STORY EXCERPT

They were trying to hide Hansel from him.

“Well, there are four lawyers in house,” she said. “Which would you like to see?”

He moved to the counter and her eyes flared wide for a moment. Dallan held her gaze, knowing she sensed his power.

“Warrior,” she whispered.

She was nothing more than a dark witch, a warlock, with knowledge of the world she was attempting to play in.

“Where is he?” he asked coldly as he reached across the desk and closed his fingers around her throat. “Where is the man your boss brought in here?”

“I don’t know.” She tried to use a spell on him, but Dallan countered easily and shook her before shoving her backward.

The woman stumbled and tripped over her heels, landing on the floor. Dallan strode past the desk, and Hansel slammed into him, knocking him off his feet.

The snarl of a hound had Dallan throwing out his hand to protect them with a wall of energy.

Hansel looked down at him, his blue eyes filled with horror. “Dallan,” he said breathlessly. “There’s a big dog—”

“Hellhound,” Dallan said evenly. “Up.” Hansel floated up and Dallan got to his feet before letting Hansel down to his own.

“It’s worse than those jackals,” Hansel told him. He looked over his shoulder to find the dog staring at them, and Dallan dropped his shield and shifted.

He was nothing more than sand now as he raced to the dog. He covered the hound quickly, and it howled as Dallan slid into its nostrils and churned around. Blood leaked down the dog’s nostrils onto its muzzle.

Dallan raced through its bloodstream, and the abrasiveness of his body made the dog whimper. He burst free of the animal’s mouth and curled around its neck and choked it.

The dog collapsed and Dallan moved a short distance away from him before taking human form again.

“Let’s go.” Dallan took Hansel’s hand and led him to the door.

The good thing about shifting to sand was he didn’t tear his clothing. When he turned back to human form, he was fully dressed.

An alarm blared as Dallan pushed open the front door and jerked Hansel through it. The force of the door’s sudden weight was almost too much for him to manage. He stepped out, and the door closed at his back as a hound smashed into the glass.

The glass trembled but didn’t break.

Hansel looked behind him and gasped, but Dallan didn’t bother. He was sure some pissed-off demons were glaring at them as they worked furiously to untangle the knot of their security.

“How’d you find me so fast?” Hansel asked carefully. “Do you have some kind of tracker on me?”

Dallan glanced at him with a smirk. “I should—your ass can’t seem to stay out of trouble—but no.”

“Are you sure?” Hansel demanded. “’Cause I’m not a child, Dallan.”

“No, you’re a coveted item,” he said tightly. “One I’ll do anything to protect.”

Hansel pulled free of his hold, and Dallan shook his head. Hansel was literally a magic grimoire. Every spell was part of him and would be until the time came for Hansel to pass the book, called the Mage, off to the next guardian.

That wouldn’t be for another twenty years at least. Hansel wasn’t directly a target because evil had no idea that the item they sought, the key to the grimoire, was Hansel, not an actual key or spell.

“Don’t act like a brat,” Dallan said. He was madly in love with Hansel and would do whatever he had to to ensure Hansel’s safety.

“I just can’t believe you said that,” Hansel growled.

“You’re a little grumpy,” Dallan commented. “You must have skipped lunch.”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Hansel said irritably. “But I’m tired and this thing around my wrist is starting to hurt with the way it moves around. Get it off me.”

“I will once we’re safe.” He unlocked the car doors as they made their way to it.

They climbed in and Dallan cranked the car and backed out of the parking space as magic bounced off the back window. He burned rubber out of the lot and into traffic.

* * * *

“I remembered a little more,” Hansel told him as they sped down the street. “They’re demons.”

“I had guessed,” Dallan commented dryly.

“My co-worker Mareina—it’s still a little fuzzy, but she wanted me to protect something she called ‘the latch,’ but she never gave it to me.”

“Shit. What did you say?” Dallan demanded, and Hansel heard a wary note in his voice that bothered him.

The conversation with Mareina had been more than a little strange to him. She’d started off talking about her grandmother and a small town in Montana where she’d grown up on a farm.

“She said she grew up on a farm and her mother had been a witch who’d had an affair with this guy one summer.”

“What else?”

“The guy was strange. He gave her mother some jewelry. When her mother died, Mareina got the bracelet. But five years ago, she met this guy, an earth witch, who had a bracelet just like hers.”

“What happened with it?” Dallan pressed.

“He told her a story about the bracelets and how they went through a change in his care, but I can’t remember everything she said he said,” Hansel said. “What is it, the latch?”

“Tell me she didn’t hand it off to you.”

“I told you she didn’t,” Hansel said, and Dallan threw him a look before glancing at the case.

