Kiss of Fate

by Heather Long

  Tears gathered in my eyes, and a moment before it all became too much, he let go of the nipple and blood and tingles rushed back. Breath coming in sharp, short pants, I swayed at the sudden sensation. Particularly when he only rubbed the calloused pads of his fingers against the abused nipple which had become a thousand times more sensitive.

  “Clamps, Beauty. You would look exquisite in clamps.”

  A shudder rippled up my spine. He tightened his grip on my hair, and it sent heat tingling over my scalp all over again. Like a drowning woman finding a first gasp of real air, I surfaced and the lust crashed into me. Lust and need running a hot, side-by-side race.

  “Grip the wall.” The order resonated, and even through my splintering thoughts, I had enough focus to grip the wall on either side of the coffee cup. My shorts vanished, but the brush of his wings teasing me was almost too much.

  When I would have pushed away to turn, the flat of his palm collided with my ass. The hot sting jolted my whole system.

  “Don’t let go,” he ordered. My knuckles went white as I held on. He massaged the spot he’d struck. Then he slapped the other cheek. Another jolt that went straight to my pussy. Feathers tickling me, his large hands cupping before he slapped me, then the gentle massage that spread the heat out. One of my nipples was a tortured sensual ache and the other almost as painfully sensitive for its neglect.

  Tarus was at my side, bracing me, and then the spanks came in fast succession, almost too fast to record. Every fourth or fifth, sometimes second, so inconsistent I couldn’t track, he would pause to massage away the pain and spread the heat out. I swore I creamed my thighs with how wet I was.

  A plea for him to just fuck me already seemed glued to my tongue. Whatever Tarus was intent on doing stormed my system and took over. As swiftly as the spanking had begun, it ended, and he stood there with one hand on my abdomen, fingers just touching my pubic curls, and the other pressed against my ass.

  Tears slipped down my face as I tried to catch my breath.

  “Beauty,” he whispered, and I tilted my head back as if he’d fisted my hair all over again. I could die in the darkness swirling in his eyes and die happy. “I have you,” he promised, then finally grazed his palm down over my pussy, two fingers parting the labia and circling my clit. My hips jerked at the first yank of that sensual rope, but he kept going until he’d slid those thick, blunt fingers inside of me and pressed the heel of his hand to my clit. He froze there, both of us poised—him with a wicked smile, and me near begging.

  “Come,” he beckoned, and then his hand struck my ass again as he ground his heel against my clit. The plunge of his fingers sliding deeper before he curled them, and I writhed. My body had a mind of its own, and I came, a scream breaking free as I wept from it. I’d never been so aware of someone. Never been so aware of every part of me. It was like flying and being grounded in the now.

  Alive.

  Everything split apart, then came back together, only he wasn’t done. Another grind, and he pushed me from one shattering orgasm to the next, and the warmth of his thumb pressed right against my anus, the tight puckered hole unprepared for even the slightest pressure, and it set me off again.

  My next scream muffled as he kissed me, really, really fucking kissed me. I swore I could see colors and taste music. The stroke of his feathers just added to the sensation as pleasure wracked me.

  I died all over again.

  Fuck was it like the second best death ever.

  A warm, large hand smoothed sweat-soaked hair from my face. I hummed in satisfaction but had zero energy to do anything else. Never had I imagined sharing this kind of pleasure with anyone. Well, I hadn’t exactly shared it because this was a one-way street right now, but you got the idea.

  “How are you feeling, Beauty?” Strong arms slid under my body, turning me until I was cradled in his arms.

  “Mmm. Perfect.” I snuggled into his chest.

  “Still thinking about going flying today?” He murmured against my head.

  “Hell yeah. Every minute to its fullest, right?”

  “Then let’s go. Your shorts and panties are here, so no need to venture back into the bedroom. There’s nothing stopping us.” He sat forward a little bit, jostling me on his lap.

