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“Geez, babe, are you alright?” Tess asked, appearing through the crowd. “That could not have felt good. I once got elbowed by a gargoyle. He broke my rib. And I’m part demon. Let me look at your back.”

“No, really,” I insisted. I whipped away from her when she went to yank up the back of my shirt.

“Perhaps I should walk Maggie home. She can ice her back and bake her cookies.”

“You guys are really making a much bigger deal out of it than it has to be.” Even if ice and comfort cookies did sound good. And some space from Silas because that dance had probably been a terrible idea.

“We can take her home. Where’s Margo?” Tess’s head was on a swivel.

“No, stay. You’ve been looking forward to this. Silas can walk me home.”

Tess’s gaze moved between the two of us. I could tell from her look that not only had she seen us walking to the club together, me crying over a song with him, the two of us dancing, and then him trying to defend me, but she thought that his offer to walk me home was another thing to add to the coffee talk we were sure to have the next day. Probably when she cornered me in the laundry room after I’d carefully avoided her all day.

“Okay. Take care of my girl.”

“Or you’ll bury me at the bottom of the River Styx?”

“I was going to go with good, old-fashioned hellfire. But, sure, that works too. I’ll check on you when I get in.” She gave my arm a squeeze before disappearing again.

Silas’s hand went out, but this time, he didn’t press it against my back. I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d realized how dangerous it was for us to touch as well, or if he knew I was lying about my back and didn’t want to hurt me. Either way, it was pretty intuitive.

It was harder to get out of the club than in. By the time we made it outside, I was overstimulated and overheated, so the steady trickle of rain felt like a blessing. I leaned my head back to feel it cool my heated cheeks. When my eyes opened again, I found Silas watching me.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “Shall we?” He waved toward the sidewalk. And just like that, we were walking. Only this time, in near silence all the way back to my apartment. Normally, I’d be overthinking it, getting my stomach in knots at the awkwardness of it. But my mind was shooting off in a dozen directions at once. There wasn’t room for another.

Then, by the time I was regretting not having an umbrella because I was wet through to my bra and started to shiver, we were outside my apartment.

“Thanks for walking me home again.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Take care of yourself.”

“You, uh, too.” Smooth. Real smooth. “I’ll see you at work.”

Alone, I preheated the oven, then made my way into the bathroom, where I stripped out of my soaking clothes and turned around to look at my back in the mirror.

It was looking pretty rough already. I imagined that by the morning, my whole back was going to be vivid shades of black and blue.

Luckily, I was a side sleeper.

And it was easy enough to keep your back hidden with clothes.

I threw on comfy pajamas, tossed cookies from the freezer into the oven, then sat down to fiddle with my document, deciding that my characters totally needed a slow dance scene too, and pouring all the sensations I’d felt with Silas onto the page.

Once my eyes were too tired to go on, I took myself to bed.

And dreamed of him.

CHAPTER TWELVE

[ “IF YOUR IMMORTAL enemy starts showing up where you are, it’s either a threat or a crush. Unfortunately, the symptoms are identical.”

— Hell & High Notes - Episode 77]

Silas

“I’m not saying you can’t wear it. I’m saying it’s tacky.” Rupert, the ghost, was lecturing some poor human in the waiting room who had the audacity to wear stripes and polka dots at the same time. “Oh, now here is a sharply dressed man! Silas, won’t you tell this young lady about timeless style?”