Page 62 of Fallen

Talon

Talon was ridingthe edge of frantic. He’d woken, warm and sated, around midmorning to find a note from Alex that he’d gone to get breakfast, as promised. He hadn’t bothered to dress, hoping he could coax Alex into another sweaty fucking when he got back. He’d wandered, looking in Alex’s drawers and cabinets, sniffing his deodorant and aftershave. The only bible in his apartment was in a wicker basket in the corner of the living room, buried under some old magazines. He thumbed through it curiously, noting how the handwriting smoothed out as the pages went on. He’d been given this bible at a young age—probably by the guild—and used it in his theology studies. And like any other textbook, he’d forgotten it existed after the class was over. Snorting to himself, he buried it under the magazines once more.

When an hour passed and there was no sign of him, he began to worry. But, he reasoned, maybe he’d woken up just as Alex was leaving. Maybe there was a long line wherever he’d gone for food. There was no reason to panic. Alex knew how to take care of himself. Talon was selfish and obsessive. He could manage for an hour without knowing exactly where Alex was.

When a second hour passed, he tried to call. It went straight to voicemail, and unease lurched through him.

“Alex, where the fuck are you?”

He dressed, paced around Alex’s tiny apartment, called again. No answer. Panic rose like the tide below his breast, and he forced himself to take deep breaths to calm it. There was no reason to catastrophize. Any number of things could’ve happened, and imagining the worst would do nothing but drive him crazy.

He couldn’t be dead. Talon had just found him.

If he’d been called into the guild for some reason, it would make sense why he wasn’t answering Talon’s calls. He didn’t know the exact location of their secretive headquarters, either, so he couldn’t spy on it from afar to look for signs of Alex there. Would he have gone there without telling him? A sinister little part of him suggested that Alex had made his choice, that he was done with Talon and informing the guild there was a demon in his apartment. But no, he didn’t think his human would’ve done that. Not after last night. They belonged together. Alex knew that as well as Talon did. Something else must’ve happened.

He left increasingly panicked voicemails. Three hours passed, then four, then five. He used his power to appear at his apartment, thinking maybe Alex might’ve gone there if he couldn’t get home for some reason. But his apartment was as empty as always, and the receptionist in the lobby downstairs said no one had been by for him.

He went back to Alex’s apartment, certain by now that something was horribly wrong… and waited. Pacing and gnashing his teeth, he grew increasingly pissed at whatever was keeping Alex from him.Somethinghad to be. Alex wouldn’t have just disappeared of his own free will. Talon refused to believe it.

By the time night fell, he’d filled Alex’s voicemail inbox with messages ranging from frantic to furious to pleading. When the inbox could no longer hold messages, he sent texts. The most telling thing, he thought, was that none of them said ‘read’ or even ‘delivered.’ At best, his phone was off.

When his phone finally,finally, rang, he snatched it up without looking at the caller ID. “Alex?”

A pause. “No, it’s Wolf. Your human’s here at the club. He looks a little worse for wear.”

He was frozen for a moment. Alex was at In Extremis? How the fuck did he get there? That was across town. “Is he hurt? Has he said anything?”

“No, and no. Just that he needs to see you right away. He didn’t have his phone, so he asked me to call you. And he asked for a drink. ‘Not beer’ is what he said. I gave him schnapps. He’s looked better. You should get here.”

Talon hung up and shifted through the space between the apartment and the club, appearing in the alley beside the converted warehouse. Storm, the bouncer, wordlessly opened the door for him.

He spotted Alex right away. His plain white T-shirt was stained with sweat under the armpits and down the center of his back. His shoes and the bottoms of his jeans were dusted with dirt, and there was a defeated slump to his shoulders. He leaned heavily on the bar, a bottle of orange blossom schnapps clutched loosely in one hand, with his other hand curling over his head.

Wolf was standing on the other side of the bar, cleaning a glass and watching him dubiously. When he spotted Talon, he relaxed, jerking his head toward Alex.

Talon rushed across the room and forcefully spun him around. “Where the fuck have you been?” He sounded hysterical to his own ears, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Alex blinked up at him dazedly. Talon opened his mouth to ask if he was drunk, but then Alex’s eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I didn’t mean to disappear. They grabbed me and I couldn’t fight them off and I don’t even know how long I was unconscious?—”

Unconscious? Rage filled Talon, so acute he shook with it. “Whoa, whoa. Who, little bird? Who did this to you?” Talon pressed closer, cradling Alex’s face in his hands. He didn’t care that the entire bar was probably watching. Alex was all that mattered.

“The guild,” he said between big, gasping sobs. “They knew everything. They had pictures of us from last night in the parking lot. Someone was posted outside my apartment.”

A low growl rumbled out of Talon. “So, what, they grabbed you? What happened?”

“They knocked me out. Chloroform, I think. I woke up in a cell.” He wiped a hand down his face—his left hand, Talon noted, and it was missing a very important ring.

He caught Alex’s hand, smoothing his thumb over the tan line.

Alex nodded, reading the question in his eyes. He was still sniffling, but he seemed to be calming down. “They excommunicated me. I’ve been banished for disobeying orders and… fraternizing with a demonic entity.” He snorted out a hysterical laugh. “They controlled every part of my life. My car, my phone, my income. I can’t pay my bills, I don’t have a job. They walked me to the gate, and it took meeight hoursto walk here because I had no way to call anyone and no money for a cab.”

A shaky, fearful thing took root in Talon’s breast: hope. If he had nothing, Talon could give himeverything.But first…

He nudged Alex’s face up as he swooped down, kissing him hard. Alex sighed into it like he’d been waiting for it all day, opening up for him at once. He tasted like oranges. It was reassuring, Talon thought, that Alex wasn’t pushing him away, wasn’t blaming Talon for what the guild had done.

“Come home with me,” he murmured against Alex’s mouth. “You must be starving and exhausted. Let me take care of you. I want to take care of you.”

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