Chapter 13
North
The entire afternoon, I sit patiently at the table.
I can be patient.
I don’t like it, but I can do it.
And for her… For her, I’ll exercise restraint. Because I know once I have her, it’ll be far more satisfying than however excruciating the wait is.
I managed to convince Jasmine into bringing out any games she had in the back and playing a few rounds with me.
While reluctant and swearing she needed to get work done at first, a little nudge was all she needed.
Most people are looking for any excuse to get out of the things they should be doing, especially when the promise of fun is going to be right in front of them whether they choose to participate or not.
Juniper kept coming by the table as we played a game of Scrabble, bringing by drinks and snacks as if she needed an excuse to come over.
The entire game, she kept bending over by Jasmine and suggesting words, and each time I tilted my head to get a better look at her, she’d throw a smirk at me as if she was doing it on purpose.
I can’t fucking wait to get my hands on her. She’s quickly depleting every ounce of willpower I have.
When we move to a game of Jenga, however, a group of golfers come into the bar. Juniper gives me a sulking look as they all sit down on the stools, and I chuckle softly as she has to put on her customer service voice and be polite.
“Does she need backup?” I ask Jasmine.
Jasmine glances back and snickers. “Juni rarely needs help. Keep an eye on it, though. Sometimes these groups get handsy.”
I shift in my seat at the thought and catch Jasmine grinning my way.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing. Just… Wow, this explains the ice yesterday,” she says, eyes lighting up like she just put two things together.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Yesterday, a couple of guys came in that were staring at her hard, trying to flirt. They fell on an ice sheet outside and their cars were covered, so they said. But when I went out there, it was puddles,” she replies.
I clench my teeth to keep from smiling too hard. “Unsurprising. Maybe they should have kept their eyes on their own business,” I say, knowing full well that if Blaze’s magic was stronger, the men themselves would have been frozen statues just for looking at her.
An entire town was lost the last time he fell for a human.
“You and Nick are not how I pictured the brothers,” Jasmine says, carefully moving one of the Jenga blocks.
The tower wobbles slightly, and we both hold our breaths waiting for it to come down. Yet, after a moment of uncertainty, it remains.
“Did you expect forked tongues and horns?” I ask as I peruse the tower for my next move.
“Honestly, yes,” she replies.
I’m biting my tongue as I carefully shift one from the middle. “Perhaps that’s one of our forms.”
“You can change?”
“There are a number of things we can do that would have mortals scurrying for the hills.”
“So, Juni doesn’t know,” she says, brow lifted.
“No.”
“Will you tell her?”
“Eventually.” I slide the block out without it teetering and smirk at Jasmine when she glares across the table.
“I think you’re cheating,” she says.
“I would never.”
“Is she accusing you of cheating?” I hear Juniper ask as she approaches us.
Her cheeks are fully flushed from the warmth of the heaters and moving around the bar and kitchen now. It makes the shimmer on her cheekbone more prominent, a faint shadow of her bleeding mascara at the very corners of her eyes—a preview of the way it’ll look after I’m done with her later.
“Of course he’s cheating. Look at him. Look at that smile,” Jasmine says, pushing out her chair. “I’d be more concerned if he was playing by the rules.”
“I don’t like being restrained,” I reply
“Hm. I do,” Juniper says, and as our eyes meet, my mouth dries.
I think I would be happy simply wallowing in her shadow if that’s all she ever offered me.
“And with that, I’m going to go check on some things. Juni, you’re tagged in. Take five,” Jasmine says, standing
Juniper snickers softly as Jasmine pats her on the shoulder and slips around to take over behind the bar. I slouch in the seat slightly and gently slap the top of my thigh.
“Can I offer you a more comfortable chair? Thigh? Lap? Face?” I ask her.
“I don’t think my regulars would like seeing their bartender being handled in the middle of dinner,” she replies as she sinks her ass into the seat.
“I assure you, they would all very much love to see that,” I tell her.
Juniper shakes her head at me before considering the Jenga tower.
“My dad and I used to play this on Christmas Eve,” she says, brows narrowing as she decides her move.
“He loved games. We’d open one present, have Chinese for dinner, and play games until I passed out in the living room.
.. What in the hell was Jasmine’s strategy here? ” she adds, nose curling.
I love that.
“I wondered the same,” I reply, sitting forward in the chair. “What other games would you play?”
