“Noah.” Reign dropped to his knees, closing eyes as Noah’s hand cupped his cheek. “Please, forgive me,” he muttered in a voice cracked and ugly. He would tell Noah everything, explain everything, beg every day, do anything Noah wanted. “Please. I had to leave. To go to Teresa. Ihated it all, it killed me, but I had to do it. I couldn’t lose you.” He wouldn’t have survived it. “I need you. I’m yours, I belong to you. I love you. I will do any—”
“Shh.” Noah smiled, his eyes full of longing as they roamed Reign’s face. He pulled Reign in, slowly and gently, brought Reign’s mouth to his and claimed it.
Noah tasted of charred earth and mountain rain, the combination even more intoxicating than before, shifting something into place within Reign. Ravenous and euphoric, Reign devoured him slowly, diligently, not rushing it despite the mounting need. Their tongues tangled together, both hungry and demanding, needing that kiss like their souls needed each other, two halves that only formed a whole together.
“I love you, Reign,” Noah whispered when they came apart, tears now rolling down his cheeks. “I never stopped loving you, even when you left. I couldn’t. I choseyouwhen I could’ve just moved on. And then I chose you again when Lucifer came to me with his offer.” He tried to sit up, but his strength wasn’t with him yet, so Reign helped him up, gently positioning him so his back was against the pillows. “I… wish there had been another way, that neither of us had to suffer, but I…” He paused, reached out for Reign’s hand, and entwined their fingers. “I forgive you, Reign, because I would’ve done the same thing in your place. I would’ve sacrificed everything for the chance to be with you.”
Reign couldn’t hold in the bawling, couldn’t withstand the onslaught of emotions Noah’s words forced to the surface. The words stung, their potency like a roaring tide spreading through him. He buried his head in Noah’s lap and cried, needing the cleansing force of it to putbehind the anxiety and fear that had possessed him since the day he’d asked Lucifer to break the contract.
By the time he calmed down, Noah was looking a lot better, his eyes more focused and his voice steadier as he told Reign of his many dreams. The stone altar from the forest near Reign’s childhood home was in them, the mountain slope with the view of the ocean, the burning cathedral. Noah petted the demonhound as he spoke, and it let him just like it had let Reign do it for the first time so long ago, recognizing in Noah whatever it had recognized in Reign back then. When Reign glanced toward the bookshelf, Barbatos wasn’t there anymore, though he couldn’t remember when his friend had left.
“He said the banquet starts at midnight, so we still have some time until we have to go,” Noah said and tilted Reign’s head back, capturing his lips in a demanding kiss that sent a surge of molten desire to Reign’s core. “Let me make love to you, Reign.”
Reign’s heart skipped a beat, then multiple, frantic just like his body. He pushed himself to a sitting position and shooed the demonhound off the bed, letting Noah’s hands caress him as he shimmied out of his harem pants.
“You are so beautiful, Reign. Just like you are in your human form,” Noah said, guiding Reign closer.
Reign straddled Noah’s hips and leaned in, tipping his head back to give Noah access to his neck. He clutched Noah’s wide shoulders with his hands, enjoying the kisses and the feel of Noah’s erection straining against his through the silk fabric of the blanket.
“Kiss me again,” Noah demanded, looking up from where he was gently marking Reign’s skin with his teeth.
Desire pooled in Reign’s stomach, making his cock even harder as he plundered Noah’s mouth, bothchanneling into every kiss all the things they felt toward each other. A hurricane of want and need swept through Reign, wild and unstoppable as it touched every part of him, as it erased everything but that primal craving for Noah which inhabited his soul.
Deepening the kiss, Reign plunged a hand between them, shoving the blanket away and clasping their dicks. Noah moaned, an indulgent cry of pleasure that traveled down Reign’s throat and settled in his chest. Noah’s hand joined Reign’s in its effort, wrapping around it and ushering it to go faster.
“I need more, Reign. I need to feel more of you,” Noah rasped, licking along Reign’s bottom lip.
Reign repositioned them so he was sitting between Noah’s legs and held Noah’s gaze as he made his way down Noah’s body, kissing and nipping heated skin that carried that addictive taste of burning earth he couldn’t get enough of.
