19. Malachi
Chapter 19
Malachi
Malachi’s world went black the moment Luke fell. Some kind of sound tore from his throat, and then he was moving. Bone snapped under his hands, and he heard a scream that didn’t belong to him or Luke. Fear and panic and rage roared through his veins. A blade hit the ground at his feet with a clang against the concrete. He picked the human up by the throat and threw him, and he collided with another. A handful of paladins were crowding the door in the alley.
Oh, he wasn’t alone. Good. Malachi wasn’t done with them.
He picked up the sword and swung.
Blood splattered around the alley. Normally, he couldn’t have imagined taking on five paladins by himself, but all he could think about was Luke lying in a puddle of his own blood in the stairwell behind him. He had to end the threat, had to stop them before they hurt him again. He couldn’t afford to fall, or Luke would die.
So he fought. And they bled.
It probably only took moments, but it seemed like hours before he was finally turning away from the viscera and dropping the sword to fall to his knees beside Luke, his hands slick with the enemy’s blood and trembling as he reached for the only thing in the world that mattered to him.
“Luke, baby, hold on,” he whimpered, pulling his phone out and calling the one number he thought might be able to help.
“ What ?” Talon asked waspishly.
“Please, please, bring Hawk here—to my apartment. Luke’s been attacked. I don’t know how to help him.” He leaned over Luke, cradling his head and shaking slightly, trying to get him to open his eyes. His eyelids fluttered, his whiskey-brown eyes rolling. “Luke. Luke, focus on me. Look at me.”
“ Oh my God ,” Alex said. “ Attacked how? If he’s bleeding, put pressure on the wound to stifle it. We’re coming. Get up, get up , Tal .”
“He is, he’s bleeding bad. They stabbed him.” He pressed his palm to the wound, and Luke hissed, his eyes opening as his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Talon and Alex appeared by his side. Alex dropped to his knees on Luke’s other side immediately, while Talon surveyed the area.
“Goddamn, Malachi, did you do this yourself? Impressive work,” Talon said, studying the bodies in the alley.
“They hurt him,” Malachi said absently. The bodies were the least of his concern. “How do I help him?” he asked Alex.
“Uh, I… I don’t know. It went all the way through, didn’t it?” Alex shifted Luke, slipping a hand under him to feel for the wound on his back.
“Yeah, it did. They stabbed him in the back,” Malachi growled .
“Give him your blood,” Talon said, like it should be obvious.
Malachi blinked up at him, uncomprehending. “What?”
“Your blood,” he repeated slowly.
He shook his head. “How would that help?”
Talon tilted his head curiously. “You don’t know?”
“Know what ?” The longer this conversation went on, the faster Luke faded. They didn’t have time for this.
Talon rolled his eyes. “Little bird, cut his wrist open with your ring so his human doesn’t bleed out. We can explain the details after he’s healed.”
Alex grabbed Malachi’s hand and positioned his wrist above Luke’s head. Luke’s eyelids were heavy, his gaze unfocused. His face was paler than Malachi had ever seen it, and he doubted he was actually registering anything that was happening around him. He wouldn’t last much longer.
With a twitch of his fingers, a small blade extended from Alex’s ring. Before Malachi had even gotten a good look at it, it sliced into his wrist. The pain was an afterthought as his black blood pooled and dripped into Luke’s parted lips.
“Drink, Luke. It’ll help,” Alex said.
Luke’s throat worked, and Alex pressed Malachi’s wrist to his mouth. After a moment, his lips pursed around the wound, and he sucked. While Malachi coaxed Luke to stay awake and drink, Alex peeled his sticky shirt up to look at the wound. The more of Malachi’s black blood he drank, the smaller the wound got.
“It’s healing,” Malachi said dumbly.
“Yes, that’s why I told you to give it to him,” Talon said dismissively. He was holding his phone to his ear.
“Who are you calling?” Alex asked.
