I flew through the city, following the sounds of her high-pitched screams until I came to an alleyway with large abandoned buildings. Flashes of red and white filled one of the metal warehouses like there an internal fire blazed, but I knew at once what it was.
I drew my sword from my back, invisible to all until it was unsheathed. The eerie red light glinted off the silver blade, reminding me of all the blood this weapon had shed.
My heart pounded in my chest as I raced inside the building. The shadowy figures of flame were converging on Kadie and I was impressed to see that she wasn’t meekly cowering in a corner, waiting to be rescued. She gave as much as she could. White magic shot from her palms as she screamed in rage at them. I ran forward, swinging my sword at the two Demons closest to her. They hissed in anger and spun at me to retaliate.
I cut two flaming creatures in half with single blows and they burst into black flames. I jumped closer to my target and we stood back to back. Three more came at us and I fought off two as Kadie took the other down with her concentrated magic.
“About… Time… You got here,” she panted, her chest heaving with stress.
“Let’s go.”
I sheathed my sword, picked her up in my arms, and took off, flying through the open door and up into the sky. She clung to my neck and buried her head deep into my shoulder. Her familiar scent tickled my nose and despite the danger, lust pounded in my body like a hot anvil.
“I need to get you safe.”
“My house.”
I frowned, unhappy with that being the only alternative. But I did not have a house myself, and at least her home could not be penetrated by the Demons.
“All right.”
I dropped lower and headed for her house, surrounding us both in invisibility for the sake of the humans around us. I could see flickers of evil through the night, all over the city. On roof tops. In restaurants. In the streets. I would never be able to get them all, but I could at least keep my target safe.
“Front door is easiest,” she said, her voice hitching as she wriggled in my grasp.
The attraction between us flared high. A lot hotter than I had thought initially. I could smell her arousal, strong and sweet. If she too felt the tug of lust between us, it would be harder than I’d thought to stop myself indulging in her.
I landed on the front stoop and placed her down carefully. She gasped as she stepped down onto her unstable legs, and wobbled towards the entrance. She managed to get the door open and we both went inside, locking the door behind us. Not that the human lock would keep out anything except a human. Luckily, we had stronger magic than that on our side.
“You didn’t tell me you had powers like that,” I said, unable to keep the accusation out of my voice. I’d been as honest with her as I could be, and she had deliberately kept a vital piece of information from me.
“I didn’t know!” she said as she spun around to glare up at me. “That’s never happened before.”
I could see the honesty in her eyes, hear it in her tone. She was shaking, from the stress, or anger, I wasn’t sure.
“All right. Calm down. Sit.”
She fell onto her couch and I adjusted my height for her tiny house. I had to do something with all the nervous energy racing through my body. I walked into the kitchen, took down a glass, and poured her a glass of water.
My heart continued to pound. That had been close. Far too close. I went back to my target and handed her the glass. She took it with trembling hands and I sat down in the armchair I’d occupied earlier this evening.
Why hadn’t she done as I’d asked?
“Now, tell me what happened. I thought you weren’t going out tonight.”
She cocked her head at me. “I didn’t. That was yesterday.”
Damn. “Sorry. Sometimes, I lose time when I visit Tabitha.”
I’d never understood why, but I could lose days from a single visit. I’d asked, and she’d never explained how her home worked in terms of human time.
“Who’s Tabitha?” she asked, her voice hitching in a strange way.
Jealousy maybe? “My Angel agent. She gave me your name to look after.”
Kadie took a sip of water. “That’s weird.”
I laughed, a strange, strained noise. Me weird? Coming from the human being hunted by Demons, and could vanquish them with white magic? “Ah, I suppose it is, to you. But that is how it is in my world. Tabitha finds out who the Demons are after, and she tells me who to save. It’s a simple, but effective system.”
“How many humans have you saved?”
I shrugged. I’d like to say I didn’t keep count, but I did.
“No, really, I want to know,” she persisted.
“One thousand nine hundred and ninety humans,” I answered, unable to deny her a simple fact.
“Whoa. That’s…incredible.”
Again, I shrugged. Still not enough to get back into Heaven.
“Well, that’s just ridiculous. What’s the magic number then? Two thousand? Five thousand?”
I stared at her. Is she seriously answering questions I asked in my own head?
The answer came in the heated blush that spread up her cheeks.
“Are you reading my mind, Kadie?”
“Ah… I don’t mean to.” Her gaze dropped and the blush blossomed into a fiery red.
“But you are?” I asked again. I’d never met anyone who could do that. Not to me.
She stared at me with wide eyes. “Ah…maybe? I can’t tell. They all sound like words to me.”
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. This got stranger by the minute.
“Surely it’s not that unusual, is it?” she asked, her voice half an octave above its normal pitch. She sounded worried.
And there was a good reason for that.
“Ah, yes. Yes, it is,” I said. “It would be unusual if you could read a human’s mind, but mine? That’s just…unheard of.”
“I knew something was wrong with me,” she said as she leaned forward and dropped her head into her hands.
I decided not to focus on that comment, as I knew there was nothing wrong with her. Instead, there were many, many things that were right.
