Oracle's Moon

21

After the confrontation with Soren, Khalil had lost his taste for the hunt. Not that it mattered. Once the coven had lost their ability to operate in secrecy, it became a bug hunt. Twelve bugs after Therese were apprehended, and the biggest cockroach was Brandon Miller. Jaydon Guthrie, for whom so many crimes had been committed, had known nothing of the attacks. By Monday evening, all the conspirators were in custody.

Khalil was glad, for Grace’s sake, that not all twelve of the people who had showed up for her work day had been involved in sabotaging her house. All but Olivia had been part of the Humanist Party, but only four on Saturday had been part of the secret coven. The other eight had just been unpleasant.

“Somehow that’s a bit easier to take, knowing that not everybody on Saturday had been there all day, conspiring to kill me and the kids,” Grace said to Khalil with a shudder.

“The ones who did are crazy,” Khalil said. “Just like pariahs.”

Once the conspiracy had been uncovered, all eight from the workday who were innocent, along with Jaydon Guthrie and many others, called or e-mailed to express their outrage and grief at what had happened and to apologize on behalf of the Humanist Party.

One of them was the babysitter, Janice. When Grace recognized the number on her new cell phone, she almost didn’t pick up, but then she decided otherwise and ended up talking with the older woman for fifteen minutes. “I have certain beliefs,” Janice said, her voice thick with emotion. “We all believe in something. But what that coven did was monstrous, and even though I knew nothing about it, it hurts my heart to think I had any connection at all with them.”

“I guess it’s hard to understand terrorism in any form,” Grace said. “We just have to learn how to move on now.”

Isalynn insisted Grace, and by extension Khalil, stay at her house for the foreseeable future. Security had swarmed Isalynn’s neighborhood, and her house was large and comfortable. Grace agreed, and that was the last decision either she or Khalil had to make Sunday evening. After an early supper, a hot shower and the comfort of soft, old clothes that one of the Djinn investigators brought, Grace couldn’t keep her eyes open. While Khalil joined her for the companionship, even he was tired enough to rest, drifting and thoughtless throughout the dark night.

Once the authorities confirmed that all twelve conspirators were in custody on Monday, the first thing Grace did was call Katherine. Even though nobody believed the children were still in danger, Katherine and John agreed to stay with them in Houston for the week, so that Grace and Khalil could deal with the aftermath of the house fire.

There were so many details to attend to. The house insurance. Grace also remembered what the ghost of the trucker had said about his accident insurance. An investigation into that was set in motion.

Khalil had called it—there was no lack of willing help on hand. A half-dozen Djinn were available at any given time. With a few determined Djinn pursuing the issue, they discovered that the trucker had not let his insurance lapse, as the insurance company had at first claimed. Instead, the company had made a mistake in processing his payment. Turned out, the insurance company owed his widow and Grace a settlement. It wouldn’t be a fortune, but it would be a substantial addition to Grace’s growing resources.

In the meantime, while Chloe and Max were in Houston, Khalil arranged for a leave of absence from his duties, and he and Grace tackled the job of sorting out what might be salvageable from the house. They saved some family mementos, photographs, all the historical papers and journals from previous Oracles that were stored in trunks in the attic, the files and computer, some of the children’s clothes and toys and the summer clothes Grace had stored in the office.

She chose to keep the rocking chair the children had been rocked in, even though it had been damaged. She wanted to try to repair it, because her grandmother had rocked her and Petra in it as well. Khalil wanted to keep the old leather armchair he sat in to read to the children. It was one of the few physical things he had ever grown attached to. There was nothing else worth salvaging. The structure itself would take an extensive effort to repair, more effort and resources than the house was worth.

On Wednesday afternoon, they sat for a while on the porch, listened to the wind in the trees, and Grace reminisced. Khalil asked her questions, fascinated by the intimate glimpse into her past. He held her as she wiped her face.

“It’s kind of a relief,” she said. “I feel so guilty about that. And it hurts too.”

He could understand it, at least more than he would have been able to before he had met her. This house was where he had stood, looked out the screen door and first felt that magical, precious something.

“You’re losing another huge piece of your past,” he said.

Grace nodded. “And I don’t have to fix the roof,” she said.

He laughed. She put her hands over her face and laughed with him and cried at the same time.

