by Kim Faulks
They moved in unison, driving my thighs wider with one brutal thrust, only to slide out once more.
I closed my hand around Titus’ cock, easing him into my mouth, as one by one they picked up the pace, until I was lost with the assault on my body…
And in the panic…I found peace.
I found love, and lust as the Heavenly light from Gabriel grew.
Together, all three became one.
Heat grew at my back as Rival gave a snarl. The Hellhound stretched me, pushed against my barriers, and drove deep inside. The sigil on my palm burned with the sensations, sending a tiny lick of fire along my arm.
Black flames melted into orange as the heat of the hellhound raged.
Hell had me on one side.
And Heaven on the other.
I opened my mouth as Titus’ cock twitched against my tongue. My legs trembled, panic raced, as a shudder tore through my body.
Titus wound his fingers through my hair, pumping against my lips as I sucked. He bucked and moaned, eyes closed, as his cock gave a twitch and warmth hit the back of my tongue.
My body jerked as heat spread, driving through the very center of me. Rival gripped my hips tight, gave one last thrust, and moaned.
My core was pulsing, clenching around Gabriel’s cock as the archangel gave one last shudder and stiffened.
Rasping breaths echoed around me. They hesitated, and, then, together they sank, rolling me, holding me in a cocoon of three. Arms slipped around me, one on my hip, another at my waist, as fingers tangled in my hair.
The thunder of my heart carried me away like a thousand horses in my chest, and in the bliss…a sliver of icy fear pierced me.
I held on to their warmth as, out of the searing, soul-stealing cold...the night hag came.
Chapter Fourteen
Lorn
The unseelie…
The unseelie…
The unseelie, she whispered and rose out of the darkness of my mind. The moth-eaten shroud flapped as she stepped from the darkness. Black eyes bored into me.
I shivered in the cold. Warm bodies moved closer, arms tightened, drawing me away from the nightmare inside my mind.
And yet, she was there, trapped…waiting…waiting…waiting. “I’m not Lucifer’s daughter.”
Heavy breaths stilled, until the bedsprings creaked.
“Come again?” Rival snarled.
I turned toward him and the mountain of lies and secrets I’d held inside crashed to the ground. “I’m not Lucifer’s daughter. I’m not even a supe. I’m a human, and a product of an abusive relationship.”
His brow furrowed. There was a shake of his head. “I don’t believe that for a moment. Who the hell told you that?”
I looked to the red leather notebook on the nightstand beside the bed and answered “My mother.”
“Lorn,” Titus rolled and propped himself up on one elbow. “We wanted to tell you before. The diary is blank. There’s nothing written on the pages.”
I jerked my head toward the journal and shook my head. That wasn’t true.
That…wasn’t true.
Rival rolled, climbing over Gabriel’s splayed wing to snatch the book from the top of the drawers and flicked open the pages. Her scrawl filled the pages…page after page.
“See,” Rival murmured. “There’s nothing there.”
I jerked my gaze to his. He couldn’t see it…I turned to Gabriel and then Titus…none of them could see it.
I reached for the journal and pointed to the tiny scrawl of my mother’s writing. “It’s right there.”
They looked at the page as Rival shook his head. “Lorn, there’s nothing there. There’s nothing anywhere in the book.”
“It’s spelled,” Titus said as he leaned backwards and glanced at me. “It has to be.”
I grasped the book. “Not spelled. Not in the traditional sense, at least.”
“There’s a traditional sense?” Titus murmured.
“Blood,” I skimmed my fingers along the smooth leather. “Blood calls to blood. It’s her energy within the pages. It’s why I don’t need to read the words. Why it’s unfolding inside my head…why it haunts me, just like…”
“Just like?” Titus shoved up on the bed. And there it was again, that cop voice.
“Nothing,” I muttered and searched for a way out of our tangled legs.
Titus threw an arm around me, and the others tightened their holds. “Not so fast. Just like what? What’s eating you?”
I closed my eyes as the faint sound of the night hag’s voice filled me…the unseelie…the unseelie…the unseelie.
Tell them…the need consumed me. My hand shook, rattling the pages as the lie took hold. “There’s nothing.”
Pain ripped through my chest. I closed my eyes and swallowed the hurt. And, in an instant, the warmth of our love faded, leaving me cold.
“This is all about that cult, isn’t it? The Nine?” Titus kept pushing, digging, working his way inside my head…
But it was crowded in there. The Nine. The unseelie. I tried to make the pieces fit. I tried to understand. But when it all came down to it…there was only one person who knew the secrets of my past.
The one person that started it all—I clenched my hand around the journal…
My mom.
“I don’t know anything anymore,” I whispered. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. I feel…”
“Then you stay here,” Gabriel murmured. His fingers were warm against my arm. “You stay right here and we’ll work it all out. I’m with you, always with you.”
“We all are.” Titus tightened his arm around my waist and yawned. “All you have to do is let us in.”
I lay there, comforted by the weight of their arms around me, and lifted the journal. Breaths deepened as I opened the cover.
