Sparkle
I have an apartment! A ridiculous amount of secondhand furniture my friends and family decided I absolutely needed, three boxes I haven’t unpacked, and no idea what I’m supposed to do with myself now that no one wakes me up before the sun to ask where their shoes are. It’s weird. Wonderful. But weird.
My first night, I sat on my new-to-me couch for almost an hour, waiting for someone to need me.
I checked my phone so many times I finally had to shove it beneath a pillow.
Mama texted twice, Ferris sent me a picture of something he drew, and Fiona asked if I had any food in my new place. That was it.
No emergencies. No one forgot homework. No one yelled my name from across the house because something was missing that was directly in front of their face. I slept until eleven the next morning. Eleven! I haven’t slept that late since I was a kitten.
This morning, I’m up at my normal time, but only because I want to be. There’s no list waiting for me. No errands. I don’t even work until tonight.
And still, when I walk into Wick’s with Beau, Gabe, and Lark, the first thing I do is look toward the table Lucien has taken over as his own.
Empty.
I join the line. Maybe he’s just late.
“Morning!” Wren calls from behind the counter.
“Morning!” I sing back, sliding into my usual chair. My tail curls around one of the legs while everyone settles around me. I look toward the door. Nothing.
Beau bumps his shoulder into mine.
“What?”
He smiles.
“You’re being weird.”
Beau’s smile grows, but he thankfully leaves me alone.
We all start talking about my apartment instead.
Lark found me a little table that fits perfectly beside my couch, and Gabe apparently has a lamp he thinks I’ll like.
Beau wants to buy me something, but I’ve told him at least seventeen times that I don’t need anything else.
The apartment is small. If everyone keeps giving me stuff, I’ll have to move again just to fit it all.
The bell over the bakery door jingles and my head snaps toward it. A witch I’ve seen a thousand times walks inside. When I turn back around, three pairs of eyes are watching me.
“Oh, fuck off.”
“We didn’t say anything,” Lark says.
“You didn’t have to.”
Wren approaches with our breakfast, and I scoot things around to make room. “Has Lucien been in yet?”
Silence. I slowly look up. Everyone smiles at me.
Beau wiggles in his seat. “Do you miss him?”
I grab my muffin and rip a chunk off. “I was curious because he’s been here every morning.”
“Not for a few days,” Wren says.
My fingers stop. “A few days?”
Wren shakes his head. “Last time I saw him was the morning you slept in. He came looking for you.”
Something warm spreads through my chest. “He did?” Why, oh why did that come out as a whisper?
“Yep. He waited for a few hours too. I told him you were probably going to be asleep for a while, but he hung around doing work on his phone. Eventually he gave up and left.”
“Has anyone heard from him?”
Wren shakes his head. “Not me.”
Lark reaches for his drink. “Maybe he’s busy.”
“For four days?” I say.
Lark raises an eyebrow.
“I’m just saying! He owns a club. How busy can he be?”
Gabe nearly chokes on his drink. “You work in a club. And you don’t think running one keeps someone busy?”
Lark snorts because he and Pike own Flutter and Fangs. Of course, I know running a club keeps someone busy. I hear about it from them. I shove another piece of muffin into my mouth so I don’t have to answer.
The bell jingles again. I don’t look. I do not fucking look.
Fine. I look. Still not Lucien. Ugh. I’m not chasing a demon.
I want that established. I’m checking on someone who has been hanging around me every day and then mysteriously disappeared.
That is a perfectly reasonable thing for a friend to do.
Are Lucien and I friends? I don’t know. Whatever.
But now I need to investigate what’s going on with Lucien.
The Rot isn’t open yet when I get there, but that doesn’t stop me. I knock on the heavy door and wait. When no one answers, I knock again.
Eventually, it cracks open, and Lars peers out at me. His eyebrows shoot up. “Sparkle?” He looks behind me like he expects someone else to be standing there, then back at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Wow. What a warm welcome.”
“No, I didn’t mean...” Lars shakes his head and opens the door farther. “Come in.”
The energy of The Rot is completely different without hundreds of bodies filling it.
The main lights are on instead of the colorful club lighting, and someone is cleaning behind the bar.
Ryan sits at one of the tables with his headphones around his neck and his laptop open in front of him.
He looks up, glances at Lars, then back at me.
“Oh. What’s up, kitty?”
