Her Warriors' Three Wishes (Dante's Circle) (24 page)

Ambrose ran a finger down Balin’s check then cupped his jaw. Balin rolled Ambrose’s balls in his hand and sucked with all his power until Ambrose shouted and came on his tongue, the salty taste unlike anything Balin had ever known.

Balin swallowed it all, not letting one drop get away from him, then pulled away, a smile on his face.

“Face the wall,” he said as he stood.

Ambrose’s eyes darkened even more and his angel kicked off his jeans before doing what he’d been told.

Fuck, that was hot.

Balin quickly shucked his pants and fisted his cock, already ready to pop at just the sight of his lover’s muscled back and fucking-hot ass.

He couldn’t wait to take it.

“What is it with you and walls?” Ambrose asked. “You’ve already taken Jamie against one a few times.”

Balin gave a deep chuckle and softly cupped his lover’s ass. “There’s nothing like the feeling of sliding into someone as they’re pressed up against a wall, helpless to our desires.”

He slid his finger along the crease of Ambrose’s ass and froze. “Fuck, I need to go get the lube. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Ambrose shook his head. “Check my pockets.”

Balin laughed and pulled out a small bottle. “So, you just carry this stuff around for emergencies now?”

Ambrose laughed with him. “No, I had planned to fuck you out of your mood if words didn’t work.”

“Yet it looks like I’m about to fuck you.”

“I don’t care, just get it done please,” Ambrose said, his voice breathless.

“You sound like you want it over,” Balin teased as he inserted one lubed finger and rubbed that tiny bundle of nerves that made his lover’s knees weak—and pretty much did the same to him.

“Dear Lord, I like that,” Ambrose whispered and moved his hips to take Balin in.

“Good. You’re going to love the feel of my cock.”

Ambrose nodded. “I just want you, you know. I know it’s crazy since neither of us have wanted men for more than just a passing glance in the past. It’s different with you.”

Balin let out a breath, feeling the same. He worked Ambrose’s hole, with one then two fingers, loving the way his angel shuddered.

“I know,” he answered as he pressed the head of his cock against Ambrose’s opening. “It’s just the three of us, nothing more, nothing less. I was a fucking idiot for trying to throw that away.”

“Don’t think about that, just think about what you’re doing,” Ambrose whispered.

Slowly, oh so slowly, he slid past the tight ring of muscles and stopped. Hades, his angel gripped him tighter than a glove.

“Push out,” he said as he moved his hips in shallow thrusts. Ambrose did as he was told, and Balin slid home.

“Hell,” they both groaned at the same time, their bodies frozen in place, their legs flush against the other’s as Balin stayed still so Ambrose could adjust.

“Move,” Ambrose said, his voice low, needy.

“Anything, my love,” he whispered, meaning the word more than ever before. He’d never felt so close to Ambrose, not like this. He knew the man’s history, his hopes, his dreams, and so much more that made him love the angel. It was this closeness, this giving up and releasing the control that made Balin want to scream in happiness. That this man, this warrior, would relinquish all control and let Balin lead made him feel as though he were on top of the world and there was nothing that could break them.

He’d be damned if he’d let the doubts and fears that had plagued him before ruin this. Not ever. Not again.

Balin pulled almost all the way out then slammed back home, eliciting the trembling and groans of a man in love. He thrust in and out, harder and harder as Ambrose’s hands fisted against the walls. 

“Make yourself come,” Balin ordered. “Take yourself in hand and come when I do.” Balin’s fingers dug into Ambrose’s hips as his lover did so.

That telltale tingling wrapped up his spine and clenched in his balls as he came, shouting Ambrose’s name as his angel came against the wall with a groan.

Balin rested his head on his lover’s sweat-slicked back and smiled. “We’re going to have to do that again.”

Ambrose chuckled. “Anytime. You just have to
be
here for it to happen.”

Ashamed, but still in the haze of bliss, he kissed Ambrose’s back and smiled. “I’m not going anywhere.”

And, with that decision firmly in place, it meant the death of Pyro.

