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Philadelphia
NIGHT HAD FALLEN by the time Barakiel made it back to his compound. The air was silky warm, but he could smell the coming autumn, a dry, earthy scent hanging at high altitude. He and Pellus had emerged from the rift a short walk away, but the traveler had immediately returned to the Covalent Realm, as eager to celebrate with Jeduthan as Barakiel was to celebrate with Zan.
Gratitude had left him giddy. His senses heated the closer he got to Zan, who waited for him at his place. Her willingness to wait there gave him joy. He loved the idea of coming home to her.
When he entered the house, he heard her in the weapons room. He bounded up the stairs to find her in yoga pants and a sports bra, covered in sweat, doing a form with an enormous halberd. He watched her as she gracefully swept the long weapon over her head then lunged forward, her muscles flexing. He caught the scent of a subtle change in her body.
She knows I am here.
“It’s about time you got home. Trying to sneak up on me?” she asked. She continued to execute the form.
“Yes. I’m pleased to see it’s not easy.”
Zan stopped moving and turned to him. The hunger in her eyes matched his own.
“I wanted to see if I could do the form you taught me with a real weapon.”
Barakiel took another halberd from the wall and walked slowly toward Zan.
“Let’s see if you can apply what you’ve learned.” He dipped the blade of the halberd close to the floor near her left foot. Her eyes were impossibly bright.
“Now, using the techniques within the form, try to bring your blade to my throat.”
His voice had the quality of a whisper, but it was not quiet. Zan flew into motion, sweeping left, then right, then down from above, attempting to penetrate Barakiel’s defenses. He parried her attacks with ease and gently counterattacked. She repelled him with sharp movements.
Zan swung her weapon, high to low to high, in an admirable attempt at misdirection. She passed close by, planning to attack from the rear. He smelled her excitement and sweat and a surge of lust made his body stiffen.
I am going to claim you for hours.
Barakiel pivoted to face her as she swept her halberd from left to right, towards his head. When he met her attack with the staff of his weapon, she whirled in the opposite direction. He remained still as she brought the blade within an inch of his neck.
“Well done,” he said.
“You let me do that.” She scowled dramatically. Barakiel smiled and let his admiration flood his eyes.
“You would have bested most men.”
“But you’re not most men.”
“No, I’m not.” He inhaled deeply, taking her scent. Zan blew air softly from her lips, her pupils dilated. He growled and her heart beat faster. Perfectly still, he watched her. He listened to her body.
You are calling to me, my love.
He took both halberds and set them gently on the floor. A wave of power washed over him as he slipped off her pants, then crushed his face to her belly, hearing and feeling her blood rush to his touch. He gathered her in his arms and walked to the heavy wooden doors, pressing her against them as he bit her neck. Zan wrapped her legs around him. She shoved her hands between their bodies to unbutton his pants but stopped when he pinned her head to the doors with a famished kiss. As he reached with his tongue to feel her, she sucked on him, purring, inviting him to come inside her. He kicked off his pants and surged into her.
“Hold on,” he whispered. She tightened her grip as he flattened his palms on either side of her, pushing into her as wave after wave of energy raced up his spine.
The power hummed through him, edging him toward a desperate euphoria, a mad hunger to join with her in Union. He couldn’t allow it, so he focused on the feel and sound of her blood as it flowed to the flesh that held him. He smashed his face to her neck, licked her and bit her, tasting her saltiness. He thrust into her again and again as her hips strained to meet him. He heard a crack as the door protested.
“We’re going, uh, uh, gonna break the door,” Zan said, gulping for air. Chuckling, Rainer carried her to the Persian rug in the center of the huge room, where he dropped to his knees. Gently, he brought them to the floor, then resumed his motion inside her. He groaned with satisfaction as he plunged in deep, as she pulsed against his sensitive cock. He freed his wild impulse as much as he dared, stroking down and up and around, waiting for more of her blood to surround him. The electricity in her body crackled against his skin as it raced to her brain to dance there, to light her up. Zan yanked his hair, emitting a soft velvet moan each time he sank into her. Her body was so open beneath him, so accepting, that he nearly lost control in his joy.
