Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
R eality can be a cruel son of a bitch. Lucifer’s visit had come as a stark reminder of my place amongst the fallen. In typical fashion, he hadn’t been cruel, but he hadn’t been gracious either.
The entire encounter had left me feeling inadequate in a lot of ways and angry in a handful of others.
After delving into more research on other sectors, I began the tedious task of tracking the minor shifts and reconciling them against any further event-driven data I could get my hands on.
Eventually, I tapped out for the day. My eyes flirted with the idea of bleeding like some crackpot’s claim of a statue crying blood and calling it a sign from God.
I found myself in a state of melancholy, nestled between Atlas and Rook on the couch in the living room. A football game played on the television in front of us, though I couldn’t tell you who the teams were. Three beers sat on the coffee table, mine remaining untouched.
Atlas had his arm wrapped around my shoulders, holding me to his side. Softly, his fingers drifted over my arm, running up to my shoulder and then tracing back down to the crook of my elbow, where he would use his thumb to draw several circles before repeating the process.
My head rested against the front of his shoulder, his heartbeat just a short distance away, reassuring me that my Atlassian was there underneath the surface. With my hand resting on his bunched-up abs, it rose with the light rise and fall of his breaths—another confirmation of his existence attempting to put me at ease.
On the other side of me, Rook had my feet in his lap while he painted my toenails scarlet, the only color worthy of gracing my nails.
With a critical eye, as he meticulously stroked the brush over another toenail, my attentive trickster demon spoke up. “The meeting with Admir went well. He was receptive to having his eyes and ears work around the community. It shouldn’t take him too long to get us a lead.”
Bless him; it was his way of attempting to coax my mood out of the negative rut it was in.
With a snippy edge to my voice, I responded, “I need answers now, Rook.”
Atlas leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “He’s working on it, Kinley. I’m sure we’ll hear back sooner than you think.”
“Hold still, love,” Rook tightened his hand on my foot, his thumb pressing into the sole. He applied pressure to a spot just below the ball in an attempt to relieve some stress while his other hand delicately painted more color onto my toenails.
I huffed out an impatient sigh laced with my irritation.
“If Nicodemus is back, we’re fucked,” I bluntly declared.
Atlas tensed underneath me at the mention of Nico, my own body harboring the same sentiment.
The three of us sat there with the gravity of the situation hanging in the air, and the announcers provided play-by-play commentary on the game none of us were really paying attention to at this point.
“Kin.” Sylas’s voice firmly commanded my attention as he entered the living room.
I couldn’t hide the attitude in my voice to match his demanding tone. “What?”
“A word,” Sylas grunted out at me as he stepped closer to the couch. It was like a militaristic demand from a superior to some plebe responsible for grunt work.
“In private,” he clarified.
Sighing heavy enough to rival a room full of moody teenage girls, I sat upright. I withdrew my feet from Rook’s lap and pried myself away from Atlas’s comforting embrace.
So much for my housewarming gift keeping Sylas in a good mood.
Atlas sat forward and looked at the both of us and spoke up, conveying his concern, “Everything alright?”
Sy’s stoic expression gave away nothing as he glanced over at my guardian angel, not uttering a single word in response.
“If you’re going to be pissy, you may as well get it off your chest here and now, Sy.” I stood from the sofa, careful of my toes still wet with polish.
Clearing his throat, Rook made an effort to referee. “Let’s all untwist our bottoms, yeah?” He then gave Sy a look as if to tell him to tread carefully.
Sy predictably ignored it.
“Spoke with Camiel today, figuring he might have some insight on how to get your sword back. It was a rather enlightening conversation.”
Camiel was the archangel responsible for assisting in finding lost things. Personally, I didn’t think he was all that great at his job, given the number of lost socks in the world, but the man possessed a skilled set of hands and a chiseled body that anyone could lose themselves in.
“Oh? What did Cam have to say?” I asked as though I didn’t already have a feeling where this was headed.
A brusque scoff came out of Sy as he folded his arms in front of his broad chest, the muscles in his biceps flexing against the thin material of his dark grey tee.
He pointed a finger accusingly at me. “You prayed to him.”
