Chapter 31 #2
Croesus runs his hands up my thighs, spreading them wider. "Lie back."
I do, the cold stone floor against my back a shocking contrast to the heat of my skin. The power of the place flashes through me, siphoning off some of the lust, enough I can think a little more clearly.
He positions himself between my legs, still fully clothed, and the unfairness of it makes me whimper.
"You're wearing too much."
"Am I?" He sounds amused even as his hands stroke my inner thighs, getting closer to where I need him but not quite touching. "Tell me what you want."
"Touch me. Please, Croesus, I need…"
His fingers find my center, and I cry out at the contact. I'm already soaked, the lust making my body respond with an intensity I've never felt before.
"So wet," he murmurs, sliding one finger inside me. "So ready."
I can't form words anymore, just sounds, gasps and moans as he works me with his fingers. He adds a second, then a third, stretching me, preparing me.
But it's not enough. The lust wants more. Wants him.
"Inside," I manage. "Need you inside me."
"Not yet." His thumb finds my clit, circling with perfect pressure. "You're going to come like this first. Let me feel you fall apart."
"Can't."
"You can." His fingers curve inside me, finding that spot that makes stars explode behind my eyes. "Come for me, Raven. Show them all who you belong to."
The combination of his fingers and his thumb and his words pushes me over the edge. I come with a scream, my body clenching around his fingers as pleasure crashes through me in waves.
But it's not enough. The lust is still there, demanding more.
Through my haze, I hear the angels react.
"Holy–" Kael's voice is strangled.
She's magnificent. Idris breathes.
"I want her," Lysander says flatly. "When her year with you is up, Croesus, I'm claiming her first."
"Get in line," Seraph mutters.
Croesus snarls at them, his possessiveness flaring through the binding. Then his hands go to his own clothes, finally, finally stripping them away. He does it quickly, jerking pieces off, as he glares at his fellow angels.
I catch glimpses through my lust-hazed vision, golden skin, lean muscle, scars that tell stories of three thousand years of existence. And then he's positioning himself between my legs, the blunt head of his cock pressing against my entrance.
"Look at me," he commands.
I force my eyes open, meeting his gold gaze even though I know he can't see me.
"You're mine," he says. "Say it."
"Yours." The word comes out desperate. "I'm yours, now please..."
He pushes inside in one smooth thrust, filling me completely. We both groan at the sensation, him at my heat and tightness, me at finally, finally having what the lust demands.
"Move," I gasp. "Croesus, please move."
He does. Pulls almost all the way out, then drives back in. Sets a rhythm that's hard and fast and exactly what I need. Every thrust sends pleasure spiraling through me, building higher and higher.
His hands grip my hips, holding me in place as he takes me. His mouth finds my breasts, sucking and biting, marking me. Through the binding, I feel his pleasure mixing with mine, amplifying everything.
"So good," he growls against my skin. "You feel so fucking good."
I can't respond, can only hold on as he drives into me again and again. The stone floor is hard beneath my back, but I don't care. Don't care about anything except the feeling of him inside me, the pressure building in my core, the lust finally, finally being satisfied.
"Close," I gasp. "I'm so close."
"I know. I can feel it." One of his hands slides between us, his thumb finding my clit. "Come for me again. Let me feel you."
The dual sensation, him inside me, his thumb circling that bundle of nerves, is too much. I come apart with a scream that echoes through the ruined cathedral, my body clenching around him so tightly he groans.
"Fuck, Raven." His rhythm falters, becomes erratic. "I'm…"
"Yes," I breathe. "Please."
He buries himself deep one last time and comes with a guttural sound, my name falling from his lips like a prayer. I feel him pulsing inside me, feel the warmth of his release, and through the binding I feel his pleasure crashing over both of us in waves.
For a moment, we just breathe. Connected. Sated. The lust finally quiet.
Then everything changes.
My vision whites out. The cathedral disappears. Croesus disappears.
And suddenly I'm somewhere else entirely.
A place of pure light. Blinding, overwhelming, impossible to look at directly.
But I can see shapes in the light. Figures. Seven of them, but also... not seven. They're overlapping, bleeding into each other, like multiple images superimposed into one.
And there's a voice. Multiple voices speaking as one, harmonizing in a way that shouldn't be possible.
"The fallen must be reunited."
I try to scream, but I have no mouth here. Try to run, but I have no body.
The figures shift, and for just a moment I see them clearly, seven angels standing in a circle, but they're not separate, they're connected, pieces of a whole that's been shattered and scattered.
And in the center of the circle, there's something else. Something bright and terrible and ancient beyond comprehension.
A star falling. A morning star.
