Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
I grimaced before forcing a smile. “Officer Choi!”
“Come on.” He gestured with his hand, and I hesitated only a second before approaching, my free hand still raised against the glare of the headlights.
Once we were closer, I could see he was eyeing us curiously. He gestured to the back of the car. “Go ahead and get in.”
“Thanks.” I opened the door, nudging Cassander in before me. When I closed it behind us, I felt the pins and needles of warmth returning to my fingers, and I shook them out, flexing them.
“So.” Choi slid into the driver’s seat, glancing in the rearview mirror at us. “What are you two doing out here?”
“A hike that went wrong,” I said. “We stayed out too late, got lost, and then I didn’t know where we were.”
“So your car’s out here somewhere?” Noticing the way I was rubbing my hands together, Choi turned up the heat. “You want me to take you to it?”
“No.” I shook my head. “My sister, Candace, dropped us off. I expected, once we got back to the trailhead, we could call her, but…”
“You got lost,” Choi said, as though this was a perfectly reasonable explanation. “Rough day you’re having.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” I smiled, and his eyes looked us over. Our suits, our lack of any hiking gear.
Choi pulled a U-turn, starting toward the city. “You aren’t the only one. Seems Iris Milner’s pool hall fell down around her.”
“Iris Milner?” I asked.
“Local entrepreneur,” Choi said. “You might have been here when her father was running things.”
“It fell down? What was it? Termites?” I looked out the window at what should have been darkness but was illuminated by glints of light, some of them the sprites that Cassander had shown me, but others were larger, swooping down from the sky before drifting up, floating high up into the air.
“An explosion. Two of them, technically. Interesting story that some of the survivors had.” Officer Choi looked at us again in the rearview mirror. “You don’t happen to know anything about it?”
“Like I said, I don’t know her. We’ve spent the whole day taking care of my niece and nephew. Trust me, they’re enough excitement for me. I don’t need explosions in the mix.”
“Oh, Junior and Riley? Yeah. I can see how they’d keep you busy.” Choi’s face went tight, and something reflected off it in the mirror, almost as though he had paint on his skin, giving it flecks of thin, furred lines. It was there and gone, but still, I blinked, squinting at him in the rearview until he looked away.
“Yeah. Is everyone okay?” I couldn’t feel guilty about it: Iris and her cronies had kidnapped kids . They’d tried to murder us. And, in return, we’d flattened them like bugs.
“Surprisingly, everyone is fine. One of the employees got hurt in the first explosion, but it was lucky everyone survived the building collapsing.” Choi glanced in the rearview. “Almost supernaturally lucky, really.”
“Yeah, well. Good.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. Choi knew, somehow, that we were responsible for what happened at Iris Milner’s place. But there was no way to prove it; there was no weapon he could point to.
Still, it made me nervous, adding one more brick to the wall of anxiety I was building. At this rate, it would be taller than the Tower of Babel before the week was up.
Choi stopped, blinker on before turning onto a smoother road, the highway that led into town. Now, there were cars, semis, and regular vehicles.
“Interesting day we’re having in Desert Flower. Someone reported a couple of kids kidnapped from the local arcade, and when I went to go ask around, they said a couple of guys matching your description had brought them to the arcade.” Choi kept his hands at ten and two on the steering wheel. “Thing is, we can’t find the kids, their caretakers, or even any witnesses beyond one scared teenager who now says she doesn’t remember anything.”
Before Choi could Columbo his way into my accidental confession of killing Mrs. Plumb in the library with the candlestick, I said quickly, “So, you like Betty? You guys had sex yet?”
Choi jerked his wheel to avoid a semi going too slowly, veering onto the side of the road before slowing and pulling back behind it.
“Uh.” Choi cleared his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Right.” I nodded. “Sure. You can just drop us off at my mom’s house. That’s where we’re staying while we’re in town. If you have any more questions or want any tips on how to get in Betty’s pants. Not that I would know from personal experience, but I’ve been her wingman often enough.”
“Thanks.” Choi cleared his throat. “But I think we’re good.”
Without directions, he took us to my mother’s house, and I noted that down too. He was smart, smarter than anyone gave him credit for, except maybe Betty, and he already knew my mom or at least suspected something.
Neither of those was good for my mother or, by extension, me.
“Let me know if anything comes up. Iris Milner is on a rampage.” Choi turned to look as I got out of the car. “Not that you know anything about that.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.” There was no sense in lying outright to him. He was too smart, and technically, there was no way to prosecute us since Cassander had used magic. What was the DA going to claim the murder weapon was? Jazz hands?
“Give Betty my best,” Choi said as I shut the door. He drove off, not waiting for us to get inside.
“Well. He knows something.” Cassander’s lips pursed.
“Was that good luck or bad luck?” I pointed after Choi. “Good luck, someone found us, and that someone wasn’t Iris Milner. Bad luck, he quizzed us about the thing with Iris. And now he’s even more certain we did it.”
Cassander raised his eyebrow. “What is your obsession with luck?”
