Kagome felt…well, strange. She was in a heartachingly familiar place with beautiful clothing and the people around her were gyrating to the tune of the captivating music as if they were intoxicated – which, they likely were.
She felt strange, but she also felt…good, like she could breathe a little easier. There was magic in the air, she could practically taste it.
The room was draped in dark lace and silk, lit by the enchanting glow of hundreds of candlesticks set strategically around the space. The full moon filtered in through a circular opening in the ceiling, its light falling at the base of a wide wooden staircase.
This was the night when the veil between worlds was at its thinnest. Samhain, All Hallows Eve, the Day of the Dead, Halloween – whatever you chose to refer to it as, it remained the same – a time of celebration.
Which is how Kagome came to be in an ancient palace in the middle of a beautiful forest at a masquerade ball her friends begged her to come to, only to scatter in every direction once they’d arrived. She wasn’t even sure they were there legally, if she were being honest. Had they rented out the space? Was that even possible?
The whole thing was kind of sketchy, but she had to admit, she was glad she came.
She’d been afraid to go there, having dodged the place since her return to the present. When she’d learned the shiro had become a museum, she’d feared the worst. That its owner was either dead or had exchanged the property for whatever reason, in which case it was likely very different than she would remember it being. Because of this, she’d avoided it like the plague, choosing instead to suffer as opposed to facing the truth.
University had kept her busy, not that she minded. It kept her mind off the past, and the people she’d been forced to leave behind. It had been a few years now, and she still felt as if she struggled simply to draw breath. Like there’s a weight, forever on her chest, crushing her.
Sometimes, she feared she’d never be happy again. It was a dismal thought.
So, when her friends asked her to come to this masquerade party, and the shock of the location wore off, she knew she needed to do it. If for nothing more, than to find some semblance of closure.
And she had to admit, she not only felt good, felt right being there, but she also looked amazing.
Her floor length gown was the purest white, made of what looked like a thousand feathers. In the spirit of the holiday, the sweetheart neckline resting over her breasts dripped of blood red beads that tapered into a point just below her navel. While in the vague shape of a heart, when paired with the matching, beaded choker, it appeared as if someone had cut her throat and she’d bled all over her beautiful, white dress.
As per dress code, her elegant mask was white with red lace trim – cut in the shape of her brows and draping down to cover most of her nose. A simple venetian style mask, but pretty nonetheless. Her maroon lipstick made her eyes sparkle brightly and her hair was pulled into an updo, accentuating the smooth skin of her graceful neck. She knew though, that beneath the dress and makeup, she’d definitely lost some weight and lack of a truly good night’s rest had left dark circles under her eyes.
Regardless, she’d already gotten many compliments. And she’d thanked everyone politely.
But…despite all of it, she still felt this thrum around her – this pull. Like something was crawling just beneath her skin.
“Something is off,” she mumbled, glancing around at the bodies packed into the large space, swaying to the loud music.
Her head swam and she decided to go out to the blessedly empty garden for some fresh air. The space was immaculate. Large stones dropped across gently waving sand. The line of stones drew her eye across the open area where she’d swear she was seeing a ghost.
Blinking hard, she leaned forward slightly, stepping from the low wooden porch. The moonlight washed over everything here – there was no mistaking it. There was someone across the garden.
Her breath caught at the familiar citrine gaze, the familiar titanium hair. She had no time for shock as the feeling of ecstasy exploded through her veins. Before she could register it, she’d already started toward him, her quick pace made just slightly slower because of the weight of her gown.
“Sesshomaru!” She called as he turned away from her, following a darker path of the garden until he disappeared from her view. “Wait!”
She picked up the hem of her dress and ran.
“Sesshomaru!”
She couldn’t believe it. She thought he was lost to her forever. Had he been there all along?
“Please stop!” She called desperately as she ran down the mystically dark path, not noticing that it was just a bit darker than it should’ve been.
Finally catching sight of him as he stepped through the moon gate at the end of the path, she stopped when he came to a halt. The moonlight broke through the canopy and her heart ached at the sight of him as he glanced at her over his shoulder, his body half-turned toward her.
Lifting her arm, she reached for him as her eyes flooded with the tears, overcome by the ache in her chest.
She nearly fainted with relief when he lifted his hand, beckoning her toward him, toward the silver washed moon gate and the pitch-black beyond it.
And without a second thought, she ran to him.
