Chapter 4

Archie slowly undressed Carrie, careful of touching her lightly as he did so. His fingers burned against her skin. Her mouth, when he touched his fingers to her lips, was moist and swollen from his kisses. There was nothing that he loved more than this woman and now he was going to get to show her just how much he did. At her slow sigh, he leaned back from her body ever so slightly and smiled at her.

"Your touch, it's like I'm being set on fire on my breasts and pussy. I'm so wet, Archie, that I can feel it sliding down my thighs." His smile widened, thinking of the very part of her that he wanted more than anything. "If you don't make me come soon, it's going to be a longer wait for you. Let me come, and I'll be able to come with you when you're inside of me. I ache with need now."

He had her blouse off. It had occurred to him that she'd not put on any kind of gown to sleep in nor anything to tempt him once they were in bed together. It was pointless to him for her to have something sexy on for him. Archie thought that she was sexy anyway she was dressed or, as it turned out, how she was undressed.

Fingers tangled in his hair, and all he could think about was being inside of her. As she rode him still dressed, her hips moving back and forth in quick hard strokes, he cupped her ass and bought her to him so that she was riding his covered cock. When he bit down on her nipple, tasting her blood as it filled his mouth, she cried out her release, and he growled at her to come again.

Kissing her mouth and then nuzzling her neck, Archie thumbed her nipples until they swelled. They were hard and thick, and he wanted to have them bare in his mouth again. But the need to mark her, make her his, was making his cat scream at him. He loved his mate, too, and needed to know that no one else would touch her. As soon as she came again, screaming out his name, Archie let his cat, using his teeth and mouth to take his part of her. Archie felt the savage in him bite her deeply. Her second scream nearly had him coming in his pants.

He held her to him. Archie felt his heart still pounding in his chest, and he'd had to work hard at calming his cat, but right now, both of them were satisfied that they had marked her. When she lifted her head, he could see that he'd missed a few drops of her blood and leaned to lick them off her. Her moan had him sucking hard on her flesh until she started to ride him again.

"If we stay here much longer, I'm going to lay you out on this floor and drink from your pussy. I can smell you. You're aroused, wet, and hot." She stopped moving, and he put his hands on her hips to give him just a little more of her. "Do you have any idea how much I want you?"

"I can feel your cock. So I'd say, yes, I can tell." He stared at her for several seconds, then laughed. "This isn't funny. And if you think this is going to distract me from what you said to me, you're fucking nuts."

"I am at that. And no, I don't think it's going to distract you." He kissed her again, taking his time moving his tongue over the darkest and tastiest part of her mouth, absorbing her into his as he rocked up into her heat with her lower half still dressed. "Never would I use sex to make you forget what's going on around us. No matter how tempting you are. And you are so tempting."

Making his way down her throat to her breasts, he suckled hard on the large tip and moaned when she held his head tightly to her. Moving her around, putting his hands into the back of her jeans, Archie let a little of his cat go so that he could use his sharp nails to rip her pants and panties off her. The sound was much more sexier than he thought it would be. It also made him want to tear all her clothing off her from now on.

Lying her on the bed, he took his time to undress himself. With his shirt already off, he unbuckled his belt and then slowly removed it from his pants, coming out of the loops to hold it one at a time, never taking his eyes off of his one true love. As soon as it was free, Archie dropped it to the floor, loving again the sound of the buckle hitting the floor. Then he unsnapped his jeans.

"I've never watched a man undress before." Sitting up on her hands behind her, Carrie licked her lips, causing him pain when she did so, and watched him unsnap his pants one snap at a time. Watching her watch him, he saw her eyes darken in desire. Her tongue moistened her lips while he felt his air catch in his lungs. When she took her foot and rubbed it up and down his cock that was leaking cream all over his boxers, Archie grabbed her foot and held tightly against him while she worked him over. "That's an amazing feeling, Archie. You're so hard and hot. It's like I've laid my foot on an open flame. And your cream between my toes is like nothing I've ever experienced before."