“So? I’m a devout woman with a strong faith.” Even I didn’t believe my own bullshit, and it seemed from the look on Sy’s face he was less than impressed by what I dealt him.
“Your faith is a goddamn paper tiger, and you know it,” he growled out.
“It’s not that you prayed, it was what you asked for that is the problem.” He stepped closer to me until we were both within arm’s length of one another.
I could sense Atlas and Rook both shifting uncomfortably behind me but not making any attempt to intervene.
Gritting my teeth together, I stubbornly glared up at him, my cheeks flushed with the rumblings of my anger. “What I pray for is none of your damn business.”
“You fucking asked him to preen your feathers.” He laid it out there for everybody to hear.
Preening was an intimate process to keep our wings in tip-top shape, not something I entrusted to just any archangel. The last thing I wanted was to lose the fullness and glow of my wings because I neglected to have them properly maintained.
Vain? Yes.
Did I give a shit? No.
“If I’m going to lay there and have my feathers primped, I may as well have something to look at!” I shouted at him, my fists clenched at my sides.
Without hesitation, I continued to defend myself with a fierce glare at him. “What was I supposed to do? I needed an archangel to keep the integrity of every vane.”
Unfortunately, Camiel hadn’t yet cleared time in his schedule to pay me a visit, leaving my wingspan still in desperate need of attention. I had a suspicious feeling he might be a little frightened of me for some reason.
Sy leaned down so that his nose was an exhale away from touching mine. The volume of his voice lowered so that it was nothing but a harsh whisper. “And you didn’t think to ask me?” Despite the tight control he maintained on his temper, the heat of his anger radiated off of him. It was clear he took my request far more personally than I expected.
“Given how up in arms you get about everything else around here, I saved us both the fucking headache!” I spat my words out at him.
Slowly, he leaned back away from me, giving us both a modicum of space. His eyes raked over my figure with a light growl stuck in his throat.
Without warning, he bent over and snatched me up. In that swift movement, I was tossed over his shoulder as his arm tightened around the back of my legs. It left me with an upside-down view of his firm ass.
“You want your feathers preened, Kin? You’re going to get it done in the way you deserve.”
Striding out of the room with me, my body bobbed with each of his steps. I lifted my head; my view was partially obscured by my long, bi-colored strands of hair. But I did manage to capture a glimpse of the looks on Rook and Atlas’s faces from my current position.
My guardian angel was ready to come to my aid, standing up with shock plastered over his features. He was stopped by Rook’s hand pressed against his chest.
Rook’s reaction was starkly different from that of Atlas. He stood there, grinning like a damn fool.
Before Sy rounded the corner out of the living room, I heard Rook’s distinguished British accent. “Let ‘em have it, mate. They’ll be fine.”
My hands gripped fistfuls of the back of Sy’s shirt as I grunted, my body straining to shift myself off his shoulder.
“I didn’t ask you for your help, Sy?—”
Thwack!
The sharp sting of his palm striking my ass cut my words off, leaving a prickling heat in its wake.
“That’s for being a brat, and there’s more where that came from,” he stated with a calm promise. “Now, be a good girl and stop squirming around.”
My brain was left in a stalled state of chaos. This was cranky, stick in the mud, Sylas, right? The same archangel that acted like he’d never had a day of playing hooky in his life?
He quickly and effortlessly bounded up the stairs with me as I bounced lightly against his shoulder. It didn’t take him long to cover the distance between the top of the stairs and my bedroom.
I watched as his boot-covered foot kicked my bedroom door shut behind him with more force than necessary. Sylas kept moving until the strength of his hands found my waist, and he pulled me from his shoulder and hurled me onto the bed.
Landing amongst the sea of pillows and blankets, my body bounced several times. My eyes were still wide from this jarring shift in who I knew him to be.
“Clothes. Off.” The simple command was given without any room for argument.
He stood at the foot of my bed with a hungry gaze. Every move he made was like a dangerous predator after being starved in the Serengeti. All his muscles visibly coiled tightly underneath his clothes.
As I sat up, leaning back on my hands, it was a rare moment of astonishment that left me unclear as to how to proceed.
“You know,” Sy began while his hand jerked his belt open. “There is a special place in purgatory for little girls who don’t know how to follow instructions.”
