12. Malachi
Chapter 12
Malachi
Being trusted alone in Luke’s apartment was a gift. He locked the door behind him when he left. His own apartment seemed cavernous and cold without any evidence of Luke’s existence. It felt too much like the last couple of days didn’t happen. He showered slowly, taking himself in hand as he remembered the weight of Luke’s cock on his tongue, and when he collapsed into bed, it was with a smile on his face. With nothing else to do until Luke finished his work at the guild, he slept, hoping he’d wake to a text message inviting him back over. He spent most of the day dreaming about the taste of his cock, the sound of his wanton moans. Now that he knew how good they were together, he longed for more.
He did wake to a text from Luke, but it wasn’t an invitation to come over.
I can’t see you again. I’m blocking your number. Stay away.
His heart plummeted. He stared at it, uncomprehending. Their time together had been downright perfect. What could’ve gone wrong between then and now?
No, he didn’t have to wonder. Luke had gone to HQ today. Something must’ve happened there, and now he had cold feet.
Malachi rolled out of bed and dressed mechanically, fury slowly building within him. He knew Luke felt how perfect they were together. He knew it. He couldn’t let him end things like this without fighting for what was his. Luke surrendered to him yesterday, and Malachi wasn’t giving him up. Luke was his . How dare they try to take him away? How dare they make Luke doubt him? How dare . They tried to turn Luke against him. He would not stand idly by and let Luke push him away again. He couldn’t go back to skulking in the shadows and watching from a distance. Luke needed him. He needed Luke .
He tried to call, but true to his word, Luke had blocked his number. Snarling under his breath, he slammed the door on his way out of his apartment.
He broke several speed limits on his way across town, skidding into the parking lot outside Luke’s building and stomping across the street. Luke couldn’t just end things with him over a text. How dare he let them get inside his head, make him doubt what they’d both felt? This wasn’t Luke’s doing, it was the guild’s, and Malachi wasn’t giving Luke up without a fight.
He didn’t knock, knowing Luke would just refuse to let him in. The door was unlocked—which likely said a lot about Luke’s state of mind—so he shouldered into it as he forced his way inside the apartment and sent it slamming into the wall.
Luke was sitting despondently on the sofa, one hand in his hair. His phone rested on the coffee table in front of him. At Malachi’s entrance, he jerked to his feet, his honey brown eyes blowing wide. “Malachi—” he croaked.
“You can’t see me again?” he demanded, slamming the door shut behind him and stalking into the room. “Just like that? After everything we said to each other? After everything we felt?”
Luke deflated, his face twisting with anguish. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters.”
“ How can you say that?” he snarled. “Of course it matters! You’re all that matters to me! I won’t let you just throw this away.”
“You told me I have a choice in this,” Luke said, his voice ragged with desperation. “You can’t just force me to be with you if I don’t want to.”
Anger burned through Malachi. “Then tell me!” he snapped. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to be with me.”
Luke’s breath hitched, his eyes pooling with unshed tears. “Malachi…”
Malachi refused to soften in the face of Luke’s vulnerable state. He was pissed, goddammit, and a sad Luke wasn’t going to sway him. “No texts, no hiding, and no lies. Tell me the truth. Do you want to be with me?”
Luke scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “We can’t .”
“We can. You’re just scared.”
“Of course I’m scared!” Luke exploded. “Somebody saw us in the diner together! If they find out about what we did yesterday, they’ll banish me. I’ll have nothing. The guild is all I’ve known since I was two years old . I have nothing if I don’t have them.” He ducked his head, scrubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands .
“You’d have me,” he said quietly. “There’s nothing you could say or do to make me leave, Luke. You tell me you don’t want to see me again? Fine. You won’t see me. But I’ll still be there, keeping an eye on you.”
“Mal, dammit,” Luke said, scrubbing a hand over his face. It was the first time Malachi had ever heard him curse. But he used the nickname. That had to mean there was still hope.
He pressed closer, not touching yet. “I told you, Luke. You’re mine . You think I’m willing to give up what you gave me a glimpse of? How perfect we are together?”
“Mal, we can’t ,” he sobbed, his body quivering with the attempt to stifle it. He knew Luke felt the same gravitational pull that Malachi did, but he was fighting it so hard . “The guild?—”
“I don’t give a fuck about them!” Malachi grabbed the front of Luke’s shirt, hauling him closer. One hand went to Luke’s jaw, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You’re all I see, treasure, and I’m not going anywhere. Because guess what?”
“What?” Luke asked, his chest heaving against Malachi’s.
Their breaths mingled. “You didn’t tell me to go. You didn’t tell me you don’t want me. You’re only doing this because they have you running scared.” His grip softened, his fingers sliding up into Luke’s hair. “I’ll never make you feel scared like that. I’ll never make you feel unwanted or unsafe.”
“Mal, please,” he whimpered, curling toward him.
“I’m here.” And then they were kissing, open-mouthed and hungry.
