Flint cocks his head. “What’s wrong? Scared it’s already working?” he asks with an arrogant gleam.
“No,” I lie.
I shouldn’t be tempted, flattered, or excited by these two. I shouldn’t, and yet, I am. The moment I parked my work truck here, my whole life changed on a dime. My mind is still tryin’ to catch up. But my damn libido? It’s full-steam ahead. And my emotions just keep volleyin’ all over the damn place.
Flint grins like he doesn’t believe me, and he shouldn’t, seein’ as how I’m full of it, but it still leaves me uneasy that these two seem to be able to read me so easily.
“Tell me more about this Delta,” I blurt. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I wanna slap my forehead. Could I make my jealousy any more obvious?
“Why? We ain’t wooing Delta,” Flint replies.
I don’t know, you talked about wooin’ me, and I panicked!
“You said she’s like me,” I say, tryin’ to steer this conversation somewhere away from the did you try to woo her too thought process. “I had some demon try to take me last night before those angels and you two showed up. Did stuff like that happen to her?”
“Yeah, she was attacked after she found out about demons and what she really was. She tried to avoid the Hellgate at first.”
Damn. There goes that strategy.
“So, this...is inevitable?” I ask, weariness from the night and everythin’ I’ve learned settlin’ in my spine.
Surprisingly, I don’t feel as overwhelmed as I probably should. Instead, I feel like I was waitin’ for this all along. There’s always been some oddity or sense of not-normal surroundin’ who I was, whether it was my parents insistin’ I was dropped off by an angel, or the blackouts. This new reality fits in a way I can’t really explain, and for some damn reason, it doesn’t feel foreign or scary to me.
The real issue is, how long will it take before I learn what I need to know about what I am? Could I have other abilities, or are my tribulations it? Why was I dropped off to be raised like a human in the first place?
I’ve only ever questioned that a couple of times in my life. Why would I need to when I have such incredible parents? But now that thought seems to want to sit at the forefront of my mind. I want to learn the why behind all of this—behind my existence.
I watch Alder and Flint as they continue to struggle to answer my question. They don’t really seem to know what to say, because they share a look, and that makes my stomach drop right down to my bare feet.
I let out a long breath. “Damn. I thought… I don’t know what I thought. That somehow I would go on livin’ my life, only I’d have to put demon under my new status.” I laugh humorlessly to myself and set the water down behind me. “I guess I just kinda figured that knowin’ this truth filled in some blanks, but that it wouldn’t really rock my world as I know it. I’ve always been off, you know?” I stop to process that for a second. “Now I have a name for why, and I naively pretended last night that was that. But that’s not how this is gonna work, is it?”
“No, it isn’t,” Alder answers simply, his butterscotch gaze warm and his tone matter-of-fact.
I close my eyes for a second, and they burn from both stress and lack of sleep. “I don’t have any clue about what this all means for me,” I admit, openin’ my eyes to look at them. “I should probably be scared, but I don’t really know what to feel if I’m bein’ honest.”
“It’s a lot to process. You’re doing better than I did, I’ll tell you that much,” Flint declares, and the admission gives me pause.
“You didn’t know you were a demon either?” I ask with confusion.
“No, I always knew that. I didn’t know I’d be selected as the next Guardian, though. It took me by surprise, to say the least,” he tells me.
I nod in understandin’. I can tell there’s more to that story, but I don’t want to pry.
“Just remember that we’re here to help you,” Flint says, reachin’ down to squeeze my hand. “We’ll be here every step of the way.”
A declaration that big, that personal, instantly makes me feel better. “Thank you,” I tell him, hoppin’ down off the barstool and releasin’ a deep breath. Things are gettin’ heavy, and I’m entirely too tired to be rational about anythin’ else that might get dropped in my lap.
I give the bar another look. “I bet Mickey’s gonna be glad he doesn’t have to clean this place.”
Alder frowns and reaches into his pocket, pullin’ out a phone. “Speaking of Mickey, where the hell is that bastard?” he grumbles.
“Yeah, he should’ve had this place cleaned up long before we got here,” Flint adds.
Alder presses some buttons and holds the phone to his ear, only to scowl when no one picks up. I watch him fire off a text before puttin’ his phone away and lookin’ up again. “Well, it looks like we might have lost our bartender.”
Flint snorts. “He probably ran with his tail between his legs as soon as Medley walked out that night.”
Alder makes an unimpressed noise. “She didn’t hurt him. Much.”
My eyes go as wide as saucers. “What? I thought you said I didn’t hurt anybody!”
Alder tilts his head left and right. “We technically never said that.”
“Shit,” I groan, wipin’ a hand down my face. “What did I do?”
“Well…”
I level him with a look. “Tell me.”
“That stick you tripped over? It was your scythe.”
A line forms between my brows as I frown. “My scythe? I don’t know what the hell you mean. I told you, that stick was there when I got here. I just tripped over it and cut my foot.”
“Similar thing happened to Delta,”
