Origin (Eternal Sacrifice Saga Book 2) (3 page)

“Yep.”

“Curious. That’s not happened before.”

“You doubting my Cosmic Cupid powers?” I shot him an accusatory grin. “I think I’ve more than proved myself with Phoebe.”

“I trust in your gift, but I don’t care to discuss that now. Tonight is not about Phoebe. Or the Eternals, or any other Genesis except you.” He kissed my neck, his velvet lips grazing over my shoulders. “And me.”

Cade roamed his hands down my arms, holding my hips, tracing infinity circles on them. “Have your memories begun to return?”

“Nothing new or telling. Just random visions, like I’m watching someone else’s life on a movie screen.”

“They’ll continue as such, I expect. Once you’re ready to accept them, all the pieces of the puzzle will assemble. Until then, celebrate the newness of our love.” He tilted my chin up, gazing intensely. “Revel in our new beginnings. Every first. Especially our Convergence.”

Cade crushed his lips to mine, slyly skating his fingertips past my hips, down further still, uncovering secrets waiting to be discovered.

Butterflies were set free as he explored each inch of my begging body, chasing tingling bursts between my thighs.

Once sleeping places came alive, places I didn’t know existed before now.

I was ready to complete this mystical Convergence I’d heard so much about.

For any other girl, it was just sex. A V-card that meant very little, but for me, this night was about so much more.

I wasn’t just sharing my body. I was returning to my Gemini, a missing piece of his soul. One that’d been absent for over twenty-one years. Human years, of course, but for the first time in my life, I finally understood why nothing felt right before Cade.

He’d been alone, too. Detached from me—his literal other half—for way too long. I was ready to return to him, giving him back all he’d been missing.

I laced my fingers behind his neck and tangled them in his dark chocolate hair, kissing him passionately.

His kiss took me from scared little girl to an almost confident woman, ready to give myself to him, body and soul.

Cade released my lips and set his forehead to mine. “I’ve missed us, Chayah.”

“Cade,” I whispered softly. Trembling, I kissed along his jaw to his mouth, gently tugging at his lip when I pulled back. “I think I’m ready now.”

His eyelids drifted open. Breaths labored. A faint flush crossed his now bearded cheekbones.

This new rugged look of his was kind of hot.

I recognized the heat flashing in his eyes.

Cade wanted me.

I wanted him.

He shifted me off his lap quickly and rose to his feet. Stepping out of the tub, he grabbed a fluffy towel and set it to the side, then reached down for me.

“Come.”

I took his hands and got to my feet.

He helped me out of the tub, wrapping the towel around me.

Catching me off guard, he picked me up and carried me to bed, never taking his gaze from mine as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Cade set me down in front of the ginormous bed and dried me off, one inch of skin, one limb at a time. His hands grazed along my shoulders, releasing the towel from his grip.

Every nerve tingled in my needy, yet scared as hell body. I wanted this so freaking bad.

Cade’s breathing became audible, as did mine. Heat from his tanned olive skin rose around him, his iridescent aura grew brighter.

“Chayah.” He held my cheeks. Kissed my lips. Skated his hands over my shoulders.

New sensations surged to my core, between my thighs. Feelings I’d never felt before overtook me—a juxtaposed mix of sweet and naughty mingled all at the same time.

My heartbeat soared. Warmth flushed across my cheeks. I could practically see my own aura rising around us.

Cade winked, then the lights turned off by themselves and candles I hadn’t noticed now burned throughout the room.

My gaze scanned the romantic setting, and I sucked in a breath.

He sat on the bed, reaching his arms up. He gestured his chin toward him, eyes blazing with something primal. Raw.

“Come to me, love.”

Releasing my breath, I climbed in beside him.

“I want tonight to be all you dreamed it would be.”

Cade’s gaze roamed over my bare body, from my chin to my shoulders. Beyond my breasts and down to my belly.

Being like this with Cade, naked and so vulnerable, was disorienting and reaffirming all at the same time.

My head didn’t remember us, but my body did.

I was ready. Ready to reclaim my Gemini.

Ready for Cade to claim me.

