Hunt the Moon (Intermezzo)
Written by Kadyn
Disclaimer: I don't own them; if I ever win the lottery though Ima pay Karen Chance to write a 400 page smut novel that starts with chapter one/page one: Mircea can get bent somewhere else! Cause Cassie and Pritkin are a match made in heaven! XD
I don't know why I did it.
Okay that's a lie. I know exactly why I was laying here, and exactly what my motivation was for doing it.
I had just been hoping that with Pritkin away doing something for the Circle I wouldn't get caught. The dark shadow blocking out the light from the hallway had other ideas.
"You want to explain this, Miss Palmer?"
I bit my lip and tried to think of a plausible explanation for my current location. The heat that had started to fill my face when I realized Pritkin had caught me red handed sleeping in his room doubled as I searched for words that wouldn't get me thrown out.
"Too many vampires?"
The shadow shifted from one foot to another one forearm raised to the door jamb at his side he leaned there for a moment silently while I held my breath waiting for him to throw me out on my ass. "Damn Straight."
I blinked. Pritkin dropped his arm from the doorway and entered the room kicking it closed with a booted foot.
"Slipping your security detail while I'm away?" He didn't sound pleased; but he didn't sound particularly pissed off either.
"They've got some guy sitting in my room, I can't sleep like that, it's creepy. Not that it really matters I guess, even outside the door they can hear everything." I frowned as Pritkin striped the dark grey heavily worn t-shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. For as anal as the man could be about security, safety, training, weapon cleanliness, and potion creation; he was a hot damn mess when it came to his room.
It was a wonder I'd found halfway clean sweatpants as it was half tucked in a drawer when I'd shifted in two hours ago.
Pritkin paused reaching for the worn leather belt that was barely keeping the soft faded jeans up just below his hipbones; too many potions and weapons hanging from the belt to do much to stop their slow downward crawl; even mages can't stop gravity.
I swallowed, it sounded loud even in my own ears.
"Cassie," he paused.
"um…" Yeah he was so going to throw me out in a second.
Pritkin sighed again. He sounded tired; hell he looked exhausted and I started to feel really bad about taking over his bed; after all it wasn't like he had anywhere else to sleep.
Pritkin marching into my suite and taking over my bed would be enough to give Marco and everyone else on duty the first ever recorded vampire aneurysm. At least I'd gotten an hour of sleep snuggled deep in the blankets; which were more clean then I'd expected; and softer; they also smelled faintly of leather, and oh so faintly of Pritkin.
Not in a eww, when was the last time these sheets were washed kind of way; no. Pritkin's bed; and his pillow in particular smelled like Pritkin.
Pritkin's arms when I was enveloped against his chest on those rare occasions he offered me comfort; or when it was one of those life or death situations and he was clutching me close and I was supposed to be running scared for my life or figuring out how to get away from the bad guys; not thinking about how soft his t-shirt felt under my cheek or how his unique smell of leather, and some smoky spice I couldn't completely identify filled my head and made me feel a bit dizzy; or maybe that was his proximity.
My higher brain function wrapped up in the memories that always came flooding back to drowned every sense, curling down deep inside me sending heat zipping through my core when he got close.
Reminding me of those very precious few times when he had allowed himself to get really close; 'Emergencies' we'd labeled them afterwards.
But dear god, I didn't want them to be emergencies; I wanted them like I wanted air; food; water.
I craved Pritkin's touch like I had once craved Mircea's: only there was no geis at work here; and never had been to cloud my judgment.
No. This was all me; and him; if the catch in his own breath when we got close was any indication. Or the jump of his muscles under my hand; like a physical shock went through him when we touched; one that could no longer be blamed on some damn geis; and goddamnit all to hell if he wasn't the most infuriating man on the planet because as badly as I wanted him; needed him; he was also the one man I couldn't have.
Life's a bitch that way.
But when one night of what would undoubtedly be the most mind blowing orgasmic sex I'd ever have in my life, if previous 'emergency' encounters where anything to go on, would result in my obsession and protector being sentenced to Hell for the rest of eternity; it kinda put a damper on the whole idea.