I narrow my eyes. “Only Lucien gets to call me that.”
Ryan’s mouth drops open, and Lars makes a choking noise beside me. It takes two seconds for me to realize what I just said, and heat rushes into my face.
“Shut up. Both of you. Where’s Lucien?”
Their amusement fades so quickly that my stomach flips. Ryan looks at Lars before Lars finally answers.
“He had to take care of something.”
“What kind of something?”
Lars shrugs. “Demon shit.”
“He’s fine,” Ryan says, turning in his chair to face me. “Or he was last time we heard from him.”
My ears flatten. “When was that?”
“Yesterday.”
Okay. Yesterday is fine. Yesterday means Lucien hasn’t fallen into a demon volcano or been eaten by something horrible. Does the demon realm have volcanoes? Not important right now.
“When is he coming back?” I ask.
Lars shrugs. “Hopefully today.”
They both cringe. That does not sound good. I look around the empty club, then back at Lars. There’s no reason I have to stay here. I can go home and text Lucien like a normal person instead of lurking around his workplace waiting for him to magically appear.
“Can I wait?”
Both of them smile, and I immediately point at them. “Don’t.”
Ryan holds up his hands while Lars gestures toward the bar. “Want something to drink?”
“Yes, please.” I climb onto a stool and make myself comfortable.
Waiting is boring. I don’t know how Lucien sat in Wick’s for hours waiting for me because I’ve only been at The Rot for an hour, and I’ve already spun around on the barstool enough times to make myself dizzy.
Eventually, I help Lars restock the bar.
Then Ryan asks if I want to hear the new mix he’s working on, so I awkwardly wear his headphones and listen while he messes with something on his laptop.
After that, I wander around the club and look at things I’ve never really noticed when the place is packed.
I even go outside and stare at the building again.
Lucien really does need to repaint the fucking thing.
At least a repaint because everything’s starting to chip.
By the time the club opens, he’s still not back. I should leave, but I don’t. I have nowhere else I need to be.
That thought is still so fucking strange.
I don’t have to pick up Ferris. I don’t have to make dinner.
Mama doesn’t need me to deliver anything.
I’m off tonight. My apartment is mine, and no one is waiting for me there.
I can stay somewhere simply because I want to. And I want to see Lucien. So I stay.
The Rot fills around me as the night gets going.
I dance for a while, enjoying the music and letting the crowd distract me.
Eventually, Lars puts me to work behind the bar when they get busy, and I don’t mind.
I know how to mix drinks, and it gives me something to do besides looking toward the entrance every thirty seconds. Not that I’m doing that. Much.
A few more hours in and something sinks in my chest. Maybe he isn’t coming back today. Maybe I should’ve texted him. I can still text him, but what would I even say?
Hi, ridiculous demon. I’ve been sitting in your club for several hours because apparently I miss your face. Where are you?
Absolutely not.
I reach for another glass, but the air behind me snaps. Magic ripples across my fur, making my ears twitch, and I spin around.
Lucien stands several feet away.
For a second, I barely recognize him. His black hair is a mess. His clothes look like he’s been wearing them for days, and there’s dirt smeared across one side of his face. His shoulders sag, and even his tail looks tired.
Then his gaze lands on me, and he sucks in a breath. “Sparkle?”
My heart does something stupid. “Ah, there you are.”
Lucien blinks several times before looking at Lars, then Ryan, then back at me. “What are you doing here?”
I fight my smile. “Looking for you, obviously.”
Something changes in his face. The exhaustion is still there, but beneath it comes that beautiful smile.
“You missed me.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
“Four days, darlin’. You came looking for me after four days.” His smile gets bigger as he takes another step toward me.
I narrow my eyes. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No.”
The answer comes so quickly I laugh. Lucien takes a few more steps toward me, and that’s when I notice how slowly he’s moving.
“When did you last sleep?”
Lucien looks toward the ceiling instead of answering me, and my eyes narrow.
“Lucien.”
“Define sleep.” He huffs out a sad puff of air.
I come around the bar and grab his arm. He doesn’t even make a joke about me touching him, should worry me. “Come on. I’m putting you to bed.”
His tail immediately perks up.
“To sleep.”
It droops again, and I laugh as I pull him toward the stairs.
Lucien practically collapses onto the couch in his office. I stand in front of him with my hands on my hips while he sinks deeper into the cushions, looking like he might fall asleep before I get a single answer out of him.
