No Surrender, No Retreat

by L. J. LaBarthe

  “Yeah, well, next crisis? You are taking regular breaks.”

  Raziel chuckled. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good.” Uriel nodded. “So, how do you really feel?”

  “As I said. Fine. Relieved not to be carrying Raph’s duties as well as my own. Even more relieved that we got Raph back relatively unscathed and that humanity didn’t succumb to some horrible, ancient, dead plague.”

  “Mm, yes, I suppose that’s a plus. Millions of dead carbon apes makes a lot of mess.”

  “Charming as ever.” Raziel rolled his eyes.

  “Only because you aren’t kissing me yet,” Uriel said, “and you aren’t sitting on my dick.”

  “Oh, I see. You want me to do that, do you?” Raziel teased.

  “Yes, brat.” Uriel lay back. “Hop to it.”

  “Hop to it? Really?” Raziel raised an eyebrow even as he moved, straddling Uriel’s hips.

  “I’m not romantic, Razzy,” Uriel said, his hands going to Raziel’s thighs. He ran his palms over the warm skin that covered strong muscle and bone, eyes raking over Raziel’s body. “I leave that to the sappy ones of the Brotherhood.”

  Raziel reached behind him to slick Uriel’s cock with a brush of his power, the barest touch of fingertips against hardness, and Uriel groaned in appreciation as Raziel shifted, rising up and lowering down onto his cock, grinding down until Uriel was buried all the way inside him. “Oh yeah,” Uriel groaned in contentment, “that, that’s good.”

  As Raziel slowly began to rise and fall on Uriel’s cock, Uriel’s eyes grew half-lidded, hazy with his desire. He sat up with a grunt, bracing his feet on the bed, and kissed Raziel, tangling a hand in thick dark hair and sliding his other hand down Raziel’s body, pinching a nipple, then down, over Raziel’s stomach, to his pelvis and then to his cock.

  Raziel purred as Uriel stroked him in time with his thrusts, and they kissed passionately, hungrily, savoring the touch and feel of each other.

  “Fuck, I love you, brat,” Uriel murmured as he came.

  “Love you too, Uri,” Raziel said, coming a few moments later.

  ISRAFEL curled around Raphael’s body, clinging to him. For his part, Raphael wasn’t inclined to let go of his lover either. They lay in companionable post-coital silence until Israfel broke it.

  “Was it awful?” he asked.

  Raphael sighed. “It was not pleasant,” he admitted. “But it was worse for Agrat.”

  “Because of the bond.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.” Raphael looked at his lover, taking in the tousled blond hair, the pale skin, the blue eyes. “She is very strong, though. She managed to cope far better than Shateiel did.”

  Israfel shuddered. “Shateiel was unconscious, and it was like he was still in überpain, like he could still feel how empty he was and he wanted to die. We could all feel that. He wanted to will himself out of existence because he couldn’t feel her or their bond.”

  “It would have been a terrible tragedy if he had ceased to be.” Raphael shook his head. “Thankfully the rest of my Brotherhood found Agrat and I and removed those collars. Once they were off, we were all right.”

  “I missed you.” It was said in a very quiet voice as Israfel shifted closer.

  “I missed you too.” Raphael pulled Israfel on top of him and wrapped his arms around him. Israfel immediately cuddled close.

  “Can you take a few days without having to go anywhere? After you’ve fixed up everything?” Israfel’s voice was plaintive.

  “I think I can do that, yes.” Raphael smiled. “Do you want to come with me while I fix up the damage? Which, thanks to Raziel and Tzadkiel’s quick thinking, is minimal.”

  “Yes, I do. Are you sure that’ll be okay?” Israfel looked up at Raphael, and Raphael was immediately struck by how anxious his lover looked.

  “Yes, it will be fine, Iss.” Raphael kissed him.

  “Okay.” Israfel relaxed again. “I’m so glad you’re back,” he murmured against Raphael’s chest.

  “I am too.”

  16

  “WHEN do you want to bond?” Gabriel looked at Michael as Michael did the dishes.

  Michael finished the last plate and put it in the drying rack, then dried his hands. “I see no reason to linger. Today?”

  “Sounds good.” Gabriel smiled. “We should go inland and do the ritual.”

