Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5)

“Something more intimate?” Amusement bubbled through me. “That’s a polite way of putting it, I guess.”

“I am nothing if not polite.” He released my hand and sat cross-legged on the bed, then motioned for me to do the same. “Press your knees against mine.”

“If a reaper’s idea of sex doesn’t involve more touching than this,” I commented, “I don’t think I’m going to like it very much. Especially given I’m naked and you’re not.”

“Trust me, our state of dress will not matter.” His smile creased the corners of his eyes and made my heart do a happy little dance. “And I am not entirely sure this will even work—although there is enough Aedh in you that it should—so behave.”

“I am yours to command.”

“If only.” Though his voice was bland, it held a hint of sadness that tugged at something deep inside. “Because you are still flesh based, we will have to take this slowly. Are you ready?”

I smiled. “You should know me well enough by now to guess that answer.”

“True.” A smile briefly lifted the corners of his mouth; then his expression became serious again. “Close your eyes and concentrate on nothing more than your breathing.”

“That hardly sounds like fun.”

“Stop talking and concentrate if you want to do this.” It was softly said, yet held a note of iron.

I shut up.

“Now,” he continued. “Let go of the awareness of all that is around you, until there is no sound, no scent, just you and every intake of breath.”

Meditate, in other words. I closed my eyes and concentrated on nothing more than breathing in and out. My heartbeat began to even out, and a sense of peace settled around me. As the minutes slid by, my breathing slowed further, until I was on the edge of an almost trancelike state.

“Feel,” he said, picking up my hand and placing it on his chest. His skin was warm under my fingertips, his heart a steady, strong drum. “The rhythm of my breath. Breathe in as I breathe out.”

My fingers rose with every movement of his chest, so even though I couldn’t hear his breathing, it was easy enough to set mine on a separate course to his.

“Now, feel my breath on your lips,” he continued softly. “Let it run across your tongue and into your body. Let it fill you, become you.”

Warm air teased my mouth. My lips parted and I drew it in, filling my throat with his taste and my lungs with the scent of him, until all I could feel and all I could sense was the energy of his presence. In me, around me.

“Open your eyes.”

I obeyed, and stepped into an ocean of blue. It was beautiful, that ocean, beautiful, but turbulent, and oh so powerful. My body began to tremble, not just with expectation and desire, but also fear. I was reaching for something I didn’t understand, and it was far more dangerous than even Azriel thought. My throat tightened, and the rhythm of my breathing momentarily faltered. His fingers came to rest on my chest, his touch warm, electric.

“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?”