"You're my guiding light," Bel said. "I love you. There is no need to feel guilty for wanting to protect yourself. I get that."
"It's not guilt," Eden said mostly to himself. He let January fall down, covering the happy Valentine's Day drawing. "I want to make it up to you, but I'm not quite sure how."
"You don't need to."
"I know you don't need me to, but I do. I need to."
The sorrow in Eden's eyes hurt Bel more than his rejection of the ring. He folded his arms around Eden, resting his head on the angel's shoulder and rubbing Eden's back. "You'll think of something. You're the smartest angel I know."
"I'm the only angel you know."
Bel heard the smile in Eden's voice and laughed softly. "So righteous and indignant," he teased. "I'll show you how much I know about you, little angel." He lifted his head and grinned as his fingers found their way under Eden's shirt and up to his wing sheaths. His touch danced lightly along their sensitive edges, sending sensual shudders down Eden's body.
Their mouths drifted together in lazy, tender kisses. When Bel's caresses drew a gasp from the angel, the demon pushed his tongue past those parted lips. Eden sucked on his tongue and dug his fingers in Bel's hair. When the teasing touch became too much, Eden tangled his fingers in Bel's hair and tugged him back so he could suck in a whimpering breath.
"Oh, Bel, when you do that…"
Bel stepped into the angel, pressing their bodies together. Against Eden's ear, he whispered, "I know." Bel circled his hips, rubbing his cock against Eden's. The angel's wings were sensitive, but he'd still come like any other man with enough friction against his hard cock. Bel growled and nipped at Eden's earlobe.
Eden sucked in a deep breath. His chest pumped it right back out again. Breathing through his mouth, his kisses went from tender to demanding, from chaste to messy and needy. He arched into Bel's touch and bucked his hips against his lover's, seeking that sweet release in wordless physical urges.
"Are you… are you… Bel?"
"Yes, my light?" Bel's voice rumbled.
Eden's hands skated down Bel's chest, squeezing between them to tug his shirt out of his waistband. "You like to make me beg, don't you?"
Bel answered by pushing the angel against the wall and pinning him there with his hips. "Beg. Demand. Suggest."
"I suggest," Eden said, fumbling with the buttons on Bel's shirt. "That you get rid of these clothes."
With a chuckle, Bel grabbed Eden's hands and then swooped in for a kiss, tangling their tongues in an intimate dance until Eden broke away to pant out several quick breaths. Bel hummed his satisfaction, lust swirling the shadowfire in his eyes and drawing out his fangs despite his best efforts at controlling the demon inside. He stepped back, unbuttoning his pants and flicking down his zipper as he toed off his shoes.
"You too," Bel said.
As if those words broke a spell, Eden tore off his shirt and then, after a quick kiss to Bel's cheek, darted up the back stairs. Bel caught him as he rounded through the doorway to their bedroom, and tackled him to the unmade queen-sized bed. Eden rolled over and hooked his arms around Bel's neck. "Make love to me, Bel," Eden whispered. "Drive me wild."
Bel rose. He tugged Eden's pants off and then leaned over him to conquer his mouth. He hooked one arm under Eden's waist and dragged him into the middle of the bed, before setting his weight over his lover. When Eden's legs wrapped around Bel, Bel caressed the thigh at his waist and then tucked his hand under Eden's ass, squeezing and massaging before his fingers inched down his crease.
"Yes…" Eden hissed the word out.
"Yes, what?" Bel asked. He grabbed a pillow and Eden automatically rolled over and tucked it under his hips.
"Yes, everything."
"That works for me."
Bel nipped Eden's ass and then ran his tongue over his entrance. Eden squirmed, but Bel held him still. He covered Eden's body with his own, his hips pressed to Eden's ass and his cock nestled against the place he most wanted to be. Looping his arms around Eden's waist, Bel flexed with gentle pressure to ease Eden open. As Eden took him in, Bel exhaled a ragged sigh.
"Oh, yeah, that's warm and tight and…" Bel forgot his words and started to thrust. Eden moaned and lifted his hips to meet Bel's strokes as his fingers dug into the sheets. Bel scooped bright hair away from Eden's face and kissed his neck, his cheek, and his lips as Eden twisted his head to meet his mouth in an awkward, sloppy kiss.
"Soon," Eden said.
