Page 4 of Claiming Demons
As I was about to leave, someone knocked on the front door, and when I opened it, I gaped, blinking in surprise.
“Hey, Mom,” Caia — my eldest daughter — said casually. “I’m home!”
ANAIS
“Caia!”I said… which was pretty inane.
I blinked as I tried to work through what this meant. It was November, and she should be in school… at Harvard.
Oh… no!
“You weren’t expelled, were you?” Caia had always been studious and driven. I couldn’t imagine she’d done anything worthy of expulsion, but—
“What? No!” She laughed. “This was my last term and I’m pretty much done except for a few papers I can send in by email. I’ll have to go back for exams, but I thought I’d come home for a bit.” She looked around at the construction workers filling the house. Then she spied the three heavy suitcases some of those men were holding for me. “Is… everything okay here?”
“Ah… no, we’re remodeling. But that’s okay, we’re staying downtown in a penthouse now.”
Caia raised her brows. “Swanky. I always knew Great-uncle Donny was loaded, but… wow.”
“Actually…” I gave her my winningest grin because I knew how this was going to sound. “It’s my boyfriend’s place.”
Caia’s face fell. “Oh.”
“It’s not like that, not anymore,” I said. “I’ve found a really good one.”
Three of them actually, but that could wait for now.
“Why don’t you come and meet him? That’s his car there, waiting for me.” I pointed at the Bentley Mulsanne Grand Limousine waiting at the side of the street. I could see her hesitation. “Come with me and let me explain. There’s a lot to explain, but Uncle Donny, Reia, and even Eva are all staying there right now. So it can’t be that bad, right?”
“Eva’s back?”
I nodded.
“Oh.”
Yeah, that wasn’t a selling point for Caia. She and Eva had never seen eye to eye.
“She’s mellowed a lot.”Since she found out she was a daemon of war.
That was another discussion Caia and I needed to have.
This was going to be a long morning.
Caia shrugged. “Sure, let’s go.”
Grey’s chauffeur loaded Caia’s things and my three heavy suitcases into the massive trunk, and Caia and I settled into the back of the car. I took one of the back-facing seats so we could have this conversation eye-to eye. The privacy window — between the front and back of the car — was already up, so I felt comfortable speaking openly with my daughter.
Once the driver had pulled out and we were on our way, I jumped into the first of two difficult discussions, starting with the more mundane one.
“So… I’m not just seeing one guy right now. I’m seeing three,” I said. “It’s a polyamorous thing. They’re all okay with it and they all love me and it’s… wonderful!”
Caia blinked her large green eyes at me. She combed a hand through her straight, silver hair — like mine, but hers was cut short in a chin-length bob — and blew out a breath.
“Oh?” she finally replied.
“Yup.”
“And we’re going to stay with one of these guys, or do all three of them live there?”