by Auryn Hadley
Pressing my skin against his, Nick's fingers locked my hand in place. He closed his eyes and whispered words in a strange language, the letters crisp and discordant on his tongue. The sound was hypnotic, the feel of his chest so hot and sensual. He stopped chanting and something flared against my palm, hot enough to burn but without the pain. When I tried to pull back, he held my hand tight.
"Relax," Nick whispered, leaning a bit closer.
My eyes went to my hand. "What did you do?"
"I just gave you the key to my soul. You're the only one who can reach the aether inside me now." His index finger tapped the back of my hand. "So try to push some of that excess out?"
I took a deep breath and tried, imagining the process of pulling it but in reverse. Nothing happened. Closing my eyes, I tried again, but still absolutely nothing. I felt Nick shift and lean closer, so scrunched my eyes tightly and pushed with everything I had.
"I said relax," he whispered again, then his lips met mine.
I relaxed. His mouth was as soft as velvet, warm and inviting, but tender. I reached up to his neck with my free hand, locking my fingers in his long hair to pull him closer as my tongue caressed his full lower lip. Nick moaned, his mouth parting, and his tongue met mine. His hand pressed even tighter on the wrist caught between us. Except for that, he only touched me with his mouth, but I refused to let him go, feeling connected to him in a way I didn't think possible.
Where we touched, my skin flared to life, feeling like something deep inside was thawing. I wanted to melt into him, to never leave him, to bind him to me forever. Nothing had ever felt like Nick's touch, and somehow, I knew that nothing ever would. What started as a gentle kiss quickly turned insistent, his mouth devouring mine while my head slowly cleared. I sucked in a breath and leaned closer, but he retreated, keeping the distance between us, teasing me with his perfect body.
"Sia," he whispered, releasing my hand. "Look at me."
My lids felt heavy with desire, but I forced them open. Black eyes, like pools of eternity, were waiting. He smiled gently and slid his fingers across my cheek, the moment over but not forgotten.
"How do you feel?" His voice sounded deliciously rough.
I chuckled once and glanced at the closed door. "You sure you want me to answer that?"
He nodded slowly. "I am."
"Horny?"
"Mm," he murmured. "So better."
"And whose room are we in?"
"A spare." He leaned closer and kissed me again, this time less passionately. "But I have to go, little dove. I can't hold this much aether for long, and you did want it to refill a demon."
I groaned and pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. "I was thinking..." I sighed. "Never mind."
Chuckling, he pulled one hand from my face, dragging it to his lips to kiss the inside of my wrist. "You need to rest, Sia, and that would not be resting." He let me go and leaned back, smiling like a pleased cat before standing. "You shouldn't be able to hold that much aether yet, let alone pull it. What you just did is impossible."
"I'm getting used to impossible."
"Good. Stay here. I'll be back in an hour."
"Where are you going?"
He opened the door. "To wake up Beelzebub." Then he was gone, vanishing as he stepped through the doorway.
"Damned demons," I complained.
Pushing myself up in bed, I was well aware that the door was still open. With an annoyed grunt, I thumped both hands into the soft mattress then swung my legs over the edge. For a moment, I sat there trying to regain my composure.
A tap sounded on the doorframe. "Still alive?" Sam asked.
"Seems like it," I muttered, not even trying to hide my frustration.
He chuckled and tilted his head downstairs. "I brewed coffee, and I'm sure we have something to eat. Just you and I for a bit."
A wash of nervousness hit me, but I decided to ignore it, gesturing for him to lead the way. "You know y'all have fucked up my entire life plan, right?"
Halfway down the stairs, he paused. "Yeah. We do. The thing is, Muses are not common. Muses like you? Unheard of." He shoved his forelock back and nodded to himself. "Sia, you just took enough aether from an angel to make Nick struggle to hold it, and you're still not down to normal. You shouldn't be able to walk, let alone anything else."
"So why am I?"
He shrugged and continued down the stairs, leading me into the kitchen. "Too much caffeine?" He pulled down a pair of cups, filling them both. "Did Nick really say he's going to wake Beelzebub?"
