22. Alex
Chapter 22
Alex
Alex woke to the smell of Chinese food. He was flat on his stomach in the middle of Talon’s ridiculously soft bed, his face buried between the pillows. A warm hand was touching the center of his back, shaking slightly.
“Mm?” he croaked sleepily.
“Food’s here, little bird. You should try to eat a bit.”
He rolled over with a languid stretch, laying his head on top of the pillow nearest to Talon. He was a vision, wearing a black button-down with the sleeves rolled up and holding a takeaway container.
“This is the hottest I’ve ever seen you,” he murmured.
Talon threw his head back with a laugh. “Ouch. You’ve seen me naked.”
Alex snorted, letting Talon pull him into a sitting position. He leaned back on the pillow and accepted the container with a yawn.
“How are you feeling?” Talon asked, studying him with unblinking black eyes.
“Surprisingly good. That was a pretty great power nap, I guess. I’m less sore than expected. You’d think after eight hours of walking my legs and feet would be killing me.” He ran a hand over his hair and down the side of his neck, scratching absently. “Or maybe I’m in better shape than I thought. Maybe all those drills actually…” He trailed off, his fingers prodding the side of his neck. The bite was supposed to be there. Why wasn’t it hurting? “Can I… Can I see your phone?”
Talon didn’t ask, just unlocked it and handed it over. Alex turned on the front-facing camera and angled it toward his neck.
The bruise was completely gone. The teeth marks, oval-shaped and thin, were now a barely visible scar.
“What the hell? How is this already healed? Is this normal for demon bites?” He handed the phone back to Talon, who looked… guilty. “Talon,” he pressed. “Tell me.”
Talon sighed. “Eat, and I will.”
Alex obediently took a bite. “Actually, you said ‘we’ would get naked and eat in bed, so strip down and join me.”
Talon stood slowly, holding his gaze, and unbuttoned his shirt with agonizing slowness. Alex watched him, transfixed, as he bared inch after inch of creamy white skin. He worked his jeans down his long legs. The boxers followed last—the back first and then the front, revealing the muscled vee of his hips and finally, his half-hard, uncut cock.
Alex pointed at it with his fork. “That’ll be dessert.”
“That’s vaguely threatening when you’re holding a sharp object, little bird. Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Alex rasped out a laugh. “Get over here and tell me why I healed so fast.”
Talon slid in beside him and pressed his mouth to Alex’s temple. “Because I gave you my blood,” he said against his skin.
Alex turned his head toward him. “What?”
“No one that I know has ever tried it, but I’ve been led to believe our blood has certain… properties. I had planned to mention it to you at some point, but with you being so tired and sore, I thought you might benefit from a taste. Ingesting it will make you stronger, faster. You’ll heal quicker, and… you’ll age slower.”
Alex stared. And stared. “What?” he repeated dumbly.
“Regularly ingesting demon blood would make you functionally immortal. You would cease to age completely with a regular dose of it.”
Alex was dumbfounded. “What?”
Talon cast him a patient smile. “Eat your food. Let your fragile human brain process the new information. I hear it takes some time.”
Alex scowled and shoveled a few more forkfuls into his mouth while his brain did exactly that. He could be immortal with regular doses of Talon’s blood? As little as what he’d given him through their kiss earlier?
It would solve a lot of his problems. He wouldn’t have to worry about aging while Talon stayed the same. He wasn’t upset Talon kept it a secret; it was an understandably sensitive thing they probably didn’t want a lot of humans to know about. He might’ve also been worried it would affect the way Alex felt about him.
“Why didn’t you tell me before you did it?” he asked. “That seems like a thing you should get permission about.”
Talon shrugged. “I’m telling you now. You were tired, and a few drops won’t be enough to permanently alter you. I planned to tell you as soon as you were lucid enough. I was going to bring it up if you were willing to… move forward with me. It would allow us much more time than your current human lifespan.”
Alex frowned. “And what if I don’t want to be immortal?”
Talon blinked at him, looking unusually vulnerable. “Is that… how you feel?”
Alex remained stoic for a moment, just to drag it out a little longer, and then cracked a smile. “No, I just wanted to make you sweat.”
Talon’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ll admit, I didn’t like the thought of aging and dying while you’re eternally beautiful.”
Talon leaned over and pressed a kiss to the hinge of Alex’s jaw. “You would be beautiful even as a wrinkled old man, little bird. Time wouldn’t change how I feel about you.”
Alex blushed, forcing himself to focus. “I need to know about things like this, though. You can’t keep these things to yourself. If it’s going to change me, you have to let me make an informed decision.”
Talon’s mouth tightened stubbornly.
“Tal,” Alex said seriously, and the nickname drew those black eyes to his once more. “I mean it. I’m not saying no. I’m just saying let me keep my bodily autonomy.”
“Fine,” he groused, and Alex rewarded him with a kiss.
“Will it change me, though? Like… will I go to Hell?”
“You would have to die first,” Talon pointed out. “And also no. You’ll still be human, just enhanced.”
That was reassuring. “So,” he said, going back to his noodles. “How much blood are we talking? Just what you gave me earlier?”
“Mm-hm. That was enough to heal your wounds. Just bite me or keep bringing knives out when we fuck, and you’ll be fine.”
Alex flushed with heat. He handed the half-eaten container to Talon and said, “How about that shower now?”
Talon nodded, taking the carton and sealing their mouths together. “Anything you want, little bird.”
