For the Love of Justice: A Nightwatch World Story Read online

  He glanced about. Yeah, we were on camera. If he refused to follow protocol, the supernatural-attacking-a-human video could easily be turned on its head to human-victimizing-an-innocent-supernatural video.

  He unclipped his radio from his belt. “I need a reg check, please.”

  Yeah, that’s a good boy.

  Chapter Three

  My hands were still shaking with rage as I pulled into the drive of Scorchwood manor. I glanced in the rearview. My lip was healed. No need to tell Hyde about this. He didn’t need to know what had happened.

  This was life for us now.

  I took a deep breath and then, fixing a smile on my face, headed into the house.

  I checked the lounge and kitchen, finding no hunky faeblood, and headed up the stairs. “Honey, I’m home!”

  “Bedroom,” Hyde called out.

  His scent permeated the air—distinctive citrus tones with a hint of sweat that told me he’d been working out in the gym the guys had set up once we’d moved in. It was a place filled with testosterone and grunts. I loved working out with them; watching all the rippling muscles was a huge turn-on. Kash preferred to treadmill, or just go for a jog, but my weaver lover was naturally toned with the body of a sprinter.

  I couldn’t wait for everyone to be home, but right now I was going to enjoy my one-on-one time with Hyde.

  My stomach flipped as I stepped into his room. We had an arrangement. I shared their beds but kept my own quarters. The guys had agreed this worked better for them than all three having to share my space. It was a pheromones and scent thing for them. It was okay for their rooms to be saturated with my scent, but none of them enjoyed being in my room for sexy time with another guy’s scent in the air, because even a change of sheets didn’t get rid of troll-blood and faeblood pheromones.

  I closed Hyde’s bedroom door and leaned against it, devouring him with my gaze. He’d definitely been working out. I could tell from the flush of his skin and the way his muscles popped.

  He was already half-naked, boxers hugging his slender hips and stretching over his taut buttocks and the tops of his thighs. My gaze traveled down to his faetech leg—a meld of machine and magic, it was a powerful limb and a reminder of his bravery and sacrifice. By the time I pulled my gaze back up his arousal was clearly evident.

  “Aren’t you tired from your workout?” I pushed off the door and began to strip. “I mean, I’m not sure you can handle th—”

  He cut me off with his mouth, kissing me as if I were his much-needed oxygen. He grabbed my ass and hauled me up against him, grinding into me, showing me how much he wanted me. I clung to him, winding my arms around his neck, devouring him with open-mouthed, tongue-tangling kisses as he lifted me to wrap my legs around his waist. I gasped into his mouth as his erection rubbed against my panties, sliding against my wetness.

  I pulled my mouth from his. “Fuck, Hyde. Shower.”

  “Fuck the shower.” His finger bit into my upper thighs as he raised me a little more and pressed the head of his cock against my entrance through the fabric of my panties. “I want to play.”

  My heart pounded like a jackhammer against my ribs. “Which game?”

  “Hunter and prey.” He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and then released it slowly, grazing me with his teeth. “Run. The longer you evade, the harder I’ll fuck you. The harder I’ll make you come.”

  My clit throbbed where he rubbed against me. I wanted him inside me right now. “Yes.”

  He lowered me to the ground, and I braced myself on his shoulders, legs trembling with anticipation.

  “You won’t get far. Five-second start,” he said.

  I turned and ran.

  My heart pounded with exhilaration as I hammered down the stairs, down the corridor at the back of the house and out into the gardens. Naked except for my underwear, no shoes, hair flying. The chill slapped my skin, heightening my senses. I rounded the house before I heard him behind me. The maze loomed, and with a grin I dove inside. I’d learned my way around the structure, knew every turn. Part of me wanted him to find me now, wanted him inside me, but the other competitive part wanted to draw this out. To make him work for it. I took a left and a right and another left. I could circle around him and make it out and back to the house no problem.

  My nightblood senses told me he wasn’t far behind but in the lane parallel to mine, the one that led to a dead end. Ha. Hyde was familiar with the maze, he’d find his way out, but not as quickly as I would. I was almost back at the entrance, which also doubled as the exit, when he stepped out in front of me.

