I thought about it, doing the mental family math. “Actually, she’s right. If Lucifer is God’s creation, that technically makes him God’s child. So, calling God Grandpa wouldn’t be wrong.”
“If that fat bastard is bothering you, I can put in a word for you,” Vi offered.
I threw up my hands, palms out, to stop her. “Oh, no. That’s not necessary. It’s…another pantheon.”
Vi whistled and wished me good luck. “If you need help, you have my number. I love telling gods to eat shit.”
She took off with her flaming cat. The spray of crushed concrete slapped my pantlegs. A moment later, Maddox and I were alone. We stood close enough that our knuckles brushed when our hands hung at our sides.
Nervous, I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Can we swing by your place and pick up an overnight bag?” Maddox asked. “I want to make you dinner tonight.”
“You can cook?” I didn’t mean for it to come out like an insult, but there was no taking it back once the words were spoken.
Maddox laughed, much to my relief. “I promise the state of my kitchen has more to do with my headspace than my capabilities. I’m a great chef.”
A grin spread over my face despite all my worries. “You’re going to have to prove that to me.”
Maddox
After dinner,Addie and I sat outside on the back porch. We watched the sun meet the horizon and light the sky with blazing colors. My beast rested, quiet for once. It made me look at Addie. What was it about this woman that made my wolf so content?
Whenever my stress became too much, whenever the urges called my name, Addie was able to quell them with nothing more than a soft smile. Just the quirk of her lips and the sigh of her breath between them loosened the knots in my shoulders.
I hated it.
I didn’t want anyone to have this much effect over me. I knew what it meant in the long run, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go through that again. Losing one person was bad enough. The fact that I’d failed her made it even worse. There hadn’t even been time to apologize to Paige before fate ripped her away from me.
More than once, Addie mentioned that shifters had fated mates assigned to them. I wondered if Paige had been mine. What if I’d already met the woman of my dreams and lost her, not just to death, but to another man?
I refused to believe that I could be a good person to anyone. My job swallowed me whole. When I wasn’t there, physically, my mind was still on the clock. Images of blood and death swam inside my skull at all times. That hardly made for a good partner.
Yet, Addie seemed happy tonight. Perhaps this was a front. Addie put on a brave face and tried to keep the mood up so that my beast had little to stress over. If that was the case, then I appreciated it. That was far easier to believe than the alternative.
“I’m still surprised you know how to cook at all,” Addie said over her mug of cocoa. There was a grin on her face, still.
Every time I saw that smile, my thoughts scrambled. It took several heartbeats for my mind to catch up to the moment again.
“Every man knows how to grill,” I said.
She snorted. “My dad used to burn everything on the grill. He wasn’t convinced that things were safe to eat unless they were one step away from charcoal. The man didn’t know how to season his food, either. And my step-mom hated salt with her entire soul.”
My breath paused as I waited for Addie to go on. I savored this peek into her life. We knew so little about one another. We were detective and medium, and that was it. This, however, made us something more than just acquaintances. It was a conversation that brought us closer than sex ever would.
But Addie wrinkled her nose. When I heard her swallow, I knew she was shoving her memories back down. Whatever had come up hadn’t been all that great. Whatever time we had together, I wanted to make it good.
But when I opened my mouth, I couldn’t find anything to say that didn’t involve the current case we were working on. I didn’t know how not to work. It’s what made me such a horrible partner in the first place.
So, silence settled between us. The sound of the world gently falling asleep filled the uncomfortable space. I listened to the bugs coming awake. From here, I could even hear the distant croak of frogs near the lake in town. If I could hear them, could Addie feel the bodies of their lost brethren beneath them?
“How far can your arcana stretch?” I asked, not thinking about how this might turn the conversation towards another uncomfortable subject.
However, Addie seemed to perk up. She straightened her spine. A moment later, I felt her arcana blossom out of her like a cool winter breeze. Death brushed against me and filled me in ways that food never would. I drank it deep like an alcoholic offered a sip for the first time in years. I knew that this would bite me in the ass later, but that didn’t matter right now.
Right now, I wanted all I could get. I wanted to sink into her and live there forever, blissfully unaware of anything else in this world.
“If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I haven’t really tested my limits.” Addie wiggled her hips as she continued to pull herself upright.