Holy fuck, she was so wet, so hot.
Without preamble, Kaj pushed inside her with enough restraint not to hurt her. It only took a moment for her body to acclimate to his size, her slickness coating him, easing the way. Sweet mother in Heaven. Acadia felt so fucking good, her body sending warmth radiating through his own. The only other feeling as amazing as this was coming home to her after having been away for so damn long.
“Take what you need,” he snarled as he propped her knees over his forearms, then planted his hands on either side of her head and began pumping his hips.
Acadia’s eyes remained locked on his face as she placed her palms flat on his chest, one directly over his heart. He watched, impaling her deep and hard as her purple irises glowed, cutting through the darkness, his energy being drawn into her, fueling her.
The first time she’d siphoned energy from him, Kaj hadn’t been able to explain it. He hadn’t expected the intensity, or the strange orgasmic sensations that resulted from it. And though the action weakened him for a beat, he couldn’t imagine not giving this female everything she needed. It was his duty as her mate to take care of her, to feed her.
His thoughts got highjacked by images of her feeding from the other males in the house, and he could feel the shift in his body. All of his senses were heightened, every single one of them focused on the female beneath him. His fangs punched down and his eyes lit up, allowing him to see everything in super high-def.
“Kaj…”
He growled softly, fighting back the urge to mark her as his. It was an instinct not easily shoved down, but one he was growing intimately more familiar with.
Acadia’s nails dug into his pecs as she drew on the sexual energy.
Fuck. Just the sight of her was enough to send him spiraling closer and closer to that blissful explosion that would sate him, albeit temporarily.
Acadia whimpered. “Kaj…”
He was gearing up to send them both into hyperspace when another blast of energy nearly knocked him over.
Acadia screamed, her sex clutching him, milking his cock as her hands fell from his chest.
He leaned forward, his mouth hovering over hers. “Kiss me,” he demanded.
She did. And Heaven have mercy on his soul, Kaj felt that kiss through his entire being. A cataclysmic mating of bodies ensued as Acadia took as much as she gave. He drilled into her. Hard, fast, deep. Over and over with startling force and overwhelming power. It wasn’t so much sex as it was a claiming. His body, hers. His soul, hers.
When Kaj pulled his mouth away, it was to stare down into her face. He wanted to see the submission in her eyes.
“Tell me,” he growled. “Who do you belong to, Acadia?”
“You,” she whimpered.
“Say my name,” he demanded, punctuating the words with vicious thrusts that rocketed them both closer to orgasm.
“Kaj.”
“Say it,” he insisted.
“I belong to you, Kaj. Only you.”
Her admission was what sent him over. The rumble tore up from his throat, an animalistic sound that no doubt could be heard for miles preceded the explosive orgasm. His. Hers.
When his body stilled, their eyes remained locked. Kaj sensed her need to retreat, and he respected it, but he wasn’t willing to let go just yet. Been there, done that, didn’t fucking like it the first time. It had been selfish of him to back her into that corner, to force her to say the words aloud, but he didn’t regret it. Deep down, he knew Acadia belonged to him. But it would take time before she was willing to accept it fully.
Rather than walk away the way she wanted, Kaj rolled them so that she was straddling him, his cock still buried to the hilt inside her.
“Now it’s your turn, balisra. Take me, Acadia.”
And she did.
Orianna wasn’t startled when she was awoken by the soft mechanical whir. Not when the drapes started their tedious retraction or the interior shutters unlocked and began their slow, methodical ascent and not when the outer ones followed suit. In the short time she’d been at the mansion, she’d gotten familiar with the sounds of the day giving way to night, the mansion coming alive with those who were forced to live in darkness.
“Have you ever been in the sun?” she asked Eclipse, trailing her finger over his bare chest as they lay in his big bed.
“No.”
“I assume there’s no sun in Heaven?”
“It’s always light there and it maintains a consistent temperature, but not from the sun, no.”
“You said you’ve been here … on Earth … for fifteen hundred years, right?” Just saying the words brought a smile to her face. It seemed so outrageous to think of Eclipse as an angel, having existed for an eternity. It made her wonder if his memories extended back that far. Could he remember the events of his life so long ago?
“Correct.”
“And before that?”
“I was training.” His hand came up and covered hers where it rested over his heart.
“For?”
“Protecting humans.”
“From what? I take it vampires aren’t your enemies.”
Eclipse chuckled. “No. Vampires are here for the same reason we are.”
“To protect humans?”
“They’re responsible for eliminating Lucifer’s creatures, and we—my brothers and I—handle the demons who create those creatures.”
“That sounds like a full-time job. There are only seven of you?”
“Technically, no. But last I heard, Michael hasn’t yet released the other factions.”
“Who’s Michael?”
“The archangel who created us,” he said easily.
“The tatted guy with wings?”
Eclipse chuckled. “Angel, but yes.”
Orianna lifted her head, peered at him in the dim light from the fire. “I thought you said you have parents.”
“I do. But Obsidian does not. He was Michael’s first creation. God didn’t like that Michael had encroached on his style, so he forced Michael to utilize traditional reproduction manners by using archsires and archdams.”
