Page 35 of The Human Element (The Human Element Collection #1)

Their legs intertwined, and Daemon’s lips moved their way down her chin, placing small kisses and bites along her throat.

Lorelei’s body was burning up, and sensations from his lips on her neck sent tingles throughout her.

Her hands were balling up the fabric of his shirt on his back, and when he bit around her collarbone playfully.

She let out a soft moan, which seemed to only intensify Daemon’s own efforts.

His hand trailed up her thigh and gripped it hard.

Unable to take anymore of it, Lorelei brought his head back up to meet hers.

Both of them were breathing like there was not enough air left in the world.

He smiled at her when she took the handfuls of his shirt and lifted it over his head.

The moment his shirt was off, his wings unfolded themselves from his back; although not fully extended, they were so large in comparison to his body.

They lay strongly behind him, cascading off the bed.

Lorelei’s eyes were immediately drawn to them, recalling the first night she’d seen them.

Without realizing, her hand reached out to the one on her right, and her fingers ran over the feathers delicately.

They were soft, and responded to her touch as if they were an entity all their own.

Seeing him this way—he was absolutely striking.

He definitely looked like any angel she could’ve conjured in her head, but even more spectacular than that.

Many might think him a bit scary looking—what with these massive black wings and those alarming green eyes, but to her, he couldn’t be more perfect.

Sitting up, the moonlight was shining from the window, illuminating Daemon’s perfect form. The ripples in his shoulders and chest, his defined abs—she let her hand move from his wing and work its way down his body. Daemon bit his lip as her fingers skimmed the top of his jeans.

Suddenly, the energy changed and Daemon was tenderly bringing her up to meet him.

He went quiet and was merely letting his eyes wander over her face, like he was doing his best to memorize what she looked like in this moment.

He let his hands cup her cheeks, bringing their foreheads to rest against each other.

She could tell he was still catching his breath.

Lorelei tried to look at him to see if something was wrong, until he broke the silence at last.

“Lorelei, I love you. I love you with all that I am and more. I love you so much that it almost hurts…My heart aches for you in ways I didn’t think existed.”

Lorelei didn’t say anything, but she knew what he was describing.

This constant burning feeling in her chest that was getting hotter and brighter with each moment together, as if it might ignite and burn wildly out of control.

The need to be with him was overwhelming, and the feeling of emptiness when he was away was almost too much to bear. Daemon continued, his voice softening.

“I can’t imagine not being with you. The pull to you that I feel is as if I was always meant to be with you.

I didn’t stop...yanno...what we were doing because I didn’t want to keep going.

In fact, it feels like I might explode from wanting to be with you that way.

But a part of me feels like we should wait until this whole mess is over with.

The connection with you is beyond me. You are far too precious to me to rush this.

I want to be yours. Bare my soul to you.

Open up and reveal the shattered pieces I thought deserved to remain hidden forever.

I want nothing to tug any part of our minds away from the moment, where there is complete confidence that we are safe and can be in each other's embrace until eternity takes us.”

Daemon leaned back and brushed a hand through her hair, gazing into her eyes.

“I can’t rush making love to you, Lorelei. It wouldn’t feel right. I want to savor every single milli-second of it. I want to take my time, taking you fully as mine . But I can’t right now—not this way.”

Lorelei’s heart felt like melted butter. He was absolutely right, even if her body ached to be with him, with her heart still pounding beneath her chest and the pulse like electricity from his touch lingering, she placed her hand over his and smiled.

“I love you too, Daemon. And you’re right—we should wait.”

A wave of relief washed over Daemon’s face when she returned the words she knew he longed to hear back.

Finally having expressed their love for each other, there was nothing more to hold back.

Nothing separated one from the other. While the world remained wild beyond them, here, in this time, they were together—in mind and passion.

Daemon brushed her hair from her face behind her shoulders, and the touch on the nape of her neck making her shiver, as did the confession they both gave.

Love was conquering here, in the middle of the end of the world, and it was stronger than what she’d felt before.

