Chapter 10 #4
I let him slide down the wall, pushing his legs off, still holding his hips in case he feels too weak. The tip of my dick is still inside him, and I leave it there as the falling water continues to wash us.
Sully pulls my head down and gives me a sweet, deep kiss.
I let him lead this time, and he seems to appreciate it.
All my anger seems to have melted away along with the orgasm.
We quickly wash ourselves and then get out of the shower.
I wrap a towel around his body and slide his glasses on his nose. Then I start drying his hair.
I’m wearing a pair of sweats when I see him in front of the bathroom mirror. He’s staring at his reflection with a deep frown as he brushes his hair. I take some pink bandages out of the box on the lower shelf near the sink and start putting them on his body.
“I’m a mess. A fucking work in progress,” he suddenly states, gesticulating with the brush in his hand. I grab his wrist right before he manages to smack himself with it and take it away.
He’s going underwater again; I can see the signs. He needs something to ground him. I grab his throat again, feeling his erratic pulse against my palm, and pull him against me. Forehead to forehead. The other hand moves down, gripping his ass in a possessive move.
“Why do you want to fit in when you were born to be mine?”
My mouth crashes onto his, and I swallow his breath, his spit, his moans.
“Sweet, like biting into a warm fruit,” I hiss on his lips, licking them. I feel hungrier for them every time I get a taste. So soft and obedient.
“Mmph, I think I could come only from kissing you,” he sighs. “Thank you.”
His timid confession makes me kiss his forehead.
I let him go, proud of my work, since he looks calmer now. He sticks a Band-Aid on my cheek—it has a little sun on it that Sully drew. He resumes donning the clean clothes I brought to the bathroom.
“How did you know? About the bomb.” He wears my brown sweater, which looks like a dress on him, and a pair of gray leggings.
“I didn’t. You said it was weird for the delivery truck to come at night. I saw the footprints in the soil but no package. After Dare told me he watched on the security cameras someone screwing with the soil, I knew we had to get out of there.” I put on a T-shirt.
He wraps his arms around his body in a comforting gesture I’ve seen before. “But who? And why the pet shelter? Is it Nine?”
“Yes.” I know it’s her.
I omitted Jacob’s connection to Nine. Sully thinks he got angry at him to screw with Ren, but it’s better if he knows how really dangerous she can be.
“Why would she go after me? Or was it Ren?” His brow furrows, and I pull him against me.
“I don’t know. Maybe both. She is fucking insane.”
The doorbell rings. The damn family is here. Fuck!
“Put the socks on,” I kiss the top of his hair. “They are here.”
I walk to the entrance, check the outdoor security cameras, and leave the gun in the entrance drawer before opening the door. Lori is the first to get inside.
“Prepare yourself,” he whispers cryptically, patting my chest twice.
“Whoever made that bomb knows their onions.” He raises his voice, turning his face back to Gabriel.
“That’s for sure,” Ramiel agrees, followed by Hunter.
“Shit just got real,” Michael declares.
“It was already real, babe,” Raphael counters.
“Are you okay? Where’s Sully?” Sariel sounds worried.
“They are both fine, Baby Blue,” my brother tells him, his eyes sliding down my body like he’s checking I’m in one piece.
Sully comes to the entrance, and everybody quickly surrounds him. There are hugs and relieved comments and worried questions. After a while, I’ve had enough. I grab his hand and pull him to me.
“Let’s go to the living room,” I say, leading them inside the house.
I tried to decorate the cottage thinking about Sully’s taste and mine, but I just bought the essentials. He has one more year of college, and will start vet school in September, which will take him to Chicago twice a week. We will need another place near the school.
The living room is spacious with exposed stone, wooden floors, and ceiling beams. The walls are white, and three single-hung windows overlook the garden on the south side.
Two large sofas and an armchair are positioned near the metal fireplace—I lit the tinder on top of the stacked logs and started the fire to make the room warmer. Sully gets cold easily.
I’ve just sat on the armchair with him on my lap when his brother barrels into the room. He’s panting, and as soon as his eyes find Sully, he makes his way through the others still standing, pushing and elbowing to get to his brother, and yanks him off my lap and into his arms.
They look at each other exchanging a conversation only they can hear for a moment, before Oliver starts with the questions.
“Are you okay? Let me see you. What’s with all those pink Band-Aids? Are those hearts on them?”
“Ezra made them,” Sully explains.
“He did?” Rague chuckles.
“That explains the one on his cheek.” Hunter raises an eyebrow at me. I feel more questioning looks from the others.
“What?” I snap.
“Why didn’t you call me? I had to hear about the pet shelter from Rami. Do you know how scared I was?” I hear Oliver nagging at his brother.