He couldn't speak. He was having enough difficulty just breathing. When she moved her other foot to his cock, Archie released her and leaned over her while she played with his cock. He needed to hold on to the bed before he passed out. If he came right now, he knew that he'd be out of it for days. Standing up, removing her feet, Archie tore his own pants off and grinned at her when she cried out as another quick climax took her.

Turning her in the bed so that her legs hung over the side, he seated himself between her legs and spread her nether lips wide. Watching as her cream slowly made its way to the bed, he leaned in and licked her from gate to clit, stopping long enough to suckle of her until she cried out. Pulling her closer to his mouth, he devoured her over and over while sliding his fingers into her. Christ, he thought, this was the most fun he'd had during sex in his life.

When she closed her thighs around his head, he looked up at her. She'd been crying, and he was sorry for that. Asking her if she was all right, she snapped at him that she needed to come. Having no idea why he thought that was so funny, Archie leaned into her for one more kiss and stood up. His cock was wet, too, the tip of it nearly black, it was so full and painful.

"Take me. Or not, but I'm going to come." He leaned over her, taking her mouth with his own as he put his knee between her thighs. "Please? Please give me what I need."

He didn't hesitate, but when he felt her heat and wetness, he slammed forward, taking her throat into his mouth and suckling hard. When her skin broke, tasting her blood again, he held her bottom close to him, tiling it upward so that he could go deeper. He fucked Carrie with everything that he had left, watching her face again.

When he felt his own climax race to his balls, feeling like they were ready to explode at any moment, he held her tightly while he slowed to have her catch up to him. However, he didn't think that she liked that when she dug her heels into his lower back and held his ears. Her words, ‘fuck me,' were slurred, and he couldn't help but do what she wished and fucked her through four quick releases before he let himself go.

Archie threw back his head when he felt his cock release. He'd come before, even today, but this was nothing like he'd ever experienced before. It was as if he was being turned inside out, then righted again over and over. Then when he was ready to drop atop her, his body finally emptied, Archie felt something akin to having a sword being stuck into the bottom of his cock and through it to the end. It was that painful. Crying out, he held Carrie to him so that neither of them moved.

Putting her hands on his cheek, he looked at her. Everything was blurry, and he was still in slight pain. But when her body, her sheath, rolled around his cock, he released again and felt everything blackout for him.

When he woke, only seconds, he thought, he was on his back, and Carrie was in his arms. Thinking about what had happened, wondering what had hurt him so much, Archie started to feel something roll over him. It started in his head, and gently, it seemed to him move down over his body until he was—with Carrie still holding him—doing things to not just his body, but he thought that it was moving into his heart, lungs, and blood. Closing his eyes against the sudden bright lights, he heard Carrie cry out then nothing.

Waking up, the two of them were in bed. Someone had moved them to the center of the bed and covered them up. Wondering who might have done something like that, he wasn't the least bit upset when he thought that they'd not just seen him naked but Carrie as well. She rolled over, laying her head on his chest as he ran his fingers up and down her back.

"I don't know about you, but I think that I'd rather not have that kind of sex again. I'm still reeling from it. And I feel…I don't know, I feel everything. I can hear, too, better than I did before." She looked up at him, resting her head on her fist. "You look different too. Like, you were a big man before, but I think you're bigger. I know that your hair is lighter, too, longer."

"I think that since we bonded, we got the magic that comes with it. I don't know. But we do have to talk about a couple of things." She asked him if it was about the ghosts. "That wasn't it, but now that you mention it. Are there any in this room? I can't see them if there is."

"No. They're forbidden to come into this house unless it's an emergency. The building that I'm going to use is ready and waiting for them to use. Also, there will be hours set in stone for when they can come to me as well." He thought that was a wonderful idea and told her so. "Shelly, she's helping me, told me that unless I wanted them to be bothering me all the time, I needed to start some rules from the start."

