“You know we’re in this together,” he replied before pulling her into an embrace that lasted a good bit longer than their usual goodnight hug.It was so good to lean her head against the solid warmth of his chest, to smell the faint scent of his cologne mixed with something that was purely him, warm and friendly and not the slightest bit demonic.
When they finally separated, she felt a little steadier.This was all one big mess, but Caleb was right.
They were going to face it together.She didn’t have to do this by herself.
“I’ll call my aunt tomorrow morning as soon as it’s a decent time,” she said.
“Good.And Delia?”He paused with his hand on the doorknob.“It’s okay to trust your gut.You’ve got this.”
She only nodded.After he pressed a soft kiss against her lips, he turned and headed outside.
Once he was gone, Delia locked the door, even as she realized that a locked door wasn’t much protection against demons…or whatever else might be out there.As she passed the window in the living room, she noticed that the porch light was flickering strangely — not with the steady on-and-off of a dying bulb, but in an erratic pattern that made another of those creepy-crawly sensations that felt like an icy little spider working its way down her back.
She pulled the curtains closed.No energy left to worry about what it all might mean, although she knew she needed to bring it up with Caleb tomorrow.
Right then, she just hoped she’d be able to get a decent night’s sleep.
The next morning, Delia made herself get up and head into the kitchen as though this was just another perfectly normal day, pausing as she went to flip on the TV in the living room, another part of her morning ritual.Most of what the news had to say didn’t interest her that much, but she liked to hear the weather and traffic reports, just in case some unexpected showers might pop up or there was a massive traffic jam she would have to avoid on her way to work.
As she got out her favorite mug, she pondered for what felt like the umpteenth time what she planned to say to her aunt.She’d rehearsed those words before falling asleep, and now she ran through the little speech again, hoping it wouldn’t sound as awkward out loud as it did in her head.
Just checking in, wanted to hear how the wedding planning is going, oh, remember that I’m local, so if Olivia needs any help with the Vegas details….
But then her ears perked up.From the other room, she could hear one of the morning anchors reporting on overnight “power grid anomalies” that seemed to have affected a number of businesses downtown.
That same sensation of icy cold made a return visit, only this time it was also accompanied by an uneasy rumble in the pit of her stomach.The man on the news hadn’t mentioned any specific businesses, but he hadn’t needed to.Most of the quickie chapels Delia knew of were located near downtown, simply because it was smart to be in close proximity to the hotels and the casinos and the restaurants, along with the Clark County office where people had to obtain their wedding licenses.
And she’d bet the fifty-seven dollars currently residing in her wallet that a little digging would prove all the businesses affected by the power grid issues were those same chapels.
This wasn’t good.
But it was still way too early to call Caleb.He might not have been an utter night owl like Pru, but he also tended to sleep in because he didn’t have to get up and go to work.
Delia, on the other hand, needed to be in the office by nine.Luckily, she didn’t have any early clients like she had the day before, but she still couldn’t lounge around and wait for it to be a decent hour so she could call him and ask him what this latest news report meant.
If he would even have any real idea.He certainly possessed far more knowledge about the world of the demonic than she did, but he’d also admitted that he didn’t know everything.
Like her, he was probably flying blind…and praying they wouldn’t slam into an unseen obstacle in the fog.
Delia had to wait until her mother was safely out of the office for a house showing before she could make the call to her aunt.While she wasn’t necessarily trying to hide anything, she also didn’t want her mother wondering why her daughter was calling Vicky Gunderson out of the blue like this.As far as Delia had been able to tell, the two women got along fine, something that didn’t always happen with sisters-in-law, but they weren’t terribly close, either, thanks to the geographic separation in the family.All the same, Linda would know that her daughter pretty much limited her communication with her extended family to Christmas cards and birthday cards, and phone calls were basically a non-starter.
But once the coast was clear, Delia got out her phone and headed over to her contacts list.Thank God she had everyone’s number in there, mostly because she always figured it was better to keep as much contact information as possible on hand, just in case.
Well, this was definitely a “case.”
“Delia!”Vicky sounded cheerful enough when she answered the phone, but also a little startled, as if she couldn’t quite figure out why her niece would be calling her out of the blue.“This is a surprise.How are you?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” Delia replied as she settled back in her chair.Luckily, she didn’t have any appointments until after lunch, so she wasn’t too worried about being interrupted.“Busy, but good.How’s Chicago?”
For a few minutes, they chatted about the weather and family news before Delia managed to steer the conversation toward her real reason for making the call.
Doing her best to sound casual, she asked, “So…how’s Olivia doing with all the wedding planning?She must be pretty excited, considering how close it’s getting.”
A slight pause followed her comment, and when Vicky spoke again, Delia thought she could detect an edge of concern in her aunt’s tone.“She’s excited…but she’s also stressed about keeping track of all the details, even though she’s been trying to keep things simple.In fact, she told me she’s been having trouble sleeping this past week or so.It sounds like she keeps having weird dreams about the wedding.”
Once upon a time, Delia would have dismissed odd dreams as nothing more than the subconscious manifesting stress in strange and sometimes uncomfortable ways.Now, though, she knew that dreams could have a meaning of their own and weren’t something to be dismissed out of hand.“Dreams?”she repeated, hoping she didn’t sound too eager.
“She hasn’t told me anything specific,” her aunt replied.“But she did say yesterday that she keeps waking up feeling like something terrible is going to happen.I told her it’s just normal pre-wedding jitters, but….”
