Page 42 of Demon's Desire
He smiled. “Your heart rate slows when you fall asleep.”
“Wait… You could hear my heartbeat?” I blinked.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “When it’s quiet. I can’t hear it right now because we’re speaking and Kelly is moving around. But at night, when everything is quiet, I can hear your heartbeat.”
“Wow…” That was kind of impressive. “Well, thank you for… being concerned. But I’ll be okay.”
I walked past him and headed toward the kitchen to follow Kelly. Of course, Suldeargan followed me as well. She was in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee. I grabbed my coffee cup and did the same.
“How does he know how to make coffee?” Kelly asked as she poured creamer into hers.
“Um… I mean, you could ask him–”
“No, thanks,” she said curtly.
“All right.” I almost laughed at that, but it felt like it would be rude. “I’m pretty sure he’s been watching us for the past week or something.”
“Correct,” he offered from behind us.
Kelly sighed and looked at me. “So what do you want to do?”
I started pouring sugar into my coffee and looked at her. “Do about what? About him? I have no idea.”
“Should we tell Torie and Mica?” she asked.
“No.” I quickly shook my head. “No. They just got their apartment back. I don’t want to freak them out or anything. They deserve to just relax and feel normal for a while.”
“Right.” Kelly looked over at Suldeargan and gave him a look. “Speaking of the fire?”
“Hm?” He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
“Since you’re here, and since we can speak to you, and since you aren’t going to kill us,” she began, “I wanna know why the fuck you set our friends’ house on fire. There were people there. There were children upstairs. You could have killed people. Are you aware of that? Do you even care?”
He raised an eyebrow as she spoke, then shrugged. “I don’t have an answer for you.”
“You mean you don’t care?” she glared.
“I mean I had nothing to do with the fire,” he answered. “When it started, I was kissing Mia. I was in someone else’s body, but her eyes were on me. I don’t have the power to move things with my mind or set things on fire. She’d have seen me if I tried something. It wasn’t me.”
“It wasn’t?” I frowned slightly, though it was less at him and more at the situation. “So… it really just was an electrical fire?”
Suldeargan hesitated to answer.
“If you didn’t do it, that means it was an electrical fire,” Kelly elaborated. “Do you know what electricity is?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve been in Chicago for over a year. I spend my days watching people, watching the world. Yes, I know what electricity is. I suppose you’re right. An electrical problem is the most likely answer.”
Something about the way he answered that put me on edge. He sounded like we were making some grand assumption about what happened instead of coming to the most logical conclusion. I wanted to ask him some questions about it, but I didn’t want to upset Kelly any more, so I dropped it.
“Why don’t you go get ready for work?” I asked Kelly. “I just followed you in here to bug you.”
“You’ve succeeded.” She reached up and ruffled my hair, then walked past me toward the bathroom. “I’m gonna shower.”
I nodded as she left and checked the microwave clock. “It’s not even seven AM yet,” I groaned.
“Little one, you should go back to sleep,” he urged.
I rubbed my eyes. “You’re probably right. But I’m gonna go sit on the couch and drink my coffee instead.”