Destroyed by Onyx (A Dance with Destiny Book 4) (21 page)

Daichi looked up at the wondrous sight as his brother continued to talk.

“It’s like… she’s always looking down on you, watching over you. It’s sort of romantic, actually. If you ever miss her, you only have to look up, tilt your face toward the night sky. She really loves you, Brother. I’m jealous.”

“If she really loved me, she wouldn’t have sent me away.”

Tenshi looked sideways at the other Angel. “I’m not as young and foolish as you make me out to be, Brother. I know full well her words had no effect on your bond. God made you for her, especially. Words cannot change that. No matter which language she would use, she claims no such magic. Things are as they always were.”

“No, Tenshi. Things are not as they always were. Not this time. Her words may not have broken our bond, but they tore my heart clean in two.” Daichi slowly closed his eyes, shaking his weary head. “No matter the result, her intent was more than I can bear.” A single tear trickled down his stoic cheek. “She threw me away, Tenshi. As if I were nothing… as if I meant
nothing
.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the banister railing. “I only wish her damnable unbinding had worked.” He glanced back over his shoulder at her peacefully sleeping form, wrapped snugly in Munenori’s protective arms. “Perhaps it would not hurt quite so much. I can’t even form the words to describe the amount of pain now flooding from the wound she opened in my soul.”

Tenshi placed a tender hand on the mighty Angel’s trembling shoulder. “Let her rest. Just stay until she wakes. I’m certain, now that she’s home, now that she’s surrounded by people who love her, things will go back to normal. When next she opens her eyes, she will be whole again.”

“She will never be whole again.” Daichi motioned with his head to the colorful baby moon. “That only serves as painful reminder of the sad truth. How can she ever be whole again when the biggest part of her dangles there above our heads? No, Brother. Things will never be
normal
again.”

They were silent for a long while. There was nothing left to say. At least, there was nothing left to say to fix it, to fix them. No words left that could heal their shattered hearts.

“What will you do now?” Tenshi finally said.

“I know not,” Daichi whispered. “I cannot stay here. I cannot look upon her daily… knowing what I now know.”

Tenshi had never seen his mighty brother look weak. Not even once. Not even when they were children. No matter how bad the injury, no matter how much blood there was, Daichi never cried. He was the strongest creature Tenshi had ever known, inside and out. Now… his brother was like a fallen leaf—fragile, delicate, ready to crumble at the slightest touch.

“She is why I was created.” His quiet voice was a tearful plea, a heartbreaking cry for help. “I have no other reason for being. I am lost. I am nothing.” He sighed wearily. “I will return to Father. He will either change me or… cease me. I cannot go on otherwise.”

Chapter 24

Munenori

(moo-nah-NOOR-ee)

Jenevier felt the comforting warmth of his broad chest pressed up against her, his delicious heat filling her cold body. A tremor ran through her. She snuggled closer, greedy for his healing warmth.

This dream felt like reality. No, better than reality. This was her very first
clear
memory. This was her first recollection of an exact event in her
other
life, one where she was actually participating and not just watching. She heard the words with her own ears. Touched his body with her own fingertips. Even felt his hot breath on her neck. She shuddered.

I am not of you, Naga. I am for you. If you will but let me show you, it will all be made clear. Let me kiss you, Milady, and you will understand. There are some things which words simply cannot describe.

She shivered from the sensation of his perfect lips against her shoulder, her neck, her mouth. Jenevier rubbed the tip of her nose against his chest, kissing him there. The feel of his strong hands on her lower back, pressing her firmly against him… it was intoxicating. She remembered the electric, unfathomable obsession that coursed between them when she finally gave in to his healing kiss. It had left her with the awesome feeling of wholeness, a
completing
kind of sensation she had never dreamed possible.

Ahh… so this is my Daichi, my Blessing
, she thought.
How could I have forgotten the one perfect thing in my world? And how was it I had the strength to deny him, to deny this heavenly creature… anything? Oh, Daichi. I would pull down the very heavens if you were to ask it of me.

The memory was overwhelming. The dream, enchanting. He was glorious, miraculous, and all hers. She touched him, caressed his chest, sliding her hands up and down the chiseled indentations. Their physical touch was like the magical things only dreams were made of, the charmed type of enchantment few creatures would ever be blessed enough to know.

He made a cute little noise when her searching lips touched his bare skin. His heart was racing faster with each tender kiss. She could feel the vibration in his chest, listened as it drummed in time with hers.

Strong hands slid gracefully down her side, outlining the curve of her hip, pulling her closer. The tip of his nose tickled as he traced it out the length of her collarbone and back. She giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt his lips part into a smile against her cheek, his warm breath moving from her ear to her waiting lips.