In hindsight, the darkness beyond the moon gate was entirely unnatural, and she knew it. But seeing him there, the man she’d loved – the man she thought she’d lost – nothing else mattered but him. And as she crossed over the gate, she was conscious of the rippling veil that hung between worlds – bowing and stretching as she crossed it. But she couldn’t find it in her to care about that.
She slammed into the inuyoukai, her arms encompassing his waist as his circled around her shoulders, pulling her tight against his chest. And for the first time since she’d been forced back to her era, she felt like she could breathe again.
“Sesshomaru,” she cried, holding him even tighter, afraid that if she let go, if she opened her eyes, he’d disappear. “I missed you so much. Every day.”
A soft sigh swept over her hair and she breathed him in.
“You have been missed as well. Most terribly.”
His rich voice was soft in the deep quiet of night and her lip trembled as memories crashed upon her in waves.
“How are you here? Have you been here the whole time?” She asked, finally daring to pull back and really look at him.
He looked like he’d just stepped out of the era she’d last seen him in. His clothing flowed, full and regal, over him and he appeared every bit the lord he’d been. Deep cream, pure white, black, teal and deepest blue was the color palette he wore. Half of his hair was pulled away from his face and tied up, his bangs falling just over his brows.
She studied him and he studied her in return.
“You are as beautiful as the day you were taken from me,” he said, breaking the silence.
Her blush was becoming, and he nearly kissed her. As much as he desired to, he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she knew the truth.
“You look…exactly the same,” she whispered, her voice breaking. Surely, if he’d been here all along, he’d have adapted with the times. Or, maybe he’s dressed for the masquerade? Somehow, she doubted it. He wasn’t even dressed appropriately for it.
And suddenly, her earlier fears all came rushing back to the surface. The reason she’d avoided the palace since her return. “Sesshomaru, are you…are you dead?”
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she’d seen a spirit. She just prayed, with every fiber in her being, that she was wrong. And she couldn’t explain why, but he didn’t seem…whole to her. He didn’t seem real. More a being of the ether than one of the living.
He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to – his eyes said it all as he looked down at her hopelessly. And she knew.
Her face crumpled, her hand coming up to hide behind and he pulled her into him once again.
“I am sorry, Kagome,” he said, his hand running soothingly over the bare skin of her back and shoulders not covered by her gown. “I failed you.”
He whispered soothing words in her ear in an attempt to calm her – it’d always worked before – and he was pleased to see that his gestures still worked. Once she’d calmed enough, he led her by the hand to a stone bench in the courtyard up ahead.
As they walked hand-in-hand, previously unseen lanterns sparked to life, burning from royal blue to settle into a warm orange glow. But Kagome paid them no attention, her eyes riveted to the inuyoukai beside her.
Sitting down, she looked up at him, entirely crestfallen. And though she tried to hide it, she couldn’t hide from him.
“How are you here?” She asked when he took the seat next to her. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s just…if you’re dead then…” Something suddenly occurred to her and she gasped, her eyes meeting his sharply. “Am I dead?!”
“No, miko,” he said, exasperated. “You are not dead.”
“Then how?”
“It is the perfect night to pierce the veil,” he explained as he gazed up at the heavy moon, and she leaned closer, stuck on his every word. “For years…so many years…I would be here on this night, wondering…hoping.”
Lowering his eyes to her, amber captured blue.
“And then suddenly, you were there. After all this time,” he said, turning her hand over to run his claws across her palm – just like he knew she loved. “You are finally here.”
“How long have you been waiting?” She almost didn’t want to know.
He sighed and averted his eyes, before saying, “A very long time, Kagome.”
“How…” She paused, trying not to choke on the lump of emotion clogging her airway. “How long do we have?”
If he was surprised by her question, he didn’t show it.
“Until the moon falls below the horizon.”
The admission tasted bad in his mouth and he watched as the edges of her blazing soul blackened further. Her sorrow tainted her, and he despised it.
“What? But – that’s not…”
Kagome tried not to panic as she looked up at the moon, already making its descent.
“So soon?” She whimpered, her head bowing to hide her dejected face.
She could hide her face from him, but she couldn’t hide her soul and he watched with no small amount of concern as it dimmed once again.
“Well,” she said suddenly, standing and extending her hand to him. “I won’t waste the time we have by crying. This place is a museum now. I don’t…I’m not sure where we can go.”
Lifting a brow, he studied her a moment, weighing her words.
“For what exactly?”
