Valac chuckled. “Indeed. Here.” He raised one arm, and a single shadow arced down and left a shallow cut on his forearm.
Julian’s lips parted as black blood beaded to the surface.
“Drink. Please. I’ll feel better knowing you have my protection in this small way while I’m gone.” His blood would make Julian stronger, faster, and hardier. He would prefer to be by Julian’s side, but this would have to do.
Julian met his eyes, smiling softly as he raised up on one elbow and sealed his plush lips over the wound. He sucked gently, and Valac’s cock twitched inside his hole, which made Julian’s eyes brighten with amusement. When he raised his head, a black pearl of blood was left on his bottom lip, and Valac licked it away with reverence.
“Thank you,” Julian whispered. “For the blood. For everything.”
Valac rolled over, bringing Julian with him until he was on his back with his human curled against his side. “No. Thank you—for accepting me. For letting me be anywhere near you.” He didn’t realize how empty his life was until he had Julian in it.
Julian’s arm tightened around Valac’s middle. “I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to miss a single minute of our time together.”
Valac pressed his lips to Julian’s blond head. “Then don’t. Tell me something you’d like to do when this fight with the paladins is finally over.”
They talked through the night, making a list of all the things they wanted to see and experience after they achieved peace.
Valac didn’t wantto open a gate to Hell in the apartment he shared with Julian, so at dawn, they teleported hand in hand downstairs to the club.
The others were waiting for them. Wolf was flipping chairs upside-down on tables while Xyra went around the room with a broom, sweeping up debris from another wild night. Malachi was sitting on top of the bar, sipping a drink, and Luke was on a stool beside him, barely awake and using Malachi’s thigh as a pillow. The others were scattered around the room. Alex and Talon shared a booth with Ira. Isaac sat on one of the dancing platforms—the one with the chains dangling from the ceiling—and Shadrach stood between his legs. Nathan was at a table, stealing kisses from Storm, who was supposed to be mopping, by the looks of it.
“Did you all come here last night?” Julian asked around a yawn.
“We did,” Luke said, stretching. “Looks like none of us got any sleep.”
“I’ve got a coffeemaker back here,” Wolf offered.
“Yes, please,” Nathan called, and they all converged on the bar.
Julian kept himself tucked under Valac’s arm, his hands hidden beneath the fabric of Valac’s shirt. No one commented on the clinginess—in fact, Valac would wager they all understood—and while the coffee machine gurgled, Valac pressed his nose to Julian’s pale hair and breathed in his sweet scent. He would miss this while he was gone. Every moment away from Julian would feel like an eternity.
“Coffee?” Wolf asked Julian, and Valac reluctantly raised his head to find them all looking at them.
“No, thanks,” Julian rasped. “I’m nervous enough without caffeine making it worse.”
Julian felt it, too. This connection between them. Valac didn’t know whether to cheer or lament that the human would feel the same sense of loss while they were apart.
He looked at the others, from one demon to the next, and said, “Let no harm come to him while I’m gone.”
Ira slurped his coffee and offered Valac a reassuring smile. “He’ll be fine while you’re away, Valac.”
From the prophet, the promise actually set him at ease. The tension unwound from his body, and Julian looked up at him with a weak smile.
“Then, I should go.”
Julian blew out a breath. “Fine. Hurry back, okay?”
“Of course.” He drew Julian out onto the empty dance floor with him. “You won’t be able to see the portal, because you are a living soul.”
Julian blinked in surprise. “Huh. That hadn’t occurred to me, but I guess it makes sense.”
“Kiss me once more before I go,” Valac entreated, and Julian obliged him with a smile, going up on his tiptoes and pulling Valac in for a soul-deep kiss. The darkness within him rose up, hungry for the human in his arms, wrapping around him, gliding under his clothing and up into his hair. He broke away with a tinkling laugh that sounded like music to Valac’s ears.
The shadows moved, coalescing in the air beside them, ripping and tearing into the fabric of the universe. White sparks flew from the tears as a piece of the world folded back to reveal a tunnel of absolute darkness. Hot air billowed out of the tunnel, and Julian turned toward it with a frown.
“Is that the gate? I feel… heat?”
“Yes, the gate is open,” Valac explained, glancing back at the others.
