After the sex-crazed misty air subsided, we took a moment to collect ourselves. I stepped into the shower, letting the warm water wash over my tingling skin as I replayed the evening’s intense experience with Azrael in my mind. When I emerged, Azrael was straightening up the living room, downing the last sips of his beer.

My eyelids already felt heavy as I slipped under the sheets. Azrael soon joined me, his lithe form pressing against my back. His fingertips gently traced along my spine, then ventured lower to caress the curves of my backside. A soft moan escaped my parted lips at his tantalizing touch. I rolled over to face him, bleary eyes adjusting to his moonlight-bathed features.

“So, it wasn’t just a dream after all,” I murmured with a sleepy smile, reaching up to brush his jawline. He leaned into my palm, planting a tender kiss on it.

“No, my sweet Mena. My desire for you is real.” Azrael’s words carried an intensity that made my cheeks flush. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “Though I must exercise restraint, lest I spend the entire night plunging relentlessly into you, regardless of human needs for breaks and sleep.”

I swallowed hard at the vivid imagery his words invoked - being utterly possessed and fucked out of my mind. “Where is my cold, sarcastic Azrael?” I chuckled breathlessly, draping my leg over his firm body. “And what have you done with him?”

“He’s still here,” Azrael growled with a wicked grin, his growing arousal pressing against my stomach. “You merely glimpsed the ravenous beast that lurks within when stoked by your intoxicating presence.”

“Having you here, like this...” I whispered, biting my lower lip as I contemplated how to put these confusing emotions into words. “It feels like I’ve pried open a massive, forbidden door - terrifying in the fear of what’s coming, yet exhilarating.”

Azrael pulled me flush against him, my curves molding to the hard planes of his body as he replied in a low rumble. “I was given no divine rulebook for how to conduct this mortal life.” His smoldering gaze roamed hungrily over me. “But I’ve made the resolute choice to surrender to my burning desire for you, Mena.”

He traced a fingertip along the swell of my breast with maddening slowness. “This ache to map every inch of your flesh with my hands and lips, to sheathe myself to the hilt in your welcoming heat - it’s been devouring me from within. Perhaps it lent an air of coldness, as I strove to restrain these primal urges.”

Azrael’s voice lowered to a heady growl. “But let the heavens damn me for this sin. I’ll carry out any punishment to claim you as mine.” He crushed his lips against the curve of my neck, nipping and sucking at the sensitive skin until I gasped, arching back against him in wanton surrender.

Azrael’s gravelly voice dripped with carnal need. “That sinful moan you have, Mena…fuck.” His large hand cupped my breast, squeezing firmly as he rasped, “I must have you again, Mena. Now.”

In one fluid motion, he rose on his knees, gripping my hips to angle my body before him. I gasped as he swiftly parted my thighs with his own, arching my back in a deliciously compromising position. His fingertips traced along my molten core with agonizing leisure.

“Mena, I’m done being nice with your cunt. It’s time for you to feel the true extent of my desire.” He grabbed his cock and pushed it against my entrance, the blunt pressure stretching me wide until finally, he drove himself fully into my depths with a guttural groan, gripping my hips as he sank his fingers into me.

His taut body shuddered briefly, using my back for support. Then his hips began rolling in a steady rhythm, each plunging thrust burying himself deeper into me.

“Az, feeling your cock push into me like this, and taking me from behind,” I whimpered, awash in unbridled pleasure.

“Mena, I’ll eventually take you in every manner under the Sun there is,” Azrael grunted as he leaned forward. “Invent even new ones, if possible.”

A breathy, silly chuckle burst out of my mouth at his delectable promise as I slid my left hand under me. Overwhelmed by visceral need, my fingers instinctively sought out my swollen clit, now slicked with arousal.

“Az, please finish in me, fill me up with your glorious angel cum,” I shouted with desperate need.

“Mena... the consequences...” he rasped in desperation, even as his merciless rhythm drove me ever closer to shattering ecstasy.

“I don’t care about consequences!” I growled fiercely, undulating against his hammering thrusts. “All I want is to feel that thick, out-of-this-world cock throbbing deep inside me as you shoot your load.”

“Baby, let’s just focus on you cumming, I want to see you lose yourself in blissful pleasure,” Azrael whispered in my ear as he groaned harshly, pulling my trembling body flush against his rigid frame, cupping my breasts and pinching my nipples. “Cum on my cock. I can feel your walls tightening.”

“I’m close, Az, I’m close,” I whispered back as my fingers moved frantically in a circular motion, flicking my clit as I felt my mind climbing up towards an orgasm.

