by JL Madore
After another moment, the wall of feathers whooshed closed and Zander stepped aside.
Austin imagined the living room ahead of her and prayed no one had moved any furniture. She didn’t want to go ass over teakettle as she strode across the carpet. The intense gazes of men burned into her back as she approached the woman and did the worst impression of a curtsy known to man.
“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Austin,” Lady Divinity said. “Welcome back to the Otherworld.”
“Back, ma’am?”
She smiled, her manicured eyebrows waggling. “I saw you once before, a brave child, strong of spirit and will. It was not your time and so Gabriel sent you back.”
Austin looked at the archangel. A memory returned to her as if suddenly unlocked. She’d seen him as she woke on the river, as the paramedics put her into the ambulance.
Lady Divinity cast a serious glance over Austin’s shoulder. “This warrior has claimed you, yet his world is nothing you have experienced. There are dangers and evils that have and will undoubtedly touch your life.”
She waved a delicate hand and a running stream of images played inside Austin’s mind, horrible, dark pictures of blood, violence, and evil. “Consider the life of the Watchers as well as the male you love. By joining him, you shall sacrifice much.”
“And get far more in return.” Austin looked at Zander, her heart swelling in her chest until she thought it might burst. His ebony wings crested his ears then flowed down in two beautiful cascades to the floor. Love and adoration radiated from him. “I am sure about Zander. I’m a goner.”
The woman nodded. “Warrior, come before me.”
Zander strode to Austin’s side and sank to one knee.
“Warrior, will you pledge undying love to this woman, that she be the guardian of your heart and of your soul e’ermore?”
“I will, Milady.”
“Will you renew your vow to fight the war against those who seek to do her and her race harm?”
“I will, Milady.”
“And will you forfeit your own life to protect her?”
“I will, Milady.”
“Then swear it to me.”
“I do so swear it, on my life and on my honor.”
She offered a regal smile and turned to the others. “And will you, his brothers-in-arms, support this union and protect this female as if she were one of your own?”
Zander’s men called out loud and clear. “I do so swear it, on my life and on my honor.”
“Very well. Steel yourself, Zandros of Kish.” And with that, Lady Divinity touched his heart with one delicate finger.
Zander grit his teeth until he thought he’d snapped a few pearly whites off. The burn of Lady Divinity’s touch was nothing short of excruciating. Electrocuting. It ripped through his organs lighting his insides into a fiery inferno. Though he screamed inwardly, he bore the test as a warrior should. When the Mother of Angels withdrew, he rose. “You honor me, Milady.”
Her laughter was enchanting. “Oh, you are charming. Even now, when you battle so valiantly for control.”
Turning to the wall of soldiers before her, she raised her hand. “Hear me and heed my warning, warriors. Love is a risk for all, but for Nephilim the danger is immense. The prophecy remains. At best, giving yourself to another begins a never-ending struggle against your darkest tendencies. At worst it marks destruction.”
Zander gathered Austin’s hand in his.
“On a good day, you battle to tether dark impulses, violence and temper. To give yourself wholly to a female you must make yourself whole. That dangerous side of yourselves, that brutal, beast you lock away, must be released to rein free e’ermore.”
Jackson, Zander thought. The beast had taken control and lashed out in a violent blood-rage. He didn’t like not driving his own train. Didn’t like not remembering his own actions. What if he hurt one of his own men? What if he hurt Austin?
“Never Austin,” Lady Divinity said, obviously reading his thoughts. “Austin now tethers that side of you, Zandros, and may the three realms help us if anything should happen to her. This is my one warning on this subject so heed it well, my sons. Protect her as you would the most precious soul in your lives, for that is indeed what she has become.”
She straightened and Tanek appeared behind her.
Zander stiffened and stared. The soldier looked well, strong and whole, dressed in the formal robes of a celestial guard. To see his mentor in the service of Lady Divinity removed an enormous weight. Like someone slipped his Navigator into gear and eased the thing off his chest for the first time in a week.
