“Fair enough.” Debating what to watch, I figure he might want to watch something to help him catch up to the now, “I’m going to turn on the news. It’ll discuss some current events, wars, crime, shit like that.” And I plop down on the couch, as far from him as I can possibly plant myself.
* * *
After roughly 20 minutes, there’s a knock at my door. Instantly, Caspian darts up ready to attack. Looking at me, he says, “Do not move. I will retrieve your sustenance.”
“Do you think I’ll try to bolt again?” I ask.
Narrowing his eyes, he simply states, “Yes,” before turning on his heel and strutting towards my door. Swinging it open, I can see the moment Darcy gets an eyeful of my new housepet, and her jaw nearly unhinges. To break her from her spell, Caspian greets her, “Good morning. You are here to deliver food, yes?”
“Uh-huh. For Bel?” she nervously tries to lean around him to find me, but he blocks her view. Rolling my eyes, I stalk towards them and not so gently push Caspian away from my poor, entranced friend.
“Hey Darcy, how are you?” She barely registers me, too petrified by the giant beast of a man in my living room.
“Oh. Uhhh, I’m good. Here’s your food. Bye!” and she takes off before I can say anything else. Generally, Darcy likes to chat for a minute, but I guess seeing a strange guy in my apartment has kicked her into high gear.
“Good job, you scared the poor girl,” I smack his arm with the back of my free hand.
“Yes, well that is the proper reaction to meeting one of Hell’s warriors.You’rethe one who reacted to me without the appropriate amount of fear,” he removes the package from my hand and gestures me back to the couch.
He follows behind me, places the take-out bag on the coffee table, and begins to open it, the smell of fresh bagels permeating the air. I sit and watch as he takes a deep breath, and I wonder again what it’s like to be experiencing this new world for the first time.
“This smells marvelous,” he states in awe. “Oh! I remember these. They were fairly new to the world in my time, but they were very good.” His excitement over bagels is absolutely understandable. They are the food of the gods, I swear. “But what is this container?”
“Oh, it’s just like toppings you can put on the bagels. Do you eat? Food? I figured it was just…” I grimace, trying to block out the memories of the night before.
He glances at the kitchen, showing that cheeky fucking grin again. “I do not need to consume mortal food, or mortals usually, but Ithoroughlyenjoy both.”
Slathering cream cheese on my bagel, I look up at him incredulously, waving my knife around for emphasis, “Sooooo you just ate those cops for what, fun?”
“It was fun, wasn’t it?” His eyes light up, “Especially when you attempted to fly away and I had to remind you to be a good little dove.”
That nickname has got to go.I feel the need to remind my silly body that we do not want to be Caspian’s little anything, but I don’t think she’s listening to me.“But no,” he continues, “They had seen me, thus they could not be permitted to leave. Call it…. damage control. A necessary evil. One that I relished,” he finishes with a wicked smile.
I can’t talk about it for another second, so I ask the question I’ve been dreading all morning, “Why are you really still here?”
“I told you that I would return, did I not?” Before I can answer, he adds, “It is as I said, we have much to discuss.Afteryou eat.”
“I’meatingright now,” I say around a mouthful. Every instinct in my body tells me I should stop goading him, so I try to have some manners, “You can have one if you want. I always order extras, just in case I forget to go to the grocery store or whatever when I’m in the middle of a project.”
“Thank you,” he grabs a bagel out of the bag and bites straight into it, tearing the chunk off, not unlike how he ate the—don’t go there.He sits down, leaving only a couple inches between our legs, and I feel like I can’t breathe. Trying to be subtle, I scoot to give myself a little room. He peers at me from the corner of his eye, smirking, “You are attempting to escape me again.”
“No, I’m not.” But he’s not convinced, so I continue, “I’m just getting comfy.”
I’m full of shit. He knows it. I know it. But, thankfully, he shows me the mercy of not saying anything about it.
When he’s finished scarfing down his bagel, he turns fully to me, “I have discovered what is meant by protection in the summoning spell. You protect me from being detected.”
“Detected by what?”What could possibly be a threat to him?
“Demon Hunters. They call themselvesSanctus Sculitis, but in my time they weren’t much more than spineless holy men with spells.” He pulls an ancient-looking compass from his pocket, and that’s when I notice he’s no longer wearing Charlie’s clothes. Noting the surprise on my face, he gestures down, “I saw a few articles of modern clothing in a storefront on my walk last night, so this morning I snuck back and acquired them.”
“Demon Hunters?”Now I’m the one with a thousand questions. Wait—“What do you meanacquired?”
He shrugs and says, “Simply that. They were unattended so I assumed no one would miss them. I returned those you lent me to the room just there.” He gestures up the stairs with his chin, “They got a bit tattered and bloody last night, but don’t fret, I managed to undo the damage.”
Bloody? Oh, fuck.“You killed someone else?”
“Someones. Demon Hunters. Weren’t you listening? They cornered me, so I did what must be done. But I did not bring them home,” he continues, pleased with himself for his restraint, “I left them and their weaponry in a trash receptacle.”
