We weave through the crowd toward the main house silently. Iceman leads the way, Jerif stays right behind me, while Crux and Echo stay on each side of me. Our movements are in sync, connected by an invisible thread as we part the crowd in search of a peaceful place to just be together.
I’m surrounded by the Gate Guardians’ strength again, and I feel right in a way I was too nervous and insecure to admit before. I have so much I want to talk to them about. I want to make sure they’re okay, run my hands over them to be sure all of this is real. And at the same time, what is there really to say to each other?
We’re all battle forged now, different and tempered, because of what we went through. I feel it. They feel it. No amount of talking can change the charge in the air between us now. We all know what it felt like to think we’d lost it all.
Large demons guard all the entrances that lead into the house. As we get closer, I wonder if they’ll let us in or not. Iceman approaches a set of demons guarding a pair of ostentatious French doors. At first, one of the door demons looks like he’s about to redirect Iceman and crew, but as soon as they spot me in the middle of the group, they quickly open the doors with a respectful nod, letting us inside.
As soon as the doors shut behind us, the noise drops dramatically. My ears ring like I’ve been at a concert in front of the large speakers all night long. I shove a finger in one of my ears and wiggle it like that will help, but I should know better from the gong sound in Hell that it doesn’t.
“Damn, how is half of Hell not deaf? That noise level is crazy out there,” I comment, looking up to find Iceman staring at me intensely.
I open my mouth to ask him what’s wrong, but before I can, he closes the distance between us, cups my cheeks in his hands and lowers his full blue lips to mine.
I’m stunned at first.
My eyes fall closed, and I give into the feeling. His mouth is soft against mine, and he threads his fingers into my hair like every girl dreams a man will at some point in their life, his touch loosening the pony tail as he caresses my scalp. He cradles my jaw like I’m something he finds infinitely precious, and gently tilts my head, encouraging me to open up for him.
I respond immediately, pressing into him, my hands greedily tracing the planes of his abdomen. His mouth claims mine, his kiss asking if I’m okay, his touch reassuring him that I’m here in his arms. I taste him and suck on his lips, teasing his tongue with my own, floored that he needed this as much as I did. With every sweep of his tongue, I can feel that he was just as torn, worried, and relieved to see me as I was to see him.
The need for more begins to build low in my stomach, tingling up into my lips and snaking out into my tongue. But I feel another hand thread through my hair, pulling out the strands until they’re hanging loose at my back. The next thing I know, Iceman’s cool lips pull away and in their place is the taste of masculine, carefree summer air. I don’t need to open my eyes to know it’s now Crux’s mouth fused to mine, confessing wordless emotion. His forked and pierced tongue is very obvious and fills me with excitement.
I can feel his longing and his relief pour into me with each nip of his teeth and stroke of his pierced tongue against mine. Unspoken promises are exchanged between us as he deepens the kiss and stokes a hunger that’s unfurling inside of me like a lotus to the sun.
“Alright already,” Echo declares impatiently, and in a breath, Crux is pulled away from me on a chuckle. Echo’s shadows caress my jaw, guiding my face and eyes to the right, where he’s waiting for me. He doesn’t pull me to him and devour me the way the flash of heat in his eyes says he wants to. Instead, he studies me for a moment, his shadows tracing the planes of my face, like he needs to memorize me in this moment.
“We’re so sorry we almost lost you,” he says quietly.
I shake my head, not liking the blame I can feel he’s holding onto. “It wasn’t your fault. I’m here. I’m okay,” I reassure him.
He nods and steps into me, pressing his forehead against mine, like my words are the balm he’s been in desperate need of. He kisses me, and it’s flavored with the gaping hole in his chest that he felt when he thought I’d been taken. I feel it with every stroke of his shadows as they move against my skin with reverence.
His tongue meets mine, and I can discern panic and loss and worry in his taste. I savor the peace that comes over him as he moves his hands from my waist up the naked skin of my back and consumes me the way his black eyes always promised me he would.
I’m lost to his pull as he kisses me and molds my body to his. He holds me like we were made to fit together and kisses me with a fervor that makes it clear that he’s never going to lose me again.
All at once, Echo pulls away from me and steps to the side, leaving Jerif’s heated body in his wake. I look over at Jerif, my lips pink and tingling, and his gaze holds me captive. He steps closer to me, wrapping his warm hands around my waist, and I don’t miss the shiver that runs through him as he presses me against him. I see passion in
