The ceremony for Sam and Grace’s wedding went off without a single problem. Which was helped along by the fact that we had a Heavenly Host in the crowd who could manipulate time to make sure everything worked out just how Grace wanted it to be.
I understood why Grace wanted everything to be perfect, but I had never seen Sam so insistent with perfection. He knew things went wrong, that’s what happened when you did things around humans or on the Earthly plane. After the ceremony, which took place in the gardens that Michael coaxed into beauty just for them, the reception happened in the estate in the large ballroom.
And they laughed at me when I told them we should build a ballroom into the estate. Doing that had saved us a ton of money on the wedding.
“Being a guardian angel is harder work than I thought it would be, Ralph,” Toby said as he sat down.
He flitted away and back, then sighed and sipped his drink.
A human wouldn’t have noticed that motion. Even to my eyes, it merely looked like Toby phased out of existence for a second or so, then back again. When he popped back in, he looked weary and mildly annoyed.
“You’re the one who insisted on also being physical friends with her,” I countered.
If he hadn’t insisted on that, then he would have been able to remain in the astral plane, moving about as he wanted to without the pressure of returning to the physical plane. That motion of back and forth would wear even me out, and I had been making the move long enough that I could be considered an experienced planeswalker.
Toby, Lilly, and Mary had been bridespeople for Grace. She didn’t make friends easily, but those she made were strong friendships. For Sam, it had been me, Michael, and Gabe. Toby had offered to wear a dress, but I hadn’t realized he had been joking.
The Heavenly Host was sometimes blind to the current fashion. I didn’t want him making a fool of himself when a conversation on the side would solve the problem.
Away and back he went again.
He only had to do small alterations until the pair were introduced. There was security present, and they would handle almost everything, but Toby was dealing with other things. Like keeping a couple from breaking out into a fight and hitting the wedding cake. Or keeping people from groping Mike’s date, which would cause the woman to understandably hit the person and that would cause them to crash into the wedding cake.
Sam and Grace had dated three years before she had asked him if they were ever going to be married. He, of course, had only been waiting because he didn’t think she wanted to marry. He would have married her the day she told him that they were dating, but the modern world believed in the long courtship, then longer engagement and all the rest.
They had only been engaged three months because Sam and Lilly had been planning the wedding since they had started dating. Not together, they had not planned the wedding together, they had planned it separately. Sam based on what he wanted, and Lilly based on what she could get out of Grace. The wedding itself came together quite quickly once Sam, Lilly, and Grace sat down with the plans they had made and began comparing notes. The pair shared many ideas, those became the basis of the wedding, and everything else had merely been about compromise.
“It’s such a beautiful wedding,” my date said with a giggle as she reached between me for another glass of wine. “Thank you for inviting me, Ralph.”
She was a very troubled soul, who had a good career in the public eye. No possession to her, all her problems and addictions were hers, and she would struggle with them her entire life.
Those addictions, however, had been caused based on her experiences in her childhood that were fuelled by demons. In many ways, her problems were because of our inaction, and so I felt for her in a way. I felt responsible for her.
That was why I had invited her out for one last, sort of rock-bottom explosion. It would get her publicity and tomorrow morning I’d take her to a rehabilitation facility for her first stint. I hoped it would be her only stay in rehab, but I knew better than to pray for a miracle.
Heaven didn’t deal in those sorts of miracles.
“No drugs, that was the deal,” I said.
“No drugs, just lots of alcohol and maybe getting naked on the front lawn.”
“Preferably as security chases you down,” I said. “Then tomorrow morning you issue an apology and we get you into rehab.”
“Actual rehab?” she asked, making a face. “I’m not an actual alcoholic.”
She had admitted to being an alcoholic just the night before. She had been drunk at the time, that may have been the deciding factor in her revealing that to me. So far, she had been sober for the ceremony because we had been explicit with our dates. Nothing could interrupt the ceremony.
At least during the reception, fewer people would be focused on one thing. Everyone was looking all over and focused on various things.
“Fake rehab wouldn’t work,” I said pointedly. “The paparazzi would figure it out.”
