He undoes his pants, freeing himself, and I work hard to not swallow my own tongue when he gives himself a gentle stroke.

Kai ties my hands behind my back as I remain on my knees, my heart thumping in my chest with pure excitement.

“You’re not my favorites,” I remind them in a breathy tone.

“We were in this entry,” Jude says as he drops the journal to the table beside him, shoving his pants the rest of the way down.

All that firm, smooth skin lined with toned muscle in all the right places…

My mouth practically waters.

He pulls his shirt off next, tossing it aside, as Kai rips my dress down the front. Jude’s gaze dips to where my breasts are exposed, as Kai finishes ripping the dress off completely, leaving me bound and naked on my knees.

I could go phantom…if I wanted to get away.

There’s a pulse in every erogenous zone on my body right now, because everything on me is hyperaware of everything they do.

“We could give you every single fantasy in these journals,” Kai whispers next to my ear as he shoves me forward.

With my hands bound, I can’t catch myself. My face lands in Jude’s lap, and he roughly shoves a hand in my hair, lifting my head so that I’m forced to look up at him.

He cants his head to the side as he stares down at me like I’m his to own.

“If you drop this silly idea of challenging all your siblings,” Jude says as though he’s finishing the offer Kai started.

He leans over to my ear abruptly, and I cry out a little from the slight pain in my scalp when he forces me to meet him halfway.

“You’ll never have a need go unmet ever again. It’s your one chance to snap your fingers and have me do anything you want me to do to your body,” he adds in a whisper that sends chills drifting down my body.

The temptation is surreal. The old ghost-girl me would have caved on the spot without an ounce of hesitation.

Especially when Kai spreads my legs and moves in between them from behind, rubbing himself against me in the most unbearably teasing way.

Jude smirks down at me as he lifts back up, as though he can see it written on my face how much I want the two of them right now.

“Let’s give her a taste,” Kai says as he drags his lips across my shoulder.

Jude’s hand goes down to my jaw, forcing my mouth open, as he works his cock inside it.

I moan around the tip, licking it, and he sucks in a breath before plunging me down farther, releasing my jaw as he grips my hair once again.

I don’t waste time. I’ve wanted to try this on them. In all the journals, they always love it when I do this.

“Fuck,” he hisses, his grip on my hair tightening, as I work my mouth up and down.

Without warning, Kai shoves in from behind, surprising me into a moan/gasp. It’s hard to focus on two of them at once in this way, and I’m really unpracticed with my part.

Kai, however, works my body as though he’s tuning an instrument, strumming it tightly to make it play all the perfect chords his fingers and dick want to pluck.

Jude makes a rumbled sound of pleasure, his head falling back as I work him, seizing the control he tried to steal, and refusing to smile about it just yet.

Kai seems to lose himself in me, his arms closing around me as he begins pounding into me with less and less finesse.

A startled cry escapes me, but I renew my efforts on Jude, trying to get him to the quickly encroaching cliff that Kai is hurdling me toward, as the devilish Conquest manipulates my body into feeling too many sensations at once.

Jude’s grip in my hair tightens even more, and he moves his hips just a little, trying not to be too forceful, showing a surprising amount of restraint that my virgin mouth appreciates.

His hips jerk suddenly, and…thar he blows…

He spurts into my mouth, and I swallow him down like I do have greed in me, wanting to savor every ounce of power I have over him in this moment, as he surrenders without realizing it.

His body goes slack, and he makes a pained sound when I continue to suck.

He forces my mouth away, dragging me to him as he drops to his knees before me, kicking the chair out of the way in the process. His lips crash to mine. It all happens in such a seamless, swift motion that I barely register it happening, as he kisses me like he’s starving for affection.

I’m forced to break the kiss and cry out as my own orgasm boulders through my body, and I bury my face against his throat, as he holds me up, allowing Kai to wring out every last sensation he can offer.

Kai grunts, hips getting off-rhythm, as my body shudders in the throes of the delicious after-shocks.

