectation. He was like watching a placid pool. Kat wondered if one day she would have as much power as he did and if it would make her feel that calm and secure in the face of great danger. Even admitting his own weaknesses he seemed unconcerned. Perhaps it was like Jackson and Marissa, the face of an experienced leader trying to remain calm in the face of adversity.

It had been a week since she had escaped Apep’s stronghold. They had all been holding their breath, waiting for some kind of retaliation from Apep or the Templars, but the more time that passed the more the idea that Panahasi was working alone was supported.

After the meeting finished and the group had pretty much disbanded, Kat got up the nerve to talk to Grey directly. Frankly, he intimidated her. His power. His position. She felt as though she might come off as an upstart, this awkward inexperienced girl asking such a powerful Djynn for a lesson in how to be what she was.