I raised my eyebrows, taking out the coin. With my new sight, it glowed, gleaming gold, and I could see lines like the ones made by pixies out in the desert spiraling out of it. A rainbow of color cascaded out from between my fingers.
Shocked, I dropped the coin. It landed on the ground with a clink. The sound was heavy, a bell rung in an ancient tower.
Slowly, I crouched, picking it up again. The coin radiated unhappiness.
Frowning, I shook my head, and the feeling faded. Then the colors did as well, disappearing until I was holding a simple golden coin.
“Dragon, this was good luck. Raven, bad luck all around.” I flipped the coin.
“Wait—” Cassander’s voice came a second too late. I caught the coin, flipping it onto the back of my hand.
“Raven,” I said. Cassander looked horrified, and I asked, “What?”
“What is that?” Riley demanded.
I blinked. “When did you get here?”
Before I could stop her, she snatched the coin out of my hand. “Cool.”
As she turned, her toe caught on a crack in the sidewalk, and she tumbled, the coin rolling out of her hand, coming to a rest on the toe of my shoe.
“Huh,” I said.
Cassander sighed, then picked up the coin like it was an explosive. He handed it back to me.
I pocketed it, then knelt to where Riley had rolled up to sitting, clutching at her knee.
“You okay?”
“Why is there a crack here?” she demanded. “There wasn’t one yesterday. Did you guys break something?”
“No.” I frowned down at the ground, tracing my fingers over the narrow crack, nearly invisible. “Maybe.”
“Whatever. Mom said we’re going home, and also, if Iris Milner comes after us tonight, then she’ll kill you and haunt you. And Grandma will be pissed .”
“Okay. Agreed.” I watched her jog off, opening my mother’s security door before closing it with a slam. When I turned to Cassander, I said, “The coin gave her bad luck.”
Cassander raised both eyebrows skeptically.
“No. I’m serious. If anyone knows the geography of the sidewalk, it’s a kid with a bicycle.” I held up the coin again, pinching it between my forefinger and middle finger. “Which means the coin did it.”
“Or the crack developed over time, and she failed to notice. Both are possible.”
“No.” I glared at him. “Because you tried to get me to stop flipping it.”
“That was more… preventative.” Cassander opened his palm, and I gently placed the coin inside. “This is no toy, and playing with it like this, teasing it, that is a bad way to treat such a gift.”
“It’s shaped like a toy.” I watched it in his hand, curious if I would see the rainbow of colors again, but they failed to appear.
“No, it’s shaped like what it wants you to see,” Cassander offered the coin over again. “It wants you to think it harmless so you’ll more happily use it. And you are giving in. Soon, it will have what it wants.”
“And what is that? My soul?” I asked.
Cassander shook his head. “No. I have no idea what it wants from you, but such an object chooses who holds it, which means there must be a purpose behind it.”
Frowning, I accepted the coin back when he offered it, feeling its weight in my palm, feeling the heavy bearing of the coin. What did it want from me? My unemployment? It had gotten that already, so why was it still here?
“If it’s so dangerous, if it has its own wants, how did you think you were going to use it?” I asked, looking up at Cassander.
“It would not take much to change my luck.” He looked back up at the stars, now hidden by the ambient city lights. “And if it did change it for the worse, what better weapon to present my brother with?”
I considered his profile. The cold calculus was at odds with what I knew about him, what I was learning in the glimpses he’d given me into his personality. He cared about me, he cared about the kids, he’d cared about the soldiers his mother had ordered killed.
“Come on.” I gestured toward the door, and Cassander followed me in. My mother was already in bed, the light coming from under her door, so I closed up, locking the security gate and front door, making sure the backyard was clear of my sister and her kids.
Cassander waited for me at the bedroom door, hesitating, watching me with curiosity.
“What? I have something on my face?” I asked. “Or is this the fae way of flirting?”
“You are intriguing,” Cassander said thoughtfully. “I’ve never quite met someone like you.”
“Thanks?” I felt my eyebrows go up, surprised at Cassander’s honesty.
“You’re welcome,” Cassander said, his eyes lighting up.
He extended one hand. When I accepted his grip, he dragged me into the bedroom, closing the door and pressing me up against it. “You should be more careful with your words.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly, groaning as he pressed against me, from lips to groin, his body blanketing mine.
This wasn’t a continuation of our breathless earlier kiss. This was a physical assault, a desperate gasp of air before he pulled me under. I groaned against his lips, moaning in sheer pleasure.
“We aren’t going to end up in the desert again?” I asked, pressing the question into his neck, enjoying the full-body shiver as he fisted my shirt in both hands, his hips mindlessly rutting into mine.
“No,” he said, reaching up and gripping my hair tightly, yanking back. I hissed at the mix of pleasure and pain, sighing when he mouthed at my neck, his teeth grazing over the soft skin.
He tugged my hair again, his fingers winding so tight I saw stars.
