by A. K. Koonce
It happens again.
And again.
And again.
In between orgasms, he feeds himself, as well as me, lustful kisses that fuel me on. It’s enough to keep us going for hours. It’s a back-and-forth of our bodies needing each other to soothe the pain we’ve given one another for far too long.
It lasts for so long that Ryke slips in at my side, and when his big hand slides along my jaw, I kiss him hard. I give him everything that Krave gives me. The powerful demonic angel bites my lip and gives it right back.
The three of us push and pull together. We tangle up and unfurl together.
Then we cum together.
And finally, finally, the four of us find peaceful sleep together.
For a little while.
21
Fucked
Zaviar
Another long shaking moan echoes down the stairs and washes through me and right to down to my cock. I sit in the darkness. My eyes close slowly as I shove my hands down my face and pretend like I can’t hear and feel every orgasm she fucking has.
Except I can.
And she’s being very well taken care of it sounds like.
“Fuck.”
“Funny how stone walls carry sound,” someone says on a deep voice.
I shift at the kitchen table and find the guy, Maverick leaning against the stairwell wall, letting the symphony of her pleasure surround him fully from where he stands. The poor fuck.
“Yeah. Real fuckin’ funny,” I grit out.
Why the fuck is this grating on me? Why do I give a fuck that Ryke hasn’t come down yet? He isn’t her mate. He shouldn’t be up there.
Why does he get to stay and I…
Never fucking mind.
“She’s really got a Queen of Hell in her?”
I nod.
“She seemed nice though.” He shrugs his massive shoulders slightly.
The stifled laughter that shoves from my lips can’t be contained. “Yeah. Don’t let her fool you. She’s definitely got a little hellacious demon in her, I promise.”
“Why doesn’t she put it back? Return her to her rightful resting place.”
I cock a brow at the man’s logic.
“Because Aries is complicated.”
“All the pretty ones are.” His lips twitch with a half smile.
I swallow hard at that as my stomach twists.
She is pretty. She’s obnoxious and crazy and so fucking pretty it hurts to look at her. It hurts even more that she’s getting fucked right now…
Never fucking mind.
“Ever been to the Demonic Dead?” Maverick asks like I should have some fuckin’ clue for what that means.
The shaking scream that follows his words is like a rooster calling out to an ally cat who’s shrieking back in ancient Latin about a simple sunrise hitting the skyline once again.
“Nope. Can’t say I have,” I yell over the sound of her fucking orgasm. Make that orgasms. Multiple.
Fucking gods make it end already.
“Get up. We’re going.” He kicks the wooden chair I’m sitting in as he strides to the door and I don’t hesitate for a single fucking second before I follow him out.
I just ran after a creature of hell to go look at some eerie shit called the Demonic Dead all because I can’t listen to Aries’s cum on some other fucker’s cock.
My head is so fucked right now.
Maverick’s quiet. I can’t complain. I normally fucking wouldn’t except during the silence, all I can think about is if they’re all still hot and heavy in the fuck fest back at the house.
“It’s just a bit farther,” Maverick whispers back to me as we hike across the thick sand. I feel it slide in my boots but it’s not much of a distraction.
Not at all.
I blink away my pounding thoughts and try to take in our surroundings.
Enormous white buildings pile up upon each other. Gritty sand lines the small streets and darkness blankets us without much light.
Until we turn a corner.
A golden hue circles the empty space before us. Large posts rise up high into the night sky and bathe the sand in ethereal tones. Except… it’s black. Ashen almost. It’s waved across the ground in a perfect spear of space that drifts on for nearly a mile.
And in all that empty space, only one thing rests here.
One solid black tomb sits at the center.
“Each empire of the Torch has a resting place for the Demonic Dead. This is where all the ashes of all demons are scattered to rest. Some of us are fallen, some of us natural born demons. Some are commoners and some are royal. But when we die, we’re all the same. We live together and we die together,” Maverick says on a gentle tone that slithers through my chest.
Angels, angels don’t think like that at all. The higher up you are, the better you are than everyone else. You breed with only your equals. You especially don’t associate with demons.
Like I am right now.
“And this is where Aries demon belongs?” I can’t take my eyes off of the center tomb.
Whose is it? If they’re all the same, why is that one so prominent and special?
“Hers belongs in the Voren Empire in the east. But yes, in the Demonic Dead. If Aries went there, I bet her demon would return to her resting place without any help from Aries.”
My heart pounds as I look at the ashy ground spread before me.
It’d be so damn easy to bring her here and solve all her problems for her. I could help her. I could save her fucking life.
Pain presses in on my chest. It’s a slicing thing that cuts through my pretty little thoughts and forces me to find logic.
Because Aries isn’t mine to save.
She’s not my fuckin’ problem.
She’s my brother’s.
And in a fucked-up way… that makes her mine.
22
The Innocent Angel
Aries
Sweat coats my skin in an unbearable humidity.
