Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger

8

Cassius landedon the terrace of his penthouse, entered his apartment through the smashed glass doors, and scowled when he saw the mess inside.

Damn Aerial!

Morgan’s smug face rose before his eyes. A mixture of anger, frustration, and wariness swirled through Cassius. Anger because his next-door neighbor had turned out to be an Argonaut agent. Frustration because of the undeniable spark of sexual attraction that had ignited between them from the moment they’d laid eyes on one another. And wariness because of what he’d felt when Morgan had touched him with his powers. Could still feel.

A connection he could not explain.

One that gave off a dark, twisted scent full of pain and longing.

The demon cat leapt from Cassius’s arms, landed lightly on the floor, and padded across the apartment.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” he muttered. “This is just a temporary arrangement.”

The cat flicked its tail, happy rumbles rising from its chest. It could evidently sense the lie in Cassius’s gruff words.

Cassius sighed and grabbed a dustpan and brush from a cupboard. Strickland’s words echoed through his mind as he started cleaning up.

“Stealing human souls?” Cassius had repeated, growing deathly still.

“Yes.” Strickland had dipped his chin. “The rituals aren’t quite the same as those Tania was performing in England, but they’re pretty damn close.”

The grim foreboding Cassius had experienced in the sewers had rushed through him once more.

“That doesn’t concern me,” he’d muttered, turning to open the door.

“You know what our suspicions were regarding what Tania was planning,” Strickland had argued. “If the same is true of what’s happening in San Francisco right now, then this concerns all of us.”

Cassius’s fingers had clenched on the doorknob. “Be that as it may, you can’t force me to work for you. I can be very unhelpful when I want to be.” His gaze had flitted to Morgan. “That guy would regret having me on his team.”

Cassius frowned as he put the broken glass in a trash bag. Despite what he’d told Strickland, he couldn’t help but brood over what he’d stumbled upon in the sewers. He now understood why he hadn’t detected any trace of the dead man’s soul when he’d looked inside him. Considering the fresh state of the body, there should have been a lingering vestige of the victim’s essence.

There were only a dozen or so people in the world who could attempt the kind of black-magic ritual required to fracture and remove a soul core from a living human’s body. Tania Lancaster had been one of them.

Looks like someone else might be attempting a similar move. But that isn’t my problem to solve.

Cassius clamped down on the guilt that surged through him at that last thought. He was well within his rights to refuse to assist Strickland and Argonaut.

“Need a hand?” someone said behind him.

Cassius looked over his shoulder, his gut clenching at the familiar, smoky voice.

Morgan was leaning against the smashed-up front door where it hung off its hinges. He’d changed into a black T-shirt, tactical Defender jeans, and a leather jacket with the badge of the Argonaut Agency on the left breast pocket.

Irritation shot through Cassius.

He had a feeling Morgan would look good even if he were wearing a trash bag.

“Unless you can undo what you and your agents did to my place this morning, then no,” Cassius said coldly, doing his best to shrug off the sexual awareness rippling across his skin.

Morgan ignored him and walked inside the apartment. “Let me help. I feel bad enough as it is about what happened.”

Cassius was about to snap at the angel to get the hell out when an idea came to him. “If you’re truly sorry, then do me a favor. Stop having loud sex every night.”

Morgan blinked, pupils flaring in surprise. “Excuse me?”

Heat flooded Cassius’s face. Shit. I can’t believe I just said that.

“I can’t sleep with all that racket you make,” he said defensively.

An alluring smile split Morgan’s mouth when he noticed the color staining Cassius’s cheeks. “I’m afraid I might struggle with that request. I have a pretty high sex drive.”

Cassius’s dick responded to Morgan’s words and smile. He cursed his lower body.

“Besides, it helps with the nightmares,” Morgan added lightly.

“Nightmares?” Cassius said curiously.

He silently berated himself in the next instant. He and Morgan weren’t close enough for him to be asking the man about such an intimate topic.

Morgan didn’t seem in the least bit upset by his interest. “Yes.”

He came closer.

Cassius found himself taking an involuntary step in the opposite direction. The backs of his knees struck the couch. Morgan stopped, the look on his face shifting into that of a hunter stalking its prey. Cassius licked his lips nervously.

Somehow, he really didn’t mind being the prey right now.

“What kind of nightmares?” he murmured, hoping to distract the man observing him as if he were the most tempting morsel of food he’d seen in a long time.

Something dark flitted in Morgan’s blue gaze. “The kind that haunts you even when you’re awake.”

He moved again.

This time, Cassius stood his ground. He had to tilt his chin up slightly when Morgan stopped toe to toe with him. His heart pounded as Morgan’s heat surrounded him, cocooning him in sensual warmth.

The scent of arousal emanating from the Aerial grew stronger as his gaze roamed Cassius’s face and body. Cassius shivered, the feeling of Morgan’s searing stare so potent it felt like a caress. Morgan took the trash bag from Cassius’s unresisting hand and dropped it on the floor.

Cassius swallowed, too mesmerized by the fire in Morgan’s eyes to even dare breathe. “I thought you were gonna help.”

Morgan smiled. “I am helping.”

Cassius’s dick throbbed at the sexy smirk. “No, you’re not.”

Morgan chuckled. “Busted.” His expression slowly sobered. “You’re right.”

