Shadows Entwined (Shadows Descent #3)

21. Caine

21

CAINE

Dawn arrives, casting the room into a dim light. I get up and close the curtains to ensure that Violet is safe from all harm.

Violet stirs when I slip back onto the bed and pull her closer to me. Her power is a gentle hum against my skin. Even exhausted, she’s beautiful. Fierce and dangerous and utterly ours.

“Morning,” Violet murmurs, blue eyes meeting mine. There’s something new there, something that makes my breath catch. After yesterday’s battle, everything feels... different. Heightened.

“Sleep well?” I ask, voice rough with more than just morning.

Her response is to lean forward, pressing her lips to mine. It’s urgent. More needed. It tells me everything I need to know. She is struggling with the battle, the death. She isn’t ready to talk about it. She wants to act, to forget. I can be that for her. We all can.

I lose myself in her, in us, in everything we are together. My usual sharp edges soften under her touch, my carefully maintained control slips as I give her what she needs.

Thrusting my tongue deeply into her mouth, she moans softly and clings to me. Her hands slide up my chest as she presses her gorgeous body closer, the desire to lose herself in sensation and forget the violence of yesterday filters through her touch. My hands roam her curves, committing every dip and swell to memory.

Flint stirs beside us, drawn by our movements. His eyes darken with desire as he takes in the sight of us wrapped around each other. Without a word, he moves behind Violet, pressing kisses along her neck. She arches into him with a soft gasp.

Thorne completes our circle, his shadows caressing her as he joins in.

Each touch is electric.

Violet is at the centre, our anchor, as we worship every inch of her.

I trail kisses down her body, savouring her soft sighs. When I reach her pussy, her fingers tangle in my hair, and she cries out as I flick her clit gently with my tongue, tasting her, craving her. Flint captures her lips in a searing kiss, swallowing her moans. Thorne’s shadows tease and caress, heightening every sensation.

We lose ourselves in each other, in pleasure and connection. For a little while, there is no war, no danger - only us.

Gripping her thighs tightly, I thrust my tongue deep inside her. She moans my name as Flint and Thorne take a nipple each in their mouths,

Violet gasps and arches her back as waves of pleasure wash over her. Her fingers tighten in my hair as she nears her climax.

“Come for me, snowdrop. Let me taste that sweet cum.”

She pants in response, and her pussy twitches against my mouth.

Violet writhes between us, overwhelmed by sensation. She comes hard in the next second. She floods my mouth with her cum, and I groan, lapping it all up as if it is the only thing that will keep me going.

“Please,” she whimpers. “I need...”

I know what she needs. With one last swipe of my tongue, I move up her body. Our eyes lock as I slowly push inside her. She’s so wet, so ready for me. I groan at the exquisite feeling of her tight heat surrounding me.

Flint shifts to allow me better access but keeps his mouth on her neck, leaving marks that will fade all too soon.

Violet meets me thrust for thrust, her nails scraping down my back. She clings to me as I thrust deeper, her legs wrapping around my waist. Our bodies move together, chasing pleasure and connection. I can feel her pulse racing, her breath coming in short gasps against my neck.

Thorne’s shadows tickle her skin, one wrapping around her throat and squeezing gently.

“More,” Violet pleads, arching into me. “Please, I need more.”

I pick up the pace, driving into her harder and faster. The bed creaks beneath us as our movements become more frenzied. Violet’s cries of pleasure fill the room, spurring us all on.

We shift positions as Thorne’s shadow slips away, and I lie back, letting her ride me for a moment before I grip her hips. Flint shifts position, pressing his cock to Violet’s mouth. She eagerly takes him in, moaning around his length. The sight of her pleasuring both of us at once is almost too much to bear.

Thorne moves behind her, and I pull her forward, so he has access to her as well. I grunt when I feel his cock slide into her pussy next to mine. She screams, the sounds muffled by Flint’s cock as we stretch her to her limits.

Violet is wild between us, taking everything we give her and demanding more. Her nails dig into my chest as she rides us both, her body trembling with pleasure.

