he and Declan were sheathed to the hilt.
For a long minute all that Aria could do was struggle to accept the physical sensations that were rioting through her body. Heat crackled through her veins when Declan lowered one hand from her breast to strum over her clit, his touch slow and sure.
“Yes.” She barely recognized her own voice, escaping from between her lips before she had time to think about what she was saying. “Yes. This is what I want.”
A groan escaped both men as Adam pressed his hips forward. At the same time, Declan thrust upward. Neither man could move very much, but the tiny slide of the cocks inside of her made tight coils of need spiral deep in Aria’s gut.
“Fuck.” From beneath her Declan brushed a damp kiss over Aria’s shoulder. “You’re so tight. So good. I don’t know how long I’m going to last.”
“That makes two of us.” Sweat beaded Adam’s brow as Aria bowed at the pleasure of another small thrust inside of her tight heat.
The two men timed their small movements, moving into her at the same moment, pushing until Aria felt certain that she would explode. Then they would recede, just enough for her to catch her breath.
Her need coiled ever more tightly. She needed something, just something more to explode.
As her body tightened, Adam slid his hands down to her opening. Pulling the skin of her labia taut, he nodded at Declan, who increased his pressure and pace on Aria’s clit. In less time than it took to her inhale, the pleasure crashed over her, an out-of-control blaze that made her scream.
Though her haze she felt Declan’s fangs scraping over the tender skin in the spot where her neck met her shoulder. She knew what he wanted, but even through her need she wasn’t sure she could give it to him.
“Drink from me, Dec.” Adam bent lower, causing a second series of ripples to riot through Aria as he offered his neck to Declan.
Aria was trapped in the middle of the dense, dark bliss as Declan sank his fangs into Adam’s neck and began to suckle. Adam groaned, stiffened, then pushed all the way inside of Aria’s heat. The smell of musk scented the air as Adam came, and rich red blood dripped down onto Aria’s shoulder as the movement pulled Declan’s fangs from Adam’s skin.
Declan slowly laved his tongue over the spilled drops. The rasp of his lips on her sensitive skin made her shudder, and the small movement sent Declan over the edge. She felt him shoot inside of her, and a final shudder racked her body.
Though she knew that it wouldn’t last, Aria allowed herself to be held, to be pulled tightly against hard male flesh as they all collapsed in a spent heat on the bed.
It felt so good, felt so right that she didn’t want to think about what was to come.
She just wanted to bask in the bliss, and worry about returning to the reality of her own life later.
* * *
Hours later, Aria awoke feeling as if a brittle cold had seeped into her bones and was there to stay.
It wiped away the sweet glow from her encounter with Adam and Declan in an instant, turning the delicious warmth into shards of ice. Sitting up abruptly, she raked her fingers through her hair and looked around, her heart pounding wildly. She could see the energy in the room, Adam’s aura, Declan’s, the crimson haze of sex.
Something else was there too, but try as she might, she couldn’t see it.
Magic crackled in her fingers as she crawled to her knees, careful not to disturb the men who lay on either side of her, one cold as ice, one hot like a flame. Declan, she knew, slept like...well...the dead. Adam, she had no idea, but his animalistic snores told her that he was deeply asleep.
Crawling to the edge of the bed, she pulled the sword from Declan’s cane, a backup to her sometimes unreliable magic.
The sensation that she wasn’t alone, that something was watching her faded as quickly as it had come. Before Aria could blink, she knew, somehow, that she was once again alone.
Adrenaline coursed through her body as she looked down at the slumbering men. Her belly did a slow roll as she studied the lean lines of Declan’s face, a face she knew so well and yet seemed new to her all over again.
What had happened between the three of them had been more than sex. She couldn’t deny it. But she couldn’t think when she was around Declan and, more than that, the energy that had woken her had left her shaken. It had left an oily residue in the air, one that she could all but smell.
The energy hadn’t appeared to her until Declan had reappeared in her life. It was tied to him, but she was shaken enough by the tender, steamy encounter that she needed to clear her head before she questioned the men.
Warily Aria shifted on the bed. Declan, she knew, was well able to take care of himself—he’d been a soldier, a warrior, many times over his long years. Adam, she wasn’t sure about, but his rigid bearing spoke of military training.
Still, she wasn’t comfortable leaving them, vulnerable to the dark energy as they slumbered.
She closed her eyes and drew her desire to her mind’s eye. Unlike her sister, Aria rarely used words spoken aloud to channel her magic, preferring instead to rely solely on intention and will.
She pictured Declan and Adam sleeping soundly, so deeply that they did not wake as she slid from the bed, dressed and left the motel. They wouldn’t wake unless a malevolent energy made its presence known.
The surge of power in her fingertips, and the resultant blue light, told her when she had tapped into the stream of power.
Waiting a moment to make sure that the spell took hold, Aria then performed the actions she had envisioned. Once she was dressed she raked her fingers through her now messy bob of chestnut hair and turned to indulge in one final look at the two men.
She could see the energy trails of both, swirling together in a sensuous dance. Hers was there too, because sex entwined spirits.
The fact that she could physically see her energy twined in the rope that bound the two men was something she needed to think about. She wasn’t upset, exactly, that Declan had found Adam—the supernatural were sexual creatures, and needed the comfort of skin-to—skin contact. And she’d long ago accepted her part in their breakup.
He might have left her, but she’d pushed him until he did.
But if he left her again, could she survive? Could she turn away now that she’d experienced the tenderness of the man she’d once loved, and another man as well?
She needed to think. And she needed to do it alone.
The chill of the fall air outside the cocoon of the motel room added to the desolation that Aria felt. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her leather coat, she strode down the sidewalk to her motorcycle, which was still parked in the now-empty lots of Harry’s.
As she pulled her helmet from the storage beneath the seat, something that felt like a million tiny needles showered over her skin. She stiffened, waiting to see if the now-familiar sensation passed.
It didn’t. Inhaling deeply, she discovered the scent of something otherworldly on the air, something that wasn’t werewolf, vampire or magic.
The blow struck from behind, causing pain to explode through her skull as, caught off guard, she fell to the sidewalk. The concrete kissed her skin, and she could smell blood—her blood—hanging on the air.
“Stop!” She didn’t have a chance to picture what she wanted as, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a blur of gray rushing at her again. Throwing up her arms, she managed to catch the blow there and save her face.
Rolling away quickly, she sprang to her feet and whirled to face her attacker.
Her mouth fell open when she saw that it was. She didn’t know what it was. It had the form of a person, but was misty and gray. It didn’t look like a solid entity, though it had certainly felt like one when it had hit her.
