Page 241 of Venom Sweeter than Honey
“Thatwas your mental barrier? I feel like I just fucking died.”
He shrugs.
“You did. Sort of. I’m a god of death. Why would you expect anything less?”
“And the purpose of this was... ?”
“You need to absorb my memories. So you can better wield and understand your magic, and mine, if there’s any of it left to give when we exchange blood.”
I shake my head in awe.
“Azrael, I don’t think you understand. My psyche, my entire being is forever changed.”
He gives me an obvious look. “That was entirely the plan, darling..."
He shifts, tipping his head towards a jutting cliff edge, and a crystalline sea stretching beyond the horizon—both of which I swear weren’t there a moment ago.
“How do you feel about going for a swim?”
My eyes narrow. “Why do I feel like I’m going to die again?”
He gives me a sympathetic smile.
I heave a sigh. “Fuck, is that really necessary?”
“I’m not sure how else you expect our souls and memories to merge with thisfleshybarrier between us.”
His hand grasps mine and we’re suddenly standing at the edge of the cliff. I’ve done enough HALO and HAHO jumps that heights no longer give me vertigo. My gaze slides to the expanse of sea. Its waves are calm against the subtle breeze. My focus sharpens when I see movement on the water and I realize there are subtle images filtering across its surface, shifting and changing with each ripple against the wind and the sunlight reflecting off the water.
“The easier you let go, the less painful it is.”
Already, I feel like my soul is being tugged towards the depths of the sea. The same panic from before trickles in, but this time I don’t resist. Like any HALO jump, you don’t overthink it. You just leap.
“Meet me on the other side?”
Azrael’s lips tilt in a soft grin as his eyes seem to devour me–not with lust, but an affection and reverence I’ve never experienced. “Always.”
He leans in for a kiss.
A grin splits my face as I tip backwards off the edge of the cliff. A bark of surprised laughter escapes him as I let out a whooping cry before twisting mid-air to dive into the sea that swallows me in one icy gulp.
In the same moment, time and space bleed away, replaced by the male that is one-third of my soul, and all of his memories.
Eons of them, etching themselves into the very molecules of my being; carving rivers of joy, suffering, hope, anguish, and power through my mind, my spirit as I am both the observer and bearer of that which no human mind can perceive.
My form folds in and out of being, leading countless lives that blossom into and wither out of existence, all while my soul persists and stretches beyond time and space like a multiversal blanket of love and yearning—just one of an infinite many that forms this unfathomable cosmic existence. With every breath, my heart bleeds as everyone I know and love dies in one form to continue without me in another, and I am helpless to stop it. All while eons of knowledge floods my mind like a dam bursting, pulverizing my former self and forming someone—something—new.
AZRAEL
In this realm—this dimension—almost no time at all has passed when Levi’s eyes open and he straightens—his eyes radiate a light from within that illuminates something that reminds me of sacred geometry but it flickers and fades back to his human eyes too fast for me to discern more. The fine hairs on the back of my neck at the sensation of his magic pressing at the edges of his corporeal and incorporeal form. He scarcely seems to notice as tears slip down his cheeks in thick, unrelenting rivulets. Shock slackens his features. His lips part as if to say something, but no words come. He shakes his head as his butt lands on the edge of the bed. He looks surprised by the assault rifle still hanging from his shoulders, but wills it away a fraction of a second later.
Oh, dear...
Have I broken him?
Is he repulsed by me now that he has seen all of me? All of my past? My failings?
Even if so, I wouldn’t change it for anything, knowing that he knows how to wield his magic, and protect himself and Violette, no matter who or what dares to cross their paths.
