17. Malachi
Chapter 17
Malachi
Malachi was dreaming about bending Luke over the balcony railing of his apartment, pounding into his tight body, when his phone rang. He groaned, flopping over and picking it up off the cordless charger.
“Somebody better be dying,” he croaked. “I was having a very good dream.”
“ Well, the day is young ,” Talon quipped smoothly.
Malachi sat up, staring in confusion at the glass wall of the balcony. “Why are you calling me? You never call me. I didn’t even know you had my number.”
“ I got it from Wolf. We’re having a meeting at the club. You should be here. ”
“A meeting. At the club. At…” He glanced over at the LED clock on his bedside table. “Twelve-thirty in the afternoon?” He’d rather chew glass than go anywhere but to Luke’s place this early in the day.
“ Yes. Trust me, you want to be here. ”
Malachi sighed heavily.
“ It’s about the paladins. ”
He straightened, the last vestiges of sleep fading away. The paladins? Had something happened? Luke had gone there today. Was he okay?
At his silence, Talon huffed out a laugh. “ Like I said. You want to be here. ”
“I’m on my way.”
An unfamiliar knot settled in his gut as he dressed and drove across town to In Extremis. He’d never been there during the day. The noonday sun was painfully bright, and even his dark sunglasses weren’t enough to shield his eyes completely. He ducked his head, darting across the street to the quiet warehouse. The place was eerie like this. No Storm guarding the door. No bass thumping from the sound system within.
He opened the heavy metal door, and cool air hit him. He breathed a sigh of relief in the darkness, pushing his sunglasses onto the top of his head as he descended the stairs. All the chairs were upside down on the glossy black tables. The wooden dance floor gleamed. For the first time ever, the floor wasn’t sticky, and the air smelled like lemon-scented cleaner rather than blood and smoke. It was like a brand new place.
Everyone was waiting around the bar, which for once wasn’t brightly lit. Wolf was standing behind it like always—Malachi wasn’t entirely sure he ever went anywhere else. Storm was also there, sitting on a stool with a glass in hand. Talon stood at the end, leaning his elbows on the bar, with Alex on the stool beside him.
“All right, what’s going on? Why are we here?”
“Did you notice anything interesting on your way inside?” Talon asked, gesturing for him to take a seat.
He sat beside Alex, and Wolf wordlessly poured him a drink. “What? No. Should I have? It’s so bright outside I could barely see the ground .”
Talon bobbed his head in understanding.
“We’re being watched,” Alex said miserably, knocking back his drink, which smelled strongly of oranges.
“What are you drinking ?” Malachi asked. “Is that schnapps?”
“Mm-hm. Orange blossom,” Alex replied.
“He likes it,” Talon said. “And yes, we’re being watched.”
Malachi shook his head, uncomprehending. “Watched? By who? Why?”
Talon looked dryly at Wolf. “Maybe you should make this one some coffee. He’s a little slow on the uptake right now.”
“Hey, asshole, you woke me up in the middle of the day,” Malachi snapped.
“Demons are worse at these meetings than the paladins,” Alex remarked, sliding his glass over and beaming when Wolf refilled it with a patient smile.
Malachi growled, sliding his fingers into his hair and tugging. They were being watched. By paladins, he guessed. “So, what, they think they can keep tabs on us and we’ll eventually reveal our secret master plan to seduce their people away from the guild?”
“Something to that effect, I think,” Talon said. “Either way, they’re watching us. They can’t follow me to and from the club, because I have the ability to teleport. You halflings don’t have that advantage. They probably know where you all live, other places you frequent. We did drive here the other night to meet with you, because I… promised Alex he could drive my car.” He shot Alex a withering look, though it was tempered by fondness. There was likely a story there, bu t Malachi didn’t dare to ask. “There’s been a black SUV outside our building ever since.”
“I’ve seen one outside the club for a while now. Close to a month,” Wolf said, wiping the pristine bar with a rag. There were no spots on the bar. Malachi thought it might’ve been a nervous tic. “Or that’s when I noticed it, at least. It’s not unusual to see them occasionally, so I didn’t think anything of it at first. They like to keep tabs on the place, make sure we aren’t getting too comfortable. It was just a few days ago that it finally hit me how regularly I’d been seeing them.”
