“Will you please sit back down? I won’t hurt you if you don’t try to hurt me.”Ornias almost laughed at the innocence of that statement. Now that he could tell how young this angeling was, he knew he could easily overpower him, but this angeling obviously didn’t know that. Ornias joined him in the booth, sitting across from him this time though, and still nearer to the door.“Are you guys recruiting sex demons?” he asked. The angel laughed heartily. “No, it just sort of happened that way I guess. Why, is that what you are?”Ornias stared at him, deciding whether or not he wanted to give away any information about himself. He’d run into angels before, and it wasn’t pleasant, but this one was so young and so sincere, what could it hurt?“Are you going to tell others about me?”The angel shook his head. “Not if you don’t want me to.”“I don’t, and yes, I’m an incubus.”“Is that why you’re dancing in a club?” the angel asked.“It's a good way to draw energy.” The angel smiled at him, a slow mysterious smile, that was making Ornias uncomfortable. “What?”“It’s just, I can’t believe it. You’re another celestial being! We can talk and really be honest with each other! We don’t have to hide who we are!”Ornias smiled back at him, charmed at his naivety. “It’s not that easy. You’re an angel, I’m a demon.”“So?”“So the eternal war? Good versus evil? All that stuff.”The angel shrugged casually. “Jahi says it's more important to see things in shades of gray, not black and white. You don’t seem evil.”“I drink sexual energy. Doesn’t that bother you?”“No, should it?”“Yes, I suck the libido, the life energy, out of people and I get them all riled up to do it.”“So? You found a way to do it without hurting anyone.”He wanted to respond with, “I’ve killed a lot of people before I figured out how much I can take and not take,” but for some reason he didn’t want to see the look of horror on Hamal’s face. This kid believed he wasn’t that bad, and Ornias liked this illusion. He must have taken a long time thinking about it because the angeling filled the silence.“Can we start over? Are you really Middle Eastern? How old are you? How long have you been up here?”Ornias felt his features soften at this line of questioning. This kid was really trying to get to know him. It was endearing and refreshing. He couldn’t even remember the last time someone had actually tried to understand him on a personal level. In truth it made him a little uncomfortable. What if he got to know Ornias and didn’t like him anymore or tried to use that information to hurt him somehow? The personal rejection would be far worse than just hating him for being a demon, so Ornias went with what he did best.“How about we start over where we left off,” he said, taking the angel’s hand in his and locking eyes until he gently pulled the man closer and leaned in for a kiss. The angel froze at first, but didn’t pull away, so Ornias pressed his lips into the other man’s, feeling the warmth of his skin against his cheek. For about one second, there was no magic, just a platonic touching of skin, making Ornias question what exactly he was doing, but then something amazing happened. Something so small it would be imperceptible if there had been any onlookers. The angel leaned into the kiss, and that tiny spark was enough to kindle a fire.~*~Find out what happens next in Hamal's Dancer, available exclusively in the Prophecy of Magic boxed set. Preorder now for the limited time price of 99c!
