Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)(61)

“Why didn’t you fight earlier?” he asked as he slowly plunged into me, starting up again. “Why didn’t you do any magic?”

“I realized who he was, and since I can only really do defensive spells or kill shots without my hands—nothing with finesse—I figured I’d wait for you. He wasn’t planning to kill me. I knew you’d reach me before anything happened.”

He swore softly and rammed into me, making me squeak in surprise and then moan in utter delight.

“There is a deep and primal…satisfaction in hearing that your mate knew you’d come for her. That she had no fear because she believed in your abilities. It’s…” He drew back and rammed into me again. “This is damned bad timing for the bond to click into place.” I groaned, tightening around him. “Focus is going to be hard to come by.”

“Hmm.” My eyes fluttered shut, my body on fire, his ministrations sending me to the next level.

He chuckled darkly and worked faster. I held on for dear life.

“My mate,” he said softly, and I shattered.

This time around, I knew I was doing it right. I loved myself, and I loved him, and I loved us together. We were two individuals who were more together than the sum of our parts. It was the kind of love I’d always wanted. He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was perfect for me.

The journey leading here had been long, but I’d learned so much from it, and from the mistakes I’d made along the way. I’d found myself. And now I could share myself with another, and delight in him sharing himself with me.





*



Mr. Tom felt goosebumps as a pulse of power lightly concussed the air. Nathanial shifted in his seat. Ulric uncrossed his left ankle from his knee and shifted to the opposite configuration, right over left. Jasper paced in the back by the kitchen. Edgar sat in the corner, doggedly working on the latest monstrosity of a doily.

“Why are ye all so jumpy?” Niamh asked, flicking through a magazine on the couch. “Ye got fleas?”

“The female gargoyle has found her mate,” Mr. Tom said, turning a page in the book he was looking at but not necessarily reading. Those pulses from the miss were messing with his focus. “Would’ve been nice if she’d chosen an alpha gargoyle, or even looked around a little more before settling on someone, but alas, we’ll take what we can get.”

“Why is that making yis so jumpy?” Niamh stopped flicking pages. “Ye knew she was going to settle on him. It’s the best thing she could’ve done, really. Ivy House agrees that he’s the best bet for her protection, or didn’t ye notice that he was given the number one spot?” She turned a page. “Ye can see the number one spot, can’t ye? From all the way over at number nine?”

“Big words from someone who keeps sliding down in the order of importance,” he replied.

“Don’t ye worry.” She flicked a page, not looking down at it. “Ye’ll act as a doorstop.”

“What’s happening doesn’t really translate to modern times,” Ulric said, clasping his fingers.

Kace walked out of the archway leading to the rooms. Everyone else was holed up in their little cells, taking a break after their impromptu battle and the flash burning party that had followed it. Cyra had tried to make the massacre look like an accident, only her pyrotechnics had made it look like arson. They’d decided to give up and flee, especially since they weren’t sure they’d found all the pieces of Chambers after Broken Sue was done with him. It hadn’t been a pretty scene.

“You all talking about them mating?” Kace asked, heading straight for the fridge. The shifters all ate like they had holes in their stomachs. “This isn’t a great place to do it—not that they had much choice.”

“This is the perfect place to do it,” Nathanial said as another pulse of power made them all squirm again.

“When ye explained all this a month ago, it seemed pretty simple.” Niamh closed her magazine. “Like a shifter mating.”

“On the surface, yes, it is like a shifter mating.” Ulric nodded. “But there are some fundamental differences that I, myself, didn’t realize until it started happening.”

“Like what, then?” Niamh asked.

“She’s sending out pulses of power every so often. Calling us to her. Or sending us to the skies. Or urging us to join with our brethren and unite around her. Every ten minutes, it seems like, I’m getting a different directive, more and more intense, probably because I’m not doing any of it.”

“I don’t think she understands what she’s doing,” Nathanial said, “but she’s bringing her cairn together. She’s organizing her protection while she delights in her mating dance, which is more or less like a shifter, only much more violent.”

“She’s like a praying mantis?” Kace asked as Edgar sighed in satisfaction. He held the lopsided doily up to examine it.

“Not so much sexually violent,” Ulric said, “though I’d bet there would be a bit of that.”

“The shaking of the walls and light fixtures proves that, I should think,” Niamh said dryly. “That bit wasn’t the basajaun.”

The basajaun had called upon the mountain earlier to claim its vengeance, whatever that meant. It was a mountain, for heaven’s sake. What could it possibly do, besides collapse and kill them all?