by Jenny McKane
Outside, she headed back in the direction she had come and stopped short when a sleek, black car pulled up beside her and rolled the window down. It was in that moment that Sunny realized she didn’t have a single weapon on her--just a piping, hot cup of coffee that she had now loosened the lid on in case she needed to launch it at some attacker’s face. She figured burning hot sugar water would smart no matter what the race--demon or human.
Sunny’s pulse pounded as the window lowered and she studied the area around her for exit. Her best bet would be to run back to the gas station, but there were two problems with that. One, she sucked at running. She did. It just wasn’t her thing. And two, the girl at the gas station wasn’t going to offer much sanctuary. If anything, that option would just get them both killed, and as unfriendly as the girl was, Sunny wasn’t trying to get her killed.
Just as she was working on another option, Liam’s handsome face appeared in the window.
“Hello, there,” he said with a smile. “What are you doing?”
Sunny lifted the cup of coffee in her hand.
“Supplies,” she said. “I was up late trying to get the outline right. What are you doing out here?”
“Heading to work,” he said with a grin. It was mega-watt bright this morning. Sunny couldn’t help but stare at his handsome face and wonder what life would be like if she could have been just a normal girl with a normal handsome boyfriend and a normal well-paying job.
No demons. No angels. No sex-gorged succubi. She snapped her head back to reality, aware that she’d just been staring at Liam without speaking. Shit.
“Hop in,” he said. “I’ll give you a lift wherever you’re going.”
She took a step forward, then stopped. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring him around Gideon’s place. The last thing she needed was some sort of run-in between those two. She also didn’t want to have to explain the fact that she lived with Gideon in the first place. Wrong ideas, and all.
“I really appreciate it, Liam,” she said. “But it’s no trouble for me to walk. In fact, it’s good for me and helps me clear my head. Writing and all that.”
A dark expression crossed over his face like a shadow--sort of a mix between a frown and a glare, but it was quickly gone, and his bright smile had glossed over it. Odd.
“Okay, then,” he said. “We’re still on for tomorrow though, right?
She nodded.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’ll see you there at two?”
“See you then,” he flashed her one final grin and rolled up his window before driving away, leaving Sunny to wonder just how Liam found himself in her neck of the woods. The city was a big, big place.
When Sunny got home, she found a team of delivery men waiting with a huge truck outside Gideon’s warehouse.
She frowned as she studied the side of the truck. It was from a furniture store. The six-man team spent the next hour unloading a house-worth of furniture, including real couches to sit on, and even a bed and dresser for Sunny’s new makeshift bedroom Gideon had fashioned out of false walls in the far corner of the loft.
It’s funny how very human a few pieces of furniture can make a girl feel, Sunny thought, as she piled her blankets high on the mattress and snuggled in.
Heaven, she decided. This is what heaven must feel like.
Chapter 12
For all the time that Gideon had been gone lately, for all the brooding and door slamming and total ignoring of Sunny that Gideon had been about the past week or so, it figured that he would be around and actually paying attention while she got ready to meet Liam for their study date thing.
She wasn’t exactly sure it was a date, but it seemed more than just a random meetup for studying. Sunny had no idea what to expect, and Gideon’s comments weren’t helping.
“Where are you going dressed like that?”
He’d come out of his bedroom as Sunny was zipping up her tall boots. She’d actually sort of put a little intention into getting dressed for this non-date-thing with Liam, and she felt like she’d just been busted by Gideon.
Sunny looked down at herself. She had on the boots, skinny jeans, and a fuzzy black sweater. She’d also curled her hair and was wearing big, dangly gold hoops and a shit load of lip gloss.
“To study,” she said slowly, as Gideon moved forward.
He pressed into her space close enough that she felt the heat radiate off him. When his face was just beside her head, he inhaled.
“Are you wearing perfume?” It wasn’t a question so much as it was an accusation.
“Maybe?”
“Where are you going?” he asked again, folding his arms across his big body.
“I’m studying with a friend,” she said, moving around him to grab her bag by the door. “I’ll be back later this afternoon. Thanks for the furniture.”
She slammed the door before Gideon could ask another question, but it wasn’t long before a text fired off on her phone, which vibrated in her back pocket. Sunny was stepping onto the bus that would head toward the cafe where Liam was meeting her.
Are you meeting that guy from school?
She frowned. What the hell did he care? She typed a response quickly as the bus began to roll away.
Yes.
She considered replying with a longer message that would, essentially, tell him to mind his own demon business, but she didn’t. Gideon had, after all, just bought a bed for her to use. She didn’t want to shake the foundation too much.
You should reconsider.
Again, Sunny frowned. What did he care?
Too late.
She wasn’t going to do this--there was no reason to argue back and forth. Sunny slid the phone back in her pocket and closed her eyes for the rest of the ride to the small neighborhood outside of their campus where she was meeting Liam.
He had a table all set up for them in a far corner with enough background music that they could work and study without it being too distracting. Liam stood when Sunny approached and took her backpack. He held out the chair for her, and even ran to the counter and got a coffee that he had already ordered.
