Luc met his eyes.
“Michael.”
“Lucifer Morningstar. I have missed you.” Michael had no artifice on his face. He looked like the pleasant man Cady had met at the Lego store. “Acerezeal. You are a sight for sore eyes. Come,” he beckoned me closer. I went. You didn’t turn down Michael’s requests, no matter how congenial he seemed. He cupped both my cheeks, his face shining with genuine happiness. “Ah, Arcadia is here too,” he said, looking past me.
It is nice to see you again, sir.
“Psh. Michael, if you please.” He looked toward Lucifer. “Shall we sit?” He indicated a park bench under an old oak tree.
We followed behind the Archangel, and you could see the warrior in his stance. In the corded muscles of his back, in the way he held his wings poised. The way he accommodated for the Sword of Heaven at his side. He radiated power. We sat down on the bench, and I perched on the fence a few feet away.
“They all refused your request then?”
Lucifer nodded. “Despite her worthiness, none were willing to defy God’s word.”
Michael nodded sadly. “I did not think they would. Though I wondered if perhaps Raphael would. He is going through a period of doubt, as we all do from time to time, though he never voices this. It would break the Father's heart to have another of his Archangels fall. He still laments your loss, daily.”
Luc gave a non-committal grunt.
I went and knelt at Michael’s knee. A sign of respect that we afforded all Archangels. I still knelt at Luc’s knee, but usually he wasn’t wearing pants and my mouth was busy.
Seriously? You are thinking about that now? Givin-
I interrupted her. Everyone can hear your thoughts. Zip it.
Both Luc and Michael looked amused. I can only imagine what they thought she was about to say. I looked at Michael, and then bowed my head in reverence.
“Archangel. Would you consider righting this wrong? She does not belong in the body of an angel, but she does not deserve for her life to be cut short either. Please,” I begged. I wasn’t above begging anymore.
Michael looked to Lucifer, although he put a finger beneath my chin to lift my face. “Stand, Acerezeal. Lucifer. Do you request this also?”
Luc nodded. “There is little I wouldn't do for Acerezeal, as you know.”
Michael’s lips twisted into a smile. “Indeed.”
Luc was unapologetic. “And I feel that Arcadia has been caught up in something she had no control over. Her fate was not preordained, it has no use in the Wheel of Fate. She needs to be returned to live out her life.”
Michael looked out into the distance. It was a perfect day. The sun was shining, and everything seemed to be teeming with life. I watched his face as he contemplated. Then he shrugged. “Okay.”
He punched a fist toward my chest. The pain was incredible as Arcadia’s soul was torn from my body.
ACE!
Then Arcadia was gone. I stood, looking around to see if her soul was ascending, but it was gone. She was just gone.
“What did you do!”
Michael shook his head sadly. “What you asked. I put her soul back in her body. Her fate is once again up to human medicine. But if she dies, there is no last minute deals with the Devil this time. She dies, she goes straight to heaven. I will not be tested again.” His face turned from serene to scary.
Scary Michael was just as terrifying as Lucifer on a bad day. No one wanted that shit.
Still, Arcadia was back in her body. I threw myself in Michael’s arms. “Thank you. I know that this was a more difficult decision than you let on,” I whispered in his ear.
He squeezed me back. “I owed her one for returning you to the light, even if you chose to stay down in that cesspool of sin with Lucifer.” He was smiling, and there was no malice in his words. He was...teasing me? Today was a weird ass day all around.
Luc stood, moving towards us. “I owe you one, Michael.”
Michael appraised him much in the same way Luc appraised others. “Yes. I may collect one day. But then, maybe not. It is not good to make deals with the Devil, no?”
They shook hands as I bounced on my toes. I needed to see if Michael was telling the truth. Not that I thought he was lying, but I needed to see it for myself.
Michael laughed. “I know, I know. Off you go now. Tell Arcadia I shall be by to see her sometime. Maybe I’ll bring her flowers. That’s the human gesture, isn’t it?”
