Author: Karen Lynch
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/karen-lynch/page,20,468303-hellion.html
“Sorry, I –”
My words were cut off when his mouth came down over mine. Every nerve ending in my body fired when his tongue swept possessively across the seam of my lips, demanding entry. I opened to him eagerly as my hands went to the back of his head, holding him against me. There was nothing gentle about this kiss. It was hungry and hard, and it stoked my desire for him into an inferno.
Without breaking the kiss, I pushed him, and he moved backward until he came up against the weight bench. He sat, and my lips stayed fused with his as I climbed onto his lap to straddle him. His arousal pressed against me through our clothes, and I moaned into his mouth. Needing more, I rocked against him, and he growled deep in his chest. Dear God, that was the sexiest sound I’d ever heard.
My hands slid down his back to slip beneath his shirt and glide over his hot skin. His breath hitched, and he made a tortured sound when my fingers traced the muscles of his abdomen. I’d seen him shirtless, but nothing compared to the feel of his hard body under my hands. He was perfection.
One of his large hands moved under my top to cup my breast, and I moaned at the heat of his touch through my bra. I shifted restlessly on his lap, aching to feel all of him without the barrier of clothes between us.
The sound of the outside door opening vaguely registered in my lust-drunk mind. It wasn’t until I heard footsteps coming toward us that I came to my senses and broke the kiss. I stared into Hamid’s eyes, which were drugged with desire, and reality hit me like a bucket of ice water.
What am I doing? I started to climb off his lap, but his arms tightened around my waist like a vise.
“Stay,” he said in a gravelly voice that made me want to do whatever he asked of me. And that realization terrified me more than anything ever had.
“I can’t,” I whispered hoarsely. “Let me go.”
Frustration crossed his face, and for a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to release me. But then his arms loosened, and I was able to move away from him.
I couldn’t look at him. He’d made the first move, but it was I who had been all over him, getting both of us worked up and so close to losing control. If someone hadn’t come along, how far would I have gone? Would I have stopped at all?
A weak “I’m sorry” was all I could manage before I ran from the gym and fled to my room.
Chapter 13
“Hey, there you are.” Beth looked up from the computer she was working on as I entered the control room two days later. “I was just about to go look for you.”
“It’s a little early for patrol,” I joked, excitement rippling through me. I had finally been cleared to go back to work, and tonight I was going out with Chris, Beth, and Rory. Something told me Chris was going to be keeping an eye on me for my first day back, but I didn’t care. I was so full of energy after my convalescence that it felt like I would burst out of my skin if I didn’t see some action soon.
She smiled. “Nikolas asked me to find you. He said to send you to his office.”
I made a face. “Called to the office on my first day at work. This can’t be good.”
Nikolas’s door was closed, which was my first clue that something was up. He never closed it unless he was on a call with Tristan or someone else equally important.
I knocked, and he called for me to enter. My smile disappeared when I opened the door to see that Nikolas was not alone. Hamid was seated in one of the visitor chairs.
It was the first time I’d seen Hamid since that night in the gym, mainly because I’d been doing everything I could to avoid being in the same room with him. Call me a coward, but I didn’t know how to face him after that kiss.
Holy Mother, that kiss. My skin heated just remembering the taste of his lips, the feel of his body under my exploring fingers.
My eyes briefly met his stoic gaze before I looked at Nikolas. “You wanted to see me?”
“We did. Come in.”
My stomach knotted as I took the chair next to Hamid’s. I did not have a good feeling about this.
I gave Nikolas an expectant look, but it was Hamid who spoke.
“The team and I are needed in Atlanta. We leave in two hours.”
I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to tell me this when we weren’t even on speaking terms these days. But I was curious all the same. “Is it another summoning?”
“No. Ciro contacted us an hour ago to say he uncovered something and he needs us to go there immediately. He said it was related to our investigation and of the utmost importance. That is all I know.” Hamid’s eyes were unreadable, betraying nothing of what he felt about me now. It was almost as if the kiss had never happened and we were nothing more than two warriors working on the same job.
“Oh.” I rubbed my palms on my thighs, not sure what to say next. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”
He looked confused for a few seconds. “We will be several days at least. You will want to pack enough clothes for that.”
“Me?” I looked from him to Nikolas, who seemed happy to sit back and let us talk. “I don’t think Ciro needs me there.”
Hamid nodded. “I am needed there, and where I go, you go.”
“But…” I started to say I wanted to stay here where I would be useful, but nothing was more important than this investigation. My wants did not matter as long as the person responsible for all of this was still out there.
I nodded and stood. “I’ll go pack.”
Ten minutes later, I sat on my bed staring at the packed duffle bag on the floor and wondering how I was going to be around Hamid for several days after what had happened between us. He appeared to have moved past it, but I couldn’t put it out of my mind. I was starting to think the spell had messed with our bond. How else could I explain why I was obsessing over him while he was composed and indifferent? Had it only been a heat-of-the-moment thing for him?
I let out a pitiful groan and flopped back on my bed. Why me?
