Chapter 13
Gabriel
I pull my four-month-old son to my bare chest whilst Reagan grabs my one-year-and-a half-old daughter and smothers her with kisses. My two girls giggle and squeak, but it’s heaven to my ears.
The boys are away, doing club business, so the whole clubhouse belongs only to my family. No whores. No customers. We’re family men now.
We’re planning to work as private investigators when we run out of money. Now, my job is to look after my family. Cook for everyone, clean the ground around the clubhouse, repair our bikes. Yes, I’ve been degraded, and I’m Prospect now—my punishment for breaking all the club rules. The truth is that I like my new job, because I can be with my family all the time.
Lucas starts crying, so I rock him in the crook of my arm until he drops off to sleep. Lily is hungry, so Reagan goes to the kitchen and brings food for her. I lay Lucas in the cot and sit down on the floor. Reagan chases our little girl, trying to put the bits of egg into her mouth.
I shoot my arm towards Lily and grab her, but she giggles and turns into a green mist. Right. Being a parent is sometimes challenging.
“Lily,” I say and look at her energy form sternly.
She takes human form and sits on the couch. Reagan feeds her and my daughter drops off to sleep. My wife puts her into the other cot and shows me her thumb up.
I grab her and lift her off the floor.
“Our kids are asleep,” I whisper.
“So?”
“The parents can enjoy the evening.”
“I want chocolate ice cream.”
“I bet you do.”
Hell yeah. Her craving means only one thing.
I move us towards the kitchen as quietly as possible so as not to wake our kids. We enter it and Reagan slides down. I close the door and open the freezer. My wife wraps her arms around me from behind as I take a box of ice cream out. I put it on the table and bury Reagan in my arms.
“You want ice cream?” I say. “You need to be nice to me.”
Reagan plunges her hand under the hem of her 50s dress and slides her panties down.
“Good girl,” I say. “You always know what to do.”
She steps out of her panties and reaches out for the box with her hand, bent over the table. The lid falls off with a click, and she dips her fingers into the ice cream.
I open my trousers and gather her dress up to her waist. Her lush ass is exposed for me. I hold my hard cock and drive it into her wet greedy pussy.
“We should have another baby,” I rasp into her ear as her inner walls squeeze my cock.
“No way,” she gasps.
I thrust into her hard and she moans. “A boy.” I pull the strap of her dress down, exposing her breast.
“No way.”
I twist her nipple and she moans longer. “You want more ice cream, Reagan?”
She turns her face as her wild eyes fix on mine. “You wouldn’t do this.”
I clutch her hip and go deeper. Fuck her faster. The table screeches against the floor. Our moans blend and I explode in ecstasy.
My mouth covers hers, and we kiss tenderly.
“A boy,” I gasp.
“A boy.”
“I need to make you pregnant then.”
“You already did.”
“I need to make sure you’re very pregnant.” My cock is still hard inside her.
I slide in and out, slowly, her body shivering so beautifully against mine. I love making her pregnant.
Cael sneaks in.
“Fuck off,” I growl. “Fucking hell, it’s my kitchen for tonight.”
His dark brooding glance sweeps over me. “I only need a bottle of beer.”
He looks like shit—he hasn’t shaved his face for two months and his hair reaches down to his shoulder blades.
He grabs two bottles, salutes me, and walks off.
“I’ll talk to her,” Reagan says.
“That’s not your job, baby.”
She snorts, so I push into her harder and make her cum.
“I love you,” she hums. “Love you so much.”
She should be occupied with kids. She should feel loved.
I will never allow her to learn that she’s as free as the wind.
She. Is. Mine.
She loves our kids and kids in general, so being a mom should be her main occupation.
I squeeze the back of her neck and thrust into her so hard she whimpers. I cum with a moan and then wrench in my whole pleasure with three more thrusts.
Reagan wiggles out of my arms and turns to face me. “You worry too much, Gabriel.”
“I can’t grasp you sometimes.”