"Yeah, why?"
He glanced at me quickly then focused his attention on pouring the cream into the cups, not around them. "Because a few thousand years ago, Gabriel drained him dry. Completely devoid of aether. Instead of having demons harvest what we could and trickle it into him, we focused on healing up more of us that were just a bit under the level for consciousness."
"Us?"
Sam nodded. "Michael got me a few decades before the whole Jesus thing."
"Shit, I'm sorry."
He waved that away. "It's not a biggie, just disorienting to wake up and things are so different. Luke and Nick got the aether, though, filling up on some war and rushing over before it dissipated."
"But Beelzebub has been out for a while?"
"Yeah. It'll take a bit for him to get his bearings, but if we have him on our side again? Yeah, those feathered fuckers will be running scared." He stirred the coffee and handed me one.
I sipped at it gratefully. "So, what's the deal about transferring aether?"
He turned and leaned back against the counter, smiling before he sucked at his cup. "Like that, did ya?"
I blushed. Clearly, he could tell I was a little sexually flustered. "Stop dicking around and explain it?"
He raised an eyebrow and took another drink, taunting me. "Ok," he said finally. "Incubus, you know that one?"
"Yeah. Fake, right?"
He made a noise and tilted his hand. "Yes and no. When a human willingly releases aether, it's a little um," he grinned, "seductive. We'd sneak in at night, drain half of them, and leave them thinking it was a really good dream."
"But..."
Sam tilted his head and shrugged. "Humans can regenerate, so it's not a big deal. But tell me you didn't feel a little turned on?"
"Fuck off."
He winked. "Exactly. So, you play Battlefield?"
Chapter 24
It was nearly dark when Luke finally returned, and none of us had heard from Nick yet. Sam destroyed me over and over in his favorite game, but he never once gloated, nor did he take it easy on me, so I accepted Luke's return as the perfect excuse to stop dying.
"Hey, you're back!" I said, dropping the controller.
"Yeah, sorry." Luke flopped onto the couch beside me. "Had to pull a few strings."
"Want to explain that?" Looking between Sam and Luke, it was obvious I was the only one out of the loop.
"He found a few of his angel friends," Sam said, turning off the console. "How'd that go?"
Luke sighed. "Not as well as I hoped."
The way he was looking at me, I knew he was avoiding something. "Spill it," I demanded.
"Might as well," Sam agreed. "And if you show me yours, I'll show you mine."
"So, Uriel is still pretty neutral." Luke glanced at me. "Um, he said Mike's pissed she got away. Gabe's fucked up and they had to drain a few of their slaves just to find out what happened."
Which meant kill. Oddly, the death of strangers didn't really bother me as much as I expected. I was more upset at the idea of humans as slaves.
"What's the deal with the plants?" I asked, remembering the stack of bodies.
"Fairy plants," Luke explained, but my blank look made him go on. "They're almost sentient. Compost from human bodies allows them to grow, and the plants can be harvested for aether, their dead leaves feeding more slaves."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Luke sighed. "Sounds like they're trying to make another
portal from Angelis to Earth. The idea is that the atmospheric aether can be siphoned off, and if the portal is high enough, only flying creatures will stumble through it."
"Planes?" I asked.
He nodded. "Free delivery of new slaves if it happens."
"So how do we stop them?"
"That's a question for Nick." He lifted his chin at Sam. "Your turn."
"Sia pulled so much aether from Gabriel that she couldn't hold it all, but it clung to her on your flight home. Nick siphoned a bit off and went to wake up Beelzebub."
"Oh fuck," Luke groaned.
"That's a good thing," Sam reminded him.
Luke just shook his head. "You're not the one who'll get his wings broken."
I lifted a hand, drawing their attention. "You and Beelzebub, not so friendly?"
"No," they both said.
Luke sighed. "In the great war, um, two thousand years ago, or so? Well, I ended up face to face with him. It was a wound I inflicted that let Gabriel drain him." Luke lifted his hand slightly, then let it drop. "So, for him, that was a couple of days ago. For me, not so much."
