Gray wasn’t sure if he was more shocked by the words “shotgun” or “someone else.” Who the hell else would come to Chosenone? It could be an urban explorer or a ghost town aficionado, but on this day, specifically?

“What are the odds this is a lost hunter?” Gray whispered.

“Zero,” Ian replied. “Have you seen so much as a mosquito in this town since you got back? Nothing alive is here anymore.”

“Except us and Mr. Three’s A Crowd down there.”

“Come on.” Ian palmed his service weapon. “Stay behind me at all times.”

Gray had no trouble following that order. The balcony didn’t have exterior windows, so Ian led the way down the stairwell to the lobby. One of the theater doors was wide open, angled inward and toward them, and there were two cars at the end of the street. Any visitor would know exactly where to find us, so why the warning gunshot?

But why? Who could possibly be here?

Both his and Ian’s parents were dead. After the evacuation, as far as he knew, the former residents of Chosenone had scattered and fled to build new lives in the real, non-demon-protected world.

Ian stayed on the bottom step, his gun up, observing the dim room. Gray strained his ears but heard nothing over the thundering of his own heart. Minutes ago, they’d been happy and teasing, in a good post-coital mood, and now Gray was terrified of another shotgun blast ripping into his body.

They’d been chosen by Chosenone-ami at birth, but they’d disappointed her by being presented as impure sacrifices. Would she still protect her chosen ones now? Or was she waiting for someone to come and feed Gray and Ian into her gaping maw? Gut them and burn them alive in her name.

Gray swallowed against rising bile.

Ian stepped down to the dusty floor and eased toward the wall; Gray followed him, sticking close. The shadows changed shape as they inched along the wall, toward the open door. They were out of sight of anyone who might step inside, but they weren’t safe, with no physical barriers between themselves and the door. Part of Gray wanted to hide behind the candy counter and wait it all out. The rest of him loved Ian too much to abandon him, and this was what Gray wanted, wasn’t it? To end this once and for all?

“Stay back,” Ian whispered. “I’m going to get closer and peek outside.”

Gray squeezed his shoulder in response, then plastered himself to the wall. Squatted down. Ian kept moving forward, toward the open door, staying as close to the wall as possible. He lowered the gun in inched toward the slit of sunshine between the door and wall. Sunlight shined in his eye, making the blue glint like fire. Ian angled his head a few ways, but didn’t appear to see anyone.

The ch-chang of a shotgun by his ear made Gray screech in shock—and then freeze as something hard pressed between his shoulders. Ian spun, gun up and braced with is free hand, aiming behind Gray. Gray started panting, vision blurring, as panic set in.

“Put it down,” a deep, scratchy, yet familiar voice said behind Gray. “Unless you want your faggot boyfriend’s spine all over the floor.”

Ian hesitated. “What do you want?”

“Retribution. You little shits destroyed my town fifteen years ago, and I’ve been planning your deaths ever since.”

Gray couldn’t stop shaking. He knew that voice without looking, recognizing the anger and fury from that day when their town quite literally went to hell…

…Blazing heat against his face and scalp draw Gray out of his fog. A strange fog that began at dinner and carried him up the long, packed-earth path to the unused sanctuary. He didn’t resist being told to lay down, but the pressure around his wrists and ankles was weird. And then the head-rush of suddenly being upside down, over this strange, overwhelming heat.

Someone is speaking nearby, gibberish words like a chant, but Gray doesn’t understand. He tries to focus on what’s happening and discovers a sea of gray-robed people seated on what appear to be dug-earth bleachers. They’re all serious. And upside-down. No, Gray is upside-down, tied to something, and…naked?

No, his underwear is still on, but a difficult look down—up?—his body confirms that’s all he’s wearing. And as he became more aware of his body, he was touching someone. Hard, hot metal pressed against the length of his spine, his arms, and the backs of his legs, but it was thin metal, and another person’s flesh touched his on the periphery of his body.

Are we tied to this thing together? Who’s with me?

Keeping his head up in the never-ending heat is exhausting, and Gray lets his head hand free. In his peripheral vision, he catches a flicker of an orange sea. No, not a sea.

Fire.

And his actual situation becomes shockingly clear. The bottom of these stadium of earth bleachers is an open pit, he’s dangling over said pit by some sort of chain, and the bottom of the pit is on fire. And people are sitting here watching it happen.

What the hell is going on!?

