Page 11 of Demon's Heart
“Paintings, I think.” Harper typed out a message. “Ash’s friend runs a gallery.”
“Which gallery?” Dex had gone to school for art and sold pottery alongside his job at Seaside Coffee.
“Gallery Four?” Harper said it like a question, frowning slightly at the phone. “I’ve never been there.”
Dex’s eyes widened. “Wait, your boyfriend’s friend runsGallery Four?”
Harper nodded.
“You know it?” Ollie had never heard of it.
“Yeah, I’ve told you about it. It’s, like, the most prestigious gallery in the city.”
“Oh, that one. Sorry, I forgot the name.” Ollie turned to Harper. “I guess we’ll be there for sure.”
“Nice.” Harper beamed, typing away on his phone.
This could be a great opportunity for Dex, but Ollie’s stomach swooped. “Will, uh, Dante be there?”
Harper’s eyes snapped up. “Yeah. That okay?”
“Sure.” Ollie forced his face to stay neutral as the swooping turned into full-on butterflies.
Feeling this drawn to someone was nothing but a recipe for disaster. Ollie had to put a stop to whatever Dante was doing to him before it started clouding his judgment.
5
DANTE
Dante tookoff from the deck and made his rounds of the shearwater nests. For a species that avoided land most of the year, his birds had taken to Shearwater Landing well.
Some of the birds sat on their perches that afternoon while most were out flying or fishing. Dante ensured they were well-fed in the winter and spring when they’d normally migrate away from this area, but they were generally fine on their own during the summer and autumn.
Onyx once asked why Dante hadn’t enchanted a bird species that didn’t migrate if all he wanted were watchful eyes around the city. But that wasn’t all Dante wanted.
When he, Ash, and Onyx first escaped the Realm of the Damned, Dante couldn’t sit still. Ash and Onyx settled into human society, learning what had changed since they’d been gone, but Dante was overwhelmed by the world after nearly a thousand years away. The open air had called to him. He’d needed to fly.
He’d followed a flock of shearwaters across the Pacific without another soul around, except his birds. Dante loved the shearwaters, and they’d seemed to accept him intotheir flock. Maybe they liked that his wings matched their sooty coloring, or maybe it was Dante’s magic.
Even if he’d wanted to, Dante couldn’t stay away from people entirely. The need for blood had forced him to interact with humans from time to time. He’d slowly adjusted until he found himself spending more time with people than out at sea.
But he’d missed his birds. They lived relatively long lives and Dante was always pleased to recognize individuals after a long time apart. He’d started keeping track of them with his magic, and when he’d settled on the new city being built on the West Coast of North America—where his soul insisted he’d find his mate—he’d asked some of the birds to stay.
The birds he had now were several generations removed from the original flock. He’d increased his magical connection to them over the past century until they had the almost hive mind they did now.
Dante couldn’t imagine ever leaving his shearwaters. When Ash had suggested they hide after Lucifer followed them to the Human Realm, and complained that Dante’s connection to the birds was giving him away, Dante realized what a poor job he’d done of explaining what the birds meant to him.
He would always have his chosen brothers, but Ash and Onyx couldn’t be all Dante had. He needed connections, tethers to ground him, and while the birds didn’t live as long as humans, the constant nature of his flock gave him a sense of stability human friends couldn’t.
Dante might have befriended a few vampires for long-term companionship, but he could never forgive the originals—witches who slayed the demon Andras and stole the immortal magic from his blood to create their own never-ending lives—it was natural to hold a grudge against the lot of them.
The Eternal Realm had never retaliated against those demon slayers, even though killing an Eternal being was consideredthe most heinous crime. Some believed the Eternals and ruling council had completely forsaken the Fallen, not caring if they lived or died. Others thought it was the council allowing mortals payback since demons and magic were never supposed to exist on Earth and mortals weren’t subject to the council’s judgment.
Either way, Andras’s death was never far from Dante’s mind when it came to vampires, even if the species wasn’t responsible for their forebearers’ sins.
His birds were infinitely better.
Dante reached the final group of nests on the north side of the cliff, outside the nature reserve. He’d set up the reserve to give his flock a sanctuary unmarred by human development, other than his house. The large area was completely protected by magic, but he didn’t force the birds to nest there if they preferred to be farther from the city.
