18. Alex
Chapter 18
Alex
The sun was setting when they rolled to a stop in the middle of suburban Irvine, across the street from the address Ira had given him. It was a southwestern style home with a Spanish tile roof. The front yard was carefully landscaped, and they couldn’t tell if anyone was home, because the two-car garage was closed. The sun was falling behind the horizon, casting everything in molten orange. The mailbox out front said ‘ The Burches ’ in cheerful cursive.
Talon looked delectable in a pair of silver aviators and his raven black hair artfully mussed. He put the car in park and cracked the window, then reached into the middle console for a pack of cigarettes. But when his eyes found Alex over the rim of his sunglasses, he put the cigarette pack up without getting one out.
Alex turned away to hide his smile. Was Talon thinking about secondhand smoke? Remembering what a ‘fragile little human’ Alex was? He was so endearingly attentive to Alex’s needs.
He settled back in his seat. They would probably be there a while. “So how will we know when the demon gets here?” Alex asked.
“I should be able to sense him if he uses any kind of demonic power—which he will certainly do if he’s coming here to kill this family. We just have to bide our time until sundown and wait for him to show himself.”
Alex settled back in the leather seat. Talon returned his hand to Alex’s leg without looking, and Alex smiled, warmth blooming in his chest at the touch. It was downright domestic.
They had a little time before the sun went down, and Alex let his mind wander. Naturally, it wandered right back to what they’d done in Talon’s penthouse. He’d known, of course, that orgasms felt good, having taken himself in hand before, but he’d never known how incredible it could feel with another person. To have someone as close as it was possible to be, inside him, even. And when he’d offered Talon his blood, a part of him had been taken inside of Talon, too. It was primal, the thrust and grind of their bodies moving as one, and now, cradled in the leather seat of Talon’s ridiculously expensive car, his body gave a little shiver at the memory of what it felt like to be completely vulnerable.
Talon glanced over, his dark eyes heavy-lidded, as though he knew exactly what Alex was thinking about.
Alex leaned closer, angling his legs slightly farther apart. “What does blood do for you, anyway? Do you need it for survival, like a vampire?”
“It gets us high,” he said simply, which wasn’t what Alex expected but not totally surprising, given Talon’s reaction to it in the penthouse. “It gives us a floaty, swirly, everything-feels-amazing kind of feeling. Blood that has drugs or alcohol in it is even better. A lot of the dark bottles at In Extremis with no labels are laced with it. Plain alcohol doesn’t do much for us.”
“Hm. Good to know.”
Talon shot him a smile. “You say that like you’re planning something. But you don’t drink or do drugs.”
“I could drink,” Alex said hesitantly. He had no interest in drugs.
“You didn’t like the beer.”
He couldn’t hide the way his mouth twisted in distaste. “No, I didn’t.”
“Maybe a nice wine, then. If you’re interested.” His thumb stroked Alex’s thigh.
He grinned. “Yeah, maybe. You gonna wine and dine me?”
“Would that make you happy?”
It was asked so sincerely that it drew Alex up short. He blinked in surprise, searching for something to say. Would it? He’d rarely been on real dates, and he was usually always the one who instigated and paid for dinner. He’d never been doted on, neither in a relationship nor by family. He bounced from foster home to foster home for three years before he was picked up by a guild recruiter. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had gone out of their way to do something nice for him. His squad sent him ‘happy birthday’ texts on his birthday earlier that year, but he didn’t celebrate because he’d had patrols the night before and everyone—including him—was too tired to do anything.
“Alex.” Talon’s voice was soft and honeyed. Fingers curled in his shirt, reeling him in across the console and kissing him firmly. “I’ll wine and dine you,” he murmured against Alex’s lips. Every statement was punctuated with a kiss. “I’ll take you to the most expensive restaurant in the city. I’ll order all your favorite things. You can try every wine on the menu if you want. If you find one you like, I’ll buy you a whole bottle.”
There was a lump in Alex’s throat, and his eyes burned with emotion. He had to stop crying every time Talon said nice things to him. It was getting embarrassing. He ducked his head to hide it, though he doubted he could hide anything from him. “Talon, you’re too much,” he croaked.
In the dim, rosy light of the waning sun, Talon cast him a look of sympathy. “Yes,” Talon agreed regretfully, and it earned a weak chuckle from Alex. “That is one of the hazards of belonging to a demon. We are selfish, indulgent creatures. I’m sorry if that clashes with your pious, guilt-ridden Christian existence.”
Alex laughed again, stronger this time.
“There is so much more to life than what you allow yourself.”
“You’re just trying to tempt me to the dark side.”
“Yes.” He didn’t even have the decency to deny it, slanting their mouths together in a hot, drugging kiss. “Are you tempted?”
He was. He really was.
Talon didn’t stop kissing him, slow and indulgent. One hand trailed down Alex’s throat and chest, teasing his nipples through the fabric of his shirt. With a flourish, he whipped the seatbelt off Alex’s lap, the hook slapping against the door beside him. Alex let out a startled laugh, and then Talon’s hands slipped under his shirt.
