His entire body jerked over her.

Oh, God, this feels so good.

She slowly twisted her head for him while keeping his wrist pressed to her mouth. She sucked greedily but was in agony as his tongue made long sweeps up her neck. He was grunting as he struck. Her body rolled as the burn of his fangs and ensuing suck pulled her internal muscles tight.

There was so much going on that she didn’t feel as though she was inside her body. Pleasure built low, dragging down her clit, rippling up inside her, then returned with each thrust of his cock inside her. His scent flooded her mind. He was still teasing her obsiddy power and now he was sucking at her neck.

She groaned against his wrist as she pulled more of his blood into her mouth. She had fire in her body now, down her throat, between her legs, and in her chest.

Marguerite, I love you so much.

His words did her in, gripped her so that the orgasm began like a heavy streak of lightning pulling up and up, swelling into a heavy wave, then releasing in a swift flow up through her chest. She cried out but still kept her fangs buried in his wrist, her hips pumping as the orgasm spun and spun.

When she at last settled down, she realized that this orgasm hadn’t pushed him out of her obsiddy power. She could feel him swirling around deep inside it, meaning there was more pleasure to come.

But how the hell was he lasting?

* * *

Thorne had never felt so alive. Marguerite’s blood down his throat had flooded him with power, an increase in strength so that not only was he able to last through her orgasm and the tightening of her body around his cock, but he knew something huge was waiting to erupt from them both, and it wouldn’t just be his ejaculation.

He kept his thrusts into her body steady and strong. Once more she writhed under him as she sucked on his wrist and took his blood. He could feel her strengthening as well.

I need to look at you while we complete this, he sent.

I don’t want to let your wrist go.

I know. I feel the same way about your throat, but can you trust me enough in this? The blood part of the ritual is complete.

She didn’t answer him, she just released his wrist. He let go of her throat and pulled back. He rocked his hips into her. She pushed back. She put her arms around his neck and he looked down at her, locking her gaze with his.

But the sensations were all so powerful that he couldn’t speak, so he sent, Can you reach my obsidian flame power with your mind? Can you be inside my power as I’m inside yours?

I’ll try.

Good. He drove into her, harder now. He knew they were close to the breh-hedden.

He felt her mind cross into his and it seemed like a small miracle that he was able to stay within her obsidian flame power, but he stayed there as she sought him.

He watched her eyes. She blinked and her eyes rolled. The pleasure is almost too much.

I know. Find me. Hurry. This is it.

Okay.

When she got close, he nodded. Yes. Almost there.

I can feel it, she sent in a rush. She smiled. Oh, God, there you are.

And then she was just inside his power.

The sensation of her being there rocked him.

He was thrusting hard now but her eyes were closed. Look at me.

She opened her eyes and that did it. He couldn’t hold back and the orgasm swelled not just from his balls but from his obsidian flame power. He held her gaze as he cried out.

Thorne, you’re flying up my power again. So he was, or thrust out of it by her orgasm.

Only this time it was different because, dammit, he could feel her pleasure. He shouted at the sky as he ejaculated, as his obsidian flame power exploded, as hers exploded, and as all that pleasure gripped her lower body.

He couldn’t believe the sensation she had as she gripped him.

When a second orgasm began to rise, he shouted once more and as had been happening to him lately with her, his balls reloaded and all that exquisite pleasure began to pump out of him.

“Thorne, I can feel you come. How the hell is that happening?” Then she was screaming, her body slamming against his. She kept crying out and when a third orgasm began to build, his body began to grow hot, hers as well.

This time he put his hands on either side of her face and pinned her. She gripped his forearms and held on tight.

Are you feeling this? he sent.

She nodded between his hands. He was breathing hard.

Let it go, he sent.

She did, and her orgasm barreled through her and through him and back and forth, but this time somehow the obsidian flame power flowed together in a single continuous stream. He reached down and kissed her hard as pleasure swirled, flowed, and erupted all at the same time.

He’d never ejaculated so much. She was a hard tug on him, in familiar pulses.

But as the physical pleasure eased, her body grew quiet, and his hips settled against hers, the stream of power that flowed through each mind brought a continued pleasure and intensity. She smiled and he smiled in return. He kissed her again. She kissed him back.

“My wings,” she said.

