Chapter 24 #2
A wickedness flashed in those glowing eyes. “I think I can handle it.”
The moon hung in the sky, luminous. It wasn’t a harvest moon, which would be the strongest time to do such a ceremony, but the three-quarters moon was still powerful.
I drew a circle in the dirt, matching the symbols that I saw in my book. A binding circle.
Vaelor waited off to the side, watching with interest.
I stepped out of the circle to stand next to him. “We must take off our clothes,” I said.
A small grin came to his lips that made my heart skip a beat. “This is starting out well.”
“It will get better,” I promised.
“Let me assist you.” He took hold of my shoulders and turned me so he could undo the laces on the back of my dress.
He kissed the back of my neck as he worked, causing goosebumps to flow over my skin at his touch even while an undeniable heat gathered low in my stomach.
“Gods, your scent when you are aroused,” he murmured, low and sensuous in my ear.
His voice only increased my need. When he finished, his hands brushed over the fabric covering me, and it fell to the earth.
I turned toward him, and his gaze traveled down my body, hungry and wanting. He reached out to touch me, but I caught his hand, looking up into his face. “My turn.”
I ran my hands up to his shoulders under the fabric before pulling off his uniformed jacket. Then I unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his shoulders. For a moment I stared at his pale, gray- toned skin. I ran a finger along the black lines, my heart aching for everything he went through. For me.
He took my fingers and brought them to his lips. “Move along, human,” he rumbled.
I nodded and reached for his trousers, undoing them and pulling them down, sinking to my knees. I looked up at him, at the hunger in his gaze while his cock lingered inches from my face, large and straining.
I rose, cleared my dry throat, and motioned toward the circle. “We enter.”
He stepped into the ring, and I followed. I picked up the small bowl of soot I’d gathered from the fire and reached up and painted a symbol on his forehead.
“Now you do the same for me,” I said.
He reached into the bowl and drew the mark on my forehead.
“You must bite me here,” I pressed his hand to my chest. “Where my heart is and draw my blood.”
His brow furrowed. His nails skimmed my skin, the gentle heat causing me to tremble. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“You must. It is part of the ceremony. I can take it.”
He hesitated a moment longer before lowering his head to my chest. He brushed his mouth over my heart, grazing my left breast, and a shiver of anticipation rolled through me.
When his teeth sank into my chest, it was sharp and fast. A quick prick of pain that eased off.
I breathed in. “Drink it.”
He paused, looking up at me, my crimson glistening on his lips from the light of the fire, a bit of surprise in them. “Your blood?”
“Yes.”
His head buried in my chest as his mouth locked around my wound and sucked. Pain sparked, but I curled my fingers into his hair and shut my eyes. I would bleed for this demon. I would endure any discomfort for him.
“The taste of your blood, human,” he murmured with pleasure. “So sweet and soft…like roses.”
His hands held my bare skin close, his claws grazing my vulnerable flesh. The ache in my breast lessened and gods…the pull of his lips, the caress of his palms. I tipped my head letting every sensation roll through me as the power of the night heightened my senses.
“Vaelor,” I finally said. “Vaelor, it is my turn.”
He straightened, the blood still on his lips. He lifted an eyebrow as if amused I was going to bite him. “Time to pull out those razor teeth.”
I laid a hand on his torso and rose onto my toes. His skin was warm. Gods, his chest was so toned. I found his heartbeat and leaned forward. The scent of him washed over me—like rain and sky. A mixture of Vaelor and his brother.
When my teeth bit into his flesh, I was much too gentle.
Vaelor chuckled. “You’re going to have to bite harder than that, Denara.”
I ran my tongue over his skin and heard his sharp intake of breath and the tightening of his hold on me. Oh yes, this male was mine. I sank my teeth into him with the same force I had been made to bite my arm when Raxus possessed me. Vaelor’s skin broke and his blood flooded into my mouth.
“Denara,” Vaelor moaned. Shit. He wasn’t in pain. He was turned on. I felt it in the way his grip continued to tighten, in his hardness pressing against my body.