But he didn’t need to ask. Her eyes said it all. So, taking her hand, he led her further down the lamp-lit path toward another building, set much further back than the building full of dancing college students.
Following him silently up a wide set of stairs and onto another porch, he slid the heavy wooden door open, gesturing for her to enter ahead of him.
More lamps flickered into life as soon as her foot pressed to the polished wood floor, Sesshomaru’s ki being manifested into flame.
He grasped her hand once again and led her through doors and over thresholds until they reached another set of stairs, these ones slightly steeper than the last.
Climbing behind him, she was mildly surprised to see how little the palace had changed but didn’t want to break the comfortable silence by saying so. So, she walked quietly behind him until they reached an elaborately carved pair of wooden panels.
He paused for a breath before sliding the panel open and stepping inside, pulling her with him.
“It’s still the same,” Kagome said as her eyes adjusted to the light of the lamp he lit.
“Yes. For the most part everything has remained more or less the same,” he said before pointing toward another set of panels – these intricately painted. “Though that room needs a fresh coat of color.”
Of course, she was compelled to go look – as he knew she would be. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him along with her until she reached the screen and pulled it open.
“It’s pink,” she said as her free hand came up to cover a wide grin.
She couldn’t look at him for fear of bursting out in laughter, so instead, she perused the room they’d shared on so many occasions in the past.
“What is so funny?” He scoffed, marginally affronted. “It is not as if I painted it that color.”
Tugging her into his chest, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Time has faded it,” he said, almost regretfully. “Leaching the color away from it as it does everything else.”
She caught the bitter note in his words and knew he was talking about them. Resting her head against his chest, she breathed deeply, tasting him on the back of her tongue.
“I’m so happy you’re here, Sesshomaru,” she whispered, clenching her teeth to hold back the tears that threatened once more. “I’ve been so lost without you.”
Feeling gentle fingers beneath her chin, she tipped her head back to look at him. His lips caught hers immediately and her knees gave out as she was overcome by emotion. He supported her against him, both loving and hating the taste of her tears as they rolled down her cheeks, falling into the corner of her lips where he swept them away on his tongue.
Leading her slowly toward the futon, he took the time to reach up and tug at the satin ribbon at her back, holding her gown against her body. Never parting from her lips, he lowered her gently onto the soft surface of the futon, her gown now loose, her mask long gone and her beautiful body awaiting his touch.
“Are you certain you wish to do this?”
As much as it pained him to ask, he had to be sure.
Biting her lip to keep it from trembling, she spoke after a moment.
“There’s only one thing I want more than this,” she said as she lifted herself up toward him.
“And what might that be?” He asked, closing the distance as he hovered over her, a breath between them.
“To keep you forever,” she whispered against his lips, her glistening eyes falling shut as she closed the gap.
Her lips against his was like a soothing balm to the near-constant ache in his chest, but her words were a shock to his system, burning him up like the strike of lightning. Pain coursed through him, her hopeless words fanning the flame that kept his ache thriving.
If only it were possible, koi, he thought, pressing himself against her as she took what she could from him. God, if only it were possible.
Roaming hands, his and hers, became frenzied, tugging at clothing. Lips pressed against whatever skin was visible. Whispered words were traded, some of affection and others meant to entice, until:
“I love you.”
Their movement paused and her blue eyes gazed deeply into his, her breath coming in soft gasps as for the millionth time that night, tears pooled in her eyes.
“You do? Even after all this time?”
“Kagome,” he sighed. “Do you truly not know by now?” His hand, trembling just so, came up to caress the hair from her face. “I have always loved you.”
The breath left her lungs as she saw the truth of his words reflected in his eyes – always so expressive for her.
“So unfair,” she said quietly, dipping her head to hide her eyes beneath her bangs. “I risked everything for that stupid jewel. I did my part, and in the end I lost everything. I lost you.”
She paused to steady her raging emotions and took a deep breath before continuing.
“How can fate be so cruel, Sesshomaru?”
“Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to that. As much as I wish I did. Maybe then I could ease your pain, even if only a little.”
Offering him a watery smile, she closed her eyes and pulled him back down to her.
“There’s only one thing that can ease my pain,” she whispered, her lips brushing his. “And he’s dead.”
Her soft words were so full of grief that it was palpable. It flickered in her aura as it darkened right along with her soul.
His fragile female, trembling with sorrow beneath him as she tried to hold back the flood of emotions threatening to overwhelm her. All this anguish, she felt it for him. This despondency. This love and loyalty. It was all for him.
