Flint goes to open his mouth again, but I barrel on. He ain’t just gonna sit there and put this on me. I can’t make informed decisions if I don’t have all the information, dammit.
“Should I have asked the nice snake-haired demon not to try and do whatever it was he was plannin’ to do to me last night? Throw in a few morepleases andthank yous and maybe he would’ve seen the error of his ways? What kind of crap is that?I need to take this more seriously,” I scoff. “You need to pull that pretty head from your marble ass, if you ask me,” I say, a tic in my jaw.
“Excuse—” Flint starts.
Alder cuts off whatever he was about to spew. “Alright, I think that’s enough for now,” he says, givin’ his friend a hard look. “Let’s take Medley home so she can get some rest and we can make sure the scythe is safe.”
Flint stares at Alder a moment and then deflates. He scrubs a hand over his face and turns to me. “Sorry,” he mumbles to me, losin’ the attitude.
“It’s fine,” I say with a sigh. I’m probably overreactin’ because I haven’t slept all night, and I keep gettin’ truth bombs tossed my way. It’s exhaustin’. “A ride home would be great,” I tell them, and then I point at Flint. “But go put on a shirt. It’s distractin’.”
He chuckles out ayes, ma’ambefore swaggerin’ away, and I watch his ass in those jeans as he goes before I let out a little sigh.
I’m about to be driven home by two demons when my parents think I’m at AnnaMae’s house, and I know for a fact they’ll be awake by the time we roll up.
Let’s hope Daddy doesn’t have time to grab the shotgun.
15
The ride over to the trailer park is actually nice. Flint and Alder keep up a steady stream of friendly conversation all about their lives as Guardians. I realize that part of the reason they’re doin’ it is to acclimate me to the Guardian life, but I don’t mind. In fact, I’m grateful, because like they explained earlier, this ain’t somethin’ I can run from or ignore. That’s just not realistic. So thebein’ a demonpart, well, I have to face that. The Guardian part, well...one thing at a time.
I listen with rapt attention to all of their stories about how they escort demons in and out of the Hellgate. Apparently, there are only certain ones who are allowed to be here, and everyone else who breaks through does so without permission. It’s Alder and Flint’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Every single story they tell is fascinatin’ to me because, well, Sweetgreen is a town with barely five thousand people in it. Talk of demons passin’ through right under our noses is some of the best gossip I’ve ever heard.
“How often do demons break through the Hellgate and get to your portal?” I ask. I’ve learned a lot already in this thirty-minute drive to my home. Apparently, the buildin’ at the graveyard behind their bar houses the portal to Hell. It’s the last line of defense before demons can sneak through to our world.
“It happens every so often,” Alder answers cryptically.
“So...a lot?” I venture.
His butterscotch eyes lift up to look at me in the rearview mirror as he drives down the highway. He has the A/C blastin’, and his sleeves are still rolled up, so the way his hand rests on the top of the steerin’ wheel looksrealnice. “It’s been happening more often,” he admits. “The gate becomes unstable after a while and will need to have an additional Guardian to help stabilize it.”
“But there are five in Delta’s group and only two of you,” I point out. “Seems like an awful big job for you two to handle on your own for so long.”
He shrugs it off. “It’s our duty. Besides, as Unus demons, we’re powerful, so we have plenty to feed into the Hellgate to keep it stable.”
Call me strange, but when he says,it’s our duty, all macho like that, it really kinda revs my engine.
“And what’s an Unus demon again?”
“Hell is made up of five Rings. We’re from the First Ring—Unus. We’re one of the more powerful of our kind, only surpassed by the Center Ring, Nihil.”
“So y’all are kind of a big deal?”
Flint snorts and spreads his arm behind me on the back of the seat, his forearm restin’ above my shoulders. It’s comfortable. That’s the only reason I rest back against him. Definitely the only reason. It has nothin’ to do with the fact that my girly side gets some butterflies at the unexpected contact.
“Unus demons are respected, but the more elite are definitely the Abdicated in Nihil. Though, at least we aren’t as common as the Outer Ringers like Fourth and Fifth. There’s more of them, and they have the least amount of power usually. Well...besides the Diluted. They barely have any demon blood in them.”
“And the Diluted are…?”
Flint’s slate eyes cut over to me right along with the playful smile that etches into his face. “When demons and humans fuck and procreate, a Diluted is born.”
Those butterfly flutters in my stomach go a little quicker whenfuckflies out of his mouth. “Gotchya,” I say.
I feel his arm move behind my neck, and then his fingers are absently playin’ with the strands of my hair, just like he did when they drove me away from the club. It feels so nice I could close my eyes and purr like a cat. It takes serious restraint not to.
“Do y’all ever get lonely?”
