Chapter 5
five
. . .
I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked past the gorgeous displays in the front window on the way to the side alley. It was an amazing display. Almost distracted me from the yawning jaws of nothingness hanging right above my head.
“This is your shop?” Straldi asked, dropping in beside me.
I jumped and cringed away from him before I remembered his feelings. “You startled me. I don’t like being outside.” I hurried down the alley while he shadowed me. When I got to the door, my hands were shaking so hard that I dropped my keys.
He scooped them up before I got a chance and then nudged me to the side before he unlocked it and went in ahead of me, scanning the kitchen like he was looking for something suspicious. “It’s clear.”
“Yes, thanks. I need to get started on the Halloween display so it’s not quite so clear.
” I sighed heavily and put my stuff on the nearest counter then went to the fridge and started getting things out to make omelets.
When I was finished, I turned and handed a plate to Straldi then went past him and his tentacle beard to see what the damage was from the night before.
It wasn’t terrible. Roberta had picked up the slack like a trooper.
“You don’t have to cook for me,” Straldi said, following me into the main shop. He hissed and I turned to glance at him. He was staring up at my fifteen foot Marie Antoinette statue like it was a monster. He even held his fork like a weapon.
I shook my head slightly and continued to the stairs behind the checkout counter and went up to my office on the second floor. It took him some time to get over his awe and follow me.
The office had bulletin boards on all the walls with the next year’s displays in the planning stages. I’d wanted Halloween to be the most elaborate ever, but if I was going to be spending so much time with at Dorian’s club, I’d minimize everything and stick to basics.
“You made that abomination?” he asked, coming into my office.
I took a large bite of omelet and then went to my desk and opened my laptop. “You mean the Marie Antoinette statue? Yes. Would you mind sitting? Your pacing distracts me.”
He looked surprised, like he hadn’t realized he’d been moving.
He took a seat in one of the small, uncomfortable chairs with scrollwork on the arms while I focused on my paperwork.
How much could I pay Dorian without it cutting into my business growth?
That was a good number. How much could I pay him if I cut back in my business’s overhead as much as possible?
Profits would decrease, so it wouldn’t be sensible long-term, but at the same time…
“You’re just going to sit there looking at spreadsheets? Do you mind if I walk around the shop?” Straldi asked then took my empty plate along with his. “You seem secure here.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to go to…
” I took a second to swallow hard. The thought of leaving the shop again so soon was absolutely overwhelming.
“To the Den,” I finished with a smile before I refocused on my spreadsheets.
But I would go and meet the demon that may or may not be my own precious bundle of sweetness.
No one accidentally ripped out another person’s spine. Right?
“You do that. When does your shop open?”
“It’s closed until Tuesday when it’ll reopen with regular hours.
After opening a new display, everyone needs recovery time.
” I needed so much recovery time. I needed at least a month to think about the fact that demons were real, that Honey was a werewolf, and that my son, my sweet baby was being targeted by the Zombie Queen.
Zombies? Maybe two months just for that new reality, but no.
I had a few hours. I didn’t have time to panic. I had to get to work.
He left and I refocused, stopping to answer my phone when Catherine called me.
“Well?” she asked, sounding slightly nervous. She didn’t get spooked easily, but last night had been way too much for any sane person. Or crazy person.
I swallowed hard. “I’m not sure. He seems older than twelve, but I don’t really know how demons age.
Except that they live until they’re killed.
Like…forever.” That was still brain-melting.
I shook my head. "But he’s someone with wings, so maybe he knows others who are younger.
Dorian rescued him from the Zombie Queen, so maybe there are others like him. ”
“Demons? Zombie Queen? What are you talking about?” Her soft voice got an alarmed edge, like she was worried I’d finally truly cracked, and not just in a ‘can’t leave her house’ kind of way.
I blinked. Had she somehow missed the reality of monsters during last night’s epic trauma? Lucky girl. “Um. Nothing. It’s fine.” It wasn’t fine. It was so not fine, I couldn’t even begin. Thinking about that whole thing…Yep. I needed a few months to wrap my head around it. Instead I got hours.
“Will you tell him that he has a son? That was your ex in the fancy cosplay, right?”
