“Next time, trust that your body will be just fine and go for the kill,” he tells her, kissin’ the tip of her nose. His fiery gaze is heated as he fixes it on her; it’s as though her irritation is a potent aphrodisiac to him.
She stares at him for a beat and then sighs. “Fine. We’ll work on that again tomorrow, but you have to promise to massage my wings today and every day until I get it,” she tells him.
He rolls his eyes at her. “When do I not take care of you after training?” he asks evenly, but there’s a hint of heat in his tone that tells me they’re not talkin’ about simply rubbin’ out sore muscles here. Maybe Delta gets the itch too?
“Now get back to it.” He turns and slaps her ass hard, which elicits a squeal from her, and then walks off to join her other mates.
Alder chuckles next to me, and I whirl, immediately coverin’ my ass with my hands. You’d think my wings would be enough protection, but Jerif just proved they’re not. That butt slap was so loud I know Delta will have his hand print on her cheek for a while. That’s probably what the gruff demon wanted, but I’d like to sit down on my ass with zero discomfort, especially after the hours and hours of trainin’ we’ve been doin’ today.
Flint cracks up at my alarm too, and I back away slowly, not fallin’ for their charmin’ smiles and too innocent eyes.
There will be nomonkey see, monkey do. With crooked grins, they both saunter off to join the others. Delta rubs her ass and laughs at me as she hands me a water before gingerly sittin’ on the ground, her wings and back against the gym wall. I slide down next to her and chug the deliciously cold and refreshin’ bottle in a few gulps. Delta hands me another one, and I drink about half of that one too before my body decides it’s not gonna die of dehydration and it can chill.
“So...you didn’t run when they announced that you were a demon, you didn’t freak out when Flint and Alder claimed you as their mate, and you also seem to take to this whole training for battle thing like a total badass,” she muses. “I’d be jealous that you’re beautiful, but luckily, we look alike, so at least I have that going for me too,” she announces on a sigh.
I chuckle. “Oh, please, you kept me on my toes the whole time, and I saw that smirk that snuck over your face several times today. You’re better at this than you think, and you like it a heck of a lot more than you thought you would too,” I tell her.
“It is easier sparring with you, I’ll admit that much,” she says. “For some reason, watching you work through the moves helps me do the same.”
“Maybe your grumpy mate is right, and it’s simply about gettin’ out of your head more,” I offer. “It’s about not thinkin’ like a human or givin’ human limitations to our angel and demon abilities.”
She nods in thought. “Yeah, the guys have been on me about the same thing, but I told them it was easier said than done. But then I saw you doing it, and I don’t know...it’s starting to click. I just want to know how you got so good at this so fast and how the wholeyou’re a demonbomb didn’t freak you the fuck out?” she asks, bumpin’ my shoulder with her own playfully.
I shrug. “I honestly don’t know why I’ve been so acceptin’ of everythin’. I think I have my parents to blame—or thank, dependin’ on how you look at it,” I tell her with a smile.
She chuckles and sips her water, waitin’ for me to elaborate.
“Ever since I was little, my mama has always talked about angels and God and Heaven as if they were real parts of our lives. She constantly told me the story of the angel who dropped me on their porch, and I just grew up understandin’ that there was more out there than most people knew. Heaven and the angel-stork story were just part of the fabric of who I was,” I explain as I rest my head back against the wall.
I can see the guys on the other end of the room, workin’ out and probably tryin’ to one-up each other. I’m lost to thoughts of all the bedtimes I begged my mama to tell me about the angel again. I recall all the moments she and my daddy spent explainin’ how special I was, what a gift I’d been.
“I really only thought about Heaven when it came to explainin’ who I was, and then I had my first tribulation.” I pause for a moment and try to sort through the best way to explain what I’m feelin’ and thinkin’. “I don’t remember much other than what my parents told me about it, but the older I got, the more I started to accept that with Heaven, there’s always a Hell, and when the blackness took me over, it wasn’t an angel that came out to play.”
Delta nods and sets her water down, her eyes lost in thought. “I get that. I always had a darkness that seemed to underlie all my intense emotions too. My mom called itimpulse control issuesand simplenaughtiness, but now looking back, I see it. Something must have happened to your blocks, since you were tapping into the other side of yourself that Nefta tried to hide.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured too,” I agree. “Anyway, my point is, I’d already embraced my light and dark, my differences. Alder and Flint didn’t drop a bomb so much as they gave me a name for somethin’ that I’d been dealin’ with my whole life. Well, aside from seein’ actual demons.ThatI didn’t do so well with. I tore up their bar like I was on one of those business renovation shows, and everythin’ just had to go.”
Delta laughs and looks at me with a warm gaze. “It’s so weird that we’re strangers but alike in so many ways. I did a little home renovating myself before I could finally start to come to terms with what I was and what that meant.”
I laugh at that, recallin’ the story she told me about how she got such a beautiful kitchen.
“Did the mate thing botheryou?” I ask her as we both watch our demons workin’ out and gettin’ ready to spar with one another.
A thrill goes through me at the thought of watchin’ such seasoned fighters do their best to take each other out. I should take notes as they do their thing.Is that nerdy?I shrug. Who cares?
“I took a minute to come to terms with that too,” Delta confesses with an incredulous snort. “I was attracted to them, of course. I didn’t quite understand it since they are all so different from what I was raised to see as beautiful, but the draw was definitely there.”
I nod in understandin’, thinkin’ back to how I felt about Flint and Alder in the beginnin’. Even before I could see through their wards, I was strangely comfortable in Alder’s office the day I lost my job. I never really gave it much thought, but now I can seethatfor what it was.
“And then I thought I lost them,” she tells me, her voice layered with so much emotion thatmythroat feels tight as she speaks. “I thought they were gone, and all I could think was how stupid I had been for not seeing what they were to me. It went against what I was raised to think, you know, one person out there for you and all that,” she tells me, and I hum a noise of undertsandin’.
“But I just didn’t care anymore. I had the wings, the scythe, the Abdicated sperm donor and the angel womb, plus the need for revenge burning through my veins. So when I saw them again, when I realized they weren’t dead like I thought,thatwas the moment I truly accepted what I was. I didn’t care about anything else other than the fact that they were alive and they were going to be mine. Fuck my human concerns and hang-ups about it. I was a demon-angel hybrid, and I was going to take what I wanted.”
She gives me a wide smile, and I return it. “Hell yeah,” I tell her, puttin’ my knuckles out for her to pound.
“Fuck yeah,” she answers back happily, touchin’ her fist to mine.
We both turn and watch as Flint and Jerif step on the mats, facin’ each other. I guess the show’s about to start.
