Cole’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “Holy shit, did I just hear—?”
“Gotta go, love you, call you later.” I hung up on Cole and glared at Casziel. “Really?”
The demon glared back. “Our si
tuation is a private one, or did I fail to mention that?”
“That was my best friend, and I haven’t told him anything. He’d think I lost my mind. I’m not so sure I haven’t, actually. Just now, were you…a bird?”
“The raven is my anicorpus,” Casziel said. “A mode of transportation on This Side.”
“Oh, sure. Anicorpus. Because that’s totally normal.” I frowned. “How do you have clothes?”
“All matter is energy. Once I acquire garments, I manipulate their energy and fuse it with my own. They become a part of me, just as the energies of my various bodies—raven, demon, human—are all within me. I can wear whichever I choose at will.”
“Okay. I’ll pretend I understand that.” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “But you were distinctly lacking in garments when I first found you.”
“It takes strength to manipulate energy. At that time, I had none.”
“Sure.” I gave my head a shake. “Wait. I’ve seen you as a raven before, too. When I first found you. I had a dream or a vision of a chamber in a temple.”
Casziel, busy rummaging in my kitchen cabinets, froze. “You saw a temple?” he asked without turning.
“That’s the sense I got but I’m not sure. It was pretty dark. There was blood and…grief. Your grief, I think.”
The demon was still for another moment, then resumed his hunt through my cabinets. “It’s because we became bonded after you spoke my true name. My existence seeped into yours. Nothing more.”
“But that vision came before I said your name—”
“Your cupboards are inadequate, Lucy Dennings,” Casziel said, his back still to me. “It’s surprising you survive off this meager assortment.”
He was changing the subject, but I let it go, more absorbed by how Casziel filled my small space with his masculine presence. Finding him naked hadn’t been a bad thing, but putting clothes on his lean, sculpted muscles somehow cast them in even sharper detail.
And black is absolutely his color.
I snapped myself out of lusting after a demon and cleared my throat. “Wait, exactly where did you acquire clothes?”
“I possessed a man of my general height and build while he was waiting to get into a nightclub,” Casziel said, emerging from my cupboard with a box of Pop-Tarts. He tore a package open and let the foil wrapper fall to the floor. “I’m not a monster. I let him keep the underwear.”
“You possessed him?”
“Why is this shocking? Your films and books get few things correct about my kind, but demon possession is generally accurate.” Casziel tilted his head. “It was Uriel who let that slip. All that messy business with the nuns in 1634.”
My jaw worked, then I gave myself a shake. “Did you consider how that guy might’ve felt suddenly finding himself naked in public?”
Casziel stared at me blankly, chewing his Pop-Tart.
I rolled my eyes. “Look, if you’re going to be better, you need to learn a little empathy. And you can’t be stealing anymore. Or possessing people, for God’s sake.”
“Better will not be good enough, Lucy Dennings. Given the scope of my sins, redemption will require an act of grand proportions. Have you given any more thought to my situation?”
“Well…no. I woke up and you were gone. I thought I’d imagined it all.”
“While you imagine, my time grows short. As of now, I have ten days left.”
“If we fail, you’ll remain a demon forever?”
He took a little too long to answer. “Yes.”