“Wolf and—Storm, hey, it’s Talon. We’ve got a situation at Malachi’s. Send some cleaners out here ASAP for some bodies. I’ll keep an eye on the alley until they get here and make sure we aren’t stumbled upon. Thanks.”
When the wound was sealed, Alex gestured for Malachi to move his wrist away. Luke’s eyes fluttered closed, his mouth streaked with black. Malachi thumbed it away, fighting back tears. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried, but he’d do a lot worse if Luke left him alone.
“In my experience, it heals outward, so if it looks good on the outside, that means it’s already healed internally,” Alex said. “Morgan?”
No response. Malachi leaned over him, gently cradling his face. “Luke? Baby, can you hear me?”
He was breathing, and his pulse was steady.
“He lost a lot of blood,” Alex explained calmly. “That can make us weak, make us pass out. But your blood worked. The wound is healed, so he might just need some time to recover from the blood loss. You should take him upstairs. Talon and I will make sure the bodies are taken care of.”
“We’ll keep the swords,” Talon said, hovering in the doorway to keep an eye on both them and the alley. “And do… something with the rings.”
“Cut the rings off with the fingers,” Malachi said darkly. “I want to return them to the guild.”
He would never forget the image of Luke lying on the concrete, covered in his own blood, and he swore the guild would rue this day. One day he would look Sloan in the eye, remind him of the moment he gave the order for his people to hurt Luke, and then he would take his revenge.
“I’ll take him upstairs,” he said. He was lucky to be a demon, otherwise Luke might’ve been heavy. Before he left, he turned to address Talon with Luke cradled in the safety of his arms. “I mean it. I want the rings.”
“Talon’ll get them,” Alex promised.
“I’ll what?” Talon asked.
Alex gave him a nudge, and Talon sighed.
“I’ll make sure you get them,” Talon agreed, regarding him coolly. “I’d deliver their heads, personally.”
“Aw, you say the sweetest things,” Alex remarked dryly. “Wait, who were they?” He clambered up and passed Talon to go out into the alley. “Shit, I’d heard this guy was a really tough fighter. And this one cut me off in the cafeteria line once.”
“So good riddance then?” Talon asked lightly.
“I don’t know that that’s a death penalty offense by itself,” Alex said, “but he did go on to try and kill Morgan—so yeah.”
Malachi left them to their chatting. Talon’s loyal halflings would take care of the bodies and the blood while Malachi tended to Luke. His stomach twisted with fear at the thought of him not waking up, but Alex didn’t seem worried. The wound had healed, after all.
Inside his apartment, he kicked the door shut and carried Luke over to the sofa, laying him down gently. He was completely heedless of the blood soaked into both their clothes. He’d throw out the sofa. Burn it. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Luke.
“Luke, baby, I’m here. You’re safe. Please wake up.” He combed his fingers through Luke’s hair, his other thumb pressing against the pulse point on Luke’s wrist to reassure himself of his steadily beating heart.
He had no idea how much time passed like that. He’d seen many things in his long life, witnessed horrors and wonders alike. He’d thought he was desensitized to the kind of fear that had gripped him when he saw Luke go down. It was a human emotion. How strange that he should feel human again after coming so close to losing the person who’d revived his humanity in the first place.
When a knock sounded on the door, he shouted for them to enter without taking his eyes off Luke’s slack face. Talon strolled in with a small, tied garbage bag. Alex followed on his heels, holding a rolled-up cloth under his arm that appeared to be five sheathed swords bundled together. He closed and locked the door behind them.
“Fingers and rings, as promised,” Talon said, shaking the bag, which jangled slightly.
“Good. Set it on the island. I’ll deliver it later.”
“I can help you deliver it now,” Talon offered. “You know you won’t want to leave when he wakes up. I could have you over there and back in less than five minutes. Alex has told me right where it is. He can stay with Luke for a few minutes while we toss this over their precious wall.”
Malachi shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t want to leave Luke at all . What if he woke up while Malachi was gone?
