Page 115 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"I'll make time, Angel." He lifted our intertwined hands and pressed a kiss to the back of my palm as we stepped inside the house.

Twenty minutes later, we had loud music playing in my studio. Dante was sprawled out on his stomach on the floor with his laptop, while I bobbed my head to the music and sketched out a completely new map of the prison.

The part that I'd been focused on before was going to have to be abandoned and stripped of magic. River and I were going to weave light and dark power together in the upper half of the prison, which had previously only been used for temporary, less violent criminals.

Weaving that way would be much stronger, and we were confident we could neutralize most magic effectively. Plus, there was no elevator required. Just a set of stairs.

That was a major benefit.

Dante was in charge of snacks and coffee while I sketched and brainstormed. Factoring in space for River's magic was a bit of a challenge, which was kind of fun.

Dante dozed off with his face literally on the keyboard around 3 AM. I slid a blanket under his face to make him more comfortable as soon as I noticed. When I was ready to sleep around 5, I woke him up long enough to drag him to bed with me.

He pulled me into his arms, mumbling that he wanted my wings as soon as I was sprawled out on his chest. I'd been planning to take them out anyway, so I complied.

More than half asleep, he stroked my feathers in a way that made me calm instead of horny. I thought he was asleep when his fingers stopped on one sensitive spot, but before I drifted off, he murmured, "There's a bump here on both sides."

"Hmm?"

He pressed lightly on one spot.

A numb, but familiar spot.

My drowsiness faded.

"Are these scars?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"Are they why you don't fly?"

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"You don't have to tell me." Dante sounded less drowsy, too. And more gentle.

"I've never told anyone before."

"That's alright."

"No. It's... it would probably help. Maybe. I don't know. It's not that big of a deal."

"If it left scars on your wings, it's a big fucking deal, Angel."

I sighed quietly. "My dad chained me there on and off, over the years. Just chained my wings together. He left the loops in even when I wasn't chained, just to remind me that he could. It was discreet. I don't think anyone ever even noticed. I couldn't fly with the chain on. It hurt too much."

I kept going. "Flying was painful, even when the chain wasn't there. I was never good at it, and I missed most of the things the other angels were doing when I was a kid because of that. I'm not confident with flying. Definitely couldn't carry anyone with me. I had the loops taken out after I came to Rumor, but I never managed to get over the bad memories long enough to learn to enjoy flying."

"Fuck," Dante said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Me too. But you can make it better."

"I'm not fucking you after you told me that story," he grumbled at me. "We're cuddling. And it's not because I'm vanilla, even if I am."

"You're regularly knotting someone who isn't a demon, Inferno. Your vanilla ship sailed weeks ago."

"My vanilla ship, huh?"

"Okay, that might be the wrong way to say it."