Page 9 of Burn in Bliss

This side of her was gorgeous.

Perfect.

Pure.

I was too transfixed by Lilith’s angelic form to realize Orion’s fist was heading straight for my face.

Mood killer much?

My entire upper half wrenched to the side as blood burst from my lip at the impact.

“Orion!” Lilith cried. She stretched out her fingers, sending a blast of light that had us both flying off our feet.

Orion crashed into the ground, kicking dirt and flowers up into the air. He left a streak in the ground, marring the otherwise perfect meadow, while I instead floated to safety. My wings were functioning better now that I was close to Lilith. Just being near her rejuvenated some of my power.

I steadied myself on my feet, then spat out the blood that had filled my mouth.

The flowers drank in every drop of red, leaving nothing left.

The second Lilith marched over to me and rested a hand on my arm, a shot of desire ricocheted through my core. I blinked up at her and froze, not sure if it was our unfinished mate-bond doing that or whatever the incubus had done to me.

Her pink tongue flashed out over her lips as her gaze dipped. She ran her fingers up my arm and caressed the collar around my neck. It hissed at her touch but didn’t break. The collar was designed to contain an angel, and in her current form, there wasn’t much she could do to break it.

“What happened to you, Samael?” she asked, her whitewashed eyes flicking up to mine. Her angelic form liked to use my full name, eliciting a hungry growl from my chest.

Her eyes were different than usual, but this was her spirit talking to me. Her angelic form wasn’t constrained to her physical body, allowing her to travel wherever she chose, especially when her corporeal form was unconscious—or in prior cases, dead. I knew she wasn’t dead this time, though. A glowing tendril seemed to disappear off into the sky, one that would lead to her body.

This side of Lilith was one I easily melded with. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the other aspects of her nature.

It was that I didn’t feel worthy.

Her demonspawn used sin as a resource, not a burden to be dealt with. I admired her for that, and sadly knew I could never measure up to it.

Her succubus drank in lust like air, needing my urges that I only knew how to suppress. She deserved someone like Kaito, who could let loose and give her anything. Even my brother had succeeded where I failed, happily taking a stupid risk that could have gotten us all killed. I was too practical to be that selfish.

As Lilith’s fingers ran down over my chest, I shivered at the trail of fire she left behind. It seemed to travel straight to my groin, making my body flex in response.

Every stroke of her fingers released another sensation through me that made my flesh tingle. I couldn’t name the feeling, but it wasn’t exactly angelic.

It was more… divine. The power seemed to emanate from her, glowing from the inside out.

Kind of like Orion’s power does.

“I’ve been imprisoned while Lucifer has been trying to figure out how I rejected Calamity,” I said, answering her earlier question about what happened to me. “Then your boyfriend found us at the beach Orion dragged me to and sent us here.” I pondered why, exactly, Orion had taken me to that beach. What had he hoped to do to me there where no one was around to hear my screams?

He’d been ordered to break me. But so far, he’d only let the other angels try their hand on me and let me rot in a cell. He hadn’t questioned me himself, not alone.

Maybe he had planned on killing me and being done with it. Maybe Calamity had finally driven him to finish what we’d started when I’d scratched him with my blade.

“My boyfriend?” Lilith asked with a raised brow. Her white feathers lifted behind her in interest. “If you’re referring to a Virtue, Samael, you’re going to have to be more specific. I have more than one.”

I released a chuckle. “Don’t I know it.”

“The incubus,” Orion growled as he waded through the overgrown meadow. The flowers seemed to have tripled in size, standing on stalks that impeded his path and slowed him down. He swiped through them, frowning as if irritated by the blooms. “Did you send him after us? I would have come here had you asked, Lily.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “No, you wouldn’t have. Not with the burden you still bear.” She glanced up at the dark sky. “You came here once before, when I called you. But I’ve been calling you over and over again, and it’s like you’re not listening anymore.” She hugged herself, drawing my eye to the beautiful swell of her breasts. “I feel like I should remember the incubus you speak of, but I don’t. Not all of my memories work when I’m like this. It sounds like I need to thank him, though.”

She couldn’t remember having a ninth Virtue? Convenient. But probably true. Her memories didn’t work as they should when she was in her angelic form.

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