Chapter 9
Nine
Codie
It'd been three days since I went over to Pythor's place.
I hadn't done it again, but he'd come over twice since, once for a class, and then again yesterday evening because he'd texted me to say the soup I was making smelled delicious, and I'd invited him over for dinner.
He'd arrived with a box of cookies—made by one of his brothers, he'd explained—and we'd eaten potato soup—my mom's recipe, and a comfort food of mine—in front of the TV while Hella snoozed at our feet.
Spending time with Pythor was easy and comfortable, and for once I wasn't spending all my days painting.
Like right now, instead of working on my current project, I was looking through the security feed of last week like a stalker weirdo.
There were clips of Pythor and I playing catch with Hella that I loved watching again and again, but most of the recordings just had Pythor going to and from his house.
I came upon the one of him coming over yesterday, and I stopped to watch the whole thing since I hadn't seen this one yet.
My brows furrowed as I watched him climb down the three steps empty-handed. Where were the cookies he'd shown up with? Had he gone over to his brother's to pick them up first?
Before I could check the timestamp, he stopped in the middle of the street, a scowl on his face as he pulled his phone out and stared at it for a moment before typing something. Then he stuck his phone in his pocket and held his hands out, palms up. What the hell?
A second passed, and suddenly, there was the box of cookies, sitting in his hands. Seriously, what the hell?
I played it back, eyeing the timestamp to make sure the video wasn't skipping ahead for some reason, but nope. The box seemed to appear out of thin air.
As I watched it again and again, it clicked that this wasn't the first time it'd happened. I remembered the paintbrushes and notepad I'd waved off as a glitch in the recording, and went back to search for those videos so I could watch them again.
After I'd seen them all one by one, it was clear something was up. They'd all appeared out of thin air, and it wasn't a glitch in the video. But then what else could it be, magic?
Magic wasn't real, was it? Was Pythor, my neighbor, self-defense instructor, and friend a... what, a witch?
I eyed Hella, who was spread out over the rest of the couch, and wondered if she was his familiar or something. But weren't those usually black cats?
I shook my head, rolling my eyes at my steadily declining thoughts. I hoped this wasn't just some big hallucination my broken mind had come up with.
Should I confront Pythor, or ignore the whole thing? What if I told him, and he acted like I'd made up the whole thing? What if I had, and he decided I was crazy and never wanted to see me again?
I watched the videos again, sure I wasn't imagining what I was seeing. The notepad, pen, paintbrushes, and the box of cookies had appeared out of nowhere.
Maybe I needed a second opinion, to make sure I wasn't crazy. But if I showed these to Nessa, and if I really wasn't imagining things, she would want to know what Pythor was too, wouldn't she?
I had a feeling that whatever he was—and it was strange to think of him as anything but human, because how could there be anything else?—had to be a secret. What if telling Nessa put her in danger? I couldn't do that to her, or Alia.
Nope, I had to keep it to myself, crazy as the whole thing was.
I didn't know if I would even ask Pythor. Did it really matter what he was, as long as he was my friend?
I couldn't deny that I was curious. If he really had magic, what else could he do? Could he snap his fingers and make me better, or was that too much to expect?
Shaking my head, I clicked my tablet off and decided to put a pause to my musings before they got any crazier.
"Come on, Hella. Let's make some art," I said as I got to my feet, and Hella hopped up quickly, following at my heels as I went into my studio.
Instead of working on my latest commission, or that painting, I grabbed a roll of thick paper and spread it on the floor. Then I grabbed some pet-safe paint I'd ordered last week, and colored Hella's paws.
She seemed to understand her mission instantly, and she jumped onto the paper before dancing all over it. I added different colors to her paws in between, but mostly watched her go crazy until every inch of white was covered.
When we were both satisfied with our work, I carried her into the bathroom and helped her wash off so she wouldn't leave colorful pawprints everywhere. Then I toweled them dry as she waited patiently like the goodest girl she was.
Once she was clean and dry, we went back to the studio, where I found a frame in the right size and eyed our masterpiece. I had to wait for it to dry before I could frame it, but I thought it would make an excellent gift for Pythor.
"What do you think, Hella? Will he like it?"
She gave a loud 'woof' as her tail wagged rapidly, and I grinned, then leaned down to kiss the column of her snout before booping her nose.
"You're such a sweetheart, aren't you? Yes, you are. I love you so much," I murmured, giving her another kiss before standing up.
"Come on, let's make some lunch while it dries. We'll give it to Pythor when he comes over for class tomorrow."
Pythor
After the delicious soup I'd eaten the day before yesterday, I was wondering how I could finagle another dinner invitation from my mate.
