Angelic Union (10 page)

Axis chuckled. “It shouldn’t be messy at all, but the den it is.” The angelic commander stepped forward and put a hand on Marius’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. It wasn’t sexual, but Marius felt it all the way down to his toes. Erik’s nostrils flared behind them, and a look of pure lust crossed over his face.
I’m so very, very lost
. “It’s a little different from everyone, but it should be painless. The change is intimate though, so much more intimate than binding oneself to an archangel. I just wanted to prepare you.”

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Marius shuddered at the words. They sounded husky to his ears.

Was he hearing things? He felt weird.

“Hmm, I’m glad you’re starting to feel it,” Keer murmured just audibly enough for Marius to hear. He wasn’t sure what Keer meant exactly, but he could guess. This mating thing was a little weird.

“You’ll understand after,” Axis said. He let go of Marius’s shoulder and took a step back. “Boys, set up in the den.”

“Come on, little one, you can help,” Brax whispered loud enough for the whole room to hear.

“I’ll come help, too. Is that okay, Marius?” Erik asked.
Do you
need me?
his eyes seem to ask.

Marius waved him on. “I’m good. Go.”

“Does anyone have hand sanitizer? My bottle is empty,” Keer said as they left the kitchen through the side door in the direction of the den.

“You’re so weird with that shit. You are aware you’re an angel, one who
can’t
get sick, right?” someone, probably Brax, asked.

A snort followed. “I like to be clean.” Laughter sounded, and then they must’ve passed into the living room because their muffled voices were all that he could hear after that.

He looked at Axis, unsure of what he was expected to do. The angel was strong-looking, not as tall as Keer, but there was something about his demeanor that made Marius aware of the fact that Axis was very capable of taking care of himself. He let his eyes wander down the prime frame in front of him. He took in the lean hips, wide shoulders, black hair, and vibrant emerald eyes. He was quite the picture.

“Marius?”

He blinked. “Did you say something?”

The angel gave him a knowing smile. “I said, I want you to be comfortable for the ritual, so I needed to let you know what that entailed. Is that all right?” Marius nodded. Prepared was good. He should really be embarrassed about staring at him, but he just couldn’t
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seem to help himself. “Good. You’ll need to remove your clothing and uncloak your wings. You’ll have to be completely open to my power.”

“Your power?” Marius asked. That sounded, well, intimate.

“Yes. I’m going to force it into you. My animal is going to work through your soul. We’ll do it together. When we’re finished, there will be a piece of me inside you always. Then you should be able to shift just like I do.”

“Shifting, huh, that’s…interesting.” His mind couldn’t even fathom that sort of ability. He laughed at himself then. He could imagine beings that could take souls, shift time, summon swords of light with their minds, but he couldn’t think of a being who could turn into something else. The thought of Axis inside him was oddly stimulating. He swallowed as his mind fell into the gutter. “So afterward, I’ll know that this is right? After this, I’ll know for sure?” Axis nodded slowly, his eyes warming exponentially. “Yes. After the rite, you should know irrefutably that we are yours and you are ours.”

“Good. That’s good,” Marius murmured. His eyes had somehow become fixated on Axis’s lips. What would he taste like? He always had to be so gentle with Levi and even Erik at times. He wouldn’t have to be gentle with a male like Axis. The air changed, suddenly charged with a feeling it had been missing before.

“Marius.” The word was a whispered groan. Marius stepped forward so that their chests almost touched. Their eyes locked, and that tension racketed up exponentially. Axis leaned forward but refused to cross that last inch of space between them. “If you wish it.”
Do I want
— The question went unanswered as Marius leaned forward and met Axis’s lips. The kiss sizzled, and an awareness zinged up his spine in the exact fashion it had the first time Erik had growled at him on the balcony in the hotel in Tennessee months ago and taken his lips in a kiss. Axis put his hands on his hips and drew him so that their bodies were meshed head to toe. The hard press of
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Axis’s uniform-clad cock dug into the skin between Marius’s groin and belly button. He groaned. That felt fantastic.

