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“You’re cute, but you know that given what you are.” He glanced over his shoulder toward the kitchen as if he expected Linda to be listening.

“Cute?” He was a god! He wasn’t cute. He was… He wasn’t a god at the moment, and Noah believed him to be an incubus.

“Yeah, a bit too twinky to be my type.”

“I have no idea what that sentence means.” Noah seemed to string words together because they sounded good. But it felt as though Noah had both complimented him and turned him down in the same breath.

Noah opened the door. “I’ll explain twinks, twunks, and social media as we locate landmarks. And you can explain Strega and incubi to me.”

CHAPTER14

Noah shoved his hands into his coat pocket. Next to him, Silas did the same. It was midafternoon, but the air was cool and had a bite. With the coat and hat on, Silas appeared to be human. Almost. Maybe it was the way he carried himself. Or his expression. But there was something about him that made Noah’s skin tingle.

Not with fear. He wasn’t sure what the sensation was, but it was dangerous, as when he was around Silas, all he wanted to do was touch him.

And while Silas said he wasn’t using any magic because there wasn’t any in this world, that didn’t mean he wasn’t using something else. He was, after all, a sex demon…unless Nan was right, and Silas was lying. But why would he?

“So yes, incubi do eat food, but the energy generated by sex is way more satisfying,” Silas said, continuing his explanation.

“How long can you go without?”

Silas glanced at him. “Without eating or without sex?”

“It’s the same for you, isn’t it?” He jumped over a rather large crack in the footpath. The crack continued up through the building, widening as it reached the roof. “How big was the palace? How far does it stretch underground?”

Silas jumped over the gap, and they both stared up at the newsagent that wouldn’t be reopening any time soon.

Silas frowned as though offended by the destruction. “I can’t answer that as I’m not familiar with the city.”

“Yet the vampire lord has made you acting lord… Why?” What was so special about Silas that the lord trusted him? The warning Nan had given him echoed in his mind.

“Because I was the first one to knock and offer?”

Noah grimaced. “You could be some kind of criminal.”

Silas snorted and walked on. “I’m glad you think so highly of me.”

“I’m trying to understand.” Because there were things that weren’t adding up. “You said there’s no magic, so what will the Strega be able to do?”

Silas turned around. “I don’t know any more than you. In fact, you know more because this is your fucking world. Your town, not mine. You understand how things work, and you understand the technology in your little magic rectangle.”

“Phone.”

“I know what it’s called. I was making a point.” He pressed his lips together and crossed his arms. “I don’t want to be acting anything. I don’t particularly want to search for a missing dragon, either. All I want is my magic.”

“So why did you agree to it?”

“Because asking the dragon to take me to the palace was the quickest way for me to get there. But the dragon would only help me if I agreed to help him.”

Noah didn’t understand Silas’ exasperation. “That sounds reasonable.”

Silas tilted his head. “I should’ve known you’d take the dragon’s side.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Silas considered him for a second. “Just that humans have a long history of either fawning over dragons or fighting them.”

Noah opened his mouth and closed it again. Even though he suspected the truth, he needed to ask. “So there used to be dragons in this world.”