“It’s not really like that…” I pulled myself from his arms. “We set our rooms to be moved since they are going to different compounds. Zarmina’s greenhouse is holding us up. But any compound will love it.”
“Is she not going with you?”
“I don’t know. She and her Other are still waiting on their assignment.”
“So there are no more demons here and you leave?”
“There will always be demons,” I said, suddenly feeling the cold. “They just won’t emerge from here anymore.”
“The town is safe then?”
“As safe as any other town. In a few weeks things will die down. Return to normal. Sometimes it happens overnight, other times the city needs to grieve. I can’t tell you what will happen here for sure.”
“But it should settle?”
“It should…unless it’s like Chicago, but I don’t see that.”
“When did Chicago have a Hell’s Mouth?”
“The Red Summer…in the early nineteen hundreds. I wasn’t alive yet.”
The formality between us had returned and again my heart ached. Travelling to the other side of the world was a good idea. I’d miss Vincent, but that is the chance one takes when they bring a person into their life.
“That all happened because a Hell’s Mouth closed?”
“It was a larger area, it was hard to round up the demons.” I stepped back and looked over my shoulder at the barn door where Kiriana stood watching. “They blended in.”
“Oh.” He rocked back on his ankles and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So, this is your life?”
“Yes.”
“What about Kiriana? She’s…”
“Married. Sealed. We call it sealing. She sealed with Nye and now they will have a child.”
“Is she immortal like you?”
“I’m not immortal. You stab me, I die.”
“But if you’re not hurt…then you live forever.”
“Until my sentence is up. Then I ascend to heaven.” I turned to walk back to the compound when Vince caught my arm. His hand slipped down to my wrist, then my hands. The most unfeminine part of me. He used them to pull me closer.
“Don’t leave me.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the inside of my palm. The warmth of his lips against my hand sent a reaction up my arm. As if I’d been pierced as Jesus had on the cross. His kiss told me of the sacrifice I’d need to make. Kiriana’s words echoed in my head.
“I love you, Esther,” he said. “My world is nothing without you.”
“I love you too. You’ve become the beat in my heart.”
My hands cupped his cheeks as his slight beard tickled my palm, which still burned from the touch of his lips.
“You always make me warm,” he cooed in my ears.
“Warm?” I questioned.
“Is that a problem?”
“I’m not ashamed of my feelings.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“When a member of the Frozen is ashamed or upset, we can drop the temperature in a room.”
“But with me, I feel heat.”
“How hot do I make you?” I asked, and he answered me with a long deep kiss that heated up more than my lips.
Epilogue
Esther Benson
VINCENT’S finger trailed along my hip. Slightly ahead of it were his lips kissing along my side and now travelling to my belly. Snaking his way around my body he worked his way between my chest, careful to keep his body braced on his forearm since I was on my side. His biceps bulged as my body exploded with sensations. Shivers shot across my body like fireworks with his lips as the epicenter.
Coming back around to my neck he let his hand rest on my belly as he pressed our bodies together. My arm curled around his head as he nibbled on my neck. Slowly his hand found its way between my legs. His hardness pressed against my back as his fingers prepared me for his entrance. Stinging sweetness tingled in my core as one finger was joined by another…then another…
Removing his hand from inside me he hitched my leg up and with a skill I hoped to someday share with my husband he entered me. Starting with just the tip. Teasing me as his hand went to my hip. Quick bursts soon turned into long strokes. Never one to rush, he was the perfect man for me. He cherished my body in a way I’d never thought possible.
Cupping my breasts he kneaded the flesh still keeping our bodies so close I had no way of knowing where I ended. Becoming one in ways I thought could only be found in sealing ceremony…only we weren’t sealed. Our souls were our own to do with as we pleased.
Gabriel had granted me a reprieve. My salvation had been stolen and for that reason he felt I deserved another chance. A chance for my now slightly round belly to hold a child. Each night when my husband comes home I have dinner and on Saturday mornings I’m awakened by his kisses. I was human once more. Reborn without reincarnation. Gabriel no longer followed the rules because they’d been shattered. Both sides had stepped over lines and although I was still in touch with those fighting I had found a peace and place where I was loved for being me.
Vincent moaned behind me as I got lost in the moment. His body and mine. Our love joining us for all time. Not because our souls could not be separated, but because we did not want to be apart. Our fingers entwined as we clung to each other and found the pleasures only known to lovers. The tight clutching then release.