Because of him.
He was responsible for her pain. He’d failed her in the worst way. He’d broken his promise to her. To find her should this exact event ever occur – should she be forced back to her own time, he’d find her. His mate. And instead, he failed her.
“I am so sorry, Kagome,” he choked, his voice thick. “Damn the Gods.” He hissed, his head falling against her shoulder.
Feeling him shudder with emotion, seeing this moment of weakness in a man who’d only ever refused to show even an ounce of weakness, and suddenly she felt his pain acutely. She’d been mourning him for a few short years when compared to his centuries of missing her.
And in that moment, all she wanted was to feel him. To feel his hands on her. His lips on hers. To take away his pain. To feel her husband again.
“Kiss me, Sesshomaru,” she demanded softly, her pulse quickening. “Please.”
Pulling back to look at her, he held her eyes for only a moment, all too happy to bring her pleasure – to gain his pleasure in return. It had been far too long, and he grew weary of the constant ache – the gaping, Kagome sized hole in his chest.
Pressing his lips to hers, he brushed a lethal hand gently over her cheek. Dragged his fingertips, feather light, down her throat and down further to pay reverence to a full breast he’d gone far too long without. His lips followed the path of his fingers, trailing over her collar bone as she tipped her head back, baring her throat to his hungry gaze.
Pulling back he took a moment to really look at her. Memorize her in that moment.
“What is this you are wearing?” He asked, desire softening his words. “I forbid you to wear this ever again.”
She laughed then, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him back down to her lips, her hands trailing down his chest to untie his obi with a practiced touch.
“I’ll burn it today,” she mumbled, his lips burning a terrifying path across her skin, straight to her heart where it surrounded the beating thing in a blaze of hottest blue.
“Yes, you will.”
His softly growled words squeezed her like a vice, memories assaulting her until she was gasping for breath. Though, that could also have a lot to do with the fact that the magnificent demon kneeling over her was pulling her dress off as if his life depended on it. His lips were hot; his hands rough with the intensity of his need for her.
With equal determination, she freed him of his clothing, ignoring the sound of tearing cloth as he literally ripped her panties from her.
Their bodies met with a relieved growl and a pleasured moan. And for a time they were able to forget about their loss. Forget about their pain. Forget about everything and everyone else as they loved one another feverishly. And like a supernova, they burst into brilliant color, each feeling whole for the first time in a long time.
Afterward, they lay there, silently watching one another, their bodies pressed together beneath the silk bedding and it was almost as if nothing had ever changed. She’d spent over a century with him there as his mate before fate cruelly separated them, delivering her back to her family shrine as if she’d never even left.
But she knew their time now was short and they’d be separated once again. Only his lips on her kept the fear and nausea controlled.
She remained awake until the moon left the sky and he began to fade. The feeling of him, his presence, fading along with him. Their desperate parting words stayed with her, reverberating in her ears. Her terrified plea for him to stay; his frantic apologies as he gathered her tightly in his arms.
And then he was gone, the lamps extinguishing themselves and casting the room into darkness.
The warmth he brought turned to ice in her veins. She could feel it in her fingers and toes, burning slowly up her arms and legs as she froze. And the desperation, the misery, the darkness that encroached on her, bearing down on her – suffocating her – wrapped around her heart and squeezed.
“No,” she whispered, in denial. “Please, no.”
Ah, she grunted, her hand reaching up to clutch at her chest. It hurts.
All around her was quiet but for the sounds of her sorrow and it all crashed down on her, drowning her. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lose him twice. She wouldn’t survive a second time.
Shaking her head, she knelt on her hands and knees, trying to breathe around her panic. Her hair fell around her, hiding her face and she begged the gods for mercy. A release from the crushing weight of her loss.
She finally understood what this was; this complete feeling of emptiness that had been with her since returning to her time – it was because her mate had passed from the living realm, taking half of her with him.
Anything. She’d give anything to be with him again.
I don’t want this. She shook her head again at the thought. I can’t do this. I can’t.
And for one terrifyingly clear moment, she knew what to do.
Take it all away.
As the ice burned through her veins, it finally reached her core, encasing her heart in its frigid grasp and she sighed softly in relief as her clarity offered a moment of calm.
Sesshomaru watched from the other side, no longer able to touch her nor feel her touch. No longer able to whisper in her ear or soothe her worries.