The Nine.
He said the same words again last night. The Nine…But the nine what? I try to think, try to listen...try to understand what could turn a man into a monster.
His clothes stink of rich earth and wet leaves, and there's blood...blood on the knees of his pants. I find it when I wash his clothes. If he ever found me looking...he'd hit me.
He doesn't want the baby. But that's okay, because I do.
I'm leaving him. I'd already decided weeks ago. Now I just need to get the courage to carry it through. I have some money and I'm going to run. I can't go back to mom's, not now, not after everything we've been through. So it's best I find a new place, where I can raise Alice. That's the name I've chosen.
Alice will be strong, she'll be loved, and she'll be wanted. The only thing I need to decide on is when to run...
A sudden snore wrenched me from the pages. I glanced at the others lying beside me on the bed. Titus was curled around my side, facing toward me. He looked so peaceful like that...so damn serene, and I couldn't help but wonder what mom’s life would’ve been like if she’d only found someone like him.
Someone normal.
Someone kind.
Rival pushed out with his foot and kicked the comforter, shoving it from around his feet. Had mom known others like Rival existed? Had she known there were more than just her kind…you mean our kind? Human. Our. Kind.
I glanced at Gabriel, who watched me from the foot of the bed. Inquisitive blue eyes sparkled as he glanced at the journal in my hand.
There was a tiny tousle of feathers as his wing straightened and swept through the air…and then, gently, without so much as a whisper, the long, perfect white feather at the tip turned the page.
I shifted my thumb, catching the flick of paper, and lowered my gaze.
December 25, Christmas Day
The smiles are weak, but I actually met Jay’s family. They demanded to meet me. It was either we spend lunch with them or they were going to ‘turn up on your doorstep’ they told Jay. He was his usual sullen and moody self. I caught his parents more than once looking at him as though he was a complete stranger.
If they couldn’t ge
t through to him, how could I?
But they were happy about the baby, and it almost broke my heart to nod and smile and talk about a future that would never come. I’ve been praying for this day to happen, praying for his family to push him harder than I ever could.
He’s going out tonight…and that’s when I’m going to leave.
The only thing I need to know before I go is…who and/or what is the unseelie?
It was Redemption. It had to be. I glanced at Gabriel, but he wasn’t there.
Long blond hair swept across his shoulders as he turned his head toward me, drawing my gaze. He’d risen from the bed without me even knowing, leaving the others behind to stand naked at the window.
I’d never seen such a beautiful sight.
Rival muttered and gave a tiny snarl in his sleep, but Titus hadn’t moved, still curled around my body.
It was Redemption. The words burned in my stomach, eating me from the inside. I swallowed hard and dropped my hand as Gabriel took a step toward the doorway.
The movement wasn’t lost on me. I pushed against the mattress and worked my way down until my feet touched the floor.
They never moved, never missed a breath, as I rose from the bed and followed my archangel out of the room.
The faint blast of a horn came from somewhere outside. But the world could slip away without any battle at all. I had my own demons I was fighting…my own war to win.
A folded pile of clothes sat on the counter, taking me back to the vision of my mom. Gabriel skimmed through the shirts and trousers, easing a pair of folded jeans, a clean set of underwear, and a black t-shirt from the stack with barely more than a ruffle.
Somehow in the last few weeks, we’d become a family, doing normal mundane things that families did, like doing the laundry.
“Your favorite bra,” he murmured, and handed the garment over.
I gripped the journal and gave a weak smile. “You did all this?”
“I clean when I’m unsettled.”
Unsettled. Such an easy word, a small word really. The kind of thing you say when you don’t want to say the truth.
Stressed. Panicked. Angry. Lonely.
Those were the right words.
Those were the real words. The words that were folded into every pair of pants. The words that were swiped with ever cloth, and the words that lingered in every careful glance.
I took a step toward the counter and slid the journal along the surface. My damn hands shook as I pulled on my underwear and then my clothes.
Gabriel knew me…probably better than anyone. He was the one I’d turned to when Redemption and I broke up. He was the one I turned to when I was lost and alone, and he was the one who comforted me…guided me.
Just as he was doing now.
I yanked my shirt low and waited for him to dress. “You know, don’t you?
There was a shrug of a massive shoulder as the wide gaps in his shirt settled around his wings. “That Redemption had something to do with your mother’s murder? Not until recently, but I didn’t have enough evidence to say anything.”
“He did it, Gabriel. I know he did. There was a police report, made on the night of my mother’s death. He was found standing over her body, with her blood on his hands.”
“That doesn’t mean he did it, Lorn. You, of all people, know that looks can be deceiving.”
But I did…I knew in my heart. “He was standing over her dead body, Gabriel. There can’t be any more evidence than that.”
He yanked his zipper up and buttoned his pants. “Have you confronted him?”
My lips curled into a snarl. “I can’t even find him.”
“The alley, that’s what you were doing, wasn’t it? You were looking for him.”
I gave a nod and took a step closer, torn between needing comfort and seeking revenge.