"Good. I like that. We'll test that later. We have to talk about the leap. Things are going on that need someone's attention and—" She told him that she would help him with it. And that he should take it without having Josiha around. "I was thinking that too. He wouldn't have much in the way of information for me with how he'd been running things. I might run into one or two issues later, but for now, like you, I'm going to set up ground rules."

The two of them talked about the leap for a while then Carrie decided that she needed to get up. For the two of them, it was much harder than he thought that it should have been. Standing in front of the mirror, holding onto the vanity, he had to laugh at himself at how bad he looked. But he did notice that she was right in saying that his hair was longer. He wondered if it was because they were bonded or something else. He wasn't going to worry about it just yet. They were headed to the leap house when he remembered that Nash was supposed to be going with them.

"Can you come to the house? I need to take over the leap." Nash asked if Carrie was going, and when he told him yes, he said that Sunny would come as well. "Good idea. Also, we've decided that we're not going to have Josiha stick around for us. I think with the way things were left by him, we'd be better off learning as we go."

"Excellent idea. Yes, that's good. Do you expect to be down with the magic?" Archie said that he didn't really know what to expect. "All right. We'll play this by ear. We're about to your house now, and we'll walk to the leap house."

He was glad that he remembered to take his brother. Even more so that Sunny was going to help out with keeping an eye on Carrie. He wasn't worried that something would happen, he didn't want to be left alone if the magic did take him down. Smiling, he was thrilled beyond words that he and Carrie were going to be doing this. He thought that it was going to be good for everyone concerned.

~*~

Carrie hated the leap house. The few times that she'd been there, it had been horrid and smelly. It wasn't just because it smelled like a wet dog; she had no idea why that was what she thought, but it also looked like it hadn't been cleaned in centuries. She thought for sure that it hadn't, not by the way things looked right now. She hinted around, asking if the meeting between them could be done outside instead of in the sweltering heat of the building. Everyone, thankfully, agreed. Carrie let Archie do the talking.

"Josiha, we, Carrie and I, have decided to take the job of leap leader." The man nodded, but Carrie noticed that his wife, Alma, was shaking her head. "I'm sorry. Is there a problem now? Something that we need to talk about?"

"He didn't say to me that he was leaving. I've decided that we're not." It was Sunny who told them that they both had to agree, but in the end, it was Josiha's decision. "Well, I've decided that I'm not going to give up the magic. I know what is going to happen to the two of us when you take over, and I'm not going to give up my life after all this time. I have things that I wish to do."

"I've been trying to talk to her, Archie but she's a stubborn old goat and won't let me get out of this job." Before Archie could say anything, Alma told Josiha to shut his mouth that she was the one in charge. "She thinks that she is. She's no more in charge than I want to stay here. I'm tired, Archie. I don't have it in me to do this—"

"Shut up, you old fool. You just don't seem to get it that I'm not going to give up this life. We have magic, money, and a house. Not as nice as theirs but we have one that we can have a roof over our head. I don't want to die. Do you hear me? I do not want to end my life now that we don't have to work anymore." Carrie started to point out that they'd have to be the leap leaders, but Alma cut her off, too. "No. We'll just keep doing what we've been doing all along. No one gives a crap if we show up to meetings or not. Hell, no one cares if we even have a meeting anymore. Dying wasn't part of the plan that I had when we were asked to do this. I just wanted the magic and the immortality. Working was never anything that I wanted to get involved in."

"Then what you're saying is that you only took the job because you were too lazy to do anything else. Is that what you're saying?" Alma admitted that was exactly what she was saying, and it was stupid of her to think that at this late in the game, she wanted to change things around. Sunny snorted before continuing. "Well, that's tough shit. Archie is set to take the job. If Josiha wants to keep his job, I suggest that the two of them fight it out. That's what is to happen next. Archie is several hundred years younger and if it comes to that, his brother Nash can take over the fight if it gets to be too much for him. I don't personally see that happening, but you never know. After that, if the two of them are drained, again, I don't see that, then the next in line is me."

