Epilogue
DANIEL
Julian was right; the stuff in the bedrooms was salvageable, which at least meant that they didn’t have to buy new clothes.
They moved the bed from the guest room into the new penthouse, which happened to be below the one Julian and Valac took.
Nicolas and Ashmedai were above them, and the rest of the couples filled out the other floors.
Daniel and Chaol usually wound up in someone else’s apartment when they woke, sharing breakfast and coffee and catching up on missed time.
Daniel had only missed a few weeks while he was dead, all told, but it felt like longer.
Nicolas, in particular, seemed haunted by that time, and Daniel went out of his way to pull him from those maudlin moods when he could.
Living in close quarters with all the other couples turned out to be a good thing.
It wasn’t just Julian, Daniel, and Nicolas with their partners.
Most evenings, the others all trickled in, too, and breakfast became a grand, friendly affair.
Someone usually had food delivered even if someone else was cooking, because there never seemed to be enough food.
Coffee was constantly in the process of being made, because they all drank it faster than the machine could pour it.
They played video games, talked about books and movies, catching some of the demons up on modern media.
He’d been wary, at first, of having Chaol and the leviathans in such close quarters, but they seemed to have reached an understanding.
They probably wouldn’t ever consider themselves friends, but tentative greeting nods and conversations were a step in the right direction.
Chaol had put his quest for revenge to rest, and the leviathans were careful to mind their tongues about Chaol’s brother and his association with Lilith.
It didn’t come up much these days, honestly, and that was fine with Daniel.
He liked this easy camaraderie between them all.
It was fun. It was exactly what Daniel had missed about being a paladin, but better, because now, he had Chaol.
Chaol was his lifeline. His anchor. His port in the storm. His true north. No matter how he felt, with a simple look, Chaol understood. He’d never felt this kind of connection to anyone before, and each day, his hunger for Chaol only grew. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get enough.
Now, as the day waned into night, he woke from his light doze, stretching languidly and flopping over on top of Chaol, who inhaled at the touch, lifting one hand to flatten against Daniel’s flank.
A faint, rhythmic noise filled the air, and Daniel groaned when he realized what had woken him.
“Why do your friends fuck so loud?” Chaol asked.
“Payback for what we did at their farmhouse,” Daniel murmured, pulling the blanket over his head. It did nothing to drown out the sound.
“We need to request an apartment swap,” Chaol rasped. “They shouldn’t be allowed to have people living under them. I know for a fact these walls are soundproofed, but we can still hear them.”
“We probably wouldn’t be able to if we weren’t demons,” Daniel pointed out. “And at least they’re in between us and Nic and Ash. I don’t want to hear my brother doing that.”
“Ugh.” Chaol grabbed his pillow and pressed it over both their heads.
Encased in darkness, Daniel chuckled. Their damp breaths filled the small space between them.
Their noses brushed, then their lips. He didn’t know which of them moved first, but then they were kissing, the slick sound the only thing he could hear.
His stomach swooped with want as their legs tangled and their groins brushed.
Chaol’s quiet moan made his cock harden fully, and Daniel pulled him closer, pressing his tongue between Chaol’s lips and rutting against his hip.
“Fuck,” Chaol muttered. “Mm, I have something for you.”
Daniel thought about the ring box he’d hidden in his brand new bedside table. “I have something for you, too.”
“Is your thing a sex thing? Because mine is,” Chaol said.
Daniel snorted out a laugh. “Is it really? I definitely need you to show me, then.”
“Well, if you’re gonna twist my arm about it,” Chaol said lightly, tossing the pillow off their heads and rolling away to reach into his own bedside table. Clearing his throat, he glanced back at Daniel and said, “On your knees, darkling. Ass up.”
Heat flushed through Daniel as he rolled over and slid his knees under him, waiting with his shoulders on the bed and his head turned sideways.
“What are you doing?” he asked, closing his eyes. He heard the quiet snick of the lube cap opening and smiled; Chaol always insisted on using lube, even though Daniel swore he didn’t need it now that he was a demon.
“Something fun.” His hand smoothed up and back down Daniel’s spine. “Look at you, all nice and relaxed for me.”
“Of course,” Daniel said. “I know you’ll make me feel good. You always do.”
“I always will,” Chaol swore. He trailed kisses down Daniel’s spine, leaving heat and longing in his wake.
When his mouth sealed around Daniel’s entrance, they both groaned.
Daniel shifted his weight, pressing back against his mouth.
