Angel's Touch [PUP Squad Alpha 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

And then he was coming, his cock throbbing inside her mouth as his seed pumped into her throat. Jed moaned, his eyes closing briefly as Lilly finally released the suction and fell face-first into his lap. Devlin fell forward also, only just catching himself from crushing her to the mattress, but smiling as he apparently managed to stay inside the heavenly warmth of her body. He very carefully eased himself and Lilly onto their sides.

The three of them lay sprawled on the bed, panting for breath as they recovered. Jed could feel a goofy smile on his lips but was powerless to stop it. He hadn’t felt this complete in all of his three hundred plus years. It didn’t matter that Lilly was human. It didn’t matter that their time together would be measured in decades instead of centuries. It only mattered that they were together now.

“I’ll just grab a shower,” he said in an embarrassingly breathless voice. “I’ll take over the first watch while you two get some sleep.”

“No need,” Devlin said as he disposed of the condom and then dragged their exhausted woman higher up the bed and cradled her in his arms. “Brody and Alex have us covered. Grab a shower and get some rest.”

Jed nodded, uncertain of the protocols of sharing a lover. Devlin must have noticed his hesitancy, or maybe shared it, because he shuffled to one side of the large bed, pulling Lilly into the middle, and leaving plenty of room for Jed to join them if he wished.

He dipped his head in acknowledgement and then headed for the shower.

“Brody said you’d be needing this,” Darian said without a hint of humor as he walked into the safe house and dropped a leather bag at Jed’s feet.

Lilly looked at the bag curiously, but Devlin knew exactly what it contained. BDSM supplies. It was easy to spot a Dom when one knew what to look for. There was no doubt in Devlin’s mind that Darian was highly trained and more than capable of keeping his wife, Amber, very happy. The fact that her other husband was a vampire probably added a whole extra level of kink to the marriage.

Devlin glanced at Lilly and tried not to think of all the things he’d rather be doing than having a meeting with Ronan and Darian from Deeks Security. Technically speaking, he and Jed weren’t working with them on their current project, and as far as the Ruling Body knew Jed had no idea what the privately owned protection and security firm was working on at all.

Ronan handed over a thick folder of computer printouts as he took a seat at the small table. “We were hoping you might be able to help with some of the translation. The fewer people involved the safer for everyone.”

Jed nodded his agreement. Devlin knew that Benjamin had deliberately omitted the finding of Bethany’s journal from his reports. Considering the fact that the orders coming from various levels of the Ruling Body seemed to contradict one another, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Judiciaries were divided in their opinions. None of the members of PUP Squad Alpha had said it out loud, but Devlin got the feeling they were bracing for the order that would end their protection of the Oracle’s receptacles. Devlin had no doubt that every single one of them would ignore such an order, but life would be far simpler working with the Ruling Body than as disgraced operatives and wanted fugitives. When it came to members of the PUP squads, ignoring the official orders of the Ruling Body could literally be deadly.

Jed flicked through the pages Ronan had given him, scanning the words quickly. He frowned, doubled back, checked a few more words, and then rubbed his forehead as if he felt the onset of a sudden headache. “It’s been a lot of years since I studied the ancient languages,” he said, glancing around the table, “but I’m pretty sure this isn’t all written in the warlocks’ ancient tongue.” He turned the pages around, pointing out several words to Ronan and Darian. “This word is Latin. It means ‘lost.’ The word before it is ancient Sumerian for ‘knowledge.’ A lot of the text does seem to be in the ancient tongue of warlocks, but it’s peppered with words and symbols from other languages both ancient and modern.”

“There’s French and Italian in there, too, maybe even some of the ancient dragon tongue as well,” Devlin said, looking at the pages over Ronan’s shoulder.