Good.

****

She was pretty sure she’d already sweated through her dress and she’d just changed, but Jamie didn’t have time to go back and put on another one. No, no matter what she did, she couldn’t get out of this.

This being a summons from the Djinn council.

Apparently, there was no way out if it. It wasn’t as if she could have prepared for it either. After all, not even Ambrose had been invited to the djinn realm, meaning they had no idea what they were up against. She had a feeling it wouldn’t be all unicorns and rainbows like Lily’s experience with the brownies had been.

Yes, her friend had been hurt in the process of finding Shade and having her true heritage revealed, but that was a far cry from how Jamie’s transformation had been. She’d already been sent to hell, forced to complete the bond when they weren’t ready, and broken open her life, transforming it into a new one where she still couldn’t quite gain her footing.

Not that she didn’t  love her men—she did—but she would have rather gone in gradually than cannon balled into a triad relationship rife with emotions, tender feelings, and way too much politics considering there were three councils to deal with.

They hadn’t even begun to deal with Ambrose’s council and the fact that he’d mated a demon—though Ambrose said he didn’t care.

That was a problem for another day.

No, today was all about Jamie’s new powers and the fact that the djinn wanted her to face them. She would have just gone with it and hoped for the best, but her men couldn’t hide their tension. Though she knew they tried, they just weren’t very good at it when it came to her.

“We’ll take care of you,” Balin said as he reached up from the backseat to run a hand down her arm. She sat in the passenger seat as Ambrose drove to the edge of the city where they could pass through the wards into the djinn realm. She still didn’t fully understand how things worked with the different realms, but she knew that, unless they were actually
part
of a certain realm, they had to find portals and entrances into the new place, rather than just open a seam and enter where they wanted like Ambrose could with the angels and Balin could with hell, once he’d regained his energy.

Maybe in the future she could do the same with the djinn—if they even let her in to begin with.

“You know, if you two keep saying you’ll take care of me, it’ll just make me more nervous,” she said as she cracked her fingers, just trying to do
something
. “If it wasn’t going to be an issue, then you two wouldn’t be acting as protective as you are.”

Ambrose shook his head. “We’re always going to be protective. That’s the price you pay when you mate with two warriors.”

Jamie let out a breath, hiding back a smile. “You two are going to be a pain about everything, aren’t you?”

Balin laughed, easing some of the tension out of her stiff body. “Yes, but that’s why you love us.”

“Sure.”

Ambrose pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the engine. “We’re here. I can feel the portal.”

Tingles fluttered over her skin as she opened the door and neared the place where Ambrose pointed, though she wouldn’t have needed him to do so. She felt the call of it in her blood, bringing her closer.

Ambrose settled his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Your people may be in there, but we’re yours as well.”

She nodded and leaned into him, placing her hand into Balin’s as she did so. 

As if someone had lifted a curtain, she felt the pull toward the other realm deep in her bones.

“Come,” a voice said from beyond the veil. “Your presence is required.”

Well, not the most welcome of welcomes. That didn’t seem to bode well for the rest of the “visit.”

Ambrose moved to take her hand and led them in. Warmth spread over her like hot cocoa on a winter afternoon as she made her way into the djinn realm. When they passed the barrier, she gasped.

Brightness.

Such brightness.

It wasn’t like earth, or the human realm, or whatever people called it, not by far. They were still in a forest, but the trees seemed brighter, and an aura resembling the one that had surrounded her before surrounded them now. In the distance, she saw a city of bright lights and tall, white structures. It was something out of a fantasy novel, with diamonds and other crystals twinkling in sunlight that seemed too bright for her eyes.

Standing before them was a group of about twenty or so djinn, their eyes sparkling violet, their auras shimmering along their glowing skin and tattoos.

She’d chosen to remain in her human form before they crossed, and now she felt as though that had been a mistake. Closing her eyes for courage, she shed her human image and became djinn, her skin tingling as she did so.

