“Yeah. Alex, maybe, since he’s on the deed for the club downstairs. He can tell them I’ve been crashing here, I think. And then in a few weeks, I’ll have the insurance money for my house—hopefully. After that, we can start looking for a place of our own.”
Valac leaned in, peppering Julian’s face with kisses. “I will have to return to Hell sometimes, you know, but I promise I’ll always return to you.”
Julian huffed out a sleepy laugh, throwing an arm around his waist and pressing closer. “I figured. You’re a behemoth and you have to answer to that Astaroth guy. That’s fine. Lots of people have spouses who travel for work. Not to literalHell, maybe, but I figure the concept is the same.”
“Yes. And I won’t have to go often.” He paused, his mind repeating Julian’s words over and over again. “Spouse?” he whispered hopefully.
Julian blinked his eyes open, looking softer and more vulnerable than ever. “Yeah. I’m in this forever, too, Val.”
He’d never experienced this kind of happiness before, like his heart had become pure sunlight, warmth and light filling every dark crack and crevice he possessed. He crushed Julian against him, delighting in the human’s sputtering laughter, and thought about how wonderful eternity would be now that he no longer faced it alone.
Chapter 23
Julian
After Julianand Valac decided on a course of action, Valac threw himself into learning about the world. They went to the Rink together every night, and Valac often brought the laptop with them. Now that he knew how to search for things on the browser, Valac got the hang of it surprisingly quickly. Julian didn’t always know what types of things he read about, but he often looked over to find Valac engrossed in the screen while the Sentinels trained and talked. He peeled himself away from it long enough to go on patrols with Julian—which, entertainingly enough, usually meant Julian saw no demons at all on his patrols, because he suspected they were all smart enough to avoid crossing the behemoth. Isaac outright refused to patrol with them, calling it ‘boring,’ but Julian didn’t mind. He had more kisses and orgasms on patrol than demon kills these days. Not a bad trade-off, all things considered.
To his surprise, when he asked Alex to come with him to smooth things over with the local police about his disappearance, Talon tagged along, too. Talon’s expensive clothes and domineering personality helped steamroll over the cops’ questions and sell the story that Julian was the victim of a senseless, violent attack, and that he’d hidden in the apartmentbelow their own because he feared for his life. He said he didn’t want to press any charges, just move on with his life, and by the time they were done, the cops were probably just relieved to see them go and close another open case.
After that, he was able to contact his insurance company to get the ball rolling on his claim. That would take a few weeks to process, and in the meantime, he was doing what he loved again. Working with people he genuinely liked, protecting the innocent, and now, he had a partner by his side for all of it. He was happier than he’d ever been.
He should’ve known it wouldn’t last.
Almost a month after the attack outside the restaurant that upended his entire life for thesecondtime, Julian was ‘patrolling’ with Valac, which really meant they were wandering the darkened streets, hand in hand. He wore a sword on his back and a pair of knives on his belt, but no demons had dared to show themselves all night.
Fluffy clouds obscured the stars from view as they strolled through a quiet cemetery. Julian idly read the names on the headstones as they passed between them, noting the dates. It was an older cemetery, with most of the deaths being before 1950. Craggy weeds grew up around some of the headstones, and the wrought iron gate they’d entered through was rusted. He wondered who was in charge of maintaining it.
“I don’t want you to be alarmed,” Valac said calmly, “but someone has been following us for quite some time.”
Julian’s head swiveled to look up at him. “Oh? How long?”
“About an hour.”
“Anhour?” he hissed. “Why are you just now mentioning it?”
“Because it’s a single human, alone, and they’ve made no moves. My shadows are circling them, keeping track of them. I wanted to see what they would do.”
Julian itched to turn around and look. “Do you think it’s a paladin?”
“Who else would be following us for so long? A sentinel would have called out to us or called your phone.”
He hummed. A paladin was following them. Why would they follow for so long without attacking or drawing attention to themselves? Maybe they didn’t want to fight. Only one way to find out.
Julian stopped, turning around and calling out, “We know you’re there! Show yourself or lose your head!”
For a moment, nothing but the quiet rustle of the wind broke the silence. Valac pointed toward wherever the paladin was hiding, and then the figure came into view from around a headstone pillar. The broad set of his shoulders and the careful sway of his gait looked familiar, and Julian’s heart seized.
“Nic?” he asked, taking a step closer.
Nicolas raised both hands in surrender. His short, dark curls ruffled in the lazy wind. “Hi, Jules. I come in peace. No weapons, see?” He half-turned, letting Julian see that there was no sword on his back or knives on his belt.
“What are you doing here? You’ve been following us?”
Nicolas grimaced. “Yeah. I needed to make sure no oneelsewas following. Word’s gotten around that you’re not quite as dead as expected, and the guild’s pretty pissed.”
Julian scowled, hugging his elbows. “Sorry to disappoint.”
Valac growled, low and dangerous.
