Nikolo
Not that it’s my problem as of… now. I watch the clock tick over on the till and let out an obnoxious whoop!
“I’m outta here guys, see you in four nights.” I taunt Lifo and Kai who are still stuck behind the bar.
They give me a middle finger salute goodbye and I tear outta the bar before I can get caught by any thirsty customers.
I’d feel guilty about leaving them when the place is nearing capacity, but I’ve been working back-to-back opens till close for the past week and a half, so I’ve earned the break.
And Mia, Stacey, and Colby are all out in the crowd tonight.
Because of the absolutely insane shifts I’ve been pulling, I haven’t been able to get anything done.
And with Kai working just as hard as I’ve been, our place is trashed, our fridge is dangerously dry, and the laundry is getting out of control.
But that’s not how I’m going to be spending my upcoming nights off.
Nope, my plans involve me, Willan, and seeing what kinda magic we can come up with. The literal kind and the euphemistic.
After weeks of seeing him nearly every day, I’ve only managed to see him twice—once for Finn’s three-month celebration at Hearts Gate and once when he came in with Finn and Bedeer for some drinks.
It’s the first time our clashing work and sleep schedules have become an issue and the lack of Willan in my life is starting to make me antsy.
Thoughts of Willan have me hightailing it to the staff room even faster, my freedom from work opening the floodgates to a rush of giddy anticipation of getting my hands on my phone where I have zero doubt that I’ll have messages from Willan waiting for me.
Sure enough, my phone starts buzzing when it turns back on. Ignoring everything else, I jump straight to opening our message thread. There’s already half a dozen messages from the five hours I’ve been at work.
Daily Vampire Update. [Vamp emoji] In the 12th century there was a ruler who gave up their crown and their kingdom for their secret vampire lover.
Emperor Piotrith of the Auzaheron Realm in Grezia fell in love with Gli, a vampire from Hedrana.
Grezia had virulent anti-vampire laws, and Gli was there as a peace envoy.
Piotrith abdicated their claim to the throne, denounced the country's laws and the pair fled the Realm. It’s said that the Emperor turned but ended up living alone in the mountains of the neighbouring realm in poverty as penance.
Well. That’s fucking depressing. I scroll on to the next message.
These pants are positively indecent, Nikolo.
A screenshot is attached, taken from a video he’s found online. I’d blame it on the angle, but yeah, those pants really are indecent considering they are actually just sheer black lace with a tiny pair of briefs underneath.
You should wear them next time we hang out [winky face emoji].
I bark out a laugh and quickly roll my lips over my teeth to smother my smile, quickly peeking over my shoulder to make sure no one has come into the staff room while I’ve been mooning over my phone.
I wait to reply till I get to the end of the messages, but make a mental note about the pants, and maybe think about what other fun things I could dress up in for Willan.
I have class in 10. It’s intermediates. [Eye roll emoji] The class is at that really annoying phase where they have enough skill to have confidence, but not enough experience to have caution. It’s a pain in the ass mix. Light a candle for me or something.
That was about an hour after I started my shift, so I’m surprised to see a message come through half an hour later. Usually his classes run for forty-five minutes at a minimum.
I knew it. I fucking knew it. The wind blew funny today, and I knew it was bringing something dodgy.
One of the idiots brought in a decayance charm and it broke.
In the middle of class. Tried to clean it up the best that I could, but they were useless to help and I didn’t want to risk Egbert getting infected so I was on my own.
Make that candle a sacrificial animal or something.
The smile drops from my face so fast my guts feel like they’ve dropped out of my feet.
Decayance charms are no joke. Made by beings for humans, they collect human illnesses.
Not only are they not terribly effective, they are also incredibly unstable—which is why they are rarely used.
The magic and the illness can also fuse, becoming a super infection that can affect humans and beings alike.
The next message was two hours ago.
Gods, it’s already starting. I can actually feel myself getting sick. Uuuuuuuuuuugh.
And then the last message isn’t a text at all. It’s a voice message.
“Hey.” A raspy voice slurs through my phone speaker and my stomach lurches to somewhere near my feet.
“Feel so shit. Tea’s not working. How did your mum make hers?
Need it. Was so good. Sorry. Shouldn’t ask, should I?
That was rude. Never mind. I’ll figure something—” The ramble drops off with a loud clatter.
