Chapter 24 Valac
Valac
With plans made for Valac to return to Hell at dawn the following morning, he and Julian returned to their apartment.
Valac was eager to be alone with his human for his last night on Earth.
He knew he was their best hope of convincing a sin eater to come to the surface, but the idea of leaving Julian alone for any length of time when paladins were hunting him grated at his nerves.
Julian was his to protect. Leaving him, even in the capable company of the Sentinels, made him ache.
Valac was quiet as they got ready for bed and climbed under the blankets, pulling Julian close and hugging him tight.
A lingering sense of impending doom hung in the air between them.
Their time was limited now, and even though Valac swore to himself that he would return as soon as possible, he hadn’t expected to have to say goodbye to him quite so soon.
Things between them still felt so new. He wasn’t ready for another bout of loneliness, no matter how temporary.
Finally, he spoke. “I will return as soon as I can, my jewel.”
Julian nodded, pressing his forehead to Valac’s chest. “I know. I just feel…”
“Like saying goodbye is wrong?” It felt like a blade twisting in his heart.
Julian raised his head. His eyes were watery. “Yeah,” he croaked. “I just don’t want to be alone again. Not now that I’ve found you.”
Valac guided his head up and kissed him deeply. “I’ll visit your dreams every night, and I’ll stay close to your consciousness during the day. You won’t be able to feel me or see me until you’re asleep, but I’ll know if something happens to you. Just like last time.”
Julian’s breath hitched. “I don’t—I don’t want to go back to only seeing you in my dreams.”
“For a few days, my jewel, that’s all. We knew this day would come. We knew I’d have to return to Hell eventually.” He’d hoped it would be a long time from now, but with any luck, after this he wouldn’t have to go away again any time soon.
“I know, I know.” Julian sniffled, offering him a rueful smile. “I feel ridiculous. It’s totally okay for you to go back to Hell and find this sin eater. Good, even, if they’ll be able to help us. I just wasn’t ready to be away from you again so soon.”
Valac softened, cradling Julian’s head in his big hands. “Listen to me. I will do this. We will kill these paladins who dare to come after you. And then you and I will live a long, joyful life together. As long as you can stand me.”
Julian laughed wetly. “That’s gonna be a pretty long life, then.”
“Such is my hope, yes.” Valac peppered his face and mouth with kisses. “Don’t fear. This is the start of forever.” Valac got lost in the taste of his mouth.
“I like the sound of that.” Julian’s fingers trailed up his chest to cup his face.
“You should get some rest,” Valac said, but neither of them could stop kissing. “You’ve had a long night.”
“No, no sleep,” Julian said, rolling onto his back and dragging Valac with him.
“You’re leaving at dawn. I don’t want to waste our last few hours before you go.
” He spread his legs, inviting Valac to settle between them.
They slept naked, and the hard bulge of Valac’s cock lining up with Julian’s made his breath catch. “Make love to me one last time.”
“Yes,” Valac growled. “Drink my blood, my jewel. Drink and be mine forever.”
Julian arched up against him. “God, yes.”
Valac plundered his mouth with his tongue, rocking their bodies together as his shadows swirled and twined around Julian’s limbs, gliding up his thighs and easing into his hole, stretching him open.
Julian groaned into his mouth, his pliant body going slack as he let Valac take what he wanted.
Valac kissed his way down Julian’s chest, sucking his nipples until he squirmed.
His cock was already leaking by the time Valac made it there.
He licked the pearl bead of precum from Julian’s tip and suckled the head, teasing until Julian’s fingers curled around his head, urging him down.
Valac chuckled around his length, taking him all the way to the root and watching avidly as Julian’s chest rose and fell.
Shadows pushed Julian’s knees up and apart, keeping him spread wide.
He wanted to keep Julian like this forever, open and ready for him.
He bobbed his head up and down, eagerly swallowing every salty bit of precum that teased his tastebuds.
He would never have enough of Julian, his sweet cries and hot body.
