12. 12

12

Beau

D ying was… strange.

He didn’t really remember what had happened. What the twins had done to him. All he remembered was making the deal, and then a warm, basking light that felt like it was guiding him away, offering out open arms.

It was cut off abruptly by a cloud of darkness, ripping him away from the light and pulling him down. The light brightened, pushed back against the darkness, tugged at him, and wrapped itself around him.

It tried.

But the darkness doubled, and soon, not a sliver of light could be seen. He was sinking.

And then he was waking up in blackness.

He’d panicked, confused and scared at first as the magnitude of what he’d done hit him. Worried that he’d been tricked or had dreamed the whole thing until he realized he was trussed up, with something covering his mouth, and there were some sort of walls closing him in.

He’d wiggled around, managing to get to his knees and then shake off the ribbon around his mouth. He oddly found that he didn’t need the deep breath he took in. He awkwardly made it to his feet and then straightened up, trying to maintain his balance when he hit the top of something and it popped off, light finally breaking through.

He blinked, trying to orient himself, looking down to realize he was in a box and tied up with red ribbon.

He blushed.

And then he heard his name and saw a shape moving and… there.

Lavender skin. Eyes of every jewel tone. Two horns and a tail.

“Kassel?” he asked, hoping, praying…

Kassel gathered him up in his arms and it felt so right. So safe. So perfect. He wanted to cry all over again.

Kassel lifted him out of the box and walked him over to the bed, where he sat with Beau on his lap, still completely wrapped up. Kassel’s many eyes checked him over, his hands following to skim every inch of him like he couldn’t believe he was real. Beau melted into it, loneliness and sadness chased away by his demon until he couldn’t even see their shapes anymore.

“Beau, you’re dead,” Kassel said, sounding shocked.

“I know,” Beau said shakily.

Deep down he’d known what was being offered to him. What the stakes were and what he was sacrificing. The living didn’t get to go to Hell.

He was giving up his life for a chance at really living.

“How?” Kassel asked. “The box was signed by the twins…”

“It’s a long story, but don’t be mad at them. They helped me and I knew what I was getting into.”

Kassel didn’t look mad, he looked astonished. “But why are you here? You should be in Heaven.”

He thought of the light reaching out for him.

“I didn’t want to go,” he mumbled. “Are you… happy that I’m here?” Beau finished softly.

“Yes,” Kassel answered, always honest and making Beau’s now unbeating heart pound. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too…” Beau whispered, fingers picking at the edge of the ribbon holding them stationary. “I cried every day.”

Kassel stroked a thumb under his eye and Beau could feel them filling up again just thinking about that dark storm, about how emotional he was right now, seeing Kassel again.

“I cried as well.”

Beau made a hurt sound. “You did?”

Kassel nodded, tucking a piece of Beau’s hair behind his ear. “Once I realized you were my heart, I grew sad.”

Beau caught a breath he didn’t need to take, sure he had misheard. He looked between all of Kassel’s beautiful eyes, seeking the answer. “Your heart?”

“My heart. The only one I’ll ever have.”

A few tears slipped free of Beau’s lashes, Kassel catching them with concern.

“You are sad still?”

Beau shook his head, making more tears fall, but he smiled through it, tasting salt on his tongue. “These are happy tears. Overwhelmed tears like when you came back the first time. I didn’t think I’d ever get to hear someone tell me…”

“That I love you?”

It was all he had ever wanted.

He buried his face in Kassel’s shoulder and felt Kassel cradle the back of his head. He didn’t sob, but the tears flowed, like a dam breaking. He released a lifetime of unworthiness and sadness, letting it leak down Kassel’s leather jacket and be dried by the warm fires of Hell.

“I love you too. That’s why I had to come here to see you, I needed you to know. I regretted not saying it as soon as you were gone.”

“Feelings were explained to me,” Kassel said. “I didn’t know I had so many.”

That startled a giggle out of Beau, and he pulled back to look at Kassel’s handsome face. Kassel stared back, softness and wonder there plain to see.

“I think you became my heart when you laughed at the top of the world.”

