Page 19 of Angel I Am Not

A sliver of fear washed over her face at his bold-faced lie as she stared at Nick, but she didn’t back down, those silver pools radiating a beauty that didn’t exist in the human realm.

“Because Nick, we both have a stake in this little game. You guys want to return and I want my soul back.”

“Your parents sold your soul? That’s some bullshit but that doesn’t mean—”

“Wait.” I stopped Nick, mulling over the few pieces of information I had managed to gather since Ari caught my eye.

She didn’t look like she belonged on this plane. The silver eyes weren’t human, her disdain for Dante wasn’t normal for a demon, and whatever I was sensing from her didn’t fit neatly into either category. I bit my lip, swallowing a laugh as another possibility finally clicked into place.

Dante hadn’t sent us a demon at all.

“Ari, what’s your full name?”

“Ariuk.”

Something in my essence tightened. It was quick enough that I almost dismissed it, a strange pressure beneath my skin that vanished before I could figure out what the fuck had caused it.

Then the name registered. Ariuk was angelic. Of course it fucking was.

It explained the eyes and the impossible beauty, both seeming to catch beneath the sunlight in a way humans never did. What I initially took for purity seemed to roll off her in waves, although there was something darker and warmer threaded beneath it that didn’t belong there. Warmer. I couldn’t place it, but at that moment I had a significantly larger problem.

I snorted, unable to contain my amusement.

“Fucking hell. Dad sent us an angel.”

Ariuk

I kept my eyes trained on the ground as we walked, Luc and Nick guiding me to the dorm, spouting insults and shit that I didn’t understand. It wasn’t until I was seated on their couch, which seemed to suck me in, that I finally got a chance to fully take in the first two demons I had to deal with.

To my horror, not only were they men, they were fucking gorgeous.

Luc had an aura that commanded my attention and my submission in a way that I wasn’t completely against. He had a thick head of hair and facial hair that matched Dante’s. I kind of wanted to run my fingers through it, to see if it was as soft as it looked, however, the hardness of his expression kept me from reaching out. He leaned casually against the counter a few paces away, folding his arms across his chest, his legs crossed at the ankle.

Nick, on the other hand, sat a few cushions away, leaning back nonchalantly, as if the entire world owed him a favor. He seemed less put together, his aura chaotic and harsh. Rage was burning in his eyes. While he was nearly identical to Luc, he gave off a playboy feel that I couldn’t help but lean toward.

He gave off the same feel as the men in the clubs and I wondered if he fucked just as well. What the fuck? I was still an angel and yet the moment I stepped onto Earth this afternoon, everything felt louder.

Food tasted better. Wanting something hit harder. And now I was sitting between two demons wondering what Nick would feel like between my thighs. Whatever Dante had loosened inside me, it clearly wasn’t interested in subtlety.

Being in this lavish apartment, overkill for two graduate students, didn’t help. The interior colors ranged from beige to cream, a full kitchen with marble counters and tiled floor just behind Luc. A hallway to the right separated into three rooms, one of which was supposedly mine. I could only imagine based on the grandeur of the living room with expensive ass paintings and sculptures that looked like they belonged in an exam, that the rooms were just as unnecessarily munificent.

Granted, no one had explained shit to me about sleeping arrangements or how I was supposed to go about gauging their gifts so I could move onto the other demons.

My eyes continued to wander along the room, a glass coffee table set off to the side held by a golden frame adding to the rich ambiance of this apartment. There was no way that college students lived like this but I assumed that having Dante as their creator gave them certain perks.

Luc slipped out his phone and pressed it to his ear. I heard Dante’s voice on the other end as Luc grumbled to him about the predicament while Nick just stared at me. The need to scoot closer grew until I was actually inching toward the bastard, a movement that was only stopped when Dante himself appeared inches from my face.

Instinct had me throwing a punch. Dante caught my fist in his hand with a hearty chuckle. Luc and Nick froze at their creator’s appearance. When Dante caught my fist, both of them looked at me like I had just thrown myself off a cliff.

“Did she just try to punch you?” Nick asked.

Dante looked delighted. “She did.”

Luc pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course she did.”

I’m sure no one had ever tried to punch the Devil but it was his fault for appearing like that. While angels could teleport, in a sense, there were very specific portals we could use. It was one reason that this little city was the only one that I had ever visited. The portal was just outside my favorite club, a few blocks away from the café where I had been handed over to Dante.

The fact that Dante could just appear wherever he wanted? Lucky bastard.