Grave Chance Read online

  “Perhaps now would be a good time for the lovers to rejoin the battle,” Gwydion said, loudly enough that Cole and Ethan would hear if they were at all connected to reality. “Or perhaps we have reached the end of the limited intelligence of humanity, and we will all die for true love’s kiss,” he added drily when neither of them responded immediately.

  I glanced back, but instead of Cole, Julius was standing there, glowing with his own power like a god from mythology. “Divert some of the candle’s power, Gwydion. She begins to burn.”

  “She had forbidden me from taking it from her without permission.”

  Julius paused, managing to look perturbed and long-suffering at the same time. "Vexa, does the Fae Gwydion have your permission to save you from possible excruciating death?"

  “You have permission to take power from me, Gwyd. Just not too much, I’m barely holding this big red asshole back as it is.”

  “I’ve got the demon. You help the girl.” He moved toward us like he was pushing his way through molasses, and I realized why Cole and Ethan hadn’t come to my aid already. Somewhere in the mix of magic, someone had wanted to stop time, and they’d managed to slow it all around me, while I, and regrettably the demon, still moved within it.

  Gwyd turned my face enough that he could slip his lips across my mouth, drinking me in as Julius closed the summoning with a theatrical flash of light.

  “God, Vexa, what the hell just happened?” Cole grabbed me, breathless from his own kiss, and tore me unceremoniously away from Gwydion. “Oh…” he backed away from Gwyd’s hiss of irritation. “You’re all full up with magic, Vexa, are you okay?”

  “We are fine, no thanks to you,” Gwyd interjected. “It is, perhaps, for the best that Julius ported in when he did. Left to your devices, that demon you summoned would be headed for the streets right now.

  I poked him in the ribs. “It was not as dire as that, but I’m glad Julius showed up when he did.” I glanced over his shoulder at Ethan, who was staring at his own hands, still processing what had happened to him. “How are you?”

  He paused, and then grinned wider than I’d ever seen. “I think I’m okay. I may even be…great. That’s weird, right?”

  "Only if by weird you mean the best thing ever," I laughed, then kept laughing, a fit of giggling hitting me as a tidal wave of emotions crashed into me. "Rolgog killed the thing Persephona turned into. Her eyes… they just looked straight at me, you know? Like she was saying goodbye, but that can't be right. She was long gone by the time he ripped her in two."

  "Or maybe the part of her that was still…her surfaced to say thank you or sorry." Cole gently pulled me into a hug. "I wish it hadn't happened this way."

  “Wow. Oh, my God. Vex hey,” Ethan joined us, blushing as Cole automatically wrapped an arm around each of us. “I didn’t do any of that, right?”

  “No, that was all Cole and me. What you made happen, that was all good.”

  “All great,” Cole added.

  “All the happily ever after mush of children’s stories,” grumbled Gwydion as I started a fresh set of nervous giggling and crying all at once.

  "I only wish that the end of your curse wasn't tainted by all this," I motioned at the room, already being righted by Julius, who hummed softly as he set the conference room back to rights. My hands shook as I motioned to the broken remains of my aunt in the corner. I felt fevered and frozen at the same time, and the feeling intensified as I stared over at her blue eyes still staring back at me.

  “Take her back to the bar,” Julius was speaking softly to the guys, who wore matching expressions of concern. “Now that she holds the candle again, we need to get her to safety, and make sure nothing like the coma she ended up in befalls her again.”

  Ethan took my left arm, and Cole took my right, and Gwydion passed through the portal behind us pouting so hard I could feel it without looking at him. The normalcy of such a simple interaction slowed my racing heart. We’d just walked into hell and back out again, together, because that was what we did together.

  We couldn't call it a clean win yet, but neither could Aethon and in spite of our losses, I felt like we had a good chance to end his insanity if we stayed together.

  Cole’s parents were sitting at a booth alone, untouched plates of food in front of them. “I’d, uh, I’d better go talk to my folks. Will you be all right?’

  “As all right as can be expected, I guess.” I forced the corners of my mouth up in a wan smile. “Go talk to your parents. We’ll live for a few minutes without you.”

