Blood Stained Tranquility (41 page)

He loved her facial expressions when he fucked her. Loved seeing her lips fall open, and the way her brow furrowed. She bit her lip, trapping it under her canines, and nodded. Her pussy clenched, and he swore he felt his erection start vibrating inside her. Everything was vibrating. Energy coursed through the fibers of his muscles, ready to explode.

Eve choked, grinding down on his cock. “Holy shit. That feels . . .
Zen
. God!”

“That’s it, baby.” He worked her hips, controlling the rhythm. “Who’s your God?” he asked, hearing Mavrak’s voice behind his own.

Eve’s eyes filled with tears, and she pressed her forehead to his, mewling with each thrust. “You. Oh, God. You.”

“I’m what, baby?” he asked, because all of a sudden, hearing her say it was more important. More important than coming inside her, or even claiming her. Every male part of him
needed
to hear the words from her lips.

“I’m what?” he repeated when she didn’t reply right away.

Eve gave him a half-horny, half-angry look.

He bit his lip, rotating his hips.

“Fuck . . . You. You’re my god. Happy now?”

Zen laughed, smiling at her. “Now make your god happy and tell him he can come.”

“I should tell you never to come just to get that cocky grin off your face.”

He purposely raised his energy signature, making his dick tremble faster inside her.

Eve fell on his chest, sweating and shaking.

“Tell me.”

“Come.
Please.
I can’t anymore—I can’t. Oh, fuck. Zen! Yes, baby, yes! Fuck me!”

He slammed into her as fast as he could. She gave as good as she got, and soon they were nothing but a blur of movement. His abs tightened, his groin clenched—everything balled up until he was sure something was going to break.

“I’m coming, Zen. I’m coming. Please!”

Everything fractured. Her walls tightened brutally, and his orgasm hit him so fast, he almost didn’t have enough time to put his mouth on her neck.

His teeth slid home at the same time hers did on his mating mark. With a choked snarl, he almost flew off the floor, his back contorted at an unnatural angle. Eve twisted on him, meeting him. Her pussy was a greedy little thing, swallowing him up and demanding more. Helpless, Zen held her to him, overloaded but way too fucking hungry to let go of her neck.

His connection with her spiraled open with the force of a tornado. Suddenly, it wasn’t just his orgasm frying his processors, but hers. A totally alien, never-before-felt army of sensations slammed through his receptors. Heat, pulsing waves of ecstasy, and deep, rhythmic throbs multiplied his climax in their wake.

Zen reared off the floor, flipping them both over and laying Eve beneath him. With his cock and his teeth still inside her, he slid his arms around her back and yanked her firmly against him. The burn of her teeth sliding into his skin as far as they could go shot down his spine.

He clawed at the floor, trying to stop his body from thrusting. Eve’s moans echoed in his head. Her emotions burrowed into his chest.

She bucked under him. He pulled his teeth out of her neck.

The floor was slick beneath them, and his arms shook when he rose above her.

“Eve, open your eyes.”

She did so, slowly. Her eyes were shiny and slightly dazed. The bite mark on her neck was just starting to seal shut, but her mating mark had never been more vibrant.

“I love you,” he said, staring into her eyes.

He felt a rush of emotion run through her and echo inside him.

“I love you, too. All of you, Zen.”

Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to float on that feeling. He was at peace. His cock was still hard as hell and buried snugly within her, but he was
so
calm. The unity he felt made him want to purr. He was whole right then. He could feel it.

He could also feel how fragile that wholeness was.

The memories at the back of his mind taunted him. As long as he feared them, he wasn’t going to be able to sustain his unified state. And even if he did, how would he stop himself from hurting the ones he cared for?

Eve caressed his cheek. He opened his eyes, taking in the love in her expression and feeling it coursing through him. He had no answer to the question in his mind. No clue how he would make things work. But as he stared down at his beautiful mate, one thing became very clear.

No more running for him. He was going to have to fucking figure it out. She wanted both halves of him, and by the gods, he would find a way to give them to her.

Chapter 30

-Brownsville, Pennsylvania. (USA)

Zen was plain delicious in his sleep. His full lips were parted. Strands of his dark red hair covered his shoulders and the pillow beneath him. He looked calm—at peace despite the fact that his
Erencei
markings were still visible and his cheekbones were still starkly pronounced.

Eve had a feeling that wasn’t going to change. Everything in her told her that the features that marked him as a war demon were here to stay. Not that she minded. She loved the sight of him like this. She would miss his gray and blue eyes if they never again made an appearance, but the red and black of his
Erencei
side more than made up for that.

The thought of any other female seeing them set her internal rage meter just shy of erupting.

Yours, Eve. He’s all yours. Especially now. He always will be.

Damn fucking straight.

She stared at his mating mark, where she’d bit into him the night before. It was larger now that they were fully mated. The red, black, and yellow lines covered the entire side of his neck, trailing down in huge arches to his shoulders and his pecs, where they merged with his other markings. She let her eyes trail down the rest of his body, taking in the red and black lines that stretched down his sides, curved around his hips, and continued down toward his thighs.

