Edge of Heaven

by Rhiannon Leith

  Lust tore at his body, his muscles hardening to iron, his blood surging and breath sawing in and out of him. His lungs worked like a bellows as he strained against the bands and the demon holding him. Sensations swamped him. He wanted to fuck. Needed to fuck. He almost screamed with the suddenly palpable and all-consuming necessity.

  Asmodeus stepped back, smug and victorious as Sam twisted this way and that, trying to escape.

  “Don’t worry, little brother, it isn’t forever. You talked your way out of it so prettily the last time, we thought it better not to give you the chance on this occasion. You’ll take your punishment. Then you’ll do your job.”

  “You can’t leave me like this,” Sam howled, trying to find some way to stave the mounting desire, trying to turn his body or think his way to the blessed relief of orgasm.

  “No, you’re right.” Asmodeus reached into his pocket and drew out two lengths of black material. “You’d make too much noise. Don’t want you disturbing the neighbours, do we?”

  “Asmodeus, don’t do this. Please.”

  The demon closed his glowing eyes, inhaled deeply as if savouring the aroma of a favourite dish. “Ah, Sammael, I love it when you beg.” He reached forward and securely gagged Sam with one length. “But this time you need to be quiet. There’s more to this than leaving you in the torment of unfulfilled lust, or driving you to madness with your desire. Looking at it another way, it’s a gift.”

  He ran his hand down the side of Sam’s face, following the line of the gag towards his mouth. He left behind a burning trail. As his finger approached, Sam snapped at him, but Asmodeus pulled back just in time. He took the other scarf, wrapped both ends around his hands and pulled it taut, so sharply that it made a snapping sound. “I’m going to let you experience everything your lovebirds experience tonight. You’ll feel each kiss, each caress, every single orgasm. You won’t come, Sam, but you’ll go through everything they go through. Without the release. So next time you be more inclined to make sure they include you. Understand me?”

  Sam cursed him, the words mangled by the gag, but not the sentiment. Asmodeus listened to him, still grinning, loving every moment of it.

  “Now, now, a gift remember? And an opportunity to learn. To study your prey. I thought you prided yourself on doing just that. And this—” he snapped the material again and then lifted it to bind Sam’s eyes, “—is just so that nothing can distract you while you’re at it.”

  The world turned dark, silken and erotic. The material blinded him and made the rising sensations even clearer. The chains held his body still so that he could do nothing about the unadulterated lust coursing through him. Lips touched his, soft and gentle, questioning. Other lips responded, hesitant but filled with need, with desire. Lily’s scent encircled him and hands that weren’t his hands, for all they felt like his, caressed her. Micah groaned. The sound echoed through Sam’s body, shaking him to his core.

  “Night night, Sammy boy,” Asmodeus drawled, and then he was gone.

  Invisible thumbs brushed over his nipples and he cried out mournfully, his voice smothered by both the gag and Micah’s mouth. He knew it was Micah’s mouth, because he felt Lily’s too, her soft lips hungry and demanding, her body arching as his arched, her fingertips teasing the sensitive skin of his upper thighs until his breath turned ragged. One hand snaked down to close around his painfully eager cock. It pulsed beneath her touch, as she slid her hand and naked body along the length of it.

  It wasn’t her, he tried to tell himself. Or rather it wasn’t him. He was the interloper here, the phantom whose presence was a secret, a spy, a ghost. Lily’s scent filled the air, confounding him, sending his blood pumping even faster. And Micah’s cinnamon musk trailed after hers. It pounded at the base of his brain, driving all sanity from him.

  Micah’s mouth devoured his, his strong arms lifted him. Their voices whispered through the darkness, an enticement, drawing him into their intimacy against his will, against his better judgement.

  “Please Micah, please, please Micah.”

  “Ah Lily, you’ll damn us both, my bright one.”

  The angel’s tongue caressed Sam’s balls, and his mouth filled with the sweet taste of Lily. He drowned in her, in them, his own identity slipping away as Micah thrust into her depths, into his own depths. Sam’s body lifted from the wall, straining to tear himself free of his restraints, and of the touch of two lovers who didn’t even know he was there. His body pulsed, vibrant with need. Micah cried out, his voice ringing through Sam’s mind as he came with a cry of deliverance.