Zander blinked his vision clear and returned his focus to Lady Divinity.
“The balance is tenuous, my sons. However, since my brother, The Dark Prince, has allowed his children a way to negate your immortality, I thought it fitting that I allow you the greatest strength you could possess. Being whole brings greater power than you have ever known. Choose your paths well my sons, with the Dark Realm rising, the future of all three worlds depends on it.”
Lady Divinity brushed a gentle finger across Austin’s brow and dematerialized. When the mist dissolved, the room fell into a whole lot of holy fuck.
Never had Zander envisioned the Mother of Angels standing before him, blessing his union. Another first. There had been a lot of firsts the past two weeks. Tanek’s death. The kidnapping of an Angel. A weapon that killed Nephilim.
A Darkworld revolt.
To the marrow of his bones, he knew the coming war would spill over into the human realm and threaten to expose their existence. It was a war that would claim lives from all realms.
Glancing up, he ran a trembling thumb over the filigree tattoo that now danced across Austin’s brow. Different from a Nephilim mark, the delicate ink-work glowed copper-bronze and depicted the royal seal of Lady Divinity herself. Austin had become Otherworld royalty. If the members of the Otherworld knew what was good for them, they’d consider her off limits.
Austin panned her gaze across his men, still assembled in a line before them. “Hello, boys. It’s nice to finally put faces to the voices.”
Leaning back, Austin eyed him like the first night she’d met him outside the warehouse. Shaky fingers traced his cheekbone to his jawline, down his neck to his collarbone. Dazzled by the highway she trailed along his skin he froze.
He gave her a moment to study him. “You see our marks? More than our aura when we speak? You see me?”
Shit. Was this Lady Divinity’s doing?
“Don’t be afraid, cowgirl,” he said. “The ink is intimidating, I know, but—”
“Intimidating?” She bit her bottom lip and leaned closer. “It’s sexier than socks on a rooster.”
He’d won the fucking lottery with her—to be accepted wholly, loved by the female he loved in return. There were complications ahead way above and beyond their control. They’d handle it though. Together.
Her touch trailed down his stomach to the waistband of his jeans. “Does the design go south of the Mason-Dixon Line?”
Cue a round of men clearing their throats.
“Later,” he said, his body reacting to the promise. His flesh tingled as she traced the design singed over his heart. The organ beneath beat proud. He was claimed, taken evermore.
“Who would have imagined all this?” Austin said. “Life is such a wondrous, chaotic mess, isn’t it angelman?”
Before Austin—he would have taken the ‘wondrous’ out of that sentence but not now. He gathered her hand in his and pressed it to his lips. “Yes, cowgirl, that’s exactly what it is—a wondrous, chaotic mess.”
EPILOGUE
Austin watched Zander pull his jeans up over his hips, his boxers left forgotten on the floor where she’d flung them a few hours ago. After Lady Divinity’s touch, she could now see all members of the Otherworld, but Zander held her rapt. He stole her breath. His back muscles flexed up his spine, his wings adjusting as he tightened his belt and sheathed his Crys
talline dagger at his hip. He went bare-chested more often than not these days, which suited her just fine.
She picked up his Watcher’s vest and stroked it for luck. The new design slid over his head and strapped at his sides. It accommodated his wings and incorporated light-weight Kevlar to keep him safer from the new weapons that had surfaced over the past weeks.
“Is Phoenix on rotation tonight? Seth mentioned earlier he’s been anxious to get back out on the streets.”
“Not tonight,” Zander said. “I gave everyone the night off for a little mental regrouping.”
“Downtime? And what do celestial enforcers do for fun? Trivial Pursuit?”
Zander laughed. “Danel is an ancient scribe gifted with perfect recall. We wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Nah, I have something else planned for tonight. It’s going to be fun.”
She pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and scanned the room for the bra she’d had on earlier. “Will Kyrian be there?”
