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  Connor grew uneasy, though he wasn’t sure why. Something in the room didn’t feel right to him either and not because Iris was feeling it. But he couldn’t put his finger on the problem.

  Then it hit him. There was a theme going on here. The woman he’d killed all those years ago had been pregnant. Tammy had been as well. And Big Nuts used pregnant women as part of his sex club. But none of this would get him the answers he needed.

  Yet, as he recalled the woman he’d killed a decade past, guilt drove a spike through his heart all over again. The moment he’d realized the pistol had been strapped to her wrist, he knew he’d been set up, maneuvered to kill the woman. But he’d never known why, never gotten to the bottom of it. Even back then he couldn’t find anyone willing to talk.

  The event had changed him, made him cautious, more careful than he’d ever been before.

  Now here he was, facing a low-level sex club owner who had sent Tammy out to repeat history. “I need to know who set me up. That’s all. Then I’m out of here.”

  He felt Iris tense up once more. “We should leave,” she said quietly.

  He took in the field once more. Five shifter bodyguards and Big Nuts. Two women by the blue velvet drapes. Iris’s gun and her witch powers, his own weapon still in its holster. His sword at the ready.

  He made his move and brought his gun into his hand. He was fast and even Big Nuts’s eyes widened.

  Big Nuts held up both hands. “Let’s calm down.”

  “Let’s not. Iris, start making your way to the door. Gary, you should let us go.”

  “See, it’s this way. I can’t. I was told to hold you and these were orders I couldn’t refuse.”

  “Whose orders?”

  “Can’t tell you that either, except to say it wasn’t one of the big three.” He lifted both arms in the air and with his index and middle fingers pressed together, waved to his troops. It was a signal of some kind.

  Connor fired up into the air and the women at the velvet curtains screamed and ran out of the room. The bodyguards, however, froze in mid-motion like playing statue, but he wasn’t sure why. Gary with them.

  Then he felt Iris’s witch energy all around him, though how she was doing it he had no idea. She seemed to be employing some form of enthrallment, a spell maybe. It was on a massive scale, something most witches couldn’t do. So who was Iris anyway?

  Connor kept shifting his gaze from Big Nuts, to his men, and back.

  “Iris?” He didn’t dare take his eyes off the men in front of him, though he feared more guards may have already arrived at the entrance. If they had, he and Iris were screwed.

  Connor waited, then asked, “What’s going on, Iris?”

  She didn’t respond, but he could still feel her streaming some kind of spell. And since Big Nuts hadn’t moved because he, too, was frozen in place, Connor turned toward the door. But no one was there. No one had come to support Gary’s troops.

  He then looked back at Iris. Holy shit. She stood eyes closed, with her arms raised, her gun in hand and the pistol pointed toward the ceiling.

  He finally understood. She was holding the room in some kind of stasis. All with her own power. Unbelievable.

  But it was a brilliant move because he knew exactly how he could make this work for him.

  He moved back to Big Nuts, whose eyes looked dull.

  “Iris, it would help if you could partially release Gary.”

  He felt her focusing intently and after a moment, Big Nuts finally blinked, meeting Connor’s gaze.

  “Tell me now, Gary, who set me up and what species was he?”

  Big Nuts shook his head. Despite the fact that his troops were immobilized and couldn’t come to his aid, he still wouldn’t give up the information.

  Connor looked down at the man’s leopard pants and the two oversized bulges. How bad would it hurt if he was in a witch-trance?

  Time to find out.

  Using the butt of his gun, he came down on the left testicle.

  Big Nuts arched his neck, opened his mouth wide and a high-pitched scream left his voice.

  “Tell me now, Gary, or I’ll do the same to the other one.”

  “He was a vampire but didn’t give me his name.” Gary’s face had turned bright red from pain. He also had a hard time pushing his words out of his throat. “He gave me cash. A lot of it. Seemed like a small thing to do, sending you out to Amado, then over to Sentinel. I didn’t know he meant to blow the bridge.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Couldn’t see his face, only his eyes.” He squeezed each word out. He was having a hard time breathing. “Green, maybe hazel. Not sure. Black hair. Tall. Lean. But he was in shadow, like some kind of spell was on him. That’s all I know.”

  “You called him, didn’t you? Before we came in.”

  “Yes, he’s on his way. A couple minutes out.”

  “Was he paying you more to turn us over?”

  Big Nuts nodded. “A lot. The man has money.”

  So they were dealing with a vampire of wealth, maybe the vampire who’d shown up at Iris’s just before they left.

  “I should kill you for this.”

  Big Nuts glanced down at his crotch. “I think you already did.”

  Connor was pissed as hell. He brought the butt down on the other ball and watched as Big Nuts folded up then slid off the desk.

  He returned to Iris, facing her. “Can you talk while you’re holding this spell?”

  She shook her head, her eyes still closed.

  “Can I?”

  She nodded in quick bobs of her chin.

  “Good. I want to wait for our mystery man to arrive. You okay with that?”

  She shook her head.

  “You’re running out of steam?”

  Another nod.

  He noticed the white, compressed look to her lips. “Okay. Can you move?”

  Once more, her head wagged side-to-side.

