“You’ll what?” Keon narrowed his eyes.
Head to head with Azazel, it was clear to see they were the same height, but Azazel was bigger, his form packed with power, while Keon was lithe, his body built for speed, agility, and stealth.
“You may be Lilith’s son,” Keon said. “But I am her Blade. I am her vengeance, and you are but a child in comparison.”
“A child who knows your every fucking move,” Azazel said coolly.
“Okay, okay.” Mal stepped between the two of them. “Put your cocks away. Cora, go with Fee.”
“Alone!” Keon snapped.
“Fuck you,” Cora retorted.
I shrugged. “I’ve got to concur with Cora on this one. Besides, what are you going to do? Kill me?”
Keon’s chest rumbled. “As soon as I’m able to. Yes.”
A shiver went up my spine at the threat.
“Follow me.” He left the room.
“I’ll be okay.” I smiled at Azazel and Mal. “I’ll see you soon.”
The room Keon led us to was bathed with the warmth of afternoon sun. It streamed in through windows that took up the whole of one wall. The vista beyond was a city of ice made up of domes and towers. We were high enough to see the mountainous terrain beyond the walls that bordered Imperium.
The queen stood looking out over her domain and didn’t bother to turn to greet us.
“You saved my life,” she said. “Why? When you knew I wished to end yours?”
Valid question and the answer was simple. “I guess I don’t want you dead.”
“I threaten your existence.”
“You don’t know me. I don’t know you. Whatever you have against me isn’t personal. I saw you about to get killed, and I reacted.”
She looked perturbed by my answer. “You have her face.”
“No. I have my own face, and to be honest, I’m getting a little sick of people saying that.”
Keon snarled. “I can rip it off, my queen. Just give the order.”
Lilith sighed. “Keon, please.”
His eyes gleamed with malice. What the fuck was his deal?
“I owe you a debt,” Lilith said. “I wish to repay it by offering you the truth behind the quest I gave Azazel all those centuries ago. Do you accept?”
I exchanged a glance with Cora, who shrugged. Darn it, holding the debt over her would be an advantage, but I needed to know why she ordered the murder of Cain and Abel’s bloodline.
“I accept.”
She looked relieved, almost as if I’d offered to take a burden from her shoulders. Maybe I had? I mean, how long had she been keeping this truth to herself? How many people knew?
“I have taken many lovers in my time,” Lilith began, “but Samael is my one true love. My heart belongs to him, and his belongs to me. But like all lovers, we fight, and it was during one of our separations that Samael lay with Eve. The result was Cain and Abel. I forgave him the transgression. We moved on, and he vowed never to see her again, but then Cain murdered Abel, and Samael went to console Eve.” Her eyes were hard with anger at the memory. “I told myself I had no right to prevent him from going to lay his son to rest, but when he didn’t return for a week, I grew concerned and restless, and I went to find him. I discovered him in a deep sleep in her home. He would not wake no matter what I did. I stole him away and brought him back to the Underealm, and when he awoke, he was no longer himself. He was confused. He made no sense. For days he wandered in a dream, and when he finally came back to me, he would not tell me what had transpired between him and Eve; instead he made me vow never to harm her, for if I did, I would lose his love forever.” Her eyes misted, and she walked over to the window and looked out. “I love him, and so I agreed. I have watched him deteriorate for decades. I have tried everything to reverse what she did to him. And then the answer came to me in a dream. To kill the curse, I would need to sever Samael’s ties to Eve.”
I stared at her back. “Their children… You ordered Azazel to eliminate Samael and Eve’s bloodlines to cure Samael.”
“Yes.” She turned to face me. “And I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would do anything to bring him back to me.”
Her pain, her desperation clawed at me. I pushed energy into my shields, not wanting to feel it. Not wanting to feel bad for her.
She smiled thinly. “I tell you all this because you saved my life. I owe you the truth, and it is only fitting I let you know that I will not stop. I will find a way to free my son of his curse, and once I do, I will end you.”
