Page 84 of Indecent

“Will it be safe enough?” Chaol asked. “Now that the paladins and Ramiel know about the club?”

“They don’t know about the apartments,” Talon said. “We can have Menadel ward the building so Ramiel can’t access it. We can call our local mage to ward it against human intrusion like we did the Rink. And Menadel, I’ve got a safe house in Italy I’d like you to ward also. Just in case.”

She nodded in agreement.

“We might be able to use the beds from our house,” Julian said, frowning. “Most of the damage was on the front of the house. The bedrooms might be mostly intact.”

“We can check,” Valac said.

“I will go and ward the building now,” Menadel said. “I’ll let you know when I’m finished.”

Isaac huffed. “I don’t like this.” He folded his arms petulantly.

“Don’t like what, killer?” Shadrach asked.

“Waiting!” Isaac threw his hands in the air. “God! I was so close. I almost fucking had him!”

“Had who?” Nathan asked.

“Sloan!” he roared. “Fucking coward. He knew I had him cornered. That’s why he yelled for Ramiel to take them away. I can’t just sit by and twiddle my thumbs while we wait for whoever’s supposed to kill the angel. I want to take the fight to them.”

“Not yet,” Ira said calmly.

“Ira,” Isaac started.

“No, not yet,” Ira said, more firmly this time. “We still have someone on the inside.”

“What are we waiting for?” Isaac asked. “Just tell Cyrus to get the fuck out of there so we can tear it all down to studs.”

“He’s our inside man,” Ira said. “We wouldn’t have known about the attack tonight if it wasn’t for him. We would’ve been too late, and Xyra and who knows how many others would’ve died.”

Lexi made a noise under her breath, and Xyra nuzzled her, whispering in her ear.

“When we find the human who’s meant to kill Ramiel,” Ira said, “then we’ll make our move. But if we attack now without a way to kill him, we won’t win. We have to do this right.”

A noise of despair tripped from Isaac’s throat, and Shadrach pulled him into his arms.

“You’ll kill him,” Chaol heard Shadrach whisper in his ear, his voice full of dark promise. “We’ll take our time with him. We’ll make him pay.”

Chaol turned, partly to give them some privacy and partly to seek out Daniel’s touch. He slid an arm around Daniel’s shoulders, tucking his face in the curve of Daniel’s neck and inhaling the scent of smoke and musk. He just wanted to sink into him and never come out. The minute they found somewhere horizontal, that was what he wanted. He was tired of fighting, and it seemed the war wasn’t over yet. But for now, they had each other, and that was all that mattered.

Epilogue

DANIEL

Julian was right; the stuff in the bedrooms was salvageable, which at least meant that they didn’t have to buy new clothes. They moved the bed from the guest room into the new penthouse, which happened to be below the one Julian and Valac took. Nicolas and Ashmedai were above them, and the rest of the couples filled out the other floors. Daniel and Chaol usually wound up in someone else’s apartment when they woke, sharing breakfast and coffee and catching up on missed time. Daniel had only missed a few weeks while he was dead, all told, but it felt like longer. Nicolas, in particular, seemed haunted by that time, and Daniel went out of his way to pull him from those maudlin moods when he could.

Living in close quarters with all the other couples turned out to be a good thing. It wasn’t just Julian, Daniel, and Nicolas with their partners. Most evenings, the others all trickled in, too, and breakfast became a grand, friendly affair. Someone usually had food delivered even if someone else was cooking, because there never seemed to be enough food. Coffee was constantly in the process of being made, because they all drank it faster than the machine could pour it. They played video games, talked about books and movies, catching some of the demons up on modern media.

He’d been wary, at first, of having Chaol and the leviathans in such close quarters, but they seemed to have reached an understanding. They probably wouldn’t ever consider themselves friends, but tentative greeting nods and conversations were a step in the right direction. Chaol had put his quest for revenge to rest, and the leviathans were careful to mind their tongues about Chaol’s brother and his association with Lilith. It didn’t come up much these days, honestly, and that was fine with Daniel. He liked this easy camaraderie between them all.

It was fun. It was exactly what Daniel had missed about being a paladin, but better, because now, he had Chaol.

Chaol was his lifeline. His anchor. His port in the storm. His true north. No matter how he felt, with a simple look, Chaol understood. He’d never felt this kind of connection to anyone before, and each day, his hunger for Chaol only grew. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get enough.

Now, as the day waned into night, he woke from his light doze, stretching languidly and flopping over on top of Chaol, who inhaled at the touch, lifting one hand to flatten against Daniel’s flank.

A faint, rhythmic noise filled the air, and Daniel groaned when he realized what had woken him.