Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Eve and Lucien scaled the steps of the British Museum hand in hand. The buzz of connection rippled continually from the point where their hands touched, spreading around her body, from the crown of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes.
The cold snap in the winter air invigorated her lungs, and the hard stone beneath her feet propelled her forward, perfectly reflecting the energy she applied against it to walk. All forces were clear to her. The sun's rays penetrated her very being and fed the quintessence at her core. It rolled and grew inside her, propelling every nerve ending at its greatest potential.
Inside the building, the scent of eons filled her nostrils. Time itself was held within the museum’s walls, and Eve drew in its knowledge with every breath. With each step, she absorbed history.
The museum staff were oblivious to the trials of Eve’s last twenty-four hours, and the heightened state she now found herself in. As she and Lucien swept through the main concourse, the early morning staff were all too interested in discussing the odd vibrations that had rattled exhibits and the continuing malfunction of their phones and the electrical system to notice her. The museum was operating on emergency generators, and Eve could feel the extra hum overlaying the usual atmosphere.
Spending time with Lucien, she had grown accustomed to the gaze of strangers being drawn away from her and onto him, as if she weren’t even there. Today, even he was invisible.
They strode on and made for the stairs that led up to their exhibition space, Lucien speeding her along, feet barely touching the ground. When they made it at last to their fourth-floor room, Lucien ushered her inside and locked the doors behind them.
It was like the sealing of a tomb. The cold stone floor sucked heat from her body and, as they walked, their footsteps echoed in the still air. She felt the lack of sunshine. “I want to go back outside,” she said, the desire for sunlight a visceral need.
“I have something new to show you,” Lucien said, and he took her hand to lead her through to the second exhibition space where the stone of the floor gave way to wood. At once, it felt better.
Things had changed since she'd last been there. The room was now filled with a deep silence, like a church. She slipped out of her shoes and coat to leave them behind. In her bare feet, she could feel the grain of the wood and the hundreds of years it had taken to grow. Goosebumps washed over the exposed skin of her arms and legs. This room had taken on a new purpose.
The central space had been cleared, and an eight-pointed star was now drawn on the floor. At the end of each point, an Akkadian dagger had been driven into the wood, their gemstone hilts glinting dully in the early morning light.
Lucien walked point to point around the star, passing his hand over the gemstones, which glowed brighter at his touch.
The stone of Tizoc now stood on the dais in front of the window, acting as the altar it was intended to be. On it were laid the ritual artefacts they had collected. The incantation bowl, the tablet of summoning and the star charts all laid out around the Crown of Ishtar, which took pride of place in the center. Also, a pair of dark glass bottles with two small golden cups and an adjustable mirror.
Eve’s heart beat faster and stronger. There was power in this room. She felt its excited vibration resonating through her chest to stir her deep inside. The transit of Venus had awoken something, and the Goddess of Love demanded to be worshipped. Lucien was so close to her now, and they were finally alone. Her breath caught in her throat as he drew near to stand behind her.
“Can you feel it?” Lucien whispered in her ear, his warm breath on her neck, his body so close. “They are calling to you.”
“Yes,” she said and reached a hand over her shoulder to touch his face. His aura burned brightly inside her mind. “I can see you, set free. You are beautiful.”
The energy field between them rippled beneath her fingertips, but still she felt the warmth of his skin. She ran her fingers along his jaw, brushed over his ear and into his hair.
Eve moaned as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her into him. She could feel the hard length of his cock pressed into the small of her back. He wanted her, too. His hand slipped beneath her dress and up over her breast, catching her nipple between his fingers.
She gasped at the pleasure of his touch, ripples of sensation washing away from it.
She turned to face him, and her lips sought his. He kissed her hard, and his tongue slipped eagerly into her mouth, thrusting and teasing. He bit at her lips, and she wrapped her hands behind his head, fingers weaving through his hair to pull him in.
He loosened her dress, and it fell to the floor, but the cold air did nothing to cool the heat that burned inside her.
“Come, my queen,” he said, “It’s time to make you mine.” He took her hand and led her to the center of the star. “May I?” he asked and made to unclasp the pendant from around her neck. “To add to the crown?”
She nodded, and he took it to the altar to slide it into place.
“The first thing I want to show you is this,” he said. He checked his watch and adjusted the mirror. A beam of winter sunshine bounced from it to catch the crystal globe hung in a golden filigree cage over the middle of the star. The Eye of Shamash. She recognized it from Lucien’s dressing room. Immediately, the light split it into a kaleidoscope of separate rays that played around the room and danced to hit the dagger hilts, where the light split once again. Every color of the spectrum focused on the center of the star where Eve stood.