Flint groans as she takes him deeper, her tongue swirling around his cock. His hands tangle in her hair, guiding her movements.

“Fuck,” I grunt, feeling my climax building. “Violet, you feel so good.”

She moans in response, the vibrations making Flint grunt and fuck her mouth harder.

We’re all close now, teetering on the edge. Violet comes first, her pussy clenching around Thorne and me as waves of pleasure crash over her. Her orgasm triggers mine, and I follow her over the edge with a loud growl, knotting her with Thorne still deep inside her.

He grunts, she screams, and I chuckle. “Not sorry,” I pant. “Fuck, that’s tight. Fuck, I think I’m going to come again.”

“Fucking hell,” Thorne groans and shoots his load, throwing his head back as Violet rocks on my knot, desperate for another orgasm.

Her body trembles as another orgasm washes over her, intensified by my knot stretching her impossibly wide. Flint grunts and fires his load down her throat moments later.

She gasps for breath as Flint pulls his dick out of her mouth. She swallows and then collapses on my chest, unable to move with my knot and Thorne still locked inside her.

“Fuck,” she pants. “I’m coming again.”

“Do it,” I demand. “Come all over our cocks, snowdrop. Use us to pleasure yourself.”

She sits up and writhes around, making me groan. Her tits jiggle, and I can’t resist squeezing them and twisting her nipples until she cries out. Thorne grips her hips tighter, bruising her, but it doesn’t stop her. She keeps going. When Flint drops his hand to her clit, she lets out a strangled gasp. Flint’s fingers work her clit as Thorne and I remain locked inside her. She pants and moans, her body trembling.

“That’s it,” I encourage, “use us, beautiful. We want to be anything and everything for you.”

With a cry, she climaxes again, her pussy clamping down around us. The sensation is almost too much after my intense orgasm. Thorne groans, clearly feeling the same overwhelming pleasure.

It doesn’t take much more than that for me to shoot another load deep into her. I’ve been edged into another orgasm, and I couldn’t stop it even if I wanted to.

As her tremors subside, Violet collapses onto my chest again, completely spent.

“Holy shit,” Flint mutters after a few moments.

“Yeah,” Thorne agrees with a breathless chuckle.

I stroke Violet’s back gently as we wait for my knot to go down. She nuzzles into my neck with a contented sigh and grazes her fangs over my skin.

“Bite me,” I purr, and with a snap of her jaw, she tears into me, desperate for blood.

The sharp pain quickly fades to pleasure as she drinks deeply. I groan, feeling lightheaded and euphoric as she feeds. My hand cups the back of her head, holding her close as she takes her fill.

After several long moments, she pulls back with a gasp. Her eyes are bright, pupils dilated, as she looks down at me. There’s blood on her lips, and I can’t resist pulling her down for a fierce kiss, tasting myself on her tongue.

“Thank you,” she murmurs against my lips.

My knot goes down, allowing Thorne to carefully pull out. Violet whimpers at the loss, her body oversensitive. As soon as I’m able to slip free as well, she collapses onto the bed between us, utterly spent.

But Flint isn’t done with her. He looms over her and spreads her legs wide. “You don’t have to do anything. Just let me fuck you.”

She nods wearily as he slides into her soaking wet pussy with a groan that makes me envious.

“Fuck, Violet. Fuck that feels so good. Don’t move. Let me fuck you like a little dollie.”

I arch an eyebrow at Thorne, who shrugs and watches with growing desire.

Flint groans as he thrusts into Violet’s pliant body. She lies there, letting him use her for his pleasure, her eyes half-lidded with exhaustion and lingering arousal.

“That’s it,” Flint pants. “Just take it, baby girl. Let me fill you up one more time.”

His pace quickens, hips thrusting forcefully as he buries himself balls deep inside her. Violet whimpers softly with each thrust, oversensitive but still craving more.

Thorne and I watch hungrily as Flint pounds into her. The sight of her being thoroughly fucked is intoxicating. My cock twitches, ready for action again.

