Page 88 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

Joe pressed his knee against Percy’s beneath the table. “What happened to eternity? Burning down the gates of Heaven?”

“That’s when you were dead and I didn’t have anything to lose. But now you’re back?—”

“So you’ll throw me away before you lose me again?”

“Something like that.”

Joe let a few empty beats fall between them before he asked, “And Cleo? Are you going to throw her away too?”

Percy’s eyes closed slowly, and remained that way when he said, “It’s not like that.”

“Of course it’s not.” Joe pulled at Percy’s hand until he drew his gaze back. “I know you and I know you’re going after her next. I love that about you. I love that you could walk away right now, with me, which I know is what you want. And I love that you won’t.”

“Joe, it doesn’t matter what you or I love. That’s the rule of evil. It will always destroy what we have. It will come back again and again and chip away at this. If it’s not Molly, then it will be some bishop with a basement full of soul eaters. If it’s not that, it will be a group of fucking Nazis with a nice painting. There will always be something. There’s no escaping it.”

“It’s because you seek it out,” Joe said softly. “If we’d already moved to our nice pub, you wouldn’t have a clue those things were going on out there.”

“The pub would inevitably be haunted. You know that as well as I do.”

“Probably.” Joe chuckled. He sipped the blood-red drink, which was, as always, wonderful. Percy’s taste, everything about him, always wonderful, in its bittersweet way. Joe ventured to point out what Percy must already have known. “Molly will be ready for us this time. You know she’s powerful. Maybe even more powerful than her familiar, and it almost killed us both so easily. We’ve seen her raise the dead—god knows what else she can do. And I’m willing to bet, the thought’s already crossed your mind that if you kill her body, Cleo’s trapped in that skull forever.”

That idea, until then unspoken, had occurred to Percy, over and over, but only as background noise. He’d been too busy to let himself worry about it. “I’ll figure it out.”

“No. There’s no way I’ll let you do this on your own. I know I’m not a hitman. Or much of an art thief. Or a trafficker of fine arts and artefacts. But what I am is a man who’s in love with you. And it’s time for you to take your foot off the pedal, just for a little while. Let me help.”

A sceptical smile cut into Percy’s cheek, bereft of humour, and he shook his head.

“I know.” Joe lifted Percy’s fingers and kissed his open palm. He placed his hand on his chest and held it there. “It’s control. It’s what you need. I understand that now. But I need you to slow down and listen to me.” Taking Percy’s hand to the table, he reached inside his coat, and produced Moxie, setting her down by Percy’s fingers.

The act elicited Percy’s sharp, “Get that thing the fuck away from me.”

Joe grasped the hand he withdrew. “This cat is the key to everything. It understands Molly. It can help us fix this. Itwillhelp us fix this.”

Percy stood to leave, but Joe was up faster, locking an arm around his waist. “If you try to go without me, I’ll come anyway. I know I let you down?—”

“You didn’t let me down.” But even with that comment, thrown out so blithely, Percy remained avoidant, his chin pulled up and away, the distance palpable.

“Would you stop saying that? Even now you’re trying to protect me, and I need you to stop. You’ve done enough.”

“It was a good and noble thing?—”

“It wasn’t good and noble that got us out of that,” Joe cried in exasperation. “It was your passion, and your violence, and your anger. It was your steadfastness.” He wrapped his fingers around the opening in Percy’s shirt, feeling the strong beat of his heart beneath the palm of his hand. “Percy, when you said those things, when you talked about tearing eternity apart, when you almost slashed my throat and yours, that’s when I realised. You’re never going to change.” Percy withdrew a little further into himself, eyes to the carpet, words lost at his lips, and Joe put a hand to his cheek and moved closer, chest against chest. “And I have never felt so safe in my entire life.”

Finally, Percy’s eyes met Joe’s, their lips an inch apart. “I thought, hoped, I was right when I agreed to marry you. I’ve been in love with you since our first week together. But when you put that knife to my throat, that’s when I knew. You’re the one true thing. We’re forever, becauseyou’reforever. You make me feel so safe, and I won’t give that up. I won’t ever give you up, so stop talking like that. If that trust you had in me is broken, then let me prove myself. Please. I’m not going back to the emptiness I felt before I had you. Before you filled me up with your brutal, beautiful way of loving. With every ridiculous and perfect thingthat you are.” His chest heaved out a frustrated groan. “I love you. I love you to the end of existence and back, and I’m never leaving you. Not for all the world.” Joe’s two hands on Percy’s cheeks pulled him in, and had Percy wanted to resist the soft lips that caressed his, it wouldn’t have been possible.

It was over. They both knew it. But Percy tried a last ditch, “It’s not safe.”

“Fuck, Percy, nothing’s been safe since the day I met you. You live in a constant storm. You are a storm. There’s no escaping that because it’s who you are. But I need you to understand, I want to be in that storm with you. You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever wanted. We’re going to fix this. We’ll get Cleo back in her body, Molly reunited with her familiar, and then we’re going to get your kitten back to you, too.”

“Percy!” the barman called across the almost empty room. “No cats in the bar!”

“I’ve had a long day, Ben,” Percy shouted back. “Can’t you see I’m breaking up with my fiancé?”

“No, he’s not!” Joe called out.

Ben watched the two a moment, then rolled his eyes and said, “Drinks are on the house.”

“Two more Devil’s Cocktails,” Percy responded.

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