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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

MORGAN

Doctor Azazel was a miracle, a true gift to this world from the Heavens above.

For weeks now we’d been taking in expectant mothers who had come down with a strange illness, one other hospitals hadn’t been able to cure. My boyfriend, Liam, and I had opened our home to them, promising them a chance for survival other doctors hadn’t given them. Together, the three of us had tended to them for months now and I thought they’d been getting better until a few nights ago when they’d all taken a turn for the worse. It was as if being together had caused their illness to worsen. Since that night, we’d been scrambling. I’d begged Doctor Azazel to send them back to the normal hospital to see if they could help us, but he insisted that would only infect other innocent pregnant women. We couldn’t let that happen.

I stopped at the last bassinet in the row and gave the little one a happy sigh. I reached in and brushed the black curls off his forehead. “Such a perfect, pretty baby, aren’t you?”

The little one giggled and pulled on his own little feet. Ten perfect little toes and fingers. His skin was a healthy purple, just as it should’ve been. I held up my clipboard and flipped to the next page to fill out his information, then I flipped back to double check which letter I was on now. Doctor Azazel had insisted the best chance these women had for survival at this point was to deliver their babies. We had to separate mom from baby for them all to live. Or hope to. I glanced up to my right to the rows of bassinets lined up perfectly. So far, he’d delivered twenty-two healthy babies. It was my job to take care of the little ones. I was to be their mommy until we saved their mothers. My love, Liam, was tending to the mothers once they gave birth. We had to quarantine them so they didn’t infect the little ones.

I’d taken it upon myself to name them. I’d chosen to start with the Greek alphabet. Since we had so many to name at once, I wanted a theme. Everyone loved a good theme. This little one in front of me was baby twenty-two, which meant I was going to need a second theme soon.

“But that’s not for you to worry about, right, little Chi?” I tickled his purple belly, which made him giggle. Then I reached up to check for his horns. They were there, just as they were supposed to be—-a shimmery gold just like his eyes. I scribbled his descriptions down on the page dedicated to him. “You get to be a happy baby with your brothers and sisters.”

“Morgan, another one.”

I turned and spotted Liam walking into the nursery with a bundle of pink in his arms. My heart swelled with emotion. All these babies were mine now. I was going to take such good care of them. I loved them all so much already. And all of this was because of my sweet, loving, selfless Liam. He was the most beautiful man inside and out. His soul was just so caring. All he wanted was to make the world a better place. I was so lucky he’d fallen for me. Liam was just as beautiful as the first time I saw him, standing in the bakery of the grocery store with an armful of fresh bread. His sandy-blond hair was long enough to fall into his face now, but the sides were buzzed short to his scalp. His skin was fair and smooth but covered in tattoos. The muscle shirt he wore showed off his arms and the full black and white tattoo sleeves that ran from shoulders to wrists. My favorite was the bird tattooed on the side of his throat.

“Morgan?” He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. “You okay, love?”

I smiled. “Yes, of course. Look at all my babies.”

“Look at your newest.” He lifted the pink bundle higher. “Little girl.”

“Baby twenty-three. That makes her . . .” I flipped the page and looked to the top where I’d pre-filled the Greek alphabet. I grinned. “Nice to meet you, Psi.”

Liam frowned. “We’ve almost run out of the names in that alphabet.”

“I know.” I giggled and took little Psi from his arms. She had skin the color of bubblegum but her eyes were a bright sky-blue. “How many more is he delivering tonight?”

“All of them.”

I gasped and peeled my eyes off Psi’s silver horns. “All of them?”

Liam nodded. “He says the others have gone into labor on their own. It’s like the illness has taken note from the others. It’s quite magical the connection these women have through this illness.”

I carried Psi over to her bassinet beside Chi. “And the women? How are they?”

His eyes darkened. “Azazel and I will tend to them. You only need to focus on your babies. I’m going back into them now. Be sure to knock before you enter . . . I may be doing things you won’t want to see.”

“Liam, I have my hands full with twenty-three babies. You just do whatever you need to. I’ll be here.”

He kissed my forehead, then slipped out of the room. I was just settling little Psi into her bassinet when I heard the telltale cry of a newborn baby. The sound carried closer. As I turned toward the door, Doctor Azazel strolled in with a smile on his face. He held a baby in the cradle of one arm.

I smiled. “That makes twenty-four. Let me see baby Omega.”

Azazel’s green eyes widened as he handed the baby to me. “You have named them?”

“Numbers were far too impersonal. Everyone needs a name.” I smiled down at Omega. “His skin is the color of your eyes, Azazel.”

“How lucky for him.” Azazel purred in my ear, his lips grazing my skin. When I gasped at his nearness, he gripped my hips and pulled me against him. “You are going to make a wonderful mother to my children, Morgan. I chose well.”

“Thank you, Azazel.” I exhaled roughly as a wave of desire swept through me, sending little pulses of need between my legs. “How many more shall I expect tonight?”

“I’ve decided to take a break delivering the babies for an hour…I need a snack.”

