Part 11 (2/2)
A man screamed at that moment, a hoa.r.s.e, gut-ripping sound that seemed to come from the soul. I knew it was Theo. I thrashed my arms around, desperate to find him in the blinding light. ”Stop hurting him!” I shouted into the light, lunging to the side where Theo had stood. The light disappeared, leaving me unable to see.
”You are dismissed,” a harsh voice growled behind me. Before I could turn around to see who it was, I was picked up and thrown into a brick wall. At least that's what it felt like, but as I shook the stars from my head and raised myself up off the ground, I realized that the demon who had yanked us from my hotel room through the tear in the wall had evidently returned us the same way.
Vision slowly returned to me. ”Theo! Sweet mother of reason, are you all right?” I crawled over to where Theo lay facedown on the floor next to my bed. ”Where did he hurt you? Is anything broken? Are you bleeding?”
Carefully, I pushed over Theo's unresisting body until he lay on his back. I quickly checked him over for injuries, but found none.
”Theo? I can't find anything wrong with you. What did the demon lord do?”
”I'm all right.” His eyes opened slowly.
I sucked in my breath, unable to believe what I was seeing. ”Your eyes...they're grey.”
Theo frowned. ”Pardon?”
”Your eyes are grey. They aren't black anymore. Here, I'll show you.” I helped him to his feet and opened the door to the wardrobe so he could see. He stared at himself for a moment, then turned back to me, despair and anguish welling up inside him.
”Salus invenitur,”he swore.
”Latin was never my strong point. What exactly does that mean?”
”Salvation is found.” I raised my eyebrows in question.
A mirthless smile graced his lips. ”It's the nephilim's equivalent to a self-depreciating 'f.u.c.k me!'”
”Ah. I like your version better. Why did Bael change your eyes?”
His jaw tightened. ”That is merely a side effect of the curse.”
”I heard him say he was cursing you,” I said slowly, watching him carefully. So far he seemed perfectly normal, except for the profound sadness that seemed to leach from within him. ”But I don't quite understand what happened. What exactly are you cursed with?”
To my amazement, Theo's eyes grew brighter until they were almost white. ”He took my soul.”
”Hewhat ?”
”That light you saw-that was my soul being ripped from my body,” Theo said, his face flushed with fury. ”The b.a.s.t.a.r.d took my soul and left me an empty sh.e.l.l.”
”Sweet mother,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tight against the sorrow and anger and frustration that filled him. The pain eased a little. I poured into him every molecule of comfort I possessed. ”I'm so sorry. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that you got involved in this. I will feel guilty for the rest of my life.”
”It's not your fault, sweetling,” he murmured, nuzzling my neck. His anger and anguish melted away even more, and something hot and potent filled him instead. ”I knew the risk when I offered myself as your champion.Di immortales, you smell good.”
A little s.h.i.+ver of excitement skittered down my back as he kissed the hollow behind my ear. ”Yes, but if I hadn't been so stupid about believing you, none of this would have happened. I would have been paying attention rather than fighting you every step of the way.”
”Mmm. You smell sweet and spicy, like a woman waiting to be satisfied.” He pulled back enough to look into my eyes, which were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears of guilt. ”Portia, I forbid you to feel guilt at what happened. There was no avoiding this. Bael cannot punish you without bringing the wrath of the Court down upon your head, and he would not risk such an action.”
”Your eyes are almost black again. That doesn't make any sense. How can eye color change? Never mind, it's not important.
What is important is the fact that you've lost your soul because of me.”
He laughed and nipped my earlobe, his hands roaming over my back and behind. ”You never cease to amaze me. I'm surprised that given your skeptical nature and scientific training, you believe in souls.”
”I'm agnostic, not a solipsist,” I said, a familiar tension building within me at every nibble of his teeth, every touch of his hands.
”Logic dictates that if there is a way for your soul to be taken from you, there must be a way to return it. I swear to you now that if it's the last thing I do, I will get you back your soul.”
”Smart, s.e.xy, and so delicious,” he murmured against my shoulder as my bathrobe parted and slipped down my arms. ”I hunger for you, sweetling. Tell me you still want me.”
He was hungry. It was growing in him, an unnamed hunger for me, for something that only I could give him. It swelled and spilled out until I shared the hunger, shared the need for physical relief. I ripped his s.h.i.+rt off, heedless of the fact that I was destroying an otherwise nice s.h.i.+rt, rubbing my hands on his chest as he sucked the spot behind my ear that made me see stars.
”Theo, I hate to bring reality into...oh, yes, right there...but I don't have any condoms. I'm all right as far as birth control goes, but do you have any health issues I should be aware of?”
”No. So good,” he said against my skin, his breath ragged. As if I wasn't aroused enough, the sound of his harsh breathing pushed me higher. ”You taste so d.a.m.ned good, I want to...I don't know what I want. More. I want more.”
”You can have all of me,” I said in between kisses to his bare shoulder, my hands busy on his belt buckle and zipper even as his hands slid down my behind to the crotch of my teddy. His fingers brushed heat-soaked, sensitive flesh as he undid the snaps. I writhed against him as he peeled the silky teddy off, tormented not just by his burning touch, but by an overwhelming need so foreign, so different, that it shocked me.
I wanted tobite him.
I limited myself to little nipping love bites, nibbling his delectable ear as I pushed his pants and underwear down over his hips.
”Di immortales,”he groaned when I wrapped my fingers around his incredibly hot p.e.n.i.s, sucking on his earlobe and wis.h.i.+ng I could just consume all of him.
He stood still for a moment while I explored the velvety hot hardness, then I was on the bed, Theo crawling up the length of my body, his eyes as black as night. ”I hope you're ready for me, Portia, because I don't think I'm going to be able to last much longer.”
”Ready, oh-so-willing, and as able as humanly possible,” I answered, pulling him down so I could taste his delicious mouth again.
”Salus invenitur,”he whispered into my mouth. I sucked his lower lip, sliding my legs around his hips, cus.h.i.+oning his weight and glorying in the sensation of his bare flesh on mine.
”Oh, yes,” I cooed, my back arching as he sucked a hard, aching nipple into his mouth, his tongue swirling around it with velvety heat. I'd never felt any pain so exquisite as that, and almost cried out with joy as he guided himself into my body. My mind shut down at the sensation of him parting my waiting flesh, of the feel of his chest against mine, of his mouth on my shoulders, licking the spot where my neck joined my shoulder.
”Portia, I have to...I have to...” Theo groaned as his body stroked into mine, a sudden white hot pain flaring outward from the spot he was kissing. I was flooded with emotions and sensations that didn't make any sense, but were so profound in nature that I just accepted them.
Theo reared back, his eyes shocked, his lips crimson with blood. ”Per imperium,what have I done?”
As he spoke, long canine teeth flashed white against the blood.
”I don't know, and right now, I don't give a d.a.m.n! Just don't stop!”
”This isn't right. I can't...not like this...” His eyes closed, pain written on his face, so intense that it spilled out onto me. ”You'll hate me.”
I tried to pull him down so I could kiss him, but he resisted. ”I don't hate you, Theo. For Pete's sake, I'm d.a.m.ned close to falling in love with you! Don't stop or you'll kill me!”
”You don't understand,” he said, turning his head away. ”You don't understand what I am now, what Bael has made me.”
Vampire.The word echoed in my mind. I ignored it.
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