© 2014 Gem Sivad LLC. All rights reserved. Blood Stoned, A Jinx story
Chapter Five
I was more than a little muzzy-headed. Too many things had happened too quickly. I closed my eyes, the better to concentrate and understand the day’s events. Something at the edge of my mind nagged me for attention. The elusive thought had begun to irritate me.
The first healing at the Patrick farm had been enough to tax my ability. I sighed, remembering the surly beast as he’d pawed the ground and charged at me—his thank you for saving him. Unbidden, a giggle escaped, as I pictured the lightning shaped brand I’d scorched on the bull’s rump.
I felt tired just thinking about the Patrick visit. I’d needed a rest, but before I’d gotten a chance to relax, I’d encountered Hunter and his crew at my place, waiting with a request for magical consultation.
I shuddered. Yuck. I hadn’t wanted to exam blood-drained animal carcasses. But consulting for the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad is too good an opportunity to use my witch skills, under-developed though they are.
“Hunter,” I said, pausing to congratulate myself on earning money without practicing corrupt magic. “When will the railroad pay me for my work?”
When I only received a blank stare, I added, “For looking at the dead fox this morning. I’m working with you, right?”
His head tilted sideways and he wore a puzzled expression. I fidgeted. It was another one of those awkward situations. I started to tell him, ‘never mind’, but then he smiled and said, “Partners.” It was silly, but the way he said that one word made my stomach flutter.
“Right,” I agreed happily. “And partners both get paid.”
I patted the bloodstone warming a spot on my hip and absently reached inside the pocket to grasp it in my palm. I hadn’t realized I was suffering pain until the hammer beating on my head disappeared and my jumbled thoughts quieted.
“Are there bats here in the Territory that suck blood?” I asked him. The bloodstone pulsed as if rewarding me. “I just wondered because if there are, I think that’s what’s been attacking the animals.”
I felt much better after delivering my witch consultant opinion, as if that somehow justified my fee, which we’d yet to negotiate. I marked that as another thing I wanted to discuss with him when the time seemed right.
“Blood sucking bats?” Hunter’s brow furrowed in a frown, not an expression I’d often seen him wear.
Having offered that possibility for him to worry over, I returned to contemplating the day’s events. When I got to the El Diablo visit and subsequent healing, confusion clouded my mind again and I struggled to remember.
I knew I’d gone to the El Diablo to tend Langdon Mars. The trouble was, I couldn’t remember the healing. Given the amount of power I’d harvested, that made no sense. Nervously, I palmed the bloodstone. My stomach rumbled, reminding me why I’d entered the tent to get away from an audience.
“Have you eaten?” I asked, discreetly picking up my own plate. When he nodded, indicating that I should go ahead, I hastily devoured the food he’d provided after which, I felt much stronger. It was the first meal I’d had in quite some time and much appreciated. When I finished, I set the plate aside and hiked up my skirt to check my knees.
“Look at these,” I told Hunter, pointing at my healed scrapes. “The flesh was flayed raw, now it’s not.” When his eyebrows rose, questioning me, I explained. “I’ve never been able to heal myself before.”
I could be mistaken but for a moment Hunter actually looked guilty. “Not your fault they were bruised and torn,” I assured him. “Our time together was worth it.”
My mind stalled and I felt breathless thinking about our coupling; or, as he called it, our mating. The memory made my female parts tighten and I almost moaned as I felt the ache of recently stretched muscles and the residual pleasure in my woman parts.
Maybe I did groan because gold color rolled over Hunter’s eyes and his growl was more beast than man. In a blur of speed, he moved from his side of the tent to crouch in front of my knees. Before I could pull my skirts down, and really I didn’t hurry, he bent his head to study the smooth flesh, so recently abraded.
When his tongue swiped across the already healed scrapes, heat shot through my knees and climbed higher to my core. His eyes glazed over and a rumble sounded in his chest.
His hands caressed my limbs, moving my skirt higher as he nuzzled and licked the sensitive skin on the inside of each thigh. The fluttering in my belly intensified as my body hummed in pleasure.
*
Hunter was desperate for his rainha. He nuzzled the silken skin on her inner thighs, moving ever higher, until at last he reached her center. He wanted to roar as the scent of her arousal maddened him. Instead, he rumbled in bliss as he played in her soft folds, tasting and licking her wet heat.
“Hunter,” she moaned and pressed his head tighter to her flesh.
The mate makes herself prey. Must guard. Must protect. Barely contained inside of him, Hunter’s beast raged. He wanted to mark her in every way, make her sex quiver with joy, spread himself over her until she wore him like second skin. He wanted to hear her purr.
“Hunter, please,” she gasped, arching into the lap of his tongue.
She tasted of sweet cream and spicy magic. When he added his fingers to their play, stroking inside of her as he sucked on the nubbin of flesh at her apex, he felt wild magic surge through her as she came.
Before her sex stopped pulsing, he pulled her to the floor of the tent, arranged her on all fours with her head resting on her forearms, and her skirts folded back revealing her bare rump.
“What…”
Before she could question further, Hunter shed his pants, spread her legs wider and mounted her, thrusting through her wet heat, until he reached her core.
“You could have died,” he growled, withdrawing to plunge through her tight folds again. He couldn’t touch her enough. He pushed her thick red mane of hair aside, and licked her neck. Her sex tightened around him, arousing him impossibly more.
“You are my mate,” he growled around suddenly elongated feline incisors. He slid one of his arms under her, cupping her breast and capturing the puckered nub between finger and thumb.
“You are mine to keep safe,” he commanded, kneading her breast and squeezing her nipple until she mewed with pleasure.
With his other hand, he grasped her shoulders, pinned her in place, and finding the spot he’d first nipped, marked her again. It wasn’t as before. This time his teeth penetrated her flesh, and the rich, sweet taste of her blood flooded his senses, becoming part of his essence, bonded to the very marrow in his bones.
“You are truly mine, now, little witch,” Hunter groaned.
Her back arched and her muscles contracted around his cock as her release pulsed through her, squeezing his shaft so hard, she pulled his own completion from him. Panting with exhaustion, they collapsed on the floor in a tangle of limbs.
Hunter grabbed the blanket from his cot and made a nest for her to lie on. After he arranged her again to his satisfaction, he lay down with her back to his chest, and pulled a blanket over them.
“My dress is going to get wrinkled,” she murmured.
He laughed silently. Her dress was already wrinkled. But her observation gave him an excuse to strip her clothes from her and lay skin to skin.
By the time he was finished fussing with their bedding, and arranging his mate to his satisfaction, she already slept. He cradled her in his arms, listening to her every breath, and licking the wound he’d inflicted on her neck. By the time his own eyes drifted shut in sleep, the bite mark was healed, not so much as a bruise marred her soft skin, and in her sleep, his rainha purred.
