Hellsbane Hereafter (Entangled Select Otherworld)

by Paige Cuccaro

  Eli’s dark brows creased, and he looked away, unamused and unsurprised. Shit. He had heard. His jaw clenched, and I could see him fighting to leash another unwanted flash of anger.

  I slumped into the chair, crunching whatever was in my purse. “Oh God…”

  His gaze focused on me, softening by small measures. “I’m sorry for my temper. The gossip is meaningless. Idle speculation. To hell with all of them. You’re an anomaly. Something that has never existed before. It’s normal to fear the unknown, to predict peril or salvation to explain it.”

  I knew on some level he was right, but I couldn’t get around the fact that twice in the same day I’d been told I was destined for something evil. “What if it’s true? What if I end up ruining everything somehow and hurting the people I love? What if I am evil?”

  Eli suddenly stood in front of me, pulling me to my feet. “You are not evil, Emma Jane. You cannot be. Evil is not a thing, it’s intent, it’s action. You haven’t an ounce of wicked intent in your body, and your actions are always for the greater good of those involved.”

  “Not always.” I met his beautiful, sin-darkened eyes. “I knew the cost of being with you, the price you’d pay, and I didn’t stop you.”

  He tugged me closer, making my breath catch. “It wasn’t up to you to stop me. It was my choice, my price to pay.”

  “But I’m the reason you even considered making that choice. I’m the reason you fell.”

  He smiled, softening his stern expression. “Yes. You were.”

  I tried to look away. He wouldn’t let me. “Emma Jane, you’re missing the point. Yes, I fell because of you—because I fell in love with you. Not because you were a wicked temptation, not because I was seduced by evil. I fell in love with you, because down to your soul, you are honorable, brave, and beautiful. I’ve lived for eons, but until I met you, I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know the man I wanted to be. You make me want to be more than I am.”

  “You’re mistaking bravery with self-preservation. And I’m not as honorable as you think.” I’d made a deal with the devil to have the man I love in my bed. There was nothing honorable about it. Okay, so Jukar wasn’t exactly the devil, and technically, the deal was to keep Eli out of the abyss. Plus, I hadn’t actually agreed to anything. But the intent, like Eli said, had been there. Shit.

  “You’ll just have to trust me on this one.” Eli lifted my chin with the crook of his finger. He wrapped his arm around my waist, holding my body flush to his and keeping his voice low. “I know you better than anyone. You’re not evil, Emma Jane. You’re human. You’re a woman. And you are a remarkable credit to both.”

  Desire, like blue fire, blazed in his eyes. His gaze dropped to my lips, and my stomach clenched. His sweet smile faltered in the heat of his thoughts as he leaned close and pressed his mouth to mine. His kiss warmed me like sweet brandy, blooming in my chest, heating my veins. The scent of fresh, sun-warmed air, country breezes, and wildflowers filled my lungs. I closed my eyes and let the fragrance of his skin soothe my nerves, let the solid press of his body smother my doubt, let his passion sweep me away.

  If I was evil, in his arms, I didn’t care. He loved me and had given up so much to be with me, and I loved him for it. Like he’d let go of a long-held breath, he relaxed the tight hold he instinctively kept on his power. The tingling wash of angelic aura poured over me, sinking through my skin, stirring the most intimate parts of my body.

  A soft moan escaped me, tension melting from my muscles. His hands gathered me closer, as though he couldn’t bear even a whisper of space between us. Before his fall, Eli had always been so careful—careful how he touched me, how his angelic power influenced me, careful not to let his desire show. Now there was no reason to hold back. Being in the uninhibited embrace of an angel was a dangerously addictive bliss that left me weak-willed and hungry for more.

  “Tell me who attacked you,” he whispered and trailed soft kisses along my cheek and down my neck. His teeth nipped my skin, a soft nibble that sent a quick shiver down my spine. “It’s my right to defend your honor.”

  My head lolled back, heart racing faster with each kiss he traced down my chest. His hand, big and hot, slipped under my blouse, smoothing up my side to my breast. I swallowed hard, trying to keep my brain focused.