Daemon kissed her, the fury of passion still dictating the movement of his lips on hers.

She fell away in his kiss, letting her shoulders drop, breathing him in. Only him.

When he pulled back, he kissed the tip of her nose and settled on the bed, pulling her to fall on top of his chest, his eyes filling with pride and affection.

He said nothing aloud—feeling all they would ever need to say silently.

Daemon let his hand run through her hair, and she just laid there looking up at him, saving his features into her memory.

The way his silver hair glowed in the moonlight.

The way his eyes flickered slightly as they moved to scan over her face.

How his mouth curled at the edges, the shape of his lips plumper when he was still.

The way his cheekbones looked even more defined by the pale halo of light around the outline of his body coming from the window.

His wings were wrapped around them like a blanket.

They were warm and comforting, and although trying her best to stay awake, she could feel her eyes getting heavy.

Daemon chuckled under his breath, whispering sweetly.

“Sleep, Sunflower.”

And with the sound of his voice and the light peck she felt upon her forehead, she drifted off to sleep.

I was looking to the right, where Daemon’s hand was in mine.

He gave me a comforting smile, but I felt it deep in my bones that everything was about to explode around us.

A crack of white and red lightning flared across the sky above us.

Daemon took in a breath, squeezed my hand, and let his enormous black wings unfurl from his bare back; soared into the sky, leaving me worriedly staring after him trying to make out his figure amongst the thousands of others.

Suddenly, I’m flung into a different place, one of bright, golden light —and yet, the feeling from the place is ancient and dark . Blinking my eyes several times, I make out Daemon kneeling on the ground a few feet from me. I smiled and ran to his side, stopping abruptly.

Circling his arms, legs, and throat, were heavy duty chains that linked to large beams on either side of him.

Other shadows now emerge from behind him; I can make out two angels and two demons.

It was confusing seeing them together without chaos ensuing.

One of the angels muttered something too soft for me to hear to one of the demons, who gave a peculiar smile in return.

They gathered on either side of him, lifting his wings out, which were white now, and with two of them on each side, began ripping them from his body.

The agonizing screams ushering from Daemon made me wrench in horror and disgust. Blood spurt all around him until finally, Daemon lay slumped in a pool of his own blood; his wings tossed aside as if they were nothing more than a piece of a broken toy, no longer useful.

Bile filled my mouth as I tried to keep from vomiting.

At last, Daemon raised his head to look up at me, and the sound that came forth was one of pure defeat and hatred.

For me.

“You….you did this to me. YOU DAMNED ME!”

“Daemon, no! I never meant for this to happen! I’m so sorry!”

I was on my knees, arms wrapped around myself and weeping. Weeping because I knew he was right. I let this happen to him. If I had only given myself over—let them kill me—and let the war happen, this would’ve never happened to him.

Daemon’s usual beautiful emerald eyes now burned a fiery red. He was laughing hysterically and only shook his head.

“Apologies are worthless now. I am nothing because of you. Nothing.”

And as he uttered these last words, he vanished into a smokey abyss, leaving me on the floor, crying so hard that the tears began to sting my face.

When I opened my eyes again, I found that I'd been transported to another place again.

This time, it was central London, but it was on fire.

People ran screaming through the streets; bodies lay dead all around me.

Panic was starting to take over. I felt a small tug on my pant leg and looked down in horror to see a small body, still alive but unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

It looked like the body of a child, but its eyes were gouged out, a black sludge streaming from them, and its body was horribly disfigured.

Although it looked like it should be dead, it was tugging fiercely to get my attention.

But when I asked what I could do to help him, he merely screamed,

“You were SUPPOSED to help me, already. YOU were supposed to save us from our destruction. But look at me; look at the result of your failure .”

Looking up from the boy to the rest of my surroundings once again, in an instant—nothing at all remained. All that was before me was a desolate, decaying world. And I am the cause of it all.

I fell to my knees and screamed.