They didn't know for sure, but they probably should have known just based on Coralee's warning, but the two of them, both Alex and Strand himself had an arrogance about these sort of things, so they went barging in without thinking about it. And now they knew for sure, or at least he did. Even without knowing what he did about Thomas Warren creating demons, what she did know about him had been enough to finally make her stop calling Warren 'sexy James Bond.'

"Richard." Her voice was soft, and her eyes held his as she cupped his cheek even more tightly and traced her thumb along his cheekbones. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. You're not going to lose me." And then she gave him a quick smile, her voice a little lighter. "Besides,we both know I'm too annoying to go anywhere." Her hand squeezed his, a promise in it. Alex wasn't Coralee, she would never leave him like his wife had, and even if she wasn't going to stop being herself, she also wasn't going to do something dumb that would make her unable to keep her promises to him.