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"You have me," I say. Because I'm done fighting this. I'm done fighting myself and my own nature. I'm done fighting him.

I am complete with him.

My light and darkness in balance.

No longer at war with each other.

"I'm not like my brothers," he says again, as he pulls his hand out of mine to wrap them around my waist. "I don't crave your blood, but I do crave your soul. You're light." He gently kisses my neck, sending shivers up my spine. "And your darkness. I want it all. I can handle it all."

I suck in my breath as a fire is lit in my belly. Need and desire crash into me, and I am consumed with them. With him.

When his lips make their way to mine, it is with slow deliberation, the passion contained in feather-light kisses that leave me breathless and desperate for more. He drops his hands to my hips and presses himself against me.

An ache grows in me and our kisses deepen.

My nails dig into his back, pressing through his shirt as I cling to him. When he pulls away, I groan, my body missing his.

"Do you trust me?" he asks.

I nod and allow him to lead me to the bed.

He undresses me slowly, meticulously, his dark eyes locked on me, his hands caressing every inch of me with such tenderness and devotion I nearly melt.

I feel no embarrassment as I stand before him naked. "You have too many clothes on," I remind him.

He strips quickly and my breath catches at the beauty of his body, perfect in every way, despite the scars he lives with. Or maybe because of them. After all, it's often our imperfections that give us our real beauty, and he is a beautiful man, with his long fingers, hard lines and sharply defined muscles.

With shocking ease, he lifts me into his arms and lays me on the bed, then produces strips of black silk cloth.

I don't resist as he ties one cloth around my eyes, rendering me blind, and then gently ties each of my wrists to the bedposts.

"Surrender to the darkness," he whispers against my flesh, his lips and hands teasing me in all the most sensitive places.

I nod, unable to speak, as I lose myself in the sensations he's coaxing from me.

When he spreads my legs and teases my sex with his tongue I nearly lose myself, but he pulls back, unwilling to let me finish so quickly.

He takes his time with my body, and as I writhe under his merciless teasing, something happens I have never experienced before. The lines between us dissipate. The boundaries of flesh give way to a complete melding of his spirit and mine. I feel him everywhere, on every inch of my body, within me, caressing me and kissing me in ways that can't be possible with just one human body.

When I can no longer hold back, he undoes the ties restraining me and blinding me, and I see a black mist mixed with gold that has become a part of both of us. We are no longer two entities, but one, and when I climax, he is in me, riding the wave with me, our bodies wrapped into each other, the light and the dark becoming one.

Chapter 12: The Secret

I will lovethe light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. ~Og Mandino

Matilda is sittingin front of her fire knitting when she calls for me to enter and have a seat. There's already a steaming cup of tea waiting for me.

How does she always know?

I curl up in the overstuffed leather chair and sip at my drink as we sit in silence for a few moments.

"I can hear your mind spinning, my dear. What have you come to ask?" She smiles at me kindly, then returns her attention to the sweater she's working on.

"I used to think that right and wrong were very clear cut," I say. "But recently…with my growing powers and other things that have happened, I'm starting to wonder about that."

Matilda pauses, laying her hands on her lap, and looks deeply into the fire. "This is about Cole," she says.

"He's in my bed as we speak," I confess. After we made love, he fell asleep, but my mind was too restless. It was hard to leave his warm body for the chilly hallways of the castle, but I needed to clear my head. To talk to someone who might understand.