Raise the Dead

by Briana Michaels

  Stop what? Con didn’t have the nerve to ask. Whatever Eve needed she was getting. He knew Uriel had done something with her and Lucifer once, and it brought Uriel back from the brink of death. He could only assume this was what they were about to preform right now.

  Uriel carefully spread her legs. She was naked. Her body looked emaciated. All her ribs showed and her hip bones jutted out. When Uriel positioned himself between her thighs, Con’s immediate response was a possessive one. He shoved Uriel away.

  “I asked you to trust me,” Uriel didn’t look at him. His attention was one hundred percent on Eve. “You ready?”

  She nodded, her arms weakly raising to hook around his neck. Uriel cursed under his breath. His hand was right at his waistline, poised to pull down his pants and whip out his cock. Instead, he slid down her body until his mouth was right at the apex of her thighs. “Con. Kiss every inch of her skin you can. Mind her cuts.” Uriel’s tongue darted out and he licked her slit.

  Eve sucked in a ragged breath. Her body arched and she yelled out. Con went into protective mode because of it. “Her wings. The ground is ripping her cuts more.” He didn’t ask for permission, he just picked her up and pulled her away from Uriel. “Am I right?”

  Eve nodded, her eyes rolling around. He didn’t want her to lose consciousness, but he could do nothing to take the pain away. Nothing but –

  He shifted her carefully in his arms and kissed her mouth. She tasted like salt and sweetness. Anger and loneliness. It was a fine wine he guzzled like a lush. Every inch of his body tensed and hardened. His wings flexed out, his feathers hardening to razor blades. Eve pulled away first, her hand dropping from around his neck to cup his face. “Help… me.”

  Another tear rolled down her cheek. It shattered something fragile in Constantine. “Tell me what to do. How do I heal you if you can’t take me in?”

  She shook her head and another awful tear slid down her face.

  Constantine grew angry. “Don’t you fucking look at me like that. Don’t you dare.” He knew that look all too well. It was the same Uriel made when he was ready to give up hope. It always happened after Michael hurt him too savagely and he didn’t think recovery was possible. Constantine couldn’t bear that look on Uriel and he sure as shit wasn’t going to stand seeing it on Eve. He held her sweet face, “You’ve gotten this far. Don’t you give up now.”

  She let out another whimper and turned her head away. “I… can’t keep… this up.”

  Keep what up? He didn’t care to ask right now. He wanted her fixed. All his life, Constantine had been a healer. If he could bring Uriel back from the brink of death time and time again, he could figure out a way to help Eve too.

  “I’ve got you,” he promised. “We’ve got you. If this is too much, say so.” He looked around for a spot that would work. On his right was a cluster of huge flat rocks at the base of the mountain. Constantine carried her over to it and pressed his back against a boulder. “Help me hold her up,” he ordered Uriel. “Do whatever you think will work to help her.”

  Uriel dropped to his knees and gently hooked Eve’s legs over his shoulders. With Constantine holding her upper half against him, Uriel took care of her. And fuck him sideways, Constantine couldn’t pull his eyes away from the sight.

  This felt wrong. Awkward.

  And thrilling.

  He was so twisted up; he didn’t know which way to go with his conscience. He decided to snuff the damned thing out and say fuck it. Whatever Uriel was doing began working. Eve’s breaths grew stronger. Her color looked better, too.

  She pressed her head against Constantine’s chest and he held her steady while Uriel tongued her sweet folds. His heart slammed against her back. She tensed like a coiled snake in his arms. Suddenly Eve cried out and her body convulsed. Thrashing and grinding her sex against Uriel’s mouth, the rest of her body pushed against Constantine. The stubs left from her wings retracted and sliced into his pecs. He thought he was going to be sick.

  Half of him was turned on, the other half was repulsed.

  Uriel broke free from her pussy and stared up at Constantine with glossy lips. Con damn near swayed as desire took hold of all his good senses – and his dead conscience – and kicked them all out the window in the back of his mind.

  “Taste her,” Uriel tempted. “Be part of this.”

