Night's Darkest Embrace (7 page)

In the midst of my shock over discovering that Rafael was a Fallen, I’d forgotten about those five points of light in my eyes marking me for all to see as a claimed demon. Absurdly, I looked away, as if that made them any less obvious.

“Look, I don’t—”

“Do you want to know the real reason why I was in the woods that night when you were a teenager?” he interrupted.

That redirected my attention from what I’d been about to say, which was a lame rationalization, anyway. “You’re finally going to tell me the truth?”

A thick lock of golden-red hair fell over his shoulder as he nodded. “When I was a boy, my mother told me that Fallen knew their mates by sight. I asked how, and she said because we recognized them. That didn’t make sense at the time, and as only a half-Fallen, I didn’t know if it was a trait I’d inherited or not. But that night I saw you at Bonecrushers, even though I’d never set eyes on you before . . . I
knew
you. It only took one glance to feel a part of me saying ‘this is her, my mate, the person I’ve waited centuries for.’ ”

It felt like my heart stopped beating. Then it restarted in a rush when Rafael slid into the pool with me, not even pausing to take off his leather pants. The water barely rippled as it enveloped him up to his chest, and his gaze held mine captive as he reached out to stroke my cheek.

“I was in the woods because I was following you, even though I fought to stay away because you were barely more than a child. Still, I had to speak to you, at least once, before sending you back to your world. My delay coming after you ended up costing the life of your kinswoman, and for that, I am deeply sorry. But I was there that night for you, Mara, no other reason.”

Emotions welled up in me, pulling my heart in different directions at the same time. I wanted to respond to his incredible declaration of me being his mate, but it was so beyond anything I’d allowed myself to consider that I tried to focus on what I could grasp.

“Gloria,” I breathed unsteadily. “You could cross realms. Why didn’t you go after her when Ashton pulled her through?”

“I did go after her, but only once I’d seen you safely back to your realm. I couldn’t risk leaving you in the woods where Purebloods and other dangers lurked. I looked, but I never found her, Mara. I also looked for the Pureblood who’d taken her, but until today, I didn’t find him, either.”

Poor Gloria. Familiar sadness rose in me, comforted by the memory of Ashton’s last, terrifying moments. At last, Gloria had been avenged, and the knowledge of that would soon soothe the rest of my family even as we’d always mourn her.

“Rafael . . .”

I didn’t know what to say as I stared at him, feeling the impossibly strong, smooth touch of his hand on my cheek. His gaze was intense, eyes flashing with tiny diamonds of light around those dazzling blue irises—

Flashing
. Not stationary, like those five points of light in my eyes. My heart sank while disillusionment coursed like vinegar through my veins. He might think I was the one for him, but his eyes didn’t bear the mark of a claimed demon. Rafael was far closer in bloodlines to the source of our race; shouldn’t this trait be even more apparent in him? Some Partials never displayed those star points in their gazes, and it wasn’t out of lack of love but too much dilution of bloodlines.

“You’re wrong about me, Rafael. Your eyes prove it.”

I glanced away as I spoke so I wouldn’t do something humiliating, like cry. For a few seconds, I’d felt happier than I had ever been at the idea that the man I’d secretly longed for since I was a teenager was really mine. Now that happiness turned to crushing disappointment when I realized Rafael’s very gaze proved that he wasn’t.

A low laugh rumbled from his chest even as he pulled me into his arms.

“I see you were taught the innocent version of what prompts the claiming metamorphosis.” His tongue traced my ear, making shivers break out over me. “Your eyes changed only
after
you climaxed with me. I haven’t had the chance to share the same pleasure with you, but I intend to correct that. Now.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Any hesitation I’d had over him being a Fallen vanished at the surge of need his words elicited. I slid my arms around him, letting my head fall back under the insistent demand of his mouth. His tongue teased me, probing my galloping pulse, teeth gently nipping. I traced over the hard sinews of his shoulders to his back, fingers brushing over the unusual ridges as I brought our bodies closer.

