Stray Ch. 02

Lucifer was my father. I was literally the spawn of Satan. Holy fucking shit. I stared at Gabriel, unable to process the information. I was a daemon, or at least half daemon. I wasn't a seraph. "That's not possible. Lucy's an angel. I'm a daemon."

"Seraphim cannot be born or breed. They just appear. The fallen seraphim gained the ability to reproduce, but they could only birth daemons. You didn't know this?" He was still looking at me like I was a few candles shy of a menorah.

I eyed the whiskey sitting on the coffee table between us. I was going to need a lot more than the half-empty fifth. "Why would I? Being a daemon doesn't come with a history lesson on this shit."

Gabriel looked around at the heavily-laden bookshelves that took up most of the available wall space. Most of them were old leather-bound tomes in weird cuneiform writing that had belonged to my mom. There were some in more modern languages, but I'd never cared to dabble much in magic. Simple warding spells and blessings to turn water into daemon pepper spray were the beginning and end to my occult knowledge. Unless, of course, it was the fictional occult, which occupied the rest of the space. Poe, Lovecraft and those who desperately tried to be him, Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, some Saki and Stephen King. Most of those had been dog-eared to within an inch of their lives.

"Some of those books record Lucifer's fall. When I saw them, I just assumed you knew."

"Well, you know what they say about assumptions. Most of those are in Arabic, I think, and I grew up here in Arkansas. The fact that I can even read in any language is astounding." I was actually pretty fluent in Spanish and I could understand some Latin, at least enough to know that the language had deserved to die out. I reached for the bottle again, only to find it gone. The archangel was also missing. After a heartbeat he appeared from the kitchen. "If you dumped that down the sink I'll kick your feathery ass." Even if he didn't exactly have feathers, at least that I could see.

The look he gave me was patronizing. "You could try. I should have, but I didn't. I'm not a babysitter, which you evidently need."

"You're just a big ball of sunshine and happiness, aren't you." Why the fuck was I insulting and threatening the most gorgeous guy I'd ever met? Maybe I did need to stop drinking. When Gabriel settled himself back on my couch, not deigning to respond, I sighed. "So Lucy's my father."

The inked seraph shrugged. "Yours and about a hundred others. Most of them are dead, though. Lucifer's people get a little anxious when he messes around with humans, it upsets the hierarchy. The last time they killed one, he threatened to destroy Hell. He's more powerful than his fallen would like believe."

"They've killed all his children?" My stomach turned. "What about their mothers?"

"Entire families, on occasion. Sometimes the fallen seraphim would send messages from 'God' back in the days when they executed adulterers and witches. Other times it was outright slaughter. You have a half-sister who is under our protection as well."

"I have a sister?" I'd gained a father and a sister in less than half an hour. It was cliché as all shit, but I'd take it.

"That's what I just said." Gabriel was giving me that condescending look again. I was torn between the urge to punch him or kiss him. Maybe I'd just do both. "Her name is Dante, ironically enough."

"Dante? Like the poet? The male poet?" I was named after an archangel that no one really gave a shit about, so I really didn't have much room to judge.

"I assume so. Michael is her guard; she and I have never met. I believe they're in London."

"So my sister gets to live in London and I'm stuck in fucking Arkansas?" Theoretically, I could move, but that required money, which I didn't have much of. Books, booze and utilities ate through my pathetic paycheck pretty quickly. It was a damn good thing that weird shit plagued the southern states.

"You poor thing," he said dryly, all but rolling those exquisite blue eyes. Then, lithe as a tiger, he stood and headed back into my kitchen.

"Hey, where are you going?" I scrambled up off the beaten-to-hell recliner and followed him. I couldn't help but steal a few glances at his perfect ass. I wondered what he'd do if I bit him.

"My cherub is here," he replied by way of explanation. He stopped in front of the door just before a light knock sounded from the other side. Opening the door revealed a very short girl, 5" at the most, with an equally short black skirt, made up for by thigh-high leather boots, and a rainbow-striped corset-looking thing. The tribal tattoo Gabriel had was mimicked on both of her slim forearms, and her shaggy platinum hair was streaked with the same blue as both their eyes. Seven sapphire studs lined both ears and she had silver snake bite piercings in her lower lip.

