The Problem With Witches: An Arcane Shot Series Novel Read online

  “I didn’t say it would be Marcie that would be mad. Your lady’s got an appreciating eye for my ass.”

  “It will have a tire track down the middle of it if your own woman notices your attention to that fact. And I will draft in right behind her, breaking your spine like a dry twig.”

  “You’re sounding more Moose and Squirrel by the moment. The Russian comes out when you’re feeling all manly.”

  Mikhael shook his head and moved to the Ferrari driver’s side. He folded himself into the car and started it up, the car making the anticipatory growl of a tiger ready to pounce. When Ben circled around, Mikhael had raised the upward winging passenger door, but as Ben started to get in, he had to hop nimbly as Mikhael edged the car forward a couple feet with a revving of the engine. Ben landed in the seat more heavily than intended, but squared himself there and gave the Guardian a look. “Really? We’re going there?”

  Mikhael made a noncommittal grunt that might pass for a chuckle in his world. The door folded down as Ben buckled in. He noticed Mikhael didn’t. Being immortal had its perks.

  “Why did you let her drive?” the Dark Guardian asked.

  Ben lifted a shoulder. “To remind her that I love her more than anything. And because that car has a dick.” He tipped a glinting look at Mikhael. “It gets along well enough with me, but it fucking loves her hands. Which makes her the better driver for it. I learned a long time ago that being on the top of the heap when you win isn’t nearly as important as the win itself.”

  Mikhael studied him. Ben noticed he did a lot of that. Guy should have been a scientist with a microscope, but maybe what he did for a living was the magical warrior equivalent, determining how things were put together and anticipating their actions accordingly.

  “You are a surprising individual, Ben O’Callahan. I would never let Raina drive my car.” Mikhael grimaced. “Mostly because her energy does not mesh well with mechanical things.”

  “I get that. But if she really wanted to drive it, you’d let her. Because you love her more than anything, too. It has a look to it. Like recognizes like. But I gotta say, my hat’s off to you. I thought my brat was a handful.”

  “Mmm. And yet you are purposefully letting them spend time together where she may give your ‘brat’ tips. You are a foolish man.”

  “That may be true.” Ben paused. “Is she okay? Raina?”

  Mikhael’s brow creased, his dark eyes flickering, but he inclined his head. “Yes. She has demons in her past, much as you do. Your kindness is…appreciated.”

  Before Ben could respond to that, Marcie gunned the McLaren’s engine. They’d lowered the top. The two women offered them smiles as she put the car in gear. With another challenging grin, Marcie peeled away from the roadside. The McLaren could make it from resting to eighty in a heartbeat.

  Mikhael cracked his neck, glanced at Ben. “Enough of a head start?”

  “Let’s go get them.”

  Since Ben had been in plenty of high performance sportscars, he was already braced as Mikhael engaged, launching the Ferrari away from the turnout after their quarry.

  The Dark Guardian might be centuries old, but Ben estimated he’d have only had a hundred years or so to learn how to drive. With the wings, there was no telling when he’d gotten into the car craze. Ben couldn’t imagine he’d been all that hyped until the fifties, when the true ancestors of the cars they were driving had started to be engineered.

  “Were you into horses before cars came around?” Ben raised his voice to be heard over the engine noise. The road was curvy but not too insane yet. The vehicles were settling into their paces, and he could almost feel Marcie’s enjoyment of navigating the turns, letting the car respond to her touch.

  Truth, the first time he’d let her drive out here, he’d been typically reluctant. Then he’d watched her ebullience build, her hair streaming, the sheer joy in her eyes. When they finally came to a stop, his cock had been like a baseball bat against the confines of his jeans. He’d taken her on the hood, stretching her out face down, her pert ass pulled up to slap against his pelvis with every thrust. That gorgeous hair had spilled over her shoulders, her pale skin shimmering in moonlight. Her fingers had caressed the hood of the car, as if the both of them, him and the vehicle, were having her.

  “I preferred dragons,” Mikhael responded. “Though I enjoy the challenge of riding waterhorses, when they give me the privilege.”

