Vincent's lasagna tasted divine, although the fact that he prepared it in the nude may have enhanced the flavor. I especially enjoyed holding the dishtowel over his family jewels while he browned the ground beef. Despite his uncharacteristically playful mood during dinner, when the dishes were washed and put away, he backed me into the cabinets, caught me up in his arms, and I watched his gray gaze cloud over. Mr. Pragmatic was back.

"I'd like to do some flight training tonight," he said. "Your wings provide a vital means of escape from predators. You need to learn how to use them."

Damn.

"I suppose the fact that it's pitch black outside has something to do with it?" I asked.

"It does."

"And the shore on the lake will act as a landing strip?"

"It will."

I kept Vincent focused on my eyes as I made my inquiries, using whatever resources I had to delay the inevitable bone-crushing pain that he claimed was intangible. Intangible, my fanny. A smirk had developed at one corner of Vincent's mouth as he indulged me, and while I knew I had a choice in the matter, I'd learned that Mr. Pragmatic usually got his way. He had a direct line to Mrs. Surrender.

"Do you expect me to put on the black bikini I found in my duffel bag?" I went on "It's Amelia's bikini, isn't it?"

"Yes to both."

"You know I'm going to bust right out of that."

Vincent lifted his brows, showing off those mercurial eyes as he leaned in to whisper at my temple. "Yes." When he pulled back, his jaw was set. "You are fighting the change, Reese. I understand it's painful for you, and that's why I want to help you. Gollums versus demons is your life now. The sooner you're able to protect yourself, the less strain it puts on the domus."

"Oh, right. The domus. The place I may or may not be calling home."

"Don't go there, Reese. You are my life now. I want you with me, and if you can't be with me, I want you safe. Everything else is just a necessary distraction."

I took that opportunity to hug him tight. Clearly, Vincent had made the commitment to pollute the gene pool. So, if the Valentinos tossed me out, they'd be tossing him out too. We were partners in this thing, and hopefully our story would play out like Beauty and the Beast rather than Romeo and Juliet.

"I love you too, Vincent. And, I'm ready to embrace this crazy life I've been sucked into. Baptism by fire and all that."

My enthusiasm dragged a smile from him, and he lifted me to kiss my mouth, a swift and fierce possession that left me reeling when he pulled away. "Humoring me is my favorite tack of yours, but I'm not above throwing you over my shoulder. In fact..."

I watched Vincent's eyes glint with mischief, and I slapped my hand against his chest to stop him before he did something rash. "I just ate two helpings of lasagna and a salad. Think twice before you start throwing things."

He nodded. "Fair point. Would you settle for a nap? You won't be keeping your dinner down if we start flight training now."

I did a subtle fist pump at my side as I grinned up at him. "Taking a nap with the man of my dreams? That sounds as good as cooking in the nude." I grabbed his hand and led him into the bedroom, ignoring the chafing between my legs.

~ ~ ~

Sex had always been my exercise of choice when metabolizing those pesky carbs, and I felt zero guilt for getting no sleep during my nap with Vincent. Once our food had been properly digested, he suggested we meditate before training. That's when I fell asleep, and an hour later, he was tossing the black bikini onto my fetal form to wake me up.

"You're beautiful when you sleep," he said as he slipped into a pair of loose-fitting athletic shorts. "And, when you're awake. And, when you're climaxing around me."

"Your dirty talk won't work. Six is my limit."

I climbed out of bed and proceeded to pull on the bikini. As expected, the bottom barely covered my butt crack, and the top offered a tiny triangle of coverage for each boob. Irrespective of my barely dressed state, Vincent and I trekked down to the lake, and given that the temperature had dropped to the low forties, a layer of chill bumps formed on my skin along the way.

"I hope you don't plan to keep me out here too long," I said as I snuggled up to him. "I'm not a polar bear, you know."

"Let's shoot for an hour. Then we'll go inside and warm up by the fire." Vincent scrubbed his hand over my shoulder, warming me so quickly it almost caused friction burns. "I'm going to watch you as you change, and I want you to relax into the experience. Believe me, the pain is worse when you fight it. Just picture yourself as a dandelion spore caught by a passing gust."