Beau was touched beyond words, remembering that magical moment vividly. Kassel’s words, usually so dry and clipped, painted a picture just for him. “You became mine the moment I read about you in that summoning book. I just knew it had to be you.”

Kassel laid him down on the bed, following after him. He was tight against his side and propped up on an elbow, staring and staring and staring like he couldn’t get enough.

“Kiss me?” Beau begged.

Kassel gave him what he wanted without hesitation, no summoning in place to muddy the waters. He kissed him because Beau asked and Kassel wanted to give it to him, wanted it too.

Beau’s leftover tears smeared between their cheeks but were quick to dry, Beau getting lost in every gentle press of their mouths. He’d longed for it so much. He felt drunk on it now he could indulge without limits.

Kassel petted his hair, fingers finding the edges of the bow and tracing them like he had some sort of fascination with it. He pulled back to look at it. “I like this.”

Beau squirmed a little, thighs rubbing together as his excitement bloomed shyly. “The bow or…”

He blushed.

Kassel sifted his fingers through his hair again, then lower, skating over his chest. “All of it. You make a pretty gift.”

“You can unwrap me if you want,” Beau said boldly, then immediately became mortified.

He didn’t have a controlled enough face to say those things out loud and not cringe.

Kassel seemed intrigued by the prospect though, eyes turning a shade darker. “Can we keep the bow on?”

Beau was burning up. “Yes.”

Kassel didn’t need telling twice. He shed his jacket, throwing it off into the room somewhere. Beau was left to admire miles of rippling lavender skin as Kassel tugged his leather pants open. He didn’t take them all the way off, just left them hanging, the base of his hardening cock visible through the opening, making Beau want to simultaneously clutch his pearls and die from how hot it looked.

Kassel was on him next, hands snaking under the ribbon’s edges and pushing at Beau’s turtleneck first, making it skate up his body before it disappeared entirely from existence.

Beau gasped as warm silk touched his bare skin, brushing against his hardened nipples as Kassel moved down to his next target. Kassel changed tactics here, breaking the ribbons around his legs and slotting himself in between before retying them around each thigh. Only then did he remove Beau’s jeans.

Then Beau was completely nude, ribbons the only thing obscuring his body, one lying right over his hardening cock on his stomach. He squirmed nervously, still unused to intimacy, and every brush of fabric made him tingle from head to toe. He gasped in shock.

Kassel watched him with lustful eyes, beginning to place kisses down his body. Licking over his nipple through the fabric before edging lower. Beau groaned, reaching up for him only to be held back. Beau liked the texture but didn’t like the restriction.

“I want to touch you too,” he panted.

Kassel paused over his navel, three eyes glancing up before he lifted his head. He looked over the ribbon before maneuvering it around, creating some slack for Beau to get his arms free before tightening it again with a knot at the small of his back.

Beau gasped as his bare hips jutted upward, the silk moving over his hardness and soaking up everything he was already leaking.

He grabbed for Kassel’s wavy locks, urging him down with pathetic little tugs to claim his wanting mouth. Kassel gave him what he wanted, satisfying his every desire like it was his only purpose in life.

As he was ravished, he felt Kassel rub against him, the undulations of his hips making his pants slip until his huge cock sprang free of its confines to ride along the crease of Beau’s thigh and hip, catching the edge of the ribbon and slipping under.

Kassel grunted and Beau gasped into the air between their mouths, Beau lifting his legs to wrap around the small of Kassel’s back to keep him in place. They rocked together, panting and hot. Beau could feel himself leaking more, his wetness mixing with the copious amounts of precum Kassel was releasing.

Beau realized belatedly that even though the liquid was touching him, he didn’t feel that same out-of-control lust as before.

“It’s not working,” he said breathlessly, reaching down with a shaking hand to gather it on his fingers.

Kassel ducked down and licked it off with his long, pointed tongue, making his stomach swoop and his thighs clench around Kassel’s hips.

“You’re not a virgin anymore, my heart.”

Beau found himself pouting. “Technically it was just the tip…”

Kassel snorted, kissing his puckered mouth. “We have other things to explore.”

