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  “Hold me.” She said, looking at him with sad eyes that seemed to have developed a sheen of ice that crystallized them, making the colours look like frosted gemstones.

  Lucifer

  Luc knelt in front of her completely torn. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but at the same time he wanted to run as far as possible in the opposite direction, to debauch her and save her all at once. He felt his moral compass swinging wildly between the two poles. He was being stretched in two directions and was certain he would break from the tension inside himself. Her lips and the fine veins under her skin were slowly turning blue, standing out in stark contrast to her snowy pallor. Her eyes were mesmerizing in their iciness, and her breath was puffing out in small white clouds.

  Luc’s hands itched to reach out to her and share some of his warmth, but his mind balked at the idea, terrified of getting too close and watching his darkness leaching into her as it had at the motel. The past few days had been torture. All he’d wanted to do was run to her and hold her again, to feel the fire that leapt up between them when they touched. Keeping his distance had been like a knife to the heart, but it was for her own good. This ice was worrisome. He’d never seen anything like it before, and given that he’d been alive for millennia, that was saying something.

  “What can I do?” Luc repeated, gazing into her eyes that shimmered like crushed diamonds with their frosted coating.

  He watched with trepidation as she reached out with a shivering hand towards his face and cupped his cheek lightly. He gasped at the shocking coldness as it connected with his skin. The contrasting sensations of the softness of her skin and the biting cold caused something inside him to snap. Reaching forward, Luc grabbed Katia and pulled her down into his lap, gliding his hand up her spine and grabbing a fistful of her glorious dark hair into his fist. Without a second thought he leaned forward and meshed their lips, the iciness seemed to seep from her skin directly into his and he shivered. Katia sighed gently, her cool breath trekking over his skin and igniting little sparks that danced over his lips causing him to drag her body tighter against his own. Luc groaned as the full weight of Katia’s slight body came to rest flush against him. Nothing should feel this good, he thought to himself.

  He felt one delicate hand slide up his chest and come to rest on the bare skin of his neck, the electric tingles following the path of her hand. He licked at the seam of her chilly lips, urging her to let him in. The moment her lips parted, he slid inside and their tongues danced and tangled, his warmth against her chill. His other hand travelled down her back to cup her bottom, pushing her tighter against himself as she straddled him. Softness to hardness, she moaned as he arched up, rubbing against her. Katia speared her hand through the hair at the nape of Luc’s neck, raking her nails along his scalp and sending more of those erotic shocks skipping through his body. As he arched into her again, Luc felt something wet drip onto his cheek. Ending the kiss, he pulled away slightly and looked into Katia’s face. The tears that had crystallized and stuck to her cheeks had melted and were running down her face onto his, the skin that had been frigidly cold was starting to take on a more natural hue, the veins no longer visible beneath her fair skin. Sliding his hand out from her hair, he reached up and gently brushed away her tears, marvelling at the smoothness of her skin, and how it seemed to suck his warmth right in. The way she was looking at him made his heart swell. It was like catching a brief reflection of the man he could and might have been, a good man worthy of the woman in his arms.

  “Don’t” she said softly, sliding her hand up to cup his cheek.

  “Don’t what?” he replied.

  “Don’t go. I’m losing you, I can see it in your eyes…you’re pulling away again.”

  Sighing, Luc dropped his head back onto the mattress of the bed that was at his back. “We shouldn’t be doing this. I’m full of evil, Katia. I don’t want the darkness infecting you again. This was a mistake; I lost my head.”

  Leaning down, Katia kissed her way up his neck. Nipping his ear lightly, she whispered to him gently, causing a shudder of pleasure to cascade through him. “Evil is a point of view, a state of mind. I’ve come to realize that I don’t believe in absolutes. There is no absolute good or absolute evil. We’re all capable of both. It’s what we do with that choice that defines us.” She licked around the shell of his ear, causing him to shiver anew.

  Positioned as he was, Luc’s breath puffed out into her ear and she moaned. He felt that moan all the way down to his groin. His voice hoarse with need, he tried to make her see reason. “And what have I done with that choice, Katia? I started a war and caused the deaths of hundreds of other angels. I’ve killed and hurt in the name of absolute evil. Those were my choices. I could’ve refused Satan’s missions. I could have suffered the torture for every refusal, but I didn’t, did I?”

