Chapter 21 Cassius
~Cassius~
I awoke slowly to the freeing sensation of my wings unfurled.
Even more wonderful was that Velra was wrapped tightly in my right wing, her warmth and softness infusing me.
I had startled awake last night when I’d felt a pang of pain and torment from her through the Soul Brand to find her shuddering in her sleep.
She’d been suffering from nightmares, as had been the case on and off since she’d been staying here.
Last night had been more intense than any of those occurrences, and I was certain it was due to her confrontation with Sorin.
Lazriel had woken in response to it as well.
I’d shifted her in her sleep and then wrapped her in my wing and it had settled her, comforted her.
Lazriel had of course been distressed by her pain, so I’d also stroked him with my left wing until he’d fallen back asleep.
Sylas had been immersed in a deep sleep, utterly exhausted.
Without his magic, he was akin to human state currently so things were hitting him harder, especially the physicality of battle.
This had actually been the first night he hadn’t bolted awake in a sweat then left the bed for a while, believing I hadn’t noticed.
I knew it was because his compartmentalization regarding his trauma, specifically Glasswake Massacre, along with his mother and sister’s murders, had fallen now that he could no longer invoke his magic in order to hold it at bay.
The delectable sensation of fingers stroking the length of my chest, over my pectorals and down to my abdominals, had my eyes snapping open.
Back and forth it went.
As soothing as it was arousing.
I turned to my left to see Lazriel’s hooded gaze fixed on me.
“Morning, wild one.”
He smirked, continuing to tease me. “Cas.” His gaze flicked to Velra. “How is she? Can you feel?”
I nodded and reached out through the Soul Brand carefully. “She is well. Awash in tranquility and contentment.”
“Good,” Lazriel breathed with sweet relief. “Really good.”
I brushed my wings along his cheek. “She will see her way through this. She will be well.”
“Yeah. I know she will. She’s strong. Really strong. But she just shouldn’t have to, you know?”
“Yes. I wholeheartedly agree,” I told him, stroking his wolf claw pendant. “We will end this. Soon. It won’t drag on. I swear it to you.”
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” Sylas’ rough, sleep-infused voice sounded, just as he turned on his side to face us.
“Sylas—” I started.
“Stop,” Lazriel cut in. “It’s the start of a brand-new day. The four of us are together for the first time in too long. Let’s enjoy it and toss all this bullshit off to the side. Just for a little fucking while.” He looked between Sylas and me. “All right?”
“As you wish,” I told him, hearing the need in his voice.
I also didn’t want Velra waking up to hear us talking about it all either. She needed a reprieve, even if it could only currently be a brief one.
Not to mention, Sylas very clearly required the same reprieve.
“Sylas?” Lazriel questioned.
I watched him eyeing Lazriel, his hand slipping beneath the covers.
Then Lazriel jerked and let out a startled sound.
“Why are you naked under here? You went to sleep with your boxers on.”
“I haven’t had your special herbs with me, so my temperature has been all over the place again. Burning hot and freezing cold. With me also trying to meld the vampire and wolf better, it’s kind of made it worse. So, yeah, the naked thing has been happening again.”
“I see.”
“The herbs are in the kitchen,” I informed Lazriel.
“Thanks. Good to know.” He smiled. “Always looking out for me, huh, Cas?”
“They’ll take a couple of days to settle back in your system, though,” Sylas warned.
“Do you need to feed?” I asked Lazriel. “Would that assist?”
“Actually, yeah. How did you—”
“I simply put two and two together.”
“Huh. Well, I think I feel the freezing cold stage coming on, so I’d better get deep under the covers.
As he went to pull the covers up to his chin, Sylas slapped them down.
“You’re not flipping to the cold stage, hot little wolf.”
“Yeah?” Lazriel challenged. “How do you know that?”
Sylas jerked the sheets down and I started as Lazriel’s extremely erect cock came into view.
“Hmm, perhaps because you’re hard as granite and turned the fuck on.
Do you really think I can’t tell when you’re ready and raring to go?
I don’t need the ability of scenting to determine that.
Not when it comes to you. Actually, not with any of you. ”
Interesting. That was something I couldn’t always read well.
Definitely worth noting.
“Well… I’m getting chilly now with you ripping the covers off me like that.”
“Yeah? Are you?”
“Kind of and—”
In the next second, Sylas dove down onto him, swallowing his cock to the root.
With a blur of speed, Lazriel shoved his fist into his mouth to muffle his own screams so it didn’t startle Velra awake.