The clinking sound of his belt buckle rang in my ears, joining the sound of my racing heartbeat. I shifted onto my knees, and grabbing the bottom of my fitted sweater dress, I quickly lifted it up and over my head. Hastily, I discarded it to the side.
I heard Sy’s breath hitch as he observed the satin and lace of my magenta bra and thong set. His eyes darkened with lust, a look that I never thought I’d see from him.
Sylas pulled the brown leather belt from the loops of his pants, and the light slapping of the leather whipping around zipped a shiver down my spine straight into my core.
With my heavy breaths of anticipation and desire, my breasts strained against the cups of my bra. I reached behind me and unclasped the bra, feeling the material loosen on my body. That, too, ended up on the floor, joining my dress.
With my breasts freed from their material prison, I didn’t hesitate to shimmy myself out of my panties. No going to purgatory for me.
Folding his belt into thirds, Sy held it in one hand as he joined me on the bed, both of us on our knees facing each other. His free hand firmly grabbed the back of my neck.
“Fuck, Kin. You know how much I wanted to fuck you into oblivion the other day? I wanted nothing more than to bend you over my lap and slap the shit out of your hot little ass until it was as red as your nail polish.” He brought his mouth to my ear so I could feel his breath between his words. “That was the first and last time you got to use my cock to get off without my permission. Do you understand me?”
“You enjoyed it,” I spoke just barely above a whisper, a hint of a smirk at the corners of my mouth.
He took his belt and dragged it over my bare pussy. The smooth leather taunted my aching core, just barely brushing against my clit. I swallowed down a moan while my eyes remained focused on him.
Sylas broke eye contact briefly as he withdrew his belt and smirked. “Look at you, Kin. You’re so fucking wet for me right now that I bet you’d ride my belt if I told you to.”
To further prove his point, he brought his belt back down to my folds and rubbed the leather against them, the friction causing sparks of pleasure.
“Mmm, I’d ride every last belt you own,” I moaned out desperately, my hips moving against the stiff material as I sought out more contact against my clit.
His hand slid up from the back of my neck until his fingers wove into my tresses, tightly balling up a handful of them to tilt my head back further. Sylas leaned in and began to attack my throat with heated kisses.
My hands instinctively came to grasp onto his arms for balance as my breaths came out heavier.
“Sy,” I moaned out his name.
He responded with a light slap of his belt to my cunt and scolded me. “Did I give you permission to moan out my name like the needy angel you are?” His words lightly vibrated against the sensitive skin near my pulse point.
I bit down on my lower lip, my body visibly succumbing to a shiver of pleasure.
“No,” I said quietly.
His teeth nipped at my throat before he murmured his next demand. “Turn around and get on your hands and knees. I’m going to make this sinful body of yours repent for all the times you’ve left me hard.”
As he loosened his grasp on my hair, I complied and changed my position so that I was on all fours with my ass presented to him as some sort of penance. With the most intimate parts of my body exposed to him, I held my position there waiting for what felt like eternity.
His weight shifted on the bed, and the sound of clothes falling to the floor echoed before his presence returned behind me. Looking back over my shoulder, my arms almost gave out beneath me.
There he was. Sylas, in all of his beautifully naked glory. Every hard line of a warrior’s body in full view. His battle-worn chest was decorated with a handful of scars and scripted Latin text tattooed over his right pec muscle: sanctum redemptor . Holy redeemer. A silver-chained necklace with a cross hanging from it suspended around his neck. Abdominal muscles that flexed with the strength of his core. And at the bottom of the V of his torso was the long and thick length of his cock protruding from his body.
It was every bit as impressive as it had felt grinding against it earlier this week. My body quivered in agreement.
Before I could appreciate the view further, he gave a flick of his wrist, and the crack of his belt made contact with my bare ass. I yipped out in a mixture of pleasure and pain that was no stranger to me.
“Eyes forward, Kin,” he barked.
I gave a small whimper that I didn’t get to enjoy the sight of the goods that I had been pushing to indulge in for so long. It was like hearing your favorite band in concert but having some behemoth blocking your view the entire time.
