Chapter 4 Oh No! There’s an Ifrit in my Cosmic Café
four
Oh No! There’s an Ifrit in my Cosmic Café
His smoldering gaze holds me on the spot as I take in what little of him I can in the darkness. Flames dance under his skin like veins of rushing power, highlighting bulging biceps, broad shoulders, and a strong square jaw.
He takes a step forward and I finally breathe as I move one step back. This only makes him advance faster, spreading his wings of smoke and flame as far as they’ll go. A scream is on the tip of my tongue when I bump into the wall.
“No!” he growls, lunging forward.
I shriek, like any normal person would, and throw my fist in a wild punch. It connects with his chest and I think I’ve broken my knuckles. He grunts but keeps reaching for something that’s fallen behind me.
When I realize he’s not trying to get to me at all, I sidestep and take a steadying breath. He’s on his knees, scooping something white off the ground and back into a ripped bag. The sweet smell hits me with the powdery dust he’s kicking up.
Sugar.
“You idiot,” he rumbles, his voice sending tremors through my chest. “You’ll attract skreet.”
“Attract what?” I cry.
“The roaches!”
“Jade, are you okay?” Zixin asks from somewhere near the stairs.
“Fine!” I shout back, though I’m not certain I am. If I’m not, I don’t want to get him mixed up in it, that’s for sure.
The demon growls as the sugar just keeps slipping through his fingers. I search around with my hands in the near darkness, looking for something to help pick it up. I find an old broom and start pushing the granules into a neater pile.
“That’s not helping,” he snarls.
“Well, fine, to hell with you and your roaches,” I say, throwing the broom down.
The world rips before my very eyes. Shimmering blue light tears down thin air and splits open to a lava-lamp-like universe.
I stare at it, mouth agape. A hot arm grabs me around the middle and I suck down another gasp before my mouth is covered. The demon has me in his vice grip, pinned to his warm chest with his talons digging into my cheek.
I bite down on instinct and the ifrit growls.
Sugar-tinged blood seeps into my mouth. It tastes like earthy cinnamon and it’s so hot it almost burns my tongue.
I keep biting, harder, but he doesn’t let me go.
He backs us against the wall and wraps his wings around me until I can barely see through them.
“Remain very still, and very quiet,” he rumbles, his hot lips brushing the tip of my ear. It sends trickles of warmth down my spine that pool in my lower belly and—my god, what is wrong with me?
I’m holding his arms, poised to rip them off me, but I don’t. I don’t do any of the quick fighting moves I know I have stored up in my brain somewhere. I just stand here and let the demon cradle me in silence as we watch the world tear open.
A massive, plated bug head appears at the rip. Its antennae wiggle about and I shiver, a full-body ick passing through me. The demon grumbles something and holds me tighter. His breath fans over my neck, heating the sweat chilling on my spine.
The interdimensional cockroach leans forward and steps a foot into the sugar pile. I struggle not to move and wiggle under the discomfort of watching this nasty creature invade my home.
“Be still,” the demon whispers, his hand tensing on my ribs as his thumb draws little circles. It’s almost…comforting.
I mean, if I have to choose between a cockroach and an asshole demon, I know what side I’m on, but he’s touching me like maybe he’s not an asshole.
Or maybe he’s copping a feel.
The cockroach opens its nasty mouth, and drool slops down onto the pile of sugar.
It shoves its face into the heap and begins sucking the crystals up faster than a vacuum.
Within seconds, the entire pile is gone—but it doesn’t leave.
It starts sniffing around, its creepy antennae twisting this way and that until they land on us.
Then I smell the sugar on his fingers. On my mouth.
“Fuck,” he grumbles, unfurling his wings and releasing my face.
He points his finger at the roach and a cone of flame projects from the tip. The thing hisses, its wings fluttering madly. The demon narrows the beam of fire and hits the monster with it. It skitters back into the rip, and the portal seals promptly.
I’m panting heavily, still holding on to his arm. I throw it off me and whirl around to glare at him.
“What the hell was that!”
He raises an ember-glowing eyebrow. “A cockroach.”
“I’ve seen a cockroach. That thing just plane-hopped like it was no big deal, and also, it was the size of a dog!”
“Am I going to get any gratitude?” he asks.
“What for?” I ask.
“Jade? Who are you talking to!” Zixin yells again.
“Myself!” I scream back.
I’m still not sure if this fiery ifrit is chill. So far, not so much.
The demon shakes his head as a purple-blue mark begins to glow on the hand he used to fight the cockroach.
“Now I’ve pissed off skreet,” he says, then glares at me. “And it’s your fault.”
“Skreet?” I ask.
“I don’t have time for this.”
He steps toward the doorway. Where once there was the opening to the coffee bar, now stands a rippling portal of smoke and embers.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” I snap, following him.
