Ember adored this shop. Her passion was evident in her every interaction with her customers, and it was no less clear during the lulls, when she would lovingly tidy up the goods on display.
Nyte had found it fascinating. Shockingly so.
Mayhap it was because he’d been away from this world for so long. The mundane had become unfamiliar and wondrous after centuries of confinement, and there had ever been a part of him that sought out others, mortal and immortal alike. A part that had always taken comfort in being near other beings.
He didn’t need to interact with them—that was often draining and unnecessary. But he’d always enjoyed observing.
His gaze trailed over Ember, seizing on her smile. The dark lip paint made her straight white teeth all the more brilliant in comparison. Her smile was radiant.
Or mayhap it is all due to this little witch.
It was more than the way she ran her shop. Whenever Nyte and Ember had been alone throughout the day, no matter what else she’d busied herself with, she’d taken the time to speak with him. She’d asked him questions about himself with disarmingly unobtrusive gentleness, and more than once had asked if he needed anything.
She, a mortal who knew nothing of his world, had been considerate enough to ask a demon born of the night if he required anything for his comfort and wellbeing.
The first time, he’d been convinced it was some sort of trick. A means of stealing a bit of his trust, of getting him to lower his guard, to expose a vulnerability. Mortals and immortals were both well versed in such tactics of manipulation.
But he was beginning to understand the truth now, and he found that truth far more unsettling.
She was simply…kind. Genuine. Compassionate.
Those traits were almost as foreign to him as this modern human world.
Sarnessa had never been?—
No. I will not allow my thoughts to follow that path.
When the sale was finalized, Ember bid the woman a good night, and the customer exited the store.
Nyte pushed away from the wall, moving toward Ember. She offered him a smile before crouching to retrieve her bag from the bottom drawer.
“So, is this how you spend your days?” he asked.
“Yep. Five days a week.” She stood and faced him, slipping the straps of her bag over her arm. “Now we can head home.”
Home.
Another mortal concept that meant nothing to him, like family. He didn’t have a home. Didn’t have a place he truly belonged.
He preceded Ember out of the shop, watching people walk along the street as she locked up behind him. There’d been humans out in the morning, but it was much livelier and more crowded now. There were what appeared to be mated couples of varying ages, some of them holding hands, families with rowdy children, and groups of mortals talking amongst themselves. The smells on the air were stronger and more pungent, likely coming from nearby eateries, mixing with the briny scent of the ocean.
Ember and Nyte took the same route as they had that morning, their pace slower due to the abundant humans and the roads being packed with the conveyances she called cars.
“So what did you do before your time in the Pit of Despair?” she asked. “Did you have some unholy rites toperform, or did you possess people and make them vomit pea soup?”
Nyte jerked his head toward her, steps faltering. “What in the hells are you talking about, witch? What does pea soup have to do with anything?”
“It’s from an old movie. Guess you were away for that one.” She chuckled. “Sorry. You’ve been away foreverymovie. I’ll have to share some with you.”
He still wasn’t sure how to take her laughter, her interest, her smiles. Wasn’t sure how to take Ember herself. She was so nonchalant and natural around him, so comfortable.
But alarmingly, he found himself liking that laughter and those smiles, liking the way her eyes often sought him out, liking her attention. Likingher. It was certainly too early to judge, but she treated him as though he mattered. As though she was interested in Nyte himself rather than what he could do for her or what he could give her.
He should’ve been raging against this situation, should’ve been seething at being trapped in the mortal realm, tethered to a witch…
Instead, he craved her. That was an ominous portent for the days to come. He knew better than to let his guard down, and yet he was already falling into these feelings. He was already slipping.
Nyte caught hold of his overexcited tail and clutched it as he walked. “Before, I was largely an observer. A shadow in the night. I sewed fear and feasted upon it when the whim took me, but often I was content to merely watch. To exist as the world changed around me, and the mortals changed along with it.”