  Did it take three working together to fix her? It took three to fix Uriel that day with Lucifer and Eve… so maybe? Either way, it didn’t matter. Constantine was holding Heaven in his hands and he felt like this was a feast or famine deal.

  He’d starved himself too fucking long. It was time to feast.

  Uriel slowly rose to his feet. His wings spread wide and he looked bold and powerful. Leaning in so close to Constantine their mouths almost brushed, Uriel’s eyes flashed with desire. He froze, just close enough to let the scent of their woman on his mouth drive Constantine wild.

  Fuuuuuck.

  No female affected him the way Eve could. Gabriel, Lucifer, Uriel – all four of them confessed that shared secret more than once. None of them thought to touch another female ever. It was Eve or none…

  And now they had her back. It felt like a reward for the sacrifices they’d made. Halle-motherfucking-lujah.

  “Eve,” Constantine traced a finger down her cheek, “you okay with this?”

  “Yes,” she croaked. “I need… more.”

  Uriel and Constantine switched positions. Dropping to his knees, Constantine was never so happy in his life. Paradise spread before him as Eve leaned into the arms of the only Angel who ever understood Con for what he was deep down. He licked his lips, then hers. Spreading her slit with his tongue, he enjoyed every drop her body gave him. His cock throbbed. His muscles tensed. Every molecule in his body demanded he mark her somehow.

  Make her his.

  Make her theirs.

  Eve’s hand pressed on the back of his head, urging him to keep up the tongue flicks. But he wanted more than his tongue on her. She was so wet. So soft. So precious. He rubbed her slit with his finger, then slipped it inside her.

  She gasped, but he wasn’t worried. Not with the scent rolling off her. He added a second digit and worked her into a frenzy. Every few strokes, he checked over her thighs and up her body to evaluate her healing. This might bring pleasure, but it was more important to also bring her wellness.

  Satisfied this crazy shit was actually working, Constantine stepped it up another notch. He knew what to do with a woman and now it was time to turn his fantasies into reality for the first time ever.

  He looked over at Uriel. The blond Angel was smiling like a kid with his favorite toy. Their gazes locked. He could read Con so well; they didn’t need words to understand what the other was saying.

  It was time to rock Eve’s world.

  Constantine unhooked her legs from his shoulders and stood. Kicking off his boots and shimmying out of his pants, he gripped his cock at the base and stroked it.

  “Constantine.”

  Mother of Glory, his name on her lips was the most decadent sound ever.

  He rubbed the head of his dick against her slit.

  She liked it. Liked it so much, her eyes widened and mouth popped open. He rubbed her faster, keeping an even pressure on the tiny nub that made her groan when he gave it all his attention. Her body tensed, her eyes got even bigger, her breaths turned to heaves.

  As much as he loved her reactions to his moves, he remained more concerned for her injuries. They were getting better. Not as fast as he wanted, but maybe that was because he needed to take this up another notch again.

  “Do it,” Uriel barked. Eve was standing on her own, her legs spread wide, her back pressed against Uriel’s chest. He’d reached around and was kneading her breasts. The carved markings across her chest were nothing more than pink lines now.

  This was working. It was fucking working!

  Constantine rubbed the tip of himself against her even faster. Eve started gyrating against
him. Sweat beaded across her brow. Her body blushed. Then. She. Detonated.

  Something wet sprayed all over his pelvis and thighs. Eve screamed, her hips jerking fast, her knees buckled and Uriel caught her long before her knees hit the ground.

  “More,” she croaked. “I need more.”

  No problem.

  Eve leaned against Uriel’s chest and hooked one leg around Constantine’s waist. “Inside me. Fill me up,” she begged.

  Pressing the tip of his cock against her soaked and swollen pussy, Constantine pushed his way inside her. Her walls clamped down on him as he buried himself as deep as he could go. The retreat was slow and he watched his dick pull out of her, coated in her pleasure.

  He nearly came at the sight.

  “Harder, Constantine.” Her tone was deeper now. More sultry. More tempting. “Do not hold back.”

  If he obeyed, he could break her to pieces. He’d denied himself this very act all this time. To let loose now felt too dangerous to chance. So he didn’t listen to her. He went slow. Painfully slow.

