“There is nothing to fear, Risa.” His voice swirled around me, soft and hypnotic. “There is no darkness here. There is just us, two beings connected by flesh, connected by air, and connected by the essence of all that we are.”
The fear ebbed away, and once again there was only him. His energy, his being. Against my skin and in my mind. Burning bright, within and without, making me tremble, ache. Want.
“Imagine there is no flesh to separate us,” he continued. “That there is only energy and desire. Call to them, Risa. Become them.”
It was as if his words were some sort of trigger. Power surged, became a rush of fire that invaded every muscle, every cell, breaking them down and tearing them apart, until my flesh no longer existed and I was one with the air.
As was he.
He was bright and fierce, a being that glowed like the sun and who was as beautiful as the moon. He drew me toward him, wrapped himself around me, until the music of his being began to play through mine and mine through his. It was a dance, a caress, a tease. It was movement, heat, and desire. It was crazy and electric, a firestorm that ripped through every particle of my being. It was pleasure unlike anything I’d ever experienced or felt before, and it took me ever higher. Our beings continued to entwine, tighter and tighter, until there was no separation—no him, no me, just the music of the two of us combined. And oh, the song we made was beautiful, and powerful, and right. Still the dance went on, burning ever brighter, until it felt as if the threads of our beings would surely explode.
Then everything did explode, and I fell into a storm of electric, unimaginable bliss.
I’m not entirely sure when, exactly, I came back to flesh, but when I did it was to an awareness of utter exhaustion. My body trembled, sweat trickled down my spine, and my breath was quick, shallow pants, as if my body couldn’t get air quickly enough. And yet I felt alive in a way that was indescribable.
“God,” I murmured, when I finally could. “Is it always like that for you reapers?”
He brushed a thumb lightly across my lips and smiled. “No, not always.”
There was a note that almost sounded like amazement in his voice. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He glowed with health and vitality, his skin golden and his blue eyes shining. “You recharged?”
“Yes.” He hesitated. “I hadn’t meant to, but the intensity of the moment got the better of me. Unfortunately, it is the reason you are now so weak.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you see me complaining?”
He smiled, then leaned forward and kissed me tenderly. “No. However, you should rest now.”
“But I don’t want—”
He briefly pressed a finger against my lips to halt my protest. “For once in your life, just do what I ask without argument.”
“In honor of that amazing experience, I’ll obey. Just don’t expect it to happen too often. Me obeying, that is.”
“Oh, I won’t.” His voice was dry as he rose gracefully from the bed. “Sleep, Risa.”
I did. And for longer than I’d expected, because it was late afternoon by the time I woke. I stretched, and suddenly realized I felt better than I had in days, if not weeks. I was refreshed, revitalized. Normal, almost.
Or as normal as someone like me could ever get.
“The recharging appears to have gone both ways,” Azriel commented. “Which is good, but extremely unusual.”
I glanced around. He’d returned to his post by the window, but this time his stance was relaxed and his skin gleamed warmly in the afternoon sunshine. “Meaning recharging for reapers is usually only one-way?”
“No, but you are not reaper; nor are you full Aedh. It should not have affected you as strongly as it did.”
“Well, I’m not complaining about it, that’s for sure.” I sat upright in bed, but as I did, that nagging, niggling sense of wrongness returned. I frowned and reached for my phone a half second before it rang.
I glanced at the number and saw that it was Rachel. No doubt she was simply ringing to let me know someone hadn’t turned up again. But one glance at the clock told me they were midshift, not at the beginning. It couldn’t be that.
Something was very wrong. Of that I had no doubt.
I hit the RECEIVE button and said, throat dry, “Rachel, what’s up?”
“It’s Tao,” she said. “He’s disappeared.”
Disappeared? Oh fuck, please don’t let it be the fire elemental. Please let it be something—anything—else.
“When?” I asked. My throat was so dry with fear, it came out harsher than I’d intended.