“I know you love to scream when you cum,” he snickered as he bit into my shoulder, making me cry out as my body started shaking, crushed by the tremendous wave of my orgasm. As the echoes rippled through me, his bite turned into a kiss and his arms gripped my body tightly.

“Mena, making you cum is the most satisfying thing in the world for me,” he paused as he licked the bite mark softly. “I can feel your juices dripping on my cock, and it’s absolutely titillating.”

I let out a stifled laugh, but within moments, we were both dissolving into laughter, our bodies shaking against each other on the rumpled sheets.

“Was that your word of the day?” I managed between gasping chuckles. “Struggling to squeeze it in before midnight?”

“Guilty,” he grinned unabashedly, swiping a forearm across his glistening brow. That devilish smile widened as he flopped backward onto the mattress. “I was cutting it close, so I had to get...creative.”

I closed my eyes to savor the moment, resting my head on his chest, and listening to the steady cadence of his heartbeat under my ear. Strong arms enveloped me as Azrael pulled me flush against his side, his calloused palm tracing idle patterns along my back.

“I still can’t believe this is happening,” I murmured in a reverent hush as I roamed his chest with my fingertips.

“Me neither, Mena,” Azrael replied, letting out a massive sigh. “I took a huge leap in confessing my desire and I don’t know how I would have handled a flat-out rejection, but…” Azrael’s deep voice trailed off momentarily before continuing in a contemplative tone, “But I took a page out of the human’s guidebook and just had a ‘fuck it, I’m going for it’ moment.”

I smiled and nuzzled my head in the crook of his neck, making him tickle and hug me tightly.

“I’m glad you did. I would have suppressed my feelings for as long as it took. The fear of losing your friendship was ten times worse than any romantic favorable outcome.”

Azrael kissed the top of my forehead and rested his chin on it.

“I promise that no matter what happens, I will never stop being your friend.”

After a bit more small talk, I nodded and drifted away to sleep in Azrael’s arms. Eventually, I flipped on my side and Azrael hugged me from behind, pushing his nose on my neck.

 *

Straddling the hazy realm between sleep and wakefulness, an insidious presence seemed to descend upon the room - a malignant aura prickling the tiny hairs on the nape of my neck with unseen eyes scrutinizing my side sleeping form. I instinctively recoiled from Azrael’s embrace, propping myself up on my elbows as my widening gaze swept the shadows pooling in the farthest corner.

At first, the looming darkness simply appeared to be an innocuous pile of discarded clothes draped over a chair. But as I blinked the sands of slumber from my eyes, a gasping cry caught in my throat. The barely perceptible movement revealed the amorphous shape to be a robed, hunched figure somehow concealed within those obscuring folds. No facial features were visible beneath the depths of the cowled silhouette - only an impenetrable void where eyes and a face should have been.

The ominous specter advanced with an unnerving fluid, almost feline grace, tattered robe hems trailing behind its drifting steps as skeletal appendages extended from ragged sleeves as if to grasp us in their bony clutches.

“Azrael! There’s someone here!” I screeched, my voice shrill with primal terror as I violently shook his deep sleep form.

 In an instantaneous blur, Azrael surged upright, eyes flying open and body coiled in a predatory fighting stance as he scanned the room with feral intensity. “There!” I cried, pointing a quivering finger at the creeping intruder.

Azrael’s head whipped around, those mercurial irises locking onto the unnatural entity. A scorching flare of incandescent light burst into being, coalescing into the elegant, deadly length of a swept hilt rapier which he grasped with supreme confidence, the moonlight glinting coldly along the immaculate steel.

“You have no jurisdiction here, wretch! Return to your designated duties at once!” Azrael’s commanding bellow shattered the eerie silence as he slashed the razor-sharp rapier through the air in a decisive arc.

The hooded figure recoiled with a high-pitched, unsettling hiss, its shadowy form retreating several paces. Azrael’s battle-hardened stance did not waver an inch as he leveled the gleaming blade directly at the encroaching entity’s concealed face.

“I will not warn you again. Leave now!” He punctuated the threat with a subtle adjustment of his grip, knuckles tightening around the ornate hilt.

Another wheezing exhalation of malice preceded the unnatural apparition’s abrupt dematerialization, melting incorporeally into the very wall as if it were little more than a wisp of vapor dispersed on the wind.