  Of course he preferred dragons. Who wouldn’t, really? “You have to have a waterhorse’s agreement to ride him?”

  “Unless you wish to have every bone in your body crushed. Then be dragged a mile and held down in the closest body of water and drowned.”

  “Need your permission slip ready before hopping on a waterhorse. Check. Jesus.” The last syllable goosed up with some alarm, though it was followed by a whistle of pure appreciation as Marcie took the hairpin curve ahead on rails. She’d neither under nor oversteered, and had managed the speed so she accelerated out of it like a rocket launching. But Christ, be careful, brat.

  He’d been on board with this idea, because it gave her something to think about other than that dark place below ground and the questions it had raised about him. He’d forgotten this side of her that could scare the shit out of him.

  Mikhael followed on her heels, expertly enough he closed the distance, heel to toe working on the braking, gas and clutch as he managed the gear shifts seamlessly.

  “Do you sleep with this thing?” Ben wanted to know.

  “Up until Raina. Yes.”

  “Thanks for that disturbing, pre-Raina visual.”

  Marcie’s blond locks whipped in the wind, alongside Raina’s sable mane. Raina held a handful of strands close to her face as she called out something to Marcie. Marcie laughed, though she didn’t take her eyes off the road. Ben just recognized from the movement of her shoulders she was laughing.

  God, he loved her. It had been so easy to say it to Mikhael, because it was a simple fact at this point, nothing gushy or unmanly about it.

  Another freaking crazy turn, then up a hill. And fuck, it was steep enough that the McLaren’s wheels left the ground on the crest. Marcie wasn’t as experienced with that maneuver. Ben tensed, leaning forward, breath caught in his throat, not even noticing as their own car took flight. He strained to keep his gaze on the McLaren. The car rocked precariously on the landing, fishtailing a little, then straightened. The Ferrari dropped more smoothly. Okay, maybe Mikhael was the better driver. But only because he had a few decades on her.

  “When you are with her later, tell her not to do that again without a safer way to practice,” the Guardian said. “I just balanced her. Else she would have spun out and flipped.”

  Ben’s heart skipped another beat. “Don’t tell her that. She’ll think it’s cheating, you giving her an advantage.” But he glanced at him. “Thanks.”

  Mikhael nodded. “She is reckless. Like Raina. They are already fearless, and our love for them…”

  “It makes them feel invincible. Whereas it reminds us just how fragile they can be. Yeah. I’ve had enough near-death experiences for the night. Take the lead. There’s something up ahead we can show them.”

  Mikhael grimaced. “You are assuming I can take the lead. Without magical aid. Which, as you pointed out, would be cheating.”

  Ben grinned. “She’s kicking your ass, isn’t she? Making you work for it.”

  “If you tell her that, I will tell her you said she was the better driver of your car.”

  Ben scoffed. “It might almost be worth it. But we’ll call it bro code. Okay, just turn off up at your next right. They’ll see it and backtrack to you. After they go joy riding another hundred miles or so. They look like they’re having a ball up there. Total Thelma and Louise moment happening.”

  Raina had her hands up like she was on a roller coaster. From Marcie’s posture, the tilt of her head and set of her shoulders, Ben could almost feel her absorption in the power of the car, the wildness
of it, all at her fingertips. Never tamed, but responding to her in a way it responded to no other.

  He wondered if she knew he felt like that when she was touching him, and suspected she did. Something else he wouldn’t acknowledge, but it brought a fierce warmth when he was thinking about it. He wanted to give her that power, use it to pleasure her. Help her fly in other ways.

  Mikhael turned where he’d indicated. As they bumped down the dirt road, the swimming hole appeared in their field of vision.

  The little lake and dock belonged to a farmer nearby, but Ben knew he turned a blind eye to the teens and others who turned it into a romantic hotspot on weekend nights, as long as they respected the sign he’d put out here, painted in uneven red letters.

  Two rules. Clean up your trash and don’t hurt nothing. Including each other.

  It was one of those maxims that probably had wider symbolic meaning, if Ben was one of those people who did a lot of pondering of that shit, like Jon did. Fortunately, he didn’t. But he did have a niggling question.

