Page 61 of Unholy

“I’m sorry, baby, but it’s true,” Malachi said, turning his foot to rub Luke’s outer thigh with the side of his boot. “He’sgot my number. I’d let you forget all about the loan in a heartbeat if it would make you happy.”

Luke softened immediately, and Talon rolled his eyes—he did that a lot when anyone but Alex was being remotely sappy.

“That defeats the purpose of offering it, then,” Talon said wisely.

“We’re doing this ourselves,” Luke said, “but thank you, Mal. It’s enough to know we have you both in our corner.”

“Always,” Malachi said, stopping short of calling him ‘treasure.’ That was a private nickname, for them and them alone.

Luke grinned like he heard the unspoken endearment and went back to studying rental listings.

Talon jerked his head at Malachi. “Where’s your shadow at tonight?”

“Parking lot across the street. Yours?”

“We teleported straight here,” Alex said. “They’re probably still at our apartment building.”

“Well, not all of us can do parlor tricks,” Malachi said.

“Bite me,” Talon said, cheering him sarcastically with his bottle.

“No thanks, I’ll leave that to Hawk,” he rejoined, cheering him back.

Talon glared, and Alex snorted.

“They’ll make a move eventually, won’t they?” Luke asked, glancing between the demons apprehensively. “It feels like we should be doing something to prepare.”

“Sloan’s probably still trying to get council approval to make a move,” Alex said, his face grim. “I doubt what happened with Luke has done anything to sway him from the cause. We just have to be ready when they do. If we letTalon or Malachi kill the guys following us, it’ll be seen as an act of aggression.”

“Anything we do would be an act of aggression,” Malachi said. “Including self-defense, I’m afraid.”

“Storm’s keeping an eye on the guys outside,” Talon said. “He’ll run in and warn us if they do anything unusual. In the meantime, we’ll keep our heads down. They can make the first move. We’ll make the last.” He seemed so effortlessly confident that Malachi felt himself relax. It was nice to have a powerful leviathan on their side.

Alex shot a contemplative look at the stack of papers in Luke’s hands. “Wonder how they’ll react when they find out we’re planning to continue hunting demons.”

“With any luck, they’ll take it as a sign they should leave us alone,” Luke said. “If we’re still doing good work and not hurting anyone, maybe they’ll realize we’re not worth hating.” He looked so morose, Malachi longed to reach for him.

“That’s very idealistic of you,” Talon said coolly, and just when Malachi was about to open his mouth and admonish him, Talon softened and added, “But for what it’s worth, I hope you’re right.” His dark gaze settled on Alex, always on Alex, and the two shared a soft, intimate look.

Malachi stretched out, hooking his foot around Luke’s ankle. Luke cast him a sweet smile, turning his foot into the touch.

“We underestimated them once,” Malachi said. “We don’t do it again. Whatever they’re planning, we’ll be ready.”

Luke told him a few days after the attack that he’d never expected them to try to kill him. Of all the ways they might have reacted to his relationship with Malachi, murder never even made the list. And even Malachi had to admit it was farmore extreme than he’d expected. The Paladin Guild believed themselves to be the good guys. Murdering a human for any reason wasn’t their thing. He’d expected an attack on himself, never Luke. Even Alex had only been banished, not physically harmed for being with Talon.

Clearing his throat to herald a subject change, Luke brandished the stack of papers. “I mean, I guess we could… take out anactualloan,” he suggested hesitantly. “Six months’ rent maybe, and start paying it back once we start getting clients.”

“But then we’d have to pay the loan on top of rent after that first six months,” Alex said.

Malachi opened his mouth, and Alex pointed warningly at him. With a smirk, he subsided.

“Put out an ad for your investigative services,” Talon said, “with both of your phone numbers and email addresses. You can speak over the phone to any potential clients and meet… at a coffee shop or something until you have enough to afford to rent a place.”

Alex looked askance at Luke. “That’s not a bad idea.”

Luke inclined his head. “We may have no choice. We’re both… a bit lacking in the financial department.”

Talon held both hands out as though to say ‘hello?’

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