"Well, I won't let him break your wings."
"Uh," Sam shook his head. "He's not really the kind to listen."
But I'd already figured one thing out. "He will be, or I'll drop his ass back to the ground."
Luke chuckled and rubbed the top of my head, mussing my hair badly. "I like it. And you can learn to heal when you put me back together."
"Deal."
"Wait." Luke held up a finger as he looked back to me. "You pulled aether from Gabriel. Nick is waking up Beelzebub. How?"
Sam leaned back and kicked his feet onto the coffee table, grinning. "There was a little sucking face upstairs."
"Yeah," Luke said, ignoring that. "But Nick's locked."
"Not to her."
I realized Sam wasn't about to explain so gave it my best shot. "He did something and spoke a language I didn't know, and um, I guess it worked?"
Luke yanked at the collar of his shirt, pulling it low enough to expose his chest. "Have anything to do with this thing?" A circle of symbols was branded on his chest, just like Nick's.
"Maybe? I was touching it." I bit my lip and looked at Sam.
"It's our seal," Sam said, lifting his own shirt to expose not only his but also a pierced nipple. "Every immortal has one. It's our key to the gates."
"Mine's keyed to both Daemin and Angelis," Luke explained. "Because I helped craft the system, they can't really undo it without my cooperation." He looked at me, waiting, but when I didn't say anything he groaned. "Sia, the same applies for Nick. He can't stop you from pulling aether from him now. Not unless you agree to be locked back out."
"Or pushing it in," Sam added.
"Ok? But I don't have a seal thing."
Luke dismissed that. "You do, just not marked. We all do. It's the pattern of our aether and the basis of all magic. Nick was locked to everyone but his own seal. That's what those runes are on his body. We all have some sort of protection, but Nick went overboard. Where ours are like chain link fences, his protections are more like Fort Knox."
Sam chuckled. "Luke's freaking out because Nick's been locked from everyone for pretty much ever. Only he controls his aether and he never took a snooze because no one could get through his wards. He also had to be conscious to repair or he was pretty fucked."
"And he can't change his mind?" That sounded like a big deal from the way these guys talked.
"Not without your help," Luke said. "Don't tell anyone else, not even Beelzebub, about this, ok?"
"Yeah." I ran my hand across my mouth, trying to remember what had happened. "Why did he do that? Why didn't he just take it from me?"
"Beer?" Sam asked Luke.
"Sure. Get the Muse a coffee?" Luke suggested. I started to complain, but Luke shook his head, waiting until Sam was gone. "He's just giving you privacy. Pulling aether is a tricky business. It's also not a pleasant experience. With that said, giving aether is the opposite. They are not at all the same. The only analogy I can think of is like the difference between sex and rape, but it's not quite that violating."
"And when he does his Death stuff?"
Luke cocked his head in what was meant to be a shrug. "He encourages, but it's always a gift. That's why Death's portrayed as a lover in so many poems. The few a reaper can't finish off? They remembered the seduction of it. Nick's so powerful because he's learned a way to all but force them to give. He slips halfway over and lulls their minds." He paused. "But his trick doesn't have a stop button. It's all or nothing, usually."
"But if he's locked, how do they give?"
Luke shook his head. "It's not the same. They release and he catches before it disperses. They don't push it into him." He grinned mischievously. "Think of it like a hundred dollar bill. If I stole it from you, that would hurt. If I found it laying in the grass, that would be awesome. If you pressed it into my hand, I'd be really touched."
"Ok, I get it," I admitted. "And donating always feels good?"
He smiled slyly. "Tell me, how hot and bothered were you by the time he was done?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything," he assured me. "Giving your aether is one of the most intimate things you can do, even if your human body doesn't understand. It's life. No different from nurturing a child or lying with a lover. The exchange is just as basic, which means it feels just as good."
"Oh."
He nodded slowly, green eyes amused. "So, how do you feel about him stalking hospitals now?"