Every creature on earth is so easy for me to understand them. Reagan is a mystery, an unavailable mystery like a piece of the outer space I will never hold in my hand.
“Promise me you’ll never leave me, Reagan.”
“I promise. I’d die without you, Gabriel.” She clings to me, her hands moving up and down my back in a soothing gesture. “I love you.”
“And you like having a body?”
“I love what you can do to my body.” She winks at me.
Yep, a happy, sated wife is the basics.
We correct our clothes and grab some sandwiches. As I walk into the bar, I see Kadmiel standing in the middle of the dance floor and a mermaid clings to him at the sight of me. There’s something off about her. I take a deep breath and find out what. It was expected. Kadmiel is a rebel, after all.
“I need to speak to you,” Kadmiel says.
Straight to the point as I’d expect a rebel to act.
“Let’s go to the office then,” I say.
“Rive,” Kadmiel says, “sit down, baby. It should be no longer than half an hour, okay?”
My kids wake up and Rive takes my son out of the cot, evoking a bright smile on my wife’s face. Yes, Reagan is intrigued with Rive.
I jut my chin out and Kadmiel follows me to the office.
We sit down at the table.
“Talk to me, Kadmiel.”
“You’ve seen my wife?”
“She smells of the other side. Very fucking normal when you break the rules.” I put my elbows on the table. “She’s harmless as long as things are good between you two.”
“Take it off her. She doesn’t want this.”
“I don’t do such jobs these days. I have a family, man.”
“My people fought, so that you and the rest of you, motherfuckers, could have this little clubhouse. You owe me.”
He’s right. He made the Past to be the Past. It looks like I’ve got another job on my dark-job list. “You’re gonna help me with Seff’s wifey problem first.”
“I’m not gonna help that dark motherfucker. I fucking hate warlocks. The Hungry Dogs MC is always trouble on my turf.”
“You must be fucking kidding me, man. Seff’s lighter than you are.”
He threads his fingers through his short brown hair and grins at me. “Alright. We got a deal.”
“We got a deal.” I huff out. “You want to join us for supper tonight?”
He starts laughing, and then nods. His grey eyes flicker with genuine joy. “Heard the rumours. Very fucking young that wife of yours.”
I realise I want to make friends with him. Reagan could make friends with his wife. Our kids could play together.
“How old are your kids?” I ask.
His eyebrows raise a notch. “My four daughters are grown, but my two sons are four and five.”
“My Lily is almost two.”
“She’ll do perfect as my boys’ companion. My baby girl is three months old.”
I nod, a sense of friendship surging through me. “She’ll do in a year or so.”
Kadmiel looks at me with interest. “The change did you good, you aristocratic dick. You’re not such a stiff motherfucker as you used to be.”
Alright. I can manage. He’s my best friend after all.
“So? Supper?” I ask.
/>
“Alright. Let’s eat that supper.”
“Dinner next Sunday?”
His eyebrows form a line, and he chuckles. “Alright. You want to visit my compound with your family one day?”
“I want to.”
“There’s always a circus, you know, there’s a lot of us, but—“
“I want to.”
Kadmiel broke the unbreakable. He loved the untouchable, and that made him number one hunted by the Law. The Salvation Ghosts helped him when archangels Azrael and Raziel wanted to smash him—we gave him Phoenix and she became a member of his family. She was very resourceful when it came to protecting her family. We knew she’d do a good job as the protector of Kadmiel’s family. We knew we could watch from a distance, enjoy our retirement, and wait for the new world to begin. For everything to be reconstructed. Rewritten. Our future began in the past because we started altering our future in the past. We had created Kadmiel, his club, and the apocalypse long before he was born as Kadmiel—
—Six thousand years earlier.
My eyes sweep over the six corpses scattered in front of a half-ruined hut. The father, the mother and their four adolescent daughters. Gadreel rolls his fingers into fists, pain clouding his grey eyes, as Eligor inhales deeply.
“Lilith,” Eligor says. “Fucking bitch.”