Mouthing down Julian’s length, he sucked hungrily at his sac and then moved further back, spearing his tongue into Julian’s hole, held open by the shadows.
Julian jerked like a live wire, writhing in the confines of Valac’s power.
He took his time teasing Julian open with shadows and tongue, sucking and licking at his entrance until it was wet and soft.
“Valac, please,” Julian moaned, hips hitching. “Don’t tease me. I want you inside me.”
A shiver rolled down Valac’s spine. He couldn’t believe anyone so perfect would let him touch them like this.
Shadows scooped the bottle of lube off the bedside table and deposited it in his waiting hand. Valac made quick work of slicking his cock and painting Julian’s hole. He sank inside him slowly, their groans mingling together in the air.
Julian whimpered pitifully as Valac rooted in deep.
“You feel so good, my jewel,” Valac murmured, gazing down at Julian’s flushed face.
“You do, too. Get down here and kiss me.”
Valac laughed, giving him a slick kiss as he slowly pumped his hips.
They parted with a gasp from Julian, and Valac nuzzled the side of his face, kissing a trail down his throat as he circled his hips.
His shadows cradled Julian’s body, pressing his knees toward his chest, teasing his nipples, ruffling his hair.
Julian was boneless beneath him, legs spread wide and mouth parted in bliss.
Valac took his time, never giving in to the urge to quicken his pace.
He wanted to do this for hours, drowning himself in the sensation of his human’s body, get lost in the haze of pleasure one last time before he had to tear himself away and venture back to the underworld.
It would be a cold and lonely trip, and he hoped it would be worth it.
“Val,” Julian whimpered, clinging to his back. His body quivered with tension as he neared his release. A shadow slipped between their bodies, wrapping up the length of Julian’s cock and massaging it to the same rhythm as Valac’s hips. Julian uttered a curse, spine arching as he came.
Valac followed him over the edge, shuddering as he spilled inside his hot channel.
Waves of pleasure left him spent and boneless, curled above Julian and cradling the smaller man to his chest. His shadows were wild things, wrapped around Julian and curling above them in the air.
Julian laughed, and Valac raised his head to see his pretty blue eyes trained on them, over Valac’s shoulder.
“I think they had fun, too,” Julian murmured.
Valac chuckled. “Indeed. Here.” He raised one arm, and a single shadow arced down and left a shallow cut on his forearm.
Julian’s lips parted as black blood beaded to the surface.
“Drink. Please. I’ll feel better knowing you have my protection in this small way while I’m gone.” His blood would make Julian stronger, faster, and hardier. He would prefer to be by Julian’s side, but this would have to do.
Julian met his eyes, smiling softly as he raised up on one elbow and sealed his plush lips over the wound.
He sucked gently, and Valac’s cock twitched inside his hole, which made Julian’s eyes brighten with amusement.
When he raised his head, a black pearl of blood was left on his bottom lip, and Valac licked it away with reverence.
“Thank you,” Julian whispered. “For the blood. For everything.”
Valac rolled over, bringing Julian with him until he was on his back with his human curled against his side. “No. Thank you—for accepting me. For letting me be anywhere near you.” He didn’t realize how empty his life was until he had Julian in it.
Julian’s arm tightened around Valac’s middle. “I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to miss a single minute of our time together.”
Valac pressed his lips to Julian’s blond head. “Then don’t. Tell me something you’d like to do when this fight with the paladins is finally over.”
They talked through the night, making a list of all the things they wanted to see and experience after they achieved peace.
Valac didn’t want to open a gate to Hell in the apartment he shared with Julian, so at dawn, they teleported hand in hand downstairs to the club.
The others were waiting for them. Wolf was flipping chairs upside-down on tables while Xyra went around the room with a broom, sweeping up debris from another wild night.
Malachi was sitting on top of the bar, sipping a drink, and Luke was on a stool beside him, barely awake and using Malachi’s thigh as a pillow.
The others were scattered around the room.
Alex and Talon shared a booth with Ira. Isaac sat on one of the dancing platforms—the one with the chains dangling from the ceiling—and Shadrach stood between his legs.
