20. Well-Fucked & Well-Fed
Stavros
“Y ou don’t have to come,” Zach said, head turning back and forth between Deyva and I.
“I know I don’t have to, but you guys are going, and the smoke hasn’t cleared up at all, so you can’t tell me you know what to expect outside the gate,” Deyva answered back, shrugging her shoulders stiffly, her hands clasped tight around her arms.
Thirty minutes ago she’d been languid on the bed, after happily watching Zach and I kiss and fondle each other for over an hour before breakfast.
“I don’t know why you keep looking at each other like that, I’m the one that took that general down. You know I can handle it,” Deyva snapped.
“It’s just...at the time we didn’t know…” I stalled, looking to Zach for help next, but he was staring anxiously back at me.
Kais cleared his throat at the table, a spoonful of oatmeal raised to his mouth as he watched the three of us in our negotiation.
“We didn’t know you had a heavy-hitting demon general trying to drag you back to Hell.
One willing to send an angel back out of the depths to get the job done,” Kais said. “Now that we do know, well…”
“We’re just concerned for you,” I said cautiously, not sure what to expect from her in retaliation.
Zach looked like he was bracing himself for a fight too, which is why we were both surprised when Deyva relaxed and brightened.
“Wait, you guys are trying to keep me safe?”
“Of course we are,” Zach said, with all the devotion of a protective lover, his eyes wide.
Deyva’s smile went soft, and then so did his, and they stepped closer together.
Kais’ eyes widened as Zach’s head ducked to hers, their lips almost kissing.
“This isn’t just outside the gate, we’re gonna have to drive about five miles out of town. ”
“But it’s so obviously a trap,” Deyva said, grimacing.
“Yeah, but babe, what if it’s a trap set for you ?” I asked.
She wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips. “Then all Kimaris has to do is grab one of the three of you and I’m gonna have to make a trip down to Hell to cut his balls off and jam them up his nostrils with hot pokers anyway.”
I blinked at the imagery, Zach looked inordinately flattered, and Kais sat stiffly, staring at an oblivious Deyva. She’d included him in her declaration, hadn’t she? Ha. He was so fucked and he wasn’t even getting to enjoy it yet.
“Well, uh, I’ll be here. So that’s one less priest for you to worry about,” Kais said, focusing on his oatmeal.
“We could take Az with us,” Deyva said.
“No,” Kais, Zach, and I all said at once.
Deyva’s eyebrows bounced. “Oh, wow. We all really swapped places on that angel, didn’t we?”
“He was trying to kidnap you or something!” I said, trying not to shout.
“Yeah, I mean, I think he feels bad about it now,” Deyva said with a shrug. “And he could be handy.”
“That may be, but it’s way too convenient for his old plan if he goes out that gate with you,” Kais said, shaking his head.
“Az can earn our trust, but he hasn’t yet.
If he’s here, he can help me protect the town.
We know the windmill breaking down again is probably a trap, but we don’t know what the actual plan is.
What if they want Stav, Zach, and I to leave you here unguarded? ”
Zach’s arm slid around Deyva’s shoulder and he tugged her into his side, tucking his chin over the top of her head. “I’m still not convinced you should leave the gate.”
Deyva’s smile was sweeter than it was smug, but it was a close call as she twined her arms around his waist. “Yeah, well, I’m not sure you should either, but you’re definitely not going out without me, okay?”
“Make it a quick trip,” Kais said to me. “If there’s something wrong that can’t be fixed in under, say, thirty minutes? Just come back and we’ll find a solution here first. And we need to give Deyva a weapon.”
Deyva scoffed and rolled her eyes, her cheek pressed to Zach’s chest. “Oh yeah, cause, like, I nearly broke a nail last time.”
I grinned and waggled my eyebrows at Zach. “What do you say we give her John?”
“Does she have to keep fondling the sword like that?” Will asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to where Deyva was petting the authentic crusader’s sword I’d stolen from the archdiocese.
“Sorry, Will,” Deyva said, looking up from the thin, tapered blade. “It’s just so pretty.”
“Maybe sheath it while we’re in the car,” Zach said in her ear, smiling at her like she’d just finished sucking him off.
I would’ve been a little jealous—Deyva hadn’t even really touched Zach much, and I should’ve been the one getting that dopey look—but she did look really cute and starry-eyed with the ancient blade in her lap. And Zach never failed to express his appreciation for any second we spent together.
She sighed and slid it into the replica sheath, her hand going down to rest against Zach’s on the seat.
