Chapter 32
Demons are NOT Precious
After Glenda had regained her composure and Chuck had made them all coffee, they settled down to discuss why she was there.
Malachi had already grudgingly gone to get clothes and change back to human form.
Still feeling spiteful, he shifted first, then went to his room, giving both ladies a whole eyeful of what he had to offer.
He heard Chuck cackling gleefully and Glenda scolding her for encouraging him.
Sitting at the dining table now, Malachi held the coffee cup between his palms. He didn’t plan to drink it but was intrigued by the way humans seemed to be fueled by their daily ritual of consuming the bitter bean water simply to get by.
As the cup warmed his palms, he tuned back into the conversation about why Glenda had appeared that morning, banging on the door like she was serving a warrant.
“So, this whole time you knew Malachi was a demon?” Chuck demanded of her friend.
Waving her fingers, sending her bracelets jangling, Glenda waggled her head quickly.
“Yeah, yeah, I knew. But I also knew how protective of you he was and that he would watch out for you. And yes, before you ask, I know what you are and what your daddy was. It’s why I’m always in your business, honey.
I love you, and you need extra lookin’ out for! ”
Shaking her head in disbelief, Chuck leaned back in her chair, a stunned expression on her face as she processed this news.
“I didn’t know what the boy looked like with his wings, though, damn near made my heart fall out of my chest.” Glenda tapped her finger on her lips and studied Malachi through narrowed eyes. “And you didn’t seem surprised to see it, so I’m guessing you two know all about each other now?”
Nodding with a soft smile, Chuck threaded her fingers through Malachi’s and leaned forward. “We do. He shared his background with me, and well, we’ve come to care about each other. A lot. But that still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“I don’t know what in the name of the goddess you were doing, but every protective ward I have set for you was going off.
I wasn’t home last night; I went to help deliver a baby with a coven member.
So, imagine my surprise when I walk in, and my workroom is in total disarray with all my alarms going batshit crazy! ” Glenda explained.
“Hmm,” Malachi hummed, and at their inquiring looks explained.
“I’ve always wondered about that phrase.
Batshit crazy. I mean… who decided batshit was the craziest shit?
Yeah, high concentrations will kill you with the insane nitrogen levels, and histoplasmosis is always a risk, but still, have you ever seen giraffe shit?
It’s like little balls of cocoa. Oversized cocoa pebbles.
How does a huge animal like that have such tiny little poos?
Elephants, now there’s a respectable pile of shit.
They just let it all go. And don’t get me started on hippos.
Whew! But bats? A tiny flying mammal that shits where it sleeps?
No, thank you.” He glanced up from where he was gazing into his coffee cup to see both of them staring at him, jaws hanging open. “What?” he demanded.
Chuck slowly shook her head and chuckled.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but you are a wealth of weird knowledge, Malachi.
” Turning to Glenda, she smiled. “Anyway, as you can see, I’m perfectly fine.
So is Malachi. It seems whatever alarms you have tuned to me—which by the way, stalker much? —were a little premature.”
“No,” Glenda insisted. “They weren’t, I was just delayed in receiving them. Now start from the beginning.”
Sighing, Chuck told the story of Malachi revealing her heritage and warning her of the threat against her.
Then, their trip to the bar, and the subsequent attack on her.
His revealing his demon form and capturing her would be assassin.
Describing how Blake had grabbed her, then cut her.
She showed Glenda the angry red cut and pointed at Malachi, explaining how he’d healed it from oozing grace.
He took up the narrative then. Leaving out their fight, he went to the backyard, thinking to spare Chuck the pain of his death and the angel confronting him.
As they’d gone to sleep shortly after, Chuck hadn’t heard some of this.
She gasped when he revealed that the angel Nick was actually her uncle.
Tears filled her eyes, turning the brown irises into pools of melted chocolate he would gladly drown in to remove the sadness from her expression.
“I have other family?” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Nodding slowly, Malachi met her gaze. “You do. Nick, who answered my p-prayer, was an angel. He said he was your uncle from H-Heaven. I think he’s been watching you and took advantage of my feelings for you to find a guardian.
” He snorted. “As if I wouldn’t have watched you anyway.
” He arched an eyebrow, daring either of them to contradict him.
“But you weren’t leaving for real, right?” Glenda demanded, pointing at him.
Squirming uncomfortably, Malachi glared at her.
“I was thinking about it, I won’t lie.” At the witch’s disbelieving snort, he growled.
“I won’t. When it comes to Kelly, I would never lie.
She’s everything to me. That’s why I was trying to create distance.
I thought if I forfeited my life, they couldn’t use me to hurt her.
I p-prayed, asking H-Heaven to help her.
Me. A demon. And they answered me because they knew I meant it.
There’s nothing I won’t do to protect her, keep her safe. ”
Nodding, Glenda crossed her arms over her ample bosom. “Good,” she declared and sniffed. “As it should be. You care about her; she cares about you. You can protect her from the forces against her. Just make sure you don’t hurt her, or angels be damned, I’ll be on your ass.”
Grinning now, Malachi bowed his head. “Noted and agreed. I’m so incredibly attached to her ass. No one will touch it but me.”
“Ugh,” the witch groaned, clapping a hand over her forehead dramatically.
“Yeah, I understand, please, nothing more.” She waved her other hand and dismissed him.
“Anyway, so you’re alive.” She pointed at Chuck.
“Meaning I don’t need to worry about you dying, and he’s still here, so it wasn’t him.
” Sighing, Glenda rolled her eyes theatrically, not done being extra.