Ash clouds have gathered in the sky and thick drops splash against the muddy ground. They mingle with the blood trickling out of the bodies. The thin streams of redness flow and form little puddles. The primal forest lines the horizon as the rain growing in strength creates a translucent wall of greyness against the trees.
“According to plan,” I say even though pain squeezes my heart at the sight of the blood and heads separated from the bodies. “He was useless as a human.”
“So it has begun,” Gadreel says.
An adolescent saber-toothed cat is circling the bodies, squealing. I kneel on one knee, summon him, and clean up his memories, removing the images of his owners being slaughtered. He walks off, and I see him immerse himself into the forest. He belonged to Talia, the oldest daughter. Now he belongs to the forest.
“We have to go,” Raphael says. “If we stay here for longer there’ll be a crack and Lilith could find out about us.”
Yes, if Lilith learns that we released her so that she could be a puppet in our great plan, she could jeopardise it. Five of the Fallen and five of the archangels have united to make the world fall apart. Lilith thinks Samael wants to rule over the world with her. She’s very wrong. Samael and his gang want freedom and peace as much as my club wants that. We want to retire. We want to be normal.
Samael released her from her prison so she could make fools of Raziel and Azrael.
“You fucked Lilith?” Michael asks.
“Why wouldn’t I have fucked her?” Samael grins. “Everything must look genuine. And she’s always been a very attractive bitch.”
Cael grunts with anger as he shakes his head. “We should bury the bodies.”
I nod at him and spread my wings. The sound of rustling feathers travels through the air as we dig a wide grave in an instant. They should always be together.
They will.
Chapter 14
Gabriel
—I huff out as more memories course through my head.—
—Five thousand years earlier.
I watch a young angel heal a deer. He hasn’t sensed me yet. He’s too young. Too inexperienced.
I clear my throat. “Theo.”
The deer shudders and runs away as he turns to face me. His brooding grey eyes fix on mine as he rubs his hands together to get rid of the deer’s fur.
“Sir?” he asks.
“Have a drink with me, Theo.”
Confusion paints his face as he threads his finger through his shoulder-length black hair. “We are not allowed to—“
“That’s an order.”
He nods and shoots me a fierce glance. I’m aware that his father, Eligor, is watching us from a distance. Theo’s mother, Haliniel, is a Cherub. She raised him and never asked any questions until Eligor and I came to strip her of her memories. She cried and pleaded, but that must have been done. For her. For the whole world. There’ll be blood and more corpses, but it must happen.
Theo’s eyes sweep over my cut. “A very unique piece of clothing, sir.”
I like it that he has a sense of humour. “You’ll have your cut one day, Theo.”
“Why would I need it?”
“Well, your president, Kadmiel, will have the same one, so...” I see a grin cross his face, a grin that’s supposed to obscure his confusion. “Let’s have that drink together.”
We walk out of the woods as a tavern rises in front of us. It’s a round building made of stone. Smoke rises from the peak of its thatched roof. I push the wooden door open and step inside. Theo follows me closely behind. The smell of tobacco and human sweat envelops me as my eyes travel to Phoenix sitting at one of the long tables. She’s drunk as fuck. Drunk as always. Ten glasses of ale are still waiting for her attention. Her clothes are stained with alcohol as her long hair the colour of a red flame looks like a bird’s nest. Her swords are lying at her feet.
“Gabriel,” she mumbles in a drunken voice and rises to her feet. “What a fucking unpleasant surprise.” She staggers towards us, a drunken smile playing on her full lips. Her glassy black eyes slide over Theo. “Who are you, pretty boy?”
“I’m Theo, sir, I mean ma’am,” Theo says.
Phoenix grips his arms as her knees bend. Theo braces her waist with his hands to support her.
“You’re really pretty,” Phoenix mumbles. “Pretty boy. Young boy.” She turns her face to mine. “Who is he?”
“One of the youngsters,” I say. “He’s only twenty, so don’t corrupt him.” I grin. “Too much.”
She sways as Theo scoops her up into his arms. His eyes seek permission from me.