“Tell me something,” he whispered as I bit back a moan.
“What?” I gasped.
“How hot do I have you now?”
I laughed at his comment. The doorbell rang and I instinctively found the sheet to cover myself. Vince, being a gentleman, kissed my neck then proceeded to pull a pair of jeans up to his hips. They rested nicely at the top of his ass…something I’d been noticing more and more.
When he opened the door to our bedroom I sat up as the princess stood in our hall.
“Pardon me, I didn’t think you’d mind me coming in.” She pushed past Vincent with Damarion in tow. “You left the door open, so unsafe in this world.”
“It was locked,” he snarled.
“Not from me.” She eyed me and I had no option but to sit helpless, naked in the bed. “You’d think Uncle Gabe would have shared that info with you. Oh well…it did take me a bit to find you with you longer smelling of frostbite and all.”
“What do you want?” I asked and covered my belly with my hand as if that could stop LaDressa.
“Have you spoken to my dear sweet cousin?”
“Not for a while.”
“Yet you have pictures of her offspring on your fridge.” The princess sat on the end of my bed. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Then what?”
“I’m no longer in chains…Damarion’s freely walking the planet. What does that mean?”
“A compound somewhere is gone.”
“Exactly. You took out one of the Hell’s Mouths through a deal Kiriana had no intention of keeping.”
“Yes, she did. Your brother and Pivane messed things up.”
“She is a sweet little school teacher, isn’t she,” she cooed as she looked over her shoulder to Damarion. “You have principles. You and your protect and serve husband. That’s why you’re going to help me find the compound Kiriana lives in or I’ll track them down one by one and kill every member of the Frozen.”
“Gabriel will stop you.”
“I can ascend to Heaven and the gates have been locked. Even if you were to die right now there’s only one way to go. So if you want a chance to see the pearly gates you’ll help me.” She rocked to her side and smiled. “Then again with me in charge it may not be where you want to go.”
Vince looked at me. His weapon was within reach, but I knew better. Bullets would only slow her down. And even if I had to take my own life again to get a claustranima I would have to because LaDressa would not be denied. Not this time.
The End
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br /> Publisher’s Note
Please help this author’s career by posting an honest review wherever you purchased this book.
Vocabulary
Bantling—Newborn demon.
Claustranima—A knife with six blades that come together into a point and cause a star-like pattern when stabbed into something. As a Frozen works off his or her debt, the diamond handle has cuts that form to count down the Frozen’s time left. The handle becomes solid metal if the weapon’s owner chooses to seal with another.
Coven—A group of demons led by a male Yahweh.
Deumos—Female demon.
Frozen—A former suicide victim who is allowed to absolve their sin of taking their life by protecting the world from demons.
Imigast—Protector demon that helps guide male demons to Earth.
Meanialite—A servant of the angels in Heaven.
Normal—A human who has not passed on or been sealed.
Other—The mate of a Frozen.
Screens—Humans commissioned by the Frozen when they first set up a compound to be the aging and human face of the property.
Sealed—The state of being married to a member of Frozen that will make it so you will feel each other’s pain and pleasure. Also, the act of being married to a member of the Frozen. Your death will result in your Other’s death as well.
Sealing—A ceremony in which a Frozen is linked forever with another. By completing this ceremony, both partners shall forever hunt demons.
Tracker—A Deumos trained to pick up on the scents of Bantlings and bring them into the coven for training, nurturing, and protection.
Yahweh—The teacher or leader of the coven of demons. To be treated as a god and leader.
About Michel Prince
Michel Prince is an author who graduated with a bachelor degree in History and Political Science. Michel writes new adult and adult paranormal romance as well as contemporary romance.
With characters yelling, “It’s my turn damn it!” she tries to explain to them that alas, she can only type a hundred and twenty words a minute and they will have wait their turn. She knows eventually they find their way out of her head and to her fingertips and she looks forward to sharing them with you.
When Michel can suppress the voices in her head she can be found at a scouting event or cheering for her son in a variety of sports. She would like to thank her family for always being in her corner and especially her husband for supporting her every dream and never letting her give up.
Michel has been awarded Elite Status with Rebel Ink Press in 2013, the service award for her local RWA chapter Midwest Fiction Writers in 2013 and 2014 and is a PAN member of RWA. She lives in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, cat and new puppy.
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