Chapter 3

3

W e don't move but reality shifts around us. Pitch black changes to a thousand shades of ebony, storm clouds and raven wings and the darkest violet of midnight. Vague shapes loom around us but nothing I can identify. Nothing that I remember despite his words.

He sets me down on my feet and turns me away from him. "Look upon your kingdom, love."

My kingdom? My heart patters against my ribcage, my eyes straining to make sense of the shapes cloaked with shadow. "Isn't there any light?"

"You're the light." He presses an open-mouthed kiss to my throat with the confidence of a man who knows exactly the right place to suck and nibble to make my knees weak.

My knees tremble, my body softening and drooping against him. My head automatically tips to the side, inviting his mouth to roam. His hands glide over me in a firm, possessive, knowing touch that melts my muscles and softens my bones with molten heat. His fingers knead that heat deeper, his mouth hot on my ear. His breath heavy, his teeth teasing over the shell of my ear. Back to my neck. Gripping the corded ligament in his teeth in a teasing bite that lights my entire body up.

Does he have fangs too?

Is he going to feed on me?

Why does the thought of his teeth in me make my core burn with need?

"What are we?" I whisper shakily.

"We're gods the world forgot, love. Keep your eyes open. Watch your light spread."

His palm slides down my throat and over my shoulder in a slow, deliberate stroke. All the interconnected strings of nerves, muscles, and ligaments quiver, turning my body into a musical instrument that shimmers beneath his plucking fingers. Over my rock-hard nipples. A hard tweak on that tender flesh makes me jolt against him.

A shocked gasp escapes my lips. He knows this body. He knows what I like—even though I don't remember. How many times has he fucked me?

He touches me like he owns me.

The knowledge rattles me even more, but I can't deny the surge of heat between my legs. Desire burns through me, and I shift restlessly. My thighs are slick with the musk of my rising desire. My core aches with a gnawing emptiness demanding to be filled.

He pinches my other nipple, and I can't bite back a moan.

"There's my kitten. Purr again for me, love."

Heat suffuses my cheeks. I bite my lip, determined not to cry out again. Even if it's a dream, it feels too real. I can't believe I would moan like this.

Me—the woman sleeping in a crisis shelter? Or the me that came before? Does that person even exist any longer? Can he make me remember what was destroyed?

The frantic whirlpool in my head ceases when his other hand closes over my pussy. He continues to roll my nipple in surprisingly harsh fingers. Holding me firm, staking his right to touch me so intimately, he pulls me back against him. Making sure that I feel the hard, thick line of his cock against my buttocks.

Lighting me up like an overloaded circuit board.

Quivering, I taste blood in my mouth. Evidently I've shredded my own lip trying not to cry out again. Stupid, really. Who thought fangs were a good idea in this dream?

He chuckles against my ear, a deep, dark sound of amusement. "Who says this is a dream? Your power brought you here to me, and I intend to enjoy every single moment."

His fingers glide deeper, circling my opening, teasing me until I shift my hips and deliberately push him into me. Even a single digit inside me makes me moan louder, my breath catching in my throat. "Is this really me?"

He works another finger into me. "All you, kitten. Take your pleasure and remember how we create magic together."

I can't help but twitch and move, riding his hand. Groaning as his fingers squeeze harder on my nipple. A red-hot wire shoots straight to my clit. My entire body quivers, already on the verge of climax. I can't think of anything but coming. Getting him deeper. Filling me. I grind my pelvis on his hand, shifting my weight forward until I get the perfect pressure on my swollen clit.

Pleasure pours through me in a glorious burst of color that blinds me. Too bright after the darkness. It takes several moments for my eyes to adjust enough to actually make sense of what I'm seeing.

We're on a circular, raised dais. I'm leaning against a table of some kind, but the light is already dimming, and I can't see much else. He shifts me forward, lying me down on my stomach against the cold stone. The surface isn't perfectly flat but has a slightly hollowed bowl that cups around my body. A place worn down over thousands of years. Of being laid down like this. A slight ledge for my knees lets me lift my ass to the perfect height to be railed from behind.