  “As you say.” Michael walked to Gabriel and took his hand. “You need to wear pants.”

  “Mishka, we’re going inland, to a spot no one can see us, and we’ll just be getting naked when we get there. So why do I need to wear pants?”

  “Please just humor me, Gabriel.”

  Gabriel huffed a sigh. “Fine, fine, I’ll wear pants.”

  “You have a very handsome body, da bao,” Michael said. “I do not wish others to admire it overmuch.”

  “Did you miss the bit about no one else being able to see?”

  “No, I simply do not wish to take any chances.” Michael squeezed Gabriel’s hand once and let go. “Come, let us dress.”

  Amused, Gabriel followed Michael into the bedroom. His amusement grew as Michael dressed in jeans, shirt, and jacket, then socks and boots. Gabriel himself simply put on a pair of faded sweatpants and called it good.

  “You dressing for company?” Gabriel teased.

  Michael frowned. “No, I merely do not wish to walk around naked. Nor do I wish you to walk around outside without clothing.”

  “I’m not naked, I’m wearing pants!”

  “As you say.” Michael shook his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

  Gabriel picked up his dagger and pulled a goblet to him with his power, then gestured grandly at the door. “After you.”

  Michael gave him a shy smile and walked out of the bedroom and then out of the house.

  Gabriel took Michael’s hand in his, twining their fingers as they walked, taking a path that was little more than a track in the dirt. It was twisted and winding, and it seemed to follow no clear route, but Gabriel didn’t mind. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, there were no clouds in the sky, and a light breeze blew, carrying to them the scent of the sea and the fragrant perfume of the wild plants and flowers that grew inland.

  Together, Gabriel and Michael crested a small hill and walked down into a clearing surrounded by palm trees and lush, verdant undergrowth. The clearing itself was of knee-high grass, and in the middle of it, Gabriel stopped walking and sat down. Michael sat facing him, and Gabriel set down the goblet and his dagger and took both of Michael’s hands in his.

  “Right, so you know how to do this?”

  “In theory,” Michael said. “However, theory is rarely the same in practice.”

  “It shouldn’t be too different in practice,” Gabriel said. He ran his index finger around the edge of the ring on Michael’s finger.

  “As you say, da bao.” Michael smiled. “Shall we cease stalling and begin?”

  “Good plan. Let’s raise a circle so none of our power escapes when we consummate this and blows everything up. I’d be well sad if we blew up our island.”

  “I would be sad as well.” Michael concentrated, letting his power reach for Gabriel, and Gabriel twined his own around Michael’s. Together, they created a circle of silver and gold light around them, protecting the rest of the island from whatever happened within.

  “We need to be naked for this,” Gabriel reminded Michael as he wriggled out of his pants and put them aside.

  “I remember.” Michael stood up and undressed. He folded his clothes neatly before sitting down cross-legged once more. He blushed as he noticed Gabriel staring at him. “Gabriel?”

  “You’re gorgeous,” Gabriel said. “And I love you. Right,” he continued, “so, here we go.” He placed the goblet on the grass between them and picked up his dagger. Gabriel sliced open a vein in his arm and let the blood drip into the goblet. As it dripped, Gabriel handed the dagger to Michael and began to speak.

  “
Michael, I love you. I ain’t good at pretty speeches or flowery words, but I am good at saying what I think and feel. And I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. You’re everything to me, and I commit to you of my own free will, fully, eagerly, Archangel to Archangel.

  “The first time you told me you loved me, I felt as though you’d given me the most precious gift of all. I love you more an’ more every day. I love every moment we spend together, and I miss you like I’ve lost the better part of myself when we’re apart. I’m scared that I’ll lose you, that something or someone will take you from me, either through death or dimensional separation or similar. The future with you by my side will be a good one, no matter what, ’cause I have you.”

  Michael took the dagger, smiling at Gabriel’s words. He sliced open a vein in his own arm and held it out over the goblet, watching as his blood dripped into it and mingled with Gabriel’s.

  “Gabriel,” Michael began, “I have admired you for a very long time. I had thought that as long as I was allowed to be near you, I would be content. For a while, I was. But when you kissed me the first time, made love to me the first time, I knew that I would not be content to go back to simply remaining near you. I knew that I loved you more than I had been willing to admit to myself, and I knew that it would be painful to be away from you, to lose you.

