Epilogue

EPILOGUE

DARCY

I fuckin’ love watching Peach walk ahead of me. That ass got its hooks in me from the moment I landed in Hell. That image of him chatting with a soul splitter trying to manipulate him into walking willingly into Hell’s version of ICE will be a core memory for me for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, since that first encounter, I have learned not to trust my mate with his own safety. The man really will stare into the barrel of a .45 thinking the man on the other side of the trigger just needs some therapy and a hug. He’s crazier than Romily, and that’s a pretty high bar to leap over.

“Crispin, what are you doing here?” my kind, loving, beautiful, stupid mate asks the man pointing a gun in his face.

I flex my hand, activating the spell that I carved into my bones that turns my fist into a deadly weapon.

“Move b-back, Elijah. I’m not j-joking around. I’ll shoot you,” Crazy Crispin stutters, pushing my lover toward our house.

The wards activate with me and Peach on one side of them and Crazy Crispin on the other. I could let it go. We could walk into our house and he’d never be able to follow, because these wards keep every being with bad intentions toward us out of our space, but that would leave a man having a psychotic break on the sidewalk where anyone could set him off, and that would upset my mate. So I can’t do that.

“Stay behind the wards,” I order Peach, pointing at him so he knows I’m serious. “You’re not dying by bullet wound today.”

Peach frowns, grabbing my finger and holding it. “It’s not like I wouldn’t get better. You have murder face. It’s not Crispin’s fault.”

I roll my eyes at that. Sure, my mate has some potent feu follet magic, but Crispin made choices, and then he made more, and now he’s making another. The magic isn’t forcing him to do this, he decided to do it, and the magic supports his decision because feu follet magic is nothing if not encouraging.

It’s no wonder Peach is the most supportive person on the planet.

“Crispin made choices, and now it’s my turn.” I ain’t gonna let this fucker keep doing shit that interrupts the few dates I get with my mate. “How long you known him?” Not that it matters, but I’m making a list of all Peach’s exes so I can tag any of the ones I should be concerned about.

Peach scrunches up his nose. “He sits next to me in my Water Management class.”

In other words, he’s only known him a few months.

“This is his fault,” I assure Peach as Crispin starts yelling about not being able to bypass the wards.

Peach sighs, dips down, and kisses me. “Don’t get too bloody. We’ll miss the movie if you have to shower again.”

I fuckin’ love this man.

I harden my fist as I turn, take two steps beyond the ward, and sucker punch Crispin across the cheek. His head spins backwards with a satisfying snap before it explodes in a beautiful red and gray mist, and his headless body drops to the sidewalk. The gargoyles that line the fence in front of our brownstone chime loudly in appreciation of the snack, and the body, blood, and brain matter all disappear in a few blinks.

Peach rejoins me on the sidewalk, taking my hand. I’m still getting used to holding hands with another person, but the way he’s always reaching for me…

I didn’t know I was touch starved until he offered me no strings attached touch. Sex is sex, but holding hands? Hugging? Cuddling? I needed those more than I ever needed to get my dick wet, and this man gave them to me with no expectation for more.

I pull his hand up and kiss him, leaving a black impression of my lips on his skin. “After dinner, we’re adding all the names of the people you sit with at school to the Might Be A Problem list.”

Peach sighs and squeezes my hand. “That’s really not fair to them.”

“I’ll act fair when the people around you start making better choices.” Until then, I’m going to enjoy killing his stalkers, and I predict this will be an on-going problem for the rest of our lives. I’m not upset about that.

“Sometimes I think you love murdering people more than you love me,” he teases, laughing as we walk toward the next main street to hail a cab.

I grin at my mate’s ridiculous accusation, shooting him a flirtatious wink. “That’s not true. I love you at least as much as I love murdering the people who stalk you.”

Peach suddenly stops in the middle of the sidewalk. The sunshine suddenly disappears as a shadow falls over us. I turn, finding him looking straight up, and I follow his gaze to the biggest spaceship I’ve ever seen hovering over the city.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and when I open them, the flying saucer is still there.

“I didn’t have alien invasion on my bingo card this year,” Peach confesses, sounding disappointed.

“Not my circus. Not my monkeys,” I tell him, pulling him along again. “I ain’t missing our date for this.”

Peach hums his agreement and nods, walking along with me. “Priorities, right? You can see what’s up tomorrow.”

That’s right. Priorities. Peach first, then the rest of the universe.