  “So, why are we doing this? Don’t we have the city to save in a matter of hours?” He wasn’t sure when the new moon was, not being up on lunar cycles, but Elagra had said “soon.”

  Mikhael made a noncommittal noise. “You and Raina have been in places where hope was not conceivable. At best, a mocking carrot dangled by capricious gods. Marcie has experienced some bad things in her life, but she has not come against something like Elagra. Taking a moment like this, when it can be taken, is as important as sharpening a sword before battle. The state of the mind is everything, particularly against a foe like this.”

  Ben considered that. “So this was all for Marcie?”

  Mikhael turned his gaze to him. “If you did not have the darkness in you that you have, would you have been the right match for her? Would your souls be bound as tightly together as they are, ever more so every day? You might spend a tedious amount of time thinking you are not worthy of her, that something like you should not be touching her, but there is a reason you are such a formidable force together. And yet, if the mind is lost to darkness, darkness is all it can see, all it can imagine is possible. Then a soul can miss the lit path.”

  “So, this was for all of us.”

  Mikhael inclined his head. “There are different reasons we each needed this moment. We don’t need to be female and analyze the why.”

  “Yeah. Hate to point out that’s exactly what you just did before summing it all up.” Ben chuckled. “It pisses me off that you’re starting to grow on me.”

  “A feeling that is definitely not mutual.”

  But he saw a quirk to Mikhael’s lips.

  At that moment, they heard the purr of the McLaren. A blink later, the silver car came bumping along the dirt side road. “Thank God,” Ben said. “I thought we were going to have to sit on the hood like Sam and Dean and talk about our feelings.”

  The faintly puzzled look on the Dark Guardian’s face gave Ben a small measure of satisfaction. The guy didn’t know every damn thing. But he did pick up context pretty quickly.

  “I would have driven the Ferrari into the lake to avoid that horror,” Mikhael said dryly.

  Raina sprang out of the car, doing a sexy little dance. Though the woman gave off fuck-me vibes with every breath that lifted her magnificent breasts, in this moment she looked almost girlish, a significant contrast to less than a half hour ago. When Ben noted how Mikhael’s expression softened and warmed, he knew they had that in common, the overwhelming desire to see their women happy. Though he hated to admit it, it kind of made Ben like the guy even a little more. Mikhael was willing to say “Fuck Armageddon,” long enough to make sure his woman was okay.

  “Just had to give up, didn’t you, boys?” Raina continued loftily. “Don’t you dare say you let her win.”

  “Oh, he totally let her win,” Ben said. Marcie shot him the bird. He tossed a grin to Raina before sauntering toward the McLaren.

  Raina skipped—yes, skipped, which did very distracting things with those breasts—to Mikhael and did a hop that landed her in his arms, her legs curled around his hips. The male had been watching her approach with his poker face, but Ben had felt the energy from him. So he wasn’t a bit surprised to see Mikhael grasp his witch around the waist and brace her against the driver’s side as he put himself firmly between her legs. He took her mouth in a kiss that said he might just take her against the car, their company notwithstanding.

  Ben was good with that plan, though he had his own take on it. As he reached the McLaren’s open door, he offered Marcie a hand. “He didn’t let me win,” she said, her eyes smiling, but a quizzical note to the statement that said she wanted confirmation. She was a competitor, his brat. She didn’t like to be given anything that wasn’t earned.

  He abandoned any attempt at banter. “Come here,” he growled, gripping her hand and making it clear he wanted her out of the car. When she complied, he pulled her to him. He glimpsed a flash in her brown eyes, still lit with the excitement of the car race, and now infused with additional pleasure at whatever he might demand from her.

  She liked attention, and that was fortunate, because he was the type of Master who liked to give his sub copious amounts of it, well past the point most women could handle.

  But it was as Mikhael said. Something in her matched the limitless need in him.

