Indecent (Dark Delights #8)

Daniel

He couldn’t remember how he got here. That was troublesome.

Patting his pockets turned up no phone or keys or even his wallet.

He didn’t remember dressing in these clothes, but he did recall that he owned them.

Jeans, brown leather work boots, and a simple blue T-shirt.

He felt neither cold nor hot. There was no wind.

No sounds. No signs of life at all. He’d never realized how loud Los Angeles was.

Cars, people, machinery, birds, wind. The complete absence of it all sent a chill slithering down his spine.

He wasn’t supposed to be here. He’d been doing something important—but what? Why couldn’t he remember?

“Hello?” he called, turning in a slow circle. “Is anyone out there?”

His voice didn’t echo, like the blanket of fog around him dampened the sound.

Unease prickled across the back of his neck. This was a bad place. He needed to leave. But which direction? Whatever he picked could be wrong, and he could wind up walking even further away from civilization and help.

Somewhere, deep in his gut, he knew it didn’t matter. There was no civilization here.

But that made no sense.

Daniel lurched into motion, picking a direction at random. Anything was better than here. While he walked, he talked to himself. It was better than listening to his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

“I’m Daniel Garcia. I’m a paladin—or, I was a paladin.

” Paladins were holy warriors who fought demons.

At one time, he’d loved the job. But recently, the commander had turned on his people, creating a cult of followers who punished anyone who stepped out of line.

He’d been unhappy there for a long time, and he’d finally walked away, because…

his brother, Nicolas, had asked him to. But Nicolas hadn’t gone with him. Why not?

What happened to him? How did he get here? Why couldn’t he remember?

He absentmindedly looked down at his left hand, where he’d once worn the guild’s signet ring—a pearl cross inlaid on a bed of ruby—and stumbled to a stop when he found the ring sitting snugly on his finger like he’d never removed it.

What the hell? He could’ve sworn he’d abandoned it ages ago. He remembered leaving it behind in his apartment. That was weeks ago… wasn’t it? How was he wearing it again? Was it connected to whatever was going on?

The guild had turned on him. Imprisoned him, whipped him, shunned him. He didn’t want their symbol on his finger.

He tugged the ring off and threw it into the gray fog as hard as he could. Scowling, he marched in the opposite direction.

“My name is Daniel Garcia,” he went on. “I used to be a paladin, before they decided following the rules was more important than doing the right thing. My brother is Nicolas Garcia. My best friend is Julian Heroux. I joined the Sentinels, who are ten times better than the paladins ever were. They don’t judge.

They don’t hate. They just try to make the world safer for everyone. ”

It still felt like the weight of the ring was on his finger.

He moved to rub it—and stopped. When he looked down, it was back.

Silver band, ruby stone, pearl cross. Just as it always was.

He’d gotten so used to seeing it on his finger that not wearing it had felt strange for a while.

But now it felt like an intruder, forcing itself upon him.

“What the fuck?” he breathed, jerking it off and throwing it away again, harder this time. “I don’t want you!”

What kind of trick was this place? Was he dreaming?

He took a sharp breath and screamed into the abyss, “What the fuck is going on? Where am I? Somebody answer me!”

No one answered.

Pushing his fingers into his short curls, he struggled to remember how he’d gotten here.

It was like wading through molasses in his own mind.

He remembered leaving the guild. Nicolas had asked him to, because…

because he was trying to find someone they’d hidden away.

Kids. Two kids who were important to the Sentinels.

In order to find them, Nicolas had planned to get closer to Sloan and his people, and he didn’t want Daniel getting caught in the crossfire.

So Daniel had left the guild. Left everything, even his apartment, because the guild had his address on record.

He’d gone to the Sentinels’ base, an old, converted skating rink.

He’d slept on one of their medical cots there until Ashmedai, a sin eater demon, had offered to share an apartment with him.

Ashmedai and Nicolas fell in love—or whatever demons called love.

Daniel wasn’t too clear on the details, but it certainly looked like love to him.

Sharing an apartment with Ashmedai hadn’t felt much like sharing at all.

Ashmedai rarely used it, since he didn’t do things like eat or sleep.

He stored some clothing there and occasionally showed up to bide his time while he waited for Nicolas to get home.

But eighty percent of the time, Daniel had the place to himself.

And then… what? Did they find the kids? The Sentinels would have wanted to be there when they were freed. Did he go with them? Did he—

“Sweetheart.”