When they checked the rest of the property, they discovered the cavern had completely collapsed. Out of curiosity more than anything else, Khalil let go of his physical form and flowed around the crumbled nooks and crannies of the tunnel to the wreckage below. There weren’t any pockets of space large enough for a man to stand up in, just shreds of old Power and broken rock. When he emerged, Grace held the one thing from the cabinets important enough to keep, the Oracle’s mask, wrapped in cloth.

Meanwhile, the Djinn watched Grace and waited. The numbers of Djinn too damaged to heal themselves were relatively low, but those involved profound injuries. Khalil warned them off, telling them Grace needed time to get her basic needs met and to arrange for the children’s welfare before she could start spending energy on trying to heal damaged Djinn.

By Thursday, Grace herself brought the issue up. “I can’t stand it any longer,” she said to Khalil. “Ebrahim is driving me crazy. I don’t think he’s stopped working once since he showed up on Sunday.”

Khalil rubbed the back of his neck. He, Ebrahim and three other Djinn had been demolishing the house, while Grace watched. Khalil had taken a break for a few moments to join her. “I will talk with him again,” Khalil said. “I will tell him he must leave until you are ready.”

“No,” Grace told him. The day was sweltering, and Grace wore another set of loose, dark shorts made of a soft jersey material that Khalil liked, along with a tank top and sandals. The sun had kissed her skin with color. With her red-gold hair and coppery tan, she looked like a slender, vibrant flame. He approved. “I can’t stand that either—the not knowing, I mean. We need to find out if Phaedra was a fluke and whether or not I really can help any other Djinn to heal.”

He sighed. “Agreed. But after you try with Ebrahim’s mate, you will see no one else for at least two weeks. Katherine and John will be returning with the children on Sunday, and we must still arrange for a place for you—for us—to stay.”

Grace looked at him sidelong. The corners of her lips curved upward when he said “us,” but otherwise, she made no comment about that. Instead, she muttered, “That’s awfully bossy of you.”

By then he read her expressions very well indeed. He took note that she looked relieved, not offended. He called to Ebrahim, who winged toward them immediately. Khalil told him, “Get Atefeh.”

After one startled look at Grace, Ebrahim whirled away. Khalil watched as Grace braced herself visibly. He laid a hand against her back, and she glanced at him gratefully.

Then Ebrahim returned with Atefeh, his mate. Atefeh was so damaged, she could not create a physical form for herself, and she struggled constantly to soak in enough nourishment. She hovered in front of Grace, her presence dull and skewed.

One by one, the other Djinn quit working on the house demolition and joined them. Others appeared silently. Grace glared at the new arrivals, but she didn’t say anything, and they didn’t leave. She turned her attention back to Atefeh, and her expression smoothed, her gaze turning inward. Khalil felt the dark Power rise in her. Silence fell.

He didn’t know what happened next. He sensed movement that occurred somehow just beyond his awareness.

Atefeh flexed with a gasp and fell forward. Thinking the Djinn meant to attack or overwhelm Grace, Khalil lunged to pull Grace away and wrap her in a tight protection. But Atefeh was focused on something else, something only she and Grace seemed able to see. Atefeh keened, a sharp sound filled with pain. Her mate Ebrahim emitted a strangled groan in response, his face agonized as he watched her struggle.

Let me go! Grace said to Khalil. She shoved him with her Power, and he peeled away. She stepped toward the struggling Djinn. “Don’t give up! Don’t try to grab her. Stand still and let her come to you. Try to open up—she has to come inside you.”

Who was Grace talking about? Khalil couldn’t sense anybody but Grace and Atefeh.

Afeteh’s presence shuddered and rippled and suddenly flared with brilliance. For a moment, an ebony-skinned woman stood in front of them, eyes incandescent with triumph. She turned to give her mate a fierce smile. Ebrahim lost his physical form and became a piercing white light filled with joy.

All the other Djinn shouted until the sound rang through the open space.

Then Atefeh’s smile faded. A moment later, her physical form did too. I can’t hold it any longer, the Djinn said faintly. I must rest.

Ebrahim’s fierce white light twined with Atefeh. He said to Grace, Thank you.

You are both welcome, Grace said, even as the two Djinn faded away.

Grace turned to Khalil, beaming. He laughed, caught her up and spun her around. Then he stood and held her tightly.

