by G. Bailey
“That is the thing with love. It’s a big fucking gamble, and there is always the risk that someone will get hurt…but sometimes you just have to be brave and jump,” he tells me. Azi doesn’t wait for me to say anything back to him as he pulls his shirt off, and starts unclipping his belt.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my mouth feeling dry as I stare at all the muscular chest on view and everything more as Azi pushes his trousers off, revealing that he is not wearing any underwear—and he is happy to see me.
“I want to swim. I’ve been searching for one of my brothers through a garbage dump for the last day, only to find him dead anyway,” he says, a little pain coming through his words before he dives into the pool. I don’t pause as I pull the dress off and take off my crown, placing it on the edge, before jumping in myself. I swim back up to the surface and look for Azi. The water is lovely and warm, even with the cold air brushing against my skin and hair.
“Did I tell you how damn sexy you looked in that dress you just tore off?” Azi asks, his voice just behind me. I turn around to see him, his wet hair dripping water down his face and little drops on his chest reflecting the moonlight.
“You didn’t,” I say, swimming closer, and Azi grabs my arm, pulling me against his hard chest, and something else hard pokes into my stomach.
“This is tempting me to break the rules,” he whispers, more to himself as he smooths his hands down my shoulders. Every movement of his hands and fingers against my skin seems to feel like it is etched into my memory.
“What rules?” I breathlessly ask as his hands slide down my sides, his hand gripping my waist as I look into his eyes once more.
“I promised Connor and Nix that I wouldn’t sleep with you until you sort things out with Trex. They think it will scare him off if we all shared you while he is being a dick about how he feels,” he explains to me, and I frown.
“What?” I whisper angrily. “How dare you all think it’s up to you? If you get a chance to sleep with me, you should be damn well happy, not following some kind of bro code on rules.” I try to push Azi away, and he only chuckles, pulling me against him once again.
“You’re right. I never agreed to the promise for them, or for Trex. I did for you. I know you love them, even if you haven’t admitted it. Like I know you love me. I don’t want you to lose him because you are both too stubborn to admit your feelings,” Azi explains.
“I’m not stubborn,” I pout.
“Liar,” he chuckles, and then he kisses me. Oh god, he kisses me like a dying man clinging to life, and I know he is going to break all the rules just like I want him to. I moan as Azi pulls my ass closer, pressing his hard length further into me. I gasp as Azi jumps us out of the water in one smooth motion, and in the next, he’s lying me down on the tiles near the edge of the pool.
“Azi,” I moan as he pins my hands above my head, and I relax, letting him take control like he needs as his other hand slides over my breast. Then his thumb rubs my clit in circles as his tongue explores my mouth in a similar motion. I wriggle from the slight pressure, and Azi bites my bottom lip gently, warning me not to fight him. Azi’s sin is control…especially sexual control. If I fight him, try to take control, his demon takes over, usually trying to kill whoever is in Azi’s way. Luckily, his demon likes me, but I’m not crazy enough to push it right in this moment. I only want Azi. Azi’s mouth leaves mine as his finger begins to explore my core, and I widen my legs and throw my head back.
“Look at me,” Azi commands as he suddenly lets my hands go to grab my hips, lining himself up so only the tip is just hovering outside of me. I meet Azi’s eyes as he slowly enters me, inch by inch until he is all the way in, and his lips are just above mine. “You’re mine now. Mine.”
“Yes, because I love you.” My words snap Azi into motion, his lips slamming onto mine as he roughly thrusts in and out of me. I moan around his mouth, gasping as an orgasm slams into me, and I cry out. Azi doesn’t stop, instead he pulls out, turning me over and pulling my hips up. Azi slides back into me from behind, this time his finger going back to my clit and rubbing it in time with his relentless thrusts. The pleasure gets stronger until I can do nothing but cry out Azi’s name as I come again, and a few slams later Azi finishes with a roar, holding my hips tightly enough to bruise. Azi rests his head on my back as we both calm down before he pulls out of me, and I roll over onto my back. Azi lies next to me, and pulls me onto him, resting my head on his chest.
