Daniel #2
“Exactly,” Chaol said, a teasing smile edging up the corners of his mouth. His eyes fluttered closed, and Daniel couldn’t resist leaning in to nuzzle their noses together. “That’s part of what makes you so incredible. Also the wing sex. Fantastic idea. I didn’t even know it would be that good.”
“I’ve wanted to get my hands—and my mouth—on them for a while now.”
“Good call.” Chaol pressed impossibly closer, sighing in contentment. “Do we have to get up now?”
Daniel listened closely. It sounded like more people had migrated downstairs. Whoever had been fucking down the hall seemed to be gone now. They might be the only ones left upstairs. “Probably.”
“Pity,” Chaol remarked.
Neither of them made any move to get up.
“The sooner we kill the angel, the sooner I can whisk you away somewhere for the honeymoon.”
Chaol laughed, giving him a playful shove. “Honeymoon. Fuck off.”
“We’re married now,” Daniel insisted, pulling him closer. “You’re mine, forever and ever.”
“Yes, that much is true, but we’re not married. Marriage is a religious thing.”
“Uh, Lucifer saw me promise you ‘temporary pain for a whole eternity together.’ We even kissed.”
Chaol goggled at him. “Are you serious? You’re saying we said marriage vows in front of Lucifer?”
Daniel fought down the hysterical laugh that tried to escape. “Yep.”
Chaol barked out a laugh. “Wait, I thought you said we got married at the cemetery.”
Daniel shrugged one shoulder. “Nah, that was where we consummated the marriage. We said vows in front of Lucifer.”
Chaol sputtered. “No, we didn’t. That’s not what that was.” He pushed Daniel away again and sat up, chuckling.
Daniel followed him upright, pretending to be outraged. “Excuse me. Are you saying you didn’t mean the things we said to each other by the transformation pool?”
Grabbing his clothes, Chaol’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. “Of course I meant it! That doesn’t mean it was a marriage, though.”
Daniel dressed quickly and followed Chaol from the room, teasing, “Uh, I’ll have you know that the moment we kissed in front of him, we were officially wedded in unholy matrimony.”
Someone downstairs laughed aloud, barely audible past Chaol’s own.
“Just you wait. I’ll even get you a ring. I know where the others got theirs.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously in love with my unlawfully wedded husband,” Daniel said, slipping an arm around Chaol’s waist and grinning at the man’s rolling eyes.
A sweet little shiver rolled down Chaol’s body.
He might’ve been playing along with the joke, but Chaol’s body didn’t lie. He liked the things Daniel was saying.
“I’m not your husband,” Chaol said as they stepped into the living room where the others had congregated.
“You are, too. Lucifer witnessed it. Lucifer said we’d have eternity together.”
Chaol turned and booped him on the nose. “Stop arguing with me.”
“No.” Daniel nipped at his finger. “You promised to spend eternity with me. What else do you call that, if not a marriage?”
Chaol opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“He’s got you there,” Julian said, and Daniel glanced around the living room to see several others nodding in agreement.
Daniel didn’t know how long they’d been listening in, but it seemed like the demons had been keeping the humans apprised of the conversation before they were in mortal earshot, since no one looked surprised or confused.
Chaol threw his hands up in mock despair. “Fine! Fine. We’re married. I’d have liked to know that was what we were doing before we did it, but fine. We’ll call that our marriage.”
“He makes a good point,” Nathan said. He was on one of the big sofas with Storm, slouched into Storm’s side with his socked feet on the coffee table. “Ira’s really the only one who knew what he was getting into. The rest of us stumbled into our relationships with no idea what to expect.”
“But we all did reach a point where we knew we were making a huge life decision,” Alex said. “We weren’t totally blind.”
“But it might’ve been nice to be able to have an official ceremony,” Nicolas agreed, looking up at his sin eater with stars in his eyes.
Daniel couldn’t quite picture Ashmedai standing under a flowery arch in a tuxedo, though. Hell, he couldn’t picture that for most of these guys.
Ashmedai’s claws brushed Nicolas’s jaw. If Nicolas wanted that, Daniel had no doubt Ashmedai would do it.
“I don’t need a ceremony,” Isaac declared, looking at Shadrach with heated eyes.
“We’ve had a ceremony,” Shadrach corrected. “A very private and sinful ceremony.”
“Well, in that case, we all have,” Julian said. “We had a ceremony right upstairs a little while ago.”
“Oh god,” Talon grumbled.
“Don’t worry, we took the sheets off when we were done,” Valac said.
“We didn’t,” Daniel said helpfully, and Talon shot him a halfhearted glare.
“It’s a problem for the housekeeper,” Talon said dismissively. “Surprised we didn’t hear a symphony of fucking all through the night.”
“Catch us on a day where we didn’t almost die,” Nathan said glumly, and Storm hugged him closer.
