A Soulless Year Three

by Eva Brandt

  I got up and looked around, at the devastation we had wrought. It was a good thing we’d been successful, because The Mortal Realm certainly needed a lot of hope right about now.

  Delilah freed herself from the Watchers’ hold and made her way to my side. I waited to see what she’d do and was not disappointed.

  She slapped me, hard, across the face. “You were going to bind my soul, asshole. How dare you?”

  I opened my mouth to defend myself, but she didn’t give me the chance to speak. She crushed her mouth to mine, silencing me and overwhelming with her sheer presence and passion.

  The lip-lock was brief, and she pulled away before I could deepen it. “You’re lucky I can’t stay mad at you,” she said.

  “You’re not mad?” I asked, unable to believe my ears.

  “Of course I am. But I won’t stay that way.”

  She huffed and turned her back on me, slapping me with her wing as she went. I watched her go and a deeper, purer hope was born inside me, one that had nothing to do with the power we’d just unleashed.

  Maybe Cain had been right when he’d said we’d been fighting for the future. Maybe we could have a second chance too—the chance for a new life. If Delilah granted us that, I’d spend every day of my eternal existence showing her how much I loved her. After all, she deserved it.

  Closure

  After the whole thing with Abel was over, the angels agreed to leave without continuing our battle. The symbiotes vanished, returning to The Shadow Realm. Lucifer took his consorts back to Hell to care for his wounded wife. And I was left alone with my lovers.

  Someone had to take care of damage control in The Mortal Realm, but I was too tired to do it. The wound in my chest had closed, but my body wasn’t happy with me.

  “You should take the time to rest, Delilah,” Sariel said, as if reading my mind. “That was very difficult for you.”

  “It was,” I agreed. “And don’t think I don’t know you guys planned it all out. But we’ll talk about that later. Right now, I need to sleep for a week. Any suggestions?”

  My lovers just stared at one another, and that was when I realized we had no place to go.

  Sariel, Azazel, and Yeqon had burned their bridges with both The Celestial Realm and The Infernal Realm. So had Michael, and Cain was by his nature, a wanderer.

  “I guess there’s nothing for it,” I said. “My house it is.”

  I had to check on my parents anyway. Before he had left, Lucifer had said he would return them to their home. He had no reason to lie, but I wouldn’t truly be at ease until I saw them.

  I needn’t have worried. Lucifer kept his part of the bargain. By the time we reached my childhood home, my parents were already there.

  When we entered the house, they were watching TV, flipping through the channels in an attempt to find out more information. “What the hell is going on?” my father asked. “Do you think it’s a hurricane or something?”

  “I doubt it,” my mother answered. “There hasn’t been anything on the news. Maybe a terrorist attack.”

  It looked like the human news channels had been able to catch at least some bits and pieces of our confrontation, although not enough for people to realize there had been supernatural creatures involved. A part of me was curious to see what the mortals actually knew. But in the big picture, it was an irrelevant detail for me. I was more focused on my family.

  They were obviously unharmed and seemed oblivious that anything had happened to them.

  “They had their memories wiped,” Sariel murmured. “They’re going to be fine, Delilah.”

  It was a huge relief to see them unhurt, but at the same time, it was a reminder of how much they must have suffered because of me. I shook myself, realizing I’d made a big mistake.

  “We should have never come here.”

  “Of course we should have,” Michael said, not unkindly. “They’re your family and you had to see them. But maybe now, you’ll truly be able to let go.”

  “Is that really what you want, though? Isn’t it exactly what you were trying to stop?”

  “Yes,” Sariel answered, “and I don’t think we can apologize for it and mean it. But there’s more to it than that. I don’t know about Michael, but I’d like to think we could give you another reason to live for.”

  “Do you all feel that way?” I asked softly.

  Everyone nodded—including, surprisingly, Cain. I didn’t know what to do with this and sighed. “You know, when I agreed to come to Watcher Academy, I didn’t set out to build a harem.”

