Marius considered him. “If I tell you, all of you must vow never to breathe a word to the higher-up angels, including your archangels. Is that understood?”
“So long as it does not threaten my mission, I promise.” Dex, as
usual when it came to matters of the Fallen and his lovers, was the
first one to back Madigan up.
“Yeah, whatever, me, too.” Bren’s nonchalant voice added to the
yea vote.
Cross reached down and ruffled Madigan’s hair. “Since our
Madigan is so curious, I won’t speak of it, either.”
Marius nodded. “Go ahead, Levi.” The smaller man grinned widely and turned his attention to Madigan. The other nephilim and he had become fast friends since the three of them had come into the
house a week ago. Levi was a sweet guy and innocent as they came. He invoked the urge to protect in anyone with a drop of testosterone, including Madigan. Beyond those qualities, though, he was a funny guy, and he was the first person whom Madigan had really been able to share about his angels with.
“The
UCNM
is a book written by a council of Fallen angels in Europe that is basically a how-to guide to matings between angels, demons, nephilim, humans, and Fallen. Any combination of those types of persons is found in the book. It’s like a million pages long, and I haven’t made it through the whole thing because I’m not really interested in anything but the Fallen-human-nephilim chapter. But, it’s pretty interesting, and you might learn some stuff about your bond if you wanted to look at it.” Levi babbled in the same fashion he always did, and it took Madigan almost a full minute to process what he was saying.
“So what does
UCNM
stand for?” Bren asked before Madigan could ask for the book to look at.
Marius replied, stretching his arms towards the ceiling as he did so. “Universal Concord of the Newly Mated.”
“Can I see it?” Madigan asked eagerly. He’d been dying for more information on his lovers, and knowing that there was supposedly a book on the subject thrilled him. Mind you, he’d probably skip over the parts that didn’t pertain to him, but it was still neat.
Levi grinned. “Yeah. I’ve got the copy Marius gave me in the angel room. Come on.”
Madigan got to his feet, gave each of his angels a kiss in turn, and sprinted after the smaller nephilim. Finally, he was going to get some
answers.
* * * *
“So why did they write a book?” Bren asked as he watched his nephilim lover’s tight ass jog to catch up with Levi. Madigan was always eager for more information on angels and nephilim. A single text on the subject would probably send him into a babbling froth of excitement. He and Levi were similar in that way. Maybe it was a nephilim thing. He’d slowly gotten used to the Fallen and Marius’s two nephilim lovers. As Dex had said when they’d first arrived, it did no good to judge them. Despite the fact that Marius was a Fallen, Bren kind of liked the guy. He was a special brand of smart-ass.
“A lot of Fallen on Earth were bonding with people outside their kind. Let’s face it, humans and even demons outnumber us. It would
only make sense to give people a way to navigate a culturally diverse relationship.” Marius pulled Erik into his arms and kissed the top of his head. “This one, for example, wasn’t the easiest to understand.”
Erik snorted, his brown eyes narrowing. “I was bizarre to understand? Ha! You were the one practically beating your chest and waving a club.”
“I resent the innuendo that I am a barbarian, though if it is a kink of yours, I’m sure I could scrounge up an animal skin of some kind and grunt a lot,” Marius returned, not missing a beat. Yeah, Bren really liked the guy. He was funny as shit.
“I wished to speak to you all about traveling to the sanctuary town,” Cross interrupted before any more side conversations got started. Leave it up to Red to bring up business when they were trying to relax. The idea of leaving Madigan’s sanctuary house didn’t set well with Bren. Staying there didn’t either, really, but at least the hunters couldn’t get to them in here. Out there, there were no guarantees.
Cross continued, oblivious to the increase in Bren’s pulse. “We need to set a date for when we are leaving. Yuri isn’t going to be well enough to act as any sort of guardian on the trip over. He’s healing too slowly, and his injuries are too severe for him really to be
effective. So he’s going to have to ride in the car, but someone else is going to have to drive. Who’s going to do it?”
No one spoke for long moments. None of them were too eager to get back into a vehicle. The trauma from the last time was still a bit too fresh. Bren took a deep breath.
He had been running things since Cross’s injury. He still had a hole in his chest that wasn’t quite healed, and the idea of putting him back in a car where he couldn’t really defend himself didn’t sit well with him. Dex and Michel would be more use to them fighting because Dex was massive and Michel was a warrior not just by creed but by class as well. So it left him or the Fallen to carry on the task, and he wasn’t going to leave Marius in charge of their most precious possession, even if he was a funny guy.
“I’ll do it.” Bren heard himself speak the words but couldn’t quite believe he’d said them. He pressed a kiss to Cross’s chest and met his eyes. “You going to be okay flying?”
Cross nodded, a look of gratitude on his face. “Yes. I will be. Thank you.” They shared a moment of understanding that went beyond the words exchanged. Bren’s heart swelled.
God, I love you, Red. I love you so damn much
. It had taken losing his man to realize how deeply he cared about him. Yuri had claimed that they’d want to bond, and Bren had never believed it. Now he did. “Now that that is
settled, when do you gentlemen want to leave for sanctuary?”
“How about Thursday? Our wedding is on Sunday, and that will give us a couple days to prepare. Besides that benefit, the traffic will be reasonably low and traveling will be efficient,” Erik suggested. He leaned into Marius further, nuzzling his neck. Bren was always amazed at how easily touching the others had come to him. It was strange to see that comfort reflected in the other relationship of their friends.
“I agree with Erik, but do you think Michel should be in on this?”
Dex asked.
