Page 13

DOLION

The world flashed around us once, then again. Long enough for the bar to come into view, blood that wasn’t mine to splatter my hands mixed with a fine coating of ash, for Tifa and Ash to shout at each other, and the world to disappear again.

I stood in a darkened hall, breathing in dust and stale air outside a locked door while my fallen star ranted and raved on the other side in a tiny room.

Sebastian would heal on his own. She’d checked on him briefly, made sure he wouldn’t die, before she ran.

And hid away from the world for failing him, and herself.

Tifa was scared. Just as I had been at the graveyard, but that didn’t mean any of us blamed Ash for what had happened. That was on the demoness alone and maybe us for turning our backs on her when we knew better.

And now we wore the scars of her wrath. Or at least, one of us did.

“Steorra.” I knocked softly after a minute. “Please let me in.”

The ranting stopped. “You said she was a risk to me . Not to him.”

“She was always a risk to all of us. To everyone.” I rested my knuckles against her door. “Please, will you unlock this?”

She fell silent. A flash beneath the doorway and a smattering of ash across my bare toes—still pink, though some of the paint had begun to wear away—and she arrived next to me.

Her sunset orange dress hung in tatters.

The edges were singed, the center smeared in blood and sins that didn't belong to her.

I held out my arms and she fell into my embrace, sobbing. “I am sorry I didn't protect you better,” I whispered, taking her to the ground with me, where she curled into my lap, trembling and shaking.

Heat seared me, her tears boiling my skin.

It was warning enough to bring on my change.

My skin hardened to my stone form a second before the world whitened out again.

I sank back into the darkness that I’d remained in for so long, taking refuge in my stone state, not knowing if she stayed with me or not, letting my Steorra burn herself out against my gargoyle form.

I retained my stone form for far longer than I would have normally, unsure how long she would need, but when I returned to her, my fallen star shivered in my cold embrace, her body coated in ash that smeared her all over.

Around us, in a shattered radius, the third floor of the convent bore burn marks in a circle that rippled right across the hallway and up the walls.

Time didn’t pass the same way for me in my tone form as it did for her. I didn't know how long she had burned for, alone, but I held her as she shivered and shook and cried, until she finally opened her eyes and stared up at me, all of her heart break right there to see.

“He could have died, and I could have saved him. All because I. Was. Fucking. Flirting. With. You.” A great sob tore through her throat. She coughed into her hands, bending at the waist with the force of her grief.

I caught her chin, winding my body around hers. “But he is immortal, ma Steorra, and he did not die. No blade of the demoness’ can end his life.” Other things might, but not that. Not so simple. Anitta liked to play with her toys before she ruined them, but Ash didn’t need to know that right now.

“I should have fried her. Like I said.” More sniffles arose as I stroked her hair and sighed.

“And hurt everyone in the vicinity in the process. Which is why you did not flash fry the bitch.” I waited.

Her lips twitched against my chest. “Did you—” She cleared her throat. “Did you just use modern slang?”

“I did. Do not expect to hear it again any time soon, Steorra.” I laughed softly. “Now, may I clean you, please? You are… dusty.” I patted her rump. A puff of ash filled the air.

“That was all you, stone man, not me.” Her muffled laughter came from the realm of my armpit.

“If you say so, Steorra. Are there washrooms in this place?”

She let me carry her into the staff bathroom along the hallway, leaving her scorch mark well behind.

“I hope the staff don’t come up here ever again. They already think this hallway is haunted as all hell,” she muttered, rubbing her cheek against my chest.

“I’m sure with your flashing lights and flame and smoke and ash, there is little chance you haven’t assisted the mouth at some point. Steorra,” I murmured, placing her under the old faucet and turning on the water. “Is this how it works?”

Jets of rusty water poured over her body as she shrieked like a banshee.

“Fuck, that’s cold! Off! Off!” Ash clawed at me, pulling herself out of the russet colored puddle that mixed with the soot covering her body.

The colors melded in a red and black spiral as she pulled her ruined dress off her body and tossed it away.

“Ahh—” I stared at the other faucet. “This one?”

Ash grumped at me curtly. Water streamed down her face, her hair hanging in damp strands across her cheeks. “Step away from the shower, Dolion. Your rights have been revoked. Wait. Have you not been showering since you arrived? Filthy gargoyle,” she berated me under her breath.

“Sebastian has a spa tub with a mix tap,” I offered helpfully.

“A mixer tap,” she corrected me.

“Yes. One of those.” I nodded, smiling. “It’s much easier.” I mimed pulling the single silver bar outward and quoted the vampire who more than likely had not healed by now and quoted him, complete with the little finger actions he favored. “‘Set and forget’.”