Chaol kissed him there, deep and sloppy, piercing him with his tongue over and over again.
Daniel writhed, swearing under his breath as his need for Chaol grew deeper.
The kernel in his chest ignited, and Chaol chuckled.
“Don’t burn up the bed,” he warned. “I can feel you getting warmer.”
“Need more,” he said.
“Oh, I’ll give you more, darkling,” Chaol promised.
A moment later, something blunt and cool pressed against Daniel’s hole. He grunted as it pressed inside, stretching him wide. He moaned, rocking back against it, and Chaol chuckled darkly, fucking the toy in and out of him.
“You like this, darkling?” Chaol asked. “Like letting me fill you up with my new toy?”
“Yes, yes,” Daniel moaned. “What the hell is it?”
“A plug,” Chaol said. “I want you to wear it while you’re fucking me.”
“Oh fuck, yes.”
Chaol pushed it all the way in, until the base was seated at his entrance. Daniel shifted his hips, moaning when the plug brushed his prostate.
“Goddamn, that’s pretty,” Chaol murmured, thumbing the base of the plug.
Daniel’s cock throbbed with need. He couldn’t take it anymore.
Turning, he snagged Chaol under the arms and threw him down onto the bed.
Chaol howled with laughter that quickly trailed off into a moan as Daniel pushed his legs up and settled between them, kissing him deeply.
He rutted their cocks together, kissing and biting and licking.
He fumbled for the lube, drizzling some on his cock as he lined himself up.
He bit down on Chaol’s shoulder as he sank inside, and Chaol screamed, bucking hard. Liquid heat spilled between their bodies, and Daniel looked down, sucking the blood from his teeth as he smeared a hand through the cum on Chaol’s stomach.
“You came from that?”
“Fuck off,” Chaol croaked, but he was smiling. “You know how much I like it when you bite me. Biting me when you’re fucking into me for the first time should be against the rules.”
“We don’t have rules,” Daniel said, pulling out and pushing back in.
Chaol shivered. “We should. That’s rule number one.”
“I’m a demon now, baby,” Daniel said. “I don’t follow rules.”
“God, that’s even hotter,” Choal groaned, throwing his head back as Daniel found a slow, sinuous rhythm. “Plus I know you’re wearing that plug. I only have myself to blame. It’s so fucking hot. With a little jewel on the end and everything.”
“It feels so good,” Daniel murmured in his ear, putting his elbows on either side of Chaol’s head and cradling him between his arms. “Mm, it’s like you’re inside me even though I’m inside you.”
Every time he rolled his hips back just so, the plug brushed his prostate. It was fantastic. Chaol’s hands roamed his body as his cock hardened again, and Daniel swiped his hand through the cum to use as lube, taking Chaol in hand and jacking him in time with Daniel’s easy, rolling thrusts.
“Danny, fuck,” Chaol moaned, bucking up against him. His skin bleached white, his breaths coming hard and fast.
“I love the way you respond to me,” Daniel said. “Like each time is the best time, no matter how often we do this.”
“It is, it is,” Chaol panted. “I wish we could stay like this forever. I don’t ever want you to leave my body. Stay inside me forever.”
“Wish I could, baby, but I’m pretty sure your ass would protest.”
“My ass would get over it. Please, oh please, I’m so close.”
“Again? Already?”
Chaol laughed breathlessly. “Don’t act so surprised. You know I’m helpless when it comes to you.”
“Flatterer.”
Heat built under his skin, pooling in his groin and making his balls draw up.
Daniel groaned, snapping his hips forward, fucking into Chaol hard and fast. The plug nudged his prostate with every thrust, and Daniel couldn’t hold back his own cries.
His eyes rolled back in his head as he came, shuddering, and Chaol followed him right over the edge, screaming at the ceiling as his release coated their stomachs a second time.
Daniel chuckled. “Were you loud on purpose?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Chaol said, smirking with his eyes closed.
Daniel laughed, raising his head and kissing Chaol on the mouth. “Guess it’s breakfast time.”
“I could eat after that, yeah.”
They didn’t separate right away, though, nuzzling into each other and luxuriating in one another’s closeness.
Daniel spent several minutes with his half-hard cock still buried in Chaol’s hole and his nose pressed into his hair, breathing in his scent and letting his mind drift back to the box in his bedside table.
He wanted it to be today, and he wanted to do it surrounded by all his favorite people.
Smiling to himself, he raised up and kissed Chaol softly.
“Why are you smiling like that?” Chaol asked.
“I’m just happy.”