Chapter 30 Cassius
~Cassius~
“Stop!” I called, hurrying toward Sylas who was shrugging his coat on and headed for my apartment door.
“I’ve got a lock on him. I need to go now,” he answered, not bothering to even dignify me with a glance over his shoulder.
“He’s already vanished. He registered your spell. He saw us.”
“Then I’d better leave now before he can get too far.”
I grasped his shoulder and spun him back to me. “He is an Ancient. Moments and he’s covered tens of miles.”
“Doesn’t matter. The magical trail I brought along for the ride during that spell and attached to Remnant is still intact.”
“If that’s the case, then it also doesn’t matter when you seek him out.” He went to push me away, but I shoved him into the wall adjacent to the door, pinning him there with my strength, my hands to his pectorals. “Except it cannot be this very instant.”
“What are you—”
“You are needed here.”
“I can’t just—”
“I understand.” I threw up a temporary cloaking spell to encompass us so that Velra and Lazriel who were in my bedroom, Velra comforting Lazriel while he changed and cleaned his blood from his skin, did not overhear.
“You feel you are operating on a ticking clock. You want everything dealt with immediately. But taking this approach is highly detrimental. This is a response rooted in fear first and anger second. Both those being your driving forces now will result in mistakes being made. You leave here now while harboring all of that and you will surely fail. You could even worsen the situation, not just for yourself, but for Lazriel and Velra.” I shook my head.
“Normally, this is something you would not require counseling on. However, you have been pushed too far with all that has befallen you, so you are not at your best and your mental capacity is taxed.”
“Cassius—”
“Do you not also think that Lazriel deserves to be the one who is first in line to gain access to Remnant? His own father?”
He cursed. “What about Puritas? Lazriel coming into contact with his father could reveal the entire bigger picture, that the truth of the threat is those fuckers, when right now it’s some obscure enemy linked to his stepfather in his mind, or some old enemy of his mother’s.”
“Then that will have to be how this becomes known to him and Velra. If you try to control it at this point, you would need to keep a son from his father. I want Puritas’ rise kept from them both as well, but we need to weigh the price of doing so.”
“Okay,” he said, sinking against the wall, no longer fighting me.
I released him and stepped back.
With a sweep of my hand, I disintegrated the cloaking shield.
Just in time, because a moment later and I wouldn’t have been able to focus enough to manage it, as a rush of pleasure rolled through me.
No… not mine.
Hers.
This was the first time that this had occurred while she was within physical reach, a time when I no longer had to keep my distance either—in any way.
And I could not make myself resist the pull of it this time.
Before I knew it, I was striding across the apartment, then tearing open my bedroom door.
“Lazriel!” Sylas called out in admonishment, knowing the wild one all too well.
I burst into the room and then staggered to a stop.
There Lazriel was utterly naked, holding Velra against the wall who was fully-clothed.
And she was giggling and squirming as he tickled her sides and then also licked at her throat.
“See how you like the tickling, love,” he was telling her.
Ah, I see. It had been emotional pleasure that I’d felt from her. Exaltation at him having fun and finding joy with her despite the heavy burden upon him from the startling revelation about his father—and his mother’s betrayal.
“Oh my God, put some clothes on!” she shrieked with laughter as he continued his tickling.
“Why? It’s so much freer this way.” He ground against her.
“And while I’m stark naked, might as well take full advantage of it, hmm?
” He turned his head and looked right at me, indicating he’d known I’d been here staring.
“You up for that, Cas?” His gaze darted to my jeans where I knew I was erect.
From the moment I’d felt that rush of pleasure.
“Well, you most definitely are physically. That monstrous cock of yours says it all.”
Sylas entered the room and joined me at my side.
“Hmm… not up yet, Sylas? That’s not like you. Seems like you could use one hell of a release?”
Velra snatched his pendant and tugged. “Stop. You’re being incredibly antagonistic.”
“Come on, it’s one of the things you all enjoy about me.”
“You’ve been through a lot tonight. Are you certain this is what you want?” Sylas asked.
“I’m in my right mind, if that’s what you’re asking.” He eyed me. “You can tell, right?”
“I can, yes. Your blood is still in my system as mine is in yours.”
“Fortunately not too much to prevent the Blood Trace from being possible,” Sylas said.
