Page 53 of Indecent

“That would be a good idea,” Chaol said. “He can help you master your powers.”

“So we’ll go by the Rink later and see if he’s there?” Daniel asked.

Chaol wasn’t fond of the idea of being in the same room as the leviathans again, but he’d have to get over it if he wanted to stay by Daniel’s side. Valac carefully watched the emotions pass across his face.

“Yes,” he finally said. “We can go by the Rink.”

Daniel softened, laying a hand on Chaol’s thigh under the table.

Power vibrated through the house. Daniel stiffened as he sensed it, and he and Chaol turned at the same time. A moment later, Nicolas and Ashmedai appeared in the kitchen. Julian wordlessly reached over the sink and pulled the blinds down. Ashmedai gave him a nod of gratitude.

“Hey, we left the boxes in the living room,” Nicolas said. His honey-brown eyes landed on Chaol. “Oh, you found him.”

“He found me, actually,” Daniel said. “Showed up after we got here last night.”

“Nic, you hungry?” Julian asked. “The food’s done.”

“Always.” Nicolas offered him a smile, but it fell away when he looked at Chaol again. “So, you’re sticking around?”

Daniel answered before Chaol could. “Yes. It’s just like you and Ash, Nic.”

Nicolas sat in the chair adjacent to Daniel and Valac, while Ashmedai lingered in the shadows behind him. “Is it? He doesn’t like us, right?”

“I don’t like them,” Chaol corrected, resting one arm across the back of Daniel’s chair. “Did you kill Amon?”

Nicolas tilted his head thoughtfully. “No, no, I was a little busy outside with the possessors.”

“I remember,” Daniel said, and added to Chaol, “They threw him into one of the cars. Busted the back windshield of Elijah’s car.”

Nicolas nodded sagely. “Good times,” he deadpanned. “Eight stitches in my lower back from the broken glass.”

Ashmedai rumbled out an unhappy sound at the thought.

Daniel snorted out a laugh. “Anyway, don’t worry about Chaol, okay? He’s mine, which means he’s yours, too.”

“Wait, what now?” Chaol said. He didn’t agree to that. What exactly did that entail?

Ashmedai’s orange, glowing eyes crinkled, the light dimming slightly in what Chaol had to assume was a smile somewhere under the shadowed hood. “Your brother is my brother,” he said. It sounded like a quote.

Julian plated the food and brought it over. Sausage links, scrambled eggs, and mixed fruit. He sat down across from Chaol.

Nicolas smiled sheepishly, reaching back for Ashmedai’s clawed hand. “I made Ashmedai promise me that he’d take care of Daniel if something happened to me a little while back. We’re family, and we’re all each other had for a long time.”

“Which kind of makes our partners family, too,” Daniel said pointedly, pulling Chaol’s arm around his shoulders and grinning at him.

A clan of six, Chaol remembered, looking from face to face. Daniel and Chaol, Nicolas and Ashmedai, Julian and Valac.

He met Daniel’s knowing gaze. He knew exactly what Chaol was thinking and gave him a slight, encouraging nod.

Chaol cleared his throat. “Like brothers-in-law?” They might eschew him calling it a ‘clan.’ Few other demons kept to clans the way kalmachs did, and they didn’t trust him. They might not appreciate it. But maybe one day.

Daniel beamed at him. “Exactly.”

Putting up with the leviathans would be a small price to pay for this.

Dropping his voice to a whisper, Chaol asked, “When did we get married?”

Daniel laughed. “In the graveyard.”