“Damn,” Ronan said with a small humorless laugh. “Bethany made certain the information wasn’t going to fall into the wrong hands. Earlier this week Kali pointed out a passage that seemed to be a load of gibberish. She and Wilson ran it through dozens of translation programs without success. It wasn’t until they noticed a pattern forming that we were able to identify that it had been typed in the English using a non-English layout of the keyboard. Essentially Bethany had been striking the keys as if she were using a standard US keyboard, but it registered as different letters on the screen.”

“The entire thing is going to take years to decipher,” Darian said in a frustrated tone. “I’ve tried every spell I know to try and reveal the information, but it seems Bethany used at least a dozen different methods of concealing the information she wanted to hide.” He grabbed the pile of papers. “Passages like this one are fairly easy to interpret, but then others may as well have been written by a crazy person.”

“Are we sure that she wasn’t?” Lilly asked unexpectedly. All eyes turned to her and she gave them a crooked, apologetic-looking half smile. “Jed told me that the Oracles are usually of paranormal origin. Is it possible that the overload of information in Bethany’s brain tipped her over the edge?”

“That’s just the thing,” Darian said, looking thoughtful. “We’ve always believed that the human mind is inferior to paranormals.” He laughed at Lilly’s quirked eyebrow. “Sorry, I phrased that badly. My point is that the Oracle’s receptacles seem not only to be tapping into the unused parts of the human brain, but to also be increasing their memory capacity exponentially.”

“So humans aren’t inferior?” Lilly asked, seeming confused now.

“Far from it,” Darian said with a warm smile. “A reliable source confirmed that the paranormal species indigenous to this planet evolved from the same ancestors as humans.”

“Indigenous? As in there are paranormal species on this planet that didn’t evolve here on Earth?”

Darian gave Devlin an apologetic look—one that Lilly noticed immediately—before nodding and dragging the conversation back on track. “Anyway, we’d appreciate your help decoding Bethany’s journal.”

“Unofficially of course,” Ronan said in a serious tone. “Cassandra Lipton is causing Benjamin and Thomas all sorts of headaches with her by-the-book attitude. They’re not certain, but the orders don’t seem to be coming from her. Someone else seems to be pulling her strings, and until we know if they’re friend or foe, PUP Squad Alpha is treading cautiously.”

“Understood,” Jed said with a nod. Devlin had been given his own share of strange orders when he’d been a Navy SEAL, but none of it had been as bewildering as the situation they now found themselves in.

“So the Ruling Body doesn’t know Deeks Security is currently protecting the pixie queen from her own assassins and housing a half dozen miniature pixies across the country?”

“Not yet,” Ronan said, shaking his head. “Fortunately, we haven’t had any more attacks since Jason revealed himself as the traitor, but we’ve recently discovered that pixies are far more vulnerable in miniature form than even they believed. I’d like to bring an end to the attacks before a supposedly indestructible creature dies in our custody.”

“Shit,” Devlin said quietly. How was it possible that his understanding of the world was being turned on its head so thoroughly?

“My thoughts exactly,” Darian said with a soft laugh as he pointed over his shoulder at Ronan. “Who would have thought these short-lived creatures would someday end up a danger to us?”

“What, you mean besides the fact that there are nearly seven billion of us on the planet?” Ronan asked with a raised eyebrow.

And for the first time since he’d signed on for this assignment Devlin understood the conflict the Ruling Body faced. Even if only a small percentage of humans were capable of the skills the Oracle’s receptacles were developing, it was still likely to be a very big number. If the Oracle’s receptacles were allowed to pass their information to others, it would very likely throw the paranormal community into turmoil.

Not only were humans the most abundant sentient species on the planet, it was quite possible they’d soon replace paranormals as the dominant beings on the planet. Considering human history, that didn’t bode well for the future for anyone.

“Why did Darian apologize to you when I asked about nonindigenous paranormal species?”

“He didn’t apologize,” Devlin said slowly, obviously trying to deny the look Darian had given him had any particular meaning. She waited him out, knowing that she knew enough now that he would either have to answer her question or lie to her face.

If he was a smart man, he wouldn’t lie about this.

