2. No Return
Ray
The date had been a disaster. Possibly the worst situation that could have happened.
Erik, of course, had not taken it well. We’d been so close. So painfully close to our mate. The woman we’d been haunting for the last year had been right there within our grasp—but then she’d run away.
And all chaos had broken loose. Bell and Dante had to pin Erik down, and it had taken me almost ten minutes to tame him. This darkness inside him intensified in her presence, and by her turning away, it’d gone berserk.
My mate was difficult. I loved him so, even these shattered parts of him.
But my heart hurt too.
We’d been so close, and now she felt even further away. Even as I sat here, watching her sleep, it felt like she wasn’t real.
I stroked my cock. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was completely oblivious to me, her breaths even. Moonlight streamed through her bedroom window, brushing over her nipples.
I just wanted to kiss them. Worship them. I wanted to feel her pulsing around me as Erik thrust inside me, our bodies becoming one. I wanted to hear her voice—her glorious, beautiful voice—chanting our names as we bred her.
At this point, I wasn’t sure that would ever happen. It’d been nice of the Barista to help us escape our confines for a small amount of time, but the date had been wasted. Christy couldn’t see us.
Was this going to be my fate? Stalking the woman we craved at the very core of our corrupt souls? The woman who could possibly break our curse?
I gasped as pleasure licked up my spine. This was wrong. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself as I went to the foot of her bed. My groan floated through the bedroom, and she let out the softest gasp, turning over onto her back.
“Fuck,” I gasped.
I felt Erik’s presence enter the room and turned, not even ashamed that my cock was in my hand. His dark mask gleamed, his gaze falling to her.
His pain rippled through our bond and I swallowed hard, drifting toward him. “Take your clothes off,” I whispered.
“No,” he said hoarsely. “We should leave her, shouldn’t we?”
“We should,” I whispered, drawing his hand toward my cock. His body shuddered, his sharp fangs glinting as his eyes fluttered closed. “But we won’t. Even if the reaper failed us. Even if the first date was a disaster. We won’t ever leave her.”
His hand closed around my cock, the ridges vibrating against his palm. “I just want her to see us,” he whispered. “That’s all I want, Ray. It’s driving me mad. The curse . . .”
“Will kill us,” I said, thrusting my cock further into his grip. “It will be the end of us if our mate does not accept us soon. But we have done what we can. We care for her, even though she does not realize it. She is ours, even if she never knows.”
Erik pressed his forehead to mine.
This was the side of him no one else knew. They saw a raging, furious, violent phantom.
But I saw the man who’d been by my side for two centuries.
The man whose soul was trapped and bound with mine, but still loved me. Loved me through the years of pain and suffering.
They feared him, but I loved him.
“I still trust that she will see us,” I said. “Eventually.”
Erik shook his head. “I’ve lost all hope. There’s only one thing that will soothe me. Turn around and bend over her bed.”
Fuck. I hesitated, glancing back at her. It was wrong to even be in her room, but Erik’s grip on me tightened. I did as he asked, bending over her bed, watching Christy dream as Erik undressed.
I felt the nudge of one of his monstrous cocks and gasped, my fingers digging into the blankets.
A soft moan floated through the room.
Erik stilled behind me, his hands freezing on my hips. I lifted my head, eyes wide as I looked at Christy.
She stirred, kicking back the blankets. Fuck. She was naked, completely bare. I stared at the dark hair between her thighs and then shook my head, straightening. “It’s wrong to do this here—”
Erik shoved me back onto the bed hard enough, the frame squeaked. Christy whimpered, her nipples hardening.
“She’s dreaming of us,” Erik whispered.
The head of his cock pressed against me, and I groaned as he thrust forward. Neither of us were human, and our bodies did not require the preparation a human might need for sex. I took his cock with ease, shivering with pleasure as he gave me every hard inch.
And I felt his second cock slide against my balls.
“Fuck,” I rasped. “Erik.”
“Watch her. Breathe her in. Our angel.”
She looked like an angel as she slept. Her dark brown hair sprawled out on her silk pillowcase, the scent of her arousal filling the room like perfume. I drank in her scent, pushing my ass back against Erik’s hips.
Fuck, I was greedy. It was immoral for Erik to have me bent over her bed while she slept, oblivious that she was fated to two phantoms. Our little opera singer had no idea that we’d been watching over her ever since she moved into this apartment.
She had no idea that she’d woken us up from the ashes beneath this building. Drawing us back into this realm, unchaining us, giving us forms that could hold things again.
She was oblivious to all of that, just as she was oblivious to how hard Erik’s cocks were for us.
One for me, one for her.
“Christy,” I rasped.
She stirred more and then her eyes flew open. Erik and I froze as she drew in a deep breath. She lifted her head, looking around the room.
She still didn’t see us, but it was as if she knew we were here. Her eyes landed on us, and yet . . . no reaction. Christy let out a long moan, flopping back onto the bed.
“I’m losing it,” she whispered.
Erik flexed his hips, pushing his cock deeper inside me. I gasped, then covered my mouth. Christy shook her head, her scent of arousal growing stronger.
