Her Deadly Angels by Ginna Moran
Chapter 14
Hell’s Newest Ruler
MICAH
I CAN’T TAKE my eyes off Raven’s shining soul as she sits beside what should be her biggest regret. Elias sinks into the couch and tips his head toward the ceiling. Apparently, I overestimated Raven’s bond toward me, because she hasn’t looked at me or said a word since I stole her from Dante and interrupted his night of ravishing her body in ways I’ve thought about every second since abandoning her after she asked for help and instead I gave her access to my kingdom in Hell.
“You might be her mortal soul keepers, but my mark is on her body and the contract with Lucian. I will take what belongs to me if you want to see her succeed,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. I went through Hell to prove to Lucian that Raven should belong to me, including offering my allegiance and souls I procure while in the Mortal Realm. Will Raven hate me for it? Maybe. But I can’t lose her and I can’t trust Kase and Dante to ensure she completes the task. “You two can take the opportunity to fix the mistakes Elias has made. I will guard them. My connection to Hell still remains strong.”
“Which is why you should go with Kase,” Dante mutters, his fangs peeking from beneath his lip. “Prove to us that you’re capable of handling the Mortal Realm as a devil. You might think you’re some powerful son-of-a-bastard, Micah, but your grace still lingers.”
“It has not. Fire courses through my veins.” I summon orange hellfire between my palms.
Kase growls and whips his tail around my wrists, tugging them over my head. I roar and thrash, annoyance courses through me. It only makes him smile wider and lift me an inch from the ground. It takes everything in me not to reveal my devil body, open a portal to Hell, and shove him in it for testing me in front of Raven. He might be wrath, but I hold on to my angelic vengeance against him.
“Stop it with the pissing match. Angel-girl isn’t into watersports,” Kase says, spinning me around to look at Raven. She gawks at me from beside Elias, her expression a mixture of indecipherable emotions. “Isn’t that right, Raven?”
She opens and closes her mouth and ends up shaking her head.
Kase waves his hand. “See? So get your Hell together. Your demands and attempts at forcing your superiors into obedience will only leave you with a bruised ego and virgin cock for all of eternity. There is no way you can wet your dick in someone else if you claim to want Raven. We don’t play games like that.”
Kase swings me toward the wall, and I kick off and launch at him. He needs to learn my place as well. Just because he jumped from grace first doesn’t mean anything. I have determination and a pure bond to Raven’s soul—something he will never have.
“That’s enough, you guys,” Raven says, pushing to her feet. “I don’t want you destroying the place. If you must fight, at least rip each other’s clothes off or take this bullshit outside. We’re on the same side.”
Kase whips his attention to her and then back to me like he considers following her orders. With a glare, he strides away, getting out of my face to stand in front of Raven. “I wasn’t aware you were ready for that kind of team building, angel-girl. If our clothes come off, so do yours. There is enough of you to go around. I hope Dante got you nice and stretched.”
I expect her to smack him or grimace, but she flushes and darts her gaze to Dante and then to me like she’s thinking about it. My cock pulses, awakening at the lust parting her pouty lips with her wandering thoughts. I shift and adjust myself, not used to the restriction pants now seem to cause me. Raven’s gaze trails down my body, and she watches me with such intense fascination that silence fills the room.
“You know what, fine. You can babysit the fuckup while we clean up his mess,” Dante says, unfurling his black wings.
Pain lashes over my shoulder blades at the sight, and I stretch my back, suppressing the phantom agony still clinging to me over my lost wings. I rub my prickly jaw and narrow my eyes. His sudden change in attitude was far too easy.
“Raven, I’ll bend over and give you power over me if you resist giving into Micah for the next couple hours.” Dante smirks with his words. “What do you say? It’ll be a lesson on getting his gluttonous ass in control. You thought I’d be bad, but you have no idea. I can already see his lack of restraint consuming him.”
“I’m fine,” I snap, the vision of Raven mounting Dante to penetrate him with some sort of contraption is something I never imagined would cross my mind. Or that the idea does nothing for my erection. It’s not the thought of the act but how that beautiful woman could put him in his place and show him he’s not the only ruler around. “Sexual intercourse is not something I’m obsessed about like you. My bond to Raven is soul-deep.”
“Fucking lying devil,” Elias mutters. “Your hard-on says otherwise.”
