Page 46 of The Devil of London

Khaos’s lips closed around my clit, and his tongue moved with lightning speed as something pushed against my ass. I whimpered in fear for a split second before the tendril of magic thrust into my ass and light burst across my vision. I might have blacked out because the next thing I was aware of was the drool dripping from my lips as the promise of pleasure blossomed in my belly. I tumbled over the edge, but then everything stopped, and my body toppled to the bed.

Khaos flipped me over onto my back as he peered down at me in a more humanized form. My chest rose and fell with each of my rattling breaths. I pushed up, but several black tendrils of magic shot out of his torso and held me in place.

“You’re not in control right now. I am, and you will take whatever I give you and be grateful. Won’t you?” he asked in a rough tone that drifted over me.

“Yes,” I replied willingly.

“Will you bleed for me, my love?”

Licking my lips, I nodded. “Yes, Khaos.”

“I don’t believe you,” he crooned, eyes shimmering with madness as he traced the blade up my thigh toward my sex. I stilled and closed my eyes as fear snaked down my spine. I was prepared for pain, but not for the heat of his mouth as his tongue pushed through the sleek arousal of my entrance. His lips wrapped around my clit, and then pain shot through my side as the blade sank into my belly.

When I screamed, begging for him to stop and keep going in the same breath, Khaos only sucked harder, sending pleasure fighting for dominance over my emotions. The blade left my body, and Khaos chuckled, lifting away from my clit as he ran his tongue over the blade, licking it clean of my blood. I gasped and whimpered as he crawled up my body and jerked me upright. He forced my legs to spread, and I ground against his knee, needing the pleasure to wash away the pain.

“You bleed so prettily for me, love,” he growled silkily. “I don’t know what I love more—the taste of your cunt, or your blood against my tongue,” he murmured as my arms wrapped around his neck, even as the blade was pushed into me beneath my ribcage. A shriek of agony burst from my lungs as it sunk in deeper. “That’s it, my good girl. Come for me.”

My hips were hardly moving, and he slowly pulled the blade, and set it aside before grabbing my chin and devouring me whole. He didn’t ask for permission. He plundered my mouth as if he had every right to do so. His other hand snaked around my head, threading his fingers through my hair as he kissed me with ravenous hunger. Our tongues collided, and the taste of my pussy and blood exploded on my taste buds, which should have horrified me but didn’t.

I rocked on his knee, dry fucking it with a feverish need. He moaned into my mouth, and it was all it took. I exploded. My body trembled with the intensity of it, shivering and coming apart as a kaleidoscope of color filled my vision, and the window and light bulbs in the bedroom shattered. Flames surged from the few candles in my bedroom, bathing us in soft, golden light. Tendrils of dark, wispy strings of magic slithered over our bodies and bathed us in crimson light. Nasir broke the kiss and released me as his inky magic pushed against my back as I gasped for breath.

“Don’t get too lost in the past, my love. I hate when I cannot feel your soul against mine,” he murmured as he placed me on the bed and tucked the blankets around my naked body. Khaos turned his head at the exact moment Merikh exhaled. “The fuck are you doing?” he seethed.

“You told me I couldn’t leave. Do you think it’s easy for me? She was mine, asshole. You stole her after I had that for a moment. I get it. Fate fucked us all. I don’t envy you having to tend to her tonight, but don’t expect it to be easy for me, either. I love her, and I always have, Nasir. Just because she’s your soulmate, it doesn’t make losing her easier on me.”

“You want to hold her as she dies? Is that it? You want to live every fucking day with your gorgeous wife, never knowing who the fuck you are? She’s the only woman I want, and she’s also the only one I can never fucking have! I want her so fucking bad it aches, and I know the moment I break and give into this overwhelming need to fuck her, she’s dead. Unlike this time, she won’t awaken from the healing sleep and come back to me.” Khaos made a strangled sound in his throat as Merikh mirrored the noise.

