Page 55 of My Demon Manny

I hummed softly, turning my head to press a kiss against his temple. This right here, this was all I wanted in life.

"Would you like to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie?"

Lux smiled up at me, then took a step back, his hand closing around mine. "Sounds good. I wanna watch something sappy."

"Sappy it is," I agreed, then followed Lux to the couch.

I lay down while Lux fiddled with the remote for a moment before joining me. Wrapping my arm around his middle, Inuzzled the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. Damn, I never wanted to be away from him again.

I'd planned to tell Lux how I felt while we watched the movie, but before I could gather my courage, the sleepy comfort of being surrounded by his scent and warmth pulled me under, and I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was alone on the couch with a throw blanket covering me. Sitting upright, I scanned the empty living room before catching Lux's voice coming from the kitchen. One glance at the clock told me I'd been sleeping for a few hours, and I shook my head at myself as I stood up. There went my opportunity to tell Lux I loved him.

Joining Lux in the kitchen—who was in his demon form with Gunner strapped to his chest and busy playing with his tail—I helped him make dinner while also keeping Gunner entertained, something he excelled at doing even without my assistance. Gunner was a champ while we ate our meal, and then Lux and I tucked him in for the night together. I loved our routine, loved how seamlessly we'd fallen into one.

Finally in bed—Lux had shifted back to his human form before the meal—I almost blurted the words right out, but then I decided that wasn't how I wanted to do it. I wanted to take Lux out, to give him a special date night where I showered him with so much love and adoration that saying the words would become merely a reiteration of the whole night.

Satisfied with my decision to make it a special night, I pulled Lux into my arms, holding him close as his warmth soaked into my skin. I wasn't all that tired despite my flight earlier, and yet I found myself drifting off to sleep almost instantly.

Lux

Something brushed the edge of my senses, rousing me from my sleep. Archer was wrapped around me like one of those fuzzy animals I'd seen on TV the other day, and I almost turned around in his arms and went right back to sleep, but something was niggling at the edge of my consciousness, something that wouldn't let me rest.

Blinking my eyes clear, I slowly slid out of Archer's hold, careful not to wake him. Sitting upright, I closed my eyes and focused, trying to sense what was wrong.

I checked the ward around Gunner's room, breathing a little easier when I sensed it pulsing normally. I must've had a bad dream or something. Clearly, there was nothing—

I sucked in a breath, realizing that while there was nothing wrong with the ward, someone or something had brushed against it only a short while ago. Something that had managed to sneak through.

Rushing to my feet, I almost jumped out of my skin when Archer's soft voice floated over to me.

"What's wrong?"

I couldn't tell him nothing was wrong when something clearly was, but I didn't have time to explain anything to him, especially when I had no idea exactly what I'd be walking into.

Turning to glance at him, I raised my palm when he started to get up. "Stay here. Let me check it out."

I turned around and hurried to the door, sighing to myself when I heard Archer rush after me. Of course he wouldn't listen, not where Gunner was concerned. I couldn't blame him. If the situation were reversed, I would have done the same.

Outside Gunner's room, I turned to him, holding my finger to my lips. He nodded quickly, and I readied myself as I slowly opened the door.

In my first quick scan of the nursery, I didn't spot the intruder. Not until my eyes reached Gunner's crib and I realized he was floating almost a foot above it, hovering just above the crib's guardrail.

Archer sucked in a breath as I quickly shifted into my true form and reached Gunner in two quick steps. I gently took him in my arms, handing him to Archer without turning, who'd thankfully stayed behind me.

As I scanned the dark corner where the wall behind the crib and the one with the window intersected, I spotted a hunched-over being who'd clearly been trying to grab him and was now trying to hide from me, and I saw enough to know what they were. A fae. A brownie.

I hadn't seen a fae in the human realm in a long time. From what I'd heard from the other demons, I knew they'd stopped visiting the human world a long time ago. The only time a fae came into the human world now was when they were banished, and even then it was only fae who could pass off as humans, or had the magic to do so. A brownie would not be banished to the human world.

"What the fuck is that?" Archer demanded, then winced, probably realizing he'd just cursed in front of Gunner. His voice seemed to push the brownie into action, and before I could stop them, they disappeared with a puff of fae magic.

Shaking my head, I shifted back and walked over to the window to close it, and that was when I spotted it. Lying outside just below the window was a wriggling bundle wrapped up in a shiny, silky cloth. Oh, so that's what the brownie was here to do…

"Shit!"

Without thinking, I leaped out of the window, landing softly on the ground. Archer had clearly been planning to turn this area into a garden, but so far all that was there was soft dirt and weeds. Maybe I'd work on it when he was off to work. Gunner might enjoy being out in the sun.

A soft sound from the bundle pulled my head out of the clouds, and I carefully picked it up, peering inside. I had a fairly good idea of what I would find, and I was proven right when I took in the dark-skinned baby with glittering green eyes and pointed ears.

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