111. Violette #2
He rolls onto his back, scooting over to make room for me and lifting the blankets as I peel off my fighting leathers.
I climb in beside him, curling myself into the nook of his firm body.
My heart swells to bursting from the feeling of his skin pressing against mine.
Lazarus’ eyes search mine. It still feels strange to think of him by this name, but with each repetition it becomes more natural.
“Do you remember the night we met?”
I grin softly. “How could I forget?”
Lazarus’ hand reaches up to cradle my jaw. “I wanted you so badly. From the moment I saw you. Saw and felt your delicate, but resilient, and oh so wounded soul. I wanted more than anything to steal you away, right then and there.”
Gods.
Why do those words make my eyes burn?
My gulp in an attempt to swallow back my swiftly rising emotion is audible. As the first tear falls, Lazarus presses a kiss to it, and licks it from his lips.
The words come out a tremulous whisper. “I wish you had.”
He huffs a soft laugh. “You would have hated me.”
I give a wet chuckle. “Viciously, yes, but I’m certain it wouldn’t have taken you long to cure me of it.”
His eyes search mine. “You know that it’s me, right? That I am one and the same as my form that remained. That it is the same soul, the same mind, the same magic, the same... heart.”
I nod, heart aching for him as my tears burn anew.
I’m practically choking on the words, Yes, I love you, and the fear that keeps them stuck in my throat.
So I lean in and press a kiss to his lips. Lazarus immediately grips my waist and pulls me more firmly against him as a deep groan of relief reverberates through his chest.
My soul sings as his mouth slants against mine, tongue sweeping and caressing, teeth nipping and desperate as he rolls me beneath him, and my legs part.
“I don’t think you understand how desperately I need you, Violette.
I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone or anything.
I would do horrible, cruel things for you—to keep you. ”
Sucking his lower lip into my mouth, I sink my teeth into it before sucking away the hint of blood that blooms, and growling my reply. “You are mine. Do you understand? You couldn’t leave me if you fucking tried.”
The amber of his eyes glows like embers roaring to life in a burst of flame.
“Are you certain, little seraphim? I want your soul bound to mine—for all time. Many years from now, when your soul passes into Avernus, I will retrieve you from Mors’ realm.
I would destroy it, and everyone in it, to find you if he or his daughter do not give you back to me.
Or would convince him to let me join you there. ”
His gaze searches mine for assurance that I feel the gravitas of his declaration.
“My words are not merely some grand declaration of love—they are fact. The eons have made me mad; selfish; ruthless; prone to just as much violence as I am tenderness. Only you have coaxed this gentle side of me forward.”
My legs wrap around his waist, as his engorged cock slides directly over my aching clit, sending fireworks shooting up my spine. Back arching, I reach between us and align his crown with my weeping entrance.
“I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
Lazarus growls out a curse, nudges his hips forward, stretching me and forcing my body to adjust to his size.
My back arches from the coiling pleasure that surges through my core.
His hands grip fistfuls of my hips as his cock slides in, inch-by-blessed-inch, sending a breathy cry from my throat.
I nearly call him by his original name, but I give pause, recognizing this slender window of opportunity to anoint his new name in a way that might help him make peace with it; accept it; dare I say embrace it.
“Lazarus..."
His strokes slow, but don’t stop. Already tense brows knit together, gaze studying mine as he picks up my line of thought. Hips punching forward, he growls. “Yes, seraphim.”
The fervor of his thrusts increases as emotion tightens his features, eyes blazing down at me.
A sense of urgency and need fills me—to achieve every possible point of contact with him.
My hand searches for his in the same moment he seeks mine, and our fingers weave together.
In my peripheral vision, I see the darkness blooming around us—his shadows, unfurling; cocooning us.
Tiny effervescent pinpoints of light cast a glow.
Lazarus’ eyes glisten as he pounds into me and his shadows wrap around me, guide my wrists above my head, tease the tips of my breasts into aching points, and lift my hips to allow him to drive that much deeper into me.
Sensation spills through me in tingling waves of energy that are further intensified as those shadows reach between my legs to massage my clit.
My chest blooms with what I can only describe as light, gravity, and a breathtaking emotion that burns so brightly it sears my eyes—and begins to dissolve that fear inside me.
Every stroke he takes seems to push those three words further up my throat until, finally, the dam dissolves. Pulverized by his next words.
“I love you, Violette.”
Like wine being uncorked from a cask, the love and longing I’ve stifled for the last fifteen years pours out of me. “I love you. Lazarus—Azrael—the name matters not, so long as you belong to me in this life, and every moment after it. Even when Akash returns our souls to her womb.”
Lazarus’ growl of satisfaction reverberates through me as he lowers his chest to mine, bracing himself on one elbow as his free hand slides up the length of my left thigh before gripping my hip. His nose nuzzles my cheek, murmuring, “Even when Akash returns our souls to her womb, we will be bound.”
My skin prickles as magic follows in wake when the hand at my hip roams up the valley of my waist, the swell of my breast, and higher, until his palm cradles my jaw.
Wisps of shadow shimmering with gold spill from his hand, caress my cheek before slipping between us, and seeping into our chests.
The sensation of his magic pouring into me is powerful enough to force the breath from my lungs on a breathy cry as every molecule in my body seems to vibrate and hum with life and euphoria.
“Laz..."
I feel my own magic rising powerfully to the surface, twining with his.
Tendrils of purples, blues, and greens in every shade wrap around the black and gold of his before sinking beneath his flesh.
Lazarus’ lips part on a gasp and a moment later I see lilac streaking the bright amber of his eyes before settling and dimming.
Lazarus’ thrusts hasten, gradually turning merciless as his shadows continue to stroke and caress my clit.
My core clenches and spasms around him with my rapidly approaching orgasm as our magic vibrates and swells within us.
My lips part but I can manage no words, only breath and the sound of my pleasure tearing from my throat as my orgasm rises.
In the same moment, Lazarus’ breath punches out of him and he groans, hips stuttering and cock pulsing inside of me.
The space between our chests begins to glow.
Still wholly consumed by our climax, tendrils of energy streak through us as a gold and pearlescent light suddenly flares between us, forcing our eyes shut at the sheer blinding light.
Still fully sheathed inside of me, Lazarus grips me tighter against him as a fiery electricity hums and vibrates with increasing intensity before shooting down what I can only describe as a cord, engulfing us in its light before it implodes and disappears within our chests.
Our chests heave as we catch our breath, our bodies, and this new living, brilliant thing between us hums with life. Twin droplets of emotion streak down the proud curve of Lazarus’ cheeks before gravity draws them to my own.
“Our souls are bound, sweet seraphim.”