“I can’t stand her because of this damned curse. I want to tell her how beautiful she is and that she’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, but I can’t. Because, if I did, pushing her away would be unbearable,” Khaos snarled. “She is the only one I want, but because of what I am, I have to fuck or go mad. I would burn this world we’re trapped within to the ground if it meant she’d be mine again. You and I know that, just as you know that your bloodlust is only placating your need for her. Aderyn fucked us all over when she messed with those she should not have fucked with, Merikh. She pissed off the gods, and by doing so, we are all damned for eternity unless I stay the course and break them once and for all. I am so fucking close to taking over the syndicate and forcing them to face me. Whoever is powerful enough to take control of the immortals is promised power from the gods. I don’t want power. I want the curses undone and us free of the chokehold they have on us. I want her to be reborn with her fucking memories.”

As they spoke, my hand had moved to my side, finding it pouring warm liquid at an alarming rate. Khaos sat and turned toward me.

“Pitiful, truly,” he growled. “Your blood tastes like sin and nirvana. You’re both purgatory and holy water with a side of carnal sin, darling. When you and I first met, you told me that if I touched you, I’d burn. I am fucking burning, Aderyn. I burn for what I can’t have. I burn for you, darling, every moment of every day that I can’t take you or make you mine. They promised me pain, but this, this is eternal damnation. To see you, taste you, and know you’re my fucking anchor that I can never possess. I hate you for it as much as I despise them. You fought me, even though you craved me first. You did this to us, all of us. I’ll ask you again. Would you die for me, darling?” he asked as he turned and gazed over my bloody body, still wrapped in his dark, inky magic.

“Yes,” I responded, since I was succumbing to death, anyway.

“Would you give me your soul if I coveted to exhaust it?”

“I have no soul to sell or offer you.”

“That’s because it’s already mine, love.”

Khaos stretched his neck and exhaled as he picked up his ruined shirt and put it back on. He tilted his head, turning to peer over at Merikh. “Get your pants up and pull yourself together, Merikh.”

When his attention shifted back to me, he was painted in torment and bitterness. “Bloody hell, darling,” he whispered, kneeling next to where I lay on the bed. “That got out of control rather quickly. Don’t take too dreadfully long to come back to me, my glorious little savage. I miss you when you’re gone from me, as you revisit the past.”

It actually seemed as if he regretted murdering me. Khaos pushed the hair from my face as he regarded me through heavy eyes, laced with pain. It had to be a trick of the lighting because he did not look like he had enjoyed murdering me anymore than I had. Merikh exited my bathroom, and Khaos turned, growling low in his chest.

“Go find me something strong to take the edge off, Merikh. Send Malik in and see if you can find me something strong to drink. I’ll need it to watch her fading. I fucking loathe this shit. Of all the shit those bastards cursed us to face, this is the one that fucks me up the most.” Khaos muttered, rubbing his eyes with his fingers before sitting up and dropping his head back. “I realize you love her too, but she’s my girl, and the crap that took place in the past can’t happen again.”

“You’re right. I love her and always have. I loved her before she met you and attached her soul to yours. It drives a blade farther into my heart every fucking time I see the way she looks at you when you’re not watching. You may be my best friend, but she’s the love of my life, prick. She’s the one who got away. I’ll send Malik or Ryat in, whichever one lingered in the house when the death match started,” Merikh muttered before casting one more glance my way, raking his fingers through his hair, and then walking out of the room.

My heavy eyelids closed, and the pounding in my temples slowed considerably. The wounds in my abdomen no longer raged, but they still hurt like hell.

The air was harder to get into my lungs, which made Khaos turn to scan my face with pity. Clearly, I’d reached the hallucination stage of the poison impairing my system. He drifted down beside me on the bed, pushing the bloody tresses of sticky hair away from my face. “Don’t resist it, love. You always do, and it only makes it worse. Death is not your end. We are forever, and you’ll merely slumber for a time until you’re healed. You’ll sleep for a time, and then once you’re healed, you won’t remember this pain you feel. It’s what happened when I buried you in the swamp. Something changed, which made it so you cannot truly die. You appear dead for a time, but you awaken healed now.”

“It hurts,” I whispered.

“I know, darling. I know. You’ll be numb soon enough.”

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