My Immortal (14 page)

My pleasure is building to an almost
intolerable feeling as he rocks into me at different angles,
learning from my mind and body what feels the best.

We pant against each other and the intensity
is heating up to a whole new level. His thrusts become faster and
less rhythmic and I become uncharacteristically unrestrained as I
buck against him and match his pace.

His wings start beating fiercely but I am
hardly able to focus on them. Seconds more and I feel my back
leaving the soft moss as his wings lift us off of the ground.

Shadow doesn't seem to be doing it on purpose
but I wrap my legs and arms tighter around him to avoid any
separation falling away from him would cause.

Mmm baby, you're lifting us
.

Hm?
He breaks away from my lips and
spares a glance around us.
Oh sorry
.

With a different direction of his wingspan he
straightens us to vertical and I join his wings so that we flap in
sync.

It's alright, I actually like this
better.
I smile and his lips end up kissing my teeth. It's kind
of sweet and then he smiles too.

His smile falls into a look of pure ecstasy
when I slide back onto him and we are up high in the air, wings
beating together, joined in every way that we can be. For the first
time in my life I feel whole.

And all it took was him, my other half.

Now we are one in every way.

"Gods," he pants and his body trembles all
over.

He moans just as hard and as much as I do and
suddenly I feel the point of no return approaching and I know he is
there too.

He unlatches from my neck, his breath stops
and his movements cease and his body becomes as taught as a
bowstring. He starts to groan but the sound is lost in the cry I
yell as I release his bloody wrist.

I grab his head tightly and clutch it to me
as I shudder in delight. My toes curl and I smile, breathing hard
and gasping for air.

"I love you," I say at the same time as he
mind links the same exact words.

I love you.

He brushes my hair with his hand, looking
lovingly into my eyes as I stare into his red ones.

We both glance around at the beautiful night
sky all around us. He looks up into the heavens and I join him,
marveling at all of the shiny stars.

Before I know it, he scoops me up into his
arms and we glide back down to the soft mossy spot. He settles me
back into him, between his legs as he rests his weight back on his
arms.

His wings wrap around us both, mine fitting
inside the huge span of his, to keep me warm despite his back being
exposed to the chilly winds.

He kisses my cheek and hums a song that
sounds haunting and lovely both at the same time.

I never imagined that he would have a voice
like an angel and it shocks me to my core.

For the moment everything is perfect in my
world, I am exactly where I want to be, and have wanted to be since
the first time that I saw his hauntingly beautiful face.

Right here in his arms, where I now belong.
Forever.

• Chapter Eleven
  

The first thing I notice is the bright light
behind my closed eyelids. I open my eyes and see that it's now
sometime in the morning because the sun is up. Directly in front of
me about three feet away is the fire pit, fire excluded. It must
have died down sometime not long ago because there are a few embers
embedded in the soot.

I'm laying on something soft, yet firm and my
cheek is seriously squished. I lift my head from Shadow's chest and
my cheek sticks to his skin. I make a series of ugly expressions no
doubt, trying to stretch my cheek out.

I scan my still sleeping friends around the
fire to find bodies and feet tangled to one side of me and Wraith's
loud snore.
Kaia and Wraith. Oh, Kaia and Wraith
. I shake my
head, not sure what I think about those two love birds.

I lift my head to look down my feet and find
Jezebel curled up like a rollie-pollie, hands palm to palm under
her ear, mouth agape and drool pooling out of it onto the dirt.

That's attractive
, I think.

Not as attractive as the cute little noises
that you make when you're sleeping.

I purse my lips and shut my eyes for a long
second before looking up and pinning Shadow with a mock glare.

And he smirks and wiggles his eyebrows!

I shake my head at him with a smile on my
face. I am just so happy I can't even put on a fake attitude.

I glance back at Jezebel to finish my
scrutiny when a hand extends over her hip from behind her and rubs
her tenderly.

What the heck?!
"Shadow!"

