Chapter 37
Nick laced his fingers through mine and started pulling me toward the front door. "Ever been skinny dipping in the purple sea? Want to?"
"Seriously?"
He lifted a brow and smiled seductively. "Well, it's supposed to be a celebration, right? It's also summer there. The water gets wonderfully warm."
We left the bar just like everyone else, but instead of heading home, Nick guided me around the back of the building, behind a tree that blocked the view from the street. He paused only long enough to check for anyone watching, then tugged me into the corridor with him. Thankfully, there wasn't an angel in sight.
"Since you've never been there before, this time I get to drive," he said, wrapping his arms around my back. His hood was still down and those galactic eyes were warm and mesmerizing. "I'm going to show you my favorite place in the five worlds."
I nodded, but didn't even have time to answer before he tugged again and we fell across the next veil into Vesdar. I could only assume it was a planet like Earth, round and filled with many climates and time zones. Where we stepped out was at the tail end of sunset. Blues, pinks, golds, and greens tinted the lilac sky. Verdant sands lay soft underfoot, but this wasn't the same beach I'd been to the last time. That one had been an open expanse. This one was isolated, and before us spread a royal purple ocean. The cove was circular, a wall of green cliffs to the left, and a powder-soft beach spread off to the right, making the view impossibly gorgeous.
"Why is the water purple?" I asked, trying to take it all in.
"Violet sky." He pulled my hair back, his demonic nails teasing my neck. "The planar densities are just different enough to shift the light refraction toward red, and the sea reflects it. Want to go swimming?"
Biting my lip, I turned back to him with the best pouty face I could manage. "Flying?"
He laughed but grabbed my arm and looped it over his neck. "That's what I was hoping you'd say. Hold on, little dove. The takeoff might be bumpy."
I hugged his shoulders, my arms high enough to stay away from the reach of his wings but low enough to avoid the horns, and Nick lifted me against his chest. He looked up, checking the sky, then pushed. His wings cracked as they caught the first rush of air, wider than I'd realized. Each thrust lifted us higher, and I pressed against him, partly scared of falling, partly wanting to see everything. Being with Nick was like a mixture of exhilaration and terror as everything I'd ever known was proven wrong and the world became a much more interesting place.
The ground fell away, the wind whipped through our hair, but I was secure. There was nowhere to go but down, and he'd be able to catch me easily. When the cliffs looked like grains of sand, his body tilted, slowly, and we moved more forward than up. My eyes watered but I wouldn't look away, trying to take it all in. On the horizon, the sun was a brilliant pink. Behind us, the sky was a rich indigo, and in between, I held my demon, feeling like any minute I'd wake up from this perfect dream.
"Look to my left," Nick called, trying to be heard over the wind.
I did, seeing a pack of what I first thought were birds. As we angled toward them, I realized they also had leather wings and were a lot farther away than I first thought. Seconds ticked past and I tried to make out exactly what they were, expecting something from a myth. Then they finally got close enough. Dragons. At least a dozen of them flew right at us. I squealed, gripping his neck, but Nick laughed and shook his head.
"We're too small, not worth the effort in flight. I'll show you."
His wings pushed hard, gaining speed, each flap rocking us closer together. It was amazing and magical, and then I looked into the wind one more time to find the dragons bearing down on us. Huge did not begin to describe them. Every law of physics I'd believed existed broke in my head. Four legs, long tails, and bodies the size of a whale, their wings were even bigger. I could imagine only one fitting on a football field, and I wasn't even sure of that.
Nick wove between them, twisting and turning. His arms held tight around me, but he was laughing as my head turned to take it all in. They were like flying mountains, but in the most amazing colors. Blues, yellows, and the same verdant green as the sands below, I couldn't even see them all in the fading light, but I loved it. The group passed and Nick banked, following them back to the circular cove so far below.
"What do they eat?" I asked, almost screaming into his ear.
"Fish." He banked again, giving me a view of the ocean below. "Really big ones."
I could see them. Under the dark water, even darker shadows moved in schools. I wondered if they were like whales, but didn't want to know. I just made a mental note that we'd have to come back when it was daylight so I could see everything. That's when I realized this was all worth it. Losing my independence, giving up on my life goals, and stepping into a world of insanity, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'd always thought I was a pragmatist, but I was wrong. Everyone wishes there's something more, something fantastic just beneath the surface, but I'd thought that was nothing more than the dreams of a foolish orphan wanting to believe she was a fairy princess.
