Gabriel flicked a wary glance at Lucifer before he answered. “A small province in Northeastern China. The scientist is Pavel Volkavich.”
“Are you kidding me?” Analise’s gaze went between Lucifer and Gabriel. “That man is shunned by most of the biogenetics community. His experiments are infamous and deadly to anyone who goes near them. Where did he get funding to set up a lab? What the hell is the government thinking to allow this menace to the world? Is the woman alive?”
“Barely,” Gabriel replied in a disgusted tone. “The modification included bird DNA, an eagle. The results were partial, a wing or feathers but never a complete shift.”
Analise paced, her anger growing by the seconds. “It’s because she wasn’t born with the specific code to shift. Gene modification does not change that necessity, which is why there are more recessives than full shifters.”
The air around her gradually heated. Analise recognized it for what it was, Lucifer’s anger. She halted her pacing. Narrowing her eyes, she gazed at him. “I don’t like the look on your face. Tell me what’s going on in that gorgeous head of yours, Angel boy.”
Her hand covered her mouth to stifle a grin when a chorus of sniggers erupted. Lucifer ignored the angels in the room. “My brother in control of a group of shifters changes the balance. If these experiments succeed, humans become an inevitable part of the equation, with devastating casualties.”
“When you say devastating casualties what number do you have in mind?”
“It is difficult to say, perhaps half the population of humans on Earth,” he replied. “Perhaps all.”
Stunned by his words, she stared at Lucifer. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”
He reached for her and she slapped his hand away. His sigh signaled she would not like what he was about to say. “Answer. The. Fucking. Question. Seraphim.”
“We are at war, Consort,” Lucifer said, his hand scrubbing his face. “We would not be able to distinguish supernaturals from non-supernaturals, who follows my twin and who does not. Satan will force us to slaughter millions.”
Analise balled her fist and punched his chest, wincing at the pain. This was the second time she’d made that mistake and it only added to her rage. Rubbing her knuckles, she started for the elevator, stopped, and turned to face Lucifer.
“You’re bloody Guardians—all-powerful, all-seeing, all doing, all everything.” She shook her finger at Lucifer. “Humans shouldn’t die because of an intra-species war they didn’t start.”
Consort.
“Now is not the time, Seraphim.”
He strode to where she stood and took her into his arms, holding her firmly. “Accept your obligations, Analise Saria Willoughby. As long as you equivocate, you put every living creature—angels, humans, and supernaturals—in danger. My brother will not stop until all are under his control or destroyed. If the sacrifice of human life enables him to achieve what he wants, he will sacrifice humans.”
“Get your hands off me, and open the doors,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
The elevator doors opened. When Lucifer released her, Analise walked inside. Pushing a button, she glared at him. “I am decidedly pissed with angel kind at the moment, Seraphim.”
A faint chuckle floated from a chair once the doors closed and the elevator began its descent. “Well, It went better than I expected.”
“You have something you wish to say, Michael?”
Michael rose and ran his fingers through his sienna locks. “Sire, Analise is angry but she’s also afraid.”
“Why? Does she not know I will protect her with my life? She is my Consort.”
“Empathy, Sire. Your Consort is a shifter.”
A baffled Lucifer stared at Michael. “Why am I not able to see it?”
“Lilith concealed the evidence to protect her descendants. Unless a Tamahaq shifter actually shifts, no one can detect the gene. Lise also refuses to deal with the fact she is a full-blooded shifter,” Michael explained.
“How did you learn this, Michael?”
“Lise confided in me.” A worried look passed across Michael’s face. “Analise Willoughby is what Satan seeks, although he doesn’t know it. She is the research he sought when he had her parents killed. Control of Lise’s DNA gives Satan what he needs to rule the Earth and destroy the Enclave.”
Power rippled along the edges of Lucifer’s wings, spreading down and across his feathers. Cobalt clashed with silver, forming a fiery lattice across the expanse of his wings. “I will not allow it. Analise Saria is my life mate and my Consort.”