“He’ll be okay,” Alex promised. “I’ll watch him and call if there’s any change. But Talon’s right, it’s better to do it now than wait and let him see the… aftermath.” He scrunched his nose at the bag in Talon’s hand. “He’ll be shocked enough when he realizes they tried to kill him. It probably wouldn’t be wise to let him see the severed fingers of men he used to know in your kitchen.”
Malachi sighed. He was right. Luke probably wouldn’t like this part, and having to explain it all and then leave to deliver the rings back to the guild would be worse than doing it while he was still unconscious. There was no way he’d be able to pry himself from Luke’s side after he woke and started asking questions.
Gently, he lifted Luke’s left hand and removed his guild ring. They’d sent a message by coming for Luke, and now it was his turn.
“Sorry, treasure,” he murmured. “It’s better this way. I’ll make it up to you.” He pressed a kiss to Luke’s forehead and stood. “ Any change,” he said to Alex. It almost physically pained him to drag himself away from Luke right now, but he’d do it if it meant dealing with this quickly.
Alex nodded dutifully, taking his phone from his pocket. “Any at all, Talon’s on my speed dial.”
“It’ll take thirty seconds to throw this over their gate,” Talon said impatiently, brandishing the bag.
“Would you want to leave Hawk if he’d just been stabbed?”
Talon’s jaw pulsed, a sinister darkness taking root in his midnight eyes.
“I thought not.” Malachi gestured to the bag. “Open it.”
He dropped Luke’s ring inside it. He hoped the paladins weren’t stupid enough to misunderstand the message they were sending. Five fingers, six rings. Their men were dead, but Luke wasn’t. And Luke was beyond their reach now.
Talon held out his hand, smirking. Right, leviathans had to have physical contact to do their teleporting thing. Malachi slapped his hand into Talon’s, and the world around them shifted. It was like riding a rollercoaster in the dark. There were flashes of color in the darkness, and when it all came to a whirling stop, they were standing on the side of a deserted road. Just outside of Angeles National Forest, the road was nothing but rolling hills, short shrubbery dotted with trees—and a tall brick wall. Invisible blessings and inscriptions protected the brick. Malachi doubted they could even touch it without burning themselves.
“Welcome to the Paladin Guild,” Talon said, gesturing grandly at the wall. “The gate’s this way. I landed us outside camera range.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen the place. Never this close, but I followed Luke here many times,” Malachi said, falling into step with him. “This wall is a little overkill, isn’t it?”
“You’d think, but you know how much they enjoy entertaining their paranoia.”
The wrought-iron gate was impressive. Malachi doubted it would feel very pleasant if he touched it, so he sidled up to it without getting too close. A camera perched at the edge of the wall, above the hinges. He gave it the finger.
Beyond the gate, the long driveway circled in front of a big, brick building. There were several sprawling buildings, in fact, and a white steeple visible further beyond them. Distantly, the clack of wood echoed through the air, interspersed with human conversation and the chatter of children, too far away for him to distinguish actual words.
“It’s like a commune,” Malachi said.
“Mm-hm. The perfect place to bring in abused, na?ve children and indoctrinate them into hating whatever they want.” He waved a dismissive hand toward the gate. “Throw it over, let’s get out of here. We both have people waiting for us.”
Right. Malachi inched closer to the gate, mindful of the way the camera turned to follow him. Did it have a motion sensor, or was someone watching him? It was midmorning. He had to assume someone knew they were there. They were two demons hovering right outside the main entrance. Malachi was covered in blood. They must’ve been an alarming sight.
Good. He hoped they were horrified to realize the demons knew exactly where to find them. He also hoped that, once they opened the bag and consulted the footage, they realized he was covered in the blood of the paladins who had tried to kill Luke. He wanted them all to know exactly how and why they’d died. They’d dared to come after what was his, and that was their undoing.
He tossed the bag through the iron bars, looked up at the camera and gestured at it as though to say ‘ here you go .’ And then he reached for Talon’s hand, and they were gone.