My fingers scramble across the surface, tracing over existing gouges in the stone. Where someone has raked deep claw marks.

How many times has he taken someone—me?—like this?

Something scrapes against stone as he steps closer. A distinctive sound that I can't quite place. Not a shoe or boot. Maybe a hoof. His raw scent is thicker, animal-like and earthy. A decadent musk that's hypnotic, soothing me even as goosebumps race down my arms. Deadly nightshade mixed with the stuff of nightmares. Yet I don't feel the urge to run or flee.

In fact, I can't help but arch my back, lifting my ass up in silent invitation.

He makes a low rumble deep in his chest. A growl of hunger as he plants his hands on either side of me. The tips of his fingers have long, vicious black claws. "Your pleasure tastes so good. An opium dream from which I never want to wake. I'm going to take another long, sweet pull of your bliss and take us both to oblivion."

In the darkness, a man-beast who claims to be a god rubs the head of his cock against me, up and down the full length of my pussy. So broad and thick that I gulp and tremble with anticipation.

It dawns on me that this is not a table.

But an altar.

We're gods the world forgot.

If he's a god of darkness, then I must be his captive. No, that's not the right word, but I don't know what I am. I'm certainly no goddess. No goddess would be on her stomach, quivering and whimpering. So turned on. I can't bring myself to care about anything but getting him inside me.

No goddess would be asleep in a crisis shelter, unsure of where or who she is. Let alone craving blood. The taste of him on my tongue only makes me want more.

He leans down over me, his breathing a rough, guttural pant that ruffles my hair. His body radiates heat as he covers me. Such a huge, formidable weight against my back should terrify me. This creature of darkness with claws and some kind of hoof.

Yet I'm not afraid. Not here. Not with him. I'm calmer and saner than I've ever been.

And that shocks me more than any monstrous shape he could possibly reveal.

He pushes into me on a long, deep thrust. My breath catches on a cry, deepening to a sobbing moan. He fills me, stretching me impossibly wide, on and on until I'm writhing beneath him. Not to flee, but to work him deeper. Until I can't breathe. I can't think. I can't feel anything but him.

No more pain. No more shards slicing inside me. Only him.

"You're my goddess and queen. This entire domain belongs to you. It lies dormant and dark until you bring it to life. As you've awakened me."

He shoves to the hilt and my voice rises. A wordless scream tears out of my throat. Frantic, I reach for something to hold onto, something to keep me still. I can't stop moving, twitching, my entire body disconnected and disjointed from my brain. I need something. Something's missing. But I don't know what. I just can't stop… moving. My body quakes with need.

Tension shimmers through me, a desperate urgency as pressure builds inside me again. He isn't even thrusting or moving—just seated so deeply it feels like he's shoved his dick up into my abdomen and rearranged my organs.

"Your body remembers what you need."

I don't know what that means, but something grabs my wrists and tugs me forward, holding me flat against the stone altar. I can't see exactly what it is in the darkness, but it winds up my arms like a sturdy vine. The same restraint wraps around my ankles. My knees. Spreading my thighs wider until my hips ache.

Pinned. Trapped.

A flip switches in my head. Everything goes silent. Deafening silence spreads through me. Constant whirling thoughts are quiet and still. My muscles relax completely. It's like he hit a kill-switch and everything turned off. The struggle. The fear. A horrible, desperate confusion has plagued me for as long as I can remember, which granted, isn't much. The torment in my mind. The sense that something is terribly wrong but I don't know what.

I'm missing. I'm not where I belong. An imbalance. An injustice. A violation at the deepest, most base level. But I don't know how to fix it.

All of those thoughts cease because I belong here .

Spread on his dark altar like a sacrifice.

Tears spill from my eyes. Tears of relief. I can relax. I can stop fighting to survive.

I'm safe here. Even though I'm helpless as he ravages me in the darkness of hell.

A thread of wickedness laces his laughter. "As you wish, kitten, so it shall be."