The light.
The first.
The–
I slam back into my body with a scream that tears from my throat. I'm still in the cathedral, Croesus still inside me, but I'm shaking violently, terror mixing with the dregs of lust in a nauseating cocktail.
"Raven!" Croesus's hands cup my face. "Raven, what?"
"Saw–" I can't get the words out. Can't breathe. "I saw..."
All seven angels are moving now, surrounding me. I can feel their alarm, their fear, bleeding through whatever supernatural senses they have.
"What did you see?" Seraph demands, his perfect face tight with something I've never seen there before, genuine fear.
"Light," I gasp. "Figures in the light. Seven of them but also one. And a voice saying, saying–"
"What?" Kael crouches beside me, his heat washing over my bare skin. "What did it say?"
"The fallen must be reunited."
Silence. Complete, absolute silence.
Then chaos.
Kael swears viciously. Seraph goes pale. Even Caspian straightens from the shadows, his exhaustion replaced by something sharper.
That's not possible. Idris's voice is sharp with panic in my mind. She shouldn't be able to, during a sin absorption, there's no way.
"But she did," Croesus says grimly. He's pulled out of me, is pulling me against his chest, both of us still naked, but that doesn't matter anymore. "She saw something. Something that shouldn't be possible to see."
"What?" I'm shaking so hard my teeth chatter. "What was that? What did I see?"
"Nothing," Seraph says quickly. Too quickly. "You saw nothing. It was a hallucination from the lust, that's all."
"Don't lie to her," Kael snarls. "She saw it. Somehow, during the absorption, she saw."
"Enough." Croesus's voice cracks like a whip. "We're not discussing this. Not here, not now, not with her."
"Why not?" I pull back to look at him, even as I feel the shaping of the forty-eighth tattoo on my body. "What did I see? What does 'the fallen must be reunited' mean?"
"Some knowledge will get you killed," Caspian says quietly from the shadows. "This is that knowledge, sin eater. Stop asking questions before you learn things that make you a target."
"I'm already a target! Someone killed my grandmother, sent collectors after me."
"And this is worse," Seraph interrupts. His mirror eyes fix on me, and for once, there's no contempt there, just fear. "This is so much worse than anything your grandmother uncovered. If Heaven finds out you saw that vision, if they discover you know even a fragment of what it means..."
"They'll execute you," Dorian finishes softly. "Not imprison. Not threaten. Execute. Immediately. No trial, no mercy."
I look around at the seven of them, seven fallen angels who are all, for the first time since I've met them, united in their terror.
"What did I see?" I whisper.
"You saw the truth," Lysander says quietly. His purple eyes are haunted. "A truth that has been buried for three thousand years. A truth that would shatter Heaven and Hell if it ever came to light."
"And we're not telling you what that truth is," Croesus says firmly. He starts gathering my clothes, helping me dress with gentle hands. "For your own protection."
He's right, Idris adds. Ignorance is the only thing keeping you alive right now. If the archangels knew what you saw...
"They'd know we're closer to the truth than we should be," Kael finishes. He's pacing again, smoke rising from his shoulders. "They'd know the conspiracy goes deeper than missing souls."
"They'd know we're dangerous," Seraph agrees.
I'm dressed now, but I'm still shaking. The lust is purged, completely burned away by whatever I saw in that vision. But I'm left with a different kind of hunger.
The hunger for answers.
"You're all terrified," I say, looking around at them. "Seven of the most powerful beings in existence, and you're all absolutely terrified of whatever I saw. That's how I know it's important."
"That's how you know it's deadly," Croesus corrects. He cups my face, forces me to meet his gold eyes. "Promise me you won't pursue this. Promise me you'll let it go."
"I can't."
"Promise me, Raven. Please." Through the binding, I feel his desperation. His bone-deep fear of losing me. "I can't protect you from this. None of us can. If you start asking the wrong questions, digging in the wrong places–"
"Heaven will kill her," Caspian cuts in. "And we'll be forced to watch. The treaty prevents us from acting against archangels directly. We couldn't save your grandmother. We won't be able to save you."
I look at Croesus's face, at the fear and the love and the helplessness written there.
And I lie.
"Okay," I whisper. "I promise. I'll let it go."
Through the binding, he knows I'm lying. But he also knows he can't stop me.
None of them can.
Because I've seen the truth now, or a glimpse of it, anyway. And I know that whatever secret these seven angels are keeping, whatever knowledge got my grandmother killed, it's the key to everything.
The missing souls. The bloodline collection. The conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of Heaven.
All of it connects to that vision. To seven angels who are somehow one. To the fallen being reunited.
To the Morning Star.