Chapter 16
“My star.”
Spinning around, I gaped at the beautiful, golden man as he emerged from the fog.
“Orion?”
Brows coming together over his eyes, he offered a faint grin. “Why do you sound disappointed? You did summon me.”
“I…” Looking around at the strangely familiar landscape, I drew in a deep breath. “I did?”
“Hmm,” he confirmed.
I stared at him as disbelief swarmed in my core.
He was alive.
He was here.
I wasn’t sure exactly where here was, but based on the romantic meadow and midnight sky filled with brilliant stars, this was his mind.
A place of refuge he’d built to keep away from Calamity while it held him captive.
All because I’d failed him.
When tears burned my eyes, I covered them with my hands.
It was too late. He’d already seen.
“Lily.”
I sniffled as he pulled me into his arms, stroking a hand down my back while sliding his free arm around my waist. “I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, the words coming out thick, like I was about to ugly-cry.
I didn’t want him to remember me this way, not if this might be the last time we ever saw one another. There was a possibility that I would fail. It seemed like fate worked against me. No matter how hard I tried, Lucifer would always be one step ahead of me.
“You don’t have to always be so strong, my star,” he whispered against my ear, the warmth and strength of him as familiar to me as my own name. “You don’t have to pretend you’re not afraid.”
“Why are you here?” I asked, sliding my arms around his waist and clinging to him. I loved my Demigod so much. My fingers didn’t quite touch, his form so massive compared to mine, and he’d only grown more with each passing day as his power grew with me.
“Because you called me. Was that not intentional?” he asked, kissing the crown of my head.
“I was trying to find Cole,” I answered honestly.
Any of my other Virtues might have taken offense to that, but I knew Orion wouldn’t. Out of all of my Virtues, Orion had grown the most. He understood that sometimes I had to do things I didn’t want to do.
Because right now, I wanted to allow him to finish what Azra and Sam had started, to soothe the throbbing ache deep within my body.
His hands rested on my shoulders, squeezing as if he sensed my distress.
He simply loved me, and accepted me.
“Hmm, well. I suppose you’ll just have to settle for me.” He eased back and cupped my chin, studying my face. “Your need rang out like the echo of a supernova, calling me, drawing me in. You know I’d never resist you.”
The slow smile he gave warmed me through and through.
This was the Demigod of Sex, I realized, so it was no surprise that he felt my desire and responded to it.
I didn’t want to talk to Cole, not when I was in this state. Not when I was just as drawn to him as any of my Virtues, and he didn’t deserve my desire.
Azrael and Samael, however, most certainly did, yet I couldn’t give them what they wanted most just yet.
Not if I wanted to win this fight against Lucifer.
I melted into Orion’s embrace, realizing that he was the perfect solution. He could help me stem my need and make sure it would be safe when I talked to Cole, when I was ready.
He felt so strong underneath my touch, his hard chest providing me chiseled lines to follow with my fingertips.
I gazed up at him, reaching up to run my fingers over each freckle on his face that sparkled like a star in and of itself.
The light beamed through my nail, illuminating the dark blood within my body, turning my skin a dusky black against his light.
It reminded me of Calamity’s darkness, its ability to blot out everything that was good and pure.
“What about Calamity?” I asked, afraid of his answer, searching his golden eyes for that eternal darkness, a force of chaos that threatened to take everything away from me.
He stroked my cheek. “Calamity lingers nearby, but it hasn’t invaded my mind. It tried to control us, but we belong to you already, my star. Calamity cannot take what is already owned.”
I relaxed. So, they were in limbo as I suspected. Calamity wouldn’t take over, but I still had to find a way to free them from this state.
If anyone knew anything about limbo, it would be a certain two angels who’d spent years in Purgatory. Once I formed a plan with Cole of how to approach his brother, then maybe my angel mates could help me free the rest of my Virtues from Calamity’s grip.
Everything had happened so fast, my mind was still spinning.
“Why do you need Cole?” he asked, tilting his head. The way he calmly watched me said he’d been following my thoughts as best as he could in this state, but he couldn’t read me entirely.
I gave him a wary look. “If I tell you, are you going to stop me?”
“Hmm, that depends,” he said, the side of his lips tilting up.
“You were on your way to see Cole, yet your body is begging for sex, almost as if you were primed…” He tilted his head.
“Not due to Kaito,” he decided, then tapped his chin.
“Although, I sense you’ve taken his evil inside yourself.
A vial, perhaps?” He took one hand and examined my fingers.
He illuminated with an inner light, his divinity shining through to reveal my inner darkness.
Instead of pulling away, he kissed each fingertip before continuing.
