Raim circled me with both arms, brushing the side of his face against mine.
“I’ll go with you, Dee,” Marcus stated, his expression hard.
Relief spread through me at his offer. I would do it alone if I had to, but having someone like Marcus to watch my back considerably strengthened my confidence.
“Are you sure?” I still asked, prompted by worry for him. “You have a baby, a family.”
“Exactly,” he replied resolutely. I noticed Angela’s fingers curl into his t-shirt, but she remained quiet. “If what you’re saying is true, I have a lot at stake here. Vic has my blood. And you . . .” He lifted his eyes of midnight-blue to me. “I’ve just got my sister back. I have my soulmate for a wife. We have a son.” He glanced at Angela then back at me. “You see, I have a lot to live for. I’m not interested in dying.”
I nodded. “It’ll be great to have you with me, Marcus.”
“I may not be able to manipulate that coffin, but I sure can manipulate the guards and their guns in a thousand different ways.” He winked at me and promised, “I’ll keep you safe.”
Raim hugged me closer.
“Thank you,” he said to my brother, a strong note of sincerity and gratitude deepening his voice.
“Thank you,” I echoed, feeling lighter at heart.
Chapter 23
MARCUS INSISTED WE talk to Inge before we left. At two hundred years of age, she was the oldest in the family. Apparently, longevity like hers was rare in our family nowadays, but it used to be more common in earlier generations—a trait inherited from our otherworldly ancestor. After spending all this time with Raim, a lifetime spanning centuries no longer shocked me. However, knowing that Inge had been alive for that long sparked curiosity in me. I wished I could ask her questions about everything she had witnessed during her life.
One day.
Maybe.
Right now, we could not afford idle chatter. Time was running out painfully fast. Every new day seemed to pass quicker than the one before.
The morning after our conversation with Marcus and Angela, all four of us had breakfast with Inge. When Raim explained to her who he was, she accepted it rather well, appearing to take it in strides.
“Fallen angels.” Inge stared at Raim in awe. “I thought it was but a legend. Though, doesn’t every legend have some truth behind it?”
“You told me your family came from either demons or angels, remember?” Angela said. “Well, it turned out it’s kind of both.”
“With some human blood mixed in,” Marcus added.
“That’s the key,” Inge agreed. “The unity of two worlds brought the magic out in all of us. Except that our bloodline has been becoming more human with each generation.” She studied Raim’s face for a moment longer then moved her penetrating gaze to me. “It would be interesting to see how the magic manifests in the first line of offspring, those who are half-demons—true cambions.”
Raim didn’t flinch under her stare.
“We’ve had a number of infants born to the Forgiven,” he said. “The oldest one is currently under two years of age. None have demonstrated any unusual abilities yet.”
“It will be an exciting time when they start manifesting themselves.” Inge’s pale blue eyes glistened with delight, making her seem younger than even her ‘apparent’ age of sixty.
We wondered if the rest of the family needed to be made aware of what was happening. Some might want the time to bring their affairs in order and get ready for the worst-case scenario. However, Inge spoke against sharing the possibility of the end with the others.
“People would normally ‘get ready’ for dying by preparing their wills and saying goodbyes to their loved ones,” she said. “In our case, it seems most if not all of our loved ones will be gone with us. I’d say let’s keep the rest of the family in happy ignorance for now, since none of them can do anything about the outcome. Panic and fear may bring more harm to them than death.”
“Inge.” Angela shifted closer to the older woman, taking her delicate hand in hers. “You know things that no one else does. What do you think will happen?”
“Oh, dear. My gift of clairvoyance is spotty at best.” Inge chuckled. “I would say sometimes I know things that there is no way for me to know, but I cannot predict the future. All I can do is to have faith in what you’re planning to do and hope it’ll work out for all of us. Do not forget, my dear,” she addressed me directly. “You will have the best of both worlds beside you.”
INSTEAD OF THE CASTLE on Sirena Scalo, it had been decided that Raim’s house on the Swiss-Austrian border was better suited for all of us to meet up at, before setting out to The Priory grounds high in the Alps.
“Show me where it is, and I’ll take you there,” Marcus offered, after we had said our goodbyes to everyone then walked to the front of Auntie Jennie’s house to the parking area.
“Really?” I smiled at him with anticipation, feeling every bit like a little girl at a magic show, ready for any miracle he’d throw at me.
“We have to return the vehicle.” Raim pointed at the rented car. It had been sitting outside all this time. In this heat, I imagined getting into it would be like climbing into a preheated oven.
“Do you have your rental agreement on you?” Marcus asked.
Raim silently handed him the paper from the car rental company. After glancing at it, my brother nodded. The car then began to shimmer as if dissolving into the midday heat, then disappeared completely, right before my eyes.
“Oh. My. God.” I stared at the empty spot where the vehicle had just stood. Glancing Raim’s way, I noticed that his normally impenetrable facade had shifted once again, surprise clear on his face.
“I am impressed,” he stated.
“You didn’t leave anything inside, did you?” Marcus asked.
“No.” I gestured at the bags in our hands that we’d had no chance to put in the car.
