Page 10 of Broken Shadows (Corrupt Shadows Duet #2)

CHAPTER TEN

Lorcan

I’m free. It’s all I’ve obsessed over for the better part of a century. Yet now the time has come, all I feel is fucking pain. I mangled my heart for Evie until it bled emotions, but she threw it back in my face.

She said it herself. All she wants from me is to kill Samuel and to keep her and her friend safe from The Order, as if that wasn’t already a given and I wouldn’t have burned down the world to keep her safe.

The world is bright, as if it’s the first time I’m seeing color. In truth, I forgot just how vibrant the Human Realm is. My eyes adjust after a century of seeing everything with saturation lowered and follow Evie through the manor.

Either she really doesn’t give a fuck about me, or she still doesn’t believe me. But this time I’m not going to wait around to find out.

I dissolve into the nearest shadow, tracking her scent through the house, and silently slip out one several feet behind her.

The scent of vanilla dipped rose perfume ghosts the air in Evie’s wake. My heart backflips as I inhale languidly through my nose. That fucking scent. I rub the nape of my neck as each inhale nearly sends me to my knees.

Scent is one of the strongest triggers of all creature’s olfactory senses, evoking a slew of memories from our time in the Shadow Realm. Yet, here in the Human Realm everything is stronger: scents, colors, feelings .

I have missed her essence drifting through the manor, saturating everything it touches with an incorporeal caress—marking me in the process.

She winds her way around the right side of the grand staircase and into the kitchen. I step into a shadow under a wall sconce as my little witch’s head turns wearily over her shoulder, then quickens her pace through the exterior door near the counter.

My mouth waters as I track the sway of her hips, ass flexing with every step she takes. I ache to mark up her soft flesh with bitemarks.

Evie follows the cobble stone path to the small graveyard in a clearing near the manor, half frozen puddles splashing beneath her feet. Generations of human families and their servants are buried in this hallowed ground. I wonder what the priest who blessed this land would think of a demon holding the deed. I suppress my snort and shake my head. Said blessing might work on lesser castes of demons but never any of the royal bloodline.

My heart skips a beat when I see her pause by the wrought iron gate. Running her hands through her hair, she passes her fingers over the nape of her neck, drawing my eyes to her. She really does have the most elegant neck.

The gate creaks open as Evie walks through it, wandering from headstone to headstone, her fingers skating across their pitted surfaces.

She halts in front of a weathered headstone, the engraved name and dates sanded away by time’s merciless touch. Her fists clench at her sides, shadows swirling along the exposed back of her hands where her rich purple cardigan doesn’t cover.

I lurched forward slightly as her death magic sizzles to the surface, her steps falter. It’s as if it desires to tunnel through her back and violently draw me to her.

She spins to face me, her cheeks flushing red. “I told you not to follow me.”

“You talk of me playing games,” I state incredulously. “You ran off. Why?”

“Why are you pretending to care?”

My jaw clenches as I walk closer. “Do you want me to care?”

That is the only question that matters, but she withholds her response, her silence like a newfound fucking torture.

“Tell me,” I state, my heart hardening with each apathetic look she shoots my way. “If you were just caught up in the Shadow Realm, when time was suspended and we were alone, then I’ll understand.”

“Would you?” she asks with an arched brow, and sways her hips, knowing what that does to me. “I have a hard time believing you’d understand and leave me alone. You just want to fuck me. To use me.”

Gods I do.

She’s absolutely right.

I think about all the ways I’d use her mouth and I’m fucking hard. Something animalistic takes over my emotions, shrouding them until all I can think about is pushing her up against the headstone. I dart my tongue between parted lips, sensing her arousal from here. Her thighs clench together, coaxing a growl from my chest. “Don’t you want me to use you?”

I walk closer and push my chest against her back. I slide my hand up her sternum to her neck. My eyes briefly close as a gasp shutters through her. My other hand caresses the shell of her chilled ear as I tuck a loose lock of hair behind it.

“So that is all you want?” she whispers.

I growl sensually, the carnality of it rumbling between us. No, it’s not, I confess while stroking the threads connecting the most essential parts of ourselves.

A sigh slips past her lips, then her throat bobs against my palm as she swallows. “You lie. Demons cannot love. So, what is it you want from me?”

What am I supposed to say to that? It’s true. Demons are not supposed to be able to love, so what do I feel? Infatuation? Or something else entirely?

All I know is it feels like I’m wearing my fucking heart on the outside of my chest.

I smooth a hand over her gorgeous, silky hair, and bring my lips to her temple and whisper, “All I know is right now, I just want to be close to you.” I squeeze against the sides of her throat gently, then trace my finger to her clavicle.

I draw my tongue down the side of her tense neck, flicking the tip over her carotid artery in time with her pulse. I loosen my hold and turn her to face me.

I hate, no, I despise how vulnerable she makes me feel. The weak and desperate emotions I vowed to never resurrect from my centuries in that Hell cage.

Her inner voice filters into my mind. Don’t pretend to care. Just tell me the truth, all you want is to fuck.

She looks at me as if that’s what she needs to hear. As if my emotions are too much for her. I want to hold back, to show her this means more to me than she realizes, but before I can try, she slides her hand down my pants, wrapping her fingers around the bulge of my cock.

