Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

than my angelic power – surged up and found his, entwining with it, drowning me in his essence and everything that felt like the sun.
    And then came the power.
    Like a whirlwind, our abilities opened up to each other and I felt the final bond form, creating a gateway from one to another. I felt the rush of his immense strength, and was immediately in tune with his shadow-finding abilities. If I wanted to draw on his powers, I could. It was all there for the taking, just as mine were to him.
    Lincoln cried out. Not with pain, but overload.
    His hand grabbed the side of my face, pushing my hair back, his eyes blazing green.
    ‘You’re incredible. I can feel your power and it’s more than anything I … Violet,’ he swallowed, watching me in awe. ‘It’s like … It’s like you’re as powerful as an angel.’
    The wordswere momentous. But even so, I was restless. His strength was coursing through me, daring to be tested. I smiled and with barely a thought, flipped him over so fast I surprised us both.
    He approved.
    Then he pulled me down to him, closer and closer until it was impossible to tell where one of us began and the other one ended. And I didn’t want to. For once in my life I was exactly where I was supposed to be, who I was supposed to be and with whom I was supposed to be.
    I nestled into the crook of his neck, breathing in everything that was him and found the ability to talk for the first time since he’d pressed his lips to mine.
    ‘I love you, too.’
    He planted kisses on the top of my head. I was in heaven.
    Me. Violet Eden. Grigori. Child of man. Child of warrior. Child of angel. Above all else – I was his.
    And he was mine.



CHATER TWENTY-NINE
    ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach …’
    Elizabeth Barrett Browning
    I layon my side, a huge bowl of strawberries and a ripped-open packet of pancakes in front of me and a still-shirtless Lincoln wrapped around me. I wasn’t sure if what I felt was his power, our souls, or just … the afterglow of everything we’d just done.
    I popped a strawberry in my mouth then grabbed another, holding it up to Lincoln. His lips closed around my fingers and I felt heat rush through me again. We’d been doing this for a while. In fact, I was full. Not that I was about to stop.
    ‘Is it clichéd to say we were crazy to have waited this long?’ I asked.
    ‘Yes,’ he replied and I back-elbowed him, but he just used the movement to pull me closer. ‘Though I’m starting to think you’re right,’ he added quietly.
    I smiled. He kissed my shoulder.
    ‘How’s this for clichéd: I love you with everything I am,’ he whispered.
    I snuggledinto his arms. ‘I love you, too. So much that I’m not even going to ask how much practice it took you to get so very good at …’
    He chuckled into my shoulder and I shivered, considering whether I had enough energy to suggest a rematch.
    ‘No, we are not having that conversation. Nothing I have ever done with any other girl would ever compare to what we are to one another, Vi. And anyway, there’s a big difference between sex and–’
    I put my hands over my ears. ‘La, la, la!’
    His eyes lit up as he rolled me onto my back. ‘What?’
    I lowered one hand. ‘Please don’t say what you were about to, it sounds so …’ I shivered. Daytime soapie, I finished in my head.
    He chuckled again. ‘Well, you know what I meant and anyway, there are other things I’d much rather be saying to you right now.’
    I wiggled around in his arms to face him, my fingers grazing his cheek. ‘Would it have anything to do with the bruise that was here earlier?’ It must have healed at some point, probably when our powers joined. But I hadn’t forgotten.
    ‘I’d rather not talk about that either,’ he said, sounding guarded for the first time that evening. I felt it too, through our bond, his contempt towards Phoenix but also something else, some kind of clarity I couldn’t understand.
    Is he blocking me?
    ‘How bad was it?’ I asked. It didn’t take a genius to know he and Phoenix had fought.
    He shrugged, refocusing his attention on his hand travelling up and down my arm. I shivered with goosebumps. ‘It was better to get it over and done with. And on this one occasion, it was probably justified.’
    Well, that can only mean one thing.
    I bit my lip. Phoenix had known what he was leaving Lincoln and me to tonight.
    ‘Was he okay?’ I asked.
    ‘Vi,’ he sighed.