My miracle, he thought. My Grace.

By Friday, Khalil couldn’t stand it any longer. “I am putting my foot down,” he told Grace at Isalynn’s breakfast table. Even though they had spent the last several nights at Isalynn’s, they never saw anyone but Judith, who took care of the house. Isalynn and her son, Malcolm, had traveled to Washington, but Isalynn had made it very clear before she left that they were to stay for as long as they needed.

Grace had dressed in capri pants and a sleeveless shirt that buttoned down the front. Khalil chose to form jeans and a T-shirt again. He was growing to like that kind of outfit. Grace rested her chin in her hands as she regarded him. She said, “Putting your foot down?”

“I can have feet when I choose to.”

She chuckled. “It’s a very human saying.”

“Indeed.” He folded the newspaper he had been reading and set it aside.

“What are you putting your foot down about now?”

“You make me sound dictatorial,” he said. “Finish your breakfast.”

She raised her eyebrows pointedly. He smiled at her. He adored his sharp, funny, hotheaded human. “I did not know you had such strong opinions about breakfast.” She finished her toast in a few bites. “I ate that because I wanted to.”

“No doubt you did,” he replied. “You have worked yourself into exhaustion every single day of this week.” Each night she had, in fact, barely been able to shower and eat a few bites of supper before falling into bed. He always joined her, sometimes in physical form, sometimes wrapped around her in an invisible embrace. “I am putting my foot down about this evening. Our activities today will be light, and we will quit early.”

The sparkle of humor left her face. “The children are coming home on Sunday. I miss them and want them back, but there’s still so much to do.”

“I miss the children too,” he said. “But not everything needs to be done this week. Murderers have been arrested; insurance claims have been filed and investigated; we have gone through all of your possessions, sorted documents, put the salvageable things in storage and taken furniture and your car in for repairs—although I still think you should sell your car. We have demolished your house, established a guarantee of freedom for myself, and you have healed two Djinn. Enough, Grace.”

“I haven’t even started looking at rental properties for a place to stay,” she said. Her expression grew shadowed. “We have to have some place to keep the kids when they return. Furniture shopping. Clothes and toys for the kids. Hell, clothes for me. Kitchen supplies, pots and pans, dishes. A coffeemaker. Coffee for the coffeemaker. Cups to put the coffee in.”

Speaking of which, he finished his coffee. “Do not trouble yourself in the slightest about any of that. I have arranged everything.”

Her posture shifted and she bent her head. Instead of resting her chin in the heel of her hands, she now rested her forehead in them. Looking down at the table, she said, “Khalil, these are not the kind of things people arrange and then tell somebody about them afterward.”

“I do,” he said. Her head came up, and her lovely eyes flashed fire. While he most definitely approved of the fire, he took note of the stress that caused it. “At least temporarily. I have arranged for an extended leave from the Demonkind legislature. I can make up the rest of my two-year commitment afterward. We are going on vacation, Grace. The only thing you need to decide is where.”

Her expression went blank with amazement. It amused him, but it also twisted him up a little. “But—but…”

“No ‘buts.’ Humans are always in such a hurry.” He took her hands and looked deeply into her turbulent eyes. “There is more than enough money. You now have resources in your bank account, and the Djinn will never allow you to suffer a lack of funds. I have funds too, quite a lot, last time I looked. There is more than enough time. There is nowhere you need to go, and nothing you need to do right now unless you choose to do it. You and the children are safe, Grace. You are safe now.”

Her gaze flooded with moisture. She looked stricken.

He stroked her hair. “You did not even need to decide what to do with all of your possessions right away or what to do with the house. It just seemed to help you come to terms with everything that happened. I’m only sorry there was so much loss.”

“Vacation,” she said slowly, as if it was a word in a foreign language.

“Yes. You have three choices. We can join the children at the Four Seasons in Houston. We can check into a hotel suite here in Louisville. I do not recommend that one, since I do not believe you will actually relax if we stay local.”

She wiped her cheeks. “What is the third option?”

“Carling and Rune called yesterday evening,” he said. “You were so sound asleep, you didn’t even hear your new cell phone ring, so I answered it. They have leased a beach house just outside of Miami, with the option to buy. Three bedrooms, two baths, a family room, a living room, a fenced-in yard and a deck that faces the ocean. It’s furnished, but Carling said the furniture can be removed if you want your own. They have invited us to use it for as long as we like.”

