Of Blood and Smoke

Chapter 39

THIRTY-NINE

Della

Ashley met me in the break room for lunch. “Over here,” I said, guiding her to a far table. We usually settled somewhere in the middle when we were able to meet up. It took me a while before I’d realized I’d always chosen an ideal vantage point to sneak glances at Josiah just in case he entered or wandered by. I’d done it subconsciously, a hidden part of me always reaching for him.

“Why are we over here?” she asked, glancing around the room.

It was quieter than usual, maybe only ten people in the space rather than the usual thirty or so. A week had passed since Christina attacked me and I’d been with Micha, mostly, trying to sort through piles of applications for a replacement. Josiah had been busy, hunting for what he called wraiths. It turned out it was one of those ghostly creatures that had touched me when I was handcuffed, and zip tied by Brett.

After I arranged my tray with my chicken sandwich and fruit salad, I took a long drag of my water. I hadn’t been able to drink coffee all week. Thanks, Christina . Luckily, I had no ill effects from the attempted poisoning, just some redness for a few hours from where the hot liquid had met my skin.

“I need to talk to you, and I don’t want anyone to hear. You can’t repeat a word of this.”

Ashley nodded eagerly and leaned in slightly. “Okay. What’s up?” She flicked her curly hair over her shoulder.

I set my fork down. “Christina tried to murder me.”

“What?” she squeaked. “Oh my god is she in jail?”

“No,” I replied, quietly. “She was... fired.” Ashley raised an eyebrow. “We’re trying to find a replacement. Do you know anyone?”

“I’d say Karissa, but she already works here, down in the labs.” She took a spoonful of soup and set her utensil on the edge of the bowl. “Can we talk about how Brett kidnapped you and now he’s missing and then Christina tries to kill you?”

My stomach twisted and a chunk of chicken fell out of my sandwich with a splat. “He’s missing?”

Ashley looked up at me. “Yup.” She picked her spoon back up. “I think your boyfriend got rid of him, hired someone to do it or something.”

She eyed me carefully and I looked down at my plate before picking up the fallen meat. “You know something’s up with him and Micha. They aren’t normal. They have issues,” she continued.

I took a bite of my sandwich as Ashley dipped her spoon in her soup and then tilted the utensil, filling it and then draining it. Over and over.

“Maybe,” I conceded, not meeting her gaze. She seemed more curious than mad, but I wasn’t going to talk about it with her, it wasn’t something the two men advertised. And plus, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with their particular set of “issues.” Either way, I knew her well enough to know something besides curiosity was weighing heavily on her mind.

“You look fine,” she told me. Her spoon clanked against the bowl. “What did Christina do to you?”

Letting out a harsh laugh, I replied, “She poisoned my coffee with oleander.”

“What? Who does that? That’s so creepy-gothic-mystery of her.” Ashley looked fascinated. “I didn’t know people still used that. Heck, I haven’t even heard that ever—except in old books.”

“True. But think about it, where we work. Who knows what they’ve got downstairs? I guess I’m just lucky she didn’t slip fentanyl in my drink because it did get on my skin.”

Ashley clicked on her phone and started typing away. “Oleander symbolizes romance, desire, destiny, and seduction. Wow. Maybe Christina was a witch?”

She turned her screen toward me, showing the search results she’d just read. “Oh geez. Well, that’s crazy. I don’t know if she was. It's possible,” I agreed.

“’Was’?”

I washed down my sandwich with a long slug of water. “She doesn’t work here anymore.”

“Uh-huh.” My friend narrowed her eyes at me and then burst out laughing. All I could do was laugh along with her, relieved she’d let me off the hook and wishing I could say more.

It felt like she knew , but was dancing around the subject just as much as I. She spent enough time around Micha, that I would think she’d have to. I wanted to ask her about his eyes, if they did the same pretty thing Josiah’s did when his mood was affected in some way, the irises swirling and luminous. But I didn’t, I didn’t want to risk our relationship. She was really all I had for a friend.

“I’m pretty sure the extra work will fall on me. Some of it already has. I’ve only gotten to see my dad once this week. Did I ever tell you Josiah wants me to move in with him?”

Ashley’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “What! No, you didn’t. Wait, I think you did? I don’t remember. But I knew, I knew, there was more going on between you two than what you said.”

“Ha ha,” I said. “Yeah, yeah, you called it. It has been for a while now. And no, I’m not moving in with him any time soon. I just got a nice place, I’m not ready to give that up.”

“So, Brett wasn’t that far off. He knew, you know. He swore you were cheating on him.”

Gathering my garbage together on the tray, I said, “Well, it was awkward since he’s my boss and I was very clear with Brett about where we stood, he just couldn’t accept it.”

“Remember when Josiah would yell at you all the time?”

“I do. He was trying to fight his attraction to me.” I smirked. “Didn’t really work out for him.”

Sitting back, I let out a deep breath. So much had changed. I’d never expected the things that happened with Brett to happen. Lowering my voice, I asked, “Is everything okay with Andy?”

Her eyes flicked to mine. “Yeah, of course. Why?”

“Last time we talked, you basically said they were a little rocky.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, everyone goes through stuff. Why are you asking me this? I can tell you have something on your mind, spit it out.”

“Uh, so Brett hinted, strongly, that Andy would hurt you if I didn’t cooperate.”

Ashley huffed out a sharp laugh. “Brett was just talking shit. Andy wouldn’t do anything.”

