Chapter 8 #2
“I know, right?” Donna dumped the cards out on the kitchen island to lie face down. Sexy Bela Lugosi was on the back of each one.
“Okay,” she told Alexander. “Shuffle.”
Alexander gathered the cards into a clumsy stack and shuffled them. It was so awkward it made Tobias wonder if he ever played card games with his family.
“Now think of a question to focus the reading,” Donna said, scooching forward on her stool.
“A question,” Alexander repeated. “About what?”
“Anything! Career? Family? Romance?” She propped her chin on her hands, watching him expectantly.
Alexander set the cards down in a mostly neat pile. “I have something important to do soon. Is it going to work out?”
“Okay, pick three cards and put them face down on the counter.”
Alexander picked the first three cards off the top and laid them down, lining the corners up perfectly.
Tobias felt a pang of fondness, imagining him smoothing down the bed after they woke up in the morning.
He’d never seen Alexander’s bedroom before.
He wanted to know how he kept his sheets.
What kind of detergent he used. If he snored or cuddled or had night terrors.
More than anything, he wanted the chance to find out. He wanted their grudging alliance to turn into something bigger. He wanted to drag Alexander off the narrow path he was so dead-set on, and show him how big the world could be.
Donna rubbed her hands together. Despite her pristine press-on nails, her hands were more chapped and scarred than Tobias would have expected. He supposed it made sense, given all her crafty hobbies.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do the past first.”
She slapped the first card over. It showed a sexy Pinhead looming large in the frame, holding the puzzle box over his groin. The card was upside down.
“The Emperor,” Donna said. “Reversed. Okay, so this card suggests there used to be this domineering power surrounding you that maybe wasn’t the most healthy.”
Tobias bit his cheek. Yikes.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant to my question,” Alexander said icily.
Donna shrugged. “It’s open to interpretation. Maybe you had a shifty teacher or religion or your family wasn’t the best, and that’s what’s leading to that scenario you’re worried about.”
“They were great,” Alexander said. “Everything was great.”
Donna met Tobias’s eyes so briefly he almost thought he was imagining things. Then she smiled again, softer this time.
“Good to hear, Al,” she said.
Alexander’s hand twitched against the kitchen island.
Tobias paused. Then he slid his hand over Alexander’s cold skin, squeezing when he jumped.
“He doesn’t actually love being called Al,” Tobias said lightly.
Donna paused, her hand hovering over the middle card. “Really? I thought it was cute. I had a cousin called Al, he was the best. Okay, no more Al. Now! Present card!”
She slapped the middle card over. It showed a sexy Frankenstein straddling an autopsy table on a lone hillside.
“The Hermit, upright,” Donna said. “This guy means you gotta do some soul-searching. Alone or with a small group of people you trust, you gotta get really deep into the ol’ Al—I mean Alex. If you tune into yourself, listen to what you really want, you’ll get the answers you need.”
“I already have the answer,” Alexander said. “But alright.”
Donna laughed. “That’s what I always liked about you, Alex. You’re so self-assured. But you’re not very curious. Tarot is all about wondering what you should do. If you already know the answers, what’s the point? Gotta open yourself up, my Hermity friend.”
She took a deep breath, clasping her hands together as she homed in on the last card.
“Okay. Future card.” She spun it around and set it on the counter with a hard smack.
Alexander and Tobias leaned over it.
A smirking hunter stared back at them. He had a leather jacket and a crossbow and not much else, and he looked vaguely familiar from a Hugh Jackman movie Tobias had watched as a kid.
“Justice,” Donna announced. “You’re going to be judged. Something you’ve done in your past is going to come back, and it’s time to account for your actions.”
“I already know that.” Alexander sat back, pulling his hand out of Tobias’s grip. “Is it going to tell me something I don’t already know?”
Silence stretched through the kitchen. Donna met Tobias’s gaze again, her teeth bared in an uncertain smile, like she wasn’t sure if now was the time to crack a joke.
“I mean,” Alexander said, forcing his shoulders back down. “Thank you. For that. I’ve never had a tarot reading before.”
Donna gathered the cards. “Well, I’m glad it was me. Otherwise you would be snapping at some college girl at a house party.”
“I didn’t snap,” Alexander said.
Donna talked over him, slotting the cards back into the sexy Dracula box. “It’s fine! I get yelled at all day, getting a little Alex snap is nothing. Remember that lady with three kids who made Brenda cry? She yelled at me three times as long, didn’t get one tear out of me.”
“That lady was being deeply irrational,” Alexander said. He turned to Tobias. “She insisted we were short-changing her on a pack of nuggets.”
“Oh shit,” Tobias said. “Were you?”