I realized belatedly that Pritkin was still staring down at me; his expression unreadable. His usually bright eyes strangely dark in the low light of the room. Fragments of deep burgundy, emerald and indigo cast across his outline from the stained glass window that took up most of the available wall space. Defuse patches of light filtering out some of the night lights of the city of sin that never sleeps.
I felt myself blush hard again and hoped I was cast in enough shadow that Pritkin couldn't tell just what direction my thoughts had taken. My mouth felt dry suddenly and my pulse beat frantically as I waited for him to move; to say something; hell he was so still it seemed he'd stopped breathing. If it wasn't for the dark lights reflecting in his eyes from the shadows I'd worry he'd fallen asleep standing up.
"Cassie."
I startled. "Um, yeah?"
Pritkin sighed again. "I said your name three times, when was the last time you actually got some sleep?"
If my face got any hotter I'd burst into flames. "I don't know, um, about three days."
Pritkin's chin dropped to his chest breaking the hold his gaze seemed to have over me.
"I can go." The last thing I needed was to chase him from his own bed.
"No."
"what?" I couldn't have heard him correctly, there was no way…
"I'll go, you get some rest."
Of course not. Silly me. Stupid, silly ideas, and wants. As good as it felt snuggled up under Pritkin's covers he was swaying on his damn feet and how the Hell was he supposed to protect me when he couldn't even stand up straight he was so exhausted himself. The man might have been almost super-human; but he wasn't a machine. He needed sleep. Caffeine and adrenaline would only take you so far.
"No," I tossed the covers off my body moving to stand beside him before he could object "That's ridiculous this is your bed, I have no right to take it over; I just wanted to get away for a little bit."
Pritkin's arm shot out faster than I could blink to wrap around my waist as I stumbled just a bit catching my foot on one of the toes of his boot in the small space; We were practically chest to chest, mere inches apart.
Slow your breathing down, I tried to remind myself; hyperventilating right now won't do either of you any good. I waited for Pritkin's hand to leave my waist, waited for my brain to stop imagining the slow stroke of his thumb over my hipbone, for the synapses in my brain to quite fizzling out, turning me into brainless mush at the heat radiating from his hand on my skin, and the pounding of my pulse in my own ears.
"You're wearing my pants." His voice was tight.
I blinked staring up into his face mesmerized by the lines of stubble that barely covered his jawline wondering how it would feel under my palms, against my fingertips; in the crook of my neck, between my thighs….
Oh God.
A very different kind of heat was working its way through my body; and this was not good; I was tired and wanting; and it wasn't fair to either of us to be standing here like this; to be tracing my fingers across his jawline; watching in fascination as his eyes slipped closed and his adam's apple bobbed with a heavy swallow.
"Cassie," it was barely a whisper; just my name on an outgoing breath but it made my insides clench and my toes curl into the cold cement at my feet. I felt my body turning to face him straight on, expecting him to turn away; to push me away; hell to run in the opposite direction but he stood as if one of those potions he carried had changed him to stone, so still he could rival any vampire.
"Why," his voice cracked, he swallowed and stepped closer to me, dropping his head to the crook of my shoulder; his other hand coming up to span my waist with the first; and it wasn't my imagination his thumb was still drawing tiny circles over my hip. Dipping lower to trace the edge of the worn out sweats I'd borrowed from their rightful owner.
Even tied as tight as the cord would allow they barely refrained from slipping off the swell of my hips, one solid tug and they'd pool at my feet. But even still they were far less reveling then many of the things Pritkin had observed me wearing.
Hell he'd seen me naked on more than one occasion.
Pritkin inhaled slowly, his breath tickling my neck sending a delicious shiver down my spine. A fractured thought that skittered through my distracted conscious had me leaning up on tippy toe to peak over his shoulder my own hand coming up to trace the edge of the sword hilt tattooed and cast mostly in shadows across his golden skin.
"Just Checking?" His voice had the slightest edge of humor to it; but there was too much bitterness to be funny.