I think he dropped his phone. I wait for him to continue, but there’s only a long silence and then some groaning and muffled sounds before the voice message cuts off.
I know exactly what tea he’s talking about.
It was my mum's ‘secret recipe’ that never failed to make me and the rest of the clan's kids feel better whenever any of us were feeling shitty.
She refused to tell anybody her secret, but I figured it out when I was twelve and she confirmed my suspicions.
With his tea obsession, Willan definitely already has most of the stuff I’ll need to make it, but I’ll need to make a quick trip to the twenty-four seven supermarket to get what I need. I’m out the door before I can think twice.
The supermarket didn’t have what I need, but I know who will.
Annoyed at having wasted my time, and still running on my anxiety about how bad Willan sounded in that voicemail, it doesn’t click to me until Kroy shuffles down the stairs, grumbling loudly about not having the time or patience for intruders, that I realise it’s 2 a.m. and I’ve woken him up.
“Somebody better be dying.” He grumbles, stumbling into the kitchen at the back of the shop where I’m ransacking his cupboards.
“They may be.” I answer, pulling a packet of crackers off the shelf. They are slightly too high and my hands are shaking so bad and I send a bunch of stuff tumbling. “Ah, shit. Sorry!”
“Gods’ tits, Nikolo. Calm down. What’s wrong?” Kroy rushes to help me pick everything up in a flurry of nightgowns. I stand back because I’m more harm than good. This quick detour is taking too long and I can feel myself panicking.
“Willan’s sick. A charm broke at the shop and now he’s all infected with whatever was inside.
He left me a voice message, and he sounds awful and he asked for my mum’s tea and I went to the shops but they didn’t have any of the right chocolate milk powder and I know you do so I came here, but I can’t find it and I’m sorry I woke you up. ”
Kroy stops dusting up the scattered cracker crumbs to look at me, his nose scrunched up as he tries to figure out what I’ve just spewed at him. I open my mouth to try to explain it some more, but he holds up his hand.
“Nope. I don’t think talking is gonna clear this up. You go sit down, and more importantly, calm down and I’ll get you a blood and your choco powder.”
“I don’t need a blood.” I pout but sit down in one of the chairs at the small dinette set in the kitchen.
“Yes. You do.” A strong hand grips my shoulder and a blood lands in front of me. Now that it’s in front of me, I’m suddenly starving and I drain half the bottle in one go. “Now, tell me what’s happened. Willan broke what kinda charm?”
“A decayance charm.”
Kroy cringes, even though he tries to hide it. He takes a second to fill the kettle and turn it on before he turns to look at me, eyeballing my bottle in a not-so-subtle hint to drink up.
Obeying will only make him hurry up, so I quickly uncap the bottle and chug down as much as I can. But with my anxiety to hurry this the fuck up, it’s hard to swallow it down.
Kroy watches close, humming with approval when I hold the brown glass up to the light to show it’s gone.
“You two still hanging out regular-like then? You seem like you’re getting close.” He folds his arms over his big chest, leaning against the counter with his ankles crossed like we have all the time in the fucking world, only raising an eyebrow at the disgruntle frown I give his relaxed stance.
“Yeah.” I try to keep the impatience out of my voice. “Yeah, we are. It’s been good. Really good.” The word isn’t anywhere enough to encompass how I actually feel, but I don’t have the right word for it.
Kroy returns to the table with a cup of something warm for himself and a cardboard box of choco milk powder. It’s the cheapest, nastiest chocolate milk powder on the market, but for those of us that grew up on it, it’s the best there is.
Settling into his seat, Kroy looks me over, wide awake now and apparently ready to chat.
“So you two are together now or what?”
All the blood I just drank diverts from my digestive tract to my cheeks. “We’re not not together.”
“Right.” Kroy raises his eyebrow and leans back, the chair creaking under him.
My leg bounces impatiently under the table, ready to leap up the moment I can.
“And what about your clan? You were pretty upset with just one of them on your turf.
What happens when being ‘friends’ with Willan invites the rest of ‘em to your doorstep?”
Kroy stirs his cup with a spoon and raises it to his lips, blowing on it gently before taking a sip, waiting for me to reply. It takes me a minute because not only does my first reaction shock me, when I take a beat to think about it, my second one does, too.