  “Well, it happened, so now we just have to deal with it,” Yeqon replied. “Unless, of course, you’ve changed your mind.”

  I had, but not about the harem part. “To tell you the truth, I don’t really know what I want right now. I don’t know where this relationship is headed.”

  “As long as it’s forward and not back, we’ll do fine, Delilah,” Azazel replied.

  I still had my doubts, but maybe this wasn’t the best moment to express them. My parents were oblivious to the conversation, but I couldn’t ignore their presence. It was weird to just say the word ‘harem’ while I was here.

  Daring to steal one last look at them, I vowed I’d be more careful and watch them better in the future. “Can you put some kind of monitoring ward on the house?”

  “Already done, Delilah,” Michael said. “But for what it’s worth, I don’t think anything will happen now.”

  Neither did I, but it was better to be safe than sorry. If things had been different, I’d have liked to stay and help them more, but it wasn’t possible.

  “Let’s go. If you can think of any other place where we can rest, now would be the time.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” Cain said. “We’ll just improvise.”

  We didn’t have any other refuge or home, but maybe that was for the best. In the end, we chose a far simpler solution—a tiny bed-and-breakfast hotel. Cain paid with money, which for some reason struck me as hilarious. It was small—too small to fit all of us—but no one seemed to mind.

  When I saw the tub, I wanted to cry. Since my death, all my attempts to take a bath had ended poorly. But right now, it seemed like an amazing idea. I had to get all the blood and grime off me, and while I could have done it the ‘divine’ way, I needed something human and mundane, something to get my mind off everything that had happened.

  My lovers looked like they wanted to join me, and they probably did. But they didn’t ask and I didn’t offer.

  Sex had never been the problem between us. I fully intended to get back our previous closeness, but first, I had to figure out how to navigate the murky waters of our new dynamic. And I had to learn to which extent they were willing to compromise, especially when it came to Cain.

  As I washed in the lukewarm water of the tub, I sighed and thought about my future. “You know, Grim Reaper, the burden of life is far heavier than that of death. It would have been nice if you’d given me the power to handle that.”

  My mentor wasn’t there, obviously, but I could have sworn my core vibrated inside me, responding to the question I hadn’t asked. The water washed away the lingering traces of blood on my body, and with them, my doubts.

  When I left the tub, I knew what I had to do. Sex had never been the problem between us, and well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

  Azazel’s Future

  “Is she okay? Shouldn’t we do something about it?”

  “Like what? We’ve already done plenty. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.”

  “Yes, but we can’t just leave things like this, can we?”

  I listened to Michael, Yeqon and Sariel bicker with half an ear, at the same time paying close attention to the closed bathroom door. Cain had elected to plop down on a nearby armchair and was staring fixedly in the same direction.

  He was tense. Now that the battle was over and his brother was gone, he knew he didn’t belong. But Delilah hadn’t told him to leave. She
hadn’t said anything, really, which left us all in a strange limbo of not knowing what to do.

  I nudged him with my foot and arched a brow at him. “Can I help you, Azazel?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Can you?”

  He let out an exasperated groan. “Please don’t start word games with me right now. I don’t have the patience for them.”

  “Fair enough. I just wanted to ask you what you thought about all this. What do you think we’re supposed to do?”

  “Do? We wait, of course. We give Delilah time to recover and help her with what we can.”

  “Sometimes, it feels like all we ever do is wait,” I replied. “I didn’t think you’d be willing.”

  “It’s strange,” he answered, “but I haven’t lived for myself, for something I actually wanted, in a long time. Maybe Delilah can show me how to do that.”

  As he spoke, the door to the bathroom opened and Delilah stepped outside. I almost swallowed my own tongue when I saw her. She hadn’t bothered to put anything on, not even a towel. In the light coming from her wings, her still humid skin glistened, drawing me like a moth to the flame.

  “I don’t know if I should be happy or worried that you have such faith in me, Cain.”

