Page 13 of Between Soul and Vessel
I looked up into the eyes of my soul’s other half. My mate. My love.
My safe haven.
Amazing, isn’t it?he mused, the heat of his breath caressing the shell of my ear.How responsive you are to my touch.He spun me away from him, our hands disconnecting. A cavernous mouth, forged of shadows and obsidian, stretched wide and swallowed him whole.
“Von!” I cried out, reaching for him as he disappeared along with the rest of the ballroom.
I’m right here,he spoke from behind me.
His voice calmed my frantic heart.
Walls and floors, forged from black glass, stretched before me. I turned to him, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. He held my gaze, surveying my tears before his attention drifted to my hand, his beautiful face fracturing with concern.
I looked down, finding a thin linen tenderly wrapped around my finger.
Goddess, please, I can scent your ichor. It is a freshwound. Let me see it, he said, his voice almost . . . pleading. He held out a tattooed hand, and I almost went to put mine in his, but I stopped.
“Von, this is a memory,” I said, looking around us, trying to find a way out. The obsidian walls began to breathe, pulsing in and out, in and out. Then, they started to move. My eyes stretched wide—they were closing in on us!
Panicked, I turned to Von. “We need to get out of here.”
It needs to be set,he said, his attention locked on my broken finger.I promise to be as gentle as I possibly can.Carefully, he grasped the end of my crooked finger. When his lips came crashing down on mine, my world was enraptured in his dark flames. My finger made a loud noise as the bone was snapped back into place.
That sound repeated, growing louder and louder as it began to shift from a clicking into—
The headboard tapped against the wall in slow, rhythmic movements as I lay beneath my mate, my legs wrapped around him, our bodies connected as he drove into me with delicious, long, sensual strokes. With each one, he etched his name into my bones, carving himself into me with heartbreaking gentleness.
Tonight, he had taken his time with me, his lips leaving no part of my body untouched.
Tonight, he had worshipped me, treating me as if I were a sacred temple.
And tonight? Tonight, I wantedallof him.
Are you sure?Von asked, forest-green eyes locked with mine. His wild black mane tumbled over his broad, inkyshoulders, spilling around me. A slender braid, the one that had my feather tied into the end, swayed with each rhythmic thrust.
“I am. I want this,” I reassured him, my hands grazing down the length of his powerful, masculine arms, the muscles taut as I melted beneath him. My body was soft and pliable, molding to his hardness.
A smile, brighter than I had ever seen before, crested on his full, beautiful lips.I want this as well,he pledged softly, his hand drifting between my breasts, lowering down my torso to the flat of my stomach. His large hand spanned over my abdomen.You are going to make such an incredible mother.
It’s a shame you won’t ever become one, snarled a heavily accented voice—
Nicholas.
The bed dissolved beneath me, and I began to fall.
Sage!Von yelled in desperation as he reached for me and I for him.
A hand, forged from bone-breaking strength, clamped around my wrist, pulling it down, pulling me onto another bed, but this one was not wrapped in black silk. No, it was made of lies and deceit and pain—so much pain. Aurelius’s body shoved against mine as he drilled his fingers into my jaw, forcing it to open. Leaning forward, he filled my mouth with his ichor, and then he clamped his hand over my lips, making me swallow the taste of him down.
Welcome back,Aurelia, he said as his forceful knees wedged my compliant legs apart. He pressed himself intome, stealing everything I thought I knew about myself in one painful thrust. Without permission. Without consent.
Tears welled in my eyes.
Make it stop. Make it stop.
“Make it fucking stop!” a voice screamed. My voice.
Something hard pressed into my hand—
