Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Endor
Miles was shaky on his legs as we entered his patient room. It was but two rooms down from Mercy’s. All this time, they’d been so close, yet so far away, searching for one another.
Miles leaned on me as I helped him to his bed.
He looked far worse than Mercy. More machines, scratches still present on his face, but the biggest difference was the absence of his right leg and the bandages. So many bloody bandages.
But even though he was in stasis, he was breathing.
“Why?” he asked, his breath catching in his throat. He looked up at me. “You don’t even know me...”
I sighed, feeling a strange sort of pull in my chest. There was no point in lying.
I knew when he woke up, he wouldn’t remember a thing.
Just as Mercy wouldn’t.
It would be as if it all were some fucked up, coma-induced nightmare.
So, I told him the truth, perhaps to soothe my own heart.
“Because you have the chance to experience the things I can’t.”
I settled him on the bed, noticing the sweat on his brow. His machines whirred and clicked as the alarms went off. His blood pressure was spiking.
“Because you have so much more to do, Miles.”
I grasped his hand, and suddenly, I saw it all.
The pain he’d endured. His loss. Miles had lost many people he loved.
I saw the loneliness that nearly took his life. Until he scrolled past one comment, on a random Reddit thread.
Until he found her.
She saved his life that night, and he never told her.
Day by day it became easier, because he had her. To talk to, to listen to. I saw every moment, cherished for what it meant to him.
I saw with the utmost clarity how much he loved Mercedes, still, even in this space of in-between.
But I could also see the road ahead of him. The future and everything that hadn’t happened yet, but was destined to. All the things he would accomplish both on his own and with her by his side.
I saw their friendship blooming once more in the aftermath of the accident, and evolving into the love they were always meant to have.
And that was enough for me, to know that they would be happy. Safe and loved.
That’s all anyone really wanted for their children, wasn’t it?
I knew Mercy was not mine. But for the briefest moment in time, I loved her like she was.
She taught me how to love.
I was going to miss her terribly, until my last breath.
And then the world would go on without me. No one mourned a demon, after all.
Miles looked up at me with glassy eyes as he thanked me, just before he disappeared into his body.
The machines went haywire and doctors flew into the room. One yelled that he was crashing out, and they shocked him.
His heartbeat quickened. They shocked him again.
I watched as he awakened, gagging through the tube forced in his mouth. His hands reached out for me, but I knew he could not see me.
But for the briefest moment, I indulged him, not quite ready to let him go, either.
I pressed my palm against his, and he grasped me, his fist falling as he sucked in a breath of air.
The doctors wheeled him out of the room, rushing him somewhere else.
But I knew in my heart, he would be all right. I had faith.
I sauntered down the hall, toward Mercy’s room. She was awake, surrounded by doctors and a man I recognized, if only from her visions.
Her father.
Valory held herself in the corner of the room, shaking. Wings trembling.
Her gaze met mine and the minute she saw me, she ran to me.
She ran to my arms, her wings encasing me as she buried her face in my chest. My wings wrapped around her as my arms did the same.
“She can’t see me,” she cried.
I let my fingers stroke her silky hair. Her sweet funnel cake scent invaded my lungs.
“I know,” I told her.
Her grip on me tightened. “I didn’t get to tell her how much I loved her.”
Her voice was faint, like a whisper, but her body shook with sadness. Grief, I realized.
“I know,” I said, because it was the truth. We both loved her.
She was impossible not to love.
I watched as her father hugged her, apologizing and leaning over her.
He told her he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since the accident.
He worried he’d never see her beautiful face again.
And then she looked our way.
I knew she couldn’t see us, but for a moment, I pretended she could.
“She knows,” I told Valory as I nudged her.
She looked back at Mercy.
“Even if she does not understand, she knows.”
I led us out of the hospital, down the winding corridors until we hit the exit. The sun on my skin was warm, and Valory did not move from my side. There was no point in sheathing our wings, so we did no such thing.
I looked at the horizon, with Valory curled to my side, knowing we had completed our mission.
We would need to return to Heaven as soon as possible.
We would need to be judged.
But before we left, there was one thing I wished to do.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
Valory bristled in my grasp, her voice tinged with sadness. “What?”
I turned to look at her. Her bright blue eyes, her eyebrows furrowing.