"Hiya," she chirped, sticking out a tiny hand to me. I shook it unconsciously, somewhat dumbstruck by the odd little creature.

"You look trashy," Gabriel informed her, his lovely lips thinning in almost fatherly disapproval as he shut the door behind her.

"Oh, hush, Gabby. This is the style nowadays." She grinned at me. "Gabby's stuck in the seventh century." She giggled. "Cross your legs when you sit, that skirt is too short, those piercings are hideous, leggings aren't pants. It never ends with him. I'm Dory, by the way."

"Like the fish?" I couldn't help but ask, and she grinned, showing slightly pointed teeth. I liked her immediately, something that hardly ever happened.

"Isidore," Gabriel said, giving her a dark look. There was a warning in his voice. It was sexy as fuck.

"Lighten up, Gabby. You know you love me." She winked at me. "I'm half a century younger than he is, and he never lets me forget it."

"So you're a cherub?" I'd heard they were Heaven's equivalent of imps, but far less common.

"You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but yes," Gabriel muttered, still keeping up his disproving face. He really was fucking adorable.

"No one asked you, Gabbs." She poked Gabriel's stomach with a brightly painted fingernail. "But, yeah. I'm a cherub. Think seraph-lite. Our parties are much more fun, y'know. Mikey's cherub Danny threw a rave in the '90s that the greed and gluttony daemons are still talking about. He got John Lennon and that Cobain guy from Nirvana to play. It was glorious."

"Uh-huh." I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

Gabriel cleared his throat. "Isidore."

"Oh, all right, you over-sized barn owl. Danny with a 'y' says to tell you that Mikey and Dani with an 'i' are doing good." When the archangel continued to give her a dirty look, she sighed loudly. "Fine. Daniel reports that Michael and Dante are doing well across the pond. Daemons are everywhere, but that's London for you. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Gabriel retorted dryly. "Anything else?"

"Well, no, but I wanted to meet Rafe. I'd heard he was cute. I wanted to see for myself."

"I'm not some kind of puppy," I pointed out. I wasn't that cute. My mismatched copper and green eyes were distracting, not attracting, and no amount of romanticizing over that kind of oddity would change the facts. My abs were non-existent, I drank way too much, and I didn't eat anything healthy. If I didn't have a daemon-enhanced metabolism I'd probably weigh half a ton.

"No, but it'd be fun to see you in a collar." Dory winked at me again, smiling.

"Isidore!" Gabriel snapped.

"Oh, he knows I'm just teasing. Just because you're a mean old codger doesn't mean everyone is." Dory shook her head. "You got the short end of the stick on this, Rafe. Gabby has a vendetta against fun."

"Don't you have somewhere you need to be, Isidore?" Gabriel asked, looking exasperated.

"Nope, Anna's orgy isn't until tonight." Dory paused. "Oh, I probably wasn't supposed to tell you that. Um, bye!" The cherub vanished with a resounding crack, leaving the scent of ozone behind.

"She's interesting," I said, if only to break the ringing silence.

"She's psychotic," Gabriel corrected, trying to sound disapproving, but there was a smile on his lips. I had to fight down the urge to kiss him. I wanted terribly to crush our mouths together, maybe bite him a little and taste his blood. I realized he was giving me a funny look. "Are you okay?"

I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. "Fine, just a little buzzed, is all." He probably wouldn't react well to me telling him that I wanted to shove him down on the kitchen floor and rub myself against him like a cat so that he'd smell like me. I hadn't realized that little urge was weird until the first guy I'd ever dated had threatened to break my nose after I got a bit too touchy-feely in public. By 'dated' I mean screwed around with. He'd gone on to renounce his so-called homosexual tendencies after a stint of intensive therapy and then hung himself in the church he volunteered at.

"You won't be drinking anymore in my presence." Gabriel had lost that sexy little smile and traded it in for something more along the lines of high-handed douche. I had to fight down the urge to go along with his domineering bullshit.

