Page 63 of Indecent

“For how long?” Chaol asked. Ramiel was incredibly powerful. Would they have the upper hand at all, even with Menadel’s help? They needed to stop him. Permanently.

“Not long,” she said slowly. “I believe the prophecy will come to pass soon.”

“You need to tell us what this prophecy says,” Daniel pressed.

“I cannot,” Menadel said. She clasped her hands in front of her. “But you will learn it soon enough.”

“How?” Talon demanded.

She turned to look at someone across the room. Chaol followed her gaze to Ira, who looked unamused.

“Of course,” Ira drawled.

“Great, so we just have to wait for Ira to have a vision about it,” Talon said, flapping a frustrated hand.

“In the meantime,” Menadel said, “I suggest you remain vigilant. Ramiel is nearby, working with your enemies, and if he learns that so many powerful demons have congregated in one place, he won’t hesitate.”

Beside Daniel, Nicolas sighed, folding his arms. “About that. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for us, but do you think it would be safe for us to patrol? Ashmedai needs to feed.”

Chaol glanced over at the sin eater by the snack bar. Right. He ate sins. He’d seen plenty of sin eaters in the Pit, but he didn’t know what it looked like for one to eat sins on the surface. What did that entail? Was it bloody? That was something he wanted to see.

Menadel glanced between Nicolas and Ashmedai. “There is some risk involved. If you leave the safety of the wards, Ramiel could sense the demonic energy. You might be safe, and you might not. If you choose to go, it would be wise to take backup.”

“We’ll come,” Julian said, gesturing to Valac.

“So will we,” Daniel said.

Chaol blinked at him. Sure, he’d given it a passing thought, but he hadn’t expected Daniel to volunteer them. “We will?”

Daniel bestowed him with a sweet smile. “Yeah. Or, I guess you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I just thought patrolling again might be fun.”

Chaol tilted his head. “I’ll come. Might be fun, and it’s got to be better than hanging around here.” The crowd of humans staying in the Rink still eyed him with distrust, and he’d rather gnaw his own arm off than spend any amount of time in the same room as the leviathans, who were, at this moment, right across the room with their humans. Neither of them looked over, but he had no doubt they could hear them.

Ashmedai silently joined them. “Ready?” he rasped.

“Yes,” Nicolas said, perking up and offering the hooded demon a besotted smile. “Shall we?”

A low rumble left Ashmedai as they turned toward the door. “Hope we find paladins tonight. Hungry.”

Chaol eyed him curiously as they fell into step together outside, moving away from the Rink. “Do the humans back there not care that you kill people? The ones who have just recently left the guild, I mean. Did they not find it difficult to accept working with demons?”

“Some did,” Nicolas said, “and others still do. I mean, a lot of them don’t actually work with us. They just came to us because they had nowhere else to go. We’re working on getting their personal information set up so they can get jobs and start building their own lives. The guild keeps stuff like our birth certificates and social security cards. Talon’s got the halflings working on replacing all of that, either with copies or replacements, but it’s a slow process. And since they’d rather be here than fight us, we try to be patient with them. We all had to go through a little deprogramming to accept the demons in our lives.” He cast them a rueful smile. “Some more than others, I guess. Like Julian, he’d already left the guild before he and Valac were a thing. He didn’t have to choose between the two.”

Julian shrugged one shoulder. “I did some deprogramming, too. I just did a lot of it silently while I was still in the guild. I did a lot of soul-searching. A lot of questioning my own morals and sense of justice. I just didn’t want to hurt anyone who wouldn’t hurt me. As it turns out, that includes some demons. Halflings mostly mean no harm. Sin eaters only eat sins; they don’t hurt innocent people. Valac was a guardian of the gates of Hell; he didn’t have much to do with humans of any kind.” He shook his head helplessly. “It didn’t make sense to me to hate something that didn’t want to harm me.”

“And as it turned out, the paladins meant far more harm than any demon,” Nicolas said darkly.

“So all the paladins who remain with the guild,” Chaol said slowly, “are the ones who would kill you all for your tolerance of demonkind?”

“As far as we know, yeah,” Nicolas said. “There are a few who didn’t leave that I’m surprised about, but if they’ve chosen to stay for some other reason, they’re keeping it to themselves.”

“They think we’re abominations,” Julian said, tugging Valac’s meaty arm around his shoulders, “because we don’t just tolerate demons, we’re in relationships with them.”

“They’d understand if they’d fuck one,” Daniel said suddenly, and Julian choked on a laugh.

Chaol grinned. “Good luck finding a demon who’d fuck one of them.”

“I know a few who like a challenge,” Valac mused.