"I know." Bel pushed back, rising on his knees so he could hold Eden's hips, thrusting harder and faster, so close to his own release.
"That thing." Eden panted. "My wings."
"I know. Shhh, just enjoy it." Bel squeezed Eden's ass with one hand. As Eden rocked back into his thrusts, Bel ran that hand up his spine, sliding sideways at his shoulder blade to brush a light but hurried touch over the angel's wing sheath.
Eden's voice echoed in Bel's ears as the angel came with a keening cry, pushing back against Bel and tearing at the sheets with his long, pale fingers. Bel held back until he wrung every last moan out of the angel and then he slammed into him one more time, releasing his seed and bucking his hips once, twice, and then again as streams of warm cum filled his lover.
"I love you, Bel."
Bel smiled and stretched out beside his sleepy angel. "I love you too, my light."
Eden rolled over and pressed his body close to Bel and Bel never felt happier than he did with the angel at his side.
Chapter Three
"Hello?" Bel listened but not only didn't get an answer; he didn't hear a sound in the apartment. "Eden?" He peeked into the living room, but the dark television and empty reading chair gave no hints as to Eden's whereabouts.
He carried the pizza box to the dark kitchen and tucked it into the oven to keep it warm. When he turned, planning to take the back staircase up to the bedroom, he spotted Eden sitting in the corner behind the round kitchen table.
"Eden?" Bel's heart trembled and raced and his voice caught in his throat. The light that always called to Bel no longer shone in Eden's innocent, smooth face. "What happened?" Bel's claws lengthened, his fangs descended and, as he took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to control the fury at whoever or whatever had bred despondency in his beautiful angel, he felt the piercing pain shoot through his forehead. His horns rarely sprouted, even in anger, but Eden, his love, his light, shouldn't be cloaked in shadows.
He reached for the switch. Eden's voice broke and trembled. "Don't. Please."
With a guttural growl, three candles in the center of the table flared to action. Eden flinched from their flame, tucking his chin to his chest. His wings trembled and, even in the weak light, Bel saw the ruffled feathers and, worse, those that weren't there. Eden's right wing sported a bald spot that meant at least a dozen or more feathers had been ripped out of his flesh.
Bel rushed to his side and crouched at his feet. With a comforting hand on Eden's knee and another brushing back tangled locks of hair, he asked, "Who did this?"
Eden's lower lip trembled until he sucked it between his teeth. He shook his head and refused to look at Bel.
"Talk to me, my light. Let me be your strength, as you have been for me so often."
Eden turned his hand palm up and Bel gasped at the ruined flesh.
"Andaras," Bel hissed. Only his father would claim his angel with a summoning rune carved into the skin.
Eden nodded. His lip broke free from his teeth, swollen from the effort of restraining his emotions. A sob shook his thin chest and then another chased through his body. His torn wings trembled and drooped, stuck between their full beauty and a neat indiscreet place along Eden's back.
"I won't let him. He can't have you."
"It's too late. He's marked me and…" Fat tears fell from his eyes. "He saw the ring you gave me. I'm sorry. I took it, Bel, because I wanted to…" He took a deep breath but sobbed out the exhale. "He has it. He said you don't own me until you put it on my finger." His shimmering eyes shifted up to meet Bel's gaze at last. "I know you didn't mean it that way, Bel. That's why I had it. I was ready to wear it, but the magic didn't work."
"Because I didn't put it on you," Bel finished. "I know." Bel covered both of Eden's hands with his own, touching lightly to avoid causing more pain to Eden's injuries. "I didn't mean it as ownership, Eden. I wanted to protect you."
"I know." Eden huffed out an exasperated sob. "I knew then, too, but I wasn't ready to be that important to someone. I… fucked it up."
Bel laughed, but despite his hope of calming the angel, he heard the tension in his own voice. "Did my innocent angel just swear?"
Eden's eyes reflected anger and pain, but shadows of amusement flickered in the background. "He said if you don't return to your duties as his son, he'd come for me. Bel, it's okay. I know how much you hate what he made you do. All angels are taught to endure suffering and I will go when he calls me."
"Oh, fuck no." Eden winced at Bel's words, making the demon laugh. "You said it first," Bel said. He sobered and shook his head. "You're not going with him. There is no way in Hell you're leaving me."
Bel stood. Eden's eyes widened. He knew the answer before he asked the question. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get my ring back. He had no right to take it. Or you."