Kassel stopped rocking against him and grasped his huge cock in his hand, repositioning them so it was aimed straight where it needed to be. Beau bit his lip, fingers digging into Kassel’s shoulders as he felt him test the give of his rim. He moaned, head falling back, hips falling apart, opening as wide as he could as he felt his body give slowly but surely.

Kassel pushed in, not stopping to stretch him further, not stopping at just the tip this time, just sliding all the way home.

“Ohh,” Beau keened, mouth agape as he watched that enormous pole disappear inside of him like a magic trick, his stomach jutting out the only thing telling him it wasn’t.

He came, clutching the sheets above his head, unable to stand both the feeling and the visual of finally being full. He painted the red ribbon white, shuddering through every shock wave.

Kassel didn’t stop there though, instead he pulled back and drove home again, shifting him up the bed, giving him everything he couldn’t give him while he was still human. Beau gasped, grasping hold of Kassel’s neck for support and locking surprised eyes with him. He realized he was still very much hard, despite just coming.

Kassel kept up the pace, snaking his arms under his back and curling his hands over Beau’s shoulders to hold him on his cock.

Beau lost his mind, calling Kassel’s name louder with every thrust until he was seeing stars and coming all over again.

“Better than being a virgin?” Kassel asked in his ear.

Beau could only moan in answer as he was manhandled around onto Kassel’s lap, both of them sitting up. Kassel was still thrusting up into his limp, wanting body and hitting his prostate dead on, not pausing for a moment.

Hands and claws grasped handfuls of his ass, the ribbon ripping as they caught it until it was unraveling and Beau was unraveling too, for a third time.

Kassel followed finally, moaning and shooting in him. He filled him to the brim, hot and heavy and making Beau doubt he could even hold it all as he chased the last of his pleasure until they rocked to a standstill.

They panted in the aftermath, jolts of pleasure making Beau twitch.

“Being alive sucked so much,” Beau mumbled dazedly.

Kassel snorted, placing a gentle kiss on his shoulder and adjusting the bow still in his hair, which had survived the onslaught. He was still inside Beau, fully sheathed despite growing softer, and the feeling was so staggeringly wonderful that Beau wanted to bask in every second.

Kassel seemed to have other ideas, moving as if to detach them and clean them up.

Beau immediately panicked, clenching every part of his body to hold him in place. “Wait!”

Kassel paused and pulled back to stare at him. “What’s wrong?”

“We could stay like this,” Beau mumbled, flushing rosier than his whole body already was, feeling with a growing certainty that this was a thing for him. This feeling of fullness. Completeness. Intimacy.

He couldn’t feel alone, not like this. Not with proof of Kassel’s affection filling him up.

It wasn’t even overtly sexual.

Beau could see himself crawling under a blanket to watch a movie together and just being full to the brim, sitting on Kassel’s lap, back to chest with his arms wrapped around him and his cock nestled inside.

It was his first real sexual awakening moment. An ‘oh’ of knowing as something slotted into place right where it needed to be.

“I like it.”

Kassel hummed, eyes showing a glint of amusement. “I know. I can taste it.”

“You can do that?!” he gasped.

“I’m a demon. I also work in the second circle of Hell.”

“Which is…”

“Lust,” Kassel said, placing a sticky kiss to his neck.

Beau arched into the smooching, even as his mind ran over the information. “So does that mean that every time I, you know, thought about you like that or…”

“Made yourself come before snuggling up to me?”

Beau gasped in mortification, covering his own face, but Kassel simply held him tighter, slotting their hips together more snugly.

“You smelled delicious. Like fresh cookie dough. Just like now.”

Beau was easily mollified and cuddled up to Kassel, arms and head over his shoulders while Kassel stroked his back.

This was the real Heaven.

They had so much to talk about, so much to work out, but it seemed out of reach in that moment. He just wanted to bask in them being together for real. Hopefully for eternity.

A streak of light cut through the room and Beau shielded his eyes against the familiar brightness, noticing something ethereal descending into a part of Hell through the open window.

