Angelic Ties, page 4
part #2 of His Guardian Angels Series
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Madigan hummed as he moved around the kitchen. He and Dex alternated cooking nights and it was his turn. He didn’t mind. Michel and Yuri always did the dishes, which was the worst part for him really. He’d grown used to his men coming and going pretty frequently, so he wasn’t worried about Bren being gone. When the archangels called, it was apparently more than a suggestion to appear.
It was more like an order under the threat of something painful for disobedience. They never left him alone for very long, either way, and Bren had given them a time to return.
“Need any help in here, cutey?” Michel piped up, sticking his head in the kitchen. He was supposed to be setting the dining table.
“Are you done setting the table already?” Madigan asked. Michel nodded and smiled, revealing dimples. “Sweet. You can start on the salads.” They were having an Italian-themed night tonight, complete with salad and pasta with tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, lemon, and white wine.
Michel went to work beside him, humming some nameless tune that had Madigan’s hips swaying along with it. They danced around one another as Madigan pulled down the plates from the cabinet and taste tested the pasta sauce.
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“Want me to cut up some bread to go along with this?” Michel asked as he took down the loaf from the top of the fridge. His men were big carb eaters. Madigan shrugged.
“If you like,” he said. After another minute of the silent arrangement of dishes he spoke. “So, what happened today? I heard you guys upstairs, so I’m guessing it went well physically. But how are they?”
Michel got a soft smile on his face that made Madigan’s heart swell. It was a good sign. “I think they’re finally reaching out to one another. It was rough going at first, but Bren let Cross touch him and, I have to say, it was explosive.”
“That’s good.” Madigan didn’t know what else to say. He felt like jumping up and down in triumph.
Michel beamed. “It’s great. We’ll finally be a family.” Madigan knew that the idea of family was really important to Michel. He’d never had one before, and now that he did, he was determined to make it work. He was always the first one to volunteer to help out and was constantly going out of his way to mend rifts between the guys and help Madigan adjust. Sometimes Madigan wondered if he gave too much, though. Michel rarely took anything for himself.
Madigan turned and wrapped his arms around Michel’s middle, pulling him close. The angel chuckled, dropped the bread he was cutting, and wrapped both arms around him. The world felt right here.
In the arms of his angels he felt peace. He inhaled Michel’s scent, reveling in the taste of man and something sweet. Each of the angels smelled equally as delicious. Sometimes Madigan felt like a dog that wanted to wallow in those scents.
“Hey, babe. Thought you’d want to know, Bren’s back. He’s coming up the front steps,” Yuri poked his head through the door. His eyes took in their embrace with just a flicker of desire. “Want me to tell him to wait?” he asked cheekily. Madigan rolled his eyes and gave Michel a final squeeze.
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“Nah, dinner is practically done, so I’ll go say hi to tall, dark, and broody.” Madigan pointed to the dishes on the counters. “Can you two carry everything to the table for me?” They both groaned like they were in pain.
“Not fair,” Yuri whined. “Fuck all, babe. You always give us chores.”
Madigan stuck his tongue out at the angel. “That’s what you get for not coming to my bed this afternoon,” he teased. He pointed back toward the stove. “Get moving. Everyone is hungry.”
Madigan pushed open the swinging door that led into the living room and took a right to walk down the hallway toward the entryway.
Bren was looping his scarf over one of the hooks that lined the wall beside the front door. Other than that, he was bare chested with blue jeans and boots on. Shirts didn’t really work well over the wings.
“Hey, Bren,” Madigan greeted. The dark-haired angel opened his arms, and Madigan immediately went into them.
“Hmm. Hi, bright eyes. I wasn’t gone that long. What’s with the front-door greeting?” Bren asked, kissing his temple. His skin was chilled from his flight. Madigan had the urge to go fetch a blanket to wrap around him.