“They can’t really be stupid enough to believe our master plan is seducing them , can they?” Malachi asked. “I mean, they don’t even know about Luke and me. As far as they know, Hawk’s the only one who got the hots for a demon and stopped toeing the party line.”
“Hey,” Alex protested. “Don’t dumb it down like that.”
“Dumbing things down is what he’s good at,” Talon drawled.
“Oh, bite me, leviathan.”
“Not on your life, halfling.”
“Would you two shut up?” Alex groaned. He turned toward Malachi. “Listen, you two warned us about the guild. We’re just returning the favor. They’re obviously keeping tabs on Talon and anyone he’s associated with. That puts you and Paladin Morgan in danger. If you’re spotted together, everything goes up in smoke for you two. For him, especially. And I don’t know him well, but I know he’s been at that guild since he was in diapers. It’s all he’s ever known. Losing it…” His gaze went a little distant. “It was worth it to me in the long run. Will it be worth it to him?”
Malachi’s drink tasted like ash. He pushed it away with a sigh. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “As long as he wants to juggle both, I’ll make it happen. We’ll be discreet.” They’d been spotted together once already. They both knew what was at stake if they were seen together a second time. He sighed again, put-upon. “And thank you for the warning.”
Alex gave him a smile that made him feel like a puppy who’d successfully performed a new trick. “You’re welcome.”
“What about Lilith? Does she know paladins are staking out her bar?” he asked wearily. Lilith was the authority in the area, for better or worse, though Malachi did his best to avoid having to deal with her.
There was a collective sigh that had Alex glancing around at them all in confusion.
“No,” Wolf said. “She doesn’t know. If she knew, she’d be pissed at Talon and Alex. The last thing they need is for her to get the demons worked up about them on top of the humans.”
Malachi hummed. “Have you thought about just leaving town?” he asked Talon.
Alex and Talon both scowled. “This is my town,” Talon said. “I was here centuries before Lilith was spat out of Hell. Over my dead body does she get to take LA without a fight.”
“You two and your petty squabbles,” Malachi murmured.
Talon opened his mouth, no doubt to say something scathing, but Storm interrupted him, his voice a deep rumble.
“Hey, when the shit finally hits the fan, who would you rather have at your back? That red-eyed snake or a leviathan like Talon?”
“When the shit hits the fan, I plan to be elsewhere,” Malachi said. “Maybe on a beach somewhere. I’d like to see Luke stuffed into a speedo. Can you imagine?” He sighed dreamily, imagining a wet Luke on the beach in a skin-tight black speedo, all his sun-browned muscles on display, water sluicing down his body, plastering his body hair to his skin.
Alex snorted. “I hate to break it to you, but you’ve all but sworn yourself to a do-gooder. If there’s trouble afoot, Luke’s going to be there. He feels obligated to protect the innocent. That won’t change even if he is banished.”
Dammit, that was probably true. Why else did somebody like Luke, who didn’t like the fighting itself, continue to fight? Because he felt called to.
He groaned, long and loud, and downed his drink in one swallow. “All right, fine. What do we do about our holy shadows?” He flicked a hand at the door.
“Nothing for now,” Talon said. “Let them think we’re none the wiser. I just wanted you all to be aware. You’ve got your human to worry about,” he said to Malachi, “and you two are here alone the most.” He smirked. “And you’re also not loyal to Lilith.”
Storm rumbled out a laugh, hiding it behind his glass.
“You know what I don’t understand?” Wolf said.
“Probably a lot,” Storm teased, and Talon and Malachi snorted into their drinks.
Wolf glared. “Okay, assholes.”
“What don’t you understand, Wolf?” Alex asked patiently.
“They’ve been watching us for the last month. What for? You’ve been with Talon longer than that. They didn’t start watching us then, though. There has to be another reason it started just recently.”
Talon hummed, and Malachi tipped his head back, thinking. He’d been following Luke longer than that. Hell, he’d been with Luke longer than that. That night at the diner was about a month ago, and Luke had gotten spooked right after that because someone reported seeing them together.