He was a great cook, and I'd wanted to taste his food ever since I moved here and had to smell it every day without ever getting the chance to taste it.
It was one of the many things that'd driven me crazy when it came to Codie, but now made me like him more.
We had another class today, so after I was finished with my classes at the center, I went home, freshened up, had some lunch, and then went over to Codie's.
Since he didn't need Nessa to join us anymore, we'd started doing them during the week so he could hang out with her and her daughter on the weekends.
I was planning to start teaching him how to get out of holds today, and I had a feeling it wouldn't be easy.
I wasn't sure if he trusted me enough yet to allow me to put him in that position, and I was thinking I might have to invite Nessa or one of my demon friends to help me with the demonstrations if Codie didn't feel comfortable.
"Hey," he said as he opened the door, and I smiled at it.
He had his overcoat on, though he'd left it open to reveal the black sweatpants and soft blue t-shirt he wore underneath.
He seemed to use the coat as a security blanket of sorts, and I wondered if there was a specific reason for it or if he just liked the way it felt.
"Hi," I said as I stepped inside, watching as he closed and locked the door, turning in all three of the locks. "Ready to get started?"
"Yeah," he said, but sounded a little distracted, and I paused, taking a moment to scan his face.
"Everything okay?"
Codie blinked, then glanced up at me with a furrow between his brows. His curls looked especially wild today, a few strands falling into his face as he pushed them back.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he mumbled, clearly lying through his teeth, and I bit back a sigh. I couldn't start a session like this, but I also couldn't force him to tell me what was wrong.
Hella's bark broke the tense moment, and Codie glanced toward the hallway her voice had come from before blinking rapidly. "Oh, right. We made something for you. Wait here," he said before hurrying away, and I walked over to lean against the back of the couch as I waited for him to come back.
He reappeared a few moments later with a framed painting in his hand. It was facing him so I couldn't see what was on it, but both he and Hella looked very happy with it.
"Here. We made this for you. Your living room looked a little... bare, so I thought this would add some color," he said, trailing off shyly as he thrusted the painting toward me.
Taking it from him, I got my first good look at it, and my eyes widened. It was an explosion of color, with pawprints upon pawprints in every color under the sun. Over the background of colorful pawprints, Codie had written 'Paws Bring Peace' in a lovely calligraphy script.
"Codie, this is beautiful. You made this for me?" I asked, far too stunned to act casual.
My mate nodded, and I gave him a wide smile before looking back at the painting. "Thank you. This is... it's beautiful. It will look great on my wall."
"I'm glad you like it."
I took a few more minutes to admire it before leaning it against the wall near the door so I could take it home with me. Then I turned back to Codie, raising a brow at him. "Are you ready to get started now?"
He nodded quickly, and I decided talking over today's plans before we got started would be good. It would also help me gauge if Codie was truly ready for this.
We cleared space in his living room like usual and took our spots, Hella watching from the sidelines. She was good about stepping closer only when Codie started getting too anxious.
"Today, we're going to focus on getting out of holds.
Like I've said before, fighting is always the last resort.
Your first priority should be to run away," I said, and Codie nodded.
Like everyone I taught, he was probably growing sick of hearing me say that, but I'd learned that more humans picked fight over flight when they had no business trying to fight off an attacker, and I'd rather say it too many times than not enough.
I talked about the holds we'd be practicing today, describing each step so he wasn't taken by surprise. As I talked though, I realized his mind was somewhere else, and he was paying no attention to what I was saying.
I stopped speaking, and he didn't realize it.
"Codie?"
He jumped, then gave me a guilty look. "Sorry."
"What's on your mind? You can talk to me, you know."
He stared at me for a long moment before he seemed to make a decision, nodding to himself as he started searching the room for something.
"I need to show you something," he said as he spotted whatever it was and walked over to a cabinet.
"Okay," I said as he walked over to me, tablet in hand.
He stood at my side, close enough that I could feel the heat of his body against my skin, and I focused on the tablet screen as he flicked around with practiced precision.
He scrolled through a folder of videos before finding the one he was looking for. He hit play, and it took me only a moment to realize what it was.
It was the feed from his security camera, the one whose existence I'd forgotten about.
I resisted the urge to swear as I watched myself stop in the middle of the street and wait for the cookies to appear—Eshim had texted me he was sending some, and I hadn't had time to go back to my place to wait for it—in my hands a moment later before merrily making my way to Codie's place.
Shit. How could I have forgotten about the cameras? I'd been inside Codie's house and seen the live feed multiple times. How could I have been so stupid?
"Can you explain this?" Codie asked, and I knew I was royally, epically fucked.