Page 28 of Indecent

Daniel stared at him in shock, and then lunged toward him, squeezing hard. It was a hug. Chaol couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged him. His old clan wasn’t big on affection. They were still demons, after all. They hunted together, tended to each other’s wounds, and lived together in a cave on the side of a cliff outside of Pandemonium. No one had ever held him like he was something precious. Like he mattered.

Slowly, he lifted his arms and returned the hug, melting against Daniel’s body and tucking his face in the curve of his neck. He’d move mountains for this human, he realized with awe.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Daniel said in his ear. “I would never do something like that. I’m not one of them anymore, no matter what this stupid ring says.”

“I know,” Chaol said, voice muffled against Daniel’s shoulder. He raised his head and reluctantly met Daniel’s eyes at last. “Anyway, I left our old home after the rest of the clan was gone. It felt too big and empty to stay there alone. I came to Pandemonium and found this empty little hovel. No one else had claimed it, so I marked it as my own. It doesn’t feel like home, but it’s all I have left.”

Daniel shook his head. “It’s not all you have left, though, right? You’re going back to the surface to visit friends.”

Right, he’d said that. Now was his chance to come clean about that lie, confess to everything, and see what Daniel thought about his plot for revenge. But the words stuck in his throat, and he nodded dumbly instead.

“And,” Daniel ventured shyly, “you also have me. As a friend, if nothing else.”

Chaol tugged Daniel’s collar aside and thumbed at the reddened mark he’d left on his neck. It should have faded by now, and a satisfied rumble left him at the sight. It was there because Daniel accepted it as a part of himself, the same way the guild ring remained steadfastly on his finger.

“I think we both want more than that.”

Daniel grinned, lifting one hand to cradle Chaol’s jaw. “Yeah. How are you feeling, by the way?”

“Better. I think I’ve mostly recovered from whatever he did—or tried to do.” The aftershocks of pain hadn’t been fun, but they’d faded along with the general weakness. At least whatever he’d done hadn’t been permanent.

“Good.” Daniel brushed Chaol’s cheek with his fingers. “Scared the shit out of me.”

Chaol laid his hand against Daniel’s, turning his head to press a kiss to his wrist. “Me, too.”

But wait. The hand on his cheek was the same one with the guild ring, and he felt no ring there now. Guiding Daniel’s hand away, he peered down at it.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“The ring is gone.”

Daniel followed his gaze to his ring finger, and his lips parted in surprise.

Chaol couldn’t stop the smug smirk from spreading across his face. “Did I call you mine and rearrange your sense of self so thoroughly?”

Daniel’s honey brown eyes met his, and he was surprised by the shock and vulnerability he saw there. “Maybe,” Daniel confessed on a breath. “The paladins would kill me for associating with a demon. Hell, they’ve already tried.”

Chaol growled. “And I thought I was the monster.”

Daniel shook his head bitterly. “They’re not what they used to be. It’s more important to follow orders than to do the right thing now. They’ve forgotten what they’re supposed to stand for.”

“Then it’s good you left them.”

Daniel offered him a weak smile.

Demonic laughter floated in through the cracks in the shutters, but it was distant and inconsequential with the hellfire crackling warmly and Daniel’s body hovering close. Chaol trailed his hands down his chest, loosening the cloak and inspecting the slashes in the leathery fabric. He was lucky they hadn’t snagged skin. Removing the cloak, he tossed it over to the table in the corner.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he said.

Daniel grinned, turning away to inspect the bookshelf. He reached for a book and glanced back in question.

“Sure, go ahead,” Chaol told him. He had nothing to hide. Most of them weren’t written in a language Daniel would be able to understand, but he didn’t mind telling him what they were about, if he really wanted to know.

Sure enough, Daniel opened one of the books and thumbed through the pages in confusion. “What language is this?”

“One of many demon languages. We have six hundred sixty-six languages, not including all the human languages we’ve picked up over the years.”

Daniel looked at him in surprise. “Seriously?”