Chapter 2 Past
TWO
PAST
ARNICK
I dragged in a deep breath, humming at the amalgamation of all the new smells. There was the awful stench of piss, vomit, and dead critters in the alley I stood in, but I could also smell fresh baked goods, flowers, and more wonderful scents coming from the mouth of the alley.
I'd missed the variety of the human realm. It'd been a long time since I'd been here last, and I knew the human world had changed a lot since. I was excited to see all the new things humans had come up with.
Making my way to the mouth of the alley, I stepped out and glanced around. I'd arrived in the business part of the town, and all kinds of shops and stores lined the street on either side.
Turning left, I started walking, eyeing each store I passed. I could do with some clothes... but later.
The flower shop at the end of the street must've been what I'd smelled from the alley, and across the street from it, I could see a coffee shop.
Cozy Cuppa, the sign read. I dragged in a deep breath, and my mouth watered.
I needed to get in there. It had been so long since I could eat. I wanted to try everything.
I went to cross the street when I spotted a few people standing at the end of the street, eyeing a pole with a red human figure on it. Oh right. You're supposed to only cross on the stripes on the road.
I made my way to the humans just as the light turned green, and two of the humans hurried across while the third was busy looking for something in his large tote bag. I couldn't see his face, but his red hair was bright in the sunlight, and messy as fuck.
He must have found whatever he'd been looking for, because he straightened up and started to cross the road just as I saw a car racing his way. It didn't appear to have any intention to stop, and in a split second, I jerked the human out of the way just as the car blazed past.
Of course, in my rush I forgot just how weak humans were compared to me, and the human flew through the air before crashing into a display of bouquets in front of the flower shop.
"Holy fuck!" he shouted, spitting petals out of his mouth. I hurried to straighten up the shelf that had fallen on him as an older man stepped out of the flower shop and glanced between us before shaking his head.
"You're gonna have to pay for that," he said, putting his hands on his hips, and I nodded quickly.
Sticking my hand into my pocket, I magicked up some money before handing it over to him.
The man took the bills with a raised brow, counted them, and kept three of the hundred-dollar bills before handing the rest back to me and disappearing back into the shop as the human I'd thrown slowly sat up.
I offered him a hand, and he glanced at it, then glared at me with sharp, stunning green eyes before getting to his feet on his own. He dusted himself off, sending petals floating through the air, then picked up the tote bag he'd fallen on top of. Opening it, he peeked inside and groaned.
"I needed these ingredients for today's specials!" he exclaimed, making me wince. This was not how my first interaction with humans in centuries was supposed to go.
I held out the bills still in my hand, and he eyed them before letting out a disgusted grunt. Then he seemed to think better of it, and pulled one of the bills from my hand, sticking it into his pocket.
He eyed me, the freckles on his nose and cheeks dark against the flush on his face, before huffing.
Turning around, he glanced at the crosswalk signal, which had turned red again, and sighed.
"I'm sorry," I said as I stuck the bills back in my pocket. "I saw the car, and I just reacted."
"Next time, just shout something like 'Look out!'" he advised, and I nodded mutely.
The sign turned green again, and he hurried across the street, but I stayed where I was as he went into the coffee shop I'd been heading to.
He'd been talking about ingredients, which meant he must work there.
No way could I go there now. I'd have to find another bakery or coffee shop to feed myself.
Fuck, what a start to this mission.
I was supposed to stay in this town until we captured all the dark souls—as well as a demon named Mammon who'd gone over to the dark side—who had escaped the Burning Chasm where they were supposed to stay until all the darkness in their souls was burned away.
The king of Otherworld—the place where all souls went after their death—had sent us demons here, scattering us across North America so we could guard the humans against the dark souls and track them down.
It would take a while—I was confident of that—which meant I'd need to get familiar with this area, this whole town.
I started walking again, taking everything in as I tried to push away the memory of my not-so-stellar actions.
Thank fuck the human hadn't gotten hurt.
It was the one rule we demons had to follow.
We weren't allowed to hurt humans in any way, and doing so would cut our trip short instantly.
We'd be sent back to the demon realm, and while it was my home, we couldn't eat there.
No matter how much you loved a place, living with the same twenty-three people for centuries got boring after a while, and none of us were eager to head back.
I planned to make the best of my time here, and I wasn't going to let a little mishap change that.