He tries speaking, but his mouth is too dry—from the intense heat, or the wine he drank that made him dizzy, Gray doesn’t know. And it doesn’t matter. Something very, very bad is about to happen.

A sacrifice.

The gray-robed figure that was chanting that strange language turns with a long blade in his hands. Like a sword, but its blade has funny notches in it, instead of being smooth. Gray cries out in shock as he recognizes Mayor Bowery.

“This sacrifice we offer to honor the earth mother, Chosenone-ami. Maybe she continue to bless our town with his offering of blood and innocence.”

Innocence. That’s important for some reason.

The body behind him moans, and Gray’s heart nearly stops. Ian. His Ian is tied up behind him, both of them hanging from the metal cross over an open pit of fire. Gray jerks against his bonds, furious that they somehow ended up here. And why shouldn’t they have? Instead of stealing a car and fleeing from town together, they sneaked into the theater and had sex.

Maybe those stolen moments with Ian are the very best memories of Gray’s short life, but that won’t save them now. The heat stings his eyes, creating a steady stream of tears Gray barely feels. It strikes him, though, that he doesn’t smell wood smoke. What exactly is burning so far down this pit?

The cross is spinning a bit, and Gray loses sight of Mayor Bowery. The man says something else in that odd language, and then a piercing shriek fills Gray’s ears. Ian is screaming in agony, and Gray knows it’s because of that scary blade. He silently shrieks for his best friend’s pain, certain he’ll feel pain of his own soon enough. Ian begins thrashing, his superior weight making the inverted cross sway over the fire.

Deep within the earth, something rumbles. A murmur rises among the audience. Mayor Bowery is in front of Gray with that bloody blade, and he thrusts it at Gray, but falls when the earth itself moves. Behind him, Ian is sobbing loudly and begging for his parents to help him.

Gray doesn’t care if his own family is there, because the earthquake hasn’t stopped. It isn’t strong, but they haven’t had an earthquake here his entire life, and people are standing. Talking. Confused and fearful, and oddly, that gives Gray hope.

The ritual isn’t going as it should. Maybe having sex with Ian really will save us.

The mayor repeats a chant over and over, even as his audience clears out, scared off by the constant earth-shaking that also makes the cross sway harder. The heat below intensifies for a split second, before disappearing completely. The rumbling sound shifts, as if traveling below the earth…and Gray can’t swear to it, but the sound seems to be heading toward town and the mine shafts half the population works to provide income for Chosenone.

“Why have you forsaken our offering?” Mayor Bowery wails. “Why?” Furious, he reaches out and grabs Gray by the hair, pulling, but the weight of the cross and Ian drags Gray back. He screams, positive his hair will be torn out. “What did you little bastards do!?”

“We loved each other!” Gray yells back, not even caring. If he’s going to die, he’ll die an honest man. “You gave her an impure sacrifice.”

The mayor releases him and recoils, his face paling with horror. “You don’t know what you’ve done.”

The cross is swinging harder now, and spinning enough to make Gray dizzy. His stomach heaves but he can’t vomit, and his face feels numb from behind upside down for so long. Fingers brush his, and he realizes it’s Ian. Saying goodbye?

“Greg, grab them.”

“I’m trying.”

“Mom!” Ian shrieks. “Help us!”

“We’re trying, honey.”

The cross swings strongly to Gray’s left, and it begins to lower. Gray panics, not wanting to go into that pit. But he’s angled over the closest level of the earth bleachers, and he isn’t going into the pit. He’s being lowered onto his side. Several people are crying, including Gray, and he doesn’t stop until he’s off that damned cross and hugging a bleeding, blood-streaked Ian.

And then Ian is torn from his arms by his parents. Gray sobs for his friend and one-time lover, until his own parents gather him up and demand he run. Run now, run fast, we have to go…

… “I said put your fucking gun down,” Bowery snarled at Ian. “Now.”

Gray was still crouching and had zero self-defense skills to speak of, so him potentially disarming Bowery was a laughable idea, and Ian seemed to understand that. Bowery could have come in through the backdoor, or he could have fired off his shot out front to get their attention, and then hidden downstairs, maybe behind the fucking candy counter. Didn’t matter now, because they were stuck between a rock and a shotgun shell.

Ian relaxed his stance and pulled his hands apart, now holding his gun by the stock. He slowly bent at the waist and put it on the floor.

“Kick it to me,” Bowery said.