“Good,” he said. “Although, it wouldn’t be a problem if you did.”
“Wow, do you ever have any problems?” I laughed. “Really, brother. Life must be so much easier for you than for the rest of us.”
“He is just showing off right now,” Angela said, with a short giggle. “He really doesn’t use his abilities that much in everyday life. Mostly, we go about our day-to-day activities in a conventional way, just like everybody else.”
“I still feel bad that I couldn’t move that urn for you,” Marcus confessed. “Please, show me your house on the map,” he asked Raim. “I’ll take you there myself. Right now.”
“Do you need to do anything in Phoenix?” Raim asked me. “You’re done with everything in Seattle, right?”
The townhouse was listed for sale with the key left with the real estate agent. The will was signed and with my lawyer. We had been planning to fly from Phoenix back to Switzerland, first thing tomorrow morning.
“All done. Ready to catch our flight back to Zurich tomorrow.”
“Alright then.” Raim opened the map app on his phone again, this time entering the address of his house in Switzerland.
Marcus glanced at the screen quickly then briefly enclosed Angela in a hug. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He kissed her forehead then her mouth, and she smiled with a nod.
“Bye again, Raim.” She waved to us. “Bye, Dee.”
Marcus came to where Raim and I stood holding our bags.
“Come here.” He wrapped his arms around both of us.
“What exactly do we need to do?” I asked, blinking from a sudden puff of air into my face.
“Just give me a goodbye-for-now hug.” I heard Marcus chuckle. “Since we’re here already.”
“I—”
The air suddenly felt cooler around us, the heat from the sun was gone. I twirled around, taking in a large foyer with dark wooden floors and paneling.
“Welcome to my home,” Raim muttered, looking a bit stunned himself. “One of them, anyway.”
“Nice place.”
Marcus glanced around.
“Would you like a tour of the house? A glass of wine?” Raim recovered quickly, taking my bag from me and setting it aside as I still blinked and gawked around.
“No, thank you.” Marcus raked his fingers through his hair. “Some other time. I need to get back to Vic and Angela.”
Raim glanced at his phone.
“Be here the day after tomorrow, after breakfast our time.”
The expression on Marcus’s face turned serious. “Will do.” He shook Raim’s hand then turned to me. “Sister,” he said slowly, as if testing the word.
“Brother.” I smiled, coming closer and wrapping my arms around him. A wave of warmth flooded me, too intense for me to even try putting it into words. “Thank you for the lift,” was all I said, squeezing him in a hug.
“I’ll see you soon.” He placed a kiss on the crown of my head before disappearing out of my arms.
“Isn’t it freaking amazing?” I asked no one in particular, staring at the empty circle of my arms.
“Extremely convenient,” Raim agreed. He took our bags and headed up the stairs. “Come, I’ll show you the bedroom. Would you like to see the rest of the house?”
Gliding my hand along the intricately carved railing, I followed him up the wide, dark-wood staircase.
“Judging by what I’ve seen this far, your taste in house décor is opulent and elegant, in an antiquated kind of way. Which I find I really like, by the way.”
“Antiquated?” he huffed, a teasing glimmer in his eyes as he glanced at me over his shoulder. “This was the height of fashion only a century or two ago. Humans change their tastes way too quickly,” he added, somewhat grumpily. “Even if I redecorated every decade, I wouldn’t keep up.”
Upstairs was open to the foyer below. The railing circled the opening with a grand crystal chandelier in the middle.
“This way please.” Raim headed for a large carved door straight ahead of us. “This is my bedroom.”
I followed him into the huge room, with a canopy bed between two tall windows framed by heavy, burgundy drapes.
“Why do you have bedrooms and beds in your houses? If you don’t sleep?”
“All of my properties were furnished by the humans I hired. It’s customary to have a number of bedrooms in a place of this size.” He placed my bag near the wardrobe by the wall. “I had no bed in my room at the Incubi Base, but here they just happened to already be. So, I kept them.”
“It is a gorgeous house, Raim. Very grand.” I turned around, admiring the gold leaf moulding on the ceiling and the artwork on the walls. The atmosphere in this house was definitely a little more formal than that in his castle on the island. “I feel like I’m in a museum or as if I travelled back in time.”
“Are you hungry?” He moved closer to me, and I stepped into his arms without giving it a second thought. Despite spending every minute next to Raim lately, I craved being even closer.
“Hungry? I just had breakfast, silly.”
“It’s dinner time here.”
“Isn’t it incredible?” I tilted my head back to see his face. “To be able to move around the globe in seconds?”
He huffed a small laugh, arching an eyebrow. “I never thought I’d be envious of a human man, but the gift of teleportation is something definitely worth having.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m glad you found your brother.”
I smiled. Giddy happiness, still with an underlying hint of disbelief, rushed through me.
“It is the biggest miracle of them all, isn’t it?”
He slid his hands up my back.
“I’m so sorry, Raim,” I searched his eyes with mine. “I’m sorry I blamed his disappearance on you for so long.”
“There was no way for you to know the truth, Dee. Even Marcus himself didn’t know it.”