Her erect nipples for example.
Her head shot up and she suddenly crossed her arms over her chest.
Oh, damn.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, appalled that she could hear my lustful thoughts.
“It’s okay. I know how you feel. I can barely keep my eyes to myself either.”
A strange warmth washed over me as she admitted that she also felt the attraction that I struggled with. Not that I’d ever had any problems finding sexual partners in Heaven, where love is shared freely. But down here, in limbo, I’d been alone for a very long time.
“Let’s focus on your abilities. What were you doing to those Demons?”
She seemed to be able to kill them, which was impossible for a human, or so I had been taught.
“I…really don’t know. I was so scared, and then they came close, and I pushed out with all my fear, and white light shot out of my hands.”
That sounded relatively simple. Amazing, and spectacular. But simple.
She continued on as though I had spoken. “Well it wasn’t simple, I can tell you. I had no idea what I was doing, and if I dropped concentration for a minute, the light would go out and then they’d be at me again. I’m frickin’ exhausted and feel like I can barely lift my arms.”
I just stared at her until finally she realized what she’d done.
“Oh, I’m sorry! How do we stop me doing that?”
I have no bloody idea.
“I will try not to think too loudly, and you need to go to bed.” I stared hard at her. Or I will seduce you right now on this sofa and damn the consequences.
“What consequences?”
I wanted to laugh out loud, but it was more sad than funny. It would be so much easier for us both if I could hide my true feelings, and she’d never
know what we’d missed. “We aren’t permitted to have sexual relations with humans.”
A rule I had originally thought was smart. Now…I was beginning to see what the other Angels I’d met complained about.
“How would they find out?” she asked.
“Oh, they’d find out.” There were eyes and ears everywhere.
“So, you haven’t had sex in, like, forever?”
A groan rolled through my chest.
“More than forever. Thirty times your life time.”
“Whoa.”
Yeah. Exactly. “Now, usually I would retreat to a ledge somewhere and watch over your house all night, but seeing as you offered me a bed. I might take that space, if that’s still all right with you?”
I wouldn’t sleep of course, but a comfortable bed wasn’t something I’d had in too many years to count, and I had many, many memories to keep me entertained for the night.
“Yes. Absolutely. Come this way.” She reached out and took my hand. I gasped and froze, the feel of her skin on mine both pleasurable and painful. So, hot and sweet, I ached for more.
“Come on,” she repeated, tugging my hand and dragging me into a small room with a double bed and a scent that made me groan. Kadie’s unique smell that made me yearn for a home I’ve never had, permeated everywhere.
“Well, good night,” Kadie said, and went up on her toes and kissed me gently on the lips.
I froze as she held herself there, barely touching me.
“And thank you for saving my life,” she whispered against my mouth.
“You’re welcome,” I said back, breathing in the warmth of her. Wishing I could pick her up, strip her down, and devour the beauty beneath the rags.
She stepped away and gave me a soft, quivering smile. “Good night.”
I nodded my head and she shut the door. Anger and resentment pulsed through me like a heated storm. This was so unfair. Surely I deserved one night? After already serving a five-hundred-year term.
I stripped off my clothes and threw them on a nearby chest of drawers. Ancient jeans and a black woolen hoodie I wore to blend in to the humans around me.
Naked, I lay back on the soft bed and let my mind wander. Safe, for as long as I could remember.
And for the first time in centuries, I fantasized about a woman other than the one I’d left in Heaven, all those years ago.
Chapter Four
The door opened some time before sunrise. Darkness still clung to the city and the people were quiet.
“Gabriel?” Kadie’s sweet voice filtered through the air around me.
“Yes?” I answered, not daring to move a muscle.
I was naked and I assumed she knew it, as she walked in and stood before me. The street lights shone in through the shuttered windows and shadows cast over her barely-clad body made my blood burn.
“Do you want me as much as I want you?” she whispered, her voice trembling with whatever emotion pulled at her.
“You know I do. But it is forbidden.” They’d never told us why, but the rule was simple.
“But why? What would just one night together do to you, or me? You saved me. I could have been dead tonight. And I want to celebrate being alive. Thanks to you.”
Oh, please don’t. I don’t have the strength to deny you this.
She hesitated for a moment, then lifted her hand and pushed one strap off her shoulder and let it fall down her arm, exposing one perfect breast. Then the other. Twin mounds of wonder. My mouth watered.
The nightie she wore shimmied to the floor and she stood before me naked. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. What was a man supposed to do when a naked woman stood before him? A lump lodged itself in my throat and I swallowed hard.
“Come here,” I croaked out.
She walked closer to me, her rounded breasts bobbing with her movement. My throat grew tight, my mouth ran dry.
I lay in the middle of the bed so there was room for her. I continued to lie completely still, and watch what unfolded before me like a dream. She climbed onto the bed and slid a leg over my waist so that she sat on top of me. I groaned loudly and my eyes slid shut on a wave of ecstasy unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
The heat of her. The smell of need. Everything was too much to take. I’d been alone so very long and here was a woman wanting me.