It wasn't. I was a Muse, and that was so much better. With the wind twining my copper locks into Nick's midnight blue, his strong arms held me tight as we soared into the sunset. If this was what I could expect in life, I didn't want to be a fairy princess anymore. I wanted to be a demon.
Slowly, he landed, the process being easier than I'd expected, but his wings threw sand into the air around us. He set me down, making sure I had my legs under me, then shook out his arms and stretched his wings. I couldn't help myself. I hugged him.
"Thank you," I whispered into his chest. "I love this, I love your wings, and dragons, and the green sand. Thank you for finding me, Nick. Thank you for making me something special."
He pressed his palm against my face as his wings folded behind him. "You made yourself special, not me." His starry eyes searched my face. "But thank you for not running away from it, Sienna."
With a giggle, I stepped back and thrust my arms out wide as I spun in place. "This has been the best day of my life!"
He chuckled at me. "Well, it definitely ranks at the top of mine. I love seeing you so happy like this."
"Oh? Know what would make me even happier?" I stopped, staggering a little from dizziness, then sighed. "We should've brought a blanket."
He lifted a brow as he tugged at the old-fashioned laces of his pants. "Why? The water's warm."
"But sand gets in the worst places."
He just shook his head, then tugged off a boot with the toe of the opposite foot. "That's why you don't fuck on the beach, Muse. Do I have to teach you everything?" In one quick motion, he stepped out of his pants, leaving them there in the sand, then started backing toward the water. "C'mon. I might get lonely."
For a moment I just stared. Satanael the demon was hot! Here on Vesdar, his skin looked almost iridescent, those rune wards a half shade darker. Then there was the trail of dark blue hair running from his belly button to... wow. Yep, that had a rune on it, too.
"I promise touching is better than staring," he teased.
Yes, I had a feeling it would be. I tugged my dress over my head, kicked off my shoes, and wiggled free of my bra and panties as fast as I could, watching him slowly step backwards. He made it no more than twenty feet before I ran to beat him into the water, but Nick was devious. He lunged at me as I passed, catching my waist, and flapped, just lifting us off the ground to propel us forward.
I squealed.
That one beat of his wings was enough to take us to knee-deep water, but I staggered as we landed – if you could call the end of a glide landing. Thankfully, the sea was there to catch me, and Nick wasn't any better. We both splashed down, completely soaked but laughing. The water ran over my lips, just as salty as any other ocean, but pure, like ours must have been before pollution. I loved it.
He caught my back up against his chest, more than happy to haul me around with his demonic strength, and pushed us deeper into the sea. What I didn't expect was how he used his wings as an efficient set of swimming arms. Giving in, I leaned my head back on his shoulder and relaxed, letting him take us out farther. Nick stopped with the waves lapping around his chest, deep enough that I could barely touch. I had to cling to him to keep my head above water.
"This is perfect," I said softly, looking up at the strange stars above. "The only thing better would be to have my own skin so I could fly with you."
"Soon," he promised. "Although, I think your first lesson as a demon might not be flying."
Turning to face him, I shifted my arms around his neck. "Oh?"
Dripping water, his hand reached up to push a lock of hair behind my ear. "There's never been a female demon, little dove. I might have to sample the wares, but I don't even know how all the limbs would fit together."
"How does it work with the men?"
He looked away. "We tended to use different positions."
I grabbed his face and turned it back to mine. "Talk to me, Nick. What is it?"
"I've never actually talked about this before. I mean, not with a woman." He ran his fingers through my hair again. "Back then, we were all foolish children. Sometimes, friends messed around, but," he shook his head, "mostly it was groping and fondling."
"Hand jobs and tail jobs, huh?" I pulled myself high enough to kiss his strong cheekbone. "And it doesn't sound like it was that good."
"No." From the tone of his voice, I had it all wrong. "I won't tell you that I haven't," a smile flashed across his mouth, "you know, gotten myself off, but I mean it wasn't normally emotional between demons. It felt good, so we did it – and I mean actual sex – but I'm not like Sam."