  “What the—”

  “Fuck.” The word was a delicious rumble of promise.

  I took a step back, my body thrumming with the need to be touched. “You got me.”

  He advanced, his thumb going to the waistband of his boxers, sliding back and forth as he lowered them to free his erection. My mouth was suddenly dry, core pulsing in preparation for him. But the game wasn’t over yet.

  I turned and ran back the way I’d come, taking the other route to the exit. Twenty seconds later I burst out of the maze and beelined toward the house, euphoric laughter erupting from my lips.

  I made it into the lounge before he caught me, snagging me around the waist and then shoving me against the back of the sofa so my torso was dangling over it.

  He cupped me through my panties. “Fuck, Justice, you’re soaking wet.”

  I wriggled as he pulled them down. I pushed back into him and opened my legs. Please. I was so fucking ready. He slid his cock between my folds and rubbed it up and down from my swollen clit to my entrance over and over until I was moaning and writhing against him, ready for an explosion. Only then did he line up against my entrance, grip my hips, and thrust into me. My cry mingled with his grunt of satisfaction as he filled me and began to thrust, deep, powerful thrusts that slammed me into the back of the sofa again and again. I was about to come, I was…fuck. He adjusted his angle, pulling me back from the edge.

  “Hyde, fucking hell.”

  His laughter was tight with restraint. “Not yet, Justice.” He gripped me tighter and rolled his hips against me. “Beg me for it.”

  “Let me come.”

  “Let you come what?”

  “Let me come, you bastard.”

  He leaned over me, so his mouth brushed my ear. “Please make me come, you bastard, please.”

  He reached around and flicked my clit until my eyes were rolling back in my head, and then he stopped.

  I sobbed with frustration. “Please, Hyde.”

  He nipped my earlobe. “With fucking pleasure.”

  He leaned back and picked up tempo. Fucking me hard and fast so there was nothing but the slap of flesh on flesh, our grunts, and the spiraling heat that bloomed through me. It coalesced at my core, twisting the breath in my lungs until I was riding the wave of lightning sensation, his name on my lips over and over again like a fucking prayer.

  * * *

  “That was delicious.” I munched on the chicken Hyde had cooked. When he didn’t reply, I looked up from my plate to find him staring at his phone, his face too pale. “Hyde?”

  He fixed his stormy eyes on me and then turned his phone to show me the video he was watching.

  I caught sight of myself facing off with the officer. There was blood on my lip.

  Oh, shit.

  “When were you going to tell me?” Hyde’s tone had dropped dangerously.

  I met his gaze squarely. “I wasn’t. I handled it. It’s done. Over.”

  “He hit you.”

  “And I kept my cool.”

  From the murder in Hyde’s eyes, it was obvious he wouldn’t have kept his. Thank goodness he hadn’t been with me.

  “We know the dangers,” I reminded him. “We know we can’t retaliate.”

  The door slammed, and I sat up straighter. Brady and Kash were here. I could smell them. “Hyde, don’t …” I shook my head in warning.

  Brady entered the room fi
rst. His huge frame never failed to amaze me. Part troll with a hidden Fomorian gene, Brady was a powerful male who could scare the shit out of anyone just by giving them the look, but when it came to me, he was hugs and hot chocolate and love. So much fucking love. His dark gaze fixed on me, pinning me to my seat with searing heat. Brady was also fucking excellent at speaking with his eyes. I didn’t have to open the connection between us to know what was coming. He needed to be inside me. Now. I was already pushing back my seat when Hyde had to go ruin it by shoving his phone under Brady’s nose.

  Brady’s gaze flicked to the device, and then his face froze. A low rumble filled the room.

  Brady was about to blow and not in a good way.

  “I’m okay.” I stood up and tried to grab the phone off Hyde, but he evaded. “Enough.”

  “What’s going on?” Kash entered the room, looking chic and sexy as always in his biker jacket, skinny jeans, and boots.