"Now just hold your damn horses, this is my house and I can do what I please, Gabby." I might have sneered just a little on the pet name. I wasn't sure why, usually I was pretty good at stifling my inner jackass.

"Don't call me Gabby. I hate that name."

"Don't tell me what to do, Gabby."

By now we had edged very close to one another and I had to crane my neck up to glare into his fucking gorgeous blue eyes. Warmth radiated from him and I could almost taste his irritation with me. All I wanted to do was rub up against him, mingle our scents, make him lose his fucking mind. I didn't even really care if he fucked me, though that would definitely be fine with me, I just wanted to be as close as physically possible.

Gabriel licked his lips. "Stop doing that!"

"I'm not doing anything."

"Yes, you are. You're driving me crazy!" Gabriel was squirming a little, and he seemed to shimmer in and out of reality, like smoke blown by a fan. The part of me that wasn't a daemon would have been content to piss himself and hide under something, terrified of the utterly inhuman display. However, the part of me that wasn't human was far too stubborn to back down.

"Oh, I'm driving you crazy? You're the asshat who broke into my house and insists on telling me what to do!" Okay, maybe yelling and name-calling wouldn't solve anything, but it made me feel better.

"I'm only telling you what to do to keep you alive! Are you deaf or just an idiot? Most of Hell wants you dead, you should be grateful I'm here!"

"If my father doesn't care if I'm alive, why do you? Why am I so goddamn special?"

Gabriel didn't reply, just stared at me for a long moment, his lovely baby blues unreadable. "What makes you think Lucifer doesn't care about you?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that he never bothered to drop in or even let me know that he was my dad."

The archangel's face was still unreadable and sexy as all hell. In a movement that I had no hope of seeing properly, he crushed his mouth to mine. Despite all the fantasies that had been playing through my head, I was too shocked to really do much more than stand there like an idiot, at least for several seconds. By the time I processed what was going on, he was pulling back from the kiss.

Gabriel opened his mouth to say something, possibly apologize, but I pressed myself flush against his chest and slid a hand between us, squeezing his stiffening cock through the soft cotton pants, and threaded the other through his silky hair. His pupils dilated and his lips, slightly swollen from the failed attempt at a kiss, parted slightly. I smirked at him and leaned up to lick his bottom lip. "Shut up, Gabby."

The seraph grinned at me and captured my errant hands, holding them behind my back, effectively trapping me against him. "Are you going to make me?"

Still smirking at him, I let myself slide down his luscious body and onto the old linoleum floor. Gabriel was nice enough to release my arms, which were nowhere near flexible enough for me to break free on my own without dislocating something. I mouthed his tattoo on the way down, nibbling at the flesh just above the gray cotton pants. He muttered something in a language I didn't understand, but I had no intention of stopping to ask for a translation. I was too wrapped up with his salty satin skin to really care.

Now that I was on level with my intended prize, I leaned forward and nuzzled the bulge growing in his pants. Gabriel made a soft happy noise that vibrated through his chest and buried both hands in my hair, tugging slightly, which had me echoing the same needy sound and humping at the air. Having my hair pulled never failed to make me beg like a cheap whore.

I'd intended on torturing him just a little, but fuck that noise. I freed his hard-on from its cloth prison and immediately licked the tip, my reward being a drop of his tangy pre-cum. He was both longer and thicker than I was, and, surprisingly enough, he was cut. I wasn't sure why that was a surprise to me, but I didn't stop to think about it.

I sucked on the bulbous head, lapping at the weeping slit like a puppy before sinking my mouth slowly down the rest of the deliciously thick shaft. I hadn't had a gag reflex since high school.

I rolled my eyes up to see his face and found his beautiful baby blues watching me intently. I tried to smirk with my eyes, but I wasn't sure how effectual it was, so I hummed softly and raked my nails gently over his firm abs and down to his balls. Like the rest of him, there wasn't much hair and what was there was well-groomed. Gabriel's hands tightened in my hair and his hips flexed slightly, begging for friction. Still humming tunelessly, I bobbed my head slowly up and down, relishing the way he stretched my throat. He said something in that weird slippery language he'd used before and groaned softly.

