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“Wrong answer.” I pointed a finger at her. “It’s not cool.”
“Does this have anything to do with the blue guy hanging around on Mrs. Gleason’s property?”
“What blue man?” A jolt of alarm shot me to my feet. “Where?”
“Down by the creek.” Colby indicated the new curved monitor above her rig. “See?”
The past few months had taught me I wasn’t as prepared as I would like when it came to security for the little moth girl in my care. I had stripped the wards to the bone, cleansed the earth, and then rebuilt our protections from the ground up with her help, using our combined powers. I had installed twice as many cameras, most of which I aimed at shared property lines, which meant monitoring the neighbors’ yards.
After the wildlife photographer debacle, I wasn’t taking any chances on the Nolan Laurens of the world.
“That looks like…” I zoomed in on the footage, “…Aedan.”
The vibrant turquoise skin made him stand out where he sat in the shallow creek, his back against a tree, his arms propped on the roots. The picture he cut was a man of leisure on a throne nature provided him.
“That is Aedan.” Asa set his top hat on the cushion beside him. “I’ll handle this.”
“I’ll come with you.” I didn’t want him to go alone. “I’ll run interference if Mrs. Gleason spots us.”
For a woman her age, she was a spry thing. She also possessed an uncanny knack for sensing trespassers on her property. She might forgive me for toeing the line, but she remained suspicious of Asa. To be fair, she was suspicious of everyone. Except for the girl next door—me—who ought to ping as a threat on her radar.
“All right.” Asa removed his scarf and the town-issued coat too. “This won’t take long.”
The day I had ringside tickets for challenges against Asa was coming, I knew that, but I hoped I wasn’t on the VIP list for tonight. We already had one thorny problem on our hands without a daemon free-for-all.
“Stay put.” I booped Colby on the proboscis. “No spying.”
“Let’s go slaughter some orcs.” Clay ditched his suspenders and coat. “I want to see this cursed chalice.”
Antennae aquiver, she vibrated with excitement. “It’s a doomed chalice.”
“As in anyone who possesses it is doomed?”
“Exactly.” Her wings fluttered at hummingbird speed. “I knew you’d get it.”
The pair returned to Colby’s rig where Clay killed the overhead monitor and settled in to view her hoard.
Happy to have her distracted, bloodthirsty little thing, I exited the house and admired the starry night.
A swirl of warm air carried the scent of juicy green apples with a hint of cherry tobacco to me.
“You’ve been distant.” Asa spared the moon a passing glance. “Anything the matter?”
Other than the kiss thing? The no-kiss thing? The total lack of lip-on-lip action? That thing?
“An aggressive paranormal creature is hunting in my town.” I cut him a dry look. “Kind of stressful.”
“Before the reindeer.” He caught my elbow. “Have I done something wrong?”
“No.” I heaved a sigh. “It’s me.” And my oral fixation. “You’ve been a complete gentleman.”
Unfortunately.
“Is there anything I can do?” He circled around in front of me, and the heat from his body ignited a fire in my blood. “Anything I should be doing?”
The reminder he was new to relationships too shamed me for wanting to pressure him into more.
This wasn’t high school, not that I had ever attended high school, but I had suffered through enough movies with thinly veiled peer pressure messages with Camber and Arden to decide for myself I didn’t want to be the pathetic excuse for a person who had to liquor up her date so she could grope him under the bleachers.
