Page 16 of Destined to the Reaper

Another scream of pleasure-pain escaped me, then the tingling deep inside spread outward, growing in intensity until I felt myself falling out of my body. Then darkness engulfed me.

I didn’t know how long I was out. When I regained consciousness, I stared at myself in shock to find me fully dressed, cradled in Pharos’s arms. He had returned to his normal size, no wings visible. But his eyes glowed with an insane intensity as he stared at me.

On instinct, I pulled away from him and scrambled back a couple of steps, still sitting on the ground. The Reaper didn’t attempt to pull me back. He merely tilted his head to the side and gave me a ‘Are you serious?’ look that had my cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“Good, you are conscious again,” he said in a conversational tone. “I must go back before Cornelius suspects anything. As soon as I am gone, destroy this circle. We cannot risk anyone stumbling on it once your wards wear off.”

“Okay,” I said in a subdued voice, unsure how I felt about his matter-of-factly behavior moments after fucking me to an inch of my life.

But what did you expect? Snuggles and words of love?

He kind of snuggled me while I was unconscious. Was his distant behavior a response to the instinctive way I’d scrambled away from him upon regaining consciousness? It hadn’t been personal. I’d merely been startled.

He rose to his ‘feet’ prompting me to do the same.

“Stay away from Cornelius and his minions until I am free. You carry a part of me inside you now,” he warned in a serious tone. “If any of them come close enough to you, they will sense it, and all will be lost. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling inexplicably unnerved.

“Good. In that case, until tomorrow, my bride.”

My bride?!

I stiffened and gave him a baffled look. Before I could ask him what he meant by that, Pharos grabbed me by the nape and crushed my lips in a painful kiss. With a will of its own, my body melted against his, a spark of lust igniting low in my belly, despite the soreness lingering between my thighs.

To my chagrin, he ended it as quickly as it started, then nipped my bottom lip hard enough for it to sting, but not to break skin. I gasped, my right hand flying to my lips to cover the spot he had bitten, only to see him vanish in a puff of white smoke as he crossed back through the portal.

I stood there dumbfounded, alone in the clearing. Too many conflicting emotions swirled through me. What did he mean byhis bride? Had he screwed me in more ways than one? The power of his essence flowing through my body was undeniable. However, I didn’t feel anything else that could indicate potential foul play.

He pledged not to harm me in any way before, during, or after our encounter.

Although that thought appeased some of the worry trying to rear its head, at a visceral level, and in a way I couldn’t explain, I didn’t believe he would wrong me. Nothing about my reaction to the Reaper made any sense. Even now, I felt utterly bereft and cold, in a way that went beyond just the loss of his unusual heat surrounding me.

It’s his soul. You love the feel of it around you.

And I did. It was mesmerizing in a way I couldn’t explain. But then, Reapers were considered demigods. Could that be the reason for my response to him?

Heaving a sigh, I set down on the task of removing the circle and then disabling the wards I had set up around the area. There was no point dwelling on why I felt the way I did around this strange being. I was just grateful it turned out the way it did instead of being an excruciating nightmare.

Anyway, I was committed. Cornelius would pay for what he had done to far too many people.

Chapter 5

Pharos

My soul paced restlessly in the slimy cage that was Cornelius’s vessel. As repulsive as it had felt over the centuries of captivity, it now made me beyond nauseous. Thanks to Kali, the recent taste of freedom I enjoyed, and the intoxicating sweetness of her soul only exacerbated the foulness of my host.

I visited my bride three times already. A couple more visits should suffice to allow for a smooth transfer into my own vessel. With All Hallows quickly approaching, the timing could not have been more perfect. Over those three days, the veil between the mortal world and the Shadow Realms significantly thinned. If we performed the ritual then, it would be easier for the shriveled husk of my body to fully regenerate. Plenty of wandering souls would abound for me to feed on, not to mention the fiendish creatures that haunted the crypt where my vessel lay in stasis.

That thought immediately unnerved me.

Once back in my body, I would be nearly unkillable, even in my weakened state. The same could not be said of my female.She did not grasp just how deadly the crypt was for a human, even one with the respectable arcane powers she possessed. I had to convince her to give me her soul. It was the only way to guarantee she would survive the journey there.

The powerful longing—not to say rabid hunger—that struck me at the thought of owning her soul left me reeling. I ached to possess all of her… but consensually. I needed her to want to belong to me. It didn’t make much sense. Granted, she possessed one of the most beautiful souls I’d ever seen or touched. If I had a physical body right now, just remembering how she felt wrapped around me would have wrested a moan out of me.

Blast it to Hell! I was obsessed with her.

And tonight, I will have her again…

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