Chapter 19
Kaylee
Tapping the keys on my laptop, I sighed with a deep sense of contentment. I hadn’t said it to Porter yet, but I was in love. The big L. And he felt the same way, otherwise he wouldn’t have been trying to give me a house.
But still, bills had to be paid. I had every intention of moving in with Porter, but I wasn’t about to just jump right over there. Despite the fact that I’d been there the last few days pretty much nonstop, I’d been helping Porter move his stuff in.
My stuff needed more time to get used to the idea of cohabitating.
I logged into my bank account and sighed. The balance was a bit lower than I liked seeing it. All the money I’d put aside for the house was in another account, and I’d been slacking on live streams. Prerecorded videos never brought in as much as a live stream where I interacted with my fans.
Still, it was more than I would’ve made in a retail job or sitting in a receptionist’s office, though, so I wasn’t complaining.
After paying my bills, I logged onto a site I hadn’t been on in a while.
It was a spot for freelancers. I liked to get on there and take random jobs that would help me hone my editing skills and occasionally the odd design job if it were simple enough.
I usually didn’t charge much at all for these types of jobs, which helped ensure the client picked me out of all the candidates to complete the work and it built up my portfolio.
Plus, I learned something every time I took a job.
I put in a few bids, updating my qualifications first, but this time, I upped my prices. Still lower than I was worth, but it was time to get serious about my editing. I was good at it.
After finding a few jobs that looked like something I’d like to do, I logged off. It wasn’t my career yet, but hopefully one day. One day soon.
“Your apartment is tiny.”
I squealed and jumped when Sammy’s voice interrupted my musings about a possible future in editing. “You are sneaky! You need a bell.”
Sammy tilted her head at me. “Not the first time I’ve been told that.”
No apology in sight. She loved it. It was just her way, from what I’d learned about her.
“There’s a protection spell around your apartment.” She walked around my recording equipment and peered closely at it.
“When did you put it up?” I asked. There wasn’t anyone else that I knew of who could’ve or would’ve done something like that.
Sammy shook her head. “Wasn’t me.”
I froze in the act of turning my computer chair around to face Sammy. “Who then?”
Sammy gave me a pointed, dry look, and chuckled. “Figure it out. Who else with magic would want you protected?”
“Pixies?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“That’s the stink around here, and your blood is so diluted that it’s not you making the place reek.” She shuddered.
“What does pixie magic smell like?” I couldn’t imagine magic having a smell.
“Marshmallows. And sunshine.” She breathed deep and grimaced.
“And rainbows. Yuck.” Sammy’s disdain for pixies was obvious.
“It confirms there are pixies connected to you that still feel the need to protect you. Why they haven’t revealed themselves to you, or me for that matter, I don’t know.
” She moved toward my filming bed, which was neatly made up with a silk bedspread.
“Your future is blocked. I can’t see it at all.
It’s got to be the pixie magic and whatever protection spell they have on you. ”
“But what does that mean? Do they care about me?” It made no sense. “If they care about me, why haven’t they told me about themselves?”
Sammy shrugged. “My research hit a wall. I can’t find any information past what you’ve researched about your family.” She sighed. “I’ve reached out to a few contacts that might be able to dig a little deeper, but from what I can tell, your family’s troupe was wiped out.”
She tossed me a necklace, which I caught in midair, thankfully.
It would’ve been pretty embarrassing to miss.
“The fact that you’re being protected means that someone is still alive.
Hopefully, the story about them all being decimated is a lie and some are still knocking about.
” She whirled and pinned me with a look. “Please, be careful and stay safe.”
I held out the necklace. “This?”
“It’ll act as a shield when you’re in danger. It’ll bond with whatever magic is in your blood and protect you when I’m not around.”
I fingered the large jewel. “This isn’t real?” I asked. The red stone was gigantic, set in silver. The setting looked vintage.
“Stones are easy to come by when you’re a witch. It’s a ruby, and an old one at that. I suppose it’s quite valuable by human standards.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s far more valuable for what it can do for your safety, however.”
“Am I really in danger?” I lifted the long silver chain over my head and put the necklace on.
“I don’t know. Something fishy is definitely going on. Better safe than sorry.” She winked, and when I sucked in a breath to thank her, she disappeared. I had to blink a few times to accept that she’d left.
“I’ll never get used to her popping in and out,” I whispered.
