When Ravyn began returning to consciousness at the next sunset, her first sensation was that of relief. Her body once again felt whole again, once again felt like her own again. A smile touched her lips as her green eyes fluttered open. There she found Eliot next to her, laying on his side, head propped on his hand, as he smiled back down at her as well.

“You still sleep like the dead, Ravyn Howard, or is it Ravyn Bonaparte? We did get married once after all,” he chuckled as he gently kissed her forehead.

“Bonaparte does sound a bit more exotic,” she told him, wrinkling her nose as his shoulder length curls brushed her cheek.

“I suppose that is true,” he agreed.

“And you’re one to talk about my sleeping habits,” she teased.

“Given, we are both supposed to actually be dead, aren’t we?”

“Given,” she repeated his word with a smile, “you are prone to breaking all sorts of laws of nature.”

“Even before I was a mage. I’m very scandalous, you know,” he continued as he placed another kiss on her cheek.

“That must be why I like you... Though I suppose the saving my very life part helped a lot too,” she added with another grin.

“You’re so very welcome, mon amour,” he whispered as he kissed her lips instead this time. After continuing that kiss for several dizzying moments, he spoke again, “So are you officially completely healed now? Just out of... curiosity,” he couldn’t help adding with a bit of mischief.

Ravyn smiled up at him again before moving her hands to pull the front of her dress down to just nearly fully expose her breasts, “Not a mark left, apparently.”

“Maybe I should inspect further though, just to be sure,” he whispered as he moved to spread even more kisses over the swell of her breasts.

Leaning her head back with a contented sigh at the feel of his lips on her skin again after far too long, Ravyn then took pause as she finally noted that they were no longer in that cellar they had spent the last few months of their lives hiding out in.

“Eliot...”

“Mm?” he murmured as he had just begun untying the laces at the front of her dress.

“We’re not in the cellar anymore.”

He chuckled against her breasts as he turned his pools of brown back to her face again, “I figured we could both use a break from that place.”

“Are we...” she looked around the now darkened room as she pushed herself up onto her elbows.

“Home,” he stated simply.

“Home?” she asked with a moment of panic, “As in the one right across from my club?”

“Do you have a third house I don’t know about?” he teased.

“Is this safe though. I mean, everyone in the city thinks we’re dead, right?”

“Which is why it’s highly doubtful that anyone will come looking for us, no?” he reasoned.

“But, is it?”

“Did you forget, darling?” he began as he moved to sit up, pulling her closer as he did, “I am very, very good.... at wards,” he added in the same playful but unmistakably sultry tone.

“Wards huh?” she smirked, her desire for him making her want to believe his claims of safety would be true enough, at least for one night.

“Yes, let’s go with that,” Eliot returned breathily as he gave into all those years that they had gone without each other’s touch, and began unbuttoning his shirt.

As the two of them continued their passionate kisses, Ravyn began ridding herself of the clothing that Connor had apparently returned to her after he had finished operating on her the previous day.

It didn’t take long before they had discarded all their clothing, and were now laying together, wrapped in one another’s arms as their kisses continued. Eliot moved his lips away from hers only momentarily, “Are you sure you’re well enough to do this... so soon?” he breathed between fevered kisses.

“Soon?” she scoffed through her smile. “After how very long I had to live without you, it can’t be soon enough,” she whispered back, accenting her words by moving to push him onto his back, straddling his hips in the next motion.

“I would say that is enough evidence to support your claim,” he whispered as he felt that her body had already heated and become very ready to make love to him again at last, as his had been since moments into their first few kisses that night.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Ravyn smiled down at the fact that all those years apart hadn’t made him somehow stop feeling the attraction he had developed for her during their original years spent together. Regardless of how different his desires may have been before they had managed to claim each other’s hearts, and bodies, after all. Ravyn then leaned forward to give him one more kiss before moving to finally slide him inside her again, after far, far too long.

As their encounter continued that night, their positions had since changed. Eliot was now above Ravyn, entering her again and again, passionately, sensuously even. When her body began shaking in the most recent of several orgasms he had given her that night, he at last lost the iron grip on his own desires that he had just barely been holding onto throughout their lovemaking.

Another loud moan of pleasure escaped his lips as his seed poured into her. Feeling his heated breath upon her face in the moment of his own orgasm, Ravyn couldn’t help wrapping her arms more tightly around him and covering his trembling lips with hers in the aftermath of the peak he had just brought her to again as well.

His breathing still heavy, his heart racing against her breasts, the two found themselves looking into each other’s eyes there in the darkened bedroom they had not shared for so very long. Seeing the mutual passion in each other’s eyes, Ravyn couldn’t help the feeling that being with him was truly magical, as ironic as that even sounded in her own head.