A heaviness presses down on me, and I have to shove the log of an arm off of me before a panic attack wakes the poltergeist inside of me.
I sit up, and realize Damien and Ryke are on either side of me with Krave nestled between my thighs right against my pussy like it’s his gods damn happy place.
Honestly, I love it. I absolutely love the strength that surrounds me right now. I feel like nothing in the world will ever touch me because I’m enveloped in pure demonic power.
But holy fuck, is it hot.
It takes time and patience, but I finally stumble out of the demon love nest.
When I’m on my feet again, I realize within the tangle of men, that one is still missing.
Zaviar may not hate me the way he once did, but he also doesn’t want me at all the way . . . the way I wanted him.
Wow, am I selfish. I just had an orgy with three men that could light the Torch itself on fire, and I’m pouting over the one that got away.
But really, where is he?
Darkness overlaps shadows, and I can barely see two feet in front of me, but I luckily kick up the soft wrinkled material of my dress. I throw it over my head and with quiet steps, I trail out of the room and down the stairs.
The large room to the left seems to be a sitting area. A chaise faces warm, flickering flames of the fire place.
But it’s empty.
I trail around a little more, but the entrance area and the kitchen are also empty.
He isn’t here.
Did he leave? Did something happen while we were . . . busy?
Or did I piss him off by sleeping with his brother?
My heart beats so hard, it hurts at that last thought.
I screw things up so easily in my life, usually without pause to consider what the consequences might be. What if I’m so selfish that I ruined an amazing relationship between two brothers?
The front door swings quietly open, and I’m still standing there drowning in the what ifs.
When Zaviar and Maverick stride inside.
Maverick doesn’t hide the way he sniffs the air. He does it three fucking times, and then his gaze settles fully on me, his lips twitching into a small polite smile.
“Oh,” he whispers.
Zaviar arches a brow at the demon but doesn’t say anything.
Maverick nods to himself, then squeezes past Zaviar as he exits the room without another word.
“What does Oh mean?” I ask sourly.
The door clicks closed, drawing my attention back to the silhouette of the fallen angel before me.
“Oh means you smell like seventy-six different kinds of sex, and none of them smell particularly good to a man who isn’t your mate.”
My mouth drops open as I glare unseen daggers at him.
“I . . . do . . . not . . . smell like that . . .” Do I?
I can’t see Zaviar’s features, but I’m just going to assume he’s giving me that annoyed stare right now. The one that distorts how handsome he could be if he calmed the unending violence inside himself.
“Did you fuck Ryke, too?” he asks slowly.
What the fuck, man! Since when is everyone in my life so fucking rude?
My arms fold, my back stiffening so hard that my wings flash fully out like I’m protecting myself from a predator.
And Zaviar, he truly is a predator.
“You are such an asshole,” I finally whisper.
I cannot believe I felt anything other than frustration for this man.
“I’m asking because,” a heavy sigh exits his lips, but it seems to force him to say it, “I’m asking because Damien thinks you’re his mate. All that psychotic shit he said about killing your brother just to keep you safe, he meant it. And you know it. He’s your mate. So fucking treat him like it. Don’t treat my brother the fucked-up way you treat Krave,” he says with spitting anger.
“You don’t know anything about me and Krave!” I whisper-scream at him, trying to muffle my rage to not wake up the entire house but also trying to get my anger across to the man standing three feet from me.
In a flash of movement, he eats up that safe space between us. He bears down on me with the force of his blazing gaze and rippling muscle.
“I know enough to know that you hurt him the way you’re going to hurt Damien.”
“Krave hurt me first!” I scream. “He fucking—” I swallow hard against the breaking sound of my voice but keep going. “The only reason he met me was to make me love him. He made me fall in love with him because my father instructed him to. My father owns Krave. And therefore, he owns me, in a way.” I blow out the trembling breath caught in my throat, and my chest presses against his with every hard breath I take. “Our relationship is fucked up because our lives are fucked up. Damien isn’t Krave. He . . . he’s sweet. He’s . . . too sweet for his own good.”
My heart hurts as I think about all that.
A warm hand slides around my wrist, and it slowly drifts down to my fingers, toying with them but never sliding through them to reassure me completely.
“You guys should leave. You should keep him away from me,” I whisper with tears threatening my eyes.
“Damien will never fucking allow that, and you know it. And I—” I hang on his words. I don’t know why I want to hear him say he’ll never leave me. It’s irrational of me. “I can’t leave until you change my wings back. I can’t keep walking around like my wings just got their period, Crow.”
A small bubbling laugh builds in my chest and comes out as a shaking gasp.
My fingers lift and slide through the soft feathers along his shoulders. They’re perfect and beautiful even in the darkness.
They’re more flawless than any fae’s I’ve ever touched.
They’re completely godlike.
Even after a year of being a fallen . . .
Which is impossible, even with my sister’s powerful high fae magic.
That can only mean one thing.