  “Faith has nothing to do with it,” he replied shakily.

  The others had stopped talking too, losing all interest in the debate now that Delilah was here. She’d made the choice for us anyway. Or had she?

  I couldn’t presume. For all I knew, she planned on going to bed naked and leaving us painfully aroused to suffer alone. It was a punishment we deserved, after all.

  Confirming my worst fears, Delilah walked right past me. Her long, silver hair brushed my arm slightly, but in every other way, she didn’t touch me. She climbed onto the bed, and I groaned when the motion drew my attention to her pussy and the globes of her perfect ass.

  Delilah settled down on the pillows, watching us with glowing, wicked eyes. “Problem, Azazel?”

  “No problem,” I croaked out. Nothing other than the fact that I was so hard I felt like I would explode. “I’m just fine.”

  Delilah hummed thoughtfully. “Good. I’d hate for you to be uncomfortable. Being… unsatisfied is the worst.”

  She cupped her breast and pinched her nipple, gasping slightly at the sensation. “It’s a shame we can’t help one another, though. Unlike you, I am a little unsatisfied.”

  Fuck. My cock throbbed accusingly in my pants, and if it could have spoken, it would have screamed at me “idiot!” My fellow Watchers and I had told her we wouldn’t lie to her, and here I was, going back on my word, less than an hour after that.

  Cain took advantage of my stupidity to wriggle his way into her favor. “I’m sure I could help you with that, if you want me too,” he drawled.

  “I could be persuaded,” Delilah said. She spread her legs, exposing her glistening folds to our greedy gazes. “If you ask nicely.”

  She reached down and rubbed her clit, and as pleasure surged through her, I could feel it echoing inside me, urging me to take her, to claim her.

  “Please.”

  I didn’t know who said the word. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was Cain, Sariel, or all of us at the same time. Either way, it worked. She took pity on us.

  Her smile softened, losing the almost cruel edge it had had since she’d left the bathroom. She stopped touching herself and extended both her hands toward us. “Come to me then. Come.”

  The double entendre might have been unintended, but it went straight to my cock. Then again, everything about her was like that. For as long as I could remember, ever since we’d met, she’d always been my weakness, my blessing, and my curse.

  I couldn’t have resisted her if I’d tried. Like a man in a dream, I joined her in bed. So did everyone else.

  We barely fit on the small hotel mattress, but it didn’t matter. We moved around one another with ease, pulling her between us. Even Cain had no trouble fitting in, as strange as it might have seemed.

  I was lucky enough to be able to pull her in my arms. As our bodies came into contact, my clothes vanished. She rubbed her bare breasts against my chest, moaning slightly. But even if passion burned underneath our skin, there was something careful and fragile about it, more tender than anything we’d shared in the past.

  All of us were aware of the weight of this moment. When she’d extended her hand and had said ‘come to me’, she hadn’t just been offering her body. She’d offered her heart, soul, and future to us, knowing full well that we’d killed and betrayed her.

  This woman, this wonderful woman… If I could spend every single second of my existence worshipping her, I would be happy. Distantly, I wondered how I’d ever thought I could be loyal to anything or anyone else. I was better at lying to myself than I’d thought.

  We touched her gently, our hands roaming over every inch of pale, silken skin. She shivered, letting out small breathy gasps and rocking against us. I spread her legs a little wider, gaining better access to her wet folds. In response, Delilah started to wantonly rub her pussy against my cock, whimpering whenever my shaft touched her clit.

  Sariel and Yeqon had decided to focus on her wings. They caressed each individual feather with both their fingers and their magic, making Delilah shudder between us. Cain was licking her spine, all the while clutching her waist in an almost desperate, if still gentle hold.

  In the end, it was Michael who took things to the next level. He brushed his fingers over my neck, silently telling me what to do. I couldn’t bring myself to truly move away from Delilah, but I did give him enough room to maneuver.