“Part of her knows we stand here,” Erik murmured.
“She doesn’t know,” I gritted out.
He didn’t care. My twisted phantom thrusted deeper, claws dragging down my back as he fucked me without abandon. Claiming me in front of her, even if she could not see us.
Christy’s hands slid over her body, and my eyes widened as she cupped her heavy breasts. She rolled her nipples between her fingers, moaning as her sweet thighs parted.
“Erik,” I gasped.
“Look at her,” he demanded. “Watch our mate. Don’t turn away from her beauty.”
My cock throbbed, pre-cum dripping from the tip making a mess of her blankets.
But I didn’t tear my attention away, even as Erik pulled back and pushed both cocks together, both heads spreading my hole.
I groaned as Christy’s manicured fingers slid down to her pussy, parting herself, dipping them inside.
My mouth watered as her scent hit me. I grunted, wishing that more than anything else, I could taste her.
Erik leaned down and sank his fangs into my shoulder. My voice lifted with Christy’s, a melody of lust and need as he feasted on me, all while his cocks speared me. Pleasure and pain pumped through my veins as her fingers circled her clit, her spine arching.
He drew back, but only for a moment. I could feel his form becoming more monstrous, his face tearing with a large, beastly mouth.
His cocks lengthened and thickened as he became unrecognizable.
He lifted me, keeping his cocks inside me, my back falling against his chest. I moaned as he lifted me, still thrusting in and out, carrying me around the bed so that we were at her side.
“No,” I moaned. “Erik, we’re too close. What if I come?”
“Come,” he snarled, his voice deep and rattling in his chest. “We cannot go back now.”
Couldn’t we? Couldn’t we leave her side and never return? No.
The answer was no.
My head fell back against his shoulder and I watched with heavy lids as Christy cried out, her voice music to my ears. Her orgasm shivered through her, her pants sending me over the edge.
I tensed against Erik, but his grip on me tightened. Cum burst from my cock, milky drops splattering over her breasts. The moment it touched her, it became transparent, but . . .
“Fuck,” Christy suddenly moaned.
“Come,” Erik demanded. “Again. Come for us, mate.”
Her body responded to his words, as if she were his puppet. Her fingers circled her clit faster, the sound of her wetness filling the room. I watched in awe as she rode her hand, her hips rocking, her moans haunting us.
She was beautiful.
Erik’s claws dug into me as he drove in harder.
I whimpered as he bit me again, this time my other shoulder.
But I loved it when he was rough with me, and we’d been together long enough, I knew what he wanted.
I knew he wanted to taste me as he filled me, and that he also bit me to calm the part of him that wished to taste her.
I reveled in the pain. It made me feel alive. Submitting to him in this way kept me from falling apart. The fire in his fangs filled me with the need to find a way forward for us.
Christy had to see us.
One way or another, we needed her in our world.
“Come!” he roared.
Christy cried out as a second orgasm took its hold. I felt the gush of his cum inside me as he gave one final thrust, burying himself as deep as he possibly could.
I trembled around him, smiling as I felt the heat fill me. He purred against the side of my neck, kissing me there as we loomed over our mate.
Christy melted into the blankets, a sweaty, dripping mess. Her skin was flushed, her lips forming a relaxed, satisfied smile.
If only she realized we could give her so much more pleasure. That if she would let us into her life, she would be worshipped every day forever.
Erik slowly lifted me, his cocks pulling free.
Cum dripped from me as his form returned to his more human-appearing self, but he still didn’t let me go.
He turned me around, my legs winding around his hips.
He carried me through the room, through the wall, taking us deeper and deeper through the apartment building until we came to our cavern beneath it all.
Deep in the earth, a candlelit home that was the remnants of a theatre that’d been long forgotten and buried.
He laid me back on our opulent bed, kissing up and down my body. Down here, we could forget our curse. We could forget the cruel world. He was mine and I was his and we . . . we craved someone we weren’t so sure we could have.
My fingers glided through his black hair, pulling his face against my chest. He settled on top of me, his muscles relaxing.
“Why do you love me?” he whispered.
I smiled against the top of his head. “Not this again, Erik.”
“I mean it,” he growled. “I cannot fathom loving me.”
“Do you love me?”
“Of course. Don’t be absurd.”
“You love me as I love you,” I said softly. “All your faults. Your darkness. The cracks in your soul. I love your kindness as much as your cruelty. How could you doubt that?”
“Because I cannot love me,” he whispered. “I am a monster.”
I sighed, my eyes drifting shut. “I love you enough for both of us. Besides, we are both monsters. It’s hardly an issue.”
“But she is human. She cannot see phantoms, and—”
“She will,” I interrupted. “She will. I believe she will.” I had to believe that or else I wouldn’t be able to support Erik the way he needed. I had to be his rock. I had to remain steady.
He shook his head, but didn’t argue.
Christy would be ours. We just had to figure out how to show ourselves to her.
But she could not escape us. For better or worse, she was our angel. Our salvation.
And we were both far too depraved to let her fly away.