That sounded far too clinical for Orianna’s taste, but she didn’t interrupt.
“Michael has a dedicated pool of angels who reproduce for him. The strongest, fastest, most intelligent beings he can find. They raise the offspring until they’ve reached puberty, then send them to Michael for training.”
“At what age does an angel reach puberty?”
“Puberty is roughly after the twenty-fifth year, when they stop aging. As for full maturity, that depends on the upbringing, but generally close to the century mark.”
Orianna smiled as she lowered her head once more. “And you’ve been alive for seventeen centuries?”
“I have.” His hand caressed her arm, warm and comforting.
“Is Penelope an angel?” she asked after a few beats of silence.
His hand paused briefly, then resumed its slow, easy caress. “She is now, yes.”
“How did that happen?”
“Obsidian mated her.”
Orianna thought back to that vision of herself lying cold on the floor with Eclipse hovering over her. How she knew, she wasn’t sure, but it made sense. That was a premonition of the day she would die, and the reason it didn’t scare her was because it wasn’t the end.
“I’m going to die,” she told him. “I’ve seen it. You’re going to kill me to bring me back so I can be at your side for eternity.”
His hand stilled, squeezing gently, though she wasn’t sure he realized he was doing it.
“I’ve seen it,” she explained. “In a vision. I’ve wondered about it because it doesn’t scare me.” A soft chuckle escaped her. “I guess it probably should, huh?”
Eclipse moved then, his body shifting so Orianna was forced to her back. He propped himself on an elbow and stared down at her. She loved the way he looked at her, as though she was the most important thing in the entire universe. It was a feel
ing she’d never experienced before. Not even with her own parents. Amber had always been their parents’ favorite, and honestly, Orianna had never really cared. But here, with Eclipse, she wanted to be his everything.
“You are,” he whispered, his eyes wandering her face. “You’re my everything. My light in the darkness, my heat source in the blistering cold.”
God, how she wanted to believe all those sweet words. Based on her experiences thus far, she had no reason to doubt him, but it wasn’t easy to shed the tough skin that had been calloused by years of being alone. Before Eclipse, Orianna would’ve run screaming from the room if a guy even looked at her as though there was something more he wanted than sex. With Eclipse, she had no desire to run, but she hadn’t let all those walls around her heart crumble. But the foundation was weakening with every minute she spent with him.
When his palm cradled the side of her face, gently urging her to turn her head, Orianna did. She watched as his head lowered, felt the warmth pool in her core when his lips brushed hers. The slow stroke of his tongue inside her mouth dispersed that warmth through her entire being until her hands were sliding over his naked shoulders, pulling him closer, needing to be one with him.
But he didn’t rush, simply kissed her with long, luxurious strokes of his tongue against hers, soft, sweet touches of his lips until the heat consumed them both. And when it did, Orianna gave in to the passion, the excitement. But there was something else she gave in to in that moment, something she would never be able to walk away from.
Him.
He was everything she’d ever wanted in this life.
He was her salvation.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Three days later, when the tensions had started to escalate within the mansion, the mission to find Asmia the sole focus, Eclipse knew he and Orianna needed a break from it all. Their efforts to contribute were colliding with everyone else’s, ultimately making things more difficult. Not the intention, no, which was why he’d opted to slip out of the mansion with his female.
“I have to admit, Barin wasn’t what I was expecting.”
Eclipse shot a quick look over to the passenger seat and the beautiful female sitting there. “No? What’d you expect?”
She shrugged. “Something more … angel-like, I guess.”
He chuckled. “Wings? Halo?”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Her soft giggle was a welcome sound.
They’d left the mansion as soon as the sun went down, intending to make a quick trip to Grand Junction, aiming to cut the two-and-a-half-hour drive down by at least an hour to give them plenty of time to make it back to Darkness before sunrise. Though they weren’t exactly sure what they were looking for, Barin had informed them that Amber had spent quite a bit of time there before she disappeared off the grid completely nearly a year ago. Since Orianna had yet to search this particular patch of Colorado real estate, Eclipse had offered to take her.
What he was really hoping for was to come back and find the fiestreigh had taken down Perfidious and Asmia was back safe and sound at the mansion. Now that they’d passed the seventy-two-hour mark, everyone was beginning to worry they wouldn’t be bringing her home safe and sound.
“You’re worried about her, aren’t you?”
The soft, empathetic tone of his amsouelot’s voice had him sliding his hand over and linking his fingers with hers.
“I’m worried,” he admitted.
“Everyone’s doing the best they can. I even noticed Oliver was helping out.”
Yeah, the human had actually come in rather handy. Reidar had put him to work, and rumor was, Oliver had spent more time in the war room in recent days than he had in his own room. Seemed the male had simply needed a mission to prove he was more than just a disgruntled asshole. Add to that the fact Bijou was keeping him company and Oliver appeared to be in his element.
“We could’ve stayed there,” Orianna said softly.
Eclipse peered her way, saw the concern etched between her brows. She’d taken his silence to mean he didn’t want to be here.
“There’s nothing I can do for them right now. This is where I need to be.”
“That’s the truth?”
