Chapter 18 #2
“Sin eaters are…” Shadrach stopped, trailing off as he looked at Ashmedai, seemingly searching for the right words.
“Dangerous,” Talon said coolly.
Nicolas’s head tilted slightly, careful not to dislodge Ashmedai’s tickling claws. “Aren’t you all?”
“Not like sin eaters.”
Nicolas tipped his head back, looking at Ashmedai upside-down. “What does he mean?”
Ashmedai inhaled slowly, considering his words.
“Sin eaters only want to eat. We hunt the damned, devour their souls. Like animals hunting prey. Eat, rest, hunt. We are like the beasts, in a way, the monsters from the Pit that you hunt. Before you, I was like them. Barely spoke, barely knew human language.”
“You’re a quick study, then.”
“I want to be able to converse with you.” He ducked his head. “When we first met, that moment we shared, I was driven by… instincts I didn’t understand. Had never felt before. I just knew I needed you. As much as I’ve ever needed sins.”
Nicolas’s face colored again, but the soft fondness in his eyes didn’t fade. “I felt it, too,” he said. “A part of me knew I should run, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I just didn’t understand why.”
“I would have chased you.”
Nicolas chuckled. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten far, then.”
The idea took root. Nicolas, panting and gleaming with adrenaline sweat, racing through the empty hallways of the factory with Ashmedai on his heels.
And when he captured him, Nicolas’s body would be hot with exertion, squirming in his arms, first to get away and then to get closer as he realized the inevitability of their union.
Clothes ripping, hands grabbing, claws and teeth marking as he sank inside and claimed his human in the most primal of ways.
He wanted him now. Wanted him always.
If their connection was truly as strong as they thought, he should allow Nicolas to see him.
All of him. The strangeness of his appearance shouldn’t matter.
Nicolas wanted him the moment he’d laid eyes on him, and seeing him bare should only strengthen their bond.
If he trusted any human to accept his otherworldly appearance, it was Nicolas.
Once he’d made the choice, he wanted to take Nicolas home and show him right away, but Nicolas was still drinking with the others. He’d tortured himself with his isolation for long enough, so Ashmedai forced himself to wait.
He didn’t have to wait long, all things considered.
Three drinks in, Nicolas was sagging, a contented smile on his face and his eyes glassy.
The light of dawn glowed through the tinted glass of the front door when the first human, Alex, called it quits for the day, leaning heavily on Talon as he teleported away with him.
Only then did Ashmedai lean over, fairly vibrating with tension, to murmur in Nicolas’s ear, “Let me take you home.”
Nicolas turned his head, his eyes heavy-lidded. “Okay.”
Daniel stood when Nicolas did, pulling his big brother into a hug. “Come by tomorrow night, okay? I’m sick of not being allowed to see you.”
Nicolas curled into the hug, nodding his head on Daniel’s shoulder. Their curls seemed to merge together. “Yeah. Me too.”
“You’re only a martyr if you make yourself one.”
They clung to each other like neither cared to separate any time soon.
“I don’t want to be a martyr,” Nicolas said, his voice muffled against Daniel’s shoulder.
“Do as Talon says, please. Stay off the streets for a while. No more patrolling until this is over. I don’t want to have to do that again. ”
“If you punch me again, I’m punching back.” The way he stroked Nicolas’s back belied his words.
Nicolas pulled away with a sigh, casting Daniel a rueful smile. “Fair enough.”
When Nicolas returned to his side, Ashmedai folded an arm around him and led him to the dark storage closet, ushering him in and closing the door behind them to shut out the light.
“At one time, being led into the dark by a demon would’ve been scary,” Nicolas said, sighing when Ashmedai folded around his back.
“Yes, very scary,” he agreed, nuzzling Nicolas’s neck. “Hold tight.”
Nicolas’s hands gripped his forearms tightly as the floor slipped away from them. The yawning chasm of darkness extended around them as Ashmedai pushed through the veil between worlds, using it to move from one physical location to the next. They came to a stop in Nicolas’s living room.
“Why can you only do that in the dark?” Nicolas asked. “I saw Talon teleport with Alex out of the brightly lit room earlier. He doesn’t have to abide by the same rules?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Nicolas took his hand, leading him into the bedroom and unceremoniously stripping his shirt off.
“He is a leviathan. I am a sin eater. I was born in a deeper circle of Hell.”
“So it’s like… you’re a different species of demon, so the rules are different for you.”
“Yes.”
“Well, that makes sense, I guess.” Nicolas shucked his trousers without an ounce of modesty, leaving him in a skimpy pair of black undershorts that left little to the imagination—not that Ashmedai needed his imagination.
He knew every inch of Nicolas’s mouthwatering body.
The divots of his hips. The wiry hairs that dusted his legs, his chest and stomach, and the thicker tuft between his legs. The silken taste of his length.
“Nic-las.”
His human stopped with one hand peeling the blankets back. “Yeah?”
Ashmedai hesitated, all his fears about revealing himself rushing to the surface and clamoring for attention.
Once he did this, there was no going back.
He could never undo this moment. When Nicolas saw him, it was permanent.
He just had to hope that their bond was strong enough, and that Nicolas meant it when he said he loved him.
Ashmedai couldn’t hide forever, and he didn’t want to.
He was too afraid of removing the hood first, so he reached for the buttons of his shirt instead. Nicolas’s lips parted, and he abandoned the blanket in favor of turning fully to face him.
“I want you to see me,” Ashmedai rasped.