Raven throws her hands up. “This is enough. No more talking about sex, power, deals, or anything else. I’m about to place an out-of-service sign around my neck.” Swiveling to Kase and Dante, she places her hands on their chests. “You two go already and hurry back. When you come back, we’re all going to sit down. We need some new rules around here. I don’t think I can survive if you guys decide to cock fight around me for access to my body. I love a good pounding and all, but if you haven’t noticed, you guys aren’t exactly average. You might actually accidentally fuck my brains out.”
Dante and Kase laugh in unison, their voices bouncing off the walls. Kase spins Raven into his arms and kisses her. “I think you underestimate how tough you are, angel-girl. I bet you can force all of us to our knees.”
“Even if it’s just for a taste of your pussy,” Dante adds, smacking her glutes. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you? If we all lined up.”
She laughs in exasperation and drags the two of them to the door by their shirts. I tilt my head in curiosity. They enjoy letting her think she has control over them. I don’t understand why. What does it accomplish? I’ll have to figure it out, because I don’t plan to pretend to fall in line. Raven needs to know I am her king. I jumped from grace to rule, and she will be mine.
“Micah? Hello?” Raven’s soft voice snaps my attention away from the front door. She strolls across the space to me and offers me a nervous smile. “You can quit it with the tough asshole attitude now. They’re gone. You don’t have to pretend with me.”
I lock my hand around her wrist and pull her flush against me. “Who says I’m pretending? I don’t think you comprehend what it means for me to have claimed my rightful throne in Hell. Or should I remind you?”
Her bottom lip trembles at my intensity, and I can smell the sweetness of her rising fear as potent as her lingering desire. Something indecipherable crosses her fathomless eyes, glassing with her thoughts. I don’t know if it’s the thought of my kingdom in Hell or how I’m no longer the blessed angel she wrapped around her soul and refused to let go. Either way, she builds an impenetrable shield of light with the depths of her spirit, banishing my essence from merging with hers. Fury whips through me. How can she steal the one thing I’ve sworn to protect away from me?
I tighten my arm around her, digging my fingers into the soft curve of her hip. “Answer me. What makes you think—”
Swinging her hand, Raven slaps me across the face, the sting of her palm reminding me of the determination and fight she carries with the strength of her soul. “You will not speak to me like this or threaten me with a bond we formed before you gave up your grace.”
Elias sucks in a sharp breath from his place on the couch, and it takes everything in me not to unleash Hell on the room. Clenching her jaw, Raven glowers at me, staring at me with her own wrath, surely siphoned from Kase. It awakens my body, and a mixture of emotions and sensations course through me. Where I was calm, composed, and in control of feelings as an angel, I no longer carry that kind of restraint. Hell unleashed something dark and wild, and I’m not sure it can ever be tamed.
“Micah, do you understand? I’m not some possession no matter what you think. You can’t do as you please.” She yanks herself free of my hold and places her hands on her hips. “And if you for one second think that this whole Hell raising persona is you, then you’re extremely wrong.”
Damn.
It’s the first profane word that has crossed my mind, and Raven is responsible for dragging it out of me.
I swallow and steel myself from her sudden enchantment and the urge to bow at her feet for slapping my devil side into a strange enthralled submission. “While I think you’re the one who is wrong, I won’t test my theory. There is no point in flexing my power with you, especially because it would be far too risky to lose time with the woman who will give me her soul to keep.”
If looks could send me back to Hell, my world would explode into flames.
“You know what? I’ve been through enough shit. When you’re ready to treat me the way I deserve, you can apologize and we’ll move past this. Until then, I’m going to binge watch a show about demon hunting with Elias. At least he realized his bullshit wasn’t necessary.” Raven spins on her feet and stomps away.
Elias looks ready to defecate himself as he watches me with wide eyes. And then the brave sickly bastard grabs a dagger he must’ve hidden between the couch cushions. Raven whips around, sending her midnight hair sweeping out with her gesture. She doesn’t get a chance to even react to my quick movements. Slinging her onto my shoulder, I carry her toward the door, not caring that she screams for me to put her down.
“Wait! What are you doing? You can’t leave me!” Elias shouts, struggling to get up off the couch.
I spin and slam my foot into the ground, shaking the world enough to send Elias to his knees. Why Raven wants to spend another moment with a dying traitor, too concerned with himself that he doesn’t even ask where I’m taking Raven, is beyond me.