  “Ha!” I laughed. “You know Seth is going to have a conniption if he realizes you finally gave me that afternoon turned morning delight? If you just steal away with me, yeah no. Zhan and Seth would both go ballistic.” I traced a triangular pattern over his chest, savoring the hard, toned muscles beneath my fingers.

  “We’ll leave a note.” He helped me to my feet, and damn, the breeze was cool on my ass cheeks. I really did need to get dressed. Something just felt off, like if the wind could touch it, then everyone could see it.

  Fuck it, I had a beautiful body, and I wasn’t going to hide it. I said that to myself as I picked up my underwear and shorts. Even though I had no shame, the draft was still weird.

  “And what exactly is this note going to say?” I said as I wiggled the thin material up my thighs. “This is not a Dahlia-napping? Just a Dahlia-outing? Be back soon. Don’t follow us?” It was hard to keep the snicker out of my voice.

  He smirked as he stretched his well-defined arms over his head and his beautiful white wings out as far as they would go. The little growly noise that escaped him started the fire in the pit of my stomach all over again. Damn Seth for caring about me. Actually, not at all, it was nice to finally have a man who put my life over his own pleasure.

  “That’s pretty close. Grab your shoes while I get the notepad.”

  Following him inside, I picked out a pair of cute slip on sneakers for this little outing. They would be snug enough to stay on while we flew and good for any terrain, in case he was feeling generous and showed me some of Domum.

  A girl could hope. I could also hope that Seth and Zhan didn’t track us down like rabid animals, but I was being realistic.

  It had taken about two seconds to get my shoes on, so I joined him while he was still writing at the counter. I slipped up beside him to see what he’d written, and nearly busted a lung trying not to laugh.

  Seth and Zhan,

  Dahlia asked to fly today, and I could never refuse her. Don’t worry, I’ll have her back within two hours, or you have my permission to track us down. It’s 9 am right now.

  Tarus

  “Okay, so it’s eight in the morning, not nine.”

  He winked and dropped the pen on the counter. “I know, but they’re out cold. They won’t be up before half past nine. I was surprised when you left the bed so early this morning.”

  I shrugged, a bit of seriousness leaking back into my reality. Weeks left at this point, two maybe three. I wanted to see and experience as much as I could. When I left the Earth this time, I was going with no regrets.

  “Just felt like it.”

  Wavy locks of sandy brown hair obscured his gaze. Still, I could feel him trying to peel the layers back, to understand what made me tick.

  “All right, Beauty. Let’s go. The longer we stand here, the more we court getting caught.” He snagged a few of my fingers with his and led me back toward the balcony.

  “I thought you said they’d be asleep for at least an hour or so more?” I grinned at his back, my heart starting to race in anticipation of flying again.

  Seth had held me close and showed me the fun side of flying, taking lazy turns in the sky and sweeping low over some of their most beautiful architecture. That was until Zhan made it his mission to scare the living shit out of me.

  In hindsight, even that had been fun, like the most thrilling roller coaster in existence.

  Would Tarus be fun? Serious?

  Since Seth had decided to let them stay, I constantly watched their interactions. And the more time passed, the more I realized I wanted to know just a little bit more about these men. Sure, the draw was the potential explosive sex, and with so little time left, why the hell wouldn’t that be the driver behind my d
ecisions?

  But not only did I want them to fix their relationship, so I could go happily into the afterlife, but I wanted to capture a little bit of the happiness for myself. I wasn’t talking about sexual pleasure, not that I didn’t want plenty of that before I just stopped existing. What I wanted was something of substance, a few meaningful connections worth more than wild lust or this intense physical connection we’d shared.

  “Okay, where do you want me?” I held up my arms. I had essentially hugged Seth, but Tarus might like to fly a different way.

  He pushed his hair out of his face and slung an arm around my waist, holding me to him. “I’m not sure how Seth took you flying the last time, but it must have been awkward. Wrap your arms around my neck.”

  I chuckled, and did what he asked. He probably thought Seth carried me by my feet or something. “Got it. My hands are locked.”

