it to him and then looked back to Zach, nodding. The smoke was dense enough that unless one of us heard something first, an enemy could sneak up almost directly on top of us before we’d know they were there.
Our doors opened in unison and Deyva smiled as I stepped out, reaching to help her down from the back of the massive truck.
“We’ll stay close, right?” she asked, eyeing the smog around me.
“Yeah, just enough of a perimeter to give them a little extra warning. Don’t worry. John and I have your back,” I said, grinning as Deyva gleefully pulled the sword back out of its sheath she had hanging over her shoulder. “Shoulda known you were a girl who liked weapons.”
“Pffft, ‘girl.’ You’re cute for someone who’s less than one percent of my age,” Deyva teased back.
I glanced over the hood of the truck, checking on Zach and Will’s shadows by the windmill before pushing Deyva back against the passenger side door, pressing her to its surface, and ducking my head for a quick, deep kiss.
“Come on, we’ll stay in sight of either the truck or the windmill so we don’t get lost in the smog,” I said, taking her hand, not caring if Will saw.
Bethel was going to have to get used to Deyva because I was fucking set on keeping her around. She’d given me the best and weirdest weeks of my life, not to mention being a catalyst for Zach and I finally addressing the desire-shaped elephant in our friendship. She was good for me, good for us. She’d be good for Bethel too.
Deyva’s hand was tight around mine, and she made me stand on the inside of the perimeter, like it was her job to protect me, instead of the other way around. Will was explaining the tech to Zach, who responded with a polite amount of interest, and Deyva’s eyes were narrowed on the smog around us, her steps quiet even in the torn up old sneakers we’d found for her.
“So, tell me, are two guys enough for you? Like in terms of feeding?” I asked, watching her eyes blink rapidly.
“Uh...what? I mean, I’m good, Stav,” she said, glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes.
“Okay, you’re good. But are you, you know, as strong and healthy as you could be?”
“Why are you asking this?”
“Because this morning when you said you’d go back to Hell to save us, you included Kais in the equation,” I said, smirking as Deyva stiffened, her step scuffing against gravel.
“I...Kais is...um.” She frowned and paused in place, looking at me, at the blurry shape of the windmill, at the obscured world around us. “I forgot to tell you that I kissed him.”
Oh. “Oh!”
“Shit. Stavros, I’m sorry—”
“No, no, babe. It’s okay, honestly. I’m not mad, I’m just surprised.”
“I should’ve said something.”
I grinned at her. “I mean I’m surprised that all you two did was kiss.”
Deyva gaped at me for a moment and then jumped up, smacking my lips with a hard and hungry kiss before drawing back again. “Are you fucking serious? Aren’t you humans all into possessiveness and jealousy?”
“I mean you have two priest boyfriends now, why not go for the hat-trick?” I teased. She snorted and I sobered. “Was this before or after Zach?”
“Before. Shortly before.”
I nodded. “Okay, look, I’m good with whatever makes you happy, you know? But we’ll have to talk to him since you made us an official thing.”
Deyva squirmed happily and then whipped around, glaring into the smog.
“You hear something?”
“No, but it seemed like a good time to sneak up on us, you’re distracting me. Keep walking,” Deyva said, bumping her hip against mine and raising John in front of her. “Anyway, yes, we can talk to Zach, although I feel like I should mention that Kais was all ‘grump grump, I’m a lone wolf who don’t need no lovin, grouch’ about it. He pushed me away.”
“Huh. And I thought Zach was the repressed one,” I said, smiling as I thought of the way Zach had basically climbed on top of me and humped me like a cuddly little bunny rabbit this morning. He made us both a mess, but he’d been so happy about it and Deyva had looked totally blissed out by the contact high.
“Well-fucked is a good look for you, Stav,” Deyva said, grinning.
“Well-fed is a good one on you,” I tossed back. She hummed and smiled agreeably. “Kais will break.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said, shrugging. “I don’t want