  “But not too long,” Ethan blurted, and Cole flushed at his words, and the grin that split my face.

  "I'll be back to get you. I feel you should be introduced, but, ah, just now, after all, they've been through..."

  Gwydion appeared at his elbow and steered him away from us. "Perhaps one thing at a time is for the best, master wizard." He gently pushed Cole toward the table. "And as adorable as humans are when they procrastinate, the wolf-faced his own demon, you can face your parents."

  I watched him walk away with a tight feeling in my chest, my grief warring with an eruption of joy, Ethan and I staring after him until Julius joined us.

  “The hotel is nearly finished. I had some helpers to get it to a point where there won’t be too many questions. It is unfortunate that there are sick men in the world with access to guns. You may see it on the news tonight.”

  “Thanks, Julius. I don’t know what we’d do without you.” I sat as far down the bar as I could, watching Cole with his parents at the other end. “I swear, nothing in life is as valuable as good connections.”

  He set a tumbler of amber liquid in front of me and winked. “It certainly doesn’t hurt to have some powerful wizards around who are willing to help hide the bodies.”

  I winced at his choice of words, a little too on the nose, considering the damage Persephona had done in the grip of madness. Aethon had twisted her loyalty and fears until the monster she later became was already in her head.

  “I do have some less helpful news, though.” Julius tapped my drink, encouraging me to take another sip.

  “Just lay it on me, Julius, I don’t know that I have any feelings left. I’m numb.”

  He sighed. “It might help. Gilfaethwy is no longer in the bar.”

  I drank the remainder of my whiskey in one long pull, reveling in the almost delicate burn of the well-aged liquor as it flowed down my throat into my churning stomach. "Nope, nothing. Tomorrow I'm going to flip the fuck out, but right now, I'm exhausted, I'm overwhelmed with adrenaline release, and Ethan needs me…I mean, I think he would need me, dealing with the shift from imminent and terrible death to the possibility of a bright future."

  “You do have your hands full Vexa. I cannot remember when last you had a real spot of brightness like breaking Ethan’s curse.”

  “A bright spot that I had nothing to do with.” It came more bitter than I intended, and I scrunched my face in apology, but Julius, with his usual wisdom, waved it off.

  “You cannot possibly believe that, knowing as you did what caused his trouble in the first place. You have been his calm in the storm all this time. Go spend time with him, and I’m certain you will see that has not changed.”

  He set a fresh glass in front of me and moved to the other end of the bar to serve a couple of guys who had just walked in and left me with my thoughts. It wasn’t long before Cole joined me, raising his hand for a drink of his own.

  “Where are your parents?”

  “They needed to go process everything they went through. They wanted me to thank you, though, for saving them.”

  “Well, it was my fault they were taken, so I don’t know that thanks are necessary.”

  “Trust me, you’re not the one they blame.” He sighed and turned his pint glass in his hands. “I’m glad they didn’t see the end of that. They would’ve run from the bar the moment Ethan let go of them.”

  Thank God for portals and wizards and amazing Fae tr
inkets and werewolves with giant hearts, and even my crazy ancestors, who reminded me there was pride in who I was, what I was. I wondered how far I would’ve gotten if I’d had to go it alone.

  “You’re being quiet. What’s on your mind?”

  I managed a wry laugh. “Gil’s gone.”

  “Well, shit.”

  “I can’t bring myself to care right now, but I’m going to want to hunt him down and break his kneecaps tomorrow.”

  Cole squeezed my knee under the bar. "But that will be tomorrow, right? Because tonight I just want to stop thinking." He kept rubbing my leg, massaging the tension out of me with his thumb. His face was thoughtful and distant, his hand compulsively rubbing me like a touchstone.

  Julius' words about Ethan came back to me. My guys so tossed about by their internal storms had somehow come to me. I never would've thought that I'd be the calm port for anyone, yet here was Cole, touching me for comfort, when in the darkest corner of my heart, I'd been afraid that the end of Ethan's curse would be the end of us.