“No,” Alexander said.
“Probably,” Donna corrected. “I don’t count those things during the dinner rush.
Just grab a handful and shove ’em in there.
Guess she got the short stick. Doesn’t mean she gets to make Brenda cry over it, especially during exam season when she was one bad customer away from breaking at all times. I had to send her home early.”
Tobias scratched his mouth to hide a smile.
Donna sounded so protective for a second.
He’d gotten the vibe that she didn’t much care about the people under her management unless they provided her some form of entertainment, but that sounded like she looked out for them.
Especially when he considered how excited she was about Alexander bagging ‘Hot Hoodie Guy.’ He’d assumed it was just because of the gossip fodder, but maybe she just wanted Alexander to have good things.
Tobias was honored to be included in the list.
Donna tucked the tarot card pack into her bra. “Those bullets should be cool soon. You know what that gives us time for?”
“What?” Alexander asked warily.
Donna bounced on to her seat, their lemonade glasses rocking with the force of her chair knocking the counter.
“My cosplay,” she cried. “Wait here, I’ll go put it on. And you can’t call me a dork, you’re the one getting your manager to make you genuine silver bullets to make your manga cosplay more ‘authentic.’”
“Sounds great,” Tobias called as she raced out of the room. He turned to Alexander, grinning helplessly. “Dude, she’s awesome. You should hang out with her more often.”
“She’s definitely interesting,” Alexander said. He was watching the doorway with an inscrutable expression. “She’s different than I thought.”
“Hidden depths,” Tobias murmured.
Alexander hummed, took an efficient drink of pink lemonade, and hopped off his stool. “You distract her. I’ll steal the roof key. Where do you think she has it?”
“Handbag,” Tobias said. “Nightstand. Accidentally melted into a bullet.”
“Let’s hope not. It has to be pure silver.” Alexander hesitated.
Tobias waited. He could hear Donna upstairs, cursing as she struggled into whatever cosplay she was about to unleash on them.
“What is it?” Tobias asked.
“Nothing.” Alexander smoothed his shirt again. It was the shirt he’d been wearing when Tobias stabbed him, stitched up at the shoulder with barely visible white thread. If Tobias didn’t know the hole was there, he wouldn’t even notice it.
Finally Alexander said, “Werewolves can’t smell things like that.”
It took a moment for that to click.
“Oh, you mean the kiss.” Tobias grinned wider and leaned in until he heard Alexander’s breath hitch. “Wanna bet?”
“No,” Alexander said, and turned sharply on his heel.
Tobias was still chuckling to himself when Donna burst in, dressed in a surprisingly well-made Sailor Moon outfit.
“Ta-da,” she yelled. Then she paused, fixing the tiara that had gone lopsided when she ran in. “Where’s Alex?”
“Bathroom,” Tobias said. He gestured to the Sailor Moon getup. “Nice. Which one are you?”
“One of the gay ones,” she replied. Then, at Tobias’s frown: “They were cousins in the English dub, but they were girlfriends in the Japanese version.”
“Oh. Cool.” Tobias did the little hand poses that he vaguely remembered from the show, crossing his arms over each other.
She did it back at him, beaming.
Tobias forced back a trickle of guilt. Sure, they were technically using her for silver bullets and roof access to Burgers N’ Beats. But they weren’t only using her. Maybe they could be friends after this.
If Alexander didn’t run off with his family.
If both of them even survived this. Alexander might think his future was solid, but Tobias’s was shifting under his feet.
Donna dropped the hand poses and leaned next to him against the kitchen island. Some of her manic energy was gone now that Alexander wasn’t around.
“Glad you two finally gave it a shot,” she told him. “Alex has this vibe of, like…if everything finally went according to plan, then he could relax. But nothing’s ever gone to plan, so he can’t.”
Tobias laughed, trying not to let it turn bitter. “I think you got it in one, Donna.”
She shrugged. “It’s better when you’re around. When he doesn’t know I’m watching, anyway. You make him calm. Make him forget all that shit he’s lugging around. It doesn’t last long, but I totally saw it.”
Tobias tried desperately to come up with something funny to say to that. But his throat was suddenly the size of a pinhole, thinking back on every smile Alexander had hastily tried to hide after Tobias coaxed it out of him.
He could be good for Alexander. If Alexander fucking let him.
Alexander’s heady scent intensified. Tobias straightened, turning to watch Alexander walk back into the kitchen with his hands in his pockets.
Donna flung out her arms. “Man of the hour! Find everything okay?”
Alexander didn’t even blink at her Sailor Moon costume. He was too busy watching Tobias, his face flushed in triumph that caught like a wildfire.
“Yes,” Alexander said simply. “I found it.”