Page 63 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

Lindiwe had tried; she really did.

She’d tried not to let the festering, growing infatuation turn into full-blown yearning.

With human nails and teeth, she’d fought like a rabid, injured creature desperate for self-preservation, striking at the adoration in fear of more harm.

She’d hidden it behind false laughs, weak smiles, and light conversation, pretending the pit in her chest wasn’t yawning wider with each passing year.

It’d been a losing battle.

So much had happened in the thirty-nine years since Balam was born. Three more children had been born, as promised, within Greenisland, Peryu, and in Turkcul. She’d collected too many souls, each one proving that humankind was slowly dying as towns and cities were decimated to leave behind ruins.

She’d even witnessed the downfall of her own home; the place a little piece of her heart had always remained.

It’d stood proud and strong for nearly three centuries, but Rivenspire had met its end.

And Leonidas, who had been called by the warning bell, had arrived at the end of the Demons’ carnage just as daylight was greeting the horizon.

She’d collected knowledge where she could, filled in her journals until she had a nearly complete encyclopedia of the world, its flora, and its fauna – many of which were now extinct.

The years had passed by in a rush, and she’d flown over much of it in her owl form.

When the trickle of time had sped up for her, she didn’t know.

When had she started feeling outside of it?

Somewhere along the way, she’d lost much of her humanity and had done things she never thought she was capable of.

The way she’d grown desensitised to the destruction caused by her very creations, and how her altruism was extended only to them, proved she was far removed from who she once was.

They were also the very reason she was no longer welcomed within Anzúli temples. To them, she was a corrupt being who tainted the very stones she walked upon.

She never thought that helping Orpheus would lead to her being cast out by them.

She didn’t care. She’d learned all she needed to from them, and this all just meant their usefulness to her had run its course. They’d also begun having twisted ideologies that were different from those who had first stepped foot on Earth centuries ago.

Talk of harbingers of bad omens and cursed towns became rumoured whispers as the teachings of the Anzúli grew more frightening.

Their people were dying and being eaten.

They’d been here too long, their bloodlines mixing with humans just to preserve their numbers, and now primary skills were withering away to basic alchemy and chemistry.

None of this instilled a sense of hopelessness like her thoughts on Weldir.

Nothing about them had changed. It was the same.

Nearly forty years had passed, and the only difference between them was how many children they had, and how much power he’d achieved through them, and her. The only thing that had grown between them... was the way Lindiwe cherished every moment with him in a way that was wrong and heartbreaking.

The heart flutters, the stomach butterflies, the shy push of a curl behind her warmed ear. The hidden glances at his side or back as he watched his viewing discs while she went through her belongings in his realm... all of it was killing her slowly.

Her heart was bleeding through her chest, and she didn’t know how to stem it. Yet she kept returning, unable to stay away, as if she needed his nearness to save her. Like she had poison coursing through her veins and the antidote was his shadowy void.

Her desire was selfishly hedonistic, often taking the forefront when her heart screamed for her to stop and save herself.

Only for guilt and fear to rear their ugly heads when she came down from the high of her orgasm, or the light of Earth woke her from her hazy, erotic dreams, and all the anxiety she’d forgotten about for a little while came crushing down on her tenfold.

Which was why, when Weldir’s clawed hand began to tickle up the inside of her thigh, Lindiwe flinched away. His fingers twitched when he paused, and she greeted his onyx eyes shyly. Her pulse had long ago started to race, and she was unsure if it was excitement or terror as it drummed in her ears.

The weightless shadows held her firm, even when her heart sank.

“Are you okay?” Weldir asked, his head tipping downwards to look at her body. “You don’t usually shy away from my touch.”

Cupping her hands to her chest, she offered a weak smile. “I’m just a little nervous.”

His quiet chuckle made her insides quiver, untwisting her stress and worry with its handsome baritone. His very voice did even more as he said, “We have done this plenty of times.”

“I-I know, but it’s been a while since we did... this ,” she murmured quietly, eyeing the fullness of his perceivable form.

At least a third of him existed.

