Chapter 29 #3
The next heartbeat, Ariadne stood before Azriel once more. His peridot eyes scanned her face with the same devotion as before. Had he not seen them? Why would she be granted the vision of the Underworld and not the one with dhemon blood?
But the answer tickled the back of her mind, like a thought not placed there by her own will: he already knew all of it in his heart.
It was the job of the vampires to learn the truth of the world and spread the knowledge of Keon’s work within their very own sacred rituals.
Rituals she now understood were taken from the dhemons upon their colonization of the land.
“We should move,” Azriel whispered, “so the next person can be seen to.”
Ariadne nodded, still reeling from having seen her friends and their families, who had all been entangled in the web woven by a god desperately trying to save his fae children.
Something told her that every one of those ancient spirits that waited so long in the Underworld to see the dhemons reunited was now free.
Free to move on. Free to rest. Free to do as they pleased with their own afterlife.
Hand-in-hand, they moved to the edge of the crowd, allowing the next flow of dhemons to move in and receive their tattoos.
When they had separated themselves just enough to watch the ritual continue, Azriel cursed under his breath at the same moment a wave of heady need washed through Ariadne, heating her core in an instant.
“Is this part of the bond?” She grinned up at him. “A constant need to have you?”
Azriel’s eyes burned hot. “Insatiable, isn’t it? Now you understand my…needs.” Then he winced and screwed his face up in concentration.
Her breath caught, and she pivoted to face him, aching for him to touch her no less. “Are you alright?”
“Perhaps we should have had all dhemons practice for the ritual,” Azriel hissed through his teeth. “I think I know what emotion I control.”
All around them, dhemons’ expressions turned slack with a similar, less controllable arousal. Those who were already partners or mates moved closer, their hands beginning to roam one another’s bodies. Still more looked to one another with a silent question in their eyes.
Face flushing, Ariadne squeezed her thighs together. “What? The need to fuck?”
Finally meeting her gaze, his pupils expanded, swallowing up the irises completely, unlike anything Ariadne had ever seen. Except, it did not seem to stop there. It eclipsed his entire eye, turning them stark black.
“Azriel,” she breathed. “Your eyes.”
He gaped at her. “My eyes? Yours are…glowing white!”
“Yours are black. Every part.” Ariadne took his face in her hands, staring at him in wonder. Even with the strange change, she could not stop the way her body bent against his, seeking his touch in any way. “What do you mean mine are white?”
“The same for you,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and dragging her in close. The hard length of his erection pressed into her belly, drawing a low groan from her. “I think we should go somewhere until I can get this power under control.”
Gods, the rush of desire from the bond had her hands roving his body already, feeling every dip and rise of his muscles. Every flex. Every sway of his hips. She could live like this, eager and ready for him to spread her wide and lose himself in her.
From the moment the mating bond had snapped into place for Ariadne, it was all she wanted, and she had just enough sense remaining to know the difference between that and the magic Azriel now wielded.
Her body wanted his—ached for it in ways she would not have believed possible had she never experienced this.
Her soul, though, wished for nothing more than to wrap itself around Azriel’s and remain there for eternity.
And now it could. They were connected in more ways than one, sealing their fate as a single core spirit.
“Yes,” Ariadne breathed.
Azriel sank low, cupped his hands around the back of her thighs, and hoisted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and sucked in a sharp breath as she rubbed herself against him, seeking the pleasure he promised.
“Fuck, Ariadne.” He drew his fangs along her fresh tattoo, already healed. “You’re making it very difficult to get back to our tent.”
She whined low, burying her fingers into his hair as she nipped at his ear. “Then take me here.”
“You don’t mean that,” he said, voice husky. “Not where everyone can see you.”
Ariadne pulled back and looked around. The half dozen dhemons that had been nearest to them at the back of the crowd were just pulling apart as they regained their senses, faces flushed from the surge of primal need.
A couple turned to stare at them, eyes wide with understanding.
She could not help but laugh before continuing her search for somewhere—gods, anywhere—they would have some semblance of privacy because if she had to wait any longer before indulging in her husband, she might scream.
“There.” Ariadne pointed to a small rundown barn at the edge of a field.
Changing direction, Azriel’s long legs ate up the distance in record time. He set her down at the entrance where a crooked door hung. “Wait here.”
“Please—”
“It could be a hazard.” He stepped across the threshold, then returned less than a minute later to grab her hand and drag her into its shadowy depths.
Grinning up at him, Ariadne dragged her fingers down his chest and hard stomach to unfasten his trousers. “Not a hazard then?”
“It’s sturdy enough,” he said, taking her face in his hands and bringing his mouth to hers.
The kiss was hungry and all-consuming. If Ariadne had experienced anything like it before, she could not recall.
Perhaps it was the newly requited bond between them, or maybe Azriel’s new power affected her in ways she could not predict.
Either way, she wanted nothing more than to merge her body with his, burying herself into his bones so they would never again be apart.
With his trousers unbuttoned, Ariadne wrapped her fingers around his stiff cock and stroked him from base to tip, drawing a long moan from Azriel.
She relished the way the soft skin there shifted with her touch and when she drew her thumb across the head of it, she hummed in delight at the bead of moisture she found there.
Looking him in the eyes, she switched hands and licked her finger clean to the sound of his breathless curse.
Before Azriel could say anything more, Ariadne sank to her knees before him and dragged her tongue up his length, then slid his cock into her mouth. The way he moaned her name as she did so had her reaching between her legs and rubbing her clit as she began her slow, steady strokes.
