She stared down at the silly little cow beneath the title and blinked rapidly to keep the tears from collecting in her eyes. Why, oh why, were there tears in her eyes? Maybe she was about to become a ‘menstruating female’ herself.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“I’m glad we met this evening.”
Her gaze shot back up to his. He nodded once and then turned to go.
He made it halfway down the street before she called out, “Wait!”
He turned back, brows lifting in question.
“Maybe… I would like you to walk me home after all.”
2
A Mist Opportuniy
The female smelled intoxicating.
As the Hunter, Mist relied heavily upon his sense of smell—both a blessing and a curse. A curse because foul smells were that much fouler to him, and for a creature from Hell, there were those in abundance. But it was a blessing too because when he smelled something delicious…
His eyes briefly shut with his next inhalation. There were no words to describe the pleasure.
She smelled sweet and fresh, like a field of flowers, but there was a dark undercurrent to her scent that stirred something primal inside of him. It was sharp and spicy, and so subtle he had to keep inhaling deeply just to get the faintest whiff of it.
He would have preferred to pin the small woman against the wall so she could not escape and bury his nose against her neck to breathe that aroma freely. Perhaps he would sink his teeth into that soft flesh to taste her, further increasing the sensory experience, and hold her still beneath him as a hunter preferred his prey to be.
He curbed the instinct, however. Eva’s ‘How to Human’ lessons were fresh in his mind, but even without them, he knew that his urges would be considered inappropriate to the average human.
Instead, he attempted to seek a conversational topic to fill the silence growing between them as they walked. He knew humans liked to talk about the weather, but Eva told him to avoid bringing that up because it was ‘lame.’ He also knew humans liked to complain about their jobs or their physical health, but Eva had told him not to do that either because it was ‘even lamer.’ While he scrambled to remember something hecouldtalk about, his companion saved him by speaking up first.
“So, do you live around here?”
He looked down at her. She was short, even for a human, and spoke with a subtle accent that suggested origins outside of North America. Her blond hair was piled in a messy bun atop her head, her eyes a pale green, and her features were delicate, with soft lips framed by round cheeks.
Most enticing of all, however, was her bountiful figure. The sight of her was like gazing upon a decadent feast. If ice cream would actually make her hips wider, he thought she should be making a determined effort to consume as much as possible.
“Yes,” he said before he made her uncomfortable by his prolonged silence. “My current dwelling is one block from the store in the opposite direction.”
“Oh.” She looked ahead. “Have you lived there long?”
“One and a half months.”
He sensed her wanting to ask where he’d lived before that, but in the end, she remained silent. He was glad. He wasn’t sure how to answer that question.
He wanted to askherquestions—he wanted to know everything about her—but he didn’t know if they were normal topics or strange ones that Eva would deem inappropriate. Since his goal was to be as human as possible, he figured he was better off remaining silent.
She stopped a short time later at the base of a spiral staircase leading up to the second-floor apartment entrances, typical of the buildings in this city.
“Well, this is me.” She smiled and glanced away.
He watched her, analyzing her behavior. His innate demonic instincts immediately discerned her weaknesses and which of them would be easiest to exploit. He sensed loneliness and discomfort in her own skin.
But he wasn’t trying to manipulate her as a demon. He had offered to walk her home because he wanted to experience her scent for as long as he possibly could, and because he wished to interact with humans as Asmodeus and his brothers did.
Eva had told him humans enjoyed compliments. It stood to reason, then, that she would appreciate a compliment about that which she was insecure.
“You should eat all the ice cream tonight,” he said, pleased with the surprised laugh that burst out of her.