“Then you need to end this polite dance with her, Sire,” Gabriel stated. “We are running out of time.”
Lucifer glowered at Gabriel who refused to buckle in the face of the Seraphim’s anger. “I will take care of the matter.”
He walked over to the window and stared out at the building across from them. Without a word, Lucifer whirled and strode toward an open stairwell leading to the roof. With a smooth, powerful thrust, he soared upward. Gabriel watched Lucifer land on the balcony connected to Analise’s living room.
“I hope she doesn’t knife him,” Michael observed with a wry laugh. “She is Tamahaq.”
Gabriel shrugged. “So far, we haven’t lost a single life mate to the Tamahaq’s dagger, although my namesake came close to death several times.”
Michael and Gabriel exchanged a glance before Gabriel added, “Definitely glad Analise isn’t my life mate.”
***
“We must talk, Consort.”
Analise nearly dropped her coffee mug as she walked out of the kitchen. Her gaze went Lucifer then to the sliding glass door separating her balcony from the living room. “I see your usual respect for boundaries is in place. Is teleporting another one of your little talents?”
“Angels possess all the supernatural traits humans desire—telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis. The ability we lack is shifting.”
“Right,” she drawled before setting her mug on the island that divided the kitchen from the living room. “Magical creatures. So what part of leave me alone didn’t you get? Angelic drama is exhausting, and I want no part of it.”
His gaze swept her entire body before resting on her face. Analise fought to ignore the tendrils of desire that surfaced in response to the ever-present desire in his eyes. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. It was so hard to resist him. Squeezing her eyelids tight, she lightly bit the inside of her mouth to break the spell.
“You don’t get to do this to me. Get out,” she ordered.
Lucifer took a step toward her. “You are a shifter.”
Analise instinctively backed up. “You knew. . . you knew all along.”
She reached for the coffee mug then thought better of it. She loved the cup. Her fingers gripped the small vase sitting on the countertop and flung it at him. “You asshole, you searched my mind.”
The vase landed unbroken at his feet. Lucifer glanced at the vase before he speared Analise with a hard look.
“I gave you my word not to touch your memories. When I give my word, I keep it, Consort. Mark informed me.”
His insulted tone sliced through her anger. Analise searched his face, his eyes, and his mind. She folded her arms across her stomach as if to hold in. . .she didn’t have a clue what she was trying to hold in anymore.
Her body shook as hot tears scorched her cheeks and she dropped to her knees, her emotional armor finally broken. “I can’t do this anymore.”
Not until his arms embraced her did she lift her gaze to his. Lucifer kissed her forehead before his mouth trailed a path down her cheek. “We have reached a breaking point. You must accept me as your life mate and your Consort.”
“I can’t,” she cried, her fist rubbing circles on his chest. “If what you say is true, to accept you and lose you will devastate me. I can’t give my heart anymore. People I care about die. It will hurt too much to lose you.”
Lucifer cradled her as he stood and wa
lked her into her bedroom. “You asked me to make love to you before we left Santa Cruz. When I agreed, it was to bring solace to my grieving Consort. What I must do has changed.”
He ran a hand under her shirt and across her smooth belly. “I need to make love to my life mate.”
Analise wanted to tell him to go away, to walk out of her life and never return. Yet she didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to give force to the words. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to make love to her. To hold her, to fill the emptiness inside her. She wanted his heart. Instead, she chose silence.
Lucifer cradled her and strolled into her bedroom. He placed her on the bed then sat beside her, stroking her stomach. His touch was simultaneously calming and erotic. She moaned when the familiar ache tweaked her clit. He removed her shirt, his fingers tracing the outline of her navel. The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile.
“I enjoy touching you, Analise Saria. The texture of your skin against my fingertips is a sensation akin to moving my hand through water. I can feel it, yet it seems so ethereal like it isn’t there.”
