Page 17 of Demon Touched (The Demon Syndicate #2)

Dex

D ex had to admit, that after it was all over, he really liked her parents.

He followed Adelaide into the kitchen and saw Glenn sitting there with a look on his face that was almost melancholy.

“Where is she?” he demanded, instantly regretting that he’d agreed to scent charms. He took it out of his ear and tossed it on the table, listening intently.

“Outside getting some air.” Glenn pushed a cup of tea at him. “Sit down.”

He didn’t want to sit down, he wanted to figure out where she was and why her father looked like he’d had his heart broken. With a face like his, any emotion at all had to be immense for Dex to see it.

“She’ll be fine,” Adelaide told him. “I’ll start dinner.”

He narrowed his eyes at her dad. If she would be fine, then she wasn’t now.

“Out back.” Glenn sighed. “Just check on her, and then come back. She’s…sorting through some things and needs time alone.”

The tightness in his chest eased and Dex flashed him a grateful look.

It was difficult not to use his full speed, especially when it didn’t really matter if anyone here saw him. The house was decent sized, but easy to navigate. He found the back door and appreciated the fact her parents hadn’t turned on all the lights.

Was that something they did because of Nova?

He was only able to calm down when he saw her profile against the moon.

Damn. He’d never seen the sky look like that before.

“I know you’re there,” she murmured. “You took off your scent charm.”

“I didn’t see the point anymore.” Dex walked outside, boots crunching in the snow so she would know exactly where he was. He stopped a few feet away, giving her space. “Everything okay?”

“Sure.”

Everything was most definitely not okay.

“Anything I can do?” he asked, knowing if he didn’t get his ass back in the house soon her dad would come looking.

“I don’t think so.”

Dex closed the distance and walked around her slowly, needing to see her eyes. He stood there, his shadow completely covering her just like it had back at the mortuary. “Okay then, I’m going inside to help. Don’t stay out too long. It’s cold.”

Her eyes finally met his, and there was something different about them. They looked…empty.

Leaning down, he tried not to freak out.

Gently he kissed her and then pulled the scent charm from her ear. “This place is safe right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then I’d rather know where you are.” He pocketed the charm and took a deep breath.

Why couldn’t he smell a single emotion even after he took off the charm?

“Should I unlock the demon magic?” she asked. For some reason he didn’t think she was actually seeing him. “Or should I just…let it be?”

“That’s up to you,” he said carefully.

“I don’t even know how to use it.” She shrugged and pulled her hand out of her pocket, studying it like it held all the answers. The fresh burn made his heart stop.

What the fuck was going on?

“What happened?” Dex took her hand and healed it, keeping every bit of fear out of his voice and scent that he could.

“I needed to feel something real.” She pulled her hand out of his and slipped it back in her pocket. “Thank you. Do you use demon magic, or angel to heal?”

“I can use both,” he admitted as he tried not to make his concern obvious. “But angel magic is better for the really bad ones.”

“My dad likes you,” she said out of nowhere.

“I’m flattered.” Dex stuck his hands in his hoody and wished he knew what to say or do, but she was somewhere deep in her head. “I’m going inside now.”

There was nothing else he could do. Nova would tell him what she needed when she was ready. Dex couldn’t make her confide in him.

“Could you take this with you, please?” she asked, handing him the teacup.

Still no scent of her emotions.

“Sure.” He took it and somehow managed to keep from shattering it. “Five more minutes, or I’ll drag you back inside myself.”

The corner of her mouth tugged upward at that and he felt relief trickle through him.

Everything that had happened today hadn’t pushed her over the edge. Not yet anyway.

He kissed her forehead and breathed in the scent of both hunter and witch plus what made her her .

Then he turned and went back into the house, just like he’d promised.

Dex went straight to the kitchen and placed the cup in the sink. Adelaide had turned on the lights in here, but they were warm and low, giving the entire place a cozy feeling.

“How is she?” Glenn asked, his voice low enough there was very little chance she’d hear him.

“I don’t know.” Dex released the sink before he damaged property he didn’t own. “I don’t know .”

Something about her father made it easy to be honest. Maybe it was that Dex knew the old hunter wouldn’t bother coming after him…he wasn’t sure. But now that things were out in the open, this place felt safe.

Safer than anywhere he’d ever been before.

“Nova is different,” Adelaide said softly, preparing the meat with various different spices. “Ever since she was five, she’s been removed.”

“Usually hunters don’t get like that until they’re my dad’s age,” Glenn told him.