I held my breath. Pain. So much pain. “Did you not see him? He has spikes coming out of his head which apparently means that he’s the king of demons. You don’t get knocked up by a demon king.”
She laughed. “Not personally, but I try not to judge other people’s choices.
Seeing him dressed up so elaborately, he kind of matched you.
He owns a fight club, and it’s weirdly themed, but your candy shop is equally over-the-top.
He might be sympathetic to your problems. I mean funding.
He could hire a whole slew of private detectives. ”
I winced. I hadn’t paid her for years. “I can pay you—”
“No, you can’t. You’re family, even if you don’t come visit. I can’t believe you left your house. I’m so proud of you.”
I wanted to climb under my desk and staple myself to it. “I’m still in shock about that. Also that I’m going back tonight.”
“Again? To find out for sure if he’s…”
“Also, I got a job there washing dishes. I’m going to pay off my debt while I investigate the demon.”
“Are you really going to work there, as in leave your house every single day? Will you be okay?”
No. I’d never be okay again, but what did okay mean, exactly? I put a hand on my stomach while my omelet thought about jumping up my throat. “It’ll be good for me to get more fresh air.” If it didn’t kill me. Or the monsters. Or Dorian.
“Right. Well, if it’s Wilkie, it’ll all be worth it, right?”
I nodded too fast and took a deep breath.
“Absolutely.” My stomach settled and I hung up with Catherine feeling better.
I had one priority: find my son. That’s the only thing that really mattered.
Dorian couldn’t be the center of my world, because he’d been displaced and there was no going back.
Thank heavens. I couldn’t survive another breakup like the last one.
I took a shower, dressed as normally as possible then set up a payment plan that would take fifteen years to pay off, including a ten percent interest that would squeeze my business, but not kill it.
I’d have some frugal years, but I didn’t have a ton of extra interests anyway.
Not like I went on vacation or, heaven forbid, travelled.
If Dorian wasn’t an actual personal threat to me, everything would be fine. Back in the day he’d been excellent company, almost painfully intelligent when I’d ask him about my homework, and he’d never approached me until after that unfortunate couple’s tea tasting.
It was on the lake in the Botanical Park’s Japanese gardens. It sounded so magical, cherry blossoms blooming during the elaborate outdoor tea tasting. I’d been frowning at the flier in the mostly empty dressing room when he walked by.
“Are you going?” His eyes were sharp, clever enough to catch the fine print on my paper.
He was also amused. He’d found my obsession with cherry blossoms more than slightly ridiculous, but he worked selling a fantasy so it didn’t bother him.
Most of the other girls had no patience for that or my other whimsical dance routines.
I sighed melodramatically. “It’s for couples.” I looked at my left hand and shook my head. “Alas, I am single. The universe curses me.”
“Alas. To be so cursed.” He tsked and continued walking.
Impulsively, I grabbed his left hand, spreading his fingers in mine while he raised a brow.
He didn’t dally with his dancers. I knew that.
I trusted that. He was a friend and a fair employer.
“You’re also cursed. Is there any way I could bribe you to go with me as my fake significant other?
” I wiggled my brows at him, trying to look as lecherous as possible.
He hesitated longer than usual. His comebacks were always quick, glib, clever. He looked down at our hands, still linked together. “No. You’d have to marry me for real. That is, I’d need a ring and a ceremony to show the depth of your devotion.”
I looked at the flier then up at him, biting my lip. I really wanted to go, and it would be so much better if he was there. “Hold on a second.” I ripped an edge off the paper and in five seconds had a paper ring that I slipped around his finger.
He raised an expressive brow. “And the ceremony?”
“Will you, Dorian, swear your life to me for the duration of one afternoon?”
“Until my paper ring breaks, I do.” He grabbed a shiny gum wrapper from the dressing table, rolled it into a band and slipped it on my finger. “Will you, Cherry Blossom, swear your life to me for the duration of one afternoon?” His eyes were dancing with amusement while he held my hand.
My heart beat faster than the first time I’d gone on stage in my bumble bee costume for my very first show there. “I do. Until my gum wrapper band breaks.”
He’d kissed my hand, sending a shaft of bewildering awareness through me. “I’ll pick you up at two.”