  Until he could no longer stand it.

  Constantine finally gave in - Gave into her pleas. Gave into Uriel’s grunting demands. Gave into his own secret fantasies. Gave into the temptation of taking the female sandwiched between him and his brother with her legs wrapped around his waist, and her ass rubbing against Uriel’s hard cock.

  Constantine’s thrust turned into a punishing pace. Holding her hips, he looked down and watched his cock slide in and out of the fiercest female he’d ever known. Something in him cracked and a wild passion lashed out of him and straight into her. Eve survived those attacks long ago, and survived whatever happened to her in the desert, which meant fucking her this hard would be survivable too.

  She tensed again. Her nails dug into his shoulders. Eve’s head slammed back against Uriel’s collarbone as she let out a high-pitched, throat-wide-open, howl to the skies.

  Her wolf howled back in response.

  It was like someone pushed Constantine off a glacier and into the icy ocean. Suspended in a block of ice, his pleasure, guilt, panic, and horror threatened to drown him. He had every intention of melting it down by chasing his release.

  His vision burst into a white light, and Constantine roared as he came inside her. Uriel joined in and exploded too. Their howls went from tormenting to harmonious.

  It was a sound never to be replicated again…

  Reluctantly, Con pulled out. Uriel remained holding Eve from behind, his hands digging deep into her waist. She eventually peeled away from him with a wince.

  “I came all over your ass,” Uri confessed.

  “Good,” she swayed. Her hair curtained her face, hiding her eyes from their view. She backed away. “Thank you.”

  She tried to back away from them and Con grabbed her arm. “Where are you trying to run off too?”

  “I can’t stay.”

  Uriel pushed away from the rock. “You’re coming with us.”

  “I can’t go with you.” There wasn’t a scratch left on her, but her wings were still gone. Once cut, they weren’t going to return and the loss of them was something he was already mourning over. How did any Angel live without their wings? It was such a huge part of who they were.

  When she ripped her arm out of Constantine’s hold, he didn’t fight it. If she didn’t want to go with them, then that was the bitch of free will. He wasn’t going to force her. He did, however, want some answers. A reason. “Why?”

  “I’m cursed,” she said to the ground. That big ass wolf jotted over to her and bumped her thigh. She ran her fingers through his fur. “I can’t get to him. I can’t reach him from here.”

  She must be talking about Luce, he thought. “We can bring you to him.” That wasn’t a problem. They’d just have to carry her and fly back to the one portal they had to Hell.

  “No,” she said. “I can’t go.”

  “WHY!” Uriel hollered. “You can’t or you won’t?”

  She rolled her shoulders back and deadpanned him. “I can’t.” Eve slapped her chest angrily, “I keep trying and I can’t die right. Something’s happened to me.”

  “We’re not dead and we can go to Hell.” Uriel tossed his hands up like the matter was settled. “Just come with us.”

  Wait, whoa, slow down. “What do you mean you keep trying, Eve?”

  “I’ve died and I don’t die. I…” she bit her lip, “I’ve been sucked up. My energy. My light. My soul is sucked up by mankind. The more desire there was, the more fucking they did, the more babies were made and each one took more energy from me. I don’t have enough left to get me to Lucy.”

  “You’ve tried?”

  “Yes,” she growled, “and I just tried again.” She waved her hand in the direction they just came from. “I offered myself as a sacrifice. I even let them take my wings,” her voice broke and she started to cry. “I’m doing everything I can and nothing’s working!”

  “Holy shit,” Uriel stiffened, “you’ve been attempting to die to get to Hell all this time?”

  A jealous monster inside Constantine reared its ugly head. “You could have come to us. Been with us.” They could figure this out together, why was she doing it alone?

  Anger flared in her blue eyes, “All or none.”

  Those three words hurt him more than anything Michael or anyone else had ever inflicted on Constantine. And by the way Uriel looked, he felt that blow too.

  “You’d rather forsake us, for Lucy?”

  “All. Or. None.”

  Eve said those words before…. Like she couldn’t choose between them, so she wanted them all. Con didn’t have the sense to be jealous over that. As long as he was part of their “pack” or “crew” or “fleet” or whatever the fuck they were, he was happy.

