Deviant Knights

by Alexandra O'Hurley

  “Not you. Me.” Her hand reached before her mouth, as if to block a malodorous charge.

  Rolling her to her back, he lifted above her body, pulling her arms over her head, then securing them in one of his hands. “Surely you jest, I only taste heaven.”

  Stealing another kiss, he prodded her sex with his thickening shaft. She moaned into his mouth. He swallowed the gasp and took the sound as proffered acceptance to more lovemaking. He moved his hips until the head of his cock pressed at her entrance.

  “Do you two think you could control yourselves long enough to meet with Thierry?”

  Gabriel turned to the doorway to see Michel lounging in the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. The relaxed pose was purely an act, as Gabriel could see the telltale signs of his friend’s annoyance. Gritted teeth, tight shoulders, and white knuckles all provided proof of Michel’s anger. But the man had been adamant that he wouldn’t touch her until they had answers. Gabriel was under no such self-directive.

  “We wouldn’t be long. I’m sure Thierry would understand.” Gabriel smiled at Michel, knowing he was goading the man.

  Rolling his eyes, Michel stalked from the room.

  “What was all that about?” Kadence said from under him as she began to shimmy out from under his bulk.

  “He needs to know you’re mine.” Even as Gabriel said the words, he knew that he was pushing too far. But he couldn’t stop the jealousy that flowed within him. The thought of Kadence being touched by any man but him made him feel as though he would go into a rage. It did not matter that Michel was his long-time friend. It did not matter that he and Michel had shared women in the past.

  None of those women were Kadence.

  Regardless of what news they learned from Thierry, he would find a way to make it work between them. Could Michel say the same?

  Gabriel was usually not a jealous man. He had never coveted anything in his life. Sharing with his Templar brothers was something he was quite used to. The men shared almost everything, be it wine, women, or weapons. They followed a strict code, giving to one another as it was needed.

  For once, he wanted something for his own.

  This woman gave him hope. The years had been long and weary. The fighting, monotonous. Duty had been the only thing that had kept them going. Duty and a sense of worth in what they were doing. Never had Gabriel demanded his due, not once in seven hundred years.

  He deserved to find happiness in her arms. She was the one woman who could make him happy, make him forget all the lonely years and make him yearn for a future. Their lovemaking had been incredible, mind-blowing.

  But it was more than that. Kadence had a vibrancy about her that he’d never seen in a female. She was light itself and she filled in the dark spots he had in himself. He’d done so many things he didn’t want to remember.

  The Illuminati minions came in inconsistent waves. They would have multiple, vicious attacks clustered together, and then months if not years of quiet. Killing them was self-defense in most cases, but there had been times they’d found hives of the beasts and routed them out.

  Beasts that had once been human. Technically, they still were. But the evil that ran their organization had gifted them with unnatural powers and immortality, all in return for their souls. He was glad he couldn’t see what Kadence did, see the beasts as they really were now. He’d already seen enough death and evil to tide him over for years to come.

  He watched as she picked through a pile of clothing on the hard-backed chair in the corner of the room. The sun shined through the door, casting a halo of light around her nude form.

  No, she wasn’t evil. He sensed nothing of the sort from her. She was good brought into their lives for once and he was going to hold on to it with both hands.

  Jealousy was not a color he wore well. He had no experience in fighting for the affections of a woman and he realized at that moment, that if he continued to push, continued to force her to make a decision, he would push her away.

  Michel was a broken man, one who fought his demons every day. He was not the right man for Kadence, and Gabriel feared his friend would hurt her more than she deserved. Michel had already said things to her that should have made her back away. Yet she didn’t. Didn’t she see that Michel was not good for her? Gabriel had done nothing but protect her, even from Michel.

  If she were meant to be his, she would come to him willingly. With open arms.

  ****

  Alain stood in the corner, carving an apple with one of his sharp daggers, throwing bits into his mouth as Michel sat in the oversized chair facing Thierry’s desk attempting to look unaffected. He was anything but unaffected, the need to know the truth gnawing at him like the maw of an angry beast.

