Chapter 15
“I’ll tell you what, angels might have dulcet tones, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are annoying to listen to,” Yuri told us when we found her waiting outside our—or rather—my new dorm.
She popped her sucker back in her mouth as the voices raging inside my dorm rose to a crescendo, one hand lifted in the universal signal for us to wait right where we were.
After five seconds, the voices lowered again.
Yuri’s sucker popped back out. “And, really, these guys are predictable, Lils. You’d think spending a few decades or so, however long they were in cages, might have made them crazy enough that they wouldn’t be so predictable.”
“Predictable how?” I asked.
She stared at me as if I should already know. “Uh, all they can think about is sex? Like every guy?”
Olivia covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh gods, Yuri, did they hit on you?”
She barked a laugh. “Not sex with me, dumb butt.” She chuckled as if the very idea was preposterous.
She poked me in the chest. “Sex with this girl. They kept asking me, Where is our beloved? What have you done with her, vampire? Don’t make us smite you!
” Her impression of them made me smirk. She rolled her eyes. “Puh-leese. I invented smiting.”
Her toothy grin made me laugh, but before I could comment, the door to my dorm flew open and Sam appeared, his gaze swerving to the vampire. “We heard that, vampire.”
Azra popped up behind him, then promptly shoved his twin out of the way so he could reach me first.
Sam’s low growl was almost lost under Azra’s greeting. “Beloved! Why were you gone so long? Why didn’t you take us with you? You know we have lost time to catch up on. Lots of worship to do.” He waggled his eyebrows.
He shot Yuri a glare—or started to. I cleared my throat and he whipped his head back around and met my eyes.
“Yuri has been very nice to babysit—er, keep the two of you occupied while I was gone. Apologize immediately for threatening to smite her.”
Shame-faced, he looked back at Yuri. “My apologies, cherry-vampire.”
“No problem.” She gave him a saccharine smile before looking at me. “I know you didn’t ask me to angel-sit, but I figured you wouldn’t want them wandering off again. However… I’m beat. My love for you only goes so far when I’m tired.”
Giving her a smile of thanks, I waved her off. “Get some rest, Yuri. We’re all going to need it.”
“I’m gone, too.” Olivia came to me for a quick hug. “Remember what I said, Lils. I believe in you.”
Too soon, I was left alone with the twins and the distinct feeling that I was about to have my hands full.
“Cherry-vampire?” I asked, giving Azra a raised brow.
Azra grinned. “She promised to give me an endless supply of her cherry candies if I stayed in the room until you returned. Now I just need to find some vodka and we’ll be set.”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“Come on,” Sam offered, drawing me into the room. “You must be exhausted, little blossom. Let us draw you a bath.”
I didn’t miss the ulterior motive in his words, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Right now, a bath sounded… pretty great.
Stepping inside, I decided that the dorm lacked the elegance and polish of the tower suite I’d shared with Yuri and Olivia, but it had the benefit of not being smashed to pieces.
It was also larger, a fact I appreciated after I turned to face the twins who’d followed me in with their glorious wings.
They were big, taking up more space than I’d realized with their wings and towering forms.
Sam’s expression was unreadable, but the flat look in his eyes made me think he was annoyed with me.
Oh, well. He wouldn’t be the first Virtue I pissed off.
“We can’t protect you if we aren’t with you,” Sam chided, his tone stern, but concerned.
He wasn’t pissed. He was worried about me.
“You ventured off on your own. It felt like you… vanished.”
While I appreciated that these angels cared about me, I wasn’t a damsel in distress. I didn’t need saving and that was a lesson I was going to make clear to them, right here, right now.
With a pointed look, I said, “I was with a friend, Sam. And this is going to shock you, but I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it, head cocked as if he was considering whatever he’d been about to say and thought better of it. Smart guy.
Azra blew a lock of hair from his face, his bright eyes ready for a fight. “You had a vampire bring us here while you gallivanted off with a Dark Mage to who knows where. You know they’re literally soulless, right?”
Clearly, he didn’t take a moment to consider his words.
Gritting my teeth, I stabbed a finger against his hard chest. “That Dark Mage had a soul, Azra,” I said, voice going cold. “She gave it up for me and I feel like shit about it. If you want to spend the next month in the doghouse, feel free to talk about her in that same tone again.”
“What’s a doghouse?” He looked mystified. “Do you mean the wolf dorms? Do they have double beds?”
