Page 23 of Devil in the Details

They murmured their thanks to their server, and once they’d both helped themselves to some bread and eaten a few bites of their pasta carbonara, Caleb added, “I didn’t see or feel anything else out of the ordinary, though, so with Ty sidelined, maybe this will turn out to be nothing.”

“‘Ty’?” Delia repeated. “That’s the guy’s name?”

“Yeah, Ty Carter.” Caleb bit off some garlic bread, chewed, and then said in musing tones, “Maybe what I saw wasn’t demonic at all. Maybe it was some other kind of magic.”

She lifted an eyebrow. Since she’d already been forced to acknowledge that demons were real, it would be a little disingenuous to claim that magic wasn’t real. “How many kinds are there?”

“I’m not sure.” He swallowed the rest of his wine and looked regretful that he hadn’t asked the waitress to bring him another glass. However, she must have had eagle eyes, because almost immediately she returned to their table and inquired if he would like a second round.

He said he would, and their server looked over at Delia. However, since she’d been nursing her glass and had no intention of having another one, not when she had to go into the office early tomorrow morning to accommodate a client of her mother’s who couldn’t go see a house at any other time, she only said, “I’m fine. Thank you.”

Once the waitress had departed, Caleb went on, “I knew a woman in California whose family could use magic. Mostly psychic kind of stuff, but they all were capable of much more, thanks to how their father was an angel.”

By that point, Delia honestly didn’t think she could be surprised by much of anything, but she felt her eyes widening all the same. “An angel?”

Caleb grinned, looking much more like his old self. “Does that shock you? I mean, why not? Is the concept that different from demons interbreeding with humans?”

At its core, maybe not. But demons seemed like pretty down-and-dirty creatures, and she could much more easily imagine them getting it on with human women than she could see an angel doing the same thing.

She gave a helpless lift of her shoulders, and he smiled again.

“It’s probably less common,” he said. “But it’s not impossible. So I suppose I could see that if someone had angelic blood that had been passed down, they might have their own particular brand of magic in their bag of tricks. If nothing else, it would explain why Ty was using magic even though I couldn’t sense anything demonic about him.”

Even if that were true, it sort of begged the question as to why someone who was descended from angels would be playing in an off-brand poker tournament in one of Las Vegas’s third-tier casinos.

That was a question she would leave for another day, though. Right now, she supposed the most important thing was that whatever kind of mischief the other player had been up to, it still hadn’t been sufficient to keep Caleb from triumphing…or from moving on to the next round.

Thinking it was time to change the subject, she told him about the open house and how at least two of the brokers who’d attended had clients who would probably want to look at the house tomorrow. He seemed pleased by that, and if he’d noticed how she’d pivoted from their discussion of part angels and part demons, he clearly didn’t want to mention it.

He paid the check, which she’d guessed he would do. In the beginning, she would have tried to argue with him and say that she should at least pick up part of the tab, but now she knew to just roll with it. While she did perfectly fine for herself, she wasn’t swimming in money like he was, and if he wanted to be all magnanimous, she might as well let him.

They went outside, and he pulled a fob out of his pocket. Immediately, a flashy Porsche cabriolet in an unusual shade of pale metallic green flashed its lights, and she sent him an amused glance.

“New toy?”

“Yep,” he said. “Just picked her up yesterday. I thought maybe the demons knew what I drove, so it just made sense to get a set of alternate wheels.”

True, the Porsche was almost the polar opposite of his Range Rover…except for the price tag, she supposed.

“I’m not sure that’s the most inconspicuous car in the world,” she observed, and he only chuckled.

“I know. But I’ve already discovered that when I’m driving it, everyone’s looking at the car and not me.”

Delia hadn’t considered the situation from that angle. Deep down, she might have admitted to herself that if she saw Caleb driving down the street in that Porsche, she still would have paid more attention to him than the vehicle, but no way in the world would she ever say something like that to his face.

His ego didn’t need the boost.

No, she only said, “I suppose I can see that.”

Voice a little too casual, he asked, “So…do you have a lot of appointments tomorrow? It might be fun to have you come watch the tournament if you’re not too busy.”

“I’m pretty much booked all day,” she replied. Disappointment flickered across his face, and she hastened to add, “But Saturday’s looking pretty clear right now. What time are you playing?”

“The final round of eliminations starts at three,” he said. A corner of his mouth lifted. “So does this mean you think I’m going to make it through tomorrow’s round?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I’ll take that vote of confidence with me — and I’ll text you to let you know how it all went.”

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