  “Can I pick you up?”

  She dipped her chin.

  He slipped behind her and put her in flight position on his boot once more, holding her close. He levitated slowly back into the hall. He could feel her spell still flooding the space around them.

  When he moved into the main sex room, he saw that the spell had shut everyone down there as well. He’d never been more grateful in his life. Or astonished. Iris had a helluva lot of power.

  As he moved through the room, he searched for the man who was hunting them, but saw no one who might fit the description.

  However, when he slipped through the front door and past the bodyguards, he happened to glance back over his shoulder. A tall vampire with unusually pale skin, stood watching him. He was lean with maybe greenish eyes and had black hair, but that’s all Connor could make out. Big Nuts was right; a witch spell of some kind cloaked him. Great. They were dealing with a vampire who didn’t mind making use of a witch’s powers.

  He could feel Iris’s spell start to weaken. He rose swiftly into the air and Iris collapsed against him, the spell vanishing at the same moment. He carried her two streets over, then landed to put both guns away. It was tricky since she was limp against him, almost unconscious.

  As soon as the weapons were back in each holster, he slid an arm beneath her knees and cradled her against his chest. He then launched back into the air. He realized now that Iris, acting on her prescience, had gotten them both out of there alive, though he didn’t know how. For one thing, he should have fallen under the spell at the same time as the others. For another, he’d never heard of a witch being able to enthrall so many at once. Again, Iris must have a phenomenal level of ability.

  He decided it would be best to return to her home since she would need time to recover. He knew enough about her culture to understand Iris would gain strength from her garden. But he wasn’t sure they should stay there long since their shared enemy knew where she lived.

  He flew to her backyard and slowly made his descent. When he touched down on the lawn he
looked up and saw that her earlier spell, full of power, had created a shield over her entire property, something that looked like soft trails of mist through the air.

  “I can see your spell,” he said quietly. He didn’t let her go. He knew she’d crumple if he did.

  “Makes sense.” She spoke slowly, as though drugged. “I included you in the binding incantation. Sorry I’m so weak. I used everything … I had to hold the spell. I knew he wouldn’t tell us anything otherwise.”

  Connor carried her to the back door and opened it carefully. At the same time, the yellow cat rushed out, his quiet bell jingling at his neck.

  “Don’t take me into the house,” she whispered. “Follow Pips.”

  He turned and saw that the cat was sitting in the middle of the patch of grass, his back to Connor. Pips then turned slightly to watch Connor over his shoulder as though waiting for Connor to figure things out.

  When Connor levitated and moved in the cat’s direction, Pips trotted to the tree then sat down off to the right of it. “Pips is by the sissoo.”

  “Take me there. He always knows best.” Ah, yes, the world of the witch.

  Once he reached the old, massive tree, he had to set her on her feet for a moment, but held her pressed against him. He unclipped his Glock holster first, then his sword, bending to place each on the ground. He picked her up again and leaning against the tree slid down to sit on the grass at the base. He held Iris on his lap, still holding her close.

  The tree felt like life to him, as though everything good and powerful in the universe had gathered in one place and showered a life-force down on them both.

  A breeze blew through the garden, rustling the leaves of the sissoo, and making a shushing sound.

  His throat grew tight and he had the strangest feeling as though for a brief moment he’d returned to the human world restored. He rubbed his gums, checking for the lumps that would release his fangs, but they were still there. The sensation, as transient as it would no doubt prove, made him long for things he’d pushed to the deepest parts of his mind.

  He’d been twenty-eight when he’d taken the blood flame drug, laced as it was with the vampire alter serum. But in this moment, with Iris in his arms, he could recall the vision he’d had for his life. He would become an engineer and build entire cities. He would find the right woman to be by his side, they would marry and have four or five kids.

  He’d found the right woman, but after a year of marriage she’d died unexpectedly of a brain aneurism. His grief had been profound and had led him to take blood flame, which in turn had brought him here, to this exact spot, beneath a life-giving tree and holding a beautiful, strong, resourceful witch in his arms.

  When Iris began drawing deep breaths, he felt her strength returning. With skin like cream, her brows in fine arches, and her lips full, she looked like a model.

  Without thinking, he stroked her face, pushing a few loose strands away from her ear.

  She drew another stream of air into her lungs, then rolled her head back to look up at him. Her gaze skated past him as she looked in the direction of the sky. She smiled. “I’m so glad to be home and you’re right, my spell holds. We’ll be safe here. I knew you were worried about that.”

  Her cat jumped up on Iris’s stomach. “Hello, Pips.”

  Iris shifted just enough to pet her cat.

  Connor’s throat now ached like he had a noose around his neck. For a moment, he didn’t know why until he realized he’d felt this way once before, during his way-too-brief marriage.

  The night had already been strange with the runner and her fake jacket, the explosion on the bridge, and now Big Nuts turning him over to a madman for cash.

  But maybe the most bizarre part was realizing he was falling in love with Iris Meldeere, a woman who by nature of her alter species was his enemy.

  How the hell had this happened?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Iris still felt weak and muddled from the amount of spell energy she’d used up in order to escape from Big Nuts’s house of sex. She petted her cat and scratched underneath his collar, the small bell jingling softly.

