Page 6 of Consorting With The Enemy

As I started to reach for him, he turned his head to face me and sent me a lazy yet very satisfied grin. His black hair was a mess from the fucking and sleeping. I wanted to rub my fingers through it—to try and tame it like I wanted to tame him.

“Good morning, angel,” he said. “Were you looking at my ass? You need to do more than look at it. You ought to be massaging the pain away after what you did to me last night.”

“I didn’t hear you complaining,” I countered. “As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I heard you screaming my nameseveraltimes.” His eyes weren’t as dark as they’d been last night, and I wondered if that meant he’d tucked his demon side away for a bit. I hoped, at least. Our time together had to end but that damn sure didn’t mean I had to like it.

Leaning toward me, he asked, “Ready for round two…or seven? No, this would make round eight, wouldn’t it?”

He froze and his eyes turned inky black. Before I could even think to try and stop him, he’d sprung from the bed and raced toward the one small window the shack had. “They’re here. Fuck,” he hissed.

“Who’s here?” My feet hit the floor and my wings expanded the second I smelled the disgusting scent of demons. Many demons. The goddamn motherfucker had tricked me. Used me. He’d made me feel fucking things I shouldn’t have felt things I’d never be able to remove from my heart.

I surged toward him and then flung him across the room with one furious swat. My eyes narrowed. There had to be at least twenty demons outside the shack. Betrayal ripped through me. I turned to him in time to see him climb to his feet. His wings, as black as his eyes, unleashed. A growl ripped from his throat.

“Well played, Ari,” I whispered. “You got me. I never saw this one coming.”

“Az, you don’t understand,” he protested. “Let me try to talk to them. Release me from the trap and I’ll make them go away.”

“Release you?” I laughed in his face. “I may die facing your merry band of demons, but at least mine will be fast. You’ll slowly rot away in this cabin. They can’t get in to rescue you nor can you escape. Die slowly, oldlover,” I spat.

He stepped toward me. “Do not go out there, Az. There’s too many. You can’t do this alone.”

I didn’t hear his next words. Ready for battle, I exploded through the thin walls of the shack, knowing that the demon trap held the space, with or without walls or roofs. I’d barely landed on my feet before the demons surrounded me. I’d miscounted from the window. There were twenty-one. Only my rage toward Ariel and fear for Marchand would give me any kind of chance of keeping myself alive long enough to destroy all of them.

“Give him to us and we’ll allow you to live, angel,” one of them hissed. His forked tongue flickered in and out of his mouth. “Our battle isn’t with you.” Demons took on all forms—some beautiful, like Ariel. Others…well, they were miserably ugly creatures.

“You’ll never have him. If I die, others will be there to protect him. Go the fuck back to the underworld and leave us in peace.”

The tongue flickered again, and his reptilian eyes opened and closed. “He should mean nothing to you. Save the bloodshed. Give him to us.”

At least they didn’t know where Marchand was. “Never.”

He moved forward and a tail whipped around, striking me across the face. “Then prepare to die, angel. You’ve made a stupid choice. He isn’t worth your life.”

Only a demon would be too stupid to realize that family was worth losing one’s life.

When his tail whipped around the second time, aiming for my throat that time, I spun around and used my wing to slice the demon’s head off. Before it could even hit the ground, I’d lunged toward the next demon and had shredded him within seconds. Demon after demon, one always following right behind another. The others spent their time slicing and clawing at my exposed flesh while I was preoccupied. Their shrieks filled the air, nearly deafening me with their outrage. None of it mattered, though. My body weakened. I was losing blood faster than my body could replace it. The claw and sword slices weren’t healing before more replaced them. There were just too many for me to overcome.

****

Ariel

One of the remaining demons slammed into me at full force, sending me flying backward through the air and straight into a tree. I felt my right wing snap and pain radiated throughout my entire body. Pain and doom. A broken wing to an angel during battle most certainly would leave me defenseless enough to be destroyed. It would heal itself, but that took time…and time was something I’d ran out of.

The remaining demons circled me. Shrieks from moments ago turned to laughter—the evil kind that belonged in a kid’s cartoon instead of my destruction. I stood, slowly, and prepared to die on my feet instead of my ass.

“You should have taken Drako’s offer, angel.” The demon hissed as he stepped closer. “There was no reason for you to die today. A wise creature would have handed over the traitor.” A huge grin spread across his face, revealing huge black fangs. “Just kidding, angel. We would have killed you anyway.”

Traitor? I didn’t even have time to contemplate the odd statement before a roar ripped through the bayou. All heads, mine and the demons, turned toward the shack in time to see it explode. What the fuck?

Through the fire, flying debris, and smoke walked Ariel, black wings unfurled and ready to do battle. How the fuck had he gotten out of the demon trap? Gaudet magic was strong—combined with others, it should have been invincible. Yet, he strutted toward me. I supposed watching me die hadn’t been enough. He needed to deliver the killing blow himself. I hated myself because, yet again, last night I’d given him a portion of me that he hadn’t deserved.

One of the demons looked toward the one that had been ready to cut me down and said, “Drako said there was a demon trap around the shack—one that couldn’t be broken.” After that he turned, like he intended to run, but Ari was on him in a flash. The demon didn’t even have time to shriek or raise a weapon against him before he was literally ripped to shreds. Ari didn’t stop with that one demon, either. Using his wings and claws that I hadn’t even know existed on him, he tore them all to pieces.

When they were all destroyed and scattered across the grounds surrounding where the shack used to stand, Ariel set his sights on me. I straightened my posture and waited on the attack. A few more minutes and my wing would have been able to heal itself. A few more minutes and I could have ensured that my ex-lover wouldn’t be the demon to take my nephew to the underworld.

He closed in and didn’t stop until he had my back pressed up against the same giant tree that had broken my wing. His body, hard and deadly, pushed against me. I was still naked, but he’d managed to find the time to put on his pants—the pants that did nothing to hide the very large and very aroused cock trapped within the tight leather. Killing me aroused him that much?

“Don’t you ever fucking do that again.” he hissed. “I told you to release me so I could help you.” He gently banged his forehead against mine. “You scared me.” He said those words so soft that I could barely hear them, even wondered if I had heard him correctly. Any questions about thewhysorwhatsvanished when his lips slanted against mine. His lips were a soft caress, like he was seeking permission instead of demanding or taking.

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