I raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s not some kind of threat, is it?”
“What? No!” He stood indignantly, then backed away a step when I tensed. He was afraid of me. “No, I promise, I just came to warn you. I had—havedreams about you sometimes—”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound weird at all,” I said, taking another step toward the beach.
“Visions.” He huffed and ran his hands through his short hair. “I have visions, and I keep seeing you in a huge fight with tons of demons and a fallen angel and a big dragon guy. Something is blocking a lot of the details, like the where and when, but your face is always clear, so I wanted to warn you.”
I snorted, then burst out laughing. Nathan’s cheeks flushed and he straightened his spine. “I’m afraid you’re a day late and a dollar short on that one,” I told him. “Literally happened last night.”
He crossed his arms over his huge chest. “Well, like I said, something was blocking the details. You might’ve known sooner if you’d called me.”
“And how was I supposed to do that?” I wiped a tear away and grinned. “The phone book? Are you the one that runs the psychic hotline?”
“The note that I left with your boss a few weeks ago.”
I stopped laughing.What note?My brow drew down in confusion. Lucifer hadn’t said anything about a note that I could recall.
“He didn’t give it to you, did he?” Nathan asked, hanging his head. “I would’ve given it to you myself, but I’m not exactly a low-key individual.” He gestured to himself and I stifled a laugh. “I didn’t want to scare you since I wasn’t sure how much you knew about… well, this stuff.”
This stuff?“You mean, magic and demon stuff?” I crossed my arms, mimicking his stance, and shrugged. “The demons are new, I’ll admit, but magic isn’t.”
He extended his hand toward me over the wall. “Take it.”
I stared for a few moments, listing in my head all the ways a handshake could go wrong, then grabbed it before I could change my mind. His palm was rough, making me think he actually practiced with the sword he wore. A faint buzz of energy danced across his skin, probably just more than my mom’s coven members had. Maybe his size made up for his minimal magic.
Or maybe I was a terrible judge of whatminimal magiclooked like.
“Jeez, your presence really is overwhelming,” he said, pulling back. Something in his posture relaxed as he let go, and I felt myself relaxing a bit, too. If he really came to warn me, then hopefully that meant no attack. “You must be a hell of a fighter to make it out of what I saw.”
My cheeks warmed and I looked away, the memory rushing back. Last night had been awful, and this morning hadn’t helped in the least. “Not really. It was mostly luck and a lot of imagination.” I nodded toward him, taking advantage of the distraction from my crumbling reality. “So, what’s with the sword, anyway? You know it’s illegal, right? Do the cops around here not say anything to you about carrying it openly?”
“They can’t see it.” He laid his hand on the sheath reverently. “It surprised me that you could. My dad gave me this sword, said it was glamoured so that most people couldn’t see it.”
“Glamoured?” I repeated. “So, kind of like an illusion?” Was that why I could see it? Because I could create illusions, too? I wasn’t sure that was how it worked, but it seemed plausible at the moment.
He looked up at the streetlights coming on and panic jolted through my chest. It was almost dark. I should’ve been home already.
“I’ll walk you back, if you want,” he offered. “It’s not safe for someone with your…”
“Beacon power?” I suggested.
Nathan wrinkled his nose, but turned down the path. “I wouldn’t have phrased it like that, but yeah. I’m not sure how you’ve survived this long against them without back-up.”
Powerful family.My chest stung thinking about my dad, hating him for fucking with my relationships, loving him for keeping me safe when I hadn’t known there was a threat. Even Lucifer, before the demons had attacked, tried to get me to run to safety. I wrapped my arms across my stomach.
“I actually recruit people like you,” he continued, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He kept his eyes on the sidewalk, not looking at me. “Since the demon attacks started, my visions have gotten more frequent, and I’ve started seeing other people with some unique abilities I thought could help in the fight. When I have a vision of an attack, I call the closest person and send them to the location I saw.”
I blinked at him, digesting that piece of information. “So, demons are attacking humans, too? Not just us?”
“All over the world, and it’s getting worse by the day, though we only cover North America.”
My stomach twisted at the thought. What would my dad say if I wanted to help them? I wasn’t ready to deal with Lucifer yet, but could I make my own difference in the world with this guy? If he knew others with abilities, maybe I could even find someone to help me learn how to properly control mine. My dad had enough on his plate as it was; I couldn’t ask him to train me even if I wanted to talk to him right now.
I couldn’t burden him more than I already was.
“I’ll think about it.”
Nathan startled and looked at me. “Think about what?”
