Page 14 of Destined to the Reaper

Moving so fast it looked like a blur, Pharos reached out to me over the magical line, grabbed my neck, then yanked me inside the circle. He glided back a few steps as he did so, taking us to its center. I collided against his chest, my scream of terror dying in my throat as my entire body froze, paralyzed.

Flesh Magic…

This couldn’t be happening! Itshouldn’tbe happening. I attempted to cast a disruption spell only to find myself unable to tap into any of my magic.

“Calm, Kali,” the Reaper said in a commanding voice. “If my purpose had been to kill or harm you, I would have done so a long time ago. Portals offer no protections to the summoner and aren’t constraining for the summoned entity. Never forget that, should you ever attempt this again with another being.”

To my shock, his arms holding me tightly against him released me, and the paralysis keeping me locked in place lifted. I couldn’t scramble out of the circle fast enough. So much in fact, that I stumbled back and would have fallen hard on my ass if not for his kinetic magic propping me back up.

One hand pressed to my chest, I gaped at him, too stunned to speak a word or otherwise react. The mocking smile that stretched the partially defined features of his wraith form made me snap out of my traumatized daze. My cheeks heated with embarrassment upon realizing that storming back out of the circle had been prompted by the lingering illusion that remaining outside would keep me safe.

“Now to answer your previous request, Kali Jenkins, I swear not to harm you from this moment forward, during whatever interactions we will have inside the circle, or after you have left it. I hold no malicious intent towards you and seek a mutually beneficial collaboration with you to be freed of Cornelius. Does that response satisfy you?”

Despite the sense of relief that washed over me, I couldn’t help still glaring at him for that little stunt. I gave him a stiff nod while muttering my annoyance as my heart continued to try to settle back in my chest from the scare he just gave me.

“Yes, it does. But you didn’t have to make your point in such a flamboyant fashion,” I grumbled.

Instead of the mocking snort I expected, Pharos took on a serious expression. “Yes, I did. Time is of the essence. You and I are about to make great sacrifices that could cost both of us the ultimate price. If we are going through with this, trust—or rather the lack thereof—will be our undoing. I am not the entity you should fear. You need to know beyond any doubt that no harm will ever come to you from me, not because I can’t, but because I choose not to.”

I almost argued that this could be just a trick to get me to lower my guard before he stabbed me in the back when I least expected it. But I kept my peace. If even disembodied he’s so easily nullified my magic, I could only imagine how much more powerful he could be. Reapers possessed many powers, including elemental manipulation and illusion. He could easily make me do what he wanted while fooling me into thinking those were my choices.

“Why do you stay inside it then?” I asked with genuine curiosity. “If it doesn’t constrain you, couldn’t you simply go to your body?”

He shook his head. “The magic of the portal keeps this form whole. The moment I step out, I start losing some of my integrity. The only way to maintain it is by expanding magical energy. The farther away, the greater the strain. If I go too far without the power to maintain myself, I will eventually get sucked back through the portal into the vessel that was hosting me before the call. But long before that happened, Corneliuswould feel the strain tugging at the tether and know something is amiss.”

Without another word, I gave him another stiff nod and began to strip out of my clothes.

I still had mixed feelings about this whole situation. While sex was often used as part of certain rituals, I dabbled in the type of magic that didn’t require such practices. Many dark arts practitioners actually sought it out not only because sex with occult creatures was usually off the charts, but it tended to enhance the human partaking in it—assuming their otherworldly partner wasn’t evil aligned.

I wasn’t prudish and didn’t have moral qualms about what would soon take place between us. I’d simply never been the type to share my body with anyone that I didn’t intend to form a committed relationship with. Right or wrong, I fell squarely into the category of people who couldn’t help but form an emotional bond with the person they became intimate with.