Witnessing Azrael’s transformation into a primal warrior state catalyzed a primal fluttering within me. The harsh planes of his body seemed architecturally designed for combat, each chord of muscle tensed and poised to unleash devastatingly precise lethality. His beautifully chiseled visage had contorted into the icy mask of a remorseless assassin. Even his manhood appeared to stir with the enticing surge of aggression and virility.

I gulped for air; suddenly aware I had been holding my breath throughout the fraught confrontation. Climbing out of the rumpled sheets, I tentatively reached out to place a soft hand on Azrael’s taut shoulder. His entire frame flinched almost imperceptibly before gradually unlocking from its predator’s coiled stance.

“Are you okay?” he asked me, turning towards me and pulling me into a comforting embrace as he sensed my rising panic about the intruding psychopomp. His brawny arms enveloped me, providing a feeling of security and safety.

“Yeah, I felt it staring at us and I woke up. When it started moving, I panicked, and that’s when I screamed. What was it?” I asked in one breath, my body slightly shaking from the adrenaline, slowly pushing away from Azrael’s hug.

“A psychopomp,” Azrael stated plainly, as he bent at the waist to retrieve his discarded shorts from the floor.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “A what now?”

With one deft movement, he tugged the shorts up his legs before straightening and raking his fingers through his tousled ivory locks to clear his vision. Azrael’s steel-grey eyes found mine, his expression tempering slightly.

“A guide into the afterlife,” he explained, rolling one broad shoulder in a shrug. “They linger in the periphery when a soul’s demise grows imminent, maintaining a vigil for several days before ushering the deceased onward.”

I arched a questioning eyebrow. “But isn’t death your whole... area of expertise?”

Azrael blew out a tired sigh, stormy eyes scanning the room once more, the body still tensed in defensive readiness. When his gaze returned to me, the hardened edges had softened somewhat.

“I was an archangel of death before my... demotion,” he said carefully. “The psychopomps were under my charge then. But now, different authorities oversee their duties.” A crease formed between his brows. “Yet I’ve never witnessed one stalking anything other than its designated soul. For it to defy me so brazenly...”

His words trailed off with a troubled frown. I felt a tendril of fear slither through me at the implication. “So, what should we do?”

In an instant, the former archangel seemed to shake off his perturbed demeanor. Stepping forward, he engulfed me in his protective embrace once more, one hand cradling the back of my head.

“First, I’m making you a soothing cup of that raspberry oolong tea you adore,” he murmured against my hair. “Then we’ll return to bed. I’m hoping this was merely an isolated incident.”

Azrael pulled back slightly, brushing an errant lock from my face with careful fingers. Something flickered across his chiseled features - a brief flash of surprise, perhaps realization, before it was shuttered once more behind his customary stoic mask.

“How is it you were able to perceive that entity?” Azrael’s brow furrowed quizzically as the words left his lips, drawing my full attention.

“Huh?” I stared back at him, my features twisting in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Azrael exhaled a measured breath before replying. “Psychopomps exist on a plane separate from the human realm. They should be imperceptible to mortal senses.”

I felt my lips trembling as realization set in. “You mean there are more of those... things out there?”

A somber nod confirmed my fears. “Innumerable others stalk this earth, unseen by your kind - creatures of varied purposes and natures. Some are benign, even beneficial to the balance. While others...” His steely eyes bored into me. “Are decidedly more malevolent.”

“Malevolent?” The word emerged as little more than a terrified rasp.

The hints of a rueful smile played across Azrael’s full lips. “Which is where exterminators come in.”

My brow knitted. “Exterminators?”

“Mmm.” He gave a low chuckle, clearly attempting to inject some levity. “Certain ranks take on heavenly pest control, you could say.”

I pressed my lips into a flat line, thoroughly unamused by his flippant analogy, given the circumstances. Sensing my disquiet, Azrael ruffled the top of my head with a reassuring smile.

“Get dressed and join me in the kitchen,” he murmured against my forehead after placing a tender kiss there. “I’m sure this was just a fluke.”

Though I nodded mutely, his attempt at nonchalance did little to settle the storm of questions and fears swirling in my mind...

 *

When my alarm blared, I wanted to hurl my phone across the room. I was so deliciously cocooned in Azrael’s muscular arms that I would have gladly hibernated there forever if it wasn’t absolutely crucial to meet my doctoral advisor today.

As I mashed the snooze button, Azrael nuzzled the sensitive hollow of my neck with his nose, his warm breath raising goosebumps along my skin. “I’ll be right here when you come back, but you need to get out of bed, my sweet Mena,” he murmured huskily against my flesh.

