Page 33 of Unholy

Luke

Loathas he was to leave, Luke had to patrol. He was on the roster to handle sector forty-two tonight, and if he didn’t turn in a report in the morning, there would be questions. If they were going to do this, his routine had to be squeaky clean. They couldn’t afford for anyone to get suspicious.

“So you’re just going to leave me here?” Malachi despaired dramatically from the bed. He was as artful as a marble statue, posed with his hands above his head and the sheet pooled around his hips. “What if I get lonely?” He trailed a hand down his muscular abdomen, toying with the sheet as though he might slip those clever fingers under and take himself in hand.

Luke’s mouth watered. “Mal…”

“I’m tempting you with my wily demonic ways,” Malachi said, his handsome face pouting. “Are you tempted?”

“Very much so,” Luke rasped. “But Ihaveto patrol. If I don’t turn in a report in the morning, Sloan will want to know why. The last thing I want is for him to start asking more questions.”

Malachi groaned, dropping the act. He sat up, bracing his hands on the mattress behind him. “Fine. I’ll come with you, then.”

Luke hesitated. He’d like nothing more than to have Malachi by his side while he faced down monsters, but… “No. It’s too risky.”

“What?” Malachi said indignantly. “What are you worried about? Demons can’t hurt me, treasure. Hell, I might scare a few of them away.”

“No, not them. Paladins. Sometimes I come across them. They don’t send one patrol out at a time. There are squads all over the city every single night. It’s not unusual for us to cross paths if our sectors are near each other. We can’t be seen together.”

“Oh, come on.” Malachi swept the sheet back and stood, completely naked and utterly casual about it, like he didn’t even notice the way Luke’s hungry gaze trailed down the pale length of him. He draped his arms around Luke’s neck. “You don’t really want to go alone, do you? You know it’d be more palatable with my company.”

Luke groaned, sliding his hands up Malachi’s smooth sides. “You’re a vile tempter.”

He chuckled warmly. “I am.”

He was tempted. He really was. Malachi was a warm and reassuring presence. Having him by his side during a patrol would probably do wonders for his usual anxiety. He curled closer, pressing his lips to Malachi’s neck and kissing a trail down his shoulder. There, he sank his teeth in, and Malachi’s breath hitched in his ear. His head fell back and his body bowed, surrendering to the pain Luke inflicted. He’d never seen anyone respond to pain so beautifully, and he couldn’t resist reaching down, palming Malachi’s hard cock.

“Stay here,” he said, ignoring Malachi’s disapproving growl, “and when I get back, I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Ugh, I hate this,” Malachi grumbled.

Luke raised his head and smiled patiently. “If it’s a paladin you want, this is one of the drawbacks.”

“It’s not the paladin part I’m interested in, treasure, just theyoupart.”

A bashful smile tugged at Luke’s mouth. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Malachi scowled. “Be safe. No more scars on my precious human, understand?” He thumped a finger on Luke’s chest.

“I’ll do my best.” He captured that finger and brought it to his lips, giving the knuckle a kiss.

Dragging himself away from Malachi took far more effort than he wanted to admit, but eventually he made his way downstairs and out to his car. Across the parking lot, the sight of Malachi’s cherry red, vintage Mustang filled him with warmth. He liked seeing it there, liked knowing that the halfling himself was right upstairs.

He wanted to rush through his patrol and hurry back home, but that was too dangerous. Sector forty-two wasn’t a cakewalk. He forced himself to drive slowly, coaching himself to focus on the job ahead and not on what awaited him back home.

Sector forty-two was half suburb and half forgotten business area. There was an old mall and several restaurants that went out of business when the nearby highway was put in, and because no business seemed able to bring life back into the area, the buildings sat empty and condemned. Eventually, the city would raze them to the ground to make way for something new, but until then, they were good hiding places for the dark and dangerous.

Luke parked his car just inside the perimeter, in the lot of an abandoned restaurant. For a place as crowded as LA, this sector was always unnaturally devoid of nightlife. Old graffiti decorated the boarded windows of the restaurant, but whoever tagged it was long gone. The paint was faded, and weeds grew up through the cracks in the pavement. It was as though even the innocent civilians subconsciously understood that this place was to be avoided.

Luke strapped his knives to his belt and his sword to his back, then locked his car and set off down the craggy sidewalk. Low, heavy clouds drifted through the sky overhead, illuminated by the light of the city beyond his little pocket of darkness. The streetlights were few and far between here. Whether that was the work of something supernatural or simple neglect from a city that had forgotten them was anyone’s guess. He didn’t turn on his hands-free flashlight yet, but he would need it when he went inside the ancient mall. Things festered in there, and he didn’t know if the other squads ever went inside and cleaned it out.

As he passed an old storefront, the rattling of a metal garbage can caught his attention. He paused, one hand drifting to a knife but not yet drawing it. It was just as likely to be a dog or a homeless person, so he crept forward cautiously. The sound was coming from behind the rusted air conditioning unit. He reached up and clicked his flashlight on, and the beam of light passed over the brick wall.

The noise abruptly stopped. Had his flashlight alerted whatever it was to his presence?

He’d almost made it around the corner of the unit when a dark figure leaped over it with an ear-splitting shriek. He ducked—nearly braining himself on the edge of the unit—and the demonic figure sailed past him, hitting the ground and rushing away.

Luke drew his sword and raced after it. He caught a glimpse of a shadowed form moving quickly across the large parking lot of the mall across the street. It barreled right through one of the big glass windows on the front of the building, and the sound of the shattering glass seemed deafening in the otherwise silent night. Luke cursed under his breath, jogging after it.

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