Chapter 17 Aurora
Three hours later, we’d made it back to his bedroom, both of us scrubbed clean and thoroughly exhausted.
Well, I was exhausted. Harbinger looked like he was simply granting me a brief intermission.
I’d left him sprawled across his mattress wearing nothing but a damp towel slung low at his hips, one corded arm folded beneath his silver head, while I escaped to wash away the evidence of our marathon session.
Not that I was complaining.
Now, I stood before his cracked vanity mirror, studying my reflection with fascination and disbelief.
My lips were swollen from his devastating kisses, wine-dark and tender to the touch.
The woman staring back at me looked thoroughly debauched.
My hair was mussed, skin flushed, dried blood from healed bite marks decorating my throat.
I traced one with my fingertip, shuddering at the sensitive skin.
Several revelations had emerged from our extended encounter.
Who knew the shower fixture could serve such inventive purposes beyond basic hygiene?
Radu’s stamina bordered on the supernatural—even for someone with immortal blood.
But most startling was the growing awareness of our deepening connection.
Whether born from his lowered mental barriers or the cumulative effect of our blood exchanges, I’d begun sensing the subtle rhythms of his body.
Every shiver of pleasure that danced across his skin, every tremor that built within him, every explosive release—all of it echoed through me with devastating clarity.
The sensation was completely foreign. Utterly intoxicating.
Molten warmth pressed against my back. I stilled, savoring the familiar burn of his proximity.
Radu’s palms braced on the vanity counter, caging me within his muscled forearms. I melted into his solid chest and indulged in the luxury of simply admiring him through the looking glass.
That mouth, full and wicked and designed for sin.
Those liquid amber eyes, with their thick fringe of lashes, made the crimson flecks in his irises gleam like scattered rubies.
Pure fantasy made flesh.
His stare trapped mine in the mirror’s surface while his fingers found the drawstring of my borrowed sweats and tugged.
Slowly. Deliberately. His attention shifted to my mouth with the hunger of a child eyeing blood-candy, as he traced a finger along the waistband.
His touch scorched everywhere it landed, and I couldn’t help wondering if the heat came from his wolf or served as protection against the bitter cold of traveling between realms.
“Don’t go back,” he murmured, then caught my earlobe between his teeth. Just enough pressure to send electricity racing down my spine.
“Where? The Republic?”
“Mm.”
His voice rumbled through my ribcage, and I struggled to process his words when every syllable, every caress, threatened to short-circuit my brain.
He was pure temptation, and I was thoroughly addicted.
I’d felt him move inside me, experienced paradise in his arms, and the memory was so vivid, so catastrophic, that I knew no other man would ever compare.
Underworld’s balls.
I had to regain control before we lost ourselves again. Selena was probably wondering where I was. I’d heard her voice echoing from somewhere in the house around our fifth round, then promptly forgot everything else existed.
“Wait,” I said, catching his wandering hand before it could wreak more havoc. He twisted his wrist and entwined our fingers, the simple gesture sending fresh heat spiraling through me.
“Planning to leave me hanging, princess?”
A breathless laugh escaped my lips. “Exactly.”
“And what happens if I refuse to cooperate?”
“Radu.” My protest sounded pathetic even to my ears. “We really should talk.”
“So talk,” he said, guiding our joined hands lower. “I’m listening.”
His hooded gaze, my flushed skin, our joined hands disappearing beneath fabric, ignited a wildfire so vicious within me, I almost combusted. I writhed against his touch as he traced small circles on my sensitized flesh using both our fingers. Tangled my free hand in his hair and gasped his name.
He pushed my legs further apart, then bit into the soft curve where shoulder and neck met.
Fire consumed me from the inside out.
I waited for him to enter me and claim his own pleasure, but he held back. Drove me toward the precipice instead.
Our mental connection blazed to life again, weakened from earlier blood exchanges but still there. Two minds collapsed into one, and I felt the exact moment his pleasure merged with mine.
A sharp intake of breath. Cool air whispered against my nape as he shuddered.
