“I’m going to let go of your hair.” I opened my hand. “And now you’re going to let go of me.”
The daemon’s brows slammed down, and he looked like he was thinking about growling at me.
Done humoring him, I murmured a tiny spell and jabbed him with my finger. I only had enough juice for a static shock, which was laughable on a daemon his size. But it did the job. He lost his focus. That gave me an opening to shove off his chest, flip over his arms, and land in a crouch.
“Ace.” Clay snapped his fingers in his partner’s face. “I will kick your ass if you take another step.”
A tinkling laugh froze us all in place, and we turned in unison to the porch and the moth on the railing.
“You say a lot of bad words.” Colby fluttered with delight. “More than my gamer friends even.”
As I straightened, I leveled a stare on her. “Your gamer friends use language around you?”
“I hear the microwave beeping.” She spun in a circle. “Gotta go.”
“Can she use the microwave?”
“Oh, yes.” I found Clay standing beside me, half his attention on the daemon. “She enjoys explosions.”
Moths weren’t meant to microwave, but that didn’t stop her from trying to cook when I wasn’t home. I was shocked she hadn’t burned down the house as often as she zapped tinfoil. And utensils. And metal takeout containers.
For a while, I thought it was a cry for attention. Then I realized, no. She was just that bad in the kitchen. Since she was always trying to fix me dinner or desserts for special occasions when disaster struck, I didn’t fuss.
Alarm clanged through his tone. “How…?”
“She watches a lot of TikTok.” She got me hooked too. “It gives her ideas.”
The thirst traps I fell into on total and complete accident gave me ideas too.
“I should go.” I backed away to keep the daemon in sight. “I need to read over that contract.”
No doubt there was fine print buried in there ready to trip me up if I didn’t comb over it.
“You do that.” Clay waved to the moth with her proboscis glued to the drama. “See you tomorrow.”
This twenty-four-hour window Asa sold me on was stretching into a solid forty-eight.
“I have to make the right decision.” I had to say it, even as it caused Clay to drop his smile. “For her.”
“Team,” the daemon growled, “mates.”
I heard the gap between those words, and it gave me a case of the shivers. The daemon in Asa had ideas about me. I chose to believe Asa was reading into the bond I shared with Clay, and the day’s events gave him a case of overprotectivitis. That I could forgive. You couldn’t change your DNA.
And just like that, I dumped a bucket of ice-cold reality over my own head.
Sure, I resisted temptation today. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t consume me tomorrow.
Each case was another opportunity to succumb, another heart no one would mind me having for lunch.
“Once you sign on the dotted line, I’ll get the files to you.” Clay kept a wary eye on the daemon. “Well, he will.”
The size of Clay’s fingers made it hard for him to use laptops. Phones, at least, could be voice controlled.
Inching back, I banged the fence with my hip, fumbled the gate open behind me, then retreated into the yard, safe behind the wards. All without turning my back on the daemon, who watched me with avarice.
Manners I had forgotten returned to me in a rush now that a ward stood between me and the daemon.
Already dreading the answer, I still forced out, “Do you need a lift to your hotel?”
“Yes,” the daemon rumbled, his fangs gleaming.
“No.” Clay spoke over him. “I called a tow for the SUV. The driver said he would give us a lift into town.”
“Sounds like you boys have it handled.” I pivoted on my heel. “I’ll be inside if you need anything.”
A shiver coasted down my spine, and I glanced over my shoulder to find the daemon sliding a dark claw down the ward that kept him from opening the gate.