"I don't know, Luke. I can't even understand half of what y'all try to explain. Thinking that Nick gets off on killing little old men kinda freaks me out, but I saw him do it, and he didn't act like that. I dunno. I feel like a five-year-old listening to grown-ups talking about how babies are made."
"Good analogy." He leaned back and tossed his arm over my shoulder. "Long ago, before other worlds had developed a sentient species, the only form of care we knew was sharing life – aether. That doesn't mean it was seen as sexual. Just like caring for a parent isn't. It's still nurturing. No one is disgusted when a mother loves her child. We innately understand that it has to do with care and protection. Aether transfer is the same, but care and protection can be arousing in the right circumstances, with the right person."
I nodded, finally understanding. "So, do demons even feel love?"
"Yes, of all types. The problem is that outworlders are all men. We may only have a single gender, but we are still men, and have the same desires. We probably wouldn't have known what we were missing except that someone figured out how to cross the veils." He sighed. "So when we saw women, we liked your kind just as much as any human man would. Well, most of us. There are gay outworlders who are only attracted to men, just like there are gay humans."
"But Nick said –" I tried to bite off the sentence before Luke noticed. It didn't work.
"Finish that," he encouraged. "I know almost all of his secrets, but I'm not sure which you're referring to."
With a sigh, I gave in. I could always apologize later. "He said he'd never been with a human before."
"Nope. He preferred fairies. First, because they don't die so fast and break our hearts. Second, well, I swear that beast has a thing for sharp-tongued ladies. Even when he fell for a satyr, he always picked the strongest will he could find. Like you."
"Really?"
Luke lifted one shoulder in a partial shrug. "He's not some kind of sweet virgin, Sienna. He just isn't attracted to screaming or crying women, and that's the response he tends to get from humans. For centuries, you've all been taught to fear the Devil. Fairies weren't as concerned with what others said about him, and they didn't really take to religion. And those women are well known for their sass. He just happens to find that amazingly sexy."
"Yeah, I can see that." It actually explained quite a bit.
"But you really aren't like the other women. Well, other humans. You're doi
ng pretty good with all of this, and your questions make sense. You haven't worried about going to Hell, if we've seen your grandmother, or anything like that. You're acting more like a demon – just the facts."
"Good, because I feel like I'm losing my mind."
"Sucks having your world turned upside down, huh?" He looked down at me fondly.
"It kinda does. I'm pretty sure I can't even go home, not with all those angels out there, and Gabriel is going to be pissed when they fill him back up." I groaned. "And I can't finish my degree, not if the veils are pointing me out to anyone that can read them!"
"We have a spare room," Luke offered. "Rent's pretty cheap too."
"I don't really have an option, do I?"
"Not a good one," he agreed. "Let us move your stuff over, have Nick teach you the basics of working with aether, and we can go from there."
I hated the idea. I really did, but I also knew it was the only way to stay safe. That these guys had become friends made it a lot easier, but inside I wanted to scream that they couldn't make me do this. The problem was that they weren't. The angels were, and if I wanted to stay alive and in control of my own life, then I had to put on my big girl undies and suck it up.
"Can you take care of my job, classes, and lease?"
His hand closed on mine. "Promise. If you didn't ask, Nick would've."
I nodded, looking up shyly at Luke. "I really do like him. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, I do." He pulled me against him in a friendly hug. "Just remember he's not human, ok?"
"Ok?"
He smiled at me weakly. "The demon thing. Seeing it scares women off."
"But you look the same, just gold and shiny, but that's about it."
"You missed the wings?" He gasped, making a production out of it. "Big white things? C'mon, you had to see them!"
"You know what I mean."
He laughed and nodded. "Yeah. You're right. Angels got the shiny, but demons come in more colors. They get horns and tails to go with the wings, but the main stuff is all the same."
"Then I don't understand what the big deal is about."
Luke shrugged. "Being told your whole life that Hell is a very bad place, mostly. That, and the horns are a little intimidating."