Hunger (Witches of the Big Easy Book 2)

by Ts McKinney

  Silly fools. It was Gabriel they should be worried about. He was the one who’d found me. He would be the one to rescue me…or avenge my death in this world.

  The witch whipped her head around toward the demons. “He said he went after you and the others. Where were you? I fear this isn’t time to be playing hide and seek with each other!” Her voice was nearing a shriek now. She had to sense they were drawing close.

  I could.

  My strength lessened with each drop of blood that leaked from my body, but I calmed myself by remembering that I couldn’t die—or at least not easily. I sucked in a huge breath of unneeded oxygen, just to try and calm my nerves.

  Warmth seeped into my soul and I knew Gabriel was near.

  “Too late, kiddies. The cavalry has arrived. Should have run while you could.”

  Zellus growled in fury and his disgusting tail whipped out and tried to wrap around my face. Thankfully, it never made contact. One minute they were calling the shots and the next…well…they were dying. Julian and Valen arrived first. Julian tore Zellus’ tail from his body, wrapped it around the demon’s own neck, and yanked with enough strength to decapitate him. Valen joined in the destruction, ripping and shredding, burying his fangs into the neck of demons and drinking from them to draw their power out. The witch started an incantation that would no doubt teleport her to a safe realm, but before she could finish, Azazel and Gabriel charged into the room. Gabriel attacked the witch with his own magic, looking stern and forbidding and sexier than sin.

  My blood looked good on him, or in him, technically.

  Her magic, strong enough to cloak and bind me, was nothing for my enhanced lover. Once he’d suppressed her magic, he burned her alive. He burned her with a black hell fire, not heavenly fire. That meant he used the vampire portion of my blood to destroy her. I tried to wink at him, to let him know he didn’t need to worry about me, but I felt my eyes close and not open back up.

  Fuck, they shouldn’t be able to kill me…yet I felt my aura dimming. With every ounce of energy left, I tried to open my eyes one last time, just so Gabriel would be the last thing I saw before passing over to whichever realm ended up with me, but the energy simply wasn’t there. Instead, I inhaled deeply, sucking in the air and trapping his intoxicating scent in my body.

  The warmth returned.

  “Easy, Darkness,” he purred in my ear. “You aren’t leaving me yet. I think we have hundreds of years left for me to prove how much I love you.” I heard his Athame slice through his skin and then the smell of his blood overwhelmed me. He pushed his wrist to my lips and demanded that I drink.

  He didn’t have to ask twice. His essence was too intoxicating to turn down. I licked at first and then latched my fangs onto him and sucked hard. He was fucking delicious. The battle raged around us—the sounds of demons dying like music to my ears as Julian, Valen, and Azazel destroyed those who wanted to do me harm.

  My family had come for me.

  Finally.

  Suddenly, Gabriel’s wrist was ripped from my mouth. I growled in fury and bared my fangs at whoever dared to interfere. It was Julian.

  “Careful, Gabriel. He’s still learning to control this side of him. Don’t let him take too much,” Julian warned. “I killed every one I fed from for the first year after I was turned.”

  “No time for chit-chat, Julian!” Azazel yelled from somewhere across the room. “We have demons to kill! Gabriel will protect your son.”

  I blinked up at Gabriel and gave him a smile. My strength was already returning. Drinking from my beloved was my new favorite thing. “I would have stopped,” I told him.

  “I know, Darkness. I never doubted it. Julian’s just trying to be fatherly.” Gabriel looked across at the man we were discussing. He was ripping into demons like it was nobody’s business. “I think it’s a title he’s going to carry like a badge of honor. He already loves you like a son.”

  “What can I say? I’m lovable,” I quipped. “Now, could we discuss getting this silver off me? It really, really burns.”

  “Shit. Fuck! Yes. I’m sorry.” He began chanting an incantation that caused the silver chains to disappear. My relief was immediate.

  “Help me up,” I told him. “I want to help.”

  He held me down instead. “No need. Azazel just finished the last demon.”

  A weird feeling passed through me—almost remorse. “So, Ariel is dead, as well?”

  Gabriel frowned. “Ariel? The mermaid?”

