Chapter One
The house looked vaguely medieval, with gray brick walls and a steepled entrance. Cyprian, Malik, Kyrian, and I stepped into the grand foyer, or the “gallery foyer” as the real estate agent called it. Our stares angled up to the ceiling 25 feet above us and the balcony just below it that curved around the space in a U. The foyer wasn't at the front of the house—no, that was merely the entry—but at the back and the balcony, or gallery, faced ten-foot-tall glass doors that led to a half-moon terrace overlooking gardens reminiscent of Versailles.
My kishanos and I were house hunting.
Or mansion hunting, rather. This palatial property of nearly 11,000 square feet had eight bedrooms, eleven baths, a library, a wine cellar, a gym, an office with its own entry (so anyone doing anything as gauche as work wouldn't disturb the family), a sauna, a chef's kitchen, a butler pantry, and gardens at both the front and back of the house. At $12,000,000 it was on the lower end of the properties we'd viewed. In case you're wondering how much a mortgage payment like that would be, it's about $56,000 a month. Yes, more than some people make in a year. But we wouldn't have mortgage payments; we were looking to buy outright.
Yes, it surprised me as well.
“I like the turret,” Kyrian said.
“I like the fact that it's in Woodley Park,” I added.
To tell the truth, I was shocked that we had yet to venture far from downtown Washington D.C. in our search for a massive place that could be home to my three husbands, boyfriend, and me. Everan wouldn't be spending much time there since he had a kingdom to run in Danu—that's the magical realm of the Danutians, who you might know better as Fairies—and couldn't waste much time on sleepovers. So, he hadn't attended any of our viewings but we still wanted to make sure there was room for him. I think 11,000 square feet offered enough space for all of us. But then again, Ever's a king and you could fit this mansion into one end of his castle. In an end of the end of his castle.
As for the other men, my most recent husband was Cyprian. He's the Master of the local group of Faulin—an alien race known as Succubi or Incubi on Earth. Cyprian and I were still newlyweds; we'd just returned from our honeymoon a few months back. We'd had a fabulous time exploring Italy and each other—the latter a bit more than the former. But that was to be expected since the honeymoon had been a celebration of our human marriageandthe completion of our fusion. The Fusion—a sort of Faulin mating ceremony—had bound not only Cyprian and me, but also Malik, Kyrian, and Everan with us in an unbreakable and magical union that had multiple benefits to all involved. We had already been experiencing those benefits before we completed the Fusion. It allowed us to share our magic with each other and this sharing had changed each of us in extraordinary ways.
For me, my color magic—my ability to see all colors, including ultraviolet and infrared, and use those colors to manipulate auras (to hurt, heal, and more) and cast illusions—had been magnified. I had also received some of Cyprian's Faulin ability to feed on lust except that it had merged with my color magic to allow me to feed on auras as well. Auras are connected to a person's life-force and I could now use that connection to sip some of that energy. If I didn't take too much, my target could recover. However, if I went too far, they'd die. Yes, it could be used as a powerful weapon but draining a person of all life force wasn't a quick process and so wouldn't be the best choice in every battle.
Cyprian's Faulin ability to enhance and feed on lust in other people had grown and altered so that he could magnify and feed on all emotions. I'd had a theory that since Cyprian was the Ruar—the alpha male—in our fusion, he received the greatest bump to his power. But then Kyrian developed an ability to compress emotions and feed off them like a Faulin. As a soldier in the Host—the Triari Army—Kyrian learned to repress his emotions until his aura turned white—the compression of all colors. Triari are the truth behind the myth of Angels and their blinding white auras are the truth behind angelic halos. My men and I believe that the Fusion altered Kyrian's ability to compress his emotions, extending it so that he could do so to others and then adding the Faulin feeding magic.
The other men, though more powerful than they were prior to our union, haven't displayed any major changes to their magic yet. They can, however, see auras now—all of them can—and they have all become immortal. In Everan's case, more immortal than he was prior to the Fusion. And they got that immortality from me.