He’d already admitted to holding onto his power rather than spending it, so they could finally have sex. Proper sex, and not Lindiwe half holding barriers because he wasn’t really there.

He was able to cover his entire head all the way to the middle of his chest, as well as his arms to his fingertips.

She didn’t truly need his middle, his legs, or all of his biceps.

Just the places her arms would rest, her legs would cling, and her nails would scratch, while still offering a face to look upon.

“You truly can be a contradiction, Lindiwe,” Weldir said, drifting a little closer. “How can one female be both shy and bold at the same time? This part of you melts away entirely when you’re receiving pleasure.”

Heat swelled in her cheeks, and she pouted a little. “I don’t know.”

Before she could say anything more, Weldir pressed his shadowy lips against hers, and her mind sputtered.

All it took was one peck of their mouths for Lindiwe to moan softly and wrap her arms around his neck.

Her nails dug into the back of his chalky shoulders when they deepened the kiss at the same time, and Lindiwe licked across his weirdly smooth tongue.

I wish I could taste him. He tasted like absolutely nothing. He had no saliva to mingle with hers, no warmth in his flesh. He doesn’t even have a smell.

When a set of narrow hips slipped between her thighs, She wound her legs around them. The surrounding space suddenly felt less empty, like she’d been waiting forever to cling to another being with her entire body.

Weldir pulled his mouth away from hers, and his nose trailed a path down her jaw, and then her neck. “Do you want me to use my mana to remove your clothing, or do it like normal?” he asked, his voice low and soft at her throat.

“Like normal,” she whispered back.

The back of her dress was lifted up her body, and the drag of it slowly creeping over her skin formed prickles in its wake. It felt especially nice brushing over her hardening nipples, and she lifted her arms to help remove it.

When she brought her arms back around his neck, she loosely gripped the end of a tapered horn while he set back in. Kissing and nipping, he moved one hand to cup her breast and gave it a light squeeze.

I wish he had breath, she thought, when his lips trailed lower. She wanted to know if something so light and invisible could have an effect on her – like an unseen caress that was present wherever that playful mouth of his went.

All her thoughts disappeared when something long, hard, and thick slipped over the crook of her thigh. Oh god. It’s his cock. Her hips surged forward to get it nestled between her underwear-clad folds and nuzzled against her clit. Okay. It’s happening. This is actually happening.

They were going to have proper sex. Well, as proper as it was between a human woman and a shadowy entity that couldn’t feel anything.

All the small, sensitive veins in delicate places pulsed – her wrists, her breasts, and between her thighs – and the pool of arousal at the entrance to her core dampened.

Needing to quicken the pace, she flattened her hands and dragged them over his shoulders to touch him. They palmed down his chest, and one brushed over a tiny nipple before resistance faded and she touched air. She quickly brought them down to tug on the ribbons at her hips and remove her panties.

Then she slipped her arms around his shoulders again and pulled him in for another kiss. One breast squished against him, while the other floated in the weightlessness and ached for the same pressure.

“Are you going to grind on me again?” Weldir asked with a low chuckle. “I did find that fun to watch.”

Fun to watch . She closed her eyes tightly to disregard how weird that was.

He pushed up, and his shadowy cock ground against her clit. Her body instantly melted at the sensation, and she pushed her hips down to grind deeper. A raspy moan whispered from her between kisses, and another broke free when his hand kneaded her backside while working her along his length.

Desire coiled low in her belly, her skin itched to be touched all over, and lustful heat swelled in her skin. The long girth of his cock massaging all along her pussy lips made her insides ache.

What she wanted was right there . So close. It even slipped right over her entrance, and she wanted nothing more than to have her body swallow it. Swallow it so whole it went missing, so she could cuddle it in heat and wetness.

“Inside me,” she begged hoarsely, grinding harder.

“You don’t want me to prepare you first?”

Lindiwe shook her head in answer.

The question was sweet, caring even, but seriously... screw that right now. She didn’t want gentle or kind; she wanted to be fucked into oblivion so she could just forget everything except existing within bliss.