“Naga,” he whispered into her mouth an instant before his mind-numbing kiss.

He melted her. All coherent thought ceased. She was only sensation now, almost painful, un-tapped sensation. He moved against her, pushing her onto her back, his kisses trailing deliciously down her throat. When his lips found that tender spot where her neck and shoulder meet, her breath hitched and she felt him smile again. He cupped her breast, squeezing gently, grazing across the most sensitive part with his thumb. She gasped when his warm mouth touched her there, teasing her mercilessly with his teeth.

“Is such a thing meant for us?” she barely whispered.

“Does it feel wrong, Naga?” His breath lightly tickled across her skin.

“No, it does not. Alas, I am not the creature I once was. I have been kissed with darkness… a darkness the likes of which few will ever know. So you tell me, Angel, for I am absent divine reasoning.
Should
this feel wrong?”

His answer was an even more fervent caress, an even hotter kiss. She smiled.

Her body matched his. Movement for movement, touch for touch. When he moved, she moved. When he inhaled, she exhaled… and a more natural feeling thing she had never known. The entire experience was breathtaking, Otherworldly. His hand moved down her stomach, stopping at her navel, circling her there, tickling her before continuing further down, between her soft thighs. A tiny cry escaped before she could stop herself. His touch was electrifying, deliciously sensual. It pulled at forgotten places deep within her, pushing her to the brink, driving her mad with desire.

“Dear heavens, Naga,” he moaned in her ear before she felt his tiny, nibbling kisses move teasingly down her body.

“Do not stop, Daichi,” she whispered. “Not this time. I am ready, Angel, past ready.”

He paused at her words, halted his explorations.

“No. Don’t stop, beautiful Angel,” she whispered. “Withhold nothing. Show me, minus words, how much you want me. How you are perfectly made for me. How much you truly love me.”

His caresses deepened in response to her plea, sending her mind into a slow spin. His tender kisses pushed her further, urged her toward that gloriously gratifying pinnacle. It didn’t take long. Her sharp intake of breath barely preceded that intense, all-encompassing feeling of free-falling into oblivion. She surrendered to it, her body shuddering involuntarily. Her heightened senses made the tender kisses he trailed back up her body feel like tiny little jolts of electricity. Her mind was absent everything save his magical touch.

“Oh, Naga.” His voice cracked with his labored breathing. “Holy hell,” he moaned, as his mouth fell hard upon hers.

Pulling her knees up to his sides, he wrapped one arm around her waist, raising her up to meet him, grinding into her very core.

“Oh, Daichi… by the gods…”

His growling whisper tickled her ear. “Naga, I love the little noises you make.”

That delicious, mind-altering pressure swelled once more, quickly, completely shattering her senses. She slipped over the edge of reality, her cry catching in her throat. They collapsed entwined, back onto the bed.

She loved the feel of his weight atop her, his heaving chest moving against hers, the tickling heat of his exhausted pants warming her neck.

This… is… heaven
, she thought.

When he started to move, she tightened her legs against his sides. “No. Not yet, my love,” she said. “Stay like this a moment longer. I want to bask in your warmth and your weight.”

Opening her eyes, Jenevier was wholly comforted by the night. The darkness was thick, enveloping. It wrapped itself around her, calming her racing heart.

Running her fingers into his soft, sweat-soaked hair, she looked down toward the top of his head lying still between her breasts. But all she could actually see within the whole of this room, was the single tiny moonbeam glowing at the edge of her bed. She sighed dreamily, breathing in the night air, basking in the afterglow of their love.

“That was amazing, Daichi.
You
are amazing,” she whispered as she lightly ran her nails up and down his sides. “Forgive me for ever entertaining the ridiculous idea of being whole without you.” She chuckled softly. “That was a moment of sheer madness, one I wish never to repeat.”

Deep, audible breaths were his only response.

Running her hands across the silky sheets, Jenevier tried to reach the glowing little spot on that giant bed where the tiny drop of light beckoned.

“Ah… I love the moon,” she whispered.

She couldn’t help the broad smile covering her face as her fingertips played in the delicate moonlight. She felt something soft, softer than the sheets, even. Lifting it gently, it fell down between her fingers, tickling her palm. She giggled as she looked closer. The soft glow barely revealing what could only be hair, extremely long, flowing, almost lavender looking hair.

Her hand fell limply to the bed—her smile fading, her breath ceasing.

“Daichi?”

Her soft whisper echoed through the stillness of the night. Silence was her only answer.

