all the roads you took came back to me

Lochlann grunted in pain when Gabriel sunk the dagger into his shoulders. Though his body had tensed and he'd started to sweat, he didn't struggle or make any attempt to run away.

Lochlann was done running.

"Please," Lochlann said. He gave a dry snort, like Gabriel had just told him the most hilarious joke he'd ever heard. "You expect me to just believe that? It seems oddly suspicious that you of all people have a darling demon daughter in another dimension who never heard of you for years until she's accidentally summoned here, and then you welcome her back with open arms.... You're right--this really is out of my comprehension. "

He had to take a deep breath now because with out the normal rush of booze to dull the pain, the feeling of the blade in his shoulder was really, really intense.

"I want to marry your daughter," Lochlann told him.

He was lying, though only partially. Lochlann did desire Chloe, and he did want to marry her, but only to spite Gabriel, and he knew his friend would never do something like that just to piss off her dad.

But oh did it feel good to say it.

"I am going to be in your business for a long time," Lochlann snarled at him. "Because Chloe is worth that, and I swear to all the gods in this world and the next, we will have this conversation because if I have an even an inkling that you want to hurt her, I will find a way to exorcise you back into the hell from which you came. Permanently."

Lochlann glared up at him, his chest rising and falling in short, angry breaths.

"Oh, you'll be invited, but it'll be specially requested that you come in your girl shape and you will have the worst bridesmaid dress in the history of dresses," Lochlann murmured.

He closed his eyes, surprised by the intimacy of Gabriel's thumb brushing across his lip, and Lochlann braced himself for what he knew must be coming next.

When he twisted the knife, Lochlann's face blanched, but he didn't cry out. He didn't know if it was better or worse that he was starting to get used to this pain.

The pressure on him lifted as Gabriel stood up and offered Lochlann a hand. The cabyll-ushtey eyed him, hearing his words about pleases and thank yous but not quite registering them. Lochlann took his hand and pulled himself to his feet slowly, like his leg was hurting him....

.....and then Lochlann swiped Mihk's feet out from under him, just as the demon had done to him and grabbed at the knife while the man was falling. Quickly, Lochlann was straddling his hips, mirroring their earlier position, and he stabbed the knife into Gabriel's shoulder just as he'd done to him.

Lochlann's chest was still heaving.

Holy shit, his reflexes hadn't been this good since Freshman year. If Lochlann was being honest, the fact that he was capable of this honestly scared him.

"Have dinner with me tonight," Lochlann twisted the knife and then took it out, throwing it to the other side of the alley. "Please?"

For some reason, Lochlann's eyes softened when Gabriel mentioned that he preferred the flowers.

"Did you like them?" Lochlann asked, and then inwardly he punched himself. Why did it matter? The flowers had been a ruse, right? It's not like he'd gone to three different flourists looking for someone to get the perfect arrangement. It's not like Lochlann knew the names of three different flourists or anything. That'd be weird.

Lochlann picked himself up off Gabriel, dusting off his pants, and then offering the demon his good arm, since the knife wound was making his other arm a little weak.

"I don't miss you," Lochlann said. "The last few weeks without you have been the best weeks of my life."

Not true. He'd overdosed, gotten stabbed, and his relationship status turned into a huge question mark.

"It's just that old expression: better the devil you know. So come have some fucking pot roast and brace yourself for a delicious fucking dinner," Lochlann said. "And tell me about yourself. You've been in my head. It's boring. Fill it with stories. Why would a demon decide to open a night club for Nonhumans? That seems...."

Nice wasn't a word that even crossed his mind when Gabriel was around.

He decided not to finish the statement.

"I don't believe you," Lochlann said after a moment. He wasn't looking at the demon at that moment, instead he was placing two fingers gently against the wound on his shoulder.

"People like you and me, we might live on the fringes, but we don't have a sense of morality," Lochlann said. "If we want people to welcome us with open arms, it's only because it makes it easier to drag them under the water, so to speak."

For a moment, Lochlann felt a flicker of hatred roar up in his belly like a candle flame before resignation washed it out. That first night with Gabriel, or Cecelia, or whatever, had been the first night Lochlann stopped pretending he was anything other than a monster.

"So what's your end game?" Lochlann asked while they walked. "If non-human souls are worthless to you, that's what I can't figure out. Why do you want to open a club for nonhumans?"

Lochlann wasn't limping like he was a few months ago, but the blood coming from his shoulder was starting to make him a little dizzy, and he lost his balance once as they walked, pressing his hand onto the brick wall of a nearby building for support before continuing after him.

He followed Gabriel up to his suite and leaned against the door, hesitating. When the man pulled out the two vials, Lochlann shook his head.

"I'd rather bleed," he said. There was no way in hell he was drinking anything from Gabriel ever again. Even if, sometimes in the middle of the night, Lochlann thought about whatever had been in that vile that felt so, so good.

He wasn't lying this time--Lochlann would rather bleed than drink something Gabriel gave him--but he was lying to himself if he thought he didn't look to the bottle of a bottle for support.

He eyed the interior of Gabriel's apartment, surprised to see that he recognized some of it. He had been really drunk that night and didn't remember being here, but he must have been.

lame post is lame sorry