  “Stay,” Con begged. All because she was ready to bolt didn’t mean she wasn’t one hundred percent healed. If they were going to let her go, he’d do it only if he was certain she was strong again. She trembled so hard, it was all Con could do to control his urge to not push his energy into her to heal her anxiety and nerves. But his healing didn’t work the same way on her anymore. Eve was right, something’s changed in her. “Stay with us. Not forever, just for now. Let us care for you. Heal you.”

  “I’m healed enough.”

  “For someone who’s trying so hard to die, why’d you want to be healed by us in the first place?” Uriel was hurt and lashing out. Con didn’t blame him.

  “If it doesn’t work, why should I suffer?” Eve bristled like she forgot her wings were no longer attached. It was in the roll of her shoulders. She always did a little extra shake in her shoulders when she would flare her wings out. It was a detail about her Constantine still dreamt of.

  “Your wings,” he cupped her face. “Stay until you learn to live without your wings.” They could show her new defenses. Without wings to shield her, Eve was going to get hurt. He didn’t want that. And if she couldn’t die, there was no reason for her to suffer death blows for nothing.

  Eve considered his proposal. His heart attempted to beat again.

  “I’ll stay with you, but only long enough to get to the islands.”

  “Islands?”

  “There’s a cluster on the blue shores. I wish to go there next.”

  “We’ll fly you,” Uriel agreed. “In shifts. Not all at once.”

  Con was shocked she agreed.

  And he took advantage of it in every way.

  Prolonging the inevitable, they flew at night and hid during the day – spending much of their time making love, asking each other a million questions, and made some memories. It took twelve days to get to the islands Eve spoke of. The contrast of stark, barren desert to flourishing jungles and pink sandy beaches was spectacular. When they landed, Con’s heart stopped beating again. He lowered Eve down and let her go.

  Her wings were growing back and were almost at full scale again. Never in all his life had Constantine heard of an Angel re-growing their wings.
So yeah, she was definitely different now. Wayyyy different. And whatever power their energy gave her while fucking was a potent thing indeed.

  It made zero sense. A lot of this made zero sense.

  In the distance, smoke rose from a volcano and Constantine’s lips tightened. He glared at it. “You know,” he warned, “doing something over and over thinking you’re going to get a different result is—”

  “Persistent,” she quipped.

  “Insane,” he hissed.

  She wasn’t here for seafood and sun. She was here to attempt another death mission.

  Now he was furious they brought her here. “Don’t do this.”

  “I have to.”

  Uriel landed with her wolf, who she’d named Anam. The beast took a piss on a piece of drift wood.

  “I’m not going to stop,” Eve said. “I’m not quitting until I get there. Otherwise, all of this was for nothing. Everything each of us has done will have been for nothing.”

  God… damn…. How many times had Constantine thought the same thing? That this had all been for nothing? That there must be some kind of good to come from all the bad.

  The brotherhood no longer existed. Lazarus was gone. The other Angels were nothing but selfish, closed off shitheads. It no longer felt like Hell and Paradise and all the spaces in between were part of their purpose – it was just their mess to clean up all the time.

  And the four brothers were a goddamn disaster. Each broken in devastating ways. Lucifer the most. Gabe was a close second. And now that the key to their binding was standing barefoot on a beach with a fucking ancient wolf, Constantine felt like he was living in the middle of some epic fantasy story – one that was going to end tragically.

  “What do we tell the others?” he was already dreading what Lucifer and Gabriel were going to do when they found out about Eve being alive.

  “You don’t,” she took another step away from them.

  “You want us to keep this secret from them? That’s not right.”

  “What’s not right is to tell them when they can do nothing about it. All or none, Constantine. I’ll say it however many times I must for you to get that into your head. If you tell Lucy, he might try to get out of Hell to find me, and then what? You said he’s locked down there. If he leaves, Hell will crumble. Then we’re back to madness and evil taking over everything if the malanum get out.” She shook her head and took another step away from them. “No, I won’t let him risk it. I’ll find my way to him. Then we can all be together and start over.”