Gray briefly considered lunging for it, but Ian’s kick was wide enough that the gun sailed behind Bowery.

Bowery snarled. “Do you want to see Grayson dead on the floor?”

“You won’t kill us,” Ian replied. “You need us both alive, even if you aren’t sure why.”

“Maybe. Doesn’t mean you need to be in one piece.”

The roar of the shotgun registered first, followed by a searing agony in Gray’s left arm. He turned his head and cried out when he saw the ragged flesh and blood flowing from his forearm.

Holy fuck, he shot me.

“Grayson!” Ian bolted to his side, already tearing off his uniform shirt. Gray couldn’t stop staring at the blood seeping down his arm and dripping to the floor, and he barely felt it when Ian wrapped his shirt around Gray’s wound.

“If you don’t want him losing anymore bits of himself,” Bowery snarled, “you’ll do as I say, you fucking murderer.”

Murderer? What the hell?

“What are you talking about?” Ian snapped back. “You’re the one was going to sacrifice two teenage boys to some fire demon, you prick, and it wasn’t the first time. If anyone here is a murderer, it’s you.”

“I did what I had to do to protect this town. You’re the one who spent the last six weeks driving around the country and murdering its former inhabitants.”

“Christ, you’re delusional.”

Gray blinked Ian’s confused face into focus, a little out of it now that the agony of being shot at close range by a fucking shotgun was sinking in and making his brain fuzzy. “What is he talking about?” Gray asked.

“I don’t know,” Ian replied. “I’ve spent the last six weeks grieving my parents on leave, and then I went back to work.”

Bowery snorted. “We both know that’s not true.”

“Look, guy, I don’t know what drugs you’ve been doing since you left this godforsaken place, but I haven’t killed anyone!”

“Ian’s not a killer,” Gray said. Ian helped him stand, and they both turned to face off against the real monster in the room. Gray gasped at the sight of the man.

William Bowery had once been a big, formidable presence, able to silence you with a cutting look. Now he’d withered to skin and bones. Skin mottled with sun spots and wrinkles, his hair almost all gone, he stood hunched over, as if the shotgun was too heavy for him. His face was a study of fury and vengeance, and he looked a lot like a demon himself in that moment.

“Changed a bit, haven’t I?” Bowery asked. “That’s what happens when you have to leave a sanctuary like this, where you’re protected and kept healthy for a small price. This is what the real world does to you.”

“That’s what hate does to you,” Gray replied, finding a surprising amount of strength in himself to stand up to this bully. He was done being a victim.

“I’m not the hateful one.” Bowery pointed his shotgun at Ian. “He is.”

Ian sputtered. “What are talking about?”

Bowery balanced the shotgun in the crook of his shoulder, finger still near the trigger, and reached into his coat pocket. Threw several pieces of folded paper at them. Ian picked them up and unfolded the first. It was a Missing Person poster with Ian’s face smack in the middle of it. More than that, Gray was drawn to the date. Last Seen August 14th.

Six weeks ago.

“What is this?” Ian asked. “What the fuck is this? That’s the day my parents died in a house fire.”

“I know,” Bowery replied. “It’s the day you set that fire, and then began your epic, murderous road trip. Too bad all these different states didn’t realize they had a traveling arsonist on their hands, or you’d be facing federal prosecution. Instead, you face justice by my hands.”

“You’re insane.” Ian crumpled up the post and tossed it away.

Gray didn’t know what to think, except why would Bowery manufacture a missing person’s poster to perpetuate a lie about Ian being a killer? The three of them were alone, so what was the point?

“Keep reading,” Bowery said.

The second paper was a newspaper article, dated August 13^th. “Maryland Native Awakes in Florida Hospital With No Memory of Traveling There” was the baffling headline. Gray read about a ghost hunter who’d traveled to Chosenone to explore, despite the area being off limits. The man remembered reading for the sanctuary door, and then nothing else until waking up in a Florida hospital. A local found him unconscious behind a convenience store and called the cops, believing he was on drugs. The ghost hunter said he’d gone to Choseone on August 9^th.

How does someone lose four days of his life and end up in another state?

“What does this have to do with anything?” Ian asked, confusion coating his voice and expression.

“I’ve been paying attention all these years,” Bowery said, “especially on the internet. Watching for mentions of Chosenone, and when this popped up so close to the fifteenth anniversary, I knew something was happening.” He glared at Gray. “Were you in on this, too?”