Sunny found it a little bit difficult not to be suspicious, but she forced herself to enjoy it. Liam wasn’t pushy, he was just polite. It was a new thing for Sunny.
They got right into the outline of the paper. She showed Liam what she had been working on, a comparison between two famous authors of the era, and he offered a critique. It turned out that Liam was quite the writer. He had finished his paper a few days ago and was concentrating on the upcoming quiz. There was also a midterm in about three weeks that he reminded Sunny about.
“What are you doing here at this campus of all places?” he asked out of nowhere. Sunny looked up in surprise.
“Is there another campus where I should be?” she asked.
“You just don’t seem like the typical community college type,” he said. “I don’t mean anything by that, only that you seem to have your shit together. Not a lot of people in the community college can boast that.”
Sunny raised an eyebrow at Liam.
“I guess I could ask the same of you,” she said. “You have a really nice car. You have your assignments done weeks ahead of time. You don't seem like the typical junior college attendee.”
“I'm not,” he said. And when Sunny thought he would continue, he did not.
“I can’t really afford the bigger colleges right now,” she admitted after a moment. “I figure I’d get a couple years of credit here in the bargain bin, and then I can transfer with good grades and a good portfolio.”
Liam was studying her, his face hard to read. He looked down at his books a moment, then searched the area directly around them with his eyes, as though looking for something.
“What is it?” she asked, suddenly finding herself looking around also.
He shook his head, ignoring her, but continued his search. After a moment, he stood.
“Excuse me a minute,” he said, flustered. His
cheeks were pink, and his breathing was a little faster. “I’ll be right back.”
In a half-breath, he was gone to the far side of the cafe and into the back hallway that held the bathrooms. Beside her, a waitress was carrying a tray of dirty dishes by and stubbed her toe, falling forward and sending the dishes in all directions. The woman climbed to her knees and looked around, obviously confused.
“There was nothing there,” she murmured, embarrassed. “What did I trip over?”
A coworker came forward and pulled her to her feet, helping her gather the broken and scattered plates while the customers around them murmured and went about their business.
Appearing out of nowhere in Liam’s empty chair was a grinning Plaxo. She swore under her breath.
“That was you, wasn’t it?” she said, motioning to the chaos. “And while you’re at it, go invisible again, please.”
The last thing she needed was to alert the general public to the presence of dream demons. Plaxo did as she asked and was suddenly gone again. To give her a cover, she pulled her phone out and pretended to have a conversation.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, watching the far part of the cafe for Liam.
“I feared Lady Hunter would be in danger,” Plaxo’s voice was still in Liam’s chair. At least he was sitting still for the moment.
Danger? That was the second mention of it today.
“Why would I be in danger? Gideon mentioned the same thing.”
Plaxo’s voice was whisper-yelling, as though Sunny where half deaf.
“Half-Breed feels it too? Then it must be so,” Plaxo said. “There is something big coming, Lady Hunter. Something evil.”
“Demons,” Sunny said with a sigh. “I get it.”
Plaxo let out a puff of breath, almost in frustration.
“Yes, demons are not great,” he said a little defensively. “But bigger evil. Bigger bad coming. Plaxo will protect Lady Hunter.”
Sunny caught sight of Liam leaving the hallway and her heart sped up.
“You need to make yourself scarce, Plaxo,” she said. “He’s coming back. Wait for me to leave in a couple hours and we can ride the bus home together.”
“Plaxo will wait for Lady Hunter,” the small demon said, and she heard the telltale sound of him leaving, the hard thump of his feet hitting the wooden floor.
Not a moment too soon, too. Liam joined her and sat down, looking less flushed than he had earlier. He still looked momentarily confused and glanced all around him. Looking for something again? Sunny had a fleeting thought that perhaps Liam could sense Plaxo. But that would be crazy. Sunny was still learning the ropes of being a Solomon, but she was pretty sure they could recognize one another. Liam wasn’t a demon, and he definitely wasn’t a Solomon. Maybe he was just sort of sensitive?
“Sorry about that,” he said, pulling his chair in.
“Everything okay?” she asked, sipping her coffee.
Liam nodded quickly.
“Just a little lightheaded,” he said. “It was odd. Much better now, though. Thank you.”
For the rest of the hour, Sunny was relieved that there were no more disturbances, either via phone, via demon, or via collapsing waitstaff. They got a lot of studying done, and Liam even helped Sunny iron out her thesis and paper ideas. He was a godsend, honestly. The direction she’d chosen for her paper wasn’t nearly as focused or original as the one she’d come up with after Liam’s few suggestions.
That, in and of itself, was worth its weight in gold. Liam was a gem.
“Why did you want to study with me?” she asked in a lull in their conversation. It’d been bugging her the past half hour, when it became obvious who was benefitting in this study session. And it certainly wasn’t Liam.
He laughed and covered it with a cough.
“What do you mean, Sunshine?”
He said her name so formally, it sounded strange. Only Michael really called her Sunshine, and it always sounded like he disapproved of everything about her. She pushed the thought aside.
