27. Epilogue

Epilogue

Azizia

“Think of me when you touch yourself. I’ll do the same. All my love, Daddy Felix.”

I squeal, stomping my feet against the floor. I roll onto my stomach to face Felix, who is sitting in the captain’s chair. We’re on a boat on our way to Alaska, it’s supposed to be a safe place for people like us.

“Again, again!” I say. “From the beginning. Oh, and make it more growly this time.”

Felix smirks, shaking his head, but I watch his thumb scroll along his phone. He starts again from the top, reading the first email I ever sent him with my fantasy. The one of him talking dirty to me. Yes, I get the live version of this two or three times a day, but I still think my narrative is pretty damn good. I want him to record it just for me so I can listen to it any time I want. No more sharing, not even close. The dirty words that Felix says now are for me and me only.

“Dear Zia. I’ve been thinking about you, about us. I can’t get you off my mind…”

He continues to speak as I roll onto my back, staring up at the blue sky. There are big fluffy white clouds that I wish I could touch because they look so soft. I close my eyes, focusing on the breeze blowing over me and the way Felix says the word “cock.”

It’s fucking magic. Pure magic.

“Can I take a break now?” Felix asks when he’s finished. “My throat is sore.”

“Now you know how I feel when you fuck my face.” I look at him upside down, making his frown look like a smile. I don’t miss his pink cheeks though. He’s still so adorable with how he gets shy sometimes. Poor guy can’t help it, but that’s okay.

“You ask for that,” he says, sounding a little unsure.

I roll over again, this time getting to my feet. I walk over to him and sit on his lap.

“Because I love it,” I tell him.

He still gets weird about consent sometimes, so I do my best to make sure he knows that I want him all the time, always. More than he wants me most times, but that’s only because he can’t keep up. He always makes up for it when his dick gets hard again though, which is my favorite.

I guess what really might be bothering him is that Xadrian is still alive out there, somewhere, and may find me again. With us going so far, to this safe place, it’s unlikely, but it could happen. I’m not worried about it, and Felix shouldn’t be either.

Felix buries his face in my neck and kisses me gently. “Let me get us a snack.”

He taps my waist and I get to my feet as he heads down below to the galley kitchen. I sit on the bench on the side of the boat and pick up the project I’ve been working on. I’ve decided to make friends with Roger, which includes things like calling him a cat and not an alien. Felix assured me that he is a cat, and I should refer to him as such. And that’s fine. I will. But since me and the cat are friends now, we have inside jokes, as friends do. And one of those jokes is me calling him an alien, so you see… it all works out.

I’ve embraced his sweaters, too. Which is what I’m working on. I only have two rows left, and then I’ll get to show it to Felix. I pull out the stuff I need to finish up, and get working.

I learned how to crochet when Felix and I were hiding out after coming back topside. We figured it was best to lay low for a while and let things settle from down below. We haven’t heard from Rae or Silo since that day, but I’m sure they’re fine. After about a month of squatting, we decided to commandeer a boat and get sailing to Alaska. Don’t worry about the boat, we won’t be caught, because I may or may not have killed the owner without Felix knowing. Yes, I know, lay low means don’t kill anyone, but old habits die hard.

I quickly work on the last row, my fingers moving as fast as they can, and when I’m done, I snip the yarn, toss the ball back into the bag and hold up my handy work.

“This is going to be the best gift you’ve ever gotten, Roger,” I say to myself.

Getting to my feet, I head down the stairs to find Felix cutting up some strawberries. He looks at me, eyes narrowing when he sees my hands behind my back.

“What do you have? Don’t tell me it’s another animal.”

I may or may not have been trying to find Roger other friends… he didn’t like any of them.

“It’s not, I swear!” I say.

Felix gives me a face like he doesn’t believe me. So, to prove my innocence, I hold the sweater out to him and smile proudly.

“What is this?” he says, putting down the knife and walking toward me as he sucks the strawberry juice from his finger. It’s sexy as hell, even though he isn’t meaning for it to be.

“I made my friend a sweater.” Felix takes it, running his fingers over the soft, thick material. Then he turns it over, and frowns.

“Really, Zia? You made Roger a lime green and black sweater with the words ALIEN across the back?”

“It’s a joke! Friends have jokes!”

“It’s not a joke if it can be offensive, or one of the friends doesn’t understand it.”

“Well you didn’t say that part!” I argue.

Felix holds my gaze, then starts laughing. He throws his arms around me, hugging me to him.

“This was very sweet of you. I’m sure Roger will love it.”

“I made it extra big to fit his belly,” I say.

“He’ll appreciate that.”

Felix kisses my head, then goes back to finishing our snack. While he does that, I pop into the bedroom to check on my friend. He’s curled up in a ball, sleeping on the bed. Felix was worried about him freaking out and jumping ship, but he won’t even go upstairs. He’s too much of a scaredy cat to be an alien, I realized. Aliens are warriors. They travel and pillage and kill. This cat can hardly walk, let alone run, and he’s afraid of his own shadow half the time.

He peeks an eye open, staring right at me, as if he knows I’m thinking about him. We hold eye contact, and I wonder… maybe his plan all along was to gain my trust.

Felix

Narrowing my eyes, I watch Valek trek back to his truck, whistling to himself while he smiles.

Bullshit .