“Shadrach was too tired for that last night,” Isaac said with a pout. “I’ve never heard him snore before. He slept pretty hard.”
Shadrach harrumphed, covering Isaac’s mouth with his hand. “Don’t tell people that, killer, it’s embarrassing.”
“Which part?” Isaac asked, muffled behind his hand.
“The first part, obviously. I don’t care if they know I snore.”
Isaac’s eyes crinkled with amusement.
“We need to go back, don’t we?” Daniel said, looking around the room. “We need to find Menadel and tell her what happened, get her to ward our homes. Otherwise we’ll have to stay inside the Rink until the angel is dealt with.”
“Yeah, and I think we can all agree we’d rather not be forced to live there for the foreseeable future,” Talon agreed. “I don’t suppose she has a phone number she could give us, for future reference.”
“Unlikely, but we could force her to take a burner with her,” Malachi said. “As long as she’s on Earth, we’ll be able to reach her.”
Talon pointed at him. “Good idea.”
“I doubt we could force her to do anything,” Luke said.
“No, not literally,” Malachi said, flapping a hand, “but it’s in her best interest to stay in touch, if she wants to stop the angel that’s coming after us.”
“I have my doubts about that,” Luke groused, and Malachi passed a hand across his back.
The cheerful jingle of someone’s cell phone broke the silence, and Ira grunted, pulling it from his pocket.
“Oh, it’s Cyrus.”
Chaol leaned over to ask Daniel, “Who’s Cyrus?”
“A paladin. Friendly-ish, as far as I know.”
“Why didn’t he leave when everyone else did, then?” Chaol asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Cyrus kind of moves to the beat of his own drum. He’s helped us before, but no one can really guess at his motives. He does what he wants when he wants.”
Chaol hummed. “Interesting.”
“What time is it there?” Alex asked Talon as Ira answered the phone.
“Around… ten PM,” Talon said, checking his watch. “Ten-thirty, really.”
“Ira, you guys need to get to your club right away, if you aren’t already there,” Cyrus said through the receiver.
Ira stood sharply, and the rest of them converged around him. “What? Why? What’s going on?”
“Shit’s gone crazy here, man. The angel has taken Sloan and a bunch of paladins to In Extremis to kill all the halflings. Are you guys there?”
“Oh my God,” Nathan breathed, and suddenly everyone was scrambling for shoes, weapons, and jackets.
“No, we’re not there,” Ira said. “But we can get there soon.”
“A little more warning would’ve been nice!” Shadrach shouted, buttoning his outer shirt.
“Sorry, I just heard about it. The whole compound is buzzing about the news. The angel has completely gotten in Sloan’s head.
He thinks he’s God’s gift to mankind now, because Ramiel says he’s doing the right thing.
Fuck, Maxwell’s been whipped twice in the courtyard for openly disagreeing with him.
If he hadn’t lost his damn mind before, he sure as shit has now.
They just announced that Ramiel has found the hidden location of In Extremis and wanted to hit it right away.
They woke the whole compound up and took a bunch of volunteers with them. ”
“I thought you warned the halflings,” Talon said to Shadrach.
“I did,” Shadrach said.
“We’ll go to the club, Cyrus,” Ira said. “Thank you for the warning.”
“Good luck.”
Ira hung up, and the humans returned, strapping on their holy blades.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Talon said, grabbing onto Alex and Luke, who snagged Malachi’s hand.
“We can’t kill him!” Chaol said, stopping them all short. “It’ll be the same thing that happened yesterday.”
“We can’t just stand by and do nothing!” Julian said. “Those halflings aren’t hurting anyone, and plenty of humans go to that club, too. They could be caught in the crossfire.”
“You’re both right,” Talon said, massaging his forehead. “Valac, you and Julian go to the Rink. See if Menadel is there. The rest of us will go to In Extremis and hold him off for as long as we can.”
Julian looked stricken. “No.” He turned to Valac. “Take Ira. I want to go and help the others fight.”
“What?” Ira said, looking between them and Wolf.
Daniel nodded. It was the best option. Julian was a hell of a fighter, and while Ira had been training with them, he didn’t have as much experience as the rest of them. He would be safer at the Rink. They needed his visions to help guide the Sentinels on the right path.
Losing any of them would hurt, but they had to be practical.
Grief passed across Valac’s face. “My jewel…”
“No time to argue,” he said. He reeled Valac in for a quick, hard kiss, and then stepped away. “Be quick, okay?”
“The quickest,” Valac swore. “Come, Ira.”
“I…” Ira looked at Wolf, hesitating.
Wolf smiled and nodded at him. “Go. I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe.”
Ira’s face cleared, and he nodded seriously. “Okay. I’ll go.”
Daniel hoped that meant Ira knew this would all turn out okay.
“Everybody ready? Grab on to someone who can teleport,” Talon said.