I exhaled loudly and rested my head against him, closing my eyes. “I’m afraid.”
Dagon moved, and I thought he would pull away, but he cupped my face with both hands and kissed my forehead.
“We are safe, Di. I promised you nothing would happen to us. There is a motel thirty minutes away from here. I checked themap before we arrived in the village. Let’s spend the night there. You up for that?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice yet, but Dagon repeated his question, so I answered, “Yes. Let’s go.”
I didn’t want him to pull away, but we had no choice. When he got us back on the road, I was about to turn to the window when his hand intertwined with mine.
“Don’t leave. Stay with me.”
His words almost broke something in me. My eyes watered again, but I tried damn hard not to let the tears fall. “I will.”
Dagon saw my hollow eyes. He understood I wasn’t mentally in the car with him moments ago, but rather trapped in my horror thoughts and emotions. He asked me to stay with him, so I did, even if it was more challenging than I imagined.
The motel’s parking lot was almost empty. There were two other cars besides ours. When we were about to enter, I grabbed Dagon’s hand. He turned to me right away and asked what was wrong.
“Uh, nothing. I-” how do I say this? “I wanted to ask if you’re okay using one room?” I hurriedly added, “With two beds. Separate beds.”
Dagon stared at me and nodded quickly before adding, “Of course we will.”
I didn’t want to be alone tonight. Not to mention, staying in an almost-empty motel wasn’t my top choice after meeting a demon who looked like a human. Oh, yes, I was pretty confident that man was a demon. I still needed to tell Dagon about it. I didn’t have proof, but I had a gut feeling. Was my panic and fear fueling this gut feeling, or was it real?
Surprisingly, the room was clean. Honestly? I didn’t care much right now. I grabbed a shower first and then waited for Dagon to take one. We needed to talk.
While I waited for Dagon, I played with my ring.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Seven twists.
Repeat.
I did this over and over until the bathroom door opened, and my head shot up. Dagon's hair was darker after the shower, glistening with deep purple highlights – or maybe that was the light playing tricks.
He wore his usual black clothes, and I chuckled.
“Don’t you have other clothes?”
“Is there something wrong with my clothes?” Dagon looked down at himself and then brought his gaze back to me.
“Umm, what I meant was…” I was stalling here, “Umm, clothes that are a different color than black?”
He was dumbstruck for a second before laughing out loud. My lips twitched, and I found myself joining him.
“I prefer black clothes, but I wear other colors too, just not often. What color would look good on me?”
I examined his body. No, this wasn’t an excuse to check him out. Not at all. I took my sweet time because it was necessary for my answer. Yes, that was the actual reason.
“Blue, green, purple. These colors would look good on you.”
His eyes flashed with something, but he averted his gaze quickly. Nodding, he pointed to the tiny space next to me. “Mind if I join?”
“You have your own bed.”
“Yes, but yours looks more comfortable, and we need to talk.” Before I could answer, he was already sitting next to me. “I don’t trust this man, Di.”
“Neither do I. There was something seriously wrong.”
