Birthday Shift by Desconhecido(a) Page A

slid her tongue along his lower lip. His hands tightened
on her shoulders, his body rigid. Whether to push her away or pull her closer,
she didn’t know, though every cell begged for the latter. She delved into the
warm cavern of his mouth and pressed herself against his body.
    Their legs
brushed, and against her stomach the hard length of him proved that he still
wanted her. She pulled her hand free, setting the bag on the floor next to
them, before wrapping her free arm around his waist, grabbing his buttocks to pull
him closer. A soft whimper emerged from her throat.
    Lukos stood
unmoving, not returning her kiss.
    She growled her
frustration, nipping at his lower lip. He used to like it when she got rough,
like the one time she tied him to the bedposts and rode him until they fell
asleep as the sun crested the castle walls.
    For a moment she
thought he might give in. His fingers tightened on her shoulder, one hand
sliding over her ribs.
    He pulled his
lips from hers and shoved her away. “No. We can’t.”
    Lise stumbled backward.
She grabbed the large knob at the end of the railing to steady herself, half
afraid she might fall. When she raised her gaze to look at Lukos, he stood
there, the tips of his ears blazing with arousal, and yet, in his eyes, the man
who looked back at her bore no resemblance to the man she loved.
     
    Unbreak Me by Lex Valentine
    Chapter One
     
    Tait stepped through the
portal into Crossroads. Her power, the magic that she’d been born with, that
permeated every iota of her flesh and spirit, went null. She’d known it would
happen, but it still made her feel strange and a little nauseous. She’d
voluntarily powered down in the past, turning off her magical energy, and she’d
also had her power taken from her by force, but this didn’t even come close to
either of those sensations. When she voluntarily turned off her magical power,
she still knew she could call upon it if needed. When her power had been
forcibly locked within her, denied release, she’d still known it was there.
Here in this no-man’s land where human magic did not work, her power was simply
gone. She had nothing left but non-magical skills which made her feel every
inch the vulnerable human. She knew full well that non-human, immortal
creatures such as angels, demons, and the fae, did not become null in
Crossroads. However, their powers were shielded for the protection of the
inhabitants of the realm; therefore, they couldn’t use them.
    Luckily, she’d once been the
best of the best at fighting without magic. It had been one of her most prized
skills, and Tait hoped like hell she hadn’t lost much of her edge over the past
six years. Walking the hard packed dirt of Crossroads wrapped in a cloak filled
with weapons wasn’t the smartest thing she had ever done, but she had no
choice. It wasn’t as if the portal had a coat check. Not that she would have
taken off the Alizar cloak anyway.   Alizar women wore it so that they could keep men from fighting over
their beauty. Tait wore it to keep people from cringing.
    She strode toward the group
of buildings that seemed to be the only thing Crossroads had to offer. The
biggest building had a sign with gilded letters on the front. Spellbound
Treasure.   Of all the realms in the
universe, no other place dealt with the buying and selling of objects infused
with magic. It took great skill to deal with cursed objects, and even enchanted
items could be troublesome to handle, yet the enigmatic staff of Spellbound
Treasure did it regularly and without issue.
    Staring up at the building,
Tait began to tremble. Six years ago, the tremors had begun, manifesting while
she’d been under extreme duress. Although her situation had improved greatly in
the past three years, she’d been unable to stop the shaking that wracked her
body at the slightest sign of stress. She figured one day the trembling would
get her killed. After all, an assassin whose hands shook while holding a gun