Chapter 19

Almost ever culture speaks of soulmates. That one person who in essence carries the other half of your soul, and until you find them you are never complete. Some spend their entire lives looking for that missing piece, never resting, never being at peace. For Kara the term soulmate means just what it says, only her soul belonged to more than one being. She was the center where light and darkness orbited, keeping the delicate balance that the universe existed within in perfect harmony. Now that delicate balance was threatening to unravel.

Resting his forehead on hers, Tanis released a long sigh. “Caius and I may not agree on a lot of things but this I can guarantee. You may have started the bonding process with Aden, but we will never allow you to finish it.”

“Tanis…,” Kara breathed in disbelief, her heart constricting with what he was telling her. What it would do to her and Aden if the ritual was never completed. The constant need pushing at them, tormenting them. Years of being separated and the pain of that separation would be nothing compared what they would endure if they did not finish what was started.

“No, Kara,” Tanis interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow him to have even a small part of you. You belong to us. There is no nor ever will be another.”

Tangling his hand in her hair to hold her in place, Tanis kissed Kara with every ounce of passion and love he felt for the female in his arms. As the power began to build, the ties that bound them weave through them, tightening, strengthening, as he felt Kara melt into him all thought left except one. He was home.

Crushing her to him, his kiss demanding as it was giving he flashed them to the bedroom. They had been apart for two thousand years. Two thousand years of not feeling the touch of her hands on him. The touch of her soul next to his. Their clothes gone, his weight on her feeling like heaven, with fingers, hands, lips, they relearned the feel the taste of each other’s bodies. Kara’s cries as her body trembled under his touch were like music to his ears. When she screamed her orgasm, writhing in pleasure as wave after wave washed over her the ritual began. Only after he milked every drop and she lay panting, boneless, completely spent, did he crawl up her body to claim her mouth again.

“You are mine, Kara. Now and always,” he whispered huskily in her ear in a language so old only the Gods themselves remembered it. Sucking on her lobe, he slowly slid inside her, both of their bodies shuddering in ecstasy. “I will love you, cherish you, honor you, and protect you with my life.” He punctuated every word with a thrust.

“I will love you, cherish you, honor you, and protect you with my life,” Kara repeated, her voice breathless as her nails dug into his back, the pleasure mounting with each word, each desperate thrust.

In a burst of power, they flew over the edge together, their souls twining, bonding tighter, cells, bodies becoming one. Metal unable to slow it, space unable to stop it, that power spread touching everything in its path. The universe stopped for one breath of a second. Then it was if the universe sighed in relief and once again began to move forward.

Tanis collapsed on top of Kara gasping, her arms and legs wrapping around him as she clung to him. It was a ritual as old as the words they spoke that they completed every time they came together. Once again bringing the universe closer to harmony. There was only one more piece to the puzzle that needed to be put into place. One more player to begin and finish what had been started. The darkness to Tanis’s light.

“Bravo. Bravo,” a voice that was a familiar as it was foreign purred. Hands slowly clapping broke through the afterglow of their lovemaking freezing them in place. “Now for my turn,” the voice growled.

Kara cried out when Tanis was ripped from her arms and slammed against the wall across from the bed, his arm and legs spread eagle unable to move. Kara started to scramble to the end of the bed to help him only to freeze when she remembered who it was standing in the doorway glaring at her with glowing red eyes. This was not the darkness to Tanis’s light, the other part of her soul, her beloved. This was the demon who had tormented her in her mortal life, who had bound her with spells and curses to him as tightly as she was now bound to Tanis.

The necklace locked around her neck pulsed once, a shock of pain washing away the remnants of their lovemaking. A warning of what she would endure if she did not remember her place. Slowly, her frighten eyes locked on Tanis’s angry ones, her body shaking, with deliberate care she moved backwards until she was on her knees, her hands on her thighs facing upwards, back straight, eyes downcast.

Tanis could see Kara was shaking with fear, her face devoid of any color as the demon walked towards her. Reaching out a hand, he slowly pet her hair, his hand moving down her shoulder continuing down her arm.

“Very good, my dear,” he purred as he fingertips brushed across her ribs to her breast. “You remember your place.”

“Get your hands off of her!” Tanis snarled struggling to free himself from the invisible bonds that trapped him against the wall.

The demon’s red eyes remained on Kara’s face, watching as she reacted to his touch, the terror that he felt coursing through her unable to dampen the pleasure. The Gods had blessed her with a body that responded to the touch of another being. Any touch from any being, be it male, female or creature from another race. He smiled as her body shivered from his touch. The thought that she wanted him tighten things lower in the body the demon inhabited he thought long dead. Unfortunately, it was not yet time to claim what was rightfully his.

A noise pulled his attention from the female on her knees to the wall opposite her. The demon looked at Tanis, amusement dancing in his eyes as he watched him vainly struggle with the invisible bonds that held him in place. Eyes flashing with power, he began walking towards Tanis.

“Oh, I have plans to do much more than simply touch her, brother,” he sneered, his voice echoing with malice and power. “I plan to use her torture you in ways you could never imagined. Then, when you are broken and bleeding on the floor unable to protect your precious Kara, I will rip her soul from yours and make her mine. And you will lie there watching, powerless to help her as I take her to over and over.”

“She will never give you what you want,” Tanis spat.

“I do not need her to give me her power. I am evil incarnate,” he announced loudly to the room, raising his hands to his sides as he turned around in a circle. Once he faced Tanis again he lowered his arms, a sneer on his face. “All I need is her body under mine as I wrap my essence around hers. Then, when she is utterly and completely mine, I will throw you in the darkest hellhole I can find where you can rot for all eternity,” he snarled in Tanis’s face, his eyes glowing red as the two men glared at each other.

“I will kill you first,” Tanis ground out between his teeth, putting all the power he had behind his voice. The sheer amount sent everyone within the destroyer to their knees, holding their hands to their heads crying out in pain. Everyone but the three in the bedroom.

The demon merely smiled.

“Let the games begin.”

Chapter 18
Chapter 20

Copyright © 2019 Heidi Barnes