Key glanced at the clock then down to the thin gold watch around his wrist. “How long have we been in here?”
Jon straightened, his frown deep set. “Five, ten minutes?”
Shit. Can a tertiary system be applied to an office space? “According to my watch, and probably yours, we’ve been in here for an hour.”
Jon checked his watch, his mouth dropping open. “How–”
“I just need to grab one quick file and then we can do the Q&A session, Felicia.”
Both Jon and Key looked at the door when they heard a key being inserted. Thinking fast, Key flung open the closet door and motioned for Jon. Jon got the message and flew across the room, jumping in the closet and pulling Key in with him just as the office door opened.
The closet door clicked shut just as the door opened. “What is it, Dr. Timoko?”
The doctor was silent for a few long seconds before she chuckled a bit. “Nothing, Fe.” That was followed by a series of beeps. “The alarm seems to have tripped.”
“Should I call security?”
Key heard Jon curse under his breath.
“No, dear. It does that from time to time. That’s what happens when they let you install your own secondary system. Do me a favor? Go lock that closet.”
This time Key cursed under his breath and grabbed Jon’s arm as Felicia followed instructions and slid what sounded like bolt across the closet door.
“Thank you, dear. Let’s go back before the hobnobs of society set the dogs on us,” she said, amused. “How is your mother?” the doctor asked, the sound fading as they closed the door and left, Dr. Timoko’s heels clicking in the distance.
When Key felt it was safe, he pushed against the door, grimacing when the door didn’t give. “It’s locked.”
“How observant,” Jon grumbled.
“Just pick the lock again.”
“Can’t pick a bolt slide, dolt. I can try to break it, but that’s going to bring half of security down on us.”
“She knew we were in here,” Key sighed. “We might as well wait until she comes back.”
“Or,” Jon tried, “you call Boy Wonder and Supergirl and have them jailbreak us.”
“No,” Key said stubbornly, crossing his arms across his chest. “I tell Tahir and she’ll never let me live it down. I told her about you catching me and she laughed for days. Not hours, days.”
Jon frowned. “When did I catch you?”
Key grumbled. “When I showed up as your new clerk and you caught me in the elevator. I thought I’d upheld my reputation as a stealth master but then you almost caught me in the parking deck, too.”
“The parking de–that was you?” he exclaimed. “I knew I wasn’t crazy! Wait, you mean to tell me you followed me the entire day? From the office to the airport–” Jon inhaled dramatically. The inside of the closet lit under the bright white light of his cellphone and Jon stared at him wide-eyed. “That’s how you found me in New York! I never connected the dots.” He smacked his head.
“How did that not occur to you? You know I planned everything, right?”
Jon shrugged. “A lot of shit has happened so excuse me if I forgot some details such as you being a terrible hide-n-go-seeker.”
It grew quiet and Key slipped off his shoes. Jon was shorter than he was but without his heels, they could at least look each other in the eye. “What do you want to do now?”
“You don’t want to call for help,” he murmured as he switched his cellphone flashlight on and laid it on the ground, “and you want to wait so…we wait.”
Key sighed.
Twenty-minutes later and it seemed Jon hadn’t realized just how slow time passed when being trapped in a small space with absolutely nothing to do but breathe. He was losing it.
“Holy shit, just how long does a Q&A session take? What the hell could they be talking about? Shouldn’t there be a limit to how many questions that can be asked? Shouldn’t someone be holding a stopwatch or something? A moderator? Someone to go “Hey! Wrap it up!” ” he ranted as he stared at the closet door. He pushed against it, growling when it didn’t budge.
“Calm down, Lassie, it should be over soon.”
Jon glared at him. “I thought we agreed you were going to stop calling me dog names?”
“We didn’t agree, you demanded, which I’m sure you’ve learned, doesn’t sit well with me. And you’re still calling me every damn fairy incarnation alive so I think we’re even. I’m an angel. I only have wings when I’m in my natural form.”
“Which is?”