I grinned at Vincent as he offered his esoteric explanation for how to overcome excruciating pain. "Funny, but I can't picture you as a dandelion spore."

Vincent looked affronted. "My father taught me that visualization technique when I was five. To a youngster, everything is magic."

Vincent released me to take care of business, and I recited the transformation mantra out loud so he could correct me if I mispronounced something. But, dandelion spores were the last things on my mind when my muscles cramped and my bones popped. I also noticed a nasty pain behind my temples, which was new.

The lusty tingle between my thighs offered the only relief during the beastly process, and I panted into my chest as I fought the temptation to give into another orgasm. Finally, I felt the weight of wings on my back, and I straightened my shoulders as I adjusted to my new form.

"Was that any better than the last time?" Vincent asked.

"Not really. It still feels like my bones are breaking, and I've got a pretty decent headache right now."

Vincent took a moment to inspect me from head to toe, spending more time on my head. As he ran his fingers over my hairline, his eyes narrowed. What was he searching for? Dandruff?

"Okay, remember what I said about wings," he said, pacing in a circle around me. "They are just like limbs, and they have an extremely high tensile strength. More-so than bones. Once you learn the nuances of flight, your wings will behave like an appendage."

The lecture continued for another thirty minutes, with Vincent spending most of that time helping me get to know my wings. I hadn't realized how pliable they were and how easily I could control them once I figured out which muscles did what. By the end of the lesson, I could open and close them and wrap them around my body like a tobacco leaf around a cigar. The problem began when I tried to use the infernal things to fly.

"You have to open them fully before you fan them," Vincent explained as he manhandled my wings. "Less running, more fanning." He pointed at the spot where I had spent the last ten minutes running and tripping over my clawed feet. There was probably more sand in my lungs than on the shore.

I did Vincent's bidding, taking long, careful strides as I swept my wings back and yanked them forward. My feet lifted off the ground on the forward swipe, but as soon as I brought the wings back I lost altitude and landed on my face.

"Fuck!" I yelled as I picked dirt out of my teeth with a sharp talon. "Are you sure these things are strong enough to lift me. I'm not exactly built like a dandelion spore."

"Neither am I," Vincent said as he strode across the sand toward me. "Timing is everything. Let me show you."

With our bodies facing each other, Vincent gripped my upper arms tightly and unfurled his wings, forcing them forward vigorously and easily lifting us both off the ground. He kept us hovering above the shore, churning the air like an industrial grade fan, but I couldn't help thinking there was more to it than skill. His body behaved as if he had been born with the ability to fly.

"Are you paying attention to the action of my wings?" he said, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, and they look like they're being powered by magic. I'm not magic."

Vincent lowered us to the ground, and I shook the tingles out of my arms as he started his lecture series again, using the example of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine and how it facilitated propulsion. Blah, blah, blah. I was close to faking a migraine just to make him stop. It wouldn't have been much of a stretch. The throb above my eyes had plagued me for most of the lesson.

We finally retreated to the cabin and took up our positions next to the fireplace, Vincent with his smartphone and me with my laptop, but it wasn't my severely neglected website weighing heavy on my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about Cecile's letters. The ones I had tucked inside my duffel bag without reading. I'd already decided to do the deed with Vincent. While he hadn't been completely forthcoming with me about gollum and demon matters, I hoped that would change now that we were bracing a renegade lifestyle together.

"Is it okay to bring up stressful topics yet?" I smiled at Vincent across the coffee table and he lifted his face from his phone.

"What's on your mind, Reese?"

"Well, Cecile gave me a couple letters before I left the hive, and I wanted us to read them together."

"And you waited all this time to tell me?" The blue light of Vincent's phone illuminated his incredulous expression, and I feigned innocence with a shrug.

"You said not to bring up stressful topics, and being the obedient girlfriend that I am, I honored your wishes."

His eyebrows bunched as he exhaled through is nose, accepting my honest sarcasm with a nod. "You're right, but correspondence from the queen of a demon hive could be counted as a priority, especially given the circumstances."

