River
I didn’t see anything come out of Kobal’s hand, but I felt the power within his vibrating muscles. He separated one of the wraiths from the others, drawing it toward him as it writhed and thrashed within his pull. Its scream became a howl that made my stomach twist.
It was only three feet away when Kobal stepped forward and enclosed his hand around its throat. The wraith flailed about until it became nothing more than a black blur. Kobal’s eyes closed as whatever he did to the wraith caused his bronzed skin to darken and his golden eyes to glow in a way I’d never seen before.
The wraith’s jerking movements eased. Kobal released the wraith. It hung in the air before him, its face more twisted than before as its jaw had descended another inch and its eye sockets had expanded. I swore it stared straight into me and didn’t like whatever it saw there. Malice and hatred radiated from it as it floated closer to me.
“Get away from her!” Kobal snarled at it.
Ignoring the lethal undercurrent of Kobal’s tone, it crept closer to me. Kobal snagged hold of it, drawing it against his chest with a roar. I took a step back when the marks on his body vibrated and the wraith screamed so loudly I thought my eardrums would rupture. Unlike the ghosts who couldn’t be touched, the demons could inflict severe damage on these creatures.
Kobal’s marks deepened to a jet black. His skin became a darker brown color as his muscles swelled larger before me and the veins in his arms stood out starkly. With an abrupt thrust, he flung the creature away from him. It fell to the earth, flopping as it tried to take flight but only succeeded in dragging itself away.
He tilted his head back to the sky before he lifted his hand to draw another one down to him. I watched as he fed from three more, all of them wise enough to not bother me before returning to the sky.
When he was done, he turned to me, his eyes alight and his skin fairly glowing with whatever nourishment he’d taken from them. I didn’t know what to say to him, but I recognized the hunger for my body in his gaze when he took hold of my waist and drew me against him. “We need to get you warm.”
“The wraiths are so cold,” I murmured.
Swinging me up, he held me against him. Feeding caused his body temperature to rise and it felt like I was wrapped up in a warm blanket. I pressed closer against him as his hands ran up and down my arms.
“I should have stopped feeding sooner,” he said.
“I’m fine.” I nuzzled his neck. “How do you feed from them?”
“I take in their essence,” he said. “It’s excruciating for them. It’s the worst thing they can experience in Hell as it literally drains a piece of them. All demons feed from them in such a way.”
“What about the angels, how do they feed in Hell?”
“Angels feed from souls too. Whether it’s from their happiness and giving them bliss like the ones in Heaven do, or from inflicting suffering such as we do. The fallen angels adapted once they entered Hell.”
“Probably another thing that separated them further from their bond with life,” I murmured.
“Perhaps.”
“But only the fallen angels know what really caused it to break and they’re not going to tell me,” I said.
“No, they’re not.”
Leaning forward, I kissed his lips. “What other pain do the wraiths experience?”
“There are many torments in Hell. I’d prefer not to share them with you.”
He would if I asked him to, but it was a subject we’d both rather drop. He rubbed his hand over my back and down my spine when I released a contented sigh. “I feel better now.”
“Good enough to show me what you’ve been teaching yourself?” he asked.
I didn’t want to leave the warmth of his arms, but I’d waited long enough to show him what I was capable of now. “Yes. Stop here.”
He set me on the ground and I took a reluctant step away from his embrace. Taking a deep breath, I knelt to rest my fingers against the earth. I closed my eyes and tried to rid myself of all other thoughts as I concentrated on the ground beneath my fingertips.
The life teeming within the earth flowed into me, further defrosting my bones. My eyes opened as sparks of golden-white light danced across my fingers. I kept my hand against the ground as I lifted my other palm before me and allowed the ball of energy to grow.
I flipped the ball over before me, circling it through my fingers. The golden-white glow of it illuminated Kobal’s face, making him even more radiant as he watched me. The last time we’d worked together on this, I’d barely been able to form something the size of an apple, and I hadn’t revealed I could do much better than that when I’d worked with Corson and Bale.
The light pulsed further within my fingers, growing until it reached beyond my palm and became nearly twice the size of a basketball. “What I did to Azote earlier was the first time I’d ever done anything like that. The life burst out of me in a stream of energy with him, instead of a ball.”
“I saw. Hit me with it,” he commanded gruffly.
I did a double take as my eyes looked from the ball to him, then back again. “No!”
His eyes lifted to mine, and I could see the glimmer of pride within their depths but also his steely determination. “I’ll be fine. I’ve fed and I need to know some of what you are capable of. Hit me with it.”
“No.”
He grabbed hold of my wrist, causing the ball to swell larger as his life flooded me. Before I could do anything to stop him, he spun my wrist around. The ball followed the abrupt movement. I tried to jerk it back as he thrust my hand forward, slamming it against his chest. An explosion lit the air around us, momentarily blinding me. His grip on my wrist was torn free.
“No!” I shouted as he shot five feet backward and into a tree. The impact of his body caused it to splinter down the middle. I launched to my feet and raced toward him. “Kobal!” I gasped, falling before him and clutching his cheeks between my palms. His head turned toward me; he blinked as he tried to focus on me. I tore his burnt shirt back to reveal the puckered and blistered skin beneath it. Tears filled my eyes as I gazed at the wound I had created. “Why did you do that?”
“You pack a punch, Mah Kush-la,” he murmured and gripped my hands.
“Why did you do that?” I demanded again, my concern for him fading to exasperation when he smiled at me.
He pushed himself up against the tree. “Because now I understand more of what you’re capable of, and your powers are still growing. More practice will only strengthen your abilities. I was prepared for the blow and still look at what happened.”
“I hurt you.”
“I hurt me.” He pressed my hands against his chest on either side of his reddened skin. Already some of the blisters were fading. “And I heal fast. Far faster since you’ve become a part of my life.”
My lower lip trembled. “Really?”
“Yes.” He wiped away the tear spilling down my cheek before clasping the back of my head and drawing me down for a kiss. “Don’t cry. I’m fine.”
“You still shouldn’t have done that.”
“Believe me, I won’t do it again.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as he smiled against my lips. “You know you bring out the force of life in me more than anything else.”
“And I thrive on that. I’ll fuel you for the rest of our days.”
I flinched at the reminder that my days were far more numbered than his were.
“Don’t think of it,” he breathed against my lips, guessing at the direction of my thoughts. “Focus on the here and now. On me.”
That was so unbelievably easy to do when his teeth were nibbling on my lower lip. “You’re injured.” I tried to pull away, but he didn’t release me as he kept brushing his mouth over mine.
“I could be near death and I’d still crave you.”
I glanced at his chest. His shirt still had tendrils of smoke curling from the charred sides, but his skin wasn’t as red anymore.
“Don’t you know you can kiss it and make it better?” he teased.
His words made me laugh, but I resolutely pulled away from him and settled against his side. My hand fingered the still-warm edges of his shirt when he draped his arm around me.
“When you connected with me so you could see the wraiths, was that the first time you’ve connected with someone since your dream with Lucifer?”
“Yes,” I admitted and stifled a yawn. “I couldn’t take the chance of connecting with him again in a dream so I worked to shut the ability down.”
“I don’t want you to fear any of your abilities, River.”
“I don’t fear them, not anymore. I actually enjoy them, most of the time, but I don’t want to see him again.”
“I understand,” he murmured.
“I feel like it’s inevitable that I will see him again though, no matter what I do.”
Kobal didn’t respond. He didn’t have to; we both knew I was right.