Angel Kin (9 page)

Erik crossed his arms over his chest and spat as Levi was making  soothing motions with his hands. “You just wait until Marius gets  back. Once I find out he’s okay, I’m going to beat the hell out of him  for worrying me. Gah! Angels!”

Bren was quite sure that if they hadn’t been in a car, Erik  would’ve used the moment to stomp off in a snit. Luckily, they were  in a car.

“Third house on the left, Bren,” Yuri instructed, pointing to the  gorgeous monstrosity that sat in the bend of the cul-de-sac. The  nephilim in the car fell silent as they pulled into the drive of a  rambling colonial house whose nearest neighbors were a good fifty to  sixty feet away. The lawn was well manicured, and the sharp-looking  brick framed a house with a long porch and welcoming greenery that  was suspended by hanging brackets in regular intervals along the  porch.

“Thank God,” Bren muttered. He’d hoped the sight of the house  would hush the bitching nephilim up, and he had been right.

“Okay, well, he may be a generous, thoughtful, and wonderful  man, but he is still getting it when he gets home,” Erik said from the  back seat. “He didn’t tell us it was this big.”

“Oh my God! It’s so beautiful!” Levi chirped happily. “I just want  to squeeze him to pieces. Look, Erik, it’s everything we wanted. It’s a  home!”

“It’s more than that,” Erik said as Bren cut the engine after putting  the car in park. “It’s our home.”

The sentiment was circulated. Bren hoped one day to have that  sort of place, too, somewhere for his family to rest when they were  weary, a place to grow as a family, to laugh together. There hadn’t  been nearly as much laughter lately as there should have been.

* * * *

Madigan had installed them in the guest rooms downstairs and set about whipping a sweet treat up for lunch. The sandwiches were placed in the empty fridge, and the drinks were stored away beside them. He’d even convinced Dex to go back into town to get him some things he needed to make a couple cheesecakes as a treat for arriving safely. Yuri sat at the island reading a magazine Dex had brought back for him. It was some special-edition
 
Times
 
piece about the history of America which had him thoroughly engrossed.

“That smells fantastic, babe,” Yuri complimented as Madigan whisked the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. He hated having to use store-bought pie crusts, but he didn’t really have time for anything else. The stainless-steel oven was already preheated and waiting for Madigan to slide the three pies he’d made into it.

“You can’t possibly smell anything,” Madigan said, laughing.  “It’s not even cooking yet.”

“Smells sweet. Can I lick the bowl?”

“It’s got raw eggs in it,” Madigan reminded, pouring the contents

into one of the pie crusts until it was just the right amount of filling.

“So what? It’s not like I can get sick from it. Come on, babe. I  have been dutifully sitting here, waiting for you to finish cooking  when I could’ve been in the living room with the fifty-two-inch  plasma screen and all the ESPN channels at my fingertips. I feel like  this is not an unreasonable request.” Yuri’s pout was adorable, and  Madigan couldn’t help but laugh at his expression.

“You’re a dork. But since you asked so nicely, here.” He handed  the bowl over and watched as Yuri began scooping out the remaining  contents with his fingertips. Madigan’s nose wrinkled. He could’ve  understood if he would’ve been making chocolate icing or something,  but cheesecake mix? Ew.

Levi and Erik were still exploring the rest of the house. They apparently hadn’t expected their angel to splurge quite the way he had. It really was a lovely home. Madigan couldn’t help but imagine him and his angels buying a home similar to it soon. He was approaching their union like it was a marriage now, and as such, the next logical step would be to make a home together.

Levi came trailing into the kitchen then, an armload of picture frames in his hands. “I want to fill all of these when we go have pictures taken,” he announced, setting them down on the small eat-in kitchen table. “I’ve collected them since I left home four years ago, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect memories to go inside them.” He took out the delicately decorated silver ones. “These are going to be for the wedding photos.”

“That’s great, Levi,” Madigan said, stooping over to put the cheesecakes in the oven. He set the timer for twenty minutes before circling around to have a look at Levi’s considerable collection. He was an odd one, the collection of photos yet another odd quirk in his personality.

As Levi started to talk about the wedding that would take place in a few days’ time, Madigan couldn’t help but think of his own impromptu ceremony that had taken place a few weeks back. His angels had his name etched into their skins for all eternity. The

bracelets on Madigan’s wrist were as symbolic as any wedding band

but still…the human tradition would’ve been nice.

It was hard to imagine that he’d once been opposed to the idea of being with all of them. They had their problems, but what couple didn’t? They never asked anything of him and never demanded he do anything to acknowledge their bond publically. The one thing they wanted from him, Madigan had been unwilling to give them. A determination filled him. If they could be brave enough to face death and desertion by their fellow angels on his behalf, it only made sense that he could grow some balls and tell his mother what was really going on.

“Hey, Levi, can I use your phone?” he asked, interrupting the other nephilim midsentence. As usual, Levi took it in stride.

“Sure.” He fished in his pocket and extracted his cell phone.  “Calling your lovers?”

“Nah, my mom.”

Yuri stood up from his seat at the island and ruffled Levi’s hair before striding from the room. No doubt he was off to find the biggest recliner and the remote.

“Is there a place that I can have some privacy?” Madigan asked,  only realizing the foolishness of his statement too late. Levi and he  probably had the same amount of knowledge for where everything  was in this huge house. He smiled apologetically as Levi shrugged.