Nathan was at a table, stealing kisses from Storm, who was supposed to be mopping, by the looks of it.
“Did you all come here last night?” Julian asked around a yawn.
“We did,” Luke said, stretching. “Looks like none of us got any sleep.”
“I’ve got a coffeemaker back here,” Wolf offered.
“Yes, please,” Nathan called, and they all converged on the bar.
Julian kept himself tucked under Valac’s arm, his hands hidden beneath the fabric of Valac’s shirt.
No one commented on the clinginess—in fact, Valac would wager they all understood—and while the coffee machine gurgled, Valac pressed his nose to Julian’s pale hair and breathed in his sweet scent.
He would miss this while he was gone. Every moment away from Julian would feel like an eternity.
“Coffee?” Wolf asked Julian, and Valac reluctantly raised his head to find them all looking at them.
“No, thanks,” Julian rasped. “I’m nervous enough without caffeine making it worse.”
Julian felt it, too. This connection between them. Valac didn’t know whether to cheer or lament that the human would feel the same sense of loss while they were apart.
He looked at the others, from one demon to the next, and said, “Let no harm come to him while I’m gone.”
Ira slurped his coffee and offered Valac a reassuring smile. “He’ll be fine while you’re away, Valac.”
From the prophet, the promise actually set him at ease. The tension unwound from his body, and Julian looked up at him with a weak smile.
“Then, I should go.”
Julian blew out a breath. “Fine. Hurry back, okay?”
“Of course.” He drew Julian out onto the empty dance floor with him. “You won’t be able to see the portal, because you are a living soul.”
Julian blinked in surprise. “Huh. That hadn’t occurred to me, but I guess it makes sense.”
“Kiss me once more before I go,” Valac entreated, and Julian obliged him with a smile, going up on his tiptoes and pulling Valac in for a soul-deep kiss.
The darkness within him rose up, hungry for the human in his arms, wrapping around him, gliding under his clothing and up into his hair.
He broke away with a tinkling laugh that sounded like music to Valac’s ears.
The shadows moved, coalescing in the air beside them, ripping and tearing into the fabric of the universe. White sparks flew from the tears as a piece of the world folded back to reveal a tunnel of absolute darkness. Hot air billowed out of the tunnel, and Julian turned toward it with a frown.
“Is that the gate? I feel… heat?”
“Yes, the gate is open,” Valac explained, glancing back at the others.
The humans were looking in the right general direction, but only the demons could see the actual gate.
Shadrach took a deep drag of the brimstone air, sighing like he’d missed it.
Malachi, Wolf, and Storm stared with varying degrees of intensity.
Halflings, as far as Valac knew, didn’t particularly care to return to Hell.
They weren’t born there and likely had few good memories of it, if they remembered it at all.
“When were you last in Hell, Shad?” Talon asked lightly.
“I came up in the early fifteen-hundreds,” Shadrach replied, not taking his eyes off the gate.
“Right, right. I remember now,” Talon said.
“What does it look like?” Isaac asked, looking in the direction of the gate.
Shadrach tilted his head. “It looks like the world has been ripped open. Reality is blurred and ragged at the edges, sparking like a wire that’s been cut. Energy burning the edges with nowhere to go.”
“Black smoke inside a dark tunnel,” Malachi added.
“You cannot see Hell from here,” Valac said. “I must pass through Purgatory before I reach Hell. I can use my power to travel more quickly, but it’ll be tiresome.” He sighed, stroking Julian’s cheek with his thumb. “I’ll return as soon as possible, my jewel.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
He couldn’t resist stealing in for one last kiss, and then pressed another to Julian’s forehead.
Parting from him ached like a physical thing, but he forced himself to go.
The sooner he went, the sooner he could return with a sin eater and take care of the paladins who would do harm to his jewel once and for all.
The darkness enveloped him, and he turned around as the portal knitted itself back together, staring at Julian’s handsome face until he finally disappeared.
And then, he flew.