Daniel whipped around. The woman standing in the fog looked so viscerally real that it stole Daniel’s breath. She looked just like he remembered. Just like the pictures that were all he had now.

“Mom?”

Her long curls were dusted with strands of gray, and her kind brown eyes, so much like Nicolas’s, met his with a smile.

“Hola, mijo,” she said warmly. She was the only one who’d ever spoken Spanish to him and Nicolas. Dad had insisted on English only, since that was all that was taught at the guild. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Where is ‘here’? I don’t understand what’s happening.” He stepped closer but stopped when she gestured to his right. When he turned his head, a light in the distance appeared, golden and beaming. He couldn’t make out what it was through the fog. A town? Headlights?

“All things come to an end,” Mom said kindly. “Yours has come now.”

Fear sang through him. “My… My end? I’m dead?”

Her face softened with sympathy. “I’m sorry, mijo.”

Daniel turned to stare at the golden light. That was Heaven? What would happen if he went over there? Would he disappear? Find peace? How could he do that when he didn’t remember what happened on Earth? Nicolas still needed him.

“What about… What about Nic? And the Alvarez kids? The Sentinels? We’re going to war. I can’t just be dead. I’m not done! I’m supposed to help them.”

“You cannot stay here,” she said. “This place isn’t for you.”

He looked around again at the blank, gray world around them. Any idiot knew what he was supposed to do next. “I’m supposed to go to the light.”

She smiled. “Yes.”

His eyes burned. He didn’t want this. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He’d left Nicolas alone. He’d left their fight unfinished. His breath rushed in and out, hard and too fast.

“I can’t,” he panted. “I can’t go yet. I’m not ready. I wasn’t done.”

“All things happen when they’re supposed to,” Mom said calmly. She made no move to come closer or comfort him, and he hadn’t longed for his mother’s hug so much since he was seven.

He hugged his elbows tightly and shook his head. “No, no, no. I can’t, Mom. I left him all alone.”

She held out her hand. “Come with me. I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Don’t leave me alone again.”

Before he could speak, a sound in the distance caught his attention.

Approaching quickly, it sounded like the flap of huge, powerful wings.

Whoosh, whoosh. A winged shadow appeared through the fog, landing on the ground not far from them.

It looked vaguely humanoid—upright on two legs, but bigger—and its shape changed as it walked toward them.

When it was near enough to see through the haze, it looked like a regular man.

Shirtless and wearing black jeans that looked painted on, his dark eyes flitted from Daniel to his mom and back, like his dead mother was an afterthought. His raven black hair was shaved on the sides and longer on top—and unruly, sticking up and giving him a windswept look.

“That’s not your mother,” he said.

“Who the fuck are you?” Daniel asked. He was going to get whiplash from everything happening so quickly.

The stranger gestured to his mom. “Look again. She’s not your mother. She’s lying to you.”

Daniel looked. Mom wasn’t looking at him.

She was glaring at the stranger, her face cold in a way he’d never seen before.

It was only when she looked at him that she seemed to return to normal, smiling warmly.

It didn’t look real this time, like her warmth was just a veneer to hide the ice underneath.

“If you’re not my mom, what are you?”

“She’s a reaper,” the stranger said. “Their job is to usher lost souls out of Purgatory. Easiest way to do that is by appearing as someone you’d want to go with.”

He could barely wrap his mind around it all. “And you? Who are you?”

“Enough of this,” Not-Mom said. “Go into the light, human. Leave Purgatory and find rest.”

“What if I don’t want to?” he asked.

“Then wander for eternity until your soul withers to nothing.”

A shudder rolled down his spine. He didn’t want to be trapped here, but he didn’t want to go into the light either.

Nic still needed him. But was wandering Purgatory for eternity really any better?

With his demon lover’s blood, Nicolas could live forever.

If Daniel stayed here and Nicolas stayed with Ashmedai, they would never see each other again.

Maybe his mom really was on the other side, somewhere in that distant light. If he didn’t go, she would be alone.

“Yes,” the reaper said like she could hear his thoughts, looking so much like Mom that he ached. “Go into the light. See your mother.”

“You could,” the stranger said. “Or…”

The reaper sighed in annoyance.

Daniel clung to the word like a lifeline. “Or what?”

“There is a way you could get back to Earth.”