Sunny simply shifted into a large dragon, spitting out flames as she reached a great height and bulk before shifting back to herself and smiling at the couple.

Josiha laughed. It was something that she'd never heard him do since she'd been around, so she thought it was odd. But the harder he laughed, pointing out to his wife that they had her there, it was Alma who laughed this time.

"You don't get it, do you? Josiha, you never were the brightest bulb in the basket, were you? They're talking about killing you off, you old fool. Not me. I'm not in charge. I just put up with you so that I could live forever. Not only that, but the pay was great, too. Even the money that was in the account for the leap…Christ, you never noticed a damned thing. I've been stealing from there for centuries, and you never had one single clue."

That seemed to be just what Sunny had been waiting for, and she put up her hand, and Alma disappeared. Just poof, she wasn't in the yard with them any longer. Everyone just stared at her as she stood there smiling. Then, it occurred to her when Josiha disappeared as well.

"You knew this. You knew that she was stealing the funds meant for the leap." Sunny shook her head and pointed to Archie. Carrie turned and looked at him. "Why didn't you tell me what was going to happen here today? I would have helped. I don't know how, but I would have."

"We've been considered leap leaders since we bonded the other day." Her face heated up when she realized what he was talking about. "Josiha came to me that day and asked me if he could speak to me. As you know or might not know, Alma has been following us around to make sure, I'm guessing, that he didn't just hand it over to me. Josiha told me everything. Not only had Alma been stealing from the leap, but she'd been running some of the leap off for various reasons because she knew that if the counting of the leap dropped to a certain number, then the king of all the leaps would give more money to this one to make changes. To make changes to the land or improve homes, whatever was needed to bring it back to a solid number."

"And she counted on this. At some point, she was making sure that she went with a large sum of money. Why would she think that they were going to die?" Archie told her what the rules stated. "I didn't know that it was their decision to stay or not. I'm guessing by the way things went that Josiha had made the decision for the two of them. That she was going to end her life no matter what."

"No. I decided that when I spoke to my mom." She asked Sunny what she meant. "Alma had been complaining about the leap running out of money for a while now, so I had someone checking into it. It wasn't until just then that we knew it was her. Stupidly on her part, she fully admitted to her being the one who was stealing from the leap and how long she'd been doing it. I didn't kill her, mores the pity. Alma was taken to our leap prison. She'll live out her days, centuries, and centuries there as a prisoner for her part in the theft. Alma will be required to work off the debt that she incurred until it's paid in full. Then, after a time, she'll die. Fade, whatever is needed to get her out of the system. Thank you for helping with it." She told her that she'd not done anything. "Oh, but you did. When you showed up here at Archie's side, it made it so much easier to get her to confess. She had to brag to someone, and why not a fellow woman."

"What about you? I mean, you're a woman too the last time I checked." Her face heated up. "Not that I go around checking on you being a woman. It was just…I got it mixed up in my head. I didn't…perhaps you can change the subject now."

"I will." Sunny laughed. "You know, I really love you, Carrie. You're kind and funny. I don't think there is a better person for the job than you and Archie. Even my mom thinks that you two will do great things now that you're in charge."

"I hope so. I want to make this a safe and wonderful place for other leap members to have a family and be able to grow with us." Sunny hugged her, and the four of them headed home. The leap house was going to be gone though, then torn down. According to the men who were going to take care of it, the building was too old to save, and the foundation was much too broken to be able to salvage. Carrie was glad. The place would forever smell like it does now, she thought.

Nash and Archie were walking behind her and Sunny when they got to their driveway. As soon as she stepped onto the porch, she felt that something was off. Hearing the small whimper of someone, she turned to see a little girl who had been beaten badly hiding in the corner of the porch under the swing. Going to her, she cried out as soon as she touched her. She called to Archie to hurry.

