Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Her house felt different the second she and Caleb went through the door that connected the garage to the kitchen.
Not physically…everything looked just the same, from the white cabinets to the black granite countertops and the cheerful little philodendron that sat on the small table in the nook to one side…
but energetically. The protective barriers she’d built around her consciousness during the day’s supernatural chaos appeared to have been extended to her home as well, creating a sanctuary that seemed completely separate from the otherworldly events they’d just survived.
“Wine?” she asked as she headed toward the rack that sat on the kitchen counter. She was doing her best to sound utterly casual, but she wasn’t sure whether she’d succeeded.
Was this a stupid idea? They were both dog tired, and….
No. Her brain shut down that line of thought at once. They loved each other, and they’d just been connected in a way two people probably never had been before. Where else could they end up except here?
“Sure,” he replied, and followed her over to the place where the wine rack waited for them.
Delia handed him a bottle of pinot noir and a corkscrew — she’d never been all that great at opening wine bottles in the first place, and her hands were just shaky enough now that she knew better than to attempt it — while she went over to one of the cupboards to get out a couple of stemless wine glasses.
The cork came out with ease, and she guessed he’d used the barest flicker of his demon powers to remove the thing.
Her fingers brushed his as she gave him one of the glasses she held.
Even that simple contact sent a spark of heat through her.
Okay, maybe she wasn’t as tired as she’d feared.
Neither of them said anything. Instead, they took their glasses of wine into the living room, where they sat down on the sofa.
“So,” Delia said, figuring there wasn’t much point in dancing around either their immediate future…or the one that loomed off in the distance, dark with its own possibilities. “What happens now?”
It was a loaded question, and they both knew it. The question could have referred to their expanding supernatural abilities…or the chances of another demonic incursion.
Or it could have simply referred to the two of them sitting in her living room at nearly midnight after saving Las Vegas from an interdimensional invasion.
“I don’t know,” Caleb said, expression frank as he sat down beside her. “For the first time in a long while, I actually don’t have a plan.”
“That might not be such a bad thing,” Delia replied, then sipped some of her wine. “Plans seem to go out the window when demons get involved anyway.”
He chuckled and drank some wine as well. “They do tend to be chaos agents,” he said. “Even the higher-ups like Vinea.”
Delia held back a shudder. Yes, she’d had to face down demons before, but neither Calach nor the creature inhabiting August Sellers’ body had been a demon lord.
She’d be extremely happy to never have to repeat that experience.
“Can I ask you something?” she said at last. The question had been weighing on her, and she knew she couldn’t ignore it.
Besides, Caleb had always said that he wanted them to be completely honest with each other.
He didn’t hesitate. “Anything.”
Delia allowed herself a breath, although she didn’t take a fortifying sip of wine. “When you were channeling all that power during the fight with Vinea…when you were changing…were you afraid you’d lose yourself completely?”
Dark eyes met hers. Those were the eyes of the man she loved. Whatever he’d been during that moment, he seemed to have come back to himself.
“I was scared shitless,” he admitted.
Would he have ever confessed such a weakness to anyone else?
Probably not. That he was comfortable saying such a thing to her told her all she needed to know.
He went on, “For a few minutes there, I wasn’t sure there’d be anything left of the person you knew.”
“But there was,” Delia said. Her voice caught, and she paused to gather herself.
No matter how much it had hurt to see him like that, no matter how terrifying it had been to watch his transformation, she’d still somehow known he would come back to her.
She went on, “Even when you were more demon than human, I could still sense you underneath all that power.”
She set down her wine glass and shifted closer to him on the couch, close enough that she could feel his body heat. Nothing supernatural, just the reassurance of a human body, a human heart.
Caleb set his glass down as well and reached over to cup her face in his hands, and she wanted to weep at the gentle strength in his touch.
“I love you,” he said simply. “Not just the part of you that can channel ley line energy or see through dimensional barriers. All of you. Even the part that hogs the last piece of garlic bread at dinner.”
“I do not — ” she began to protest…even though she knew he was right about the garlic bread.
But he grinned and cut her off with another kiss, and this time Delia lost herself completely in the touch of his mouth against hers, the way he tasted of wine and something else, something that was uniquely him.
Because of their connection, she could sense his emotions as clearly as her own — love and desire and relief all tangled together into something as complex as the lattice she’d connected to, a pattern alive with the psychic energies of Las Vegas.
But underneath those emotions was a deeper feeling, a recognition of one another that transcended the physical or even the emotional.
When they finally broke apart, Delia was surprised to realize her lashes were damp with unshed tears.
“I love you, too,” she whispered. “I was so afraid I’d lost you. When Vinea had you trapped in that ritual chamber, when I could feel you changing….”
“You didn’t lose me,” Caleb said as he brushed a strand of hair away from her face. It had come loose from its twist as they kissed, but somehow that felt right. Soon, she hoped, it would be completely free. “You found me. The connection between us — that’s what brought me back from the edge.”
This time, she was the one who moved toward him, and they lost themselves in another kiss, softer this time but no less meaningful. When she pulled back, the heat building low in her belly and the wicked curve she felt forming on her mouth made her pulse quicken.
“Stay tonight,” she said.
It wasn’t a question.
“Are you sure?” he asked, even though she guessed he’d known all along that this was the reason why they’d come here in the first place.
Still, he wanted her to be certain. The consideration in that simple question made her heart skip.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” Delia replied, knowing there was no reason to hold back.
Honesty. Always honesty.
“We almost lost everything tonight,” she added. “I don’t want to waste any more time pretending we don’t both want this.”
She got up from the couch, then took his hand and led him toward the hallway that connected to her bedroom.
Her bedroom was familiar and safe, decorated in shades of soft blue and warm cream, a relaxing space she always enjoyed returning to at the end of the day. Now moonlight streamed through the windows, casting everything in silver relief.
She turned to face him beside the bed, suddenly almost shy despite everything they’d shared. “I should probably mention that I’ve never done this with someone who’s part demon before.”
“And I’ve never done this with someone who can read my mind,” Caleb replied with a smile that looked reassuring rather than nervous. “I guess we’ll figure it out together.”
He reached for the zipper of her dress and pulled it down slowly, and Delia shivered at the way his fingertips brushed against her spine as the silk was peeled away.
Underneath the sheath was a set of lacy underwear in pale green, a gorgeous little secret she’d chosen that morning without really understanding why.
Now she was glad she’d listened to that inexplicable instinct.
He laid the dress carefully on the upholstered bench at the foot of her bed. Maybe she’d never want to wear it again, but she appreciated that he treated it with respect anyway.
Had she ever felt as beautiful as she did standing there in the moonlight, watching the way his dark eyes took her in?
She doubted it.
Her fingers found the buttons of his shirt, working them free with hands that trembled only slightly.
Soon, the wrinkled black cotton lay on the bench next to her dress, and she reached out to touch him, her fingertips tracing the scars Vinea’s claws had left on his ribs, wounds she hadn’t even realized he’d received, she’d been so caught up in the heat of battle.
Had he always healed this quickly, or was this something new, an ability he’d gained after that transforming fire burned through him?
Regret and relief warred in her chest in equal measure — regret that he’d been hurt, relief that he’d survived.
And when he pressed his lips to the pulse point at her throat, she could feel the way her entire being responded to his touch, the way their connection amplified every sensation until it became almost overwhelming.
There was magic in this, she realized as they sank onto the bed in the silvered darkness. Not the supernatural power that had fueled their battle against the forces of Hell, but something much deeper — the alchemy that occurred when two people chose to trust one other completely.