I let my fingers trace the slightly raised skin of the hilt down his shoulder and across his shoulder blade feeling the muscles twitch and jump under the soft pressure, down further across the expanse of skin at his back; feeling my way in the dark-reading the outline that proved his identity like brail. His soft scar crossed skin vulnerable and uncovered down to the waist of his jeans where I couldn't see but I knew the tip disappeared beneath the worn cotton. Once in a situation similar to this I'd traced the outline of the sword he'd had tattooed not just into his skin but into his aura; right before his bastard of a demon father had showed up and suggested he eat me alive.
I shivered at the distant memory of a thousand razorblades slicing through my skin. Turned my head into the space where shoulder meet neck; where there was so much inviting Pritkin skin; and smell to take in.
"Never hurts to check" my voice sounded small, muffled against the crook of his neck as I dropped back onto flat feet, now tucked almost under his chin, prolonging this strange parody of a lovers embrace with both of us touching with the caution of one handling hot coals; ready to snatch our hands away at a moment's notice when the inevitable burn started.
But there was no geis; not anymore; there hadn't been for a long while.
There was only Pritkin; and Pritkin's hands; and his smell and oh dear god my lips brushing just under his ear, feeling his fingers grasp my hips; the pressure of his fingertips digging in just enough to start to hurt; holding me still; but not pushing me away.
"Fuck." His breath was ragged; tightly controlled and so warm against my skin, tickling the little hairs at my neckline too short to fit into the loose pony tail I'd gathered when I went to bed.
"Pritkin," I stopped, swallowed, opened my mouth to start again; but what could I say? What could I tell him that he didn't already know. He was a fucking half incubus; and a starving one.
He could feel the fire tracing through my veins; the catch in my breath, the heat in my core; the clenching, aching of muscles desperate for his touch. My needs beat at his senses, my wants drowned him in a sea of temptation that made me more cruel then anyone I'd ever met. I burned him with my presence; scorched him with my touch; and I couldn't stop. Because; Fuck. Not touching him was like dying; but giving in could kill us both.
I pressed my lips to his neck again; my fingers tracing back up the skin of his back; across his shoulders to skirt down his ribcage; wanting to feel his fingers press into me wanting: god help me, to see the bruises they would leave by morning; reminding me that he'd touched me; if only for a brief moment.
"God, Fuck." He always did have a way with words.
Pritkin was trembling under my hands; shaking like a leaf . Heat spilled from his bare chest; soaking into my skin warming me better than any blanket. I was on fire, almost too warm, the languid heat stretching across my skin seeping into my being had nothing on the blaze spilling over from my center; God I'd never wanted; needed anyone like this.
This empty aching burn was worse than the goddamn geis; and the pull of my power's trying to complete that stupid ritual that saddled me with this office and this whole mess to begin with.
I was nothing but Want, And Need, and Taste, and Touch; and Jesus if Pritkin didn't do something I was going to burn standing right here encircled in his arms.
"I cant." The words were choked as if his own throat were trying to silence his denial.
"what if," I breathed him in again "I stabbed you with a knife?"
The laughter that bubbled out of his chest was rich and still somehow filled with the same ache as his voice.
"It doesn't work that way, my life has to really be in danger, a simple knife wound isn't going to cut it." But his nose traveled from the crook of my neck across my collar bone all the while inhaling my scent, he brought his mouth to my shoulder nipping there, letting his teeth slide ever so gently across my exposed shoulder before pressing an open mouthed kiss to the same spot.
My fingers tightened on his biceps feeling the corded muscles there just beneath the skin. "Damn, I guess I need to go look for a dragon then." Laughter rumbled through him again, but his fingers tightened further; I would definitely have bruises tomorrow; ten perfectly shaped Pritkin Finger marks.
"Knowing our luck we don't have to go looking for one."
I pulled back from him; wanting; needing to see his face; to read the expression there. I wasn't disappointed; and at the same time more frustrated than ever. Need, naked wanting and dark lust swirled in his dark jade eyes.
"Pritkin" I felt my insides clench with pleasure just looking at him, "what are we going to do?" and even to me my voice sounded lost.
He stared at me for so long I thought he might kiss me; but he didn't. His eyes eventually slipped shut, and his hands left my waist to smooth down my hair tilting my head forward so that our foreheads rested together for a brief touch.
"Endure."
"Please don't go, I know I'm hurting you, God. I want you so bad, But, please, don't go." It was barely a whisper against his lips, I was going to kill us both, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.