“Ha. He’s got you trained, alright.” She flurried around the taps, adjusting the water temperature to her liking and tipped her head back, reveling in the fine spray that cleared of rust after a few minutes. “Better. “ She held out her hand without opening her eyes. “Join me?”

“Am I permitted after my faux pas?” I touched the tips of my fingers to her own, pleased when she curled her hand in mine.

“You are permitted, gargoyle.”

I stripped, tossing my clothes across the room and stepped into the tiled section behind her, sliding my hands along her lower back. “I wasn’t sure if I had to beg for your forgiveness after making you so wet.”

A giggle erupted from her, the sound shattering the peace in the steam fogged room. “I thought you promised not to dip into the vernacular, you filthy, filthy gargoyle.”

“You have no idea how filthy.” I cupped her breasts, squeezing her nipples.

“But I just got clean.” Ash moaned softly, arching for me. Her head tipped backward, resting on my shoulder. Pert buttocks pressed against my stomach.

I dropped one hand to grip her hip, holding her tight against me. “Do you want me to fix that, Steorra?” I leaned down, sucking the tip of her ear into my mouth and flicked the shell with my tongue.

She gasped, pulling away as I pinched her nipples and pushed her forward into the wall tiles coated with spray. “Fuck, cold?—”

“You’ll manage,” I growled in her ear, tapping her feet apart. Her soft mewl told me she wouldn't fight me any further, and I rolled her nipple between my fingers as a reward until she writhed for me.

Her hands slipped between us, reaching for me, but I batted her touch away, unwilling to spill myself so quickly this time. “But Dolion—” she objected, straining for me. Her nails scratched my stomach.

I gripped her wrists, pinning them at her lower back.

“No, fallen star. You’ll do this my way tonight.

” Another nipple pinch reminded her what she liked, and she nodded quickly.

“Hands on the wall.” Her hands went up with the sort of speed that drew a deep laugh from my chest as warm water rained over us. “Very good, Steorra. Head back, now.”

I leaned down and licked her lips leisurely as I reached one hand between her legs, gathering some of her slick to coat her nub and swirling it there, over and over while she whimpered for me.

My tongue touched hers lightly, but I denied her both her orgasm and my kiss, leaving her dripping and aching as long as possible, still milking that nipple between my fingers until she rubbed herself between my hand and the wall, frantic and desperate to come.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful like this,” I whispered, trailing my tongue across her bottom lip. Saliva dripped from the tip into her mouth. “Swallow for me.”

She did on reflex, her tongue peeking out to swipe the last of the fluid for her lips before she realized what she’d done. Her eyes flared wide as I tapped lightly at her clit. Once, then again and pressed down.

She came for me, sweetly, the shower filling with the scent of her satisfaction. I notched at her entrance and surged inside her, thick and veined and hard as fuck to fill her soaked cunt with my seed.

Ash screamed for me, long and hard as I seated myself deep. Her walls closed tight on my cock, strangling my length in her searing heat. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted, clawing at the tiles.

I released her nipple, closing my hands around hers on the wall.

“Keep screaming for me,” I growled, drawing back and ramming deep into her heat.

Despite my desire to fuck her until the sun rose over the convent, I wasn’t going to last half as long as I wanted at this rate.

She felt too good wrapped around me. “Christ, Steorra. Your body was made to fit mine.”

Her cries and whimpers filled the room, shattering and reforming as I thrust into her over and over again.

Even as the water ran cold, her body heated with her orgasm.

I pulsed against her, slamming my hands into the wall.

Tiles cracked above her head as stone replaced skin over my body a fraction of a breath before she exploded.

Even in my stone state I felt the echo of her through the void of darkness that separated my gargoyle state from life.

I opened my eyes to find her writhing on my steaming stone form, still in the throes of her orgasm, impaled on my granite cock, thick and heavy and unyielding inside her. A roar ripped deep from within my soul as I came, filling her with my seed, marking her as mine and no others.

“Ma Steorra,” I whispered. “Forever.”

She shivered for me as I clasped her body against mine, and rubbed her cheek to the back of my hand like a kitten. “ Notre amour br?lera pour toujours. ”

My breath stopped as though my change had been forced as her words rippled around my head in my own language.

I stared at the shattered bathroom tiles, the ash that floated in the air surrounding us, speckling the once white walls. The scorch marks that matched the one in the hall.

Our love will burn forever.

My Steorra didn’t need to say I love you . Her words meant so much more.

Once before I thought I had died at the hands of a demoness when she stole love from me once before, and though I loved then, I thought it had been my once in an existence’s chance.

I was wrong.

My lips melded to Ash’s as I kissed her deeply, putting everything I couldn't say into her the tenderest touch I could. Nothing could take her from me. Not Anitta. Not time. Not the riled mob the demoness drove to madness with the lies she whispered into their minds.

I had to protect this woman at every cost.