“Beach,” she said blankly.

Of all the strange fortune that had befallen her, it appeared that good fortune was what brought her to a total halt. He said in a gentle voice, “Beach. If you like.”

“You would come with us?” She searched his gaze.

“I will always come with you,” he said simply.

“Where would you like to go?” she asked. “Is there some place you would enjoy?”

He smiled. He liked Paris in the first blush of early morning and snowfall in St. Petersburg on a winter’s night. He liked the hot desert winds of North Africa and the wild open spaces of the Colorado and Mohave deserts, where the Djinn went to dance in the sun-drenched air. He adored following the plunge of water over Niagara Falls and swimming along the serpentine twists of the Amazon River, and he loved contemplating the top of the world along the peaks of the Himalayas, where the air grew thin and riotous infinity lay everywhere.

But it would not do to overwhelm her too soon. He told her, “I like the sun.”

She frowned as she studied him. “If we go to Houston, you may not get a real vacation either.”

He admitted, “That is a good point.”

Her frown didn’t ease. She said slowly, “I would love to take a vacation, but I also made a promise to a couple of people that I would help them.”

His eyebrows rose. “Who are they?”

“You know the petitioners that came the day Therese babysat? They weren’t able to go through with the consultation. They weren’t ready, and the cavern made them uncomfortable. I told them I would be available if they wanted to return.” Grace rubbed the back of her neck. “I need to keep my promise to them. I want to keep my promise.”

“This is not an issue,” Khalil said. “We will get in touch with them. Whenever they are ready, we’ll get a babysitter, and I can transport you to wherever these people live. That’s assuming you can do without a cavern.”

“I really think I can,” she said. She met his gaze and smiled. “I like the thought of being able to make a house call. If, that is, they are open to it too.”

They would discover that Grace could indeed make house calls. She had practiced more with Khalil by the time Don and Margie e-mailed her to ask if she might be available for another consultation. Ismat became the children’s first Djinn babysitter, and Khalil transported Grace to Margie’s home in southern Indiana. Once there Khalil kept a tactful silence and moved into the background as Grace interacted with the middle-aged siblings. Margie invited them into her comfortable home, and they sat at the kitchen table and talked over coffee until both Don and Margie had relaxed. When Grace finally channeled the ghost of Don and Margie’s father, it felt like a natural, gentle progression, and the session was quite healing.

She was a natural, Khalil thought, pride swelling as he watched her with the two humans. She was warm and compassionate, and she knew how to listen. More than that, she handled the Oracle’s Power with an assurance that had to be a comfort to the others. She had not only taken the Oracle’s Power for her own, but now she claimed the position for her own as well.

But all of that came later. For now, Khalil felt a deep satisfaction as he regarded his Grace, who knew the importance of keeping her word, taking care of those who were her responsibility, and holding to her side of a bargain. No matter what.

He told her, “We appear to have narrowed down our choices of where we will go.”

A grin broke over her face. “We’re going to Florida?”

“Indeed, we must be.” He knew that in Florida, Carling and Rune would try to convince them to stay, but he was not at all interested in that. He did not have a preference for a geographical focus and was happy to abide wherever Grace might wish. He tapped her on the nose. “But we will not leave for Florida until the children arrive on Sunday, so for today, I have decided we shall go on our second date.”

Her expression froze. “We will?”

“In fact, I know exactly what we shall do.”

Her eyes widened. “You do?”

He contemplated her with satisfaction. “Yes, I will take you somewhere special.”

She said cautiously, “What do I have to do to get ready?”

“Whatever you like.” He paused. “Dress casually.”

“All right…when do you want to leave?”

His satisfaction dissipated. Really, she did not look as excited as he had expected about the prospect of this date. “Whenever you like.”

She looked down at herself, then back up at him. “Maybe we should just go and get it over with.”

He scowled. “Fine.”

He stood and held his hand out to her. She stood as well, more slowly, and walked into his arms, and they blew away.

Away from Louisville. Away from Kentucky. Away from the Northern Hemisphere.

From Earth.

Khalil had studied Grace’s needs and practiced, until he was confident he could keep her wrapped protectively in the right pressurized temperature, provide her with the right UV filter, and the perfect air for her to breathe.