I grasped her chin with my fingers.
“I said, are you hungry? I could go for some tacos right about now.”
She laughed through her tears. My thumb grazed her bottom lip, reveling in the softness.
“Tacos sound really good,” she said through a sob.
“Perhaps I’ll even throw in some strawberry margaritas, too.”
She nodded as I brought my lips to hers, kissing her softly. When I let go, I reached for her hand.
“Come, angel. Let us celebrate our victory.”
She followed me without question, until we found a suitable bar that served tacos, which happened to be at a hotel.
I knew we would need to rest, if only to recharge enough to ascend. Food would help, but I also knew we were running on fumes and a nap would probably do both of us wonders. I sheathed my wings, and so did she. For the briefest moment, we stood there, appearing as nothing more than human. And for the briefest moment, I pretended that is what we were. Just a man and a woman, on a... date.
It was a fantasy; I knew that. But if I was to be death bound soon, perhaps a little fantasy role-playing was long overdue.
Valory did not argue with me as I registered us for a room. She did not say a word when I paid with cash. Only when we sat down at the bar, did she speak.
“How long have you held that poison?” she asked.
It was an odd question, but I figured there was no point in hiding anything anymore. Not with what was ahead.
“Since the thrift shop.”
She nodded as the bartender brought us our drinks. She looked at me, grasping hers in her hand.
“Matthew gave me the same thing,” she said. “At the thrift shop.”
My breath stilled.
All this time she’d had the poison, too.
“But I lost it,” she said. “But I never intended on using it. I?—”
“Couldn’t,” I finished her sentence for her.
Valory relaxed. “No. I couldn’t do that to you.”
The bartender served us our tacos, and we ate in silence. Something was missing. No, not something.
Someone.
But in the absence of the emptiness felt, we had each other.
We had each other. We were not alone.
Music carried over the room, soft and slow, the singer crooning on about finding a flightless bird, and I leaned into her space.
“Do you want to dance?” I asked, the words strange on my tongue. Dancing wasn’t something I did, and honestly, I didn’t care for it.
But underneath the lights, with Valory in her sinful get up, those bright eyes and plump lips, all I could think about was dancing with her.
Holding her.
Living in that one, perfect moment because it would disappear too soon.
“Now? Here?” she asked, biting that bottom lip in a way that made my damn cock twitch. I nodded, extending my hand out to her.
“Yes.”
She took it, her palm warm against mine. “Sure.”
I pulled her to the dance floor, even though there was no one else there. Slipping my arms around her waist, I pulled her close.
She rested her arms around my neck, and I couldn’t help but smirk as I swayed us back and forth.
“Don’t steal my wallet,” I teased her.
She laughed, the sight lighting up her eyes. They were red from crying, but they still sparkled.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she teased me back, but her tone shifted as she gazed up at me. “I’d rather steal your heart.”
It was my turn to smile as I moved one hand to grasp her throat. I used my thumb to tilt her head up, forcing her to meet my gaze.
That was my only chance to tell her the truth.
“You don’t need to steal something that already belongs to you.”
I kissed her as we swayed to the music, until it stopped.
She broke away, and then she grinned, holding up my wallet.
“You little devil, you,” I teased as I made to grab it from her hands.
She smiled slyly as she bit her lip, opening my wallet—the stolen wallet from her mark—and threw some money on the bar.
“You said we all have a choice, right?” she said as she slid the wallet in her back pocket.
I slid my hands in my pockets. “Yes?”
She gazed up at me, biting her lip. “Then I’m giving you a choice,” she said. She took one step back, then another before turning around and giving me her back.
I watched her exit, knowing exactly what she was asking when she looked over her shoulder, flashing the most seductive gaze at me I’d ever seen.
Demons be damned.
I did not chase her, nor did I run.
I walked, slowly in her wake, letting her lead me to our room.
When I opened the door, she grabbed me.
She pulled me to her, her lips finding mine like a missile.
There was a hunger in her kiss that I couldn’t deny, nor did I want to.
Her fingers grazed the edge of my jaw as she pressed herself against me, backing me against the door.
I traced her hips with my hands, sliding my palms down the sides of her thighs as she pressed her breasts against me, opening her mouth for me in the sweetest surrender.