Zander stepped into the walk-in closet and she knew it was as much to keep her from seeing his expression as it was to check his wardrobe. Something happened between those two during the days she’d recovered from dying. No one talked about it but her instincts lit up like a Christmas tree every time the two were in the same room together.
He waited a heartbeat before responding, his voice level and uncharacteristically cheerful. “He’s busy with Drina working out details for the new clinic. He sends his love, though, and wants you to have fun.”
Austin sighed. She’d play along for now but in short order, she’d dig her heels in and demand to know what this was about.
Zander returned from the closet and set something in her hands. “Why don’t you put these on?”
She felt the material and raised a brow. It was the chaps and vest she’d worn in the office the afternoon she’d danced in the cage. “I thought we were headed out of the bedroom.”
He sidled up close, way too sexy to be real. “We are. Put the chaps on over your jeans. I don’t want to kill any of my patrons in the club.”
Her gaze widened as his intentions dawned on her.
“No arguments, cowgirl. We’ve had nothing but stress and I want to unwind with you.” As he shrugged her arms into the vest, his fingers splayed across her ribs and along the curves of her breasts. “I’m showing you what my club is really about.”
“But Zander . . .”
He shook his head and finished the last of the snaps on her vest. She touched the precariousness of her containment. It was one sexy outfit, something she’d never had the nerve to put on before her life here. Nerve only went so far.
Before she could argue, he pulled her out the bedroom door.
Wearing just his shitkickers, jeans, and dagger, Zander led them downstairs. Music throbbed through the walls in the kitchen and notched up a level when they stepped out into the club proper. Her sight went wild. All the patrons, chatting, laughing and singing, lit up, highlighting a world of people she never knew existed.
Zander weaved them past scantily dressed patrons tipping bottles to their lips, past crowded seating areas set on tiered platforms against long walls, past pool tables where women bent forward, and men ground behind them, demonstrating how to hold a cue and get the best out of her stroke.
And beyond all that, the hedonistic shenanigans of the dance floor ensued, deep within a jungle of sexual energy. Zander laughed as he read her expression and tugged her into the sea of promiscuity. He circled behind her, sliding firm hands across her hips and encouraging her to sway to the techno beat pounding in her chest. Moving them in tandem, he orchestrated her body and explored her willingness to participate.
“It’s not as bad as you imagined, is it?”
She looked around the club, wide-eyed. “Do they arrive in their skivvies or do they undress here?”
Zander’s chest vibrated against her back. One hand moved to stroke below her breasts and the other down to her side. Pulling her tight against his front she could feel every rigid plane of his body as they swayed to the rhythm of the music.
“Relax, cowgirl. No one will make you do anything you don’t want to do. Let the atmosphere seep under your skin and let go a little.”
It was the heat coming off his bare, muscular frame that captivated her. It didn’t take long before she matched Zander’s lecherous moves, reaching behind her head, lacing her fingers into the thick silk of his long hair. She turned in his arms, running her fingers over the brutal width of his shoulders, down the chiseled planes of his chest.
Her nails scored through the soft hair of his navel and over the bulge of his jeans. His wings flexed. Gawd, they were sexy. The two of them carried on as if they were alone upstairs not in a crowd of anonymous strangers.
She kind of liked the crowd.
The wandering glances. The eroticism. The lust in the air.
Zander grabbed her by the rounds of her backside and pulled her close. Man, he could grab her like that for the rest of her life and she’d never get enough. Their bodies moved well together, in perfect rhythm, the rightness of it went far beyond the dance floor. She pushed away the vague reality that it could be taken away. Nephilim led dangerous lives.
She tamped down the panic rising in her chest and let her head drop back. Moving with power, he bent her off balance and arched over her. His lips descended to her throat, her breastbone, her cleavage. A shudder shot through her as Zander’s smug sense of possession seemed to grow.
With eyes boring into hers, he brought their lips together, his dark and dangerous side surrounding her stronger than ever. Usually, that heated, sensual something flowed from him in well-constrained doses, but tonight it emanated out his every pore. It crawled inside her, claimed her and seeped into her cells to set up shop.