The rumbled growl from deep in Pritkin's throat answered me, his lips catching mine in the dark, searing me; branding me with his name, his want; his need. His kiss was like it always had been; deep, open and all encompassing; he was drinking me in; and pouring himself into me with the same touch; clinging to me like a dying man pressing the full proof of his desire against my center, his body bucking forward pressing into my heat before wrenching himself away with a physical cry of pain that left him staggering back to the wall and me falling backwards to the rumpled bed.
"Cassie, Fuck! I can't think when you're this close, I can't separate want, and need and duty. And Fuck!" Pritkin roared his fist lashed out to slam into the closet door opposite the bed, denting into and puncturing the cheap wood composite.
I was off the bed with my hands framing his face before I could stop myself, cradling him in my arms again, this time not with desire, but pure frustration as tears cascaded down my cheeks beyond my control; like this wanting aching need that we could both do nothing about.
Pritkin's arms came around me again as a soft sob escaped my lips. "Don't cry, please, Cassandra. Please, I would send myself to Hell for the chance to touch you just once; but I know that you would destroy yourself with guilt; I could never let harm come you. I swore an oath, and I meant it; every word." He buried his face in my hair stroking my back and despite his erection pressed firmly against me still this hold felt different; he was back in control; at least more than he had been.
"Lay down, try to sleep." His lips pressed to my cheek again when I shook my head no.
"I'm not going anywhere, Hell I'll probably sleep better knowing you're here safe with me; instead of surrounded by vampires."
I let myself slip out of his arms and lay back down on the bed watching him remove the potions from his belt, and slide the soft worn leather from its loops; his jeans slide lower; reveling those fascinating dimples just above the delicious curve of his perfect ass when he turned to set the belt and guns on the table beside the now ruined closet door.
Then he turned to face me, and leaving the jeans on but pulling off his boots and socks he moved to the bed. Pulling the covers back closest to the wall, and his potion shelf. I held my breath as he leaned over me; his weight braced on both hands and knees above me, straddling my waist for a hairs breath of a second before he laid down; his back to the wall facing the door and the rest of the room and tossing the covers back to cover us both.
"Turn"
"What?" I stared at him in the darkness below the window's multicolored lights.
"Turn, on your side. This bed is really narrow." He paused for a moment. "and…I'd like to hold you, while I can." The last came out more as a soft plea then the usual Pritkin style commands.
I immediately turned in reply placing my back to him and was encircled in his arms; pulled back against his chest the heat of his body warming the space under the covers faster than I could have alone.
"Are you injured?"
"What? Why?" he tensed against me.
"You said you're temperature rises when you're healing; did you break your hand?" I found his knuckles in the dark gently tracing my fingertips over the ridges but not even finding a scrape.
Pritkin scoffed. "On that flimsy door? No. I am not injured. I simply have body heat; I'm not one of those soulless vampires existing at room temperature." He sneered the last part so I elbowed him in the side getting a soft huff of breath in response.
"Be nice."
He didn't respond to that, simply shifted a bit on the bed bringing my hands forward to clasp in his effectively stopping me from elbowing him again.
"Cassie," He paused once more. "Why are you wearing my pants?"
"Do you want them back?"
"Not at the moment…."
"I was already in bed when they decided that I needed a vampire bodyguard in my bedroom; maybe Marco was hoping I was already asleep and I wouldn't notice until I woke up…but… well I had just gotten out of the shower and I was naked, so I shifted here because I knew you were out."
Pritkin's fingers had been ever so lightly tracing circles over my skin but they stopped at this. "So you're telling me you're wearing my pants, and my shirt." Amazing how he didn't notice earlier despite his distraction. "because you shifted into my room naked, what if I was still here? What if someone else had come in here?! Jesus. I need to put more clothes on."
"relax, you said you wouldn't be back till tomorrow so I wasn't worried about you; and I wasn't worried about anyone else because you ward your door better than anyone else in this hotel. The Ward doesn't stop me from shifting inside; but it stops most people from coming in."
"Most people, and things Cassie; Not all of them."
"Relax Pritkin, you're here now; I'm safe with you."
