“But you did?” He laughed, a little sadly I thought. “Ah, if only I had known. But it is too late—my betrayal is complete now.”
I took a deep breath and looked up at him.
“What—you mean the way you took my virginity? Or the way you formed a soul bond with me without telling me?”
Laish nodded thoughtfully, clearly unsurprised.
“I knew you would find out eventually. Especially once you realized I had stolen half of your soul.”
“I should have figured it out sooner,” I said evenly. “Considering that instead of having only half my power I now have enough for a whole coven of witches.”
“Do you really?” He looked interested. “I thought as much when I saw you use that word of power on Druaga. Most impressive, my little witch.”
“I wasn’t trying to impress anyone—I was trying not to get raped,” I said evenly, trying to suppress the sick feeling in my stomach the memory brought up.
“I am sorry I didn’t come to your aid sooner,” he said seriously. “I came as fast as I could—as fast as the Creator would allow.”
“What?” I frowned at him. “Do you mean you met God? Uh—the Creator?”
He nodded. “Remember when you said you thought I was dead and I told you that I was for a time? Well, I was. I did not survive my fall into the Abyss.”
“You didn’t? You died?” I could scarcely believe it. “So then, what happened? How did you come back?”
Laish sighed. “It is a long story. Why don’t we sit and I will tell you. Here…” He led me over to where a small blanket had been spread on the sand which was rapidly cooling now that the sun was almost gone. In the lengthening shadows, I saw his eyes were glowing deep red as he looked at me.
We settled on the blanket and I wiggled a little, trying to get the sand under me to conform to a more comfortable shape. At last when I was ready, I looked up at him again.
“All right—tell me.”
“When I was dragged down into the Abyss the Ancient Ones took what they wanted of me.” He drew in a deep breath. “To put it bluntly, they tore me limb from limb.”
“Oh, Laish!” I felt tears rise in my eyes and tried to blink them back. That was exactly the kind of thing I’d been afraid had happened to him, back when I’d been sure he was dead. To hear that he had actually suffered just as much as I’d been afraid he was suffering made me feel awful. Especially since he had basically sacrificed himself to keep those horrible, seeking tentacles from grabbing me.
“It’s all right,” he murmured, cupping my cheek and brushing away a tear with his thumb. “Because thanks to your soul, I did not immediately revert to the Lake of Fire. Instead, I was drawn up to Heaven, to stand before the Judgment Throne. There I came face-to-face with the Creator for the first time since my fall.”
“You did?” I stared at him. “And then what happened?”
Laish shrugged. “He asked me if I had finally found what I left Heaven to search for. He asked if I had finally found love.”
“And you told him…?”
Laish smiled sadly. “I told him that I had, though I scarcely recognized it at first. I had been lost for so many eons I had forgotten why I left my post in Heaven in the first place.”
“Eryn said it was because you wanted to be able to love the way mortals were allowed to,” I said. “Is that right?
He frowned. “Eryn, your pet moth?”
“Who turned out to be an angel. You mean you didn’t know about that?”
He shrugged. “I came in at the last minute, as you recall—barely in the nick of time. My negotiations with the Creator took some time.”
“God negotiated with you?” I could hardly believe it.
“Not really—the Almighty does not actually negotiate. But he did give me a choice.”
“Which was?”
Laish looked down at the sand covering our toes.
“He told me I can return to Hell and live as I have been for so long. If I do, I will retain my powers and status in the hierarchy of the Infernal Realm as well as my ability to change forms. But I will be only a demon with no soul and no hope of redemption. Or…”
“Or what?” I asked, unable to hide the curiosity and eagerness in my voice.
“Or I could retain my soul—the final shred that is left, anyway, after using the thrak on both the Ancient Ones and Druaga—and give up most of my powers to live a mortal life.”
“A mortal life? You mean, like a normal life span?” I asked. “Like seventy or eighty years instead of seventy or eighty million? Or billion—or whatever?”
He gave one of his deep, soft laughs.
“My life will be more like a thousand or so years, I believe. I will need some time to make up for all the harm I did as a demon.”
“But still…even a thousand years is a drop in the bucket when you consider how long you’d live as a demon,” I pointed out.
He smiled sadly. “My darling, if only you knew how the years can drag when you have no one to live for—no one to share them with. And the Creator has promised that after my life span is up, I can be judged as a mortal and pass into Heaven as one as well.”
“So you’re considering it?” I asked. “What about your powers?”
He shrugged. “Gone. Well, most of them anyway. I still retain some of my smaller abilities.” With a wave of his hand he made two wine glasses half filled with ruby red liquid appear and handed me one.
I took a sip.
“What about your different forms? I know you gave up your dragon form during the fight with the Skitterlings. But what about your true form?”
He spread his hands. “Gone. This is my true form now—as it will be permanently if I choose to take the Creator’s offer.”
“Really?” I stared at him. “And you’re okay with that? With leaving Hell where you’re a Prince of Night and Shadows and have legions of demons to command and coming to the Mortal Realm where you’re just plain Laish with uh, no demons to command?”