The smaller nephilim pointed toward the side exit for the kitchen.  “There is a small office through there that Erik is going to use. You  could slip in there.”

“Perfect. Thanks.”

He shut the door behind him as he swung into the small office that was right off the kitchen. The room was dark wood and masculine, the rich color of the furniture and built-in shelves calling to mind every detective movie he’d seen since he was a kid. The dark green accents and furniture added to the feel of the space. It felt like a den, nice and cozy. The place suited Erik for some reason.

The other nephilim had busied himself by unpacking things in the upper bedroom where Madigan assumed they all would sleep, though  Levi had assured him that they all had their own separate rooms for whenever they wanted some quiet time to themselves. That part didn’t make much sense to Madigan, but he was in no position to judge. Erik just couldn’t relax until Marius and the others got back, so he stayed up there, waiting. Now that Madigan knew that Michel and Cross weren’t hurt, he saw no harm in relaxing a bit.

He planted himself behind the desk on the leather roll chair he found there and dialed his aunt’s number from memory.

“Hello?” His aunt’s voice came through the phone with the same cheerful note she always had when answering. He could picture her in her white-on-white kitchen with a wine glass in hand as the phone

rang.

“Hi, Auntie. It’s Madi. Is my mom there?” He erred on the side of  politeness despite the fact that it was probably unnecessary. Maybe it  was his nervousness that made him that way. He wasn’t sure how his  mom was going to react.

“Of course she is, silly goose. Hold on one second.”

Madigan tapped his fingers nervously on the polished wood,  wishing like hell he’d decided not to do this but too stubborn to back

out now.

“Hi, Madi.” His mom’s voice came through on the other line, and  Madigan tensed. “Everything all right, baby?”

“Yeah. We made it to the sanctuary all right. No major problems.”  The polite talk was the easy part. Much easier than what he would  have to say next.

“I’m glad to hear that.” She paused. “What’s the matter, Madi?  You sound nervous.” It figured that she would call him on it. She’d  always known him like the back of her hand, and he supposed that  this would be no different than any other time in his life. They were  close, always had been.

“Mom, I’m in love.” The words came out sounding just as high

school as he’d wanted it not to be.
 
Dammit
.

There was a long pause on the other end. “Which of your guardians is it, Madigan?” She’d probably had an internal bet going about which one he’d cave into. The last time they’d all been together they’d all been attracted to his scent and he had been no better. The instincts that had awakened in him had demanded he throw himself at

them.

“Um, all of them?” He smacked himself in the forehead.
 
Wow.

Fucking genius, Madigan. Genius
. The silence on the other end was palpable. “Say something,” he said in a strangled voice.

“Come again?”

Christ.
 
He had to repeat himself? He cleared his throat. “I’m in love with all of them…and they’re in love with me.” Man, he couldn’t breathe. “We, um, we’re together.”

She was silent for a solid minute before she took a deep breath and sighed. “Your father did say there would be some instincts that were difficult to deny. Now I need you to think really hard about this,  Madigan, before you say yes or no. Are you in love with them because you want to have sex with them? Or because you genuinely love their company and cannot think of a single thing you would rather do than be with them?”

Madigan’s face burnt from the intensity of his blush. He supposed it was the motherly thing to do to ask questions like this, but they were embarrassing as hell. “Mom, I love them. Of course I want to have sex with them, but it goes deeper than that. They’re a part of me in so many ways it’s crazy. I can’t think of spending even one day without them.”

“What are their intentions in regards to you?” she asked carefully.

“That’s the thing, Mom. I sort of, well, we”—He paused, took a  deep breath, and continued—“we sort of already got married the  angelic way.”

“
Madigan Raphael Parker
!”

He jerked the phone back from his ear at her screech. “It was sort of necessary at the time. But that’s not the point. Mom, please listen before you go off on a—”

“The least you could’ve done was to call and
 
tell
 
me before you did something like that! Oh, Madi, I
 
dreamed
 
of the day you would get married since you were a little boy! And you
 
excluded
 
me from the most important event in your life like I was some sort of, of,
afterthought
 
or something!”

“Oh boy,” he muttered, hanging his head like a little kid getting berated by a parent, which was actually pretty close to the truth.

“I don’t know how you would’ve thought this would’ve been a good idea given how you know I support you whatever you decide to do with your life—”

“Mom, we’re going to have a human ceremony in a couple weeks!” Madigan shouted. He’d say anything at this point to get her to stop the endless tirade of disappointment. He prayed his lovers would go along with it because he was pretty sure nothing less would satisfy his mother. If they didn’t give her something, she was liable to have a fit and drive down here just to yell at them in person.

Blessed silence met his declaration on the other end of the phone.  Madigan let out the breath he’d been holding. “As I was going to say before you starting chewing my head off, we’re talking it over tonight to make some plans on the ceremony and whatnot. We’re already married by heaven’s laws, but I do want to do it in front of witnesses.” He paused. “I’m not sure of who to invite given the unusual nature of our relationship, but I do want to do this right.”

“That depends on how public you want to make the fact that you’re marrying five men, Madi. It’s not easy for a lot of people to accept that you’re gay to begin with. Add multiple partners on top of it and it’s not an easy row to sow. I will come, of course, and support you a hundred percent, but you need to realize the risks before you go inviting everyone.” His mother had always been a sounding board for his thoughts. In this she was no different. “You’ll also have to keep in