“In on what?” Gray asked. The need to vomit from the agony in his arm was nearly overwhelming. “I don’t understand.”

“Are you too stupid to put it together? Someone visits this town, and four days later, he’s found in the same city as your boyfriend there. A day later, Ian burns down his family, and then he goes to Georgia to kill the Matlins. And then over to Arkansas to burn up the Kirklands. They’re all dead, Grayson, every witness to the ritual, including your parents and my ex-wife.”

“I know my parents are dead, and I don’t give two shits,” Gray snapped. “They abandoned me for dead right after you tried to kill me. I hope they’re burning in hell. And for the record, nothing you say will turn me against Ian. I love him.”

Bowery sneered. “I hope you two faggots got your fun in before I showed up, because you won’t be alive to enjoy each other much longer.”

Gray’s pulse thundered in his temples. “If you knew Ian was going around torches houses all this time, why didn’t you call the cops? Or intervene? Why wait until we were here?”

“I never got close enough. With my people spread out so far, there was no pattern to his travel. I called to warn them, but he found them anyway, even the ones who moved. The only place I knew he’d eventually come is here, on this exact day.”

“You’re insane,” Ian said. “I don’t give a shit what kind of papers you produce, I have not been driving around the country killing people!”

“No? Where’s your cell phone?”

Ian gave him a WTF? face, then patted down his pockets. Frowned. “It must be in my car. There’s no cell service out here anyway.”

“Then let’s go check your car.” Bowery stooped to collect Ian’s gun, then indicated they walk with his shotgun.

Ian nudged Gray forward, keeping his bigger body between Gray and the guns, but Gray was too confused by this entire drama to be thankful. Mostly, he wanted this to be over so he stopped hurting and stopped worrying all the time. Stopped being afraid of the whole world, which had only ever punched him down.

The street was somehow hotter than the interior of the theater, and he couldn’t swear to it, but his pain-addled mind thought he saw wisps of steam coming out of the ruptured pavement. He led the way to Ian’s parked car, which wasn’t actually a squad car like Gray had previously thought. It was a black sedan with Pennsylvania plates.

I’m losing my goddamn mind.

Bowery kept a watchful eye on Ian as he opened the passenger door and reached inside. Rummaged around, then backed out with a cell in his hand. “Check your texts and messages,” Bowery said.

Ian woke the screen and opened his texts. Gray stared. The notifications were full of variations on “Are you okay? Where are you?” from dozens of contacts. Ian scrolled, his face twisting in shock as they went all the way back to August 14^th. His voice mailbox was full.

“This can’t be real,” Ian said. “You fucked with my phone somehow.”

Gray took a step back from Ian, and the pain on Ian’s face made his heart ache.

“Grayson, you know me,” Ian said, reaching for him. Gray ducked back and stumbled over the rough pavement. “You know I’m not a murderer.”

Gray wanted to believe that. His heart knew Ian without question, but his mind…his mind was uncertain. Everyone man in his life had somehow disappointed or hurt Gray—every man except for Ian. Was this the universe’s way of telling Gray he never got to be happy? That his love for Ian was about to be thrown back in his face in some horrific way?

“Do you believe me now?” Bowery asked Gray.

There had to be a rational explanation for all this. Bowery had messed with Ian’s phone while they were upstairs making love. He’d manufactured that missing poster, maybe even that weird article about the ghost hunter. But why? What was the point of trying to turn Gray against Ian if they were both going to die anyway?

So that I die miserable and alone, just like Bowery will.

“No,” Gray said. “I don’t believe you.” He moved back to Ian’s side and took his hand.

Bowery snarled and pumped the shotgun. “Fuck this then, what does it matter? You’re as stupid as you always were. Start walking, both of you.”

“Where?” Ian asked, squeezing Gray’s hand tight. A faint tremor rocked down Ian’s arm and into Gray’s. He was scared, too.

“The sanctuary. Time to end this.”

“Why not just shoot us here and end this?” Gray snapped. “Be done with it already.”

“Oh no, you two are going where you should have gone fifteen years ago.” Bowery stepped closer, the muzzle of his shotgun aimed at Ian’s gut. “Move.”