“What happened?”
“Demon shit.”
I sit beside him, leaving a tiny little space between us. “You don’t have to tell me.”
For a few seconds, he doesn’t. Lucien rubs both hands over his face before letting them fall heavily into his lap. His tail curls around his ankle as he stares at the floor.
“I used to track people for the demon realm. I was very good at finding people who didn’t want to be found.”
Something about the way he says it tells me there’s more. “You don’t do it anymore?”
“Haven’t in more than forty years.”
“Why?”
Lucien shifts against the couch, his tired gaze moving toward me.
“I stopped liking what happened after I found them. Tracking was interesting. I liked the challenge. But eventually I realized I was finding people so someone else could drag them back and collect whatever they thought they were owed.”
“Souls?”
“Sometimes.”
I wrinkle my nose, and Lucien gives me a tired smile. “Exactly. So I left. Started The Rot. Built something that belonged to me instead.”
I look around his office, but I’m thinking about everything beyond it, too.
The ridiculous club downstairs. The hideous zombie paint job.
Ryan and Lars. The supernatural creatures filling the dance floor every night.
He didn’t just stop doing something he hated.
He built himself something else. A life. A family.
“You did what I did.” I turn toward him and tuck one leg beneath me. “You left the thing everyone expected you to do because you wanted your own life. Then you made one.”
His eyes stay on me long enough that I start getting uncomfortable. “You’re brilliant.”
Heat creeps into my cheeks. “I thought we were talking about you.”
“We were.” A faint smile pulls at his mouth. “Then you said something brilliant.”
I shove his shoulder, but he barely moves. Actually, his eyes close.
I snort and study the exhausted demon slumped beside me. “You need a nap.”
“I need twelve years of sleep.”
I get to my feet and point toward the couch. “Get comfortable.”
Lucien watches me suspiciously, but shifts until he’s stretched along the couch with his back against one arm. I grab a pillow from the other end and shove it behind him, adjusting it until he can lean back without looking like he’s about to snap his neck.
“There. Sleep.”
“And what are you going to do?”
I stare at him, wishing he hadn’t asked. This seemed a lot less terrifying when it was only an idea in my head. I haven’t done this with anyone outside my family in years. But it’s Lucien. And I want to.
“I thought you wanted to pet me.”
Lucien goes completely still. I’ve managed to shut him up, and I almost laugh at the look on his face.
“You...” His throat bobs. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I drop to my knees before I lose my nerve. Shifting comes as naturally as breathing. One moment I’m crouching in front of him, and the next I’m looking up at Lucien from much closer to the floor.
His mouth drops open, and he holds his breath.
I jump onto the couch with a little chirp escaping me and step onto his thigh. Lucien still doesn’t move. His hands are frozen in the air like he has no idea what he’s allowed to do with them, and his expression is so ridiculously sweet that some of my nerves disappear.
I turn around twice before curling into his chest.
Lucien makes a sound. Not a word. Just a sound.
I look up at him and hope he understands he can pet me.
His hand comes down slowly, giving me plenty of time to change my mind. His fingers slide between my ears. Oh, yes. That’s nice.
My eyes close before I can stop them as Lucien strokes over my head and then along my back. He’s gentle.A purr rumbles out of me, and his hand immediately stops. I crack open one eye. Lucien presses his lips together, obviously trying not to smile, so I swat his stomach with one paw.
His laugh rumbles beneath me, and I settle back down. He starts petting me again, scratching lightly between my ears before smoothing his hand along my back.
“You’re so fucking soft.”
I purr louder.
“Pretty kitty.”
I allow it.
His breathing gradually slows beneath me. The hand stroking my fur gets heavier and slower until eventually it comes to rest against my back. I lift my head and find Lucien asleep.
The exhaustion has finally eased from his face, and since he appeared downstairs, he looks peaceful.
I study him for a moment before putting my head back down.
Days ago, I told him I didn’t have room for romance.
Maybe I didn’t. But now I have an apartment that’s entirely mine.
I have mornings where no one needs me and evenings I can fill however I want.
Finally, my life has empty spaces. I thought they’d scare me.
Maybe some of them do. But curled up on Lucien while his hand rests warm against my back, one of those empty spaces doesn’t feel quite so empty anymore.
I close my eyes and settle deeper against him.
Maybe I have room for a ridiculous demon after all.