  “Well, children,” Gwydion interrupted our comfortable silence as he stole Cole’s glass and drained the swallow of ale. “Julius is in a mood. He blames me for Gil’s escape and refuses to serve me. Shall we retire to my home, and begin the hunt for him anew in the morning?”

  I looked around for Ethan and found him chatting with a couple of older men who I’d seen enough times to know they came as much for the yummy masculine scenery as they did the booze. “Will you look at our boy?”

  Cole followed my gaze and barked out a surprised laugh. “I would not have guessed he would come out of his shell so…”

  “Perfectly?”

  “Yeah.” His hand went back to my knee. “How do you feel about this?”

  I watched Ethan chat, not flirting, not shy, just…happy and enjoying the great atmosphere of Julius’ place without worrying that someone might learn his dark secret. Not so dark even, in fact, once he accepted that his sexuality didn’t make him a monster.

  That’s why the bar existed, and what it was meant to do, and to see him, one hand absently scratching Mort’s head between his ears, laughing and rolling his eyes at something a customer said, made me feel like my heart had grown too big for my chest.

  “No matter what happens, Cole, I’m happy to see him like this. It’s who he always is with me, and now everyone can see it.”

  He gave me a long look. “I don’t understand what you think might happen, Vexa. Maybe the Fae is right. Let’s go talk about it in a little more private place, and, I don’t’ know, with Ethan, maybe?”

  It was a conversation I didn’t want to have, even after my experience with the blue demon door and Gwydion forcing the truth out of me. My own parents had rejected me. Now that Ethan wasn’t hiding from his feelings for Cole, could we create a family where we all had a place? I only knew that I needed them both and couldn’t imagine my life without them.

  Chapter 5

  Gwydion, tired of our loitering at the bar when he couldn't drink, dragged us back to his place where "at least I can have a damned drink if I wish." Gilfaethwy's escape had put him in a foul mood, and he wanted to drown it, while the rest of us still hovered between the high of surviving and the grief of losing Percy to Aethon's control. "Leave me. Go enjoy your victory, whilst I drink and curse Gil for every moment of his worthless existence."

  Ethan took my hand and pulled me out of the sitting room and down the hall to his room. “Vexa, we haven’t had a chance to, you know, talk or anything.” He played with my fingers, not from nerves, but to comfort us both.

  The easy touch made me happy, and a pang of guilt shot through me at letting my grief take the backseat to my love for him. “I know. But you looked so happy and relaxed, it was fun just to watch you for a bit and enjoy knowing you would still be here tomorrow.”

  I slipped out of most of my clothes and sat in panties and my t-shirt, grateful to discard some of the remnants of the battle onto the floor. He opened a drawer and took out soft leggings and a fresh shirt, but I left them on the edge of the bed, waiting to hear what he had to say, and to worn out to move if I didn't have to.

  Cole slipped into the room behind us and sat next to me, one leg bent behind me, the other slowly kicking over the end of the bed. He didn’t add to the conversation, sitting quietly as he ran his fingers through my hair. Nothing he did was overtly sexual, but electric tension suddenly charged the air between us.

  Ethan swallowed hard, his eyes glued to Cole’s hand as he moved his hand and played with the hair tucked behind my ear, then down my back. Mesmerized by the movements as though he was afraid that if he moved, he’d break the spell and Cole would stop.

  “You’re still so tense, Vexa.” Cole’s voice was soft and so close to my ear that his breath tickled my neck and sent a shiver down my spine. “Ethan, what can we do to help poor Vexa? She’s been through a lot lately.”

  I held out a hand to Ethan, my eyes pleading with him not to let the opportunity pass us by. He paused, then took my hand and let me draw him to me. I pushed his shirt up and kissed his stomach, my tongue dipping into the cleft between his abs, circling his bellybutton as he gasped, then lower, following the soft trail of hair that disappeared into his pants.

  “Vexa, I don’t,” he started, but I dipped my tongue under the waist of his pants as my fingers flicked the button open at the top of his fly. “Oh fuck. This is happening, isn’t it?”

  I paused to look up his lean body to grin at him. “How could you ever doubt it?” With my eyes still on his, I slowly undid his fly and slid his pants down until they were barely clinging to his hips.

