Sinless (Deadly Omen Book 1)

by Jenica Saren

  Staring in abject horror, I looked up, up, up from the crotch that my hand had snagged, and I felt myself turning an angry shade of red - probably not my best look.

  Beck grinned down at me as I removed my hand as quickly as I possibly could and cradled it to my chest, as though it had been harmed somehow. "I mean it, sweet thang, all you gotta do is ask." He winked at me and I felt nauseous - not because I wasn't like eighty-five percent totally game, but because my stomach was suddenly very displeased with my recent life choices.

  By recent, I mean the last half hour or so.

  Arms hauled me up from behind and my stomach lurched again in displeasure. I craned my neck and saw that it was none other than Gatlin. This situation was feeling all too familiar, but at least I was wearing more clothes than the previous time. "Ria, you need to sit down and try to listen." The angel growled at me, simultaneously igniting something low in my belly and feeding the troll in my head. He turned me to face him, and I honestly never knew why I did some of the things that I did - blame it on the alcohol - but I stuck out my tongue and blew a raspberry right in his face.

  Gatlin stared at me in utter bewilderment. "Really? What are you, ten?" He asked in astonishment.

  "Ten and a half." I corrected.

  I looked over my shoulder and saw that Rafe and Beck were leaning on one another, shaking with contained laughter. Kellan's face was twisted in a very grotesque sort of way that made me think he was trying especially hard not to crack a smile. Gray wasn't bothering to contain his grin, obviously amused by my drunken antics - I liked him so much more for it.

  Eliam looked straight up pissed.

  "So, we're back to being a snobby prick, huh?" I asked him while raising in eyebrow. I think I raised an eyebrow, anyway. Face things were hard.

  The appalled expression that was planted on Eliam's annoyingly attractive face made everything worth it. Everything. "Ria, be serious." He scolded, wagging a finger at me. Did he really wag his finger? Like some eighty year old woman or something? "We all need to talk, and that means you need to focus right now." He came toward me as though to manhandle me himself and I snuggled into Gatlin's chest, feeling him still in response.

  I stuck my tongue out at Eliam. "If you want me, you're gonna have to come get me yourself." I taunted. "Instead of sending the Hulk after me, I mean."

  Kellan's offended face was about halfway real and completely hilarious, and I assumed that was because of my inferring that the pompous Brit had sent him to grab me in the first place, as opposed to the nickname; I was pretty sure he was actually entertained by them.

  I heard Rafe and Beck finally crack, breaking into howling fits of laughter.

  "Hey, feeling a little green, buddy?" Rafe snickered, which only sent the two of them into more of a hysterical outburst.

  Turning my head, I saw Kellan glare at his brothers. "Oh, can it you two, or do you want to spar again?" He asked with a smirk.

  Both the guys mostly sobered, still grinning, but no longer laughing.

  "I'm not envious of either of you at the moment." Gatlin's voice rumbled through his chest and into me, like rolling thunder. The low bass of it was soothing and comforting. I almost wanted to go to sleep right then and there.

  Eliam's voice kept me from doing that, though. "All of you, just stop." He commanded, his voice booming in the small, enclosed space. He turned back to me, and I withered under his gaze. "Are you ready to talk, or are we going to be here all night?" He asked me, raising one perfectly arched brow at me.

  I nodded before I knew what I was doing. I wasn't ready to talk at all. I wanted to go back to that little space in the back of my mind where everything was bright and happy, where my inner self wasn't nagging me to hear the guys out, and my brain wasn't struggling to wrap itself around what I had seen and experienced.

  "Good." Eliam said as he sat on the floor, cross-legged.

  The rest of us followed suit. Well, I just kinda hung in Gatlin's arms as he sat down and placed me effortlessly in his lap. I blushed furiously, realizing how awkward of a situation I was in - and how hard a situation I was on. I had almost slept with Gatlin, and then almost slept with Eliam. I didn't mind being a little bit of a slut sometimes, since I could do with my body as I pleased, but I was starting to understand the fear that Eliam had of me messing with the whole family dynamic.

