jump up nearly to my hairline. “You’re a musician?” Be still my lusty heart. What girl can resist a musician? None. That’s God’s honest truth.
“Banjo,” he tells me proudly, and I can’t help but snort. Maybe I spoke too soon.
“Of course you play banjo.”
“You got something against the banjo?”
I let out a laugh. “It’s cute. Between that and the accent you try to slip on, you’re really tryin’ to embrace the South.”
“Damn straight. The ladies love it,” he says with a playful wag of his brows.
“He’s good at playing,” Alder says. “He learned quickly, and it came natural to him. For all his bluster when he first got the Guardian job, Flint’s embraced all things Southern. But he’s a surly asshole when he plays. Believe it or not, he usually doesn’t like much attention.”
“What? Flint?” I ask, surprised. That doesn’t seem to fit with the flirtatious demon that I’ve dealt with.
“It’s true. You seem to bring out another side to him,” Alder says. “An obnoxious, cringe-worthy side, but another side all the same.”
A laugh escapes me as Flint reaches over and tries to swat at Alder, but the lavender-skinned demon manages to dodge the hit with a laugh.
“Don’t go telling all our secrets to the lady while we’re wooing her,” Flint reprimands his friend.
“Wooin’ me?” I say, though it comes out more like a squeak. I look between the two of them, shocked at his admission. “You shouldn’t try to woo me.” But damn, I want them to.
Flint cocks his head. “What’s wrong? Scared it’s already working?” he asks with an arrogant gleam.
“No,” I lie.
I shouldn’t be tempted, flattered, or excited by these two. I shouldn’t, and yet, I am. The moment I parked my work truck here, my whole life changed on a dime. My mind is still tryin’ to catch up. But my damn libido? It’s full-steam ahead. And my emotions just keep volleyin’ all over the damn place.
Flint grins like he doesn’t believe me, and he shouldn’t, seein’ as how I’m full of it, but it still leaves me uneasy that these two seem to be able to read me so easily.
“Tell me more about this Delta,” I blurt. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I wanna slap my forehead. Could I make my jealousy any more obvious?
“Why? We ain’t wooing Delta,” Flint replies.
I don’t know, you talked about wooin’ me, and I panicked!
“You said she’s like me,” I say, tryin’ to steer this conversation somewhere away from the did you try to woo her too thought process. “I had some demon try to take me last night before those angels and you two showed up. Did stuff like that happen to her?”
“Yeah, she was attacked after she found out about demons and what she really was. She tried to avoid the Hellgate at first.”
Damn. There goes that strategy.
“So, this...is inevitable?” I ask, weariness from the night and everythin’ I’ve learned settlin’ in my spine.
Surprisingly, I don’t feel as overwhelmed as I probably should. Instead, I feel like I was waitin’ for this all along. There’s always been some oddity or sense of not-normal surroundin’ who I was, whether it was my parents insistin’ I was dropped off by an angel, or the blackouts. This new reality fits in a way I can’t really explain, and for some damn reason, it doesn’t feel foreign or scary to me.
The real issue is, how long will it take before I learn what I need to know about what I am? Could I have other abilities, or are my tribulations it? Why was I dropped off to be raised like a human in the first place?
I’ve only ever questioned that a couple of times in my life. Why would I need to when I have such incredible parents? But now that thought seems to want to sit at the forefront of my mind. I want to learn the why behind all of this—behind my existence.
I watch Alder and Flint as they continue to struggle to answer my question. They don’t really seem to know what to say, because they share a look, and that makes my stomach drop right down to my bare feet.
I let out a long breath. “Damn. I thought… I don’t know what I thought. That somehow I would go on livin’ my life, only I’d have to put demon under my new status.” I laugh humorlessly to myself and set the water down behind me. “I guess I just kinda figured that