A rush of heat rolled through me and it was all I could do not to tighten my wing’s hold around Velra and jolt her from the sudden movement.
Sylas didn’t make it easy when he voraciously licked, sucked, slurped, and even grazed Lazriel’s length like a fiend.
Lazriel collapsed back onto his pillows, writhing and bucking his hips, his fingers tunneling in Sylas’ hair and trembling, like he wasn’t sure whether he wanted more, or for Sylas to ease up.
Sylas certainly had him.
I jolted as Lazriel turned his head and started licking and sucking at my left wing.
I groaned as pleasure rolled through me.
Sylas caught my eye, a devilish glint in his, as he registered my reaction, his erotic torment working its will on both Lazriel and I so very intensely.
Lazriel’s groans became growls within moments, the bed rocking as he thrust his hips, making Sylas take him deeper and faster. “Ungh… you fucking cocksucker… driving me crazy,” he started rasping. “Don’t fucking stop… don’t fucking stop, Sylas.”
He started rubbing his face on my wing, then sucking on the feathers… a sensation I had never experienced before in all my years.
I had to release my hold on Velra with my right—I was far too close to losing control.
“Need her,” he gasped, before furthering his sweet torment of my wing, then scratching his nails down my torso, the dual sensations making me writhe on the bed.
I reached out with a trembling hand, my magic somehow managing to spark, a white film covering the room that would keep the noise from Ketheron and also protect Lazriel from the effects of my blood if he chose to feed from me in the throes of it all.
“Need her, Cas,” Lazriel uttered again, his talons dropping. Vampire talons, not his wolf claws. Hmm.
I lowered my defenses, allowing his talons to penetrate, for him to bleed me.
“I know,” I breathed, snatching his hand, wiping it in the blood that was now trickling down my chest, then guiding his own fingers to his lovely mouth.
His eyes flamed as I dragged them over his lips, and he opened then licked and sucked at his own fingers as I held them there.
“Well, this is a hell of a thing to wake up to.”
I smiled at the sound of Velra’s voice—and the heat in it. Heat that I could also feel now raging through our Soul Brand.
I looked over my shoulder to see her sitting up and brushing her long, ombre hair out of her face, her attention sliding to each of us in turn, before a sly smile spread over her lips.
Her gaze zeroed in on Sylas. “Tormenting our wild wolf… naughty necromancer.”
Barely able to focus in any stable or useful fashion with Lazriel licking and sucking my wing and opening for me so beautifully as he tasted me on his own fingers, all I could do was watch as Velra rolled over me, then crawled across mine and Lazriel’s legs to Sylas.
She went to his side, his gaze flicking to hers with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion while he continued fiercely tending to Lazriel’s cock on his knees.
With a spark of her magic, Velra had Sylas’ pants off, stripping him bare.
“Here’s a little torment for you,” she spoke, a moment before I watched her call her shadows. They swirled around Sylas’ hardness, then brushed his shaft with sudden flicks that had him jerking. “Sweet torment, hmm?” Velra teased, stroking his back, while she wove her shadows around his cock.
“Fuck, that shit is the best,” Lazriel said.
Sylas trembled and ripped his mouth from Lazriel’s length, a long, deep curse escaping him, before he fisted Velra’s hair and crushed his mouth to hers.
I watched her shadows swirl faster, and then she snapped her fingers, and her purple Dark Fae magic sparked against his crown, making him tear from their kiss and clutch her shoulders as he shuddered.
“Fuck… ungh,” he choked, looking down between them as her purple sparks traveled along his shaft, melding perfectly with her shadow magic.
I felt her elation through our Brand, but it was all over her face as well, clear as the brightest day. She was using her magic and even blending her hybrid natures as one, in her complete and utter control, on her terms, at her will.
At her pleasure.
Well, and that of Sylas.
“You like?” she teased. “Lazriel enjoyed my shadows playing with him before.”
“Lazriel really fucking did,” Lazriel said, breathing heavily and trying to focus through the torrent of sexual intensity that Sylas had levied upon him. So much so that precum was literally dripping all over the sheets from him.
One more push, the slightest touch, and he would taste release.
Yes, he certainly would.
With a sharp shrug, I put my wings away, sealing them within with magic, and then I pounced on him, rolling him onto his front.
“Yes!” he cried so beautifully needy.
I fisted his hair so he was looking at Sylas and Velra, so close to them, and then I tore off my white pajama pants, spread his muscular ass cheeks open, then dragged my shaft between them, back and forth over his little hole.
He howled out into the room as he came with violent shudders.