I slid one hand over her hip, grasping her jean-clad ass with my fingers, and I groaned into her mouth.
I knew I should stop while I was ahead, if only because this would not change a thing.
Judgment still awaited us, and the repercussions of my severance would be dealt to me swiftly upon our ascension. I knew that. There was no escaping what I’d done, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
If there was one thing our celestial kind could agree on, it was that no one, angel or demon, could fight fate and cheat death.
But that was exactly what I had done. I had pushed back against our kind’s oldest law.
And that itself was damning.
I broke our kiss, if only to look in her eyes. I’d never known the ocean, or the bright blue sky in the way humans took for granted. But I thought I didn’t need to, because all the wonders of the universe existed in the way she looked at me.
Valory looked at me like I was the seventh wonder.
Like I was not a demon, or a man, but simply love itself.
“We should rest,” I told her, my cock straining against my pants, my heart in my throat.
I wanted nothing more than to ravish her, to love her in every sense of the word.
I had never wanted anyone the way I wanted Valory.
She stared at me with an intensity that was beyond fire, beyond desire.
It burned through me.
“There is no rest for the wicked,” she said as she kissed me, pulling me back. Leading me.
Her fingers played at the buttons on my shirt, and I could feel the slightest tremble as her palm grazed the smooth expanse of my chest.
She slipped her hand beneath my shirt, placing her palm right over my chest.
“Careful, Angel...” I told her, pulling her against my prominent hardness. I expected her cheeks to flush, for her to get flustered as she usually did, but she did not.
The weight of that was not lost on me.
I tangled my fingers in her hair, wrapping a thick bunch of locks around my wrist. I yanked lightly, forcing her to look up at me.
“You are perilously close to unleashing a demon.”
She smiled, and I thought it was the most beautiful sight.
She slid my shirt off, leaving me exposed from the waist up.
I shook it off, and it fell to the floor.
The familiar smiting energy pooled at her fingertips and she gave me a wicked grin.
“Careful, demon, you are perilously close to unleashing thirty years of pent-up sexual frustration.”
I raised an eyebrow as a deep chuckle escaped my throat. I stalked forward, pushing her back against the bed until she fell.
Her cheeks pinked and the brave face fell, replaced by something I knew better than anyone.
Desire.
She scooted back onto the bed, her hands sliding over my hips.
I boxed her in, angling myself toward her as I used my knee to nudge apart her legs. Her sweet funnel cake scent hit me like a drug.
The softest whimper left her throat as my lips found her neck, my hardness pressing against my pants.
“Go on, Angel, I dare you,” I whispered in her ear. “Smite me. Put me out of my fucking misery.”
I pulled at her corset fasteners with deft fingers, the popping sound of busted buttons echoing in the space. I ground my cock against her and she let out a moan that went straight to my groin.
Valory grabbed the back of my neck, squeezing it for a moment before pushing my face directly to her breasts.
“If you don’t shut up and put me out of my misery, I will.”
I chuckled, letting my tongue slide over her pert, stiff nipple. The whine that left her lips made my entire body shudder.
I brought my face back up to hers and she whined in disapproval.
But before I went further, I needed to be clear with her.
I needed her to know how much I truly loved her.
I’d always wondered what it would be like to make love with someone I loved .
For until I’d met Valory, I didn’t know love could exist for someone like me, let alone a love for an angel .
But Valory was so much more than an angel.
“I love you,” I said, my voice shaking.
Her hands found my hips and she thrust herself against me.
I kissed her once more, trailing my fingers over her soft skin, down her abdomen until I found her jeans. I popped the button and unzipped her slowly.
Her fingers settled on my pants and she removed them with ease.
“I know,” she said. “I love you, too, Endor.”
If only love was enough to save me from my fate.
“I have waited all my life for this. For you,” she said as I slid my hand beneath her jeans to help her remove them completely.
She kicked them off her legs, and suddenly I was more than aware of what lay between us. What lay inside of us.
Valory glowed. The grace within her could not be contained.
My blood and my cock reacted of their own accord.
“You have not waited all your life for a demon, sweetheart.”
“No. I have waited all my life for you. ”
Her hand cupped me through the thin fabric of my underwear and I couldn’t help but groan.
“You are not a demon to me,” she said. “Now, show me what I’ve been missing all these years.”
