Lucareoth stabbed at the ice cream with his spoon, getting a little of it to stay on. He looked at it suspiciously before very slowly putting it in his mouth. His eyebrows shot up. “This is amazing.”
He licked the spoon slowly, sensuously. A bolt of heat shot through her body.Down, girl, she reminded herself. He was made for this: he might not even realize the effect he had. The poor man—demon—was just trying to eat a snack. She tried to distract herself by fishing out more cookies.
“Here, try it in a sandwich.” Morgan handed him one. “I made the cookies a few days ago, so they’re getting a little stale, but still pretty good.”
He took a bite cautiously, and then looked back up at her through absurdly lush lashes. “You made these?”
“I stress-bake.” If she could hit her quota, she could manage her student loan payment and the rent, and continue to afford the occasional luxury ice cream. She wasn’t going to hit her quota, not at this rate. That wasn’t important right now. “If I remember correctly, and I probably don’t, the walls between planes should still be thinner for a little while where the original ritual was conducted.”
“What you’re saying is that we should have stayed there after the other people left,” Lucareoth said. “And before your mother, the demon hunter, saw me.”
“I panicked, OK? I didn’t want the EMTs seeing us hanging around like we were hiding something.”
“Wait, EMTs?” Gisele asked.
Morgan swallowed. “Tim was the one who pulled Luke over. Then he had a heart attack.”
“What?” Gisele set her bowl down hard on the counter. “Is he OK?”
“He’s dead,” Lucareoth said and took another bite of ice cream.
Gisele looked back at Morgan accusingly. “Talk about burying the lede, Morgan!”
“Do you mean ‘a demon is stuck in our dimension and we’re all screwed if the Shadow Council finds out’ isn’t lede-y enough for you?”
“There can be two ledes!”
“He’s dead, which means we can’t sell him anything so he’s not a lead anymore,” Lucareoth raised a hand. “So who’s the second lead?”
“L-e-d-e, not l-e-a-d—you know what, never mind,” Morgan said. If they got too derailed by the number of human things Lucareoth didn’t know, they’d never get anywhere. “The point is, we need to do some research tonight, figure out what ritual we need to send you back, and then get back into the building.”
“Are you OK?” Gisele asked her.
“Pretty obviously not.”
“Do you want a hug?”
“Oh god, yes please.”
Gisele folded her into her arms and for a moment Morgan let a little tension drain. Then she realized they were being stared at. She opened her eyes to see Lucareoth watching, wide-eyed.
“Is she sucking out your energy?” he asked hesitantly.
“What? No.”
“Then what are you doing?” He looked slightly grossed out.
Another reason to never visit the Infernal Plane. “It’s a hug. Humans do it to comfort each other. It feels nice.”
“Uh… huh.” He gave her a look like she had suggested licking the dust from under the refrigerator. Which was probably a lot of dust: she’d never moved it to clean and she was willing to bet their rental company hadn’t either. “What can I offer you to go back tonight?”
She shook her head. “My badge won’t work this late. It’ll have to be in the morning.”
“Who are you going to say he is to get him in the building? Vendor? Prospect? Pizza delivery guy?” Gisele gave her shoulder a pat and stepped back.
“You told the other one I was the new sales intern,” Lucareoth pointed out.
“Vijay was stoned out of his gourd and would have accepted it if I said you were Santa Claus. Never mind who Santa Claus is,” she said as Lucareoth opened his mouth. “The point is, Hayley is going to want to know how she never processed your intake paperwork if we try that in the cold light of day.”