He arched and a groan came from him that sounded almost pained. Startled, I snatched my hands back, pulling away to look at him.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.” His voice was hoarse. “Those are . . . very sensitive.”

Then he kissed me, backing me against the side of the pool to press his body fully along mine. His arms caged me while his warm, muscular chest, stomach, and legs lined up with my own, the delicious hardness of his erection prodding me even through his soaked leather pants. I moaned into his mouth as I arched against him, feeling my loins greedily clench at the increased contact, the buoyancy of the water allowing me to curl my legs around his waist as I did it again.

His hands traveled down my back to my ass, firmly kneading and pulling me tighter against him. Each twist and rub sent shocks of aching pleasure through me, building in intensity, until I hazily realized that I’d come if he didn’t stop now.

“Not like this again,” I gasped, tearing my mouth away. “I want you inside me. No, make that I
need
you inside me.”

His mouth curled into a sensual smile as he unhooked my bra. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Mara. Too long to rush this.”

My loins twisted in protest at the thought of delaying. How could he expect me to be patient when that bulge in his pants clearly showed he wanted me as much as I burned for him? He looked even more staggeringly gorgeous, too, with beads of silver water clinging to his body and making his skin silkier to the touch. Wait? What idiot invented
that
concept?

I slid my hands beneath the water to his pants, enjoying his intake of breath as I unzipped them. His mouth crushed over mine when I reached inside to clasp him, more heat slamming through me as his length filled my hands.

Oh
hell
no was I waiting, no matter that he wanted to take things slow.

“Mara,” he moaned against my mouth when I began to stroke him with firm pumps, each slide of his flesh making that tightening in my loins almost painful. He might have enough control for extended foreplay, but I didn’t. What was that he’d said in the carriage? That he could keep from taking me right then, as long as I didn’t keep doing what?

That’s right, touching his
back
, because he had all those “sensitive” ridges running on either side of his spine. Triumph flared in me.
You’re mine now!

His mouth slid down to my breast, closing over a nipple with enough passionate intensity to clear my head of all thought. A cry wrenched out of me even as I tried to ignore the continued sharp throbs of pleasure that sought to undo my intentions with mindless bliss. Before I got lost in the sensations, I let go of his amazing hardness to run my hands almost roughly down the ridges in his back.

His response was electric. Rafael jerked like I’d struck him, his eyes closing and a pure animalistic groan tearing out of him. He tried to grab my arms, but the water helped me wriggle away as I whipped around him to rub my bare body against those ridges next.

Something between a growl and a shout reverberated across the room. The muscles in his back bunched and rippled in spasms while those ridges grew, rasping my skin. I only had a split second to wonder if I’d pushed him too far when he spun around, the water seeming to explode as he vaulted us out of the pool, ripping away his pants and my panties with the same savage swipe. Then nothing registered except the crush of his mouth on mine, until a rush of movement made me open my eyes even as I felt something soft at my back.

Rafael was on top of me, his wings extended and rising like a dark canopy above us. Their ends curled downward to rest on either side of him, the soft edges of his feathers teasing my sides. Somehow, the framework in his wings supported him enough that his hands were free. He grasped my thigh and my neck at the same time, his mouth claiming mine in a burning kiss while he raised my hips.

“Yes,” I choked as I felt the thick, blunt head of him pushing at my center. Then I gasped at the hard cleaving of his flesh into mine, his heat filling me with a thrust that sheathed him in one stroke. His mouth muffled the cry I made as he began to move, that deep inner friction turning the burn of my desire into an inferno. I dug my fingers into his back beneath his wings, loving the fierce rhythm of his thrusts, arching to take him deeper even as I wondered if I could stand it.

He reached down, cupping my breast and pinching my nipple with sensual roughness while his other hand held my thigh in a grip that I didn’t want him to loosen. The hard silkiness of his skin, those deep, incredible thrusts, the throbs in my nipple, the demanding ardor of his mouth . . . all of it was too much. Quivers of rapture turned into shudders as I cried out, my loins seizing with an ecstasy that each continued thrust only intensified, until I was shaking with the force of my climax.