“Daichi?” she said, a tiny bit louder.

He moved slowly. The weight of him now removed, left a cold, unnatural sensation where only warmth and contentment had been. She felt the bed move as he lay down beside her and began tenderly twirling one of her curls around his finger. Jenevier couldn’t see his face, but she actually
felt
him smiling. She curled up closer to him, hungry for his absent warmth.

“Daichi?”

Still, he did not speak. She ran her fingers up his sculpted chest, around his neck, and into his hair, pulling them through the length of it. Yet, her hand did not exit his silky locks when it should, but kept gliding through the unusually long, soft tresses.

“Oh… dear… god…” Her voice trembled.

Delicate fingertips brushed across her scarred cheek. “Naga.”

“Holy…” There were many words she wanted to say; bad words, mean words, shocked words, angry words. Instead, she swallowed them all and fell silent. Turning away, she began feeling frantically for the tossed-back covers.

“Naga… don’t.”

Strong arms embraced her from behind.

“Please do not run from me.” He kissed her shoulder. “Just let me hold you like this.” He pulled her back against him. “Are you angry?” He kissed her again. “Please don’t hate me, Naga,” he begged. “Once we had started—”

“No. Just… no.” Her voice quivered with her coming tears. “Do not give voice to it further.”

“Naga.”

“No,” she said. “I remember plainly… I started this. I was dreaming. I kissed you. I encouraged you. No, I desired you. I wanted you. I didn’t want you to stop,
begged
you to continued, even.” She rolled in his arms and turned back to face him. “Forgive me, Munenori. I was lost in selfish desire, in your kiss, in your tender caresses.”

“Do not ask me for forgiveness, little Naga.” He kissed her forehead. “The sin is mine.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I desired you. I always have. This you know. When you kissed me, I thought
I
was the one dreaming.” He ran his hand down her side, stopping at her hipbone, cupping it in his palm. “And when you called out
his
name… then, I knew. I paused with that bitter knowing just as I got
there
.” He slid his hand between her legs to emphasis where
there
was. She whimpered. “But, I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop… no matter the cost, no matter the ripple.” He quickly licked the tip of her nose. She gasped. “I wanted to devour you, Naga.”

She released a muffled cry when his new attentions began in earnest. “Munenori…”

“When I first tasted you, when you moaned… Oh, Naga, that was nearly my undoing.”

“It was nearly my undoing as well.” Her voice deepened with building desire.

He kissed her neck, her shoulders, her breasts.

“Munenori…” she whispered as she ran her fingers into his hair, pulling his head back, cupping the nape of his neck. Then, Jenevier kissed
him
.

He half moaned, half growled. “Call out
my
name this time, Naga. This time… make love to
me
.”

And she did. Over and over, his name was her plea. Munenori worshipped her, every inch of her. And she allowed herself to feel it, enjoy it, revel in it. There was no guilt, no regrets. She denied them a foothold. She was wholly consumed in the undefiled feeling of love this amazing Angel blessed her with.

Munenori could tell she held nothing back, she surrendered completely. Kagi Naga was his, if only for a night. He used every ounce of his magical gift to treat her to a lifetime of tender love, of melting kisses, and of unspeakable pleasures. He selfishly wanted his name to be the one she called out in her dreams. And he used every single second the darkness afforded him to leave his imprint on her heart. Etch his name on her soul, before the dawn broke and carried her away from him.

During the wee hours of the morning, exhaustion finally claimed them. They slept entwined, connected, blissfully at peace.

*****

Munenori winced back from the harsh light of day, squeezing his eyes shut. The smell of her delicious skin drew him completely from his slumber. Raising his head slightly, he tenderly kissed the breast he had used as his pillow.

“Bore da, beautiful Angel,” she whispered.

He looked up to meet those enchanting snowflake eyes. “Good morning to you, too, my lovely pale maid. How long have you been awake?”

She smiled softly and stroked his mossy lavender hair. “For a little while now.”

He rose, propped on his elbows, looking down upon her milky face. “Why did you not push me off you? I was surely crushing your tiny form.”

“Why? Did you not sleep well?”

He showed her a genuine smile. “I cannot remember being any more comfortable in my extraordinarily long life. You fit me perfectly, Naga.”

She ran her fingertips along his jaw line, admiring him. “You have a lovely sleeping face, Munenori, as ageless and innocent as a child’s.”

He blushed, felt the fire rise up in his cheeks. “You were watching me sleep?”

“I was.”

“Why?”

“I wish to record everything about you, Senpai,” she said softly, sweetly. “Lock your rare magic away in my heart so I can cherish it always.”