“You’re not a fallen, are you, Zaviar?”
His angelic image isn’t crumbling away like Ryke’s and Damien’s. He didn’t give something up like Ryke and Damien.
He doesn’t say anything for so long, the silence falls around us like shattering glass.
My fingers drop from his magenta wings and splay over his chest, across his hard-pounding heart.
“Our father always warned me I’d be a demon someday because I was too cruel. Too careless. Too . . . imperfect to live among the gods.” Zaviar says, his palms finally settling on my hips as he leans into me like he just wants to rest, he just wants someone else to carry the weight on his shoulders for a little while. “I was always okay with that. I’d adjust. I’d overcome. I knew I would. I just—I didn’t know how to cope with Damien falling. Without me. He’s always been the good one. It just isn’t fair.”
Another sigh fans across my cheeks as he confesses all his sins to me.
“I left. I don’t know anyone else who walked out on being a seraph, but I’d rather be damned to the demon land than let Damien face it alone. Especially after all he’s done for me.”
All he’s done for me. Part of me wonders what Damien did for Zaviar to have the guilt that’s lining his face so hard right now.
But another part of me realizes Zaviar isn’t telling me for a reason. What happened in their past, that’s their secret to keep it seems.
Zaviar shouldn’t be here. It’s forbidden for fae and demons to mingle. It’s downright deadly for angels and demons to do the same. Angles should only be with other angels.
Him being here with us… it’s bad.
“What will happen to you?” The question comes out sounding more scared than I intended it to.
“I don’t know. I don’t really care. I just want Damien to be alright. He doesn’t want to turn. And I’m not going to leave until he’s ready.”
His hands fall, and he catches my wrists and brings them down to his, sliding his fingers through mine slowly like it’s a secret that only the shadows know. Space separates us. We aren’t close and cuddling. We’re not intimate.
But why does holding his hands feel intimate then?
Neither of us speak for a long time.
None of the men in my life belong with me. Zaviar especially.
Maybe Rhys was right.
Maybe fate does play a part in our lives when we’re not looking.
When we’re not looking is the best time to sneak under the radar and fuck everything up.
Just like fate always does.
And just like I’m about to.
“If I were you, I’d go back now before the end of the night. And take your brother and Ryke and Krave as far away as their demon wings will carry them,” I tell him, stepping back but letting my hands linger in his for just a little longer.
“Why? Shit, Ari, just stop. For once, think through whatever it is you’re about to do before you go running face-fucking-first into this.”
And then I do drop his hands.
The asshole.
“I do think things through!”
“Really? Because I found the token’s resting place.”
Everything in me stops. The breath in my lungs catches.
“Why?” I whisper.
“Why? That’s what you have to say. Why?” Each word he says gets a little more growl in it than the last. “Maverick took me to where they lay their demons to rest. He said Voren has one too. Corva could exorcise you, and you know it. Just . . . let this all go. Let yourself be free of all this, and finally live your life.”
Live my life. It’s that easy in his little mind. My mates are demons, and he wants me to just vomit up a centuries-old corpse from inside myself and seal my mates away in the Torch.
He wants me to just let the hate that’s surrounded me all my life win.
“No,” I whisper, my chin tipping up hard. “I could get rid of the essence inside me by myself, Zaviar. That’s not the problem. The problem is everyone else. Everyone who thinks the
ir lives are worth more than demons and humans. I refuse to accept that that’s the way the world is supposed to be. And I’m going to fix it.”
The curses that filter out of his mouth don’t distract me from sorting through my thoughts.
I’m going tonight. Right now.
I’m going to gather any weapon I can find.
And I’m going to make the fae realm the way it was always meant to be before it gets any worse.
Once and for all.
23
Sisterly Love
Aries
My wings glide effortlessly through the night air, and it’d be the calm before the storm if I wasn’t surrounded by an entourage of winged men I clearly told to fuck off.
They never listen to me. Never.
“I think we should sneak in through the roof. There’s an escape route there that leads directly down to the demon’s quarters on the lower level,” Krave says loudly over the whipping wind.
“We’re not doing that,” I answer flatly.
This is my uprising, and I want to rise up the right way.
I drift lower through the enormous tree limbs that hide me away until I’m slipping right into the high hedges of my mother’s rose garden.
The scent brings back too many memories.
Too many things from my past crash through my mind.
When I was twelve, a boy kissed me for the first time. He was tall and handsome. All long legs and boyish smiles. He was a demon. My father’s demon. And when we snuck away to the beautiful garden, laughing and passing coy touches here and there, he kissed me.
I stumble in my steps as I pass the small curved concrete bench tucked away from sight.
Blood still stains the brick there.
I vividly remember the way that boy’s throat split clean open from my brother’s knife when he found us hidden away there.
They left the demon boy to rot until the flowers and the dirt buried him naturally. Just like they did with the little one who was my only friend. The maids and the guards were ordered to leave his bloody corpse there as a reminder.