At the same time, the beauty of love, intense, extraordinary, wondrous love, flowed through her.
Love.
Sweet love.
Irreplaceable love.
She thought back to the moment of washing Adrien clean in that makeshift tub in India, and putting the binding chain on him for the first time. How long ago that seemed; an entire lifetime ago. Now he was here, lying in her arms, beautiful, powerful, renewed.
She stroked his back with her hands and played with his hair with her fingers. She sighed and smiled, smiled and sighed.
“I love you, Lily.”
She sighed again and smiled a little more. “Who would have thought when we left the Himalayan cavern system, bound to each other by the first set of chains, that we would have ended up here?”
He drifted his hand over her side and caressed her breast. He kissed her and with her heart so full, she kissed him back, willing him to feel all that she was feeling.
He drew back, looking down at her. I’ve never been so happy in my life.
His words soothed her and expanded the love in her heart.
I’m so glad that I make you happy.
Adrien hardly recognized the sensation in his body, but he finally defined it as an unqualified ease. The heavy muscles of his fighting body were lax, his lips parted instead of stretched taut in a hard angry line, and his breathing slow and even.
But mostly, it was love that he experienced, a flow of affection and adoration for Lily that moved through his blood and over his body in steady warm waves, as though washing away all that had been ugly in his previous life.
He was made new, born of the chains that had bound him, the physical ones and the more invasive chains that had kept his mind locked into his hatred for his father.
All that was gone, made new by love, Lily’s love for him and the love he felt for her, the healing of his heart that he’d never known before, not in his long four centuries of living.
He thought of the boy, of Josh, who had essentially brought Lily to him. For that he would spend his life doing all that he could for Josh, whatever the boy needed, and whatever Lily needed for her son. This was the solemn depth of his commitment.
He lifted up and said these things to her, which brought a new round of tears streaming from her eyes, flowing to the sides of her face and into her hair.
But she smiled and he kissed her.
He made love to her again and again,
He used his splitting skills and worked her up in a dozen different positions until he wore her out with her muffled cries against different parts of his body.
As dawn broke, she fell asleep in his arms and he watched her slumber, unwilling to end this first time with her as his true woman, as the one he would spend his life with. He didn’t know how long he would have with her: The double-chain would increase her human life but not as long as his. Despite this reality, he would savor every moment. Rather than think too much about the future he would treasure the present and the tremendous gift that had been delivered to his feet.
He released a deep sigh, one that came from so far down in his body he actually quivered. The sensation brought her partially awake.
“Happy?” she asked, a slight foggy sound to her voice.
She couldn’t even open her eyes, and before he could say anything she drifted off once more.
Was he happy? More than she would ever know.
The vision came to him, a roll of sensation first, then clarity, a perfect image of Lily and Josh, but in the future, though how far forward he couldn’t tell. Josh was a man, fully grown, human-perfect. He held a woman’s hand and she was a vampire.
Lily, forever siphoning his power, hadn’t aged at all. She beamed her smile, all her goodness radiating over her son and his fiancée.
Adrien’s heart pounded because he was in the vision as well, his arms wrapped around Lily much as they were now, and Lily’s stomach was very swollen with child, his child.
The vision faded.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. He’d awakened her again. Of course she would sense that something was wrong.
“Nothing.”
“You’re shaking.”
She turned in his arms to face him, and there she was in the glow of his vampire vision, his Lily, the woman who meant the world to him. He smoothed her hair away from her face and kissed her. “I love you so much.”
Her fingers went to the chain around her neck. His vibrated heavily. No doubt hers did as well. “Me, too.”
“Do you want more children?” he asked, suddenly afraid of the answer because of all that she’d been through.
“I didn’t think it was an option, or not much of one.”
“But if you could have your heart’s desire, would you bear another child?”
Her lips curved. “If we are speaking only of what we wish and not what we expect, then yes, of course, especially if I could have your child.”
“Why my child?” He could feel how far his brows rose.
This time she laughed and smoothed her fingers over his brow. “Because I love you, Adrien, more than words can express, and because you deserve to be a father, to have that joy in your life.”
That was all he needed to hear. He kissed her hard, to which she responded by whimpering and easing her arms around his neck.
“We should practice, then,” he said. “A lot. Just in case it could help our genetics kick in and we can make a baby together.”
“I’d love nothing more.”
Despite his earlier conviction that she needed her rest, Adrien rolled Lily onto her back and made love to her again, but she didn’t seem to mind as she cooed against his lips.
He didn’t tell her about the vision. Those images were meant just for him, in the same way his initial vision of her in a burgundy gown had been the start of all this goodness way back in the cavern.
How long ago that seemed, even though only a few nights had passed. But that was now his former life, a life that had ended when Lily arrived, when she came to him bearing her bonding chains and set them both down this impossible, miraculous, and ultimately love-filled journey.
PRAISE FOR THE GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION SERIES BY CARIS ROANE …
“Caris Roane powers into the paranormal romance genre with a sexy, cool, edgy romantic fantasy that gleams like the dark wings and lethal allure of her Guardians of Ascension vampires. Prepare to be enthralled!”
—New York Times bestselling author Lara Adrian
“Roane’s world-building is complex and intriguing, and in addition to her compelling protagonists, she serves up a slew of secondary characters begging to be explored further. The Guardians of Ascension is a series with epic potential!”
—Romantic Times (4½ stars)
“A super urban romantic fantasy in which the audience will believe in the vampires and the Ascension … fast-paced … thrilling.”
—Alternative Worlds
“A great story with a really different take on vampires. This is one book that is sure to be a hit with readers who love paranormals. Fans of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series are sure to love this one, too.”
—Red Roses for Authors Blog
“Ascension is like wandering in a field of a creative and colorful dream. There are many interesting, formidable, terrifying, beautiful, and unique images. They surround and envelop you in a story as old as time.”
—Barnes and Noble’s Heart to Heart Romance Blog