“Cass—” But what could I say when his mouth was on me, his fingers taking me apart like I was something he could so easily unwrap. I was his gift under the tree, and he was savoring easing the tape off.
“Cass, please.” I knew I was begging, but I wanted him. I wanted him in me, on me, around me.
Usually, I couldn’t get clothes off fast enough. I topped because it was easier, because I didn’t have to let go, because that was who I was. I was Damian Reyes, and I was cool and in control, and I didn’t let anyone get close enough to know different.
Cassander was everything I should have kept at arm’s length. He was dangerous. He was a secret. He was?—
He was making me lose my goddamned mind with just his mouth and fingers. What would his cock be like?
The thought struck me so hard that I made a nearly inhuman sound, grabbing hold of his hips and grinding against them. Cassander chuffed in laughter, then grabbed my hair tighter, pulling back until my neck ached.
I panted, at his mercy. Cassander growled. “You. You are something new, Damian Reyes. You are something incredible, and I don’t know how no one has ever seen that before now. You would be the most sought-after creature in my mother’s court. Fae would kill just to be able to?—”
He released my hair and dragged my face against his, kissing me until we were both breathless. Slowly, he backed toward the bed, pulling me with him until he spun, pressing me down and laying himself on top of me.
“I could consume you ,” he whispered. “I could do such things to you.”
He drew back, and I wanted to encourage him, tell him to do what he wanted to me but just never to stop. Instead, his lips twisted into a smile, and he said, “But no, you are too precious for that.”
I groaned, and he smirked.
“Cass, god, you’re killing me.” I reached up and dragged him down by his shirt until he was back on top of me, his weight agonizingly perfect, just what I needed.
“How are you so impossible?” Cassander asked. He pushed back, and my fingers held tight to his shirt, tearing it open, buttons hitting the walls with a clatter.
Sitting on my hips, his shirt hanging open, Cassander smirked at me, the expression so openly wanton I wanted to frame this moment and live in it forever.
Then he leaned forward, his head bowed as he took my shirt one button at a time. My breath caught, his fingers ghosting over my chest as he undid each one, gently and slowly. I barely felt the touch, but somehow, it burned , the sensation making my skin come alive, and it was too much, it was all too much.
When he was done, I was so hard that I was sure if he pulled open my pants, I’d come just from the release of pressure, from the feel of his skin on my sensitized flesh.
He moved down, pressing kisses to my clavicle, the indentation between my pecs, slowly moving his way down until he was mouthing at the waistband of my pants. I grabbed his hair tightly.
“I’ve got you, Damian,” Cassander said. He reached up, unbuttoning my pants, and I gave a whole-body shudder, managing not to come by sheer will.
He eased the pants off, and I shivered as he pressed kisses along my legs at each inch of exposed skin. When I was fully naked, he stood and pulled off his own pants. His hard cock jutted out, telling me that he was just as into this as I was.
I whimpered, desperate, and started to reach forward, but he laid himself on top of me again, pressing me down, our cocks sliding together, slick with precome.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Not yet,” he murmured, and I shivered, nearly crying with desperation.
He pulled back and lifted one of my legs, one of his fingers circling my hole. I nearly pulled back. I might be enjoying this, but fucking dry wasn’t?—
Then I felt something cool and slick drizzle over my hole. He pressed in, and the pressure felt perfect, the tension just what I needed. He pressed in another finger, and I cried out, reaching for my cock, but he left my leg on his shoulder and pressed my wrist down hard on the bed, holding it until I caught his eyes.
He smirked. “Wait. Patience.”
I inhaled, unable to speak. I gave a short nod.
“Good.” Cassander continued, keeping eye contact as he pressed in another finger, spreading the three, leaving me whimpering.
I wanted to close my eyes, lose myself in it, but the way Cassander watched me made that impossible. I couldn’t look away from him. I had to keep watching.
“There, you take me so beautifully,” Cassander said. “Damian, you are so?—”
Be he didn’t finish, instead, gently pulling his fingers loose and guiding his hard cock in. I’d been wrong, I wasn’t ready for it, wasn’t ready for the inexorable pull of pleasure, the ache of too much stretch, too much, too much.
He pulled out, then pressed in, somehow landing deeper and, oh god, I couldn’t—he pulled out, then in, and fucked me harder, his hips snapping into me, his balls slapping my ass, and I came almost out of desperation, my body giving in to the inevitability of pleasure he was pulling out of me.
As my body went tight, his eyes caught on mine, and he gave a few last, desperate thrusts, the sensation too much and too intense. Then he came, and I caught him as he lowered himself on me, his breath uneven and gasping as he tried to regain control.
“Cassander,” I said. “What?—”
“Damian Reyes,” he said slowly. “I now see why the coin would choose you.”
Slowly, he eased out, curling next to me, raising his hand to stroke my hair. “You are twice as fine a prize.”
Both my eyebrows went up, “No.”
“Yes,” Cassander said. “And I will show this Iris Milner and whoever else is after the two of us what I will do to protect such a treasure.”