Page 115 of Anathema Codex

“You,” she answers in that soft, dreamy voice and I jerk back from her touch, but she shakes her head slightly. “Not like that, Aftyn. I’m not laughing atyou, but the idea of you. It seems impossible for you to exist, and yet… here you are. A blessing of the Light out of the bleakest darkness. A piece of hope from the higher planes, meant to bring the Children of the Light a future. Through us.”

Us.It always makes me feel better when she says that.

“I love you, Daughter,” I whisper, kissing her again as I shift her back toward the bedroom, and she moves with me like we’re dancing. Every step she takes is with perfect grace, fluid and magical, and when she laughs again it doesn’t even bother me. Instead, it reminds me of the tinkling of wind chimes near the dining area.

In moments we’re naked and as I slide my fingers through her wetness, plunging two deep inside, I’m in awe of the way she arches her back and moans softly. I love how freely she reacts. Not shy, not reserved. She moans, grinds against my hand, soaking my fingers as I add a third and lean down to flick my tongue over her clit. Her hand fists my hair, holding me where she wants me for the moment, and I soak in the taste of her, the scent of her.

Mine.

That word rolls like thunder inside me. It’s a dark thought, full of possessiveness and vengeance, but I’m okay with it. The Daughter,Trixie, is the one thing my bastard of a sperm donor ever wanted and she’s mine. She’s spreading her legs for me, not him, and all I can hope is that somehow he knows it’s happening.

“Come here,” she commands, and I shift over her, kissing her so she can taste herself on my tongue, and the hunger in her response has me lining up and thrusting inside her without waiting.

“Is this what you needed, Daughter?” I ask, slamming deep just the way she likes, and I know she does. Those sweet moans are all for me, all mine, and Lakyn fucking Meyer will never get to fuck her like this.

“Yes,” she gasps, nails digging into my back as I grab her knee and push it toward her shoulder to get even deeper. “Fill me with your Light, Aftyn. Help me bring about the future for the Children of the Light.”

Future. Children.

The words make it through the lust and ambrosia-fueled haze in my head, and I realize what she’s asking for… she wants me to knock her up. Just the idea of putting a baby inside her has my balls tingling. It’s all the proof anyone would need of my true purpose here, myrightto stand at The Daughter’s side. Lakyn never even got to fuck her when she was Trixie, and now she’s everything he wanted to be and I’m going to be the father of her child.

Vengeance really shouldn’t be this sweet.

“Say it again,” I urge, holding off the need to come even as her cunt grips my cock, begging me to do it.

“Fill me, Aftyn,” she pants, moaning in her perfect, soft voice. “Spill your Light inside me so that we can create a future together.”

“Our future.”

“Yes! Our future!” The Daughter shouts and her pussy clamps down on me like a vise, and it’s impossible to resist. I come and the sudden rush of ecstasy is as blinding as the sun was outside. A perfect light that I know I’m putting inside her so that we can start a new path together.

A better path. A brighter one.

Free of all the darkness.

As the world starts to come back into shimmery focus, I take my place beside The Daughter and smile when I feel her pull my hand onto her lower belly. We’re both slick with sweat, out of breath from the rush of orgasm, but I lift my head just so I can look at the expanse of skin under my fingers.

Right there could be the beginning of a new life. A part of me and The Daughter growing inside her, cementing our connection in blood. Something that Lakyn Meyer will never have because she would never give it to him. But she chose me, and I feel a chuckle rumbling up in my chest as I stare at her belly because… how funny would it be if we have a daughter?

NINE

Halos & Hatred

DAPHNE

My forehead is pressed against the window of the car. For the second time in the past half an hour, I’ve wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

I can’t stop salivating and yet, somehow, I still feel so goddamn thirsty.

Lakyn hasn’t said much since we left. He put in a CD and has spent most of his time ignoring me.

In a different world—one where everything didn’t look so goddamn hazy—I’d be bothered by it. But I welcome it now; I just hope it won’t last for too long.

Be the perfect girl and he’ll love you forever.

I repeat the mantra to myself over and over. Buried deep inside of me somewhere is still that young child that wants so desperately to be loved and accepted for exactly who she is. No mask, no fake smiles, no polite civil bullshit. Just me.

Lakyn has shown me a sliver of that already and even though it hurt when he left me behind, he chose me to come with him so I want nothing more than to rip open the wound and watch it fester with our love.

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