With a guttural groan, Flint comes, emptying himself deep inside Violet. He collapses on top of her, both of them panting heavily.

After a few moments, Flint carefully pulls out and rolls to the side. Violet lies boneless between us, thoroughly satisfied.

I pull her close, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You okay, snowdrop?”

She nods, snuggling into my chest. “Perfect,” she murmurs sleepily.

We arrange ourselves around her protectively, limbs tangled together. I marvel at how perfectly we fit together, how perfect she is for me.

A distant bell tolls somewhere in MistHallow’s towers, pulling us reluctantly back to reality. Violet tenses slightly against me, her power flickering as reality gatecrashes our party.

“The Convergence,” she murmurs, and just like that, our peaceful bubble pops. “How long?”

“Eighteen hours, give or take,” Flint murmurs.

“Mm,” I agree, pressing one last kiss to her shoulder before starting to untangle myself from our intimate heap.

Thorne sighs heavily, reluctantly moving away as well to get dressed. “The Order might be dealt with, but the dimensional tear won’t wait.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about interference now,” Flint says as he stretches. “Just the potential collapse of reality as we know it.”

“Just that,” I drawl, finally locating my scattered clothes. “Nothing major.”

Violet sits up, sheets pooling around her waist, and even exhausted and marked by our activities, she looks every inch the powerful woman she is. “I don’t even know where to start,” she whispers. “My brain is scrambling and all over the place.”

Her admission just makes me love her even more. She isn’t trying to be perfect but showing that humanity that is still inside her despite her vampire nature.

“We should check the ley lines first, make sure yesterday’s battle didn’t disrupt them,” Thorne says.

“Ley lines?” she asks with a frown. “That’s the first I’ve heard of those.”

“Ley lines are channels of magickal energy that crisscross the earth,” I explain, pulling on my jeans. “They’re like rivers of power, and MistHallow sits at a major confluence of them. It’s part of why the academy was built here in the first place.”

Violet nods slowly, absorbing the information. “And we need to check them because...?”

“Because if they’ve been disrupted, it could make the Convergence even more unstable,” Flint says, buttoning up his shirt. “We need all the help we can get to keep reality from tearing apart.”

“Right,” Violet sighs, finally sliding out of bed and starting to dress. “Ley lines it is, then.”

I can see the weight of responsibility settling on her shoulders again. Part of me wants to pull her back into bed, to shield her from all of this. But I know we can’t. The fate of our world—of all worlds—rests on what we do in the next eighteen hours.

“We’ve got this,” Thorne says confidently, though I can see the tension in his eyes. “We’ve faced worse odds before.”

“Have we?” Violet asks wryly, pulling her hair back into a ponytail before she pulls on some combat ready clothes.

“Well, no,” I admit with a smirk. “But we’re still alive, aren’t we? And now we’re stronger than ever.”

She manages a small smile at that.

I retrieve my cane, comfort flooding through me as my fingers close around the familiar handle. “Flint, we should probably keep a close eye on that crystal thing you charged up. See how quickly it drains, especially after that attack on the wards by the now dead Order. I have a feeling the more power there is in that thing, the better this will be for all of us.”

“I agree,” Flint says. “Blackthorn showed it to us for a reason, and it wasn’t just for the defensive angle. He wanted us to know about it.”

“Well,” I say, “shall we go save the world?”

Violet grins, her power crackling around her. “If we must.”

Thorne’s shadows dance eagerly. “We must.”

“Then let’s fuck off and get it over with,” Flint adds.

We leave Violet’s room with a laugh, looking perfectly composed, though I know we all carry marks beneath our skin, secrets that won’t be told of how terrified we all are of Violet not making it through this. The coming hours will be challenging, possibly deadly, but the way this year has gone so far, that’s nothing new.

We’ve faced death, dealt death, and loved in death’s shadow. The Convergence doesn’t stand a chance.

After all, what’s a little dimensional crisis compared to finding something worth living for?