I laughed and waved as I sifted to the hospital.
Some of my good humor seeped away when I got to the hospital and saw her lying there in the hospital bed. She still looked grey and small against the white sheets, as close to death as you could get while still making the heart monitor beep. All her hair had fallen out and she had tubes and cables hooked up to nearly every part of her body.
Eli was at her bedside, his hand wrapped in hers.
“Eli.” He turned at the sound of my voice. “I did it.”
He stood, the hard plastic chair scraping against the linoleum floor. “She’s back in there?”
I strode forward, putting my hands on her head. She was in a hazy dream land, her consciousness not as alert as it had been inside me. She was comatose, but her soul was in her body.
“Yes. She’s in there. We did it.”
Eli’s smile slipped. “You did it. I’ve failed.”
That was when I noticed his red rimmed eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s dying.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Well, duh. She’s been dying most of her life. You are meant to be fixing her,” I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but failed. It was weird not having Arcadia there, in my head, chastising me for my harsh words, or trying to get me to soothe Eli’s obviously wounded heart.
“I can’t find her a heart. Oz insisted that she would hate getting one from the black market, and no matter who we bribe, we can’t get her to the top of the list. She has an uncommon blood type which is making it hard to match her. The cancer is responding too slowly to the chemo and it's going to come down to taking the risk on whether her body can take it if we operate too early or with a make-up heart. A gamble. The life of my love rests on a gamble. Too soon and she dies. Too late and she dies. I just can’t.”
Dude was spiraling. I didn’t know what to do. WWAD? What would Arcadia do? I was probably going to hell for that one.
Whoops, too late.
“You will do it. You have to. I will help. Clary will help. The guys will help. You aren’t in this alone.” Ergh. Probably not quite as empathetic as I should be. “You need to go home. Take a break. Have a shower, because you smell like old feet. Then we’ll make a plan. I’ll stay here with her so she isn’t alone.”
I didn't want to tell him that I was feeling a little weird without her. We’d been two halves of a whole for so long. He nodded and left, and I moved his chair back towards the bed. I touched her head, now devoid of hair, and ran my thumb over her temple. I wanted to rely on modern medicine, on Eli’s medical knowledge and Tolliver’s money. I wanted to have faith. But I didn’t. I closed my eyes and laid my head on the edge of her bed.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled against her shoulder. “This is all my fault. If it hadn’t been for me and my big mouth, my inability to follow any rules, you wouldn’t be in this position. Sure, you might have been a bank teller with a drinking problem, but your life and death would have been of your own making.”
I sighed and let my thoughts roll around and around in my head until I fell asleep. That was how Memphis found me. Sleeping alone for the first time in twenty years.
I woke up in heaven. Well, it was actually hell, but I was surrounded by the naked bodies of three extremely attractive fallen angels, and if that wasn’t heaven, what was?
We were in Luc’s bed, and the man himself was acting as my pillow. Somehow Gusion was asleep on my thigh, my other leg thrown over his ribs. He was literally five inches from giving me a ve
ry good morning.
Memphis was next to me, his hand on my hip. When I looked up into his face, I realized he was awake too.
“Hey,” I whispered, and it came out rougher, sexier, than I’d intended.
“Good morning, Acerezeal.” With his eyes hooded like that, his hair all tousled, he looked delicious.
“Did you bring me home?”
He nodded. I moved my head off of Luc’s and scooted closer to Memphis. I pressed myself closer to him, my chest against his. “Thank you.”
He shrugged, then kissed me. It was so unlike him that I was momentarily shocked. I mean, we’d had sex numerous times before, but I always initiated. Always made the first move. It made me wonder what had changed.
“I’ll always bring you home, Acerezeal.” His deep voice was weird, and I pulled back a little to take in his face.
“What’s going on right now? Have you been body snatched or something?” Seriously, I was confused.
A small smile curved his lips.
Yep, it was official. He was possessed. I leaned back and jabbed Luc in the ribs.