  As I rested against Gatlin's chest, sitting sideways in his lap, I waited for whatever the guys needed to say.

  Eliam cleared his throat and looked pointedly at me. "Ria, I'm sure you've figured out by now that we're not quite normal, as far as normal people go." He said calmly, professionally, as though he were conducting an interview or training session.

  I snorted at his statement and he looked at me curiously. Before I could stop the words from coming out of my mouth, I said, "uh, duh." Classy. Eloquent. That was me in a nutshell. As if I wasn't torturing myself enough, I gestured to all of the guys. "I mean, look at all of you. You're fucking smoking, and that's not natural." I explained.

  Oh. My. God. It was about to get worse, wasn't it?

  "Plus, there's no way all of you are actually brothers, none of you look anything like each other." I froze in thought for a moment, tapping my finger on my chin. "Except you two. You look close enough that you could pull it off." I indicated Kellan and Beck. Aside from the obvious stuff, like the tattoos and piercings, the two looked sort of similar, like they were of the same ancestral decent.

  The two guys laughed, effectively making me wish my mouth was super glued shut.

  "Anyway," Eliam interrupted. For once, I was grateful. "We're not mortal, we're not regular people, we're not even human. And neither are you, Ria." His blunt statement through me for a loop, and I was almost positive that I was incomprehensibly, undeniably still drunk off my ass. I was on my second bottle of tequila already by the time they had shown up, so it wouldn't come as a huge surprise to me.

  "Oh god." I whispered, moving my hand to cover my mouth in shock. "This is like that book, A Demon's Blade, isn't it?"

  The guys all looked at each other in confusion.

  I rolled my eyes at them. "The main character finds out she's half demon and thought she was human her entire life." I explain to them, watching varying expressions of amusement cross their faces.

  "No." Eliam said flatly. "We're Sins. The Seven Deadly Sins, to be precise."

  My brow furrowed as I tried to make sense of what he was saying, and I was pretty damn impressed by my serious lack of freaking out. "So... You're demons." I fished, phrasing it like a sentence. I mean, the Seven Deadly Sins were bad, they were things you would go to hell for committing, so they weren't exactly fairies or anything light and happy.

  Eliam rubbed the bridge of his nose as though I was giving him a major headache, and I secretly hoped that I had. It's the least the bastard deserved. "No, Ria, we are not demons. That's ridiculous." The patronizing tone to his voice made me bristle.

  "How the fuck am I supposed to know what's ridiculous? I'm a stripper living with six hot guys - it sounds like a fucked up romance novel." I huffed. I fought back another bout of nausea and tried to focus on taking deep, steady breaths. He was talking about me being ridiculous, but the entire predicament I found myself in was bordering on unreal. Bordering? It was unreal.

  Gatlin rubbed my back in soothing circles and I relaxed into him. "You're supposed to know by listening." He whispered, causing the little hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. If only he knew the things he did to me by just being in the near proximity.

  Stunned as I was by Gatlin's mere presence, I almost missed what Eliam was trying to tell me. "We've been around since before the demons and angels made their presence known. We were here when you humans built that ridiculous tower in an attempt to reach the heavens. How none of you realised that there is nothing but sky up there is beyond me, but such is the way of the mortal mind." He said with a shake of his head.

  I chewed over what he was saying, thinking it over.
If they were as old as mankind, they had to be really old, like thousands of years old. The thought made me cringe and put about an inch of space between Gatlin's warm chest and myself, much to my own chagrin, because I was comfortable. But the real question was still burning the back of my mind, and it pissed me off to no end that this was my huge concern at the moment. No more tequila for Ria, like ever.

  "So," I began as every set of eyes in the room swiveled to my face. I gulped nervously. "If you're the Seven Deadly Sins, why are there only six of you?" I asked.

  When everyone's faces scrunched up the same way, in identical, unreadable expressions, a thought struck me. "Holy shit. Am I the seventh Sin?" I gasped, pressing a hand to my heart as if that pressure alone could prevent it from beating straight out of my chest. It was just like the books. I wasn't ready for anything like this, and I knew it was so typical for me to do the whole "you have the wrong person" shindig, that was how I felt.