He nodded. She slid her legs up high, up around his waist as she had done before, in Diallo’s courtyard garden.

He lifted them both up to his knees. He levitated until he could put his feet on the cement. “Stay connected,” he said.

She nodded. “I can feel it, too, what needs to be done here.”

“Go ahead.”

She held on to his shoulders, pushing back just a little. He clasped his hands low around her waist, well below her wing-locks, and bent his knees for support. She arched her neck and closed her eyes. Her body rolled sensually and he could feel her wings release, which made his cock twitch all over again. Damn, the release was exquisitely sexual, no question about that.

And her wings, black with red flames, were so incredibly beautiful and powerful in appearance, enormous. Each flap moved his body as well. If he wasn’t as strong as he was, he would have been airborne, but he kept her anchored.

She relaxed, her wings still moving very slowly. “Your turn—and Thorne?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you feel my wings release?”

His voice deepened. “Oh … yeah.”

“I can hardly wait to feel yours.”

His back was a mess of weeping so it took but three deep breaths and his wings mounted. He groaned at so much pleasure. But the mount didn’t feel anything like before, almost as though … his wings were bigger now.

Marguerite groaned as well then opened her eyes. “That was amazing.” Her eyes widened as her gaze drifted from one wing to the next. “Oh, my God, Thorne. Can you see your wings?”

He flapped one forward then almost lost his balance. They were as large as Endelle’s—a span of forty feet. And the gray flame pattern was even more pronounced against all the silvery white expanse.

“Take me into the air,” she said, drawing closer so that she could wrap her arms around his neck. He smiled, drew his massive wings back, bent his knees, and with one strong downward sweep launched heavenward.

* * *

This was the vision, she thought, the reason we needed to be here in the open air.

Thorne flapped hard and she could feel with each powerful thrust of his wings and movement of his body how much he was taking pleasure in this flight, as though it were his first—and perhaps it was. This was their breh-hedden flight.

She held her wings in a close-mount position, which allowed her to keep her face against his muscular chest. Every sensation, as connected as they were, body-to-body, arms-to-arms, in flight, was a kind of ecstasy all in its own.

She held the sensation close and because she was still connected to his mind, she drew close to the round ball of his obsidian flame power and stroked.

He groaned softly. I love you this close, he sent.

She smiled against his warm body. She let him do the work as she kept her legs wrapped tightly around his ass, and because the air grew chill, she manipulated her wings to surround her. His body was on fire, a typical man.

She savored this flight and the depths of its meaning in her life, in their lives.

When they were far above the earth and the wind blew steadily, he popped his wings into parachute position, which rocked them back and forth.

I’m going to withdraw from you now, he sent.

Yes.

When he pulled his cock from her, she would have been sad but she knew what was coming.

He didn’t.

What is that sound? he asked.

The future.

She began to flap her wings and took his hand as she moved away from him.

The wind began to blow from the west in a steady warm stream. She stretched her body out to mimic his.

The future arrived and suddenly she was gliding beside him in an ever-increasing flow, faster and faster, until soon they were crossing the Pacific Ocean. The journey moved north to the Japan Islands then China, swinging south to Indonesia and Australia then east once more to India and upward, crossing the Himalayas, Tibet, and into Russia, zigzagging to cover the continents, on and on. As night fell, streams of light connected until they were circling the earth over and over, the light streams flowing and flowing until the earth was a ball of interconnected light.

She had a tremendous sense of purpose and she felt that Thorne was having a similar experience.

At last the journey began to slow until once more the earth appeared below, the vast expanse of the Sonoran Desert and the Metro Phoenix Two area, and the rim of the Superstition Monolith in front of the half-built dwelling.

Thorne touched down and her feet felt the earth once more. He held her in front of him as she retracted her wings, then drew her close once more.

But he didn’t withdraw his wings. They were glowing, as was he.

Within his mind, she drifted away from the seat of his obsidian flame power and looked up at him. He nodded.

She explored his mind until she found what held him captive, what had set his body and wings aglow, his eyes on fire, that which had transfigured him.

He was now the man in charge … of everything.

His future was clear. He would soon become Supreme High Commander of the Allied Ascender Forces. More would follow—that was what she felt and knew.

I’m to build an army, he sent.