I'm half Triari and half Danutian. Yes, an Angel-Fairy, though those monikers are not the most accurate. Danutians are immortal while Triari, though long-lived, are not. My contradictory genetics caused an imbalance common to changelings—those children resulting from unions between a Danutian and, well, anyone else. Fairies don't mate well with others. My immortality fought my mortality, putting my cells into a state of confusion. In short, they didn't know when to die or even if they should die. In humans, this is called cancer. But I wasn't human and my father not only knew what was wrong with me but also how to fix it.
My father was a scientist and a prince but he left Eden—the Triari home planet—and went into hiding to protect the Triari from the Amaranthine Elixir he created—an elixir that granted immortality. He had created the elixir by mistake and knew it would be an even greater mistake to hand it over to his brother, the King. But my situation was different. I should have been born immortal like my mother and if he didn't correct that birth defect, I would die. This was not a moral dilemma about whether or not a race should live forever but whether or not his daughter should liveat all. So, he whipped up a fresh batch of the elixir—an elixir that I also happened to be named after—and saved my life.
By extension, my father was now saving the lives of the men I loved.
Now that the Fusion was complete, my men and I were looking forward to discovering what else it would do for us. So far, we'd experienced a moment of soul-merging that was unlike anything I'd ever felt before—profoundly blissful. That connection had faded but the memory of it remained. We now knew each other more thoroughly than was humanly possible. I'd seen my lovers in all of their glory and horror—the good and the bad—and they had seen me. Miraculously, it only made us love each other more.
Just to be clear, the men now love each other like brothers. Romantic love is reserved for me, their kirana—the woman who united them. In other words, ours was a heterosexual polyamorous relationship. The men are all alpha types but our fusion had banished any jealousy and resentment that may have lingered between them. There was no point to it anymore; we knew each other too intimately for that. In all ways. When I made love to one of them, we could share that pleasure with the others and if we happened to be making love as a group, all of our ecstasy could be shared.
When Cyprian and I were on our honeymoon, we were able to draw the other men to us mentally, through our fusion, and even see them in our minds as they enjoyed the pleasure we shared with them. It was like having them there with us while still being able to spend time alone. Of course, they didn't get to see the gorgeous countryside or ride in a gondola with Cyprian and me, but I think they were okay with that.
Which brings me back to the house hunting.
Currently, Cyprian lives above his sex club, Dirty Nothings. Don't judge; his people need to feed on lust to survive and the club gives them a way to do that without hurting anyone. Cyprian lives in a lovely apartment over the club while I live in a townhouse in the Supemarket—a secret Supernatural community hidden in D.C. (there are supemarkets in every major city on Earth). Malik and Kyrian rotate days with me in the townhouse but otherwise live on their spacecrafts, both of which are docked somewhere above America. But no one is happy with this arrangement. So, here we are, looking at homes I'd never dreamed I could afford.
In addition to Everan being a king, both Kyrian and Malik are princes. Mal is the Bleiten (AKA Demon) heir to the throne of Hell—the home planet of the Bleiten, while Kyrian is a military prince—the highest rank you can attain in the Host. All three titles come with significant wealth, granted Malik's and Everan's are greater. Then there's Cyprian, who has made a fortune from his club, more than enough to share with his people. In conclusion, we could have any house we wanted.
“Shall I make an offer?” Mr. Jones, our real estate agent asked.
The men looked at me expectantly; I got to have the final say. We'd been hunting for months and had yet to put an offer in. I looked around at the master bedroom and its curving balcony with a view of the gardens.
“Who would get this room?” I asked.
Cyprian chuckled. “You, of course, Se Esaria.”
I grinned.
“Is that a yes?” Kyrian asked.
“Oh, for Hell's sake, I hope so,” Malik muttered.
“It's a yes,” I confirmed.
The men whooped in joy, and that included Mr. Jones.
