Turning away from the tempting spectacle of her taut ass, I adjusted my erection and walked back up the hill toward the tents set up at the top. It had been a few days since I’d been with a woman, perhaps that was why she affected me so strongly.
Mac would be joining me in my tent soon, so that meant it would be a while before I could attend the fire blazing hotly on the hill behind the tents. The flames leapt high into the night, illuminating the dark sky and the trees surrounding the clearing. Demons and humans alike would be gathered around those flames. Many of the women there would be more than happy to ease my lust after I met with Mac, but as my gaze drifted back to where River walked with Mac, I realized I wasn’t interested in any of the women attending the fire tonight.
Get it together. She’s a human, and if she’s the progeny, then she may be the key to it all.
I turned my attention to the canvas tents on top of the hill where we resided. Mine was the largest tent and the most noticeable with the meeting room at the front and another tent attached to the back for my sleeping quarters.
We could have established ourselves in one of the homes the humans were so fond of, but living in a house wasn’t something we understood or wanted. If there had been caves in the area, we would have taken over those, but there weren’t any around here.
Bale and Corson were waiting for me at the top of the hill. Behind them, the heavy canvas cloth of my tent flapped in the breeze. The fluttering sound was one I’d become accustomed to over the years.
“Is it her?” Bale demanded.
I quirked an eyebrow at her, she knew as well as Mac that it would take time to know. “Too soon to tell,” I replied.
“How long do you think it will be before we know?”
“As long as it takes.”
Bale scowled at me and folded her arms over her chest. “I’m tired of waiting.”
“We all are.”
I ducked under the entrance to the tent and into the main meeting room where my book sat on the table. I released the pinned back flap, allowing it to fall closed over the entrance. The conversation to come with Mac would be held in private, something Corson and Bale knew. Walking over to the sideboard, I lifted a bottle of wine and poured two goblets. I would have much preferred the demon beverage mjéod to the wine, but it was brewed in Hell and I hadn’t had it since leaving my home behind.
Returning to the table, I settled into my chair and surveyed the dark wood furniture in the room. All of the furniture within the tent had been collected from the abandoned homes in town. It would be left behind when we eventually moved onto another town bordering the wall.
Leaning over, I placed the other goblet in front of the seat beside me and leaned back to wait. It took a full thirty seconds after I detected the spicy scent of aftershave for a low voice to call out, requesting permission to enter my tent.
“Come in,” I said.
The flap pulled back with a rustle, and Mac’s boots thudded across the dirt floor as he walked over to join me. I gestured to the empty seat before he pulled out the chair and sat down. “Thank you,” he said as he took hold of the goblet. “I needed this.”
“She didn’t come willingly.”
“In the end, she did, but this is not where she wants to be,” Mac said before downing half the contents of his goblet.
“This is not where any of us want to be.” I rose to my feet and moved to the sideboard. Retrieving the bottle of wine, I returned to the table and topped off Mac’s goblet. “How did you find her?”
Mac’s gray eyes were haunted when they met mine. “On a door-to-door search; hermotherturned her in.”
I lifted an eyebrow as I leaned back in my chair. I had no offspring, and most likely never would, but demons cared for the children they had with their Chosen and had often perished to keep them safe. I’d been led to believe it was the same for humans. It was one of the few human attributes that I actually respected.
“I thought you humans were so fond of your offspring,” I said.
“Not all of us,” he muttered and drank down his goblet. He grabbed the bottle and poured himself another glass. I’d never seen him drink so much or so fast before; whatever had happened out there had rattled him completely. “River turned the tables on her though. Her mother will be fed, but she’ll get nothing else from us, and her other two children have been removed from her house.”
“There were other children and you did not bring them?” I demanded. Bale’s vision had said there was only one progeny still alive, but if River had siblings then either Bale’s vision had been wrong or River wasnotthe one we sought.
“According to her mother, the other two children show no signs of being different and they have different fathers than River.”
Then it can still be her.
Mac lifted his head to look at me; his normally steely gaze was clearly disturbed. I’d never seen that look in the unwavering, unyielding colonel’s eyes. “Her mother said River sees things, but they weren’t close to each other, so she may have been making it up to receive what was being offered to her. Or there may be other things she can do that her mother never knew about.”
“We’ve had other possibilities who could see things. It’s not common, but humans can possess extrasensory abilities.”
“I know,” Mac murmured and drank the rest of his wine. He took hold of the bottle again and refilled his glass.