Cross shrugged his muscled shoulders. “Michel wouldn’t have gone farther than the porch, and he is probably pacing in the sunroom trying to work off his attitude problem. We’ll fill him in when he calms down.” He continued. “Does anyone have any objections to making Thursday the day we leave out of here?” Silence answered him. “Great. Be ready to leave then. Pack as little as you can and be battle ready at 7:00 a.m.”
The nephilim returned from the other room as Cross finished speaking, chatting excitedly amongst themselves over the book and what its details were. Bren relaxed a little when Madigan came in sight. Ever since the car wreck, he’d been more and more reluctant to let Madigan go. No wonder other guardians he’d met had seemed so frazzled all the time. Being in charge of someone else’s health and happiness was a responsibility that made people into nervous wrecks.
“So, just so you know, there are actual sex position suggestions that I am dying to try in this thing,” Madigan babbled, obviously keyed up. The scent of aroused nephilim made every angel in the room growl. “I still can’t figure out why the book has sex positions by species, but it’s pretty freaking awesome.”
Ah, so the two of them had been flipping through the naughty bits of the UCNM
. “Um, can we go upstairs for a minute? I need to talk to you guys.” Madigan was about as transparent as glass. He was all but squirming in arousal, and the decided bulge at the front of his lounge pants did not help an argument for the contrary.
“Yeah, um, Marius, Erik, I kind of need your help with something in the angel room.” Levi echoed Madigan’s thinly veiled statement, inching his way closer to the couch.
Hungry nephilim going through angelic puberty had sex drives that could rival a sex demon. Madigan’s hunger was even worse than the legends Bren had heard.
Worse
wasn’t really an appropriate adjective. It was more like more
awesome
or some derivative thereof. He had a sex drive able to keep up with five warrior angels and their
own raging libidos, so in Bren’s eyes, Madigan was the holy grail of
sex kittens.
“I’m sure we can come help you,” Marius said, already entranced with his nephilim. Erik looked half ready to pounce on Levi as well. “Absolutely, baby. Anything that you need is yours.”
Dex surged to his feet and did what Bren was dying to do. He scooped Madigan up and took off in the direction of the stairs. Bren would’ve laughed had he not been so instantly aroused by his nephilim’s smell. Cross did have a little chuckle, though.
“Our nephilim is sex crazed,” Cross murmured, leaning down and whispering the words into Bren’s ear. Bren shuddered. He was aware of the trio of Fallen and nephilim leaving the room and leaving the two of them alone.
“Yes,” Bren said simply. He didn’t know what else to say. His brain kind of short-circuited when Cross touched him. He put his hand on Cross’s chest. “You going to be okay?”
Cross nodded. “So long as I don’t have to fight you, Bren, I’ll be fine.” He paused and seemed to consider his statement. “As enjoyable as fighting with you is at times…” He trailed off deliberately and ran a hand down Bren’s T-shirted torso. Bren resisted the urge to groan. Yeah, they had nasty, dirty sex whenever they fought for it. One day, Bren was going to have Cross’s ass. It was going to happen, and he knew all he had to do was ask for it. But it wouldn’t be today. Cross’s injury would sour something meant to be perfect. The fight that they would have for dominance beforehand would make it all the sweeter.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Dex’s voice boomed in both of their heads. “Hurry the hell up!”
Cross gave him a wink before they both got to their feet and headed toward the stairs. They met Michel there, who was still looking like he was in a sullen mood. No matter, Bren knew how to fix that. Without preamble, he pushed Michel into the wall at the bottom of the stairs, claiming his mouth in a possessive kiss that was designed to wreak havoc on the senses. It apparently succeeded
because it took exactly three seconds before Michel was opening his mouth to accept Bren’s tongue and grinding his erection against Bren’s body. If it had been another time and Madigan’s needs hadn’t been so pressing, Bren might’ve just yanked Michel’s pants down and taken him against the wall, but alas, they were needed elsewhere.
Bren broke the kiss with a nip to Michel’s lips. “Enough brooding, Michel. That’s my job.”
Michael’s angel’s eyes were swimming with pleasure. “Yeah. Okay,” he said with a stupefied expression on his face. Bren couldn’t resist leaning in and delivering another kiss to his oh-so-pouty lips.
A cloth-clad cock against his ass brought him back from his distraction. Cross’s voice sounded in his ear. “Come on, Bren. We
have a nephilim to sate.”
Bren shuddered. Fuck yeah, they did.
Chapter Three
Madigan always felt embarrassed after he devolved into a hard-panting mess, but damn the fall into delicious madness was so fucking worth it. He’d never known desire or pleasure until he’d joined with his men.
“Don’t feel like being on top tonight,” he said, his body thrumming with anticipation. Dex was keeping him occupied by letting him lick and suck and kiss every inch of exposed skin, but nothing would be enough until he had all of his guardians balls-deep inside of him. His heart constricted as he thought of Yuri in the other room. He ached to reaffirm his desire for Yuri but knew that it would
only serve to hurt and frustrate him if he went in there right now.
“I’m sure we won’t mind being on top, Madigan.” Dex gasped as Madigan pulled Dex’s T-shirt up and started laving his nipples with his tongue. They were such fascinating bits of flesh. He suckled them for a minute, alternating between one and the other as his hands ran up and down Dex’s torso, kneading Dex’s cock through his blue jeans. Yuri had always loved when Madigan nibbled on his nipples. Madigan did it to Dex, who groaned appropriately. The sounds of footsteps in the hallway signaled his men coming to take what was theirs by right. But not all of his men.