  Sam fell back, his chest heaving in agonized gasps, still feeling the sensations of Lily’s spasms of ecstasy, her moans of release. His cock strained away from him, hard as iron, pulsating with need. No release for him. The irony of feeling what they felt, his own private torture. He let out his breath in a ragged groan which shuddered through his sweat-slicked body.

  Sam hung from the restraints, his head sinking to his chest. The corded muscles of his arms wrenched as he tried to tug himself free. It was a feeble effort, pointless, but he had to try. Already, they were stirring again, Micah still hard inside her, Lily determined not to let him escape her again. Moving slowly, intimately, wrapped around each other, unaware that they were also wrapped around him, in his mind, in his flesh.

  A drop of cold sweat trailed down his neck, across his chest, and down the ridges of his abdomen, like a teasing tongue, like a lover. Lily whispered and Micah laughed. Their voices in his mind just made it worse.

  Chapter Ten

  Lily stretched out, catlike, luxuriating in the feel of Micah’s length beside her, hard muscles and smooth skin, his flat stomach and strong legs, the warmth of him. It made her feel like purring as she rested her face against his broad chest and listen to the steady thunder of his heart beneath.

  “You’re alive,” she said.

  He laughed, a low, exhausted chuckle. “I am, my bright one.”

  She looked up, surprised, to find a curious combination of peace and resignation in his bright blue eyes. He blinked, golden lashes brushing his cheeks, and then tried to smile. It didn’t quite make it all the way to his eyes.

  “Micah—” She pushed herself up on her elbows.

  “Don’t,” he said abruptly and closed his eyes. Strain etched his features, drawing two lines between his eyebrows.

  She reached up with a trembling finger to smooth them away. “Are you sorry?”

  He caught her in a grip both frighteningly strong and perfectly gentle. His long fingers circled her wrist, and he slipped his legs under hers moments before he turned, flipping her onto her back. Looming over her, the light from the streetlamp outside illuminating the edges of his silhouette, he smiled. This one did reach his eyes. It made them glow an even more vibrant blue and she sank down beneath him, bewitched.

  “Not for a second, my bright one. How could I be?”

  He bent to kiss her and she drew him to her again, trailing her fingers along the muscles of his back, the hard planes and curves.

  “Are you sorry?” he asked, his lips brushing hers.

  “Not for a second,” she said without hesitation. He deepened his kiss, his tongue dancing with hers. Lily sighed, her hips rising to meet him of their own volition.

  “Where am I?”

  The voice echoed through her head, sudden and unexpected. She flinched and Micah rose, confused.

  No, not now. Please.

  “Where am I? What happened? I was in the—”

  “Lily?” He drew back, pulling her covers up around her. “Voices?”

  She nodded, worrying her lower lip with her teeth in an effort to block the spirit.

  “Help them,” Micah urged.

  Tears stung her eyes. “Not now.” She rolled onto her side, curling into herself. “Not when I’m with you, Micah. It’s not fair.”

  He smoothed her hair, brushing it back from her face. “I know. But they can’t wait, Lily. Please.”

  Her body
lurched with grief. He was right, she knew that. But for just a while, just for a short while she had thought herself free.

  “Go to the light.” She tried to visualise it for the wandering spirit who had found her. “They’re waiting for you, in the light. Go on now.” She felt like someone shooing a child on its way. And inside her, her heart cracked.

  She was alone again, all alone.

  “Lily?” Micah nestled behind her, his body warm against the length of her, a cloak, a shelter.

  “Why now, Micah?” she whispered into the empty shadows before her. “Why would they come back now?”

  He nuzzled the back of her neck, his breath tickling the sensitive hair there. His kiss was so gentle. It shouldn’t have hurt. It shouldn’t have made tears leak from behind her clenched eyelids and slide down her face to wet the pillow. But it did.

  “Sam was blocking them. That’s why the visions came through, I believe.”

