Peach slowly awoke. Fingers traced across her skin. They started just below her neck and worked down across her left collarbone. They traced around her bare breast and slowly down her side.
She opened her eyes and saw Ian looking at her. His fingers continued to trace the snake tattoo that traveled down her side. His fingers continued down to the reptile’s tail at her belly button. But his hand didn’t stop there.
It slowly edged down past the tattoo and across the small cleft of hair between her legs. It found the folds below. She was still wet, still ready. She couldn’t suppress her moan.
“Hey,” Ian said. His hand continued to work between her legs. Her opinion of his skills rose as he rubbed her all the right ways.
“Hey yourself,” she said. She stared deeply into Ian’s haunted green eyes. She knew he was still troubled, still felt lost. She only hoped their fun might serve as a brief respite from whatever was eating at him.
She grabbed his neck and pulled his lips down to hers. He kissed her hungrily. She could tell he was ready again, but this time was moving slower, more deliberate. He was more interested in her pleasure than his own.
I might have to keep this one, she thought. But she knew it was just a pipe dream. No man could ever be hers for long nor any woman. It would be too dangerous.
His mouth left her lips. It found her neck a second later. Ian planted gentle kisses there, grazed his teeth across her throat. She moaned again. He took this as an invitation.
His teeth sank in to her neck as his fingers continued to work inside her folds. She groaned. He kept his pace steady.
The little bastard definitely knows what he’s doing. It was the last thought to pass through her head before her climax overtook her.
But Ian wasn’t done with her. He slid down the hide-a-bed, trailing kisses down her flesh. He met her eyes as he lowered his face towards the cleft between her legs.
She immediately went off as his lips ran across her nether lips. She was already sensitive from her previous orgasms. She knew he would have no trouble getting her off again and again.
And that seemed to be his plan. His tongue slipped between her lips. He found her nub and flicked it with the tip of his tongue. She reached down to grab his head as he brought her off again.
Peach pulled Ian up and over her. They met eyes again. “You sure you haven’t done this before?”
“Not that I remember.”
“You’re a fucking natural then?”
“A fucking natural,” Ian said with a wide grin.
“Oh shut up,” Peach said with a playful shove. The push was enough to send him back just a few inches. Peach used the clearance to quickly roll over.
She pushed herself up on her hands and knees. She looked back at Ian. His eyes were on her backside, more specifically on the elaborate tattoo collage that traveled down her back and on to her ass.
“Well, you just going to stare or prove to me how good you are?”
Ian didn’t need a second invitation. He moved in close. She reached back to guide him in. He slid in easily and bottomed out.
She moaned with pleasure at the sudden invasion. He took this as an invitation. He started slow, but that didn’t last long. Within a minute, he was pounding into her. This set her off again.
“God, yes. Keep going. Give it to me, Ian!”
He stopped short suddenly. Peach groaned in frustration.
“What the hell? Come on—”
As she looked back, she saw Alli.
Alli’s face was a mixture of pain, despair and horror. She stared at Peach and Ian, but Peach could tell she didn’t really see either of them. Her mind was miles away from here, traumatized by something else.
Peach pulled away from Ian. She leaped out of the bed, pulling a sheet with her. She wrapped it around her body as she covered the few short steps to her boss.
Alli had been there for Peach for years. Even when Peach hurt her, Alli hadn’t turned her back. And Peach intended to return the favor as often as possible. This was clearly one of those times.
“Alli, honey, what happened?”
“They’re gone.”
“Who? Who is gone?”
Alli met her eyes for the first time, but she still seemed lost in another place.
“Marilyn and Cyrus.”
“Okay, they weren’t there. I know Marilyn never carries her cell, but what about that Cyrus guy?”
“No, they were there. Only they aren’t now. They’re gone.”
“Where did they go?”
“I don’t know,” Alli said. “I don’t know. One second they were there and the next they were gone.”
“Gone where?” Ian said. He had hurried into his boxers. “They can’t just disappear.”