He stopped breathing for a moment his fingers tensing unconsciously against my wrists as he warred internally with himself over some bit of self-loathing.
"Let's be honest, I am not safe to be around, Your vampire was right about that; especially for you."
"Pritkin" his name came out a tired sigh. "You'll never do anything to me I'm not asking for, you're too chivalrous and you have far better will power then I do."
"Not really, Hundreds of years of perfect self-control, and I could take you right here, right now without a second thought for myself, or the consequences."
I felt the goose bumps prickle across my skin at his words; felt the heat of desire pulsing through my core, seeping through my pores calling to him, so unfairly.
"I still don't understand how they could pass a sentence like that on you."
Pritkin snorted "They're Demons, hardly known for their acts of kindness. What they handed down was a fate they thought worse than death; starvation in a literal buffet of life here on earth."
"You said no power exchanges, other than to save your own life; and no sex."
"Cassie, where…."
I plowed on before I could stop myself; or he could "But what about watching?"
"…are you goi…..what?" His body had gone stone still against me once more.
I licked my lips and pushed on. "No touching, no actual sex, but what about watching?"
"I do not wish to subject myself to the tortures of porn if that's what you're asking." His voice was flat.
"No. Not um, Porn, would it help, or make it worse?"
"Would. What. Help?" Pritkin sounded a little cross now. Okay maybe I should just drop this.
"If I can't touch you," he groaned. "And you can't touch me, Can I touch myself?"
Pritkin's fingers had a death grip on my wrist again; and okay, I was going to be sporting some interesting bruises tomorrow. Not that I cared; I dealt with creatures on a daily basis that could crush me literally without thought; creatures that had to be cognizant 24/7 of my human frailty; yet somehow Pritkin forgetting this perceived delicacy in these moments was more of a turn on then I could ever explain.
A large part of me wanted to see him lose control, and pin me down, capture my mouth; drink me in; in the drowning in desire kind of way; not the Cassie for an incubus snack kind of way.
Though truth be told I'd fed Pritkin several times now in emergencies and it never felt like it did with his father. There was an obvious pull; and in extreme cases a drain afterwards and during. But Pritkin didn't slice through me like his sadistic Demon father, he wrapped me up in a delicious heat pulling from me as he gave me such pleasure that my eyes teared up and Hell probably crossed; and I could barely remember my own name let alone tell him to stop, and dear god how could anyone in their right mind looking up at him, getting lost in those dark, deep green eyes ask him to stop?
"Cassie, I understand what you're saying but I do not have the self-control to lay here next to you as you writhe and gasp my name and not touch you; I am a half demon, Not a Saint!"
"I have faith in you."
"Please do not. I will not be able to stop myself, the temptation would be too great."
"But it's not technically sex,"
Pritkin Snarled and pushed me onto my back, straddling me in one breathless move. His face inches from my own. His breath hot and sweet in my face with just a hint of his last cup of coffee on it. "No. It is not technically sex as I understand it." He ground out through clenched teeth.
"Promise me something"
"What?" He sounded exasperated.
"Next time it is Life or Death; none of this cop-out shit; If you're capable of foreplay you're capable of doing the actual deed."
"Are you asking me to fuck you the next time I'm half dead?" I don't think I'd ever heard him that incredulous.
"I'd beg you to fuck me now, but we both know it isn't going to happen; and in the heat of battle there's hardly time for discussing this stuff so, Yes. The next time you can get away with it, you have my permission."
I could feel more then see Pritkin shaking his head violently in the negative. My stomach felt like I'd been drop kicked.
"Is it because you don't want me like that?"
Pritkin's head dropped down beside mine face down in the pillow where he let out a muffled scream of frustration. Just as quickly he jerked his head back to meet me nose to nose.
"Don't want you? Don't. Want. You? You infuriating slip of a girl."
Hey, there's no need to name call I opened my mouth to tell him as much when suddenly I was kissing him again, and his arms were wrapped around my body hauling every inch of skin; clothed or not against his own; and then my T-shirt was suddenly gone, lost somewhere in the darkness so quickly it could have been a spell for all I knew.