“I didn’t leave Heaven in the first place because I wanted to rule and command,” he said mildly. “That was Lucifer’s sin. I left with him because I wanted our kind to be allowed to love and bond together as the mortals do. I left seeking love…and then I found you, Gwendolyn.”
I looked away. “You only think you love me. The Eternal Flame—remember?”
“Is that what you think?” I could see him frowning from the corner of my eye.
“Well, that’s what Belial said,” I pointed out. “And you said yourself you didn’t know why you loved me.”
“It was because I had been without a soul for so long that I forgot I could love,” Laish said quietly. “At first I did not even recognize the feeling inside that I had for you. I knew only that I wanted to protect you, to be with you and care for you. I didn’t understand why until I stood before the throne of the Creator and looked into his eyes.”
“How did that help?” I asked.
“Because God is love,” Laish said earnestly. “Seeing him reminded me of the small part within me that was still uncorrupted. The part that can love deeply and unconditionally. The part that drew me to you in the first place.”
“But the Eternal Flame—”
“The effects of the Eternal Flame only work on creatures that have originated in Hell. I was once a creature of Heaven. And can be again, if I agree to the Creator’s plan.”
“What’s stopping you, then?” I said softly. I was almost afraid to look at him as I asked, wondering what he might say next.
Laish sighed. “What stops me is the fact that I do not wish to stay in the Mortal Realm by myself, without you. Yet I know you cannot love me back. Not after the way I betrayed you—first in stealing half your soul and then in forming a soul bond with you without asking your leave. It is…unforgivable.”
“It would have been nice if you’d asked,” I admitted. “I mean, I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. But…I guess maybe you would have told me if
I hadn’t lied to you about seeing your face in the Mirror of the Eye.”
Laish made our wine glasses disappear and took my hand in his. “I have tied you to me in a very intimate way, Gwendolyn. And I did it without so much as a ‘by-your-leave,’” he said, looking at me earnestly. “Not only that, I did it using your own soul which I had stolen and attached to myself to do it. How can you possibly forgive me for that?”
“Like this,” I said and kissed him.
At first Laish was frozen in place and I felt like I was kissing a statue. Then he put his arms around me and kissed me back, making me shiver with desire. He ran his hands through my hair and pulled me close until I could feel his big, hard body pressing against every inch of mine. The kiss became hungry…breathless… But before it could go too far, he pulled back and looked at me, holding my eyes with his own.
“Gwendolyn, are you certain? You can truly forgive what I did? You feel for me as I feel for you?”
“I do,” I whispered. “I know Grams won’t like it but I can’t help it, Laish. I love you. I don’t think I realized it until after I thought you were gone. But once I knew how I felt, I couldn’t change it.” I squeezed his hand and my voice got tight and choked. “It was awful—seeing you slip into the Abyss that way. All I could think about was how much I missed you.” My eyes were stinging with tears but I tried to blink them away.
“I’m here now.” Laish tilted my chin up so he could press his lips to my wet eyelids very gently, kissing the tears away.
“I know.” I gave him a trembling smile. “So I guess we’ve got a second chance. I don’t want to waste it.”
“Mon ange…” He stroked my cheek and in the twilight dimness I saw his eyes burning ruby red. “I love you, too,” he murmured. “So very much. And now you have given me a reason to stay here—my choice is made.”
“Laish!” I looked at him uncertainly, feeling a little afraid. Because the ruby red light burning in his eyes had suddenly been extinguished. It was hard to tell in the deepening twilight but I thought his eyes were normal now—just a beautiful but very human deep blue. Much like the ocean that was rushing over the sand just a few yards away from us.
“What is it?” He looked at me, scanning my face. “What’s wrong, Gwendolyn?”
“Your eyes…” I cupped his strong jaw, looking at him worriedly. “They’re not red anymore.”
He laughed. “Because I have given up my demonic nature.”
“What—all of it?” I demanded.
A devilish little grin twisted the corner of his mouth and I thought I saw just the tiniest spark of red in his eyes. “Well, almost all, mon ange. Though there might still be a little left. Let us find out, shall we?”
And then he pulled me down onto the blanket with him and kissed me until I couldn’t see straight.
I gave myself to him willingly—eagerly, loving the feel of his big, warm hands stripping away my dress…his muscular body pressing against mine…the feel of his hot mouth caressing my breasts and sucking my nipples. Then he was finding his way down my trembling belly to the place between my thighs.
“May I, Gwendolyn?” he asked softly, hooking his fingers in the sides of my little white bikini panties.
“Yes.” I lifted my hips to help him, eager for his touch…for the feel of his lips and tongue between my legs.
“Gods, mon ange,” he groaned softly, settling between my thighs and rubbing his cheek against my pussy. “Your scent is intoxicating. Never thought I’d get to taste you again.”
“You thought wrong,” I whispered breathlessly. “Do it, Laish—don’t make me wait. I want you to.”
“And I want you…my angel.” He looked up at me and once more I thought I saw just a tiny spark of red in those dark blue eyes. Then he bent his head and pressed a long, sweet kiss to my pussy, parting me with his lips and laving my aching clit with his hot tongue until I moaned. Sparks of electricity ran through every nerve in my body, making me feel alive for the first time in forever.
