Ascension Read Free Page A

her throat so hard he would leave a mark.
    This wasn’t going well.
    One midnight-black eye opened and slid to her. The corner of his deliciously curved lips tugged into a smile. She cursed his demonic senses and how flustered he was getting her. This wasn’t about sex. This was about her life. The quicker her libido got the message, the better. Still the thoughts of their naked bodies entwined and writhing filled her mind. They were impossible to shut out. Just being near him had been bringing everything back. When she had kissed him to disguise herself from the men, it had opened the floodgates of pent up desire and need, and left her aching for his touch.
    “They killed Charlie to weaken you.”
    Those six words sent fear into her heart, each an icy spear that froze her to her soul. She hadn’t considered that they had meant to kill Charlie too.
    “I thought they’d messed up and got the wrong person. It was dark in the apartment and the shot that killed him came through the window. They could only have seen our silhouettes where we were sitting on the couch.” Her hands shook for a different reason. Panic erased any desire to touch Taig. Was he right? Charlie had been far less powerful than she was and the coven had chosen him as her Counter-Balance for that reason. He had been perfect for the job. His magic had craved the strength of hers. It had absorbed some of her power, making it easier for her to keep control. Without him, she was in danger of her magic consuming her. It was building inside her, growing stronger with every passing second. Soon it would push for control and, if that happened, it would force her to seek out what it wanted most. She shuddered.
    Lealandra had seen witches turn. Her own mother had lost herself to her magic. If her father hadn’t been so powerful, none of them would have survived. Who would bring her back if the magic took control? No one at the coven was strong enough. Not even Gregori, the New York City coven’s leader. If the magic seized her, it would take all of them to join forces in order to save her.
    Her eyes wandered to Taig. Would he help her? Could he help her? She studied his handsome face, watching the flickers of his thoughts cross his pitch-black eyes. He was as beautiful as she remembered—the kind of gorgeous that could win him any girl he wanted, even her if he tried hard and turned on the charm. She wasn’t strong enough to hold out against him forever. Something would give and it was likely to be her heart. He rubbed a thumb down the line of his defined jaw and then paused, his expression turning pensive.
    “The curtains were closed?” he said and she found herself savouring the sound of his deep voice. She had never forgotten how he sounded, with his mixed accent, not quite American but not quite another unknown country either, or some of the things he had husked in her ear during making love with her.
    Lealandra nodded. “They’re thin enough to see through when all the lights are on, but we only had the table lamp lit. They could have only seen our heads above the couch back. When they shot Charlie his—”
    The memory of seeing her partner’s head blown wide open stole her voice. Her throat closed and she struggled to breathe, clinging to the last shred of calm inside her. There had been so much blood. It had covered the apartment. It had covered her. One second Charlie had been there, the next she had been sitting beside a corpse, still talking as though nothing had happened. It had taken almost a full minute for her senses to fall into order and make her realise that he was dead.
    Taig’s large hand covered hers and she jumped and looked up at him through her lashes. The concern in his eyes made the tears in hers tremble on the brink of falling. She placed her other hand over his, completing the tangle, and closed her eyes. Focusing on their hands, she unleashed a fraction of her magic, giving it more rein but still keeping it under tight