Malachi was too raw to take it slow and easy, his teeth scraping possessively, biting Luke’s lip until he tasted blood. Luke groaned, his brow furrowing at the pain.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Malachi said. He knew his precious human didn’t like pain, had more scars than he could count and hated them, but he couldn’t help it right now. He felt like a live wire, snapping and dangerous.
“Kiss it better,” Luke said, dragging him back in, and the heady taste of copper filled his mouth.
He wrapped both arms around Luke’s trunk-like waist and lifted him off his feet. A sputtered laugh left Luke as Malachi turned and carried him toward the bedroom.
“No one’s ever picked me up before,” he said, leaving a smattering of kisses across Malachi’s jaw and neck. When teeth scraped against his neck, Malachi purred.
“If you bite me right now, I’ll come in my pants, I swear,” he warned.
Luke laughed, and Malachi dropped him onto the bed. The rest of the bedroom was a blur, his focus narrowed entirely to the man sprawled on the mattress below him. He grabbed the collar of his shirt and ripped it down the middle, ducking down and latching onto one flat, brown nipple, teasing it with teeth and tongue.
“Oh fuck, I want to taste you so bad,” he said, sucking and biting his way over to the other nipple and giving it the same treatment. “I want to coat my tongue with your blood. I want to drink it down, have your very essence inside me.”
“Malachi,” Luke groaned, shedding the remains of his shirt and tossing it away. Malachi loosened Luke’s jeans and tugged both them and his boxers down at once.
“Lube,” Malachi said gruffly, biting the top of Luke’s thigh hard enough to leave a bruise and draw a groan from the man himself. Fuck, he had to get a hold of himself before he hurt him.
“In the… bedside drawer,” he said, pointing at it.
“Get it,” Malachi ordered.
Luke rolled over, stretching out on the bed to open the drawer and reach inside it. While he was flat on his stomach, Malachi couldn’t resist the long, muscled plane of his back. He started at the base of his spine, mouthing his way up, leaving sucking kisses and biting nips as he went, dragging his tongue up the ridges of his spine and tasting salt and soap. When he reached his meaty shoulder, blanketing Luke’s body with his own, he bit down, needing something to anchor himself to. Luke moaned, fumbling the lube. It fell to the mattress as Malachi gentled his mouth, sucking instead of kneading with his teeth. He didn’t break the skin, fought the urge to flex his jaw and do exactly that, rocking his cock into the crevice of Luke’s ass.
A snick broke the silence, and Malachi raised his head to see Luke holding a pocket knife, the blade extended. He offered it back to Malachi.
“What are you doing?” he asked softly.
“Giving you permission.” His free hand curled behind him, tangling in Malachi’s hair. “I want you to.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, treasure.”
“You won’t. This knife is very sharp. I’ll barely feel it. Just keep it shallow so it doesn’t bleed much—or scar. I have enough scars.”
“You do,” Malachi said carefully, mindful of Luke’s self-consciousness. He loved every single one, though. They were proof that Luke was a survivor, that he was strong and resilient.
“I wouldn’t mind having one from you,” he said tremulously, punching the breath from Malachi. “It wouldn’t hurt coming from you. It wouldn’t be a reminder of pain. It’d be… you.”
Malachi had never been in this position before, the one being tempted into doing something he knew he shouldn’t.
“No,” he decided. “I won’t be one of the demons who hurts you, not ever.”
Luke wriggled around until Malachi let him roll over. As soon as he had Malachi comfortably cradled between his legs, he drew the blade across his left pectoral.
“Luke!” Malachi protested as the copper scent of blood filled the air.
“Oh no, look at that, I’m bleeding,” Luke said lightly, setting the knife aside. Blood trickled from the wound, pooling in the crease down the center of his chest. He glanced down at it. “Possibly cut a little deeper than I meant to, but I’m in no danger of bleeding out.” He drew Malachi closer. “I’m sorry I pushed you away. I’m sorry I let them freak me out.”
Malachi kissed him, smearing blood between their chests, then dropped his head and lapped at the blood on his skin. It was like taking a dozen shots at once, swirling in his head and tingling through his body, warming his limbs. He moaned, sliding down Luke’s body to mouth at his erection, smearing red up his length and then sucking him down.
“Oh God,” Luke whined as Malachi found a punishing rhythm. His back arched, his legs parting as though pleading.
Malachi pushed his knees toward his bleeding chest and buried his face in the heart of him, lapping hungrily at his hole and spearing his tongue inside. Luke cried out, his thick thighs flexing under Malachi’s hands. He loved this, loved tasting Luke’s most intimate places. Places where no one else was allowed to go.
He slicked two fingers with a generous amount of lube and pressed both inside at once. Luke moaned long and low, canting his hips down to take more. Malachi raised his head to drink in the sight of him with his head thrown back in abandon. It was starting to look like a crime scene. Blood had trickled down the dip of his collar and past his neck to stain the pillow and sheet beneath him, framing his throat like a crimson necklace. Another line trickled down his stomach toward his navel. He leaned down and lapped it up, delighting in the delicious taste of skin and blood.
