Embrace Me at Dawn (Doomsday Brethren 6)

“Horn-swined louts, these human insects. But I will release the screaming annoyances in the contraption and wash away their memories of this, if you do my bidding.”

Hope percolated inside her, a slow bubble among the scattered mess of her thoughts. “What do you require of me?”

“Go to your man.” Morganna grinned widely. “I have seen to the rest. Do what comes naturally, sweet girl. Good-bye.”

Chapter Ten

Stunned, Anka watched with wide eyes as Morganna made a sweeping gesture with one hand. The people in the SUV seemed to shake their heads, blink, then stammer in confusion. The driver peered about suspiciously, then blustered at the passengers before starting the Land Rover again and rolling over the grassy landscape, growing smaller and smaller until they disappeared into the gray sky. Morganna had wiped their memories clean, and without even looking at them. Who knew what she’d done with the dead? That kind of power made Anka quake.

The potent witch disappeared a moment later, leaving Anka alone on the windswept landscape with a BBC reporter scrambling from her van and grabbing her cameraman’s arm, urging him to run straight for her.

Bad, bad idea, talking to the reporters. And the urge to go home—her real home with Lucan—struck her with more force than lightning. But fear could do that to a person, make them want the gentle comforts of the familiar. Now wasn’t the time. That time might never come again.

She climbed over the low row of stones remaining from the Roman wall once meant to keep the Scots from invading Roman Britain, then quickly ducked behind it. Once crouched behind the ancient stone, she teleported back to Bram’s manor—and, disoriented, she promptly tumbled onto the hardwood floor in a heap.

The whole group of warriors closed in on her, each wearing concerned expressions. Their worry pressed in on her like a vise, squeezing from every direction. Having so many people crowd around her rubbed her wrong. No, it was having so many males close. Uncomfortable. Frightening.

A dizzy wave threatened to take her down. She shook her head, but it wouldn’t clear. When she moved to her feet and stumbled, Lucan reached out to her. Shock got there faster and dragged her against his massive, leather-clad chest.

“What happened?” Bram demanded of her. “Did you see Morganna?”

“Are you all right?” Lucan looked desperate to get his hands on her, reassure himself that she was unscathed.

“Why the fuck did you go to Morganna?” Shock squeezed her tighter. “Bloody barmy.”

Yes, probably.

“’Tis hardly a witch with whom you should toy.” Marrok’s face thundered with both disbelief and disapproval.

But she didn’t really hear him. Someone here smelled good. Scrumptious. Her mouth watered. She moaned softly as blood rushed to her sex with a pleasant tingle. She swelled instantly as she dragged that musky male scent into her nose again. Her folds moistened quickly, pulsing with need. The compulsion to feel his mouth over hers made her want to crawl along each and every one of these warriors until she found the one currently making her senses sing.

She licked her lips and tried to clear her head. Answers. They wanted answers about her encounter with Morganna. Whatever this wave of longing was, to feel the heavy press of his body shoving her to a mattress, driving between her legs, and feeding the inferno suddenly raging there…yes. Please. Who was he? Which male? She whimpered, then stopped herself. No. Morganna and the war and everything that had happened was far more important today. She must focus.

“I saw Morganna.” She couldn’t help herself; she sniffed at Shock. Hmm, that was nice. Her nipples perked up. But was he the man lighting her body aflame? She ran her tongue up a sliver of his chest, bared between the leather jacket, and he shuddered against her. Maybe.

Behind her, Lucan cursed, something low and dirty. Something her body very much wanted to do with him again. Something that made everything feminine in her pulse with need.

Bram wrapped his fingers around her arm in a gentle squeeze and tugged her around. His touch sent pain searing down every one of her nerve endings. She cried out with agony and nearly fell to her knees. “Don’t!”

He released her instantly. “Anka? Are you all right?”

Lucan steadied her, brushing stray hair from her flushed cheeks. “Is your arm hurt, love?”

That delicious scent wafted into her nose again, and she leaned closer to Lucan. She blinked up into his blue eyes, feeling so very hungry. Her vision wasn’t quite working. Everything looked out of focus. But all of her senses urged her to tear off her clothes, strip him down to the skin, and rub against him until she enticed him to cover her with his body and—

“Back the fuck off, MacTavish,” Shock growled and jerked her back against his hard chest, cradling her head against him with a big, rough hand. The zip of his jacket pressed uncomfortably into her ear. But it didn’t hurt nearly as much as her own clothes.

She squirmed, trying to remove the rasp of the fabric from her oversensitive skin, but that only chafed more, like wearing head-to-toe coarse wool. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried to endure the pain of the harsh material scraping her hypersensitive skin over and over.

“Please…” She spoke the words to anyone who would listen. “Hurts.”

“Let go, Shock,” Bram ordered. “I fear Morganna has done something to her. She’s flushed, as if she’s feverish. She’s not— Anka?” He shouted her name as Shock eased up on his hold.

She grimaced. Bram didn’t smell right to her at all. When he tried to take her cheeks in a gentle grip, she cried out and tried to turn her face away. His light touch shouldn’t hurt…but it caused her untold pain. She shuddered and curled into herself.

“Don’t!” Tears welled in her eyes.

“Anka? Love…” Concern rang in Lucan’s deep voice, and she wanted to tell him that she was going to be all right. But it didn’t feel that way.

“That’s it,” Bram said. “She’s burning up. Ice, pop back to your cave and bring Sabelle here. I’ll call for Aunt Millie. We may need them both.”

Why would Sabelle and Millie come? The thought confused Anka, but the need to get away from Bram and closer to whomever smelled so luscious wracked her. Sabelle and Millie… insignificant concerns now.

Moments later, Anka was vaguely aware of Ice disappearing, of Shock cursing, of Lucan peering at her with concern marring his brow. And of that musky, male scent teasing her nose and slowly driving her mad. It shoved all else aside.