“Right, fine. Drunken night, then rehab,” she grumbled, walking away.
“How did you meet her?” Toby asked.
We shared a look as I wondered if he was being a judgemental prick. I always expected it of Heavenly Host, but I should have known better by then. Toby was trying to make conversation, not to be mean. Or, maybe, he honestly wanted to know how I had met her.
“Porn star,” I said quickly. “She wants to be taken more seriously. And she does have a drinking problem, anywho. Have you seen that woman Mike is with?”
I didn’t want Toby paying too much attention to my date. I had it under control and was not going to ask Heaven for any favours.
“Name’s Sera, she’s a paid escort.”
Toby said it in an almost bored tone and didn’t expand beyond that. It seemed to be the only information any of us had on the woman, despite the fact that Michael had introduced each of us to her before the ceremony. A few had even had a conversation with her, yet none of us had gleaned any information beyond that.
“Oh, the poor woman is going to be so confused when Mike sends her home, high and dry,” I added.
I glanced across the floor and spotted Sera.
She had a simple green dress on, nothing fancy. It was a slick cut, and smooth like it might have been satin or silk. The green was not overly bright, but it still drew my eye over and over. Maybe it wasn’t the dress. Maybe it was the shape of her, or how she kept adjusting the shawl. That shawl had been up over her shoulders the entire time, in no small part because of what appeared to be her constant struggle with it.
And Mike had watched her like a hawk.
The entire time.
He had even reached a time or two and pulled her shawl up for her. The pair would share a smile after the motion, but that was as close as Mike came to her. For him, that was practically sex. It was as far as she would get with him that evening. Adjusting her clothing might have been simple playing, but it also drew my attention to the shawl and her shoulders.
What’s under the shawl?
I stood, but as I stood, there was a little blare of music that made me sit back down.
It wasn’t really a blare of music, but to me, right then, everything would be a blare. In reality, it was part of a carefully chosen song meant to draw everyone’s attention and get us to sit or stand to the sides.
The attention of everyone present turned toward the doors as Sam and Grace were introduced. Nearly every eye was on them, but for Mike, Gabe, and I, scanning the crowd for signs of possession.
The city had been quiet for months. We expected to receive word from Heaven that we had to move, and Grace knew that, but we were also expecting an attack on the wedding. Just because it was quiet, didn’t mean all the demons were gone. They may have wanted to lull us into submission before attacking.
Which Grace also knew, as we told her everything.
Across the floor, I found green, almond-shaped eyes focused on me. They were coloured contact lenses, good ones at that, but they still seemed to cut me to my core. I felt weak in the knees as I lowered my hands to brace myself on the stool. Sera’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she turned away, head and body moving toward the bride and groom as she smiled and clapped with everyone else.
What in Hell sparkles?
Eyes were eyes for humans, but we were finding that the different demons had different reactions to types of light. Knowing that made things so much easier when you also knew that the creatures who feasted on the physical burned under UV lights, kind of like vampires.
It wasn’t easy to pull one over on Mike, but when he fell, he fell hard. He still hadn’t gotten over the last time he had tangled with a human. That had been so long ago that I couldn’t recall how many centuries it had been.
I knew I had to deal with Sera before he realized what was going on. Either banish the demon or kill it outright, then prop his date back up and return her to him relatively unharmed.
Say what you will about our fighting, at the end of the day I still wished Mike all the happiness he could find in this world.
“Ralph,” Toby hissed.
The warning itself was unspoken, but I knew what he meant. There was a guilty pang as I forced myself to relax.
“Right, the wedding,” I said, dragging my eyes off Sera.
Grace was dressed in white. She had tried to argue for an off-white due to tradition and all that. She had wanted to wear the white but argued against it because of their wedding being somewhat traditional otherwise. The dress was from a designer whose name I didn’t recognize. Her hair had grown longer over the past couple of years and had been pinned up.
I’m not certain we told Grace that her dress cost more than a second-hand car.
