To feel close again. To forget everything but this moment.
“Yes,” she moaned, grinding against his hand.
The silence of the woods seemed to wrap around them, to protect them from the world, if only for a short time.
His thumb brushed her clit, and she gasped. He continued to slide slowly inside her, deepening her arousal, making her ready for him. And it felt...unreal, yet perfect. Exactly what she needed. Not just sex, but to connect with him again.
Her nerves cried out in pleasure as he touched her faster. And then, one of his fingers slid deep into her channel.
She couldn’t breathe. Oh god, she couldn’t think. She’d never wanted anyone inside her more than she wanted him that moment.
It made it so easy to forget. So easy to live for just that moment.
And then, he slid his hand out of her pants.
“No,” she murmured. “Daniel, I want—“
“I know,” he said, biting her shoulder blade gently.
He fumbled with the button and zipper on her pants, then drew her pants and underwear down. A second later, she heard him taking off his own pants. She tried to move, but his hand still held her wrists down. It was strangely... erotic. Being taken in the forest like this, being fucked on grass and leaves.
Suddenly, his hard erection was sliding along her folds from behind.
She felt the shudder move through his body.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “So wet and ready.”
She opened her mouth to speak, to say what she didn’t know, but he plunged deeply inside her. A strangled sound escaped her lips, and then he was fucking her like a wild animal. The sounds of their flesh slapping against each other filled the silence. His cock was massive, almost too big, from behind, but it also felt so good her body was screaming for it to never stop.
It was all so overwhelming. So hot. The way he pinned her hands down. The way he slammed into her with such abandon, swearing softly through gritted teeth as he plunged in and out.
When a shudder moved through her body, and her inner-muscles tightened around him, his grip on her hip tightened too. “You coming, sweet Surcy?”
“Yes,” she moaned.
“Then come,” he ordered her, and his shaft swelled within her.
Her orgasm came, like a wave. She wished she had something to hold on to as she crashed over the edge, screaming his name. He rocked inside of her, his seed exploding and a guttural roar squeezing from his lips.
When she at last felt her muscles relax, and her body and mind connected once more, she lay panting on the ground, not moving. He lay quietly on top of her, only for a minute, before he pulled his cock free.
Without releasing her wrists, he wedged his tip into her from behind.
She tensed. “You ready for my ass?”
He slid deeper, even as her muscles squeezed around him in protest. “Always.”
His hand moved from her hip to her slick folds. He began to work her again, causing the sensitive nerves to fire off in a sensation that bordered on painful. But with each movement he made, his shaft slid deeper and deeper into her, until he could go no further.
And then, he took her, slower than before. He stroked and touched her with each thrust until the sensation deep within her was a need to explode once more.
This time when her orgasm hit, it was deeper and louder, shuddering through her body like an earthquake. When she felt him come inside her, she was still shaking from the aftermath of her orgasm.
Chapter Sixteen
For a long minute, neither of them moved. Finally, he released her hands and they redressed. Before she could stand, he pulled her into his lap.
“Sorry. There was nothing in my mind—of you, of Tristan, or of Mark. Suddenly, someone pulled back the shades, and I could see all of it. I was scared, scared that if I let go of you for one minute, I’d forget it all.”
She rested her head against his chest. “It’s okay. I’m just glad to have you back.”
More than glad. More than anything I can describe.
He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. Neither of them spoke for a long time. The sounds of the woods returned. The insects and birds. The whistling of the wind. It was like the world had begun to turn once more.
“I’m an angel,” he whispered.
She tried to keep her words even. “How does it feel?”
His hand stilled in her hair. “Too natural. And yet, like I’ve been collared.”
She nodded. “As long as Caine’s in charge, he has far too much power over us.”
He continued to stroke her hair. “So what do we do?”
What can we do? “Are Mark and Tristan angels too?”
Daniel stiffened. “I don’t think so. I never saw them or sensed them.”
Something she hadn’t known was there began to ache, and she realized something terrible. When she’d seen Daniel, she’d naturally assumed they’d all been turned into angels. It was twisted and awful, but at least it meant they weren’t beyond her grasp.
But what if it was only Daniel who had been spared?
“We have to accept they might be gone,” he said. A shiver rocked violently through Daniel’s body. “He shattered Tristan. And he burnt me alive.”
“Who?” she whispered.
“The archangel. He’s more powerful than any being I’ve faced except Caine.”
“So, we’ll have to be prepared for him tomorrow too.”
Daniel stiffened. “Don’t tell me anything. Caine can get inside my mind. He can order me back at any time.”
“So what do we do?”
He was quiet for too long. “I go back. And I pretend that I don’t remember anything. You do whatever you have planned. And when the time comes, I help.”
Tears choked her throat. “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want to send you back there, or do this alone.”
He kissed her hair. “Me neither, but we have to.”
The dark night slid into the slightest shade of grey. She stared at it, knowing it meant their time together was slipping away. With all their powers, neither one of them had the one they really needed. To stop time.
