Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
OTIS.
Gods below, it was hard to drag myself away from Clem’s gorgeous sleeping little bod in the bed next to me this morning.
For a few moments, I lie there, staring at her reverently, recalling the events of last night, while my cock obligingly tents the sheet.
On one level it’s hard to imagine it really happened, but on another, what happened between us seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
My attraction to Clem is off the charts, but so is my level of ease around her.
I recall the cozy chat we had after our mind-blowing make-out. She asked what my week looked like and I explained that I’d have to work evenings and weekends, but also that I would be visiting my mom in a couple of days.
“I’d like to meet your mom,” she said softly.
I squinted down at her. “You would?”
“Yes, I’d really love to.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.
“I’ll be baking her a cake after work tomorrow.”
“I could help you.”
We laughed. “You just want to steal my recipes.”
“Sprung.” She giggled. We were silent for a moment.
“Thank you,” I murmured, holding her close. “I’d like that.”
And that was my last memory before we both drifted into sleep.
Now I cast one more glance at her silken hair on the pillow, the rest of her snuggled under the quilt, before reluctantly tiptoeing to the shower with the hard-on from hell, where I freeze it into oblivion under jets of ice-cold water.
After I’ve dried myself, I quietly go back to my own room and dress in my sheriff’s uniform.
I don’t have breakfast, don’t even grab a coffee.
I’ll get one my way to work, I reason. I do, however, scribble a note for Clem on a scrap of paper, and leave it on the mattress next to her, with a flower picked from the front porch.
She doesn’t even stir. I guess a bout of Labyrinth overwhelm followed by rampant sex might just have exhausted her.
I don’t go directly to work.
Instead, I head for Digger’s Diner and grab a coffee. “Have you got time to take Clem to the markets?” I ask Tippy as she hands me my regular double shot, with chocolate sprinkles and one sugar.
“I’ll check if Digger is okay with me taking a break. But if so, sure, I’d love to.”
Grabbing my coffee, I stride back out to my jeep and drive toward the huge portal elevators on the outer edge of level one. I know exactly where Jax will be, in his little office next to the loading station.
Already this morning there’s a queue of trucks lined up, full of goods from other levels to be checked off.
Ten lifts for all ten levels, all with different products.
There are other peripheral supervisors, one on each level, but Jax is in charge of them all and everything gets a final check here.
Sometimes real Jax and holographic Jax are pretty much in the same place. Now is one of those times.
I shiver as I realize how many truckloads are coming from level six. The munitions factory.
A few blank-faced humans are guiding them into the huge portal elevators.
There’s very little conversation. They don’t even glance at me; I’m of no interest to them.
When I stride into his office, Jax is sitting with his boots up on his desk, vaping.
He glances up and raises a brow as I walk in. “How’s my sis?”
“Could be better.”
He sits straighter and has the grace to look concerned.
“She got a bad case of Labyrinth overwhelm yesterday.”
“Ah, shit, is she okay now?”
“Yep, she’s okay.”
“You helped her through it then?”
“Yeah, I did my best.” Feeling my face flushing, I turn away and watch the portal elevators being fed with containers until I’ve composed myself. Then I face Jax and say brusquely, “Why haven’t you told her?”
He lifts a lazy eyebrow. “Told her what?”
“You know what. Stop acting dumb.”
He stiffens, his features hardening. “She knows I work for monsters now. That’s enough.”
“She wants the whole story Jax, she’s sick of you side-stepping. And what’s more, I fucking agree with her.”
“Wow, you’re into the deep and meaningfuls already, are you? How cozy,” he sneers.
I grind my molars. Jax can be a real prick at times.
“Stop deflecting. You need to tell her what happened to you,” I growl.
Jax glowers at me. “She’s trying to find her feet, she doesn’t need any more shit to process.”
“It’s worse for her not knowing.”
Jax fingers his vape. “Ignorance is bliss.”
“For fuck’s sake man, she knows something’s weird about you.”
He barks a laugh. “She’s always known I’m weird.
But what you don’t know, ‘cos you don’t know our story, is that Clem worshipped me when we were kids and I—I fucked all that up when I got into trouble with the authorities.
She had no mom, then Dad got sick and died, and then she had no brother either.
She had to shoulder everything herself because I was stuck in a fucking school for delinquents.
She doesn’t need all the sordid details. ”
“She’ll love you regardless.”
“Really?”
We stare at each other. Not sure how to respond to his tirade, I segway. “Clem told me there’s no proof your mom is dead. That she just disappeared one night.”
“Mom would never leave her kids. Not by choice. You understand me?” His face darkens, and I see one hand fist on his thigh. “I let Clem believe Mom might be alive somewhere, because she needs to hold onto hope.”
“Perhaps you should hold onto hope too.”
“Yeah, right.” Jax sneers. “I could believe in unicorns and happy ever afters. But you know what? I learned a long time ago that none of that shit exists.” He places his vape between his lips and inhales raggedly.
I remain silent, thinking. Maybe Jax has a point?
My mom steadfastly believes that our dad is still alive. That he’ll come back to us. And yet, she’s given up on living, hasn’t she? She barely talks, and sits staring out of the window. Just waiting… patiently waiting.
My siblings are scattered around the Labyrinth, refusing to face the truth. Our family is shattered, a shell of what it used to be.
Maybe giving up on hope is the right thing to do. To close the door, so that you can move on with your life.
Dang it. Grief is so fucking complicated.
Who am I to give advice?
I pull myself together.
I came here to insist Jax tells Clem everything. He may not be the perfect kid she grew up with, but he is still very much alive. And he’s all the family she has left.
