Bale pulled out her sword and settled it across her drawn-up knees as she gazed into the forest with a look promising death to anyone who attacked us. Lix walked a few feet away from Bale and removed his flask as he settled against a tree. The hounds lay within the shadows of the forest.
“I wanted to ask you something,” I said to Caim as Hawk settled beside me.
His rainbow eyes shone with amusement as he smiled. “I always love a good question. Ask away.”
“I can see people’s souls. I can tell if they’re good or bad by looking at them. Those people in the fog are some of the worst I’ve ever seen; we should have killed them.”
He rubbed his chin. “Interesting.”
“It’s something I’ve been able to do since birth, but I never knew why. When I became a demon, I assumed that’s why I had the ability, and it was just something I could always do; unlike my ability to create fire.”
“You can wield fire?” he asked.
“Yes, but I couldn’t do it until I became immortal.”
“I see. So what is your question?”
“Hawk said he didn’t think my ability to see souls was a demon power because demons have no souls, so it would be useless for them.”
“I agree with him,” Caim said.
“But he wondered if I was part angel too and that’s where the power originated?”
I refused to look at the others as I asked this question, but I could feel their eyes boring into me while they hung on every word.
Caim closed his wings. “Angels don’t have souls either, so the ability would be useless for us too. We were forged in the image of man, but we weren’t infused with souls. You were born with a gift—one meant to keep you safe from those who would harm you. Some humans are blessed that way.”
“I can handle being blessed,” I said.
He chuckled as he closed his eyes. Corson took Wren’s hand and started toward the woods with her. “We’ll be back in a little while,” he said to Bale who nodded.
I removed the small blanket in my pack and draped it over myself. Hawk’s arm brushed mine when I pulled it over him too. A bolt of need pierced through my exhaustion and struck straight into my soul as I leaned against him.
A tingling started in my newly awakened fangs, and before I knew what I was doing, I slid my hand into his beneath the blanket. My heart pounded as I rested my head on his shoulder. I was supposed to keep my distance until I got to know him better, but I wanted to strip off his clothes and forget the awful events of this day in his arms.
“Rest,” he murmured as he ran a hand over my hair and kissed my forehead.
I didn’t think there was any way I could rest after losing the horsemen and with being this close to him, but the stars danced in the sky when I opened my eyes again. Corson and Wren sat across from us; Wren had her head in his lap while she slept. Bale had also fallen asleep while sitting against the tree.
Lifting my head from Hawk’s shoulder, I surveyed the others before turning to him. Bright in the moonlight, his eyes shone as I traced my fingers over his cheek and jaw. I bit my lip when I recalled the way he felt inside me.
Even as I recalled the blissful feel of him, I noted the lines around his eyes and clamped mouth. Those lines hadn’t been there before, and neither had the stress in his rigid body.
“Want to go for a walk?” I asked.
I didn’t know if it was safe for us to leave here, but he unfolded himself from the ground before holding his hand out to me. I took his hand and allowed him to pull me to my feet. I suppressed a shiver when the blanket fell away and the chilly air caressed my skin. When Hawk slid his arm around my waist and pulled me close, I forgot about the cold air as he enveloped me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aisling
“We’ll be back, and we’re not going far,” he said to Corson.
Corson nodded, and a couple of the hounds lifted their heads, but everyone else remained asleep as we walked into the forest. The moonlight barely penetrated through the trees but becoming a demon enhanced my vision, and I could see well enough to avoid walking into a tree or rock.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said and nuzzled my hair.
When his warm breath tickled my neck, my thoughts went in a million different directions, but I refused to let him distract me. “You seem… stressed.”
He leaned back to look at me. “It’s not exactly fun times right now.”
“I know, but I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Don’t worry about me.” He turned his attention back to the trees. “Tell me something about yourself, Aisling.”
I wasn’t expecting the shift in topic. “Like what?”
“Tell me something no one else knows.”
“Something no one else knows,” I murmured as I puzzled this. “I had a dog named Duke when I was a kid. He was a yellow lab, and I got him for Christmas.” He arrived a year after the Mary Lou fiasco. Although he wasn’t a puppy, he was the best gift I ever received.
“They adopted him from the local shelter, and he was sitting under the Christmas tree with a big red bow. We were always together, but after the gateway opened, he refused to leave my side. Everywhere I went, Duke went with me, even to school. Eventually, my teachers gave up trying to chase him out of the building and would let him sit outside the classroom door. I didn’t know it at the time, but he must have sensed what happened with the gateway and was trying to protect me.”
“Sounds like he was a good dog.”
“He was a great dog.”
“What happened to him?”
“Old age and bad hips; when I was seventeen, we had to put him down. I was so heartbroken.” I rested my hand over my heart as a familiar ache built in my chest. “Now, here’s the part no one else knows; I still cry over him.”
Hawk’s arm tightened around me. “I never had an animal like that.”
I didn’t think I ever would again. “Tell me something about yourself.”
“I’m as intelligent as I am good looking.”
