21. Meical
Chapter 21
Meical
T his morning, I tried to control my shadows and give her privacy. Except I heard Janie moan . . . loudly. I shifted as I felt my cock harden as her noises got louder. Was she doing this on purpose? She had to be, but did she realize how easy it would be for me to watch her from the shadows? Did she want me to watch? The sizzle of the bacon I was cooking for her wrestled my attention from her noises. I finished fixing her breakfast as her noises died down and she jumped into the shower. The shadows could keep me abreast of her movements, but I didn’t allow myself to watch.
Janie walked out wearing some fishnets with a skirt. Her shirt was tight and low cut. She looked amazing. I smiled, and she slowed her movements. “You’re the monster right now,” she whispered. Her eyes widened as she took me in. I couldn’t figure out what form she liked better.
“Would you prefer my man form?” I asked. “If that pleases you.”
Her mouth parted. “You have to be a man when we leave, right? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I don’t know. I mean. Ugh. You made me breakfast?” she said as she sat at her little table. I noticed she would have breakfast at the small table in the kitchen, but hardly ever ate dinner there. She preferred to watch movies and eat.
“Yes. I will take care of you,” I said. A shadow creeped closer to her arm, but I resisted touching her with it. “I’m sorry for breaking your trust. I don’t really know what I can do to change your thoughts about me. It could have taken me years to fill up without your assistance. Your energy thrives inside me.” I placed a plate in front of her.
She swallowed as she looked up with wide eyes. “This is a lot of food.”
“You need to eat more. You haven’t been eating as much. I told you that.”
“I already told you?—”
“You’ll need your energy when I fuck you,” I said.
Janie dropped her fork and laughed. “You assume I would let you fuck me,” she said.
“I heard you.”
Janie looked up, biting the side of her cheek. I smirked.
“Did you look? You’ve mentioned that you can look through the shadows?”
“No. Did you want me to look? Were you teasing me?” A smokey tendril snaked out of the shadows, wrapping around her throat. “Did you want me to touch you? Were you thinking about me? I could wrap and bind you with all my tendrils. You seemed to have enjoyed that so much in your dreams.” Her desire peppered the air.
Her mouth parted as her pupils dilated. More of my tendrils wrapped around parts of her body. Her thighs clenched together as one of my tendrils started snaking up her leg. I leaned closer to her face. “I know you want me just as much as I want you. We’re fated. You’re my light. ”
Janie swallowed. “You need to release me if you want me to eat.”
All my tentacles slipped away from her body. She tucked her head down and quietly finished eating her breakfast. When she stood up with her plate, she said, “It seems pretty early for a poker game.”
“Multi-rounds, I think.”
“You really think you will win? Without cheating?”
“I know I will. Also, you say that like the fuckers I’ll be playing won’t also cheat. Let’s go,” I said as I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door. I shimmered into my human form. Her eyes widened a little as she watched me change. “Hand me your keys.”
She laughed. “You’re going to drive my car? How do I know if you can even drive?”
“I drove that man’s car.”
Janie shook her head as she went to the driver’s seat. “I don’t trust you.”
“You realize shadows are everywhere? I can sense and see many things at once. I am the safest driver around.”
She laughed as she sat in the seat. “I am driving.”
I pouted. “Fine. But I guess I need to get my own car.”
The car roared to life. “Where am I going?” she asked.
“Do you remember the weird women you met the other day? That direction. Find a parking lot near and we will walk to the alley.”
“And where is that?”
“We’re going to a magical part of the city. Urien showed you a few places where the magical hide in sight, but this is where most can shake their glamours. You saw it the other day. Or you almost did.”
“What about you?”
“The witches don’t like my kind. I’ll stay like this. ”
“Wow. That sucks. Is there anywhere you can be safe? It’s mostly witches? What about a place without witches?”
“Not all, but witches think they are on top of everything. We’re the monster under the bed. When you have a trusted member of the community disappear or die, we’re to blame. But they don't know their crimes. They’d kill them, too.”
Janie nodded as she turned her car to the parking lot near the road. “So, the witches are wrong?”
“There are things darker out there. They just don’t care about this world.”
“How much is there out there? Should I fear the dark?” she asked as she turned off the car.
I turned toward her. A tendril escaped a shadow as it wrapped around her wrist. My hand touched her face while my thumb made circles at the bottom of her chin. “I am the dark. I can protect you from it all.” She sucked in a breath as her lips parted. I pulled away from her and stepped out of the car. I stopped in front of the alleyway and motioned with my hand.
“Does it look different?”
Janie looked at the wall and squinted as she examined it. “It glimmers slightly. It’s like I can almost see something.”
“Yes, you are correct. Come along,” I said. As we got closer, the glamour faded, and we stood in a normal street. “There are streets and parts of towns like this for every major town. Rural areas have entire towns. A place to get the things the magical folk may need. There are front-facing banks that understand that a vampire will have money for eons.”
“What about you?”
“Yes. I had to recover my bank account. Past business ventures and all that. This isn’t my first poker tournament. ”
“So, do they know what you are?”
“I have always filled that out as ‘nightmare.’ No one questions that. Most of the tellers understand that means something they do not want to know about,” I said. “There are fae that write something generic, too. I am sure there are a lot of ‘nightmares’ . ”
As we walked through the throngs of people, she was quiet. She didn’t gape like others would. She took it all in with wide eyes and silence. If there was a menacing person, she grabbed my hand. My heart lit in flames with that moment of trust. We walked to the bar, and I sat her at the bar.
I tilted my head close to her ears. “Stay here while I get set up at a table. Order some drinks or food if you want. I will pay. Urien should be here; he’ll keep you company.”