Aamon made no attempt at casual conversation as Jade led him through the last stretch of quiet streets. The silence should have been a relief, but it only amplified the wrongness of the night and the wrongness of him. Every step toward her apartment felt like she was walking deeper into a decision she didn't fully understand.
She climbed the short flight of stairs to the second floor, regret sinking in deeper as she pulls her keys free, clenching them too tightly in her fist. She had imagined home would feel safe. Instead, the closer she got, the more her skin prickled with the awareness that she was about to lock a stranger inside with her.
Aamon on the other hand, had his own concerns as they made their way to her apartment. For he had not been out for a walk for mere pleasure, rather he'd been out searching for someone. He'd only happened upon Jade by accident and took the opportunity to beat the tar out of the thugs; not so much to help her, but more to take his frustration out. He searched his thoughts as he walked, trying to figure out where the person he was searching for could have gone. It wasn't until he had heard the jingle of Jades' keys did his attention come back to the present moment, and he found he was standing outside an ugly little apartment.
She unlocked the door and Aamon stepped past her without asking, like he belonged there. Jade swallowed her discomfort and followed him in, locking the deadbolt behind her. She was not looking forward to sharing an awkward meal with a silent stranger.
The apartment was so small that "living room," "dining area," and "kitchen" were basically the same room. A tiny two-seat sofa sat across from a small flat screen mounted on the wall. A folding table hugged the side of the couch like it was embarrassed to be called furniture. The kitchen was a straight walk from the front door: two narrow counters, a half-sized fridge, a microwave, and a battered old oven that looked like it had survived a minor war.
Aamon's gaze moved slowly over everything, head tilted in faint curiosity. Jade had mentioned a lab. If that was true, then her pay was an insult if this was the best she could afford. Jade set her purse and coat on the thin side table by the door and tried to focus on the one thing she could control. Dinner. Feed him. End the night.
She'd cooked hamburger meat the day before, so spaghetti was the fastest option. No performance. No impressing. Just food, then sleep.
She glanced at the clock above the fridge and felt her stomach drop.
2:30 a.m.
"Fantastic," she muttered under her breath. "I'm going to be a zombie." There was no way she was going to get enough sleep before work now.
While the water heated and the noodles boiled, a clever excuse made its way into Jade's mind. She pulled her phone from her bag and typed a message to her boss requesting the next day off. She wrote that she'd been attacked on her way home and had spent most of the night dealing with police and paperwork.
Jade smiled. She could claim to have been making a report at an earlier time, in case the lab incident came back to her somehow. She had the perfect cover.
Aamon watches her curiously. She didn't seem flustered over the muggers anymore which he found strange. Wouldn't most women be curled up and crying in a corner after that event?
She turned off the stove, drained the pasta, and stepped into her bedroom to file a report. Aamon closed his eyes, listening. Jade's voice floated out, steadier than he expected, as she explained the attack to the police: four men, knocked unconscious, no clear memory of what happened, and only later realizing she needed to report it.
She didn't mention him. That part intrigued him more than it should have. Not that he was complaining; he had no interest in speaking to the police on the matter. Aamon moved away from the door, feeling he had heard enough but it left him with more questions than answers. What kind of women was Jade? She was abnormally calm about all of this.
When she returned, she offered him a soft, tired smile and set two plates on the folding table. Spaghetti. Simple. Warm. Normal. As if "normal" hadn't already died tonight.
Jade sets a cold beer next to her plate and holds one out to Aamon. "Would you like one?" She questions him, not a hint of uncertainty in her words. He eyes the beer can in her hands, then his eyes meet hers and a thin smile crosses his face. "Seems a little reckless."
Jade blinked. "How so?"
"You invited a stranger into your home," he said, tone almost conversational. "And now you plan to drink. Doesn't that sound like a foolish idea?" Aamon smirks, tapping his finger on the table slowly. "After all, the warning is right there on the can, isn't it? Loss of judgment, or something to that effect."
Jade studied the beer like it had betrayed her. Then she lifted her chin, meeting his eyes as confident resolve settles in her.
"After what just happened, I kind of need this," she said. "I don't make a habit of inviting random people, or anyone for that matter, into my apartment. Besides…" Jade half rolls her eyes. "What kind of creep points that out if they intend to use it to their advantage?" She tells him pointedly, holding the can out to him again.