“I’m the one benefitting here,” she motioned to the papers and books in front of her. “You’re not getting anything from my end over here. So, it begs the question--why? Out of the kindness of your heart?”
He gave his head a shake.
“No,” he said. “Definitely not out of the kindness of my heart. You shouldn’t sell yourself short. I’m getting lots of information from you, trust me.”
The small hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end just then, and though she didn’t sense danger of any sort coming off Liam, he’d just given her an insight into something. Only, she didn’t pick up on it. She blinked and swallowed hard, suddenly needing a moment.
“I need just a second,” she said as she stood. “I’ll be right back.”
Liam looked up with a look of concern.
“You okay? You look a little flushed.”
It was like their roles were reversed suddenly, and now she was doing exactly what he’d done earlier. Except she wasn’t sniffing the air or searching for something nobody could see. Still. She was panicking and wanted a little space.
She tried to walk on steady legs to the restroom and pushed inside the hallway, finding the door to the women’s room. She let herself in and shut it behind her, locking it.
No sooner had she looked in the mirror at her pink cheeks than Plaxo appeared beside her on the toilet, perched on the edge on his tippy toes. Just as she was about to lecture him, she saw the expression is his strange cat-like eyes.
“What?” she simply said.
He hesitated a moment before speaking.
“I think something is wrong,” was all he said. For some reason, it was all Sunny needed. She spun on her heel and raced back out to gather her things from the cafe.
Chapter 13
She knew she’d left Liam confused and probably a little offended, but something in her gut told her not to doubt what the little dream demon told her. Something was amiss, and she’d been feeling it since Liam returned from the bathroom. There was a different charge in the air--not just at the cafe, but in general. Sunny had felt it and couldn’t deny it. Plaxo’s warning had simply confirmed what she’d already been feeling.
Sunny knew she needed to find Gideon, and he would be the one most likely to explain whatever it was she was feeling. Not that he felt compelled to do much explaining, like ever, but if it was big enough, she was pretty sure he’d let her know. Wouldn’t he?
The trouble with Sunny’s dramatic exit was that she didn’t own a car. It made racing across town to find your half-angel, half-demon co-worker a lot less exciting than it would be if she had, say, Liam’s black sports car.
But because she’d been a bus rider for so long, she happened to know the time tables by heart, even the ones she didn’t take very often. Lucky for her, though, she took the buses into this neighborhood all the time. She glanced at her phone as she ran toward the bus stop, a good three blocks away still.
Shit. She had about two minutes and, even though it was a weekend driver on shift, this route was rarely ever late. She heard the heavy footsteps of the dream demon beside her, who was running invisible. More than once he clipped someone as they were walking in the same direction they were running and Sunny caught a dirty look or an angry shout.
“Try not to run people over with your little concrete body, Plaxo,” she muttered as they moved. “They’re thinking it’s me.”
“Plaxo will try.”
She heard the little demon huffing and puffing beside her. Up ahead, she saw the stop and the bus just pulling along beside it. Sunny kicked it into high gear and just as the driver was looking to shut the door, she flew through it and swiped her bus card as she moved to find a seat. It was Sunday evening, and there weren’t many passengers to contend with. Even so, she chose a seat at the back so that she wouldn’t have too many eavesdroppers in case Plaxo was chatty.
“Do you know what I’m rushing toward?” she asked, keeping her vo
ice low and staring straight ahead in case someone looked back.
“No,” Plaxo said. “Plaxo could jump realms if Lady Hunter desires, but it might be riskier than she desires. Plaxo only knows what Plaxo feels. Something is wrong.”
Good and obtuse. Just how Sunny liked her non-information.
She leaned her head back against the seat and dashed out a text message to Gideon asking if he was home. A few minutes later when he didn’t respond, she dialed the number and called him. It rang with no luck. It was rather odd, but maybe he was already keyed into what was happening and moving.
“How did you follow me to meet Liam?” she asked, genuinely curious. She hadn’t sensed him on the ride over.
“Portal jump,” he said, folding his little arms across his round body. He was visible, but so low in the seat that nobody who bothered to look back would have seen him.
“Is that the demon method of transportation?”
Plaxo nodded his head.
“If the demon knows how,” he said. “Demons would get trapped forever if they were stupid and took the wrong portal. Some demons are not smart like Plaxo.”
Sunny tossed him a glance.
“You’re a smart demon?” She wasn’t necessarily doubting him; it was just that she’d never heard that before. Dream demons were the low men on the totem pole as far as she knew.
“Many of the lower demons are the smarter demons,” Plaxo said, a little puff of pride in his concrete chest. “The higher castes overlook us and it’s their mistake.”
His little voice was a bit wistful, and Sunny wondered how tough life was as a demon.
“Do hunters come after you guys a lot?” She was curious. Sunny didn’t know how egregious the crimes must be before Michael stepped in.
Plaxo shook his head.
“Not too much,” Plaxo said. “If a human is killed, the shiny angels send the hunters.”
Shiny angels? What was that?
“You mean archangels?” she asked. Plaxo nodded enthusiastically. “Why do you call them shiny?”