A jolt went through Malachi. “Oh fuck me.”
Everyone turned to look at him.
Had someone been following him all this time? Did they know ?
“Tell us,” Talon said.
Malachi licked his dry lips. “About a month ago, Luke wanted to end things. He got spooked at HQ because someone had reported seeing us together. He lied to Sloan about why I’d approached him that night, and Sloan seemed to accept it.” But what if he hadn’t? What if he’d pretended to, and secretly sent paladins to watch Luke instead? “Why wouldn’t they have confronted him if they suspected he was seeing a demon?”
Talon braced his hands on the bar. “Maybe they wanted to catch him in the act. Have you been out in public together since then?”
“No, no. I followed him on a patrol one night, but he hunts alone. No one saw us.”
“Are you sure ?”
He didn’t know . Fuck, what if he’d insisted on following Luke and he was the reason Luke got hurt? He fumbled his phone from his pocket and sent a text.
Everything ok? Call me when you can. Something’s come up.
When he raised his head, Alex’s mouth was pursed sympathetically.
“What are you doing? Stop looking at me like that.”
“You can’t be caught going to his apartment,” Alex said. “And he can’t be seen going into yours. ”
“What the fuck do we do then?” he asked hotly. “I’m not just going to stop seeing him.”
“Be discreet,” Talon said. “Like you said. Park around the block, wait until they’re distracted.”
“Kill them?” Malachi asked hopefully.
Talon rolled his eyes. “That’s not pretending we don’t know they’re there.”
“And would Luke approve of killing his shield-brothers?” Alex asked.
Malachi growled.
His phone chimed.
I’m fine. Headed home. What’s wrong?
Don’t go home. Go to mine. Park around the block. Don’t let anyone see you go in.
That would work for now—he hoped. If the paladins were following Malachi, Luke could get up to his apartment unseen while Malachi had them distracted here.
What’s happening?
Malachi sighed.
I’ll explain when I get there. Be safe.
This would force Luke’s hand. He would have to choose between staying with Malachi and continuing his work for the guild. They wouldn’t let him have both, and though he would sneak around as long as Luke wanted, it wasn’t a sustainable plan. Something would have to give.
He slid his glass over. “Pour me another, Wolf. I’ve got some time to kill while I keep my new shadows distracted long enough for him to get to my place.” Hopefully no one was following Luke. He wasn’t used to hoping. It didn’t feel like enough.
When Malachi got home, he found Luke sitting in the hall outside his door, playing a game on his cell phone. He spotted Malachi before he reached him and stood.
Malachi handed him a key—he’d stopped at a hardware store and had a spare made for his apartment. He gestured wordlessly, and Luke fitted it into the doorknob, his eyes softening when the door opened. Malachi ushered him inside.
“That one’s yours,” Malachi said, closing the door behind them and locking it.
Luke turned toward him at once. “Mal, what’s happening?” he entreated.
Malachi’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, and the words wouldn’t come. Their little bubble of happiness had finally burst, and reality was colder and crueler than ever. What if Luke broke things off? What if Malachi was forced to go back to watching him from afar, because Luke wanted to stay with the guild? Why would he choose Malachi over his life’s work? Alex said he felt called to do the right thing, and wasn’t the right thing protecting the innocent? Luke was too good to choose Malachi. He would have to say goodbye, and the idea of going back to a Luke-less existence hurt worse than the pain of Hell.
“Mal? You look weird. What’s going on? Tell me.”
Malachi kissed him, deep and slow, savoring his taste and heat. He fully intended to press for more, to strip him down right there by the door, but Luke gently pushed him against the wall.
“Tell me,” he said again, soft but insistent.
He blew out a breath. “Okay, okay.” He licked his lips, stalling, if only for a moment. “The paladins have been watching some of the halflings. Including me.”
Luke’s face went blank.
“I don’t know how long they’ve been following us, but that’s probably how they saw us at the diner. Wolf said they’ve been outside the club for a month. If they’ve been following me for that long?—”
“They would know about us,” Luke finished.
Malachi nodded fretfully.
Luke didn’t speak for a moment. His hand slid down Malachi’s arm, curling around his and leading him to the living room. He sat down hard on the sofa, and Malachi followed gingerly.
