The Devil You Don't [Explicit]
Chapter 44: The Sacred Secret
Well i mashed this bastard of a chapter out all in one go, and this time we get a rare Raphael PoV. Mr Wincott I sincerely apologise for likely butchering your character, but boy it was fun to write.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/53433709/chapters/165735019
Did she understand how hard it had been the first time he had wrapped his body around her exhausted frame and coaxed her into taking comfort? How it had torn at his very nature to do it, and how starved he became for the gesture of her sleeping trust when he had? Did her infuriatingly complex nature comprehend how the most primal aspects of his hellish nature constantly demanded he sink his teeth into her flesh and consume her again and again until she would belong to him in a way no other mortal or devil could touch?
No, she did not. And nor would she, because above all else, he would never relinquish that illusion of control. She must always fear his anger and retribution, to allow otherwise was to let her understand a power over him that should never have been allowed to flourish. The ritual had asked much of her, but it had wrenched its own price from him too, a price that sat both sweet, bitter and unfamiliar on his tongue and in his heart. It was a mortal’s price, and that enraged him, even while he was forced to accept that it was the price he had to pay for that one chance to have everything he wanted.
The artwork in my wee scrappy banner of course belongs to the lovely @littleplasticrat and is used with their permission. So please go take a look at her work while you're on the Raphael train, as it's well worth it!