Page 68 of City of the Lost
My gaze fell to the V of his T-shirt, catching sight of the inky tendrils of the tattoo that had materialized when Elora had been beating him.
I ran a finger over the exposed inked skin. “What does this mean?”
He glanced down at his chest with a frown. “I don’t know, but maybe the rogue Shedim will be able to help us understand it. Maybe they can help us understand why our Kindred is different and how it is we have one in the first place.”
Elora had thrown me to Balen just because she thought we were lovers. What would she have done if she’d realized we were Kindred? She’d claimed him, made him her slave in every way. She’d begrudged him happiness. She needed to pay for all the pain she’d caused, not only to Azren but to Valance too. But there was more I needed to understand.
“Azren. Why you? Why did she pick you?”
He shifted, tucking me against him securely. “I was chosen after a series of trials. If I’d known then what being her chosen would mean, I’d have never entered. But I was young, boisterous, and ambitious. I won and she claimed me as her own in every way.” He was silent for a long beat. “I told myself it was an honor. That she was my liege, and that I was her servant. I tried to love her.” His voice cracked. “But Elora’s love is like a venomous viper that strikes repeatedly. It’s insanity and darkness, and yet I believed her to be our savior. She’d cut away a part of her soul by killing Ivan in order to save us. I told myself that I owed her mine.”
“I get it. You were loyal. What I don’t get is why she needed you, and why she made you hurt Valance?”
He squeezed my hand slightly. “I’ve asked myself the same question a hundred times and come to no solid conclusion. As for her abuse of Valance ... That is Valance’s story to tell, and I wouldn’t disrespect him by stealing that right.”
A sleepy memory bloomed in my mind—Valance’s voice telling me goodbye. Had that been a dream? My heart sped up. “WhereisValance?”
Azren looked down at me. “I don’t know. He left without saying goodbye.”
Goodbye.
“Azren, why do I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach?”
Azren’s grip on my hand tightened again. “Wila ...Valance will explain it all when he returns.”
His tone was assured, acting like a comforting blanket, but there was another layer to it, one that needed to be peeled back to expose what he was hiding.
A yawn cracked my jaw.
Azren shifted on the bed. “Let me get you some food.”
But the hunger was gone, washed away by weariness. “No. I just want to sleep. Will you stay? Will you wake me when the others get back?”
In answer, he shuffled down to lie with me. I rolled onto my side, and he pushed up behind me so my back was to his front. I drifted away, coasting on the fringes of sleep, aware of his body behind me, taut, powerful, and mine.
“Azren ...”
He answered me with his lips on the nape of my neck, with his tongue licking at the top of my spine, and with his hands skimming over my hips, fingers tracing patterns over the exposed skin where my top had ridden up.
“Sleep.” His voice was like distant thunder.
But sleep was suddenly the last thing I wanted. Instead, I pushed my hips back into him, desperate to feel the length and girth of him. His arousal pressed against the base of my spine, hot and hard.
“Wila, dammit, woman.”
My skin sang his name, calling to him to soothe the chill fever that had taken hold. He answered with a growl, slipping his arm around me and sliding his hand into the waistband of my PJs. He cupped me, his breath hot on the nape of my neck, forehead pressed to the back of my skull.
“I’m going to touch you, Wila. I’m going to make you feel good.”
My mouth was suddenly dry as my body coiled, ready for the invasion. And then his fingers dipped into me, rough yet gentle, deftly sliding across my secret place, alternating between slick strokes and maddening circles until there was nothing but the sound of my whimpers and gasps, nothing but the blood roaring in my ears and the jerk of my hips as he played me to my ultimate conclusion. My cries were swallowed by his mouth and soothed by his tongue as I rode the wave.
We lay side by side, wrapped in silence, while blood pounded in my ears and my thighs trembled. He ran his thumb over the back of my hand, his breath as ragged as mine. He’d sent me freefalling into an abyss of pleasure, every sense was heightened, and yet he was still unfulfilled.
I reached for him.
“No.” He gripped my wrist. “It will be worth the wait.”
He rose above me, his harsh features highlighted lovingly by moonlight. “I think I know where Trevor hid the mint choc chip ice cream ...”
