Page 70 of Incipient

“Why don’t we go together then?” he offered as he hooked his finger under my chin to draw my attention back to him. “Anything I have to say to her, I can say in front of you.”

“I can’t,” I said, though I was certain I wouldn’t go even if I could. If by any chance Nikkiwasplanning on keeping Trace out of this pregnancy fiasco, she’d certainly have second thoughts about it after seeing me there with him. “I need to go see the Senior Magister at Temple,” I added as I slipped my arms into my bra straps and then fastened the back.

“Right now?” he asked, concern knitting his eyebrows.

“Yeah. I think he has some news about the Horsemen,” I said as I picked up my crumpled blouse and shoved my arms through the sleeves. “Maybe they finally translated the Sang Noir.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “You think that’s why they’re calling the meeting tonight?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged because I really didn’t know the answer to that. Whatever it was, it felt big and judging by the knot in my stomach, I wasn’t going to like it. Pulling on my underwear and then wrapping my skirt around my waist, I looked up and met Trace’s eyes.

He was watching me with far too much interest for someone that had literally just sampled the entire merchandise in my store.

“Why don’t you put off this Nikki thing until tomorrow?” I suggested, figuring it would buy me some extra time to think of a plan, or you know, pay the crazy witch a visit myself and gag her with her own sock.

“Uh-huh. Whatever you want,” he said as he licked his lips like a warning.

“Trace?”

He pushed forward and grabbed the back of my neck, dragging my mouth to his. Fire singed my insides as he kissed me heatedly, a prelude to something so much more, but I quickly broke off the kiss and scooted backward on the bed.

“I’m going to be late,” I reminded him as I rushed to fasten the buttons on my blouse.

He stilled my hands and then prowled toward me. “So be late then,” he said, his voice low and husky and impossible to resist. The mischievous glimmer in his eye made me shiver deliciously as he pressed my back against the bed and covered me with his hot as hell body.

Despite my earlier protest, my traitorous limbs immediately locked around his waist as he parted my lips apart and tasted my tongue, my own hands greedily making their way back into his hair.

Needless to say, I wasn’t going to make it to my meeting on time.

28. WICKED GAME

By the time I’d finally managed to tear myself away from Trace and make it over to Temple, I was a little over an hour late. The Senior Magister looked less than pleased when I found him pacing the floor in the atrium.

“You are late,” said William disapprovingly as he watched me rush my way over to him.

“I’m sorry, I got held up at school.” I huffed out the lie as I ran my palm against the back of my hair to smooth it out, suddenly very aware of the fact that I was probably sporting sex hair.

I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not, but he didn’t say anything else on the matter.

“The others are waiting for us in the main study. This way,” he said as he made his way through the atrium and then rounded the corner to a dimly lit corridor.

After passing a few doors in silence, he stopped at the end of the hall in front of two double doors. A gilded plaque with the wordsConference Roomhung above the entrance. Turning the handle, he eased the door open and then extended his arm, allowing me to enter first.

My gaze immediately circled the room, taking in the two Horsemen that I knew, War and Famine, and then stopping on the third man who I presumed to beDeath. And he seriously looked it too. His ashen skin looked almost translucent as it stretched itself over not much more than skeletal bone. His sunken dark eyes were boundless and his lips a thin pale line.

He looked as though he hadn’t eaten a good meal in over a century, though I supposed riding around with Famine, the killer of all good food, would probably make it hard to get your grub on.

“I don’t believe you two have met,” said William as he pulled out a chair for me. “Jemma, this is Death, the last of the Horsemen. Death, this is Jemma Blackburn.”

Death dipped his head in a brisk nod as I slumped into my chair and forced an awkward smile.

I noticed he was wearing similar armor to the other two horsemen, with bronze-colored shields protecting his arms, lower legs and his upper chest. I imagined they hadn’t ventured outside of Temple being that they looked like a band of gladiators riding straight out of Rome’s history books.

“The first order of business I’d like to discuss is the progress we’ve made on our translation of the Sang Noir,” started William as he took his seat at the head of the long conference table. “Thanks to our new allies here, we’ve been able to interpret most of the book and it has been quite…shall we say, eye opening.”

“Anything specific you’d like to share?”

“It seems there may be a way to activate thePower of Fourafter all, should Ms. Parker refuse to comply with the Order’s sanction to end the pregnancy of her own volition.”

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