Chapter 24
The snow evaporated as it fell over the steaming waters of the springs. Gwen reached her arm up and let the remnants of a few large flurries coat the back of her hand. The cool air blended with the steam of the water against her bare breasts.
She’d always liked the cold, but she enjoyed the nip of frost even more since her transition. It’d already been two months since she’d woken, and they still weren’t entirely sure what she was.
She was something like a vampire, but not exactly.
Levian called her a chimera. All the mage could surmise was that Gwen’s magick had somehow fused with Sirus’s vampire blood, rebuilding her body, making it stronger but keeping her from becoming wholly vampire.
Gwen looked down at her chilled hand. It still looked the same, but she felt the difference. The magick no longer lingered beneath the surface but flowed freely within her. She still wasn’t entirely used to this whole immortal thing.
She’d cut her hand with the tip of a letter opener in morbid curiosity, just to test it. It’d healed in minutes, leaving no trace behind.
So far, she hadn’t developed a thirst for blood. Other than a sudden love of ultra-rare steaks, her appetite hadn’t changed. She still loved chocolate, a taste Sirus had come to indulge often when he’d deliver her little wrapped boxes full of them.
Gwen smirked, her eyes drifting up beyond the mist to the pitch-black forest. “Are you going to ogle, or are you going to join me?” she asked playfully.
Sirus had never really been able to hide from her, but he definitely couldn’t now that she was part vampire. He stepped out of the darkness, his blue eyes sparkling in the pale moonlight that managed to escape from beyond the snowy clouds.
“If you were enjoying the view as I was, you might not be so quick to judge,” he replied in his usual stoic tone.
Gwen watched him closely as he kicked off his boots. She couldn’t judge his lingering gaze, especially since she was planning to ogle him too.
Her gaze wandered hungrily over every inch of flesh that Sirus slowly revealed to her as he undressed. They’d met like this every night this week. If this was how she’d spend every night for the rest of eternity, Gwen was pretty sure she would be fine with that.
When he finally stood bare and exposed to the night, she held her breath. Every time she saw him that way, it made her heart race and her skin tingle. When he slid into the water, the rest of her grew feverish with anticipation.
“You didn’t have to come,” she said, trying for indifferent and failing miserably.
“I believe I did,” he said, sliding toward her.
“How’s Barith?” She slid further away.
“Fine,” Sirus told her as he followed her further into the spring.
Gwen doubted the dragon was fine. Levian had just left the day before for her first official visit as the Council of Mages’s ambassador to the zephyrs. Barith was unhappy about it, to say the least.
“You’re sure?” she pressed, truly worried.
“Yes,” he told her. “Enough about the dragon.”
Sirus tried to corner her between two rocks. Gwen backed away, splashing him. It didn’t faze him in the slightest. “You cannot run,” he growled.
She was faster now, but even with her newfound speed, Sirus could snatch her up with ease. He grabbed her, wrapping himself around her from behind. The moment his skin touched hers, it felt like someone had set her on fire. His damp beard tickled her neck as he lay soft kisses down the side.
“How is it that your skin tastes better every time?” he observed. Gwen might’ve said something witty, but he licked the line of freckles where he’d just laid his kisses, and a gasped moan came out instead.
Sirus loosened his hold to run his hands down the front of her bare body. “You taste like every color.” He nibbled at her collarbone. Gwen wrapped her hand up the back of his head, digging her fingers into his hair.
The way her body responded to him was overwhelming. She loved it. Loved him.
“I want you in the forest every night,” he confessed as he lay another soft kiss beneath her ear.
Gwen would happily oblige. She smiled. “Did you want me that night at Abigail’s?” Sirus stilled. “The way you talked about it after, I couldn’t tell if you wanted me or wanted to eat me,” she teased.
“I wanted both,” he growled low against her ear, and she shivered with pleasure. His fingers ran up her stomach to the edges of her breasts. “If it hadn’t been for Henry—the things I would’ve done.”
Gwen’s core throbbed with need. “Like what?” she asked as her breaths grew shallow.
The shadows pulled around them, and she felt the familiar tingle up her spine. “I would’ve devoured you,” he said with a chill that made her body hunger for more.
“Or,” she said, running her hand down the front of him. When she found his hard length, she stroked him. Sirus let out a harsh breath against her neck. “Perhaps I would’ve devoured you.”
He growled a curse when she stroked him again.
When his hand reached her sex, she spread her thighs to give him better access. Sirus didn’t linger or tease. He plunged two fingers deep inside her, stealing her moan of pleasure with a kiss.
