2. Azrael

CHAPTER TWO

AZRAEL

R eality parted around us, and I stepped into my chambers. The ever-present chill of the underworld barely touched me through the heat of soft curves pressed against me. The unfortunate bride shoved at my chest, little noises of protest muffled against my lips.

She tasted of fear and desperation. I savored it, drinking in her terror like a fine wine.

I let her go after another shove at my chest. She stumbled as soon as her feet hit the ground, doe eyes widening with her backward scramble.

"What the hell?" She gasped, chest heaving. "Where am I? Who are you?"

I ignored her questions, inhaling deeply. A scent hung in the air. Tempting. Utterly intoxicating. It wasn't the usual stench of brimstone and decay that permeated the underworld. This was different. Vibrant.

Alive.

"What is that?" I stalked toward her, nostrils flaring.

She backed away, eyes wide. "Stay away from me!"

But I couldn't. The scent called me to heel as surely as any soul set to be reaped. I inhaled again, letting my nose guide me straight to the source.

The pale column of her throat.

I crowded her against the wall, my body pressing into hers. My fingers skimmed against the back of her neck, tilting her head to the side. Her pulse rabbited, blood coursing through her veins. Calling to me.

"It's you," I murmured, reveling in that fucking delicious scent.

Mountain mists and lavender flooded my senses. Every breath had my cock hardening. Blood rushed to fill my length, my gums aching as my fangs threatened to descend.

The woman screamed. Fingers clawed at my back, scratching the ancient glyphs burned into my skin. Pain laced through me, and I snapped my teeth a hair's breadth from her ear. "Stop that."

The order only seemed to piss her off more.

"Let me go!" She squirmed her fists between us and pounded against my chest. "Take me back!"

"Back?" I laughed, easing away to look down my nose at her. "There's no going back, little dove. You're dead."

Her jaw dropped. "W—what?"

Angry red splotches covered her cheeks. Her face was long and more plain than Clauneck's usual sacrifices, but those eyes... Shards of glittering, black ice drilled into me as if daring me to say more.

"A little gratitude wouldn't go amiss in saving you." I smirked, my tongue curling around an elongated canine. "Your intended intended for your soul to pay for his demonic patron's eternal favor. Terms to be re-upped whenever that old toad Clauneck wants a new bride, of course."

She shoved at my chest again, harder this time. I allowed her the illusion of control and took a step back. Her eyes blazed with fury and confusion.

"No. No, you're lying. This is just some sick joke." She shook her head, freeing some tendrils of dark hair from the knot at the nape of her neck. A burst of that delicious mist and lavender scent clouded the air. "Demons aren't real."

I snapped my fingers as she paced away, and the world around us shifted. The stark stone walls of my quarters melted away, replaced by a lush garden. A chaise materialized beneath me, and I lounged back, plucking a pomegranate from a nearby bowl.

"Welcome to the underworld, darling." I bit into the fruit, imaging her essence coating my tongue instead. "I assure you, it's very real."

She spun in a slow circle, eyes darting from one detail to the next. A pond glittered in the distance, steam rising from its surface. Vines draped from the trees, dripping with succulent-looking fruits and flowers. "What are you?"

"I'm a reaper. One of many in this realm." Too many, truthfully, and all that competition brought out our worst impulses. But no demon would pass up a deal, and business was booming. "Servants bound to shepherd souls to the afterlife until our debts are repaid."

The... idea of Hester swam into memory. Too many centuries separated us now for her features to remain sharp and clear. Dark hair, like mine. Eyes like our mother, but those were just repeated words.

Her agonized scream as Clauneck ripped her soul from her body, though, that stuck.

"But you aren't..." The little dove narrowed her eyes, and she chewed the inside of her cheek. "Shepherding."

"Perceptive, aren't you? Your fate doesn't lie in the afterlife. I couldn't send you through if I tried." I bit into the fruit, tasting only ash. "You belong to Clauneck, now. His pets traded you. The latest in a long line of brides."

The latest Hester.

"No." She shook her head, a stubborn glint in her eyes. "There's been a mistake. Take me home."

"Home? Or the altar I plucked you from?" I rose and circled her slowly, studying her from every angle. "My claim or the cult's sacrifice, what is reaped cannot be resown."

She tracked me as best she could, head turning to keep me in sight. Chin lifted high. Fear tangled in her misty lavender scent, in the depths of her dark eyes.

"Then why did you take me?"

Her voice wavered, tinged with an edge of accusation that had me tonguing my fangs again. I made another circuit around her. A fourth, a fifth, each revolution narrowing the distance.

"Why not?" I purred. "Clauneck's had it coming for centuries. It's been too long since someone snatched his toys."

None had ever been so exquisite. So fucking tempting. I'd only meant to intercept the offering and toss her into the afterlife where she belonged. But one look into those frightened doe eyes, one glance at the knife aimed for her heart, had my fangs descending.

