He nodded. "I'm not sure if it is the same foryou, but it's extremely," he hesitated as if searching for the right word,"intimate, I guess you could say. I like touching you. I still do not liketouching others."
"Well, just in case some time in the distantfuture you do find someone else, keep that in mind. I think you've leftyourself more vulnerable to me than either of us realize."
Ezra's expression turned pensive before he sighed. "It'sdone now. No going back at this point. You have a good point, though, and Ishouldn't have done it. My only thought was how to keep you safe until you canbuild up your own powers to more appropriate levels."
"I appreciate that, Ezra. Thank you."
He nodded. "Let's get your things sent and we'llgo meet the gatekeeper and get our incubus back."
I smiled at him. Hopefully, he knew how much Iappreciated those words. We went into my bedroom and I caught a stray hint oflust from Ezra as he eyed my bed, but I also felt him remind himself of ourmission. Shit, that was weird.
"I'll teach you how to keep stray thoughts out.It's entirely possible you'll pick them up from Sabian now, too."
"Why am I getting your thoughts?"
"I don't know. We should keep that to ourselves,however."
"Yeah, I figured that out already." Well,Darius was right, I was in deep. Oh well. If that's what it took to get Sabianand to stop the apocalypse, then I guess I was all in. Something else occurredto me. "Mate, the horsemen, aren't they supposed to want the apocalypse?"
"No. They're simply instruments of a biblicalone. If they can prevent it, they will."
"If we can't, will we have to fight against them?"
Ezra clenched his jaw. "Let's not find out."
I shook my head. "Not something I ever thought I'dhave to deal with."
He nodded. "Oddly enough, me either."
"Really?"
Ezra shrugged. "Demons can be killed. And no onereally expects the apocalypse to actually happen. Even demons."
"Gottcha. Okay, how do we do this?" Iquickly threw my stuff into my duffel, pulled the holy water out of my jacket pocket,and threw it in, then pulled out my fancy knife that Mal had given me and addedthat to the pile.
"Where's your phone?"
I tugged that out and saw that I had a message. I'ddone a good job of ignoring it and felt bad. I should have texted Mal andAaron. I was so not used to being in real relationships.
It was a group text from the guys.
Mal: We miss you.
Aaron: Be careful.
I replied with some hearts and a quick note that I wasokay and that I was going in. They'd know what that meant.
Both guys replied right away with more requests for meto be more careful than normal. It was like they knew me or something.
"Turn that off and throw it in your bag. It hasthe best chance of survival that way."
"Shit, these things aren't cheap, you know."
Ezra nodded. "I'll get you a new one if itbreaks, how about that?"
I gave him a sour look but did what he said.
"Okay. This is what you do." He put his handover mine so we were both touching the duffel. Then I felt him reach for hispower, and I felt the shape that he made with the energies, and how one certaindestination called to him above all the others.
"There?" I asked.
"Yes."
It didn't escape my notice that he wrapped his otherarm around me, and now that I knew what to look for, I could feel his reactionwhen I drew on his power through the mark.
"Okay, yeah, I can see why you might not beanxious to do that with just anyone," I said.
His fingers tightened on my hip. "Yes. Try not toabuse your power over me."
I chuckled. "Oh, I'm going to abuse it, in allthe best ways."
He sucked in a breath. The thought of what I might doto him was not displeasing him one bit.
"Let's try and focus, or I'm about to delay thistrip and I don't think you want that."
I laughed. "If we weren't on a rescue mission, I'dlet you."
He nuzzled my neck, kissing me. "All you have todo is send your bag now. It will end up in my study. No one will bother it.Especially with the holy water and that knife."
"I'm a little surprised you're letting me bring them."
He chuckled. "I want you safe, Chris. This willgive you an edge you need. Besides, if you were going to use them on me, Ithink you would have already."
"True that." I used the energy floodingthrough me and sent the bag. It vanished, though I still had a vague sense ofit until I let go of Ezra's power.
He took a deep breath and shivered, though he stillheld me. I let him delay us a few more minutes. I was nervous about meetingthis gatekeeper and I was especially nervous about going to hell. We had to getSabian though, so I finally pulled away. "Okay, let's do this."
Hand in hand, we left the suite, Mayhem trotting aheadof us.
"Where do we have to go?"
"Not far."
"Let me guess. There's a night club involved."
Ezra hesitated his step before glancing at me. "Howdid you know?"
"Wait, seriously?"
He nodded.
"Uh, wow, that's so cliché it's almost not funny."
The demon laughed. "Well, some clichés exist fora reason, I suppose."
Ezra took a moment in the lobby to check us out, andthen we headed out into the evening. I felt attention on me, but when I lookedaround, I didn't see anyone.
"Are we being watched?"
"Probably," Ezra replied, squeezing my handreassuringly.
He wasn't particularly worried at the moment, andMayhem seemed relaxed as the puffball shaped hellhound trotted ahead of us.There were plenty of people out on the streets, as it wasn't terribly late, butthey moved aside as we headed for our destination. That wouldn't have happenedif I hadn't had a demon prince and a hellhound with me. Benefits to dealingwith the demons, I supposed.
It didn't take long before Ezra turned down an alley. Itwas obvious this was a cared for and well used alley, but it was still narrowand after everything that we'd learned recently, I felt a bit claustrophobic.
The atmosphere pressed