She began to rock her hips, rubbing her pussy along my aching shaft as she ran her hands over my chest. I shuddered in response to her touch. The love I could feel pouring off her soul. This woman had so much to give. Heaven deserved a soul like hers.
“You’re very beautiful. Very…very…beautiful,” she said, her admiration of my form clear.
Her fingertips rubbed my nipples, exciting an electric response inside my chest. My arms shook as I raised my own hands and cupped her breasts, feeling the weight of each in my palms. Her tight nipples between my fingers.
I was going to be punished so severely for this…
She moved her legs back and around, then slid down so that she lay on top of me. Her soft lips touched my nipples in a gentle caress and her breath slid over my skin.
“Oh. God.”
I hope he didn’t hear me. For I broke whatever rule they lay on us.
The damned Angels.
She slid further down, taking my cock into the wet haven of her mouth.
“Oh. Fuck.”
She hummed and moaned as she tasted me. Her lips moved up and down my shaft. My cock throbbed and ached for her. I clenched the blankets beneath me, grabbing hold on any sort of sanity that I could. If only I… No….
My control snapped and I reached for her. I grabbed her arms and pulled her up my body, flipped us over, and slid my tongue into her mouth. She moaned and lifted her pelvis, wrapping her legs and arms around me. Enclosing me completely.
I moved my hand between us and tweaked at her swollen clit, flicking that sensitive little nub until she was bucking at me to take her.
“Gabriel! Please.” She bit into my shoulder and I shuddered again at the intensity of need coursing through me.
I let the head of my cock rest against her opening, making sure she wanted me. Checking inside myself if I’d gone insane. This one moment could set me back a decade from my goal, longer even. A century.
But I’d longed for this feeling for too long. There was no way of knowing if I was ever going to get back into Heaven. They said this girl could be the key.
Oh, to Hell with it.
I slid down her body, pushed her soft thighs apart and thrust my tongue inside her core. She screamed out as I tasted the sweetest honey. She grabbed my head and I lapped at her center, drinking the very nectar of her body.
Wow.
Her nails dug into my scalp and her panting began to peak. I didn’t want to miss the feeling of her orgasm. I slid back up her gasping body and lined up my throbbing cock. Kadie arched her back and our gazes connected in that eerie way that make my heart pound and my very soul cry out for the connection.
Her lips separated in a soft gasp, her hand sliding up to cup my cheek. We needed to be connected in the deepest way possible. There was no other reason for us meeting like this. Me feeling like this.
I flexed my hips and sunk into her hot, waiting body. Kadie lifted her hips up and met me half way. I forged all the way inside of her and gripped the sheets beneath my hands. She felt so hot. And tight. And perfect.
Damn, that’s incredible.
“Yeah, I know,” she panted.
A laugh rose at her responding to my thoughts. And then I began to ride her. I rolled my hips, retreating and then thrusting back inside her. Leaving her and then returning home in an ancient rhythm, as old as time and the Gods themselves.
Sweat gathered on her skin. Her face flushed with blood. She groaned and wrapped her legs around me tighter, taking me deeper. I held onto my sanity by the flimsiest of margins.
She gasped and grabbed onto me, biting hard into my shoulder as her pussy began to ripple around my cock her
alding her orgasm, and perhaps mine also.
It had been so long since I’d made love to anyone. Felt the tight clasp of a woman’s pussy wrapped around me. And she was so perfect. She fit me like a glove.
“Ah!” Kadie cried out, long and loud. White light surrounded us like the sun had risen in our bedroom alone.
I grabbed onto the bed head and fucked her hard and fast, riding through her orgasm until heat trickled down my legs and up my back.
I dipped my head and sunk my tongue inside her mouth just as I thrust to the hilt. She sucked on my tongue just as my orgasm began to flow over me. My cock pulsed inside her spasming body, releasing my cum and bringing with it a choir of song inside my head.
“Ah…. Oh fuck!” Kadie cried out as she began to come with me again.
Heated sparks flew around us and as I forced my eyes open, I realized it wasn’t all inside my head. Kadie gave off fireworks that made me hold her tighter and revel in the shuddering of her pussy around me.
We lay there until the energy around us settled and darkness settled in once again.
Whoa.
I rolled off her tiny body and pulled her with me as I moved. She settled her head onto my chest, made a soft contented sigh, and instantly fell asleep.
I lay there through sunrise and beyond stroking her hair. Realizing that I’d found peace for the first time in five hundred years, and if it took me another five hundred years to get back into Heaven, then tonight was well worth it.
“I’m going to the soup kitchen, Gabriel. Want to come?”
I stepped out of my bedroom and gave her a stern look. This woman was as crazy as she was beautiful. “Are you serious? I’ve told you I need to keep you safe until all the Demons chasing you are either dead, or they give up on you.”
She grabbed a coat and slid her arms into the sleeves. “You’ve seen what I’m capable of. I’m sure they learnt their lesson last night. Come on, please. I need to go. I’m late.”
“Why?” I asked. I’d witnessed countless acts of cruelty in this world, and very few purely kind ones.
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