He brought her to the moon with a flourish. The near side facing the Earth, not the far side, since he thought they should take the trip in stages. She turned in his arms to look around at where he brought them.

“W-wha…”

“I told you it would be somewhere special,” he said, in the invisible bubble he had created for them.

She screamed.

He smiled smugly. Yes, this second date destination was worthy of a happy scream. Very few humans had walked on the moon. He knew how rare this opportunity was. Surely it should make up for what had happened on their first date.

Grace kept screaming. She turned and clawed at him. “Oh, my God. Oh. My. God. OHMYGOD!”

His smile vanished. He tried to get hold of her in a gentle but tight grip. That was more difficult than he expected. She seemed to have acquired a half-dozen arms and legs. He informed her, “You may stop making noise any time now.”

Somehow she had climbed halfway up his body before he managed to grasp her waist. He plucked her off and set her on her feet. She started to climb up his body again.

“Are you having fun?” he asked suspiciously.

“We’re on the fucking moon!” she shouted. “There’s nothing here!”

He stared at her. “I don’t think you’re having fun.”

“No air!”

He shook his head. “Think about that logically. Could you have possibly said those words if there truly was no air? Of course there’s no air or atmosphere outside this bubble—”

“Ofcoursethere’snofuckingairhereorfuckingatmosphereonthefuckinggoddamnMOONyouGODDAMNFUCKINGCRAZYMORONICDJINN…”

“Grace,” he roared in her face.

He put so much Power into his shout, her screaming snapped into silence. Her breathing hitched as she stared at him. “Look at me,” he said. “Keep looking only at me. There is no danger. You’re perfectly safe. I’ve got you. I’ve always got you. You’re mine. I will never let go. I will always protect you. You are my life now. Do you understand anything I’m saying?”

Her breathing hitched again. “I’m breathing,” she whispered. “On the moon.”

“Don’t look away!” he ordered, as her eyes started to slide sideways. Her gaze snapped back to his. “I’m sorry I scared you. I wanted to show you somewhere special that I love to go. I thought you would love it here too. Do you need to leave?”

“I d-don’t know, give me minute,” she said faintly. “I’m having some serious instinct issues. You always make me feel like Darrin, and I’m not Darrin, dammit.”

“All right.” He rubbed her arms. “But I don’t know what any of that means.”

“Soon as you said ‘date,’ I knew something calamitous was going to happen. You are never, ever—ever—going to surprise me like this again, or I swear, I will throw my expulsion spell on your ass for a week.” Hitch. “And I mean hard, Khalil.”

“Never again. I promise you, I am never doing anything like this again. Just tell me if we should leave.”

“Hold on.”

He watched, bemused, as she took several deep breaths, as if she were about to dive under water. Then she slowly, slowly turned. He pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Her whole body was shaking.

“Oh, my fucking God, I’m on the moon,” she said. After all of that, she sounded almost conversational. “No helmet. No spacesuit. No oxygen tank. Just you.”

Khalil had learned caution the bitter way. He asked carefully, “Is that a good thing?”

“It’s the most.” She shook her head and sucked in more air, gripping onto his forearms as they crossed her chest. Tilting her head, she looked up at the immense, graceful orb that was Earth. “It’s the most gloriously insane thing I’ve ever seen. You crazy Djinn.”

Well. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

He rested his chin on the top of her head with a deep sigh. This whole dating thing wore him to a frazzle.

Grace could only take a few more minutes on the moon. Then after such an extreme adrenaline rush, she felt as if someone smacked her on the back of the head with a two-by-four.

He was speaking, calmly, in that gorgeous pure voice of his, while he rubbed her arms with his hot, big hands. “The far side is pretty spectacular too.”

“I will go anywhere with you, anywhere at all,” she said. “With a little warning. And in increments. But right now we’ve got to leave.”

“As you wish.”

She turned in his arms, clutching his waist as the cyclone took her.

Khalil rematerialized them in the guest bedroom they were using at Isalynn’s house. As soon as the ground had firmed underneath her feet, Grace turned away, took three dizzy steps and collapsed on the bed.

“Kiiiick in the head,” she said into a pillow.

The bedsprings creaked as Khalil sat beside her. He rubbed one of her legs.

“I love you like crazy,” he whispered.