“Just wanted to say welcome home,” Madigan said, nuzzling his face against Bren’s cool chest. He pressed a kiss over the heart beating there. “Missed you.”
Another set of footsteps approached them. “Hi, Bren,” Cross said from somewhere behind Madigan. Madigan watched Bren’s face as he looked at Cross. There was a tenderness there that he hadn’t seen before. “Everything go okay with your archangel?”
Bren shrugged. “A little strange. I’ll tell everyone when we sit down to eat. But it was nothing too foreboding, so I guess it went all right.”
“Good. That’s good.” Cross’s voice was quieter, and Madigan felt there was more than just words being exchanged between them.
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“Supper is ready. Yuri and Michel already set the table. Why don’t we go on to the dining room?” Madigan suggested.
Bren leaned down and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “Sounds like a good idea, bright eyes.”
His mom’s formal dining room had become their place of congregation in the evenings. Madigan’s mother had rarely used the space, delineating it for special occasions only. Madigan and his guardians had taken to using it for almost every meal. It was for simple reasons really. It was the only space in the house where they could all sit down for a meal together without being crowded or needing to stand, and Madigan especially enjoyed being able to look at everyone and chat equally. It made sure less fights got started.
The table was set with simple white china plates and silverware on paper napkins. Cups had been placed in front of each plate. Madigan had had a time teaching the boys how a table was set. They weren’t very familiar with family dining until he’d come along. The whole experience should’ve been weird for Madigan as well, being that until a month ago he’d lived by himself in an apartment over his work. He hadn’t had a real boyfriend in forever and had spent most of his time baking. He’d thought he was just a normal, twenty-eight-year-old guy. Yeah, things had changed all right.
Bren took his familiar space on Madigan’s left. Cross sat on Madigan’s other side, at the head of the table. Yuri sat facing Cross, and Dex and Michel grabbed chairs opposite one another as well.
Their eyes were glued to the feast before them. Madigan felt a moment of pride as they practically licked their lips. The pasta was steaming, filling the room with the smell of the wine sauce and a hint of herbs.
“Eat your salads, guys,” he reminded as they started passing the bread basket around. He smiled. They should be glad they don’t have regular health problems. Their cholesterol would be through the roof.
Between the high-carb diet and the salt, they would have no chance in hell of making it to sixty without having heart attacks. It was then that Angelic Ties
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Madigan was struck by the sheer magnitude of their age differences.
They literally had centuries on him. Sixty had come and gone for them eons ago.
“What’s the matter, Madigan?” Dex asked. His ever-observant eyes nailed Madigan to his chair. Everyone at the table stopped eating and joking around to look at him. Madigan swallowed. Damn. It was hot to have them all so attentive.
“It just occurred to me that you were around a really long time before I was even thought of.” He shrugged. “It just struck me all of a sudden.”
Cross frowned. “Does it bother you? The age difference, I mean.”
Yuri laughed. “What are you going to do about it if it does bother him?” he asked. “You can’t undo time.” He took a bite out of his bread slice.
“It doesn’t bother me, per se. It’s just that it seems strange to me to think that you guys were here before this city was,” Madigan said.
He drizzled a little dressing onto his salad and picked up his fork.
“Besides, Yuri has a point. What would you do to fix it?” He smiled.
“I love you guys too much to want to change a single thing about you.”
Everyone froze. Madigan looked around at the stunned gazes of his angels. “What?” he asked, his heart beginning to pound. “What?
Did I say something?” Another thought occurred to him as no one answered. “Is it the hunters?” He looked at Cross. “What’s going on?”
“That’s the first time.” Yuri’s voice drew Madigan’s eyes to the end of the table. “That’s the first time you’ve said that you love them.” He looked incredibly sad as he spoke. Madigan’s heart stuttered in his chest. It hadn’t even occurred to him what he’d said until Yuri pointed it out. But looking inside his mind, he saw the truth. He did love them. All of them. They were each special and wonderful and perfect men.
