Page 36 of My Demon Manny

"Well, you have one now. We've got your back, just like you have ours. Right, Gunner?" I asked when I realized he was awake and watching us with his big blues.

Lux glanced down at him, a smile quickly filling his face as he lifted him up into the air, making Gunner break into giggles.

"Oh, look at you! You love flying, don't you?"

I chuckled as I watched the two of them, and when Lux glanced over with a wide smile on his face, I felt my heart skip a beat.

It took me a few moments to find my words after that, and when I did, I remembered I'd forgotten the dinner I'd brought.

"Shit, I got us dinner. Let me go get—"

Lux snapped his fingers, and the bags of takeout appeared on the coffee table. With a laugh, I shook my head at him.

"You're going to turn me into a lazy couch potato if you keep doing things like that."

"As long as the potato is willing to give cuddles, I don't care," he shot back, eyes sparkling with mirth, and I rolled my eyes as I stood up.

"I'm gonna go shower real quick, and then we're having dinner right here while watching a movie, okay?"

Lux nodded, then glanced down at Gunner as he started fidgeting in his lap. "I'm going to change and feed this one while you do that."

As Lux stood up, I tugged him close and pressed a kiss to his lips, swallowing his gasp of surprise. I kept the kiss chaste, conscious of the little one between us, and then pulled back when Gunner started fidgeting again.

"See you in a bit." Shooting Lux a wink, I turned around and made my way to the bedroom we'd been sharing since the day we first slept together.

Most nights, we only had enough energy for a makeout session, but even those were enough to rock my world. Anything I did with Lux felt better than anything I'd done with any of my previous partners, and it wasn't because my previous partners were bad.

Everything with Lux just felt magnified, like all my feelings were suddenly running at 2x precision.

I'd never truly been in love with anyone before, but I thought I might be falling in love with Lux.

Sixteen

Lux

"I find it fascinatingthat humans think so much about magic, write so many stories about it, and still don't believe in it," I commented, taking another bite of the delicious noodles. Tonight's cuisine was Chinese, and I had to salute the humans for their creativity when it came to food. I didn't think I'd found a food I disliked yet. I supposed part of the credit also went to Archer for picking our meals. Eating Chinese on the couch was exactly the balm I'd needed after the harrowing day I'd had.

"I think it'sbecausewe don't believe in it that we find it so fascinating. It's an escape from the normal."

"So what do you think would happen if humans found out magic exists?"

Archer winced. "Judging from all the stories based on just that happening? Nothing good. As many good qualities as we have, humans are also extremely reluctant to accept anyone different from us, especially when that other person might be more powerful."

I hummed as I chewed my food, wondering how Fate found just the right humans to pair with supernaturals. One of the criteria must be that they'd be willing to keep the secret, right?

"I suppose it's a good thing most of them don't know, then."

"Yeah." Archer glanced over at me. "If you knew they'd react positively, though, would you want everyone to know?"

"Yes." I'd thought of this before. "If that were true, I don't think there would be a reason for supes to stay secret. And maybe if they worked together, supes and humans could figure out some creative solutions for things like world hunger, pollution, and all the things that are slowly killing Mother Nature."

"As long as politics stays out of it," Archer said wryly, and I hummed. That was a good point.

Then again, all of this was hypothetical, because I didn't think humans would ever react positively to the revelation of magic. Hell, they'd killed so many women under the suspicion of magic back during the 'witch trials,' when those women had been guilty of nothing more than being more knowledgeable than men.

Humans have always been afraid of anything that could take their place as the apex predator of this world, and that wasn't something that was going to change anytime soon.

Gunner took that moment to express his opinion in a long stretch of babbling as he crawled over to the edge of his playmat, clearly demanding we remove the pillows keeping him contained to his play area, and it sent us both chuckling.

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