“Gods,” he hissed, his hips jerking forward and making her gag.
Tears sprung to her eyes unbidden from the sudden choke, but Ariadne merely pulled back a bit more, working the length of his cock that she could not take in her mouth with her hand.
Fingers dug into her hair and she moaned at the way he held her there, wanting her to suck him as much as she wanted to feel him on her tongue.
Before long, though, Azriel gripped her hair a little harder. “Stand up, my love.”
Ariadne sucked hard, drawing more of him into her mouth as she swirled her free hand over herself. Pleasure rolled through her as she worked and he struggled to contain himself.
“Fuck…”
Looking up at him, she found Azriel staring at the ceiling as though the rafters high above would provide him the strength to regain some control. It only made her want more. More of him. More of them together in any possible way.
“Ariadne,” he groaned. “I need to fuck you…hard.”
Oh, she could relinquish him for that. Her core throbbed at the thought of him inside her and she slowly pulled her lips from his cock, the head of him coming free with an audible pop.
A sensual grin curled his mouth. “That’s it, my love. Now come up here.”
She did not move before he stooped down and pulled her back to her feet where he went to work stripping her of her clothes and panties.
It happened so fast, his deft hands yanking her shirt off, then sliding her own trousers down her long legs and off alongside her boots.
His hands trailed back up her thighs, and he dove his face between them, drawing his tongue between her wet folds with a hum of satisfaction.
“You always taste exquisite,” he murmured and slid two fingers into her. His grin widened as he looked up at her. “You are so ready for me.”
“Stop talking about it,” Ariadne breathed, “and fuck me.”
“As you wish, my love.”
With that, Azriel stood, ripping his own clothes from his body and walking her backwards until her back hit what she could only assume was a beam. The barn whined at the pressure on its support but did not give.
“Not a hazard?” she asked breathlessly as he kissed her neck.
Azriel grunted in response before burying his fangs into her and simultaneously hoisting her off her feet.
As he pulled the blood from her veins, Ariadne shifted her hips so he could slam his cock into her.
The sudden fullness had her crying out in pleasure, spurring him on to thrust hard—just as he had promised.
Bare back against the old wood beam, Ariadne arched toward him, grinding against his pelvis while he moved to gain more friction. She wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist in search of stability as he pumped his hips.
When Azriel pulled his fangs from her, he groaned loud and tilted his head back again, blood dripping from his long sharp teeth and dribbling over his chin.
It was at once primal and erotic, his full consumption of her body and soul, and it only heightened her pleasure as she lined his jaw with kisses.
She could live the rest of her life in those moments, filled by him and tumbling over the precipice of a climax.
Ariadne’s core gripped him, and she watched in a mixture of blissful shock as Azriel’s tan skin gave way to a flood of blue, his dhemon form springing forth as he rode out her orgasm. Horns spiraled out from his head, and his body grew.
All of him grew.
She already knew that, as a dhemon, Azriel was larger in every possible way.
What she had not experienced was just how that felt.
His shoulders broadened, muscles bulged, and his cock swelled to its typical dhemon size inside her, stretching her in the most delicious way as he continued to thrust hard.
In a matter of moments, Ariadne went from having sex with a vampire…
to fucking a dhemon. And there was something about the transition from one to the other that had her only wanting more.
When he opened his eyes, the solid black of them paired with his curling horns and midnight blue skin made Azriel look even more like the Dhemon King.
The Dhemon King crowned by the God of the Underworld himself.
Wrapping his arms around her, Azriel stepped back and sank to his knees so she rested on his lap. Ariadne did not hesitate. She unhooked her arms from around his neck and gripped the lower curl of his horns to steady herself as she rode him, impaling herself on his cock with every downward thrust.
Hands now free, Azriel pressed one to her lower back as she moved and used the other to knead her breast, pinching her nipple and rolling it between his fingers. The pleasure swept through Ariadne in waves again as he gripped her, strong hands digging into her curves with need.
“Fuck…yes…” he breathed before he kissed her. “You move like a goddess.”
Hips swaying with every bounce, Ariadne groaned against his lips. “Then worship me like one.”
Azriel smirked, meeting her movement with a surge of his hips. “Until the very end, my love.”
They moved like that together, breathing hard and punctuating their thrusts with moans and heated kisses.
If anyone heard them, they said nothing, and Ariadne did not care.
Azriel had ensured all of Auhla could hear her once and it seemed only right for them to know that their King and Queen were now fully and completely mates in every sense.
The thought, paired with Azriel’s cock, sent Ariadne right over the edge of a climax once more, this time taking him along with her. As her core pulse, he let out a final cry of pleasure and buried himself deep. Warmth flooded her core as he held her there and kissed her hard.
“I do not think it was your magic,” Ariadne said after a moment during which she took the opportunity to assess herself. There was a calm that settled about her that had most definitely not been there when they entered the barn earlier.
Azriel studied her, his eyes still black. “What do you think it was?”
She laughed airily. “I think I just experienced what you always have with me: a need to claim you for myself.”
A beat of silence, then Azriel grinned. “It’s about time you understand just how much self-control I really have when I’m around you.”
Another laugh, then she stood slowly from his lap, relishing the warmth that dripped from her. “I do not think I enjoy practicing control when it feels like that.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Then I suggest,” Azriel said, grabbing her hand and pulling her back toward him, “you get on your hands and knees and let me indulge in you again.”