I gave him a sharp look, but when I saw the twinkle in his eyes, I laughed. “Then you must not be too bright.”
“Ouch,” he said and rested his hand over his heart. “That was a mortal wound.”
I was still laughing when we reached the bank of a small stream. I stared at the water as it flowed over rocks and meandered through the trees before vanishing around a bend. It was small enough that I could take a big step over it.
“I thought I was in love once,” he said. “I’ve never told anyone that; not even the girl I was sure I loved.”
I ignored the jab his words inflicted on my heart. “You thought?”
“I’ve realized it was an infatuation, but I would have done anything for her. However, I think most teenage boys will do almost anything for the first girl who lets them go all the way.”
“Who was she?”
“Cindy Wallis. We went to school together and hooked up one night at a party. I was fifteen, she was sixteen, and I believed we would get married and have babies.” He laughed as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Fifteen?” Thanks to the war, I wasn’t much of a child by then, but I was still more concerned with books than boys and sex.
“What can I say? I’ve always been irresistible.”
His tone was teasing, but I sensed something more beneath his words.
“I was still reading Nancy Drew,” I said.
He didn’t speak as he stared at the water with his head bowed. I tried to picture him at fifteen. He would have been handsome but probably a little awkward as he went through growth spurts, facial hair, and maybe some acne. Girls still would have tripped over themselves to get at him, and he’d said he looked older than his age.
“If I’d known how much sex would come to rule my life, I would have waited a lot longer,” he said.
I rested my head on the thick muscles of his arms. Seeking to ease the strain he radi
ated, I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him.
“What happened with the girl?” I asked.
“She wasn’t thinking about marriage and was planning to give my best friend a test drive. They hooked up a week later. The two of us got into a fistfight over her, but when Cindy moved on to her next victim, we stole some of his dad’s homemade vodka and got drunk together. That girl was a man-eater,” he said with a laugh.
“What happened to Cindy Wallis?”
When the smile left his face, I knew I’d asked the wrong thing. “She was slaughtered with the rest of my town.”
I inwardly winced when I tore that wound open again.
“Come on,” he said.
He released me but took my hand as he stepped over the stream. Keeping hold of his hand, he helped me cross the creek, and we walked deeper into the woods.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Not far; we have to stay close to the others.”
“Okay.” I enjoyed being with him too much to care about how far we walked. “The animals are quieter in the Wilds than I expected.”
“They aren’t as active out here; there are too many predators here for squirrels and birds to be as free as they are on the other side of the wall. In the areas we’ve cleared, the animal populations have become more active again.”
“This area hasn’t been cleared?”
“No. I’ve never been this deep into the Wilds, and neither has Wren. When we have time to do a thorough sweep of this area, those fog people will be at the top of the list.”
“Good. I can still see that thing staring at me from inside her.”
Hawk released my hand to drape his arm around my shoulders and pull me closer. When his breath tickled my cheek, longing seeped through my body. We were supposed to get to know each other better, but over this past week, I’d learned a lot about him.
He’d told me about the losses he endured, and I’d witnessed his loyalty to his friends and the way he joked with them when a hound dumped one of them. I’d experienced the warmth of his body against mine at night, yet he never made a move on me.
He had to know I’d cave like a house of cards if he stroked me in the right way. He had to sense my desire as strongly as I sensed his. Yet, every morning, he rolled away from me. Hawk was a study in patience and restraint while being this close to him was causing mine to unravel. Everything I learned about him, and the closer we got, the more I liked my Chosen.
It should have come as a relief, but it also scared me. It might have been easier if we hated each other; then I wouldn’t have to worry about my heart. I wasn’t in love with him, but I could see it happening one day, and it scared me. Life was far too precarious in this world, and what if he never loved me back?
What a miserable, lonely life that would be.
He stopped to tilt his head back. I followed his gaze to the clear night sky and the thousands of stars dancing overhead. Despite his casual demeanor, I’d never seen him look so tense as lines etched the corners of his mouth and eyes.
“When I was a kid, I always wished on the first star I saw,” I said.
“What did you wish for?”
“A good grade, a dog, to go to a concert—you know, kid stuff. Then the war happened, and I stopped wishing.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t a kid anymore.”
When his head tipped down, my breath caught at the beauty of his indigo eyes. He was so damn handsome, and he was mine. My gaze fell to the marks on his neck. It had been over a week since I left them, and they were fading from his sun-bronzed skin.
My fangs lengthened as I was struck by the overwhelming compulsion to mark him again. Those marks couldn’t fade from him. Like a rabid animal, something clawed at my chest until I was sure it would tear my ribs apart, and I realized it was the demon screaming to be set free to claim its Chosen again.
And I so badly wanted to give in to it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Hawk
As the scent of Aisling’s increasing desire drifted to me, I somehow managed to keep myself restrained from tearing her clothes off and taking her on the forest floor. I was starving, but I would wait for her to be ready.
I could usually go longer between sexual encounters, but resisting Aisling was weakening my restraint with every passing day. Waking up next to her every morning only reminded me of what I was missing, but I’d forced myself to stay away from her.