“I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that,” Azi quietly says after a long silence where he strokes my hair gently, soothingly.
“That I love you?” I question.
“Yes, and agreeing that you are mine,” he says.
“I’m not good at admitting my feelings, but what you said about being brave…well, it hit home. I can’t run from feeling anything all the time. I just can’t anymore,” I whisper. “I love you. It’s that simple.”
“It’s okay to love them too. I never thought I could share you in a million years, but it doesn’t feel like sharing with them. It feels like they are family,” he tells me.
“It does feel like that, huh?” I muse, knowing that, for some reason, it just works with us all together. I never thought I’d have feelings for more than one guy, let alone think about a future with more than one, but here I am. Though I never once imagined being a princess, so it’s a strange year right now. I lean up, resting my chin on my hands as I look down at Azi’s contented face. “I don’t want to bring up anything bad right now, but we should talk about it. Did you find out anything useful?”
“Why don’t we get dressed and get those Protectors of yours together. It’s a long story that I think everyone needs to hear,” he tells me.
“A good story?” I ask, being hopeful.
“Not exactly, Vi.”
Nix
“Good to see you back safely, Azi,” I say, clapping Azi on the shoulder as I walk into the lounge. He is sat on the sofa in pretty dirty clothes, with Star lying across him, purring as he rubs her ears. Star practically jumped into his arms when he came back and hasn’t left his side since. “There are clothes in the wardrobe you can borrow if you want.” I sit down on the other sofa next to a grumpy Trex, and Connor leans against the fireplace with a drink in his hand. We all look over as Evie walks into the room in little black shorts that show off her long legs and a white jumper on. Evie’s blue hair is up in a ponytail which hangs down her one shoulder, and she looks like she is glowing. I don’t know what happened with her and Azi, but they both came back looking pretty happy. Trex hasn’t seemed to notice as he only just got here, but I shared a look with Connor earlier. All rules are meant to be broken, it seems. If Azi isn’t playing by the rules, there is no point to any of us holding back. We just have to hope Evie and Trex can work out their issues in spite of anything else.
“It’s good to be back. Not here exactly. Though it’s a nice place, and thanks, I will borrow some until I can order new clothes,” Azi replies.
“It’s a posh place you mean,” Evie chuckles, sitting down in the middle of the room on the white rug and crossing her legs. Even though it is difficult, I do manage to pull my eyes off her to focus on the reason Azi and Evie wanted us all together: to find out what is happening outside.
“Did you find Cex? Or anything useful?” Trex asks, getting straight to the difficult questions even though his eyes stray to Evie many times.
“I didn’t find Cex. Wherever he is hiding, it is good and hidden. I found something a lot fucking worse though after I left the demon underground,” he says, and he is silent for a long time.
“Azi?” Evie gently prods him to tell us what he found, and I lean forward, resting my hands on my knees.
“I found five of my brothers. All dead,” he states, shocking us all into an uncomfortable silence, and he looks devasted. To kill that many overlords…it’s unthinkable. They are all extremely powerful, and it took an army to take out one of them. Though no one ever tho
ught they would kill each other off. If Cex is working his way through his brothers, it is not safe for Azi to be alone. If anything happened to the demon, Evie would be devastated.
“I’m sorry, man,” Connor says, his voice genuine and slightly upset for Azi. Evie still looks in shock as she crawls across the floor to sit near Azi’s legs and hold his hand as he reaches for her. She gently kisses his knuckles, the loving movement so unlike Evie that we all seem focused on watching her. Evie has opened up and learnt how to care for people so much since we met her. Even the little things she does show how much she cares.
“That means only me, Cex and Seth are alive now. It means he has all my brothers’ blood, and he is certainly going after the power here. He intends to control black magic and destroy everything by opening the barrier between worlds. The souls would leak out into Earth and even beyond…and there would be nothing left,” he says, the impact of his words hitting home with all of us. There would be nowhere safe if there weren’t a barrier between worlds that stops the souls. They would kill the humans first, and then the supernaturals.
