by Maya Nicole
When I turned, she was still staring at me. Her eyes traveled down to my chest before she looked away. She let out a quiet sigh and dropped the duvet back onto the bed.
“I know this is going to sound weird, but can I sleep in here?” My dick stirred to life at her question.
“I barely know you, and you’re a demon.” It was a dick thing to say, but it was true.
I grabbed the duvet and straightened it out on the bed. After kicking off my shoes and socks, I put my hand on the button of my jeans. I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
“If I wasn’t a demon, would you let me?” I expected her to get upset over my comment on her being a demon. Instead, she sounded pissed. “I bet a man like you has had worse in his bed.”
She stood with her hands on her hips, giving me that look women give you when you’re in the doghouse. Shit, was she going to make me go sleep on the couch in my own house?
“What’s that supposed to mean? You have a perfectly good bed downstairs.” I slipped in bed with my jeans still on and shut my eyes.
“A man and a woman can sleep in the same bed together and not have sex. I do it all the time.” The bed moved, and I opened my eyes to see her lying down on the other side. “Look, I’m in a strange place, and I’m used to sharing a bed. I promise not to touch you.”
I rolled to my side and narrowed my eyes at her. “What’s so wrong with you that a man would share your bed and not try to have sex with you? Do you have tentacles going on down there?” I waved my hand around, gesturing below her waist.
A look of pain washed over her face, but was quickly replaced by anger. She sat up, grabbed the pillow, and whacked me with it.
I admit, I deserved it.
“You’re an asshole.” It wasn’t the first time I’d been called the name. It certainly wouldn’t be the last.
She fluffed the pillow and put it back down before lying back down. I guessed she was sleeping in my bed.
I woke to the sound of vibrating on my nightstand. It took me a minute to process that Samara was on my side of the bed, with her leg thrown over mine and her head on my chest.
I reached for my cell phone, trying not to jostle her. She made a noise but didn’t wake.
I opened up my text messages. Alex, an incubus demon, was the main contact in Inferna. He was in charge of Hell when Lucifer wasn’t present, which had been a lot recently.
Alex: The Sangre clan leader is holding a fire elemental, a squirrel, a wolf, and a gargoyle in cells. They are searching the forest for Samara Luna, the princess. The vampires want the crown.
I grunted and put my phone on my chest. First, the demons tried to break through to Earth, and now this? There were always things happening with the damn vampires of Inferna.
Centuries ago, when the Sangre clan stole a drop of Lucifer’s blood with a small contraption hidden in a pen, I said we should end them. The other archangels balked at the idea, even when we had to cover up the damage they did on Earth.
Samara moved against me and groaned. My body stiffened because it sounded a lot like the type of groan every man wanted to hear.
“Yes… right there, Nico.” Was she… yes, yes she was moving in a way that seemed an awful lot like humping. “A little bit more, Val.” A whimper. Another groan. “Harder, Amari.”
My eyes widened, and I didn’t know what to do. I’d never had a woman gyrating against me while asleep before. She didn’t even have her pants on and was clearly having some kind of orgy in her dream. Jesus.
“Samara?” I cleared my throat and shook her shoulder lightly. “Wake up.”
“Yes!” Her voice was a hiss, and she rubbed against me even harder. “Don’t stop.”
My dick was hard and I could only imagine what was going on in her dream. Three people. Good God, she was having a sex dream with three people.
I couldn’t take it anymore without making a fool of myself, so I shoved her off me and onto her back. Sweet Moses, I could see her hard nipples through her white shirt.
She mumbled and then her eyes popped wide open. She was out of breath and put her hand to her chest. “Oh my.”
“Oh my is right.” I sat up and ran my hands over my face. “You promised not to touch me.”
I slid out of the bed and went to the bathroom before she could see the hard-on I was sporting. This whole thing had disaster written all over it.
After I took a shower and finished breakfast, we headed into my backyard to leave for Inferna. We needed to fly to a safer entry location, namely one that was in the confines of Hell.
“My contact says the Sangres have some prisoners and they are hunting for you.” I finally looked at her after avoiding eye contact since we woke. “Do you know why they might want to find you?”
She bit her lip. “The son is kind of my boyfriend. I think.” I cleared my throat. “Did your contact say anything else about the prisoners? There were quite a few demons that had to be imprisoned because they were Lilith supporters.”
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and read her the text. She stayed quiet and then nodded. I couldn’t get a read on what she was feeling.
“The gargoyle and the squirrel are mine too.” She looked down at the grass and kicked her toe at it. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t need to explain your love life to me.”
“I’m not. I just felt I owed you-”
“An explanation? An apology? I don’t need one. You were horny, you got off on my leg. End of story.”
She cringed at my crassness. “I didn’t get off.”
Well then. I put my phone back in my pocket. “I’ll need to hold you while we fly.”
She nodded, and I wrapped my arm around her waist. She fit perfectly next to me. I shook my head at my foolish thoughts and then my arm brushed against the bottom of her backpack.
A backpack that should have been empty from the day before when I confiscated all of the feathers she had.
I let go of her waist and spun her so her back was to me. “What do you have in here?”