She still wasn’t comfortable with expensive gifts being bought for her, but she had come around a little bit. She lived with us two days a week and had agreed to move in with Sam after marriage. They were thinking of buying a condo or little house for themselves, or at least she was. The home we occupied was warded against demons, that took time to set up and space to trap them in.
We didn’t just live in a large estate because we could. Sometimes the stronger demons, the knights and the like, they needed space when we tried to exorcise them.
Sam was dressed in a dark grey three-piece suit with barely noticeable pinstriping down the fabric. His tie was purple, to go along with the wedding colours chosen, along with his pocket square.
Their colour had also been chosen because it was all the fad with weddings, and neither of the participants could come up with a better colour. Purple did make for some beautiful wedding pictures, though.
Among the crowd, there were a few jealous mutterings, but from the sound of it, it was just women who had shared Sam’s bed and thought he had settled for trash. No matter who had married Sam, they would be muttering the same things. We weren’t concerned about them. They talked a big game but in the end were either too cowardly to do anything about it, or realized that he had made a choice to make him happy and that they couldn’t fill that void.
Sam and Grace headed to their table near the garden doors as everyone returned to whatever they had been doing before.
Dinner for everyone else was buffet style mixed with drinking. Dinner for Sam and Grace would be a nice meal, that imitated what was in the buffet, served to them. The groomsmen and bridespeople could eat at the head table, or wander about. That part wasn’t overly crucial because somehow they always ended up wandering off in weddings. What really mattered was Sam and Grace at the front.
That gave enough flexibility for the rest of us to do our work.
Any food left over from dinner would be taken to a homeless shelter that already knew that something was coming to them. Sam had asked for money instead of gifts, that too would go to the homeless shelter. We didn’t need anything, and some people hadn’t listened and brought gifts anyhow.
The donation was the part I was looking forward to.
I slipped off the stool and left Toby at the bar. He was sucking at the bottom of his glass with a straw, making a great deal of noise as he waited for the bartender to come by and refill his drink.
Getting across the floor was tricky, I had to stop and make conversation with several people. Once on the other side, I had to glance around for Mike. He was at the buffet table, picking at the food as he talked to someone. He was probably having as much difficulty navigating the ballroom as I had.
I slipped up to Sera as she pulled the shawl from her shoulders and began shaking it out like something had gotten caught in the fabric and irritated her. Her back was to me and the rest of the floor as she did so. As she flicked the scarf, the skin of her back moved.
For a moment, I thought I saw wings.
Not the ones tattooed on her skin, but real, actual wings, threatening to burst from her back and into the real world.
And then it was gone, and I was staring at the Enochian written up the side of her spine, at the detail in the feathers inked into her skin. The Enochian declared that the wings belonged to an angel of Heaven and were true to form and fit. It was a little like a guarantee, written about the wings. That was not something that any wings needed because they were always attached to a Heavenly Host. On the astral plane, it was impossible to present fake wings.
Leave it to a human to go into such detail for a bit of artwork.
As I stared, I walked up to her, unable to pull my gaze from those feathers. They looked vaguely familiar, as if I knew this angel.
Sera turned, which caused me to stare straight at her chest because of where on her back I had been looking. I moved my gaze up, met her eyes, and realized what that sparkling was. She was wearing coloured contact lenses. To my eye, they sparkled, hiding a brown under the lenses.
“You must be Ralph,” she said in a smooth, soft voice.
Her lips turned up just slightly as she adjusted the shawl once more. She glanced past me and over the room before refocusing on me once more.
“And you must be Sera,” I murmured, holding my hand out to her.
She took my hand, and I brought it forward as I bent down, kissing the back of her knuckles. My lips didn’t tingle at the touch, but it did something strange. I struggled with how to describe it. Like when one passes one’s hand over a static electricity ball. Not quite the jolt of electricity, but not nothing. There was that prickling that was oh so soft, yet made me want more at the same time.
I stood there, holding her hand in mine for a long moment, wondering what that feeling was before I straightened and smiled awkwardly.
That’s what one did when one was a dickbag, as Grace called it.
Rich men who spent far too long looking at a woman, or being ‘eccentric’ in what might seem a manipulatory manner. If Grace had witnessed my motion, she would have demanded that I apologize immediately even though I hadn’t done it to be crude.