I took several swallows. The metallic taste didn’t elicit the same pleasure for me, though it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I pulled back and looked up into Vaelor’s face that was filled with a pure desire.
“And now,” I murmured. I swiped some of his blood from my lips and then ran it into the wound over my heart, then did the same with the wound over his heart. “We must become one.”
I reached down, and never taking my eyes off Vaelor, grabbed his hardened cock.
“Fuck,” Vaelor growled.
I stroked my thumb over his tip, and he released another low growl. He gazed at me as if he’d like nothing other than to shove it inside of me.
I slid my nail along its warm surface and then drew a symbol of a knot with his own blood. The sign of binding. “Tonight we become one, and no force, no magic, no curse shall ever part us.”
The symbol turned black, and Vaelor staggered, his breaths ragged, his body taught. He clasped me so hard his claws were about to break my skin, and yet for some reason that didn’t bother me. I’d bleed for him in any way he wanted.
“Denara,” he said, his voice strained. “Denara, please.”
A taunting smile came to my face, even though my body pulsed with desire. “Do you want me, Vaelor?”
“Yes. Fuck, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”
I leaned forward and whispered, “Then take me. I’m yours.”
And with that he lifted me off my feet, my legs wrapped around his waist as he placed me over him. I arched as he shoved himself between my legs, entering me.
I gasped at the sheer size of him breaking me open…shit, he was big.
He paused. “Did I hurt you?”
I laughed. “Don’t get all tender on me now.”
A wicked grin grew. “All right. Then…” He grabbed me under the ass and lifted me up and down on his cock.
I grasped his shoulders, gasping with each thrust as he rocked my entire body.
His wings spread as he did so. “It is an old Aeria custom among my family that we fully come inside our lovers for the first time in the sky. Would that ruin the ritual?”
My stomach fluttered with nerves, but I shook my head.
He flapped his wings and held me close as we rose.
The night encompassed us—the moon and stars our only witnesses as we ascended above the mist and treetops.
Fuck. He hadn’t even pulled out of me. His hand on my ass held me in place against him.
When he thrust again, he gripped my hair and tugged my head downward.
“Look into my eyes.” His murmur was a low rumble that sent desire coursing through me.
My gaze met his. His eyes beheld me with tenderness, yet such desire.
The glow of his eyes was more intense in the blackness that surrounded us.
He lifted me up and down and I willingly moved with him, going faster and harder with each thrust. Each time I sank down and rose up, my opening clutched around his massive cock.
He flipped so I was on my back. My hair whipped and spun wildly in the wind.
His tail slipped between us, driving up between my legs, caressing my opening right next to where his cock was shoved inside me.
I breathed in sharply at the danger of nothing between me and the ground except my grip on Vaelor and his on me.
And yet, I was used to being at his mercy.
His tail moved, stroking my opening at the very edge of where he was plunging inside of me.
I moaned as my pleasure sparked higher. I wanted to do this forever.
I wanted…I wanted… I gasped and writhed in his grasp, but he continued to move me on his cock, rocking my body faster and faster.
A groan escaped me. I was unable to get enough air, delight mixing with blood and ash and sweat.
I came, tipping over the edge, and I cried out. Vaelor thrust even harder and came a moment later. His body was hard and his cock throbbed inside me, in time with the pulsing of my heart and his ragged breaths.
He circled our camp one more time before dropping us to the ground within the circle.
It lit up with a dark crimson light, and it radiated up through the earth before flowing into us.
A strong force ignited inside me. This magic was powerful.
Vaelor staggered and fell forward, coming out of me.
Held me with one arm as he caught himself on the ground with the other, breathing hard as he looked down at me. “Is it finished?”
I pulled him with me into the dirt. Yes. The curse should be broken.
He raised an eyebrow. “Did you just speak to me with your mind?”
I did. The spell allows us to communicate mind to mind.
All the time?
I shook my head. The other person only hears what you want them to.
A smile came to his lips. I think I am going to like this.
After a moment, Vaelor got up and grabbed the bearskin blanket and draped it over us, and we just lay there in silence, wrapped up in each other. When I laid my head on his chest, I heard his heart, matched in perfect time with my own.