  “Haha. No, he was the demon leader—the one that talked at Dominic’s house. The, uh, one that abducted me while the rest of you fought the demons.”

  “The fucker better be dead,” Gabriel growled.

  “He isn’t,” Azazel answered as he strode toward us. “Ari had already left the compound when we arrived. I would have sensed him otherwise.” His eyes dropped to mine. “Did Ari hurt you?”

  “Ari, is it?” I asked and nearly burst out laughing when a very guilty, very horrified look crossed his face.

  “Don’t even joke of such things, Marchand!”

  His fighting wings turned to fluff and rubbed against my cheek. It caused a feeling of pure contentment to flow through me. Fuck, I’d forgotten about that…about how an angel’s wings can be their deadliest weapons or a way they show their love. Unable to stop myself, I leaned into the feathery caress. Now that my memories had returned, I couldn’t imagine how I’d survived without him in my life.

  “I ask you again, young one. Did he harm you?”

  “No,” I answered before he got himself riled up even more than he already was. “Compared to the others, he was quite nice to me.” I played the last hour through my mind and a thought occurred to me. Not only had Ariel been nicer to me than the other demons, but he’d stalled them from taking me away. Maybe. Possibly. Or I could be looking for something that wasn’t there. “You know, I think he might have stalled them long enough for you all to get here.” I watched my uncle closely to try and catch his facial expressions before he schooled them to his normal, flat-as-a-flapjack glare. Yep, something flashed in his eyes.

  “Doubtful. He’s the Demon Master’s righthand man. He’ll be punished for not delivering you to his master.”

  Julian and Valen joined us. Julian placed a kiss on my forehead while Valen laid his hand on my shoulder. Life felt good surrounded by my family. Now, I had to figure out a way to keep them in New Orleans with me.

  Lightbulb.

  “That means he won’t give up, Az. I’ll never feel safe,” I whined in the most pitiful voice I could conjure. I saw Gabriel roll his eyes but at least he didn’t call me on it.

  “Then neither will we,” Julian said. “He’ll have to go through all of us to get to you, my child.”

  “Wherever you are, there we will be also,” Valen agreed. “Protecting you and loving you.”

  I looked up at Uncle Az. He gave me the same eye-roll that Gabriel had. “Stop trying to play us, nephew. First of all, if you wanted us to stay with you, all you had to do was ask. Secondly, we would stay whether you wanted us to or not. We’re a family now. Even the witch.”

  “Wow. Thanks,” Gabriel muttered.

  “I do love me some witch, though,” I said as I yanked him down so I could ravage his lips. “Thank you for saving me, Gabriel. Have I mentioned how much I love you?”

  “It wouldn’t hurt to say it again,” he said, smiling down at me. “Just for the practice.”

  Epilogue

  Gabriel

  As soon as we’d gotten home, I’d placed even stronger wards, thanks to Marchand’s blood, around the entire hotel and then got Julian, Valen, and Azazel situated in their suites. It wasn’t easy but I managed to get both on the same floor and near ours. Azazel clearly hadn’t been excited about living day to day life like a normal person, but I’d learned he would do anything for his nephew. So he didn’t bitch too badly.

  Julian and Valen were already making plans to move their compound to New Orleans, which wou
ld piss off the entire supernatural world, especially my family, but since they were my lover’s family, the rest of the Quarter, including my brother, would have to fucking deal with it. Hell, he would have a lot to deal with—a fallen angel, a new vampire family, more powerful than any we’d ever encountered, and a half- angel, half-vampire hottie married to his brother. The one he thought had been turned into a vampire. Leave it to me to stir the cauldron. When my brother got to New Orleans, and I had no doubt he was on his way, he was going to bitch even worse than Azazel.

  He was going to have to accept the fact that I was hopelessly in love with a half-vampire, though. He always said he wanted me to be happy. Here was his big chance to put his money where his mouth was.

  I walked down the hall toward our bedroom, exhausted to the point of passing out. When I entered the room and found Marchand in the center of our bed, completely naked and slowly stroking himself…well, I got my second wind. Or at least my cock did. Just like that, I was hard and ready to fuck him into the mattress.