  Thierry dug through materials, readying himself to share his thoughts with the group. As usual, the large oak top was covered in old tomes and papers, a virtual treasure trove of medieval and pre-medieval manuscripts. If a museum curator ever saw what was housed in this library, he or she would faint dead away. The Templar Historian was constantly researching, charting, and seeking more knowledge. Thierry had always been the scholar of the group, his nose always in some book.

  He’d also been their conscience. Wise even before Gaia had gifted them with eternal life, Thierry had always been the one man they all could rely on to bend his ear to listen and give sage advice. He always had the answers they sought, and if he didn’t, he could usually find them or set them on the path to find it themselves.

  Michel had always envied that self-control and insight. And did even more now than ever. Rage still filled him at Gabriel and Kadence’s night together. Her light shone bright, and he wanted a taste of it in his life. Gabriel had gotten there first.

  Gabriel had trusted in her when Michel had been unable.

  The pair came into the room as his thoughts wound down. He averted his face, unable to look at the satisfaction that glowed around them.

  Thierry looked up from his papers and smiled at the two. “Have a seat. I think I have found something that will interest you all.”

  He continued as they sat, “I have acquired several old, handwritten manuscripts recently and determined they were from one of the older pagan religions that centered near Gaul. This particular sect followed Gaia and worked in harmony with the Earth. They talk of five female demi-goddesses that embodied all of Gaia’s traits collectively, as well as a race of women that all carried Gaia’s blood, that would come to Earth when Gaia needed them most.”

  Michel sat up at that, his interest piqued.

  “I’ve been working for months to translate the manuscripts, so some of this should be taken with a grain of salt, but it appears the demi-goddesses are to be a healer, a warrior, an enchantress, a princess…” Thierry looked directly at Kadence. “…and a seer.”

  “A seer?” Michel wasn’t sure what Thierry was getting at.

  “A woman who could see evil and knew the enemy on sight. From another manuscript I found, I believe the seer could also have the ability to dream-cast, or see the future in her dreams.”

  Kadence stood, her hands digging into the pockets of her loose jeans. “The dreams only started a couple of years ago. And seeing the crazy faces just started in the past few days. So these skills are new, not something I was born with.”

  “Moving to NYC put you in closer range to Gabriel, so that could account for the dreams beginning, I suppose. Did you see the faces contort on the attackers in the penthouse?”

  “I can’t rightly say that I even looked at their faces in the melee. The Errol Flynn swashbuckling of swords kept my attention. But I don’t recall noticing,” Kadence said.

  “It may have started once you absorbed their ashes. But I can’t see anything in the manuscripts that denotes any sort of catalyst or if the demi-goddesses would be born with their gifts.”

  “What’s the purpose of the five?” Gabriel asked. “It says when Gaia needed them most?”

  “That I’m not exactly sure of. But I
think that their arrival marks a major shift in something. I don’t like to guess without complete assurance, but I think we all need to be ready for cataclysmic events.”

  Michel was quiet, as they all were, as minds seemed to churn in the room. “So you think that Kadence could be this seer?”

  “I’ve found nothing about the seer absorbing the ashes of evil, but you told me she’d seen demons chasing you as well as the dreams she had of Gabriel prior to meeting him. The Spanish sects had a name for the seer… Profeta del mal. The Prophet of Evil. I can’t say for certain, but my gut tells me she is her.”

  The Prophet of Evil? Still no real answer. Michel had relied on Thierry’s gut reactions on many occasions, but in this, it wasn’t enough. He needed concrete evidence.

  Feeling eyes on him, he turned to see Kadence staring. He saw the look of disappointment in her eyes and felt as if she could read him completely, knew what thoughts were going through his mind. Guilt coursed through him at that look, but he had been hurt too badly to allow the emotion to gnaw at him too long.

  “It’s not enough for you, is it?” Kadence’s eyes grew dark with fury. “What do I need to do to prove to you that I’m not going to harm any of you?”