  “But the visions were of deaths, or near deaths. There were no spirits to be guided on, Micah. It was different.”

  “Shh.” He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s okay, Lily. It will be okay.”

  She shook her head, but said nothing. What could she say? For a brief moment she had everything she had ever wanted. Then the very thing that defined her, that made her what she was, interfered again. Sam could make it go away. Micah would not.

  “Close your eyes.” Micah kissed her neck again. His hands massaged her shoulders, easing the tension out of her with a skill she had never suspected he might possess. Inside her something uncoiled, warm and wicked, and she found herself wet for him once more.

  A deep groan sounded through her mind. Not Micah’s. Not her own. It sounded like—

  “Sam?”

  Micah jerked against her, his whole body stiffening at the sound of the demon’s name on her lips.

  “What about Sam?” he asked warily.

  Lily rolled onto her back and glanced at his face. His eyes were very bright, full of concern. “You don’t feel him?” He shook his head, his lips forming a grim line. “I do. He’s suffering, Micah. Something’s wrong.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t…” She closed her eyes again, trying to find him again. There was nothing. Not a trace. “Damn it. If only I could use this instead of it using me.”

  Micah rested on his elbow, gazing at her for a long moment. “There’s a way,” he said at last. He didn’t look too happy about the idea. But the sound of Sam’s despair haunted her.

  She didn’t hesitate. “Show me.”

  “Close your eyes and open your mind to me.”

  She obeyed him, trusting him as she always had. If she couldn’t trust Micah, what hope was there for her?

  The blend of warm cinnamon and musk that always accompanied him encircled her mind. Like a drug on her senses, it brought with it relaxation. She released her grip on the conscious world and let herself slip deeper and deeper. The darkness was complete, but with Micah cradling her, she wasn’t afraid.

  “Do you remember how your visions started?” he asked.

  Pain, usually, she realised, shock and frozen panic. Not this. Not this safety and comfort.

  “Well, that’s not a good thing to induce. We’ll have to try another way.”

  What kind of other way? She wasn’t sure if he would hear her thought or not, but to her surprise, Micah’s soft laugh ran through her.

  “Visualise a single point of light, a distant star or a candle flame. Then take yourself through it. Think of Sam as you do it. Think of that last contact. Like this.”

  A light flared before her, like the flare of a struck match in the night. She seized it, pushed herself towards it. Breath exploded from her lungs and her body twisted.

  He was naked, his arms and legs chained, his muscles corded with pain. She smelled something chemical, sickening.

  “Lily?” Micah was still with her, cushioning her from the worst of the suffering. But she could feel it all the same, as if his beaten body was her body. She couldn’t see his face. It felt more like she was inside him, or struggling alongside him. He’d been tortured and it wasn’t over. He struggled weakly, pain lancing down his aching limbs. Lily shied back at the touch of nightmare in his mind.

  “Stay calm, my bright one. You can’t be hurt with me here. Remember that. No matter what.” Micah’s lips touched her shoulder. It helped, and for that she was grateful, truly grateful.

  “Where are we?”

  The body housing her coughed and heat seared the skin of his feet.

  They weren’t in a room. The sky opened above them, dotted with stars. Leaves stirred as the breeze travelled through them. And beneath him…beneath him…

  Flames leaped to life on the petrol-soaked wood. They seized the body and he screamed, his voice a howl of agony. Lily screamed with him and Micah enfolded her, dragging her back to him.

  “Wake up, Lily!” Micah yelled, and the fear in his voice shocked her back into the real world. She gasped for breath, arching off the bed.

  “He’s burning, Micah! Oh my God, he’s burning! He’s tied up and—there’s fire—petrol—”

  She threw off the covers and tried to get to her feet, but her legs gave way. Micah’s arms caught her. He was always there for her, always ready to catch her when she fell.

  And Sam—Sam was burning.

  “Put on some clothes,” Micah said curtly. “He’s got to be next door. Otherwise he’s back in Hell.” He wound one of the sheets around his waist, looking more like a living sculpture than ever. “Come on.”

