I hugged him back. “Thank you for not being your brother,” I hiccuped out, making him laugh. He walked toward the three demon hunters, and I could see the woman looking at me sadly. “Wait! It’s too soon. You weren’t meant to be here for another day or two. We were meant to have more time.Please,” I begged her.
She looked up at the big one, and when he shook his head, she looked at the other one. “Rouen…”
“Aw, come on, Rella. You know we’ll have to stay here until we take him back. I had plans.” He waggled his eyebrows. It didn’t take a genius to know those plans involved no clothes. Shesmiled at him softly, her eyes hooded. Yep, they were definitely a couple. When she pouted—honest-to-goodness pouted—he leaned forward and bit her bottom lip softly. “Fine.”
Then they both looked at the big guy, Rom. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “No. I want to go home to our Pack. Charlie and Naz are waiting for us.”
The redhead, Rella, stood up on her tiptoes and whispered something in his ear. He rumbled low in his chest, the sound raising all the hair on my arms, but he had a tiny smile on his lips.
“Fine. But you only have until midnight. Then Ukobach over there will turn back into a pumpkin.”
The other hunter whipped his head around. “Did Romanus just make aCinderellareference? That’s it. The end is here, people! It’s the Apocalypse.”
Romanus slapped him in the back of the head, then looked at Uko, who’d drifted back to my side. “Go, fornicate like monkeys or whatever you want to do. But do not run. You will not like the results if you make us chase you.”
I swallowed down the emotion that was threatening to crush my chest and gave Rella a watery smile. “Thank you.” I paused and looked up at Uko. “Actually, we’re going to the State Fair of Texas if, you know, you want to come too.” I didn’t want them to think we were running when we left the state.
Both the demons and Uko looked at me like I was insane, but the Rella clapped her hands together. “Yes! I’ve always wanted to go. I didn’t think I’d ever get to, now that I’m in Hell, you know?”
Both the big guys winced, and I had a feeling she’d just gotten her own way. Romanus nodded. “Whatever,” he huffed out.
The other one, Rouen, grinned along. “I’m down. We’ll stay out of your way.”
I nodded thankfully. “This is my car here. Do you need a ride down there? Dallas is about six hours away.”
Rouen grinned. “Don’t worry. We have a quicker way.”
Then they turned into mother-flipping dragons, and I passed out.
When I woke, I was wrapped in Uko’s arms and we were landing just outside of Dallas on an abandoned stretch of road. Uko sprang from the back of the dragon, which turned back into a man.
You know what, maybe Ihaddied in my apartment. Getting banged by a hot demon was within the realms of reality, but freaking dragons?
The redhead touched my shoulder. “You okay?” When I nodded, she began walking up the side of the highway. “There’s a gas station up ahead. We’ll get an Uber to the Fair.”
On the walk, I found out that the big guys were really gargoyles, Hell’s best demon hunters. They also kept joking about the redhead being a Princess of Hell.
The Uber driver didn’t even blink about picking us up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, with no car in sight. The Fair was still an hour away, and I pressed myself to Uko’s side, just breathing him in. His fingers played on the inside of my knee, but we were both silent.
When we pulled up at the gates of the State Fair, it was already busy, even though it was a weekday and still reasonably early. Romanus looked over at us. “We will meet you back here at midnight, Ukobach. Remember,do notmake us chase you.”
Uko and I both nodded fervently and watched as the weird trio disappeared into the crowd. Reaching down, I twined my fingers with his. “This is it. Let’s go have fun, okay?” He leaned down and kissed me with so much tongue that a mother tsked us as she walked past, making Uko grin against my lips.
I grabbed our tickets and stepped through the gates. Men, women and children stared at the beauty of Uko, but he just gazed down at me like he didn’t see anyone else. How was I ever going to date again, when I’d compare every man against Uko?
Do you know those absolutely perfect days that are forever etched in your memory? Today would be one of those days for me. We ate deep-fried everything, from gumballs to butter to literal deep-fried hamburgers. We rode the rides until I threatened to throw up, going on all the scary ones that I would have skipped if Uko hadn’t been there holding my hand. We ate and drank, and then at nine p.m., we watched the fireworks from a secluded piece of lawn in a restricted part of the park. I mean, what’s a little rule-breaking after sleeping with a demon and riding a freaking gargoyle?
I documented it all on my camera. Once Uko was gone, I would have these memories of his face, the way he looked, the way he stared at me.
Uko added a little oomph to the fireworks, taking them from pretty to transcendent. I lay back on the grass, my head pillowed by his bicep, and watched the colors burst in vivid patterns, chasing each other around the sky and generally going against the laws of nature. I laughed and cried a little as he made one of the big skyflower ones look like a love heart. Then he rolled me onto my back and made love to me until I saw fireworks behind my eyelids.
By the time eleven-thirty rolled around, I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown. He had me wrapped in his arms as we talked about the day, the things we’d seen, and about life in general. I was desperately trying not to remember that in a few hours, I would be on the way back to my old life.
A life without sexy demons and spontaneous trips and fireworks. Without Uko.
As the minutes counted down, there was no more talking. I just sat in his arms, looking at his melancholy green squiggles and trying not to cry.
“You know, when you summoned me, all drunk and not wearing pants, without even a summoning circle, I could not believe my luck. I thought I would just walk out the door and live for the few hours before the hunters came and returned me home.” He gave me a sad smile. “But you were so adorable, talking about my dick and looking at me all wide-eyed, like you could not decide if you wanted to run away screaming or fuck me into oblivion. I found I wanted to stick around and find out.” I laughed, but it was more of a sob, and he tilted my chin up so he could see my face. “You are so beautiful, Elsie. Your imp-shit of an ex was wrong. You are so perfect, funny, smart, brave, and one day, a human who is not an excrement stain will see that. I hope that you get everything your heart desires. This has been the greatest forty-eight hours of my existence.”