  He put her against the McLaren and kissed her with all the pumping demand he felt inside him, his hand grasping her hair and the delicate curve of her skull, his other arm wrapped around her waist. He felt heat everywhere her legs clutched him, from hip to ass to back of thigh. The more he kissed her, his tongue stroking and twisting, tasting, the more she clung to him, fingers curled into his hip and side through denim and his shirt. He tightened his grip on her face and throat, held her mouth to his as he dove and plundered. He ground his dick with rutting satisfaction between her thighs and she rubbed back, making a little moan.

  Mikhael was right. No matter the fate of the world, they needed to have this. He’d torn open a part of his soul he preferred to keep walled off, and it probably wasn’t going to be the last time before this was over. What had Mikhael called this? A cleansing. He knew of no better way to give his soul a bath than to immerse it in his brat’s sweet body.

  He backed off of her, his expression telling her what he wanted, and she damn well better not make him wait. He stripped off his shirt, tossed it in the car, and the avid look in her gaze as it coursed over his upper body, his chest, inflamed him further. When she licked her lips, he knew she wanted to taste, touch and bite. He was good with that, too.

  “You can’t outrun me,” he said. A clear challenge. Her gaze flashed and she was off and running. Right for the lake and the dock.

  Shit. In about ten seconds, he realized he’d better start joining her on her morning runs. Her police academy training was paying off. He had to push himself more than usual to gain on her. He had her on dodge and feint tactics, but she was getting better at that, too. Good. She’d need it against the lowlifes she’d encounter on the street.

  His reaction to that thought was enough to give him another burst, and he had her around the waist, lifting her off her feet as they hit the dock.

  “We’re going for a swim,” he told her.

  “Not with clothes on, I hope.” She laughed breathlessly, and it was a sound that all by itself could get him hard. Hell, everything about her made him hard. Since he’d been running with half his blood supply below his waist, he should get extra points for catching her.

  He set her down, stepped back, gave her a look that settled her, focused her on what he wanted. She pulled off her clingy shirt with a nice undulation of her upper body, revealing the lacy bra that held her gorgeous breasts just right, high and quivering. “Take it all off,” he said.

  She worked off socks and shoes, then straightened to unclip the bra, letting the lace fall away from tempting flesh. Unbuttoned and shimmied out of the jeans. Last came the panti
es, which matched the scanty pleasure of the bra. Even when going below ground to face down an evil witch, Marcie would make sure she was wearing nice underwear for her Master. It was one of many things he appreciated about her.

  She was naked now, standing before him bathed in a flickering glow. A brief glance back showed him the firepit had been lit. Mikhael and Raina were silhouetted at the car, so if they’d lit it, they’d done it remotely, something he was mildly sorry he hadn’t been able to see, but what he was seeing now took precedence.

  As Marcie’s gaze followed his, her eyes widened a bit. Mikhael was taking Raina against the side of the car, and they were well into the thrusting stage, Raina’s head tipped back on the roof, her arms spread out to hold onto the frame of the car as her male worked himself inside her. No wings tonight, but the energy was there, waves of it, reaching the two of them. Marcie moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, an unconscious sign of hunger, and her gaze came back to Ben. “Come here,” he said, another order.

  He called her brat, but she never bratted deliberately. However, she could be playful. As she was now, when she tossed him her ‘come get me’ look, turned and dove into the water.

  It took him only a few extra seconds to strip, since he’d already removed his shoes and socks when she did. He dove in after her. She was halfway across the little lake, emerging and then diving beneath again, her silhouette like that of a mermaid. Then she doubled back and met him halfway. She came up right in front of him, her fingertips sliding along his thighs, her belly brushing his erection as his arms closed around her. She wound herself all around him, making a sexy sound of helpless yearning as he gripped her hair, sucked water off her throat. And bit.

  She moved against him, a rhythmic rubbing, unplanned, simple need. He felt it, too, and stroked them back to where his feet could touch. He wanted all the physical leverage he could get to drive into her willing body.

  He found her beneath the surface, his touch sliding along her labia, probing past the less lubricating lake water and into the slippery honey within her. He worked his fingers in there, opening her. He followed his touch with himself, lodging his cock in the opening of that channel. He did it while keeping his eyes on her face. Her eyes were half closed, lips parted, tongue touching her lips unconsciously. Her brown eyes glowed with the heat of her need.