Chapter 174: A Lovely Time Spent with Lucy (18+)
He looked at the others. "Hold this ridge. Watch the gates. Do not engage unless they come to us first. Lucy is with me."
Vespera gave a small nod. Serakel’s third eye dimmed in quiet understanding. Isha smiled, soft for once. The Reverend Mother Superior simply turned her attention toward the Black Maw, already calculating lines of approach.
Levi led Lucy away from the group, down a narrow cut in the volcanic glass that opened onto a sheltered ledge. Heat rose from the stone, but a natural overhang kept the worst of the red glow away. Below them the land fell into shadow. Above them the dark of Neverland stretched without stars.
Lucy leaned her back against the warm glass and crossed her arms, waiting. Her blade rested within easy reach, as always.
Levi stood in front of her.
"Tell me," he said. "Why did you follow the Slime Goddess?"
Lucy’s snake eyes narrowed slightly, not in anger but in memory. For a long moment she said nothing. When she finally spoke, her voice was quieter than usual.
"I did not start as hers."
She uncrossed her arms and let one hand rest against the warm stone.
"I was born in a border court that no longer exists. Half-demon. Half something the pure-bloods never bothered to name. My mother sold me to a fighting pit when I was still small enough to be thrown across a room. I learned to cut before I learned to read. I learned that loyalty was just another word people used until the price got high enough."
Levi stayed silent, letting her set the pace.
Lucy’s gaze drifted toward the distant red glow of the Black Maw.
"I killed my way out of that pit when I was sixteen. Spent the next few years selling my blade to anyone who could pay in food, steel, or a safe place to sleep for a night. I was good at it. Too good. Eventually I attracted the wrong kind of attention from things that liked collecting sharp, angry girls."
She exhaled through her nose.
"The Slime Goddess found me after a job went bad. I had three broken ribs, a poisoned cut, and a price on my head large enough to make every low hunter in the middle dark come looking. Isha did not offer kindness. She offered a contract. Serve her, carry her mark, and the hunters would stop. Refuse, and she would leave me there to bleed out and be sold in pieces."
Lucy’s mouth twisted in something that was not quite a smile.
"I took the contract. Not because I trusted her. Because I was tired of running. She gave me a place. A purpose that was not just the next paid kill. She let me keep my blade and my temper. In return I became one of her riders, then one of her enforcers. I followed her because she was the first power that did not try to break me into something softer. She used what I already was."
She finally looked straight at Levi.
"When you claimed her, the mark changed. The old contract burned away. What replaced it felt... different. Cleaner. I could have fought it. Part of me wanted to, just to see if I still could. But I watched how you handled her. How you handled the others. You did not need me to become smaller. So I stayed. That is the whole of it."
Levi stepped closer. The golden light of the Sovereign Domain stayed soft around them, private.
"You stayed because you chose to."
"Yes."
He reached up and brushed a strand of gray-white hair from her cheek. Lucy did not pull away.
"Good," he said.
The word landed between them with quiet weight. Lucy’s snake eyes searched his face for a moment longer. Then the sharp edge she usually carried eased.
Levi cupped the back of her neck and kissed her.
It was not a claiming kiss. It was slower. Deeper. Lucy made a low sound in her throat and answered it, hands rising to rest against his chest. The heat of the volcanic glass under their feet was nothing compared to the heat that built between them.
He undressed her with care. The combat suit fell away piece by piece until she stood bare on the warm stone, full breasts rising with each breath, the gold mark at her throat glowing softly. Levi shed his own robe and let it drop. His cock was already hard, but he did not rush.
He laid her down on the folded fabric and followed her. His mouth traced the line of her jaw, the curve of her throat, the soft weight of her breasts. Lucy’s fingers threaded into his hair as he kissed lower, taking his time. When his tongue finally found the heat between her thighs she exhaled a long, trembling breath and opened for him.
Levi licked her slowly, thoroughly, until her hips began to move against his mouth and soft, unguarded sounds left her. Only when her thighs tightened around his head and her back arched did he rise up over her again.
He entered her in one smooth, deep stroke.
Lucy’s eyes fluttered closed. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Levi moved inside her with steady, rolling thrusts, each one unhurried and complete. The wet heat of her body welcomed him. Gold light from both of their marks pulsed in quiet rhythm.
They did not speak. There was no need. The conversation had already said everything that required words.
Levi kept the pace deliberate and deep, watching her face, adjusting the angle when her breath caught, slowing when she needed him deeper, grinding when she needed pressure. Lucy met every movement. Her legs locked around his waist. Her hands mapped the muscles of his back as if memorizing them.
When her climax came it was long and quiet, a full-body shudder that pulled him with her. Levi followed a moment later, burying himself to the hilt and spilling deep inside her with a low groan. They stayed joined while the aftershocks faded, foreheads resting together, breath shared in the warm dark.
Lucy’s voice returned first, soft and almost wry.
"That was... different."
Levi brushed his lips against her temple. "You deserved different."
She was quiet for a while, fingers tracing idle patterns on his shoulder. Then she gave a small, genuine smile.
"I am still going to stab the first demon in the Black Maw who looks at you wrong."
"I would be disappointed if you did not."
They remained on the ledge a little longer, bodies still tangled, the distant red glow of the Black Maw waiting without urgency. For the first time since entering Neverland, the next fight could wait.