“Wake up, there’s something wrong with Memphis.”
Luc opened one eye. He looked between us both and closed it again.
“He looks fine to me, my love. Call me if he starts bleeding from the ears.”
Memphis’s body began to shake as he held in a laugh. A fucking laugh.
“Seriously, Luc. He’s laughing now. And smiling. Gus wake up, there’s something wrong with Memphis.”
I jiggled my leg and Gus sat up. His abs flexed and light blonde hair pointed its way down to his morning wood. I almost swallowed my tongue, but then Memphis laughed out loud again and brought me back to my point.
I pointed at him. “See!”
Luc opened both eyes and stared at Memphis. Then he closed them again and sighed. “He’s just happy, Ace. Go back to sleep.”
My mouth swung open. “When is Memphis anything but dark and brooding? Have I missed something?”
Gus climbed up my body, bracketing me with his arms. He leaned down, his body pressing into mine, his nose pressed against my nose.
“Everything has changed, Ace. It’s a brave, new world. You’ll see.”
Then he kissed me, and I momentarily forgot about how strange they were all acting as I pulled his body close to mine, raising my hips to grind against the hardness of his cock.
“Wet already? We’ve only just started.” He made a mock disapproving sound as he headed down my body toward the V of my thighs. I looked at Luc and he was watching on with a hot look in his eyes.
As Gus buried his face between my thighs, Memphis leaned over me, catching my gasps with long, hot kisses. His hand reached up and ran along my ribs, moving over to cup my breast. He bent down and sucked my captured nipple into his mouth, and I bucked against the sensation of their mouths working in unison.
Gus’s tongue swirled and flicked, teasing my clit until I was soaking his face with my juices. Memphis moved on to my other breast, and I wrapped my fingers in his long dark hair to hold on for dear life.
I threw a desperate look at Luc as my orgasm built. “Please.”
He leaned over, kissing me then biting me firmly on my lower lip. “You’re going to come all over Gusion’s face aren’t you, my love?”
His words pushed me over the edge, and my body was helpless to resist fulfilling his words. I came on a banshee scream, but they weren’t done yet.
Luc reached out and dragged me onto his body, not giving me time to adjust before he was sliding his cock into me, filling me. I moaned his name as he held my hips, thrusting hard and shooting waves of pleasure all over my body as I rode him.
I looked over my shoulder as someone settled behind me. Gusion dipped his fingers in my wetness, than ran it up to circle my ass. He slid a finger inside and I let out a guttural moan of pleasure. He slid it in and out in time with Luc’s thrusts, stretching me until he could replace his finger with his cock. Luc stopped, his control absolute, as Gus slid in inch by inch, until I was completely filled by the two of them. Luc held me still, even after my arms collapsed, as they moved in synchronization. One in, one out. In, out, in, out until I lost all sense of reason and orgasms crashed into me one after another. I screamed their names, clenching hard until Gus let out his own guttural yell, coming on hot, hard thrusts.
He collapsed to the side as Luc continued to pound me, his movements getting uncoordinated as he got closer to his own ending. Finally, he slammed my hips down, burying himself deep inside me, growling my name over and over as he came.
I collapsed on his chest, breathing heavily. But there was no rest for the wicked. Memphis lifted me gently off of Luc chest, and placed me back on the bed.
I stared up into his heated dark eyes. “I’m not sure I can go again,” I whimpered pathetically.
He brushed my hair back from my sweat covered forehead. “I know you can.”
He kissed my mouth softly, then on both cheeks, down my neck and across my collar bones. He kissed every inch of me with soft reverence, like he was memorizing the sensation of my skin, cataloguing my responses.
I mewled when he reached my breasts, kissing and sucking them with tenderness. His hand traced over my hip, the curve of my stomach, dipped into my navel.
“Are you ready for me, Acerezeal?”
I nodded as he settled between my thighs, placing one of my legs over his shoulder. Then he slid home in one controlled, firm thrust. Then another.