  Katia pressed herself down against him and slid her hand back down his chest to the hem of his tee shirt. Lifting it slightly, she glided her hand back up his bare chest, over the ropes of muscles on his abdomen, scraping her nails lightly over his nipples. Luc felt like he was going to explode and embarrass himself right then and there. His erection was pressing painfully into the zipper of his jeans, desperate to get to the woman in his lap who was driving him crazy. Any more of this and he knew he would be past the point of no return.

  Luc’s eyes connected with Katia’s. There was a passion burning in their gold depths that brought him to his knees. Realization dawned, he was now looking at vampire eyes. The twenty-four karat gold that swirled within signalling hypnotism – or desire. Katia had been in contact with the vampire Mara at The Advocate. Obviously, her chimeric abilities were instinctual, as it appeared as though she’d absorbed a part of the lovely, gentle vampire’s ability without even knowing it.

  Mentally bracing himself, he dove in and gave her a scorching kiss, plundering her mouth with his tongue, waiting for the descent of razor sharp fangs that always made an appearance when a vampire was aroused. That never came. As he lost himself in the heady kiss, he dimly realized that she’d absorbed only Mara’s lighter qualities, not the darker ones rooted in blood. He’d only meant to kiss her as a test, to draw away after finding the answer, but that was an impossibility. Luc was soaring to heaven, flying for the first time in hundreds of years. He felt like Icarus, tempting fate by flying too close to the sun. He kissed her harder, more deeply, his passion flaring, his arousal straining almost unbearably. He needed to feel her, skin to skin. If he didn’t, he would surely die.

  Grasping the hem of her shirt, he began to tug upwards, breaking the kiss briefly to draw it over her head and toss it carelessly across the room...no bra. Luc smiled and sent up a silent prayer of thanks. As his hands descended on her bare skin, they both gasped at the heat. She’d gone from icy cold to burning hot. He wanted to feel that heat on him, surrounding him. Before he could blink, Katia was yanking his shirt up and off, leaving his upper body as bare as hers. She plastered herself against him, chest to chest. Her nipples had pearled and they rasped deliciously against his sensitized skin. Sighing, she leaned down and claimed his mouth again, rolling her tongue against his. Sliding his hand up her ribcage, Luc cupped her breast gently, testing its weight in the palm of his hand. His thumb slid up and rubbed back and forth over her nipple, causing her to squirm in his lap. Luc groaned in ecstasy. More. Please. Her silent demand echoed through his brain, but this time it didn’t take him by surprise. If she wanted more, he was more than happy to oblige.

  Flipping her onto her back on the floor, Luc came down on top of her, nestling himself in the cradle of her thighs, his erection pressed tightly against her core. Her eyes were closed as she threw back her head and arched up into him. Diving down, Luc sucked her nipple into his mouth; Katia writhed beneath him, desperate. His brain went fuzzy, the only thoughts that registered were the lances of pleasure shooting through his body, and the feel of her body beneath him, straining towards him as he scraped his teeth over the sensitive flesh of h
er breast. Her hands roamed over his back, pinpricks of pleasure-pain flickered down his spine as she ran her nails over the scars that were the only evidence of his former wings. Raising himself up on his elbows, he looked down at her in wonder, such a small package full of such explosive sexuality. She called to him on so many levels, was his match in so many ways, as though she had been made just for him. He moved slightly off her, letting his hand drift down to unzip her jeans. He slid his hand farther over her panties and found them warm and damp. He groaned and gritted his teeth, desperate to be inside her.

  Sliding his fingers under the elastic, Luc finally touched her and knew what heaven truly was. She was burning for him, wet and ready. She was raising her hips to meet his fingers, angling for more contact. Leaning back down, he fed her a wild kiss that went on and on as he moved his fingers over her heated flesh faster and faster. She pumped her hips beneath his hand with abandon, totally lost to the passion. Feeling her desperation building, Luc slid a finger inside her sheath and pressed on her sensitive bud with the pad of his thumb. Katia came apart, her inner walls gripping his finger in waves as she rode his hand, her release ripping through her.

