“Enjoy going out without your blankets while you can,” I tell them as I shut the pasture gate. “Temps drop tomorrow.” Smiling, I watch everyone move about the pasture, looking for fresh grass among patches of soggy foliage.
My phone rings, vibrating inside my jacket pocket and startling me a bit. Okay, I guess I am still on edge. It’s Ethan, and I know this time he has to be calling to say he’s on his way home.
Because I need him.
“Hello?” I put the phone on speaker and start making my way to the house.
“Hey, babe,” he replies. “We’re on our way.”
“Thank goodness,” I say a little too eagerly.
“Did you have more unsettling memories come back?”
“No. Not memories. Something just feels—well, felt, it’s fine now—off. And I kinda almost came close to stabbing Donna.”
“She is rather annoying,” he says back with no hesitation, making me laugh. “But I need to hear this story.”
“There was someone on the porch and I snuck out the side door so I could spring up on a demon. But it was just Donna.”
“You thought there was a demon on the porch and went outside without checking it out?”
“I had the enchanted dagger,” I say right as it hits me that I should have looked at the video surveillance from our doorbell. I was so freaked out last night that I forgot the doorbell records a minute of footage if any motion is detected. Quickly, I open up the app and scroll through the history, heart skipping a beat when I see that there was motion detected multiple times last night—right around the time I was hearing whatever was lurking inside my house. I can’t play the video while Ethan is on the phone without him hearing it, and if something was out there, I don’t want to worry him. Not yet at least.
“Anyway.” I realize I haven’t said anything for a few seconds. “How did things go the rest of the morning?”
“Good. Everyone loved Hunter. And you were right, no one suspected anything.”
“I knew they’d love him. For years even I thought he was a normal dog.”
“I did too, even after I saw him rip a Pricolici apart. Do you want anything for lunch? I can pick something up when I get back into town.”
“That would be great. Get me whatever you get yourself. You know I’m not picky when it comes to food.”
“And I love that about you. I’ll come through Thorne Hill so our options are limited. Steak ’n Shake okay?”
“Yeah. I like the little fries. How much longer until you’re home?”
“About an hour, maybe more if traffic is bad. I’m almost out of the city.”
“Good. I better go shower then. I just got done with barn chores and then rode both horses. I probably smell like horse.”
“I’ve come to accept that you smell like horse more often than not.”
“It’s really not that bad, right?”
Ethan laughs. “I probably smell like horse half the time now too, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.”
“You know the whole cowboy vibe on you is hot, right?”
“In that case, I’ll come home and muck out the stalls again.”
Laughing, I open the back door, kicking my muddy boots off before going inside. We don’t have an attached garage or a mudroom, and both are needed with us coming in from the barn so often. The little back porch could be enclosed to function as one, but I liked sitting out here on warm fall nights, looking at the barn.
I lock the door as soon as I’m inside, talking to Ethan until I get into the shower. Everything feels normal again: calm, peaceful, and safe. It’s making me think whatever happened was an isolated event; though, mostly, I want it to be an isolated event. I doubt all witches fight demons on a regular basis, and I want so badly to go back to living on my little hobby farm with my boyfriend where we rescue horses and plant our own crops in the summer.
Really, though, who am I kidding? Ethan is a demon hunter, and I don’t know if he could ever give that life up…even if he wanted to. He told me he’s free to leave the Order anytime, but I have a sinking feeling they won’t let him go.
“Maybe I should go out of town more often.” Ethan flashes me a cheeky grin, pulling his t-shirt back over his head. He kissed me as soon as he walked through the door, and one kiss was all it took to have us stripping each other’s clothes off in the foyer.
We didn’t make it upstairs. Ethan fucked me on the kitchen counter.
“You don’t have to leave me in order to have crazy good sex.”
“I’ll take credit for that.”
Smiling, I pull my sweatpants back on. “I think our food is cold now.”