  Everyone was silent, their expressions grave. The violet-eyed Brit, however looked straight up stormy, furious even as he pinned me with a glare that made me feel as small as an ant. "No." He snarled at me. I was completely taken aback, not really sure where the hostility had come from.

  Eliam rose from his place on the floor and stormed out through the door of the storeroom, slamming it so hard behind him that a little dust fell from the ceiling above us. I didn't get it. One second he was so insistent that we talk that he tracked me down and ambushed my in a dark storeroom - which, while kinky as hell, was not exactly my idea of a good time.

  I don't even know how long I sat there in Gatlin's lap, silent but for the sound of my painfully throbbing heart. I didn't know what I said or what I was supposed to do in a situation like the one I was in.

  "It's not your fault." I heard Gray say gently from my side. I jumped and turned to him, having no clue when he had gotten so close. He brushed a thumb across my cheeks, which were wet with tears. I hadn't even known I was crying. And now that I knew that I was, I had no idea why I was.

  I sniffled a bit, grateful that I never snotted when I cried. I didn't want to be all teary-eyed and emotional, but my alcohol tolerance wasn't what it was even as little as a year before, since I stopped drinking as much at work in order to better be aware of my surroundings. "Then why?" I asked pitifully around a hiccup. Hiccups were the absolute fucking worst. I couldn't stand them, but then, I didn't really know anyone that enjoyed them.

  Gatlin tightened his arms around me, effectively smothering me. I didn't mind though. "Our fellow Sin isn't around anymore, and she and Eliam were extremely close. They found each other first."

  "Found each other?"

  "We were spread out across the globe when we were first... Created, I suppose you could say." Gray's accent was soothing to me, reminding me of how he found me the last time I was in tears. "So it took us awhile to find each other. Kellan was the next to find them, very shortly after."

  I separated my face from the soft material of Gatlin's shirt to gaze at Kellan. His expression was tight, almost pained, as though the memory was not a happy one. It made my heart contract hard and I struggled to free myself from my very attached position as I made my way over to Kellan on my hands and knees.

  n

  That was the moment I lost it, laughing so hard that my ribs hurt and more tears started pouring down my face I collapsed on the hard concrete ground, unable to hold myself up with all the shaking my body was doing, and hit my shoulder hard.

  I winced in pain for a moment, though still couldn't stop laughing. "Can we go home to talk?" I asked the guys.

  And through a mixture of expressions, ranging from concerned, to amused, to puzzled, all the guys nodded in agreement.

  23

  Ria

  When we arrived home, I was sure that I would have a pounding headache and a waking hangover - one of those hangovers that stays with you before you've gone to sleep. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I felt fit as a feather though, but considering how much alcohol it took me to get drunk in the first place, I couldn't say I was entirely shocked.

  What did shock me, was that I clearly remembered everything that had happened in that storeroom, and I still wasn't feeling the need to freak out. What did it say about me that I was so willing to just roll with the punches and accept the things I was told as fact - no matter how bizarre and impossible.

  After getting out of the car, I followed Eliam's lead into the house and noted absently that the door was still laying on the flat on the porch. He had been surly the entire drive home, but anyone could chock that up to Rafe and Beck complaining and bickering from the back of the Jeep, where the luggage usually goes.

  Eliam made for kitchen and then seemed to think better of it as he turned abruptly and headed toward a part of the house I'd never been into. When I thought about it, I hadn't been in most of the house, not even to be nosy and poke around the brothers' bedrooms, which was extremely unusual for me. I supposed that I had just been too caught up in craziness to take the time to be my normal, prying self.

  We ended up in a room that looked much like an old-timey study, but with odd bits of floral patterned furniture scattered about. This must have been Clove's husband's study when they still lived in the house together. The sudden thought of her being all alone in the cottage next door made my heart hurt.

  Someone closed the door behind us and it made me jump, which also infuriated me, because I wasn't a skittish person by nature. I had no reason to be.

