Page 23

Miri

M iri walked into the kitchen and stifled a yawn with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Her water bottle rattled in her hand, only melting ice left inside. She paused at the sink and looked out the glass patio door.

A large figure stood outside and stretched under dusky sky. Broad shoulders shook. An enormous set of wings unfurled at his back. Miri frowned. What in the world was Duke doing out there? He had disappeared sometime after dinner, but she never would have guessed he was in the backyard.

Abandoning her water bottle, Miri opened the sliding door and stepped outside into the chilly evening air.

“Whatcha doin?”

Duke glanced at her over his shoulder. A shy smile passed over his handsome face. He bent over and touched his toes, treating her to the lovely view of his track pants tightening over his muscular ass.

“Stretching.”

Stretching… on the patio? At night? Okay, that wasn’t weird at all.

“Why?” Miri yawned. “Not that I’m complaining—because it’s a pretty great view—but it’s also getting dark out.”

“I need to stretch out my wings.” Duke shrugged out of his t-shirt and tossed it aside. “I prefer to do it at night, otherwise I tend to get neighbors calling the cops and claiming I’m peeking in their yards.”

Peeking in their yards? The only thing illegal about the quiet demon was his shredded physique. The carved muscles on his back alone were enough to stop traffic.

Miri took her time eyeing the shirtless demon as he shook out his wings and gave them a few test flaps. She stopped as his words finally penetrated her horny brain.

“Wait, you mean stretching your wings? Like flying?”

“Yes.” He twisted from side to side. Miri shuddered as his spine crackled like pop rocks. “I have to keep them tucked away most of the time and they start to cramp if I don’t get a flight in at least once a week. Though, I’ve been slacking a bit lately and now my back is tight.”

She couldn’t even imagine. Miri stared at the vast width of his fully extended wings and winced. How cooped up he must feel on a daily basis, his enormous wings pinned to his back as he slouched over spreadsheets.

“I’ll be back in a little bit.” Duke took a step closer and pressed a quick peck to her cheek.

A gust of air pushed Miri back a step and he was gone. She looked up at the sky and watched his great purple wings carry him toward the darkening clouds. Her jaw dropped. It was one thing to know he had the wings, but it was another to see them in action.

The patio door slid open behind her. Kaz stood beside her and turned his face up to the sky.

He whistled. “Wow, he’s really up there.”

“Right?” Good thing Duke wasn’t afraid of heights.

Kaz watched him thoughtfully and patted his belly with his fingertips. “I bet that’s one hell of a core workout.”

He was watching a man fly… with wings… no parachute in sight… and he wanted to talk about how good it must be for his abs? Miri rolled her eyes. Men.

“Do you think he can… you know?” The golden demon flicked his eyebrows upward.

“What?”

“Sex?” he asked bluntly. His claws pointed up at the sky. “In midair? Cause that would be wild.”

Miri laughed. “Why is that everyone’s first question?”

First Ashley, now Kaz. She made a mental note to ask Duke how often he got asked that question.

“I’m just saying, if it’s possible…” Kaz shrugged his shoulders. “I would be down to be a spectator.”

Of course, he would. Though, in all fairness, who wouldn’t?

“I already asked,” Miri admitted. Kaz snorted and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “He said it’s not possible.”

“Not with that attitude, it isn’t. Has he even tried?”

“Right? That’s what I said!” Miri shook her head. “Duke said he can briefly fly while carrying about a third of his body weight at most, but it’s not sustainable for longer than a few minutes.”

“Hmm, sounds like a quitter’s attitude to me.” They stared up at the sky as Duke turned into a tiny dot over the sunset. “Maybe I’ll talk to him about some sessions to amp up that wing strength.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re more invested in this than I am, Mr. Fitness Trainer?”

“Miri.” Kaz turned his face to look at her, his eyes deathly serious. “Its fucking… in midair. I don’t have wings, so I have to live vicariously through him. If I can’t bang you in the clouds, then I’m damn well going to make sure I get to watch when that monster does.”

Rolling her eyes at the ridiculous demon, she rested her head on his shoulder.

“If I come downstairs tomorrow morning and find you putting him through wing burpees or something, I’m locking you both out without breakfast.”

“Wing burpees?” Why was his face lighting up like that?

“Don’t even think about it, Kaz.”

His deep laugh warmed her from the inside out. Soft lips kissed her temple.

“How long did he say he’d be a gone?”

“He didn’t say. Why?”

Kaz glanced around the backyard with a critical eye. “Because all this talk of fucking midair is making me hard, and I’m debating bending you over that Adirondack chair over there.”