“Can we leave out talk about that?” Lazriel grunted. “Just for tonight.”
“Just for tonight,” Velra said, coming around and stroking his cheek. “To be clear, though, if you’re not going to put that robe on that Cassius left for you, then all hell is going to break loose.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Yeah? You’re gonna jump me, are you, Wraithqueen?”
“I’m going to eat you alive, naughty little wolf.”
She winked at me and Sylas, letting us know she was giving Lazriel what he most definitely seemed to need right now. Comfort through physicality. Physicality with those he was connected to.
“Velra,” I spoke. “I cannot maintain control much longer. Especially if you engage physically with him right here, and if you shed your clothes and I see you bare—for the first time.”
She startled all of us as her purple Dark Fae power suddenly burst forth at Lazriel and sent him flying onto my bed on his back.
And then she came to me and grasped my hand, while telling Sylas, “Calm him down, while I help Cassius.”
Sylas smirked. “Abso-fucking-lutely. I’ll calm our wild wolf right the fuck down.” There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Velra turned me toward her so I had my back to the bed a few feet away just as I heard a growl from Sylas and a yelp from Lazriel.
And then her shadows wrapped around us, blocking my visual and all sensory perception of what was happening in the room beyond.
There was just the two of us immersed in her magic.
She cupped my face. “I can stop all of this right now, have them leave, have Sylas calm Lazriel for the time being and I’ll stay here with you, then comfort him afterward.”
“That’s… you would do that for me?”
“Of course. I don’t want you uncomfortable. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you came into your own bedroom to see that. I’d just gone to check on Lazriel and he pounced on me. He’s hurting. Physicality and connection make him feel better and help to center him.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want you to go. I don’t want them to go.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I… want this. Here and now. I want to be with you… with this unit you’ve created and worked so hard to ease me into, to get them to accept me into.
This feels very much like the next step, a natural progression.
” I grasped her hands on my face and eased them down, then looked away.
“I… I am not familiar with what you may need from me. And it both vexes me and worries me. But in this setting, and with me now familiar with Lazriel from a sexual perspective, it reduces some of that… internal pressure. And I like that it’s happening here, in my space, a space I know well. ”
“You’re certain that—”
I fisted her hair and pulled her to me, crushing our mouths together.
She responded instantly, kissing me back.
It wasn’t soft and easy and explorative like last time. It was ferocious, unchecked passion, and it surged through me and our Soul Brand alike in a gloriously all-consuming way.
She was panting when we pulled back, and she pressed her fingers to her lips, her eyes wide. “Whoa,” she uttered, grinning up at me.
A thrill rolled through me. She had enjoyed that immensely.
I ripped my T-shirt over my head and didn’t give a care where it landed when I tossed it.
Her shadows were gone now and I looked out to see Sylas on top of Lazriel, holding him in a chokehold while grinding against him still clothed as Lazriel licked his arm, the two of them staring out at us.
I sucked in a breath and let their intensity roll over me in a good way, not an intimidating way. Because from the smiles on their faces and then even Lazriel winking at me, it was clear they wanted me to be a part of it with them, to be at ease as I became so as well.
And then my breath caught in my throat as Velra pulled her wrap top over her head and tossed it aside, baring a very alluring lacy black bra beneath, the way it cradled her beautiful breasts such a visual masterpiece.
She chuckled at my awed reaction, then shimmied out of her skirt and boots, revealing more black lace.
I decided in that moment that I very much relished that fabric on her.
She came to me and grasped my belt, then brushed her lips over my chest, kissing then licking all over my skin, setting it on fire, and making me groan for her.
“You are exquisite… your beauty, your heart, your touch…” I breathed.
She smiled against my skin and then she unbuckled my belt.
I watched with rapt attention as she popped my fly and drew down my zipper.
And then she dropped to her knees right before me.
I tensed.
As she reached out to ease my hardness from the confines of my jeans, I snatched her wrist.
“No.”
“No?”
I lifted her back to her feet with my hold on her. “Not like this, little shadow.”
And then I snagged her hips and drove her onto the bed beside the boys.
“I wish to worship you first.”
With a spark of Sylas’ magic, her underwear was gone, exposing her naked body in all its magnificence.
My goodness.