~ Trigger Warning:
+ Referenced suicide (non-graphic)
+ Emotional distress related to past suicide attempt
+ Explicit sexual content
+ Consensual adult intimacy
Davina
[Wednesday, Umbrafall 24, 4310]
—Ajeivara Holdings: Main Branch- Davina's office—
As I observed the moon's light bathe the cityscape beyond my windows, my world felt like the calm before a storm. In my dimly lit office, I felt the suppression bindings upon my cores loosen enough for me to regain a little more of my true strength. My nails combed absently through the hair of my mate whose lap I was perched on. He sat silent, giving me space to process my transition and his reason for this evening visit to my office. I sighed in relief when my nightly transition completed. The euphoria of returning to my true self is a sensation I both love and hate.
I hate having to be half myself because our movements must be hidden from the Order. I do not regret accepting this mission, but the weight of it presses harder with each passing year.. Maize recently confirmed that the Nexus has been hidden in this region somewhere. That in a year's time, the Creators will reveal her to me. Once Cornelius and I escort her back to the Council, our mission will finally be complete. We will be able to live the rest of our lives with our family with no more secrets.
A kiss upon my cheek brought me back to the present and the interrogation that will occur tonight. No matter how I tried to frame it, the truth remained the same. Tonight, Nyxara would be interrogated.
When he placed a lingering kiss on the corner of my mouth, I shifted my gaze to the man who was done waiting for my attention. He mentioned a week or so ago that he had been working with Lux, Aspen, and Cornelius to investigate Nyx's past from a different angle than our investigators. However, he hadn't mentioned his plan to confront Nyx about their theories. That was the reason for his current visit. He didn't want to go behind my back but he also didn't want to give me time to come up with a different approach to the situation. Cunning bastard. Despite my annoyance, my true feelings about his deceptive behavior kept our bond warm.
They intend to ask Nyx the questions that have been on the tip of our tongues since she woke up with amnesia. Who is she? What happened to the Nyxara we raised? For a moment, I got caught in the illumination of his golden eyes. Like always, they leave me breathless with desire, but I refused to let him distract me right now.
"Ny, since you insist on having this meeting tonight, you should know what the final report from the enclave investigators says." I shifted in the chair until I was straddling him. Ny hummed, low and patient, the sound resonating in a soothing wave through my body. Reaching behind me, I handed him the folder he had refused to take when he first walked in here.
He took it this time but did not open it. Instead, he met my gaze with an air of patience. I tapped the folder, waiting for him to open and read the reports within. He still did not. He just smiled lovingly, tapping my lips. "My Vaelorith (my soul-match), tell me in your own words what is in this folder. I'm listening."
I don't know why I was surprised how well Ny knew me after all these years. He somehow knew I needed to talk this out so I could really process what we suspect happened the night everything changed—the night my daughter hung herself. I sighed, snuggled deeper into his embrace before speaking.
"With the new perspective of a ritual being done, the investigators discovered evidence of a deliberately constructed essence circle. It was created over the course of at least a year. The circle was powered by multiple sources, making it a very high-tiered work of essencecrafting. Deeper research into Nyxara's movements indicated that her trips had been used in part to gather components for the ritual."
His fingers stilled in his caress of my waist. "On Seraphelle 1st, Nyxara enacted her ritual. If we are correct, she wasn't truly attempting suicide as we assumed. According to an obscure grimoire the elders found, we suspect Nyxara intended to sever her connection to her body and send her soul across realities."
Ny placed the folder on the desk behind me, then tightened his arms around my waist, anchoring me to him. I had read the report multiple times, and it still didn't make sense.
"We cannot confirm what happened to Nyx's soul," I continued after a moment. "The ritual, from what we can infer, succeeded in sending her soul away from this plane of reality. We deduced that the ritual had a second purpose as well. It was to act as a beacon to invite another soul to inhabit her body." This fact rocked the foundation of everything I thought I knew. The pressure in my chest had built to the point I could not maintain control over myself.
My aura, scent, and essence flooded the room. Ny reacted immediately, casting a barrier to contain the evidence of my breakdown. The comforting weight of his aura, scent, and essence grounded me.
"The grimoire the elders found only contained a vague reference to what Nyx may have done, no actual details, so we can't even backtrack where she could have learned how to do this ritual. The tier of essence involved…" I shook my head slowly. "It exceeds anything she should have been capable of doing alone. Hell, I doubt even your mom, head of her household and the Council or Auntie Samara, the vice-sage of her household, could have pulled off this ritual on their own."
Nyota's expression sharpened. "You think she had help. But there was no indication of anyone else being there besides Wraith and Nyx."
"Perhaps the constructed circle and the Creators themselves were her support in that moment. At this point I would believe it if we could confirm it. The only reason we even know there was a constructed circle was because we got specialists who could glimpse the past to go over the site." I flipped through the file folder until I reached the end of the report.
"What I do know is that our Nyxara left this reality and another soul has become anchored in her body." Silence stretched between us, dense but not strained. "Every test we ran on Nyxara," I said quietly, "never indicated she wasn't our child. If the soul were truly incompatible with the body and this reality it would have been rejected by now. At least that is what the elders have concluded."
Ny squeezed me tightly, letting me breathe in his scent of incense resin, crushed basil and frankincense. Then, softly he asked, "Is there anything you want me to ask her on your behalf tonight?" I did not immediately answer. I considered if there was anything I needed to know that the men might not think to ask. The ruby glow of my eyes brightened, reflecting in his glimmering gold gaze.