I nervously sat above his waist, my legs on either side of his hips, shaking enough, even he noticed.

Cade gripped my hips and slowly flipped us over, laying my back on the soft bed. “Are you all right, love?”

I nodded, sucking on my lip. “I’m perfect.”

He showed off his crooked smile as he leaned down, sinking his lips into mine. Slow at first, then passionate. Fierce. Urging into my mouth, exploring it with his tongue.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him down above me. I ached to feel his soft skin, his strong frame pressed to mine.

Our bodies held together, and I reveled in this first, savoring the heat of his firm muscles. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his hips and kissed him hard, his lips trembling above mine.

Cade ran his hands down my hips and over my thighs.

Between them.

Every fiber of my soul began to wake, needing him to occupy me.

Beams of artificial moonlight streamed in through the open French doors, casting shadows along the walls. A warm breeze rushed through the room, sending chills over my perspired skin.

Darkness of the Winter Solstice kept our night at bay, holding it captive until we completed our Convergence.

My mind went blank as my soul remembered Cade.

I’d waited twenty-one years to reunite with my Gemini, and neither my body nor my soul could wait any longer.

“Cade, I want this.”

“Chayah,” he whispered. “I adore you.” He peppered kisses along my neck. “I have loved you all your life. From your first breath to your last. My soul is truly incomplete without yours. I crave to feel whole again. Complete me.”

His words sent my heart into a tailspin.

Cade kissed along my neck and down my shoulders. To my hips. Running his hands along my thighs, his fingertips caressed each inch that’d been waiting decades for his return.

Holy hell.

Shivers moved forcefully through me.

Cade’s desperate lips explored my curves. Wanting fingers tiptoed across my breasts as my body arched. Skating over my belly, his fingertips dipped below my hips once more, between my thighs, where my incomplete soul waited for his to return.

“When you’re ready, love. Tell me.”

I arched my back, digging my toes into the soft sheets below me, letting out a hushed moan as his finger’s perusal set my body on fire.

“Chayah,” he groaned. Parting my thighs with his knee, he settled above me. “Your body. It calls to me,” he whispered, crushing his lips to mine.

“Yes,” I breathed between kisses. “Cade, please. I need you. I’m ready.”

I wanted him, wanted this so damned bad. I was ready to feel him inside of me again—body and soul.

Converged.

“I love you, Cade.” I stared into his icy blue gaze, just fractions from mine.

“I adore you, my love. For Eternity.”

My wrist burned, pulsed erratically as Cade aligned my hips and settled above me, his heated skin pressing against me, his icy blue gaze locked onto mine.

There were no more words after that moment.

There didn’t need to be.

With a reciprocal heartbeat, our Twin Souls became one.

Cade

Weightless.

The only word to describe the sensation of soul projecting for the first time after an incarnation was weightless.

In other projections, we could move beyond realms, materialize into our bodies, but our first Soul Convergence was different. Extraordinary. We had no bodies, existing only in the most basic form our essence.

Our true Origin.

It only happened once every thousand years, and it was by far, my most favorite time of each incarnation.

My mind released the worries of the past thousand years, our spirits pulled from our bodies.

There was no fear. No pain. No sadness.

Only love.

It had been twenty-one years since my soul was united with my Gemini. I had missed Chayah more than she would ever know.

“
Cade?”
Zoe’s anxious voice pierced my thoughts.
“What’s going on?”

“We’re Converging, love.”

“How? I don’t...”

“Our Twin Souls have Converged. Like soul projecting. When you project during the initial Convergence, we exist only in our Origin state. It’s not always like this, though. Are you afraid?”

“No. It’s just—disorienting.”

“Yes, but it’s also rejuvenating. And beautiful.”

I desperately wanted to kiss her, but our initial Convergence was imperative. To seal our bond.

“How long do we stay like this?”

“As long as your Origin needs. Once you learn to move within a Convergence, we can go other places. As this is our first projection, it is disorienting.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t feel like when I rescued you.”

“In time, you will learn to project beyond us, to actually take me with you to other places.”

“Wow. Like where?”

“To the Garden. The Chayah Fountain. Earth, even. Wherever you like.”