“What do you mean, Morganna’s done something to her?” Lucan demanded as the need inside her began blazing so hot, it burned away her senses.

“Hmm.” She tried to sniff him. Was he the one she desired? Too many competing scents. Too much searing desire for logic. “Come closer.”

Instead, Bram pushed him away and forced everyone else out of her space. “Anka, how are you feeling?”

“Don’t touch me.” She flinched. “It hurts.”

Bram held up his hands where she could see them both. “What are you feeling?”

“Ache.” Stringing two thoughts together hurt terribly, too. “Need help.”

“Of course.” Bram raised his hands to cup her shoulders. She lurched back before he could touch her, and he lowered them without any contact. “What sort of help do you need?”

“Please…” To her own ears, desperation laced her pleading voice. “Now.”

“Of course, love. What do you need?” Lucan murmured softly.

She trembled, the fever raging in her body. Only one thing could ease her now. “Sex.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Her response impacted his chest like a boxer’s blow. The air left his lungs in a whoosh. That one word made his heart stutter. And his jaw drop.

Beside him, Marrok coughed to smother his own laugh. Damn if that didn’t rub Lucan the wrong way.

“This bloody isn’t funny!”

“I know, mate. Sorry.” Ice tried to keep a straight face. “Her response was so, um…bloody unexpected.”

That was an understatement. In the century he’d been Anka’s mate, Lucan had always known when she wanted his attention. She had little ploys, like wearing a shorter skirt to dinner, or letting the strap of her negligee fall off her shoulder as she sent him a coy glance from their bed. Sometimes she’d simply kissed him until he’d lost all thought. But never had she verbalized her desire, let alone blurted it like that.

Shock growled at him, and Lucan ceased that thought. Bugger, he hated the bastard for being able to read his mind and promptly resumed thinking about another one of his favorite fantasies: Shock chained and gagged, being boiled in acid, his skin falling off slowly, layer by layer, as he screamed in horrific agony.

“Fuck off.” Shock shook his head, and Lucan was fairly sure if he could see behind those ridiculous sunglasses, there would be some eye rolling as well.

“None of this is helping her,” Bram snapped at them. “Go now, Ice.”

With a nod, Ice ducked out of the room. A pop and a jolt in the next moment told Lucan that the wizard had gone to collect his mate.

Caden sidled closer, staring at Anka. “What the devil do you suppose is wrong with her?”

“No idea.”

But there had to be something Morganna had done to make her nearly mindless with this need. He swallowed. No way to deny how badly he wanted to be the one to fill it. And her.

With a meaty, outstretched hand, Shock reached for Lucan’s throat. He ducked out of the way at the last moment, mentally replaying a vision of Shock being decapitated over and over. He rather liked that fantasy, too.

“Stupid fuckwit,” Shock grumbled, then turned his attention to Anka.

“’Tis much like what Olivia endured, which led to our mating,” Marrok said. “The fever, the need.”

Bram shook his head. “But quite different, I suspect. Rather than magic forcing the hand of an untransitioned witch trying to glean power from her mate, this is something more sinister. I doubt it’s a coincidence that she’s fallen into this state so shortly after seeing that ancient bitch.” He leaned down, putting himself eye level with Anka. “Talk to me. You saw Morganna, and then what happened?”

She reared back, her face wrinkled with distaste. “You smell…wrong. Go.”

Bram cast Shock a confused stare. The lumbering git clearly had no idea what to think either and shook his head.

“We’ve got to help her,” Lucan insisted.

“Is she your responsibility anymore?” Shock bit out. “Last time I looked, she was your former mate.”

“We’re going to argue about this now, when she’s been hit by something we don’t understand that’s hurting her? Maybe we should waste the time to whip out our cocks and compare sizes, too.”

“Fuck you twice! I don’t need this shit. I don’t need you—any of you. I’m taking Anka home.” Shock scooped her up in his arms, and she looked so delicate against the hulk of leather striding across the room.

“Wait,” Bram called. “What if she’s not strong enough to make the trip? Sabelle and Millie will better know how to care for her, but we must figure out what’s wrong first. I’ve never bloody seen this. It can’t be a human ailment; we know that. But I’m at a loss—”

“There’s a first,” Shock sneered. “You’re often clueless. Sabelle and your dotty aunt can’t tell me anything I can’t bloody figure out for myself.” The big wanker turned and looked Lucan in the face. “If she needs sex, I’ll give it to her. All she can handle and more.”

Lucan reined back his thoughts on that topic, including the murderous urges making fury spread like fire in his veins. He forced himself to send Shock a placid smile. “She’s a warrior of the Doomsday Brethren, not your mate, either. Not your responsibility. Bram, what do you think is best now?”

In Shock’s embrace, she keened in sharp, howling tones and started pulling at her clothes, scratching and rubbing at her skin.

“We’ll let Sabelle and Millie look at her when they arrive. Then we’ll decide. For now, Lucan is right. Anka stays here.”

“You think you’re going to fucking make me leave her in your care?”

Bram cocked his head and looked at Shock like he was a barmy nutter. Then again, he was. “I can restrict your ability to teleport Anka away and kick your stupid arse out of here. Or you can stay and play nicely with the others. What’s it going to be?”

“Cock-sucking twit.” Shock stiffened, as if he were ready to set Anka down to free his hands up to throw punches. But he didn’t. “She needs me.”

“That’s very possible,” Bram conceded.

Did that mean Bram meant for Shock to take Anka upstairs, remove her clothes, and— Lucan shut off the thought immediately. The stab of pain that went with it hurt too much to continue that contemplation. Yes, he knew Anka warmed Shock’s bed, but being so near, hearing it, would devastate him.