"By all the hells, I think I lost my mind back then." He shook his head to dispel the gruesome memories, whose ghosts still hunted me as well.

The clearing of a throat brought us back to the present, and I became aware of eleven sets of eyes staring at us. One set in particular, Ishtar.

"Anunit," I whispered.

"Anunit? You were Anunit?" Ishtar asked with wide eyes before a grin spread over her beautiful face. "I should have known."

"I think so. And Seth was…"

"Girgire," Seth whispered.

The story of Anunit and Girgire rushed through my head, I remembered how Ishtar and I first met, and how she had been promised to King Gilgamesh before the aliens claimed her.

I recalled that, as the seven sons began to kill each other and Ishtar waswidowed, Behlial claimed her, dismissing his old queen.

Again Ishtar took our hands, but thankfully nothing happened that time, tears pooled in her beautiful blue eyes. "You two were destined to be together. It's been a long time, a very long time. A long journey. But you are both finally here."

IcarriedLilithbackto our room, not only because she was weakened, but because I couldn't bear letting her out of my arms. I needed her as close as possible.

Mine and Behlial's fight felt like years ago and any wound he had inflicted on me was nothing compared to the pain I endured when I was forced to watch impotently as Lilith was burned at the stake right in front of my eyes.

I realized that this had happened in another lifetime, yet it had felt so real as if it had just happened and I could still taste the acidic smoke in my lungs, threatening to make me gag.

I still felt the arms of the Daemons holding me back, when all I had craved was to throw myself at the stake to burn with her.

I had searched for her from the moment I set foot on Adama. She had visited me in my dreams, just like Lilith had in this life and in the many lives before, as if the gods had tried to assure we would recognize each other. As if I would have missed her if I hadn't seen her in my dreams.

The moment I found her writhing and engulfed in flames on that stake, I recognized her. The pain of having been too late, minutes too late, was nearly as great at the pain of losing her.

After the Daemons stopped me from throwing myself onto the stake to burn with her, I lost it. With brutal efficiency, I avenged my lost karamia against those who had put her on that stake. Not that it helped, but it did feel good.

Back on the ship, I chose my maiden from the ones the other Daemons caught and never laid a hand or eyes on her. I was easy prey for the brother who eliminated me quickly. I didn't offer any resistance, only hoped I would get another chance in another life. Which was when I realized that my father had been one of my brothers at the time, he might have even been the one who killed me. I shook my head, I needed to stop thinking about this before I lost my mind.

And here we were.

"I love you," I whispered in her ear as we entered our cabin.

Her arms were flung around my neck and her body was pressed against mine. She looked up, her pupils were large and black and I saw my own reflection in them.

"I love you too, Seth. I love you so much it hurts."

My arms pressed her even closer to my chest. She was right. It hurt. She was so precious to me I couldn't imagine a minute without her, let alone a life.

"How did I live without you?" I asked, and realized at the same instant that I hadn't. I had merely existed until I saw her again, until she awoke my dormant heart and made it beat.

She planted kisses on any exposed skin on my chest she could reach, pushing my shirt aside.

"Seth," she moaned. "I need you to make love to me."

Her request made me more than happy. I needed nothing more than to feel her soft body underneath me, needed to feel the warm flow of her blood, needed to reassure myself that she was alive and here with me. Shockwaves of losing her, even if it had been in a past life, still pulsed through me.

I carefully deposited her on our bed, where I slowly began to undress her while her hands worked on my shirt and pants. Just as reverently, my hands moved on her body, memorizing each inch my fingers touched and explored, afraid of one day not being able to.

Too much had happened too quickly, we both needed time to digest, but right then, all we needed was the other's body.

I cupped her beautiful breast in my hand and kissed every part of it, vowing to take my time. But her sweet moans when I pulled her stiff nipple into my mouth, brushed the sensitive bud with my fangs, were like kindling on the burning fire inside me. All too soon, the fire was burning too hot, and I worried I would simply ravage her.

I kissed a trail down her skin between her breasts, licked and teased my way down to her belly button and lower. Her legs splayed wide open for me as her hips moved up and down.