“Twelve feet tall, razor sharp claws and like I said, wings.”
Jon stared for a moment before he grinned. “Sounds adorable. Terrifying but adorable.”
“It explains the hands.” Key glanced down. “And my feet.”
“Is it true what they say about men with big feet?” Jon leered, flashing his eyebrows.
Key laughed, slapping his arm. “Let me ask you a question. A serious one. Before your fascination with me, which I believe is more odd exotic fetishism than actual attraction…you and men, was that a thing for you??”
Jon leaned back against the closet wall and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nope. Not once. You’re like the ribbon cutting ceremony at a brand new establishment except for that establishment is my confused sexuality. Add the fact that you won’t actually let me cut the ribbon.”
Key’s brow rose to his hairline and his incredulity would be funny in another situation. “You don’t know how to cut ribbons. You’ve never been around another ribbon–locker rooms don’t count. And I’m pretty sure you could learn but I’m not going to sign up to be your experiment.”
“So that is what this is about?” Jon groaned. “You can’t be an experiment, Key. Experiments compare and contrast. There is no one else like you! Think I’m going to run into another smart mouth, male, half-angel, half-human in a dive bar downtown Manhattan? Itaewon? London?”
“Maybe,” Key murmured. “We are everywhere.”
“This is stupid. You’re being stupid. You are stupid.”
Key opened his mouth to protest, to throw back an insult when Jon made his move. Key felt his back bump against the closet wall, he felt hands braced on either side of his head, and he felt warm breath ghost across his lips and his chin.
“Kithlish.” Jon’s voice dropped several octaves and Key’s eyes fluttered closed at the sound of his name, his real name. “You’re trying to tell me I’m the only one feeling this? I can’t be. You kept me around for a reason and it wasn’t to be Aiden’s watchdog, so don’t lie to me.” He pressed close, pulling Key into him, crowding what little space Key had and he could feel every hard line of his muscular body against his. “Tell me, please? I want to stop feeling like I’m waiting for something that’s not going to happen.”
Key wanted to tell the truth but could he tell the truth? Could he get his lips to work, his mind to form sentences, his lungs to push out enough air for him to say, “I do want this”?
His eyes roamed Jon’s face, becoming familiar with it in such close proximity. His heart-shaped face, his chin dusted with hair after forgoing shaving for a few days. His lips were smooth but the top one was thinner than the plump bottom one. His brows were thick and full. His eyes, deep set and brown “I–I…”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” Jon said before he closed the space between them. Like a habit, one he’d never practiced, Key immediately opened up to the incessant press of Jon’s lips. The kiss was patient, exploring, like they had all the time in the world, like they weren’t trapped in a closet, like this was a time to learn the little things. Like how Key’s quiet moan was deeper than Jon’s or how Jon smelled like the woods.
Jon tasted like cinnamon and the bitter remnants of champagne. Key whimpered and the next thing he knew, Jon was grabbing handfuls of his thighs as he hiked him off the ground. Key wrapped his arms around Jon’s neck, pulling him closer, grabbing at him like some sort of string had been snapped and e
very desire and fantasy that he’d had about the human, the warm thoughts that led to wandering hands inside of his pants when he thought everyone was asleep, the dreams that left his fingers sticky in the morning, came alive.
Jon hummed and Key could feel it in his mouth and over his skin. His hands glided up Key’s sides, up his arms and to his wig, which he pulled off. “Your hair is nice,” he murmured after he broke the kiss and began attacking Key’s neck. He pressed closer and Key shivered when he felt something rigid digging into his thigh.
That brought everything crashing down. This wasn’t a dream or his wandering thoughts. This was real. He couldn’t wake up after this and pretend Jon didn’t exist.
“Jon,” he tried.
“I like that. My name and you saying it,” Jon nipped at his collarbone. “My goal is to get you to scream that later.”
“No,” Key said, pressing against his chest and pushing him back. “Stop,” he panted, the sound so very loud in the small, quiet closet. “Because you’re right. This is stupid!”