His hand left my breast and he gripped my hips with both hands, his thrusts becoming faster, harder. I broke our kiss to gasp in breaths that ended in moans at his intensity. Almost blindly, I reached past the smoothness of his back, finding those ridges between the new, wide stretches of flesh that supported the magnificence of his wings.

Rafael arched, throwing his head back while moving even faster. Our voices rose in a series of groans, his sharper than mine as he increased his pace even more. I was beyond thought, lost in the minefield of sensations that sent more and more bursts of pleasure along my nerve endings, until at last, he gave a guttural shout. His body stiffened while pulses of heat filled my loins, making me cry out as well. More deep thrusts followed, extending the pleasurable waves within me until finally Rafael stilled, his head dropping against my breasts while he took in ragged breaths.

My eyes fluttered shut while I continued to pant, bliss still tingling through me. After a few minutes, Rafael dragged his mouth up to my jaw, kissing it, his hands caressing me even as the last of the tremors subsided within me. He shifted slightly, but I didn’t want him to pull away yet, so I hooked my leg around his hip with a noise of protest.

His laugh tickled my neck as his mouth slid there next. “Greedy, aren’t you? I love it.”

“I need you like this . . . just a little longer,” I managed, the words spaced because I was still out of breath.

“Mara.” His hands slid up to cup my face. “You’re my mate. I’ll be with you this way for a very, very long time.”

Even in the midst of my reveling over those words, fear snaked up my spine. I wanted so badly for it to be just like he said, but what if when I opened my eyes, his were exactly the same as they had been? No pinpoints of light marking him as claimed because he’d been wrong about me? I’d rather face a horde of Purebloods than see that. My heart wouldn’t be able to stand it.

Something wet slid down the side of my temple and I caught my breath as I felt him wipe it away.

“Mara.” His voice was hoarse. “Don’t doubt me for a moment longer. Open your eyes.”

I took in a choppy breath. “Rafael, if it’s not—”

“I’m yours,” he cut me off, brushing a kiss across my lips. “I’m more sure of that than I’ve been of anything. Now, open your eyes so you can be sure of it, too.”

Very slowly, I did, his dark wings the first things I saw. Then, my heart pounding, I met his unblinking sapphire gaze.

Tears immediately overflowed my eyes, blurring his features, but it didn’t matter. I’d seen enough. A laugh bubbled out of me even as my arms tightened around him until I must have been half strangling him.

“I told you,” he murmured, squeezing me back but far more gently.

I pushed him away after a moment, blinking to clear my gaze so I could see those five pinpoints of light in his eyes again. To me, they were more beautiful than a basket full of diamonds.

“I’m going to make you so happy,” I promised in a voice gone scratchy from emotion.

His laugh became huskier while his hands began to travel down my back.

“I intend to make you happy as well, but slower this time.”

•   •   •

I lay stretched across Rafael’s chest, his wings gone except for those ridges decorating his spine, when his voice broke the peaceful silence.

“Tranquilizer shot. Very clever.”

Inwardly I cringed, but in reality, my muscles didn’t even twitch. My body felt like it was in a permanent state of euphoric lethargy after the past couple hours.

“Sorry. With everything I’d heard and how I knew you were lying to me about certain things, I thought you might be a Pureblood. Fallen never even crossed my mind.”

He dropped a kiss onto my shoulder. “It doesn’t with most people. That’s how I’ve managed to hide what I am for this long.”

I rolled over to look at him. “I told my family horrible things about you. Among other important actions, I need to clear that up with them right away. I don’t want them shooting their future son-in-law on sight.”

A hint of a grin tugged at his mouth. “No, that wouldn’t do.” Then his expression sobered. “I’ve already surmised that you went back to Nocturna intending to tell everyone what you thought you’d discovered about me. What happened? Did Ashton catch you unawares in the forest?”