He was trying to tell me something, and he thought it mattered, but I just wasn't quite getting it. I just wanted to make sure he knew I didn't care what he'd done or who he'd been with over a few billion years. "So you weren't easy, is that what you mean?"
"I've been easy, I've been a prude, and everything in between. It's been a long time, dove. Jesus was only two thousand years ago, and I remember millions. No, what I'm saying is that I had demon lovers before women existed. I didn't know there was an option, but now that I do? I'm not repulsed by men, but that doesn't mean I'm bisexual, either. There's only a few I'm honestly attracted to. The rest? It was nothing more than playing to most of us."
"Then why did you kiss Sam tonight?"
The tip of his tongue flicked across his lips. "When we're young and foolish, it's easy to convince ourselves that lust is love." The stars in his eyes were dim. "It feels so immediate and persistent."
I could see the pain in his memories. "Did someone break your heart?"
Nick laughed softly, looking away. "No. We met in our first century and spent a few hundred thousand years together, convinced it had to be possible to cross the veils." Gently, he shifted back, putting space between us as he bared his soul. "It started as a way to stay safe, then stay warm, then to hold back the loneliness. Somewhere in there, those hours alone got boring, and, well, we learned how to keep ourselves entertained."
"There's nothing wrong with that," I assured him.
He shrugged. "We couldn't even imagine women, Sia. Not even our animals have females. We never thought to wonder why we're built like we are. We just figured out that our parts fit together, and it felt good, so we did it more and more, until it turned into something else."
"Love?"
He licked his lips, his eyes barely flicking to my face. "Yeah. For him."
"Did you feel anything for him?" For a moment, a surge of jealousy raced through me.
He saw it and smiled, relaxing. "Yes and no. He was my friend, and someone I trusted with all things – even when I realized I preferred women. He tried to understand, but jealousy almost destroyed the friendship we had. I left him for many years, hoping space would repair the damage, but when the woman I was with died, he found me again and was there for me." He shrugged weakly. "I do love him, but as a dear friend, not enough to be what he needs. But if there's any man in the world that can turn me on, it's him."
"Nick," I said, meeting his eyes. "I don't care if you still like men, or if you changed your mind when you realized women were an option, or whatever. It doesn't change who you are, ok? Just tell me you didn't sleep with any angels?"
"Uh..." He laughed. "No angels. Never had sex with Luke or Bel."
I heard what he didn't say. "Sam?"
A sad smile touched his lips. "I broke his heart, Sia. He's the one I spent so many centuries with."
"Oh."
He nodded. "Now you know why I didn't want to laugh and joke about it. The guys know, don't get me wrong, but Sam's feeling aren't a joke to me."
"God, I'm so sorry! I never meant -"
"No," he breathed. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's just hard to talk about at home, but I want you to know."
I nodded, but he hadn't answered my question. "So why did you kiss him tonight?"
"Because you don't care." He paused to take a deep breath, then kept going. "Because I sometimes miss what we had and how he made me feel about myself, even if I can't help myself from liking women more. Because you're so open and accepting of us that..." A breathy laugh slipped out. "There are some things a demon can do that a woman will never be able to match. I guess, after you said you thought it was hot, I wondered just how open-minded you really are."
"You mean you'd like to have sex with Sam again, and hope I'm ok with that?"
"No," he almost purred. "I mean that one day, I hope you'd be willing to try both of us. I can see the way you look at him. I know how he feels about you. For the first time since I broke his heart, Samyaza has found someone he honestly cares about, and that someone is you. I may not love him the way he loved me, but I love him enough that I want to see him happy, just like I want you to be."
My heart was pounding way too fast. The problem was that my gut was also twisting into knots. "And us?"
"Oh, my sweet little dove, I will never give you up." Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back to the stars. "This sounds so wrong, but I'm trying to give you permission. It's not something you should need, but when Sam told me why you were avoiding him? Well, there's no reason for you to feel that way. Sam, Luke, or even Beelzebub, it doesn't matter. Throughout history, we have lived and fought together, and we've shared our loves. This time, it's different. Better. We are legion, and you're a part of us. Whether that's as a friend, lover, family, or whatever part you think works best for you, I don't ever want being with us to make you feel bad in any way."