The black, silk covers were draped over Zen’s upper thighs, and his shaft lay on his lower abs. It looked like it didn’t know whether it was spent or ready for more. Even semi-hard, he was formidable, stretching almost to his belly button. He was too damned wide to ever be considered anything other than godly.

Most human men didn’t have cocks like that. She’d spent enough time on the Internet. Her sources were credible, she was sure of it.

She remembered the way her lips stretched around him. The slight pinch at the corners as she stretched them tight enough to use her teeth on him. She hadn’t bitten him hard enough to tear his dick in half. Not even close. Just hard enough to draw his blood, and merely remembering it had her canines drawing down for more. Her throat went tight, convulsing with the demand for his blood.

As if he could feel her hungry stare, Zen shifted slightly and his dick jumped to life.

In less than a heartbeat, the darkest recesses of her mind sent a dangerous, greedy anger pulsing through her. She remembered how that beautiful dick had looked like while—

No!

She closed her eyes, breathing deep and reminding the ugly thing inside her that the things she was seeing had been the past.
He’s mine now. Only mine.
On purpose, she focused on how he’d taken her, and then how’d
she’d
taken him.
He loves me. He fucking loves me.

Fruck
, as Sol would say.

The
R’mannev
could be a whining, inconsolable little bitch when it wanted to. This was worse than simple jealousy. Not that jealousy was a simple thing, but Eve suspected that it was going to take decades of Zeniel fucking her, and only her, before the images of him and Rhalira went away. Perhaps even longer.

She refused to entertain the idea that they might never go away. She lived her life on the edge of insanity sometimes. She didn’t need to tempt Fate on that.

Help!

Eve twitched so violently that her elbow almost slammed into Zen’s face. He didn’t wake, but his eyes did move behind his eyelids. Her heart stuttered, stealing her ability to breathe for a moment. Lips parted, she struggled to take in air and sat up. She told herself it was nothing. That she was just imagining things.

Help . . . me . . .

A screech went off in her head, the sound reminding her of a speaker picking up interference. On its heels was the voice of Justice—angry, demonic, and mutated as it whispered inside her.

Find him. Punish him!

Him? Him who?

But Eve already knew. The plaintive plea for help she’d heard sounded out again, and she recognized the tenor of the voice with every fiber of her being.

Not caring if she awoke Zen, she jumped out of bed and dematerialized like a shot downstairs. She moved so fast that the air continued to whip around her long after she’d come to a stop in the basement, in front of that fucking
Gnetica
.

Please!

She clutched her head, groaning when the screech in her head went off. She needed to get in there. As much as she dreaded the thought of what was on the other side of the energy shield, the urge burning the top of her spinal column wasn’t going to go away on its own.

She didn’t even care or remember that she was still naked.

Suffer. He must suffer. More.

“Damn it!” Eve bared her teeth at the shield, her fingers pressing into her head as she fought the pain. “Damn you, go down!” She hadn’t actually expected the command to work.

Eyes wide, she watched the
Gnetica
disappear, the energy it was made of rippling as it separated.

She didn’t even have time to be shocked. The voice she’d been hearing in her head immediately called out to her from within the basement. She rushed inside.

No matter how much she’d suspected it, the sight that met her was almost enough to knock her off her feet.

A swirling vortex of what looked like black and red smoke reached from the floor to the ceiling. Through the gaps in the dual-toned mist, a face she never thought she would see again stared back at her.

“I killed you,” she said. Two tones—one shocked, one gloating—echoed behind the words.

He resembled Nylicia, a see through projection, but he was no projection. He couldn’t be. Translucent blood and organs had spilled out all over the floor. His legs were missing. His hands were gone, too. His ribcage was cracked wide open. She noted his heart beating weakly inside it.

The only thing that was left untouched was his face.

Yes. Make him suffer. He deserves more.

“E—Eve . . .”

“Do not speak my fucking name!” she shouted, feeling like the powers of Justice had become an entirely separate entity within her. An entity that was taking control. She wanted to look away from the sight of his intestines spilling out of him. She wanted to run and get far, far away from him.

Her body wasn’t going anywhere though. The other half of her was gluttonous for this sight. Hungry to inflict more damage. And damned proud of her mate and what he had obviously done.

Shit. Is this how Zen felt when battling Mavrak?

“Please . . . please . . .”

“What do you want from me?” she asked, still speaking in that same distorted voice.

“Save me . . . get me out of here.”

“Never. You hear me? I will never save
you
.”

Staring at her dead stepfather’s dull brown eyes, she could see and hear all the other girls he’d hurt before her. Before meeting her mother, he’d abused two other teenage girls, both daughters of his ex-girlfriends. She could also hear the pleas of at least eight more, begging him to stop. Just as she once had.

“Send me . . . send me back to Hell. Send me there. I’d rather face that, than face
him
again,” her stepfather pleaded, his face contorting with sobs.

She opened her mouth, taking a step closer.

Zen materialized into the basement. He was just as naked as she was and looked positively wild.

“Do not lay your filthy eyes on my
R’ma
!”

No, that wasn’t Zen. It was Mavrak.