He watched as her aura blackened, dark as pitch, its tendrils dipping greedily into her soul, quickly covering its brilliance in inky darkness. He recognized what was happening and fear tingled up his spine.
Do not do this, Kagome. There is no coming back from this.
She was abandoning her emotions, casting them off to protect herself. She would become indifferent to everything around her as darkness thrived in her soul, chasing its light away and casting her in constant shadow. She’d be safe from her pain there, he knew, but she’d cease to exist as the Kagome he’d known, the woman he loved.
She’d no longer be light, but dark.
He couldn’t stand by and watch her sacrifice even more. He couldn’t allow her to lose herself in such a way.
“Stop this, Kagome,” he growled, willing her to hear him as he crossed the room to her side in a few long strides.
Reaching for her, he stopped short when her gaze lifted to the wall ahead of her. Her face was blank, a trail of tears tracked down her cheeks, but her eyes were dark as the deepest ocean.
Was he too late?
He watched as she blinked slowly, her eyes darkening with her soul.
And an anger ran straight through him, so intense it tore a furious growl from his chest. In his anger, he reached out, intending to destroy whatever was closest to him.
He was shocked when his hand came into contact with the vase that sat upon the nearby shelf, flying off with a crash as it smashed into pieces on the ground across the room.
Kagome jumped, her aura pulsing with light for a moment and he was immensely relieved to see something other than apathy in her gaze as she stared in shock at the broken vase.
Glancing around the room quickly, she looked for the source, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Only to find the room horribly empty, save herself.
“Sesshomaru,” she whimpered, the hurt consuming her again.
But…it was him, wasn’t it? He broke the vase. He was still there. Still with her.
And suddenly, in the darkest moment of her life, she realized that all hope wasn’t lost. Her situation wasn’t ideal, but it could be much worse.
She’d just have to wait. Wait until the next moment the veil was thin, and she could be with him then. And she’d return to him every time, for the rest of her long life.
Because the alternative was too painful to accept. Something she just couldn’t cope with. Him lost to her forever. So, with a deep breath, she looked up, her eyes not seeing the ceiling but the heavens above, and she thanked the gods fervently for the chance they were giving her to be with her mate.
“Thank you,” her soft voice was reverent and raw.
Fresh tears rolled down her face as something she’d never felt before surrounded her, warming her like the gentle touch of a cozy fire, like the protective embrace of her lover, like the light of the sun as it caressed her skin on a balmy day. It ran through her veins, a thin layer coating every cell in her body and she was thrumming with power.
As if pulling a trigger, the power was released, expelling from her body in a radiance she couldn’t see but clearly felt. And she gasped as her head spun from the rush of it.
Sesshomaru, who’d been watching with rapt attention as her entire demeanor changed, was abruptly blinded by a brilliant flash of light as his mates aura and soul burned a white so pure it was almost translucent. Immediately after, a blast of her ki exploded from her, almost violently, and everything in the room shook. The walls trembled and he was hurled back with such force that his breath was pressed from his lungs.
Trying to stop whatever force was pushing him away from her, he clung futilely to whatever he could as his feet left the ground and he soon found himself removed from her side, from their room, from their home and back on the path toward the moon gate.
It was at that point – the moment he was flung back through the moon gate – that something even more violent transpired with his soul. As if all of nature were coming together to create something perfect from nothing at all, a touch crawled over his spirit, attempting to encase it after so long being free from the confines of flesh and bone.
At first, he struggled against it, thinking it meant to subdue him. And then her face flashed in his mind. His miko. Her pained expression, the tears falling from her lashes.
And he knew he couldn’t put her through this again. He couldn’t be there the next time the veil was thin. He couldn’t expect her to spend her life waiting around for him to become solid for a single night a year. She needed to move on.
So, he needed to disappear.
He stopped fighting and allowed the oddly familiar feeling to enclose him completely, succumbing as the layers folded over him, capturing him in its hold until everything went black.
Back in the shiro, Kagome had calmed her erratic heart and caught her breath, dressing quickly and leaving the memories behind as she headed for the path back to the building that’d housed the party the previous night.
Spotting the bench she shared with her mate, she smiled fondly, running her fingers over the stone as she passed. Once more, she thanked the gods for their blessing. She didn’t know anyone else who was able to spend even a single moment with someone they’d lost to death.
She would never consider herself unlucky again.
When her eyes fell on the circular stone of the moon gate ahead, she came to an abrupt halt as she spotted a figure lying on the opposite side. She recognized him immediately and her breath caught in her throat, choking her.