“Laish…oh Goddess, Laish…”
The sun had finally set as I moaned his name, bucking up to meet him, giving myself shamelessly and with absolutely no reservation. This was good, this was right and I knew it to the bottom of my heart.
Laish wrapped his arms around my thighs, spreading me wide, pressing deep to fill me with his tongue and then pulling back to lap my aching little button until I gasped and writhed against him. It hadn’t been so long since we’d been together—I knew that cognitively. But emotionally, it felt like forever since I’d given myself to him. And this time I knew without the shadow of a doubt that it was right for us to be together, which made everything so much better.
It was so good, in fact, that I was already close to coming. But I didn’t want to come like this—I wanted more.
“Laish,” I gasped, tugging at his thick black hair. “Laish, wait.”
“What is it, mon ange?” He looked up at me, his mouth wet with my juices. “I want to feel you coming against my tongue,” he murmured. “Want to lap your sweet pussy until you come all over my face.”
His hot words made me shiver with desire but I wanted more than just his tongue inside me.
“I want you.” I tugged at him again. “In me—now.”
A slight smile quirked the corner of his mouth.
“As my lady wishes,” he murmured and then he was on top of me, his big, warm body pressed against mine, his dark, spicy scent filling my senses.
“Laish…” I murmured, reaching between us to grasp his thick, hard length. Just at that moment I wanted him so much I could barely breathe. No, not just wanted—needed. “I can’t stand it,” I gasped as I fitted the broad head of his shaft to my entrance. “I need you inside me—need to feel you filling me up! Now.”
“That would be the soul bond between us yearning to be renewed,” he murmured, stroking my cheek. “I feel the same—a deep need to be inside you, to be joined with you once more.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” I tilted my hips up, trying to get him inside me, wanting that hot, hard length filling me, taking me, making me his.
“Gwendolyn…” He breathed my name like a prayer and then lowered himself, filling me slowly but completely, penetrating me inch by thick inch, stretching me open and binding us together once again.
I wrapped my arms and legs around him and pulled him down for a kiss, loving the taste of my own secret flavor on his lips. He moved inside me, long, smooth strokes that made me gasp and arch my back, finding his rhythm and matching it with one of my own.
“Oh Goddess, Laish,” I whispered in his ear when I finally broke the kiss. “I love you…love you so damn much.”
“Darling,” he whispered and pressed even deeper inside me. “I love you too. I never stopped.”
I felt the pleasure that had been building inside me start to spill over, bathing my entire body in a warm, delicious glow. I was coming—coming harder than I ever had and I could feel my inner walls quiver and tremble with the force of my orgasm, urging Laish to give in and come with me—to fill me with himself again.
With a low groan, he allowed my orgasm to trigger his own. This time when I felt the hot spurts of his seed inside me I welcomed it, knowing it was tying us even closer together, forming a bond that could never be broken.
“Laish!” I moaned, bucking up to meet him, to take him even deeper. “Yes, fill me—take me all the way. Make me yours.”
“Always,” he murmured in my ear. “Always and forever you are mine and I am yours, mon ange.”
The deep sound of his voice and the feeling of him filling me brought on another, stronger orgasm that made me throw back my head and moan. I was helpless in his arms, unable to do anything but open myself to him and all he had to give and it was perfect. Utterly, completely perfect.
As I cried my pleasure to the stars above, I knew that I was with the man I had always been meant for—the man who had always been meant for me. Somehow Laish and I had been made f
or each other, even though he’d had to wait an eternity to find me and I had spent a long, lonely time doubting before I finally let myself love him.
Though we’d had a long and difficult road through Hell itself, we had finally emerged from the shadows together and we would never be apart again.
Epilogue
“So you and Laish are as cozy as two peas in a pod but what about Eryn?” Taylor asked, settling herself on my couch with a jar of Grams’ homemade dill pickles.
I say “my couch” but it was actually a plush leather sectional in one of the many sitting areas in Laish’s Siesta Key mansion. Taylor had brought the pickles herself with a message from Grams who still wasn’t talking to me.
“Come home,” read the note attached to the jar. Taylor had given it to me before opening the pickles and selecting a big green one to crunch on.
I sighed when I read it—Grams was still having a hard time understanding how I could forgive Laish for stealing half my soul and using it to bond me to him. She thought I was under some kind of spell. I was pretty sure she’d come around eventually but for now, I was living with Laish and giving her a little time to adjust to the new status quo. Still, her note made me sad. I wished she could just be happy for me and understand that I really did love my man and he loved me back.
“Eryn?” Addison said, breaking my train of thought. “You know—the angel you told us about?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I did a spell to try and find her but I came up blank. It was almost like…”
“Like what?” Taylor asked.
“Like someone is hiding her somehow,” I said, frowning as I folded and unfolded Gram’s note. “Like there’s some kind of very strong magic shielding her from anyone who might be looking for her.”
“Maybe it was the protection spell you worked on her?” Addison suggested. “The one that sent her into this world in the first place?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. This magic had a very distinctive signature to it. And, well…it was familiar too.”