He whirls on the spot just before the doorway. “Do not come into my realm. Your kind is not welcome there.”
“Well, then don’t come into mine! You’re not welcome here!” I fire back. “And neither is skreet, whatever it is!”
He laughs in a cold, patronizing way. “Then you better stop spilling sugar, Firecracker.”
I gasp. Did he just nickname me?
“I wouldn’t have spilled it if you hadn’t scared me,” I say.
“I wouldn’t have scared you if you hadn’t walked through my bartender and addled his mind,” he retorts.
Bartender?
“The blue guy?” I ask.
He straightens and huffs, a curl of smoke coming from his wide nostrils. “Stay. Out. Of. My. Realm.”
With each punctuated word he grows fierier, not just in voice, but appearance. It’s as if his entire body is coming alive with flames.
I could absolutely not win a fight against this demon, but something about the way he shielded me so protectively tells me he wouldn’t hurt me anyway. But I’ve been known to make stupid choices and have a shitty gut-check so…
“Fine. Protection wards are going up tomorrow,” I say, crossing my arms.
He mimics me, but the gesture is much more impressive with his flexing forearms. “Fine. I’ve been meaning to redo them anyway. I’ll be back here at the same time tomorrow night to help you.”
I scoff. “I don’t need your help.”
“You are mistaken, and I won’t let your pride cause the rift in our realms to grow any farther.”
“Look, buddy, I just got here. There’s no way I’ve done the kind of damage that I’m sensing here in that short a time. I’d have to be purposefully poking the planar boundaries for weeks to get something like that cockroach rip to happen, and even then, it’d go somewhere stupid, like daisyland.”
I have never ripped a hole in the planes. I’ve never even come close to crossing more than the astral plane. I am talking directly out of my butthole here, but I’ll be damned if he’s going to show me up.
He smiles and the predatory nature of it does weird, warm things to my insides.
“You’re just a baby mage. You don’t even know how to use your power.”
“I am not a baby. I’m twenty-two years old.”
He snorts. “May as well be two how you blunder about with your magic.”
He turns back toward the open portal, and, no, I do not look down at his ass. I’m looking at the tail poking out through the back of his black trousers.
“Tomorrow night, Firecracker,” he says. I look up to see he’s glancing over his shoulder at me and may have seen my eyes pointed at his ass. He smirks—letting me know he got the wrong impression—then disappears into the smoke and flame with a snap.
“Asshole…”
Ace bugs me relentlessly when I get back upstairs, but I promise him he didn’t miss anything interesting. A giant interdimensional cockroach isn’t what I’d call interesting anyway. It’s terrifying and disgusting.
We eat a simple meal of rice and more sweet potato before rolling out our mats. I try to take the bigger room with Ace, but Nai Nai insists that I’m a woman now and I need my own space.
Whatever that means.
I lay back on my mat and pull my blanket up to my chin, then snuff the candle. Moonlight dances off a nearby tree and casts shadows on my wall that wiggle. I pull my black beanie over my eyes and roll to the side.
The floor is harder than back home, and it creaks every time I toss. The sweet potato must’ve had some kind of energy spell cast over it because I swear my brain is more awake now than it was before our late dinner. Usually stuffing my face makes me sleepy.
Little sounds and sensations drift up to me from the café. I stuff my earbuds in and crank up some thunder ambiance, but it doesn’t help. My astral body can feel all the rowdy activity going on downstairs, a brawl or something. People are definitely fighting.
Maybe that stupid ifrit is getting harassed by skreet.
I hope he is.
Guilt twists in my gut because I don’t hope that, and I know if he is, it’s partially my fault. I growl and flop onto my back. There’s no way I’m going to sleep like this, but I know what can help.
I push back the blanket and step off my mat. The floor is cold but clean under my bare feet. The air is chilled, not like the sauna it was down in the bar area. I take a cleansing inhale and come to a strong standing pose.
The air moves through me and prepares my body for sets.
I drop into first stance, fists raised, elbows tucked, knees slightly bent.
I snap my right fist forward, leaning into it.
The momentum of my body twisting back helps me pivot on my front foot and send the back one curling around in a high spin kick.
I stomp down with my kicking foot and the floors creak loudly.
Shit.
I’ll have to step lighter.
The adjustment for making less noise somehow makes my sets more strenuous. I push myself until I’m sweating, and all I hear is my pounding heart and heavy breaths. But it’s not just the extra strain that’s making my heart hammer. Something feels…blocked.
Like there’s not enough room in my chest to fill my lungs. Like my blood is sludge in my veins. It’s as if my power is hitting a dam that I didn’t put up myself.
Maybe I need to hydrate better.
I take off my shirt and use it to wipe my face and neck before getting back into bed. I’ll figure out the shower situation tomorrow. And the electricity situation. And the ifrit situation.
What a strange new twist in this weird life.