  His knees bent, and then with a powerful beat of his wings, we lifted into a perfect vertical take-off. When Seth took me out, he had hopped onto the wall and jumped into a glide before taking us higher.

  “Whoop!” I screamed, laughing as the wind kissed my face, wrapping my legs around his torso. I could already tell he’d be a wild ride.

  “Shh,” Tarus whispered right into my ear. “Now I bet they’re awake.” He sighed like I was the biggest pain in his ass.

  It didn’t matter. I was flying!

  The world was so different from this perspective, smaller, but much more vast than I’d ever thought. It didn’t make sense, but that’s the feeling that I got in the arms of an angel.

  This morning, the sky was painted in warm peach and soft violet, and all the colors in between like an exquisite watercolor palette. Everywhere the sun touched glowed a light honeyed orange. It was like looking out over an old but wealthy town in Spain or maybe Italy.

  Beautiful.

  “Hold on,” he yelled as he took a deep dive. The air whistled around us as we gained speed, heading right toward one of the beautiful towers with a very sharp spire on top.

  “Tarus.” I squeezed him tighter.

  He didn’t answer, continuing on his downward descent, but the sharp, gleaming metal was getting closer and closer.

  “Fuck, Tarus, this isn’t the way I’m supposed to go out!” I screamed, and buried my face in his neck. Some people looked death in the face, I’d prefer for mine to sneak up behind, or better yet, come get me while I was sleeping so I’d never know the wiser.

  His laugh vibrated through his chest as he angled up at the last minute, pulling us away from danger. Tarus was a daredevil of an angel, and I loved every second of our flight. We screamed—or I screamed— and laughed so much, it was a wonder other angels didn’t shoot us down for disturbing their morning.

  The majority of angelkind seemed to enjoy sleeping in. I counted exactly two angels flying in the distance.

  We must have flown around the sky for a solid hour before he went past the city, over the rolling hills. Vibrant blue water sparkled in the distance, and it wasn’t long until we were hovering over staggering cliffs.

  With more care than I thought he was capable of, he softly floated us down to the middle of the cliff. When I say that, I mean the middle of the freaking wall of jagged rock.

  “Uh, Tarus, this is dangerous.” I gripped the hair at the base of his neck so hard, he was definitely coming away from this experience with bald patches.

  “Look, right over there.” He pointed to a section about ten feet from us. Gently flapping his wings, he got us closer until a cave appeared.

  Silly me, I hadn’t realized there was anything more than acute pain and gruesome death on this wall.

  The cave entrance was actually tall and wide enough to fit three angels through. How had I not seen that on the way down?

  I stepped away from him as soon as our feet hit the packed dirt. The huge grin on my face had been a permanent fixture for the last hour. It was probably even there when I thought we were going to crash into the rock.

  “Did you have fun, Beauty?” Tarus didn’t let me get two feet away before he caught me in his arms, holding me in a loose hug.

  “Hell. Yes.” I smiled up at him. “That was amazing. I totally see why the human population doesn’t know you exist. Not only are you all insanely gorgeous, but you can fly. Humans would instantly want what you have and start a riot. It would probably be the new age version of the Salem witch trials.” I was babbling, I couldn’t help it. There was so much adrenaline coursing through my body, it had to level out somehow.

  “I don’t think we’d have to worry about that. One, we can mask our presence, and two, our grace is far beyond anything they can comprehend, and they have nothing that could match that in power.” There was no smugness in his words, just simple truth. It also gave me a small bit of pleasure that I wasn’t grouped in with them. “Come, let’s sit on the edge for the time we have left.”

  It was a damn good thing I had never been afraid of heights, because this drop was a couple hundred feet at least. Tarus held my hand while I sat down, then somehow, he took the spot next to me without hitting me with a wing or accidentally pushing me off. I was impressed, but then again, he’d lived with wings all of his life.

  “So Tarus, you fell right?” There was probably a more tactful way to ask that.