I stared at him for a long moment, then shook my head. Cutting around him, I headed for the large bed that took up nearly a third of the far wall. I dropped down and started wrestling with my boots.
“You’re upset with us,” Azra said quietly, as if he’d just come to that realization.
I wasn’t sure what life had been like in Purgatory, but apparently I hadn’t been entirely myself. “Did I never get angry in Purgatory?” I asked incredulously.
Azra pondered that for a moment. “Hmm, nope. Then again, your memories were pretty scattered, too, and you liked to focus on the present.” He glared at Sam. “Was it something Sam said? Apologize, Sam, right now.”
“She’s probably more upset with you, featherbrain,” Sam muttered as he ventured toward the bathroom.
“This isn’t like Purgatory. She has friends here.
We can’t expect her to turn her back on them just because we show up.
” He slipped past the doorway, the sound of water echoing in the background as he drew me a bath, as promised.
Even when we were bickering, they would take care of me. My shoulders relaxed.
“Friends,” Azra murmured, coming over to kneel in front of me.
He helped me pull off my boots, then my socks, and began massaging my feet as if that was what we did at the end of the day.
“Sam has always been my closest friend,” Azra told me conversationally, his thumb going to the arch of my foot, applying pressure.
Damn, it was really hard to stay mad at him when he was doing that.
“Many of our other friends turned away from us when we fell,” he continued, his striking gaze flicking up to find mine. “Perhaps that’s why I don’t understand your loyalty to your friends.” He shrugged. “It’s obvious you care for them. But what if they turn on you like mine did?”
“True friends don’t turn their back on you. Ever,” I said.
The sadness in his eyes hurt my heart.
He didn’t believe in lasting friendships, I realized. He’d been burned too hard, wounded too deeply.
I freed my foot from his delicious massage so I could cup his cheek.
Searching his gaze, I focused on the nascent bond between us, surprised when I found…
pity. Pity because he thought my friends would eventually betray me.
“Something tells me you two haven’t had the same luck with friends that I have.
Trust me when I say that I’m not being na?ve, Azra.
True friends exist in this world, as hard as it may be for you to believe. ”
Azra didn’t answer, choosing instead to cover my hand with his as he rubbed his cheek against my palm.
The water from the bathroom shut off and Sam joined us, wiping suds from his hands with a towel.
He’d drawn me a freaking bubble bath.
“No. We haven’t had the same luck, little blossom.” Sam settled next to me, one hand catching mine to twine our fingers. In a strange echo of my thoughts, he admitted, “We’re jealous.”
I huffed a laugh. “There’s nothing to be jealous about. Olivia’s just—”
Azra kissed the inside of my wrist, the sensitive skin tingling under his lips. “We’ve missed you, little thorn.”
Sam hummed in agreement. “Maybe you don’t remember the time we lost, but we do, and we’ve only just gotten you back.” His hypnotic, intense eyes held mine. “We are greedy for time with you, Lilith.”
Guilt pricked at me. Glancing at him, then away, I said, “I’m sorry.”
“It isn’t your fault. We should just be grateful instead of jealous. You came for us, freed us. We always knew you would do so, even if you couldn’t remember everything yet.”
My head spun with the weight of those locked away memories now spinning inside, and my heart… it was so full, it ached.
“Lily?”
I looked into Azra’s intense gaze. He closed his fingers over my wrist and brought my palm to his mouth to press a hot, gentle kiss to it.
The brush of his breath on my skin made my heart skip and my breath caught.
Heat burned in his eyes as he stared at me, open need naked on his face.
They’d been away from me for so long. I hadn’t even considered what my absence might do to them, even if it was only for a short while.
I stood, bringing him up with me. His hard, powerful body pressed to mine as we kissed, his hands cradling my face while mine gripped his shoulders, my nails biting into taut flesh.
I moaned as Sam moved up behind me, my wings opening, relaxing in a way that was pure instinct, allowing him intimate access to my back.
Azra broke the kiss, his lips skimming down my cheek to my neck.
Sam tugged on my hair, bringing my head back and around so he could take my mouth. “The taste of you,” he murmured. “I’ve missed it so much I thought I’d go mad.”
His free hand slid under the black top I wore, seeking out one breast. When he pinched my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, sensation swamped me and my legs almost gave out.
Azra went to his knees, gripping my hips to steady me. “I’ve got you, my angel.”