  Michael brushed his lips against Delilah’s in a barely there kiss. At the same time, he guided her body over mine. With a soft gasp, she followed his wordless suggestion and impaled herself on my cock.

  Delilah was no innocent virgin, but there was something genuinely pure about her at that moment. Maybe it was just my perception, because this was a new beginning for us. But when I felt her body swallow me whole, it took everything in my power to not come on the spot. I had to hold her still, because if she had kept moving, I’d have completely embarrassed myself.

  She whined in protest and squeezed her inner muscles around me. I groaned. “Delilah… Fuck, if you keep doing that—”

  “Just do whatever you want,” she cut me off. “Take whatever you need. We belong to each other now.”

  She sounded almost calm, although I knew she wasn’t. Her eyes were feverish with desire and she was shaking with the need to come. But some things went beyond sexuality.

  Holding her gaze, I started to move, needing to be deeper inside her, as deep as I could go. The others gave me time to have her at my leisure. They kept touching and caressing her, but didn’t try to fuck her themselves.

  My urgency faded into something more sedate. I still needed her just as badly, but I didn’t feel like I was about to blow my load any moment now. I hastened the pace a bit, all the while kissing and nibbling on every part of her I could reach.

  Our mouths met in a languorous kiss and I thrust my tongue into her wet cavern, fucking her mouth. At the same time, I reached down between our bodies, pinching her perky right nipple.

  Delilah gasped into our lip-lock, her body sucking me even deeper. “Please,” she managed to whisper.

  I gave her what she wanted, what we both wanted. I increased the speed and strength of my thrusts. Her magic bubbled under her skin, dark, yet sweet, hypnotizing me. And even if she had surrendered to me, to our sexual domination, I knew I was the one who was her slave.

  After that, it didn’t take long for us to come. Our bodies were in complete sync, conduits of our sexual and emotional connection. I whispered her name as I came, the short form which we’d started using when she’d become so important to us. “Lila…”

  With a near sob, she found her peak, her pussy tightening around me even further. A part of me wanted to stay like this forever, to stay buried inside the haven of her body. But no matter h
ow much the thought appealed, I wasn’t that selfish.

  She was still shaking in the throes of her orgasm, when I pulled out of her and Yeqon took my place. He moved faster than me and his first two thrusts made Delilah come for a second time.

  He held on like a champ, although judging by the tightness in his jaw, it couldn’t have been easy. I watched him move, watched the beauty of their coupling, and started to jerk myself off following Yeqon’s pace.

  If I’d wanted to, I could have probably asked one of the others to fuck me or blow me, but it didn’t feel right. Like we’d closed the circle of the Power of Hope, we had to recreate the bond between us, and we could only do that through Delilah. Without her, we were incomplete.

  Yeqon found his peak with an inarticulate grunt of pleasure. When he pulled away, I kissed him and he slumped against me, almost falling over. Cain moved in after that.

  With him, it was a little different, because I hadn’t seen him fuck Delilah before. There should have been at least a little jealousy. But being a Watcher paid off, because I found it just as hot.

  He seemed to have no problem with her relationship with us, because he buried his face between her legs and licked her open. I could definitely appreciate the desire. Tasting Delilah’s pussy was like the forbidden fruit itself. By now, her sweet cunt was overflowing with semen, but he lapped that out too, all the while sucking on her engorged clit.

  Delilah fucked his face with abandon, grinding against him and writhing on the bed. She was very close to coming when Cain decided to stop and buried his penis inside her.

  Incoherent sounds of pleasure escaped her lips as Cain took her, over and over. As for Cain, he looked like an entirely different person when he fucked her, like he’d discovered a whole new world. And as strange as it was, it was still so beautiful, and it fit in perfectly with everything else I felt.

  I started moving my hand faster on my dick. By my side, Yeqon did the same. Another orgasm was building in my spine and in my balls, but through some miracle, we held back. Even after Delilah came, we endured, because this wasn’t just about us.