Eden shook his head. "No. No, don't, Bel. He'll hurt you. He'll make you return to his side." The angel shot to his feet, his ruined wings trembling. "That's if you're lucky. It's impossible for even full demons to find their way out of Hell without permission."
Pulling the angel into his arms, Bel nuzzled his warm neck. "I'll find a way."
Eden trembled in his arms. "Don't. Please."
"Shh…" Bel brushed his lips over Eden's. "I'll come back to you. Remember, you're my guiding light, Eden. I'll find my way back to you, always."
Chapter Four
After Bel left, Eden sank back into the kitchen chair, folded his arms on the table, and sobbed into his hands. His wings curved around him, shrouding him in his misery. He did not move until the dawn slipped past the thin white curtains guarding the window over the kitchen sink.
When the sun became too bright and cheery, Eden rose to his feet, shaky, scared, and empty. He dragged himself up the narrow staircase at the back of the house, the tips of his wings dusting each step. He took a long shower, dwelling on Bel fighting for him in the depths of Hell. Bel had always said Eden's light and strength helped him find his human half and live a life they both enjoyed, but Eden thought he exaggerated, using sweet talk, as the mortals called it, to convey his love. Now, faced with the possibility of Bel's eternal damnation, Eden found the strength to give his lover the faith that only angels were capable of.
He dried his body with a big, fluffy towel and then climbed out onto a small roof balcony to stretch his wings. The wind blowing down from the heavens ruffled his feathers, chasing the moisture from them. He tilted his head up, letting the sun heat his face. Dressed in nothing but warm rays from Heaven, Eden stretched his wings as far as he could and then flapped them slowly downward, once, twice, and then took flight, leaping off of the roof and catching the air just right to glide down to the backyard. The missing feathers meant he couldn't fly, but so did his missing lover.
"Be safe, Bel," he whispered. He wings fluttered and glowed softly with his simple prayer.
Eden returned to the house, dressed, and then opened the knee-high safe in the back of the bedroom closet. From within its protective walls, he removed an item he had brought from Heaven, but had used infrequently since his Fall. A dagger with an S-curve and a wicked edge gleamed with a black sheen though the metal was white. He lifted it from a velvet-lined box, remembering the day he met Bel at the end of that very blade.
* * * *
Eden's fall had been temporary at first. He had been part of a small squadron of low rank angels that fell for the sole purpose of thinning out demon clutches on Earth. They had orders: kill demons, and allow no mortal to bear witness to the destruction.
Five angels, each armed with a curved blade enchanted by divine magic, dropped from Heaven as one squadron. Each wore his hair long and uncut, and each glided down to earth on color-tipped wings. Eden dropped to the concrete ground and quickly picked up the scent of a succubus on the prowl. The pheromones that baited humans burned the sensitive noses of the angels, and like faithful hounds, they tracked the demon to a pocket of whores in cheap Spandex mini-dresses and stilettos in which none but the working women could balance, let alone walk.
"No witnesses," whispered the angel with hunter green hair and wings. "We wait."
The angels spread out around the block, one stalking along a rooftop and four, Eden included, at each cardinal point, hanging back in the shadows, watching girls come and go, servicing customers that knew to drive by their corner for a good time. With infinite patience, the squadron waited. With perfect precision, when the succubus climbed in the car of a john, the angels followed, staying far enough back to not be noticed by the nervous mortal man with a sinful need and close enough to spring into action when they were far enough away from the other whores to confront their evil prey.
Eden had been in charge of clearing the mortal from the area and then wiping his mind of their presence. When his squadron swarmed the vehicle, Eden pulled open the driver's side door, ignoring the man's open pants, to pull him to safety. He shielded the human from the scene with his wings, wrapping them around the man as they ran. Once they ducked around a corner, Eden hunkered down, pushing the man to the ground so that Eden's wings protected the man and pinned him against the wall of a deserted building.
"Forget," Eden whispered in the ancient language of the angels.
The man stood, blinked twice, and then walked briskly to his car. By the time the vehicle was in his sight, the angels had already dragged the succubus out of the street and slammed a divine blade through her heart. The angels met Eden at the corner where he'd brought the man and, as one, they took flight, their wings shimmering to absorb the color of the sky and camouflage their travel. One demon had been sent back to Hell, but the city hid thousands more.