Page 25 of Under His Wings
I was about half an hour early to our date at Zach’s but I couldn’t wait anymore. I felt like waiting even this long after my awful evening last night had broken all my barriers.
“Hellion, come, come, I made us an almond pie with a cherry glaze— Darling? What’s wrong?” Zach opened his arms and I took the step into them, burying my face in his neck.
I stepped back a moment later, embarrassed by my neediness. When it came to it, I couldn’t just ask for what I wanted. I needed to at least push the mood in the right direction if I wanted to make the odds more in my favor, so I cupped Zachariel’s face and pulled him in for a kiss.
“I just missed you,” I said and put all my heart into seducing the angel until we were making out like teenagers on the couch. Once eager lips were kissing down my neck, I found it in myself to ask. “Could you... could you mark me?”
A pleased rumble vibrated in Zach’s throat before he sucked a prominent hickey into my skin.
“Like this, darling? I can mark you all over,” he declared.
“I was thinking...” Well, I was trying to think as the angel made it very difficult with his busy lips and teeth. “...about something more... permanent?”
It sounded more like a question than a statement, and I had to swallow hard as Zach pulled back and pierced me with a heated stare.
“What do you have in mind, Hellion?”
“Ah, something that w-would remind me of you,” I said, squirming under his attention.
“You want to wear my claim.”
I had to close my eyes at being seen through so easily. Zachariel’s hand trailed up my neck, fingers closing around the pale column just a little.
“A pretty collar would do, hmm? But I find myself partial to a different idea... You can take the collar off and pretend either for yourself or others that you don’t have an owner. And I want you to be mine always, all the time, without limits.” My eyes snapped open at the declaration, and the fire I saw in Zachariel’s gaze was more fitting for a possessive demon than an angel. This was a big leap... but was it really? I had already met the edges of this jealous, covetous, darkly intense creature and I had cut myself open against them willingly.
“Yes,” I said.
“You don’t even know what I want yet.”
“Tell me, show me.”
A bit of angelic power flickered over his fingertips, the blue emanation glowing softly, soothingly. But I knew better than to touch it. Angelic power burned when you were a fallen angel like me.
“I want to trace my power onto you. Burn a tattoo of grace into your skin. It will hurt. It will hurt a lot, and you won’t be able to ever get rid of it. I understand if you don’t—”
I caught his hand leaving my neck and pressed it back into place.
“Yes,” I said quieter than before, but no less sure. “I want it. I want you to mark me with your grace. Make me truly yours.”
And just like Zachariel said, it hurt. It was a visceral pain, akin to what I imagine a human being tattooed felt, but the most difficult part for me was keeping still and ensuring my demonic power wouldn’t fight against the invasion.
“Would it help if I bound you?” the angel offered.
That’s how I found myself tied with red rope, the constraints helping me keep my hands from intervening and my body tethered. Zach traced a shining layer of power over my skin first, laying out a pattern of beautiful swirls over my shoulders, and I barely felt the sting. But after that, when the angel started sinking his power into me... I gritted my teeth and felt sweat bead on my brow after the minutes, and later hours, passed. A demon’s body naturally rejected angelic power and always tried to heal back to the currently preferred shape, so I had to let the angel’s grace in and hold back my healing. It was a slow process, making sure the magical tattoo took. I didn’t even know how the angel was doing this, but somehow it worked.
“You are doing so well. Just a little more. Such a good boy,” Zachariel whispered soothing nonsense to me, his forehead against mine in a gesture that felt even more intimate than a kiss on the lips.
I drifted, suspended between the pain and the sheer gratification of being claimed. With every pass of angelic power Zachariel and I were coming closer, becoming one, ensuring nothing could tear us apart.
It felt like it took days, certainly more time than a human would spend in a tattooing session. When it was all done, I was left with red lines on my skin that were starting to heal over. But the grace under my skin... it stayed there, waiting. I could feel it buzzing faintly if I concentrated. It was like when you smelled ozone and knew a storm was coming. No matter where I was, I could always find this connection to my lover inside me.
It felt like a gift I didn’t deserve.
I will tell him, I promised myself, after my payment.
I couldn’t let him stop me from ensuring his safety.
Chapter 17