  Michel sat back, looking at the anger boiling in her glare. He knew she had every right to be angry, but she didn’t understand all the pain he’d endured due to his trusting of a woman. He wanted to let loose. He wanted to pull her close. But he couldn’t.

  She would accept that, or she would turn away. And she deserved better than that.

  He loved the fire she enflamed inside him, loved the light she shined in on him. She was special in a way he’d never sensed in another. But ultimately, he feared his darkness would extinguish her. And he couldn’t live with that.

  Yet, he also couldn’t live with not tasting a bit of her. She’d been in his head and his blood for days now, and after last night, he knew that he couldn’t resist her charms. At least once.

  He was a selfish bastard. He knew it. She knew it. He just hoped he wouldn’t ruin her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kadence stormed out of the room without waiting any longer for Michel to answer. The asshole! He looked so smugly sexy lounging in the chair, watching her closely, his very thoughts an expressive wave over his usual cold expressions.

  Thierry’s suppositions bounced around in her head. A part of Gaia? What did that spell out for her? Did that mean she would see the evil, demon things for the rest of her life? Would she run from the Illuminati as well?

  Was she irrevocably tied to these men forever?

  Her life had been plain. Boring. But she had one important thing.

  Choice.

  She was being sucked into a war she hadn’t known existed, to do…what? She saw evil. She wanted to un-see it. Perhaps Gaia could take it all back, make her normal and boring again. Remembering her desire to be a part of these men’s world…the illusion she clasped hold of that first night…she’d wanted to live their kind of life.

  Be careful what you wish for.

  She was now into it up to her tits and it didn’t look like there was any way back to terra firma.

  Gabriel and Michel had already made an indelible mark on her. They’d marched into her life and pulled her from it, kicking and screaming. No matter what she wished for, she couldn’t go back to who she’d been. They’d changed her, molded her into a new person, one who knew about a whole new world that existed right under her nose.

  Having her eyes opened was a life-altering experience. She just hoped she would be all the better for it.

  Michel couldn’t see the good in her at all.

  She still wanted him, even after he was such a prick that she shouldn’t want to even touch him with a ten-foot pole.

  Her thoughts drifted to the shared intimacies of last night, and how she wanted him to fit into their lovemaking. And that angered her even further. He didn’t deserve a place with them. There was no offering of trust or yielding to his instincts. She knew he sensed the truth, but refused to open himself to the possibilities.

  Yet she yearned for his touches. Even if they burned her.

  Then she thought to Gabriel. He accepted her for what she was, had helped her keep the darkness at bay, for at least one night.

  He demanded her submission to him. But to what end? There was so much going on in her life now, so many unanswered questions that even if there had not been the separate issue of Michel, she would have refused to surrender to him completely.

  But she could turn to him. Feel cherished instead of reviled. And he made her forget all the bad, for at least one night. He’d shown her he could control her passions, drive her sensuality, and push her over the edge into satisfaction like no other man before him.

  She didn’t know what tomorrow brought. But she could give her body over to Gabriel. Not for forever, but for now.

  Now was all she had.

  ****

  Gabriel was fuming at Michel. Kadence had done nothing to deserve this treatment. His fist tightened with the need to knock some sense into his Templar brother. It wasn’t the first time the two had come to blows. The last time had been when Michel had refused to listen to Gabriel in regards to Paloma.

  Would a woman always be at the center of their fights?

  Last time, Gabriel had been right. As he was now. Michel needed to stop comparing Kadence to the Spanish whore who had tortured him. Gabriel had warned Michel that the woman had been trouble; he’d sensed it from the moment he first laid eyes on her. Seeing Paloma in the present hadn’t been easy for either of them, especially Michel, and Gabriel was sure it helped fuel his feigned indifference.

  Thierry interrupted his thoughts.