  "So, do you have any questions?" Gray was the one to speak, which surprised me since he didn't really seem like the take-charge type - that was Eliam's role. I opened my mouth to speak and he stopped my by holding up a hand. "None about the seventh Sin, okay?"

  Ah, that explained that. I nodded my agreement and sat down on the arm of a faded pink and white loveseat by the door. Quick escapes and all.

  I thought hard about my questions, trying to think of the ones that would provide me with the most answers. "Okay... What Sins are all of you?" I asked cautiously. I thought I had them pegged, but I was prepared to be wrong.

  Beck raised his hand as if he were in class. "Gluttony." He stated a little seductively with a lick of his lips that made me shiver inwardly. Down, ovaries, down.

  "Sloth." Gray said from a lounging chair in the corner of the room. When the fuck did he get there?

  I turned to look at Gatlin, feeling a little wary. "Wrath." He said darkly, the deep bass of his voice reverberating through me, despite the many feet that separated us. I swallowed hard and averted my gaze from his own heavy one. So intense. Called that one, though.

  I looked pointedly at Rafe before he could say a single word and jabbed my finger in the air in his direction. "You're Greed." I said accusingly. He only shrugged and grinned in response, confirming my suspicion.

  I looked at Kellan and thought back to our first real conversation, where he confessed that he loved Drea because she was one thing she could never have. He looked at me, steel in his gaze. "I'm Envy." He told me, as though he already knew that I had him pegged. Suddenly, I got Beck and Rafe's hilarious inside joke back at the coffee shop. I sent them a glare and they nearly fell into another fit, only stopped by Gatlin and Kellan's hard-as-steel glares, which were much more effective than my own.

  I turned to the last man standing - literally; he was the only one standing - and I waited. There were only two of the Sins remaining, I was sure I already knew which one he was, but our steamy encounter in the kitchen, both times, made me waver on my decision a bit. Eliam was facing away from the rest of us and toward the large floor-to-ceiling windows that took up nearly the entire east wall, his hands folded behind his back. If I'd had any artistic talent at all, I'd have drawn him right then and there.

  "Pride?" I hazarded a guess and a slight inclination of his head was all the confirmation I needed. It made a bit of sense if I thought about it.

  In the kitchen, the first time, I had offered him a challenge by practically laugh
ing off his advances. It made sense, but all that knowledge did was cause my heart to crack painfully in my chest. It wasn't logical for me to be hurt by it, but I was - I was nothing more than a challenge, not the object of his attraction. Not that I was an actual object, I was a human being with feelings, feelings that were pretty damn hurt.

  Everyone was silent for a long time, the guys giving me time to mull it over, and me overthinking everything, which was wholly unlike me. "What happened back at the club?" I asked in a hushed whisper.

  The guys all looked at each other and then at their self-proclaimed group leader. Eliam finally turned around and huffed out a breath while running a hand through his perfectly styled dark, dirty blonde hair. He finally met my eyes and I could see the exhaustion in them. "The small athame you were struck with was laced with a poison that is dangerous, crippling even, to Sins, but fatal to mortals." He explained, his expression stoic and neutral, despite the dark nature of his words.

  "Why does a poison like that even exist?" I puzzled.

  "In the world's youngest days, the Sins were not feared for the threat of being sent to hell, but for the otherworldly power that they possessed." Rafe explained, catching me off guard by his seriousness. "So the people of one village captured one of the Sins and experimented with different tonics and tinctures to see if anything could diminish their health."

  My eyes were wide in shock and abject horror. How could anyone be that cruel? I mean, I had heard all about the cannibalistic serial killers in the news and in books, but I still found it hard to comprehend.

  "And when nothing else worked, the begged the heavens for a way to accomplish their goals." Kellan said, jumping into the conversation. "Their calls were answered by winged men who descended from the sky, calling themselves angels. In reality, they were called andjinns, or just djinns as you call them now." He paused, looking like he was trying to keep his poker face in tact and struggling with the feat.