Chapter Seven
BLISS
FOUR YEARS AGO
Amelia arches an eyebrow at me as I stifle a yawn. “How are you tired? Didn’t you just eat?”
“Hell yeah, she did.” Jordan smirks and runs his hand up my thigh. I squirm away from him in the booth with a little squeal, laughing as he grabs me, pulling me back towards him and nipping at my neck. “I’m gonna go grab a drink babe, be back.”
Amelia watches him go, eyes rolling. She narrows them on me. “You can’t keep faking orgasms with him.”
“I don’t,” I mutter, watching as Jordan’s head of dark hair disappears behind a group seated at the bar.
“Then why does he think he’s some sort of sex god?”
I lift my shoulders and let them fall. “It’s my fault.
I never tell him that I’m not, you know…
” I make a hand motion so I don’t have to say it.
Stars, that sounds ridiculous, and I brace myself for my sister to tell me exactly that.
But after sex, Jordan and I snuggle and so, I dunno, I guess I’ve just never felt like bringing it up.
“It is absolutely not your fault,” my sister says. “And succubi should never have bad sex.”
“So I’m doing it wrong?”
“No, but obviously he is.”
“I don’t want to talk about this here,” I tell her, heat creeping up my neck and into my cheeks and ears. My sister is a succubus through and through. Sex, as a topic, is always fair game with her, even if we are in public.
“Well, I’m not dropping the subject, Bliss. This is about your health and your happiness. I’m not just gonna ignore it.”
“When we, you know—” I wave my hands, not able to bring myself to say the words out loud with other people potentially listening in, “—I still recharge my powers. It’s fine.”
“Barely,” my sister counters immediately. “You barely charge them. It’s like when you’re starving and you only have a couple baby carrots as a snack. You’re not nourishing yourself and you’re certainly not satisfying yourself.”
“Sometimes I…” I swallow and look around, seeing the rest of Amelia’s band approaching. Our band, I correct myself. I am their manager, after all. I need to think like it.
“Sometimes you what?” Amelia prods.
I lean my elbow on the table, resting my cheek on my knuckles as I lower my voice. “Sometimes I satisfy myself afterwards, so it’s fine,” I rush to say before the others reach us.
“That doesn’t recharge you, though,” Amelia argues.
Taser takes a seat next to me in the booth and I shake my head at my sister, giving her a look that I hope sternly says we’ll talk about this later
Taser bumps his shoulder into mine. “Oh, talking about recharging powers, are we? Please continue. I find the way succubi recharge fascinating,” he says, grinning at Amelia and I.
Reese sits across from me, snorting out a laugh, and Tubbs, our drummer, gets into the booth from the other side, folding his lanky frame in next to Amelia and accidentally knocking the table with his knees.
He shakes his head at Taser, his short locs swinging slightly with the movement.
I put my head in my hands with a groan and Taser laughs, slinging his arm around me.
“Kidding, Bliss, kidding. We can talk about how I recharge instead.” He picks up his Bloody Mary—with actual blood—and holds it out for us all to cheers.
“Let’s not talk about that,” Tubbs says, scrunching his face in disgust as he clinks his beer glass with Taser’s. Some of his beer sloshes onto the sleeve of his dark blue henley. The color compliments his darker skin.
“I’ll cheers to that,” Reese says. I laugh and hold up my drink as well.
The Antler is packed tonight. We managed to snag a booth in the bar area upstairs.
Progressive metal music streams from every speaker in the place and everyone looks like they’re supposed to be here.
No shortage of tattoos and black outfits.
In fact, my eyes snag on any bit of color I do see.
I glance down at my outfit, wishing, not for the first time, that I looked better in black.
But I’ve never felt I could pull it off, so I always look a bit out of place with my sister’s band, even though I’ve recently taken on the role of their band manger.
Instead, I’m getting looks as the only one in the club wearing a pastel lavender top, jeans, and cute pink platforms. The white ribbon tying my hair into a high ponytail probably doesn’t help.
“So Reese, how was that date you went on last weekend?” Amelia asks during a break in the conversation.
My best friend lets out a sigh. “Boring. I can’t date non-kindreds anymore. It’s so weird pretending fae and magic don’t exist.”
Taser grins at her. “Well, you know what they say, once you go fae…” He trails off with a shrug and winks, taking a sip of his beer.
Reese rolls her eyes. “Fae dicks are the same size as human dicks, just so we’re clear.”
Tubbs huffs out, like that couldn’t possibly be the case, and Amelia, Reese, and I all exchange a knowing look.
