"Just look at it this way. If he was an Incubus, she wouldn't have been able to resist. I mean..." He held his arms out in a pose that was reminiscent of Fonzy from the old TV show, 'Happy Days', in evergreen, Nick reruns on the grid of screens in the demon's living room.
Storm was every bit as unimpressed as you would expect a Black Swan knight to be. His manner and tone were even. "Where's your proof?"
Deliverance didn't look offended. If anything, Storm's reaction seemed to soften him around the edges. He shook his head slightly in a way Storm had previously thought was unique to Litha. "The only proof I can give you is the fact that you can survive the passes. Of course..." He smiled just a little too wickedly to suit Litha "... if I'm wrong, you'll be dead."
Storm straightened, pulled his jaw in, and glared. He looked like he would love nothing more than to throttle one exceptionally pretty, super-arrogant demon currently standing in his kitchen with blatant effrontery written all over his smug mug.
"Comforting," Storm said drily. As he stared at Deliverance he did a mental checklist. His brother and sister both had his dad's blue eyes and Irish skin with freckles splashed across their noses. His olive skin and black eyes did look out of place in the family portrait. He'd never really thought anything of it before now.
"Ask your mother then." The demon cocked his head in a way that served to remind Storm that Deliverance was not exactly human. "Doesn't she live nearby?" Storm almost took a threatening step toward daddy dearest. Litha sucked in a breath as she practically read her husband's mind.
"Dad," Litha said quietly while pulling on his sleeve, "time to go."
"Alright, love. See you soon."
Urging her father toward the door, she glanced at Storm and didn't like what she saw. "I'll let him out and be right back."
In three minutes Litha returned with a worried mind, not knowing what to expect. Storm was sitting on a bar stool staring straight ahead. She eased in next to him.
"What do you think?"
He turned and looked at her. "I'm not sure you could call the jumble in my head actual thinking." He pinned her with a look, the famous Storm intensity was back full force. "Did you suspect?"
"I wouldn't say I suspected exactly, but at one point when I was... away, it crossed my mind that it would be ironic if part of the reason you're Black Swan's brightest and best is because you're part demon."
The edges of Storm's mouth lifted. "You thought I was the brightest and best?"
"Of course. Everybody knows that."
"Everybody doesn't know that, Litha. Ram is the one with a giant portrait hanging in the Hall of Heroes. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it." He hurried to add that. "He does. Nobody understands that better than I do."
Litha pushed a stray lock of black hair off his forehead and slid to her feet so that she could lean into him where he sat on their kitchen barstool. "Some people are flashier than others. They attract attention. And maybe it's partly karma. But everybody knows that when it comes to Black Swan knights, you're the baddest of them all."
He smiled, put his hands on her waist and drew her closer. "Also not above having my ego stroked."
She melted into his body and luxuriated in how right it always felt to cuddle with him. "Among other things."
"Yeah. Among other things." Storm repeated that absently then heaved a big sigh. "I'm not going to corner my mother."
"I think that's the right call."
"Okay." He got up quickly.
She'd known him just long enough to know what that meant. He'd weighed every factor with speed that would dizzy the most sophisticated computer and made up his mind.
"Let's find out."
"Find out what?"
"You know what."
"No." Litha looked a little horrified.
"Yes."
"I say no."
"I say yes. That means I win."