“An angel,” Kassel said.

Beau got a pit in his stomach all of a sudden. He looked at Kassel with fear, knowing there could only be one reason why an angel had suddenly come to Hell after he’d arrived. Why he’d felt like there was something else pulling at him when he died.

“I’ll talk to Luc,” Kassel assured him. “Oren is an innocent soul, but he got to stay in Hell.”

“But what if they won’t do that again?”

Kassel squeezed him to his chest. “They’re not taking my heart from me.”

Beau’s lip wobbled but he nodded bravely, feeling some reassurance.

They did a quick cleanup, Kassel summoning Beau’s clothes from wherever they had been sent to, and then Kassel was carrying Beau out the door bridal style, like he was worried he was going to be stolen away from him if he put him down for a moment. Beau was more than happy to be there, feeling safer inside the cage of Kassel’s arms as well as they traversed the halls. Beau was barely able to take in the fact that this was what Hell looked like. Brimstone, fire, lots of carved red stone, and blood.

He couldn’t say it was pleasant. Beau didn’t bask in suffering.

Screams trailed in the distance like white noise, and depictions of agony were all around.

Maybe he could bake or knit them something to ease their woes just a little? Lift their spirits while he was here.

There was a commotion to be heard as they continued on toward a massive gate, getting louder with every step. Beau squeezed Kassel’s neck tighter.

“This is completely unacceptable!”

“Calm down, Pete. We’ll get this all straightened out,” a deep voice said.

“It’s probably just a misunderstanding,” a brighter voice chimed in. “I was innocent too, after all.”

“A MISUNDERSTANDING?!”

They passed through the doors into what looked to be a cavernous lobby of some kind. Beau recognized the twins standing there side by side, their tails intertwined and their faces sulky. Behind them, holding them by their scruffs was the big alabaster demon the twins had been salivating over, the one with all the business going on downstairs.

Beau avoided looking in that area.

The rest of the people, Beau didn’t know. He could guess, of course. Through the process of elimination the humongous red one with the horns and tail sitting on a throne of bones was most likely the devil, Luc. The little human next to him had to be the writer of the summoning book, Oren.

And the shining one with fluffy white wings and a halo over his head had to be an angel. Pete? Peter? That sounded more heavenly.

Their presence seemed to draw the angel’s attention, and he looked their way, only to gasp in horror.

“Put him down now!” he demanded.

Kassel tightened his grip on Beau and Beau held him back, scared that he was going to be ripped away. He could already feel the lick of warm energy emanating from the angel, calling to him once more.

I don’t want to , he told it silently. Please.

“I said,” Peter repeated, stepping forward with his wings flaring. “Put. Him. Down.”

“No,” Kassel said.

Luc sighed, slumping back in his throne. “This is going to go well.”

Pete pointed at him, halo glowing brighter in anger. “He is not a sinner for you to manhandle, demon!”

“No,” Kassel said again, louder this time for the people in the back. Beau tensed, worried a battle between Heaven and Hell was about to break out.

Peter certainly looked like he was contemplating it.

“Ease up on the PDA for a minute, Kassel. We don’t want a dead bird on our hands,” Luc ordered.

Kassel glared at him. At the literal devil, dead in his face, and said, “No,” again.

Beau felt like he was going to faint from the tension that flooded the room as the word echoed through the dark caverns.

Luc’s eyes turned a brighter, sulfurous yellow that looked like it could eat through anyone it landed on, and Beau could now see a hint of the true devil in him. It was terrifying. But Kassel didn’t back down—he held the devil’s gaze and kept his grip on Beau like he wasn’t ever planning on letting him go.

Which gave Beau the confidence to gather up his rather shaky courage and lean into Kassel’s ear before anything bad could happen to him. “I can stand, it’s okay.”

Kassel turned one blue eye to him, the others staying fixed on both threats.

“They’re not taking you,” he said, not caring who heard.

“I won’t go,” Beau said to reassure him. If there was any way he could avoid it, any way he could fight, he would. He’d already died for this love.

