Chapter 14 #2
“Impossibly adorable. Also sweet. Also delicious.” He headed into the trees like he knew where he was going. Good thing someone knew where all the magic doorways were going to be.
I looped my arm around his and tugged on him until he looked down at me. “I thought kissing me was torture, but now you’re calling me delicious?”
A smile twitched his mouth, and an answering twitch ran over my skin. “Torture because it’ll be twenty-four hours until I can do it again. You do intend to demand another kiss before dinner tomorrow, don’t you?”
And now my tongue was five times its normal size, and I couldn’t breathe, and my stomach was doing crazy weird things it shouldn’t do until it had recovered much more fully.
He patted my hand. “Don’t worry. I adore torture.”
Dinner was delicious, which was good because then I could focus on that and not the devil across the short gap from me, blowing bubbles through his curled tail between bites of his dinner.
And he could stab someone with that thing?
No. I wasn’t looking at his tail, or his eyes, or any other part of him.
Stab. Claw. Consume. Nothing like I’d been with the devil in his magic butterfly garden. Nope.
After I’d eaten far too much, we left to go to the club. It was down long winding steps, the pounding beat getting louder and louder until it pulsed in my bones.
We stopped at the top of the stairs that led down into the main area filled with kinetic energy as all sorts of creatures beat their bodies against each other in time to the music.
This was much more martial than romantic.
Moshing? There was a band on the stage at the end, an odd assortment of demonic and heavenly, with a fierce fairy girl with multiple piercings in her face and wings.
She must not be able to fly with them, because otherwise you’d be a complete idiot to pierce them.
It smelled like incense smoke and sweat, and it didn’t look nearly as charming as the rest of Wonderland. Everything was black, black, with pops of red. It looked like a devil’s cave, filled with lost, angry souls, raging in time to the music.
But then the music changed, and the dancers shifted, splitting into couples, who had absolutely no sense of privacy or personal space.
I averted my eyes when one girl was dancing around some guy like a pole.
Was she wearing duct tape? Exciting. Also painful if she had any body hair.
Goblins didn’t have a lot of it, so I’d probably be fine wearing duct tape as clothing, except for the obvious lack of any actual clothing.
“Do you see him?” the devil asked, draping an arm over my shoulder.
Compared to the revelers below, my outfit was positively tame. I frowned up at him. “No. He’s a fairy who looks like a daffodil. Why doesn’t your rabbit’s dead mistress have anything for clubbing?”
“Hm. Likely because she never went clubbing.”
“But how are we supposed to look like a couple when I’m wearing so many clothes?”
He raised a brow, glanced down at my dress and then into my eyes. “I’m also wearing so much clothing.”
I frowned at his suit. “Yes. It’s too much. You should take off a few layers. The jacket, of course, but either the shirt or the vest, and just keep one of them on. That would be better.”
He blinked at me. “Better for who?”
“Not who, what. The deception.”
“The deception that you’re here with me so the fairy boy doesn’t hit on you again? Ah. You think he’d never believe that you’d be with someone wearing so much clothing? How much clothing does he wear?” Now he was frowning.
“Just take off some clothes. You can leave it at the bar. Yes. We’ll get drinks, I’ll try to look more available, and you can lose some layers.”
“I like my layers. And you don’t need to look more available.”
I frowned at him. “Are you trying to insult me?”
He smiled, eyes dancing. “If I were, it wouldn’t be by suggesting you aren’t easily bought. Very well. I will keep my vest on and leave the rest of my things with Rawley.”
“She’s here?” I looked, and sure enough, the cat-shifter was behind the bar, slinging drinks like she was born to it.
Also like she might chop off someone’s head.
And now I didn’t want to look cheap or act like we were together.
She was someone I almost knew. Not that she’d been friendly, but still. “What’s the deal with her?”
“The deal?”
“Unless it’s confidential,” I said quickly. “Or just something she wouldn’t like you talking about.”
“Control over her beast. She accidentally killed a lot of people and didn’t like it. She had decided to end her life or control the beast. I help her do the latter.”
“In exchange for…?”
“She has to work here a certain amount of time every month. Basically, a full-time job. Otherwise, I’d lose control of her cat.”
“She’s not here all the time?”
He gave me an amused glance. “No. I’m the only one who’s here all the time. Except for my soul’s mistress. She has to stay close.”
That was when I missed my rabbit for the first time. “Oh. Is it okay that he’s not here?”
“Of course. He’s probably running through shadows. What would you like to drink?”
I blinked at him. “I have no idea. Not fairy wine.” And what about the rabbit running through shadows? What did that mean?
“And probably not blood wine, either.”
I made a face. “Unless it’s your blood.”
He smiled. “It can be arranged.”
“No, no, no! I was joking. Obviously. I don’t want your blood like some unhinged vampire who can’t get enough of some random guy’s blood. I have no interest in anything but my bakery.”
“Are you sure? Because it really would be no trouble. I’ll just lie on the counter, and Rawley can uncork one of my veins.”
“I bet she’d like that.” I grinned at him.
He grinned back, and for a second, I felt like I did with my dad sometimes when we were joking about things my mother would not approve of like bloodthirsty goblins.