There were far too many people in this house. That became abundantly clear when I ran face first into Rourke’s chest when I was searching for some nibbles the next morning for breakfast. Apparently, he was doing the same thing, an old (very old) can of instant coffee in his beefy hand.

“Urf,” he mumbled, stepping back to stare down at me through half-lidded eyes. “Sorry, Erela. I didn’t see you coming around the corner.”

I blinked and shook the stars out of my eyes. “S’okay.” A brilliant idea lit up in my brain, and I bit back a smile. “Though, there is something you could do to make it up to me.”

Lilith would probably kill me. But it would be worth it if it meant I could, you know, prevent her death and all. Her literal, actual death. The one that would actually happen if she didn’t get some blood. She needed it to live, and she was in dire need of healing. As stubborn as she was, she couldn’t hold out for much longer.

“Oh yeah?” He dropped the can to the table and screwed off the lid. Leaning down, he drew in a long, slow sniff of the coffee and then let out the kind of sigh that I would have only expected after someone had a particularly pleasurable night in bed. Humans and their vices.

“Yeah, it’s about Lilith. The lovely lady you met yesterday?” I said with a hopeful smile.

He grunted, grabbed a ceramic mug from the overhead cupboard, and then spooned the dark coffee grains into it. “Hard to forget her.”

Hmm. After their little meeting, I hadn’t expected him to seem so gruff. Maybe my little plan wasn’t quite as brilliant as I’d hoped. And I couldn’t very well ask him to let Lilith drink from him if he wasn’t feeling her.

“You know what?” I took a step back and glanced over my shoulder. “Nevermind. I’ll leave you in peace to have your coffee.”

His head jerked up. “No, wait. What can I do to help Lilith?”

“Oh, well.” I placed a hand on the wall, fingered the wood panelling. “You know what Lilith is, right?”

He gave a grunt and a nod, turning back to his coffee beans. Grabbing a jug of water from the table, he tipped it right on top of the beans in his mug. Then, he stirred the concoction with his finger, lifted it to his lips, swore, and then drank the whole thing straight.

I made a face. We didn’t have coffee in Celestia, and I was starting to see why. It didn’t seem particularly appetizing.

When he was done, he slammed the mug on the table, screwing up his face into something resembling pure, unbridled pain.

“Uh, why the hell are you drinking that if it tastes like shit?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“The caffeine,” he said, shuddering once. “It’s glorious. Back before the apocalypse, humans mixed coffee beans with hot water. I’ve actually had it a couple of times before, when the stars aligned just right to provide me with fire and coffee at the same time. The instant stuff is crap, but it’s better than nothing. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Coffee is fantastic, though having it cold probably wasn’t my brightest idea.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” I said.

“So, Lilith,” he said, steering the conversation back onto my lovely demon friend. “Yeah, I know what she is. I told you that yesterday before I met her. She’s a nice demon lady.”

Nice demon lady, I noted.

“Do you know what kind of demon she is?”

He blinked at me. “There are different kinds?”

“Yeah, so there are the water demons we met…well, when we were on the water,” I said, and he gave a nod at that. “And then there are fire demons, ice demons, death demons…blood demons. Lilith is a blood demon.”

Rourke gave me a long stare before he replied. “I think I know where this is going.”

“As you could probably tell, Lilith isn’t exactly at full strength at the moment. The demon who opened the portal attacked her, giving her a terrible wound. She’s having trouble healing from that because she hasn’t had any blood. And she needs to be in tip top shape if she wants to help us track down that amulet.” I gave him a look. “In order to get back to full strength, she…”

“Let me guess,” he said dryly. “She needs to drink a human’s blood.”

“Not all of their blood.

“You have seriously come down here to ask me, first thing in the morning, if I will let a demon I just met drink my blood.”

I shrugged. “At least you’ve had your coffee. So, will you?”

“Dammit,” he muttered.

“She’s a nice demon,” I said, giving him a hopeful smile. “She won’t try to kill you or anything.”

He muttered something too low for me to hear.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“How much blood?” he said, but only a tad louder. “How much blood would she need to drink in order to heal?”

Ding, ding, ding! That was when I knew I had him. Of course, now I would have to convince Lilith to put aside her attraction, or embarrassment, or whatever it was, and actually drink from the guy.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Probably not a lot. I know Lilith would never drink so much that it would harm someone. You seem to be a good judge of character. I’m sure you can see the same thing.”