I stayed there until Beth knocked on my door to tell me it was time to go to the airport. I picked up my bag and set my shoulders before I went to join the others.
One good thing about traveling with the team was that I didn’t have to be alone with Hamid or talk to him unless it was necessary. I couldn’t get out of riding in the same vehicle as him, but I took the seat farthest from his on the plane. When we landed in Atlanta, he was so focused on the job that he barely looked at me as we piled into the waiting SUVs.
We found Ciro at a modest two-story house in Edgewood. From the outside, the house looked like any other on the street, but as soon as I passed through the front door, my skin prickled almost painfully from the magic inside. I rubbed my arms as I walked down a short hallway, trying to get rid of the pins and needles sensation.
“It’s a ward,” said Bastien, who had followed me in. “The effects will fade soon.”
Ciro was waiting for us in the living room, and his grave expression told me whatever he’d found was not good. Dread coiled in my stomach as I waited for everyone to join us. For him to call the whole team here instead of telling them this over the phone, his discovery had to be huge.
“Thank you for getting here so quickly,” he said as soon as the last person entered the room. “This is the home of my protégé, Kai. I came here to check in with him because I haven’t heard from him in two months, but he wasn’t here. It’s not like Kai to go off for this long without telling me.”
“You suspect foul play?” Hamid asked, his eyes already scanning the room for clues.
My gaze followed Hamid’s and landed on a framed photo of Ciro with a thin man with dirty blond hair, who looked to be in his mid-thirties.
“No.” Ciro clasped his hands in front of him, and I noticed tightness around his eyes and mouth. “Kai is quite gifted and powerful for a young warlock. But I was concerned by his absence, so I searched his house, looking for clues to where he might have gone. This morning, I found something hidden in his workroom. It’s an old parchment covered in Arabic,
of which I only know a few words, but I believe it’s a spell. That along with something I read in one of Kai’s journals convinced me I had to bring you here as soon as possible.”
He waved at a door on the other side of the hallway. “Please, follow me.”
I started forward with everyone else, until Hamid grabbed my wrist, holding me back. I looked up at his serious face.
“We’re entering a wizard’s workroom, and there is no telling what magical traps we’ll find inside,” he said. “Stay near me, and do not touch anything until the wizards tell us it’s safe.”
“Okay.” Revulsion twisted my stomach at the thought of coming into contact with more magic, but warriors did not let their aversions or fears stop them from doing their job. This would not be the only time in my career that I would have to deal with magic, and the sooner I learned to handle it, the better.
I followed him through the door that led to the basement. I was expecting a dank, dark room filled with potions and magical instruments, and I was surprised to find just the opposite. Kai’s workroom was clean and well-lit, and there wasn’t a potion in sight. Along one wall was a workbench with cabinets above and below it, and there were two full bookcases and a large stuffed chair that looked worn from use. A woven rug covered the center of the stone floor and the windows were covered with blackout curtains. On a small table beside the chair, a book was open facedown, as if the owner planned to return any moment.
It could almost pass for a normal room if not for the lingering magic that made the hairs on my arms stand up. A month ago, I probably wouldn’t have felt the magic at all, but that was before I’d become a guinea pig for a bunch of warlocks.
The team was crowded around a table in a corner of the room, making it impossible to see what they were looking at. If it was the parchment, I’d be of no help to them anyway. I was almost fluent in Spanish, and I knew enough Mandarin to order at a Chinese restaurant, but I wouldn’t know Arabic from Russian.
Orias looked over his shoulder at us. “Hamid, can you translate this?”
Hamid ushered me toward the table, obviously not trusting me enough to leave me alone. I went willingly because despite my conflicting emotions over him, I respected his knowledge and experience. If he had concerns about this place, I wasn’t going to challenge him.
People moved aside to let us through, and I was able to see what had them all so captivated. On the table lay a piece of parchment between two sheets of glass. The stained parchment was so old it was crumbling around the edges and the writing was faded from age.
Hamid leaned down and studied the document before he began to read the words aloud in English. I couldn’t make much sense of what he was saying, but Orias and the other warlocks hung on every word. They interrupted Hamid half a dozen times to ask him to repeat a phrase, and then they’d all nod thoughtfully and go back to listening. When he came to a section he had trouble with, he explained that the language was ancient Arabic and some of the words did not translate well.
“Is it a spell?” Charlotte asked when Hamid finished.
Orias stroked his chin. “It’s a summoning spell, but not like anything I’ve seen.”
“Parts of it resemble the spell we use,” Bastien said. “But this one has many more layers to it. It’s more complex than any spell I know of.”
Ciro moved closer to touch the edge of the glass with a finger. “I believe we might be looking at one of the original summoning spells.”
Everyone started talking at once until Charlotte called for quiet. She looked at Ciro. “The breach was over two thousand years ago. How could this document have survived that long?”
“Magic maybe. I don’t know, but the evidence does not lie,” the warlock said.
I held up a hand. “Will one of you please tell me what the original summoning spells are?”
Orias turned to me. “You have heard the story of the great breach and how the archangels supposedly sealed it.”
I nodded, and the scholars in the room huffed.