She’d asked for time to get to know me better, and I would give it to her. I would keep myself under control.
It would probably be better if I didn’t sleep next to her every night and experience the warmth of her ass nestled against my groin, but I couldn’t stand the idea of sleeping without her. She was my Chosen; I wouldn’t part from her, and if I couldn’t have her sexually, I could at least hold her.
Unable to stop myself, I grasped a piece of her hair; the silken strands of it slid through my fingers and fell against her cheek. I followed her hair to trace the curve of her cheek while her doe eyes followed my every move. The accelerated beat of her heart thumped in my ears as her raspberry scent intensified.
When she licked her lips, my already aching cock flooded with blood, and I nearly groaned when it strained against my zipper. I tried to pull my hand away from her, but I couldn’t stop touching her as I ran my thumb over those gorgeous lips. With my thumb, I pulled her plump, lower lip down a little. I needed to taste her, but I would never risk enslaving her.
Instead, I bent to kiss her nose, her cheek, and then her other cheek. Her eyelashes brushed my cheek when her eyes fluttered closed, and I placed two kisses against them too. Her hands clenched in my shirt as she swayed toward me. I pulled away when she turned her head toward me and her lips nearly grazed mine.
Her shoulders slumped, but she didn’t turn away when I kissed her cheek again. Clasping her chin, I lifted her head until her eyes met mine. I drank in the beauty of her while I traced her lips.
“Don’t move,” I commanded.
Lowering my head, I stopped when our lips were only centimeters apart. She remained still as I inhaled her sweet breath and relished the warmth of her exhalations. I had no doubt she’d taste better than I was imagining, yet I didn’t move to kiss her.
Her hands constricted on my shirt, and a soft mewl issued from her. I thought she was going to turn away, but she pulled open the buttons and rested her palms against my chest. Pushing her hands up, she undid my shirt until it hung free around my shoulders.
And then she bent her head and kissed me. My breath hissed in as the heat of her mouth burned into my skin. Her tongue left a trail down the center of my chest, and her fingers ran over me as she made her way lower. She knelt in front of me and tugged my pants open.
My hands went to her shoulders to pull her away, but they froze there. She didn’t know what she was playing with as hunger burned through my veins. If this continued, I would be too far gone to stop, but I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth.
“I never got to return the favor,” she said as she gripped my erection.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her when she bent to flick her tongue against my head before sucking the tip into her mouth. I ran my fingers through her hair as I resisted thrusting my hips forward and sinking further into her. Holding her still, I braced my legs apart as she took me deeper into her mouth while working me with her hand.
“Fuck,” I groaned when she ran her tongue along the thick vein in the side of my shaft.
Her fangs grazed my flesh, but instead of being unpleasant, my spine prickled at the sensation. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her as the familiar sensation of semen rising returned. The pressure built until I could barely contain it.
“Aisling.” I gripped her shoulder to pull her away, but she grasped my ass, and her fingers bit into my flesh. “Aisling, I’m going to come.”
Instead of pulling away, she guided my hips until they were rocking into her mouth. She re
moved one hand from my ass and gripped my dick. That touch was my undoing, and I bit back a shout of pleasure as I came.
Aisling drank me down before releasing me and leaning back on her knees. Then, she rose with fluid grace and gave me a wicked smile as she stepped closer. “I hope you’re not done.”
“I’m far from done,” I assured her. I needed to be inside her, feasting on her, claiming her and everything she offered.
“Good.”
When I gripped the bottom of her shirt, she lifted her hands, and I tugged it over her head. I let it fall to the ground as I stepped back to savor the splendor of her lithe body. I slid my fingers over the curve of her exposed breasts in her bra before bending to run my tongue over them.
My fangs scraped her flesh when I pushed the bra aside to expose her nipple. She gasped as her fingers threaded through my hair. “Bite me,” she commanded.
I was more than willing to obey as I sank my fangs into her flesh. Her body arched against mine, and she pulled me closer as she squirmed against me. I tongued her nipple while I renewed my mark on her.
She tasted as sweet as she smelled as I crushed her against me. Her fingers threaded through my hair, and she rested her cheek on my head as we clung to each other like a drowning man to a lifeline. Releasing her, I rose to stand over her as she gazed at me with an expression of awe.
With deft hands, she pushed my shirt the rest of the way off. Her hands were unhurried as they stroked my chest, and she seemed to be memorizing every inch of me. I couldn’t help doing the same as I unhooked her bra and let her breasts spill free.
She clasped my cheeks and rose onto her toes. I stiffened when I thought she might try to kiss me; instead, she did what I did to her earlier. Her lips found my cheeks, my eyelids, and my chin. When she finished, she ran her thumb over my mouth before her eyes met mine.
I was starved and half mad for her, but time slowed as she gazed at me from those wide, brown eyes. Something inside me shifted, and suddenly it was more than lust and demonic instinct fueling my need for her. She was mine to protect and cherish, and I would do so every day of our lives together.
Kiss of Death: Hell on Earth Series, Book 3 Page 15
