Death Angel (Death Angel Series Book 1) (16 page)

“Tell me to stop if it becomes uncomfortable for you,” he said. She knew he was trying to be gentle with her, but his words came out a bit harsh with his ragged breathing. She could tell he was as aroused as she was because speech suddenly became very difficult. Her apprehension immediately dissipated and all she could do was bite at her lower lip and nod her head.

His eyes stayed locked onto hers, searching them for her reaction as his hand continued to reach lower. He didn’t pull her pants off, instead he slowly moved his fingers lower until he reached a spot that made her gasp and arch her back. He half smirked down at her as he continued to move his fingers over that same spot sending wave after wave of electric pleasure through her.

“Does that feel good?” he asked, his voice husky. But it was more of a rhetorical question. He could tell by the way she wriggled beneath him and the gasping moans she could no longer control that she was enjoying what he was doing to her.

Suddenly he stopped, pulling his hand away and her eyes shot open, looking up at him with a pleading question in them that her mouth couldn’t form. He chuckled softly at her reaction, a smirk on his handsome lips. She wanted to reach up and catch them with her own, but she felt him shift on top of her. When she looked down at their bodies, she saw him pulling his pants off and she blushed deeply at the sight that greeted her eyes. His full manhood was on display for her, hard and insistent.

She tensed at the sight of it but not because it frightened her. It just looked so… unexpected and the way it made her cheeks burn to look at it made her shift a little.

“Have you…have you ever seen it?” he asked her, hovering above her, his voice soft as his eyes studied her with care. She shook her head, and in spite of herself she couldn’t pull her eyes away from the sight of him. It was the strangest, most incredibly erotic thing she had ever laid eyes on. Finally, his fingers tugged on her chin, pulling her face and eyes upward. He had a small grin on his face as he bent in closer to kiss her. It was soft and slow as he pulled at the edges of her pants, willing them to join his in a pile on the floor. She wiggled her legs and lifted her hips, helping him with the task. She broke off the kiss and couldn’t keep her eyes from trailing back down the contours of his body to look at him again. He gave her a moment to examine it as her foggy mind tried to comprehend what exactly it was she was seeing. His hand on hers pulled her attention back to his eyes. He slowly pulled her hand towards his groin, a soft almost imperceptible smile on his lips.

Her fingers were guided by his as he wrapped them around the length of his cock and she gasped slightly at the way it felt underneath her fingertips. It was hard and soft at the same time. Like a rock wrapped in a thick layer of silk, and it flexed and moved as she touched him. Her temperature had risen so high she didn’t know if she could stand it anymore, the way it all seemed to pool in her stomach and between her thighs. He moaned softly above her and her eyes snapped up to his, slightly afraid that she was doing something wrong, but his expression told her he was enjoying her touch just as much as she was enjoying touching him. He collapsed a little on top of her and once again his lips found hers.

“Are you ready?” he asked breathlessly as he pulled his lips away from her and shifted his body a little. She hadn’t had time to answer when she felt him suddenly entering her. She gasped at the pain and suddenness of it, her fingers digging into the skin of his muscular back as she tried to pull him closer to her. She was glad he had done it so suddenly and through the sharp pain that split into her, she reveled in the feeling of him inside of her.

He half groaned, half grunted as he had thrust into her, but he stopped after the first one. His hand rested on the side of her face as he looked carefully, almost painfully down at her as he stilled himself.

“Are you alright?” he barely managed to choke the words out, and she realized that it was a struggle for him to stay still. She nodded her head quickly and her hands pulled on his hips. She couldn’t speak, her mind was too full of him to form words, but she wanted to tell him to continue and this was the only way she could manage at the moment. He understood and she gasped loudly at the feeling of him pulling out of her and surging forward again. His hips rocked back and forth, slowly and apprehensively at first, but soon growing more rapid and frantic. It was painful, but it was oddly pleasurable for her at the same time. Just knowing that she would be so intimately connected with him filled her with so much joy that it weighed out any of the pain she felt as he pumped in and out of her.

Suddenly his whole body tensed and he let out a grunting moan before shakily collapsing over her. She held him tightly to her as they both struggled to regain their breath.