“Not supposedly,” Charlotte said.
He ignored her. “The breach didn’t happen on its own. It’s said that three warlocks created spells that, when used together, tore open the barrier.”
“And you think this is one of those spells?” I asked him.
“Yes,” Ciro said with a certainty that sent a chill down my spine. “I wasn’t sure until I read the last few pages in Kai’s journal. It’s mostly scattered thoughts, but one word is written several times. Alaron.”
I had no idea what Alaron was, but based on the horrified faces around me, it wasn’t good. A pit opened in my stomach when I saw the expression mirrored on Hamid’s face. If just a mention of this Alaron got such a reaction from him, things were far worse than I’d thought.
“What is Alaron?” I asked, already dreading the answer.
I wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or afraid when Hamid moved so close to me our arms were touching. What did he think to protect me from?
“Alaron is an archdemon,” he said grimly. “His name is known to us because he tried to come through the barrier during the breach and was driven back by the archangels.”
I swallowed dryly. “You think Kai is using this spell to try to create another breach and bring an archdemon through?”
Ciro exhaled deeply. “This spell alone cannot open the barrier. I think Kai tried to summon Alaron with the intent to contain him.”
I remembered Orias’s analogy about the fisherman and the great white. There was no way Kai could have contained an archdemon, which meant he was dead or…
“Are you saying there could be an archdemon walking around in the body of a warlock?” I asked, the question sounding ludicrous to my own ears.
“It’s highly improbable,” Bastien said.
“But not impossible,” Orias added. “We can’t know for sure unless we locate the summoning site.” He turned to Ciro. “Do you know where Kai would perform a summoning?”
Ciro nodded. “He owns a small warehouse in an industrial park. I went there yesterday but saw nothing out of the ordinary. No one has been there in months.”
“If he was going to summon Alaron, he’d want some place more private.” Hamid pulled out his phone. “What is Kai’s full name? We’ll have our people dig around and see what they can find. I’ll inform the Council.”
“Bradley,” Ciro said weakly.
“What does all of this mean?” I asked the group after Hamid stepped aside to make a call. “You said an archdemon has enough power to open the barrier. Is he trying to create another breach?”
Orias looked at the parchment again. “If Kai did manage to summon Alaron and Alaron possessed Kai’s body, it won’t be enough for him. He’ll try to make a hole large enough to bring his physical body through.”
Marie made the sign of the cross. “God help us if he succeeds. In his true form, he could destroy the barrier completely.”
My head spun as I tried to come to grips with what they were saying. Everyone I loved would die if the barrier fell. Not even the Fae could protect us from what was on the other side of it.
I looked at Orias, who seemed to know the most about this. “Can Alaron be killed without his body?”
“Yes. His magic is strong, but the body he is possessing is still human.”
I let out a breath. “That’s something at least.”
Ciro’s face seemed to have aged ten years since we arrived. “I’ve known Kai for fifteen years. How could he have done this without me seeing that something was wrong with him? You don’t decide overnight to summon an archdemon. This would have taken months, maybe years of planning.”
“Why would he do it?” I asked. “What could he hope to achieve by calling Alaron?”
“Power,” Orias said without hesitation. “A warlock is only as powerful as the demon he commands, and an archdemon would make him invincible.”
I looked at the parchment. “If this spell is so important, why would he leave it here?�
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“It’s too fragile to carry with him,” Ciro said. “Kai put a spell around the parchment that is strong enough to preserve it but not to travel with it. A more powerful spell might damage the document.”
Hamid joined us again. “The Council is putting people on finding everything there is to know about Kai Bradley. In the meantime, we need to go over every inch of this place and the warehouse.”
Ciro nodded gravely. “Kai has magical wards all over the house, and some might be harmful to you. It would be safest if you warriors split up with us.”
“I’ll take Jordan,” Orias said, surprising me. To Hamid he said, “I will keep her safe.”
Hamid glanced at me, and I could tell he was not happy about us separating. But what Ciro said made sense.
The group split up with Orias and me on the third floor. I suspected he took me there because it was the least likely place to find anything dangerous. I didn’t need to be a genius to see he was protecting me while the others searched the rest of the house.
“Are you strong enough to kill Alaron if we find him in time?” I asked as Orias rifled through drawers in the master bedroom.
Orias didn’t stop what he was doing. “Not alone.”
I sat on the foot of the neatly made bed. “What happens when you kill the host body? Does the demon die, too?”
This time, Orias looked at me. “He will return to his own dimension. Summoned demons can’t be killed as long as their physical body is still alive.”
My eyes went to the satchel he always carried that held his demon. “Do you keep the same demon forever, or release them after a while and get a fresh one?”
He raised an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “What? It’s a valid question.”
“It depends on the warlock. I’ve had my demon for about fifty years.” He went back to poking around in the dresser. “Now, stop asking questions, and let me work.”
It was almost midnight when we finished searching the house, having made no other significant discoveries. After some discussion over what to do with the parchment, it was decided that Charlotte and Marie would hold it until it could be sent to our archives in England for study and safekeeping.