He grinned. “I’m unable to lie to you.”
“Says who?”
Squeezing her hand, he kept his eyes on the darkened road. “Says the Fates.”
“The Fates are a who?”
“Angels, yes. Nevaeh, Karma, and Adorah. Sisters.”
“Wow. The Fates are real and guardian angels aren’t a myth. Next you’ll tell me dragons aren’t merely fiction.”
“Actually…”
“Oh, my God! Seriously?”
Eclipse laughed. “Personally, I never did encounter one.”
“But they’re real.”
“As real as vampires and angels, but long since extinct.”
“Wow. That’s… Wow.”
By the time they reached Grand Junction, Eclipse was in desperate need of stretching his legs. While he loved his car, the Bugatti wasn’t the most comfortable when it came to long-distance travels. However, it had worked to shave a full hour off the one-way trip, and he intended to do the same with the return. Which gave them almost seven full hours of night to unearth whatever secrets Amber might’ve left behind here.
“Barin said she rented an apartment over the garage,” Orianna mentioned as they exited the vehicle. “The man who owns the house said he’d leave the key under the mat. It’s vacant right now.”
Eclipse kept his eyes peeled as they made their way up the narrow wooden stairs to the door on the second floor. Orianna flipped up the rug to reveal a shiny brass key, as promised. While Orianna shoved it in the lock, he took the opportunity to scan the area for souls. When he came up with nothing, not even in the adjacent house, Eclipse breathed a little easier.
“How long did she stay here?”
“Nearly four months. Which is possibly a record for her,” Orianna said as she pushed open the door and scanned the dark interior before stepping inside.
Eclipse flipped on a light and followed her in, closing and locking the door behind him.
“No one’s staying here right now, but he said he’s had a couple of tenants since she left. He also said there’s a storage closet where he keeps anything that’s left behind. Thought maybe I’d get lucky.”
“Lead the way.”
He was merely along for the ride, showing his female he was willing to do whatever it took to bring her closure where her sister was concerned. She’d spent so much time with Miklós, searching the message boards and tracking down virtual leads in between helping with the search for Asmia, Eclipse figured she needed this. While he sensed she’d come to accept her sister was dead, he knew how powerful hope could be. And until they located her body, he couldn’t very well blame her for wanting to keep searching.
“This is a nice place. I wonder how Amber found it.”
Eclipse scanned the interior. White walls, beige carpet, decent furniture. It was a vast improvement from the apartment they’d visited previously, that was for sure.
After they’d given the living room a quick once-over, he followed Orianna down a narrow hall. She flipped on more lights as she went. Coat closet, bedroom, bathroom, another small room with a desk, which he assumed was meant to be an office. Felt more like a closet to him, but hey, they were used to space.
Orianna pointed toward a door in the room. “I’m guessing that’s where he stores the stuff.”
Using another key, Orianna unlocked the knob and pulled open the door. Well, that explained where the other part of the room went. Looked as though someone had split the space in half to create this handy storage area. Evidently, the owner had an issue with people bailing and leaving their shit behind. Inside there were several rows of boxes, all neatly sealed up and labeled.
Eclipse held his position at the door, keeping his ears tuned to the other rooms, ensuring no one came along to surprise them while Orianna searched the boxes.
His mind drifted to the conversation he’d had with Obsidian early that morning. His brother had subtly reminded him that the next full moon was only a few days away—three and a half, to be exact—and wanted to know if they needed to prepare for the lintamair. In an effort to appease his brother, he’d pretended to give it some thought, although he had no intention of undergoing the official mating ceremony this go-round. The mere thought of taking Orianna’s life … even thinking about it made him feel as though he was buried underground, the weight of the world focused on the center of his chest.
He remembered how Obsidian had come apart at the seams before his own ceremony, the terror of what he had to do weighing heavily on his heart. Eclipse’s palms were sweating just thinking about it. Nope. They’d have to wait. How long, he wasn’t sure. But he figured he would know when the time was right.
“Here it is,” Orianna said, leaning over one stack of boxes.
“I’ll get it.”
It was the work of a moment to retrieve the small box from the bottom of the stack, and as he stepped back to give Orianna space, he couldn’t help wondering if he was putting her in even more danger by not going through with the ceremony.
“What are you doing?”
Reidar took stock of the boxes piled in a row along the wall near the door. His private quarters looked more like a storage room than a peaceful place to rest his head.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Winnie muttered, not bothering to look up at him. “I’m leaving.”
Well, that was fairly obvious based on the boxes of shit. Her shit. All the things they’d moved from her apartment in California just two short months ago were being loaded back up.
“Winnie…”
“Don’t ‘Winnie’ me, Reidar. You don’t want me here any more than I want to be here.”
He swallowed, the sound overly loud to his own ears.
“Yeah.” Her disappointment rang heavily in that one word. “That’s what I thought.”
Before she could storm back to the bathroom, Reidar reached for the female, carefully curling his hand around her arm. He waited for the impact of touching her. Some sort of feeling, an urge to fight for them. He got nothing. Which had been the case for the past few weeks, ever since she’d started harping on him to go back to California with her.
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