“Hng, Talon,” he said breathlessly, letting his head fall back. His body squirmed, seeking more, as Talon trailed hot kisses down his neck. This car was entirely too cramped for the things his body wanted to do.
Talon moaned. “I love you like this, desperate for me.”
Alex’s brain snagged on those first three words. There they were again. Why were things so easy with this demon? He dragged Talon up by the hair and kissed him hard. One of Talon’s hands dropped to his groin, palming the growing bulge in his jeans. He rocked up into the touch, hungry for more friction.
“Look at you,” Talon breathed. “So eager for everything I give you. Could you get off like this, humping my hand? Do you want it that bad?”
The street suddenly plunged into darkness around them, all the street lights winking out in unison. They both froze, their damp mouths brushing before they turned their heads to look out the windshield. The sun was a molten flare beyond the horizon, and the sky above them was dark.
Talon inhaled, turning his head toward the driver’s side window. “I feel a demon nearby.” His hand was still absentmindedly cupping Alex’s crotch, but his erection was completely gone. His pulse thundered in his ears.
“It’s him,” Alex breathed. “He’s here.”
Talon sat back, fixing Alex with a serious look. “Time to go to work, little bird. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
Alex nodded, then lunged from the car, grabbing his sword and rushing across the street toward the darkened house. A scream rang out from within as he got close, and he barreled right into the door, slamming his shoulder into it and sending it swinging open. He’d likely have a bruise from that later, but right now the pain was an afterthought.
Inside was chaos. There was a staircase to the left of the door. Through the hallway ahead, he glimpsed a woman and three children cowering in the living room. All of them were screaming. He opened his mouth to tell them everything was going to be okay?—
“Alex!” Strong hands snagged his arms and hauled him backward just as a body fell from the second floor. It was a pajama-clad man, and he writhed in pain on the wood floor, alive but definitely hurt.
Alex raised his gaze toward the staircase that hugged the foyer wall. A figure stood there, humanoid and unmoving. His stomach twisted in horror. It was the demon. He knew it was. Steeling his spine, he raised his blade.
“Oh, holy man.” He recognized that sinister, growling hiss. “You shouldn’t have come.”
Slow footsteps descended the staircase. Alex rushed toward the injured man, hauling him up and ignoring his whimper of pain. They didn’t have time for him to check for injury.
“Go, go, go!” he said, helping him limp into the living room toward his wife and kids.
“What’s happening?” the woman shrieked. “Who are you?”
“I’m here to help,” Alex said. “That… man is a killer, but I won’t let him hurt you. Just stay back.”
Talon was still at his back, one hand flat between his shoulder blades.
“Interesting,” the demon said as it strolled into the living room.
Nausea pitched in Alex’s gut. The demon was exactly like he remembered. Shaggy brown hair, pointed face, solid black eyes, ugly and flat and so unlike Talon’s midnight irises. When it smiled, its teeth were too sharp to be human, its Cheshire smile stretching toward its ears. Like it tried to look human but fell short of the mark.
Those ink-black eyes swept back and forth between Alex and Talon, observing the way they stood close together, Talon’s hand on his back.
“You’re no holy man,” the demon rasped to Talon. “So why are you with this one?”
Talon straightened, bringing them closer together, and the demon’s sharp smile widened.
“Oh, are you playing with it? Taking your carnal pleasure? Do you make it cry? It would cry so pretty.”
Fury rose within Alex. The only ‘ it ’ here was the mozgoran.
Talon scoffed. “Don’t bother engaging with it, Alex, it’s barely more than an animal. It tries to look human, but it’s no different than the ones you kill on your patrols.”
“You talk to it?” the mozgoran asked, glancing between them. “The human’s lifespan is a blink compared to yours. You’re thousands of years old, leviathan. Why bother?”
Alex scowled and raised his blade. “Enough of this. Talon, get them outside.”
“Oh, it gives you orders , too?”
Talon didn’t rise to the bait. Alex rushed toward the demon, his blade arcing through the air. The mozgoran dodged aside. Behind Alex, Talon was urgently ushering the humans out the back door.
“Sixteen years ago,” Alex snarled. “You killed a family just like this in Bakersfield. Only you missed a kid.”
The demon sneered. “Yes, I remember. Slippery thing wriggled out through the window and ran through the neighborhood.”
Alex nodded. He remembered spider webs on his face, shrubbery scratching his arms and legs as he ran through backyards. He’d hidden between two azaleas in somebody’s backyard five blocks from home, his heart pounding, for hours. When he’d finally plucked up the courage to creep from his hiding place, he’d gone home, hoping against hope that his mother and father had survived, that he’d be able to call for help and save them. Instead, he found their eviscerated bodies with his baby brother and sister, and he’d collapsed beside them, screaming until the neighbors heard him and called 911.
“That was me,” Alex said. “And you’re going to pay for all the lives you’ve ruined.”
The demon bared its sharp teeth. “Come and get me, then.”