Kassel took a deep breath in before letting him slide down to his feet.

Beau took a moment, closing his eyes and breathing Kassel in. He could feel everyone’s gazes on him, burning holes all over his body.

He opened his eyes and turned to face them with quiet defiance, meeting the angel’s glare last. He flinched back a little.

“You have corrupted him,” Peter said, wings flaring in agitation. “The brightest soul for a century! He was going to be the purest in paradise. Sainthood! Do you understand what you’ve done?!”

“Us?” the twins said, aghast and offended as Peter rounded on them with the last question. “We didn’t fuck him into Hell. Go talk to the virgin defiler who tempted him in.”

Peter gasped at the vulgar language. “You took his life! And if that wasn’t enough of a subversion of the natural order, you dragged his soul to Hell instead of allowing its ascension to the heavenly plane! Don’t think we don’t know!”

“Well if G can do it…” Azoth said.

“… why can’t we?” Tarik finished. “He isn’t the only one who can play matchmaker.”

“Seems like a double standard to us, featherbrain.”

“ Featherbrain !?”

“They are kinda right,” Zorun chipped in. “It’s kind of bullshit.”

“Hush, you!” Peter said, struggling to find his tongue through his apoplexy. Sparks of golden lightning were beginning to crackle in the air above them. “God is the creator of all life! He makes the rules, not you.”

“Ooooh!” the twins chorused together, sneering and dramatic before Tarik continued. “Now he’s getting all high and mighty again with creator this and creator that. That only works for so many centuries, you know. He needs to stop beating a dead horse.”

Another arc of lightning crackled through the air, and Beau gasped from the sheer power of it, feeling the static electricity cling to his skin.

Oren stepped forward at this point with his hands up placatingly. “How about we calm down? We can work this out peacefully. Big G owes me for the whole matchmaking me without my permission thing, so how about Beau stays here and we call it even?”

“You’ve more than cashed in that favor,” Peter ground out between his teeth. “The only one still falling for that is G himself.”

“I would watch your tone when talking to him, feathers,” Luc said casually, but there was murder lurking in every word.

Peter’s lips flattened. “This isn’t negotiable. Beau is leaving with me.”

Kassel growled, wrapping an arm around Beau’s waist.

“Why don’t we call him?” Luc said, slapping a hand on his throne. “It was all in the name of true love anyway. G loves that shit, he’ll understand.”

“Love? They just wanted an excuse to murder an innocent!” Peter accused.

The twins put on their best innocent expressions. “We have no idea what you’re talking about. We acted in the name of blood… uh… love. We acted in the name of love.”

“Heathens!” Peter spat at them. “It doesn’t matter what you say in your defense. God has left this matter entirely to my discretion.”

Beau broke away from Kassel before the demon could react and stepped over to the angel, who was glowing so brightly he looked like he was about to go supernova.

“Beau,” Kassel called, and he could hear the fear and uncertainty, but he didn’t turn back.

Beau laid a gentle hand on Peter’s arm, feeling otherworldly comfort and hearing a choir singing in his ears.

The angel startled, blinking over at him in shock.

“Are you okay?” Beau asked. “Do you want me to get you a glass of water to calm down?”

The request knocked some of the glow out of him, his confusion overtaking the anger momentarily. “No… thank you.”

Beau nodded, holding his gaze and trying desperately to translate his feelings. He prayed in his head, loudly, desperately.

Please. Please. I don’t want to go. I won’t go. Don’t make me. It’s not Heaven without Kassel. Please. Life has been so hard. I tried my best. Didn’t I try my best? Please. Let me stay.

Peter stared at him for a moment like he was hearing every word, tears beginning to fill his fathomless eyes before he began to cry, like he could feel every emotion in Beau’s heart. All the pain and suffering of his life.

He let his head fall onto Beau’s shoulder and Beau patted his back in comfort. Like he wished someone had done for him. It felt oddly cathartic.

“Just let it out,” he soothed. “There you go.”

“You’re so precious and good,” Peter got out around his sobs.