Not in the backyard, he wasn’t. It was way too breezy to have her whole ass exposed to the evening air, and she was not getting grass stains on her favorite pajama pants.

“Not happening.” Miri pointed at the neighboring house. “The Chavez’s backyard cameras can see into my yard.”

He shrugged. “Then they’ll get a lovely show next time they check their footage.”

“Kaz…”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Can I at least bend you over the living room couch then?”

“The couch?” Bent over in the living room, ass out for any of her demons to see as she got railed? Her pussy clenched at the thought. “Yeah, I could definitely go for some couch sex.”

“Excellent.”

Kaz tangled his fingers with hers and dragged her inside. Giggling at his smug grin, she followed. The door slid shut behind them and they stepped inside. Raised voices floated in from across the hall, melting the smiles off their faces.

They followed the sounds of an argument into the living room. Ace and Nico stood toe-to-toe, shouting in each other’s faces. Miri winced at the booming voices. So much for couch sex.

“Stop dumping your shit in the hallway!” Nico shouted.

“It’s just a pair of boots!”

“Boots that I have tripped over a dozen times this week!” he snarled. “What happens if I fall and break my arm, dumbass? I’ll be out of work for for months!”

Ace threw his arms in the air. “Then step over them! It’s not that hard!”

“Are you a fucking child?” Nico’s red face growing darker the more he yelled. “Act like an adult for once and put your shit away!”

“I’m a child? You’re throwing a fucking tantrum over shoes!” Ace turned to look at them, a bewildered expression on his golden face. “I’ll build a shoe rack if you’re that bent out of shape about it, dude.”

Nico thrust his claws through his short hair until it was sticking up in all directions. Miri watched the demon slowly unravel.

“It’s not just the shoes! You and all the other idiots in this house are slobs. I am constantly tripping over your shit!” Nico waved at room.

Miri and Kaz glanced at each other in confusion. The living room was perfectly tidy. The only thing out of place in the whole room was an empty coffee mug on the side table, and that was definitely not enough for this level of meltdown.

“This house is too small for any of us to be leaving shit out! It’s already bad enough that you and Kaz have no volume control?—“

“Volume control? My guy, are you serious right now?” Ace shook his head. “You’re literally shouting over nothing right now!”

“It’s not nothing! I can’t even hear myself think in this fucking house because it’s so fucking loud!”

“Umm, guys?” Miri said softly. “Maybe we can all step back and take a breath?”

Nico blinked at her as if he hadn’t noticed her and Kaz enter the room. Shaking his head slowly, he back away from Ace.

“Yeah. You’re right. I need some air.” He turned his back and walked out of the room. “A lot of fucking air!”

The front door opened and closed hard enough to rattle the photos on the living room wall. Ace strode past them and ripped the door open.

“Dude, it was just a pair of shoes! Calm the fuck down!” he yelled at his back.

Great, just great.

Miri scrubbed her hands over her face. Well, it had finally happened. The happy, honeymoon bubble around this demon adventure had burst.

“Wow,” Kaz said quietly. “That was… a lot.”

“I knew he was struggling a little with the group dynamic, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about it yet.”

“It’s not your fault.”

It certainly felt like it was. She should have made the time. She should be checking in with all of them regularly, making sure they were all okay with their relationship.

Gripping her elbow, Kaz gently turned her to face him.

“Miri, I mean it. This is not your fault.” His golden eyes searched her worried face. “We have five grown adults stepping all over each other in a small house. It was bound to happen eventually.”

She chewed on her lip and voiced the fear that had taken root in her mind.

“What if he doesn’t come back?”

Kaz kissed her forehead and pulled her into a hug. “He’ll come back, sweetheart. You’re too important to him to leave for good. You’re too important to all of us.”

But by the time Miri and the other three demons crawled into bed for the night, Nico still wasn’t back.

They piled onto her too small mattress in the silent room.

Duke—apprised of the situation by a pissed off Ace— folded her into his arms and pressed his face into her shoulder.

One by one, the other three demons fell asleep around her.

Miri listened to their quiet snores. Her legs were cold. Nico always curled up around her legs, like he was claiming that bit of her for himself, but now the familiar weight was gone. She stared at the ceiling.

She couldn’t lose Nico. She couldn’t lose any of her demons. The whole bunch of them had wormed their way into her heart and clung on like it was life or death. Miri could no sooner walk away from them than she could walk away from her own heart.

She needed Nico and his quiet smiles in her life. She needed his teasing sarcastic comments, and the silly way he wrinkled his nose when someone he disliked spoke in his presence. The stoic demon didn’t bother with a poker face and she loved that about him. In fact, she loved everything about him.

So, Miri laid in the dark and asked herself over and over again—how the hell was she going to fix this?