“What the fuck?” Cora said. “You kill her, and you’ll break Azazel. I mean, have you seen Conah right now?”
But I had my gaze locked with Lilith’s as a silent communication, an understanding passed between us.
I smiled wryly. “She doesn’t care. She knows Azazel is strong enough to survive my loss. She’s taken from him before, over and over, and if it comes to a choice between her progeny and her lover, she will always choose her lover.” I took a step toward her. “But let me get something straight. Samael may be your heart, but Azazel is mine, and I will do everything in my power to keep him. So, bring it on. I’m ready.”
Lilith’s eyes lit up with something akin to respect. “I almost wish it didn’t have to be this way. You are the first female my gut deems worthy of my son. I will regret your death more than any of the others.”
“Well, that makes it okay then,” Cora said sarcastically. “Look, how about we cut this morbid Game of Thrones dialogue short and get on with the soul binding. I think I speak for us all when I say we are so ready to get the fuck out of here.”
Keon lunged at Cora, but she winked out and appeared on the other side of the room. “You’re gonna have to be quicker than that, blue boy.”
“Stand down,” Lilith ordered Keon.
He slipped back into his spot behind Lilith. Her lethal shadow.
“What are you?” Lilith asked Cora.
“I’m a witch,” she said. “And your Blade has nothing on me, so you come at Fee, and you’ll have to go through me, and trust me, it’ll hurt like a bitch.”
I stared at Cora. When had my best friend become such a badass?
Lilith smiled, but there was a wicked edge to it. “I admire your conviction.” She said it as if she were petting a puppy who’d bared its teeth. “And I agree, it is time you all got the fuck out of here.”
Well, I never!
Chapter Thirty-Four
Moonlight streamed through a skylight down onto a font of water. Azazel stood opposite me on the other side of the font. He was serene and statuesque, hair pulled back off his strong face, opaque eyes shining like silver pennies. Like me, he was dressed in cream robes. Whereas mine hugged my curves lovingly before flaring out below my hips, his hugged his muscle-rounded shoulders and stretched across his powerful chest.
It was just us and the cardinal who’d intervened on our behalf in the throne room. He stood to one side, holding a black satin sash in his hands. I couldn’t take my eyes off Azazel, even as the cardinal approached with the sash.
Azazel held out his hands to me, the corner of his mouth lifting. Oh, God. I wanted him to smile. I wanted to see those dimples. I wanted to kiss them. Instead, I placed my palms against his.
The cardinal wrapped the sash around our hands and stepped back.
“Open your hearts,” he said. “Open your souls and accept the binding.”
I wanted this, I wanted him. I wanted us to be whole. The feeling surged up inside me, swelling in my chest and then rushing through my veins. I sucked in a sharp breath as the black sash lit up with a thousand tiny silver symbols. They began to move, swirling and shifting, then merging until there was only one symbol. Azazel’s mark. The mark on my chest pinched and burned, and Azazel gripped my hands tighter, nodding to reassure me.
Accept it. I had to accept it.
I exhaled and rode the wave as the mark became mine, became a permanent part of me. The spot in my solar plexus that I considered a source of my p
ower bloomed and unfurled with a gentle welcoming heat, and then silver strands were pushing out of my chest. What was this? But the same was happening for Azazel. Silver ethereal threads rushed out of his chest, twining through the air, headed for mine. The threads hovered inches apart, and my chest began to heave as my breath came faster.
It was about to happen.
The binding.
This was it.
And then the threads rushed toward each other. A shock wave coursed through me, yanking my chest forward and throwing my head back. Azazel’s grip was the only thing keeping me grounded as his essence, his power, flooded me. It slammed into my chest, tunneled into my veins, and then melted into my soul, leaving every inch of me tingling.
My head fell forward, and our gazes snagged again. His eyes were no longer cloudy and opaque. They were silver, bright, and intense, and fixed on me in awe.
He blinked. “How…How is this possible.”
“You are whole now, Azazel,” the cardinal said. “What was once taken has been returned by your soul bond.”
“Fee…Do you feel it?” Azazel asked.
