Charlotte was waiting for me at the top of the stairs when I emerged from the basement. She touched me with trembling fingers, face pale in the low light of the tiny bulb over the oven, eyes frantic. But she calmed the moment our skin made contact, her hand clenching around mine almost painfully before she settled, taking a step back.
"Here's the keys." She handed them to me, no longer trembling, as though it was no big deal.
I really loved her sometimes.
Together we rode the veil to the library. This time as I entered the slice between planes, I purposely felt for the difference. Yes, it was Charlotte and the power connection she had to me muting the pull of Demonicon. Completely one-sided, formed when she bonded herself to me out of some misplaced sense of honor, it anchored me to her and, thus, to my home plane. My demon didn't complain either, and I considered the possibility Charlotte's connection to me was more than just a bond. Something much more.