“I guess this Nick fellow made it all safe with his spell. That leads me to now. You’re both safe, but you seemed really irritated this morning.
I take that to mean I interrupted something exciting?
Have you seriously not done it yet? There’s enough tension between you two to strangle a saint,” her tone rose in incredulity.
“No,” Malachi growled. “We were getting there, but someone interrupted.” He glanced at Reena, chuckling as she wheezed her amused laughter about the situation.
Grinning, unashamed, Glenda shrugged. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find other opportunities to get each other naked. Regardless, you need to figure out who is after Kelly.”
Sobering, Malachi dropped his gaze, agreeing with Glenda’s statement, if not her timing. “We might have a lead.”
Chuck cleared her throat and sat up straighter from where she’d been leaning towards Malachi, twirling her fingers in his hair.
“Yeah, turns out the lunatic that attacked me last night is the son of one of my dad’s friends.
A guy I now work with. And Malachi has detected darkness on him before.
But he said it’s darkness from association, like being around his son.
So, I’m not really sure where to go from here, but Mal wants to get another look at the sword. He called it a forsaken blade.”
Gasping, Glenda clutched at her throat. “A forsaken blade? Of course! Because how else could he have released your grace? Where the hell did he get something like that?”
“From Hell obviously.” Malachi snorted and shook his head.
He grinned unrepentantly at the witch who was now glaring at him again.
“Someone had to have conscripted him from Hell. Those blades aren’t just lying around waiting for someone to find.
And he knew what it was, what she was. He was absolutely recruited for it.
But he didn’t strike me as the kind of person who could orchestrate and carry out an attack on two seasoned police officers, especially given one was a full angel. ”
Glenda settled back into her chair and tapped her long magenta nails repeatedly on the ceramic surface of her coffee cup.
The clicking noise was causing a muscle in Malachi’s face to twitch to the point he was about to snatch the cup from her.
Perhaps sensing his irritation, Glenda’s fingers stilled, and she sat up straighter.
“You need to inspect that blade.” She nodded definitively as if they hadn’t just discussed that very thing.
“Agreed,” Malachi added dryly as he barely restrained himself from snarling in frustration. “But Chuck is on leave while this is investigated, and I can’t just show up to the station as a human or as the K-9 alone without raising suspicion.”
“I can still take you up there, and you can sneak into the evidence room again,” Chuck offered. “I’ll go see the lieutenant and discuss my concerns about this situation. It would be plausible with Nathan’s involvement and everything.”
Taking her hand in his, Malachi turned and brushed the back of his other hand over her cheek tenderly. “Are you sure? I can find another way. Do you feel up to it?”
“Damn…” Glenda sighed, watching them with a dreamy smile and damp eyes.
At their combined stare, she waved a hand.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying my front row seat to the romance of the century.
The angel and the demon. Not on my bingo card this year I can tell you that.
But good goddess, you two are adorable.” She rested her chin in her hands, planting her elbows on the table on each side of her coffee cup, and sighed. “Just precious.”
Wrinkling his nose, Malachi growled, “I am not fucking precious.” His eyes lit with Hellfire, and he allowed his fangs to slip down just a bit.
“Yes… you are!” Glenda stabbed one of her long nails at him. “Look at Kelly,” she commanded.
Startled, he did as she directed, and his snarl softened into a genuine smile at the grin on Chuck’s stunning face. “Sorry,” he said, ducking his head in embarrassment.
“See?” crowed Glenda. “Precious!”
Lowering his lips to Kelly’s, he murmured, “Make her leave.” Then he captured her mouth and poured all his suppressed longing into the kiss, ensuring she understood exactly what he wanted.
“Okay, Romeo, while I appreciate the show, I’m not a complete voyeur.
You need to get your fuzzy behind up to the station so you can snoop.
Now let her get dressed so I can drive you up there.
I’m going to do some spell casting of my own.
” Glenda slapped her hand on the table when they didn’t stop kissing.
“Hey!” She began snapping her fingers. “I know you didn’t suddenly go deaf. Let’s get a move on!”
Without acknowledging Glenda—or breaking the kiss—Malachi scooped Kelly in his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, and started moving towards her bedroom.
He fought back a smile against her mouth at her squeal of surprise and Glenda’s snort of amusement.
Reaching his destination, he kicked the door shut behind them and spun around, putting Kelly’s back to the wall.
Pressing against her, he tilted his head and deepened his possession of her lips.
When she arched her back and pressed her hips harder against his, he groaned and dropped his forehead against the frame.
“Fuck Kelly, it’s going to take hours to do what I want to you.
I’m going to put you down so you can get dressed.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Glenda’s right.
We need to get you to the station so we can find out who’s behind all of this. ”
With a small, pained moan, she unwound her arms and legs from him, sliding down his body.
He was fairly certain she had purposely ensured every single curve connected with all of him as she did.
“Bad girl,” he hissed between clenched teeth.
Pointing at himself, he grinned. “Incubus. Sex demon. Don’t tease me like that. I can get really dark, really fast.”
Nodding, she trailed a finger over his shoulder before scooting around him. “I’m looking forward to that.” Hurrying to the bathroom, she whirled and winked at him before shutting the door.
Malachi smirked as he heard the lock click.
He decided now was not the time to demonstrate that he could just smoke under the door and get to her anyway.
He’d save that particular surprise for another time.
Now he pressed his palm to his aching groin again, grimacing that he wasn’t getting the happy ending he wanted, again.
“Fucking witches,” he muttered before turning around and stomping back out to the living room.