This is exactly what I got for inviting a demon into my house. I unzipped it and then started laughing. She spun around quickly and pulled the backpack off to close it.
“Don’t laugh at me.”
“Of all things to steal, you’re stealing my soap? Did you even leave me any?” She had literally taken all of the soap that had been in my bathroom. “What do you need with twenty bars of soap anyway? Don’t they have soap in Inferna?”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she put the backpack back on, not even taking the boxes of soap out to give back to me. “They do, but I liked the smell. I carve soap.”
“You carve soap?” Did she underwater basket weave too?
“Just for that, I’m not going to carve you one.” Well, didn’t that just ruin my decade?
I pulled her back towards me by the waist, her breasts brushing against me. I bit my lip to stop the groan from erupting. Jesus, this woman was doing something to me that I couldn’t explain. It had to be whatever was going on with her light energy.
Fucking fantastic.
Chapter 15
Samara
I was not lusting after Raphael. I just wasn’t. Had I turned into a succubus demon suddenly? I shook the thought from my head as we landed on a roof somewhere. I gasped as I took in the vast expanse of water we were overlooking.
“That’s the Pacific Ocean.” He kept hold of me because we were on a slanted surface.
“Why are we on a roof?”
“Thought you might like to see the ocean. We are actually on Lucifer’s roof. Usually we land in the backyard.”
What was this guy’s deal? He was giving me whiplash. One minute he was a complete asshole asking me if I had tentacles growing out of my pussy and making fun of my soap carving, and the next he wanted me to see the ocean.
It was beautiful. The ocean. Not him.
Definitely not him with his strong arms, tight grip on my waist, and his gorgeous wings. I was
disappointed that as soon as we landed he had tucked them away.
“Ready?”
I snapped out of my thoughts about his hand on my waist and nodded. Going to Inferna was a lot smoother in his arms versus touching dried blood on the end of the feather. It was like I blinked and we were there.
We landed on a bed. I guess that’s what happens when your feet aren’t on the ground and you go through the barrier.
We both wobbled and then fell onto it, him landing on top of me. He didn’t make a move to get off. Instead, he cocked his head slightly and a small smile formed on his lips.
“I never considered this as a tactic to get a woman under me.”
He was so infuriating I wanted to scream. I’d never met someone that got under my skin as much as this angel did. Despite this, I didn’t want him to get off me.
“Aren’t you scared my tentacles are going to get you?” I shifted under him since the backpack full of soap was digging into me.
“I’ll take that chance.” He glanced down at my lips. It wasn’t the first time I’d caught him looking at them. “What are you?”
“You’ve asked that already. Are we going to lay here like this all day or go figure out just how stupid I’ve been to trust a vampire?”
Val wouldn’t deceive me, would he? There had to be some explanation why his father had sent his guards after us and why Nico and Amari were locked in cells.
Raphael rolled off of me and held out his hand for me to stand. I looked at it a moment then stood without taking it.
"Where are we anyway?" I looked around the room. It was all dark wood and dark bed linens. It was definitely a man's room.
"Lucifer's lair. Well, it used to be." He opened the bedroom door and stopped to wait for me.
I could already feel the temperature difference between there and Earth. I took off the backpack and shrugged out of the jacket. It had been a stupid idea to wear it anyway, no matter how cool it looked.
I grabbed the backpack again and headed for the door. Raphael was staring at my chest and when he realized I noticed he cleared his throat and looked away.
I rolled my eyes and purposely brushed past him and hit him with the backpack full of soap. He grunted and then started to laugh.
"So we're inside the gates of Hell? I heard there is just a big house and a small village of smaller houses here." I followed him down the stairs and down a long hall to a kitchen.
"There is."
Was that all he was going to tell me? As soon as we were in the kitchen, a man walked in from another direction. His eyes flashed black when he saw me, but then returned to normal.
"Alex. Any news since you texted?"
I eyed the incubus demon. Most succubus and incubus demons couldn't resist creating a sexual vibe in the room. This one seemed to either have complete control of it or was a null.
"I just got word that a brownie and vampire released all the prisoners. One of the prisoners was killed during their escape." His voice was all business.
I tried to calm the erratic beating of my heart. "Do you know which one?"
Alex shook his head. "It literally just happened, so if you want to catch up with them, you should leave now. It should be safe to fly as long as you hide yourself."
Raphael stuck out his hand and the two men shook. "Thanks for your help."
"Before you go, I need you to recharge my phone." Alex took out his cell phone and placed it on the counter. I watched with wide eyes as Raphael put his hand on it and the light flowed into it.
He removed his hand and then turned to me. "Let's go."
On the way outside we stopped in a room that had weapons. I'd never seen so many in the same place before. It was like a war room.
"Can I pick one?" I ran my finger along the blade of the sword.
"Do you even know how to use one?" He was examining a sword before strapping a sheath to his waist and sheathing it. He grabbed a few others and swung them over his shoulder by their straps.
I selected a sword and strapped it to my waist. "I've been alive for a long time. Just because I carve soap doesn't mean I don't know how to use a sword. Do you know how to use your sword?" I looked at his crotch.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he muttered under his breath as we walked out of the room.