  “One fears that I do not have the words for this. I love you, I love being with you, I love that you love me. It is not as descriptive as it should be, but there is no more fitting way to phrase it. I am terrified that you will stop loving me, or that I will commit some wrong that brings you harm. However, I do not want to harm us both by denying you or denying my own feelings. I refuse to stay away out of cowardice. So long as you are with me, so long as you want me, then anything else that may happen to us seems irrelevant.

  “I love you, da bao. I love everything about you, that you frustrate me as often as you make me smile. I love how you challenge me, how you know what I need and give it to me, as selflessly and freely as you give of yourself to all who need you. I am blessed to be in your life, Gabriel, and honored to be yours and proud to have you as mine. I commit to you of my own free will, fully, eagerly, Archangel to Archangel.”

  Gabriel blinked rapidly to clear his eyes and set the dagger aside. “Now we drink,” he said in a voice rough with emotion. He picked up the goblet, drank half the contents, and handed it over to Michael, who did the same, draining the goblet of liquid.

  The light of the circle around them flared brighter than the sun as the power within the circle began to grow in response to the ancient ritual. Gabriel held out his hands, palms up. As Michael placed his hands on Gabriel’s, Gabriel let down his shields and opened his Grace and his power to his lover.

  It took a moment, and then Michael was doing the same. They were surrounded in a nimbus of silver and gold light now, and Gabriel’s eyes were wide as he felt Michael wholly and completely for the first time. Feeling Michael so intimately, more than flesh, more than spirit, right down to the very atoms that made Michael who and what he was….

  Michael bit his lower lip, his eyes wide as he and Gabriel looked at each other.

  “I, Gabriel, bond and commit to you, Saint Michael the Archangel.”

  Michael smiled. “I, Michael, bond and commit to you, Saint Gabriel the Archangel.”

  Gabriel smiled in turn. “Blood to blood,” Gabriel said, “Grace to Grace. My blood and Grace in you; your blood and Grace in me.”

  Michael repeated the words in a voice that trembled with emotion, and Gabriel smiled a small, fond smile at his beloved.

  The energy within the circle seemed to thrum and pulsate, almost like a third heartbeat, and Gabriel felt the increasing urge to pull Michael to him and kiss him.

  Michael made the first movement, shifting to straddle Gabriel’s lap and kissing him. Gabriel groaned, kissing Michael hard, his hands going straight to Michael’s wing joints and rubbing. Michael groaned in turn, wriggling on Gabriel’s lap and pushing him back to lie on the grass.

  “I commit to you of my own free will, without any reservation.” Gabriel’s mental voice was almost choral, tinged with his power as he spoke the final words of the ritual.

  Michael made a soft noise into the kiss and repeated the words, his own mental voice soft but no less certain than Gabriel’s.

  Kissing, touching, they were smearing each other’s bodies with blood. Their shared power swirled around them, and Gabriel felt something click within him as the bond began to take form. The more he touched and kissed Michael, the more he wanted him, and Michael wriggled enticingly on top of him.

  Gabriel moved his hands to Michael’s ass. Kneading those firm asscheeks, Gabriel growled, rocking up toward Michael’s body. Michael slid back a little, enough to be in the place Gabriel wanted him, and he reached behind himself, taking Gabriel’s cock in his hand, using his power to lightly coat that straining hardness with lube and guiding it into himself as he lowered onto his lover.

  Gabriel moaned loudly, raggedly, feeling the pinpricks of sensation as the bond flared, so new and fresh, twining around their powers and their Graces, joining them more completely than their shared Brotherhood. There were tears on his cheeks, Gabriel realized, and as he broke the kiss to look up into Michael’s warm brown eyes, he saw that he wasn’t the only one to be overcome with emotion.

  Michael smiled, his bloodied hand resting over Gabriel’s heart, and Gabriel rocked up into Michael’s body, reaching up to touch Michael’s cheek.

  “I love you, da bao,” Michael said.

  “I love you too, solnyshko.”