“Hmm. This is going to take some getting used to. Does this happen a lot? You know, during sex?”

“A Convergence does seem to occur more spontaneously when you…I don’t know the word for it.”

“Um, orgasm?”
She released an innocent laugh.
“Okay, I get it.”

Having Chayah back by my side, fused once more with my soul, brought me such happiness.

“Cade?”

“Yes?”

“This is very, um, sweet and all.”
She giggled.
“But I kind of want to get back down to them. That was—wow.”

“Yes, it often is. There are pleasures of the body, mind and soul. This is our soul. We regenerate this way.”

“Yeah, still. I’d rather be down there.”

I laughed. “I adore you, Chayah.”

“Love you, too.”

“It’s your Origin sustaining the Convergence, and so shall you release us. When you’re ready.”

Zoe’s mind went quiet then, and our Origin’s were at peace for minutes, perhaps hours, suspended above our human bodies.

Sometime later, the familiar, yet always disorienting rush of energy erupted as our souls were drawn back into our bodies.

Despite the pleasures of making love to my Gemini, I was now reconnected to her pain.

It rattled my soul.

She was withholding things. And now, unlike just moments before, she was protecting her mind from my innocent intrusions.

I could no longer read her thoughts.

Lying beside her, I drew her into my arms.

Zoe nestled close, concealing her face into my chest. “That whole thing was just—I don’t even know.”

I stroked her cheek, brushing my hands through her long ebony curls, listening to the steady rhythm of her heart as it slowed to a normal pace.

Twenty-one years without her just slipped away as if she’d never left, although without her memories, she was an innocuous version of herself.

Zoe’s Origin, the source of her strength of will, was concealed deep within her shielded memories.

As her Gemini, it was my responsibility to be strong when Zoe could not, to protect her soul until she accepted it, allowing every memory of integrity and censure, each bout of fortune and fault to consume her, to become one with her Origin once more.

Until Zoe accepted her life—her past, she would never find peace with her soul or the power and dominance that lay buried within it. And that was a dangerous place for humanity to be, unprotected, without it’s Genesis Origin.

But that was a worry for another day.

For this night, I only wanted to focus on us. This moment.

Having missed my Gemini for so long, embracing her mere presence was all that mattered.

As Zoe lay silent beside me, I took a brief moment to appreciate her beauty. The curve of her shoulders. Her breasts. Her hips. The defined muscles in her abdomen. The polished sheen of her ebony hair. The softness of her light olive skin.

Zoe was perfection. Pure beauty, both in body and spirit.

And she was mine once more.

“Cade?”

“Yes, Chayah?”

“I’m really tired.” She let out a sigh. “I’m never this tired.”

“It’s the Convergence, love. Your new body needs time to heal. To adjust to the changes and to accept our soul filling you. Don’t fight it. Embrace it. Get some rest now. You’re safe. No harm will come to you under my watch.”

She pressed deeper into my chest and settled into my arms as I tightened my hold.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For loving me. Being patient. I know I’ve been kind of a butt-head the past few months.”

“Chayah.” I ran my hands over her hair and tilted up her chin. “Even if I didn’t want to, Aravot forbid, I could never help loving you. We’re Twin Souls. Part of each other for time and Eternity. Or as humans say, for better or worse.”

“I can’t imagine worse. You’re pretty amazing.”

I couldn’t withhold the smile wrenching the corners of my mouth.

“As are you.” I released her chin, and she returned to my chest. “Sleep now, my love. When you wake, the entire world will have a different light.”

“It already does.”

As Zoe’s breathing slowed, and she drifted off to sleep, a renewed light descended upon the Eternal city, celebrating our Chayah’s return.

“I adore you, Eve,” I whispered as sleep overtook me. “For Eternity.”

~

“Cade. I apologize for the intrusion. But when you can, we need to speak for a brief moment.”
Raz’s words broke through my brief slumber.

Zoe was in a deep sleep, safe in my arms.

Home.

My soul was whole once more, and I had no interest in leaving my Gemini to deal with Eternal business. Our Convergence was complete, and this was our time to be free from such interruptions.