The intensity with which he observed me as I finished removing my clothes and setting them in a neat little pile next to me was beyond unnerving. When he first suggested this coupling, it struck me as ludicrous since he didn’t possess a corporeal vessel. With traditional summons, the entity entered the circle with its true body, not just its consciousness. And yet, this portal had somehow made his soul tangible.

The feel of his body, when I crashed into him, came back to the fore. It had been firm and yet soft. Spongy wouldn’t qualify as an appropriate descriptor. Maybe pillowy? But more importantly, an unexpected warmth radiated from it, and it lacked the horrible stench of death and decay that I dreaded.

My stomach fluttered with a feeling I couldn’t quite describe as I stepped back inside the circle. It was the oddest mix of fear, anticipation, and curiosity. Now that my distrust of himcontinued to steadily wane, my mind could finally focus on appreciating the strange being before me.

Pharos had something elegant and noble about him—not words I ever expected to associate with a type of wraith. He was extremely tall, nearly seven feet, although I suspected that his long skirt made of white smoke, and the fact that he slightly hovered over the ground played a significant part in this. His body wasn’t exactly covered in a white robe. It was just the white smoke or glowing aura around it that created such an illusion. The features on his face were too undefined to be able to say what he actually looked like. It was as if a sculptor created the basic shape of a face with the eyes, nose, and mouth, but didn’t complete the work. The generic mannequins some fashion stores used to display their garments would be an apt comparison.

Moving slowly, as one would with a frightened animal, the Reaper carefully drew me against him. A shiver coursed through me in reaction to the sharp contrast of the cool evening air and the unusual warmth of his ethereal body. To my shock, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.

As I normally never indulged in these types of activities with otherworldly beings, I hadn’t really known what to expect. Foreplay had certainly not featured on the list. For a reason I couldn’t explain, I instinctively sensed that he was trying to ease me into it, as if he knew of my inexperience with one such as he.

That messed with my head.

The part of me grateful for that consideration also acknowledged it meant things could drag on longer than I might want or prefer. However, how much time this took largely depended on my ability to let go and open myself to the process.

The more tense I remained, the tougher the psychic barriers erected by my subconscious would be, effectively acting like a repellent. There was a reason consent was so important in manyrituals. Granted, in most cases of possession or dark magic, the victim or sacrificed couldn’t have been a less willing participant. However, there were multiple ways to break down someone’s resistance, pain, doubt, and fear being chief among them.

Where religious people often used their faith as their shield, making them waver on even a single aspect of their belief often sufficed for a demon to create the breach necessary to get in. And once fear kicked in, whatever defenses they possessed crumbled at an exponential rate. Similarly, pleasure—especially when all-encompassing—drove the person receiving it to either open themselves wider to receive even more, or it overwhelmed them so much they lost themselves to it, leaving them ripe for the reaping.

That thought should have frightened me. But the unexpected flame of desire sparked low in my belly as Pharos’s hands started roaming gently over my naked body. Tilting his head to the side, he deepened the kiss in a gentle but dominant fashion. Once again, relief washed over me in the absence of foul taste or smell. It was too subtle for me to pinpoint it exactly, but aniseed popped to mind.

The texture of his tongue against mine also messed with my head. It was smooth, silky, almost creamy in its softness. Where his body was hot, his tongue felt cool. I wouldn’t call it cold, despite the slight tingling it triggered without falling into numbing territory. Simultaneously, his hands on my body, and mine on his sent me down a spiral of sensory exploration like I’d never experienced before.

It took me too long to realize that his touch was more than just physical. The tingling that seemed to seep deep into me, down to my bones, was some form of spiritual response. Considering he was the embodiment of a soul, it utterly made sense. But it was the way my body was responding to him that retained my attention.

I was more than turned on. Within the handful of first caresses, my nipples hardened, my breasts felt heavy, and a dull throbbing manifested itself between my thighs. When his palms glided over the curve of my behind, I instinctively found myself pressing my pelvis against his. I wanted him to hold me more tightly, to be entirely surrounded by his ethereal essence.

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