5. Samael

The last time I had seen Lilith, she'd had one bat-like demon wing and one black-feathered one.

I loved all her forms, but this one was probably one of my favorites, if I was in an indulgent mood. It was how I had originally fallen in love with her.

This side of her was gorgeous.

Perfect.

Pure.

I was too transfixed by Lilith's angelic form to realize Orion's fist was heading straight for my face.

Mood killer much?

My entire upper half wrenched to the side as blood burst from my lip at the impact.

"Orion!" Lilith cried. She stretched out her fingers, sending a blast of light that had us both flying off our feet.

Orion crashed into the ground, kicking dirt and flowers up into the air. He left a streak in the ground, marring the otherwise perfect meadow, while I instead floated to safety. My wings were functioning better now that I was close to Lilith. Just being near her rejuvenated some of my power.

I steadied myself on my feet, then spat out the blood that had filled my mouth.

The flowers drank in every drop of red, leaving nothing left.

The second Lilith marched over to me and rested a hand on my arm, a shot of desire ricocheted through my core. I blinked up at her and froze, not sure if it was our unfinished mate-bond doing that or whatever the incubus had done to me.

Her pink tongue flashed out over her lips as her gaze dipped. She ran her fingers up my arm and caressed the collar around my neck. It hissed at her touch but didn't break. The collar was designed to contain an angel, and in her current form, there wasn't much she could do to break it.

"What happened to you, Samael?" she asked, her whitewashed eyes flicking up to mine. Her angelic form liked to use my full name, eliciting a hungry growl from my chest.

Her eyes were different than usual, but this was her spirit talking to me. Her angelic form wasn't constrained to her physical body, allowing her to travel wherever she chose, especially when her corporeal form was unconscious—or in prior cases, dead. I knew she wasn't dead this time, though. A glowing tendril seemed to disappear off into the sky, one that would lead to her body.

This side of Lilith was one I easily melded with. It wasn't that I didn't like the other aspects of her nature.

It was that I didn't feel worthy.

Her demonspawn used sin as a resource, not a burden to be dealt with. I admired her for that, and sadly knew I could never measure up to it.

Her succubus drank in lust like air, needing my urges that I only knew how to suppress. She deserved someone like Kaito, who could let loose and give her anything. Even my brother had succeeded where I failed, happily taking a stupid risk that could have gotten us all killed. I was too practical to be that selfish.

As Lilith's fingers ran down over my chest, I shivered at the trail of fire she left behind. It seemed to travel straight to my groin, making my body flex in response.

Every stroke of her fingers released another sensation through me that made my flesh tingle. I couldn't name the feeling, but it wasn't exactly angelic.

It was more… divine. The power seemed to emanate from her, glowing from the inside out.

Kind of like Orion's power does.

"I've been imprisoned while Lucifer has been trying to figure out how I rejected Calamity," I said, answering her earlier question about what happened to me. "Then your boyfriend found us at the beach Orion dragged me to and sent us here." I pondered why, exactly, Orion had taken me to that beach. What had he hoped to do to me there where no one was around to hear my screams?

He'd been ordered to break me. But so far, he'd only let the other angels try their hand on me and let me rot in a cell. He hadn't questioned me himself, not alone.

Maybe he had planned on killing me and being done with it. Maybe Calamity had finally driven him to finish what we'd started when I'd scratched him with my blade.

"My boyfriend?" Lilith asked with a raised brow. Her white feathers lifted behind her in interest. "If you're referring to a Virtue, Samael, you're going to have to be more specific. I have more than one."

I released a chuckle. "Don't I know it."

"The incubus," Orion growled as he waded through the overgrown meadow. The flowers seemed to have tripled in size, standing on stalks that impeded his path and slowed him down. He swiped through them, frowning as if irritated by the blooms. "Did you send him after us? I would have come here had you asked, Lily."

She narrowed her gaze at him. "No, you wouldn't have. Not with the burden you still bear." She glanced up at the dark sky. "You came here once before, when I called you. But I've been calling you over and over again, and it's like you're not listening anymore." She hugged herself, drawing my eye to the beautiful swell of her breasts. "I feel like I should remember the incubus you speak of, but I don't. Not all of my memories work when I'm like this. It sounds like I need to thank him, though."

She couldn't remember having a ninth Virtue? Convenient. But probably true. Her memories didn't work as they should when she was in her angelic form.

Or whatever form this was, because golden light flared inside of her with every step that Orion took.

Testing out a theory, I reached out and caught Orion's wrist. He didn't retaliate, probably because Lilith had decked him for striking me.

She drew in a sharp breath when I squeezed. "Oh," she said as her cheeks reddened. "That's… What is that?"

Orion frowned, glancing between my grip on him and Lilith's flushed state. "Lily," he hedged. "Can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

She kept her hand on her middle as her nose wrinkled. "You, I think."

He blew out a breath as if that confirmed something for him. "I need you to come here, between us."

I raised a brow in question, but I didn't release him. I wanted to know why Lily was reacting like this, and Orion seemed to have put the pieces together faster than me.

Probably because he was responsible somehow.

But he was one of her Virtues, and he was bonded to her, unlike me. So I didn't move a muscle when Lilith obeyed and wedged herself between us.

She seemed so small and fragile. She pressed one delicate hand on my forearm and another on Orion's wrist just above where I held him.

That electric fire coursed through me again, this time burning twice as hot.

Fucking hell, what is that?

I didn't realize I was growling until Lilith's trembling feathers brushed my shoulder. She'd wrapped her wings around us both like a tiny cocoon made of silk. "Don't be so angry with him, Samael. He's not as strong as you."

Not as strong as me?

I was the one in chains. I was the one bleeding from a gash on my lip, whereas the demigod seemed to have this realm all figured out.

Except he didn't protest against her statement. He simply bent and buried his nose in her neck. I still held on to his wrist, but now I wasn't sure what to do.

Because the sound that came out of Lilith's mouth made my entire body go hot.

And I found myself leaning into her other side, tasting her throbbing vein with my tongue, and delighting when she made that sound again.

Except this time, it was for me.