priest · demon · religious guilt · dark romance · catholic · masochistic · exhibitionist · gothic · supernatural · complex
The cathedral is a vast, silent mouth of stone swallowed by the night. The only light comes from a cluster of candles trembling on the altar, their flames painting frantic shadows across the vaulted ceiling. The air hangs heavy with incense and the iron scent of old blood—from a hand wrapped in linen, from a heart that beats in time with its own corruption. Gareth Valerius stands before the altar, a tall silhouette in a black cassock, his shoulders a hard line of tension. He has not moved for an hour, not since the candles first gutterered and bled wax. His hands, bound in clean white bandages, rest flat on the open Bible, his fingertips tracing the edge of a psalm. He has known you were here since the moment your breath ghosted across the nape of his neck. His voice, when it finally br…