“Sesshomaru,” she whispered and, without thought, her feet carried her quickly to his side.
“Sesshomaru!” She called as she reached him, falling to her knees as she pushed his hair from his face.
His eyes opened slowly, amber glazed over as her hands fluttered over him, his name upon her lips. He blinked to clear blurry vision, his ears ringing.
“Sesshomaru,” he heard as if from under water and he shook his head slightly, trying to make sense of what had happened.
Something wet fell on his face, rolling over his cheek much like a tear, and as a key slides home, everything clicked into place at once and he realized that he could feel her hands on him. She could see him.
“I thought I lost you again,” she cried softly against his chest and his hand instinctively came to rest against her head, his fingers burying themselves in her thick hair. “You’re here. How are you here?”
She pulled back and all he could do was shake his head, looking up at her in shock. This shouldn’t be possible. The veil should be at its most impenetrable now. No spirit could cross it.
Glancing at the moon gate which had served as his portal between realms since his death, he realized he could no longer even feel it – the veil. As this dawned on him, something took root in his mind and he began to take stock of other things.
“Mate,” he murmured, his eyes following his hand as it trailed over her shoulder and down her arm.
He no longer felt like half a man, he didn’t feel like he was missing part of himself. He felt complete again, the piece of her that had claimed him flickering as it blazed to life within him; his soul reaching out in recognition and delight to caress it lovingly.
“You…” he was truly at a loss for words. Had she truly held so much power within her? For it could be nothing else. That blast of power that had thrown him from his own home, had shoved him right back into the land of the living. Somehow giving him flesh and bone and blood. His ki fit uncomfortably beneath his skin once more, but he didn’t care in the slightest.
Sitting up quickly, he grabbed his miko in strong arms and his lips found hers with immense relief.
“You are magnificent,” he said between the press of lips. “Incredible. Breathtaking. You are everything.”
She relished his touch for a moment before reluctantly pressing a hand to his chest to stop him.
“Tell me what’s happening,” she suggested, confusion in her wide blue eyes. “You’re still here.”
“That flare of reiki earlier…” He started, not quite understanding it himself. “I do not know how, but somehow you have returned my life to me.” Studying his hand in fascination, he pressed his fingers to her cheek, brushing away the remainder of her tears. “Given me flesh once more.”
“Me?” She squeaked, a slight shake of her head. Surely she couldn’t bring someone back from the dead – he’d been gone for centuries. She didn’t even know where he was buried. “There’s no way I –”
He silenced her with his fingertips against her lips.
“It was you, Kagome,” he said firmly but softly. “It was you.”
His conviction was so clear that she couldn’t argue with him. She’d think over it later. All that mattered in that moment was that he was there with her.
“You’re alive?” She breathed, almost not daring to say it. “I’m not dreaming?”
“I am here, you are here, and this is not a dream.”
She leaned into his touch before her lip trembled and she breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” she said humbly, her eyes reflecting the morning sun as she gazed into the sky. “Thank you.”
Seeing her in the daylight, he could see how their separation had affected her. Her face held a sickly pallor, her bright eyes didn’t hide the lack of sleep that hovered over her cheek bones. He’d recognized her weight loss the night before but had been too caught up with her to think much of it, then.
He had much to make up for. And not one to procrastinate, he decided that he’d start right then.
Pulling her into his arms, he reveled in her nearness, breathing her in. This beautiful, powerful, unique, wonderful, loyal female – she was all his.
“Don’t leave me again,” she mumbled, her fingers curling in the silver hair that spilled over his chest.
“Never,” he promised, knowing that he’d do whatever it took to keep his word this time.
He would not fail her again. Never again.
“Now, regarding your apparel,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
She was morbidly beautiful in what she wore, and it pushed a gentle tingle of desire along his spine.
“Ah, right. I promised to burn it, didn’t I?”
“I will settle for removing it from your body, instead.”
Standing, he lifted her from the path, carrying her like a new bride back in the direction they’d come. Back toward what had once been their private dwelling; back toward their room and bed, where he once again relieved her of her dress and gave her the pleasure he hadn’t been able to give her for centuries.
And once again, everything around them ceased to exist as their desire for one another, their pleasure reached new heights and delivered them both into bliss once more. The joy of finding one another filled them, and finally, finally they could breathe normally – the knowledge that they were whole giving them the peace they’d so desperately been missing.