“You are gorgeous, Noah. Even more irresistible now than you were before,” Reign praised, following the trail of hair down Noah’s navel. He teased the tip of Noah’s dick, sucking on it as he rubbed along the base of the shaft, ripping out of Noah those erotic sounds that spiked his own desire.
“Reign,” Noah growled, his eyes glowing.
Reign’s cock jumped, loving the authority, the order. He complied and reached for the scented oils, not needing any elaboration when he could read Noah’s body so well. He slicked his fingers and breathed in the chamomile and rose, then circled Noah’s hole with two digits, dipping in and out until Noah’s ass ate them up on a hoarse moan.
“Reign, please, more,” Noah whimpered when Reign started moving, tight and hot andso impatient.
Noah hadn’t been touched like this since Reign. He’d fucked, but he’d not let anyone have him, not like this, just like he’d never kissed anyone but Reign. This knowledge unhinged Reign, made him ravenous, insatiable, and when Noah started begging, he lost it altogether, sinking his throbbing cock into Noah because he simply couldn’t take it anymore. He gave them both what they needed, pounding into Noah like mad until Noah came, his own orgasm following right after as tight heat clenched around him in painfully tantalizing pleasure.
Reign collapsed on top of Noah and Noah hugged him, seeking his mouth. They kissed, an indulgent chase of tongues that matched the languid rocking of Reign’s hips as he kept up a gentle rhythm even after they both stopped shaking. The buildup this time took a while, neither of them in a rush to fuck again, content to simply revel in the sensation of their bodies connecting, coming together in a way that made Reign want to cry again. For what he’d done, for what he’d put Noah through, for having him back, for wanting to spend an eternity in his embrace.
“Reign. Don’t cry,” Noah cooed, raining kisses all over Reign’s cheeks. They were wet from tears, but he didn’t seem to mind it, his fingers joining in on the caress as they stroked Reign’s jaw.
He didn’t say anything further. He just kept touching Reign, the beat of his heart slowing down to a calming rhythm that matched the one in Reign’s chest. Closing his eyes, Reign listened to it and relaxed, feeling with every fiber of his being that Noah would always be by his side, no matter what they had ahead of them.
46
The soul of an Archangel that Asmodeus had retrieved for him was the last thing Lucifer needed. It comprised the final ingredient that would glue it all together, that would make possible what had not been possible thus far. He gazed at it for a long while after his Kings left him to prepare for the banquet, the pure-white orb of precious energy so mesmerizing in its measured vibrations, he couldn’t look away until he successfully discerned them. Their frequencies told him nothing, but that was fine as he didn’t need to crack or understand them; he simply had to exploit them in the way he’d been preparing to do since his fall from Heaven.
Lucifer placed the soul back inside the holder and took the severed head out of its bell jar. His skin electrified, starting at his fingers until all of him was buzzing, anticipation and fear spreading through him mercilessly as he walked into his bedchambers. There, on top of the obsidian altar, lay the headless body.
Millennia, that was how long he’d spent nurturing it, growing it from a little slab of rotten meat. The torso had formed first and then he’d started infusing it with the essence of lesser angels, a preliminary necessity sothat it could withstand the one hundred souls he needed to place inside it so the ritual could succeed.
Before that though, he needed to attach the head.
That part, Lucifer didn’t rush with. He took his time and drank in the relaxed expression of the man the head belonged to, stroked his hair, both the blond bangs and the brown underside. It had suited him so well, giving him a charming edge Lucifer had found so endearing, though now… The man’s face was lifeless, frozen in that moment of his death even if he looked peaceful as if simply sleeping.
Lucifer kissed the man’s forehead and placed the head on the altar, positioning it where the body’s neck gaped open. He chanted the words and fused the two together, a jagged scar forming where the flesh connected. He added the ninety-seven angel souls, inserting each one of them at its designated spot. Once he was done with them, he placed Archangel Uriel’s soul in the middle of the corpse’s sternum and watched it slowly get absorbed, get eaten up, so it could allow it all to work together.
