Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Misfits Hit the Road
Declan
Tuesday arrived with a bang. Literally. I jolted upright and grabbed for my glasses on Gideon’s bedside table. That’s where I usually put them, but they weren’t there. Then I remembered they were in the living room.
“What the hell was that?”
“Perry.” Gideon rolled over and yawned.
Then he blinked slowly and opened his eyes.
When his gaze caught on mine, a soft smile lit his face.
If I looked like I did on a normal morning, then my hair was sticking up everywhere and I had creases on my cheek from the pillow.
I was wearing one of his old threadbare t-shirts, but the look on his face made me feel like I was the sexiest man on earth.
It was the same every time we shared a bed. Gideon was always open and honest, but there was something about this first moment of wakefulness that always got me. It was like just the sight of me made him happy, and it didn’t matter what happened next because we’d started the day together.
And I suspected I looked at him the same way.
I loved waking up next to him. Actually… I loved everything about him and our relationship. In these quiet moments, I questioned why I was moving forward so cautiously with our relationship. If I followed my instincts, like Elwood suggested, I would wake beside Gideon every morning.
When I ignored my head and thought only about my heart, my answer was a resounding ‘hell yeah, let’s do this.’ Unfortunately, my head tended to be pretty loud. Although it was getting quieter every day.
“Everything okay?” Gideon asked.
I wasn’t sure what he’d seen on my face, but I wasn’t ready to talk about everything I was feeling. So I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah.” Then I thought about what he’d said. “Wait. Did you say that was Perry? There’s no way. He’s so quiet…”
“He still forgets his own strength sometimes.”
“Are you sure that was him?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’ll have another talk with him…”
“No,” I said quickly, putting my hand on his chest, as if my touch would stop him from jumping out of bed and talking to Perry this second if that’s what he really wanted to do.
“He probably feels bad enough already. I can’t imagine him doing that on purpose.
God, the poor guy. He hates being the center of attention. He must be mortified.”
“You know…” Gideon grinned up at me. “Now that we’re awake early…”
“We should get up and figure out how we’re going to catch Roy?” I asked, throwing back the covers. “You’re right. We shouldn’t waste any time.”
His grin dropped away.
“Just kidding…” I laughed and leaned forward to kiss him.
I drew my mouth along his jaw, where his short beard scraped along my lips, and heat shot through me. I wanted to feel that on my neck, trailing down my chest and lower.
“Come here,” he murmured and rolled me under him, pressing me between his warm muscled body and the soft mattress.
After we’d welcomed the day in the best possible way, Gideon went to clean up while I lingered in bed a little longer.
As soon as I heard the water in the shower, I pulled out my phone and checked the time.
Perfect. Most businesses would be open by now.
There was something I’d been meaning to do, and it was long past time.
But after my talk with Gideon last night, something clicked for me.
It was time to take a few more steps toward building my life here.
I found the right number and waited for the call to connect.
“Good morning, Janis Naylor speaking.”
Following Winston’s death, Janis had been named the successor to his business, Wilcox Developments, and the various holdings that came with it.
I didn’t know all the legalities of how a business was passed from one person to the next, but it seemed she’d simply stepped into the vampire’s now-empty shoes.
Was that a quirk of the supernatural world that it’d happened so quickly?
Or perhaps Winston had no one else in his life who’d contest his will.
“Hi, Janis, this is Declan Hawthorne…”
“How can I help you?”
“Would you be able to show me the retail spaces you have available?”
“Of course. I have a couple–”
I cut her off before she offered me ones I wasn’t interested in. “There’s a place kitty corner to The Den. Is that one of yours? I saw there’s a new sign in the window saying it is for lease.”
“Oh, yes. It’s a gorgeous space. So much potential,” Janis said. “I have an opening tomorrow at ten, would that work?”
Already? “Uh, yes. Tomorrow. Great. Anytime.”
“Perfect. I’ll text you some links to the property listing for that one and a few others so you can look them over before we meet.”
After the call ended, I felt jittery. I needed to bake. Something. Anything. So, by the time we made it down to The Den, with me carrying a large basket of muffins, it was a later start than normal.
Since the pub opened for the lunch crowd soon, Gideon’s employees were already here.