"She's Mikey's sister." The little girl told them that Mikey had gone back to get their mom, that she'd been beaten up by their dad, and that he had an axe. Leaping over the railing, Archie never touched the ground as a man but shifted into his beast as he took off toward what she could only assume was Mikey's home. Nash, shifting too, followed, leaving her and Sunny there to be with the little girl. Archie spoke to her as she was getting the little girl into the house.

"Bring the car when you can. I don't know what we'll find, but I'm sure that I can't go around like this. I'm sorry I left you to deal with this." She said that she would when she got the little girl settled. "Her name is Sissy. I've spoken to Mikey a few times about his dad. I love you, baby. Please be careful when—" When he didn't finish, she paused in wiping Sissy's face to find that she'd been cut badly by someone. "Honey, call the police for us. Their mother is gone."

"I'm coming. Sissy is going to need stitches, and we'll have to take them to the hospital anyway." She was crying when she saw how badly Sissy was beaten. The child had fresh and old wounds on her small body that made her want to find her father and kill him herself. As soon as she got Sissy in the car, Sunny got in the front seat with her, and the two of them didn't speak on the way to where Archie and Nash were. She told her through their link what was going on. She asked her if she could drive.

"Yes. I wish that I could shift. I'd take care of the bastard myself." Sunny touched her fingers to her forehead, and they drove a bit slowly to the house. Neither of them said a word as they made their way around the police cars and the two ambulances that were there. Her heart hurt for what they came upon.

The mother was lying in the yard with an axe in her head. It was a horrific sight, one that she knew would be burned into her memory for a very long time, if not forever. She didn't call out to Archie, knowing that if he was busy, she might distract him enough that he'd be hurt. Carrie hoped that he was killing the father slowly for what he'd done. The man deserved whatever he got and then some.

Sissy was put into one of the ambulances, and Carrie went with her to the hospital. Holding her hand, she wondered what was going to happen to the two children now that their parents, both of them, she hoped, were gone. She was going to talk to Archie to see what the sloth would do with them. If anything, she'd adopt them into their family so that they'd never have to worry about their life again.

The sloth leader joined them at the hospital. Sissy had been sedated so they could check her body for other injuries. She told the older man, Roger, what she knew about what had happened at the house. She also told him that their mother was gone and that she'd been killed by her husband.

"He's not her husband. Her mate, either. The children, both of them are from her true mate. I don't know that Albert killed her mate, but he moved into her home not long after he was buried. I didn't know about it. We were having a bit of a crisis that had taken me away from the sloth for a couple of months. When I returned a few days ago, I was informed about what was going on. As a matter of fact, it was my intention to take her under my protection so that she'd be safe. I'm sorry to realize that I waited too long to do anything." She asked him about the children. "That would be up to their biological grandmother. I'm not sure that she'd take them in, but they'll be protected forever by the sloth."

They were going to keep Sissy for a few days. She was extremely dehydrated as well as very undernourished. She finally had to know what had happened to Mikey and reached out to Archie. His anger was apparent, and when she asked him if he was all right, he told her that he wasn't. He also didn't think he'd ever be again.

"He's dead. Margo was able to get in a few slices to his face and throat before he tossed the axe at her. I'm not sure of all the details yet, but he bled out in the woods behind her home. I wished that I could have taken care of him myself, but I believe this is better. What have you heard from Roger concerning the children? By the way, Mikey is beaten up badly but will survive. He's going to be in the hospital for a few days longer. I'm to understand that Sissy is staying there too." She told him what Roger had told her. "Good. If she doesn't take them in, would you mind if we did? I know it's a lot to ask, but—"

"I was thinking the same thing. Even if she does take them in, I'd like to be a part of their lives from now on. They need someone around that can show them that their lives were not the norm."