He slowed his hips and kissed her, needy, wet and soft. He concentrated on the quiver that built inside her. Her body fluttered along his length as he gazed at her, inhaling deeply, savoring her rich, creamy smell.
“Look at me,” he whispered. She opened her beautiful eyes.
“I love you, Zan.”
Rainer moved gently inside her, holding her on the cusp as her body’s response played all around him. Zan trilled and squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking from their corners. Then he felt it. The implosion. Her juices bathed him in silky energy as her body gripped him in a tight embrace. He released his final wave with a strong forward surge. His back arched. He roared, his arms flung wide. Delirious pleasure raced up his spine, his mind emptied of everything but this euphoria. He swayed slightly in the aftershock and fell onto Zan’s body, delivering a sloppy kiss before he settled his face in the crook of her neck. They lay quiet and sated for a time.
Eventually, Zan shifted beneath him. “How do you do that to me?” she whispered.
“Love. We have a powerful love.” He nuzzled her cheek.
“More than powerful,” she said in a childlike, tumbling voice. “It’s powerful and gentle and dangerous and safe and new and old, and I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
He rolled her on top of him. “Me too,” he said. “This joy, it must be a type of insanity.”
Zan hid her face in his hair. She snuffled for a few seconds, then propped herself up and smiled down at him. “I guess you missed me, eh? While you were up to your mysterious things.”
Barakiel almost poured it all out. How he almost died. How Pellus had saved him and paid a terrible price. How they tried to take Pellus away from him, but that it was better now. He’d fought well and everything was better now.
Yet he held off. Two more days until the equinox. If Zan failed to accept him, he could not be certain he would have the will to fight demons, let alone the Corrupted if they appeared.
“I missed you terribly,” he said.
“And that’s all you’re going to tell me, isn’t it?”
“I will tell you this.” He ran his hands up her back to rest them on her shoulders. “That difficult situation I told you about? Much improved.”
“So, what about your promise to tell me all the things you’ve been hiding?”
“Soon, my love. Come here at the hour of the autumnal equinox and wait for me. I will tell you everything. I will be ready.”
“The hour of the autumnal equinox?” Zan said, laughing. “You just get stranger and stranger, don’t you?”
“Monday at 10:30 p.m.”
Zan laughed harder at this. Her whole body shook. After a minute she got ahold of herself. She stroked his face and kissed him.
“Sorry. I couldn’t stop. I’m just so giddy and excited. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us. I think we can have the kind of relationship I never even let myself dream about before.”
“We will, my love. We will.” He sunk his hands in her hair and pressed his forehead to hers. Zan lifted his shirt so she could trace her fingers along his rippled abdomen. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him upright to remove the shirt, then pushed him back to the floor. She bent to trail her tongue along the grooves of his abs.
“Mmmmm, Zan.”
She grinned mischievously as she licked him. As she traveled slowly downward. His body stirred.
“Ready for round two?” she asked.
Suddenly he pulled her up and crushed her to him, his mouth close to her ear.
“My love, I’m always ready,” he said. “Whenever you’re near I’m half mad with passion.”
“The things you say.”
You often look amused as you sleep, my love, as if you are sharing some private joke with your subconscious. Your lips ruffle and it makes me want to kiss you, but if I woke you now you would find terror in my eyes. I am so afraid to tell you what I am, yet I have never looked forward to anything more.
Thank Balance I am nearly through with lies. They sicken me. I love you too much to lie to you anymore. Do you love me enough to stay with me once you know the truth? Will you fear me? Will you feel even more like you are losing your mind? I can tell you, no, you are not crazy. That is my power you feel. It is for you, all for you.
Will you be angry? You have every right to be angry at my endless lies. Furious that I could have died in battle and you would never have known what happened to me. Will you leave me?
Please do not leave me, my love. I will reveal myself to you. You will see the blood of demons painted on my limbs. After the equinox, we will go north to the mountains where the trees glow red and gold. We will climb to the sky and I will gather its power to share with you. You will feel me. You will know all that I am.
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