That had always been Memphis’s way. Slow, deliberate, and ridiculously thorough until you were a screaming mess and he was an instrument of pleasure. Each stroke hit my g-spot every single time, and I was clawing at his arms trying to keep myself anchored, so I didn’t shatter and blow away on the next orgasm.
“Memphis!” My yell echoed around Luc’s bed chamber as I came again, but still, Memphis wasn’t finished. He hooked my other leg over his shoulder, settling into me deeper and hitting spots that made my eyes roll back in my head and my moans turn in to feral noises. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, I’m going to come again,” I panted, and Memphis upped his pace.
“Come with me,” he growled, his movements getting faster and faster. My pussy clenched around him as I held back my orgasm, waiting for his word.
“Now,” he grunted and I let myself slip over the edge, wave after wave of pleasure kicking my ass.
I was wrung out.
Gus got me a drink of water and a washcloth, cleaning up the combined fluids running down my thighs. I raised my eyebrows in thanks and he blew me a kiss. I couldn’t do words right at the minute.
Silently, we all laid back down in bed, and dozed off into a satisfied sleep.
Something was different, I just didn’t know what.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The second time I woke in a bed surrounded by sexy fallen angels, I refused to be tempted by hot bodies and hard cocks. I had shit to do, and being down here in hell with its wobbly laws of time wasn’t going to help.
I stretched, rubbing my butt against someone’s groin and petted the abs of whoever I was curled around. Given the blonde hair, probably Gusion.
I sat up and crawled out of bed on my hands and knees.
“I can see you have somewhere to be, but you should be careful of waving such a delectable ass in my face. I might just lock you away in my dungeon and have my way with you whenever I please,” Luc murmured huskily.
I blew him a kiss from the end of the bed. “I’ve been to your dungeon, lover, and I can’t wait to go again.”
I looked at my imaginary watch. Probably time to hustle. With one last blown kiss, I had the world's quickest shower and headed up top, straight to Arcadia’s hospital bed.
It was weird without her. No one was in her hospital room, which was odd. Then I realized it was 4:20am. I shouldn’t be here either. But I didn’t want to leave.
Memphis sifted in behind me, and he came up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. He didn’t give me meaning
less platitudes about how it would all be fine. I loved that about him.
I rested my head against his shoulder. “What’s going on with you?”
I hadn’t forgotten his weird behavior.
“Gusion had a premonition for me.”
I was so shocked I pulled away. “What? Gus doesn’t have premonitions about other angelkind.”
He shrugged. “He seemed pretty certain.”
“What was the premonition?” I was desperate to know. If Gusion could make correct predictions about other angels, then it really would change everything.
“He said I would know a love as deep as my love for…” he went silent and I squeezed his forearm. We didn’t talk about her. The reason he fell. The reason he is now the man he is.
“Anyway, he said I’d know that kind of love again. And I’m ready for that. But I wanted to feel you one last time. To make you happy one last time, before I waited for the person I will love.”
My heart felt a little bruised, but happy too. What an oxymoron. Or maybe I was just a moron. But I loved Memphis. Not the way I loved Luc, but more than you would love a friend. A love that comes with knowing someone intimately.
“She better be worthy of you, otherwise I’m going to kick her ass. And it better not be Baccy!”
Memphis laughed, and even though it was just a premonition of a possibility, I was happy for him.
I looked back at Arcadia and horror dawned on me. “It’s not Arcadia, is it?”
Memphis laughed. “Gusion didn’t say. But I do not think it is Arcadia.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, because I’m pretty sure her snatch is at max capacity.”
Plus she might not survive. That would be doubly heartbreaking. I didn’t need another of Arcadia’s lovers looking at me with accusing eyes.
The door to Arcadia’s room opened and a huge bunch of flowers walked into the room. Seriously, it must have been three feet wide. The flowers walked to the nightstand, revealing Clary, who jumped two feet in the air when she saw us.
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