The soft caress of wings against her side told her that Ambrose had let his wings out, though she hadn’t seen him take off his shirt to do so. She turned to the side, and yes, her angel was shirtless in all his glory, looking like the proud warrior he was. She looked the other way at Balin to find his black eyes speckled with red and his horns curled back, mingling with his hair.

This was the three of them in their true forms.

She surely wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

The other djinn looked at her men in disgust before turning toward the closest structure, one with a tall steeple that seemed to reach toward the gods in an almost regal fashion. To her, it brought to mind a prison, and she didn’t know why.

This wasn’t going to end well.

Not knowing what else to do, she followed the other djinn into the building, her men flanking her, their wariness entwining with her own.

The inside of the building was even more grand and opulent than what she’d imagined. Large diamond chandeliers hung from the ceilings, and art pieces hung from the walls. Everything was glass, crystal, diamond, and white.

For some reason the vision of blood spilling across it made her want to shudder. Not a real vision, just the idea that blood would look so stark against it scared her.

She didn’t know why she thought it, but the idea scared her more than the depths of hell. Where the demons could be evil and deadly, their malice wasn’t secret. For some reason, she was more afraid of the cool and precise djinn.

These were her people?

No, she wanted Ambrose, Balin, and her friends at home.

She didn’t want to be here.

With one look at the council leader—or whoever it was who stood before her on the dais—she knew that wouldn’t be an option.

“I see the rumors are true and you’ve turned…djinn,” the leader said, his voice layered with disdain.

Ambrose stiffened ever so slightly next to her, and she held her breath.

“You are not really djinn though, are you?” the man asked. “No, you’re an abomination. A
nothing
.”

Frozen, she couldn’t speak. The danger and threat underlying his words made her want to flee, not fight, and that angered her more than anything he could say.

She was not weak.

Not ever again.

“I am the leader of the djinn,” the man continued. “If you were truly one of my people, you would know my name is Kobal and that I could tear you limb from limb. You don’t know that. You’re just a copy of what was once a beautiful people. The gods deemed you worthy of our blood? Well, I disagree. You are nothing. You. Are. Not. Djinn.”

With each word, his voice rose, the crystals in the walls vibrating with his fury.

“I’m djinn because that’s what the gods declared,” she said, surprising herself with her words. “I might not have been born of your people, but I am not nothing. I’m more than you think.”

Kobal glared at her, his lips twisted in a snarl. “You think to speak to me, girl? You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you stand.”

“Watch how you speak to my true half,” Ambrose warned, his voice low but carrying the threat of ages of war and battle.

Her power flared, her aura wrapping itself protectively around her men. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Balin grip the edge of his dagger, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

This wasn’t how she wanted to meet the people who she’d thought could be hers.

This wasn’t like Lily and the brownies.

No, this meant death.

She wouldn’t go down without fighting though. She wasn’t that bookstore owner anymore.

No, she was stronger than that.

“You are the mightiest of angelic warriors, Ambrose the White,” Kobal drawled. “You are not one of us.
She
is not one of us,” he said as he pointed to her. “We are the djinn of pure blood. As the leader of my people, I sentence this abomination to death. All who stand in our way will perish by her side.”

Jamie gasped. What the hell? She’d been there all of two minutes and they’d already called out her death? She’d lasted longer in hell.

If this was the way the paranormals wanted her, she wasn’t sure she wanted them.

Balin growled by her side as Ambrose took out his sword.

“You cannot hurt my true half,” her angel said. “You have an accord with the angels. Do you really want to start a war over something you cannot win? Your people are dying, and my men can wipe you out with just their swift blades. Let us leave your realm and we won’t return. Be warned, once you step foot in the human realm with the intention to harm my true half, it will be war.”

Pride filled her at Ambrose’s words, and she prayed the djinn would listen. She looked around at the others in the room and couldn’t find a friendly face among them, but neither did she see the hatred that she saw on Kobal's.

“Let them go, Kobal,” a woman said from the crowd. “You know your views are as archaic as you are.”

“Temperance,” Kobal warned, “watch your tongue.”