With a tortured groan, I peeled myself away from his embrace and stumbled towards the shower, itching to just throw my schedule out the window and take advantage of Azrael’s body once more. After dressing, I fled the apartment with a bagel clenched between my teeth like the scanty remains of a life raft.

As I traversed the campus grounds, an uncanny prickling feeling danced along the nape of my neck - the disquieting sense that unseen eyes keenly tracked my every move. Even after concluding my advisor meeting, the ominous feeling of being hunted persisted.

At around 11 am, Marie awaited me at our customary haunt, waving exuberantly when she spied me crossing towards the coffee shop’s outdoor patio. “Well, well, if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty herself,” she crowed with a sly grin. “Oh wow, I think someone got properly laid last night.”

I felt a furious blush scorch my cheeks as I slid into the opposite side of the tiny wrought-iron table. “W-what are you talking about?”

“Oh puh-lease, you’re practically glowing with the afterglow of mind-blowing sex,” she scoffed, leaning back to openly appraise me from head-to-toe as she idly twirled a lock of her riotous curls. “Don’t even try denying you finally gave in and let my sweet Azrael plow that gorgeous body of yours into sweet oblivion.”

If possible, my face burned even hotter as I dropped my gaze. “How the actual fuck do you always know about these things?” I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“Aha! I knew it!” she exclaimed triumphantly, stabbing a finger at me. “You finally succumbed to the raw, insatiable lust that delicious hunk of man meat stirs in you.”

“Your Azrael?” I arched an incredulous brow.

Marie’s face fell comically. “Well, if the bastard had ever responded to my painfully obvious advances, he absolutely would be,” she pouted. “But alas, it seems he’ll remain merely my gorgeous supernova fantasy stud muffin.”

I smiled warmly at Marie’s remark. Her lightning wit, delightfully bawdy banter, and wide-open zest for life were among the best parts of her vivacious personality. It was rare to find such an enduring friendship that had thrived since our high school days, but Marie did most of the heavy lifting to ensure we kept regularly in touch.

“So, spill - how was it?” she leaned forward eagerly. “Hot, steamy, loud enough to make the neighbors angry?”

“Azrael was...” I glanced away, struggling to find the right words to encapsulate the intensity. “He’s...” I let out a helpless puff of air, raising my hands in surrender. “It was amazing, Marie. He was very tender, yet incredibly passionate. That’s all I’ll say.”

“Well-hung, at least?” she purred, arching one delicately sculpted brow.

I felt heat bloom in my cheeks. “... Yes,” I whispered, abashed.

 Marie nodded in satisfaction. “Good, I officially bless this delightful union then. May you two frolic endlessly in sweaty, animalistic ecstasy as nasty and filthy as you please.” She crossed her arms with a self-satisfied look.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes at her typical candor. “You’re an absolute handful, you know that?”

“And hopefully you had a delicious mouthful as well...” she quipped with a saucy wink, making me sputter in embarrassment before we dissolved into laughter.

“But seriously,” Marie said once we recovered, taking a sip of her cappuccino. “What finally made you give in to those long-simmering desires?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted with a little shrug, brushing some loose strands back from my face. “He just...came onto me last night and it just felt so right that I couldn’t resist any longer. You know better than anyone how hard it has been this past year and Azrael was just always there. Even though at times he’s so distant I don’t notice him around the house, it never felt like he was judging me for my poor state. So, when he started to whisper sweet nothings into my ear, I just fell for it hard.”

After Azrael and I decided to move in together, it proved challenging to craft a plausible backstory to explain his abrupt presence in my life to friends and family. Eventually, we settled on portraying him as a very dear childhood friend who had endured a devastating breakup, forcing him to hastily move out.

While my inner circle raised some skeptical eyebrows initially, they quickly took a liking to Azrael’s warmly charming presence. I think, deep down, they were relieved I had a reliable male companion looking out for me - especially after my parents’ tragic passing. The apartment had been bequeathed solely to me as an only child, but maintaining it alone as a twenty-something in that rather rough neighborhood would have been quite scary.

“So, what now?” she asked, taking another sip.

“I don’t know, Marie.” I raised my hand to the server. “We’ll just see, take it slow, and enjoy it, I guess.”

"You mean enjoying him in all his big, long, girthy..." Marie began, lewdly miming an exaggerated hand gesture before I shouted at her to stop, dissolving into embarrassed laughter.

After exhausting her repertoire of raunchy jokes and crude gesticulations, we eventually moved on to other topics ripe for gossiping. I noticed my phone buzzing with a new text and quickly scooped it up.