He let out a heavy sigh, tipped some more instant coffee beans into his mug, and splashed some cold water on top. “Alright. This is going to require another espresso.”

* * *

Despite the fact that they probably wanted some privacy, we all gathered in the living room to watch Lilith drink Rourke’s blood. And by all, I do mean all. His entire crew—all six of them—hovered in the living room with skeptical looks on their faces. The fallen angels didn’t look much different. Only Lizzie looked kind of excited about the whole thing.

“Erela,” Lilith said through clenched teeth. “Why is Rourke going on about blood sharing? I thought I made it clear that I would not be drinking any of this human’s blood.”

I gave her a sheepish smile. “I know, but I didn’t actually ask him or anything. He came to the conclusion all by himself. He wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t want to help.”

I was kind of bending the truth, but only a little. Rourke had figured out what I wanted to ask him before I’d had a chance to voice the words. And he did want to help. Maybe if Lilith thought this was something he really did want to do, then she’d be okay with it.

“Rourke, I’m sorry,” she said, twisting away from me. “My friend here means well, but she’s gotten the wrong end of the stick. I don’t want to drink from you.”

“Don’t you need some blood to heal? Won’t the angels have a better chance of succeeding if you go with them to get that amulet?”

“Yes, but—”

“But what?”

“Well.” Suddenly, Lilith looked very flustered, something I’d never seen from her before. “Truth is, Rourke, I just...well, I don’t just go around drinking from anyone. I guess I’m just picky about it. We’ve only just met.”

He nodded and clenched his jaw. “I see. You don’t want to drink from me. Maybe one of the other guys here will suit you.”

“Sure, I’ll do it,” one of his crew members said, raising his hand with a shy smile. “I mean, it could be kind of fun, right?”

Lilith sniffed and turned away. Rourke clenched his jaw.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” I said, throwing my hands into the air. “Everyone out. Rourke, go over to Lilith. Lilith, stop being shy and drink from this nice man. We have a damn amulet to find.”

* * *

Strangely, everyone listened to me, though I didn’t stick around to see what Lilith and Rourke would get up to when no one was around to watch them. I figured it was best if they didn’t have an audience, despite my curiosity. The blood sharing seemed kind of personal to Lilith and maybe even sexual? Like I said, they needed some one-on-one alone time.

While we all—minus the human crew members who sauntered back to their rooms—stood out in the hallway, waiting for the results, I felt Az’s eyes on me. I turned and met his gaze. His dark eyes were hot, burning me up from the inside out. I swallowed hard and shifted on my feet, my core tightening, despite the fact that I could also feel Sam watching the both of us.

“Have I done something to annoy you, Az? You won’t stop glaring at me.”

“This gaze is not a glare, darling,” he said in a long drawl before shooting me a wink.

My face flushed, and I cleared my throat. And then I risked a glance toward Sam. His body had tensed, and his jaw flickered from where he was grounding his teeth together. Good. Served him right. He’d made the decision to keep distance between us, which meant he had no right to care what anyone else said or did when it came to me.

But I didn’t want Sam to be jealous. I just wanted him to be mine.

Of course, I wanted Az to be mine, too. Desperately.

“Crazy, isn’t it?” Lizzie said brightly, though her voice held tension as if she sensed the charge in the room. “A demon has a thing for a human. And he’s got a thing for her right back. Gotta say, I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Good on them, I say.” I dragged my gaze away from Sam. “I think if someone has feelings for someone, then nothing should stop said someone with being with the other someone. Or someones.”

I was pretty sure my words were nonsensical to anyone but myself, but I still felt better for voicing them aloud. A strange expression crossed Lizzie’s face, and she opened her mouth to say something that would probably only make the situation that much worse. But then the door to the living room opened. Lilith stood just on the other side, her cheeks now flooded with color, her eyes full of light and life. She gave me a sheepish smile and then motioned for us all to come back into the room.

Rourke was lounging on the sofa, his boots and shirt both off, laying in a pile on the hardwood floor. His muscles glistened with sweat, and his eyes were lidded. He shifted his head and gazed at us with a lazy smile. “You’re welcome. Lilith is now back in working order.”

I raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at Lilith. “Looks like he isn’t though.”

She gave a dismissive wave of her hand, but her cheeks were dotted with pink. “He’s just, ah…a bit high from the experience. He’ll be back to his old self in about an hour.”

“Does this mean you’re ready to head to Berith’s castle?”

“Damn straight I am.”