For a moment, Gray expected Ian to resist or attack. Instead, he held tight to Gray’s hand and started walking. Gray wasn’t sure he could go back inside that sanctuary again, much less to face his own death, but he was with Ian. Ian wasn’t a murderer; he couldn’t be. Period. Maybe they truly had been meant to die during the ritual fifteen years ago, giving their lives to the rest of Chosenone could live in peace and prosperity. Except a town that thrived on the blood of children didn’t deserve to exist.

And what was the one thing that had destroyed this evil place? Love.

Making love with Ian for the first time had been terrifying and exhilarating, and maybe it had hurt a little bit but the pain made it even sweeter. Ian had been his first. Gray had been Ian’s first and only. If Gray was dying today, he’d die holding that knowledge close to his heart.

They trod the dirt path to the sanctuary hand-in-hand, together as they were fated to be. All the way to the end. Gray’s heart lurched when he stepped inside, into an inferno of heat and a faint, orange glow from the center of the arena.

“She’s awake,” Bowery said. “Good.”

Gray trembled once, then grabbed hold of his courage and didn’t let go. He and Ian walked to the top of the pit, then down to the first riser. The ground seemed to shudder beneath them, and then a strange thing happened. Gray’s arm stopped hurting all at once. Then his right hand was burning up, and he yanked it away from Ian.

Ian, who stood frozen in place, eyes closed, his expression completely blank. “Ian?”

“Keep moving,” Bowery said.

“Ian?” Gray touched his shoulder, then hissed back. Ian’s skin was burning up and hot to the touch.

“What are you two doing? Move.”

“Something’s wrong with him.”

Ian opened his eyes in a flash of brilliant orange that had Gray reeling away, putting several feet of distance between them. Ian turned to look up at Bowery with those oddly beautiful eyes, and Gray felt an odd surge of compassion curling warmly through his body. Compassion from an external source, and it was the strangest sensation in the world.

Bowery started shaking. A damp spot bloomed over his crotch.

“Vengeance is not yours to take, child,” Ian said in a deep, otherworldly voice. “It is mine, and I have done so with this human’s body as my avatar in the world. Thank you for delivering yourself to me.”

Avatar? Chosenone-ami used Ian’s body to commit those murders?!

That had to be why Ian was so confused over Bowery’s evidence. Ian really was a missing person, and he probably hadn’t been in his right mind for weeks.

There’s a demon in my boyfriend. How is this my life?

Bowery dropped to his knees, the shotgun clattering to the ground. “I’ve only ever served you, as my father did before me. Please, show mercy.”

“Your hatred for two boys became your obsession. You did not live a good life outside my protection. You do not deserve mercy.”

“It wasn’t my fault! How could I have known they defiled themselves before the ritual?”

“Defiled? You think I rejected them as defiled? You’re a fool then. I rejected them because their minds, bodies and souls are filled with love. A kind of love I have never sensed in another resident of Chosenone.”

Gray gaped at Ian’s profile. They’d been rejected because they loved each other? All of this had happened because someone in Chosenone had shown actual, true love for another person?

“Their hearts are pure. Yours is not.”

Ian reached for Bowery’s throat and squeezed. Bowery gasped and struggled, but Ian actually lifted the man off his feet with one fucking hand. Ian turned and walked down the five levels of bleachers to the very bottom. Panic rose up inside Gray. Ian was so fucking close to the edge, and what if—?”

Something cool and calming floated through Gray’s mind, silently asking him to trust.

“Hatred and pride have undone many men before you,” Ian said. “You will not be missed.” He said something else in that strange language that made Bowery struggle and try to scream.

Then Ian turned and pitched Bowery into the glowing pit. Bowery’s shriek silenced mere moments later. More of that odd language. Then Ian turned and looked up at Gray for the first time. Gray cowered under that orange gaze, and he dropped to his knees. A demon was in his lover’s body, and Gray couldn’t deal. He couldn’t do anything except kneel there as Ian approached.

He knelt in front of Gray. “Do not fear me, child. Your arm is healed.”

Shocked, Gray unwound Ian’s shirt and found only smooth, blood-stained skin. No sign he’d ever been shot. “Holy fuck.”

Ian chuckled. “Not so holy, but I understand your surprise. You and he are my chosen ones, and now I have chosen for you both to live. No matter how far you go, you will be under my protection for the rest of your lives.”

Gray had to swallow a few times to find his voice. “Protection from what?”

“From sickness, from those who wish to do you harm, and from others like me.”

He really didn’t want to think about there being other demons out there in the world. His life was already too fucking strange. “Um, thank you? Can I, uh, can I have Ian back now?”