“What else can black magic do? What is it exactly?” I ask.
“It’s the pure power of the old gods, but the dark power. Light power made the angels, the Protectors and so on. Dark power was locked up, protected by a blood line. My blood line. A little of all our blood would unlock the power. There is only one more protection in place, and that is the royal line of the Protectors. Only a queen or king can give access to the place where the magic is stored,” he tells us all.
“Holy bacon on a stick,” Evie mutters most of our expressions.
“My parents only spoke of black magic once, telling us that only our blood line is strong enough to hold all of its power and that we should never try. The magic is pure destruction. It wants nothing more than to destroy everything light and bring about a world of darkness,” Azi explains to us, each sentence sounding worse than the last.
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound good. We need to make sure Cex doesn’t get this black magic then,” Connor states the obvious, and we all give him a look that says “we know that.”
“You said he would need a queen to make him a knight. So if I win, he will never get the power,” Evie states like there is no problem.
“I know that, and I’m sure we can stop him…but there is something else I found out that is concerning me,” Azi admits, rubbing his jaw with his hand, and Star huffs, making her annoyance that her ear rub is over clear, but she still purrs after. Spoilt kitty.
“What?” I ask.
“I went to check on the angels. To make sure they are not causing issues and the humans haven’t seen them flying about. Evie’s father told me that a demon and a girl he believes is Evie’s sister came to the house. They took three angels by force in a big fight. Luckily the angels found my weapon room and managed to defend themselves a little,” Azi explains. “He said that Evie will need to be very careful in the tests now they have extra power. Though he wouldn’t tell me anything more.”
“Took them? What extra power?” Evie asks, looking confused like we all are. What would Cex and Erica want with three angels? How could they get power from angels?
“Yes. I think, when we have some time, that you should speak to your father and see if he will tell you anything else. He was reluctant to speak to me,” Azi suggests, and Evie nods in agreement. The man is an idiot for not wanting his only daughter in his life and treating Evie the way he does. I can see it hurts her. Evie has looked for her family her entire life only to find her mother and two sisters dead, an evil sister who wants to murder her, and a father who isn’t interested in having a relationship with her because he is a fool.
“Evie has secret weapons for the test. Like her wings and Star. We have three days until the first test to prepare,” Connor says, rubbing his jaw. “Though I will go and speak to Keeper Grey about all this. Maybe he knows something about angels?”
“Good idea. I will come with you,” Trex says, standing up and walking out the door with Connor after they wave.
“I think I’m going to nap here. I haven’t slept in days,” Azi says, leaning his head back, and Evie smiles as she straightens up.
“Nix, why don’t we go and explore the building together and let Azi rest?” Evie asks me. I hold out a hand for her after I stand up, and she gladly comes to me.
“Keep her safe,” Azi warns as we go past.
“Always,” I reply to him, nodding my head once before looking away.
“What does this building have then?” Evie asks once we get outside the room. I try to think back to what I have seen and know there really isn’t much here.
“There is a theatre room with a bar. We could go there and watch a movie,” I suggest. It would be a cute little date if she wants to do that. We could also go and train, but I would prefer to hold Evie close without getting accidently stabbed.
“And then maybe we could get drunk? I need a drink, or ten,” she says.
“I knew there was a reason I love you,” I joke, but she stops in the corridor, looking at me with wide eyes and parted lips. She is so stunning that I don’t even notice what I said until she repeats it for me.
“You love me, Nix?” she asks, like she didn’t know. I fell in love with Evie when I woke up to her sucking the poison out of my arm. The fact she wasn’t squeamish and how sexy she was, even in my poisoned state, did it for me. Every moment with her after has been a bonus.