“That’s because you’re making it stupid. You’re being–”
“I have a mate waiting for me back on Elysian,” he said. He was surprised the lie didn’t slam into the back of his teeth and break them. “It’s arranged and there–there is nothing I can do about it.”
Jon narrowed his eyes and unceremoniously dropped him. Key landed awkwardly on his ankle and yelped. Jon helped him up but solidly pressed him against the wall with a palm to his chest and tried his hardest to put as much distance between them as possible. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to believe me. Believing me doesn’t make it any less true.”
“No, what makes it less true is the fact that it’s false.”
“This isn’t up for debate!”
Jon chuckled darkly. “I’m not debating you. I’m flat out calling you a liar.” His hands returned back to his pockets. “What did you think I did while you left me alone in that stupid cell for days on end? Remember, you weren’t very good at telling me the truth so I had to seek it out. I requested books. I didn’t ask for it but the Registry of Affianced was one that was delivered to me.”
Key could have bitten his own lip off.
“I should have ignored it because it wasn’t any of my business but…I was curious. I wanted to know if I was barking up the wrong tree. And gee! Who would have guessed? You weren’t listed in either standing or potential matings, political or otherwise. So you don’t have to lie to me,” Jon said.
“Jon, it’s…”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving up. I know what I felt,” his eyes jutted down to Key’s crotch. “I just understand that you’re the stupidest person I know and I’m going to have to approach this like you’re the stupidest person I know.”
His grin bloomed into a full smile and Key made the decision, in the quiet closet, that Jon was the most stubborn, bullheaded…adorable human he’d ever met.
CHAPTER SIXTY ONE
Dr. Timoko had a strong nose. Heightened senses were a natural ability amongst demons–although it wasn’t that much fun in Gehanna with all the sulfur. Considering her lineage, a lineage that endued her with a substantial amount of power, she also had a sense of smell that was stronger than her peers. So when an angel walked into her event, unclogged and as…odoriferous as they were, her attention was snatched in an instant. Plus, she hated the smell of lemongrass.
The appearance of an angel always startled her. She wasn’t friends with too many of them. And not because Dr. Timoko was afraid of them. No, it was as faultless and supreme as they seemed, angels were bigots, racist, supremacist–whatever you call when one race of beings hates another for simply existing. Some were okay, like the ones she’d met down here. Lamar was kind, Preston was funny and Marcus gave really great
hugs. Christian was a friend, an actual friend, even at his young age. He didn’t hold the same thoughts others did even if he was constantly surrounded by those who should influence his way of thinking. She could name a few others but her disdain for angels didn’t allow much wiggle room to skip and hop down memory lane.
The angel who’d shown up tonight was a stranger. Young but powerful. She could feel their spirit mass from across the room. She didn’t know anything about this angel, whether they hated her or not, but two things were obvious: the angel was a visitor to this realm and that they had come in search of her. That was enough for her to keep an eye on them as she prepared to walk on stage and present one of her favorite subjects–alchemy.
As she was weaving through alchemy signifiers, they abruptly stood and left, which was strange, but angels were strange and it was not enough to distract her. If they wanted to see her, she was sure they would find a way. It did become a distraction when she’d visited her office during the intermission to grab some additional notes and the scent of lemongrass filled the air. It amused her. They tripped the alarm and everything. Amateurs. You can’t get any information from this room without me.
Because she could, Dr. Timoko made the Q&A longer than necessary, giving drawn out answers to questions that were quite simple. She answered as many post-presentation questions as she could, even spending time with the mayor’s husband, a man she couldn’t stand, to talk about his new granddaughter.
Her office was the same when she returned except the smell of lemongrass was stronger and it was accompanied by the smell of savory, which made her sneeze–it made all demons sneeze.
Dr. Timoko knew what caused that smell and wrinkled her nose. Angels are such lustful beast. She rolled her eyes and opened a window to air the room out. She took a seat at her desk and stared at the closet for a long moment, toying with the idea of just how long she wanted to leave them in there as payback for breaking into her office.