It wasn’t holding hands, Zach was probably going to need some time before he was comfortable enough to be so open in his affection with either Deyva or I, but I caught their fingers brushing together in a way that made my chest ache.
“Ah, here’s the turn,” Will said, steering the truck onto the utility road that led to the windmill farm we’d been using as one of our main sources of energy in Bethel. “It’s one at the back western end.”
The truck bumped along the dirt road, great monolithic windmills glowing like dark shadows on either side of the vehicle as we passed them.
“Open a window?” Deyva asked me.
Will lowered the window, all four of us grimacing at the sulphuric smell of the air. Will twitched as Deyva leaned to his left, her ear pitched to the window.
“Can you hear anything?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so, and hellions aren’t great with subtlety.”
“Zach, you’ll help Will out on the windmill, and Deyva and I will keep an eye out on our surroundings, good?”
“Good.”
Will pulled up to the concrete base of the windmill, his door facing the control panel at the base.
The farm near Bethel was the vertical axis style, lucky for us, which meant as long as there was air-flow, we were gaining a little power from all the mills, regardless of what direction it was coming.
“Is there any chance it’s something in the wiring on the way to town?” I asked.
Will shook his head, pulling an air-filtration mask up to cover his nose and mouth. “If it were, it wouldn’t be just the one mill down. It should be an easy fix, maybe just a patch in the computer. Kit?”
I grabbed his kit from the floor, passing it to him and then looked back to Zach, nodding. The smoke was dense enough that unless one of us heard something first, an enemy could sneak up almost directly on top of us before we’d know they were there.
Our doors opened in unison and Deyva smiled as I stepped out, reaching to help her down from the back of the massive truck.
“We’ll stay close, right?” she asked, eyeing the smog around me.
“Yeah, just enough of a perimeter to give them a little extra warning. Don’t worry. John and I have your back,” I said, grinning as Deyva gleefully pulled the sword back out of its sheath she had hanging over her shoulder. “Shoulda known you were a girl who liked weapons.”
“Pffft, ‘girl.’ You’re cute for someone who’s less than one percent of my age,” Deyva teased back.
I glanced over the hood of the truck, checking on Zach and Will’s shadows by the windmill before pushing Deyva back against the passenger side door, pressing her to its surface, and ducking my head for a quick, deep kiss.
“Come on, we’ll stay in sight of either the truck or the windmill so we don’t get lost in the smog,” I said, taking her hand, not caring if Will saw.
Bethel was going to have to get used to Deyva because I was fucking set on keeping her around.
She’d given me the best and weirdest weeks of my life, not to mention being a catalyst for Zach and I finally addressing the desire-shaped elephant in our friendship.
She was good for me, good for us . She’d be good for Bethel too.
Deyva’s hand was tight around mine, and she made me stand on the inside of the perimeter, like it was her job to protect me , instead of the other way around.
Will was explaining the tech to Zach, who responded with a polite amount of interest, and Deyva’s eyes were narrowed on the smog around us, her steps quiet even in the torn up old sneakers we’d found for her.
“So, tell me, are two guys enough for you? Like in terms of feeding?” I asked, watching her eyes blink rapidly.
“Uh...what? I mean, I’m good, Stav,” she said, glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes.
“Okay, you’re good. But are you, you know, as strong and healthy as you could be?”
“Why are you asking this?”
“Because this morning when you said you’d go back to Hell to save us, you included Kais in the equation,” I said, smirking as Deyva stiffened, her step scuffing against gravel.
“I...Kais is...um.” She frowned and paused in place, looking at me, at the blurry shape of the windmill, at the obscured world around us. “I forgot to tell you that I kissed him.”
Oh. “Oh!”
“Shit. Stavros, I’m sorry—”
“No, no, babe. It’s okay, honestly. I’m not mad, I’m just surprised.”
“I should’ve said something.”
I grinned at her. “I mean I’m surprised that all you two did was kiss.”
Deyva gaped at me for a moment and then jumped up, smacking my lips with a hard and hungry kiss before drawing back again. “Are you fucking serious? Aren’t you humans all into possessiveness and jealousy?”
“I mean you have two priest boyfriends now, why not go for the hat-trick?” I teased. She snorted and I sobered. “Was this before or after Zach?”
“Before. Shortly before.”
I nodded. “Okay, look, I’m good with whatever makes you happy, you know? But we’ll have to talk to him since you made us an official thing.”
Deyva squirmed happily and then whipped around, glaring into the smog.
“You hear something?”