“After seeing so much death, so many people you care about die…you disconnect for your own good. Nova did that after Gianna. When I finally got there, she was still holding her – covered in blood. That’s not something a five-year-old should ever have to go through. ”

And then she’d been demon-touched.

“Is that what’s happening now?” he asked, taking the knife from Adelaide. Dex started peeling the potatoes, hoping that whatever was going on, it was just temporary.

She’d burned herself. On purpose. He had no idea how to deal with that.

That kind of self-destructive behavior was something he’d only ever dealt with in himself, and his own coping mechanisms weren’t exactly healthy.

“I don’t think so. I think she’s trying to figure out how to reconnect,” her dad mused. “She’s the perfect hunter, because she doesn’t let her emotions matter. Ever. They’ve been buried for so long I honestly wasn’t sure she’d ever feel anything again – not like the rest of us do.”

“She loves us,” Adelaide snapped, glaring at Glenn.

“Yes, she loves the family she already loved before what happened with Gianna, but after that? Name one friend she has outside of her cousins – or him.”

Adelaide took the peeled potatoes from him with a huff.

Dex had to sit down.

What the actual fuck was going on?

Hearing them talk was fucking with his head.

Everything they said was some warped echo of conversations he’d had with Agmos but reversed. Agmos had always told him not to make friends, that the people he cared about would ruin his ability to get the job done.

How was he supposed to be who he needed to be if he had too many people to care about? What happened if someone tried to get revenge? Dex couldn’t die, but everyone else was fair game.

Caring about Nova was a risk and he knew it. Not because he thought she was going to break his heart – even though that was a very real possibility – but because he was putting her life in danger.

It didn’t matter how good she was. She was still mortal.

This whole relationship was selfish and now Dex was questioning everything. Again.

“Don’t,” Glenn told him. “It’s no use.”

“What?”

“I can smell you now.” Glenn drank his tea and looked pointedly at the cup sitting in front of Dex. “You’re feeling guilty. I don’t know why, but I do know it’s because of her. Nova’s a big girl. She can handle herself.”

“I’ve never questioned that.” Dex drank the tea, surprised that it wasn’t bad. “But things would be safer for her if we went our separate ways.”

The hunter narrowed his eyes at him. “You’d just leave her?”

Dex didn’t know how to respond to that accusation. It infuriated him and confused him all at the same time. “I wouldn’t just leave,” he snapped.

“Then what are you afraid of?”

Adelaide sighed and went for the tall cupboard, pulling out what smelled like…moonshine. She tossed it to Glenn and then grabbed four glasses.

What was he afraid of?

Dex took the drink from Glenn and sniffed it once. Strawberry flavored? He took a sip and then downed the rest of it.

“Getting her killed,” he finally said.

“There is very little on this earth that can kill her,” Glenn told him, pouring more moonshine.

“I’m not worried about anything from this earth.” Dex sighed. There were too many unknowns.

“Well, it’s up to you two, but I’ll ask you the same question I asked her. Could you leave?”

Dex considered the hunter before him and wondered how someone as rough and tough as him could be so…understanding, and kind. Then he studied Adelaide and the way she leaned into Glenn.

Sometimes shit happened and it didn’t make any sense, but Dex had never tried to understand the way the universe worked. He just dealt with it and adjusted accordingly. That was how he’d always been.

“No, I don’t think I could leave,” he murmured, downing the rest of the moonshine.

Dex checked his watch. She had one more minute.

“What did I miss?” she asked, tossing her coat on the back of the chair as she walked into the kitchen like nothing had happened.

“We broke out the strawberry moonshine,” her dad said, sliding a full glass to her. “Dex was just going to tell us how you two met.” Glenn raised a glass to Dex then. “Weren’t you?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess I was.”

Was this what family was supposed to be like?

“He was stalking me,” Nova whispered conspiratorially.

Dex glared at her. “I was not.”

He didn’t quite understand how she could sit here and joke with them after what he’d seen, but he wasn’t going to ask her about it now. That would have to wait.

“Then explain it,” Nova teased, sipping her drink – not downing it. That eased some of his concern too.

“I was following a new witch in my territory who might be a threat.” Dex smirked. “I stepped in when four wolves tried to take her.”

“As if I couldn’t handle four wolves,” Nova snorted.

He rolled his eyes. “Like I knew that.”

“Then we bonded over dead bodies and pizza,” Nova told her mom. “You know, the usual.”

“Yeah, the usual,” her dad said, blue eyes twinkling with laughter as he watched his daughter.

That look on Glenn’s face was how Dex knew she was going to be fine.

He leaned back in the chair and settled in for some good food and conversation.

Maybe things would be okay after all.