[h2]Esme Stirling[/h2]

Esme felt a warmth flow through her when she heard Duke chuckle as she pushed him back from their kiss. There was just something about his laugh that filled her with warmth, just like it had done back then. When he returned her kiss and pulled her into him after she deepened it, she smiled behind their kiss and relaxed fully into his embrace. Her hand on his chest slowly moved up to rest on his cheek as he held her close to him as she felt herself becoming even more lost in the moment and emotions filling the room. When he leaned his weight into her, she was prepared for Duke to lay her back on the bed, but not for the door to open suddenly and Cason walked in with Sarah. She had pulled from the kiss at the same time as Duke and gave a gasp in surprise as well. Her hand had fallen from his cheek to hold the blankets in place as he brought them up more to cover her, then her other hand fell from his arm to meet her other hand. 

She carefully adjusted herself against the headboard of the bed as she watched Cason with slightly narrowed eyes as he spoke and stepped into the room. “Yeah, you really should by now. You were also gone longer than you think.” she mumbled. He was once again lucky she didn’t have her gun handy. She literally could have shot him again for just walking in without knocking. Her gaze left Cason and went to Sarah as she ran to the bed, then watched as Sarah jumped up on her side of the bed and curled up near her side. When she saw Sarah eye Duke with curiosity, she gave Sarah a look that said he could be trusted and not to harm him. Once she saw Sarah understood, her gaze lifted and went back to Cason. It was hard to read any sort of emotion coming off of him with Sarah so close, but she could see how upset he was even without the use of her ability. Her gaze softened a bit, even though she was still upset about him coming into the room unannounced.

Her gaze shifted briefly to Duke as he spoke to Cason, wincing slightly at his words with a heavy sigh. She knew Duke’s words would probably hit Cason wrong and upset him more than he already was. As she sat in the bed, she watched Cason walk over to the table and tap his fingers on it. It wasn’t hard to see how he was avoiding looking at her. She couldn’t tell if it was because of what happened earlier or if it was because Duke was shirtless and he could see her bare shoulders were just above the blankets. If she were to put herself in Cason’s shoes, she could see how it possibly looked to him, and from what she knew from the little time she spent with him, that’s where his mind had most likely gone, even though she and Duke hadn’t gone that far. She sighed heavily once again as he spoke about bringing Sarah to help with the healing process and finding himself a room, then spoke to Sarah. 

Esme couldn’t help but feel sorry for Cason right at that moment, and it caused her to grip the blankets tightly. Even though she couldn’t feel it, because of Sarah being next to her, she knew Cason was hurting by seeing her so close to Duke. Since they had met, she has had a problem with him being too close. She has shot him in the head, punched him in the face, flinched at his touch, and even yelled at him over it. Now here she was laying in bed with Duke, looking as if she were completely naked, and didn’t have a problem with how close he was. She knew it had to be a hard blow for Cason after everything he had tried to get her to come around to him and she took to Duke as if it was nothing, but he hadn’t seen how she had flinched and tensed up at Duke’s touch earlier. But he also didn’t know the past that she and Duke shared and that was how she could get so close to him.

When Cason turned and grabbed the doorknob, Esme painfully sat up with a hiss, the blankets fell from her chest and to her lap revealing the towel that was wrapped around her. “Cason!” she called out to him in a sorrowful tone. “Cason, wait!” When the door closed behind him, she let out a sigh as she dropped her head and brought a hand to her face and wiped it over the bridge of her nose and cheek before running it through her hair, then resting it back on her cheek and propping her elbow on her bent knee. She actually felt bad about how Cason found them and how much it upset him. She could admit to herself but not to him that she did care for him, but not in the way he wanted her to. Esme was thankful for how he had cared for her after being overwhelmed by everyone's emotions, after becoming a demon nuke, pulled her out of her deep sleep after the whole ordeal with cupid, even if he got a little closer than she had liked during those times, and even made it where she could see the Hellhounds roaming around. 

Now he had brought Sarah to her to help her heal as he said, but something told her Sarah was brought to her as an apology for her being tortured. She was definitely going to have to find a time to talk to Cason, when that would be, she didn’t know. She didn’t even know if he’d talk to her after this. At Duke’s voice, Esme lifted her head a little and moved her fingers over so they weren’t covering her eye any longer so she could see him in her peripheral vision. “Sarah is, umm…….” She hesitated to tell him what Sarah was, not sure how he would take it. She saw how he looked over at the depression on the bed where Cason had pointed while speaking to Sarah. Esme was about to speak again when Sarah nudged her neck and draped a paw over her lap carefully, which made her tense up a bit, almost expecting Sarah’s paw to hit the wound on her thigh. She relaxed when it didn’t and looked at Sarah as Duke spoke again. “Invisible dog.” she repeated in a whisper. 

Removing her hand from her cheek and dropping her elbow from her knee, she rested her hand on the side of Sarah’s face, pulling her head to rest under her chin before patting her cheek. “You could call her that.” she continued in a soft tone. Turning her head to the side, she rested her cheek on top of Sarah’s head and looked over at Duke, studying him as she fought against telling him what Sarah was or not. Though not wanting to keep anything from him won out in the end, even if she thought he might flip over the news, but she couldn’t blame him if he did. It was strange and unheard of for anyone but a demon to befriend a Hellhound. “Sarah is a…… She’s a Hellhound. And yes, I can see her thanks to the black dot on my hand.” she finally said after a moment of silence. She fell silent again, letting what she just said sink in, and waited to see how he would react to the news. The others didn’t like the fact that Sarah was around. She knew that, especially Dean, but she couldn’t blame him after his experience with them. 

As Esme studied Duke's face, she tried to keep her own face neutral but knew she was failing miserably at it. She didn’t want to show she was worried about how he would react to what Sarah was. She wanted his reaction and words to be genuine and not based on how he thought she would want him to feel and answer about it. Esme then attempted to lean back against the headboard, but soon regretted it as a sharp pain shot through her, causing her to hiss at the pain and stop the attempt. At her hiss, Sarah nuzzled her neck with a soft whine to which Esme patted Sarah’s cheek to let her know she was alright. Sarah released a sigh that was heavy and filled with relief before she nuzzled into Esme’s neck once more.