It was from Azrael: “How did the meeting go? Was your stuffy professor pleased? Tell Marie I said hi. Also, pick up some bread on your way home. P.S. The bedroom still reeks of us.”

“Is he already checking in on you?” Marie asked with an arched brow, as I nodded. “Aww, I really hope this works out for you two. It’s kind of romantic, in a way, starting something new right before summer.”

I smiled wistfully and excused myself to visit the restroom. As I wove between the clustered outdoor tables, one solitary figure caught my eye - a strangely anachronistic man sitting alone, aimlessly paging through a newspaper. His entire look and demeanor seemed jarringly out-of-step, like a living museum throwback from some bygone era. The cut and fabric of his suit belonged to a different decade entirely, as did his meticulously sculpted hairstyle.

As I passed him by, I stretched my neck for a better glimpse and saw that he appeared to be engrossed in some kind of large featured article - the gigantic headline announcing something about a couple. I couldn’t shake the nagging sense that everything about this man struck me as deeply, inexplicably odd. But I brushed it off and continued inside.

Staring into the bathroom mirror, I realized Marie had been correct - there did seem to be a certain indefinable shift in my face, as though a palpable secret truth flickered behind the ready curl of my lips for the first time.

A powerful gust of wind buffeted me as I emerged back onto the patio, forcing me to squint as I impatiently brushed the wayward strands from my face. As my vision finally cleared, I spotted that same strangely antiquated figure turning the corner at the far end of the street.

I quickly glanced back towards where he’d been seated, but there was no sign he had ever occupied that space - no abandoned newspaper, no discarded cup, not so much as a stray napkin left behind. A persistent, gnawing hunch that something was terribly awry began creeping up my spine as I watched the bizarre man suddenly veer away from the sidewalk without breaking stride. He proceeded to blithely step directly into the flow of oncoming traffic, never once glancing up from his straight-ahead trajectory as cars frantically swerved and honked around the inexplicably oblivious figure.

I screamed at the top of my lungs just as the speeding convertible struck the oblivious man square on, squeezing my eyes shut to shield myself from the impending gore. But as I braced for the sickening impact - the thunderous thud, the shriek of crunching metal and squealing tires - there was...nothing. No cries of horror, no commotion whatsoever.

Slowly, I peeled my eyes open again. The street was utterly vacant - not so much as a stray cat where I could have sworn that poor soul had been sent violently careening just moments before. It was as if I imagined everything.

“Are you alright?” A concerned server materialized at my side with his brow furrowed.

I glanced up at him, mouth working soundlessly for a beat, before finding my voice. “Ah...y-yes, there was a... a bee, right in my face. I’m terribly afraid of them. Sorry about the scream.”

The server’s expression melted into an understanding smile. “Oh, no worries at all. Damned things are menaces.” He brushed past me to continue with his duties.

“What the hell was that all about?” Marie stood at our table, arms crossed and frowning in bewilderment.

“I... I think I saw something,” I rejoined her, sinking shakily into the chair as I kneaded the tense cords of my neck. “Something horrible. A... a car accident.”

“What? Where?” Marie’s head swiveled, scanning the street in vain for any signs of calamity.

“That’s just it - I saw it clear as day right as it happened, but the next instant...” I trailed off helplessly, trying to reconcile the nightmarish delusion with reality.

Marie slowly lowered herself back into her seat, resting a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Maybe it’s the stress, babe. You’ve been running yourself ragged with all this dissertation madness lately. Could have been one of those micro-sleep episodes where your brain flashes back to some movie scene where it got crossed with reality.”

“Y-yeah...probably,” I replied with tight nods, my heart still jackhammering as an anxious tic set my leg jittering beneath the table.

The unshakable queasiness that gripped me forced me to cut short my time with Marie. I hurried back towards the apartment, an urgency gnawing at me to see Azrael, to feel the reassuring solidity of his embrace as I recounted the disconcerting event.

But something else eerily amiss snagged my eye as I exited the elevator - strange, shimmering flecks of crimson splashed across the corridor near our door. As I drew nearer, the breath caught in my throat. Emblazoned across the door itself loomed an immense, intricate circular design - like some profane, archaic runic insignia daubed in lurid, blood-like pigment.

The unsettling symbol itself wasn’t overtly grotesque. But its very presence, its cruel curved strokes seeming to undulate with somber menace before my very eyes, triggered an awful unraveling within my psyche. With a muffled cry of dismay, I dropped the bag of freshly purchased bread and began pounding desperately on the door.