Their tongues slid against one another, the plunges a frank mimicry of sex. Marius wove his hands through Axis’s short locks and gripped tight. Taking control of the kiss felt right. The island was right there. He could…Axis bit his bottom lip hard enough to make Marius growl. Someone didn’t like being sexually bossed around. It was kind of hot.

Mine
. The internal snarl startled Marius enough to break the kiss.

His eyes popped open and found himself staring into eyes so emerald green, so much the color he favored, that he was lost in those crystalline gem-like depths. He tried to jerk away so that he could clear his head, but Axis wasn’t letting him go.

“Easy,” the Elite commander said. Marius didn’t fight him on it. It seemed too much effort to move away at any rate.

They breathed together, leaning against one another until their panting breaths evened out to something more normal. Their erections didn’t fade, but time seemed to momentarily lose its meaning.

“Was I too hasty by offering you what you wanted?” Axis asked as Marius finally managed to take a step back.

Marius shook his head. “No. That was…enjoyable.”
More than I
expected it to be
. His eyes went up Axis’s frame.
He wants me
. It showed in every hard line of Axis’s body.
Maybe they were
legitimate. Maybe this isn’t just about Levi and Erik
.

Axis’s face lit up with a slow, warm smile. “You’re beginning to understand.” That smile stayed in place. “Shall we go to the den now, Marius? Are you ready?”

Marius nodded, putting aside his fear and embracing the situation he was in. This was a new beginning, and it was about time that he stepped up to the plate.

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Erik felt something, an energy in the air, a tension that shouldn’t have been so heavy with only a few blue and white candles lit. It wasn’t a bad feeling per se, but it felt weighty, real.

“You’re sensitive to the energies here,” Jade said, lighting another dark blue candle and setting it on the floor along the line of the nearly perfect circle of candles they’d made in the carpet.

Erik shrugged. “I am a little sensitive to angelic stuff. I always have been. So has Levi for that matter.” He looked at Jade, really looked at him. He was a handsome angel. He would give him that. A sudden image ghosted up in his mind, Levi riding Erik’s cock while Jade pounded into Erik’s ass from behind while yet another angel, Keer, took his mouth. He shuddered, unsure whether it was the future or a fantasy. Jade’s nostrils twitched, and their eyes met.

Levi’s soft giggle had him breaking the eye contact. Erik glanced over to see Brax cuddled with Levi on one of the couches they’d had to push away from the center of the room. They were apparently engrossed in whatever game that Brax had on his iPad. Levi looked so relaxed perched in Brax’s lap, leaning against him. He never relaxed that much around angels.

“You guys are ours.” It wasn’t a question. Erik could see the future as it stretched out before him. Things in it were constantly changing, but the consistent thread seemed to be that they would become angel bound to the Elites. Ever since they’d shown up at the wedding, it had been in the future.

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Jade was silent for a minute, searching Erik’s face for God knew what. “You believe that completely now. You see more than what the eyes do, like your Levi does.”

“Levi doesn’t see anything,” Erik said, frowning. “He’s sensitive, but then so is Marius when it comes to who wants to kill us.” Jade shook his head. “He sees in truth in people, which is why he knows what everyone is feeling. He sees Brax’s awkwardness, his loneliness, his belief that he will not be the type of man his mates would desire. It is something they share, so they have already bonded over it. That bond will extend to the rest of us soon enough. But Brax has a vulnerability that Levi desires to nurture and heal. He is
nostri
medicus
, our healer.”

“And what does that make me?” Erik asked.

Jade winked. “You’ll be a warrior like us someday, hellcat.

You’ve got the temperament.”

Erik laughed. “Hellcat?”