I did. Like quicksilver in my blood, like a fullness in my heart, like a second heartbeat. An imprint of him. I stepped around the font, keeping hold of his hands, tilting my head up and devouring him with my gaze.
“Take me to bed. Azazel. I need you to make love to me.”
The cardinal cleared his throat. “Ah, I see.”
Azazel scooped me up into his arms, hugging me to his chest. The doors opened to let us out of the ceremony room, and the look on Lilith’s face when she saw us was pure horror.
“Azazel?” She stepped in front of us. “What is this?”
“Oh, did we not say?” Mal asked with a little too much glee. “They’re the intimate kind of soulmate.”
Lilith masked her shock quickly. “This doesn’t change anything,” she said to me. “I stand by my word.”
Her word that she’d find a way to kill me. “And I stand by mine.” I nuzzled into Azazel and felt his heartbeat quicken.
Azazel hugged me tighter. “If you excuse me, I’m taking the woman I love to bed.”
We didn’t bother to draw the drapes before tearing off each other’s robes. Mine left me naked except for my knickers, but he was wearing tight pants that left little to the imagination. His body was a work of art, kissed by moonlight, every hard plane and dip begging to be caressed and kissed.
“Drop your shields, Fee,” Azazel ordered.
I opened myself to him and gasped at the images that filled my mind. Me on my back with my thighs wide open, my hand working the slick wetness; me on all fours, hair fisted in Azazel’s hand as he fucked me from behind; and me cupping my breasts and moaning. And then came the tsunami of desire, hitting me like a freight train.
My legs gave out, and I fell back onto the bed. Azazel advanced, a lion let off his leash, a predator unchained. His epically muscled torso rippling with every movement. My mouth filled with saliva. I wanted to lick those abs. Fuck it, I could. I pushed up onto my knees as he reached the edge of the bed and placed my hands on his shoulders rounded with muscle. I dug my fingers in, reveling in the tautness of his flesh.
He gripped my hair, yanking to force me to look up at him.
“No holds barred, Fee,” he said. “I need this. I need you.”
He had no idea how every inch of me craved him. “Let me taste you.”
I moved my hands down his chest, sucking in a breath as his muscles contracted beneath me. I followed with my mouth, sucking and licking his velvet skin. He tasted of the sea and electric storms, salty and tangy and fucking delicious. His fingers tangled in my hair as I moved south, trailing my tongue along the V that teased at a bigger prize. I hooked my thumbs into his waistband and tugged; they snagged on his erection, and I reached in to free him.
“Fee…” He gripped me tighter.
I pushed his pants down. Fuck, he was beautiful, perfectly formed, and mine. I licked my lips and then took him into my mouth.
“Argh, fuck.” His hips jerked, and his grip on me tightened.
I sucked him in as deep as I could, and he widened his stance and began to move his hips, fucking my mouth while he grunted and groaned. I grabbed his ass, moaning as his buttocks flexed beneath my hands.
“Fuck.” He pulled me off him with a growl.
He shoved me back onto the bed, tearing at my underwear before pushing open my thighs and planting his mouth on me. His tongue lashed against my clit, and I arched my back, grabbing his head and pulling him to me. He feasted on me until I was a gibbering swollen mess in need of release, and then he climbed on top of me, hooked one of my legs over his shoulder, and entered me.
He claimed my cries with his mouth, sucking on my tongue to own each of my moans.
He moved on top of me, cock thrusting deep, drawing sounds from my throat that I never thought I’d make. He nipped my neck, fangs pinching and drawing blood.
“Yes.” I slipped my hand into his hair and fisted the silken strands. “Feed.”
He sank his fangs into me, drawing deep while I bucked beneath him, heat spiraling up from my toes to grip my throat until the pressure exploded in a violent orgasm that had me sinking my teeth into Azazel’s shoulder as I came over and over again.
