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When I'd maybe called him a hypocrite for that, he'd rolled his eyes at me. "You can't make a good person evil, Josephine. It is there or it isn't. We just tease it out when it is there."
I'd even asked him to try it on me. And even after a lot of suggesting, I'd just been sleepy.
So I was good.
Which left me in a tough spot, didn't it?
Because if I wanted to be with Ace in a forever sort of way, I would have to become less good. Not fully evil. Lenore was still partly good, partly human. Or, well, witch. Which I think still made her human. I'd been so wrapped up with demon lore that I hadn't gotten my crash course on witches yet. But it was coming, I was sure.
So if I decided to let Lenore make me immortal as well, I would still be myself. But I would live forever. I wouldn't be so bothered by more pesky human things. Like eating. Like pain.
But in order to have those things happen, some of my soul wouldn't be around anymore.
It was a big thing to contemplate, something weighty, something I wasn't ready to decide yet, like Ace had suggested.
Yes, I was borderline obsessed with Ace at this point, but I knew enough about hormones to know that oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin were wreaking havoc on my system, making it hard to know my mind from my heart and the other way around.
I needed time.
To make sure it wasn't just chemical infatuation.
I had to say, though, I already knew it was more than that. Because I genuinely liked Ace. Snarky asshole side and all. Because while he was that, he would always be that, with me, he was something else. He was softer, sweeter, and kinder. And I knew that because of his nature, he would always be those things toward me.
I also had a lot of respect for his loyalty to his people, his steadfast determination to lead them, to guide them as the world changed around them constantly. I adored his thirst for knowledge, even if it sometimes made him come off a little cocky and condescending. Usually it turned me off when people thought they knew more than you. But in this case, it was a simple fact. The man had been around ages. He'd read millions of books. He'd seen and done it all.
And he liked sharing that knowledge. He enjoyed telling me things, giving me the knowledge he'd acquired over his very long life. It was almost like he felt like he was giving me pieces of himself by doing so. Luckily, I was hungry for all things supernatural or paranormal or whatever it was called. I was sure I would never get enough of his stories.
So, yeah, there were chemicals involved, but there was genuine affection as well.
And we would just have to see where all of that would lead us.
Ace - 1 Month
The party felt different than all the previous ones.
And there had been many of them.
I guess the difference could be attributed to the woman who had been moving around the house during it. The one in a skintight black dress she'd borrowed from Red who still hadn't come home to reclaim her closet that made me both want to grab her, wrap my wing—or just my fucking coat—around her so no one else could see, but also shove up against a wall, slip up the skirt, and fuck her right there for everyone to see that she—and all those curves that were coming back thanks to our twice-weekly fast food binge trips—belonged to me.
She made the party different, my work different.
She made everything different.
I knew, on a rational level, that should have bothered me.
But I couldn't seem to give a fuck.
Because I'd been on Earth for a long, long time, and I'd never come close to anything resembling happiness as I did since she came into my life.
It was warm.
She was warm.
She was the kind of warm I'd been chasing since I'd left hell.
She was the kind of warm I would give up going back there for.
Just to stay here, basking in it.
Forever.
Or for as long as she would let me have it.
That thought made my mood darker and darker as the days dragged to weeks. Because the more of her I got, the more I wanted, the less I felt like letting her go even if she demanded it of me.
Eventually, I'd decided to abandon the party early, leaving the fun and games to the other guys while I tossed my woman over my shoulder, threw her on the bed, and gave her half a dozen orgasms until she couldn't take anymore.
But the party had been over for hours.
And there was the sound of voices below.
Hushed voices.
But rapid, angry, even.