THEO
"What happened to you?" Jade asked with a snort as she eyed me up and down, and I rolled my eyes as I made my way behind the counter, then to the back.
I placed my bag on the prep counter and hoped against hope some of the berries and chocolates had survived.
They'd been fucking expensive, and while the money I'd taken from the guy would make up for it, I didn't have enough time to get another batch.
We might have to switch the specials to something else, or use regular chocolates and sprinkles for the toppings.
"The usual," I said, and she raised a brow at me, pursing her blue lips.
"You usually get thrown into flower display cases?" she asked, and I groaned.
"You saw?" I asked as I followed her back to the front counter, picking stray leaves and petals off my clothes.
She nodded toward the glass front doors of the coffee shop, and I realized she had a perfect view of the debacle from here.
"I got the HD version, and I still don't know why you said 'the usual.' There was nothing usual about that." She snickered, and I shot her a glare.
"The usual as in a guy tried to be a hero and failed miserably."
She gave me a considering look as she tied up her curls into a bun. "I don't know about that. He did keep you from getting hit by a car. It would've flattened you. He saved your life. And," she added, leaning closer and sniffing at me, "now you smell like fresh roses."
"He ruined the berries and chocolates for the cupcake toppings."
"Honey, you dropped the bag."
"He flung me through the air and into a flower display. Forgive me if I couldn't keep hold of a bag through that," I grumbled, making her laugh.
"Go into the back and clean up properly. See if you can salvage some of the toppings. If you can, we'll turn it into a 'ten pieces only' type of deal. If not, we'll use the sprinkles. Everyone loves sprinkles."
"Fine, fine," I said, going into the back and doing just that. Thankfully, some of the ingredients had survived, and once I was sure there was nothing clinging to my clothes, I started working on the cupcakes, ending up with a dozen with berry toppings and twenty with melted chocolate topping.
In the end, we managed to make it work, but I still spent the rest of the day with a cloud of annoyance hanging over me.
"You. In the back," Jade said a little after the lunch rush had ended, and I gave her a look.
Technically, I was her boss. I was co-owner of Cozy Cuppa, and she was my employee.
But she was a bossy woman, and I couldn't say no to her as I followed her into the back, keeping an ear out for the telltale jingle that would alert us to a customer's arrival.
"You need to chill out," she said, and I sighed.
"I'm chill," I assured her, and she snorted.
"If you can call a volcano chill, maybe."
"I'm sorry," I said, knowing she'd had to deal with my shit mood all day.
She waved me off, then knocked her shoulder against mine. "I know how a bad start to the day can mess the whole day up, but I have a feeling this isn't just about the accident."
"What else could it be about?"
Jade eyed me for a moment, her blue eyes digging at me as if trying to unearth all my secrets. "I think that very good-looking dude made you feel some things and you're trying to ignore that by letting your annoyance take over."
"What?" I said with a laugh, shaking my head. "That's ridiculous. That man was an idiot."
"Mm-hmm," Jade said in that tone people used when they didn't believe you but wanted you to think they did.
"Seriously. I told you I'm not interested in dating. Men are assholes and I'm better off without them."
"You're a man," she reminded me as if I might've forgotten.
"And I've been a jerk to you and everyone else all day."
"Touché."
A customer arrived, and we went back to work. I made myself be civil with everyone, pushing the morning's incident to the back of my mind for the rest of the day.
It was only when I got home at the end of the night that I thought about it again, and now that I'd had some time to calm down, I realized I'd been a bit of a dick to the guy.
He'd only been trying to do something good, and he'd appeared honestly horrified by what had happened.
I wasn't a small man by any means. In fact, testing my baked goods every day meant I had a bit of a padding around my middle. Love handles, Jade liked to call them.
The dude was clearly strong, and had no idea just how powerful he was.
However he may have done it, he had saved my life, and I hadn't even thanked him.
Out of the two of us, I might have been the bigger idiot.
As I curled up in bed with PJ—my two-year-old cat who loved wearing PJs and kneading her own little piece of dough—I promised myself that if I ever saw him again, I'd thank him for saving my life and apologize for my behavior today.
The likelihood of us running into each other again wasn't high, but I found myself hoping for it anyway. He'd been walking around, so he must live or work close by. Or he could've been visiting someone, though it'd been a little early for that.
Jade's comment about me finding the guy attractive flickered through my mind again, and I firmly pushed it away. I just wanted to thank him. Nothing more.
Nothing more at all.