I was just confused, then curious… and then a little aroused.
I slipped a hand into my pocket and tried to adjust the fabric of my pants without being too obvious.
“I apologize. Your scent seems strangely familiar, and I cannot for the life of me place it. Where did you purchase it?”
“I’m not wearing scent.”
That statement left me struggling for another excuse, or even something to say in response. Women always wore scents, especially women who were that attractive. I don’t know what it was with beautiful women wearing perfume, but it was something that had gone hand in hand for forever and a day. I could always use that excuse.
In the extended silence that followed, I let out the only sound that would come out.
“Oh,” I said with a startled inflection. “That would explain that, then. A lovely smell, I knew it, I simply assumed it was scent crafted by a corporation. I apologize.”
Sera giggled, just a little, then covered her mouth with her hand. Her nails were not done up either, no jewellry on her. Just the dress and shawl, which hid the wings. Either she was a very clever trap, to get me into a compromising position, or…
Well, I didn’t know the or, I had never encountered this before.
“Wedding’s a bit,” Sera paused as she looked around us, “well, a bit dull unless you’re in the wedding itself. You bored?”
“Of schmoozing with morons? Yes. They’re here as a fashion statement, not to wish the couple well.”
But we had an opportunity to check many of the local businessmen for demons, even deeply embedded ones, and we had decided to take it. The warding of the estate would have prevented the possessed from entering the estate. A few stronger demons would have made it through, but so far we hadn’t spotted any of them. It did put a damper on the wedding itself, but we would have a small, family celebration once the couple returned from their honeymoon.
“Do you know someplace we could go?” Sera asked.
Definitely not possessed.
A possessed person would have been drawn to me, flirted with me, but they would not have asked me to go someplace else. They would have simply been there, eventually giving in to everything I did to them, but not offering to do more.
That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. Even if she was Mike’s date, she was probably interested in something more than a pat on the hand before going home. Mike couldn’t give that to her. He was too uptight to do more than hug her unless she was possessed.
“Yes,” I said, motioning and then leading her before I realized what I was doing.
We left the reception and headed straight to the garden. I spotted someone coming and ducked behind a topiary as Sera strolled along. I heard her greet them. Then they chatted for a bit about the weather and the wedding. The one who approached headed inside and Sera sighed loudly.
I slunk out from behind the topiary and slipped a hand up the small of her back. She gave a little giggle again, not asking where I had ducked to or why, and we moved as one through the tea area. Michael had sectioned off the garden, into little areas that only the family knew about. The area we walked through, he called the tea area.
It was the space where we had tea on Sundays because there was just enough space to set up tables and such. Beyond there, I took her hand, entwining our fingers as we walked. With a glance over my shoulder, I pulled her into one of the little ‘closets’ built into our garden.
Mike used those closets to sit and meditate. No one was supposed to be in there or to do anything. They were only for his meditation. He was very insistent about the topic.
The area was smaller than an alcove and filled with all sorts of things that I couldn’t possibly name. Larger than a closet, though. We simply called them closets for lack of another word.
Mike claimed that the flowers knew when anyone else was in the closet, but I’m pretty certain they wouldn’t notice anything.
Once in the closet, I pulled her toward me, wrapping an arm around her as she smiled up at me, revealing her white, straight teeth.
Wrong era, idiot.
It took me a moment to recall that in the present, white, straight teeth didn’t mean anything. I struggled with that because clean teeth had once been quite a thing. I had enjoyed the look of them.
We kissed. I kept it chaste—almost—my lips pressed together. I wanted to see where she led things. A demon wouldn’t lead, they would only follow the guiding hand that caressed them.
She was the bold one, tongue darting out and dominating my mouth. From there, I knew for certain and could have taken control back. Yet I couldn’t help but allow her to lead. I wanted to see where it would go. I wanted to be with a bold woman for once, instead of constantly leading.