“Rague needed you and I wasn’t alone.” He glances at me, which makes Oliver grit his teeth and glare my way. I reciprocate, sending him a scalding look.
“You are staying with us until Nine is taken care of.” Oliver thinks he still has control over his brother.
“No, he isn’t,” I coldly counter.
“Like your opinion counts, you aren’t part of this family,” Oliver barks at me.
My lips curl into a menacing smile. “Family or not, it counts where Sully is concerned.”
Raguel moves behind his husband’s shoulder and sends me a warning look. I almost snort at him.
“Ezra actually is part of this family,” Uriel declares. I am? Sariel is nodding, just like Lori, Ramiel, and Michael are doing.
“He saved Sully…twice,” Gabriel states.
“He did and…” Sully is interrupted by Oliver as he pulls his brother farther away from me.
“Stay away from my little brother.”
I stand up slowly and menacingly. I’m done listening to his bullshit. But before I can do anything my little chick yanks his arm back and runs to me. To me. Fuck, it feels good. I fall on the armchair again and pull him closer to me, arms curled around his waist.
“Sully and Ezra, imagine that,” Lori comments. “To be fair, I have imagined it.”
“You don’t look surprised. Did you know?” Oliver turns the suspicious question on his best friend.
“We all knew.” Uriel sniffs.
“All?” He looks around with a betrayed look, which eventually lands on Raguel.
“I didn’t, kitty. Not more than we already…”
My phone starts ringing. AC/DC’s song “If You Want Blood” plays.
“What the fuck is this?” I mutter at the screen.
“You don’t know the number?” Hunter asks.
“I don’t even know the ringtone.” I keep looking at my phone. Who did this? I look at Ramiel, but he shakes his head.
“Put it on speaker,” Raphael says.
“Look who’s back from hell?” A woman’s voice resounds in the room. “I should be disappointed, but I am not. Things have a way of working out in their own perfect time.”
“Nine,” I snarl.
“Oh, my old name. I haven’t heard it in years…Subject Eight.”
“How does it feel being last?” Raphael taunts her.
“Is that Subject Two? And how is Subject One, still cutting himself?” She lets out a sneer.
“Fuck you!” Michael jumps up from his husband’s lap, but Raphael pulls him back down.
“Mm, so unoriginal. Let me guess you are all together. Subject Three chasing his tail with that ridiculous AI.” I hear her chewing on something.
“And what have you done with your life apart from genocide, stealing, scheming, and betraying?” Ramiel spits out as Hunter locks an arm around his waist.
She laughs bitterly. “I was taught to drain the life and fortune out of others.”
Let her talk. Ramiel signals us, while tapping on his phone. He’s probably trying to locate her.
“We will find you, and I’ll personally tear your black heart out of your chest.” Raguel lets out a furious growl.
“Subject Six, always hot-headed. You are a ticking human bomb, a freak, just like subject Five and his creepy personalities.”
“Hey, pyro bitch, how about I shove a bomb up your ass?” Lori hisses, from his high position, wrapped around Gabriel’s body.
“You are as insignificant as you are tedious. You can’t even begin to comprehend. I’m a spider sitting at the center of its web, made of thousands of threads, and I know every quiver of each of them.”
Lori shudders, mouthing to me the word Portia. Gabriel decided to keep the tarantula as a pet I heard.
“You sound like a jealous brat.” Uriel is squeezing Sariel’s hand.
“Subject Seven, how is your sleeping mommy? Is Subject Four still trying to wake her up from the irreversible coma I put her in?”
“Why are you doing this? Why try to kill us after all this time?” Sariel asks her.
“Vengeance is like an orgasm; it never occurs too late, and I’m so ready to climax. So close.”
Lori and Oliver ugh at the metaphor.
“Vengeance for what?” I ask, trying to keep her on the line.
“You should feel the same way as I do. Instead, you went and banded with them? Why, Eight?”
“To kill you,” I give her the fucking truth.
She tsks. “If you want to kill, you need to be willing to die. That delicate boy you’re toying with is better dead, don’t you think?”
I tighten my arm around a gasping Sully, and let out a sniff for her benefit. “I’m going to paint the walls with your poisonous blood, Nine,” I threaten her with an almost bored tone. I hide my skyrocketing rage not wanting to show how her words hit home.
“Didn’t you hear me? You’re already in my web. I’m coming for you,” she hisses before hanging up.
“Did you get her?” I ask Ramiel.
“No. Dare and I tried, but it’s like she knows exactly how Serena thinks. Yes…she…does,” he muses the last bit, suddenly looking lost in thought.