Aamon laughed, louder than she expected, and Jade's confidence wobbled. "At least you're a clever one," he said, taking the can. "Alright. Pass it over." Although Jade was none the wiser, he did agree that the beer sounded nice. He had his own problems and issues to sort out; perhaps a quiet meal with a strange woman and a few drinks was exactly what he needed. He pushes the food around his plate for a moment before taking a bite. If he had a clue, an idea as to where to start he would at least feel better. He looks up seeing Jade chugging her beer before she'd even touched her food.
"Must have been quite a shock for you," he said when Jade had finished the first beer. Jade shrugged, unsure what the word shock even meant anymore. She opened another beer and took a long pull before touching her food.
Aamon tilted his head. "Did those men shake you up that badly?" If for nothing else than to forget his own frustrating circumstance, Aamon decides to question Jade.
"It's more like that was the icing on the cake." Jade says, her voice cold and annoyed.
"Oh?" His voice stayed calm, but his attention sharpened. "So your whole day was bad?"
Jade let out a breath that almost became a laugh. "More like my whole life, but trust me… that isn't a story you want me to bore you with."
Aamon's eyes flickered, like embers stirred by wind. "Indeed, there wouldn't be time now for your whole life story," he said. "So lets talk about just today."
Jade hesitated. Telling anyone anything personal felt like stepping onto ice. But this man was a stranger. Someone she'd likely never see again. Maybe saying it out loud would drain some of the poison from it. She would keep it vague. Careful. No details that could get her killed. He likely wouldn't even believe what she had to say anyway.
Jade swirled the beer in the can, taking another sip. "I'm a scientist at the lab on the edge of the city," she said finally. "I handle artifacts the research teams bring in. Sometimes they're… strange. When that happens, I investigate and catalog them."
Aamon nodded once, giving her more attention than she cared for.
"And I think I may have misplaced something," Jade continued, voice flattening. "Something important. If anyone finds out it was me…" She didn't finish.
"So you're more worried about losing your job than being attacked?" Aamon asked slowly after the silence hung longer than he liked.
Jade considered the question like it was a math problem. "Not exactly," she said quietly. "The things I handle… aren't things I can talk about freely. It isn't just my job on the line."
He understood that perfectly. "It's your life." He added. Jade shrank slightly and nodded.
Aamon leaned back, thoughtful. "So you're good at keeping secrets?" He questioned, ignoring the uncomfortable topic.
"Yes." Jade said, with a hint of confusion in her voice. She locked eyes with him again, and for a long moment, they were both quiet.
"No matter what they are? No matter who they belong to?" Aamon raised a brow, watching her reaction.
Jade nodded, then added, almost defensively, "I have no problem keeping to myself, it's one of the reasons I can work where I work. I do admit, there are times I wish I could tell someone some of the things I run into but, even those I work with find me difficult to talk to so I just keep to myself. It's easier that way."
"So, what did you misplace?" Aamon questions her directly, he didn't expect her to give him a straight answer but he was certainly curious.
Jade's throat tightened. She forced a shrug and stood abruptly, avoiding the question the way she avoided everything that felt too sharp.
"Do you want another beer?" she asked. "I think I'd like another."
He let her change the subject. For now.
Over the next forty minutes, the edge drained out of the room and pooled somewhere in Jade's blood instead. She talked more than she meant to. Aamon spoke just enough to keep her going, waiting for the alcohol to loosen what caution still held shut.
Finally, he circled back.
"What will you do," he asked smoothly, "when your boss can't find the item you misplaced?"
Jade laughed, a little wild. "It's kind of funny, isn't it? What kind of lunatic locks themselves in a tube of water inside a sealed wooden crate?"
Aamon went still. His fingers tightened around the beer can. He kept his voice light, because he wasn't stupid, and now he needed answers. "People do crazy things. Good thing you were there, right? What did you do again?"
Jade rolled her eyes, annoyed at the repetition. "Try to keep up Aamon." Jade says, a drunken slur evident in her voice now. "Like I said before, I opened a wooden box that had a naked dead man in it. Then he came back to life, walked out of my lab, and vanished. Then some agency guys came looking for him, or it, I don't even know if it was human."
Aamon stood so fast his chair scraped the floor. "Where is he now?"