Mine. Azazel was finally mine.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Azazel was asleep, his glorious naked body sprawled across the sheets like a feast. I was partly tempted to wake him with round fifteen. But we could both do with a breather. Every muscle in my body had been worked out, and my skin seemed to glow with an inner light. Pulling on loose pants and a T-shirt, I headed into the lounge area to find Cora and Mal playing cards.
Cora looked up with a smile. “Did you break Azazel?”
Mal’s smile was strained, and it hit me that my being with Azazel might be painful for him to accept.
“Are you okay, Mal?”
Cora pursed her lips and ducked her head.
He shook his head slightly. “It’ll take some getting used to. I’ve never felt possessive before. It’s a strange feeling.”
He stood and stretched, so his T-shirt rode up to reveal abs and the V that drove me insane with lust. I lifted my gaze to find him watching me with a knowing smile.
Shit.
“I’m going to turn in,” he said. “Feel free to join me later if you want.”
He left the room, and I exhaled and plonked myself on the sofa beside Cora.
“You’re gonna have your hands full with those two,” Cora said. “And various other things.” She wiggled her brows.
Yeah, I hadn’t considered the logistics of being in a relationship with more than one guy at the same time.
“Don’t look so worried,” Cora said. “You’ll work it out. Carriage is all ready for dawn.”
“You’ve been scoping out the place?”
“Yeah. It’s huge, and blue boy’s been stalking me. I think he likes me.”
“Keon? He gives me the creeps.”
“You and me both.” She shuddered. “But we’ll be away from here in a few hours.”
“Can’t you just…poof out?”
“I tried. This place fucks with my mojo. I figure it’s best to travel the old-fashioned way.”
My comm told me that the sun would be up in three hours. “Have you got any news on Conah?”
She shuffled the deck of cards. “No, but I did find the room they’re keeping him in.”
We’d be leaving in a few hours. I needed to see him. “Can you take me there.”
“I thought you might ask. But are you sure you want to see him?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
She shook her head as if dispelling an errant thought. “No reason. Come on.”
We took an unfamiliar route, dodging guards and hiding in the shadows, but five minutes later, we were running along a parapet and into a tower. “First door on the first landing,” Cora said. “I’ll wait here.”
I took the flight of stairs to the first landing and knocked on the door. There was no answer, but the door opened when I tried it. The room beyond was dimly lit and shrouded in shadows, and a figure sat looking out into the night.
I’d recognize those golden locks anywhere.
“Conah?” I approached him. “Conah, it’s Fee. I wanted to see you before we leave.”
“You shouldn’t have come,” he said.
His voice sounded hollow.
“I wanted to see you.”
“Want. Want is what caused this. I wanted you. I wanted you so much that I wished for a way out of a union with Kiara. I wished for another path, and my wish was granted in the worst possible way. Fate took her from me. I thought I wanted you more than I needed her, but I was wrong. Nothing can replace her. Nothing, and you…You are nothing.”
My throat tightened. “Conah, what are you saying.”
“I’m saying that I don’t want to look at you. I’m saying that whatever I felt for you is gone. Dead. I’m saying that when I return, we will be colleagues and nothing more. I’m saying I want you to leave.”
His words were like knives piercing my heart. I cared about him. I‘d come here to tell him that. To tell him we were there for him and that we’d get through this together. I’d come here to mourn my friend with him. My eyes pricked and misted.
“What happened to Kiara wasn’t your fault, and it certainly wasn’t mine. But if it makes you feel better to punish me, then go for it. I just came here to tell you I loved her too and that I’m going to fucking miss her. The rest…the rest is your issue.”
I turned and left the room before he could say anything else to cut me.
I was so fucking ready to get out of here.
We were approaching the Dominus quarters when Azazel handed me the envelope marked with my name.
“From Lilith.”
O-okay? I broke the seal and read it. Then I read it again. “Motherfucker.”
“What does it say?” Azazel sounded worried.
I passed it to Cora. Like, I just couldn’t even deal with Lilith’s shit right now. And to think I’d felt sorry for her after she told me her Samael curse story. Fuck that.
Reaper Unveiled (Deadside Reapers Book 4) Page 18
