Chapter 2
Valac
Earth was so different than Valac remembered. It was a blindingly bright ball of chaos. He hadn’t set foot beyond the realm of Hell in thousands of years. In fact, the last time he’d found himself on the surface, humans fought with chariots.
He was sent here on a mission. There was unrest amongst the demons who existed on the surface.
For the first time in centuries, a leader had been killed.
The halflings were floundering without guidance, and Valac intended to find out what happened.
Violent changes in leadership certainly happened, but demons were long-lived creatures.
Demons killing demons was a fairly unusual occurrence, and this particular death had resonated all the way back to Valac’s superior, Astaroth.
One halfling wasn’t a great loss in Valac’s eyes, but their worth wasn’t for him to determine.
At this time, he was simply a seeker of knowledge.
His journey brought him to the location of Lilith’s murder first. Nothing was left of her body, of course, but the aura remained, for a demon powerful enough to sense it.
Sand shifted underfoot as he’d searched the area.
The sky was dappled with starlight, and gentle waves sloshed against the beach beside him.
As far as deaths went, this one had been in a peaceful place.
Several other demons were present at the time of her death, as well as humans.
Lilith had been filled with hatred for them all.
It left a scar in the air that vibrated with tension.
It would fade with time, but for now, he could clearly sense how much she’d wanted to hurt them.
He focused on the other demonic presences that had been here at the time of her death. The stronger the demon, the stronger the aura.
Leviathans. There weren’t many of those in the area.
He tracked their demonic signature through the city and found them locked in battle with still more halflings.
It was safe to assume they were involved in the turmoil plaguing the demonic community here.
After determining who belonged to which side, he’d ended things quickly so that he might get on with his mission.
Meeting the beautiful human wasn’t in his plans.
In the past, any human who laid eyes on him recognized him for the monster he was.
None had dared to stand against him, but this one, with his golden hair and jewel blue eyes, like lapis lazuli, was braver than any other in Valac’s long history.
He hadn’t meant to step between him and the leviathan, Shadrach.
It rankled him to see the leviathan hurting him, and he’d acted without thinking.
Now, he wanted to rip Shadrach apart, because there were finger-shaped bruises and fingernail marks on the human’s sun-bronzed skin.
His lip curled angrily, and he started to turn around and do the same to the leviathan when Julian reached for him, snagging his wrist.
Valac’s mind ground to a halt at the touch.
No human had dared to touch him in thousands of years.
He couldn’t even remember the last time another demon had touched him, even in passing.
The human’s palm was warm, but his fingertips were chilled.
It was smooth in places and rough with calluses in others.
A fascinating dichotomy, just like everything else about this human. Soft but strong. Small but mighty.
“Don’t,” he croaked. “Don’t start anything on my account. He’s right. I shouldn’t be here.”
“You helped them.” They should be grateful, not threatening.
“I did, and I probably shouldn’t have. I’ve been ordered to keep my distance, and I’ve already done things I shouldn’t. Coming inside—seeing this place—all of it is jeopardizing… well, everything. For them as well as me.”
Then he should leave. There was no logical reason for him to stay if he didn’t want to and neither did they. But Valac couldn’t bring himself to say as much aloud. He wanted Julian to stay, because… he wasn’t ready to let him go. It didn’t make sense.
Valac inclined his head and watched relief pass across the human’s face. Looking at him left Valac feeling wrong-footed, so he turned away, focusing his attention on the matter at hand.
The leviathans, Shadrach and Talon, were standing together, one scowling and the other studying. Valac focused on the latter, as he seemed more amenable to conversation.
“I was sent here to investigate a death. I have some questions, if you’d be so kind as to answer.”
Talon’s face gave nothing away. “The kind of investigation that precedes a punishment?”
Valac smiled. “You know I’m no enforcer.”
“On the contrary, I happen to know you have plenty of methods for exactly that. We all just bore witness to some.” He gestured to the door and the parking lot beyond.
“Nonetheless, that isn’t what I’m here for. I’m simply gathering information. My name is Valac, and I mean you no harm.”
“Sure,” Talon said, stepping back. “If we’re finally doing official introductions, you can call me Talon. This leviathan here is Shadrach.”