The only thing I was registering at that point was his mouth on mine, his breath filling my lungs and then stealing the air back from me; his hands possessively traversing my skin; covering me with heat laced trails. His every touch sending fire racing down my spine to pool tighter and tighter in my core.
His mouth left mine to devour the skin of my neck, and nibble my ear, and growl my name as he rolled us so that not all of his weight was pressing down on me, but he could still grind his length against my heat at the most delicious angle; grasping one of my legs just behind the knee and hiking my thigh up over his. Opening me up to him; even if our clothes were still in the way.
His fingers left bruises down my side, over my hip; his mouth bruising my lips as he made love to me with teeth, and tongue and lips, and voice. Growling to counter every gasp and soft sigh of his name. When he blindly reached for the tie of his sweat pants still precariously clinging to my hips he buried his face once more in the crook of my neck gasping for air, shaking from head to toe, little shocks of electricity traveling from his body to mine everyplace that skin touched heated skin. His voice was thick and heavy when he spoke, even his words dripped against my skin like a lovers caress.
"I want you. More than I want my own life. And if I ever take you-I will not be able to stop. It will not end with just your pleasure; I will want you again; and again. And it will be far worse than being a dying man in a desert desperate for single sip of water; because I'll have your taste on my tongue, your being under my skin; deeper than it already is now." He dipped his head to kiss between my breasts, his tongue flicking out briefly to circle a nipple causing me to buck my hips against his in desperation.
" I can't have you and not possess you fully; I can't fuck you without making love to you, and that wouldn't stop with healing; that would take days; weeks until I could be satisfied I knew every dip and hollow, every expanse and swell of sweet skin, every scent and taste. They would have to drag us both to hell because no one would be able to tell where one of us stopped and the other began."
My mouth was dry, my heart fluttering in my rib cage, I wasn't sure I remembered how to breath.
"Isn't there anything, we can do?" His eyes raised to mine caught the light of the window, nearly black with want; and need but there was no drain; he was so close to temptation; but holding himself back still.
His eyes slipped shut and his head dipped once more to the skin of my stomach, briefly flecking his tongue out to taste the skin just below my navel, making my gasp and clutch his unruly hair in my fingers.
"Pritkin, Please…." I was going to go insane, he may have endured for hundreds of years but I didn't think I could last another minute; let alone stand next to him in a room full of people without bursting into flames.
His nose traced lower until his mouth and teeth began tasting the skin just above my sex, his sweatpants having ridden so low they were hardly a barrier anymore; more of a suggestion of modesty, and boundaries we both were so desperate to cross but knew we couldn't.
I felt myself starting to slide, the light from the window reflected on the ceiling above our heads narrowing to a tunnel with little star bursts at the edges of my vision.
"Breathe, Cassie."
I gasped for air right alongside him feeling the room rock and spin lazily around us.
Pritkin crawled back up my body leaving the tie on the pants still knotted. Stopping to drop open mouthed kisses against my skin until he captured my mouth once more. Holding himself above me, no longer pressed against my heated skin, denying me the feel of his body sliding along mine.
"Not tonight." I wanted to cry out in frustration but Pritkin just reached up to the shelf he kept so perilously close to the bed that based on the kind of concoctions that usually resided in his little jars of doom; I'd have worried about having so close to the bed; and sleeping practically under them.
"What is it?" Not that I didn't trust him but the small clear liquid vial he held out to me could have been anything from water to a killer potion.
"A mild sleeping draught. Take it, Nothing is happening tonight; and it will wear off in less than an hour; It will not affecting your Pythia's powers longer then that; I'll be here to protect you until then."
I didn't see how I was going to get any sleep without some assistance as it was so I took the vial; un-stoppered the cork giving him one last look, "You're sure it's sleeping medicine and not acid?"
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Pritkin all but dumped the vial down my throat which tasted like slightly bitter peppermint, a serious improvement over other potions I'd been exposed to.
"How long does it take to….?" My question was interrupted by a yawn, and then another as Pritkin rolled to the side moving to pull me back against him once more; one arm tucked under the pillow; the other pulled the cover over us and fitted me flush against his body once more; arm wrapped around my waist bare skin to bare skin.
"Sleep, we both need it." Was the last thing I heard.