  “Indie?” He looked confused by the tension in the room.

  Brady was still staring at the phone, his jaw ticking like crazy. Fists clenched while Hyde had his attention fixed on me.

  Fuck it. I smiled tersely at Kash and waved a hand in Hyde’s direction. “You might as well see it.”

  Kash frowned and joined the guys as they watched the video of me getting bitch-slapped by a human. I sat back down, rested my elbows on the table, and covered my face with my hands.

  Fuck, this was embarrassing. “I did the right thing.”

  “You did,” Kash said. “It doesn’t change the fact that we want to rip this guy’s head off.”

  And then I was being lifted off my seat by Brady. He didn’t speak as he carried me out of the room and up the stairs to his room. He didn’t speak as he undressed me. He didn’t speak as he kissed my throat, my shoulders, and my breasts. He stripped off his clothes and lay beside me before running his hands down my abdomen and sliding his fingers between my folds.

  Our gazes locked as he circled my clit and began to stroke me up and down. I opened my thighs, raising my hips to give him better access, and then his thick fingers were deep inside me, curling up so he was massaging my G-spot. I gasped and arched my back as I came all over his hand, my cry locked in my throat. I lay beside him, thighs quivering, heart pounding like a hollow drum as I came down from the high. Brady was a fucking god at this. This deep fucking violent orgasm.

  “Fuck, I missed you.”

  “Show me how much.” He nuzzled my neck.

  I cracked open my shields and allowed my mate in, gasping as his emotions melded with mine. Barely restrained anger, white-hot desire, and the desperate need to soothe me, to feel me, and know I was safe. That I was his.

  “Yes.”

  I pushed him onto his back and straddled him. His cock was silken and taut in my hand. I squeezed and he groaned, his hands going to my waist, then down to my hips before skimming across my ass. I rubbed him up and down, sweeping my thumb across his tip to spear his precum all over the head. He sucked in a sharp breath and my stomach flipped. I loved the control I had over my troll-blood mate. The fact I could undo him so easily, the fact I could make this beast of a man melt, was sexy as hell.

  I pushed up on my knees and then slowly lowered myself onto him down to the hilt.

  “Fuck.” He clenched his teeth. “Show me.”

  I began to move, riding him until he was swollen inside me, ready to explode, until my body was hugging tight, ready to milk him. He turned his head to the side, offering me his throat. His blood was mine. He was mine. I laved his neck, reveling in his shiver of anticipation and the flex of his arousal inside me, and then I sank my fangs into him and began to feed. He took control of the tempo, grabbing my ass and thrusting up into me as I sucked on his neck, gulping down the potent blood that filled my mouth. A moan locked in my throat as my body prepared for another climax. We peaked together, complete, fulfilled, connected.

  * * *

  The buzzing of my phone woke me. I rolled onto my side and reached for the bedside table before realizing I wasn’t in my room.

  I must have zonked out in Brady’s bed. Shit. My phone? Where was it?

  Brady’s arm was slung across my waist, his body curled around mine. God, he smelled good. I kissed his forehead and then slid out from under him. My phone stopped buzzing as I climbed off the bed, but it started up again a moment later.

  Someone wanted to get hold of me really bad.

  My jeans lay at the foot of the bed, and the faint light of my phone was visible peeking out from the pocket.

  I grabbed it and answered without checking caller ID. “Justice speaking.”

  “Indie, it’s Kat.”

  I was instantly wide awake and alert. “Everything okay?”

  “Why do you always assume something’s wrong when I call?” she asked.

  “Because you usually text otherwise.”

  “Fine, okay, something’s wrong.”

  Fuck. “Are you in trouble? I can be there in less than an hour.”

  “No. No, it’s not me, it’s … Indie, are you sitting down?”

  “Dammit, Kat, spit it out.”

  “I bumped into a friend of yours. Thomas Carmichael?”

  Thomas … “Is he in trouble?”

  “No, but he had a message for you. He told me to tell you that Harmon is back.”