Maybe the incubus had done something, because suddenly, the desire to rip off his clothes and have him slam into me overwhelmed me. I shook my head and let out a breath.
We stood outside the front door and he pulled me to him by the waist again. This time though, he dug his fingertips into my waist. He was trying to get a rise out of me. I wasn't going to let him.
We flew in the direction of the village, the whole time worry settling in my gut. What if Nico or Amari had been killed? Or the brownie? I couldn't believe he was with them.
Val better have a very damn good answer for his involvement in this.
Angels could fly incredibly fast, so we made it to the village in no time. We circled overhead, but there was very little activity.
"He has his own estate on the other side of the village."
We headed in that direction but then stopped overhead with the commotion in the center of the village. Demons were running in all directions.
We landed on a rooftop and took in the scene before us. There were several guards laying on the ground, dead, their throats ripped out. In the center of it all was a demon I wasn't familiar with, Amari sans an arm, and Val.
I clutched a little too hard on to Raphael's arm and he let out a grunt. Where was Nico?
Just as the fear had taken hold, there was a flash of brown that weaved in between the guard's feet. Nico was alive, but it was like he was deranged.
While Val and Amari fought with their bare hands and whatever they could get their hands on, and the other demon threw fire at the guards, Nico scaled them one by one and ripped out their throats.
"Is that a fucking squirrel?" He grabbed back onto me and jumped down to the ground. "He is ferocious."
"There's the princess!"
Shit, we'd been spotted. I thought we were hidden.
"Fuck. I didn't think they'd notice you that quickly. Stay behind me." He moved in front of me and unsheathed his sword.
I rolled my eyes but appreciated how his arm muscles clenched as he pulled out the sword and readied it. I took mine out too and moved next to him.
"I don't need to stay behind you." With that I stepped out into the melee and began taking down guards.
It had been a while since I had to use a sword. Each time mine hit one of theirs my entire body felt like I had taken a punch. Val caught my eye from the other side of a fountain.
We were grossly outnumbered, but with Nico being fast and effective with his killing, we were making headway against the guards.
The last of the guards went down, and we all stood there, panting from exertion. Raphael was right next to me and gave me a nod of approval. I was glad my sword skills were up to par.
Nico shifted back and ran towards me, stopping short when Raphael held up his sword in front of us.
"Who the fuck is this?" Nico asked, blood covering his face. He must have sensed I was looking at it because he wiped it off with the hem of his shirt.
I put my hand on Raphael's arm and made him lower the sword. Nico's eyebrows raised and then he closed the distance between us, scooping me into his arms.
"I was going to rip out every fucking throat until I found you." He pulled back and looked at me. "There's a lot to tell you. Like how your filthy bloodsucker stabbed us in the back."
I looked over his shoulder and met Val's eyes again. He just stood there on the other side of the fountain, unmoving. Like he was scared to walk over to us.
"He did help us escape. Maybe we should see what he has to say." Amari came to stand next to Nico.
My eyes immediately went to his arm. Tears filled my eyes, and I reached out and touched the top part of it. "Amari…" What do you say to someone who lost a limb? I'm sorr
y? That wouldn't bring his arm back.
"No use in crying over it. What's done is done." I could tell he was holding back his emotions about it. He was giving Raphael the once over. "Who's this?"
Raphael stuck out his hand. "Archangel Raphael. You two must be two of her boyfriends."
My face flared with embarrassment. We haven't exactly discussed what we were and what we weren't.
Ignoring his remark, Nico looked at me with a worried expression. "You went to Earth?"
"I'm fine, Nico." I put my hand on his cheek even though it was stained with blood. "We should leave before more guards come."
Amari shook his head. "Val killed his father and we just took out the ones that were bound to him. No more will be coming." He looked over to the fountain where Val was now sitting with his head in his hands.
"He should be on the ground with the guards." Nico turned and started walking towards Val, but Kage appeared.
"S-s-stop." He held up his hand as if he was about to touch Nico on the shoulder, but then dropped his hand. Kage took a deep breath and kept his eyes locked on Nico. "He didn't know about what his f-father had planned. At least n-not all of it."
"You're defending the bloodsucker now? I thought you were supposed to be on my team?" Nico crossed his arms and Kage visibly tensed. I knew from the tone of Nico’s voice that he was being sarcastic, but Kage didn’t.
My heart ached for the brownie. As if hearing my words, he glanced up at me. He held my eyes for a few breaths before looking down again.
“You did good, Kage. Thank you for saving us. I know that must have been hard for you.” Nico had uncrossed his arms and was speaking in a calmer voice.
“I will go talk to the bloodsucker.” I spoke loud enough for him to hear me and his back tensed.
“Is that safe?” Raphael grumbled.
I pinned him with a glare and then walked to the fountain, stepping over bodies as I went. I’d have to really explore why I could so easily dismiss the fact that dozens of dead lay before me.
I stood in front of Val and looked down at him with my hand on the hilt of my sword. I wasn’t planning on stabbing him, but if I needed to, I would.