"So that's it?" Indignation swirled through her scent and those angry splotches returned to her cheeks. "That's all my life amounts to? I barely lived, and now I'm just some thing for monsters to fight over?"

Her chest heaved with every breath. There would be no afterlife for her. The tiny line of blood on her throat saw to that even before I hauled her into my arms. Clauneck's blood mingled with hers.

She belonged to the underworld.

She belonged to me.

"You are so much more than that," I murmured. She trembled as I stepped closer, my body mere inches from hers. The pulse at her throat drummed, drawing my gaze to the crimson streak left by those bastards. "More than currency to pay for their fortunes. More than an offering to buy their good looks."

I twisted the illusion around us, and my lush tropical scene shifted to a cliff jutting out over the ocean. Waves crashed far below, spitting sea spray high into the air.

Another shift, and our cliff turned to the top of a mountain. The moon rose in a single beat of her heart; her next blink carried the sun overhead. High-rises. Tranquil lakes. A forest, branches heavy with thick snow.

"Tell me what you truly desire," I crooned, my fingers feather-light on her bare arm.

She shook her head, taking a step back. "What—how are you doing that?"

"What about your revenge, little dove?" I dragged my finger up and up her silky skin, ending with a stroke of my knuckle beneath her chin. "They sealed your fate. Don't you want to make them pay?"

I licked a drop of juice from my finger and held out the rest of the pomegranate. The illusion shifted to the garden where I'd found her, and the color drained from her cheeks.

The altar where they'd held her down lay in shattered ruins. Clauneck's servants writhed in pain around us, suits as torn as their flesh. Their groans begged for mercy and death both.

She watched, jaw tightening. The specter of vengeance flickered in her eyes.

The scene shifted. A grand ballroom materialized, chandeliers dripping with crystals. But marble columns and polished floors couldn't hide the despair of the twin women trapped in birdcages.

"See what they would have done to you?" I whispered against the shell of her ear, my lips brushing the sensitive skin. "What they've done to so many before?"

"Stop it." Her voice trembled at first, then grew stronger. "Stop toying with me."

Reality shifted again. Again. Again. Blondes. Redheads. Brown hair, blue eyes. Every size and color, united by betrayal and equally taunted by demons when their master grew bored and turned a blind eye.

"I said stop!" She planted her hands on my chest and shoved as hard as she could.

I chuckled as I staggered back. A flick of my wrist banished the visions, and I fell back onto the chaise with a fresh pomegranate in my hand. I took a bite as her bottomless eyes burned me with a fiery glare.

Darkest hells, that spark of fire ignited something in my blood. The glyphs on my skin buzzed. My gums ached with the press of fangs.

I took a breath, but it did nothing to cool the need raging in my bones. The compulsion to touch her, taste her, sink my fangs into her flesh and claim that intoxicating little dove as my own.

Not that simple, of course. Not yet. My claim wouldn't stick until I got rid of Clauneck's taint on her.

An impossible task. Bound offerings like her only found their final peace with their master's will or if the demonic fucker met his true death. The former required she pay with unspeakable torments I wouldn't allow, while the latter needed an adversary previously blooded by the demon.

What misfortune to have such a lovely, marked creature loose in the underworld and in my grasp.

With a snap of my fingers, another chaise materialized beside me.

"Come, sit with me." I waved an inviting hand, summoning her. "Tell me your name."

"Leave me alone!" she snapped. She clenched and unclenched her fists, but didn't back away. Those red splotches flushed back into her cheeks, darkening into a bloody shade of scarlet. "I didn't ask for any of this. I don't want to be here. Just take me home and let me live my life."

For a moment, neither of us moved. My voice rumbled from deep in my chest. "You are home, little dove."

Then, with a snap of my fingers, the lush illusions melted away. Leaves dripped to the ground. Birds and insects fell silent. Grass and flowers shriveled to the yellows and browns of death and decay before blowing away in a wind that didn't touch us.

Until all that remained was the stark reality of my chambers.

Her eyes widened as she took in the cavern carved from ancient stone. Iron sconces flared to life with unnatural flames, but did little to stave off the persistent gloom. Cold seeped in, settling into the deepest recesses of my bones.

It was a simple thing to move from where I lounged to standing right in front of her. I caught her chin between my finger and thumb, tilting her face up to look at me. Mountain mists and lavender entered my nose, coated my tongue, spread her through my veins.

Mine. She was mine.

"You may call me Azrael." I leaned in, ghosting my lips over hers. "Enjoy your solitude, little dove."

Before she could shove me away again, before temptation grabbed me by the cock and sealed my lips to hers, I summoned my power and teleported away, leaving her alone in the cave with nothing but a single bed and the echoes of her own ragged breathing.