Page 24 of Gargoyle Sentinel

Danny tucked his damp hair behind his ears. “Hmm. Well, at one point, when I was younger, I really got into cooking. Iused to watch all those gourmet cooking shows, especially the challenges. I would experiment, try to copy what they did by inventing recipes of my own.”

Malachi did love a good meal. “Why didn’t you keep pursuing that?”

Danny stared at his fingers, fidgeting with them. “I was still in the pre-teen, lack of self-confidence phase. My sister mocked me, and my parents were horrified. Apparently, crafting gourmet meals made me gayer. And the fact that I was in the kitchen spending so much time with the ‘help’ mortified them even more. They completely shut me down, and I’ve never returned to cooking.”

Malachi frowned. How dare Danny’s parents treat him like that? Under different circumstances, he might feel guilty about taking Danny away from his family. Not anymore.

“If you ever want to pursue that again, you can experiment on me.” Malachi patted his belly. “I love a good meal.”

Danny laughed. “I might take you up on that. But I should wait and see if Michael gives me some cool Nephilim stuff to do first.” He raised his hands, wiggled his fingers, and waved them from one side of the room to the other. “Pew, pew, pew. I’m still holding out for superpowers.”

Malachi laughed, relieved that his mate wasn’t upset anymore. He hadn’t expected Danny’s distress to hurt his heart so much.

He reached across the table and clasped Danny’s hand. “I’ll help you however I can. But now that you’ve brought up your old life and possessions, if there’s anything you’d like from your apartment, we should retrieve it today. I’m afraid you won’t be going back there anymore.”

Danny squeezed his hand back. “Wow. Reality is setting in. I’m really doing this.”

Malachi’s stomach clenched. “Do you still want to?”

Danny jumped up from his chair and rushed over to Malachi. He draped himself across his lap and wrapped his arm around Malachi’s neck.

“Are you kidding? Give up my hunky gargoyle? No way, buster. You’re stuck with me.”

Danny slipped his tongue between Malachi’s lips, and he allowed his mate to take control. With each hungry swipe, Malachi was reassured of Danny’s affection, his belief that they could build a life together.

Malachi made a solemn promise to himself. He would devote his existence to Danny’s happiness. His mate deserved nothing less.

Chapter Eight

After picking up a new phone and transferring all his data over, Danny discovered that he did indeed have several messages from his supervisor.

Oopsie.

While Malachi drove them to his apartment in a massive SUV from the safe house available for everyone’s use, Danny called his boss to announce that he was eloping and wouldn’t be coming back. After a string of colorful language, Danny hung up and let out a satisfied sigh.

New life, here I come.

He wiggled in his seat as the other messages nagged at him. The ones from his friends could be handled through Messenger. Eventually, he would just drift out of their lives, let his social media go dormant. The sad part was that his connections were primarily party ones. His parents had chased off his bestie when he was growing up for being a bad influence. This time it wasn’t because Tony was too gay. Just too poor.

However, the messages that really nagged at him were from his parents. What the hell should he do about that? Their need for control would demand they search high and low for him, and they definitely had epic resources with which to pursue such an endeavor. The last thing he and his new cohorts needed was Danny’s parents creating a big fuss and calling attention to him.

He straightened in the seat as a diabolical idea hit him.

“Dude.”

Malachi glanced his way before facing forward again. “What?”

“Huh?” Danny shook his head, chuckling. “I wasn’t saying that directly. It’s that the most amazing idea struck me on how to get my parents off my back.

“But wouldn’t they simply forget about you after a while? You said they don’t care.”

“Ouch. Way to stir up those pesky triggers.”

Malachi’s expression fell. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No, you’re probably right in the long run.” The truth was painful to face, but part of him always knew they’d eventually give up on him anyway. However, perhaps he could speed it along. “But let’s get them out of my life for good right now.”

“How? You can’t tell them the truth, that you’re part angel.”

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