“That statement includes you, Yuri,” Madigan said softly. Yuri looked taken aback for a moment before he slowly nodded, a soft 40
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smile flirting with his lips. “I do love you all. How could I not?” They pushed themselves back from the table at the same time, making Madigan jump. “What?” he squeaked. They put their middle and pointer fingers on their tattoos from their wedding. Heat instantly speared him at the gesture. What the hell?
“Devotion forever, love for eternity, I do so swear,” they said in unison. Now it was getting a little weird for Madigan. They sat down abruptly, returning to their meal like nothing had ever happened.
Madigan blinked at the sudden return to normalcy, if there really was such a thing living with a bunch of angels.
“Um, Cross? What just happened?” Madigan asked as Dex tossed Michel the shaker across the table, showering them all with salt.
Cross’s copper eyes lit on him.
“We were just saying it back,” he supplied. He had this grin on his face that said he was as happy as a clam. He forked a bite of pasta into his mouth and continued to stare at Madigan. The half angel mentally shrugged. It was the strangest “I love you” that he’d ever received, that was for sure, but it warmed him that they returned the sentiment.
Even if it wasn’t what he’d expected.
“So Bren, what did the devil have to say?” Madigan asked, changing the subject. Bren finished chewing the piece of bread he’d shoved in his mouth and swallowed.
“He was a bit stranger than normal. He told me to kill Cross.”
Cross choked on the water he’d been drinking and started coughing. “But I declined since we were getting along so well.” Cross glared at the other angel, and Madigan put a hand over his mouth lightly to cover the laughter. Bren had done that on purpose. “Then he prattled on about the weather for a bit. Said that it’s fixing to get nasty and that this was the ‘calm before the storm’ or something to that effect. He told me to make sure Madigan was dressed warmly for work Monday.”
“So I guess that means I actually get to go?” Madigan wondered.
He tried to keep the excitement out of his voice. He hadn’t really Angelic Ties
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expected his angels to cave to his demands. He glanced at the heated look that was exchanged between Cross and Bren and smiled. Well, maybe his stubbornness had paid off.
“Yuri and I will check the bond tonight and finish our protection sigils for the car and the house, and then, if everything is good, we can go to your work on Monday,” Cross allowed.
“I don’t foresee any problems, babe,” Yuri piped up. “So I’d count on getting out of the house.”
Dex spoke, “I’ll change the oil in your car and make sure your fluid levels are good before we leave. You have no idea how common it is for you mortals to die in car wrecks.” Madigan blinked.
“You know how to change the oil in a car?” He could change his own oil as matter of fact, but he hadn’t expected any of the angels to have that particular skill. They hardly ever rode or operated vehicles from what Madigan had gathered.
“I had a charge who was a mechanic at a garage in Pittsburg about fifteen years ago. Good guy. I helped him out occasionally,” Dex said.
“I could replace your whole transmission given enough parts. To be honest, I’ve been eyeing the vintage ’65 Beetle in your mom’s garage since we got here.”
Madigan laughed. “My mom has had that for years. It doesn’t even run. The next time she calls, I’ll ask her if you can tinker on it though, if you like.” Dex nodded enthusiastically and started devouring his salad.
“So have you told her about us yet?” Yuri asked suddenly as they all continued eating. Madigan stopped midchew. That was a random question. The idea of telling his mom he was sleeping with and now married to five other guys kind of gave him the hives. He wasn’t sure how she’d react.
“Um, that you were all here, yeah,” he said finally after he swallowed. All of his angels had now stopped eating and were paying way too close attention to their exchange.
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“You know that’s not what I mean,” Yuri said. His brown eyes assessed the tension in Madigan’s limbs. “Are you going to tell her that we’re your consorts or not?”
Madigan shrugged and tried to act nonchalant. “Wasn’t planning on it, per se. You’ve got to understand, it’s a little unusual for someone in my world to have one husband, forget five.”