“You can’t keep up with us where we’re headed,” I say, adjusting Raven in my arms as she pummels my back with her fists, screaming every obscene word she can think of. “Now be a good little mortal and stay inside. Don’t answer the doors for strangers, and if Kase and Dante return before we do, you better come up with something believable to tell them or your end will be just a glimpse of the agony I can inflict on you.”
Slamming the door, Elias swears to the Higher Power. I grin, loving how I’ve gotten under his skin. It’ll serve him right for stealing unwarranted sympathy from Raven.
“Damn it, Micah. I swear to damnation if you don’t stop and talk to me, I will make your time here worse than Hell.” Raven thuds her fists harder to my shoulder until I bring her down to face me.
Like the action leaves her speechless, she clings onto me, locking her ankles together on my lower back. The closeness of her body sets me off even more, and I wonder what it would take to cure the ache in my testicles aroused from her beauty and fight.
So I drop her down a few inches until our bodies align with only our clothes between us.
“Troubles, Micah?” she asks, her face lighting with amusement. The way she keeps saying my name digs under my skin to bury inside me. I crave to hear her say it over and over again.
I shift her back up and growl under my breath. Just her closeness failed to work, and my body throbs, the hard tightness annoying. “Yes, I’m having trouble. I don’t know what kind of devil’s curse this is, but I have a persistent erection around you. It’s uncomfortable.”
Tipping her head back, Raven releases a bout of laughter that echoes through the air. “You sound so proper. It kills me. You’re one of the rulers of Hell. You should be shouting boner and blue balls. It’s more fun.”
I purse my lips, narrowing my eyes. “My word choice causes no harm. Not like you, you wicked heathen. Now stop it with your control over my penis or give me the cure.”
She laughs harder, her amusement setting off fiery heat in my face. “For being a stalker, peeping angel who used to watch the devils get me off, you’re shockingly naïve.”
“I never watched such things with mortal vision. Angels use focus and light as blinders. We grant privacy,” I say, rubbing my hard shaft through my pants. It only helps ease the ache a little.
She covers her face with her hands, trying to suppress her laughter. “Okay, okay. How about we make a deal? You stop being so proper, and I’ll tell you how to take care of that.” Reaching between us, she cups my manhood in such a way that I tense and grunt, the sensation so incredible I crave for her to do more.
But she pulls her hand away.
“Is it a deal?” she asks, prodding at my devilish side with her words.
I swallow and nod. “You’re unhelpful and disobedient, you know.”
A smile stretches across her full lips and she bobs her head. “Which you obviously like.” Again, she touches my erection through my pants. “It’s kind of exciting to see what turns you on.”
“I don’t need it on. I need it off. I can’t concentrate on anything but my erec—boner, and I would prefer to not have it in the way for our plans. It’s inconvenient.” I remain expressionless, hoping she will finally see the seriousness of this moment. “Now, please. Give me the cure.”
She smirks and covers her mouth, trying to hide her continuous amusement. “Sex. Masturbation. A blowjob. Those are usually quick fixes, but things I will not be helping you with, so don’t even ask.”
I sigh. “Surely there is something else.”
She shrugs. “Time? Something you dislike?”
I rack my mind for things I find unpleasant.
Patting my cheek, she leans in and whispers, “Why don’t you pray about it? Maybe the Higher Power will show you mercy this time around and smite your boner away.”
Fire sizzles through my veins at her words, and I flare my nostrils. My hellish façade breaks through my skin. Raven doesn’t try to shove away from me. Instead, she clings on as I grow several feet in height to tower over the world around us. Like my monstrous side enchants her, she laces her slender fingers around my tusks and strokes them like they’re the most attractive, fascinating things in the world to her.
“Did it help?” she asks, tilting her head as she studies my beastly features.
I close my eyes and regain control over my façade. Licking my lips, I nod. “It’ll do until you realize you’re only punishing yourself for not letting me have you like Kase and Dante. They might’ve seen and claimed you first, but we’ve bonded on another level.”
“You keep saying that, but it means nothing if you don’t remind yourself that this isn’t a competition, nor is it about having me because you think you deserve me. It’s about that bond we had—have—Micah. You didn’t return to this plane just because you were bored.”
Her words slice through my hellish armor, power, and fire, opening me up in a way that leaves me antsy. Because she’s right. The sudden change in my existence destroyed everything I thought I knew about humanity and souls. But having my life explode in a raging ocean of hellfire never meant it was over. All it meant was that it was time for me to rebuild and create my existence to better fit my new purpose—Raven.
