Black Lace (Complete)

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

(a/n: leave thoughts at the end of the book...i'm excited to know what you think djnfdkjdsjk)

Chapter Thirty-Five

AZIEL

She smelled like fresh mint and roses.

The lighting in the room was dim. Morning had since come, so I'd closed the curtains and turned on a lamp. Romina was tired, and I stressed, so I knew that a night's rest would do us both well.

The girl exited the bathroom in a white silk robe, rolling down her curves and sides with an elegance that could only be associated with those above. She smiled, pulling the wet rope of her hair to the side, letting it drip down her back.

A halo of light circled her form, standing there. Small clouds of smoke, the vapour from her steamy shower I'd barely resisted interrupting, followed her out. Little water angels following their princess.

"The soaps here smells quite good," she noted quietly, nearing me. The imprint of her breasts, her nipples, showed through the light silk. She'd gone from hiding her cleavage to letting me ravish her body in a matter of days. It was interesting to see how I could influence someone. It was interesting to see how I could taint those that did not belong to me.

My princess, I would think, but I knew I was fooling myself. She did not belong to me. For now, she belonged to the world. In a day or two, she would belong to Hell.

"Come here, let me smell it," I pulled down the covers, giving her room to settle herself in by my side. The girl curled up against me, hand resting on my chest, feeling where a heartbeat would have been had I not been a demon. I moved her hand from my chest to my stomach. She didn't seem to mind.

I pressed my nose to the top of her head, taking in a deep breath. Rose and mint.

She calmed me. With her I could forget my purpose for a moment, because she was my purpose. She distracted me from herself.

Romina tilted her head up at me. That smile, oh that smile. My thumb reached down and brushed along her lips. I could not find it within myself to smile as well. Something about our predicament, our relations, forbid me from enjoying the moment. I forgot why I could not enjoy it.

But then I remembered.

"We should sleep." I lowered myself down under the covers, pulling her closer to me, circling my large arms around her waist.

Romina yawned, pressing herself against me. I felt her hands cover my own on her stomach, binding us together as a lover would. But we were not lovers.

Don't fool yourself, Aziel.

"I want to tell you so much, baby," I whispered to the back of her head. I felt her mind slowly sinking away, trying to find the Void. Her back relaxed and her breathing calmed. I calmed her, but I was chaos, I was pain.

She was mint, she was smiles, she was roses. She was calm and she was rest.

"Sleep, Romina," I murmured lowly, my own eyes closing, The Void lured me closer. "Sleep."

She would sleep. It was a basic human need. She slept and I entered. She slept and I woke her.

It was a fickle question, a rather simple one, really. It was dangerous, though. It feared me as I did it.

In sleep, humans fall to the Void, but what happens to a demon?

ROMINA

The first thing I noticed was the cold.

"Calm."

It was Aziel. He was behind me, arms wrapped around my body. My bare body. I felt his fingers lower to my breasts, the upper edge of my panties. I was wearing underwear. I looked down.

Black lace, of course.

I took this moment to look around us. The entire world was filled with a murky haze, a heavy cloud, a steamed vapour. It was clogged and it was cold. So cold.

I felt the tips of my toes beginning to burn, already falling into frostbite's scraggly claws.

"Where are we?" I asked quietly, knowing it was a dream, but asking anyway. In dreams, it was usually difficult to think. Here, however, despite all the cold and the stuffy air, my mind worked well. And it was working fast.

"Home," was all Aziel said, arms pulling me closer to him. I noticed he was bare as well. The imprint of his dick laid against my lower back.

"I don't recognize it," I said unsurely, moving away from him. Shivers immediately ran up my skin. The ground was hardened dust, if there ever was a thing. It was scrabbly, soft, dirty, crumbly, and terrible hard. Not having Aziel's arms to keep me warm, I hugged myself as I moved farther into the little clearing we were in.

There wasn't a sky. It was darkness, it was grey, it was nothing and everything.

Surrounding the flat circle of ground were rock-shaped pillars. They seemed crumbled, and it took me a moment to realize that everything was made out of the same material: some condensed, some flaked, some crumbled between my toes, but all those greyish-dusty material.

"That's because this isn't your home, Romina." Aziel walked closer to me. I felt a hand on my hip. "This is mine."

"You're joking," I replied, tone still light, "no human would live...here. It's a dream. This is all a dream."

"I have told you before. I am not a man."

"What do you even mean by that?" I asked, voice tight. I turned to look at him, eyes searching the smooth escape of his face, trying to find that reprieve.

I found none.

"This is a nightmare. This is Hell."

I laughed, covering my mouth as I laughed and laughed. I walked away from him a little, nearing one of the rocks of dust. My finger brushed against it. It dissolved where I touched it.

"I'm not joking, Romina." There was a graveness to his tone. I turned, confused. He was looking at me with this...this look. It was almost a plea, but I did not know Aziel to beg. He wanted me to listen, and he wanted me to understand.

"What you're saying is impossible."

I lost feeling in my fingers now. I could not feel the dusty ground beneath me. I still moved, still walked, still breathed, but the cold was slowly consuming me, freezing me, numbing me.

"It's cold, Aziel." I allowed myself another short laugh, hoping he would join in and admit to the joke. "This can't be Hell. Hell is hot, Hell burns."

His facial expression did not change.

"You've told me your secrets, Romina." He walked closer, allowing his fingers to run across my jaw. The heat he provided reminded me of just how cold I was. I looked down and my body was shaking.

"Tell me yours, then," I said.

"I will tell you a secret, alright? You can't tell anyone." He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, lowering his lips so his warm breath ghosted my quivering skin.

I nodded.

"The most common misconception about Hell is that it's hot." He turned me around so my back was to him. He lifted my chin to look straight ahead. I saw spirals of ice crawl from the ground. They resembled ancient fingers of a beast, of a monster long ago defeated, prying themselves from their graves in a last act of defiance.

"Hell is cold, Romina. So cold that you cannot feel. So cold that it burns."