Yuri’s eyes narrowed. “It’s unusual in our world as well. That is no excuse.”
“Why are you picking a fight?” Madigan asked. “You know, it’s usually Bren that starts in on me about something.” The joke fell flat.
“Besides, you guys don’t even have families to tell. Gabbing to your friends about being married to five other guys is a little different than telling your mom.”
“We have families, Madigan,” Cross corrected with a frown. “Just because we’re angels doesn’t mean we don’t. Every choir has groups of angels that we were essentially raised with. I have three brothers and two sisters who lived with me in a home in the Heavens until I was chosen as a guardian. They’re our brothers and sisters. Our archangels are like our fathers, their brothers like our uncles. In essence, our families are just greatly extended versions of yours.”
“It’s not the same,” Madigan said stubbornly. Beside him, Michel seemed to shrink into himself.
“Leave him alone, guys. If he’s ashamed of us, well, it can’t be helped. Let’s just enjoy what we have.” Michel’s words were a shock.
They were cold and bitter. Nothing like the normal Michel that Madigan knew.
“It’s not like that,” Madigan said.
“Then what’s it like?” Michel snapped. “I thought you just needed some time to build up the courage to tell your mom, but you were never going to tell her, were you?”
Madigan looked at the anger in Michel’s face helplessly. “I really hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted.
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“We said we’ve give him time, Michel,” Dex murmured, reaching out to smooth some of Michel’s blond hair out of his face.
“He said he loved us. That means he’s ready, right? Why would he say it if he wasn’t ready to be serious? To tell everyone about us?
I’m no one’s dirty secret.” Michel shook his head as if to clear it and stood. “Thank you for the meal, Madigan.” The words were stiff. “I’m full.” He turned and walked around the table before heading down the hallway. The front door opened and slammed shut. Madigan sagged into his chair in bewilderment.
“Why is there always some emotional drama going on in this house?” Bren wondered, taking another bite of pasta. If he was trying to joke around, it wasn’t funny.
“Oh shut up, Bren. Your smart mouth is unnecessary right now,”
Cross snapped.
Dex interrupted, “This is all a misunderstanding.”
Bren glared at Cross. “Don’t tell me to shut up.” He pushed back from the table and stood. “I think I need a little air myself. Food was good, bright eyes.” He stomped away from the table and went up the stairs.
Cross made a noise of frustration before shoving away from the table as well. “I’m going to find Michel and make sure he’s not doing something stupid.”
Dex sighed. “I guess I’ll go after Bren then.” He stood and kissed Madigan on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Madigan. They’re all just overwhelmed emotionally and don’t know how to deal with it. You can tell your mom when you’re ready.”
Madigan felt tears prick his eyes as he stared down at the remains of his supper. How had everything gone so terribly wrong in a span of five minutes?
“I’m sorry, Madigan. This was my fault. I should’ve waited to ask you that,” Yuri said. Madigan glanced up and was surprised to see him still there. He’d forgotten until he’d spoken. “I know human family situations are delicate things, and I shouldn’t have called you 44
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out like that.” The angel sighed, looking tired. “They’re warriors who aren’t used to being vulnerable. You make them feel vulnerable, so therefore they react a little more brashly when you hurt them than they normally would. My question was out of line.”
“No,” Madigan disagreed with a shake of his head. “They had a right to know. I really just haven’t had time to think of that. I should have, though. It’s just that being here with you guys, separated from the world, feels like a dream sometimes. Like it’s separate from reality. If you guys are permanent fixtures in my life, it only makes sense that I tell my family all about you and my relationship to you.”
He echoed Yuri’s sigh and slumped down farther in his seat. “I just wish I hadn’t messed up our meal. Everyone was getting along for once.” Yuri beckoned Madigan, and the nephilim went willingly into his lap. He laid his head on Yuri’s shoulder while the angel stroked his back in slow, sure circles.
Angelic Ties