“Dick size might be the same, but fae dicks have magical powers,” Taser says, waggling his eyebrows.
“Bliss has always known that, that’s why she’s never felt the need to go anywhere else.
Isn’t that right, babe?” Jordan says, coming back with a beer in hand, a few of his friends trailing after him.
“We’re going to go grab a table over there.
Come on, Bliss.” He waits expectantly for me to get up and follow him.
“I’ll be there in a minute. I wanna hang out with Reese.”
Jordan lifts an eyebrow at me. He looks pointedly to Taser, who’s sitting next to me, though not too close or anything. Jordan glares at him nonetheless.
“Come here, babe,” he says to me again. I sigh and get up from the booth, trailing after him as he goes to sit with Jinx—his best friend, a kitsune with electric blue hair—and a few other guys. I avoid looking back Amelia’s way, knowing she’s giving me a look. Anger mixed with disappointment.
“Have you ever been to a Twisted Limbs show?” Jinx is asking one of the other guys.
Carter, a Born vampire who we went to college with, nods to me and Jordan as we sit down. “A couple times, actually. They’re pretty good.”
“They’re average,” Jordan responds. “Amelia keeps insisting we go to their shows because she’s fucking their guitarist. I’m not sure what she sees in him.” He nudges me as he laughs and I can see him stiffen when I don’t laugh too.
“It’s the blonde hair,” I quickly joke, trying to keep things light. I add on a little laugh. He puts his arm around me and I lean into him, running my hand up over his other arm and smiling. I move in for a quick kiss.
He grins back at me and squeezes my shoulder.
I wince a bit, but then his grip relaxes so I do as well.
“Good thing you’ve got much better taste, huh, Bliss?
” he teases, nipping at the spot on my neck that he bit into earlier.
I had to use cover up to hide the bruises he left, since my power well isn’t full enough to heal them on my own.
“Anyways, Twisted Limbs is a bit too old school for me. They’re boring,” Jinx says, glaring, though not at anyone in particular, I try to remind myself as his gaze meets mine. He breaks eye contact quickly, though, looking at Jordan, who’s smirking in agreement.
“I dunno, I like that about them,” Carter responds. “I’m excited to see them live.”
I smile at Carter, who smiles back. “Me too. It’s gonna be a good show.”
I can feel Jordan’s eyes on me, his grip tightening.
But before our conversation can continue, Amelia’s tall form appears to my left and I glance up at my sister.
“We’re gonna go backstage now and hang out a bit with the guys before the show starts.
You coming?” She levels the question at me, completely ignoring Jordan, though I know she wants the whole band there to mingle and rub elbows with the other musicians. Her version of networking.
“Fine,” Jordan mutters with a heavy sigh.
“We can hang out more with your friends if you want, babe,” I say, throwing a pleading look at Amelia. She crosses her arms and waits expectantly with an eyebrow raised.
“It’s fine.” Jordan gets up out of the booth, pulling me along with him.
Amelia leads us backstage to a little area where Twisted Limbs and their crew are waiting before the opening band goes on in about thirty minutes.
Jordan takes my hand in his, but his eyes aren’t on me. They’re scoping out all the musicians around us.
Amelia spots Blake and flings herself around him, peppering him with kisses on his face. “Hey!” she says. “We wanted to wish you good luck. You better play my favorite song, or I’ll never sleep with you ever again.” She winks at him and Blake laughs.
“You heard her, boys. We better alter that set list or I’ll be missing out for the rest of my life.”
Amelia grins at him and he gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. They’ve never dated, but he’s probably the closest thing Amelia’s ever had to a relationship.
He smiles over at me. “Hey, Bliss, loving the pastels.”
“Thanks,” I say, looking down at my outfit, then smiling back at him. “Good luck up there. Not that you need it,” I add. Jordan grips my hand hard. I wince and look up at him. “You’re hurting me,” I whisper to him. I wave apologetically to Blake and Amelia as I tug Jordan off to the side.
“Why does he always flirt with you?” Jordan mutters under his breath.
“What?” I look up at him in surprise. “He’s not. He’s just being nice.”
“He wants to get in your tight slutty succubus pants.” Jordan rolls his eyes and lets go of my hand. “I’m gonna go find Jinx.”
He heads off in search of his friends, leaving me to stare after him, going over my interaction with Blake.
He just complimented my outfit and I wished him good luck.
Did I use a flirty tone? I don’t think I did.
I sigh and make a mental note to make sure next time I don’t accidentally flirt with anyone.