Saint looked up sharply. “What does that mean?”
Oops. He wasn’t supposed to have heard that. “Are we going to stand here all day?”
Saint huffed. His narrowed eyes seemed to say he knew what Knight was doing, but he didn’t push.
Saint seemed tense as they made the walk back to his place, but no one else spotted Knight or freaked out at the sight of him. He guessed the human equivalent of nicquiris were just as rare in the mortal realm as they were in Hell. Unlike demons, humans could survive without needing to physically interact with another human, so these human-nicquiris probably didn’t need community the way Knight and his ilk did. He felt a bitter jealousy at that.
Saint, though tense, didn’t seem to notice they were being followed. Contracts were magical, unexplainable things, which was why, the moment Saint’s stalker had showed up at his place of work, Knight had zeroed in on them immediately. He hadn’t been able to act then because of Saint’s command that he stay put, and he’d completely forgotten to update him because of the entire fiasco with the child.
That same person was walking behind them now, keeping a careful distance. Thankfully, they weren’t one of the humans who could see through the Veil because they were completely ignorant of Knight’s presence, their focus solely on Saint.
Good.
They’d just stopped at a small kiosk, where Saint bought some snacks, then began to move again before Knight spoke.
“So, youarebeing stalked.”
Saint didn’t stop walking, but Knight could almost feel the chill that had settled in his bones. He carefully didn’t look behind them, his breathing speeding up.
Knight’s lips turned down with displeasure. He wanted to crush the stalker’s head like a grape for making Saint feel this way. But Saint had the lead here.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Make them go away,” Saint said, his voice low and dark. Then frantically, “Withoutharming them!”
“Damn.” Knight chuckled. “That’s too bad.”
Saint glanced quickly at him from the corner of his eye, his scent doing something mouthwatering. Almighty. He liked the thought of Knight being violent, did he?
“I’ll be back in a second. Don’t linger.”
Knight leapt into the air. He hadn’t needed to manipulate the aether in a while, but it seemed his contract with Saint had given his ability a little boost.
It took no sweat off his back to simply command the stalker into a nearby abandoned alley. He dropped down in front of the person. Without being a—what had Saint called them? A witch?—the stalker wouldn’t be able to see Knight unless Knight let them.
Knight wished hecouldappear to the human, threaten them a little bit, but he didn’t want Saint to be upset.
“You’re going to leave Saint alone,” Knight said calmly, his words backed by magic. The human’s spine straightened as the command took root. “You’re going to walk out of this alley, go back to where you came from, and forget he ever existed. Repeat what I just said.”
“I’m going to leave Saint alone,” the human recited in the same calm, firm tone. “I’m going to walk out of this alley, go back to where I came from, and forget he ever existed.”
“Very good. Now, fuck off.”
The human turned and began to walk away, in the opposite direction Saint had taken.
For a moment, Knight remained still, almost holding his breath. This was it, wasn’t it? This was what Saint had asked for when he’d made his deal. Knight had fulfilled his end of the bargain.
He waited and waited, but the bond in his chest didn’t so much as flicker.
FIVE
Saint controlled his breathing, counting his inhales and exhales as he continued his journey home while Knight took care of his stalker.
He didn’t know how to feel. He hadn’t expected the stalker to return so soon. What would have happened if he hadn’t summoned Knight? The previous timesthey’ddone this, they’d made sure to space out the creeping, with the aim to properly mess with his head and his anxiety, make him believe like he was seeing things, then they’d strike. He’d always disappeared before it managed to reach that point.
Now, two days in a row? They must be getting desperate. That didn’t bode well. Saint once again focused on counting his breaths. He had Knight now. They couldn’t touch him when he had a supposedly powerful demon by his side, right?
“Something you forgot to tell me, little rabbit?”
