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My phone dinged with a text from Cruise.You okay? Too cold?
Sweet, but why? Why did he keep doing that?
The demon decided I shouldn’t answer him, so instead I pulled my jacket tighter and went to see if Nathan was still around. Outside of his visits, the man was mysterious. I didn’t know what he did for a living when he wasn’t do-gooding. I didn’t know where he lived. Or what his story was. He was just gorgeous, helpful, and maybe also had something woo-woo going on .
The city was quiet. For all that we were homeless and in dire need of help—some of us more than others—there was little to no crime there.
It was peaceful most of the time, which was also strange. Why was that?
I hadn’t asked questions in a long time, but right then I had a ton, and I wanted to know things again. I walked the perimeter of the camp before I stopped abruptly. On the ground, next to me, a distance from the fire, was a woman.
She was dead.
She wasn’t the first corpse I’d ever seen. Even before my situation changed, a lot of the people in my life died earlier thanthe national average. Illness, disease, addiction, mental health struggles—all of it added up to death being a relatively normal situation around me. But this was different.
I bent over to stare at her. She was roughly my age, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Someone would have called her beautiful, as they used to occasionally say to me.
But she was dead.
What happened to her? She wasn’t wearing a coat; had she frozen to death? Who was she? I’d never seen her before or never noticed that I had.There are so many of us here.
“She’s dead.” A voice I’d only heard once before spoke and I looked up, nearly jolting backward.
It was him. Danvers. The demonically possessed guy from the prison. He wore jeans, a black shirt visible slightly under his jacket, and some black boots.
My demon gasped.He’s here. How exciting. I swallowed. It couldn’t be good that she liked him so much.He’s famous. You’ve seen movies based on things he’s done.
I didn’t want to know. I really didn’t.
“Did you kill her?” It seemed an important question to ask.
He looked down at her and then back at me. “I don’t think so. No, it’s not possible. I just got here. I’ve been elsewhere.” He stepped over the dead body and into my space. “Where are we staying?”
Had I missed something? “We?”
“Yes. I told you. If you let me out, you have to deal with me. I’m here. I’m staying with you. My demon likes yours. Says that she’s very powerful.” So I kept being told. “Where are we staying?”
She pointed for me. “Over there. Follow me.”
So this is happening. At least he wouldn’t want to have sex with me. He might want to beat me to death, but I could probably take him on, too.
Not for a while at least. He’s much too fun for that.
We walked together to my tent, and he went inside, throwing down his backpack. I didn’t know anything about the man, but he was going to be my roommate.
I didn’t have any experience for this kind of situation. Exactly how was someone supposed to behave in these circumstances? I put out my hand. “Hi, I’m Addalee.”
He placed his in mine. “Danvers.”
“How did you find me?” That seemed like as good a place as any to start. I didn’t exactly have a home listing.
“I went to two other tent cities first. A junkie in the second one told me you were probably here. You were.”
He stretched backward and stared at the ceiling of my tent. This had to rank among the strangest situations in an already bizarre life. Did he really intend to stay with me?
“Can’t you go home? You want to stay here and live in this tent with me?” Maybe he forgot if he had a home. He was gorgeous and buff. Surely some woman somewhere—or maybe a man—would be glad to have him back.
He didn’t even blink as he answered me. “I killed my aunt. No one will want me back.”