###

Kasen absently rubbed at the soft skin of Gabrielle’s shoulder as she nuzzled up next to him. The glow of their lovemaking was still settled over them and he was reluctant to speak, not ready to relinquish it yet. He’d had plenty of women, as most of the Generals in the Death Angel Society did, but he had never experienced anything quite like he had with her.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, his words barely a whisper. He hadn’t meant it for her to hear, he hadn’t even really been talking directly to her per se. He had just been thinking it and then it sort of came out. He only realized that she had heard him when her cheeks blushed red hot and she glanced up at him.

“I’m so glad that I met you,” she said as her eyes looked so innocently up at him. “I thought I was going to just be miserable here for the rest of eternity.”

Kasen couldn’t help but chuckle at her. “It couldn’t have been that bad, huh? Mr. Black has a reputation, but not quite that bad.”

“It’s not Mr. Black that’s so awful,” she said, sitting up a little and Kasen could feel her get suddenly defensive of him. He couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of jealousy but he quickly pushed it away. Gabrielle was his, and he knew that Sebastian wouldn’t attempt to take her away from him. He wasn’t that kind of man. Kasen knew that his reputation was just that. A reputation. He was a hard ass to all his subordinates, but he had a very good reason for it. His ranks were among the most respected in the whole of the Death Angel Society.

“Well what could possibly be so bad about this place?” Kasen asked, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back to him. She nuzzled up next to him and he was thankful that she wasn’t offended. “I know it takes some getting used to but it really isn’t bad at all.”

“No,” Gabrielle said, “it’s not this place that’s so bad. I mean, it’s confusing as hell sometimes and I still don’t feel like I know much of anything. But it’s the people here that make it so awful. Well, everyone except for you, Mr. Black, and Aracella. Everyone else seems to hate me for just being me.”

Again Kasen chuckled softly. He understood that she just didn’t understand how this place worked, and he tried not to make her feel like he was being condescending by laughing at her, so he quickly explained to her.

“They don’t hate you because you’re you,” he said softly.

“Well they hate me,” she said, her voice turning sad. “It doesn’t matter why they hate me, they just do and it makes it miserable to be here.”

“They don’t hate you,” Kasen said again. “They’re just jealous of you.”

“Jealous?” she said, picking herself up on her elbows so she could look at him. Her eyebrows were pulled tightly together above her beautiful chestnut eyes. “Why in the world would they be jealous of me? They all know exactly what they’re doing, and the appropriate way to act. I’m the one that is constantly screwing up and acting like a fool.”

“They are jealous because of the favor that Mr. Black shows you,” Kasen said with a sigh. He really hadn’t wanted to have this conversation with her. He wanted to avoid the subject of Sebastian, especially now that he knew how he felt. But he also didn’t want Gabrielle to think that she was hated. “He is a very powerful and respected General, even among his colleagues. Most people in the Death Angel Society would give anything to be in his ranks, much less winning a position to work so closely with him. Most have to work for a century with an exemplary record just to get the opportunity. You got the most desired job in all the Death Angel Society the day that you arrived here, with the exception of being a General.”

“I still don’t understand why he would do such a thing,” Gabrielle said, shaking her head and looking away. Her voice had gotten so soft that Kasen wasn’t even sure she was talking to him. Her cheeks blushed red hot for just a moment and he didn’t know why, but he suspected and worried that maybe she was thinking about Sebastian.

“Maybe he just sensed that you were meant to work under the Dark Generals and he just wanted to fill the position,” Kasen offered. He knew that wasn’t true, but after what he had seen with the Darkling in the mortal world, he was certain that she was meant to work in the Dark Ranks.

Gabrielle looked back up at him with confusion shining in her eyes.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well,” he sat up in the bed, propping his back against the headrest and letting the sheet cover just his naked lower half. He was happy to get off the subject of Sebastian. “When a person comes to the Death Angel Society, after they’ve been evaluated, and if they choose to, they go to the Academy to become a Death Angel.”

“Right,” she nodded. “I knew that.”

“Every person is earmarked upon entering the Academy as belonging to either the Dark, or the Light,” he said, explaining a bit more about the subtleties of the Death Angel Society. “The assessment determines the course of that person’s life in the Death Angel Society. It’s really a simple assessment though, and gets trumped up more than it has to. I think some new arrivals actually dread it, though there’s really no reason to.”

“What did you mean when you said I was meant to work under the Dark Generals?” she asked. She lay back down on the bed, on her back so that she could look backward up at him as he spoke.

“Dark Fighters, well…they fight,” he said with a shrug. “That’s what they spend most of their career doing. And they can get into some pretty dangerous situations, as you saw with that Darkling back there. But their bodies aren’t quite like the Light Fighters. They sustain injuries much differently than us, and they heal rather rapidly. It makes them better fighters, and us better researchers.”

