Beside him was Malachi, his glossy black hair scraped back into a loop on the back of his head. They were both here because they were involved with humans who worked at the Rink. Ashmedai had found their partnerships with the humans novel and peculiar before, but now…
“The dark and mysterious sin eater emerges from the shadows,” Malachi said.
“We haven’t seen you in a while,” Wolf said. “How’s the hunt going?”
Thoughts of carnal hunger filled his head, the way the hot, hard planes of the human’s body had felt under his fingers and the salty-sweet taste of his skin. He didn’t respond.
Why had he come here? He could be waiting for the human to reemerge from behind the holy wall. He wanted to know where he laid his head at night. That was crucial information to have.
“Loquacious as always,” Malachi murmured to Wolf, who nodded.
He could speak to the behemoth. Maybe he would have answers about this unusual bodily reaction. “Valac,” he rasped.
Malachi jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the door. “In there. Is something wrong?”
He didn’t know how the rest of them would react to what had transpired between him and the human. “No.”
Malachi shrugged a shoulder. “Okay. Here you go, then.” He opened the door and gestured for Ashmedai to go inside.
He stepped into the light with a barely audible sigh of displeasure, scanning the room for Valac and his pale-haired human. Beneath the twinkling light of the silver ball, Julian sparred with the red-haired human, Isaac. Their wooden sticks clacked rhythmically, while Valac and Shadrach looked on appreciatively from the half-wall that divided the room.
“Valac,” he greeted, and they both turned.
“Ashmedai,” Valac said. Gargantuan and streaked withthe black shadow power he controlled, Valac was a contradiction. Soft-spoken and patient but huge and capable of killing with a flick of his wrist. His violet eyes held an inner glow, and they crinkled at the corners when he smiled. “We haven’t seen you in a while. All is well, I hope?”
He dithered, and his gaze fell. How did he explain what happened between him and the human whose name he didn’t even know? He should have stayed to learn more before returning here to relay the strange encounter.
“All is not well?” Valac ventured.
A low growl of frustration worked its way out of his throat. He didn’t have much practice with speech or human languages. Eating the sins of dark souls gave him flickers of their memory. He absorbed knowledge of world events, languages, and personal history when he did so, but putting it into practice was a different matter entirely.
“Human,” he said, “and you.”
“Julian and I?”
“How?” How did it happen? Why did the human consent to involvement with a demon? Why hadhishuman allowed it tonight? Most humans who saw him screamed in terror or tried to kill him. He’d never met one who looked at him like he might be anything more than a monster. The human tonight had let him touch, let him taste, even listened when he tried to speak. He was different. Special. He resisted the urge to leave right away and find him again. There would be time. He needed answers first.
“How did we… come to be?” Valac guessed.
“Yes.”
Valac looked over at Shadrach as though for help. The leviathan raised his brows slightly, scratching his cleanly shaven jaw. He looked human on the surface—all of themdid, though Valac was only passably human-like—but Ashmedai could see the darkness that lay beneath the surface, burning with Hellfire. The Wrath they had in the place of a soul was nothing like a human’s. Ashmedai wore his otherness on the surface. That made it all the more meaningful that his human hadn’t run screaming or raised a blade against him.
“I met Julian here. He was working for the guild then, spying on the Sentinels and reporting on their movements, but when they were attacked by halflings who held a grudge against them, he moved to help. When I arrived and laid waste to their enemies, he faced me with stubborn determination. He thought I meant to harm the people here,” he gestured to the humans and demons scattered around the room, some of whom were obviously listening in, “and he intended to stop me if I tried.”
Amusement chuffed out of Ashmedai. Any human standing against a behemoth was laughable.
Valac laughed, as well, understanding what Ashmedai couldn’t say. “Yes. But he impressed me. His scent intoxicated me. His looks bewitched me. After he left that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. When I could no longer stand it, I entered his dreams for some scrap of contact with him. We spent time together there, time we both cherished.”
“Why are you asking?” Shadrach interjected. His black eyes were assessing.
Valac looked at Shadrach. “Do you think? So soon?”
Shadrach lifted one shoulder. “Could be.”
“What?” Ashmedai asked, feeling as though he was missing something.
“Have you met a human who made you feel this way?” Shadrach asked.