“You’ve got a sister who cares about you,” I grit out. “One who wants to spend time with you, and who won’t judge your sorry ass for anything in your past. Frankly, in my opinion, Clem is way too fucking good to be your sister.”
Jax’s brows arc up at my vehement tone.
We stare at each other for long moments.
“I’ll give you forty-eight-hours,” I grit out as I head for the door, “and then I’m telling her myself.”
CLEM.
When I wake up, I immediately sense something is different.
And then the memories flood back into my brain, and I reach out to feel for Otis in the bed. My brows pleat when I find the space next to me is empty. I sit up and see there’s a note, and a flower pinned to it, on the vacant side of the mattress.
My heart patters as I pick it up.
Didn’t want to disturb your slumbers.
Muesli and fresh squeezed orange juice in the fridge.
Tippy may come over to take you to the markets.
I’ll be home midday to bake that cake.
O.
He’s left a smiley face with two horns. And two kisses.
My heart turns to gloop in my chest.
Who would have thought it? From a barren wasteland, my love life has suddenly burst into bloom.
Love? I roll the word around in my head.
Don’t be ridiculous, Clem, it’s been two days since you met the guy.
And yet… the attraction between us is so strong on so many levels, it’s literally sweeping me along with it.
I hum to myself as I jump out of bed, throw on Otis’s checked shirt and wander out into the passage.
The place is quiet except for the ticking of the grandfather clock in the one of the many rooms I pass.
In the kitchen, I pour milk onto the muesli and eat it looking out the window at the little plants growing under the bright lumen light. Maybe it should feel claustrophobic living down here, but it doesn’t, it feels cozy and safe.
More like home than Sparkle City ever did.
I startle when the phone in the passage rings.
Maybe it’s Otis, checking in. My heart skips at the thought.
I try not to be disappointed when I hear Tippy’s voice on the end of the line.
“Hello Clem, fancy a trip to the markets this morning?” she chirps, and before I can answer, she adds, “Otis swung by and asked if I could make the time. I’ve managed to get a leave pass from Digger’s for a couple hours. ”
“That would be great. He’s got a cake to bake so I could get the ingredients.”
“Cool. Be there soon.”
When Tippy rings off, I go and dress in leggings and a tee, and brush out my hair, humming to myself.
And I realize I’m happy. I haven’t felt hap since I was a little kid, before Mom disappeared, when that tight knot appeared in my stomach along with the responsibility of looking after our dad on my own.
If that’s what one make-out session with an orc can do, then bring on more.
Many, many more.
As the doorbell chimes, there’s a big smile on my face as I go to greet Tippy.
Soon we’re heading down the alleyway, shopping baskets in hand, happily chatting like we’ve known each other for years.
I wonder what it is about the folks of the Labyrinth that makes them so easy to be with?
I think maybe it’s their acceptance of folks for what they are. I don’t feel anyone is judging me harshly for being human. They just seem to get that I’m okay on the inside, that I am their friend, not foe.
As we walk, it strikes me that are no posters for events anywhere.
“What do you do in your spare time?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Spend time with family and friends. Eat out, sing round the fire, play games. There’s no organized entertainment, other than what we put on ourselves.”
“Don’t you have any big arenas, for sports and music and stuff?”
She looks puzzled. “No, we make our own music. Sometimes we have a get together in the main square and everyone brings along an instrument and we kind of jam together. Different species have different musical talents. Winged species tend to like wind instruments. Bigger species like minotaurs and centaurs are great drummers with lots of rhythm.”
“What do you play?”
She gives me a sideways smile. “Tambourine.”
“Aha, that figures.” Tippy sure has that kind of hippie flower child vibe to her. “Do you have a large family, Tippy?”
“I’m an only child, but I do have lots of aunts and uncles, and cousins galore.
The males in our family, the fox shifters, are not the ones with the power.
The vixens are. And even more so if you’re a wixen.
There’s only one wixen in each generation.
I’m the one who has been chosen in mine.
My aunt Felicia initiated me, she’s the midwife who’s overseeing Sammy’s pregnancy and very knowledgeable about witching.
She’s laid her hands on Sammy’s belly and can read everything about her youngling.
Apparently, it’s the healthiest, strongest heartbeat she’s ever felt. ”
“That’s awesome. It’s wonderful how supportive everyone is of Sammy’s pregnancy.”
“Of course. Family is everything to us monsters.”
I’m pensive, thinking of Otis. “The sheriff’s family isn’t close anymore.”
“Yeah, that’s unusual.” Tippy sighs. “It’s really sad, because orcs are the most social of folks. That’s how it used to be with when Bradley Cane was alive. Big parties at the sheriff’s house, all of us singing, dancing. Making music, eating good food.”
“Why then did the family leave Otis to look after his mom alone?”
“I guess they couldn’t cope with the fallout.
Bradley was more than a dad, he was the leader of the Cane clan.
You’d probably say he was the leader of the Labyrinth too.
Since we don’t really have a hierarchy, the sheriff is the one we look to for guidance.
There was an outpouring of grief from all of us after he died.
Everyone loved him. Sally worshipped him, and never emerged from her grief.
Such a shame—she was a powerful orc woman before, but when she fell apart, it all went pear-shaped with the Cane kids. And Otis had to carry it all.”
I feel a lump in my throat. Our lives have had such similar threads.
We’ve both lost a parent and had to care for the remaining one.
Neither of us have had closure.
And while the sexual chemistry between us is off the scale, I can’t help thinking there’s a deeper bond bringing us together.
Almost like… Fate.
As if reading my thoughts, Tippy says, “But hey, its wonderful that you’re here to help him now.” As we head into the high domed cave of the marketplace, she adds, “Now, let’s go buy cake ingredients, shall we?”