When he looked up at the window again, the orange points were gone. He shook himself. Maybe it was his imagination, a remnant of the dream he’d been having in the car. Why would the demon have followed him home? If it was a sin eater, it would be hunting sinners.
He put the strange image from his mind and led Daniel up to his second floor apartment. He’d never been so happy to see the iron22on his door before. The key slid into the knob, and when he pushed the door open, he gasped, reeling back a step.
Orange eyes stared back at him from the darkness within his living room.
“Nic? What’s wrong?”
Nicolas turned, opening his mouth to tell Daniel it was okay, that the demon—probably—meant them no harm, but when he followed Daniel’s gaze to the living room, the eyes were gone.
He patted Nicolas’s shoulder, brow furrowing. “Are you okay?”
Nicolas laughed. It sounded a little hysterical to his own ears. “No, not really.” He flicked the light on and looked around. No demons lurked within. His apartment was warded, after all. The sin eater couldn’t appear inside the wards. He was just imagining things.
“So what’s going on with you?” Daniel asked, guiding him across the gray carpet and pushing him down onto the sofa. He went to the balcony doors next, pulling the curtains aside that covered the glass doors and opening the blinds on the windows on either side, filling the room with warm light. “Tell me what happened last night.”
Nicolas sighed. It was probably better to tell the whole tale before he ate anything. He tugged the shirts off, discarding the ripped one, and looked down at himself. He felt like he should be covered in marks. The demon’s touch had left fingerprints on his soul; it should be visible on his skin, too. Instead, there was only one visible mark on his body—scabs dotted around one areola, and the sight made his face heat.
“What—is that abite mark?” Daniel asked, sitting beside him and leaning in to inspect it closer.
“Yeah.” He passed a hand over his burning face. “So, the sin eater… It didn’t just kill them and then disappear.”
His face was hot with embarrassment during the whole explanation, but Daniel never looked disgusted. He listened quietly as Nicolas told him what the demon said, how it had approached him, sniffed him, kissed him. The overwhelmingwanthe’d felt when the demon touched him. How his better sense had fled and he let the demon divest him of his sword and crowd him up against the wall. How the demon had explored his body with its clawed hands and dangerous mouth, yet listened when he’d said no. How he’d finally fled and told the demon not to follow him, but now he was—apparently—seeing him everywhere.
“And earlier today, while I was shackled to that fucking post, all I wanted was to be back there in the dark with him,” he confessed quietly. “But that makes me a traitor, exactlylike the guild says. I could’ve fought, but I didn’t. I didn’twantto.” He buried his face in his hands as the words finally stopped streaming out of him.
Daniel gently patted a spot on his upper back that wasn’t covered in gauze. “You’re not a traitor, Nic. I don’t blame you for wanting to go back to him when you were literally about to be whipped. Sounds like you had a better time with this demon than you’ve had at HQ in a long time.”
Nicolas snorted out a weak laugh.
“Do you think you’re really seeinghim? Or are you imagining him?”
“I don’t know. The first time might’ve been him. The second time, though? I have wards on my apartment. He couldn’t have been in here.”
Daniel hummed noncommittally, then hesitantly asked, “Do you think… you mightwantto see him again?”
Nicolas slid his hands into his hair, staring at the carpet between his feet. “I’m scared to answer that.”
“Because of what the answer might be?”
“Yeah.”
Silence followed, interrupted a few minutes later by the arrival of the pizza. Unburdened by the truth now that he’d finally told someone he trusted, Nicolas’s stomach growled. He and Daniel sat on stools at the breakfast bar together, eating straight from the pizza box. With the bite mark hidden below his shirt and fresh food in his belly, he almost began to feel normal again.
Two slices in, Daniel sighed and shot him a contemplative look.
“What?” Nicolas prompted.
“Maybe we should leave the guild.”
Anxiety slithered through him at the thought. “And put targets on our back?”
“We already have targets on our back. I’m a sympathizer, and now that you’ve beencleansed, you’ll be a pariah, too.”
“You remember what happened to Julian.” He wasn’t convinced it was any easier away from the guild than it was inside it. They’d harassed Julian for weeks and eventually tried to kill him. He’d survived, but barely, and Nicolas had a feeling they wouldn’t be so lucky. He wouldn’t risk his little brother’s life on it. Being a paladin might be hard right now, but at least it was familiar.
“But he’s doing just fine with the Sentinels now,” Daniel pointed out. “You’re the one who told me that, in fact.”
Nicolas shook his head. “It’s too risky. He got lucky.”