“I see,” Gabrielle said. Kasen could see her mind putting things together, but he decided to further explain to her anyway.

“When you got hit by that Darkling,” he said, “You didn’t get a scratch on you, whereas I, obviously, didn’t fare so well. To be honest, I’m rather surprised that you didn’t get a single injury from that attack. It was pretty powerful, and even Dark Fighters would normally sustain injuries from something like that. It’s actually sort of remarkable.”

Gabrielle sat up a little, looking at him thoughtfully for a moment. He was afraid for a moment that she would get back on the subject of Sebastian and he would need to steer the conversation away from that. He would tell her one day why it was that Sebastian had done what he had done, but if he did that right now, he would probably give away his true identity. He felt a deep guilt at not having told her yet, but now just wasn’t the right time. He wanted to tell her though and he knew that she had deserved to know long before now. He just hoped that she would forgive him when he did tell her. In the scheme of things he didn’t think it was that big of a falsehood. He had never lied about the way he felt about her. Only his name and position.

As badly as Kasen wanted to lay in bed with Gabrielle for the rest of eternity, he knew he had to go now. He had put off the doctor too long, and now he had injuries that needed to be healed, on top of his quickly encroaching Sickness. He had to pry himself out of her bed and go home.

“I have to go home,” he said regretfully, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked up at him and bit her lip. “Will you see me again tomorrow?”

“I have to work,” she said, lifting her eyebrows. Her voice was disappointed. “I don’t think I can ask Mr. Black for another day off.”

“After work then,” he said. “Just for a little bit. I have something that I want to tell you.”

She sat up in the bed so that she was sitting on top of her heels. She hadn’t bothered to bring the sheet with her, so he got a glorious view of her still naked body and his concentration on the conversation wavered.

“What?” she asked, her face scrunching up a little bit. “What do you have to tell me?”

“Tomorrow,” he said, smiling back at her as he pulled himself out of the bed. “I think it would be better.”

He could see her forming an argument, so he quickly bent over the bed and caught her lips with his, silencing any argument she might make with a kiss. He pulled away from her lips and gently kissed her on the forehead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said softly. He quickly got dressed and left before she had time to try and convince him to tell his secret tonight. It just didn’t feel right, it wasn’t right. He would tell her tomorrow, when he had made all the preparations he needed and he could tell her gently the truth about who he was. He just really hoped that she would take it as well as he thought she would.

Chapter Twenty One

Sebastian needed backup, and fast. This was easily one of the largest Darklings he had ever encountered. How the hell had it ended up in the mortal world without even a blip on their radar? Something was terribly off here, and in the back of his mind it registered that it had to have something to do with the mysterious reports that he and Kasen had found. Actually, it was Gabrielle that had brought it to his attention. The fact that she had been here when the Darkling appeared wasn’t lost on him. Also rolling around in the back of his mind was the fact that recently everything that had to do with the oddities in the Death Angel Society seemed to in some way be related or connected to Gabrielle. Sebastian was a practical man and he didn’t believe in coincidences. He made it a mental point to question Gabrielle when he returned. But he couldn’t concentrate on such things at the moment.

His energy was fading quickly and all he had managed to do was amputate this creature’s left arm. That certainly wouldn’t kill it, and it didn’t even seem to slow it down. From what they knew of Darklings, they didn’t seem to feel physical pain, at least not from injuries. They felt the burning internal pain of their own despair and sorrow constantly, and that’s essentially what made them what they were.

Sebastian narrowly dodged a swipe from the creature, but it was surprisingly fast for its size and his jagged teeth clamped down on his shoulder as he moved. He growled at the pain but tried not to focus on it. He raised his sword and was able to slice a thick chunk of skin from the Darklings massive jaw, forcing it to release him. He tried to put some distance between the Darkling and himself. He needed it if he was going to us an energy blast to injure the Darkling. Unfortunately, he had already expended three blasts on the creature, and while they did moderate damage, they had also severely drained him of his power. If he could hold the creature off long enough for another General to arrive, they would be able to put the beast down together. But it was the Death Festival holiday and it would take time to track one of them down, and even more time for them to prepare to come to the mortal world.

Sebastian lifted his sword, preparing to strike but there was suddenly a hand on his wrist, holding him back. He whirled his head around to see what it was and his eyes grew wide with shock at what he saw.