The demon smiled. “Ian will have no memory of the things I’ve done while borrowing him. If you like, I can erase both of your memories of everything about today. You won’t remember the past or what you’ve seen here.”

As much as Gray could happily live without knowing demons walked the earth—so to speak—he couldn’t make that choice for Ian. And it was better for them both to remember as much as possible together than to try and bury these secrets for good.

“Thank you, but I’d like to us to keep our memories of today. We’ll be fine as long as we’re together.”

“Then take your lover and live your life, Grayson Jones.” Ian closed his eyes, and then his entire body slunk to the ground. Gray moved fast enough to catch his head and ease it down gently. His skin no longer burned like fire, and he breathed evenly.

“Ian?” Gray whispered. “Come back to me, baby, please.”

Ian groaned, then scrunched his eyes shut. Blinked them open a few times, and Gray thrilled seeing a warm chocolate brown instead of eerie blue. The birthmark had faded, as well, almost invisible now on his bare torso. “What happened?”

“Would you believe me if I said Chosenone-ami used your body like a video game avatar and tossed Bowery into the fire pit?”

“Yes.” Ian sat up. “Only because it is easier to take your word than to try and explain why else I went from standing up to laying down, and Bowery is nowhere to be seen. But why are we still alive?”

Gray smiled. “Love. She didn’t reject us the first time because we were defiled from having sex. She rejected us because she felt the genuine love we had for each other. That’s what the text meant by impure. Maybe someone mis-translated that word’s meaning into English.”

“Or for a demon, love makes someone impure.” Ian shrugged. “I honestly don’t care, if it means we can walk out of here and not face this again when we’re forty-five.”

“We won’t. She’s letting us go under her protection.”

“Really?” Ian dragged Gray into a tight hug. Gray pressed his face into Ian’s neck and inhaled his sweaty skin. “I can’t believe it.”

“Believe what?”

“All of it.” He pulled Gray back to look into his eyes. “Brown again, by the way.”

“So are yours.”

Ian laughed. “I can’t believe we found each other again, after all this time, and now we get to have our happy ending.”

“It’s a little surreal, considering I woke up yesterday morning in a shit-hole motel, got hit on by a naked guy jerking it to porn, and then stole a car in order to get here.”

“I have a funny feeling I’ve stolen more than one car lately, thanks to Chosenone-ami. She is the reason I’ve been missing for six weeks, right?”

“Yeah.” Gray squeezed his shoulders. “That wasn’t you, doing those things. And I believe that she’ll protect you from anyone who could possibly identify you.”

Ian rested his forehead against Gray’s. “I know it wasn’t me. I’m just glad it’s over. Well and truly over.”

“Me too. Let’s get out of here.”

“Definitely.”

The air outside the sanctuary had cooled by at least twenty degrees, giving the late September afternoon a more autumn feel to it. Even the sun seemed to shine a bit brighter. They walked toward town and down Main Street toward their parked cars, Gray’s heart lighter than it had been his entire adult life. He no longer felt used up and broken. He’d been chosen not only by a demon to protect, but by Ian to love, and knowing he had Ian was everything.

“So what do you want to do next?” Ian asked. “I can’t imagine your any more eager to return to your old life than I am.”

“You didn’t like being a cop?”

“No, I did, and I have friends, but how do I explain where I’ve been? What I’ve seen? I don’t want to deal with any of that, not yet. I just want to be with you, Grayson.”

“Same.” Gray wasn’t one to look into the future and dream. He was much better at dealing with the immediate present. “How about we take a car to the nearest town, get something to eat, steal a new car, and then drive west. We’ll just drive until we need to stop.”

Ian grinned. “I’ve always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean.”

“We’ll do that. I don’t need roots and I don’t need a house. As long as I’m with you, Ian Woods, I’m home.”

“Same. I love you.”

“I love you more.” Gray pulled Ian down to seal it with a long, leisurely kiss that intensified under Gray’s overwhelming love for Ian and for the life they were about to begin together. From kissing to frotting, until finally they were in the backseat of Ian’s car, Gray thrusting deeply inside his lover as he came. Ian erupted beneath him with only air on his cock, and they lay together for a while, soaking in their love for each other.

It was more than Gray had ever expected to find in his life, much less after he decided to return to Chosenone, and he’d fight like hell every single day to protect it.

Demon promise or not.

* * *

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