He leaned over and ran his tongue across her tear-stained cheek. “When you weep I can taste your DNA, take it inside me and share your grief.”
“Why can’t I do the same? Taste your DNA?”
“It is part of angelic evolution,” he said. “There are two ways to capture our DNA, our blood and when we secrete it during the mating. It is why our presence is unknown on Earth. We’ll talk more later. Your body is the only thing I want to capture right now.”
Lucifer quieted her laughter with a kiss before he dragged his tongue down her neck until he reached the delicate curve of her collarbone. Pressing his mouth against it, he grazed his teeth along the hard ridge. As he continued to stroke her stomach, she relaxed beneath his caress, her moans growing louder.
“I really wish you’d hurry. My patience is waning.”
Lucifer returned to her mouth. “The best way to give you what you want is this.”
He kissed her slowly and thoroughly. She had no words for the way he made her feel. The languid strokes as he explored the inside of her mouth were a slow drag to the edge, a slow build of a fire intended to burn forever. Analise relished the heated sensation on her tongue. Her fingers slid into his hair, caressing the nape of his neck as he feathered kisses across her cheeks and along her jawline.
Lucifer flicked the underside of her chin with the tip of his tongue then inhaled. Analise silently screamed “oh my god” as a current traveled from the place where his tongue met her skin to her clitoris.
What is the fragrance you wear, Consort?
She couldn’t find the strength to remind him of rule number one. Roses and frangipani.
“Intoxicating,” he whispered.
His mouth pursued a meandering path to her nipple, sucking and licking one and then the other. All the while, Lucifer’s hand continued to caress her stomach. What he was doing to her body was driving her wild and she wanted him to get on with it.
Lucifer bit her left nipple. “I will get on with it when you’re ready, Analise Saria.”
Will the mental leakage ever stop? His hand moved to cup her sex, and she knew the answer was no, not when she was so desperate for him.
Her hips twitched and he slid a finger between her lower lips, stroking until her legs parted. A moan, a sign of her hunger, pushed past her lips and she whimpered, “Lucifer, I need you inside me.”
“I would have you ready for me, Analise Saria.”
“I’m frigging ready already.”
“Such language, Consort,” he chided.
Her body arched as he eased a finger inside her and his slow, rhythmic cadence had her juices leaking. “I suspect you may be right.”
“Lucifer, I really need you to fuck me hard,” she said through clenched teeth.
He slid his finger from her vagina. His gaze locked hers and Analise watched him suck her juices. Delicious.
Lucifer stood and peeled off his shirt, dropping it on the floor. Analise gasped and licked her lips when he removed his jeans. Damn, he’s gorgeous, she thought as he tossed his jeans on top of his shirt. His wings flared as his gaze met hers.
She rolled her eyes. “Show off.”
Lucifer laughed and grabbed her hips. Flipping her over, he positioned her on her knees, her head resting on her pillow. He kneeled behind her and rubbed his penis against her slit. Her body quivered and she pushed against him. His fingers guided the broad head of his erection into her body. A moan escaped as she twisted to look at him. She knew he saw her need in her eyes, felt it in her hip gyrations.
“You do not get to choose, Consort.”
He rubbed his penis against her sensitive flesh. “Besides, I love the sound of your passion.”
Then, his fingers gripped her ass and he thrust into her vagina. She screamed at the shock to her system. Lucifer remained still and she was grateful. She needed to catch her breath, to adjust to the demand his size made on her body. His secondary wings brushed her skin and she trembled with the contact.
Open to me, Consort. Open your mind and your heart to me, accept me as yours.
She lowered her mental barriers to his entry, sharing every sensation with him. Electric currents pulsed across her awareness and with them an explosive array of color. She shared with him the erotic feel of his dick as it rubbed against her vaginal walls. The colors grew more vivid, their edges shaded with a long-suppressed image of a specific DNA code, and she struggled to open her eyes, to shut out what was happening to her.
