Burn

CHAPTER 20

TRIGGER WARNING: sexual references (super tame and essentially a fade to black, but thought I'd just pop this here :))
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Carter's world was on fire.

Everything was hot and sparking, laying waste to what remained of his life. He burned with it, so thoroughly he wasn't quite sure where he began and where he ended.

There were teeth and fangs and andskinskinsomuchskin-

They drew away with a gasp, cleaving apart so suddenly Carter's head spun with the abrupt absence of Ryu's searing flesh.

A cool draft rushed over him, skittering along his skin, and only then did he truly perceive the patchwork of blisters covering his forearms, his chest, along his lips and across his face.

When he glanced back across the bed, Ryu was still staring, bare chest rising and falling with each sharp breath. Inky droplets spilled across his crimson skin, blood pooling in every crevice, bleeding into Carter's sheets.

He found he didn't mind. There was something beautiful about Ryu in that moment, a beauty Carter had never quite comprehended. It was still primal, still demonic-but there was a fragility about this version of him, bathed in moonlight and splattered in his own blood.

Carter wondered just when he'd become so deranged.

"Ryu..." he murmured, edging back across the bed. His fingers shook as he hovered over the demon's face, thumb glancing over his lips like a flint against stone.

"You're hurt," Ryu said. There was a tremble about him, muscles strewn tight and tense as a bow.

"You're hurt worse," Carter argued.

"I'll heal." He lifted one shoulder in an impassive shrug. "Aren't you in pain?"

"So much," Carter whispered. Ryu's breath fanned across his neck, and he tilted his head for better access. "My skin is on fire. I can barely feel my fingers. Everything hurts."

"We should stop," Ryu rasped against his jaw.

"We should."

Their lips surged together and broke apart almost immediately, both wincing in pain.

"We don't have to do this," Ryu argued again.

This time Carter drew back enough to look Ryu fully into the face. Already he could feel his skin healing by way of the spell, knitting swiftly back together. Ryu, he knew, would heal slower. "Do you not want to? Because that's okay. We can stop."

But Ryu's gaze never left his face, and when he spoke, it was so much vehemence it sent a trail of shivers down Carter's spine.

"I've never wanted to stop anything less in my entire existence."

Which could've been any stretch of time, really, but Ryu's taloned hand against the nape of his neck was like a brand, and Carter was helpless against the wave of heat and tortuously sweet pain.

After that it wasn't long before all remaining layers were shed. With their defences lowered and their truths bared, one became two-with the occasional separation to heal and catch their breaths.

It wasn't heaven, and it wasn't hell.

It was something in-between.

A/N: Please feel free leave a comment and/or vote if you enjoyed!