“I have to go, or he’ll know something went wrong.”
She clenched the fabric of his shirt in her hand. “What will you say?”
He laughed, the sound so familiar it spoke to her very soul. “I’ll think of something. Lying isn’t exactly a weakness of mine.”
They rose, and he held her in a tight hug for one more painful moment. When she pulled back, he had the saddest smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, and then he teleported away.
Heart in her throat, she stared at where he’d been for one long moment, before she too teleported away. Just inside the hospital, she watched an old man stiffen as his gaze fell upon her.
At the front desk, when Surcy asked about the Immortal’s wife, no one knew. Surcy moved from one room to the next until she met an ICU doctor. He immediately knew the nameless stabbing victim, and just as quickly informed her that the woman had died.
She left feeling as if she’d swallowed a rock. The news would not be easy to tell the Immortal, or his children.
When she teleported back outside the sanctuary, she froze in shock. Where the woods had once been, the ground was leveled... leaving nothing behind but ash. For acres upon acres, stretching on for miles, nothing remained of the sacred grounds.
In shock, she took a step forward, stepping onto the ash that still smoldered. This was impossible. She’d only been gone for what? An hour? Two?
And then, she looked at the ash.
Kneeling down, she picked up the hot substance. Flakes of blue shone back at her.
The archangel.
Chapter Seventeen
“Did you really think they’d be safe here forever?”
Surcy whirled to stare at the most massive angel she’d ever seen. He had large red wings, corded arms, and a cr
uel face. Power hummed from him, power and something she couldn’t quite place.
“Kneel,” he ordered, and the word vibrated through her.
She collapsed onto her knees, even as she fought his control.
He moved closer until he stood just above her. “It's such a strange thing. I could order you to do anything. To suck my dick. To cut your own head off. And you’d do it. You’d have to do it.”
Her muscles jerked as she fought his control over her. But no matter how hard she tried, her body remained under his control. Sweat slid down her forehead, and her breathing was rapid.
“Why are you doing this?”
The angel smirked. “I could pretend it was because Caine ordered me to. But it’s not. I, in fact, have my own agenda that has nothing to do with Caine or those damn arrogant Immortals.”
“What is it then?” she asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
He knelt down until his face was level with hers. “What do you know about the Soul Destroyer?”
“Nothing,” she hissed, but it was painful to speak the lie.
“Such a pointless game.” He reached forward and trailed a fingertip down her cheek.
She jerked away from his touch. “Just leave. You’ve gotten what you wanted. You’ve destroyed this place.”
“Tell me what you know of the Soul Destroyer.”
This time, she felt his power like a hand around her heart, and the words bubbled up. “It’s just another realm, a place where the worst creatures imaginable are thrown.”
A smile touched his lips. “I always suspected as much.” His gaze grew distant, and he stood fully once more. “But Caine will never let me near it.”
“What do you want with it anyway?”
He glanced at her, as if remembering her for the first time. “I don’t have the power to rule the human realm, the angel realm, or the demon realm. But there? There I could have everything.”
No wonder Caine made this asshole an archangel. He's just like him, already drunk on power.
He reached out and grasped her face painfully. “You’ve helped me in more ways than you can imagine, so, I’ll give you this.”
Suddenly, an image was pressed into her mind of a space just outside of Zudessa. There, the Immortals and druids lay in a pie of smoking bodies, covered in ash, their skin blackened by smoke.
“All of them still live,” he whispered. “If I killed them, Caine might get what he wanted, but I wouldn’t. If you want any chance at winning this war, you’ll have to hurry... before the angels find them.”
When he released her face, she could feel the bruises from where his fingers had gripped her. Turning, he walked across the ash, his feet crunching with each step. When he reached the road, he looked back at her.
“If I make it into the Soul Destroyer, I’ll say hi to your demons.”
In the blink of an eye, the archangel was gone. The pressure of his command instantly lessened, and she shot to her feet, trembling. So Caine did destroy their souls.
Clenching her teeth together, she called her soul-blade into her hand and teleported. Instantly, the smell of blood hit her nostrils. Her eyes flashed open, and she saw the scene from her mind, only it was so much worse. The Immortals and the druids looked... dead. Like a pile of burned bodies.
Heart in her throat, she moved to them, placed a hand on the chest of someone she didn’t recognize, and sure enough, felt the rise and fall of his or her breath. Looking past the barrier that surrounded Zedussa, she saw the angels gathering in the sky. They would be upon them within minutes. She had to do something! She had to get them to safety!
But did she have the power to do it?
Closing her eyes, she sent a silent prayer that she did, and gathered her magic.
Soon she would either save them all, or doom them.
Chapter Eighteen
The Goddess of Sacrifice blinked her eyes open. She’d never been in this much pain before. It was mind-numbing, and yet she could feel every broken bone, every cut leaking warm blood from her body.
Staring at a stone ceiling far above, with the small opening in which angels flew by, she knew exactly where she was, and who she faced.