His fingers filled my center while allowing me to continue the torture above. We were locked together now, sharing every sensation, every spike of heat. The connection built and built until release hit me hard. I bit down, muscles seizing as waves crashed over me and left me shaking.
Radu’s guttural moan vibrated against my throat as our connection pushed him over the edge.
I spun in his arms, fisted his hair, and dragged his mouth to mine.
He wrapped around me, holding tight as his body found its own completion.
For a moment he went rigid as stone, trembling with the force of it, before slowly melting against me.
“You were saying?” he murmured into my shoulder.
Breathless laughter bubbled up my throat.
I grabbed a towel from the hook and cleaned off the traces of our joining while silently cursing my complete lack of self-control around him.
But I couldn’t deny the truth. He awakened things in me I’d never known existed. Made me crave him like blood itself.
Sweet Derzelas, what future could we possibly have?
The question drained the warmth from my veins. A knot of dread expanded in my stomach. I was still floating on bliss, still connected to him through blood and breath, yet my pragmatic mind was already spinning toward the inevitable.
Everything crashed over me then. How we’d begun. What he’d become to me. Why this could never work.
The first time I ‘met’ Harbinger, I was watching the Sparrows die through my Astral Visor, hundreds of miles away.
What should have been a routine patrol had turned into a slaughter.
Limuses ripped through my guild while I sat helpless in my command center, watching through Stoneheart’s eyes as, one by one, my outliers fell.
Then the tide had turned. Crimson dots vanished from my scanner as Souleaters retreated en masse. Captain Harbinger had materialized like vengeance itself, cutting down enough enemies to save what remained of my guild.
The next time I saw him in action was in Sibiu. He carved through hundreds of Souleaters like death given form. Beautiful. Terrifying. I should have questioned his knowledge of enemy positions then, but the incredible power he wielded had mesmerized me.
Then Brasov happened. The moment that changed everything.
A Nebula had approached him on that blood-soaked square, raised its four arms, and said, ‘Brother.’
The word had thundered through the Harmonization, nearly splitting my skull. Everything clicked. His uncanny predictions, his secretive nature, the way Souleaters moved purposefully around him. He could communicate with them. With the monsters that had devoured our people for a century.
I’d searched his mind afterward, probed for deception, for betrayal. Found nothing but grief and determination. That’s what made this so impossibly cruel. I trusted him, trusted his heart, his intentions, his love for his guildmates.
And that’s exactly why I could never bring him home.
The Republic had murdered his mother for sympathizing with mixed-breeds. Condemned his brother to the camps. If they discovered what Radu was—what he could do—they wouldn’t just execute him. They’d turn his death into spectacle. A public holiday celebrating their power to destroy even legends.
And me? I’d be executed right beside him for bringing a monster home.
Treason. Consorting with the enemy. Endangering the state.
Lev Wurdulak would use it as justification to tear down everything I’d tried to build, to cement his family’s hold on power forever.
My death would be slow, public, and serve as a warning to anyone else who dared question their authority.
But watching Radu die would destroy me long before they opened the hatch in the Oculus.
The weight of my feelings for him—most of which I was still not fully on terms with—led to only one conclusion.
I’d protect him the only way I could. By keeping him as far from my people as possible. Let him fight his war here, surrounded by those who valued honor over politics. Where his strength was celebrated, not feared.
Maybe someday the Republic would change. Maybe they’d prove worthy of someone like him.
But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
“I have to go back,” I said, determination hardening my voice. “Dracula needs to know what’s happening in his territory. Without his Blood Aura, we don’t stand a chance.”
Radu had been trailing lazy kisses along my collarbone, his lips sending tremors through my already sensitized skin. I hated interrupting when he was being so thorough, but this couldn’t wait.
“Radu.” I caught his chin, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Are you listening to me?”
His mouth curved in a smug grin. “Every word, princess.”
He reached for a towel, draped it over my damp hair, and started to rub. The massage made my eyes flutter closed, and I found my hands gripping his firm backside—purely for balance, of course.
“I’ve been thinking about the Shepherds,” I said, trying to ignore the magical press of his thumbs against my skull.
“Have you now?” His tone was indulgent, distracted.