I could hear Alvin clanging pots and pans around in the kitchen, and Sable was cleaning the shelves behind the bar.
I loved how he had such great staff that they just did their jobs without needing a lot of oversight.
Then a movement by the windows caught my eye, and I stumbled when I saw the misfits assembled at the tables along that wall. Gideon caught my elbow and steadied me. Then we turned together to face the group. The only ones missing were Perry and Mellgren.
It was early, so the pub wasn’t technically open yet. It was strange to see them all here. On weekends, Gideon’s pack—who he still denied were his pack because I’m not the Alpha—sometimes gathered at the pub for a big brunch, but today was a Tuesday. This was something different.
Hazel had already pulled out her knitting needles, but thankfully, she’d kept her extra spider legs covered under her voluminous skirt. She was a sweet lady, but it was difficult to overcome years of being afraid of spiders. And those legs–so long, segmented, and hairy–still unsettled me.
Tulip was pacing in front of the booths, shedding water with each step. She must’ve been at it for a little while because there was a little puddle forming along her path.
Sandy was munching on sugar cubes right out of the box.
I didn’t even know where he’d found them, but that couldn’t possibly be healthy.
I shoved the muffins at him, and he hugged the basket to his chest like I’d just given him an early Christmas present.
I’d brought them down for Gideon’s staff, but I didn’t think they were going to last that long. Not with all the misfits here.
“They aren’t all for you,” I said to Sandy, “but… just stop with the sugar cubes, okay?”
“Of course.” He sniffed the muffins and let out a happy sigh. “So much magic in this batch.”
My new friends were so weird.
Az was reading a book and didn’t look up, like he was pretending all of this was perfectly normal and always read a book in the pub on a Tuesday morning.
He looked quite engrossed, though, so perhaps he hadn’t even realized Gideon and I had arrived.
I dipped down to see the book cover, but it was hidden by a simple black book protector.
Knowing Az, he’d probably say it was to protect the book, but I bet the real reason was to hide some bare-chested man, the muscled kind that often graced the salacious books he was rumored to prefer.
Even Elwood, George, and Eugene were here. And… I glanced out the window. Yep, Licorice was here, too. She didn’t look pleased about being outside while everyone else was in. Should I invite her in?
Ravenstone was a mostly supernatural town, but not everyone was a local.
Someone might decide a wild bird shouldn’t be hanging out inside the pub, even during off-hours.
Although no one ever commented on George, so maybe they wouldn’t care about Licorice either.
Hell, familiars were magical, so maybe they had ways of disguising themselves.
Did she have her own glamour like some of the misfit monsters? I was still trying to figure out how all of that worked. Obviously, I didn’t need to use glamour to disguise my appearance, so it was a bit of a mystery to me.
As far as I could tell, the misfits’ glamour seemed to be adjustable.
The more comfortable Tulip was around someone, the greener her hair and the pointier her teeth became.
And when Gideon and I visited her pond a week or so back, she’d had a tail.
It made sense; she was a mermaid. But it was just so…
unexpected to see her with a big fish tail that I’d been speechless for about ten minutes.
Whereas with Az, his demonic traits were always locked down, but when he dropped his glamour, he had massive wings and horns and stuff.
I still had no idea where they disappeared to when I couldn’t see them.
It was wild. And I suspected Hazel could fine-tune her glamour, showing something different to humans versus other supernaturals.
So it’d make sense for Licorice, as my familiar, to have access to her own type of glamour, right? I was pretty sure familiars were meant to spend a lot of time with their witch, so they could probably disguise themselves to make that possible.
I really needed to start writing down all my questions because Elwood had a tendency to think I should just automatically know things. And I didn’t. I really, really didn’t.
Everyone stared at us expectantly.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Tulip cleared her throat. It made the gills on her throat flutter. “Sandy said your ex is in town?”
I frowned at the sprite.
“No one said it was a secret,” Sandy said around a bite of muffin. Then he brushed away a few crumbs that’d fallen to his bubble-gum pink t-shirt that read, I’m beer for a good time.
I pointed at Tulip. “Josh is off-limits. He doesn’t need to visit your pond…” I paused and thought about it. “Or any other body of water.”