Jade flinched at the outburst. "I don't know! He just… disappeared. If I knew, he wouldn't be misplaced, and I wouldn't be in trouble. Haven't you been listening?" Jade huffs, her words slurring and slow.
Aamon drew in a slow breath and forced himself back into calm. "My apologies," he said. "I didn't mean to get excited."
Jade stared at him for a long moment, then spoke carefully, like she was setting down glass.
"Can you give me an honest answer?"
Aamon nodded.
"Are you some kind of government agent?"
He blinked once, then shook his head. A slight smirk crosses his face.
Jade squinted. "Do you mind if I check?"
Aamon lifted his hands slightly, as a sign of giving in. "By all means."
Jade stood and ran her hands over the outside of his jacket and slacks, searching for weapons or the telltale stiffness of concealed gear.
"I'm not doing anything weird," she muttered, mostly to herself as she slid her hand under his shirt, looking for wires. Suddenly, heat seared her palm. Jade jerked back with a sharp gasp, clutching her hand.
Aamon rubbed the back of his neck, almost sheepish. "Ah. I guess I should've warned you about that."
Jade stared at him, fury cutting through the alcohol haze.
"How did you do that?"
"The same way I burned the thugs," he said, shrugging.
"That's not an answer," Jade snapped. "With what?"
Aamon's expression cooled.
"I don't think you want to press that question, dear," he said softly. "Didn't anyone tell you curiosity killed the cat?"
Jade's eyes narrowed. "And didn't anyone tell you satisfaction brought it back?"
Silence stretched between them, heavy with challenge.
Jade exhaled and sat back down, forcing her voice into something more clinical. "There are chemical reactions that can cause burns. I find it difficult to believe your body would be spared if you were using some kind of… burning agent. So what are you? A spy with toys?"
Aamon leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands, and smiled like she'd entertained him.
"A spy," he repeated. "That's a first." The words left his lips slow, intentional and weighted. Jade's stomach tightened. The lab has no cameras.No recordings.No way they could know. She tried to make herself believe it.
"It's just a thought," she said too quickly. "Spies only happen in movies. There's probably a reasonable explanation." Jade waved her hand, laughing in a way that said she was more nervous than she was willing to admit.
"Like maybe my skin caused the burn?" Aamon offered, deadpan.
Jade waited for the joke. It didn't come.
"How is that more reasonable?" she demanded.
Aamon's smile deepened. "Maybe I'm not human."
Jade stared. She handled her fair share of aliens in the lab on a daily bases, there was no way this human man was anything other than a normal human. "If we were living in la-la land, sure." Jade finally said, but Aamon knew she was trying to convince herself.
The crate flashed through Jades mind. The men in the lab looking for that thing. The way Aamon magically burned people. A cold wave of dread crawled up her spine.
"Did you…" She swallowed. "Did you burn me and those thugs just by touching us?"
Aamon nodded once, slow and unbothered.
Jade's breath came shallow. "Then… are you an alien?"
He shook his head, giving her a single heartbeat of relief before she ruined it.
"Aamon," she whispered, voice small despite herself. "What, exactly, are you?"
He straightened, the air around him subtly shifting.
"That," he said, "isn't the right question."
Jade's mind went blank.
Aamon rose from the table.
"Can you keep one more secret," he asked, voice low, "curious kitty?"
Jade didn't trust her voice, so she nodded.
A red glow bled from him, soft at first, then brighter, turning the room into a flickering furnace of light and shadow. Black mist poured from his body, swallowing the corners of her apartment like the darkness had been waiting for permission to breathe. Shadows gathered. Twisted. Wove themselves into something larger.
Wings unfolded, tattered and vast, scraping the ceiling in a space that was suddenly too small to contain him. His body thickened with muscle, his silhouette towering, and his eyes burned red, the only color left in the black.
Jade couldn't move. Aamon snapped his fingers. The form broke apart into mist. When it cleared, he was sitting again, calm as if he'd only stood to stretch. Jade's mind cracked at the edges, scrambling for a sane explanation: dream, illusion, alcohol, exhaustion, anything.
Aamon sipped his beer casually and watched her struggle. She was rendered completely speechless. A cold, calculative smile forms on his lips.
"I'm a demon. You know. From Hell."