Her breath caught. Like crazy. Yes, that was how she felt too. Crazy outside of herself, like when they had made love and she literally left her body. She reached behind to grip his hand. His long fingers closed over hers, hard.

“What you did with my father—that was bloody magnificent, Grace. Few creatures have been able to face Soren down like that and win.”

“I did have something of an inside scoop,” she said. “And forty or fifty Djinn to back me up.”

For a while on Sunday, the visions of possible futures had never left her. Then they had passed as the Oracle’s moon had passed, leaving her anchored where she belonged, in the here and now. But she still remembered some of those possibilities, glittering strange horizons she hardly dared to contemplate.

She sensed him leaning over her, an impression of bulk and strength. Something happened, a tight compression of Power, like when he had pulled all of his rage into himself, only this compression was deeper and harder, a diamond being pressed out of thin air.

Frowning, she lifted herself up on her elbows and started to turn over. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder blade. The sensation lingered on her skin after he lifted his mouth away.

“Promise me something,” she said.

He traced the hairline at the nape of her neck lightly with the tip of one finger. “Anything you like.”

“Don’t change,” she said. “Not permanently, not without talking to me first.”

His finger stilled. He said nothing.

This time she did turn onto her back.

While he was still dressed in the same T-shirt and jeans from that morning, he wore his human skin again, those regal, elegant features with the touch of beard along his lean jaw, and the trace of laugh lines at the corners of his muted eyes and unsmiling mouth. His long hair was loose, still shining and black, but indefinably different. She put a hand to his chest, and there was the blaze of his Power, hidden deeply inside his body like a gleaming pearl.

She reached up to touch those amazing laugh lines. He shuddered and closed his eyes, turning his face into her palm.

“Promise,” she said. “Khalil, you have the ability to fall into flesh, but a goddess in a dream told me I can leave my body again if I want to badly enough.”

His eyes flared open. He stared at her, tension in every line of his massive body. He put his hand around her throat, his thumb caressing the line of her jaw. “‘What will a mortal do with an immortal Power?’” he breathed.

She lifted her shoulder and said awkwardly, “Well, it was just a dream. I don’t know if it could really happen. We need to take time to experiment with all of this. All I know is I don’t want to try to become something different from the kids while they’re growing up, because they’re never going to be able to change, and they deserve the best human life I can give them.”

“They deserve you alive,” Khalil said. “Gods—if you could change, you would be stronger, harder to kill.” He swallowed hard. “You’re all so fragile.”

“That’s part of what being human is,” she said. “We’re pretty damn tough, too. Besides…” She smiled. “I’m perfectly safe, remember? I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

“Please always stay mine,” he whispered.

“Always.”

She stroked her hand down his back, and he arched and shuddered. He reached behind him, bicep flexing, and grasped his T-shirt to pull it over his head.

Oh, my God, he had a sprinkle of dark hair on his chest. She ran her palm over it. It was as silken as it looked. He stared at her in naked surprise, and there was the hunger again, washing over her in a sheet of flame.

“Take everything off,” she hissed.

He arched away from her to tear off his jeans. She had meant to do the same; she really had. But the sight of Khalil’s nude body as he flexed free of his clothing tore almost every coherent thought out of her mind.

Except two. The same—different—the same—they were like two sides of a coin flipping in midair. She saw her lover in every line of Khalil’s body, but the newness of his more humanlike form made him almost a stranger. Silken black hair arrowed down his long stomach to his genitals and sprinkled long, muscle-corded thighs. His testicles had drawn up tight under a taut, large erection. She stared at the broad mushroom head and thick length of his beautiful penis.

He turned to her and growled in frustration. “You were supposed to take your clothes off too.”

She gave him a stricken look and whimpered, “I forgot.”

Laughter and affection creased his lean face before his expression turned sensual and wicked. “Do not trouble yourself in the slightest,” he murmured. “I will help you.”

He stretched his long body beside her and eased the buttons of her shirt open one by one. She could not stop staring at him everywhere. That cock. She took hold of the warm, hard length in both greedy hands.

A sound broke out of him, a short, sharp cry of shock, and he bowed over her hands almost as if she punched him. Worried, she started to draw back. He grabbed her wrists. “No!” he gritted. “That wasn’t bad. That was because it’s so damned good.”

She flexed her hands along the soft skin that covered his distended flesh. The pleasure of it shuddered through his entire body, and she wanted him so badly she could barely breathe.

