Kazimir #2
When her eyes closed and her breathing slowed, I said, “Tell me. What do you remember?”
She took a long time to answer. When she did, her voice was flat, as if reporting a crime.
“I was a lower angel. Not important, not really. I helped people on Earth—little things. Finding lost children, calming the desperate, nudging someone toward kindness instead of violence. I liked it. It felt… right. Then I started moving up in the ranks. I actually enjoyed battling demons. I was a good fighter. I liked the idea of holding back evil from the human race, and I worked hard to become a warrior.”
She drifted a finger through the bathwater, drawing circles, lost in the memories.
“I wanted to do more. My general—Sariel—said I could be promoted. Move up in even higher in the ranks someday, if I proved myself worthy.” She laughed, bitter. “But he wanted ‘difficult things’ in return.”
Her hand tensed in the water. “He made it sound like I had a choice. But I didn’t. He told me to show up at his garden. Alone. He said if I didn’t, I would never achieve more. Obedience was a hallmark of rank.”
I stroked her hair, listening.
“He… he tried to touch me. He wanted more than that.” Her voice shrank to almost nothing. “He said it was the only way. That all the higher angels required it. That I was rebellious unless I allowed it.”
I saw red; the old rage returning. But I kept my touch gentle.
She went on, voice steady now, as if she had recited this story in her head a thousand times.
“I fought him off. Told him if he ever tried again, I would go to the Creator himself.” She let out a wild, sad laugh.
“But that was a joke. No one talks to the Creator, not angels like me. We’re just cogs in the machine. ”
Her nails dug into my arm.
“I tried to run. He caught me. He slapped me hard enough to knock me down. He told me I was nothing, that I’d disobeyed for the last time.” She shuddered. “I thought he meant to demote me. Cast me out; send me to Earth without my powers. But instead, he…”
“He dragged me to a court—but there were no witnesses—he announced my crimes: insubordination, pride, corruption. It was like he was talking to the ether.”
“And then?” I murmured, hating the question, but needing her to finish.
“He hacked away my wings. Not just stripped them. He cut them—one vein at a time, so it hurt longer. He said I had to learn humility.” Her eyes were dry, but her voice was pure grief.
“And then he cast me out. Into this world. But he didn’t want me to have the satisfaction of hating him, or the benefit of knowing what I was, so he stole my memories.
And he never wanted to think of me again, so he flung me to a location unknown to himself as well.
I woke up naked in a park with no recollection of anything. Not even my name.”
She sagged against me. “That’s the whole story. Nothing fancy. Just another asshole abusing his power.”
I held her tighter, letting the anger pass through me and out, replaced by something deeper. “He will never touch you again,” I said. “If he tries, I will destroy him.”
She spun around and straddled me, her hands around my neck. She looked up, eyes ringed with red, but clear. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“With every part of me.” I kissed her, pouring every promise I could not voice into the heat of her lips.
We stayed that way, pressed together in the steam and salt and darkness, for several moments until her breathing slowed.
When I finally lifted her out, I dried her with a towel thick as fur, carried her to my bed, and laid her gently on my pillows. I lay down next to her propped up on my elbow, and simply stared at her beauty.
She gave a small laugh. “You must have had a hundred lovers in your past. Does this ever get old?”
I thought of the centuries before her, the parade of faces and names, the beautiful distractions that had never once fit. I thought of the way I had watched her eat, the way I’d felt her pain like a second pulse in my veins.
“Svetoch, yes, I have been with many women. Too many to count. With the exception of the twins’ mother and Luba, they have been nothing more than distractions.
And honestly, since Luba’s death, I have not been with a woman in that way.
If you’re trying to do the math, that is twenty-five long years. ”
She rolled atop me, arms braced on either side of my head, her hair falling like a satiny curtain of sunshine around us. “I don’t know how to do this,” she said, voice tight. “I don’t know what a mate is. How claiming works.”
I cupped her cheek and drew her down for a kiss—slow, deep, deliberate. “Neither do I. You get one fated mate in your lifetime. You are mine. We will learn together.” I kissed her again.
She melted into the kiss; the tension draining from her body. I felt her hips shift, the bare heat of her pressing against me. My cock was already half-hard, and she made an appreciative sound as she grazed her thigh along its length.
“Mmm I like the way you feel,” she whispered, grinding just enough to make my head spin.
“You are impossible to resist,” I answered, hands sliding to her waist.
She hesitated, searching my face. “Will it always be like this? Like I’m starving, and you’re the only thing that can fill me up?”
I rolled us so she was on her back, pinning her wrists above her head. “Yes,” I said. “It will be exactly like this.”
She gasped, arching into me, and I trailed kisses from her jaw to her collarbone, then lower, tasting the lingering salt of her skin. She writhed, half-laughing, half-desperate, and when I released her hands, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer.
“Part of my claiming will be to bite you and to drink from you. Is this something you will be okay with?”
She ground her heat toward my impossibly hard cock.
“I want your bite. I crave it.”
“I cannot promise to be gentle. I do not want to hurt you. But my need for you is incredibly strong.”
“Kazimir, I’m immortal. I’m an angel. I want all you have to give me. Don’t hold back. I need and want you exactly as you are. The King of Kings, the monster, and the man.”