The necklace settled between my breasts and felt good there. Warm. Comforting. It made sure I was safe. That felt nice.
Porter had asked me to go to dinner with him tonight, so I finished up on my laptop and got ready. He told me there was a great Italian place that had opened just outside of town that I’d never tried.
He waited until I was buckled in the car before springing the big question on me.
“So, have you thought about moving in?” He pulled out onto Main Street and grinned as he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes.
“Or maybe you could come stay until Sammy gets more information about what happened to make the pixies put a spell on your place?”
The thought of staying with Porter made my heart beat double time. “I wouldn’t mind the added sense of security.”
We talked about how fun it would be to play house all the way to the restaurant, and until we sat down and ordered, the date was going perfectly.
As we pigged out on chips and queso, someone walked up to the table. I smiled up at the server, but when I met his eyes, I realized it wasn’t him.
“Hey, Kaylee. I just wanted to say I’m a big fan. I’m KayleeFan029.” The man, tall and slender with shaggy black hair, beamed down at me while Porter’s face grew dark and his spine straight.
“I recognize your username.” I plastered a big smile on my face. He was one of my biggest contributors. He sent gifts almost every time I did a live, and they were often generous.
KayleeFan leaned close, completely ignoring Porter. “My pockets are deep,” he whispered. “I’ll pay you a handsome sum to cut your date short and come with me.”
Porter growled as he stood. “Get out of here,” he said in a deep, deadly voice. He was beyond pissed, like dragon pissed, but he kept his composure.
KayleeFan ignored him and leaned in closer. “Last chance.” He arched one eyebrow and stared me down. He was truly delusional if Porter didn’t intimidate him. My girls had told me he was an alpha, and human men were predisposed to bow down to dragons, especially alpha dragons.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said stiffly.
“You heard her,” Porter said. “Now fuck off.”
The asshole still ignored Porter, and his face twisted in anger. “See if you get any more money from me, slut.”
My heart pounded with fear and anger. How dare he speak to me that way. He stomped away and Porter sat back down. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “That was awful.”
Porter didn’t respond. He worked his jaw and breathed deep. It was obvious he was doing his best to keep it under control.
“Thank you,” I said softly, my gaze darting around the restaurant. The scene hadn’t gone unnoticed by the people around us. “Thank you for letting me say what I wanted to do and not just making him leave.”
Porter furrowed his brows at me. “It was your choice.”
“Maybe so. But a lot of men wouldn’t have seen it that way.” I waved over the server.
“I was raised by my mother, pretty much exclusively. I don’t believe I have any right to make any decision for you.” He clamped his mouth shut as the server walked up.
“We’d like to get our food to go as soon as possible, please,” I said and gave him a big smile.
When the server left, Porter raised his eyebrows. “To go?”
“The mood is ruined,” I said flatly. “But I’m positive now. I want to get home and pack a few bags to stay with you.”
His face lit up like Christmas. “Are you sure?”
Beaming back at him, I nodded. “Positive. And it’s not just because I want your protection. I want to be there with you, too.”
He nodded and held up one hand. “It could be because you want to use my pool, I wouldn’t care. I just want you with me.”
Giggling, I realized he’d already lifted my mood, cheering me immensely. “Thank you again.”
The server came with our food, and we hightailed it out of there. He’d cheered me up, but his mood wasn’t improving.
By the time we got to his house—our house, maybe one day—he was completely tense. His leg bounced and his knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he clenched and unclenched them.
“Can you head inside?” he asked. “I’ll bring your bags in, but I need to shift and cool off. Our back yard butts up to clan land, so I can safely shift out back in the dark.”
I sighed and turned in the car to face him. “I’ll give you room to fly and exercise out the anger, but this could happen again. You need to figure out if you can handle my job.”
He blinked rapidly, but I continued. “Nights like this will happen. And yes, I want out of the game, but not yet. I haven’t reached my goals or built up enough of an editing clientele.”
Staring at me, he let the seconds tick by, several long ones, until he nodded. “I can handle it. But I might need to go shift and calm down after if something like this happens again. Can you deal with that?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. I can deal.” I popped a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
He brought my bags in, leaving them in the foyer. As I carried them upstairs, I thought about how he’d replied. His hesitation gave me pause. I washed my face and did my skincare routine, and when I was lying in bed without Porter, my doubts started to grow.
Could he really handle it?