“You’re awake?”
Her head dropped slightly to one side. She stared at the dark cloud that swallowed the entire side of the throne room. But in the cloud of darkness, she knew Caine watched her, drinking in her suffering.
“I know what you think,” he said, his voice sliding over her flesh like slime. “That you were powerful enough to stand against me and survive.”
Blood leaked from her lips. “No,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “I simply knew there was nothing more you could do to me that hasn’t been done already.”
“You’re referencing your rape, beating, and death?” He laughed. “Oh believe me, child, that’s nothing in comparison to what I can do to you.”
Something within her shriveled back in fear. Something she hated.
It was her damned heart. It remained human, no matter what she did. It ached when she took lives. It felt like an open, gaping wound each time her memories turned her dreams into nightmares.
Her heart was the one thing she wished to be rid of more than anything else in this world. She cared nothing for the war, for the angels and the demons, or for anything except for a way to stop the pain that made her every breath pure torture.
She’d been so close to achieving her dream.
She’d felt the gargoyle die. She’d held his stone-essence in her hand, ready to devour it. To kill the last thing that was human within her. But Caine’s angels had invaded her fortress before she could, killing her guards and taking her prisoner.
Now, she cared nothing for what this power-hungry fool did to her. She only wanted the stone-essence back.
“Looking for this?” Caine’s voice came, filled with humor, and a hand emerged from the darkness, holding the gargoyle’s essence as it pulsed.
She tried to roll toward it and gasped. She cried out as the pain roared through her, blackening her vision. She needed that essence, needed it more than she needed air.
“I have thought long and hard over how to make you suffer for your betrayal.” The cloud moved toward her, and she sensed him coming closer.
But her gaze was locked on the gargoyle’s essence. If Caine got close enough, she would snatch it from him. At that point, no matter what happened to her body or soul, she wouldn’t care.
The throne room doors were thrown open. Four men, surrounded by angels, were bound together. Their heads and hands were locked in thick wooden stocks that they carried on their massive backs. The men looked wild and dangerous.
They were exactly the kind of men she feared.
Trailing behind them all was an old woman, less battered than she was, but a lot filthier.
“Do it,” Caine said, and his voice was like a coiled snake.
The old woman shuffled closer to her and knelt down. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But it’s the only way he’ll let me go.”
The Demon of Sacrifice tried to escape the woman, but her injuries made it impossible.
The old woman began to chant a spell, a witch’s curse. She plunged a glowing red hand into The Demon of Sacrifice’s chest. The pain... it was on another level. It went beyond her body and soul, to her very heart.
When the demon’s vision cleared, she saw the woman holding a pulsing ghostly heart in her hands. And she knew, she could feel, that it was her own. The witch rose to her feet and moved to the four frightening prisoners.
She hesitated.
“Do it,” Caine commanded, his voice shaking with rage or excitement, she wasn’t sure which.
The witch tore the heart into four equal pieces while the demon screamed and withered upon the ground. When the witch was done, she forced the pieces, one after another, into the men. When she was done, the men were on their knees, panting and glaring.
“It’s done,” the witch said.
The demon lay upon her back, shaking in shock. She felt different. Her emotions didn’t make sense, and her chest felt empty and strange. “What did you do to me?”
“Simple,” Caine whispered. “You betrayed me for this fucking stone heart. And so, I have given you the perfect punishment. These four men now control your heart. They hold the pieces, connecting you to them forever.”
“No,” she whispered.
“It’s like being in love,” he said, his voice amused. “Only, you don’t have a choice.”
She heard him snap his fingers. The angels grabbed each man, and then they were gone.
“Wh—what?”
“Oh, did I not mention? Not only do they hold your heart, but if you want to find them, you’ll have to work for it.” He laughed. “Now guards, taken her broken body and toss it outside the barrier. Let’s see how long it takes her to heal with birds picking at her flesh.”
Two angels grabbed her. She screamed at the pain their touch brought. Her head lolled to the side between them, and she wished for death. She wished real death would come, the kind that meant her suffering would finally end.
The old witch, wearing nothing but scraps of cloth, knelt down, her body filthy and thin.
“My freedom,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
“Of course,” he said, annoyance in his voice. He gestured with his hands. “Guards, take her back to the dungeons.”
Two angels grabbed her arms. The woman began to fight, her voice rising. “You gave me your word! You said—“
“I’m sorry, but you’re far too valuable for me to let go.”
As the Demon of Sacrifice was carried out of the fortress and to the desert outside, she heard the sounds of the witch’s sobs. She wanted to be happy. The witch had doomed her to a life of unimaginable suffering. But her heart? The pieces of it, that she could sense even now, ached to return to her.
Her thoughts came again, swimming through her pain. If Caine thought he’d won, he was wrong. He had no idea what she was capable of. She would track down the four men, and she’d recover her heart. Then, she’d find Caine, get her stone-essence, and make him pay.
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