Page 8 of Demon

This human had an entire room dedicated to his species. There had even been a Cambion demon likeness in there. Cambions were born of human and demon and carried a lot of human characteristics.

But to see Lonnie’s complete fascination with demons—Callan wasn’t sure how to feel about it. He wasn’t some kind of fascinating being to be fawned over. He was just Callan the demon. But a part of him had been pleased to know that Lonnie held his kind in such high esteem. It was a form of praise.

He just wished he could articulate his actual thoughts into speech. His inability to fully convey them had been a source of frustration his entire life. His kind didn’t speak much—it was an inherent trait of Cambions. Most didn’t seem to care or even have deep thoughts worth articulating. Rafe and Nathanial seemed to be that way. But Callan could actually feel the disconnect between his mind and the words that came out of his mouth, and he found the whole process annoying. The only other Cambion demon he knew who seemed to find this issuedifficult was Bartholomew, and he actually did sometimes get past the problem because he’d worked so hard on it.

Bartholomew had actually gone to college twice, getting a degree in English, then going on to follow that up with a business one. He owned a bookshop that did surprisingly well in today’s e-book world. It helped that half of it was a coffee shop that also offered up fresh-baked goods made by, in Callan’s opinion, the best baker in Seattle. But Bartholomew was always reading, and he worked hard to articulate his vast knowledge of…well, everything. He was only three years older than Callan, but he’d packed a lot of learning in the centuries.

Bartholomew would absolutely love Lonnie. So would Nathanial, but for different reasons—Lonnie was exactly the kind of human Nathanial was attracted to. Small, soft-looking, and with a very pretty face. So was Callan. Lonnie was exactly the type of man to catch Callan’s eye.

Callan followed Lonnie back into the crowded living room, careful to keep his arms from swaying too much. The clutter tangled up his senses a bit, so he’d have to get used to it. It did seem to fit the talkative and energetic human, though.

Lonnie opened a leather briefcase and pulled out bagged pieces of paper, laying them out on the coffee table. Callan bent to read them, and a shot of concern speared his chest. These were definitely something to worry about. Whoever had sent these was paying close attention to Lonnie and everything he did, and the words were vaguely threatening. There were no outright talks of violence, but the warnings were plain.

“Where did you find these?”

Lonnie pointed at one of the pages. “This one was mailed. The rest were either on my desk at school or on my car.” He sighed. “I’ve tried to watch the people around me to see if anyone is paying more attention to me than others, but I honestly neversee anything. But I do have to remind myself to look. I’m up in my head a lot.”

“This is not good.” Callan straightened and narrowed his eyes at Lonnie. “You should be worried. Is good I’m here.”

Lonnie sighed again and took off his glasses to rub his eyes for a moment. He looked even prettier without the glasses, but Callan liked them on his face, too. His nose was just so cute, so small over those wide lips. He wondered what it would be like to kiss those lips, then immediately pushed that thought away. But it was stubborn and stuck around, reminding him about the tingling horns earlier—a sensation that meant something big. Something that couldn’t be right.

As he’d thought before, the one thing he shared in common with his brother Nathanial was a certain type, and Lonnie was exactly that type. He was also the kind of human that Callan tried to stay away from because he worried his size would possibly harm them. But he liked everything about Lonnie from his energized, jittery mannerisms to his body. Perfect for cuddles—something most demons loved.

Callan couldn’t remember the last time he’d had those—his last relationship had been with a fellow demon, and that had been over a hundred years ago. So long, he could hardly remember what that feeling was like. And while the cuddling between him and Judah had scratched that itch, they’d both finally had to come to terms with the fact they craved something different. They’d both longed for someone they could feel protective toward, so they’d ended up parting friends.

He was feeling that protectiveness in spades for Lonnie, especially after reading the notes. “Did you go to the police?”

Lonnie blinked at him. “No, do you think I should? They aren’t really that threatening other than what I should or should not be doing. I mean, none of them mention actual physical harm.”

“It’s implied.”

Lonnie nodded and plopped his glasses back on. “It would be easier if the messages came as texts. At least they’d have a way to trace them. I bagged them in case I did go to the police at some point. Was thinking about fingerprints, but I felt a little silly for thinking that.”

“Are there security cameras at your school?”

He tilted his head. “You know, I’m not sure, but maybe. That’s definitely something to look into. I’ll ask.” He gathered the bags of notes and placed them back into his soft leather briefcase. “We’ll go to the police tomorrow.”

“Good. I can also show Xavier. He has magic. Could help.”

“Xavier?”

“My employer. You didn’t talk to him when you called?” That was different. Xavier liked to get a psychic read on all clients himself.

“My sister hired you, remember?”

Callan nodded, feeling faint heat in his cheeks at having forgotten that part. “That’s right.”

“Can I go with you when you talk to your boss? I’d love to see where you work. Are there more preternaturals there?”

“All are, so yes.”

A huge grin stretched across Lonnie’s attractive face, one that made Callan’s heart skip a beat. This human was just so bright, his smile feeling like a ray of sunshine on Callan’s face. He thought of his tingling horns earlier, which he had to have imagined. Rafe had talked about that happening when he’d been jostled against Shia at one of the fights because demons knew what that could mean. Shia was a demon, though.

Lonnie was human. Callan’s coworkers had recently begun relationships with special humans like Lonnie, but as far as Callan knew, they weren’t true soulmates. Bain and Alaric would live well beyond their partners’ years. And knowing that, they’dstill made the decision to be with them. It wasn’t unusual for preternaturals to love someone enough to make that choice. Face that future heartbreak.

But tingling horns meant a possible soulmate. He needed to touch Lonnie. To see if it happened again. But he couldn’t think of a reason to. It wasn’t like he could just grab the man and hold him, and he’d need to do that to know for sure.

Because if it did, his world, and what he’d always believed to be true, were about to change entirely.

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