“The report, where is it now?”
You belong to me…
Always with me…
For the unseelie…
I flinched with the voice and jerked my hands high. Broken nails were red and raw…and, in my mind, they were bleeding. “The thing has it. The creature with a skull for a mask. The thing that’s been hunting me.”
“The cuts on your face,” he murmured before his eyes flashed with anger. “For God’s sake, Lorn.”
I jerked my gaze toward the hallway. I didn’t want them to know…didn’t want them to be upset—just as Gabriel was upset. “Ace called it a night hag.”
A tortured moan tore from his lips before he leaned forward and snarled. “The night hag is a wanderer of the unseelie world. Her magic is dreams, and visions…no wonder you’ve been so damn confused.”
Dreams and visions. I lifted my hand to touch my cheek and felt the raised cuts. She was real enough. “What does she want?”
“I don’t know…nothing good. The only one who can tell us—”
“It’s the unseelie,” I broke in. “That’s who she wants me for…the unseelie.”
“Then we find him…and we demand to know the truth.”
I flinched at his words. “If only I knew where to look…”
“Not in any bar, that’s for sure. A place of significance…to him, at least.”
A place that tied the two of us together. I’d already driven past our old place. He wasn’t there…he wasn’t anywhere.
The dark alley waited inside my head. Shards of glass glinted like diamonds…drawing my mind to the smashed window. I jerked my gaze high. “I think I know where that is.”
Gabriel reached across the counter, grasped a pair of folded socks from the pile, and shoved them into my hand as he growled, “Then let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
Rival
The front door to the apartment closed with barely a thud. I waited for a minute, and then strode from the doorway into the living room. I could still smell her on my body, still feel her name burning in my lungs. Still nursed that damn ache like a hangover from hell.
But this wasn’t just any love affair, was it?
I glanced over my shoulder at Titus, waited for what felt like an eternity, and then made my own way to the front door.
No, this wasn’t anything like I was told it was going to be.
It was supposed to be a simple assignment…until it went horribly wrong.
I gripped the handle and then waited, before shoving the door wide. Emptiness waited for me in the stairwell. There were no heavy thuds from the apartment below, only the faint waft of sweet orchid, under the metallic tang of blood.
That kid was messing with some powerful magic…
Something moved in the apartment below, the faint flutter of wings was followed with a piercing call. I eased the door nearly closed and waited, listening for the young sorcerer, and then pulled the door closed behind me.
The ache in my calf gave a twinge as I made for the stairs and hurried. The wards of this place were like a beast of its own; scenting, tolerating, waiting for me to make one wrong move before they tore me apart.
I curled my lip and swallowed the pain. I’d dealt with a lot of magic in my time, magic more powerful than this—I turned my head as I stepped from the last stair and hit the foyer—but the kid was learning fast.
I’d need to watch out for that one.
Metal howled against concrete as I pushed through the door and stepped out into the sun.
The fetid scents of humans and supes washed over me. I turned my head from the faint stench of kerosene and then lifted my gaze.
They were already gone, flying through the air like KFC home delivery.
I joked.
But the truth was, the pain-in-the-ass feathered dude was starting to get to me. I craned my head, stretching tight muscles—hell, they were all starting to get to me. Every single…one of them.
I couldn’t keep this shit up. Couldn’t keep fucking lying. It was eating me up from the inside. But that’s all this whole fucking charade was, wasn’t it?
One big mass of fu
cking lies.
I shoved from the front door of the building and hit the stairs. One quick scan, and I headed right. I lengthened my strides fast, finding solace in the burn of my thighs and the fire in my lungs as I scanned the cars passing and then lifted my hand.
The beat-up black sedan slowed. The black taxis were careful. I didn’t blame them, shit always went wrong this side of the supernatural line.
I held out my hands, palm up and waited while the car pulled to a stop.
The passenger’s window rolled down and the driver leaned across to shout, “Where you going?”
“The Darkened Moon.”
He pulled away, stared straight ahead, and muttered a string of obscenities under his breath before he leaned over once more. “You’re paying, right? None of this I’ll trade a damn spell crap?”
I reached for the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a gold coin. “Oh, I’m paying all right.”
The driver was mesmerized. He took a shuddering breath and then held out his hand. “Okay, get in. But I get the coin first and, if it burns me, hellhound, it’ll be the last ride you’ll ever get.”
I gave a nod, flicked the coin through the open window, and then climbed into the back seat. He turned it over in his fingers and measured the weight. “The Darkened Moon, huh? Why you wanna go there, paying your respects?”
I yanked the door closed behind me and settled back into the seat.
So, he was one of those, huh?
Someone who wanted to talk.
“Something like that,” I muttered, and stared straight ahead.
He waited for a second, before shoving the car into drive, then pulling out. The engine growled a little louder than it should and then gave a misfire.
“Damn piece of crap, it was fine the other day until a damn night walker with an attitude whispered something under her breath.” He wrenched his head up and stared at me in the rear-view mirror. “You don’t know about those things, do you?”