Chapter 25
CAFFEINE USED TO BE THE ONLY MAGIC I KNEW
PARKER
“I still can’t believe I didn’t see Gage’s horns before now,” I said as I guided my car into the left lane to pass a slow-moving minivan on the highway on the outskirts of the city.
I glanced in my mirror to make sure that Nelson and Teague were still behind me as we entered the city limits.
They were. I probably shouldn’t have worried.
Nelson, who was driving, was way more experienced at this than I was.
I hadn’t been sure, at first, when it was decided that those two would be our only onsite backup, but everyone assured me they could handle it.
Teague would be on comms and Nelson would follow us in his shadow form.
Nana, of course, hadn’t been impressed, but she’d have had an even harder time blending in on campus than Levi and me. Davina had said she’d cuff Nana to her bed to keep her from following us. And I wished I hadn’t seen how intrigued Nana had looked by that threat .
Some part of me wished this felt more like a date. Levi and I were alone. We were heading into the city. It had all the earmarks of a date, but it wasn’t. Obviously. So, I definitely shouldn’t expect a kiss at the end of the night.
I’d been chattering away since we hopped in my car to head to this meeting, mostly because Levi was eerily silent.
He was so damn moody, but I didn’t mind that about him.
Especially today. Today I knew his silence was because he was scared, for himself, his friends, and probably for me too.
Although as a human, I was the last person who’d be at risk if what we all suspected was true.
So, I babbled, which really wasn’t like me.
So, okay… I might be a little nervous too.
“And those matching tattoos Ash and Dillon have move. They move! It’s like… Well, magic,” I continued with a little laugh.
Levi didn’t say anything, so I jumped to the next thing that crossed my mind.
“Speaking of Ash, I don’t know what I’d do without him,” I said, mostly because I couldn’t handle the tension.
“When I first created my business plan, I’d planned for a coffee and bakery combo, but Willow Lake already has a successful and established bakery.
So, I had to switch things up. Offering meals was the obvious choice, and it was still feeding people, which I love.
” I sighed as I guided the car around a bend in the road.
Levi still didn’t speak.
“Unfortunately,” I said, “I’m not as amazing at making meals as I am at baking.
I get by okay, but it isn’t enough to draw people into the Flying Rowan.
Then, thank God, Ash came along. He is a wizard at pizzas, and that wizardry had put my place on the map.
” I glanced at Levi. I was staring straight ahead.
“Did I tell you? A year or so back, I even asked if he’d want to become a co-owner.
He wasn’t interested, but I wonder if he’d give me the same answer now.
There are a lot of days when it would be a relief to share all the responsibility of running the place with someone else. ”
I waited. Levi shifted in his seat.
“Parker, you don’t have to do this,” Levi said, and I knew he wasn’t talking about Ash or my café because he’d said the same thing umpteen times already today.
He pushed his hand through his hair. Unfortunately he’d had it cut today, so all those little curls I loved had been chopped off. I didn’t like it. It was too severe. It felt like he was a soldier preparing to go into battle.
“We can turn around right now,” he continued. “The hunters left Willow Lake, so they aren’t our problem anymore.”
I pursed my lips. It wasn’t the first time he’d made that argument, either. But if these people were murderers, we had to stop them.
A bunch of Willow Lakers talked about leaving the investigation to the Supernatural Council, but how long would it take them to mobilize and get close? Levi and I had been invited to get closer right now.
If this really was an attempt to recruit us to their cause based on our fake interest in their activities, then we couldn’t stop now. This was too big of an opportunity. We couldn’t walk away .
I really hoped they hadn’t invited us because they suspected Levi was a minotaur.
And I still wasn’t convinced this was anything more than a few friends investigating ghosts to gain notoriety and YouTube followers. Although that theory didn’t explain why there were listening devices in Levi’s home.
But if everyone was wrong about them and these people weren’t hunters, then the SC people wouldn’t have to waste valuable time and resources investigating them. Governments of all kinds were always worried about money, right? I was sure they’d agree with this plan.
“You don’t have to go in with me,” I said. “I can drop you off at a coffee shop by the university and pick you up after the meeting is done.”
“No way,” Levi shouted. “You aren’t going there by yourself.”
I frowned and wished I could pull over and talk to him about all this again. But driving through rush-hour in the city was no joke. We’d be lucky to get to the meeting on time, as it was.
“We’re just checking things out. It isn’t like they’re going to show us everything on our first meet-and-greet. It’ll be fine.”
Levi let out a hybrid huff-grunt. Now that I knew he was a minotaur, the sound seemed very bovine to me. A few days ago, I never would have made that connection. Then again, a few days ago, I didn’t think anything could be more magical than my morning coffee.
I pulled into the parking lot where we were supposed to meet Fin with only ten minutes to spare. After parking and turning off the car, I turned to Levi. His hand was a tight fist. Hell, his whole body was tense. I drew his fist into my hands and waited until he looked at me.
“Seriously, I don’t know if you should come with me. I’m human. I’ll be fine, but you…” I squeezed his hand.
He pulled his hand and his gaze away from me.
He dug a plastic jar from one of his pockets and flicked the lid open.
He dumped a handful of antacids into his palm, then threw them into his mouth.
That couldn’t be good for him, but I wasn’t going to point that out to him right now.
Then he straightened his shoulders as he scanned the area.
“I see your cousin. Come on, let’s do this. ”
I tossed my phone into the glove box beside Levi’s as he climbed out of the car.
Although I hated the idea of not having my phone on me, everyone had said that if these were hunters, they’d find a way to get our phones away from us as soon as we arrived.
And, if they weren’t hunters, we wouldn’t have to worry about it.
My ankle holster was a reassuring weight on my right leg. If they patted us down, they’d find it. I wasn’t sure how I’d explain it, but hopefully they wouldn’t bother. It’d be a sure sign that this wasn’t a normal meeting, so I was banking on them not tipping their hand like that. It was a gamble.
But if they searched us and asked us to leave after finding my gun, well, I’d just take Levi on a date. We could go to a nice steakhouse—Wait, was that offensive? Levi was a minotaur. Was beef a no-go?
I was getting ahead of myself. First, we had to meet Fin’s friends .
“One thing at a time, Girard,” I said to myself as I let myself out of the car.
I really hoped I hadn’t underestimated these people. If anything happened to Levi, I didn’t know what I’d do.
I should have left him in Willow Lake.