Love you.

She gave into the feeling, gave into him. She arched her back and wiggled haphazardly down the bed, until she reached his waist. Then she rolled toward him and pulled the thick tip of his penis into her mouth. A groan wrenched out of him. Every line of his body, everything she could sense of his presence, roared astonishment. His erection jerked in her mouth. She closed her eyes and felt his hands fist in her hair as she sucked him in.

Love you like crazy.

He pushed his hips, growling as she worked him. She lost herself in his touch, in his taste and rhythm. The sheer physical pleasure of him was blinding.

When he jerked his cock out her mouth, she blinked up at him. His expression was a crisis of need. “Not that way,” he muttered. “Not this time.”

He hauled her up the bed, she lunged up to a sitting position and together they tore off her clothes until she was as naked as he was. He cupped a hand at the back of her neck, and as he eased her back down, he rose to cover her body.

She spread her legs, and he helped her, so careful with her knee despite how he shook, that she fell in love with him all over again. She was so drenched with desire, he barely had to stroke her before her moisture covered his fingers. He looked at her in mute question, and she nodded. “Get the hell in here,” she breathed.

He pushed at her entrance. As he stretched and filled her, his body trembled all over. She held him fiercely, protectively, because no matter how Powerful he might be and as strange as it was, this was his very first time.

Human skin to human skin.

Then he was in her, to the root, and their bodies were aligned. His eyes filled as he stared down at her. There could not be more wonder in his face.

“Grace,” he said, and he always said it that way, as if it was not just her name but the most tender and vibrant of stories. He held his big body frozen over her, as if he didn’t know what to do next.

“Now kiss me,” she whispered.

Leaning his weight on one elbow, he cupped her breast as he brought his face down to hers. His lips closed over hers, and he bowed his shoulders over her with as much reverence as if he knelt to pray in a cathedral, and she never felt more beautiful than she did in that moment as he lost control completely and climaxed into her.

She thought that was it, and it was more than enough, but he surprised her as he always did, for as he climaxed, he ground himself into her, hit her pleasure center just right, and that brought her over the edge with him.

Always loving, always falling.

Like crazy.

The full weight of his body slumped on her in the utter surrender of exhaustion. She spun away into a gentle darkness, for there was no urgency, nowhere she needed to be and nothing they needed to, and it was the most extravagant luxury imaginable.

At some point, he must have stirred and shifted his weight away, but she only woke up when he pulled her with him. She made a sleepy sound as he guided her head onto his shoulder and wrapped his arms tight around her, then she fell back into drifting.

A strange ringing filled the bedroom. Sleepy and confused, Grace rolled onto her back and lifted her head to look for the noise. Her new cell phone danced along the bedside table on Khalil’s side of the bed.

Khalil growled, slapped his hand over the phone, flipped it open and snapped, “Speak. Then hang up.”

She covered her eyes. No, he was not friendly at all. She whispered, “You could have let it roll over to voice mail.”

He scowled at her and mouthed, “Didn’t think of it.”

She laughed as he listened. His eyebrows rose. “Hello, Cuelebre. No, you can’t talk to her. She’s busy. What do you want?”

Grace’s eyes widened. So much for her moratorium on unpredictable events. She reached for the phone, but Khalil held it away from her. She leaned over his body and made another grab for the phone. Khalil captured her hand, kissed it and held it against his chest.

That brought Grace close enough to hear the strong, deep voice on the other end. The Lord of the Wyr said, “My mate and I are planning another trip to Louisville,” Cuelebre said. “We would like to consult with the Oracle.”

Khalil pulled the receiver away to look at it in surprise. Then he held it back to his ear. “I thought you don’t consult with Oracles.”

“Pia convinced me to make an exception,” he said. “We need to find out more about that vision Grace had.”

“You might have heard that somebody tried to kill Grace and the kids a few days ago, and blew up their house,” Khalil told the dragon. “Call back in two weeks. Right now Grace is on vacation.”

Cuelebre’s voice was edged. “I heard about the assassination attempt, and that she had an abundance of help. I also expect to talk to her directly, not through you.”

“Well, dude,” said Khalil, “sometimes you just have to get over shit.”

He clicked the cell phone shut, threw it across the room and eased Grace onto her back so he could make love to her again.