He tried not to think about Valac as he began to stroke his hand up and down, but it was almost impossible. The dreams of Valac were so lifelike; it was like the demon was really with him. His big hands, his strong shoulders. Julian panted, working his cock faster. He spread his knees, imagining what it might be like to have that huge body between them.God. He’d been with a couple of guys in the past, but never one as big as Valac. He completely dwarfed Julian when they were standing side by side. What would it feel like to have Valac’s big, strong body blanketing him? Holding him down? Thrusting against him?
His orgasm hit him with surprising swiftness. Spine arching, heels digging into the cushion, his cry broke the lazy stillness of the morning air. His eyes rolled back in his head as the aftershocks coursed through him, coating his stomach with cum.
He couldn’t remember the last time he came that hard.
As soon as it was over, regret set in. That was stupid. He shouldn’t have done it. His dreams of the behemoth were confusing enough without adding an orgasm on top of it. He couldn’t let that happen again.
It wouldn’t, he decided firmly as he stood and made his way to the bathroom under the stairs, because he wasn’tattractedto a demon. Stress had caused an exaggerated reaction to the demon’s appearance in his dream, and it meant nothing.
He cleaned himself up and started some coffee brewing. It was going to be a long day, and he needed to put the demon from his mind.
When he was ready to face the day, he walked to the bus stop and ventured into the city. First on the agenda was a prepaid cell phone. Luckily, he’d been saving up for a few bigger home additions, but those things would have to wait while he got hislife in order. At least he had a nest egg to fall back on while he looked for a job.
Next, he went to the hardware store to get the parts to fix the front door and headed back home. The door itself looked mostly undamaged. Parts of the door frame and the strike plate both had to be replaced. Getting the sections of the door frame home via the bus was a fun experience, and reminded him that healsoneeded to get a car. It didn’t have to be a nice car, as long as it got him from place to place.
Tomorrow. He needed a job if he was going to add a car payment on top of all his other responsibilities.
Once the door was fixed and the wards were back in place, he went to the nearest library, where he used an ancient desktop computer and applied for every job he remotely qualified for. His paychecks from the guild would stop at once, he was certain, whether he was owed money or not. The sooner he found a job, any job, the better.
When he’d exhausted the job listings for the day, he went to the bank and moved all his money into a new account, just to be on the safe side. It didn’t sit well with him that the guild had his old account information for direct deposits, so he closed that one down completely. He didn’tthinkthey could access it, but it reassured him to know his money was now somewhere they had no knowledge of. The guild was unpredictable now, and that made them dangerous.
By the time he finally got home, the day was waning and so was his energy. He flopped down on the sofa and stared at the blank wall where his television used to be mounted.
He wondered who had been tasked with breaking into his home. Was it his own squad? Had Nicolas been forced to give the order to break down Julian’s front door and vandalize all of his things? Things those same people had once helped him pick out and carry through the same door they’d broken through?
God, he hoped not. He hoped Nicolas and Daniel weren’t so stubbornly loyal to the guild as to carry out that kind of order. He didn’tthinkthey were, but he was beginning to realize he’d given the guild even more benefit of the doubt than they deserved. He’d thought they would be willing to let him go if he promised to stay away from the traitors. But as it turned out, any desire to leave was seen as an act of rebellion.
But he was out now. He was free. All he needed was a job, and then he could start rebuilding.
He laid down on his lumpy couch with a sigh and stared up at the ceiling. One step at a time. That was all it took to build something worthwhile.
Chapter 7
Julian
Julian’s dreamwas a disjointed thing. The weight of a blade in his hand. The winking light of the disco ball. The strange allure of glowing purple eyes. Sloan’s cruel, ice-blue gaze across the table. He floated from one to the next, passing them like trees on a riverbank, never stopping at one.
Until he reached a blank space. The world was gray, fog obscuring everything around him. The ground was flat and earthy, with no grass or rocks to help him identify his surroundings. There were no markings or footprints on the uniform ground. He turned a slow circle, dimly registering surprise at how lifelike it all was.
“Hello?” he called, and his voice sounded muffled, like the fog was a solid thing preventing sound from traveling.
When his gaze landed on a familiar figure in the fog, he stepped closer. Tall and muscular, with his tattooed body still dressed in only the black shendyt, Valac stood watching him as though he’d been waiting for his arrival. The violet glow of his irises seemed bright compared to the dim, colorless fog around them.
“I haven’t entered a human’s mind before,” Valac said. “Are you in any distress?”
Julian’s brow furrowed. “Entered my mind?”
“It’s a power some demons have. Not one I’ve ever needed to use before. I wanted to be certain it didn’t harm you in any way.”
It was hard to focus on what he was saying. “You’re telling me this is real. You’re really here? This isn’t a dream?”
“It is a dream,” Valac said. “And I am really here. They are not mutually exclusive. Physically, you are asleep alone somewhere on Earth, and I am in Hell. It takes effort to send my consciousness so far, but I wanted to try.”
Julian was having trouble processing that. Valac wanted to try… entering Julian’s mind?
“What for?” he asked dumbly.
“I wanted to see you.”