  Pulling away from the kiss, Luc stared down into her face as she came. Deity, she was perfect. So beautiful in her passion, he could watch her come all day and never get enough. Katia’s breath sawed in and out as she came down from her peak. Her hands clutching at Luc’s biceps in an effort to ground herself, nails digging in with a sweet sting that kept him on the edge. As she opened her eyes, Luc felt his heart stutter in his chest. Burning red orbs glowed back at him, glancing down, he saw the blackness working its way up the veins in her arms once again. With a cry of despair, he tried to shove off her, but Katia wasn’t having any of that this time.

  “No!” She cried out, rolling him to his back with a strength that hadn’t been there before. Straddling his waist, she pressed him to the floor by his shoulders.

  “Katia, it’s happening again. We can’t. I shouldn’t have let it go this far. We have to stop!” he shouted in panic.

  Ignoring Luc’s plea for reason, Katia leaned down and fused their lips anew, stoking the fire back to a raging conflagration. She shimmied down his body, and her hand slid down his stomach to the waistband of his jeans. Luc tried to free his mind from the lust-filled fog. One last chance to end this before his darkness seeped so far into her she’d never be free of it. Tearing his mouth free of hers, he spoke in an urgent whisper.

  “Katia, stop. We can’t.” He broke off as her hand closed around him, stroking his erection that had grown so hard it was more like a titanium rod than flesh. He gasped and groaned as she continued her ministrations.

  “Never mind, don’t stop. Whatever you do, don’t stop,” he pleaded in broken tones.

  Katia worked his length from root to tip as Luc writhed beneath her. She licked her way down his neck, nipping at his collarbone, sucking and laving his nipples. His whole body was on fire for her. Spears of pleasure were lancing up and down his spine as he grew closer to release. He’d been with many humans and demons over the centuries, but nothing had prepared him for what he felt with Katia, and he hadn’t even penetrated her yet. She was fire and ice, human but immortal, pure of heart but passionate and debauched; she was his match in every way.

  As she licked her way to the sigil over his heart, Luc knew he was lost. As her tongue swept over the angelic design with reverence and passion he came violently, great spasms wracking his body, bucking Katia as she perched above him. He cried out her name, the first time he’d ever done such a thing, and felt another part of his shattered soul knit back together. Gathering her in his arms, he drew her to his side and tucked her up beside him. She nestled her head on his shoulder and rested one hand lightly over his heart. The gesture was so gentle and loving he felt his heart constrict. He wasn’t deserving of moments like these, but he was a greedy bastard and would take it. Reaching up he rested his hand over hers.

  As they lay together recovering, Luc realized he could never let her go. He would find a way to stop the darkness from being drawn to her and then they could be together. He’d planned on giving her over to Sergei’s keeping at the end of this odyssey, but that was impossible now. He thought about her whenever they were apart and wanted to touch her every time they were in a room together. There was no way he’d be able to bear the thought of her with another man, he’d kill the bastard. Grudgingly, Luc had to admit that he liked Sergei, if only for the fact that he’d always been there for Katia, though it killed him that there was someone in the world who knew her better than he did. That would change though; they had forever after all.

  Luc was roused from his musings as Katia stirred, propping herself up on her elbow to look down at him. Amazed, he raised his hand to brush her hair back out of her eyes…eyes that were now back to normal. Glancing down at her arms he saw that the blackness had once again receded. He breathed a sigh of relief and sank back down on the floor, throwing an arm over his eyes.

  “I told you not to worry,” Katia said as she poked his chest playfully. “I don’t know how I know this, but it’s not going to hurt me.”

  Luc peered at her from under his arm. “I’m going to find someone who can stop it. I don’t want to put your safety at risk.”

  “Sure, if that’ll make you feel better, but I don’t want you freaking out anymore in the meantime, it’s kind of a buzz-kill.” She smiled.

  Luc rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Well, you managed to storm the castle this time. And I’m glad you did. That was amazing.”