“You two want to come out of the closet? Figuratively and literally,” Dr. Timoko said after some time. It was quiet in the wake of her question and she chuckled. “Say something. Aren’t you two tired of being in there?” She waved her hand and the bolt slide lock slid back. “Sometimes tonight, please.”
The closet door creaked open and the angel came out, their brown hair strewn all over their head. The human with them attempted to fix it, but the angle smacked his hands away as they turned to greet her.
“Dr. Timoko!” the brunette said, their voice pitched high in surprise as if they’d caught her in her office and not the other way around. “What a pleasure to meet you! Your presentation on alchemy was absolutely amazing and I was wondering–”
Dr. Timoko inhaled one last time to be certain before holding up her hand. “Please, it’s okay. I don’t know why you’re here but I’ll assume you need something from me. Not every day an angel attends one of my events.”
The angel’s partner’s brow shot up. On the other hand, the angel frowned before frantically searching around for something, digging hands in pockets and upturning their purse. “I left my clog at home! Oh, you idiot!” they screeched, slapping their partner’s arm. “I left it because you distracted me!”
“Well,” the man said, grabbing his arm where the angel hit him, “next time don’t be so easily distracted!”
“Please have a seat.” She watched as they did as she asked and she leaned back in her chair, the hinges creaking.
“Now, tell me…why would a human and an angel dressed in drag seek me out?” She glanced again. “You are a male, I’m assuming? Hard to know without looking down your pants and I don’t think we are quite there yet.”
The angel ducked their head in embarrassment and the human looked like he was going to burst out into laughter at any moment.
“I figured you would be more receptive to a married couple.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re playing at?” she sniffed. “You’re doing a good job.”
This time the human did laugh. The angel elbowed him in the ribs but that didn’t stop the laughter.
“The laughing hyena is Jonathan Kim and I’m Kithlish, a Luminar
y General from Caeli.” Dr. Timoko tapped her nose. “Failed me there. I figured you were full-blooded.”
“No,” Key said, smiling. “Human father. The reason we came here tonight was to discuss something of yours and we are hoping for some sort of interpretation.”
“Just for the record,” Jon interrupted, his tone terse, “I don’t really understand or trust your shtick. A demon priest doctor? Sounds like bullshit to me. I don’t really expect your help to be the most honest but we are kind of in a hard spot and have to take your demonic–”
Dr. Timoko leaned forward towards him. “Do you know what a demon is, Mr. Kim?”
Jon looked her up and down, his brow cocked. “Yeah. You are what goes bump in the night. O’ ye lackeys of Satan. The reasons for exorcist and holy water being splashed on little girl’s foreheads.”
Key’s mouth gaped open and he rushed to apologize but again Dr. Timoko stopped him with a raised hand. Instead, she pushed a glass of water towards the edge of her desk. “Tell me, Mr. Kim, is this glass half-full or half-empty?”
Jon scoffed. “What does that matter?”
“Considering there is only one correct answer, it matters.” Jon forehead puckered and Dr. Timoko smiled. “The answer is it is completely full. I never asked you if it was full of just water. Air occupies the other half of the cup. There is balance. Do you think that all things made under The Creator’s ever brilliant and evolving mind was made in just one inflexible image? An image of good? An image of evil? Every single entity on this planet is made up of both good and evil. We are all capable of benevolent things. We are all capable of unspeakable horrors. I find your bigotry repulsive, that you would think just because I am a demon that I would not have the heart to help you.”
“Now wait a minute!” Jon started.
“Plus, you’ve been in the company of a “demon” the entire day, presumably, because that’s what fallen angels are considered. More of a classification, though.” She glanced at Key and saw the resonation of understanding and a maybe a hint of sadness. “If The Creator didn’t want demons to exist, they wouldn’t. They do, which means we serve a purpose, one that is just as righteous and magnificent as your existence.”
A Third of the Moon and the Stars Struck Page 37