“It is appropriate. It is the only creature that demons cannot tame in their underworld. It is fiercely independent and loyal to its family but no one else. It suits you.” The smile Jade gave him went down to his toes, and the compliment seemed to lodge itself in the base of his spine, spreading steadily downward. He wanted to touch this beautiful man.
Not until Marius knows for sure. Not until then
. It was difficult being torn between what he knew instinctually and what felt like he had to do. Marius didn’t “see” like he did. Though he trusted Erik’s instincts, he found it difficult to believe anything that he didn’t find out for himself. Trust had always been their fallen lover’s biggest issue.

“Would you stop with the techno-chatter, I.T.? You’re giving me a headache,” Keer snapped as he deposited the last armful of cushions onto the couch beside Levi and Brax.

“Want me to build a program to calculate the probability of me kicking your ass for snapping at me?” Brax asked, not missing a beat.

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“A warrior nerd. That’s kind of hot,” Erik said before he thought better of it. Jade laughed, and Keer shot him a disapproving scowl.

“It’s time.” Axis’s voice cut through their fun, returning the atmosphere of seriousness as he and Marius stepped through the door.

Erik took a step back from Jade and looked at his fallen lover. He looked…relaxed. Erik frowned as he took in his appearance.

Levi clapped from the couch and gave a little squeal that made Erik jump. “Oh! You like him!”

Okay, what the hell did that mean?
Marius blushed. Blushed? Erik blinked. What exactly had happened when Axis was “preparing” Marius for what was to come? His eyes zeroed in on his lips. They looked a little swollen. Realization dawned.

“You kissed him!” he accused, laughing in sheer relief. This wasn’t going to be as difficult as he’d originally imagined. Marius’s blush deepened.

“Did you like it?” Levi asked, hopping down from the couch and streaking across the floor to fling himself into Marius’s arms.

Marius grinned. “Yes, little one. I liked it.” He spun Levi in a circle, and as Erik took in the sight of them, he also saw how it was affecting the other Elites in the room. They were all smiling. This was good. Right.

They stopped spinning, and Levi was placed back on his feet.

“Let’s get redeemed, shall we?”

“I can’t wait for you to be our guardian for real, Marius,” Levi said, hugging Marius’s waist. “It’s going to be so great.”

“It is,” Marius agreed. He raised his head and met Axis’s eyes.

Something seemed to pass between them that Erik couldn’t quite understand.

“So how do we do this?” Erik asked.

Jade patted his shoulder. “You don’t do anything, hellcat. You sit on the couch with Levi and watch until we’re finished. Afterward”—

his voice took on a husky timbre—“afterward you might join us.”
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Erik shivered, nodding his head in agreement as his libido took that to a sexual level that nearly had him rubbing against the angel in want. He beckoned Levi away from Marius and plopped down on the couch.

“The energy in the room may be a little overwhelming at times, boys,” Axis said, his voice filled with heat as well. Erik’s body tightened, and his dick filled. “You may have to sate one another if you stay.” The Elite commander looked at Marius. “If you have issue about us seeing that, I understand and will ask the nephilim to leave.” Marius swallowed visibly. “If what you say is true and we are meant to be with one another, I will have to get used to more than your eyes touching them.”

“An answer, Marius, yes or no.”

“They can stay.” The fallen paused. “I want them to stay.” Erik drew Levi to his chest, holding him close. Why did he just feel like he’d agreed and committed to something a little wilder than watching someone chant and light some incense? As the Elites began stripping off their clothing, he lost the ability to breathe.
Yeah
. It looked like this was going to get a lot crazier. Erik licked his lips and tried to remember why that was a bad thing.

* * * *

Marius watched as the Elites stripped off their clothing, revealing bodies that were prime examples of male flesh. They weren’t being overtly sexual, but there was an element, a feeling that Marius had in his gut, that said they felt the tension as well. Most angelic rituals had an element of nudity to them, so that wasn’t the reason Marius was all but panting about their nakedness. It was because it was
them
that Marius wanted to rut like a bull in springtime. As it had been with Levi and Erik, a part of him was screaming that they were his and he needed to touch them.