“I wouldn’t want you to kill my favorite pet so soon,” the red eyed being said, before flinging him across the room with a mere flick of his hand. Sebastian crashed into a brick wall that was holding up the ceiling of the abandoned building he had been fighting in. He quickly recovered and brushed himself off. His eyes glided swiftly around the room, searching for his newest opponent, but he was nowhere to be found. His mind was foggy with confusion as he tried to assess this new threat. When the Darkling swiped at him, he wasn’t prepared for it at all.
He was clipped on his right arm, a deep gash tearing into his muscle and his sword clanging on the concrete floor, out of his reach. He looked up at the Darkling, who was much closer than he was comfortable with and his mouth was opening wide, preparing to devour him. Sebastian didn’t have many options, and he was becoming increasingly immobile. He could try to make a run for it. He was already weak from the fight and he was rapidly losing blood. He would likely die, but if he was lucky it wouldn’t be from the Darkling devouring him. Just as he was willing his legs to move and flee from the creature, he felt an energy blast forming and he knew that his backup had finally come. He wouldn’t die today. Not likely anyway. He knew right away that it was Eliot, as he felt the massive blast sweeping past the Darkling. It knocked the creature down to the ground and did some pretty heavy damage.

“That was a close one,” Eliot said, raising an eyebrow at Sebastian. “I think Ara would never forgive me if her big brother died on my account.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Sebastian managed to get the words out through the searing pain that was wracking his body with all the injuries he had sustained. “Just hurry up and kill the thing so we can get out of here.”

“Can do,” Eliot said simply, turning to the still downed Darkling and raising his blade to swat at it. That’s when Sebastian felt it. There was a massive pooling of dark energy in front of the Darkling and there before it stood the red-eyed being he had seen earlier. He got a good look at him now, but that only served to confuse him more. The creature, for the most part, looked like a man. But he had deep, angry crimson eyes that were so inescapably Darkling. His skin was as pale as he’d ever seen and his waifish appearance betrayed the strength that Sebastian had experienced first hand bundled up inside of him. He had never seen a creature like him and he had absolutely no idea what he was looking at, but for once in all his long life and career as a Death Angel, he was disturbed, perhaps even frightened.

“Who the hell is that?” Eliot asked, his utter shock apparent in his tone. He hesitated to swing his sword and release the blast that he had built up.

“I do wish I had more time to properly introduce myself,” the red eyed man said, his hands resting casually in his pockets as if he wasn’t the least bit threatened by them. “Unfortunately, I have to get this guy back. He’s had a bit too much fun today. But don’t worry. I’ll be seeing you both again soon.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than he disappeared and the massive Darkling with him. For a moment, he and Eliot were silently stunned by what they had just seen. Had it not been for Eliot seeing it with him, Sebastian would have thought he was maybe coming down with the Sickness and suffering from deliria.

“Who the hell was that?” Eliot asked again, finally turning to Sebastian with his forehead crinkled.

“I have no idea,” Sebastian said, and he was sure that his face showed his confusion. Unfortunately, they would have to wait to further discuss this. He was losing blood quickly and he needed to get back to the Death Angel Society and get treated. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Of course,” Eliot said, snapping out of his own confusion as he continued to stare at the spot where the Darkling had been. He rushed over to where Sebastian was struggling to stay standing and maintain his composure. He pulled out a small metal box that was a portable portal and to Sebastian’s great relief, they were on their way back to the Death Angel Society.

“I would appreciate it if you kept all this between us for now,” he said to Eliot as they passed through the portal. The words were a struggle to get out, but it was important. With all the new information that had been coming out, and knowing that there was at least one General connected to whatever was going on, he didn’t want to risk finding anything out by the wrong person knowing. There were few Generals that Sebastian trusted before he found this out. Now there were even less. Kasen was one of them, Eliot was the other.

“Yeah, sure,” Eliot said, shrugging his shoulders. His words were in agreement, but he looked back at Sebastian with confusion.

“What we just saw…,” he tried to elaborate, keeping his words as concise as possible to keep from hurting himself too much more, “…we don’t even have a name for. It is best to not cause a panic if it is unnecessary. We will speak with the Head General privately.”

“Okay,” Eliot readily agreed, shrugging his shoulders. That would give Sebastian a day to heal from his injuries, speak with Kasen, and try to put together whatever
the hell was going on around here.