“Deal with her, soldier,” I say. “That’s an order.”
“Sir,” he whispers. “She’s one of the Fallen.”
“So entertain her. Buy her a drink. Chat with her.” I salute him.
“You’re so fucking pretty,” Phoenix mumbles as she throws her arms around Theo’s neck.
One corner of Theo’s lips crooks up. He likes her. I can see that in his eyes.
I walk out of the tavern. My job is done here. Phoenix will burn Theo to ashes this time, but she’ll find him again. Then she’ll protect him at all costs.
Thirty years earlier.
I watch a mermaid emerge from the sea for the first time ever. Her name is Rive. She’s not aware of our presence.
“Lilith made her a mermaid this time,” I say.
“It doesn’t matter,” Raphael says.
“It will make things more complicated,” I say.
“No,” Samael says. “It will make things much easier. Lilith is such a stupid bitch. They’ll always find each other, and this time we’ll keep Kadmiel and his family alive.”
Gadreel nods. “They deserve to live a happy life. We all do.”
“Really?” Samael grins. “We’re outlaws. We’re killers.”
We all erupt into laughter.
Samael sweeps his hand and a gust of wind blows into Rive’s face. She turns as her eyes travel to a town in the distance. She smiles to herself and goes to explore that town. She doesn’t know this yet, but she’s going to meet Kadmiel in that town. He will break all the rules to fuck her.
We watch from a distance. We watch Kadmiel’s family ramify. We watch them grow in strength and in wisdom. We watch them smash Lilith and change the world forever. Reconstruct the world. The fixed points are the same, but there’s Freedom.
Nothing happened. But it did happen. Two ultimate forces clashed—the family won and survived. According to plan.
— I return from my reverie.
“We can’t allow our lovely ladies to be alone,” I say to Kadmiel.
Reagan
I pull at h
er hair. It’s as shiny as white gold. She lulls my baby boy to sleep and sings to my daughter. I can’t sing and that makes me feel angry. I can hum. I can murmur and swish. But I can’t sing. Singing is beautiful.
Rive stops singing, and I see Lily close her eyes and curl up into a ball on the couch.
“Sing,” I say to Rive.
She looks at me, her green eyes like two big emeralds. “You need to ask me nicely.”
“How?”
“Can you please sing another song for me? Something like that.”
“Sing,” I bark.
I don’t understand my emotions. They’re burning my insides. It is sometimes like this. It is uncontrollable.
Muscular arms wrap around me from behind. “Reagan, baby, she is a mermaid.” Gabriel kisses my cheek. “You are not.”
“But I want to sing like her,” I say.
Her husband chuckles as his eyes travel to his wife’s. They drop their heads, hiding their smiles.
“Reagan,” Gabriel says, “Kadmiel and Rive are joining us for supper. Everything is ready. You just need to take it out of the oven.”
“I can start delivering the food to the table,” Rive offers.
“Can you sing at the same time?” I ask.
“I can,” she agrees. She grabs my wrist and pulls me into the kitchen. Something warm wraps around my heart. “Come on. Our men are hungry.”
“I don’t do this. Gabriel cooks and dresses the table. I can’t cook. But I’m learning to do this stuff.”
“I can’t cook either.” Rive giggles. “My husband is a wonderful cook on the other hand.”
I send her the brightest of my smiles. “Are you my friend?”
“I am.”
“I’ve never had a friend.”
“It’s nice to have a best friend.”
I catch a wisp of her hair. “It wasn’t blonde like this when you were a human. It was as dark as soil.”
“I don’t want to remember this.” Sadness clouds her eyes. She looks like she’s there again, watching her family being slaughtered. “Our husbands got peace and freedom. We got memories and pain.”
I remember her cries, her daughters’ cries, her husband’s roars. It hurts to remember.
“I sometimes don’t want to remember either,” I say. “I remember less and less, but it sometimes hurts anyway.”
Gabriel: Salvation Ghosts MC (Defiant Love Saga Book 1) Page 10