Shadow, having heard my thoughts before I
screamed his name, was over there before I had his name out of my
mouth, jerking that hand up and throwing its owner with it.

Next thing I see is Gabriel soaring towards
the nearest tree, end over end.

"Oops," Shadow grumbles with his sexy, sleep
filled voice. "My bad!" he yells towards Gabe while pretending to
stretch out his arms and yawn.

Poor Gabe lands back to the tree and his head
whiplashes backward into the thick trunk.

He shakes his head, rubbing the back of it
and I glance to his raised bicep.

Hmm, were his biceps that large before I
left? I certainly don't remember noticing them then.

Shadow turns his head and delivers a
squinty-eyed-stare that makes heat rush to my cheeks along with
embarrassment.

You like those baby?
He asks.

I stand up, stretching and open my mouth to
respond that, yes, yes I do, but I think better of it when he
stands face to face with me a second later, holding my hand onto
his flexed,
bulging
bicep.

I clear my throat. "Not when you put it like
that," I smile sheepishly.

"That's what I thought. Now, no more dirty
thoughts," he commands and whizzes over the tree next to Gabe
faster than my eyes can track.

Still smiling like a moron as I watch Shadow
with Gabe off in the distance, I notice the silence coming from my
friends. I turn around and notice that Jezebel, Wraith, and Kaia
are all staring at me with their mouths wide open.

"What?" I say innocently, earning head shakes
before everyone's attention is back on Shadow and Gabe heading
towards us.

Kaia scratches her head. "Nothing, I just
didn't know that you two could mind-link Alexia…how?"

"Oh, noticed that did you?" I say, glancing
back towards my other half.

Gabe looks pissed as hell. Shadow has that
endearing smirk plastered on his face.

We all walk to meet them halfway and I debate
explaining the whole long, crazy, complex story to Kaia right then
and there.

But just as I start to speak Gabe glares at
me and it distracts me.

What did I do now?

Same crap different day, angel. He wants
you. You want me. It's a vicious circle.

My eyes meet Shadows and that warm, happy
feeling I get when I look at him threatens to make my lips tip up
at the edges again, but I know now is not the time so I fight it,
hard.

He winks at me and I quickly loose that
fight, magnificently.

"Not to interrupt your silent little
conversation Alexia," Kaia starts, "but…what the…?"

Now I look at her questioningly. She reaches
for my hair and I think that she is going to put a stray piece back
into my messy bun (I always sleep with my hair up, in a messy ball)
but instead she grabs my shoulders (rather roughly) and forces me
to twist around so that my back is to her and everyone else.

Gasps and surprised startles abound.

I look to my right at Shadow, my eyebrows
drawn. "What?"

He has a very shocked expression on his face,
eyes kind of wide and it distracts me for a moment as I notice how
bright red they are even in the light of day.

"What the hell is
that?
" Gabe's
irritated voice demands, rather loudly if I might add.

I turn back towards everyone's shocked faces
and feel frantically all over my head and the back of my neck for
something.

"What? What is it?!"

"I don't know, it, it looks like a tattoo or
a mark or something, but it wasn't there before," Kaia
stammers.

"You morons!" Jezebel sneers. "It's the mark
of a demon!"

We all look at her frowning, not sure what
she's talking about here.

At least I'm not sure and it doesn't look
like Kaia or Gabe or Wraith are either.

Shadow's expression of shock however, now
seems to be more like an "uht-oh, oopsies" expression.

Jezebel huffs indignantly and continues on
for all of us morons. "It means that a demon has chosen her as his
life mate. Now he can only live off of her blood and they will both
have the same sym….." she frowns, thinking about something
unpleasant. "symbol…" she finishes quietly.

"I'm sorry, but
what?
" Kaia
hisses.

Man, (heavy pause) if looks could
kill!
I would
so
be dead right now.
Deader than dead. I would be undead, I would be so dead. Moving
on.

She stomps over to Shadow and grabs his arm
with her hand and yanking it hard to make him turn around.

