Her mouth twisted. “Riley is playing with fire, Marcus. What she is doing is extremely dangerous.”
My pulse pounded as I stared at her, torn between fear for Riley, and for what I knew Isobel would do to those children. “It may be our only chance to get them back.”
“Well, we’ll see about that. The Dragons have had enough time to get preliminaries from the mercs they captured at the old hideout. With any luck, they know where Isobel has gone.” She regarded me closely. “Ask Iskar whether things are in control.”
“I’m fine.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Ask him.”
I ground my teeth and did so.
If she needs to go, I can hold things down here,Iskar replied.
I passed that on, and added, “But if you are going to meet people about the children, I want in.”
Her brows rose, and she counted things off on her fingers.
“One: You can barely stand. Two: You are too personally connected to stay objective. Three: You lose your temper at an alarming speed. Four: You have an impressive creature inside you who emerges when you do so.”
Listen to her, Marcus. We almost lost it this time. It was too close.Iskar’s mindvoice was solemn.
I swallowed my frustration. “You’ll bring back news? Before they do anything?”
She patted my arm. “I’ll be back. Just take it easy. Spare room is all yours. Help yourself to my food. Rest up and practice your deep breathing.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“We’ll figure it out. Try not to worry.” She smiled at me, and departed.
Iskar might have the demon back in its cage, but the after-effects were nothing to sneeze at. I shook all over, and when I pushed myself to my feet, I swayed.
Ready for action, I see,Iskar stated innocently.
When a point has been made, it’s just freking rude to keep driving it home.
He fell silent as I grabbed bread and foraged through the fridge, coming up with some sliced meat. I managed to inhale three sandwiches before staggering to the shower and letting the hot water course over me. I avoided the mirror and its memories, before returning to the table.
I sat there and ran my hands over Tuli’s necklet. Could Riley use it to find them? My mind fixated on her beautiful green eyes, her face, the way she’d felt wrapped around me…
Marcus,Iskar warned.
I grimaced, and focused on thinking without remembering, about a woman who could Jump through realms.
And about the children, who were in the hands of a true monster.
4
Havoc
I wasn’t accustomed to jerking off.
Slaughtering Isobel’s lowlife mercenaries had left me harder than rock and with fucking few avenues for relief. A lithe Dragona would have been preferred, but they were in short supply at the Isobitch’s abandoned stronghold. As in, there weren’t any. Which left me with few choices.
Well, only two, really. Return to the woman who waited for me at the academy—and finish what both my monster and my beast so urgently pushed me to do. Or sit up here above Isobel’s fortress, and jerk off.
If I wanted to be free, the last one was the only possible solution. So I closed thick fingers on my throbbing dick and tried not to think of fierce green eyes, soft breasts, or lips that could take me to paradise.
This was actually the sixth fucking salute to whatever gods you believed in. Painfully engorged, I’d already finished five times.
