Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,31
regret.
“Benji, sweetheart, would you mind finding Ishtar for us? I think she can really help with the research.”
He frowned a little. “But you were about to tell a big secret, I want to know too!”
“Please, dearest,” Sophia cajoled. Implored. Begging Benji to heed her with intent, glittering eyes.
“But what if you do that thing again—get all scary and dark like?” he protested.
“That’s why you must hurry back, my warrior angel. Meanwhile, I’m in good company with our friends here.”
“But—”
“I will go with you, Benjamin,” Jade said, coming around the table to take the boy by the hand.
“We’ll be back before you know it. The faster we go in search of Mama Bear, the faster we can return.”
Not taking no for an answer, Jade gently but firmly led Benjamin out of the library.
The moment they were out of hearing distance, Sophia turned to the remaining group.
“Benjamin’s mother is Olivia.”
“Yes, we know this,” Inanna said.
“But do you know who his father is?”
The ex-Angel of Death frowned. “No. She never told us. I don’t think she knew who he was herself. I never even got his name, though she’d been obsessed with him her whole life.”
“Does Benjamin know that Gabriel is not his biological father?”
“No,” Inanna murmured. “Gabriel married Olivia before Benji was born to protect them both. He has always been Daddy.”
Inanna’s eyes flashed with defensiveness and warning.
“That doesn’t have to change,” Sophia reassured. “I just wanted to know,”
She took a deep breath and braced herself for the words that came next: “I know who Benji’s real father is.”
The portentous silence in the library was thick enough to cut, as if everyone was holding their breath as well, awaiting Sophia’s reveal.
She stared into Tal’s blind eyes and saw the glimmer of understanding there.
“You know, too, don’t you, General?” she murmured.
“Only a guess,” he rumbled low.
“Papa?” Inanna whispered.
Sophia regarded the rest of her audience.
“Benjamin’s sire is Erebu,” she finally disclosed, to the group’s collective gasp.
“And if I am right, then either Ere or Benji could be the true Light Bringer. In fact, if you take the words literally, Light Bringer means the bringer of light. Benji is pure light and joy, I think we would all agree.”
Everyone nodded.
“That means Erebu is the Bringer of Light, perhaps. Because he brought Benji into this world through Olivia. Or it could mean that Benji himself is the Bringer of Light, because he chases away the darkness within all of us. You saw the proof of it yourself. Just now, in fact. With me. Benji holds back the Destroyer in me.”
“He is the key.”
Chapter Six
When the warrior awoke, he felt the difference immediately.
His body was almost fully healed, inside and out. Strength, vitality, sheer power thrummed through his recharged veins, a living thing that pulsed beneath his skin, tensing his muscles into steel.
Within a millisecond, he assessed the situation down to the most minute detail: Naked, bound, flat on a table, defenseless.
Alone.
A methodical roll of his eyes took in the locations that hid surveillance cameras. He’d noticed before, during the occasional fleeting moments of awareness, that the light from the cameras weren’t blinking. They remained dark now.
Alone and unwatched.
Time to act.
Carefully, he flexed his hands, rolling his wrists slightly, not enough to make the silken shackles that restrained him tighten in reaction. This, too, he’d noticed before—that his bonds reacted to his movements, even his intentions. The more he struggled against them, the more they held him firm.
But something was different. Something about him was different.
She had taken him inside her body again. Her voracious, hot, wet core had milked him dry, just so his testes could produce more cream. Then, she’d swallow it all into her womb again. Endlessly. Over and over. His seed lived within her. And…
She’d penetrated him too. With her fangs. She’d taken his blood.
Good.
The more she absorbed him into herself, the more inextricably bound they became. Two flesh becoming one. The more she fucked him, drank him, the more she’d crave him, until more than flesh merged. Until he possessed her totally.
That was the plan.
The fact that he also required her body, the energy from her soul, her Sustenance, to heal and strengthen was an added bonus.
Time to employ what he’d acquired through their joining.
His programmed mind filtered through its memory banks for the most useful fragments. Before long, he recalled the piece of information that would aid him now.
“I’m giving you command of the zhen that binds him, Sophia,” Rain explained. “They obey you now. They will keep him secure to