My ex knew what Josiah was, he knew about wraiths, and he had seemed totally fine with it. There was Vincent, too, who he’d worked with. Nobody had seemed all that bothered that vampires and demons were just hanging around and running things. I couldn’t be confident Andy wouldn’t hurt her.

“Does Andy have any friends that seem different to you?”

Ashley wrinkled her forehead. “Different? Different than what? They’re a bunch of street thugs, basically.” She looked apologetic for a second. “Maybe not all of them are thugs. Andy’s not gonna do anything to me, don’t worry.”

She tilted her bowl and scraped at the bottom before dropping her utensil with a clatter.

“Ugh, never mind. Guess I’m still in shock.”

Ashley gathered her stuff and placed it on my tray, taking the whole thing. I followed as she dumped it, and we began walking across the dining room. I glanced around to see if there was anyone I recognized, since the same people always seemed to be here every time I was, but there was no one I cared to acknowledge. While I examined our surroundings, I found myself wondering if they were all human.

“Has your dad met Josiah yet? How’s dad doing anyway? I should stop by and visit,” Ashley said as we walked out, interrupting my thoughts.

We stood outside the bank of elevators, with my two shadows watching and scanning for threats. “Thing one and thing two,” my friend muttered under her breath.

I laughed, glancing at them for a moment. I’d forgotten they were around.

The doors slid open. “He has. Not that dad would know it.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. She gave me a hug and we separated when the lift brought her to her floor. Micha was waiting for me near the partition dividing my space from Christina’s former area. He eyed the guards behind me, appraising them, until they backed away while still remaining in the area.

Micha had done this before, this strange motionless appraisal of whoever was in front of him. He’d done it to me, one day when he’d called me into the office. It was disturbing and I had no idea what he was doing.

“What are you doing?”

He arched an eyebrow at me, pinning me with his silvery eyes. “Making sure you are suitably safe. Josiah would eat my heart if something happened to you while you were in my company. I rather enjoy my organs not being dissolved in stomach acid.”

“Makes sense. That you want to keep your heart in your rib cage, I mean. Also, that was pretty descriptive.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“I never said it was.”

He was scowling now. “Get to work.”

There was no coffee waiting on my desk and its absence both relieved me and saddened me. I’d gotten used to the little gift every day, but I was still deeply unnerved by what’d happened the last time a cup of the aromatic brew had been waiting for me.

One look at my Ipomoea email account and it was clear Onychinus was a tremendous success. Its launch had gone extremely well, and the reports were here with that evidence. More orders kept pouring in on a daily basis. I hadn’t had much to do with that, other than to act as an intermediary between companies, investors, and the two heads of the company I worked for. But still, it put a smile on my face. I’d never been a part of something big like this before and it was a satisfying feeling, watching everything fall into place.

“What are you working on next?” was the text I sent Josiah. He wasn’t big on texting, preferring face-to-face conversations and I held my breath waiting for the “seen” notification to materialize on my screen.

He sent a one word reply. “Expanding.” He really was a workaholic.

He’d told me once he wanted to take over the world and I’d asked him why. He said because he could, that was the reason. I knew he’d felt like a slave when he’d worked for the people he’d called a “collective” and I figured this was just a way to exert his own authority.

I understood it, having felt out of control myself before and wanting to take the reins on everything around me. It was part of the reason I wouldn’t commit to Brett—I couldn’t give away even more control than I’d already had. I didn’t want to.

Maybe if Brett hadn’t held so much over me, things would’ve been different between us.

As I stared at my screen, a barrage of emails that normally would’ve gone to Christina came pouring in, so I refocused on my tasks, sipping on a water bottle.

Thing One and Thing Two accompanied me on my way home, sitting in the car Josiah designated for me. After I called one of them “Thing Two,” he irritably informed me his name was George and the other piped up saying his name was Kent.

“George?” I asked, disbelievingly. He looked nothing like his moniker. He looked like a young FBI agent, right down to his khakis and crew cut hair. George, my ass .

Kent looked a bit like Superman, with eyeglasses to match Clark Kent, so I believed that one. Except, anyone I’d met that wasn’t human had appeared to have exactly zero physical health issues, so the glasses were misleading.

“Those can’t be your real names,” I said eyeing the two of them. Kent leveled a gaze at me, and it was all I could do not to roll my eyes. In the end, I suppose it didn’t matter what their names were, as long as they did their job.

When I got home, one of them stationed themselves outside my door and the other, right inside. He planted himself, hands clasped, and legs spread like he was expecting a SWAT team to come bursting through.

Snickering, I walked away taking a photo of him and headed to my room to get changed. I sent the photo to Josiah asking him what was wrong with the guard and didn’t receive a response.

After I showered and ate, he texted me telling me to wait in bed for him. He didn’t spend every night here—I wouldn’t let him. Well, it was more like I threw a fit because I wanted my own space. It took forever but I got him to acquiesce by promising not to complain if he came over whenever he felt like it.

Obviously, “whenever he felt like it,” was every day so that took some working out, but I held my ground.

I’d also had to agree to meet his parents, despite their living in a different dimension. Josiah said it was just like dreaming to get there, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea. He said he wanted me to trust him on that whole subject and I knew I’d have to let him take me one day.

It was easy to forget that he and most of his direct peers were other , that they came from somewhere else . Unless Josiah had his fangs out and was drinking my blood, or if his eyes were doing that cool thing they do sometimes, he seemed ordinary.

That is, if exceptionally well-dressed, rich, and stunningly hot men were ordinary.

Despite my stubbornness, I missed him and wished he were beside me as I laid down to go to sleep.

When I woke up, I was frozen to the bed. Paralyzed. Just like before.