Conquest stills abruptly, wrapping his arms around me, while the two of them keep me from sinking to the ground in a mushy puddle.

Jude is still quivering a little, his arms wrapped around me as he holds me too. I’m very fucking happily trapped between them in the embrace.

“Please don’t do this,” Kai whispers close to my ear. “Don’t put us through that.”

As if they break the spell with those words, I go phantom, zapping away from them, freeing my wrists, and cleaning myself up as I go whole and give them a wink. They both stare at me with a little stunned surprise in their eyes, as though they can’t believe I’d walk away at a time like this.

“You should have a little more faith in your girlfriend,” I tell them as I turn and walk out.

I do love orgasms, but not enough to back out of a fight I know I need to have.

As much as I’d love to stick around, they reminded me of something important. I have a big day tomorrow, and I need some practice before I squash my hell-spawn siblings like a fragile surface bug.

Chapter 6

GAGE

Rafael seems sort of lucid when I sit down across from him, even though I can tell he’s agitated.

I’m not sure what made me believe this was a good idea, or why the other three agreed to come along without argument. Now that we’re alone in Purgatory with the archangel who killed Paca, and is now training her for a battle she shouldn’t have to fight, I idly wonder if our girlfriend has made us as reckless as she is.

“What’s this about?” he asks with an edge of ire he struggles to contain.

“Paca’s fighting her siblings tomorrow if we can’t talk her out of it—”

“Been there. Tried that. Got fucked in both the literal and metaphorical sense,” Kai butts in.

Rafael looks about as horrified as can be expected.

Jude elbows Kai, who simply rolls his eyes.

“I do hope you have a more important reason for this summoning, considering how very much inappropriate it is for the Horsemen to summon an archangel,” Rafael bites out, eyes back on me like I’m the one in charge of this shit show.

“We need a way out of that cage if it all goes wrong. I’ve made peace with the likelihood we’re going to have to fight a being that shredded your champion. We’re unable to make peace with dying for a righteous cause, because we don’t find anything all that heroic about this battle. We need a back door,” I tell him, cutting to the chase.

His lips purse, the ire fleeing ever so slightly, as he leans back and drags a hand over his beard that seems to change from day to day in length.

“That’s a reasonable request, given the antiheroes in question,” he states dryly. “I have an amulet that will release you from the cage, but I’m not sure how well it works.”

We all give him a bland look.

He blinks at us.

“It’s not as though anyone can go in and test it without needlessly risking their own life,” he points out. “But, theoretically, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work,” he adds.

It’s hardly enough to ease our worries, but it’s better than nothing.

“It was created for our champion, as a means of emergency exit, but he refused it because he was brave,” he goes on.

“Says you. Dying when you can live to fight another day sounds stupid to me. Especially when you don’t really achieve anything, and that was his only purpose…” Kai lets the words trail off when Rafael shoots him a murderous look. “We’ll agree to disagree,” Kai adds with a smartass smile.

I scrub a hand over my face, wondering why in the fuck I didn’t come alone.

“Why is Paca challenging her siblings?” Rafael asks me, cutting his eyes back in my direction until they level me. “Why won’t she tell me definitively if she’s going to do this or not? She keeps acting as though she’s going to, and then says…if instead of when every time she mentions the upcoming battle,” he goes on.

“Paca does whatever Paca thinks she’s supposed to do, and it doesn’t always make sense. And sometimes she’s fickle as shit, but she’s got a lot on her mind right now. Obviously,” Ezekiel chimes in. “It’s a big commitment to state you’re going to save the world when you’re designed purpose is to destroy it.”

The angel glares for a moment, before his expression calms and he shrugs a shoulder, as if to say, fair enough.

“But she’s battling with you, she’s studying Jahl, challenging her siblings, and preparing for war. It’s safe to say we’re certainly in this, whether we like it or not,” Jude states as he takes a seat in one of the chairs that suddenly appears.