I laughed, shaking my head.
I would miss her. Even as dust, I would miss her. My pain in the ass angel.
My Valory.
“Is that a demand , Angel?” I asked, slipping my fingers beneath her panties, I found the edges of her folds, her clit already swollen and in need of attention.
“Yes,” she said.
I sat back for a moment, taking in the sight of her. She stared up at me with so much love, so much desire, I wished I was not a dead man walking.
God, I wished I could take her for eternity.
But that moment would be my eternity. I’d make sure of it.
I’d make sure in death, I lived in every corner of her brain.
She lay on the faded blue duvet, her pale skin standing out like ivory against dark silk.
Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders, her perfectly pink nipples hard and contrasting her pale flesh.
Her gaze took me in from head to cock.
My wings popped of their own accord and she let out a soft breath.
“You are so beautiful,” she whispered.
No one had ever called me beautiful, but I couldn’t help the way my wings fluttered from her compliment.
I knelt before her, picking up one small foot and placing a kiss atop it before working my way up her legs. I kissed every inch, taking my time to worship and appreciate the gift she was giving me.
Knowing only I would have the honor of being the one to bring her the pleasure she sought. The love she deserved.
And I supposed that was enough for me.
Even in death, I would live. In every memory of that moment.
I stopped for one split second, hovering between her legs. I looked up at her flushed cheeks, her kiss-swollen lips. The glow of grace that surrounded her.
“Show me Heaven, Endor,” she whispered, taking her bottom lip between her teeth.
I didn’t have to be told twice.
Her glistening folds beckoned me like a lost sailor.
I traced my tongue over her sweet seam and she nearly jumped off the bed. I placed one hand on her stomach, while using my fingers on my free hand to pinch her clit. My tongue slid into her with ease, and she tasted as good as she smelled.
Like sugar and sweet innocence.
I’d never tasted anything so delectable before.
I devoured her like the delicacy she truly was. Her hand found my hair, and she pushed me against her, thrusting herself against my face.
I smiled as I continued my onslaught.
“Does that feel like Heaven, Angel?” I purred, my voice darker than I’d ever heard it.
“Fuck yes,” she cursed, and I chuckled against her warm, wet pussy. I slipped a second finger in.
“You feel so good,” she said, her voice nearly breathless.
She was still relatively tight. I needed to work her a little more before I could give her the bliss she sought.
“If it’s too much, tell me to stop,” I told her. I didn’t want to hurt her, after all.
“Please, for the love of God and all that is holy, do not stop, Endor.”
Her desperation fed me in a way I’d never known.
I curled my fingers inside of her, stroking her inner walls, and the moan that escaped her told me I was on the right track. I slid a third finger in, scissoring them to work her entrance.
“I need more,” she said greedily.
I replaced my fingers with my tongue, lapping at her sweet arousal.
“Tell me what you want, Valory.” I sucked her clit into my mouth and she cursed.
“You,” she said through heavy moans. Her thighs tightened and her pussy throbbed around the fingers I’d slipped back into her.
“I want to feel you inside me. Please...” Her plea was desperate, bordering on the edge of pain.
I did not wish to cause her pain.
I ceased my motions, sliding up her body until I was on top of her. I reached out to cup her face in my palm.
“Are you sure?” I asked, needing to hear her say those words again.
I want to feel you inside of me.
Valory looked up at me, sliding her fingers into my hair, wrapping her legs around my waist.
She nodded. “I’m sure.”
If I wasn’t a damned man before, strike me to hell now.
For there was no denying my heart wanted her, wanted this...
I kissed her, plunging my tongue into her mouth as her wings wrapped around me and the world bled into bright, golden light as I slowly breached her entrance.
It was so hard not to thrust myself into her with force and reckless abandon.
Every part of me wanted to ravage her and fuck her against the headboard until it shattered along with the pieces of me I once knew.
But I couldn’t do that.
I wanted to savor this. I wanted to savor her.
My angel, my love. My sweetest sin.
Valory asked that I show her Heaven, but I thought Heaven was the warmth between her thighs.
Heaven was the beat of her heart against my chest, her fingers grasping my shoulders as I plunged myself into her over and over again.
Heaven is mine.
The thought trickled through my mind even as her grace covered me.