He took Alex’s hand and led him, naked, downstairs, dropping the carton on the kitchen island as they passed it. The bathroom was lined with black marble tile. There was a jacuzzi tub and a glass-walled shower and enough space between the two to fit his whole living room.
“Towels and washcloths are in here,” he said, opening the closet beside the vanity. Black towels and washcloths—of course they were all black—were stacked on one shelf. Another shelf held various lotions, oils, and at least three unopened bottles of lube. A hamper stood in the bottom of the closet, half-filled with dark clothing.
Demons do laundry , Alex thought hysterically. Somehow he couldn’t imagine Talon doing something so mundane.
“What are you smiling about?” Talon asked, wrapping his arms around him from behind, his naked body lining up with Alex’s.
He shook his head, craning his neck for a kiss. “I just like seeing the little details of your life.”
“Oh.” Talon looked nonplussed, like he hadn’t been expecting that.
“Do you own any white fabrics?”
Talon’s eyes found the black towels and the laundry hamper, and his mouth twisted in thought. “Hm. No.”
Alex chuckled. “That’s okay. I’ll bring some color into your life.”
“Oh, little bird. You already have.”
Alex beamed. He turned in Talon’s arms, wrapping his own around Talon’s neck. “You know what I want?”
“Hm?” Talon’s hands glided up and down his bare back.
“I want to take a long, relaxing shower. I want to clean all the grime off myself. I want to sleep for sixteen hours like a certain someone promised me, and when we wake up, I want you to show me exactly how good you can make me feel. I don’t want to put clothes on all day. I want us to take our time and make up for yesterday.”
Talon’s gaze was dark and hungry. His hands slid down Alex’s body to cup his ass, dragging their groins together so Alex could feel how hard he was. “That sounds perfect, little bird. I want to spread you out and feast on you all day. I want to tie you down and make you scream. I want to hear you beg me for more. I want to make you come more than you’ve ever thought possible. I want you drenched in it so I can lick it off.”
Alex’s body flushed. “Yeah. You have to let go of me so I can shower first.”
Teeth nipped across his jaw. “That’s a tall order.”
Alex chuckled. “Apparently we have plenty of time.”
Talon hummed a long, self-satisfied note. “Yes we do.”
He peeled himself away from Alex with a reluctant groan and backed toward the door. Alex drank in the sight of Talon’s long, lean body on display. He was completely confident in his nudity, his heavy cock bobbing between his legs. There was a serpentine grace to his movements, his gaze dark with promise.
He closed the door behind himself, and Alex huffed out a laugh. His life was weird—in a good way, but still weird. One minute he was fighting a holy war, the next he was in a demon’s bathroom, finding lube in every corner. There was another—half-used, he noted with a rush of desire—in the shower.
The water pressure was incredible. He washed thoroughly, sniffing the expensive shampoos and soaps. His mind was elsewhere, though. With Talon, in the next room. Was he waiting downstairs, or had he gone to bed?
Alex couldn’t believe he was here. That he was staring down the barrel of immortality with a demon who’d promised him anything and everything he wanted. A demon who, apparently, was all too happy to bow to his every whim.
A demon who was waiting right outside the door for him when he emerged in a cloud of steam.
Talon tugged the damp towel from his waist with a cheeky smirk. “Come, little bird. Time to sleep.”
“Were you standing right outside the door the whole time?” Alex asked with a laugh as Talon dragged him up the stairs.
“Maybe.”
Talon guided him into the bed and laid down beside him, wrapping snugly around him and tangling their legs together.
“You should know,” Talon said in his ear, “that if I wake up and you are anywhere but in my arms , I will go outside and kill the first person I see.”
Alex turned his head, struggling not to smile. “What if the first person you see is me?”
“Then I’ll ask why you weren’t in my arms.”
“Maybe I had to pee.”
Talon bit his shoulder with a growl.
Alex laughed. “Fine, I get it. I’m not going anywhere, Tal.”
They were quiet for a moment, and then Talon confessed in a low whisper, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that sort of panic before. At first, I thought I was overreacting, but then time kept passing and you kept not coming back . I had no idea where you were or if you were okay…”
Alex wriggled. He couldn’t actually press any closer than they already were, but it was the thought that counted. “I’m sorry. I?—”
“Don’t. Don’t apologize for what happened to you. None of it was your fault.”
“I mean, it kind of is. I’m the one who let you in. Well—no, you let yourself in. But I wanted it as much as you did. I should’ve known I couldn’t keep it a secret from them. And,” he squirmed around to look at Talon, “can I tell you something?”
“Always.”
“The truth is, I already knew I couldn’t have both. I woke up that morning knowing that one day I’d have to choose. Turns out they took the choice away before I had to make it myself, but… I think I would’ve chosen you.”
Talon scoffed. “You think ?”
Alex laughed brightly. “They didn’t give me the time to figure it out, but yeah. You’ve done more for me in a week than they did my whole life. They took my trauma and used it to turn me into a soldier in their war. I don’t think they ever planned to make good on their promise to help me get my revenge. But you did. You let me do whatever I needed.”
Talon kissed his cheek. “I’ll always give you what you need, little bird. Starting with sixteen hours of sleep. Followed by so many orgasms you’ll think your fragile human body will die.”
Alex sniggered, rolling onto his side once more so Talon could squeeze him like a body pillow. “Awesome.”