“But the need I sense in you isn’t Kaito’s doing, is it?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as he continued his inspection. He tilted my chin up and to the side, then brushed my hair from my face, exposing skin. He pressed a delicate kiss to my throat, making my entire body shiver.
“Hmm,” he said again, as if he’d found something. “There’s divinity mingling with your darkness. The angels, then, I take it you found them?”
He said everything with such a serene sense of knowledge, as if this didn’t disturb him at all.
Shivering, I lifted my gaze to the stars overhead. Constellations spanned out as they would from Orion’s memories.
I recognized the array of twinkling stars that formed his namesake.
“They’re perfect, Orion,” I said with a sigh, melting into his touch when he kissed me again, his fingers going to the back of my nape to undo my halter top. I bit my lower lip when the fabric fell, the crisp air making my nipples harden.
“You’re perfect,” Orion corrected, kneeling in front of me to lave his tongue over one peak.
In this realm, everything he did felt incredible, nearly sending me over the edge right there.
He grinned up at me, his golden eyes housing a glimmer of red Hellfire that marked him as mine. “So primed and ready,” he confirmed. “Remind me to thank those angels of yours when I come out of this.”
I loved his confidence.
“What if you don’t?” I asked, my insecurities coming to the surface as he guided me to the soft flowerbed of his meadow. I cupped his face, wanting to memorize everything about him. “What if this is the last time we ever see each other?”
He grinned. “Then we’d better make the most of it, hmm?”
He was teasing me, but I didn’t protest when he kissed me, the passion behind it so explosive that I instantly knew how much he loved me.
We’d been through so much.
We’d make it through this, too.
“Make love to me,” I breathed, blinking up at the stars as my clothes melted away.
This was the Astral Realm, and inside Orion’s mind, I was at his mercy. Whatever he willed would be so, including my state of dress.
Or undress, as it were.
He didn’t amuse himself with foreplay or draw out the moment. He knew I suffered for his touch, for his love. My angel twins had their own little game of torment that they played with me, but Orion wasn’t about games.
He had come so far, and now, he just wanted to make me happy.
I clutched onto his massive shoulders when he entered me, the shock to my body powerful and fulfilling. I clenched around him as I sucked in a lungful of air.
“Breathe, my star,” he instructed as he set himself in a rhythm that made my body sing.
The stars moved overhead, twinkling in and out of existence as Orion’s passion moved the heavens.
He shoved his hands underneath me, pulling me up by my bottom to stand with my legs wrapped around him.
He kissed me as he moved, his strong grip holding me close to him as I crushed my breasts to his chest.
“Faster,” I told him, my body on the verge of being undone.
He obeyed, his golden eyes watching me for any hint of a change in my command as I grated my hips against his.
“You’re perfect,” he said, his tone deepening with lust as he pummeled deep inside of me, making my nails transform into black claws.
I couldn’t help it, I dug into his skin, drawing blood, but here, in the Astral Realm, he bled golden power.
He groaned, the impact only seeming to make his body harder. He flexed underneath me and I flared my wings.
“Lie down,” I ordered him.
He seemed reluctant to stop his momentum, but he obeyed, resting on the ground as I straddled him, the full length of him still deep inside of me.
I rolled my hips, flaring my wings as I drew golden blood across his chest.
“You’re mine, Orion,” I said, the undying need to claim him driving me insane.
His hands went to my hips as he guided my movements, pulling me harder onto him. “Then claim me, my star,” he said, his jaw flexing as I leaned in, running my tongue over his lower lip.
He took advantage of my position, flipping me onto my back, sending my wings splaying onto the soft ground. He pounded into me, no longer holding back, no longer in full control.
Exactly how I wanted him.
I dug my fingers into the earth, drawing power from it, drawing on Orion’s divine strength as that inevitable cliff came closer.
He growled as he approached the edge with me, his arousal making his entire body glow. He reached one hand between us and ran his fingers over my swollen nub. I couldn’t escape the pleasure, not with his body pinning mine.
“Don’t ever leave me, Orion,” I begged as I let the sensations roll over me, my body about to go supernova with his.
I was glowing, too, but with a darkness that threatened to engulf his light.
Instead of fighting against one another, our powers merged, a beautiful display of black and gold that cracked through the meadow and broke through the stars above as the heavens swirled with fresh chaos.
“Never,” he promised, slamming into me with a roar, his fingers working frantic circles until I exploded, my screams joining his cry.
Our climax moved the heavens and the earth, darkness and light splintering throughout the cosmos as I joined the Demigod of Sex in pure bliss.
And then I was floating in my own dreams, content and safe.
My angels wrapped their arms around me while Orion’s golden light filled me up from the inside.
No matter what.
I’d never be alone.