He lifted a hand and traced a thumb across Cassius’s mouth.

Electricity sparked on Cassius’s flesh. His entire body focused on where Morgan was touching him.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

Morgan’s pupils dilated as Cassius’s breath washed across his skin. “What I’ve yearned to do since the moment I laid eyes on you. Kiss you.”

Blood thrummed heavily in Cassius’s veins, lust a tight ball growing in his belly.

Morgan’s gaze dropped to Cassius’s mouth. “Tell me if you don’t want this.”

Cassius hesitated. He couldn’t deny that he craved Morgan’s kiss just as badly. He parted his lips slightly.

Desire darkened Morgan’s eyes at the silent invitation. He clasped Cassius’s cheeks in his hands, angled his face, and took his mouth fiercely.

Oh God.

Heat exploded inside Cassius. He shuddered, body instantly melting and mind growing blank at Morgan’s demanding touch and scalding lips. The front of his jeans grew uncomfortably tight as Morgan explored the contours of his mouth with masterful skill.

This kiss was out of this world and he wanted more of it.

Cassius gasped as Morgan slipped his tongue inside and frenched him. His hands rose to clutch at Morgan’s strong shoulders, the feeling of their mating tongues lashing against one another so wickedly good he almost came there and then.

His instincts screamed at him to push the angel away. To stop this madness before it consumed them both. But his desire for Morgan had him brushing his body closer to the man.

Morgan made an approving noise at the back of his throat. He lowered a hand to Cassius’s ass, pushed his thigh between Cassius’s legs, and pressed their groins together. Cassius moaned, a wave of dizziness washing over him at the feel of Morgan’s rock-hard cock digging into his belly.

It had been ages since he’d experienced the frenzy of feelings coursing through him.

The next thing he knew, he was flat on his back on the couch with Morgan kneeling above him. The angel’s touch was rough and just a little desperate as he yanked Cassius’s T-shirt up, his eyes a brilliant sky-blue and his cheeks flushed with passion. He sneaked his hands under the material and touched Cassius’s quivering abs and chest, his lips still hot and heavy on Cassius’s mouth as he held his gaze.

Cassius trembled, eyelids fluttering closed and a sweet ache building inside him as Morgan’s fingers danced across his flesh in sweeping strokes. Morgan circled Cassius’s hardening nipples with his thumbs, let go of his mouth, and leaned down to nip at the left nub with his teeth through Cassius’s T-shirt.

“Fuck!” Cassius hissed, eyes slamming open and body arching instinctively closer to the man above him.

Morgan smiled sultrily. He grazed a knuckle up and down Cassius’s stiff dick through the material of his jeans, igniting a trail of fire along Cassius’s aching length.

Someone knocked on the front door of the penthouse, startling them both.

“Hey, Black, are you in there?” Adrianne called out warily.

“Shit,” Morgan mouthed where he crouched above Cassius, an irritated frown wrinkling his brow.

Debris crunched under Adrianne’s feet as she entered the apartment. “Black?”

Neither Morgan nor Cassius were visible from the doorway.

Cassius bit down hard on his lower lip, the sudden urge to laugh sweeping over him like a tide.

Morgan narrowed his eyes.

“You’re not helping,” he berated Cassius in a whisper only the two of them should have heard.

“They’re on the couch,” a woman said blithely.

“‘They?’” a man said warily.

Cassius recognized the blue-eyed wizard’s voice.

“Are they fornicating?” another man asked drily. “Oh. Hello, Kitty.”

“Seeing as how the room reeks of sexual arousal, I’d say possibly,” the unknown woman replied.

“What?!” the wizard gasped, aghast.

Footsteps approached Cassius and Morgan. Adrianne’s scowling face appeared over the back rest.

“I can’t believe you!” she snarled at Morgan.

Morgan sighed.

“Excuse me,” he told Cassius in an exasperated tone. He straightened, moved off the couch, and glowered at Adrianne and the people Cassius couldn’t see, heedless of his raging erection. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

Cassius carefully raised his head and peered at the group standing inside the hallway of his apartment.

The tall, Oriental woman who’d detected their presence gave off the almost imperceptible, electric scent of an angel. She was flanked by a man emitting the muted, sulfurous taint of a demon. He was holding the cat in his arms.

The blue-eyed wizard and a young man who smelled of cedar stood next to them, mouths gaping and expressions horrified.

Adrianne ignored Morgan and directed a tense stare at Cassius.

“Did this asshole jump you?”

“Hey,” Morgan protested. “I’ll have you know I don’t sexually attack people. They attack me.”

Cassius frowned at that. “Really?” He climbed off the couch, straightened his clothes, and gave Morgan a withering look. “So, you’re saying I assaulted you, tripped, fell on my back, and somehow ended up with your tongue down my throat and your hand on my dick?”

The Oriental woman and the demon turned away slightly, faces crunched up and shoulders trembling as they fought to suppress their snorts. The wizard and the enchanter made choking noises. Adrianne blinked, her expression a mixture of shock and reluctant admiration.

Morgan grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, I admit I’m the one who tried to seduce you.” He paused, his eyes growing heated as he held Cassius’s irate gaze. “By the way, you talking dirty is a real turn-on.”

Adrianne slapped Morgan on the back of the head.