Page 56 of My Saintly Demon

“I couldn’t be mad at him. Not after he told me he wanted to keep me because I reminded him of my mother. Or how she died for me, hoping good would win and I’d be the angel she wanted. I mean, yeah, it was unexpected, but I had two parents who wanted me to be the best I could be. That’s reason enough to not be angry at the way it all played out.”

I inhale a sharp breath with his words. His insight is far more than I expected. It makes me examine myself a lot closer, too.

“You have such a wonderful outlook on it. I need to learn from you.”

He shifts, turning those deep blue eyes on me, and they’re like a magnet, his eyes. They just pull me in, and I know if I had to walk away from him, I couldn’t.

“When I met you, I was unravelling, Dave. Just like when your favourite sweater gets a loose string and you try not to pull on it, but somehow it just keeps falling apart. I knew I was close to the deep end. Drugs and alcohol aren’t the way to cope with problems, but I felt I had no other choice. My foster parents already pushed me out. I couldn’t talk to anyone in the church for fear someone would leak my secret. I sure as heck couldn’t find a private therapist or again, the church would know. They kept close tabs on me. I had to battle through it on my own.”

Dave takes my hand. “You’re stronger than you know. When humans first meet a demon, they rarely react like you do.” He smiles, wickedly as he no doubt remembers our first encounter, before turning serious again, putting me at ease like no one else has.

“Thank you. I’d like to blame it on the booze, but I think even then, I knew you were sent for me, Dave. If it wasn’t for you, I’m not sure what would’ve happened. You saved me twice already from other people and you saved me once from myself. I prayed for help before and assumed it wasn’t coming.” I pause, organizing everything in my brain from this bizarre ride I’ve been on. As fantastical as it all seems, it couldn’t be more real. “But I think you were, no… youare, the answer.”

“C’mere.” Dave leans back again, pulling me into his lap. “I’m going to make mistakes. We’ll fight, but we’ll make up. But one thing I know is I’d not be where I am now without you. Do you know why?”

I shake my head. “Why?”

“Because wings only show up when the heart finds its place.” He cups my jaw and leans up to kiss me. “You’re my place.”

I don’t know how long we sit under the tree kissing as lovers do. Slow and deep, with no care in the world. But it’s the most peace I’ve felt in my mind for months.

The bark of a dog nearby snaps us out of our haze and we begin the walk back to the house.

Hand in hand, we follow the unpaved road, and I notice the rain clouds moving in.

“You didn’t tell me your news.” Dave smiles over at me and I laugh.

“Heh, I guess not. But you heard most of it in the kitchen when I asked Mike if I could stay here to help. I know I still need to be a listener or a helper to be happy. Not in a religious capacity, but just as someone who genuinely cares about other people. After speaking with X, he told me about some of the… beings that he’s met at the house. It’s a start of what I hope will make the rest of my life fulfilling. I need to have some purpose and this will do that. I hope.”

The first giant raindrop hits my forehead. Dave gets hit too. We speed up our steps, but it’s no use. The rain bursts out of the clouds, soaking us in seconds. My t-shirt clings to me and I pause in the rain to take it off.

“Oh, no. No, you don’t.” Dave shakes his head before bending and throwing me over his shoulder. “You’re not getting naked out here, Chuck, for fuck sakes, save it for the patio.”

He jogs us through the rain and I bounce on his shoulder, laughing as the rain falls and there’s never been a time I’ve ever felt so complete.

EPILOGUE

6 MONTHS LATER

DAVE

Sliding the patio open while juggling the glasses in my hand is no small feat. Especially when my beloved is naked outside. Again.

“Hey, babe.”

Charles smiles sweetly at me as I set the gin and tonic sprinkled with fresh raspberries next to him. I wish I could say I’ve gotten better with him wanting to feel the air on his nakedness, but I haven’t.

“Aww, you remembered the raspberries. Thank you.”

Leaning down, I kiss his forehead before taking the seat next to him. When Charles didn’t want to give up his newfound appreciation for being naked outside, I insisted we compromise. I gathered X and the two of us built a privacy fence around the small patch outside the patio door to our suite.

I didn’t want to suppress anything he found he liked. He’d done enough of that, and I wanted him to know I loved him for what he was. Even when it brought a wave of possessiveness through me and out right jealousy if anyone else were to see him, I wanted him to be comfortable. Besides, it still benefitted me because I almost always felt the urge to mark him and claim him, even if the privacy wall was there. You can’t find fault in a possessive fuck. We both win.

Charles sips his drink, humming his appreciation, and I lean back in my chair.

“Did you have an okay time talking to the new guy Mike brought by?”

Mike has shown a few to the house since we’ve been here. Growing up as a demon, I met all kinds of strange creatures from other worlds. It was never something that seemed different. I had to hand it to Charles, though; he was taking it all in stride.

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