  “If this is true, we need to find the other females and bring them close. Or they may find us, as Kadence has.” Thierry sat behind his huge desk, his eyes drifting over them. “Illuminati attacks have been increasing as of late, and the assaults have been very close to home. Personal, it seems. They were in your home, Michel. Nicolas called. He and Matthias were confronted just this morning. He barely escaped with his life. And there was a woman with them.”

  “A woman?”

  “Yes. One Nicolas claims healed his wounds.”

  “The healer?” Michel sat up, his interest sparked. Gabriel’s anger grew greater. Was this the proof Michel needed to finally accept Kadence? Too little, too late.

  “Perhaps. Without more details, I cannot say for certain. All of this is conjecture at this point, anyway. But if these women are carrying a bit of Gaia in them, they could be instrumental against the Illuminati. And they could also be foreshadowing of much darker times to come.” Thierry stood, crossing to the opened French doors, an expanse of the bright, blue water of the Mediterranean in stark contrast to his dark clothing. “Your sighting of Paloma worries me greatly.”

  Gabriel tightened, knowing this subject could cause issues for Michel and the conversation could potentially not end well. But it was one they had to have. It was five hundred years in the making.

  They’d never discussed Paloma. Even after pulling his nearly dead body from the torture chambers under the cathedral, they’d ignored the subject. They had obviously tended his physical wounds, but not the injuries upon his soul. Perhaps they should have. Perhaps then, he wouldn’t have impenetrable walls around himself five-feet thick.

  “Paloma isn’t any of your concern. I will deal with her.” Michel’s impassive face was belied by the tone of his voice. Anger rippled through the air in waves. Tangible, the emotion was so thick, Gabriel wondered if he could reach out and touch it.

  “Like you dealt with her before?” Gabriel voiced, refusing to allow Michel to not face this here and now. It was high time it was spread out and dispensed with.

  “Now, we come to this, eh? It only took you five hundred years to say I told you so. Is that it?”

  “No, it isn’t that at all. You forget I’m the one who found your bloody withered body in that cell. I sa
w what they did to you, and I know your anger is great. I can’t judge you for that, as I am nearly as angry with Paloma as you are.”

  “But?”

  “This woman threatens us all. Paloma is no longer just your issue.”

  “What she did to me makes her my issue. I will bring her down.”

  “You didn’t listen to me then and apparently, you won’t now. One of these days, you will stop being blinded by emotion for that whore!”

  Gabriel was taken by surprise by the punch that landed on his nose. Sliding to the floor, he grasped his face, feeling the blood dripping down his lips. His eyes rising to Michel, realization hit him.

  “You still love her! Don’t you?”

  Michel jumped on him, his fists hitting like lightning, his rage immense. All Gabriel could do was fend off the strikes the best he could, allowing his friend to release some of his fury. He would not rise to this fight. Alain and Thierry pulled Michel from him, holding him back as he reared like a bull, trying to get back to Gabriel.

  “I—don’t—love—her!”

  Gabriel stood, stretching to release the tenderness of his body from the assault. “There is such a fine line between love and hate, mi amigo.”

  “And you’re crossing it even now, mon frère.”

  Gabriel gazed at his friend. Michel’s rage was twisting him. And if he didn’t get ahold of it, it would bring them all down.

  ****

  Michel wrenched out of Alain and Thierry’s hold. Gabriel stood glaring at him. He couldn’t stand their perusal. Striding from the room, he felt the anger still charging through him. He needed to break something. Damage something. Maim something. Kill something.

  He rushed out a back door, needing fresh air to breathe. The last thing he needed was to come face-to-face with Kadence.

  Her eyes were large as he stormed out the door. Seeing her only made him more ferocious. She was another shade of Paloma, a woman who could betray him. He saw red when he looked at her.

  Grasping her into his arms, he pulled her close, his mouth marauding hers in a kiss of subjugation. His hands closed in on the sides of her face, forcing her to remain in his hold, his tongue spearing between the seams of her lips and tasting her thoroughly. He felt her fists against his chest, pushing him away, but he didn’t care. He would make her submit to his will. Pain, suffering, and sex, they were all different shades of one thing, were they not?