Page 80 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

“Not like that,” Chloe replies cautiously. “That’s not ominous, not at all.”

“Good, because I don’t want them territorial over this,” he declares, and the bed dips down next to her. He’s not touching her, just…existing very close.

“Still ominous,” she tells him, before flicking the penlight back into the battery and setting it on the side table.

He scoffs, and it’s at least a not-so serious sound. “I just want to sleep in a comfortable place without another demon vowing to battle me.”

“Yeah, no battle,” Chloe replies, and it’s almost amusing. “No, they’re all…paired up.”

He makes a small sound, something between a judgment and a sigh.

“They’re all happy, they all have people who count on them, everyone is…everyone is perfectly happy.”

It’s a shade too honest, so she huffs out a breath herself.

He sighs again, and she glances over, right as he rubs his face, surprisingly human.

“Your friends will give us the information tomorrow, yes?” he asks, and there’s a weariness in his tone, something buried deep. “So we can move on with this, destroy the base, and be done?”

“That’s the hope,” Chloe speaks up to the dark room. His silhouette is dimly outlined with the light from the window, a bare suggestion of the cheekbones and chin of the body, and none of the second face underneath shines through.

Though the power bristling out from him forbids her from ever thinking otherwise.

“Good,” he says, voice low, and if she hadn’t spent that last little while exclusively speaking to just him, she would’ve taken it as a threat. “The faster I get away from this, the better.”

Despite the awkwardness, despite the inherent weirdness of sharing a bed with an actual demon, Chloe turns to him, propping her head up on her arm.

“Will destruction be instantaneous when I take down the wards?” she asks, and he quirks an eyebrow at her. “Or will it be a ‘after everything is done?’”

In the filtered moonlight, she catches a glimpse of him baring his teeth. “Depends on how good you are.”

“Great, thanks, that’s not creepy, not at all,” Chloe says, sarcastic, and this time he smiles, actually genuine. “Depends on how bad the wards are, I had to take down enough to get the Half Demon through Toronto.”

“And then out,” he says dryly. “Out is harder.”

It is, theoretically, but she just shrugs against the bed.

“But we didn’t trip any alarms until after we released the stasis chambers, and I think that has a little to do with my skill.”

It’s strange to boast like this. Everyone in her life either knows all of it already or would sell her back to the college if they found out.

“Just a little,” he echoes back sarcastically, before turning again so he’s facing the ceiling in the dark. “Sleep this time, Chloe.”

“Yeah, sure,” Chloe grumbles, rolling herself over to face the cameo wall instead of him, with the shadows from outside barely reflecting back flickers.

Still, he watches the shadows play across the ceiling, and at the angle she can see the brown of his eyes beneath the reflection of light, flicking with the movement.

“Thank you,” she says, tentatively, and he tilts his head towards her. “That would’ve been significantly worse without you.”

He doesn’t smile, but the line creases next to his eyes, something almost familiar, almost wanted. “You think you could’ve gotten out?” he asks, his voice low.

She props herself up on her elbows, and in the shadows, she can imagine a friendlier face, someone who wants her to be there, someone who cares intrinsically.

“I’ve gotten good at staying out of trouble,” she says, a strange sort of bravery inside of her, something a bit odd in her stomach. “I’ve been out for ten years. I don’t do that by luck. It’d be hard without…without killing them.”

“Have you killed someone?” he asks, turning so his entire body is pointed towards her. “Most humans view that as a step.”

Chloe swallows, and in the darkness, he grins at her.

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