“I don’t know. They just vanished. They were there with some strange people, then all of them were gone. But it was like magic and I—”
“Dammit, Alli! I said never again.” Peach breathed tightly through gritted teeth. They talked about this. Alli knew what this would do to her.
“I know you did. I know. But you weren’t there. She’s gone, but I know she’s not dead. She’s just somewhere else.”
“And you want me to find her.”
“You’re the only chance I have.”
“You know if she just carried a damn phone we could find her with GPS.”
“I know,” Alli said. Tears streamed down her face. Peach didn’t know what to make of it. As long as they knew each other, she could not remember seeing Alli cry.
She really loves this one. What fools these mortals be.
“All right, but it will cost you.”
“Name your price,” Alli said. “I will do anything.”
“It will cost you another week’s vacation. And a favor.”
“A favor?”
“One without question. You know what that means.”
“Yeah. Done.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Peach. Please find her.”
She let the sheet drop off her body. Naked, Peach walked across the room. She opened the top most drawer of her storage cabinet. She found the jar of blood that rested inside. She looked at it grimly as she lifted it out.
She hoped she would never have to draw on it again.
She opened it and reached inside. The liquid was thick, ink-like. She rubbed it between her fingers. She could feel the power. She took one long silent breath before she raised it to her lips.
The bitterness of the blood burned against her tongue. But she swallowed it anyway. Peach knew she would need its power to sustain herself.
She concentrated and felt the power deep inside her. Not just in the blood but in the seed as well. It seemed Ian was a man of far greater power than she would ever have suspected. An old soul with strength far beyond an ordinary mortal.
It intrigued her, but it would be a question for another time.
She reached her bloody finger across her naked body. She found the simple arrow embedded in the patterns on her left arm. She traced her fingers across it and summoned its power.
The tattoo lit up with an unearthly glow. She focused on it and channeled the power she held. She felt it flow into the rune mark. Without the blood and seed, she would have to feed it her own life force. Even with them, she could feel the rune pull at the edges of her soul.
She kept the power under control, kept it from overpowering her will. She could not lose her self control, not now.
A place formed in her head. She didn’t recognize it, but with the rune it didn’t matter. It told her exactly where she needed to be.
“Providence, Rhode Island. They are there, only they’re not totally. It’s like they’re struck between there and—and somewhere else. Somewhere not in this world.”
“What does that mean?” Alli said.
“I’m not sure,” Peach said. “But I suspect magic is at work here, though I cannot begin to guess who or how.”
“We need to go there. We have to go help her.”
“Rhode Island is half way across the country,” Peach said. “How are we even going to get there. We’re barely able to pay our bills, remember?”
“I don’t--we need to help her. We need to go.”
“How?” Peach said.
Ian cried out. They turned to see him clutching his skull.
Peach ran to him. She grabbed him, held him tight to keep him from falling. She met his eyes, but he didn’t see her. His pupils were rolled up behind his eyelids.
“Ian, stay with us. Stay focused on reality. Focus and tell us what you see.”
“It’s the man from the file. Barrett. I see him now. He-he’s inside a bank vault.”
“A bank vault?”
“He’s looking for a specific box. No, he’s found it. He’s opening it and taking something out. I’m not sure what.”
“Okay, what else?”
“I-ahh!”
Ian’s knees buckled. Alli helped Peach support. “He—he moved.”
“Moved?”
“We’re not in the bank now. We’re in a house, somewhere off King Drive. No, it’s on thirty-third. It’s an apartment over some shop. But that’s not where we were before. We were—”
Ian’s eyes cleared. He blinked them back into focus. He smiled as he met Peach’s eyes.
“We were in Paris I think. Then we were in River City. I don’t understand—”
“He’s a teleporter,” Peach said. “Barrett Nesmith is a teleporter.”
“Then we need to find him,” Alli said.
“But we don’t even know anything about him,” Ian said. “He’s a criminal.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Peach said. “He’s our path out to Rhode Island.”
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