Sparkle
My hips might sway a bit more on my walk to Flutter and Fangs. Instead of bringing the pendant with me, I hid it in my room. Hopefully papa doesn’t go looking for it and if he does, mama chews him out.
Papa was quiet at dinner, but he doesn’t usually have a lot to say.
Now he’s just sulking and I don’t think it’s a good look on him.
I loved hearing about the twins’ adventures so far.
They plan to keep on taking odd jobs and working through the country at their leisure.
And now I can do something like that too if I want. The possibilities are endless.
I skip a few steps and dance around. I love Hex and plan to live here for the rest of my life, but I have choices now. That’s all I wanted. The same opportunities as the rest of my family.
It’s not much longer before I’m at F&F. Gabe and Lark are already behind the bar. Kristy, the succubus, works on a new pole routine before we open. Music pipes through the speakers and rumbles in my chest. This is what I love. The calm before the night starts.
I join Lark and Gabe at the bar and spin on a stool. “Guess what?”
Pike walks out with a dishtowel thrown over his shoulder. “You saw that demon again?”
I shake my head. “Well, yes, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”
Frankie, Pike and Lark’s Hellhound bounds over to me and presses her nose to the back of my leg, making me yelp. “Hello, sweetie pie.” I scratch between her ears. She’s one of the best things about F&F. She’s our unofficial official mascot.
“So if not the demon,” Gabe says, “then what?” He continues polishing his glass.
Lark cuts up pieces of fruit. They all wait for me to talk.
“I’m moving out!” I kick my legs and spin.
They all gasp and Frankie tips her head.
“Papa retired, so he’s going to be home from now on. I’m free!” But my heart still does a little dance. All I’ve known is helping mama and working at the club. I snort. “Do I even know how to live on my own?”
“You’ll be fine,” Gabe says. “It gets a bit of getting used to, especially at night when the entire place is so quiet and you’re wondering if you’re hearing a ghost.”
We all look to him and he shrugs. “What? Sometimes apartments or houses or whatever creak and sound creepy.”
“True.” I tap my bottom lip with my pointer finger. “Not really worried about it, though. I can see through the veils and Hex doesn’t really have a lot of active ghosts. I think it has to do with the wards, but I don’t know.”
“Wait.” Gabe stops polishing. “You can see ghosts?”
“Yeah? I’m a cat shifter? Cats usually see otherworldly apparitions, and so can us cat shifters.”
“Huh, never would have guessed.”
“Doesn’t really come up. Haven’t really talked to a ghost in a couple years though.
It was a bit scary that first time. I warned all the kittens about it.
Anyway... I’m gonna look for a place in the morning.
” I frown and look to the ceiling. “It’s gonna have to be furnished because I have no furniture.
But that’s fine.” My brain already decides to panic about it, and my breathing speeds up.
Lark grabs my hands. “Slow down, Sparkle. Everything is going to be okay. I’m sure between us all we’ll have furniture for you if you need it.”
“I don't know what to do with myself if I don't have anything to do but help Mama or be at F&F. Like, what do people do?” I spin a few more times and stuck in a breath.
Oh, I need to let Beau know my news! I pull my phone from my pocket and text the group chat.
Sparkle: I'm moving out of my parents’ house!
It takes all of three seconds for Beau to call.
“What? Where are you gonna go? I would suggest your basement, but that would defeat the whole purpose, right?”
“Right.”
“But your basement was very cozy. I loved living there.”
I chuckle. “I know. It's a nice place, but Mama's got it rented out again. And they're a bit grumpy. They aren't as fun as you.”
I turned to Gabe. “Do you think your old place is renting? Or oh, what about the Cookie Place?”
I text the group chat again, making Lark and Gabe chuckle.
Talon answers the question about Cookie Place.
Talon: Sorry. Wick and Ethan already rented it out.
“Oh, dang,” I say. “Not to worry. I know there are plenty of places I can go. I just have to find them. And hope they're furnished. But what the hell do I do with myself?”
I don't want to tell everyone about the pendant just yet. I'm not entirely sure how I want to use it.
“You're thinking really hard about something,” Pike says.
Okay, nevermind, time to confess. “My papa is like me. He's got a tail and ears while he's human.”
They all look at me.
Beau chimes in from the phone. “I didn't know your papa was still around.”
I snort. “Oh, yeah, he only comes around every five, six, seven years or so.
Except now he's retired, so he's going to be home all the time.
No one needs me anymore. Family dinner was so weird because Mama kept telling me to sit down.
And my siblings all helped instead of me doing everything with mama's direction.”
“Well, that's cool,” Beau says. There's a sound on the other end, and in the next blink, Beau and Poe are here.
Beau hugs me tight. “I couldn't sit there and just talk to you on the phone. I had to be here.”
He plops down to the bar seat next to me and spins like I had. Frankie bounds up to him and licks his knee, making him laugh.
“Oh, Frankie, you make me smile.” Beau slides to his knees and scratches the Hellhound.
Before we know it, Talon and Wren are here also.
“So,” Wren says, “When are we doing an apartment warming party?”
I hold up my hands. “Oh, no. I don't need one.
Actually, I don't want one. I really want to just find a place and enjoy it.
Maybe I'll sleep in. Mama said that one of my sisters can take Ferris to and from school or papa can instead of making me do it every day.
But I enjoy it. Well, I think I do. It's a routine.
I've been doing it for years. It's gonna be so hard not to follow every day like I used to.
I'm gonna have to figure something out. But I'm not afraid, I don't think. Is it scary to move out, to be alone?” I look to the bar top and sigh.
“I'm excited, but I'm freaking out. It came on suddenly. Dad kicked me out.”
“What do you mean, your dad kicked you out?” It's as if everyone says it in unison.
“Um, I may have withheld some information.” I pinch my pointer finger and thumb together.
“Uh, you think?” Beau rolls his eyes as he adjusts his over the ear headphones.
“Well, it didn't seem relevant because mom told him that I’m not kicked out. But I decided that I am leaving home.”
“But not Hex.” Beau looks at me with pleading eyes.
“No, never Hex. I'm always going to live here. I can't see me living anywhere else. But I will go on adventures. Curiosity got the cat and all that.” I wave a hand.
“And satisfaction brought him back,” Beau says, giggling just a little bit.
“Exactly. I'm a cat. I need to roam, but I need a home base, and that's always Hex.”
Lark wiggles his brows. “And what if a certain demon coaxes you out?”
“Oh, no.” I wave my hands. “I will not be living in the human realm, even if Lucien is a sexy demon.”
I look to the door, half expecting him to walk through, but he doesn't.
All evening I check that damn door, and Lucien never walks through it.