“Damn her,” Dallan gritted out. “Hans, that’s the last thing we need. Getting mixed up with that thing is asking for trouble. She was its guardian and chaos demons would love to get their hands on it.”

“What is it?”

ADULT EXCERPT

“It’s okay to be afraid, darlin’,” Dallan told him. “When you stop being afraid, then you have a problem. No one is invincible.”

Hansel smiled. “Here I thought you were.”

Dallan chuckled and nipped Hansel’s ear. “That’s my superpower. Making you think I’m the hottest, most powerful wizard alive.”

Hansel laughed and twisted to face him. “You don’t have to try too hard,” he murmured. “I already know how sexy and powerful you are.” He leaned toward Dallan and kissed him.

Dallan wrapped his arm around Hansel’s waist, letting it drift down to brush his ass.

Hansel moaned and moved over Dallan. He pushed Dallan’s hands above his head as he rubbed his lower body against Dallan’s and felt the rise of his lover’s cock.

“You know something?” Hansel crooned.

“Tell me.”

“I think a little chocolate just might cheer me up,” he said and glided his hands down Dallan’s arms to his chest. He pushed up the T-shirt Dallan had worn to bed and slid his hands beneath to the warm flesh.

“I’m willing to do anything I can to help you feel better,” Dallan said.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Hansel said and trailed kisses over Dallan’s chest. “’Cause I want you inside me.”

Dallan squeezed Hansel’s ass, and Hansel rubbed against him and moaned. “I woke up hot for you,” Dallan told him, and Hansel reached between them to slip his hand down Dallan’s boxers and cupped the stiff flesh. Dallan moaned.

Hansel pressed his lips to Dallan’s, and Dallan’s tongue slipped into his mouth. Their tongues stroked against each other as Dallan rolled them over and braced one arm on the mattress.

“I love the feel of your skin,” Hansel said as he pushed his hands up Dallan’s back and drew his nails down it. “Make love to me.”

Dallan leaned off him and pulled the nightstand drawer open and grabbed a tube of lube. Hansel parted his thighs, making room for Dallan between them. He was already hard and aching to be taken, to be ridden to bliss.

Dallan dropped the tube on the bed and shoved Hansel’s T-shirt up, then worked it over his head and tossed it away. Then he slid his hands over the lean golden flesh. Hansel wasn’t cut like Dallan, but he wasn’t ashamed of his body.

He was nicely put together enough in his mind, though he could use a little more muscle.

Dallan’s tongue swiped over his nipple, and Hansel’s thoughts sprang back to the moment as he cupped Dallan’s nape. Dallan scraped the nipple with sharp teeth before sucking hard. At the same time, he pinched the unattended nipple, and Hansel moaned as pleasure shot through him.

Dallan drew the point of his tongue around the areola. Hansel arched into him, pleasure shooting through him.

“Oh, fuck, baby,” Hansel cried. “Your touch is so arousing.” He glided his hand over the back of Dallan’s head, thrusting his fingers into his short black hair and pulling.

Dallan caught the nipple between his teeth and gave it a light tug, and Hansel gasped, desire ramping up and his cock leaking as it pulsed between them.

Dallan kissed his way from one nipple to the other. Sharp teeth abraded the hard bead.

“Oh, Dallan!” That tiny bite of pain lanced through him, making him harder. He liked a little pain with his sex. It made him want his lover even more.

Dallan sucked his nipple into his mouth, and Hansel gasped, delectation washing over him, catching him up in its wave.

“Dallan,” he whispered and slid his hand down to the rise of Dallan’s ass. Hansel trailed his fingers along the seam before cupping one curve. Then he drew his hand back up to guide it past the cheeks to the tight treasure inside.

He penetrated Dallan’s ass and Dallan groaned, biting his nipple lightly.

“Fuck, yes,” Dallan rasped out.

Hansel drew his finger out just to the tip and thrust it back in, savoring the soft sounds of delight Dallan made.

Then Dallan was kissing and nipping his way down to the flat plane of Hansel’s stomach, forcing Hansel to abandon his quest to please. Dallan flicked his tongue over Hansel’s belly button scraping it sharply.

Hansel hissed and his breathing grew rougher.

Dallan rose onto his knees, shoving the covers down, and dragged Hansel’s pale pink briefs down and off before moving back into place between his thighs. Hansel spread his legs wider as Dallan kissed his way up along one thigh to the inner flesh.

“Dallan,” Hansel cried.

Dallan drew his tongue up Hansel’s hairless groin, sending shivers through him. At the same time, Dallan fisted Hansel’s dick, and then he licked around the rim of the crown. He flicked the slit before licking down the hard ridge and back up again.

Hansel let out a rough cry, and Dallan closed his mouth over the head and sucked.

“Shit, you’re going to make me come.”