"Okay, I'll bear that in mind the next time she sends me a birthday card. I'll go get them."

I left him staring after me and hurried down the hall, feeling the ache in my muscles from an hour of flight training and multiple orgasms. By the time I returned with the letters, my hands were sweating. I had a guess about the letter Austin gave me. It probably contained instructions on locating the amulet, but I had no clue about the letter Willem delivered, and I felt a little more wary about reading that one.

"Before we read these, I should probably fill you in on a few things," I said as I unfolded the letter Austin turned over to me. "Since we were keeping things light, I haven't told you about the meeting I had with Cecile and her second in command."

"You met Hadria?"

"Yes. She was much less pleasant to talk to than Cecile. Fortunately, Cecile did most of the talking."

Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose in apparent frustration as he waved at me to continue. "Okay. Get on with it."

Geez. Mr. Grouchy.

"Well, I learned that my grandmother is a gollum named Petula who mated with a demon named Willem. I met Willem. He seemed grandfatherly. They had a daughter – Gabrielle, who was my birth mother."

"Was?" Vincent stopped scowling to offer me an inquiring eyebrow lift.

"Yes. She is believed to be dead. Killed by a gollum."

"According to the demons."

I shrugged my indifference. This was no time to start an argument about his narrow-minded view of demons. "Anyway, my mom lived in the hive with her parents until Cecile asked her to break into a church and steal an amulet with supernatural powers. Apparently, this amulet will keep a demon queen alive for hundreds of years, and only my mother could get her hands on it because she was a hybrid. I guess my mom found the amulet, but she never delivered it to the hive. Cecile has a few ideas about where it is, and she has asked me to find the amulet and bring it to her."

Over the course of my speech, Vincent's posture morphed, shoulders rounded, more weight on the balls of his feet. A pouncing position.

"Of course, she has clues," he said nastily. "We knew Cecile was searching for something. The demons have been a lot more active. Now we know why. They were tasked by their queen. It's a classic bid for power, or survival, if you want to split hairs."

As I listened to Vincent speak, I watched his body stiffen further, showing every sign of senses overload. If I had to guess, he expected this to happen. If not, he was being broadsided by a bulldozer. I needed to tiptoe around this hotbed topic.

"Cecile is reaching the end of her lifespan, and she's not ready to let go yet," I offered carefully. "But, the impression I got is Hadria wants to take charge without her mother's interference."

"Hadria definitely has an agenda. Some of the demons let their mouths run during battle, and the rumor is, Hadria and her mother are at odds and rarely communicate."

"Not a healthy way to maintain a relationship. I know how that feels."

Vincent's silver gaze flicked to me like a stealth fighter pilot. "I did that to protect you."

"And I acknowledge your need to do that, but you asked me to keep you in the loop, so you need to reciprocate. We're partners now. Baptism by fire, remember?"

Vincent caved to my logic with an easy smirk, or at least a less restrained one. "I'll baptize you later. If there's nothing else you need to share about your visit with Cecile, let's read the letters and see what the old crone has to say."

I wasn't going to explain that Cecile looked nothing like a crone. "Fine. But just for the record, you are the most relentless man I have ever met, and I use that term loosely."

"Which term would that be? Relentless or man?" Vincent maintained a deadpan expression as he delivered his joke, and I couldn't tell if he wanted me to laugh, or if he wanted to jump my bones. The energy in the room had definitely shifted after he suggested baptizing me. Now, all I could think about was getting naked with him in the lake.

"Gee, am I required to answer that in the spirit of reciprocity? I feel like there's no right answer."

The twinkle in Vincent's gaze told me he had noticed the shift too, and he stood from his seat to walk around the coffee table. "Since you seem so determined to veer off topic, let me ask you this. When you say relentless, do you mean the pragmatic version or the hardheaded one? That might make a difference."

Anticipating Vincent's next move, I backed into the armrest to make room as he knelt on the couch and straddled my body with his arms. "I doubt anything will make a difference to you right now," I offered.

"You're right," he said, fixing me with a wicked stare. "If it's a baptism by fire you want, I'm going to make it as hot as you can stand it."