“I returned because I can’t keep away from you,” I say, locking away my beast completely. I comb her hair behind her ear with my fingers. “You’re my purpose in this existence. Not Hell. Not this seemingly impossible mission. You.”
Her face lights up as if the sun shines from her very being. Clutching my cheeks between her palms, Raven leans in and caresses her lips to mine, the feather-light sensation like a whisper of appreciation before she eases back, not getting carried away. It makes me crave more. Need more. I realize how tightly Raven holds onto me without letting go. I want to prove myself as worthy as Kase and Dante. I know I must if I’m to ever compete with their fire constantly lighting her beautiful eyes.
“I can’t get enough of you,” I murmur, returning her smile with my own. “Can I take you somewhere? I want to show you something.”
“I’d like that,” she says, hugging me again. “I’ve missed you, you know.”
I set her on her feet and lace my fingers through hers. “Don’t worry about that ever again, my beautiful heathen. I plan to never leave your side.”
***
I shouldn’t test Raven. I know I shouldn’t. But a dark part of me wants to know her breaking point when it comes to my rule over Hell. I want nothing more than to help mold her into a powerful being that the universe bows down to. I worry about her shutting me out and denying the eternity I’ve built around her soul, one that calls to me more than my existence.
“What am I looking at?” Raven asks, squeezing my hand like she’s afraid she might otherwise fly away if she doesn’t.
“The foundation of my power.” I study her expression as her brows lower in confusion. “Rising from Hell isn’t as simple as you might think. I need an energy source to ground me to this plane while allowing me to tap into the power of my kingdom.”
Averting her eyes from a man with a towel around his hips with a woman watching TV in bed, she finally turns to me. “You’re talking about their souls?”
“Just his. Before I came to you, I had been busy with negotiations generously given to me by Lucian. This unfaithful man traded his soul for his wife’s death, so he didn’t have the mess of a divorce and the burden of alimony. We have come to collect.” I remain expressionless as Raven pieces things together.
“You’re fucking kidding me. Why would you want to show me this?” Raven’s voice rises with her words. “I don’t want to watch you murder a man and steal his soul.”
“I’m not killing anyone, you heathen hypocrite. How is this any different than the things you’ve witnessed Kase and Dante do to humanity?” I twirl my finger at the man in the window. “We are only here to mark him for his descent. No murder. No soul taking, which I might add is not stealing.”
Raven releases my hand and grimaces. She’s conflicted because she knows I’m right. If I were Kase or Dante, she wouldn’t even bat her eyelashes. “Micah—”
“You need to realize that I’m no longer an angel. The standards you had for me before must not apply to me now. That is why I really brought you here. I need for you to accept me for the devil I’ve turned into. This job, collecting and marking souls, is necessary for balance in the universe and in Hell.” Not to mention keeping my name on her contract with Lucian. I don’t say as much. She’s already uncertain enough of me as it is.
I turn to face her and test to see if she’ll let me take her hand again. Her pouty lip quivers, but she doesn’t deny me her touch. Sliding her fingers through mine, she squeezes my hand. I bring it to my mouth to kiss her knuckles.
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” she says, her uneasy smile remaining instead of turning real.
I yearn to see her face light up as brightly as her shiny soul. “I hope you will still give me the chance to claim your soul regardless.” I tug her closer and snake my hand around her waist and to her lower back. “You are the one thing who reminds me of my purpose—not only as a ruler of Hell, but also as one of the protectors of a soul cursed with the light we need to build Hell as it was intended.”
“I’m not a possession,” she comments, thinning her lips to turn expressionless, “and if you realize that, and understand that I can’t be yours alone, then I will give you the chance to continue to grow a bond with me.”
My heart races for the first time since my descent. “I accept your compromise.”
The brightness of her soul radiates more intensely, and she throws her arms around me. I inhale a breath at the sensation of her body awakening mine. The citrusy fragrance of her hair engulfs me. Burying my face in the crook of her shoulder, I savor how Raven’s soul pushes away the darkness inside me, reminding me of the light I once carried.
“I never wanted for you to abandon grace, but I’m happy you did to save me. It means everything to me. I hope you know that,” she murmurs, easing away. “I look forward to building something amazing with you.”
I smile and capture her gaze. “Does that mean you won’t hold this against me?” Waving my hand, I motion to the window.