"One thing," I finally said. "Is our Nyxara safe and alive wherever she has gone?" I cupped his jaw with one hand and traced the shape of his face with the other. "Everything else can be learned over time." Nyota's gaze searched my face, then nodded once in understanding.
My voice softened, though the weight of it did not. "Hear me when I say this, Nyota Ajei. Regardless of how she arrived here, this Nyxara is our child too." My lips brushed his cheek as my body became heated under his renewed lingering caresses. His scent deepening and the sense of his loving approval in our bond at my declaration made my mind switch gears to a more sensual mindset. "Whatever we always sensed was missing before—it isn't missing now. I feel it in my soul. I know you and Malcolm do too. Do not make her hate us."
This child has been through so much already. But if Ny's essence reading that he spoke of when he first arrived is correct, she is harboring unacknowledged heart parasites. If she undergoes the memory restoration ritual without acknowledging them, it could cause the ritual to fail and stunt her cultivation. We can't risk either happening. So we must give her this trial and pray that she will forgive us.
Ny's kneading hands on my hips did a wonderful job stoking the flames of my desire. His touch has always been my breaking point. "I swear to you," his voice low and unyielding crooned in my ear, "we will not drive her away. We're confronting this so she doesn't have to carry this secret alone."
I studied him for a moment, then nodded. "I will kill you and send your body back to your mother to reassemble if she runs from us." He just grinned arrogantly. The lust in his eyes told me he wasn't really listening to my threat but instead considering how he wanted to take me apart. When he unbuttoned my suit jacket to push it off my shoulders, I paused his hands to ask, "Is Malcolm going to be there tonight?"
"No," my mate said as he stood me up and continued undressing me. There was nowhere on my body his hands did not explore. I was becoming unfocused while he seemed still in control of himself. A nip here. Kisses upon my breasts. Fingers delving into my depths. "Keir will not be there either. Neither agree to the necessity of the trial even after Aspen and I explained that she needed to confront her heart parasites to completely root herself here. That this trial has multiple purposes and isn't just to satisfy our curiosity as they insinuated."
I arched an eyebrow wordlessly, questioning what he had done to contain our two blood-forged warriors. I know he wouldn't have left those two free to hinder the trial, so he must have them secured somewhere.
"They are currently secured in one of the training rooms," he admitted, his lips twitching. "Rakesh will release them in five hours. Or I will, if everything is resolved sooner." I laughed—soft, dangerous, affectionate—and leaned in, my mouth brushing his neck. "You're terrible."
"I get the job done by any means necessary," he murmured. "And I do believe you have a job that needs doing before I head off to make sure our daughter knows we truly claim her. Different soul and all."
I smiled as his kiss devoured my lips. The city lights glittered forty stories below as Ny pressed me against the cool glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows. My breath fogged the pane, my palms flat against it as his hands slid up my thighs, his knee pushing my legs further apart. A certain thrill settled over me at the possibility that anybody could see us up here. It added something to this encounter that heightened everything.
"Someone could see us," I whispered, playing into the moment even though I knew the reality that no one could see us because the glass was one way. I arched back against him, teasing him anyway.
"Let them." His voice came rough against my ear. His teeth grazed my pulse point between kisses along my neck. I wonder if I can incite him to bite deep enough I bleed. The sound of my moan echoed in the empty office. Ny moved me like a doll when he turned me around, then carried me to my desk to place me on the edge. I haphazardly pushed papers onto the floor, as I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer. I needed him closer. Our mouths met in a hungry dance. It had been too long since the two of us had a one on one moment.
I loved Mal deeply but sometimes I needed my demon to remind me of who I truly am in the way only he can. Since the opportunity had presented itself, I would enjoy reminiscing with Ny. It doesn't hurt that this will relieve me of my built up stress in the process.
Ny did not take my attention wandering well. He pinched my nipples and he bit my neck bloody as he suddenly thrust into me without warning. My head fell back as I screamed, trying to adjust to his sudden intrusion. He did not give me this allowance. His grip bruised my hips when he pulled me further off the desk. I was completely dependent on him in this position. My scent wrapped around him marking him as mine, expressing what he could already read from the bond. He better not edge me right now.
I felt him pull almost completely out, adjusted his angle then thrust deeper. So deep. Is he trying to put another baby in me? Davina do not let this man trigger your breeding kink. Four is enough, you slut. The city sprawled behind him, oblivious, while I clung to his shoulders and whispered his name like a prayer. Our rhythm built, urgent and desperate. I bit him bloody to return the favor.
The desk shifted beneath us with each movement. My nails raked down his partially covered back as the tension coiled tighter, my thighs trembled against his sides.
"Vaelorith." The endearment broke on my lips when I came. Our auras reached out to each other, melding which rocked my climax up a notch. Ny followed moments later, burying his face in my neck as we shuddered together. His climax triggered a second smaller climax in me. I could feel distantly down the bond Malcolm climaxed too. My loopy mind giggled at the awkward situation between the imprisoned father and son right now.
In the aftermath of our lovemaking, we stayed tangled together, breathing hard, the city lights still twinkling below like nothing had changed at all.
"You have ten minutes before you will be late. The boys must have already picked her up and are in route to the restaurant." My words said one thing but my body clung to him. Two weeks is truly too long a gap between him taking me apart so completely. I knew he needed to go but I also knew I needed another round."It will be okay if I'm a little late. Let me satisfy you one more time, Vaelorith." With those words, he snapped away his remaining clothes. He satisfied me twice more before he finally left to join the others.
Despite how relaxed Nyota left me, I couldn't help feeling worried about the outcome of tonight's trial.