  I shed a piece of clothing with each step that carried me closer to the bed. “Couldn’t wait on me, Darkness?”

  He grinned. “If it helps, know that I was picturing you naked and beneath me while I played.”

  Well, wasn’t that a new thought.

  “Beneath you, huh? Never done that before, but I guess I’ll try anything with you.”

  He laughed and patted the spot on the bed next to him. “Nah, I just wanna be on top—controlling the pace.”

  “Like I said, I’m willing to give you anything you want,” I assured him as I climbed onto the bed.

  Using his vampire speed, he had me flat on my back with him straddling me as soon as my right knee touched the mattress. He linked his hands with mine and pulled them over my head. Leaning over, he started placing feather kisses along my jawline, moving down to the nape of my neck. With every move he made, he made certain that a part of him was rubbing against me.

  Every heated touch and every gentle stroke was mesmerizing. My Darkness was a work of art—inside and out. I brushed my hand along his rib cage, followed the dent in his flesh that led to his hip bones, and then teased the head of his cock with a feather touch.

  “Oh, you are fucking evil, Poppet. You plan on toying with me tonight, don’t you?” He shimmied lower down my body so he could bathe my nipples and abs with his tongue. Like a good little angel, he arched his back so his bubble ass was in the air. I wanted to give it a good smack but was enjoying the magic of his tongue too much to use my hands for more than playing with his lavender hair.

  Lavender—the coupling of his mother’s angelic nature and his father’s bloodlust. Beautiful.

  When his hungry mouth finally worked its way to my cock, I literally saw stars. Fireworks went off inside my body. He was my magic—could control me with nothing more than an innocent wink or the crook of his finger.

  I needed to be inside him. Like, now. Reaching over, I grabbed a bottle of lube out of the drawer and pushed it against Marchand’s jaw…which was stretched enough that I could see the outline of the head of my cock. Oh, fuck. It was a gorgeous look for him. “Lube up, Darkness. I can’t wait any longer—need to be inside of you.”

  He opened the lube, squirted his hand full, and rubbed it up and down my cock. Slowly. Seductively. He was trying to drive me mad. He moved at such a leisurely pace, I nearly screamed. When I couldn’t handle any more of his seductive torment, I placed my hands on his hips, lifted him, and positioned his hole over my cock.

  He finally took mercy on me and grabbed the base of my cock and guided me to his hole. Feeling almost animalistic, I thrust my hips upward with a roar. He let out a desperate moan, a mixture of pleasure and pain, and I felt myself falling apart.

  “You’re such a naughty little witch,” he purred. “I wanted to show you my new trick, but you’re all about wham-bam-thank you-ma’am.” He leaned forward and tugged on my bottom lip, letting his fangs come out to draw a bit of blood. Since he was fully-seated on my cock, he did a little wiggle, trying to hit his prostate.

  “A new trick? What? Trying to kill me with pleasure? Move your ass, Darkness. I need to feel you.”

  He puckered out his bottom lip but did start moving his hips—not up and down like I craved, but more of a small circle. “It was a cool trick,” he pouted. “You’re going to hate yourself for missing it.”

  Grabbing his ass cheeks with both hands, I forced him up and down on my cock. I gave him a few gentle thrusts to accommodate to the fullness before plowing in to him. It didn’t take long. I needed him too badly. He felt too fucking good.

  Perfect.

  When he felt my cock twitch and balls draw up, he used a hand to stroke his own cock so we could come together. And we did. The most intense orgasm I’d ever felt. My body felt like it had literally melted into the mattress. I’d smacked straight into nirvana.

  For Marchand’s part, he collapsed on top of me. Our sweat mingled. His cum was between us, a sticky mess that we both loved. For now, all was perfect in my world. I knew they’d come back for him eventually, try to take him from me, but they’d fail. Marchand, my Darkness, was mine forever.

  He sighed in contentment.

  “Sorry I missed your trick, Darkness,” I apologized. “I needed you too badly. We’ll have the rest of our lives for you to show me. Hell, after a quick nap, you can probably show me.”

  “Oh…I can show you now,” he murmured against my chest.