“They don’t know about us,” Luke said decisively. “They can’t. There’s no way they would still be letting me walk around if they knew. They already questioned me just for being seen at the diner with you. If they knew I’d been voluntarily spending time with you, they’d have had me excommunicated already.” He frowned. “I don’t know why Sloan wouldn’t have told me he was having some of the halflings watched. I haven’t heard anything about this, and that doesn’t spell anything good. Who has he tasked with this, and why isn’t anyone talking about it?”
The knot in Malachi’s stomach didn’t relent. Maybe Luke was right, and they’d managed to avoid detection. Or maybe they’d been letting him walk around freely on purpose for some reason. Gathering intel by tracking his movements or waiting for the right time to strike. He couldn’t tell if he was being paranoid or not. All he knew was that he couldn’t risk Luke getting hurt for him.
“Maybe you’re right,” he offered tentatively. “It does change some things, though.”
Luke’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, it does.”
Malachi fidgeted, pressing closer and laying a hand on Luke’s thigh. “We can do whatever you want, okay? If you want to be extra discreet, we can. If you think we should…” Stay apart for a while , he tried to say, but the words dried up in his throat. He didn’t want to be apart, not even temporarily. The thought of going any amount of time without seeing Luke, without touching him, caused him physical pain.
Luke studied him softly. “If I think we should… what?”
Malachi’s hand tightened into a fist. “If you think… we should…” He stopped again, ducking his head. “I don’t want to.” It sounded petulant even to his own ears.
“You don’t want to what , baby?” Fingers carded into his hair, and Malachi’s stomach fluttered. Luke had never called him that before.
“I don’t want to be apart from you,” he said, raising his head to meet Luke’s eyes. “I don’t want to separate, not even temporarily. You’re mine and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you away from me.”
He took a breath to say more, but Luke cut him off with a kiss. “I didn’t say anything about splitting up. Have you been expecting me to say that? Is that why you didn’t want to tell me?”
Malachi leaned in, letting his sturdy human take his weight and tucking his nose in the curve of Luke’s neck. “Yes. Hawk says you feel obligated to protect the innocent. He says you care about what you do. And he’s right. Any idiot can see why you do what you do, why you continue to make yourself fight when you don’t want to fight at all.”
Luke leaned back with a sigh, reeling Malachi in after him. Their usual positions were reversed, with Malachi cradled by Luke this time. He turned sideways, slipping one arm behind Luke’s back and snuggling against his chest.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Luke admitted. “I’ve been thinking about… giving them my resignation.”
Malachi tipped his head back to look up at him. “You can do that? You would do that?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Most people keep fighting until they can’t, but we’ve had some who were too injured to keep going. They have jobs in HQ doing other stuff now. We’ve never had anyone who left, but as far as I know, there’s nothing stopping me from turning in my ring and voluntarily leaving. I’m considering it. You’re right, I don’t like fighting. I do feel obligated, because fighting is my only skill-set. But the guild’s doctor pushed me toward early retirement after the attack.” He stroked the scars on his jaw, and Malachi leaned up to kiss them. “I wasn’t ready then, because I had nothing else. But now I have you. So maybe now I’m finally ready for something more than killing. And I don’t want to be an administrator. If I’m going to stop fighting, I want to leave the guild for good so we can be together.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to regret this later.”
“I don’t think I will,” he said with certainty. “I mean… you know this means you can’t ever leave me, right? If I leave the guild for you, you’re pretty much obligated to stay with me forever.” His smile was teasing, but his whiskey brown eyes were vulnerable .
Malachi snorted. “Oh, how terrible, an excuse to never leave your side.”
Luke chuckled.
“I told you, treasure, you’re mine. Something in me recognized something in you, and now you’re never getting rid of me. Even if you chose the guild, I’d still be there, watching you from afar. Watching over you.” It would be miserable and lonely, but far less miserable and lonely than he’d be if he stopped seeing Luke entirely.
“God,” Luke breathed, his arms tightening around Malachi. “I’d never do that to you.”
Malachi kissed his chest. “I’m glad.” He didn’t ever want to be without Luke.