"Hmmm?" I managed aground his cock.

Gabriel's hands tightened in my hair, which made my own erection throb almost painfully and I whined softly. "Stop," he groaned out, breathing heavily.

I sat back on my heels, saliva linking my lips to his shaft for a heartbeat. I licked my lips. "What, you don't like it?"

His laugh was breathless and in another of those blindingly fast movements he hauled me to my feet and kissed me. This time I had enough damn sense to kiss back and he shoved his tongue between my teeth. I nipped at the intruding muscle, hard enough to draw a little blood and an indignant noise from him. "You're fantastic," he breathed against my lips.

"So why'd you make me stop?" I had a fairly good idea, but I wanted him to say it out loud.

"I didn't want to cum yet," he murmured. "I want to fuck you first." Electricity jolted down my spine and straight to my cock. I was suddenly very aware that I was wearing way too many clothes.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." I licked his kiss-swollen lips before snagging his hand and leading him to my bedroom. This had escalated pretty quickly, but I wasn't about to complain. "Strip," Gabriel ordered, once we'd entered my cluttered little room. I couldn't help rolling my eyes just a little, which was more or less involuntary, but I obeyed nonetheless. Or, I tried to obey, but I'd apparently lost the ability to work the button on my jeans and the archangel had to swat my fumbling hands aside and do it for me. I did manage to get my shirt off without much difficulty.

Gabriel gave me a predatory look and pushed me down on the bed. I went willingly and made a whimpering little hungry noise until he followed me down and captured my mouth with his. I managed to keep enough brain power to grope blindly around on the bedside table for the half-used bottle of lube. I knocked over one of the countless books that covered every stable surface, but I decided instantly that it didn't matter because the seraph was working his way down my body, sucking and leaving bite marks in my pale skin.

He confiscated the bottle of lube and I vaguely heard the snap of the lid, then promptly lost my mind as the angel swallowed my aching cock until his nose was pressed against the skin on my lower belly. I moaned softly, which turned into a stifled yelp when Gabriel shoved a single slicked finger inside me and curled it, rubbing firmly over my sweet spot. I squirmed, trying to fuck his face but he pinned my hip down with his free hand and sucked harder, adding another finger and scissoring them inside me.

I whined, burying my hands in his hair, and begged for mercy as he added a third finger and began to bob his head up and down my shaft, sucking fiercely. He ignored me and continued his excellent impersonation of a vacuum cleaner until I finally lost it and shot down his throat. "Oh, fuck," I panted, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

Again I heard him open the lube and watched as he coated his impressive cock between my splayed legs. He hooked my legs over his shoulders and presented the slick plum head of his dick to my stretched hole.

I whined as the thick head slowly popped inside and whimpered at the single slow thrust inside. I squirmed under Gabriel's relentless onslaught and buried my face against his neck, chewing gently at the skin there. He hissed and thrust a little harder in retribution, grinding intently against my prostate, which perked up my flagging erection pretty quickly.

"Fuck me," I growled against his ear, rolling my hips up at him in a silent plea for him to move faster.

He evidently understood and began to speed up, making sure to tap my hot spot with every inward thrust, edging me up to cum again, and in return I clenched my inner muscles around him, making him groan hoarsely and fuck into me harder.

Gabriel's hand snaked between our sweat-slick bodies and gripped my shaft, groping roughly as he sped up our rhythm to a breakneck pace and buried his tongue in my mouth, imitating the action going on in much lower regions. I whined into the kiss, desperate for a second release, and the seraph was happy to oblige, grinding our hips together and driving me crazy until I finally shot off between our sticky bodies. He followed me a few heavy thrusts later, emptying himself inside me and resting his forehead against mine for a few minutes while we regained higher thinking ability.

The archangel slowly pulled out of me and I winced slightly. I'd be sore later, but I didn't care and all I wanted to do was curl up beside Gabriel and sleep. Good sex always made me sleepy.

"We should go clean up," Gabriel murmured drowsily, curling up against my back.

"Later," I mumbled back before falling into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.