“Dev, I already figured out that you’re not human. You haven’t aged a day in the four years since we dated. That combined with the company you keep and the party where I found you, I know that you’re not human. The question is what are you?”

“I’m the man you love,” he said, trying to gather her in his arms. She gave him a look that froze him in place. Did the guy learn nothing while they were dating? She wasn’t some delicate flower needing protection. Yes, she’d been raised in a small town, but she wasn’t stupid, naïve, or poorly educated.

“He’s an angel,” Jed said. He leaned casually against the doorjamb and gave her a mischievous smile.

“Is that true?” she asked Devlin.

But the man didn’t say anything. And he didn’t move. His complete stillness was a little creepy. She’d meant to stop him from changing the subject, but he was taking this whole frozen-by-her-glare thing just a little too far.

“Dev?” she asked pointedly. “Are you going to answer me or not?”

Jed stepped into the room, frowning as he got closer. “Lil, did you do something?”

“Something like what?” she asked nervously.

He shook his head as he walked around Devlin’s frozen form. “I’m not sure. But something you did, or you said…” He shook his head again. “Lil, recreate what you did when you two first started talking.” Jed seemed calm but something urged her to do it quickly.

“I asked a serious question. He gave me an evasive answer. I narrowed my eyes at him because he was going to try and distract me.”

“Your eyes?” Jed said. “Look at him again, narrow your eyes, and think that you want him unfrozen.”

It seemed like a strange thing to do, but considering that “strange” seemed to be the way her life was going these days, she did as he asked.

Devlin dragged in a deep breath, his knees giving out as he fell forward. Jed was there in an instant, helping Lilly get him onto the sofa. He collapsed onto the cushions, dragging Lilly into his arms, crushing her against him. “Do me a favor, baby?” he asked breathlessly. She nodded frantically, still unsure what the hell had happened but willing to promise him and Jed anything. “Warn me before you do that again.”

“I’m sorry,” Lilly said urgently, trying to lift away from his embrace.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Devlin said, rubbing a hand over her back, his touch achingly familiar. This was the way he’d held her the day he’d said good-bye.

Panic streaked through her heart. “Don’t leave me,” she pleaded urgently, pride and sanity forgotten in the fear of moments ago.

“What?” Jed asked in a shocked voice.

“I’m not going anywhere, Lil,” Devlin said, pulling her onto his lap. “I promised to protect you and love you for the rest of your life. I have every intention of keeping that promise.” He lifted her chin, gazing into her eyes a moment before kissing her passionately. By the time he pulled away, she was breathing hard, too. “But we need to figure out what just happened. The skill you demonstrated is dangerous. Whatever you did froze all external movement. I literally couldn’t breathe.”

“I could have killed you,” she said as dread flowed over her, sinking deep into her bones.

“I’m a little harder than that to kill,” he said confidently. “But if I’d been human or one of several other species, a prolonged amount of time frozen would have killed me.”

Jed sat down beside them and took her hand into his own. “What were you thinking when you froze Devlin?”

Words were hard to find. Her stomach churned as the what-ifs rolled through her mind. “I was…I was thinking that the look I gave him should be enough to freeze him on the spot.” She glanced at Devlin but lowered her eyes, terrified of doing something else as dangerously unpredictable as she’d just done. “But I didn’t mean it. I was thinking figuratively, not literally.”

“Did you squint or blink?”

“I did. I squinted. Could it be that simple?”

“We won’t know until we try it,” Devlin said, moving her away from him slightly.

She was shaking her head long before he finished the sentence. “Uh-uh, no way. I’m not experimenting on you. What happens if I squint and accidentally blow you up or something?”

“Baby,” Devlin said, lifting her chin so that he could look her in the eyes. She closed them. “Look at me, Lil. My species can survive flying at very high altitudes. I don’t need much oxygen to keep my body functioning. I can literally hold a deep breath for thirty minutes or more. If you’re going to learn to control this skill, I’m your best chance.”