  She leaned her head against Connor’s shoulder, forcing air deep into her lungs. “Sorry.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.

  “For what?”

  She loved how his voice rumbled in his chest. But what had he asked? Oh, yeah. Why she was sorry. “For being so useless right now.”

  “You got us out of there. I’m not sure without your spell we would have survived. By the way, he was there.”

  “Who was there?”

  “The vampire intent on killing us.”

  She chuckled. “Oh. Him.” She was so out of it.

  “You okay?”

  “No. But I will be. I need to recoup my strength. What did the bad guy look like?”

  “Gary was right. He must have bought himself a spell because it was hard to see him. But he was tall, lean, light-colored eyes, dark hair. I couldn’t discern his features, though.”

  She sighed. “Not much to go on.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  The energy of her garden flowed over her and had begun to restore her. Being in Connor’s arms helped as well.

  “What can I do to help you feel better?”

  “Kiss me.” Wait. Why had she said that?

  “You want me to kiss you?” A soft chuckle left his throat.

  “No, I mean yes. I mean, God, no.” But it would be really nice.

  Again, that man-hungry feeling returned. He’d kissed her earlier in the garden, but she’d been so overwhelmed, she hadn’t been able to respond, at least for a few seconds. He’d looked distressed when he’d pulled back, searching her eyes with that heavy frown between his brows. She’d finally given in to her desire for him, in part to make sure he knew how much she wanted him, desired him.

  “Connor?”

  “Yes.”

  “I loved the kiss you gave me before. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Can we do it again?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I’ve thought about it. I think now would be good.”

  He smiled tenderly. “How about when you recover a little more.”

  After a moment, she shifted in his arms so she could look at him. Pips jumped off her lap at the same time. “You have beautiful blue eyes. I think they’re one of your best features.” Her gaze dropped to his lips.

  “How weak are you right now?” His voice had dropped into a lower timbre, a sound that teased her between her legs.

  She sat up enough to slide an arm around his neck. “My garden is helping. And being with you as well, though I’m not sure why. You seem to have an effect on me and I’m coming back fast.”

  She kissed him, her tongue rimming the soft fullness of his lips. She could feel her garden swaying around her, creating a breeze that carried an elixir of beautiful scents. Some were healing, others erotic. What she’d spent so much time nurturing, began to give back to her, renewing her energy with every breath, even as she kissed Connor.

  The sissoo swayed above her as well.

  When she drew back, Connor smoothed his fingers over her cheek. “You’re so beautiful, Iris.”

  She felt him, felt his words and what lay beneath. She knew he’d been married before the alter, just as she had. But he hadn’t engaged in a serious relationship since. They were a lot alike.

  Violet’s earlier words came back to her. Save Connor.

  What had she meant by it?

  “Connor,” she began, though no other words followed. She was still a little muddled, but getting stronger by the second.

  “I’m here.” He searched her eyes, then leaned in and kissed her again, a brief touch of his lips to hers. “You feel like a dream to me, like you don’t really exist.”

  At that, she smiled. “I know what you mean. I never thought I’d feel this way again.”

  He drifted a series of sensual kisses over her lips, one after the other. “What way?” />
  What had he asked? Oh, yes, the way she was feeling. She drew back enough to meet his gaze. “As though I could be in bed with you and stay there for a long time. Days maybe.”

  “Is that how you feel?” He looked so serious.

  She nodded.

  “Iris.” His voice was low, hushed. “I think I’m falling for you.”

  Her mind slipped back to earlier in the evening and seeing the red half-hearts on Jason and Sadie’s hands.

  They’d been lovers.

  A decade of loneliness swelled over her, putting an ache in her heart. “Me, too, but maybe we should stop.”

  Connor’s gaze once more fell to her lips. “You’re right, we should.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  When she tilted her face, inviting him, he settled his lips on hers, but more forcefully this time. She moaned, her entire body lighting up. When she parted her lips, his tongue entered her, and he took his time searching the recesses of her mouth. Then he began to plunge, a beautiful prologue. She savored each thrust that quickly became a dedicated, very familiar rhythm.

  When she pulled back, she was breathing hard. “Make love to me, Connor, right here in the garden. And right now. No more questions, or doubts, or anything. Just sex, because I think we both need this.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Connor plundered Iris’s mouth, knowing he shouldn’t, but unable to help himself. He’d craved her for months. Now she was in his arms and telling him she was falling for him, too.

  She tasted sweet, like a ripe plum. He licked her tongue and heard her moan in response. He slid his hand over her breast, her nipple already peaked as he began to fondle her. A streak of desire shot through his cock. He glided his hand to her waist and pulled her t-shirt from her jeans, then smoothed his fingers over her stomach and up to her bra. He caressed her again through the soft fabric then plucked at her nipples.

  She groaned and pushed at him, though he wasn’t sure why. When he drew back, he saw that her cheeks were flushed. He was about to call a halt to everything, thinking maybe she was too weak to continue. But she suddenly leaned back just enough to take her shirt off and set her hair free from her ponytail. He held her loosely in his arms the whole time to keep her from falling backward.