  Cole’s hands had stopped moving as he watched, his fingers digging into my hip and shoulder as he reacted to Ethan’s pleasure. “Lower,” he whispered, and I obeyed without waiting to find out if he’d meant for me to hear or was simply thinking aloud.

  I left his briefs on but gave one last tug of his pants to pull them off his ass then shimmied them down his thighs, leaving only his underwear to restrain the thick bulge that already lay upright against his stomach a few tantalizing inches from my mouth.

  "Come up here with us." Cole's voice was rough with need as he gave the command, and things low in my body heated more in response. All my fatigue vanished in the wake of my racing heartbeat at the sight of Ethan's reaction to Cole's intensity.

  With a self-conscious half smile, Ethan climbed up next to Cole and I, hesitantly perched on the very edge between me and the tall post of the massive king-sized bed, waiting for me to shut them down and send him away.

  Instead, I took his hand and placed it on my shoulder near Cole’s without a word, and he gently massaged it, flinching when he brushed over Cole’s fingers, still resting at the base of my neck.

  Cole didn't move, and Ethan continued to stroke and rub my neck, his hand sliding over Cole's at first. After a few passes, his fingers left my neck, and through the tenuous connection I still had with Cole, I felt them slip over the back of his hand, circling around to trace over the soft skin on the underside of his wrist.

  I closed my eyes and surrendered to the connection, balancing the sensation of their hands on me and everything I felt through Cole, Ethan’s stroking hands growing bolder as he took one of Cole’s fingers in his mouth, sucking it, then taking another as Cole slid them in and out in thrusting that mimicked his hips rocking against my back.

  My heart was pounding, pulse racing as Ethan slid one hand all the way up my thigh to my soaked panties and Cole moved my hair off my neck to lay gentle kisses from my ear to my collar bone. They moved together until I was too full of need to focus on whose hand was between my legs, caressing the nub at the apex of my thighs, and whose tongue was deftly sucking and flicking my nipple as hard as a rock.

  All my nerves about the two of them vanished under their attention until I realized I wouldn't be able to let go until I watched them together, not just as two hot guys pleasuring me, but three equals who cared about one another.


  I pulled Ethan’s hand out of my panties and kissed him and pressed my back against Cole’s chest. I drew Ethan to me, nibbling at his lips until they parted in a sigh and I could slip my tongue between his teeth, tasting him.

  I took his tongue in my mouth and sucking it like he had Cole’s fingers, as though I was sucking his cock instead. I tucked his hand behind me, pressing it to the hard bulge I could feel against the small of my back. Ethan hesitated, then I felt his fingers tighten against Cole’s erection and I let go of them, reveling in Cole’s hands on my stomach and breasts, and Ethan’s rock hard, silken cock in my hand as I began to free him from his jeans.

  I matched my rhythm to his, stroking as he thrust, first slowly, then faster as Cole’s breathing turned to quick panting in my ear and Ethan closed his eyes. I focused on the pressure of my fingers pressed almost too tightly around him, then my nails dragging from the base up his smooth skin to the tip of him as his breathing hitched and he bucked into my hand.

  We were in perfect position for me to take them both, so I slid forward, letting my ass jut into the air as I bent over Ethan’s hard cock, shoving his underwear down to midthigh. I took him in my mouth with one smooth motion and began to stroke him to oblivion as his hands tangled in my hair, his panting turning to moans.

  I pulled my panties to one side, holding them for Cole in a silent command to take me. Ethan laid back on the bed, and when I looked up the length of his body to his face, his eyes were fixed on Cole behind me.

  Cole entered me the way I’d slipped over Ethan, one long, slow thrust into my sopping pussy. He matched my rhythm then, each thrust driving Ethan’s cock farther down my throat until I felt like I would never take a proper breath again.

  I fought the claustrophobia and relaxed into the rhythm I’d set, blocking the cock in my mouth from going too far every few thrusts so I could continue to breathe. I squeezed Cole as tightly as I could inside me, my stomach dropped almost to the bed to give him the perfect angle for taking me from behind.