  He glanced at me with more curiosity than offense. “How much have you learned about the fall?”

  “Well, not much. Only that you and your brother turned your back on your duty. And that Seth wants to bring you back to the good side.” Okay, so Seth had never said that, but this was step one of helping them build the bridge.

  He laughed bitterly, leaning back on his hands. “I highly doubt Seth said anything of the like, but nice try, Beauty.”

  “Fine, maybe he didn’t say it, but I know deep down he misses you and Zhan.”

  “Right,” he drew out.

  “Tell me why you did it.” Before I could help, I needed to understand exactly what had happened and their motives. There was a chance the entire thing would be too complex for me to understand. I mean, they were a race as old as time with more power than I could fathom, right? But motives were the same for everyone. Greed, lust, fear. I could understand those.

  He was quiet for a moment, whether to collect his words or reflect on exactly why he had made that decision. Maybe he didn’t even really know why.

  “Did Seth tell you about our grace?” He grabbed my hand, holding it on his thigh.

  “Yes, and that he’s Judgment.” I nodded.

  His eyes widened at the admission. “Wow, I can’t believe he actually told you that… We all have a different grace. A different job if you will, among humankind. The three of us, Seth, Zhan, and I have intertwining graces. Seth casts the judgment. What I do, I decide the punishment and carry it out. That is my grace.” He took a deep breath. “Have you ever hit a moment in your life when you wonder if what you’re doing is truly meaningful? Is it the right decision for you?”

  No, but if I had lived, I would have thought that about Alex. After he brutally put his hands on me, I couldn’t have made any more excuses for him.

  “I think I was getting there,” I smiled wryly. “If Seth hadn’t needed to extend my life, I would have realized there were better things in the world for me. Now, I’ll just have to live with what the world has to give me while I’m here.”

  Tarus closed his eyes as if he were in pain. He squeezed my hand so hard, my bones ground together, but I gritted my teeth, refusing to intrude on his moment. Whatever was happening in his head, I let him work it out on his own.

  “Fuck, now I have to explain it to you. I need you to know why I didn’t intervene.” When he opened his eyes, the black of his pupil nearly swallowed his entire iris. Only a small ring of dark brown remained. “We were machines. Our graces are a living thing inside of us, like a compulsion, demanding to be satisfied. We had gone millennia carrying out our duty, but with every life we saved, two more died. What was worse, of
ten the ones we did save would die soon after anyway. Freak accident, murder, fatal genetic disease. Zhan and I, we would get too attached sometimes. See good things in people and want them to survive, only to be crushed when they didn’t.

  “After a while, it seemed like our graces were pointless. In the grand scheme of the world, what good did we actually do if it was wiped away so easily? It’s Zhan’s story to tell, but we eventually reached a breaking point. And one day…we just walked away.”

  “Just like that?” I didn’t believe that for one second. If his grace was a strong compulsion, it would have been impossible to stop it.

  “Well, not just like that.”

  16

  Whenever I used to hear ‘fall from grace,’ I thought it was settling into evil, or tossing your morals out the window. What I’d never suspected was that one could fall from grace because they’d developed their own twisted sense of right and wrong. I didn’t know if I should be impressed or pissed off. Because, you know, it cost me my life. - Dahlia

  Dahlia

  Feet dangling, I turned over what Tarus told me. Granted, it wasn’t much, but he’d gone quiet. Slanting a look at him, I studied his profile. The slope of his nose, the tension in his jaw, the unshaven shadow of growth along his cheek. Rough. He was the kind of guy I’d have looked at across the room, but I’d have been wary to approach.

  Not because he wasn’t attractive, but there was a darkness there. An edge of danger that while sexy as fuck—as my still sore ass could attest to—was also potentially a threat. Playing it safe always seemed the better idea. But if I’d met him just now? Without all of the complicated history? I’d probably buy him a drink and invite him into the bathroom at Sinner’s for a quickie against the wall.