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A woman he could use to harness her power and try to open a new hellmouth for us.
Generation after generation, we had no luck.
Well, that’s probably not true.
It seemed more and more likely that the hellmouths had been opening—letting more and more demons into the human realm—but that they weren’t opening near us.
But after Ly Claimed Lenore, and after Ace Claimed Josephine, making it impossible for them to go back, I wasn’t sure why Ace didn’t just pick up and decide to move to a warmer, more comfortable climate. Especially since the cold seemed to impact him more than the rest of us, given that he was much older, more used to the heat in hell than the rest of us.
I guess it was just comfort.
This was home.
And had been almost from the beginning.
I was glad they stayed, since I would have to.
I’m sure it is possible to physically distance yourself from who you’d Claimed, but it didn’t seem like something I even wanted to try.
Especially now.
When she was finally letting me in.
When she was starting to acknowledge not only my feelings for her, but hers for me.
I climbed out of bed, vaguely aware of Dale as I took my shower.
It felt like the wall was partially in place. So she could keep me from feeling what she was feeling, but also not go back on the deal we’d made with each other.
The only thing coming through the connection was a sort of buzzing sensation that I took to be too much caffeine and too little sleep.
I felt torn.
On the one hand, I wanted to help her close her case, kill her baby-eating demon, and get in the favor of her asshole Council.
On the other, I wanted to drag this shit out for as long as possible, soak up every minute I got to spend with her. Because the more of them I got, the more I wanted.
I had to acknowledge that no matter how much I got, it would never be enough. That was how the Claiming worked.
It didn’t matter that Ly and Ace both had their women in their daily lives, they were still—objectively—obsessed with them. You rarely saw them apart. And when they were together, they were always touching.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the near future, Lenore or Josephine had rounded bellies.
Reproducing was a choice for us.
And before I’d Claimed Dale, the idea of it wasn’t appealing at all. But after? I spent more time than I’d like to cop to thinking about seeing her carrying my offspring, seeing her holding it, singing to it.
I had to imagine Ly and Ace felt the same.
The difference was, they had a shot at that future.
On that depressing thought, I let out a sigh before moving downstairs.
I found Ace in the kitchen, warming his hands around a coffee cup while he shook his head at something out the window.
Curious, I turned.
And there was Lenore.
In her winter cloak, walking toward her long-dead garden.
“What is she doing?” I asked.
“Getting lettuce,” he told me. “Out of those box things she made Ly build.”
Cold frames.
So she could grow produce year-round.
Since she refused to eat, as she called it, “flesh.”
Her coven had been vegetarian, after all.
“She’s having lettuce for breakfast?” I asked.
I wouldn’t claim to be any kind of expert on humans. But I had been the one to feed the sacrifices since the beginning of the treaty. I was no one’s chef, but I figured I at least had a slight grasp on what was normal human food for each of the meals.
“She mumbled something about making a big salad for Ly for lunch. Because he needs to stay healthy,” he added, snorting.
Meanwhile, nothing ever really made us unhealthy.
Just as I was about to say something, though, Lenore got back up to her feet with a pile of greens in one hand. But that other hand? It went to her belly.
It was a motion as old as time.
“Oh, that makes more sense then,” he said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Nesting. Hey, I have a question,” I said, deciding it was better to launch into it.
“About?”
“A park,” I told him. “I was near it last night and I got this feeling like there was some history to it, but I couldn’t figure out what the fuck it was. I can’t shake it. I need to figure it out. Figured you were who to come to.”
“Which park?” Ace asked, topping off his coffee.
“Over off of Oak Tree Lane. At the dead-end of it,” I added.
Ace’s brows pinched for a second, trying to run through his endless memories.
“Something supernatural,” I added. “At least that was what my initial thought was.”
“No, yes,” Ace said. “Yeah. It was a long time ago. But I vaguely remember there being news around the area of there being animals found dead in the woods. Not normal animals that you might find dead in the woods, mind you. If I’m not completely mistaken, I think it was puppies and kittens. And not just a couple. And not just once.”