"Just so long as I'm still doing you, huh?"
"Oh yeah." He pulled me closer and I felt his tail slowly twining up my leg. "Because no matter what, you are my Muse, my girlfriend, and I can't stop thinking about how perfectly you fit with all of us. How natural being with you feels. And I have every intention of proving to you that you can't live without your demons."
"My Satan." I wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling the base of his tail brush against my calf. "Nick, you'd better find someplace very soft," I pressed my body closer to his, "or you will never get me out of this water."
His arms wrapped around my back and he surged upward, water flying as his wings cracked open, carrying us to a smooth, soft ledge tucked in one of those impossibly green cliffs. His feet barely touched down before his mouth was on mine, hard and insistent while he eased my feet back to the ground. With my arm around his back, I felt it when his wings closed. Then I felt when his tail flicked across my hips, pulling me into him as his hands slid down my wet skin.
So many sensations. From the new smells to the feel of his skin, it was overwhelming, but I loved this. I loved him. My tongue danced with his and my hands tangled in his hair, but this wasn't just about feeling good. It was about a man who'd just bared his soul, and who had stolen mine. It was about trust and new experiences, and finding someone who cared enough to set me free instead of trying to force me into a cage.
I loved him. It was hard to separate that from how much I loved this new life, but I did. I really did. I loved how he treated me as an equal, how he didn't judge me for what I didn't know, and how he wanted nothing more than to make me happy – even when it wasn't always what made him happy. And I loved how he touched me. How his wings gently wrapped around my ass and his thumbs teased my nipples. I even loved how he growled like a beast when I gasped in pleasure.
"Sia," he whispered, "turn around, dove. Hold the rocks so I can touch all of you."
I spun, grabbing at the cliff wall. Soft moss cushioned my hands but I barely had time to think about that before his tail curled across my belly, the tip moving lower. Spreading my legs, I gave him access. The smooth skin taunted me, slipping through my folds as hands grabbed my hips. No, those were his wings, I realized when his real hands found my breasts. The moan that came out was loud in the darkness descending on us, but I didn't care. I couldn't stop. There was too many sensations to focus on, and his tail was pressing hard into my clit.
"Nick," I panted. "If you keep that up, I'll finish without you."
He flicked my nipples again, but I felt his breath on my neck. "Like that, do you?"
"God, yes."
"Uh-uh. Not God."
"Satan," I growled, "if you start worrying about what the hell I say when you're driving me insane –" His tail pressed harder, sliding back the other way. "Oh, God," I mumbled.
"Close enough," he chuckled, then his wings pulled my hips back.
And I committed the most amazing sin imaginable. The devil himself entered me, thick and hard, and I didn't care at all about religion, sins, or anything except the feel of my man loving me like no one else could. I bucked. I mewled in pleasure. I also didn't last very long at all. With every inch of my body stimulated, all I could do was gasp, scream, and take it, over and over. When my orgasm hit, it never wanted to end, flowing through me like magic.
I screamed out a primal yell as my knees went weak, and one pale, moonlight blue hand shoved over my shoulder and against the wall. The other was wrapped around my waist, holding me up as he groaned and pulsed inside me, savoring his own climax.
"Are you ok?" he eventually managed to ask.
I grabbed his arm for support but nodded. "Oh, yeah. Wow."
That got a weary chuckle. "Can you stand?"
"Oh, no. I'm nothing but rubber."
Slowly, he withdrew, then turned me to face him. "I had no idea it would be that good. Come here, dove."
Carefully, he knelt, easing me down with him. Those wings reached down to support our collapse, his hands cradled me, and somehow we ended up on the softest natural bed I could imagine. With a pleased little moan in the back of my throat, I curled into him and pillowed my head on his shoulder.
"Nick?"
"Mhm?"
"I love you. I just want you to know that."
"Mm." His tail flicked over my leg and gently wrapped around it. "I love you too, Sienna. I have for a very long time."
"Good," I whispered as my exhausted eyes slipped closed. "I'm just going to rest for a minute before we have to go home. It's so nice here, I want to enjoy it just a little longer."
His fingers tightened on my shoulder. "Yeah, me too."