Her hands slipped under my suit jacket and over my shoulders, pushing it off of me as I moved under her touch, with her motions. Little sparks followed her fingertips, making me writhe under her touch. The kiss continued as she reached for the buttons on my vest, pushing it off as well. Each layer of clothing she removed sent a heat from me that was stoked and stroked with the caress of her fingertips.
My pants were undone when she slipped the shawl off and tried to raise it up, to use it as a blindfold.
That was when I finally stopped her.
If it had been any other night, I could let her tie me up, even see where it went. Maybe end up tied to the bushes, naked and vulnerable for Mike to find the next morning. But that night, we couldn’t do that, we couldn’t take that risk.
I pulled the shawl gently from her and turned, dropping it to the ground.
“Oh, I thought you’d be into that,” she said.
“I am, but not on the first time around, during my brother’s wedding, when there are people with cameras about,” I said.
Especially not in Michael’s garden.
She raised her hands as if in surrender, then smiled just slightly at me.
“Another time, maybe?” she asked.
I gaped at her, looking around the little area we were in. Just because we couldn’t tie me up and role play, didn’t mean that we couldn’t do anything else.
“Oh, come now, Ralph,” she said, reaching out to trail down my chest with one finger. “I know a man who needs a good spanking when I see one.”
“Children are spanked.”
“Not in this day and age.”
“Right, fine then, brats are spanked,” I countered. “I’m also quite turned on by normal sex.”
Sera shrugged and pulled away slightly. She looked me up and down, her lips quirking up in another smile as she locked eyes with me.
“Some days that would do it for me too,” she said. “Tonight, though, tonight I’m feeling a vibe. Like sex just wouldn’t cut it.”
“But—”
“No buts,” she said with a shake of her finger. “Maybe later we can discuss the terms of your submission.”
“What do you mean, discuss?” I asked.
“I’ve seen the work you do, or did.”
She meant the pornography, of course. I had done regular stuff as well as some kinkier things, but the latter ones were just for me. When you’re given the option of acting out your sexual fantasies, be paid to do them, and have absolutely no shame, it gets quite difficult to say no.
“Hey, now, that was in the past,” I said. “I didn’t even use my real name. How did you find that?”
She gave a little shrug. “I have a bit of a fetish and stumbled upon some of the videos. So, I’ll tell you what. You find another man to join us, and we’ll have nearly normal sex. If you don’t find a man, then you will just have to call me tomorrow, and we’ll discuss the terms of your punishment, how about that?”
We were both silent, watching one another and waiting for the other to give in. Sera was merely waiting. I was hoping she would relent. I was an attractive male. Few women could resist me.
Sera was apparently not in the rather large population of women who couldn’t resist us.
“You’re an evil woman,” I said.
“And you?” she said.
Sera closed the distance between us and grasped me firmly, causing me to jump in place. She smiled as she drew in a long breath, her hand moving over my hardened flesh as I bit my lip to stop from protesting. Or moaning, I wasn’t certain which sound would be worse at that point.
“You’re hard as a rock,” she said, pulling away just as suddenly as she had laid hands on me. “Don’t be protesting now. Man up. And I don’t mean that in a masculine way.”
“Find a man, you mean,” I muttered.
“What about Mike?” she asked as she moved around me to pick up her shawl.
If he ever caught wind of her making that suggestion, I’d hear about it for a century.
“We’re brothers,” I protested.
“No, you aren’t,” she responded.
I turned and watched as she resettled the shawl on her shoulders. Sera looked me up and down, and then gave her head a little shake as if she were disappointed in me.
“None of you are related, you don’t share any features. I don’t buy the different mothers excuse, and I don’t think you’re adopted siblings given the way you keep staring at him. You’re not brothers, are you?”
No human had been so bold as to say that out loud. Not after we claimed to be adopted brothers.
“More like brothers in arms,” I said.
“Which means you aren’t related,” she said.
“No, we are not blood-related, nor do we see each other as siblings,” I said. “More like comrades, but you need to trust your comrades, and you can’t trust them if they’d… it wouldn’t work.”
“I was just suggesting him,” Sera said. “I really think that would be a sight to behold.”
“Mike doesn’t do that. Only women, only on his terms.”