“Yeah, isn’t it obvious, love? I love every little thing about you. Like how when you sneeze, it sounds like you’re a Pikachu. How you never eat the corners of your sandwiches. From how you talk to yourself in your sleep, to the way you tuck your hair behind your ear when you’re nervous. I notice everything you do, and I love it. I want to spend every moment I have left in this world by your side, figuring out and protecting you. Loving you,” I tell her honestly how I feel, full well knowing I might not get the answer I want back. I don’t think it even matters to me if she doesn’t feel the same way, I only care that she is happy now. My Evie is my love. She always will be.
“Not obvious to me, clearly. I…Well, I love you too,” she whispers back, her voice cracking a little. I grin in relief and the pure joy of hearing her say that, before sliding my hands into her hair and pulling her face close to mine as I lean down.
“That was hard for you to admit, wasn’t it?” I say, knowing my Evie all too well.
“Extremely,” she chuckles.
“We will just have to practice you saying it over and over until you tell me you love me without realising you said it,” I say gently to her.
“Can we practice other things first?” she teases, moving her lips close to mine and briefly kissing me.
“Fuck yes we can,” I practically groan before slamming my lips onto hers. She moans into my mouth, her tongue battling with mine as I lower my hands down her back. The slam of a door makes her pull away from me, and we both look down the empty corridor.
“Do you think anyone saw us?” Evie asks, though she doesn’t seem that worried, whereas I know I can’t take this further with her until I talk to my brother. It’s about time we have a talk about Evie. One where he listens, for once in his life.
“Nah. Come on, let’s go and watch a movie and relax for a night,” I suggest, leaning closer and kissing her forehead.
“Good idea,” she says, resting her head on my shoulder before we walk down the corridor. The only person I care about seeing Evie and me together is Trex, and if he had seen us, he wouldn’t have just walked away.
Evie
“Where are you going?” I ask Connor, making him jump out of his skin as he clearly didn’t see me sat on the sofa. Connor turns around, rubbing the back of his neck with his arm. Connor has a nice shirt on, tucked into black trousers, and he has brushed his hair.
“I thought you would all be sleeping. Especially after you and Nix were pretty tipsy when you got back last night,” Connor explains. I am feeling a little h
ungover after Nix took me to a club last night, but nothing a cup of tea couldn’t fix. Star is curled up in bed with Nix though, who I’m sure feels worse than I do. After we admitted our feelings for each other a few days ago, things have been so easy between us. It’s been easy between Azi and me as well, though the only one who seems more grumpy is Trex. Training has not been fun with a grumpy Trex.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I reply, shrugging my shoulders as I straighten up on the chair, and Connor sighs. I place the book I was reading down before pulling my cardigan around myself. After a bad dream woke me up, I had a shower and got dressed in some activewear leggings and a vest, before finding a cosy grey cardigan at the back of the closet behind the awful dresses. I glance at the book when I see Connor looking at it, it’s a book on runes, which I’m sure I don’t have to tell him as the cover explains everything. It’s meant to teach me how to read them, but to be honest, it really isn’t making much sense. Connor finally looks away, lowering his arms and looking nervous.
“I was going to see my mother,” he quietly tells me. I think back to what Connor told me about his parents. That his mother is a Protector, and his father is a reaper. When Connor was born, his mother was locked up for having a half child, and Connor was taken off of her. The whole story is horrible and reminds me exactly what kind of people the Protectors can be. His poor mother is still locked up even now. It makes me wonder if my own mother would have been locked up for having a half angel child. Or do the rules not count when it’s a royal who breaks the laws? Either way, it’s a cruel thing to do. Connor doesn’t even know his father, and it must hurt his mother to speak of him to Connor.
“Oh, the one in prison?” I muse out loud, as I remember everything. Connor winces but nods. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that so bluntly.”
“Yeah, it’s alright. She is in prison. I haven’t seen her in a while…would you like to come and meet her?” Connor asks me. “I would like her to meet you. Plus, my mother fought in the angel war as one of the royal guards. She might be able to talk to you a little about your mother.”