I stomp over there towards her and tell her
that this has nothing to do with him, whatever it is, and to chew
her out for yanking/touching him that way/at all because he is
my
man. Mine.

However, before I really even make it all the
way over to them, I notice the looks everyone is directing at me
now, and she turns around and slaps me through the face.

The bitch slaps me through the face!

Rage is not a word I would use to describe
the power bubbling into my blood stream right now. No, it would be
something a lot worse and more powerful, but there isn't a word for
it yet. It would be along the lines of KILL though.

"Oh, crap," Gabriel says.

My hand forms a fist so tight that my nails
make little crescents into my palm, possibly even draw blood at
this point, and I pull my fist back, so ready to knock her blonde
head off of her shoulders but Gabe saves her by leaping between
us.

"Gabriel!" I yell, irritated beyond belief
that he lets her slap me and I don't get anything in return?

"Gabriel!" Shadow yelled at the same time,
sounding angry at him for the same thing.

"Stop it! All of you!" Gabe huffs. He is
between me and the soon to be dead shifter, facing her, back to me,
with
his hands
on
her shoulders! "Am I the only adult
out here?"

"Pft. Hardly," Shadow returns.

"Well it seems that way to me! Whatever the
heck is going on, we are out here being hunted by the authorities,
the Hell-Horde, and maybe even the Guard. Can we not stick together
and get a move on? Can we not discuss things like adults?"

I cross my arms. I really don't like him
right now. How can he be lecturing me when this whore shifter just
slapped me?

My glare turns to an expression of betrayal
and hurt.

"Come on Alexia, don't do this to me. I-"

"Whatever," I cut him off.

He shuts his mouth and blows his cheeks up
with air. He looks more funny than frustrated and I really fight my
laughter. This pisses me off because I want to be mad at him and I
also have the right to, it's not fair that he's about to make me
smile, because then he will think everything is okay, and
everything is certainly not okay.

"I am so confused right now," Wraith offers,
finally deciding to join the party.

"Someone had better explain why that bitch
just slapped my best friend before I go nuclear!" Kaia hisses
hysterically.

"Yes, let's discuss this thing on Alexia's
neck and the deal between her and Jezebel and Shadow like mature
adults and then get on our merry way. I doubt we can go another
night out in the open without the Hell-Horde finding us."

"Yes, let's discuss the demon's mark on
Alexia's neck," Jezebel purrs. She has her arms crossed and her
foot is tapping.

Shadow makes his way towards me but everyone
else fixates on her as if she is telling a story. Which, she
probably is. As in the lie-type-of-story.

"It just so happens that she has the same
symbol, or mark, as Sh-"

"As me," Shadow declares proudly right before
he plasters his sinful lips against mine hard, and in front of
everyone.

Just staking my claim, for everyone to
see, Bayla
.

Yes, Shadow, in more ways than one I can
see. A mark? Really?

"Yes, turn around let me see it," he replies
out loud, leaving everyone a bit confused.

"I never thought my mark would be so sexy on
someone," he rumbles. His light touch traces the back of my neck
across my back to my shoulder and I shiver.

"Let me see yours."

He smiles a sweet smile at me and then turns
around so that I can examine it as everyone but Jezebel joins me.
They look at his and mine, comparing them and she just stands there
with her arms crossed, seething.

"Wow, they really are identical," Kaia
whispers in awe.

Wraith just grunts in agreement, tracing
Shadow's mark with his eyes.

I notice Gabe's gaze keep darting over to
Jezebel and it doesn't escape me that this has been going on since
he saw her in the cell with us.

"Gabe, can I talk to you for a second?" I
don't even wait for his to reply as I walk a safe distance away
from everyone trusting that he follows.

When I turn around it's no surprise that he
is there and for the first time in a long time as I stare into his
pretty blue eyes I see the anger in them that is directed towards
me.

I sigh and sag my shoulders. Is wishing for a
happy ending to all of this even a feasible thing to do
anymore?