“Ah… we played Scrabble a lot. Card games. Jenga…” She bites the inside of her mouth as she gently pushes on a block. “Just normal family shit.”
The same sadness that was in her eyes at sunrise is there now.
It makes me clench my jaw, disturbed by the fact that I’m suddenly very interested in the reason for her sorrow.
I want to ask if he’s the reason she screams at the sun, why he’s no longer in her life, if it was something sudden or a slow progression of a sickness no one could do anything about.
Or perhaps they simply had a falling out.
I’ve never felt the need to show interest in any human’s life. I’ve never wanted to.
But that look in her eyes…
“Do you and Nick have any Christmas traditions?” she asks.
It’s a quick change in the subject, making sure the conversation about her father dies and shifts to me instead.
I leave it.
“No, not really,” I answer. “Christmas was never our playground. Winter solstice, though… That was our favorite. When we were kids, we made these ornaments out of sticks from the woods to hang on the trees along the path.”
I’m trying to find the words to tell her without giving away the whole truth. The icicles we’d decorate the trees with, the snow and crystals we’d leave the villagers, the symbols we left in the sand for children to find so they could brag that they’d encountered the Brothers.
“Of course, this year, we may have to do something even more spectacular,” I say, and she frowns at me.
“Why?”
“To celebrate your birthday.”
Juniper groans. “Ugh. I forgot I told you that.”
“You don’t celebrate your birthday?” I ask.
“It isn’t that I don’t. I’ve just never been able to because it’s on the day of the festival and so close to Christmas,” she says, and I can tell by her tone that it’s a touchy subject.
“That can change,” I say.
She smiles as if she doesn’t believe me. “I’m thirty-two years old. I’m used to the date getting brushed over to celebrate something else. Nothing needs to change.” She pushes out another block, lays it in her pile, and then scoffs so loudly that I almost burst out laughing.
“How exactly did we get on this subject anyway? I thought you would be the ‘fuck first, never ask questions’ type,” she says, face furled in disgust.
I clutch my chest, feigning distress. “I’m hurt. How could you think I’m so shallow?”
She lifts her brows expectantly. “Am I wrong?”
I don’t reply, and instead choose one of the blocks that I know will collapse the entire tower.
“No, wait—”
She launches across to try and stop me, but she isn’t fast enough. The blocks crash onto the table, scattering across Jasmine’s books and the basket of fries Juniper had left on the table earlier.
A man a few tables away begins a slow clap, and Juniper shoots him a glare that could easily make someone reconsider every decision they’ve ever made.
“Damn. I guess I’m not as good at this as I thought,” I say.
“Or you’re just avoiding my question,” Juniper suggests.
“Like you’re avoiding mine?” I counter.
We stare at one another for at least twenty seconds, and in those seconds, I feel as if the rest of the room is melting away.
“How long before your shift is over?” I ask.
“An hour,” she replies, voice hoarse.
“The most agonizing hour I’ll ever experience,” I sulk.
“Who said you’d get any relief after?”
There’s a coy smile erasing whatever dejection might have been in her eyes a few moments earlier. It spreads and dilates her eyes, darkening them to the point that I’m forcing myself to sit still and not shift. My cock twitches under her stare.
“You’re going to make sure I’m out of air before you save me from drowning, aren’t you?” I ask.
The corner of her lip rises higher. “On the verge of death.”
I blow out a jagged breath and begin gathering up the Jenga blocks. “Vixen,” I taunt her.
She huffs amusedly as she stands to go back to work. “Do you need anything?”
“You.”
Her head shakes, and she backs away from me without another word.
I’m in pain, watching her finish her shift.
By the time she starts her shift-end duties, I’m already gathering her coat and mine at the door. She’s telling the guys at the bar that she’s out for the day when I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket.
Blaze
How’s it going? Is she okay?
Of course he has to check in.
You and I are no longer friends.
Why? What did I do?
Because you’re the reason I’m in distress right now.
I can hear my brother’s laughter in the breeze.
Excellent.
How is your magical rediscovery going? Back to your glorious self yet?
In time. I’ve been reading the Codex again.
Of course you have.
Remind me what it says about humans? That we’re banned from doing exactly what we’re doing right now?
Yes.
Fantastic.
Sign me up for banishment and eternal torment with you then because I’m fucked.
I’ll put your name on the list.
Take care of her.
I will if she’ll let me.