ChapterEighteen
Her house feltdifferent 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.”