  “You’re not a knight in shining armor. And this damsel can defend her own honor. Thanks.” I barely got the words out before his hand slipped under my bra, found my pebbled nipple, and gave it a rough pinch. I gasped, arching into his touch as his thumb smoothed over the tender flesh and drew soft circles that stoked a growing heat between my thighs.

  He straightened, bringing his attention back to my mouth and deepened each kiss, suckling my lips, tasting me. He stole my air for his own, making me light-headed, and filled my lungs with his angel breath. The sensation charged through me, like ingesting pleasure itself, and my muscles hummed with heightened desire, lust becoming a tightening knot at the core of my body.

  The press of his tall, male form pushed me back, step by step, until the wall next to the antique chair stopped us. His power surged through me, warm and erotic like liquid silk slipping under my skin, caressing parts of me no mortal man could touch.

  “Tell me his name.” He worked the buttons of my blouse, peeling the light cotton off my shoulders before dropping his hand to the fastener at the back of my skirt. “I just want to talk with him.”

  “Eli…” My skirt slipped off my hips, brushing down my legs to pool around my feet on the floor. He didn’t wait half that long to gently press his fingers under the snug fit of my underwear, tracing the edge around to between my legs. His power thrummed over my skin, setting my mind spinning, igniting my body. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus enough to keep the name from my lips.

  He tried again. “What was his—”

  I nearly blurted the name just to please him. But instead I opened my mind to him the way I might open my bedroom door and poured my thoughts, my fantasies, into him. I filled his mind with my desire so there was no mistaking what I wanted, what I ached for him to do to me.

  He gasped, a soft intake of air, followed by the deep grumble of male satisfaction. “Mmm. Emma Jane, you don’t play fair.”

  He’d shown me once what the feel of my thoughts inside his head was like, echoing it back to me. Something similar to the feel of his body inside of mine, I knew the sensation was nothing he’d ever experienced before me. No woman alive besides me had the power to push her thoughts into his. It weakened his knees and shredded his control.

  I needed him to lose a little of his unearthly control. I needed him to stop asking about Azazel. And I seriously needed him to focus on taking me to bed.

  “Are there rules? I don’t remember discussing rules.” I pushed up to my toes to nibble the lobe of his ear.

  His body went stiff and hard in an instant. He rocked his hips, pressing the length and thickness of his excitement against my belly.

  My body answered with a quick wash of liquid heat, flooding through me to pool slick and ready at my core. “Take me to bed,” I whispered.

  “Yes.” He lifted me and my arms snaked around his neck, legs locking over his hips. His hands cupped my bottom, his hard sex nudging against me. He kissed me again, but this time he was rough and demanding, his lips bruising, teeth nipping, forcing my mind to let go of everything but him and the feel of his mouth on mine.

  A gentle shifting of air moved through my hair, and I felt the wall behind me vanish. Time folded inside and all around me with a subtle tug on my senses. If I hadn’t experienced the sensations a thousand times before, I wouldn’t have noticed. But before he broke the kiss and my eyes opened, I knew we’d traveled at near-angelic speed, moving from the living room to my bedroom in the span of a single thought.

  Before he could lay me on the bed, I dropped my legs and found my footing. “I want to undress you.”

  Eli’s clothes weren’t really clothes in the normal sense. They were kind o
f a part of him, like our hair and fingernails, both existing as part of the whole and separately. They were created by his power, made of the same molecules he used to solidify his body. They could vanish and change with an easy thought. An awesome time-saver when we were in a hurry. But we weren’t tonight. Tonight I wanted to enjoy everything.

  His dark brows pulled into a hard crease, confusion flashing in his lust-filled eyes. I ignored the expression and tugged his loose tie until the knot gave and the long strip of silk slipped from around his neck. A tentative smile quirked at the corner of his mouth. He watched my fingers work the first unopened button of his shirt. It gave way easily, and I pushed to my toes to press a kiss on the newly exposed angel-soft skin. His light brush of chest hair tickled my lips and then again with my next kiss after another button opened. His hands found my hips, resting there as I unfastened one button after the next, trailing kisses all the way down his chest, kneeling to kiss his belly button, which was like any other despite having never been needed, until I reached the top of his slacks.