Though she had many lovers over the centuries, and many moments of such pleasure, the man laying above her, and deep inside her too in that moment, was one of the only two of those lovers who had completely, truly loved her with no such bond to force that feeling upon him. For Eliot, that love for her was actually real. And that may be the very reason why what she felt for him was so real too. He truly was her second love. He truly had altered the paths of both their lives, and deaths, just as Minna had said he did.

Upon the realization of all those thoughts in her head, a tiny red tear escaped her eye, which he immediately noted with a soft smile down at her, “Ne pleure pas, ma chérie,” he whispered.

Ravyn couldn’t help smiling up at his words, so emotional was he in that moment as well, that he seemed to forget to translate them before they left his lips, which she luckily still had the ability to do in her head.

“They’re the farthest thing from tears of sadness,” she assured with another gentle kiss. “Je t’aime... so much,” she added with a shy smile as her limited knowledge of his own language failed her halfway through the sentence.

He returned her smile, “As words to learn go, those are some pretty good ones to start with,” he kissed her again. “And I love you, too.”

After hearing his words, Ravyn decided there was only one more thing that could make this night as passionate, and completely fulfilling as it could possibly be. With one more smile up at him, she moved to sink her fangs into his neck, causing that wave of perfect pleasure to engulf them both.

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As they lay there together, later that night, still holding one another, and stroking each other’s jet colored locks, Eliot couldn’t stop letting out a quiet, though heavy sigh.

“No, no, Eliot,” Ravyn said worriedly as she turned her face to his.

“I didn’t say anything,” he stammered as he looked back at her. “Or are you referring to something in my head?” he asked worriedly.

“No, I’m not reading your thoughts, but that’s the same noise you make when you’re about to leave me for a decade or three,” she told him, the hurt clear in her tone.

Eliot attempted a small laugh to try to reassure her, but chose to speak instead as her eyes were still filled with fear. “Honest, that isn’t what I was going to suggest... exactly,” he added more quietly.

“Exactly?” she asked, her volume raising.

He let out another sigh as he propped his head on his hand again, “Now hear me out. Summer suggested that we should probably still at least speak to Hollister now that you have been officially saved,” he began warily.

Ravyn couldn’t help a sound of sad disbelief, but had to dissect his words. “One, I thought you said Summer fulfilled that promise.”

“Yes, she has had to be at his magical beck and call since leaving America twenty or so years ago. Which is why we may not have to worry about the aforementioned promise after all. But considering, it’s Hollister, erring on the side of caution would probably be wise,” he explained softly.

Ravyn just shook her head, “Two, practically the whole world thinks we’re dead now, which is kind of the only reason that Baron and Awsha have finally decided to go find some other people to torture,” she argued.

“Yes, I had that same argument. But if he ever were to find out that we had been hiding the fact that we are not quite dead, do we really want Hollister as our enemy instead?”

Ravyn sighed, not able to disagree that that would be a highly dangerous position to find themselves in, which could also have far-reaching effects on certain other people she cared about still as well.

“And three,” she began, her voice slightly softer, “We? Aren’t you the one who he has some use for, not me?” she finished more quietly.

He gave her another tiny kiss through his smiling lips, “Darling, I would be utterly useless to him if I had to leave you behind even one more time,” he whispered with another soft kiss.

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A few nights later, Eliot had managed to blink all their pertinent belongings, as well as themselves to the London home he had been living in for the past three decades. After all, even with all the technology that this new century had brought with it, that was still the fastest way to travel, if one was a mage.

When they did actually arrive at Hollister’s extravagant home once more, Hollister was not the only one waiting there in the main hall to meet them.

“So much for having as few people as possible find out that we’re decidedly not dead,” Eliot whispered into Ravyn’s ear.

They both choked down a lump in their throats upon stepping into the room that had been Hollister’s throne room when Ravyn, or rather, Claire, had visited before she and Sean’s unplanned departure from England during the wonderful reign of Mary II.

Standing there in the expansive hall were several of the acquaintances that Ravyn had made during her various years spent in England. There was Hollister of course, who was now moving to greet them with a self-satisfied grin. But also present were Aidan, Nicolas, Daniel, and even Tasie, who all beamed over at Ravyn, their relief at finding that she was still alive after all, clear on all their faces.

That was when Hollister stepped in close to Ravyn to give her a polite kiss on the cheek. Though, he also took the opportunity to whisper into her ear then, “Perhaps I should have asked you to meet me in my bedchamber instead. I feel rather left out in this crowd,” he added with a smirk that surely would have caused a blush to rise to Ravyn’s cheeks if such a thing had ever been possible. He then stepped back from her again, and continued as though he had made no such comment, “So Ravyn is it?” another smirk, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, darling.” He then turned his eyes back to Eliot. “We all have so much to discuss.”