Page 67 of Indecent

We’re up, if you want to come hang. Been a while since we’ve wasted a day together.

For a little while before he died, Daniel technically shared his apartment with Ashmedai. While Nicolas was keeping Ashmedai at arm’s length and trying to infiltrate Sloan’s most trusted loyalists, Ashmedai would often come to the apartment to wait until the sun fell so he could go see Nicolas. He’d introduced the sin eater to some of his favorite television shows and video games. It was a bit like having a little brother of his own, albeit one that could kill him with a look. At the time, Ashmedai had been new to the world. He hadn’t known much about Earth or any human cultures. Daniel had been happy to help him learn.

It was funny how things had changed. Now Daniel was the one who needed help adjusting.

“I invited Ash over,” Daniel said.

Chaol glanced back at him. “Okay. Have I mentioned how weird I find it that you’re buddies with a sin eater?”

Ashmedai appeared in front of the refrigerator. “What’s wrong with being ‘buddies’ with a sin eater?” he rasped in that unnatural voice of his.

Chaol shot him an easy, lopsided smile. “Nothing, but y’know, the first time he told me he knew you, I thought he was joking. I’ve never met one of your kind before, and I hadn’t expected one of you to leave the Pit and befriend a bunch of humans.”

Ashmedai’s laugh rattled out of him. “Nor did I, to be fair. Valac!” he called, though he didn’t raise his voice loudly. “Join us. I know you’re awake, too.”

A few moments later, the master bedroom door opened and shut quietly. The big behemoth padded into the room, wearing only a pair of navy blue pajama pants. His pale skin was streaked with black, undulating lazily across his skin. His violet eyes bounced from person to person as he joined them and pulled out the chair across from Daniel, passing one hand across his bald head.

“What are we doing?” Valac asked.

“Wasting the day away,” Daniel said. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Ah. You are unaccustomed to being awake for so long,” Valac surmised.

Daniel nodded. “Yeah. I’m used to sleeping a solid chunk of every twenty-four period. Feels weird.”

“Boring,” Ashmedai said. His knee-length coat swished around his legs as he approached, pulling out the chair beside Valac and flopping down. “Nic-las sleeps so much.” He threw his head back as he said it, a surprisingly animated gesture for the usually stoic demon.

Daniel snorted out a laugh.

Chaol handed out mugs of coffee to everyone and then sat beside Daniel, stretching one arm out across the back of his chair.

“Chaol says you can teach yourself to doze during the day even when you’re not tired,” Daniel said, and Chaol nodded sagely.

“We can,” Valac agreed. “I often do, if only because being away from Julian is grating. And I often slip into his dreams. Dreamwalking makes the time pass quicker, also.”

Grating, Daniel repeated in his mind. Yes, that was a good word for how it felt to be apart from Chaol. The nagging sensation that he was missing something vital. His blackened heart was outside his chest, sitting beside him and drinking overly sweetened coffee. Daniel could smell the sugar from here.

“Don’t sleep,” Ashmedai said. “Can’t. Don’t dreamwalk either. But I like to lay with Nic-las. Watch him sleep. Listen to him snore.”

“Many humans would be uncomfortable with the idea of a sin eater watching them sleep,” Chaol mused.

Ashmedai’s orange eyes winked in and out as he blinked, and he rumbled out a laugh. “He likes it.”

“He likes you,” Daniel corrected. “Loves you, actually. Of course he wouldn’t mind.”

“Will he or Julian be bothered to wake up without you two?” Chaol asked.

“No,” Valac said. “Julian knows I wouldn’t go far.”

“Danny sent his text to both Nic-las and I,” Ashmedai said, gesturing with black, clawed fingers at Daniel. “He’ll know where I am.”

“What do we do with our day, then?” Chaol asked, sliding his fingers up into the back of Daniel’s hair. “Darkling, what strikes your fancy?”

“Hm.” Daniel leaned into Chaol’s side, cupping his mug in his hands. The heat of it was nothing compared to the kernel that simmered in his chest, but it was pleasant nonetheless. “Have you ever played a video game?”

Chaol had not, and Daniel wanted to correct that right away. He dragged Chaol to the living room and booted up the console. Valac and Ashmedai joined them, sitting in the dark living room with nothing but the television for light—which was more than enough, really. It was a seventy-inch screen. Perfect for video games.

They started with a racing game first. Chaol was in awe of the graphics, insisting they’d filmed real cars somehow. The controls were fairly straightforward—gas, brake, speed boosts, and the joysticks for turning—but Chaol still spent more time crashing into walls than he did on the road. He managed to beat a couple of the NPCs on the track with them, but he didn’t finish anywhere near Daniel.