She swallowed, struggling to find her voice. “You can’t look at me like that.”
His smile was slow and far too sexy. “Does it bother you?”
“That you’re about to devour me?”
He melded his body to hers and proceeded to kiss the ever-loving-sense out of her. The heat, the music, the smell of him filling her mind—it was dizzying.
He drew back after a long while and smiled. “I was hoping for a replay of some of those moves the girls taught you.” With a pointed finger, he gestured to where people were cage dancing on either end of the small stage.
“Here?” She cocked her brow so high she was sure it disappeared under the fringe of her bangs. “Not on your life.”
“No one will even notice, except me.”
Austin looked around. Everyone was focused on their own business, but still . . . she couldn’t dance in front of this many people, could she? “Do you know how drunk I’d have to be?”
Zander’s grin was sinful. “Well, let’s get the lady a drink and find out.”
They made their way through the sweaty, sparingly covered bodies to the main bar. Seth was hustling, helping the girls keep up with the thirsty crowd. Seeing them, he inclined his head and held up a finger while he popped the tops off two beer and handed them to a pretty girl with no top on.
Austin blinked twice, but yep, completely topless.
Seth dropped the money into the cash drawer, slammed it shut and shuttled down the galley of the bar to where they waited. “What can I get for you, cowgirl?”
“Liquid courage,” Austin said, chuckling at Seth’s blank look. “Zander wants to see me in one of the cages tonight.”
“Yee-fuckin-haw, so do I.” He held his fist up and knuckle bumped Zander before turning to mix her a drink. “So some liquor bravery for our Texas wildcat? You like strawberries?”
Austin nodded and Seth went to work. She watched his movements as he scooped ice into the base of a blender, opened a bottle and poured some in, added a few things she couldn’t see and then retrieved a golden glowing flask from under the bar. When he’d added everything, he snapped the lid in place, flipped the blender on, and reached up to the glasses rack.
Austin accepted the fruity pink concoction and sniffed it warily. Mmm. It smelt like a strawberry daiquiri had sex with a candy apple and gave birth to an exciting new flavor.
Zander leaned to her ear. “Ah . . . fair warning, my love, Seth’s drinks can—”
Before Zander finished, Austin downed it. Swallow after swallow she tipped back the glass and then dragged her tongue along the sugared rim. “Oh, my goodness, Seth, that was incredible. It was sooo fruity and . . ..”
“Orgasmic?” Seth’s guilty expression had her wondering what she’d missed. “Thank you. I invented it myself. I call it a Damp Panty.”
Austin laughed at the name and froze. Sensation tingled between her legs, a warm flush breaking out under her skin. A few pounding beats of the song played and that tingle geared up into a pang. Then, the pang morphed into a full-on hungry burn. Moisture gathered between her legs and her nipples tightened behind her vest.
“Oh my.” She bit her bottom lip to hold back the moan rising in her throat. Throbbing heat barreled over her like an avalanche thundering down a mountainside. Her legs trembled, and Zander caught her weight.
Seth winked and retreated down the bar to serve other customers. With characteristic grace, he left the two of them to be swallowed up by the crowd. She rubbed against Zander’s swollen shaft like a cat on a scratching post, pulling his hands around her to cover her aching breasts.
“He added something Otherworldly to that, didn’t he?”
Zander chuckled. “Beware the golden flask.”
“You men are so depraved,” she mumbled.
Zander laughed, cupping the front of her jeans, rubbing her discretely with the heel of his palm. “Don’t fight it, love. It’ll only make it worse. Ride it out.”
She bit her lip and breathed hard through her nose as her release hit. Zander’s one arm held her standing, while his other hand worked her right where she needed it. She fought not to cry out, to not writhe against Zander with abandon, to at least appear composed. She failed.
With her head back and her eyes closed, she flew apart.
When her panting slowed, and her eyes opened, Zander was there, his own breathing ragged. “I love to watch you come.”
