Nik strolled closer, letting his deadly power sweep free, and the ice burrowed into the human scum. “I don’t need to physically touch a shit-bag to clean it out.”
Rough’s eyes widened. A gasp, then silence ensued as the ice consumed him.
Nik had to nail down the urge to lash out a flying kick and end the fucker.
“Guess that’s one less asshole after the females,” Aethan murmured from behind him. “But a whole other problem for the cops to deal with. Just as well we have Tagg.”
The half-demon cop usually helped out the Guardians with complications of humans involved in otherworldly problems. “He’ll deal with this. Let’s roll.”
His fury barely doused, Nik dematerialized, heading out of the tiny seam where the stone door jammed, and into the underground labyrinth.
One down and two more fuckers to go. Tolvi and Enzo.
Then his mate would finally have peace.
Chapter 25
Shadow dropped the thriller she was reading on the nightstand and checked the time on her cell again. 5:09 A.M.
Nik should be back soon, and her heart clopped hard as she curled onto her side, staring out through the undraped windows. The cloud-obscured moonlight cast a pale light, breaking the gloom in the bedroom. The sound of the door opening and shutting reached her, and Nik walked in from the suite’s small entrance hall.
She shot up. “Nik?”
“Yeah.” He closed the bedroom door and crossed to their bed. “Why aren’t you asleep?”
“I…uh…” At the fatigue in his pale eyes and smears of dried blood marring his arms, worry took hold. He got hurt? “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Can it wait a few minutes? I need a shower.” He strode for the dressing room.
She shot off the bed and rushed after him.
He glanced back at her harried entrance as he removed his boots then pulled off his t-shirt, revealing miles of hard, inked muscled body marred with more dried blood. He scrunched his t-shirt into a ball, still watching her.
Her gaze dropped to his hand, and she found further evidence of his night’s work at the scabs forming on his knuckles. “What happened tonight?”
He tossed his shirt on the chest of drawers. “The usual.”
Her stomach sank. So, he didn’t want to talk about it to her? “I see…” She glanced at the door then back at him. She thought they were okay, but obviously, her hitting out at him earlier had caused a space between them. The words tore free. “I’m so sorry I lashed out at you. I miss you—”
“Theós, Shadow,” he groaned, dragging her into arms and crushing her to his chest. “I missed you, too. Missed us. But I understood you needed time.” His big palm moved up and down her back. “Don’t fret, moró, I can handle it. I’m strong enough for the both of us.”
She lifted her troubled gaze to his, realizing just how much she adored this amazing immortal who took on all her troubles. Any other guy would have sulked or gotten mad at her. “Still, it was wrong of me. It’s just that reliving everything so fast hit me hard.”
“I know. I’ll always be here for you.”
She traced the inked runes and skeletal face on his chest, feeling the scars of his torture beneath his tatts. “I just want my brother away from that man—” Her fingers clenched on his chest. “Is it wrong of me to want to kill him? He hurt her so much, Nik. Even without my memories, I had nightmares of being abused, of being belted, but they were all hers.”
“No…” He kissed her brow then let her go. “But he will pay, Shadow. I failed you once. I won’t do so again.” He undid the button on his leathers. “You asked me what happened tonight? I took care of the person responsible for Eddi’s death.”
“Tolvi?” she asked, blood rushing to her ears.
“No. Rough, the human gang leader. He didn’t like that Eddi put a spanner in his little profitable side job of abducting humans and children and selling them to the demons from the Dark Realm.”
“The bastard. That’s why he wanted me.”
“Never gonna happen. But he’s just a small cog in a bigger wheel. We will get them all. Now, no more talk of work—” He scooped her in his arms.
“Wait-wait, where are you taking me?”
A wicked glint appeared in his eyes. “You look like you need a shower.”
“Really?” She rolled her eyes as he entered the bathroom. “You’re so transparent.”
“Of course, I am.” He slowly let her slide down his hard, his really hard body. He removed her t-shirt and panties and tossed it aside. “When it comes to you, I’m practically glass with my intentions, and right now? I want to rediscover every delicious inch of you before I feast on my favorite part.”
“Uh-huh…” Biting her lip so her smile wouldn’t escape, she hooked two fingers into the opening of his pants, her fingertips brushing his erection. His eyes narrowed. Slowly, she lowered the zipper, and his impressive cock sprang free. She wrapped her fingers around his rock-hard shaft, and he stilled. The feel of silky skin over steel stole her breath.
Shadow glided her thumb over the barbell piercing just beneath the head of his cock, but tormenting him became her own undoing, and she bit back a groan of need.
His gaze heated, a white flame of desire. “Mate, you play a perilous game.”
“Who says I’m playing?” she asked huskily. But the urge to give him pleasure took hold, and she lowered to her knees and tugged his pants lower.
“You don’t have to do this—”
“I want to.” She grasped his shaft and licked the head, then over the barbell. “But you’ll have to show me what you like.”
“What you’re doing is a good start,” he rasped, a nerve popping on his jaw. The heat and raw hunger in Nik’s expression became her undoing.
Shadow ran her tongue down his rigid length, then up again and around his barbell. She sucked the head into her mouth, careful of the piercing. He wrapped her hair around his hand, gently guiding her, and she took more of him. Then, tightening her lips around him, she dragged free of his length. Soon, she found a rhythm, and the tendon on his neck strained as if he could barely hold on.
“Damn, Shadow, your mouth,” he rasped.
She would have smiled if she could. A little surer now, she worked him with her lips and tongue, taking him deeper, her fingers squeezing around the inches of his shaft she couldn’t quite reach with her mouth. Her other hand gently squeezed and massaged his balls.
“Fuck!” he groaned, his fingers tightening in her hair. His head kicked back, neck tendons taut, a delicious groan escaping him, the sound raw, hot and utterly masculine. Her man was just too damn sexy.
“No—” He eased out, then hauled her into his arms. “In you.”
He pressed her up against the shut bathroom door. As she wrapped her legs around him, his cock wet from her mouth, slid between her damp folds, and bumped her sensitive clit. God. Desire coiled her tighter.
She grasped his cock and pressed down on the thick, hard crown, and Nik’s gaze scorched hers. He gripped her hips and thrust up, breaching her tightness, sliding deep into her, stretching and filling her, until he bottomed out.