There weren’t many places for him to put his hands. What he wanted to do was to bury them into her hair and guide her while he thrust into her mouth, but he didn’t want to control this. She was in control. She needed to be in control. It was important to her and therefore it was important to him.

So he gripped the arms of the chair he was in and forced himself to relax, to take deep, even breaths. But that was hard to do when in the voracious mouth of a woman bent on pleasing every last one of his senses. His every nerve ending seemed to come alive, the electric sensations riding over and through him in wonderful waves. There was a thump of sound and some distant part of his brain registered that it was his journal hitting the floor. He couldn’t care less. Her mouth was hot and wet around him, first pulling him in, and then slowly sliding away. She employed one hand to stroke him whenever she receded, while her other hand curved around his hip, her fingers digging lightly into his left buttock. He had the inane thought that she was left-handed. He didn’t know why that should matter.

She moved her hand aside so she could lick him from tip to root and back again. The act was slow and tortuous and he groaned in relief when she took him in her mouth again. He loved everything she was doing, every single slow stroke and sensual tasting, but a sense of urgency was beginning to build in him. He gripped at the arms of the chair, willing himself into submission. And yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself from thrusting against her palate.

“Gods, Viève, stronger,” he begged her. “Faster—yes!” He threw his head back and felt her obey his commands, let himself fall dizzily into the sensations she was providing for him. Need clawed through the seat of his sac, building up tightly there, readying for release. It wouldn’t take much longer. She was working him in earnest now, her mouth stroking and gliding and oh so heavenly sweet.

“Viève! Viève, I’m going to come!” It was more a warning than a pronouncement. He didn’t want her to experience anything she wasn’t ready for. But she absorbed the announcement by redoubling her speed.

Pure lust screamed through him. He shouted out and began to come in hard, pulsating bursts. Now his hands found her hair, his fingers boring through the fine strands. He gripped at her, trying to will himself into calming. But his heartbeat thundered on and on. He blinked his lashes, trying to clear his vision of the bursts of color he had seen so brightly.

She let go of him and he sagged back into the chair.

He tipped her head back and looked into her smiling eyes. They were the eyes of a woman satisfied with her accomplishment. And she should feel satisfied. She had wrung him out, made him lose even the smallest ounce of control.

All focus and all thoughts of his magic had been shot straight to hell.

Chapter 17

When the Empress arrived, it was with Grey in tow. He had vowed never to leave her side during all of this, to protect her with all that he could. After all, she was his most powerful nikki. It was in his best interest.

Kamen and Viève didn’t realize she had arrived at first. Kamen had gone back to studying his spell journals, carefully crafting together what he thought he would need to break the curse. He took portions of other curse breakers, a portion of reveal spells, and a little bit of truth spells. He drew them all together and thought he had come up with something that could work.

When he and Viève went downstairs, it was with all the supplies he would need to cast the spell. He walked into the large common room and found almost everyone from the Second Faction sitting in the room. Apparently they had called a meeting of the groups to welcome the Empress. There was also Max, Angelina, and Leo, the three humans who had been acting as go-betweens between the two worlds. It was just what he needed. Everyone. Together. And he told them as much. Told them of his plans and his concocted spell. He could tell it didn’t go over well with many of the people in the room, but as Marissa said:

“What other choice do we have?”

“All right,” Leo said. “Everyone from both factions is in this room. And let me tell you, this whole sharing space thing is unnerving. From my perspective I see two people sitting in the same chair but it looks like they’re sitting inside one another. Very creepy.”

“For the spell I am casting,” Kamen said, “we all need to occupy our own space in the room. If we suddenly become visible to one another we don’t want to be occupying the same space, just in case.”

It took some rearranging and communication through the humans in the room, but eventually they were all in their own individual space.

“Now I want to clear any extraneous people from the room. All I need is one person from each race in here at the same time. Choose who stays and who goes.”

After Leo relayed this message, the Second Faction cleared the room except for Viève, the Wraith; Paulette, the Mystical; Grey the Djynn; Kamen, the Bodywalker, Faith, the Night Angel; and Cordo the Phoenix.

On the First Faction’s side it was Sagan, the Shadowdweller; Bella, the Druid; Jacob, the Demon; Jasmine, the Vampire; Jinaeri the Lycanthrope; and Windsong, the Mistral.

“Leo, you and Angelina and Max are going to serve as our links. Everyone is to hold hands with each other using our human friends as the link between First and Second Factions. While you are doing that, I am going to get everything ready.”

Everyone in the room linked hands. To those on the Second Faction’s side it looked as though Leo was holding hands with thin air on one side and Faith on the other. The only one not connected was Kamen, who was preparing the components of his spell. Viève stood on the end of the line of linked hands, waiting to take his hand in hers.

“I hope like hell this works,” Leo said, his mistrust of Kamen and all things magical coming through in his voice and his expression. “This is starting to piss me off. We need to be able to connect with each other.” He held up his hands, one of which held Faith’s, the other of which held Bella’s. He could see them both, feel them both, and yet they were not able to see each other even though they were so close. It was frustrating. They needed to come together. It was the only way.

“I am ready to begin,” Kamen said as he lit a sage wand and burned it until the smoke filled the air. He set it down in a dish and let it continue to burn. Then he opened his journal to the page he had used to craft the spell on and laid it down on the coffee table next to the burning sage. There were other herbal components strewn out on the table. Rosemary for remembrance. Thyme for constancy. Saffron for awareness. Paprika for harmony. He had brought every herb he could think of that had to do with awareness or remembrance. The sage was just to cleanse the room of any residual magic, if there was any. That meant dispelling the darkness spell Valera used to protect her husband, Sagan, so he had seen the main breaker shut off first.