The crystal globe turned slowly, and every move threw the beams of light in different directions. Each time a new beam struck her, the air chimed like a bell in her mind. It was beautiful. Magical.
Lucien returned to her side, holding the crown and placed it reverentially onto her head. The vibrations she’d been feeling transformed to make waves that rolled through her body, from the top of her head to the very tips of her fingers and toes. Heat and power. The power of the sun. It made her head spin.
Lucien stepped away to pull the cork from one of the small green bottles, then poured a measure into each of the shining golden cups. All the while, he muttered under his breath. “ Solemnis ad te, deus solis, venio .”
He handed one to her, a tremor in his hands. "A toast to us," he said.
“You’re shaking,” Eve said, and Lucien turned his face away as if discovered in a pitiful weakness.
Given all they had endured, she had never doubted Lucien's strength, and now it was clearer than ever that they were more than mere modern-day lovers. She was convinced that their love was timeless, stretching back over generations. She couldn't recall her past lives; Michaels had been correct about that. How could she? That didn't imply that it wasn’t true.
“To us,” Eve agreed and put the cup to her lips. The wine filled her mouth, sharp and metallic, not at all what she'd expected from Lucien’s usually expensive taste. It sank to her stomach, taking with it a tingle of life that buzzed through her nerves into every extremity. She thought she recognized the tang of blood but dismissed it as foolishness.
The light in the room shifted and changed. Everywhere she looked, transmuting prisms glittered off walls and exhibits, dazzling and otherworldly, and in that moment, all her fears and worries drifted away. Standing almost naked in front of Lucien was the most natural thing in the world.
Lucien stepped closer, taking her hand in his as he spoke. “We are meant to be together, Eve,” he said, his voice full of conviction. “Now is our time.”
Eve smiled and felt the dull thud of her heart as she looked into his eyes. Deep dark eyes that glimmered and swirled with golden light.
He produced the second bottle. “The Egyptians believed the anointing of the body made it a sacred object.” The corners of his lips twitched with mischief. “That it brought it closer to a sacred state.”
Eve felt the heat rise within her as Lucien sank to his knees in front of her, entwining his fingers in the side of her panties to draw them down. His tongue ran along his bottom lip and Eve ached to feel it on her.
“Is that so?” Lucien asked, his gaze rose to meet hers and without breaking eye contact he leaned forward to caress her with his open mouth, to slide his tongue over her and inside. Exquisite and hot, Lucien’s energy coursed into her to mingle with the waves from the sun. Alternately hard and probing, then curling inside, teasing and light. He drew away and Eve moaned at the denial of his touch.
“Lucien,” she breathed, and he came to his feet.
“Lay down,” he commanded. “I want to smooth the horrors of today away.”
Without question, she dropped to lie on the floor. The kaleidoscope of light emanating from the globe played across her naked body, the golden discs slipping over her. Inexplicably, the light warmed her with an unexpected fire.
“Venus is in alignment, Eve. Your ability to channel power will never be stronger than this,” he said with a wry smile, and Eve smiled back.
He reached across her to drip the anointing oil over her naked breasts. It ran in warm ichor over her nipples, into the dip of her navel and down as if drawing a straight line to the center of her being. In the sparkling web of light, she knew this was their time, and she wanted nothing more than for them to be together.
Lucien leaned over her to press his lips to her forehead, her cheek, her neck, her collarbone. He ran his tongue down her chest and lower still, tasting her in long, slow swirls that made her arch against him.
“You're so beautiful,” he murmured and dripped the scented oil to run over her thighs. A soft, citrusy scent filled their small chapel, the air thick with the smell of oranges. It mingled with her pheromones, the scent of sex and desire, and Lucien let out a low moan.
He shed his own clothes and knelt between her legs, his oiled hands moving in long glides from navel to pussy, stroking and dipping into her.
“So wet and ready,” he said, his voice low and earnest. “I want you, Eve. My beautiful Eve. Let me take you.”
Lucien's fingers circled her clit, the pad of his thumb pressing into the spot that made her body tip and her mind spin. The hiss of his breath through his teeth told her he was waiting for her answer.
“Yes,” she said, “Yes. Take me.” Every inch of her pulsed with desire, the sexual tension building unbearably inside her.
He reached for her thighs to glide his oiled hands over them, then eased them apart so that she lay open for his gaze. And she gazed back at him. The muscles of his naked torso rippled as he moved and Eve glimpsed a shadow cast behind him, a sweep of darkness like the memory of wings, each the size of a man, powerful and feathered. They beat rhythmically at his back, the rhythm she wanted to feel pulsing against her.