“No, Jack set me up,” I said, cursing to myself at the memory. “I trusted him, so I told him about you, thinking if I had his support, other Partials would be more likely to believe me. But he knocked me out, and I woke up with him snickering as Ashton dragged me into a river where another barrier was.”

Rafael’s mouth curled downward. “Jack,” he repeated bitterly. “He hid what he was well over the past century. Out of my men, I suspected him the least.”

“Which others of your men did you suspect?” If Billy was also a Pureblood, I’d never trust my judgment in people again.

He listed a few people that, thankfully, I wasn’t friends with. Then again, that didn’t mean they were guilty and Billy was innocent. Or that any of them were guilty, for that matter. Wouldn’t it be a relief if all of them were innocent?

“What if Jack is the only Pureblood hiding in Nocturna?” I offered.

Rafael gave me a dark look. “There are at least two more. Every time the barriers are breached, I can feel it as a Fallen. That is why I knew to come to this realm looking for you. I felt one person enter Nocturna, and then soon after, two people cross over to this side. I correctly feared one of them was a Pureblood and the other was you.”

I shook off the suffocating, squeezing memory of being pulled through the dimensions. “So while you can’t tell if someone’s a Partial or Pureblood when the first barrier into Nocturna is breached, if the second one’s parted, you know you’ve got at least one Pureblood wandering around.”

“Exactly.”

And I’d thought that as ruler of Nocturna, Rafael had his hands full just keeping a bunch of partial demons in line. Little had I realized that was the least of his concerns.

“We need to get Jack to tell us who the other Purebloods are, fast. Before they escape through the second barrier, which you know will be the first place they’ll run once you take Jack into custody.”

“If they do, I’ll follow them,” he replied with deadly emphasis.

“And blow your cover?” I reminded him. “If someone catches you crossing those barriers, your masquerade as a Partial is over. Plus, even if you do follow them, you might not catch them. I haven’t seen all of it, but this realm looks huge. I’m beyond lucky you found me in time, but with a little head start, those Purebloods might get away permanently.”

There was also the other, uncomfortable possibility, that because of me, Jack had turned the opinions of Nocturna’s residents against Rafael. I’d told Jack where the other barriers were, and I’d told my family that Rafael was in league with Purebloods. At least several hours had passed since I left my sister in the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot. Who knew how many other Partials she might have repeated my former, erroneous beliefs about Rafael to? Combined with Jack’s support, that meant Rafael could be slaughtered on sight.

“You can’t go back until we know who the others are,” I said, steeling myself for the fight I knew would come with my next words. “Because of what I told people, it’s too risky for you. I’m the one who has to catch Jack and get him to talk.”

Rafael sat up, crossing his arms over the sculpted beauty of his chest. “That is too dangerous—”

“I got the drop on Jack before,” I interrupted, my tone hardening. “This time, I won’t give him a chance to take advantage of my trust. Besides, I’m the
last
person Jack will expect to come after him. He might be on the lookout for you, but Jack thinks I’m nice and dead with my essence keeping Ashton’s tummy warm.”

Rafael still had a look of utter objection on his face. I sighed, reaching out to smooth my hand across his clenched jaw.

“I owe Jack for what he did to me, and for what he helped Ashton do to Gloria. You’ll have your own battles in the future that I won’t be able to fight for you, even though I’ll want to, but this one? It’s
mine
, and if you respect me as your mate, you’ll let me fight it.”

Rafael didn’t say anything for a long moment. I waited, my stomach churning. His response would either strengthen our relationship, setting a foundation that we could grow on despite our differences in age, race, and abilities, or fracture our new bond under the weight of stubbornness and chauvinism disguised as chivalry.

“Once you’ve secured Jack,” Rafael said slowly, to the accompanying burst of joy in my heart, “you’ll need help to get him to talk.”

I hugged him, feeling his fierce answering embrace and promising silently that I’d be the best damn mate in the history of demonkind. Then I let him go before the hard, sensuous feel of his body led to less planning and more time spent on the cushions.