Fuck!

I collar her flushed throat and use my hold to drag her lips to mine in an impassioned kiss. I release a guttural moan as her tongue twirls against mine. She sucks my tongue into her mouth, the sensual assault spurring a desperate craving to claw my insides with fervid need.

So much fucking need.

My hips buck as my cock swells painfully and pulsates, copious amounts of pre-cum leaking down my veiny shaft. I tip my head back and suck in a breath. Cool misty rain dewing on my overheated face. My chin tips down and my gaze connects with Evie’s lust drunk orbs, then skates down her rosy cheeks to her sexy swollen lips. I bite my lip hard, relishing the sting on the fresh cuts and feather my thumb over her lower lip, collecting the fine dewy drops of rain, then push it onto her waiting tongue.

I groan, “Evie, fuck.” Backing her into the nearest headstone, I kick her legs apart and grind between her thighs. Evie hisses as the cold rock penetrates her thin jeans and I smile against her mouth. My tattooed hands cup her ass, lifting her onto the headstone.

I rest my forehead against hers. “Fucking Hell, Baby Girl. Do you know how badly I’ve missed being buried in your pretty cunt?” Our lips battle savagely for a moment, then I draw back and stare into her lust drunk chocolate eyes.

“Call me Little Witch,” Evie commands, spearing a hand into my hair and brushing her peaked nipples against my chest.

My heart swells with warm, fuzzy feelings and a shooting pain sears through my chest, as if my body is trying to push the feelings out as if they’re poison.

Her other hand squeezes my biceps as an emotion I cannot comprehend floats between us like a heavy fog. Streaks of lust illuminate the building tension like lightning.

“Fine,” I say breathlessly. “Little Witch.”

She grabs my hand and directs it past the waistband of her pants, her hand gliding on top of mine. I inhale sharply, no further coaxing necessary, as two of my fingers slide into her needy little pussy. I swirl them against her walls, remove them, and swiftly suck the digits into my mouth. Her pupils widen and darkness sweeps through her irises, pure primal need and magic merging into one. My shadows tear through her jeans just as hers deftly unbutton and shove mine to the ground.

“Evie,” I pant, “your cunt tastes fucking delicious. Now let’s see how good it feels.” My cock leaks copious amounts of pre-cum as I line it up with her entrance and thrust. Our joint gasps fill the frozen air as my cock slams into her cunt, her slick squelching between us. Evie’s fingers dig into my ass cheeks.

Pain ripples through my scalp as her shadows pull on my hair. I growl, rolling my hips into her with inhuman speed. Her head falls back as I continue thrusting and suck her nipple into my mouth. Her core clenches against me signaling her impending release.

“Uhghng,” I moan. “I hate you for being so damn perfect.” My lips connect with her neck as I attack it with kisses and bites.

“Oh, fuck,” she moans. “I'm so close. Lorcan, don't stop.”

My balls slap heavily against her damp skin as I rut into her. I throw my head back and my hipbones smack into the headstone, the bite of pain spurring me on. “Hold onto me,” I command, and Evie’s legs wrap around my waist, her feet crossing above my ass. “Don't let go.” My palms connect with the cold stone, claws digging in as I use the headstone for leverage. I angle my hips until I find her G-spot and relentlessly grind against it.

My witch mumbles and moans incoherently against my neck as I drive into her pussy harder and faster, my pending orgasm just out of reach.

“Gods!” she screams.

“That’s right, come for me.” Three more mind bending thrusts, then her orgasm drenches my cock.

I moan as my pleasure builds to unstable heights. “Ahhgh…MmUhgnhgn…Fuuuuck.” My orgasm swirls into existence like a sudden tornado. Roaring, I paint the fucking walls of her pussy with my cum.

Evie hugs my neck. “I love how you fill me up.”

“Shit,” I groan as another unexpected wave of pleasure milks several more jets of cum into her.

I watch with pride as the liquid of our combined releases leaks around my cock and drips onto my balls, then nestle my face into her neck and bury my face in her soft hair.

I lean to the side and yank up my jeans while holding Evie steady on the gravestone. My shadows smooth down her back, then cloaks around us to shield her from the winter elements.

“Did you just put a shadow cloak on me?” she asks.

“It’s freezing out here.” I raise a sardonic brow. “Plus, it’s more of a shadow blanket.”

A bubble of silence builds between us and is swiftly popped as we both belly-laugh.

The sound of her laughter, especially after everything she's gone through, breathes something warm and fuzzy to life behind my ribs, but its quickly quelled as she automatically rejects the emotion. I feel it in our bond, as if she needs the lack of feeling between us.

Evie’s happiness fades as quickly as it came, the sparkle in her eyes dimming. She needs to be taken care of. Even if she rejects my heart and wants to believe I want nothing but to fuck her. I’ll take care of her until she realizes I’m not going anywhere.

Her legs almost buckle, and I pull her upright.

“I’m fine,” she says, blinking several times, but I can see how much creating the portal took out of her.

She rests her head against my shoulder as I scoop her into my arms, wrap her tighter in my blanket of shadows, then trudge back to the manor.