“Mal, please, please,” he murmured. “I’m ready, I want you.”
His eyes found Luke’s warm, honey brown ones. “Say that again,” he growled.
Luke’s breath caught. He licked his lips and said, “I want you. I want you so much. Please.” He reached for the lube and sat up, pouring some in his palm and wrapping his hand around Malachi’s cock.
Malachi groaned, running the flat of his tongue across the cut on Luke’s chest. Only a little blood welled to the surface again. It was slowing down. Good. Wrapping his arms around him, Malachi pushed him down. Luke didn’t move his arm, trapped between their bodies, and guided Malachi’s cock to his entrance. They both moaned as he pressed inside, past the first tight ring of muscle.
“Fuck me, you’re tight,” Malachi breathed, slowly working himself deeper with each little thrust.
“Nng,” Luke moaned wordlessly.
When Malachi was fully seated, he paused there, carding his fingers through Luke’s short hair while his body adjusted. A sheen of sweat glistened on his skin, and his chest heaved under Malachi’s. His eyes were blown wide, and when he was ready, he locked his ankles around Malachi’s back and rocked his hips up insistently.
“I’m ready,” he said breathlessly. “Come on, Mal. Show me how much you want me.”
Those were dangerous words. A spike of possessive need shot through him. His fingers tightened in Luke’s hair as he dragged his cock out and drove back in hard enough to make Luke cry out. He did it again, and again, pounding into Luke with an unrelenting rhythm that drove all the insecurities and anger from between them, until there was nothing but them, entangled like the branches in a forest, brought together by time and fate and nature to weather every storm.
Malachi’s fingers curled around Luke’s jaw, turning his head so Malachi could growl low into his ear. “You’re mine, treasure. Mine, mine, no one else’s. They can’t take you away, I won’t let them.”
A litany of “yes, yes, yes,” spilled from Luke, his blunt nails clawing at Malachi’s back. He’d given himself over completely to Malachi, surrendered to the sensation of their bodies joining as one. He was baring himself in every way, his body arching and his legs spread, accepting the pleasure and the pain and anything else Malachi wanted to give him. And goddamn, he wanted to give him everything.
Luke’s body arched and his cock jerked between them, his cum splashing their stomachs as he cried out in relief. His hole fluttered around Malachi’s cock, and he latched onto the sluggishly bleeding cut as he came inside Luke, pressing as hard and deep as he could. He wanted to leave an imprint of his cock inside Luke’s channel, bury his cum so deep that it’d never come back out .
In the aftermath, Luke’s strong arms came around him, his thighs gripping Malachi tight as though to prevent him from leaving.
“You’re gonna need to bleach these sheets,” Malachi murmured against his chest. If Luke didn’t want him to go anywhere, he wouldn’t go anywhere.
Luke chuckled. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Malachi growled at that. He didn’t like thinking about Luke being hurt, even if he enjoyed the taste of his blood. It was a strange quandary.
“Don’t growl. I’m fine,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of Malachi’s head.
“Caring about you is going to test me in many ways, isn’t it?” Malachi asked.
Luke’s fingers trailed up and down the center of his back. “Probably. Sorry about that.”
Malachi snorted. “Ah, it’s fine. We all have our,” he paused to smirk for effect, “crosses to bear.”
Luke rasped out a laugh.
He raised his head. “Where’s your phone?”
“On the coffee table. Why?”
Malachi reluctantly pushed himself up, groaning as his softening cock slipped free from Luke’s wet hole. He fetched the phone and then went into the bathroom for a washcloth soaked under warm water. When he returned to the bedroom, Luke hadn’t moved an inch, still laying spread-eagled in the middle of the bed.
“Here, baby,” he said, delighting in the way the new nickname had Luke’s face flushing with color.
Luke took the phone from him—and hummed pleasurably when Malachi ran the warm washcloth over the bloodstains and cum on his chest and stomach. “Why did you bring me my phone?”
“So you can un-fucking-block me.”
Luke sheepishly unlocked his phone and started tapping while Malachi cleaned him up. He gently cleaned between his legs, smirking in satisfaction at the sight of his cum leaking from Luke’s hole.
“You look very pleased with yourself,” Luke noticed.
Malachi hummed, leaning in to kiss Luke’s hip. “You let me drink your blood. You let me cum inside you. There’s something of you inside me, and something of me in you. I’m very pleased.”
He cleaned himself last and tossed the washcloth in the hamper just as he heard his phone chime from his jeans on the floor. Casting Luke a curious look, he dug his phone out and saw a new text—from Luke.
Yours. And I’m sorry.
Malachi melted, flopping onto the bed and dragging Luke against him.
“I am sorry,” Luke said, the words muffled against his chest. “I’m just—scared. Things at the guild have been tense since Hawk’s banishment. I don’t want this to end in tragedy.”
“It won’t,” Malachi swore. “We’ll be careful, but I’m not giving you up for anything, treasure. Especially not them.”