  Lily struggled into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt while making for the door behind him.

  The hall outside the apartment was dark. They stopped outside Sam’s door and she knocked, praying he would just appear, sleepy, irritated, but unharmed. There was no answer.

  Lily pressed her ear to the door. “Sam?”

  It was very faint, a groan, exhausted, agonised. She looked up into Micah’s eyes, indigo in the shadows.

  He swallowed hard, his throat working and he nodded. “Step back. Stay behind me.”

  “Micah, he’s in there, isn’t he? But I saw the sky, the trees. I saw fire.”

  He nodded but didn’t answer. Instead, he pressed his hand to the keyhole and closed his eyes. His brow furrowed in concentration. There was a loud clunk and he pushed the door open.

  “Sammael?” he called. “Can you hear me?”

  A soft growl came from the darkness. Animal with arousal, it rumbled through Lily’s body, loosening the tension inside to a flood of desire.

  Micah stepped inside, feeling for the light switch, but as he flicked it, the bulbs only flickered dimly. It was enough to see Sam gagged and blindfolded, his body pinned to the wall by iron bands. His breath came in urgent gasps, his cock straining out in front of him, his skin drenched with sweat, glistening in the erratic light.

  “Oh God.” Lily started forward, pushing past Micah. She stopped before Sam and his head turned sharply, like a predator smelling prey. She tugged off the blindfold and Sam burst into frantic struggles, trying to free himself. The material came away in her hand and his eyes blazed with fire, wild and dangerous. She gave a cry as she fell back and landed heavily on the floor.

  “Let me go!”

  Sam’s voice invaded her mind, but it hardly sounded like Sam anymore. This was the voice of a demon, a creature maddened by desire and the need to sate itself in flesh.

  “Lily, get back from him.” Micah stepped between them.

  “What happened? What is doing this to him?”

  Micah cocked his head, listening, as Sam grunted in thwarted rage and rolled his head back against the wall. Sweat dripped from his chin.

  “Asmodeus. Demon of Lust. One of the Kings of Hell. It’s a punishment. Asmodeus filled him with desire, with lust, and then let him feel…” The angel’s face hardened in disgust. “They let him feel everything we did. Everything. As if we did it to him.”

  Lily struggled to h
er knees, grabbing Micah’s leg for support. “Oh God, that’s—”

  Micah sighed. “Demonic?” As if she wasn’t there, he stretched out his arm and laid his tapered hand flat on Sammael’s chest. Sam shuddered, and a groan tore its way from him again. His heavy balls contracted and his cock jumped.

  “We have to help him,” Lily insisted, rising to face him. “Can you make it stop?”

  Micah shook his head, but didn’t remove his hand. “It will wear off. Eventually. But it will leave him changed. More the creature he was. Less like your Sam.”

  “Micah, we have to do something,” she insisted and reached out with her own hand. Sam froze at her touch. His chest stilled. His skin was on fire. “Let him go.”

  “There’s only one thing we can do, Lily, and that’s try to make it bearable for him. If we let him go, he’ll attack. Right now the only thing on his mind is sex and he’ll take it willing or not. He won’t be gentle. He won’t consider you at all. You’ll be a thing to use. Something to fuck. We can’t let him go.”

  Her mouth went dry. “You want me to, to what?”

  “Trust me.”

  She glanced at him. It took effort to tear her gaze away from Sam’s but what she found in Micah’s face didn’t inspire trust. It wasn’t quite hate. Despite what he was saying, there was no sign of pity. The closest thing she could discern there was a need for revenge.

  “Micah?”

  “Shh.” His left hand glided up her arms to her shoulder. He drew her hair back from her neck like a skein of silken threads and lowered his lips to her skin. Feather light kisses drugged her senses. Without realising it, she leaned back against him, her eyes fluttering closed with desire.

  Sammael moaned. The noise ran through her and Lily opened her eyes to see his tortured expression. Micah’s hands described the curves of her body, raking her T-shirt up to expose the naked breasts beneath. He cupped them, as if offering them to Sam, offering her.