  Her words were a fist to the chest, making it difficult to breathe. “What? When? I don’t—”

  “Indie, listen. He’s back, but Thomas’s wife arrested him.”

  “That fucking stuck-up bitch. Where is he? I’ll pull some strings. I’ll get him—”

  “Indie, he’s Fomorian.”

  Ice filled my veins. Oh, fuck, that means he didn’t—

  “He didn’t get fully cured,” she continued. “He has Fomorian genes. Visible genes.”

  This was bad. Really bad. “Where’d they take him, Kat?”

  “Hallow Hills, babe. They took him to the fucking Hills.”

  Chapter Four

  Harmon

  An eerie green glow fills the hovel. The smell of musk and spice permeates the air. It claws at my throat and makes me feel sick. My body is exhausted, my patience thin. I’ve been tracking this bastard for months. Months of sleeping rough, working for scraps and relying on the kindness of strangers. Months of being alone, of being feared, and finally, I’m here.

  “I can’t help you.” A slender Fomorian appears before me and walks over to the pot hanging over the fire. He stirs whatever foul-smelling concoction is inside. “What we did to you is irreversible.”

  “You remember me.”

  “I remember you. I remember what I was forced to do, and I knew you’d come for me.”

  He looks up at me with sad eyes. Not guilt but pure sorrow. I came here to force him to fix me and then kill him. I came here for revenge, and now the fucking rage inside me is slipping away.

  “Why?”

  “I had no choice. They had something of mine. Something precious.”

  Blackmail. The oldest trick in the book. “Did you get it back?”

  “They killed her, my daughter. What I did to you was for nothing, and now you’ve come to ask me to reverse it, and I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  Why aren’t I surprised? Because a part of me knew this. Fuck my stubborn ass. “There must be something you can do.”

  “There might be. But in return, you must do something for me.”

  “What?”

  “I want you to kill me.”

  He’s not insane. He’s not depressed. He’s just done. “Why not do it yourself?”

  “I can’t. I tried. I keep coming back. My death must be by another’s hand. Your hand. Will you do it?”

  Would I kill him? Yes. I’d planned on it, and if that’s what he wanted, then so be it. “How can you help me?”

  “I can’t remove the Fomorian traits embedded in your blood, but I can make you visually less monstrous.”

  I hold up my hands. “Can you make
me smaller?” Fuck, I’d never thought I’d be asking that.

  “Yes. I can.”

  “Do it.”

  “It will be painful.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Very well.”

  The scene skips, and I’m burning, tearing, screaming, and then I’m standing over the Fomorian’s dead body, dagger in hand. He lies on the ground with a smile on his face, eyes half-closed and empty, and the portal home he’s opened for me awaits.

  It’s time to go home.

  To wake up from this nightmare.

  Wake up.

  Wake the fuck up.

  My eyes snapped open to my cellmate’s pale smudge of a face. “They’re coming for you. Damn it, big guy, they’re coming.”

  He hadn’t spoken more than two words to me since they shoved me in a cell with him five days ago, and now he wanted to get chatty?

  The clomp of boots echoed down the corridor. “Who?”

  “Guards. They like to play. I heard you’re tonight’s plaything.”

  Ah, yes, the infamous initiation. I was surprised it had taken them so long to get to me, but then there’d been a few intakes around the same time as me. “Go back to sleep.”

  He clambered into his cot and covered himself. Moonlight spilled across his quivering form.

  I rolled my shoulders and stood. Ready.

  This body was built to take a beating. They’d tire before I bled.

  The bolt on the door was drawn with a scrape, and then two figures rushed me. The classic bag over the head, a baton to the back, and cuffs, which would be impossible for most prisoners to break out of but not for me. Even with the anklet they’d fitted me with to mute my strength, I was powerful enough to snap the metal binding my wrists. I didn’t because my sentence was under review right now. My council had put in an appeal. I hadn’t committed a crime. Being unregistered and of unknown origin was the only reason I was here. They’d fix it, and get me out, but if I caused trouble, fought back, then I was fucked.

  They dragged me from the cell. I allowed it.