“I’ll still be that way,” Beau said, continuing to pet Peter’s ruffled feathers. “Just down here instead of up there. Like Oren.”

Peter sniffled. “It’s different. He wasn’t as good as you.”

“Hey!” Oren said, offended.

Luc covered his mouth and dragged him into his lap to quiet him.

“I’ll still be good,” Beau repeated, then continued softly, “I’ll just be happy too.”

Peter lifted his angelic head to stare into his eyes. His tears were like crystals on his face. “They don’t deserve you,” he mumbled sadly.

“I deserve him,” Beau corrected. “Please? Let me choose for myself.”

It was all he’d ever asked for. The only thing he’d ever wanted. When he pictured paradise the only person in it was Kassel. He just wanted to be happy.

Reading every single one of his thoughts again, Peter sighed, his wings drooping behind him. “I’ve never been deaf to your prayers. We heard them your whole life. I’m sorry we couldn't intervene more. We couldn’t interfere, but I promise I was watching over you when I could.”

“I forgive you,” Beau said, feeling it in his heart.

Peter smiled at him before directing a baleful stare at Kassel. “If one hair on his head gets singed…”

“You’ll know about it,” Kassel said placidly. “Because Hell won’t be here anymore.”

The declaration made Beau’s dead heart do flips. He broke from Peter to rush into Kassel’s arms, even though Peter tried to cling to him.

Kassel gathered him up, warm and loving, one large hand cupping the back of his head.

“I’ll be checking in,” Peter threatened. “Regularly.”

“Okay,” Kassel agreed easily, never taking his eyes from Beau’s face.

Peter seemed to scowl harder at Kassel’s non-combative response.

“And he’ll visit Heaven. Once a week,” he continued. “So that his soul is well preserved and doesn’t get exhausted by Hell.”

Beau was surprised. They still wanted him to visit them?

Kassel growled. “I take care of his soul.”

“I would take it if I were you, Kassel,” Luc said. “He isn’t like Oren. Hell isn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows.”

Kassel glared at Luc before glancing down at Beau’s face and softening. He stroked his ear. “Would you like to visit Heaven, my heart?”

Beau wouldn’t lie and say Heaven didn’t sound nice. That comforting warmth that had called out to him had felt divine. And while he wanted to stay with Kassel, whatever it took, he knew that Hell could potentially make him upset or sad. Maybe it would be good to have a break now and then.

“Can Kassel come with me?” he asked Peter.

Peter grimaced. “Demons aren’t typically allowed in Heaven beyond the administrative buildings.”

“But we can make an exception, right?” he asked hopefully.

“For the good of his soul,” Oren chipped in.

“We can work something out,” Peter said grudgingly.

Beau beamed, looking up at Kassel and finding a phantom smile painting his lips too. He hopped up and placed a kiss on his chin, feeling so unbelievably loved and happy his soul was surely about to explode.

“Well…” Azoth said, dusting his hands off.

“… seems like it all worked out perfectly,” Tarik finished.

“You’re welcome,” they chorused together.

Peter went sprinting for them.

The twins hissed like cats and hid behind Zorun.

“Get back here, you hellspawns!”

“That’s not an insult!” Azoth yelled.

“That’s just a fact!” Tarik finished for him, both peeking their heads out from cover to poke their tongues out.

Peter summoned something bright and gold in his hands, enraged beyond comprehension.

“Oh dear,” Beau said to Kassel.

“Now, now!” Zorun said, holding his hands up. “There’s no need for holy vengeance.”

“They show no repentance for their wrongdoings! Sins must be punished!”

“Surely we can work out another punishment.” Zorun continued to use his massive body to protect the troublemakers. “Something with less chance of turning them into ashes.”

“Protect us, Zorun.”

“We’re scared, Zorun.”

Beau didn’t think it sounded like they were scared particularly, but Beau didn’t know the twins that well. Maybe snickering and tickling fingers up Zorun’s muscles was how they relieved anxiety.

Everyone was different.

“There are multiple ways to skin a human, you know,” Zorun said sagely. “You don’t just have to go with the most obvious one.”