“Oh,” Sera sucked in an appreciative breath. “No wonder you’ve got such a hard-on for control. I would too if that man was withholding from me. If you don’t want to give him a try, just find another.”
“Where am I going to find a man to be a third in a threesome where… wait, what position would he hold?”
Sera reached around and grabbed my ass, causing me to jump again. As she rose up on her tiptoes before me, she smiled knowingly. I stared up at her, wondering how I would feel about that kind of a threesome. I had been in one as the middle before, but that had been between two men, not a man and a woman.
“I’m usually quite good at figuring out where a man wants to be,” she said.
“Just because I’m submissive, doesn’t mean I like taking it.”
“No, but all your videos, you were. Are you telling me that’s not preference?”
“More masturbatory, than anything.”
“That does explain why your eyes were closed during,” Sera said. “Tell me, who were you picturing behind you? Or. Over you, under you, pinning you against the wall?”
“I like women,” I insisted.
“I don’t doubt it. I just think you have a crush and an itch that needs to be scratched. If I thought you didn’t like women, I would have stolen your clothing and left you out here for wasting my time.”
I glanced at my clothing, then back to her, concerned that it might come to that. She wiped at her lips in response.
“Besides, I’d like it to be Mike. I’d like to see how he handles someone before I let him handle me. It’d be a win-win.”
“He wouldn’t agree to it.”
“Then, it’d just be me handling you. I don’t understand why you’re arguing against it so much.”
“Trust is a big part of what I do.”
“Trust is absolutely important in these things, which is why, if you find a man to join us, it will be in a room. Where you can lock the door, or there are no windows, wherever you like.”
“You might have a camera on you,” I said.
“Where?” she asked.
“In your bra, plenty of women have—”
As I had spoken, Sera reached into her dress. Off came the bra, and she held it out with two fingers, before dropping it at my feet. She gave me a look, then held up a finger as if I had protested, and slipped a hand up her skirt.
Off came the underwear, also dropped at my feet.
“You really want this, don’t you?” I asked.
“I like control,” she said. “Being at a wedding for someone else’s brother? I don’t feel like I’m in control. I made you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Strange way to elicit control over me.”
“It is, but then… you’re a strange man, aren’t you Ralph? What’s that short for, anyhow? Ralph. I always wondered. Who would name their child Ralph?”
“For me, it’s short for Raphael.”
“Like the angel?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why would you keep going by Ralph?”
“My brothers introduce me as Ralph,” I said. “Or, if they are feeling particularly annoying, as Ralphie.”
“You’re the youngest, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?”
Sera gave a little shrug. “You four have been together a long time, too, I’m guessing.”
“It feels like since the beginning of time.”
“And for all that time…” Sera said, trailing off with a finger motion.
I stared at the hand motion, not understanding what she meant. For a few seconds, I thought she was asking about my name. Then I realized she couldn’t have been, she was asking about Michael, which likely meant she was wondering when I had first started paying too much attention to Mike.
“Yes,” I said. “Since we were introduced.”
“You’ve never told him? Why?”
“He’s not like that. He’s not like… me. I don’t expect that of him.”
“Has it caused bad blood? Trouble, fighting and the like?”
“Maybe.”
“Your little hobby a few years back, that wasn’t just a hobby, was it? It was a cry for attention.”
“Maybe.”
Sera was quiet a moment, seemingly considering everything I had said, and the night in general.
“What about the bride, uh, bridesman?” she asked finally.
“Toby?” I asked.
Oh, there’s an idea.
I’d only do it if I could return the favour, so to speak. Toby was a little lippy, and I knew he was on Sam’s bad list for some reason. As a host of Heaven, he was also a great deal more open-minded than most of the guests at the party. He’d probably be pretty excited at the chance to tangle with an arc.
“Yes, Toby. He seems more open-minded than the rest of the guests.”
Is she reading my mind, or just that observant?
I gave myself a shake as Sera walked out of the little area and disappeared around a hedge. Looking at the clothing strewn about, I wondered what I was getting into.
And why I was so turned on by the woman.