After a long day Chase returned home later than usual. The day with Vee had been mentally taxing; the artist had a way of looking through Chase's corporate exterior that made him feel exposed. But as he stood before his apartment door, the "warrior sense" he had honed over centuries wasn't warning him of an intruder—it was signaling a collapse.
Inside, the air was heavy, vibrating with a low-frequency hum that made his teeth ache. The lights were flickering in a rhythmic, unstable pattern.
"Rixsa?" Chase called out, dropping his briefcase.
He found her in their shared bedroom. The room was a vortex of static energy. Rixsa was sitting in the middle of his oversized bed, her eyes glowing a frantic, jagged neon pink. Her tail was thrashing violently, cracking like a whip against the mattress.
"Chase... finally," she gasped. Her voice was distorted, layered with a demonic static.
"What happened? Did Alex try to bless the Wi-Fi again?"
"No," Rixsa grit her teeth, clutching the bedsheets so hard they began to smoke. "It's Kaelen. Her suppressor... it's fighting her natural Essence cycle. She's an aristocrat, Chase; her body is trying to dump a century's worth of prideful energy, and the collar is bouncing it back into the apartment's lay lines. I'm trying to ground it, but I'm... I'm hitting capacity."
Chase realized the danger instantly. If Rixsa couldn't ground the "spiritual tremor," the apartment wouldn't just lose its windows—it would become a beacon for every predatory entity in a five-mile radius.
He moved quickly, shedding his suit jacket and climbing onto the bed. "Move over. If you're hitting capacity, I'll take the overflow."
"Are you crazy?" Rixsa hissed, even as she shifted to give him space. "You're already topped off from your session with the Boss Lady. If I dump this into you, you'll blow."
"I have a higher threshold than you think," Chase replied, his voice calm and commanding. "Link with me. Now."
Rixsa didn't argue further. She lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. The moment they made contact, Chase felt a jolt of raw, jagged demonic energy tear through him. It was cold, sharp, and tasted like iron—the unmistakable signature of Kaelen's repressed power.
He groaned, his own Essence flaring to meet the intrusion. He felt the familiar shift in his psyche—the "Warrior" rising to stabilize the field. He didn't fight the energy; he channeled it, using his soul as a massive lightning rod.
"Hold on," he whispered into Rixsa's ear.
"I'm Not... letting... go," she muttered, her face buried in the crook of his neck.
The tremor lasted for nearly an hour. They stayed locked together in the center of the bed, a single point of stability in a room that felt like it was being torn apart by invisible hands. Gradually, the humming faded. The lights stopped flickering, and the air regained its natural scent of lavender and old books.
Rixsa went limp against him, her breathing ragged. The glow in her eyes faded back to her usual mischievous hue. "God... that was... intense."
Chase let out a long, slow breath. His body felt heavy, his muscles vibrating from the strain of grounding the energy. He realized then that Rixsa hadn't pulled away. Her tail was wrapped tightly around his leg, and her grip on his shoulders remained firm.
"You can let go now, Rixsa," he said, though his voice lacked its usual bite.
"Five more minutes," she murmured, her voice muffled by his shirt. "I'm still shaky. And... Your Essence feels really good right now. It's like a warm weighted blanket."
Chase looked down at her. In the dim light of the bedroom, the perverted, chaotic demon looked strangely vulnerable. She had risked her own spiritual stability to protect the apartment while he was out with the Alpha.
"Fine," he conceded, leaning back against the headboard. "Five minutes."
"Hey, Chase?" she asked after a moment of silence.
"Hmm?"
"Vee... the new guy. I saw him on the lobby feed when I was checking the mail." She pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "He's like you, isn't he? A ghost from the old world?"
Chase hesitated, then nodded. "In a way. He's retired. He just wants to draw."
Rixsa's expression turned uncharacteristically somber. "Be careful. Lilith is one thing—you can manage her with... whatever it is you do in her office. But another human who knows your secrets? That's how people like us get caught in the crossfire."
"I know," Chase said, reaching out and, for the first time, voluntarily resting a hand on her head, smoothing her messy hair. "But for now, let's just focus on making sure the toaster doesn't explode tomorrow morning."
Rixsa let out a small, contented purr, closing her eyes. The five minutes stretched into an hour, and then into the night. For the first time, Chase didn't feel like he was sharing his room with a perverted roommate; he felt like he was sharing it with an ally.