“Never. Let’s mark that bastard.” Her lips spread into a beautiful smile. She makes it so easy to drop my guard with her and show her who I truly am, despite the things she might see as flaws on my being.
I hum under my breath and tug her forward. “Careful, my beautiful heathen. You sound so incredibly sexy that I might need an alternative cure for my erect—hard-on for you.”
She tips her head back and laughs, her musical voice filling the air. “I think that might be possible. You’ve earned—”
Glass shatters a second before pain bursts in my side. Whipping my attention toward the house, I catch sight of the man aiming a gun in our direction. He pulls the trigger, the loud gunshot startling Raven, making her scream. Another bullet hits me, exploding across my chest. Rage turns my vision red, and I narrow my focus on the bastard trying to withhold his end of the deal. I should’ve thought better of the situation. Of course he would fight, and now Raven stands amid danger that can end her life.
My muscles flex and quiver. Releasing a guttural roar, I expel my human façade and embrace my beastly form. I knock Raven to the ground and out of the way of another round of gunfire ravaging my body.
But it doesn’t slow me down. It pushes me forward.
Crashing through the wall of the house, I charge forward and launch at the man. He hollers and thrashes, pulling the trigger of his gun in one last-ditch effort to send me to Hell. Raven screams from behind me. I stomp my hooved hand onto the man’s hand, crushing it under my weight. Another screech rips through the air, one not belonging to Raven, and I whip around and summon hellfire between my palms. The mistress of my contracted soul tangles her hand through Raven’s hair, waving a kitchen knife. She must’ve come out through the front.
“Leave us be and break Corbin’s contract or I’ll kill her,” the woman shouts, swiping the knife again.
Something dark crosses Raven’s face, and instead of pleading with me to do as the woman says, she subtly shakes her head.
I snarl and turn my back on the woman. Bowing, I shove my tusks into the man’s gut and toss him out of the house. The woman screams his name, her attention stolen from Raven. Swinging her fist, Raven punches the woman in her breast, winding the wail from her mouth. I stare in utter astonishment as my beautiful heathen snatches the kitchen knife and jabs it into the woman’s stomach. Blood splashes over her hand, and Raven does it again and again, screaming at the woman as she takes her life.
Raven kneels beside the woman, shaking and glowering, chains of darkness lacing around the light of her soul. “I didn’t want to do this!” she yells, slamming the knife into the woman once more. “You shouldn’t have threatened me. You shouldn’t have put my eternity at risk. I’m done putting others before me.” Tipping her head back, she peers up at the night sky. “Do you hear me? I’m done!”
Her words crack at my burning armor, allowing me to escape the grip Hell has on me. She’s not only talking to the dead woman but also the Higher Power. Her threat blooms a need inside me that makes me want to run to her, to lift her in my arms and hold her, to kiss her trembling mouth and let the blood soaking her clothes bleed onto mine, shredded and tattered from unleashing my beast without protecting my human façade from annihilation.
I give in to my innate need and stride closer, peering down at her. Even though I tower over her, she doesn’t cower. She’s not a frail broken soul.
She is the most enchanting, sexiest woman I’ve ever had grace me with her presence.
“She shouldn’t have tried to hurt me,” she says, meeting my gaze.
“No, she shouldn’t have.” I kneel beside her in a pool of the woman’s blood and lift the woman’s hand. Twisting the large diamond ring free, I pinch it between my fingers. The woman’s soul remains fractured, in shock from her sudden death, and I run my fingers over the hell-bound essence and guide it into the diamond, setting it aglow.
Raven reaches out her hand and caresses her bloody fingers to the ring in silence.
“Which means this is for you. With her soul comes power. Power you deserve.” I slide the ring on Raven’s finger. It’s a perfect fit as if this moment was always intended to be a part of our destiny.
Throwing her arms around my neck, Raven collides into me, kissing me in a way I never imagined could be so perfect. The sweet taste of her lips, the weight of her body pressing against mine, and the desperation and desire she arouses inside me sends me over an edge I will never return from.
I don’t want to.
“Take me home,” she murmurs against my mouth. “I want to savor our power for a while. And you.”
Our power.
My body buzzes at her words.
“This won’t be it. We will get more,” I say, lifting her up.
She meets my gaze. “I don’t think we can ever get enough.”
She’s right. I embody gluttony after all.