“He was too small to remember how it all happened,” I replied. “It’s a lot of power to gain at a very young age. Poor Angela is stressing out about Vic already. She told me this morning that she has a net canopy installed over his crib, in case he starts levitating. She said she’s now ordering a bracelet for him, with their address and phone number engraved, in case he teleports.”
“Marcus said he’ll add a GPS tag as well.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed. “If I had a child who could possibly teleport across the planet one day, I’d do anything to keep him safe.”
I hadn’t thought about having children very often before. When still married to Brad, I’d told myself we could start a family at any time—just after I finished school, or after he got the professor’s position, or maybe after I finished my internship . . . The fact that he didn’t have a strong desire for children had made it easier.
Now, I realized my delaying it could have had deeper reasons. Whether wanting to continue with my dad’s legacy of secrecy or afraid of Brad’s reaction to my being different, I never told him about my super strength. Having children who would likely have some special abilities would’ve exposed me.
Another sign I should have spotted much earlier. Did my marriage ever have a chance if I didn’t trust my husband enough to tell him something this big about myself?
And now, who knew if I’d ever get to be a mother.
“You’re sad,” Raim stated simply. “Can I take it? To make you feel better?”
The truth was, even if we survived our mission unscathed, I didn’t know what to expect from the future. Raim believed he could never be Forgiven, which meant he would always remain what he was, forever. And I . . . I did not want to be with any other man at this point.
“I can deal with it.” I shook my head, refusing his generous offer to take my sadness away through touch. “I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to a kiss, though.”
A big, gleeful grin spread on his face, blinding me for a moment—it was such a rare sight to see him smile completely open and unguarded like that.
“I thought you’d never ask.” He leaned in, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, meeting him in a kiss.
It was slow and tender—very different from his wild, hungry kisses of before—yet still so very passionate.
My heart squeezed with a sweet ache that flooded me whole. I craved intimacy with him, but that no longer included just sex. Being with Raim gave me satisfaction on every level, like I had never experienced with anyone before. He stimulated my mind as well as all of my senses.
“Are you hungry?” I asked when he moved his kisses to my neck, fanning the desire that fluttered deep in my belly.
“Always,” he murmured against my skin.
“Let’s feed you then.” I slid my fingers to the buttons of his shirt, opening them up as quickly as I could, eager to touch as much of him as possible.
A groan vibrated deep in his throat as he lifted me then placed me on top of the luxurious bedspread. “Now I’m really glad I have this bed in here,” he muttered, kissing the swell of my breast exposed by the low neckline of my blouse while his hands found their way under my skirt.
I shoved his shirt off his shoulders then pulled the leather cord from his hair, setting it free. Sinking my fingers in his thick mane, I lifted my hips up to help him slide my underwear down.
Moving up my body, he rose over me, his eyes glistening red in the glow of the setting sun.
“No matter what happens after, tonight is ours. And you are mine.”
Suddenly, I realized that even after a decade of marriage, I had never belonged to anyone before. Brad and I were our own people, even at the height of our romance.
Raim just voiced his claim right now, but he had already owned every part of my heart and my soul. Little by little, he had taken them all, and I gave, gladly.
“Yours,” I echoed as he entered me slowly but without hesitation. “And you are mine, Raim. I want it all.”
Everything. His good times and bad, his anger and his pain, and every single one of his rare smiles—all were mine, now.
He rocked his hips into me, thrusting deeper, and
I wrapped my arms around his neck. No longer bothering with reining in my strength, I brought him closer. For once, I didn’t need to be mindful of how strong I hugged, I didn’t need to hold back. His strength superseded mine, and he met me thrust for thrust, embrace for embrace.
In his arms I could truly be myself, whatever that happened to be—strong and independent, small and vulnerable, mad and raging. I didn’t need to pretend. Raim saw me for what I was, and he accepted all of me.
I kissed him for as long as I could, and when my breathing turned erratic under the rising tsunami of the intense pleasure he brought up in me, I simply held him close, savoring every moment of ecstasy he created in my body until the mind-bending orgasm rolled through me and he followed me with his release.
“This is like nothing else out there,” he groaned, shifting to my side afterwards. “In no other world.”
I snuggled into his warm body, twirling the ends of his hair between my fingers, my inner muscles still trembling from my climax as a languid warmth settled in my veins.
“How many other worlds are there, Raim?” I asked.
“I don’t know. If I had visited any others, I did not get to keep the memories of them. I just know that there couldn’t be anything better than being here, with you.”
He brushed some loose strands of my hair away from my face, kissing my lips softly.
“Then stay here, in this world, with me,” I murmured against his mouth.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He moved his kisses along my face. “Not yet.”
Not yet.
The words resonated with pain and longing in my chest. “I will do what I need to do the day after tomorrow, Raim,” I vowed. “We will stop this.”
He rose on his elbow, searching my eyes.
“Dee, would you consider letting Marcus go instead of you?”
“No,” I replied quickly, sitting up.
“So I feared.” He shifted across the mattress then rolled to his back, placing his head in my lap, which appeared to be his favourite position.
The Last Unforgiven - Freed (Demons, #5) Page 18