Peter tensed in place before he took a visible deep breath in, the glow dissipating from his hands. He straightened his robes. “Fine. I accept your proposal.”

Zorun blinked. “My what?”

“You offered to work out another punishment. So I’ll put you in charge of regulating it.”

“Me?!”

“Punishments are part of your job down here, are they not?” Peter asked.

“Well… yes, but—”

“Then it’s settled.” Peter cut him off. “You will be in charge of rehabilitating these two to put them on a better and more righteous path.”

“How terrible,” the twins yelled dramatically, tails over their foreheads, hanging on to Zorun’s wings. “How will we survive such a cruel punishment?”

Zorun stumbled for a second, trying to balance the limpets attached to him and understand what had just happened. “Wait a minute—”

“The next eon should suffice,” Peter said.

“EON?!”

“You’re right. That’s not nearly enough for them. Two eons.”

“Oh yes. We’re very naughty,” the twins chimed in gleefully.

Zorun seemed panicked now. He turned to the Devil, whose yellow eyes were glittering. “Luc, say something!”

Those yellow eyes glinted. “I think it sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“WHAT!”

“Inspired,” Oren tacked on. “Well done, Peter.”

Peter smiled humbly. “Good. I’ll be checking in periodically for updates. If I hear of any other… incidents… then further steps will be taken. I hope you understand that and take it seriously.”

Zorun was fighting for words, left speechless.

“Wonderful!” Peter said, a heavenly glow shining over the three of them for a second before it disappeared into the inky blackness of Hell. “It’s set.”

“What did you just do?” Zorun demanded.

“I really have to be on my way. We have a fresh intake that I need to show the amenities to,” Peter said, ignoring the demon bearing down on him and approaching Beau. He took one of his hands in both of his. “I’ll be in touch, dear one.”

“That would be nice,” Beau said, smiling and warmed from the inside out.

Peter nodded, then launched himself into the air with a strong flap of his wings, narrowly avoiding the hand grasping for his ankle.

“PETER!” Zorun yelled after him, opening his own tattered wings to give chase.

“Calm down, Zorun,” Luc ordered him, smothering his laughter.

Zorun rounded on the King of Hell. “Calm down!?”

“Yes. Because your ‘charges’ aren’t here anymore.”

Zorun paused, glancing around himself first, lifting one wing, then the other to see if they were hiding. He cursed up a storm. “AZOTH! TARIK!”

He tore out of the room, smoke billowing after him.

“It’s going to be an interesting next two eons,” Luc said. “But it’ll all work out.”

“How optimistic,” Oren said, sliding a hand over his arm. “What’s gotten into you?”

Luc tugged him closer on his lap. “Nothing’s gotten into me, hon. I wouldn’t mind getting into you though.”

Beau blushed scarlet.

“That is our signal to leave,” Kassel said.

Beau nodded eagerly. He wanted to be alone with Kassel anyway and bask in this new home he’d found. He wanted to talk for hours and kiss and laugh and simply exist with him. Kassel took his hand and began to lead him away, ignoring the moaning that quickly started rising behind them.

Beau let his face cool off on the walk back, cuddling into Kassel’s arm. It wasn’t exactly strolling down a beach—even though it was certainly hot enough—but it was perfect regardless.

They spotted Zorun a few hallways over and were stopped by him. “Have you seen them?”

They shook their heads. All had been quiet and undisturbed.

“I’m sure they’ll turn up,” Beau said. “Maybe you can lure them out with their favorite thing?”

Zorun froze like he hadn’t considered that… then looked down at his dick. “You think?”

“Ah… well… they did mention… um…” He covered his eyes with his hands, mortified. “Sure. But maybe in private?”

“You’re smart,” Kassel said, stroking the back of his head.

Beau’s nonexistent tail started wagging. He dropped his hands and leaned into Kassel, letting him pet him into a fugue state.

“You two are grosser than Luc and Oren,” Zorun stated. “Catch you around.”

“Before you go, I have a question,” Kassel said out of the blue.

“What?” Zorun sighed.

“Did you know Dave was in a band?”