“Make love to her!” Star shouted. “All of you. You need to complete the Trinity Star. You are the eight points to her ninth. Pull her together!”
“I can't,” I cried. “I'm sorry, Kirill.”
“Do it now!” Star screeched.
Hands stroked my hot skin. Lips pressed against mine. I turned toward their comfort, seeking solace in my pain. Cool air hit my body as my clothes were removed. Kneading fingers on flesh, strong limbs sliding against mine. I knew this place. I knew this pleasure. Yes, it was safe here. I was strong here. I held a head against my breast and moaned with pleasure instead of pain.
“This isn't right,” Viper hissed. “Get off her!”
“She needs all of you,” Star reasoned with him. “You must share her, Viper. This is her life; this is her magic.”
“I know, and I've accepted that, but not like this,” he growled. “Not with her unaware of what she's doing.”
“You will obey me!” Star shouted.
Viper went silent but a new voice rose in my head. The voice of the Devil.
“I'm sorry, Son, but I don't know any spells to help her,” Luke said to me. “But this is Vervain; she's stronger than her magic. Have faith in her.”
“Faith?” I gaped at him. “You're Satan, and you're telling me to have faith?”
“Azrael,” my mom chided. “We love you, and we love Vervain. If there was anything we could do to help her, we would.”
“You have the power of Hell at your fingertips,” I snarled at my father. “Use it!”
“I don't know how to use it to help her,” Luke said gently.
“She saved you!” I roared at him. “She saved the Demons. She saved us all, and you can't help her? You can't even try to free Vervain from evil? You're the King of Evil, there must be something you can do!”
“Azrael!” My mother shouted.
“I'm so sorry, Azrael,” my father whispered and hung his head.
“Fuck you, Dad!”
“Azrael, you come back here!” Mom screamed.
“Let him go,” I heard my father say as I stormed out of the manor.
Hell surrounded me and it seemed an appropriate backdrop for my mood. I spread my wings and shot into the scorched sky. Gasping in the brittle air, I let the wind steal the tears from my eyes. My wife was lost to an evil that I couldn't fight. The only woman I had ever loved was dying, and I couldn't even touch her. I had held her soul once; touched her more intimately than anyone else. But not now. Now, her soul was as lost to me as the rest of her. And I was lost with it.
Without Vervain, my future would crumble. No love, no laughter, no children. I had to get her back! There must be a way. I wouldn't give up. Not ever. She would never give up on me, and I wouldn't give up on her, even if it was her who I had to fight. I knew she was still in there. Beyond the evil and that sinister star, my beloved waited for me. She was the one with the faith. Vervain would be counting on me to save her, and I wouldn't let her down.
“Not now. Not ever, Carus,” I declared as I sped across Hell. “I'm coming for you; just hold on a little longer.”
“Azrael,” I murmured as I surfaced into ecstasy.
Someone's mouth was on my throat, kissing the vibration of my words, and hands stroked my sex, gently easing my thighs apart. Where was I? Was I was with my husband? My ex-husband? Did I leave Azrael? No. Never. I... I was drowning under the light of my star.
“No!” I screamed and pushed the hands away.
I couldn't see them, but I felt them pull back. Watching. Waiting.
“Don't stop now. Your goddess needs you!” Star shouted.
“She said no!” Viper roared.
I felt strong arms lift me and cradle me against a broad chest.
“Put her down right now, Viper!” Star screeched.
“I don't obey you. I am hers, not yours,” Viper growled. “And I won't let you hurt her. Don't listen to Star, Brothers. First, she said to let Vervain ride this out but now, she wants you to have sex with her? It's madness. Listen to your heart; the heart that Vervain gave you. You know this is wrong. You know she doesn't want you like this. Don't hurt the woman we love.”
“I made your hearts!” Star screamed. “I am the magic. I am the power your goddess wields.”
“And yet you stand there doing nothing,” Viper murmured thoughtfully. “All of your power is crippled without her to wield it. You are nothing but power, and power is nothing but a concept, a mere thought if it has no hand to direct it.”
The voices faded into another memory.
“There must be something,” I growled to myself as I flipped through page after page.
Spellbooks littered the floor around me, discarded after being searched. All of my knowledge, all of my magic, and I was useless. My wife was dying all over again.
“Fuck!” I shouted as I threw the book.
I looked down at my shaking hands and clenched them into fists to stop the movement. I wouldn't go back again. It was torture to watch her. I wouldn't do it.
But I started moving without thought, without giving my body permission. My legs shuffled me forward, out of my bedroom, down the stairs and to yet another stairwell. This one led straight up to a tower room. Circular, with stone arches forming the walls and a round couch in the center. I strode up to one of the arches and stared into the empty haze that filled it.
“Show her to me,” I demanded. “Show me my wife.”
The haze cleared and my chest constricted as a bedroom formed before me. I knew that room. I had stood in it recently when I tried to cast a spell on Vervain. And I knew that man. Viper, she