Turning my head, I stared at the tufted headboard in front of me. My eyes fluttered closed for a moment of delight as Sy delicately ran the folded belt over the puffy welt on my ass that had a delectable heat radiating from it.
The sensation disappeared, and then my body flinched as he brought the band of leather back down, but this time on the other side of my rear. The cracking sound echoed off the bedroom walls up to the tall ceiling.
“Fuck!” I shouted as I sat back on my heels momentarily as a means of easing myself through the pleasurable pain mixture in my body. I had no idea if it was possible to break a belt against someone’s ass, but I was certain Sy was trying.
Groaning quietly, I rocked forward to assume my previous position, with my body offered up to him like a little harlot.
Next, there was the feeling of the belt gliding along my back from the base of my spine until it stopped between my shoulder blades and traced back down to the crevice of my ass.
Sylas shifted closer to me, enough that the rounded tip of his cock brushed against my aching cunt, just enough to distract me from the words he began to chant lowly. His voice was filled with gritty determination and firm command.
A clang somewhere to my right told me his belt landed on the floor before he laid his hand on the center of my back. The heat of his palm pressed flat against my skin only grew hotter with each word he murmured.
His dick taunted my entrance now, the heat of his body calling to my own. I began to whimper with my desire growing between my thighs.
As he continued to speak what sounded like our nearly-dead language, the two scar-like marks on my back by each shoulder blade began to tingle. The sensation grew more intense with each word he spoke.
“Sylas,” I winced as I spoke his name. I wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing back there, but the static-like feeling was becoming overwhelming at the iridescent exit points on my back. It was like someone held a taser to each of them, ramping up the voltage one amp at a time.
Just when I thought I couldn’t tolerate the sensation any longer, there was a pop of pain on either side of my spine, almost like the bone had cracked underneath the surface. I gasped loudly, and my body instantly hurtled toward the brink of ultimate pain and pleasure.
My wings burst through the exit marks by my shoulder blades, forcefully summoned out of me. A gust of wind whipped around us both as the visible flapping of my feathers came into view. The once nearly-blinding set of white wings were filled with more depraved black than the color of purity and innocence.
Before the pain of the forced exposure of my wings could overtake me, Sy jutted his hips forward, driving his wide cock into my body. I cried out as my body accepted him into the depths of my narrow pussy.
With ragged breaths and fluttering wings at my back, I moaned out several curses.
“Whose cock are you going to worship now, Kin?” Sy chuckled before he leaned over my back and whispered to me. “You’re my eighth deadly sin, and there are not enough prayers in all the heavens that will save me from your temptation.”
The strength of his hands latched onto where the wings connected to my back like he was anchoring himself to my body. He slid his dick out until he was barely just notched inside my entrance. Using my wings like a set of reins, he pulled my body back toward his hips and rammed his length back into me.
Stars flickered behind my eyelids. My cries of pleasure filled the air as I nearly came apart for him. He repeated the process over and over. Each time, he made my body beg for him. The power behind each driving force even prompted my bed to moan out in submission.
The sheets were crumpled up underneath my palms as I trembled in what proved to be an encounter with Sylas that I never imagined in my wildest fantasies. A sheen of sweat covered my body, acting like glue for my long locks of hair to cling to the damp skin.
Igaspedfor air, and if my heart was capable of succumbing to death by dick, I was certain it was ready to punch its card.
“Sylas, I can’t hold on much longer.” My voice hardly carried any sound over our bodies colliding.
With grunts punctuated with each thrust Sy made, his length continued to stoke the ever-building pleasure inside me.
His voice, strained from his efforts, responded, “I haven’t waited since the dawn of creation to fuck your bratty cunt for you to tap out now.”
As he kept my body on the precarious edge of release, shifting his angle or slowing his pace, time was lost to the cosmos.
Inside my head, I was certain my madness and pleasure intertwined in a seductive dance, leaving my physical body at its mercy.
Even the archangel seeks to control you when he already knows you’re mine.
Now was not the time for the Devil’s sweet whispers.
Before I could give any credence to the warning echoing in my head, Sy released my wings and pulled out of me. The immediate loss resulted in an ache to be filled again.
His hands grabbed me by the hips and flipped me over onto my back before he crashed down on top of me. Prayers were answered as his dick found its way back home into my welcoming depths.