  It didn’t take long for them to orgasm, the power of the ritual and the emotion of it guiding their desire and their lust for each other. Gabriel couldn’t actually remember a time that his body had not been Michael’s; indeed, he could not remember a time that he himself had not been Michael’s. It had been a long time coming, but Gabriel knew now that he was meant to be with Michael and that their bonding was blessed by God Himself.

  Gabriel came with a low moan, Michael coming several moments after him with a muffled cry of Gabriel’s name. Gabriel slipped out of Michael’s body with a soft sigh and tightened his arms around Michael as he held his lover on top of him.

  Despite his orgasm, desire still thrummed through Gabriel. As Michael nuzzled his neck, he could feel that his lover felt the same way. With a low growl, Gabriel rolled them so that Michael was on his back, and ran his hands slowly over Michael’s chest and stomach, caressing each ab and oblique with careful, tender touches.

  Michael groaned, his hands going to Gabriel’s hair, and Gabriel could hear the heated litany of his name as Michael arched into his caresses. The sound of Michael’s voice saying his name like that, all hot and breathy and hungry, as if he, Gabriel, were the answer to every question that had ever been asked and was the center of Michael’s entire existence, felt heady, intoxicating.

  Gabriel began to kiss his way down Michael’s body, paying careful attention to each line and curve. As he slid his hands down to Michael’s hips, Michael’s wings—visible and unfurled—curled around to press against Gabriel’s own in a tangle of feathers. Gabriel nipped an ab and Michael whined, arching off the grass, the way he said Gabriel’s name taking on a pleading note.

  “Gabriel, Gabriel, please!”

  “Please what, Mishka?”

  Michael whined louder, fingers clenching in Gabriel’s hair as Gabriel nuzzled and kissed his way down the line of fine dark hair that led from Michael’s navel to his groin.

  “Take me, touch me, something. Anything. Please!”

  Gabriel groaned softly at that heated plea, even as reached for Michael’s cock. He ran his fingers over that straining hardness, feeling the lines of it, tracing over the ridge and the head and down, following the vein on the underside. As Michael’s pleas grew louder and less coherent, Gabriel followed the path of his hands with his tongue.

  Michael writhed beneath him, his wings pressing even har
der against Gabriel’s, the end feathers trailing down Gabriel’s lower back and his ass. The feeling of strong, powerful feathers against his skin made Gabriel groan as he delicately licked the slit before swirling his tongue around the head of Michael’s cock. As Michael let out a long, desperate moan, Gabriel opened his mouth and swallowed his cock down to the root.

  Michael’s fingers clenched and relaxed, then clenched again in Gabriel’s hair as Gabriel began to suck. Humming around his mouthful, Gabriel fondled Michael’s balls, his own wings pressing against Michael’s harder than before as Michael thrust into Gabriel’s mouth. Gabriel could taste precum on his tongue, feel the weight and hardness of Michael’s erection, and from the sounds and movements of his lover, he knew that Michael wouldn’t be long in coming.

  His eyes fell closed, and behind his eyelids, Gabriel could see the lingering, pulsating light of their shared power, the silver and gold that undulated like a benevolent serpent around them, binding them together in their love and passion. He purred as Michael cried out, a wordless, hungry cry, his fingers clenching and pulling on Gabriel’s hair, and as Michael came, Gabriel swallowed.

  Michael was shaking. Gabriel pulled off his cock, licked him clean, and crawled up his body, all feline grace and power. Michael moved his hands went straight to Gabriel’s wing joints, rubbing and stroking as Michael wrapped his legs around Gabriel’s hips and bucked up into him, the meaning unmistakable: fuck me.

  Gabriel complied, wanting nothing more right at that moment than to be buried in his lover’s body. He slicked himself with his power and pressed into Michael in one slow, hard thrust, instinct and animalistic hunger taking over and guiding his movements. Michael let out a low, keening cry tinged with the sound of his true voice, and Gabriel shuddered with his lust and his need and rocked hard and fast into Michael’s willing body.

  They came after several moments, and then Gabriel slipped out of Michael and shifted to lie on his side beside him on the grass. Their wings were still entwined, and the thrum of need and love still radiated through him. Resting a hand over Michael’s heart, propping himself up on his other hand, Gabriel smiled down at his lover, knowing that Michael would see how much he was loved in Gabriel’s eyes.