Page 17 of Summoning Mr. Wrong
“Maybe.” He resumed walking. “Or maybe it was just dumb luck. The universe has a strange sense of humor.”
We continued in comfortable silence for a while, eventually stopping at a small pond where ducks were paddling lazily through the water. I sat on a bench, and Deus joined me, his thigh warm against mine.
“Feel any better?” he asked.
Surprisingly, I did. “Yeah, actually. This was a good idea.”
“I have those occasionally.” His shoulder bumped mine playfully. “Even demons can learn from watching humans for millennia.”
“What’s the most interesting time period you’ve lived through?” I asked, genuinely curious.
Deus leaned back, considering. “The Renaissance was fascinating. So much creation, so many new ideas. The 1920s were fun—all that repression finally breaking loose. And the 1970s…” He grinned. “Let’s just say there’s a reason my tattoos from that era are particularly colorful.”
“Do you miss it? Any of those times?”
“Sometimes. But the thing about living through history is that you know how the story ends. It’s more interesting to be in the unwritten chapters.” He glanced at me. “Like now.”
There was something in his voice, a weight to his words that made me look up. His expression was unusually serious, those amber eyes focused on me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
“What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious.
“Nothing.” He looked away, back to the pond. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
“How strange it is to be here. With you.” He gestured vaguely around us. “Walking in a park, watching ducks, talking about history. It’s very… human.”
“Is that bad?”
“No.” He sounded surprised by his own answer. “Just unexpected.”
A comfortable silence fell between us again. I watched the ducks, thinking about what he’d said. It was strange for me too—sitting in a park with a demon, discussing history like we were on some bizarre first date.
Except we’d already slept together, he was living in my apartment, and technically he was bound to me by some mystical contract neither of us fully understood. Definitely not a normal dating trajectory.
“What are you thinking about?” Deus asked, interrupting my thoughts. “Your heartbeat just changed rhythm.”
“You really need to stop doing that,” I said, but without heat. “I was just thinking about how weird this situation is.”
“Weird bad or weird good?”
I considered the question seriously. A month ago, my life had been predictable, stable, and utterly unremarkable. Now I had a supernatural roommate, no job, and more sexual satisfaction in one night than I’d had in the past year combined.
“Weird good, I think,” I decided. “Though ask me again when rent is due.”
Deus laughed, the sound drawing glances from people nearby. His laugh was like that—too rich, too perfect to be entirely human. “Don’t worry about rent. I told you I’ve got it covered.”
“I still feel weird about that.”
“Human pride,” he said dismissively. “Such a strange concept. Where I come from, accepting help is just practical.”
“Where exactly is that?” I asked. “You said it’s not Hell.”
“Nowhere you could pronounce or comprehend,” he said, then seeing my expression, added, “But the closest translation would be ‘The Between.’ It’s… a realm that exists in the spaces between other realms.”
“Like parallel dimensions?”
“Something like that.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Less fire and brimstone than human mythology suggests. More like an infinite city built from materials that don’t exist in your world.”