Finally, I was able to stare up into his icy eyes. Their color may have been frigid, but there was no coldness behind them as he stared straight into mine.
Breathlessly, I spoke. “Sy, please, unravel every part of me.”
There was a boyish grin on his face. “Consider it done.”
Furiously, his hips pumped into me as if all that existed in the universe relied on it. My hips grinded to meet his as I desperately held onto his sides to encourage his intense efforts to continue.
Even with my guidance, the movements became erratic as his dick called forth my sweet noises of pleasure. Shaking beneath him, struggling to maintain control of my release, my fingernails dug into his skin.
“That’s it, Kin.” His voice was unsteady, his control starting to crumble. “Now you can let go for me. Show me how beautiful you are when you come undone. I want to hear you scream my name.”
It was as though his words unlocked the door that allowed a flood of ecstasy to drown me. I screamed out as my release raged like a storm through me. My back arched as I made sounds that I didn’t even know were possible.
Sy ferally growled as he brutally worked me through my orgasm with his steely cock.
His body shuddered and shook as he made one final push into me, burying himself deeply into my spasming pussy.
“Kinley! Fuck yes!” he bellowed out as the brilliance of his pristine wings tore out through his bare back, their explosive reveal timed with his cock propelling its hot seed far within me.
Making shallow little thrusts as he emptied himself into me, Sy panted hard while his wings seemed to twitch with each pulse of his dick.
Gradually, both of us melted into a mess of tangled limbs and feathers as we lay there in my bedroom. It was just us and the sounds of our heartbeats and breaths.
Who would have thought an archangel would be the one to bring me to my knees? I sure as hell wouldn’t have. Yet, I’d let him do it again.
We laid there for a while, with Sylas sprawled out over my body. He hadn’t even withdrawn from me yet despite fully expending himself.
My dark wings with sparsely scattered white sections lay partially expanded behind me. Sy’s wings, on the other hand, were curled over us both, providing an intimate white curtain around us.
His mouth slowly claimed mine in a drawn-out kiss. My tongue affectionately familiarized itself with his taste. Our lips remained infatuated with one another as we recovered from the more savage exertions that had just transpired.
I moaned quietly into the kiss in a sign of complete satisfaction.
He eased his head back from me and gave a lazy grin that bordered almost on dopey.
“What?” I asked.
Before he responded, he snuck in another brief kiss. “I’m trying to figure out what took me so damn long to get here.”
I scoffed. “Somebody left out the rule in the handbook that requires you to fuck a fallen angel senseless.”
He chuckled quietly despite his attempt to give me an annoyed look.
Giving a flutter and shake of his impressive wings, he folded them up, and they began to shrink into his back from where they had come. As they did, Sylas tilted his head side to side as though he was working out a few cracks and kinks in his neck.
He pushed himself up off me, backing up enough to give me some space.
“Roll over.” His order had less of a rough edge to it now.
I smirked playfully. “So damn demanding,” I said before complying and shifting onto my stomach and readjusting my wings to stretch out at their full extension.
Smack!
A solid slap to my sore-as-hell ass made me jolt at the unexpected contact.
“Hey!” I looked over my shoulder at him.
“Don’t sass me, Kin.” he spoke without any hint of a bite in his words.
I huffed out a bratty humph before I folded my arms ahead of me and cradled my head in them.
Sy glided his hands over the surface of my wings, smoothing the feathers down. Then, starting at the feathers closest to my spine, he meticulously went through each covert and caressed every feather regardless of color.
Through the grace of his touch as an archangel, everywhere he touched while preening me was left with a slight afterglow. Even my onyx feathers had a healthy aura after his fingers paid them some mind.
Once he finished one wing, he moved to the other, my eyes drifting closed while he pampered every feather without hesitation or complaint. When his preening was completed, he bent over and kissed the narrow patch of flesh on my back between them.
“There,” he said with finality. “That’s how it’s done.”
I smiled lazily, feeling at ease and refreshed.
“Thanks, Sy.”
There was a small pause before he spoke with a gentle and heartfelt promise, “I will always do right by you, Kinley. Don’t ever forget that.”