Do not fight what is happening to your body, Consort. Think of the pleasure you feel as I move inside you. See me loving you.
Lucifer knew the moment she heeded his voice as her fingers gripped the sheets. He wrapped her mind in the protective shield of his, then lifted her hips and began a pattern of deep thrusts and withdrawals. Each time he withdrew the colors in her mind became more intense and her pleasure rippled across the skin of his penis. There was no sound, not even a breathless moan when their mutual climax sent them spiraling into a kaleidoscopic burst of energy.
Astonished by what they shared, he allowed the gradual return of reason. Just as he was about to unlike their minds, Analise began to shift. He winced as her vaginal muscles locked painfully around his cock. She grabbed his awareness, latching onto it as she fought to stop the cyclonic pull into animal form. Then a growl tore through her throat followed by her terrified scream. Her eyelids flew open and Analise turned to look at him.
Lucifer gazed into the yellow eyes of a cheetah just before their connection ruptured.
Lucifer studied his life mate as she slept. He grasped what it meant to have your heart broken while he watched her shift, especially since it came in the wake of a powerful orgasm. His soul twisted and unraveled at the way she wept, called his name, begged him to take away the pain. When she returned to her human form, he held her until she fell into an exhausted sleep, wishing he could have done more.
His fingers caressed her cheek. Analise Saria meant more to him than the fulfillment of prophecy. She had slipped behind the wall of control built when he lost both his twin and Lilith. After his brother’s betrayal and Lilith’s death, Lucifer swore to keep his emotions in check. Analise Saria fractured his intent the moment he physically touched her. He wanted to learn about love, about human emotions, about her.
Dream Candy.
None but Analise Saria would dare call him such a silly name. His gaze lingered on her face. He enjoyed the way she curled against him in sleep, her hand splayed across his hip, her fingers making contact with his feathers. Her heart generous and compassionate, she was loyal to a fault, and would fight at his side once she fully accepted him as her Consort.
She stirred beneath his touch and he continued to caress her flawless skin until her eyelashes lifted. “Lucifer.”
“Are you well? Does your head hurt? Are you in pain?”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened th
em. “I’m fine, though tired. I don’t seem to have any lasting scars.”
Her hand gripped his fingers. “This scares me. Something inside me is trying to break free and I’m afraid to release it.”
“Why, Analise Saria?”
She inhaled deeply and slowly released the air. “Because everything will change. Thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me?”
“For taking care of me.”
“You are my Consort,” he stated. “I will always care for you. However, we will sleep in my bed or replace yours. Your bed is truly uncomfortable.”
“Spoiled much, Seraphim?” She turned onto her side. “Tell me what happened? I know I shifted but what did I become?”
He ran a gentle finger along her jaw. “There were several metamorphoses. The first was a hawk. I’m not certain what held your mind because a minute later you became a cheetah and followed by a wolf. It seems you are a multi-shifter. Was it by choice or accident?”
“Multi-shifter? How is that possible?” Analise frowned. “It wasn’t by choice, believe me.”
He stroked her belly, trying to find the words to explain her final shift. He stared at her for a long minute.
“What is it?”
“Before you became human again, you were angelic.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Angelic? Do you mean wings? Ooh, I like it.”
Lucifer heard the excitement in her voice and shook his head. “Not exactly. You became Lilith.”
Analise scooted up to the headboard until she sat, her back pressed against the solid wood. Her eyes studied his face. “What aren’t you telling me? What happened?”
“How do you know something happened?”
“Don’t mess with me, Seraphim. I can hear it in your voice and see it in your eyes. Tell me what happened.”
He took her fingers and gently squeezed them. “I am not certain, Consort. When you became Lilith you touched me and I felt mortal.”
“Mortal? As in human?”
“No, not human. For a few seconds I ceased to be.”
Lucifer saw the horror in her eyes and quickly pulled her into his arms. “You did not change me, Analise Saria. I am as I have always been and you know angels can die.”
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