* * *
Wrath
As I staredat my reflection, bits and pieces of forgotten memory floated across my mind. There was a time, back before wielding my power over others was the only thing I found any pleasure in doing, when I would glimpse myself in the eyes of another or a shiny hell stone, and blue eyes would stare back at me.
I couldn’t recall when that was, but I was at most a few hundred years old when it occurred. Fragments of that time drifted through my mind, and I dimly recalled a man who was carefree andhappy—a man whose power hadn’t consumed him yet.
However, it was so long ago I’d forgotten about his blue eyes—myblue eyes—until now.
My gaze fell on Bale’s marks on my neck. As I gazed at them, I realized she’d done more than mark me as hers; her bite had brought back that forgotten happiness and the part of me that my wrath eventually destroyed. However, as I watched, the blue faded away and black seeped back into my eyes.
“Wrath?” Bale asked. “What’s going on?”
I turned away from the mirror to face her. She sat on the end of the bed with her hands in her lap and her fiery hair cascading around her. Returning to her, I brushed the hair back from her face and bent to kiss her.
“You have awakened a long-dead part of me,” I whispered against her lips.
She pulled back. “What does that mean?”
“There was a time, before the monotony of Hell and my powers took control of me, when I was… happy and different.”
“But then…?”
“Time changes all things, some for the better, some for the worse, but it is guaranteed to change everything it encounters, and since none of us can avoid it, it will mold us all in one way or another.”
“And it changed you how?”
I shrugged as I ran my fingers through her silken hair. “Some would say for the better, some would say for the worse, but it changed me into who I’m meant to be. I never could have remained a happy man with the amount of wrath residing inside me.”
“So, what does it mean that your eyes were briefly blue again?”
“It means time is changing me again, and for the first time in more millennia than I can recall, I am happy again.” Her mouth fell open again, and once more I tapped beneath her chin to close it. “Don’t let that go to your head.”
She gave me a sexy smile as she edged further back on the bed. Her hair fell from my hand as she hooked a finger, spread her legs, and beckoned me toward her.
“Haven’t you had enough?” I asked.
“Have you?” she asked and glanced pointedly at my stiffening cock.
“Never.”
“Then let’s make those eyes blue again.”
To my surprise, I laughed as I climbed onto the bed and crawled toward her.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Bale
Initially,the plan was to leave the hotel the next day, but once the snow started falling, it didn’t stop for three days. The wind howling down the mountains created drifts that rose above my head in some areas and above Zorn’s in others.
Wrath, Zorn, and I went on daily rides together. We would head out from the hotel and circle it to make sure nothing was creeping closer to us. Raphael and Caim regularly patrolled the area, but from above, it was difficult to see through the driving snow. It wasn’t any easier from the ground, but we kept up a steady round of rotating patrols every hour.
I found I didn’t mind the cold or snow as much when I was enveloped in Wrath’s arms while he sat behind me on Zorn’s back. It was much easier to stay warm with his body heating mine.
The others still watched his every move, and because of that, he preferred to be out in the snow. I didn’t expect everyone to embrace him, but an uneasy truce had formed between him and the others.
I didn’t know what would happen with us or if he planned to stay or return to his old life. We didn’t discuss our future. We were both avoiding that conversation, but while we remained trapped in the hotel, there was no reason to talk about it.