  I stopped there, gazing up at him, tugging the ends of his shirt free, his chest a broad expanse of hard, carved muscle above me. His expression was both sexy and adorable, a mix of male desire and boyish hope. Brows high, mouth tilted in a crooked smile, he watched me unfasten his belt and work the hook and zipper of his slacks. He’d lived for eons, but in this, I was the expert. I held the edge of experience.

  My attention shifted to his stiff sex pressing eagerly against the dark cotton of his underwear. Then the underwear vanished. I glanced up at him.

  He shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

  “Thanks.” I had to smile as I pushed his dress slacks off his narrow hips and down the thick muscles of his thighs. Somewhere during the slow reveal, my smile melted. My hands caressed his hard shaft, marveling at the sight of him. He was so hard, so perfectly shaped, with velvet-soft skin.

  “Emma Jane, you test my last ounce of restraint. Please…”

  I flicked my gaze up to his, saw the raw need in his eyes, and opened my mouth on him. His lips parted in silent awe, watching all of his smooth, hard length slip into me.

  His skin was sweet like honey on my tongue, the ridges of his veins a tantalizing caress. It wasn’t the first time I’d shown him how many ways we could use our bodies to please each other, but it was all so new to Eli. Like a teenage boy full of energy and excitement, every time was still a soul-quaking occurrence.

  Despite his inexperience, Eli had full command of his angelic power and a nearly unshakable amount of control. His power alone could leave me with little more than a stupid grin on a quivering lump of flesh whenever he wanted.

  However, Eli never relied solely on his angelic power. He enjoyed using his body, loved the way we fit together, and too quickly, he took control. He lifted me, moved me back onto the bed, and shrugged out of his dress shirt, which vanished like the rest of his clothing the moment it appeared to separate from his body. He removed my bra and panties, kissing and nipping and loving every inch of me.

  His body covered mine, the weight of him both a restraint and a comfort. My body liquefied, my heart thumping hard and fast. Our eyes met, and I licked my lips, wanting his kiss, needing it. His hand caressed down my side, smoothing over my hip to the back of my thigh. He lifted my leg, nestling himself at the center of my body. The velvet head of his sex nudged at my entrance, its teasing promise catching my breath. He leaned in, finally taking my mouth in a hungry kiss, just as he pushed into me.

  I gasped, but it was Eli that I inhaled into my lungs, his sweet, summery scent, his honey taste, his powerful passion. His thick shaft pushed and stretched my body, his gentle insistence forcing my muscles to mold to him. Like the perfect fit of a soft leather glove, we clung to each other, his sex stroking inside me, building toward an undeniable release with each rock of his hips.

  Too soon a wordless cry tore through me, heat flooding over my skin, tingling in my veins and pooling deliciously at my core. Boneless, drifting on a rolling sea of pleasure, I could close my eyes and give in to the sated call of my body. But Eli’s oh-so-male body powered into me again, and my need was awakened all over.

  It was full night before he climaxed, after I’d gone three times myself, and he conceded my whimpers of exhaustion. He snuggled naked behind me, the muscles in my legs trembling, my heart a galloping thunder in my chest. A sheen of sweat covered me, and the fading waves of my orgasms still rolled through my body.

  “I love you, Emma Jane,” he whispered into my hair, then pressed a kiss to the back of my shoulder. “I couldn’t bear this life without you.”

  My heart squeezed, and tears stung my eyes. I loved that he loved me, but it had cost him so much. Because of me, everyone he’d ever loved had turned their backs on him. Without me, he would be utterly alone. The followers of Jukar were all hurting just like Eli, too damaged to form the strong bond between them like the one they’d lost. Their connection wasn’t the same. It wasn’t enough.

  I’d come to realize how desperately angels needed the emotional connection of their brothers. They were a part of each other, like pieces in a giant puzzle. When one was lost, his presence could never be replaced; like a gaping wound, his absence ached in their hearts forever. And thanks to me, Eli had lost them all. He suffered that pain a hundred thousand times over.