  “…amazing.” They said in unison. Katia smiled so brightly at him he felt like he was looking at the sun, and suddenly he noticed that he was returning her smile. He hadn’t smiled like this since he’d been in the heavens.

  Lying there with Katia in his arms, Luc felt a peace wash over him that had been absent for so many centuries he’d forgotten what it felt like. He felt her fingers tracing lightly over the sigil on his chest, drawing the pattern over and over again, spelling his own name in angelic symbology into his flesh.

  “Luc?”

  “Mhmmm,” he murmured drowsily.

  “It’s gotten lighter again. Your Sigil — it’s more golden.”

  Cracking open his eyes, he glanced down at his chest and sucked in a breath. His Sigil was flickering here and there with gold patches, and the black spidering veins were shorter and less pronounced than before. “Wow,” he breathed incredulously. “It hasn’t looked like that in centuries.”

  “Why do you think it’s changing now?” Katia asked as she returned her hand to rest on his chest.

  “I’m not sure, but I have a feeling you’re chasing away the darkness,” Luc replied.

  A light, tinkling laugh emerged from her that was music to his ears. “Amor vincit omnia.” she said softly.

  “What was that?” Luc asked, turning his head slightly to look down at the top of her head as she snuggled against him.

  “I don’t know,” Katia replied with a yawn. “But I think I need a nap. You do good work, sir.”

  As she settled even closer against him and he listened to her breathing even out and deepen with impending sleep, Luc laid back staring at the ceiling pondering her words. She clearly had no idea what she’d said, but Luc was well-versed in all of mankind’s languages, a side perk of having been a heavenly angel. The words Katia had spoken had been Latin…love conquers all.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Katia

  The following week was absolutely perfect. Well, as perfect as it could be trapped twenty-four-seven in an apartment that belonged to a Jinn demon in the realm of Outer Sheol. Restrictive as it may have been, Katia wouldn’t have traded a moment of it for anything in the world. She and Luc had talked about everything and nothing, they’d laughed and been serious, they’d stripped off the veneer and shown each other their scars. Katia knew from the bottom of her heart that whatever he’d been, and whatever he’d done, Luc was at his core a good man. Som
e of his stories about the war he’d started in the heavens, and the deeds he’d committed since, had shocked her, but the pain in his eyes when he’s spoken about his past was real. He had blood on his hands that he couldn’t wash off, but he wanted something different. He needed it. The blackness that was seeping into his veins from the intricate sigil he bore above his heart wasn’t just a symbol of the evil he had committed. Katia realized that the blackness had been killing him from the inside out, a visible indicator of his time running out like sand through an hourglass.

  “You make me want to live again, to fight the darkness,” he’d said one night as they’d lain tangled together on their bed. He’d reached out and tucked a stray hair that had escaped its braid back behind her ear. “For the first time in centuries, I feel like I have something worth fighting for.”

  Amir popped in and out as he did recon, looking for a suitable place for Luc and Katia to hide out in. They wanted to get back into the human realm, but finding a location that was remote, with a local coven of witches capable of the types of wards and spells they’d require to stay hidden, was a challenge. B was a frequent visitor, often regaling them with dirty jokes and ribald stories of his various conquests. Katia couldn’t help but feel a special warmth for B after he’d interceded to save Sergei. He’d also brought word that Sergei was adapting quickly to his new life, and seemed to be a fan of the many perks of being a vampire, chiefly that he no longer needed to jog daily to stay in shape. One thing Katia had learned was that Luc had a wicked sense of humor.

  Katia smiled to herself as she walked through the apartment towards the bedroom she shared with Luc. Flicking the door closed behind her, she crossed over to the bedside table and set down the glass of water she’d been drinking. Time for a shower. She twisted her hair up into a rough bun and secured it with an elastic hair tie. She moved into the adjoining bathroom and twisted the knob on the shower. Hot water came raining down from the showerhead, making Katia sigh in anticipation. She stripped off her clothes, tossing them through the partially open bathroom door onto the bedroom floor. The warm steam that began to swirl around the room fogged up the mirror above the sink and felt divine against her exposed skin. Katia stepped into the stream of water, a noise of appreciation for the steady flow leaving her lips. As she began to soap her body her mind began to wander.