Eve felt the heat of the sun on her skin, the light that flowed through Venus itself, and she knew that her very purpose was to save Lucien, to save Elham from the fate the Celestial Council had imposed upon him.
The glint of the knife seemed like an illusion at first. The blood pumping through her veins and the tide of desire clouding her vision. Lucien held it in front of his own chest and the scar of the eight-pointed star Eve had scored there. It rose in welts, the presence of the knife calling it back.
With his free hand, he reached to stroke her clit once more and then slide inside.
Eve moaned, and he slipped another finger inside to join the first, gliding back and forth. He eased her open to take another. Her body delighted at the struggle to take him in. Slick with desire, she wanted all of him inside her, every last cell. The Goddess of Love purred with joy. Her body arched to meet him and moved to make the most of every pulse.
“Yes,” Lucien hissed. His fingers slipping alternately over the aching knot of need and inside, gliding on the anointing oil. “My queen. My goddess.”
Eve’s heartbeat pounded, and she ground against him, desperate for the pressure of Lucien against her, wanting him so badly she could barely keep contact with the floor. His fingers danced and thrust inside. She wanted more—so much more.
“It's time for us to become one, Eve,” Lucien hissed, and his eyes darkened.
He withdrew his hand, and Eve's body shuddered at the withdrawal. “No, I want you inside me,” she moaned, and Lucien laughed.
“Soon, my darling, your rune must be carved before that can happen.”
“Do it. Do it now.”
The blade was cold and when Lucien dragged its tip across her chest, the shock of its sting brought Eve back a little from the heady realms of passion.
“Lucien–”
His eyes remained focused on the star he was scoring into the flesh between her breasts. Words rumbled from his mouth.
“ Per potestatem solis evocamus te
Ex profundis abyssi, surge et veni ad nos
Veni cum sua potestate, afferte ad ligandum voluptatem
Apponae signum tuum super corpus nostri electi
Afferte potentia tenebrarum, alligando hanc mulierem in voluptate”
Blood welled and ran down her ribs toward the floor. The next swipe ran deeper and a bitter pain seared into her flesh.
“Lucien, that's too much–” she made to pull herself up onto her elbows, but Lucien pressed a flat palm to one shoulder and pressed her down to hold her there. Solid and unmovable.
Eve’s heart pounded even harder in her chest. Pleasure and pain. Love and fear.
“ Venite et accipe oblationem meam
Tolle corpus illius et fac ipsum tuum proprium
Per potestatem solis alliga eam tibi.
Solutionem meam a domo terrestri .”
He leaned into her, the tip of his cock pressing at her entrance, threatening to breach her.
Eve opened herself up to him, the need for him inside her overtaking everything else.
With a last swipe, the star was complete.
“ Deprecamur Domino infernali
Ut afferat ad ligandum voluptatem ”
A guttural moan escaped Lucien’s lips, and he thrust forward with a surge of his hips. Great black wings unfurled from his back, beating in time to plunge him deeper.
Eve took him in, every inch of him throbbing inside her with delicious intensity. Pinned to the ground and impaled on his cock, Eve writhed beneath him, stretched to her limit. The sting in her chest increased by degrees as blood poured from the wound to slick between their bodies as he ground down.
His hips circled against her, his rigid cock filling her completely. He withdrew and thrust into her again, and a zing of energy burst between them that lifted her from the floor. Again and again, the length of him slid out and thrust back, the thrill of power at the place where they met so wonderful that she never wanted it to end. She rode the sensation higher and higher, desperate for more but knowing that the limit had to be near. She tipped from its height into uncontrollable waves that tore through her body. Pulsing and clenching, lost in sensation.
She cried out as the length of him slid out and thrust back. Unbearable pleasure and delicious pain in equal measure mingled and confused. Her power rode the waves of carnality that flowed out of her body and into him.
“It’s working,” Lucien gasped with a laugh and picked up his pace, fucking her deeper and faster, breath-taking and deadly.
He was taking her to another place. An inhuman place. The wound in Eve’s chest opened with the wild beating of her heart. Energy flowed from the star scored into her chest along with her blood; the star in Lucien's opening to take it in. Blood, energy, and light streamed between them, brilliant and hot.
Overwhelmed, all concept of a physical body gave way to sensation. White light filled every aspect of her being and her life force ran like a gushing stream that was sucked inexorably into Lucien.
Then, suddenly, it was gone.