Ever since he ferried us to Gustavus—the way humans don’t go because it’s basically a death trap and impossible—I’ve been suspicious of him.

Why?

I don’t have a fucking clue but I think the guy is as fake as they come. Right down to the weird shade of his irises. I think Valek isn’t who he says he is despite the amount of good he does.

He runs the safe haven here. Quies Otium , or Latin for Quiet Repose. It’s small right now, it doesn’t seem like many of us make it this far after they leave Purgatory or Hell, but every few weeks, Valek has maybe one or two new residents to settle into a nearby house.

You’d think after almost four months I’d be less suspicious of him. I’ve never seen him do anything except be helpful, but I can’t shake the feeling that Valek isn’t what he seems. Especially since he was working in Hell for so long.

Squinting against the darkness, I step right up to the window, parting the curtains wider while I continue watching him unload our packages.

More shit Zia ordered, no doubt.

That makes me smile.

I didn’t expect the unstable murderous demon to have such a knack with making a home. Especially after never having the opportunity to try before, but Azizia has turned our slice of Quies Otium into a cozy, secluded little home for us, and I’m really proud of her for it.

We’ve adjusted rather well, if I do say so myself.

Valek set us up in a nice little two bedroom cabin, a simple house that had the bare minimum of what we needed to get us on our feet, and since then, we’ve worked to make this space ours .

I was able to put my skills to use. Both the skills I obtained centuries ago, like chopping wood and hunting game, and the skills I acquired from living up top.

Thanks to me, Quies Otium now has WiFi. Military grade secure WiFi, and a radio station.

That’s my job here. I’m the only disc jockey our safe haven has, and while it’s not quite the same as talking to all the word warriors out there, I really enjoy bringing music to people who didn’t have it before. Some of them have never heard music before. It’s a pretty nice gig, and it’s one I can do from the comfort of our home.

Keeping Zia quiet while I broadcast has been quite the task and there have been two separate incidents of at least half of our tiny town listening while she gave me a blowjob because of it.

I smile at the thought.

Falling in love again was something I vowed never to do but I did it. Either that or it’s one hell of Stockholm syndrome case. I do love Zia, though.

We are complete opposites with vastly different hobbies and interests but we work. We balance each other out, push each other to be better.

We’re happy .

Neither of us have had that before and getting to experience it together has been incredible.

Now, if only I could get her to slow down the online shopping, we’d be happy and rich.

Valek walks off our porch after dropping the last package by the door, turning back to give me a little wave and a smirk before he hops into his truck.

“What are you hiding, you phony demon—”

“Felix!”

I jump and spin, cracking the bony remnants of my wing against the glass.

“Jesus fuck, Azizia. You scared the hell out of me.”

She giggles as she lugs Roger through the doorway of the kitchen, his leash dragging behind her.

“Please tell me you didn’t carry him the entire time you were out?”

“No,” she says as she sets him down with a plop. “Just from the corner.”

“That’s still pretty far.”

Zia gives me a small shrug as she bends over to take Roger’s hat off.

“Did he walk at all?”

“Of course he did. I told you I was going to take him for some exercise. That’s what I did. Why are you staring out the front window while you’re naked?”

Glancing down at myself I realize I am, in fact, staring out our front window naked, then quickly turn to draw the curtains closed. Is that why Valek was smirking when he waved? Did he see my junk?

“Not that I mind,” Zia smirks as I face her again. “I like you naked.”

“I guess I forgot.” I rub the back of my neck sheepishly then sigh. “Valek brought a bunch of shit while you were gone.”

“Ah.” She finishes taking Roger’s winter gear off him, little booties and all, before she removes her thick coat and hat.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Felix.”

“Yeah, sure.” I roll my eyes and fold my arms against my chest. “You’re right. I know what it means.”

Azizia thinks I’m nuts for my conspiracies about Valek. She knows he’s powerful, and she did say he weirded her out some when they first met, but Zia doesn’t think there’s anything fishy about that male—other than he doesn’t quite look demon.

“Felix,” she says as she crosses the room. “Stop worrying about him when you should be worrying about me. I don’t like you thinking of anyone else but me. You know this.”

I sigh again as she stops in front of me. “I know you think I’m crazy—”

“Not crazy, Felix. Just like I don't think you’re paranoid or anything else you think drives me batty.” She slides her hands up my stomach and over my pecs, pushing up in her tiptoes until her fingers are in my hair. “I just think you spend too much time worried about other people and not not enough about me.”

I bark out a laugh, wrapping her in my arms and pulling her flush against me. “Is that so?”

Zia nods and smiles as I dip my chin. I brush my lips against hers and grin when she sucks in a sharp breath as I press her hips to mine, my cock hard and thick and sandwiched between us. “I love you, Azizia.”

“I love you, my Felix.”

“Now take your fucking clothes off so I can eat your pussy. I’m hungry and tired of waiting.”

Watching as she does exactly what I say, I can’t help but wonder how we got here. It seems like my isolation in exile was so long ago, like Zia and I have always been together and our horrendous lives before are nothing but terrible dreams.

That just proves we’re meant to be together. Even if I didn’t believe in that before, I do now. Thanks to that crazy demon.

This life, the one Azizia and I are building together, this is all that matters and I’m so fucking grateful for it.

Zia with all of her unhinged ways; I wouldn’t have it any other way. And the peace this safe haven brings? This truly is Quies Otium.