“Well sustenance is important,” I breathed, reveling in the feel of his warm hands on my body. Liam’s face flashed in my mind. Azazel was not my boyfriend, he was not supposed to be touching me like this. “Liam might come?—”

“I am sure he is right about now.” His fingers moved down my hips then slipped beneath the hem of my short dress. He nibbled on the side of my neck as he slid his hands between my thighs, rubbing over that spot that made me weak in the knees. “Perhaps I was a little too hasty in giving you to him…perhaps I’m craving another taste of you. Would you like me to taste you, Morgan?”

“Yes.” I moaned as two of his fingers pushed inside of me. “Taste me.”

“Put my son down, Morgan.”

I sat Omega into his basinet. “Your children have needs?—”

“My needs are always more important, Morgan. Never forget that.” He dragged me a few feet over to where there was a table full of bottles and diapers. “And right now, I need to feel you. Be a good girl and I’ll let you have Liam’s child and not mine.”

I bent over and braced my elbows on the table then arched my back so he saw just what I wanted. After all, he told me I wasn’t allowed to wear panties beneath my dresses and a girl always did what the good doctor told her. I spread my legs and looked up at him over my shoulder. “Maybe I want both.”

He gripped my hips and pushed all the way inside me in one hard thrust, making me scream his name so loud I knew Liam had to have heard me. But I didn’t care. Liam was my love, but Azazel was Azazel. He was the one who’d given me this world, these babies, I would do anything to please him. He pulled back then slammed into me again, and again, and again. I moaned with every thrust, each one deeper than the last. My body was already trembling. I wasn’t going to last. Azazel pumped me fast and hard, his fingers between my legs circling me just as hard. As I pressed my face to the wood table top I secretly hoped Liam would catch us, the threat made this sin even more delicious.

Something shifted in my mind, like the opening of a door. Memories rushed back to me. I gasped as my climax came barreling down on me. Memories of Azazel fucking me just like he was now. Memories of meeting Liam, not at the grocery store but on my back spread eagle on the dinner table with Azazel still inside of me. I gripped the edge of the table and moaned. He was just as good as I remembered him. No one felt like Azazel. I knew in the back of my mind that I wasn’t supposed to remember yet it was almost as if him touching me again had unlocked part of my mind. As his hips slammed into me over and over and my eyes rolled with pleasure, I remembered every detail.

I remembered Avolire.

I remembered that vampire who’d kidnapped me. I remembered that cold vampire who’d chosen from from the marble cell. I remembered every horrifying moment of him feasting on every inch of my flesh with every part of his body. I remembered thinking nothing would be worse than that and then I’d been delivered to Queen Sweyn. I’d been proven wrong with her cruelness. I remembered praying for death.

Then I remembered Azazel rescuing me.

Sure, he’d manipulated my mind since the moment he kidnapped me from Avolire but I had not felt pain. He’d pleasured me nonstop, nothing had felt so good. Then he’d given me to Liam and the pleasure filled my heart, too. As my body was rocked up and down that table I glanced to the twenty-four basinets full of babies I realized all of this had been a lie. Those babies were his. And they were not human. The women who birthed them were probably dead or already impregnated with another demon offspring.

Then I heard those babies giggle.

Mine. Those babies were mine. And I would kill anyone who harmed them.

“ Good girl, ” a woman’s voice purred in my ear. “ Do you want revenge for what was done to you?”

Who are you? I thought back, too lost in the pleasure of Azazel’s body to question how there was a voice in my head.

The woman chuckled and the sound echoed around my mind lie my moans did in this room. “ I am Lilith. And I can give you the world if you want it. ”

I gasped. Do I want the world?

“ You have been hurt. Kidnapped and used for your blood and flesh by the vampires. Taken selfishly by Azazel for his own needs then manipulated into not remembering it. To thinking you wanted this. But you didn’t want this for your life, did you, Morgan?”

No, I did not. I did not ask for this. Even as I moaned at how good he felt I knew I had not asked for this. Part of me, the part buried deep down by Azazel’s magic, was furious.

I feel your anger, Morgan. I feel what Azazel has done to your mind. I can make all that go away. He won’t be able to control or manipulate you any more.

My eyes widened. Hope flared in my chest. How?

“I will give you power. Look at his children, Morgan. That power I’ve given to them I can give to you tenfold.”

What do I have to do?

She chuckled in my ear. “ Just say yes and the power is all yours, no one will touch you against your will ever again.”

Azazel growled and picked up his speed. I wasn’t going to last more than a few more seconds. That pressure was building low in my stomach and burning. God, he felt so good it seemed wrong to side against him…to want revenge against him. But if I got him out of my head, if I took Lilith’s offer and accepted her gift I would have the control. If I had the control that didn’t mean I couldn’t climb myself into Azazel’s bed any time I wanted and give him a taste of his own medicine.

“ Decide now, Morgan. Before he finishes or your window is closed,” Lilith purred, her voice soft yet laced with power. “ Give yourself to me and I’ll give you the world. All the world who hurt you will be yours to punish. What do you say, Morgan? Are you with me?”

My vision began to tunnel. My breaths hitched. Azazel thrust into me one more time and I exploded around him. I screamed his name and held on to the table for support as he chased his. Yes. I am with you, Lilith. I am yours.

Azazel pumped once more then froze as his own pleasure rippled through our bodies.

“Good girl, Morgan. The future is yours.”

And then my vision turned red.