  How could I ever fill that void for him? Humans weren’t made that way. He was everything for me, one man, one woman, my other half. He’d never admit it, but I knew I couldn’t be that missing half for him. I could ease the pain, help him push the heartache to the back of his mind. But could I ever really fill the vast emptiness in his spirit where his brothers had lived? I didn’t know. And I was terrified of what he would turn into if I couldn’t.

  I had to fix what I’d done.

  I snuggled closer into the spoon of his body, his arms hugging me tight. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my guilt and sorrow to stop churning through my mind.

  “Love you, too.” I made a secret vow to do whatever it took to make Eli whole again. Like Tommy had said, it was time to do something.

  Michael. The archangel’s name filled my mind, and I focused to send my thoughts directly to him and no one else. Michael, we need to talk.

  I glanced at Eli, double-checking he couldn’t hear. He didn’t. As a seraph, Eli never needed sleep. Since his fall, he still insisted his body didn’t require it, but sleep seemed to come easier for him now. He’d always enjoyed lying with me as I slept, but it had only been since his fall that he’d begun to dream, and it was the promise of dreams that drew him into the nightly ritual.

  …

  Hours later, an image flashed blindingly bright in my mind, jarring me awake. I opened my eyes, the memory of the towering glass façade of PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh still vivid in my mind. I craned my head over my shoulder. Eli breathed deeply and steadily behind me, his arm limp around my waist. I scooted from his embrace, trying hard not to rock the bed, not to creak the bedsprings. I tucked the blanket around him, capturing what little of my body heat that remained. I got to my feet just as Eli shifted, taking advantage of the empty space I’d left, hugging pillows close to his chest without waking.

  Last summer when Eli fell and my world crumbled, Michael had made an offer. He’d promised if I gave him the skinny on camp Jukar, he’d take Eli back into the fold. With one condition, of course: I couldn’t tell Eli, or anyone else, for that matter. For months I’d hoped I could find another way. I hated the thought of lying to Eli. I wasn’t sure I could. I knew differently now. I didn’t have a choice.

  I checked the time, three a.m., snagged my sword and sheath from the floor, and snuck across the room to the dresser. My jeans drawer squeaked when I opened it. I froze, glancing over my shoulder to check that Eli hadn’t heard. His shoulders rose and fell with each sleeping breath, and I turned back to pull out my black jeans, then a black T-shirt from the drawer above and socks, underwear, and a bra from the smaller top dra
wers.

  I shoved on the clothes on my way out the bedroom door and ran my hands through sex-mussed hair on my way down the stairs. I grabbed my sneakers from under the foyer table and sat on the steps to pull on socks and lace up my shoes.

  In late August, warm nights meant I wouldn’t need a jacket, but I grabbed my house keys out of habit. After one last glance up the stairs, imagining Eli deep in his dreams, I turned and placed the image of my destination in the front of my mind.

  I called my angelic power and took a step. My vision tunneled, the foyer blurred, blending with the night outside, melting into city streets and streaks of light from neon signs. The blur of metal bridges and dark river water all rushed by in an instant. My weight shifted to my outstretched foot and landed a heartbeat later on the smooth granite squares of the PPG Place courtyard.

  I’d grown to prefer traveling at nearly the speed of thought. It was one of the perks of being an illorum. Losing that ability, among others, would suck even if I couldn’t remember ever having it. The likelihood of that, though, seemed about as slim as getting a fallen angel back into Heaven. But I had to try.

  Dark glass mirrored from the buildings, made to look like glass castles on all four sides of the big plaza. The normal brick-and-mortar skyscrapers loomed beyond the glass walls of the PPG buildings, but here in the center courtyard, there always seemed to be a trickle of magic in the air.

  A forty-four-foot obelisk stood in the middle of the plaza, bathed in celestial blue light, while more than a hundred jets of water pulsed and sprayed in a synchronized dance around the marble-tiled base. Soft orchestral music echoed off the walls, adding a mesmerizing soundtrack to the dancing water.

  During the day the plaza would be full of laughing children splashing through the cool jets of water. White umbrellas and matching table sets placed around the plaza provided shady spots for parents to sit. But at three in the morning, the plaza lay in darkness, except for the obelisk and fountain, and the white table-and-chair sets remained empty.