Yes, he was familiar with the names. They had both been on Earth for a very long time. If anyone could help him navigate the surface, it would be them. “A pleasure. And the rest?”
Talon gestured to each of them in turn. “Alex, Isaac, Ira, Luke, Malachi, and Wolf. The one who was injured was Nathan, and the halfling helping him was Storm.”
No one gave him the beautiful one’s name, so Valac turned.
He’d heard Nathan say his name, but he wanted to hear it for himself.
Looking at him felt like the first breath of surface air, shocking and viscerally familiar at the same time.
It was as though something about the human reached out and spoke to him. Beckoned to him.
Pretty blue eyes blinked in surprise when he realized he was the focus of Valac’s attention once more. “I—I’m not really a part of this.”
“Your name.” He was desperate to hear it.
The human licked his lips, a motion that drew Valac’s eyes to the bow shape of his mouth and the plushness of his bottom lip. “Julian.”
Julian. A beautiful jewel, indeed.
He tore his attention back to the matter at hand.
“I come seeking answers. There is unrest amongst the demons. The possessors are being dealt with below for their treasonous disobedience with Amon, but Lilith’s death has riled many of the halflings.
She was in power with them for a long time.
Many deferred to her, both here on the surface and below.
She even acted as an avenue of communication to the halflings on the surface for some of my superiors.
Her death has created a gap in our forces.
I’m here to find out why she was killed. ”
“She hated us,” Talon said blithely. “She was trying to kill us, so we killed her first.”
“Trying to kill you how? She was hunting you?”
“She put out a bounty on Talon’s head,” Shadrach said. “Paladins attacked the nightclub she owned, and she blamed us for it. Talon, specifically.”
Only some of those words made sense. “What is a paladin and a nightclub, and why would she blame Talon or the rest of you for the attack? Did you instigate it?”
Three answers came to him at once.
Talon said, “Yes.”
Alex said, “No.”
And Ira said, “Kind of.”
All three of them scowled at each other.
“Explain,” Valac said patiently.
“I’m a paladin,” Julian piped up, and Valac was delighted for the excuse to look at him again.
“Were you a part of the attack on the—nightclub?” The word tasted unfamiliar on his tongue.
The ghost of a smile crossed Julian’s face. “No, I wasn’t involved in that. Paladins are holy warriors from the Paladin Guild of Los Angeles. We hunt demons. They attacked because they believed the halflings were staging some sort of plan to seduce our warriors away from the cause.”
Valac looked to the halflings, scattered around the room with their humans. “Were you?”
“No!” several of them protested at once.
“Those of us here,” Talon said, gesturing to the demons, “found human, uh, mates, if you will, who also happened to be paladins. The guild thinks it’s a concerted effort to weaken their numbers.”
Human mates, Valac thought. He’d never heard of such a thing, and he avoided looking at Julian as the words took root in his mind.
“So the paladins attacked the halflings,” Talon went on. “We were there at the nightclub for the attack—”
Julian interjected, “A nightclub is a place that opens at night that plays loud music and sells alcoholic drinks to people for recreational purposes.”
Talon looked miffed at the interruption, but Valac gave Julian a grateful nod for the explanation. Similar establishments had existed for a very long time. It seemed he was just unfamiliar with this modern name.
“They set fire to the club and killed a few halflings. Lilith blamed us for it because we’re the ones who are with humans,” Talon continued. “She put out a bounty on my head—I assume you know what a bounty is.”
Valac glared. He wasn’t an idiot just because he hadn’t been to the surface in two thousand years.
Alex tugged on Talon’s arm. “Don’t piss off the big demon,” he whispered.
Talon sighed, but Alex’s worry was enough to drain some of the irritation from the leviathan.
When he spoke again, it was with a kinder tone.
“Our humans were the ones suffering the halfling attacks. They were targeting Alex, because they know he’s my mate—my weakness.
The only way to make it stop was to kill Lilith. ”
“I went to the location of her death. Why are they still attacking you here if you killed her?”
“She had a lot of loyal bootlickers,” Talon said with a lopsided shrug.
“A lot of people are pissed at us now for getting rid of her. She sucked, but she kept things in balance. She ran the club, she provided halflings with outlets for their debauchery, and she supplied a lot of their favorite illegal pastimes.”