  I looked down at him. His beautiful lavender hair was stuck to his face on one side and sticking out in every direction on the other.

  “I’m going to need a break first. You may be centuries older than me, but my recovery time is obviously longer than yours.”

  “Nah. We don’t even have to move…that’s the perfect part about it.”

  Confused, I looked down at him and then yelped in surprise when the most glorious lavender wings ripped from his back and unfurled with majestic grace. They looked like cotton candy. Unable to stop myself, I reached up and ran my fingers across the tips on one side. As I stroked him, he shivered in utter delight.

  Oh, my. I do believe I just found myself another sweet spot on my sweet man. “You like that, huh?”

  “Fuck, you have no idea how delicious that feels.” The wings fluttered. “When you touch my wings, it’s like you touch my soul. And cock. And balls. And every other sensitive spot on my body. I have a feeling that with enough effort on your part, you could probably make me come just from stroking my feathers.”

  Annnnddd, just like that, I was ready again.

  He barked out a laugh. “Calm down, Romeo. Like you said earlier, I’ll need a break to recover.” He raised his head and kissed my lips. Softly. Tenderly. The total opposite of what we’d just done to each other, but just as earthshattering. “I’m going to tuck them away for now so we can cuddle together.” Like magic, they disappeared into his back.

  “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any sexier,” I said.

  *****

  Three hours and three fuckfests later, I had Marchand cuddled against my chest. The contentment rolling off both of us told me we could do this for the rest of our lives. A short month ago, I’d been jealous of Nic and Thibeau because of their happiness. Hell, if I’d known how absolutely perfect it felt to really be with the one you loved, I would have undoubtedly turned an ugly color of jealousy green.

  “Damn, Poppet. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up with you while you’ve got ‘Vangel’ blood inside you.” He tilted his head to look up at me. “Feels good, doesn’t it? A little vampire blood mixed with a little angel blood…added to some witch blood—nice cocktail.”

  He was right. I did feel more powerful than I’d ever felt in my life. I could see where some might find the power to be intoxicating—addictive enough to lead one to darkness, but I needed the power to protect my beloved. They would be coming for him—I didn’t think the Demon Master or the Angel Master would give up easil
y—but we would be ready. Grinning down at him, I said, “You seem to be enjoying your ‘Wick,’ too.”

  “My what?” he asked in confusion.

  “’Wick’—short for witch’s dick. If you can call your blood ‘Vangel,’ then ....”

  He rolled his eyes and then laughed. “You’re right; I do love your Wick!” He wiggled up closer to me. “I love you too, Poppet. Forever and always, okay?”

  “Forever and always,” I agreed wholeheartedly.

  “I don’t think your brother is going to like me,” he said with a little nervous frown creasing his brow.

  “Nic and his husband, Thibeau, are fabulous. They’ll love you! But first we’ll have to convince them you haven’t turned me into a vampire.”

  “But Nic took away your Législateur powers because of me. He’s furious at both of us. I hate starting out on the wrong foot right away.”

  I snorted. “You mean like I obviously did with Azazel? He hated me on sight—may still hate me.”

  “He was only being protective. Be glad he didn’t kill you; that’s how he handles most everybody who tries to come near me. Now, back to Nic not liking me. What are we going to do?”

  I hugged him tightly. “We aren’t going to do anything. Nic is my brother. Yes, he loves being a Législateur but he loves being my brother more. Anyway, I’m pretty sure he won’t have to choose. He’s angry at me but mostly he’s scared for me. He thought you were using my power for your own purposes after you turned me. As soon as he sees he’s wrong, he’ll be fine.”

  I hope he was right. But I knew in my heart that if Nic pushed too hard, Gabriel would side with me, regardless of what it cost him.

  “I can convince him to understand, Darkness. He’ll be on our side against the Angel Master and this Demon Master, and we’ll get rid of them for once and for all. Just you wait and see. Our combined power will be unbeatable.”

  “Do you think there’s some history between Ariel and Uncle Az? I thought Uncle looked very guilty and I don’t care what anybody says, Ariel was stalling; he was giving you all time to get there.”