“I craved your moans,” he confessed as he did it again, this time letting Gwen’s gasp fill the night air. “I hungered to taste your pleasure.” She was already getting so close. “I wanted to make you scream,” he whispered as he stroked her just to the edge.
It wasn’t fair how easily he could bring her to that apex. How much she responded to his every touch. His name slipped desperately out of her breathless lips as she climaxed. Sirus drew out her pleasure, and Gwen forgot everything else in that moment of pure bliss. Everything but him.
As she came back to herself, she craned her neck to kiss him gently. When their lips parted, she took his hand and led him to the frosted, grassy edge of the spring, pressing Sirus down onto his back.
“You’re so beautiful,” she said with a deep sigh as she ran her fingers over his chest.
Sirus tensed under her touch. His blue eyes grew heavy when she bent down to kiss him just at the edge of one of his nipples. The sound he made sent a desperate hunger of her own rioting through her.
Gwen arched up to kiss him, but Sirus stopped her as she reached his lips. His blue eyes lingered on hers, and he brushed her cheek with his palm. “I love you, Gwendolyn,” he told her.
She leaned in and kissed him. Sirus cupped her face, deepening the embrace. For a long while they held each other close, the soft flurries of snow falling against their hot skin. As their kisses grew more urgent, Gwen’s need for him did as well.
When she caressed his cock, Sirus pulled away, growling her name. Gwen savored it. The rawness in his voice.
“I love the taste of you,” she breathed as she kissed him gently, running her hand over the tip of him. He hissed, his hands coming up to touch her hair. “I love the sounds you make,” she whispered with a smile as she stroked him. He groaned his approval. Gwen kissed him gently again. “I love you,” she told him.
Sirus pulled her down to him and rolled over so that he hovered over top of her. The cold snow along Gwen’s back made her shudder as he ran his thumb along her sex. She gasped, and he caught it with a deep kiss.
There was no more teasing. No more talking. As the magick and shadows melded together, their bodies found the rhythm of their love.
Gwendolyn sat in Sirus’s lap as he gently caressed her back beneath the warm waters, her head nestled against his chest.
It was startling at times. Recognizing how much he loved her. How blessed he felt to have her. Even still, Sirus couldn’t believe it.
Gwendolyn kissed his chest lightly and gave a little sated sigh.
Their lovemaking had only gotten more intense as the nights passed. Sirus felt he could never get enough of her, and he relished knowing she felt the same.
He could still taste her pleasure on his tongue. Mixed with the blood she’d let him take as they both reached their climax. It was different now that she was immortal. It was different now that they’d shared themselves with each other.
Sirus cherished the moments they spent lost in their passion. Though he loved these moments of calm just as much, if not more.
A heaviness had begun to grow within him. “Gwendolyn,” he said, trying to work up his nerve.
“Hm?” she mumbled, not bothering to lift her head from the comfy spot against his chest where she’d been dozing.
“You know you will always have my devotion,” he told her, his fingers continuing to stroke her back. “And that I love you.”
“I know,” she replied softly, kissing his chest again. “I love you too.”
He closed his eyes, savoring the sweetness of this moment, using it to drive him to say the thing he wished but struggled to.
“Perhaps I’m too old,” he declared.
Gwen snorted rather unceremoniously in her sleepy haze. “You’re not going to complain about the age difference, are you? Because I think that ship has sailed.”
Sirus’s hand stilled on her back as his nerves began to get the better of him. He was hundreds of years old. Had fought in countless wars. Had faced death more times than he could count. Yet this moment shook his resolve more than any of them.
She lifted her head, recognizing his unease. The look of concern in her eyes pushed the words out.
“Marry me.”
Her emerald eyes widened. Then narrowed. “What?”
Sirus moved his hand from her back to stroke her cheek. “If you don’t wish to, it will change nothing. I’m yours in this life and the next. I’m merely old fashioned and?—”
“Yes.” His hand stilled. “Yes,” she breathed, her beautiful face alight with a smile. “I’ll marry you.”
It was a rare thing, but as her acceptance settled on him, a small smile of his own teased at the corners of his lips. Gwen laughed, pressing her forehead against his and wrapping her arms around him.
He basked in the warmth her laugh spread through him.
It was more than Sirus ever thought he could deserve. Gwendolyn was more than he deserved. But he would not squander this gift. She was more than a gift.
Gwendolyn was color and life. She was his salvation and his heart.
Sirus stole her laugh with a kiss.
She was his love. In the darkness and the light. Now and forever.