Chapter 8 Butting Heads Behind the Bar
eight
Butting Heads Behind the Bar
Ilook down at my slumbering body and do a double take.
I’ve never been able to maintain an astral presence while unconscious.
Twisting strings of green and orange catch my notice, and I see the chain linking my astral wrist to my body.
The mark from the ifrit glows brightly, as if it’s lending me power and keeping me tethered so I don’t get lost.
I don’t think he meant for his mark to be a boon, but I’m going to use it to the fullest extent. I whoop, flipping backwards and soaring toward the ceiling. I pass into the attic, which has loads of boxes stacked neatly. I want to investigate those later, but for now, the sky calls.
I zoom toward the roof, then crash into the boards. Pain sizzles on my astral body and I rub my face.
“What the hell?”
I’ve never been able to feel pain in my spirit body before…
I approach the ceiling slower and inspect it closely. A fiery shield hovers just above the surface of the wood. It reacts to my astral body, repelling it like two magnets turned the wrong way.
Motherfucker trapped me here!
I whirl around and dive. The floor rushes past me until I reach sensory overload on the main level. A massive doorway made of fire and smoke stands in the middle of the café. I would suck in a gasp if this body needed air, or if air even existed on this plane.
But I bet it does beyond that door.
I reach for the golden handle that looks to be in a perpetual state of melting. The drips disappear before hitting the ground, but the knob doesn’t ever change size. It’s warm to my neon pink body, but not painfully so. His magic responds to my touch and the handle turns.
The watered-down vision of the café is solid beyond that frame, revealing a world that stops my heart. The floor is black lava rock. Pulses of orange fire glow deep within it, giving an ambiance to the hall. It’s longer than the café, as if he told the space to stretch out for him and it complied.
The stools at that bar are crafted from bone and twisting gold, and the creatures sitting atop them are something beyond imagining.
Humanoid in shape, but everything stops there.
Some have leathery wings, others have feathers, some have two sets of arms, and others are scaled.
Some of them are as tall as Rhazan, and some are as short as Nai Nai, but all of them look like they could beat me to a pulp in a fistfight.
An orange glowing ball of fire bounds toward me and…barks?
It stops before me and looks up with big, coal eyes that glow like embers. The fire seems to be originating from them and another chunk of rock buried deeper in its chest. There’s a brand on it that looks all too familiar: flaming wings.
I grit my teeth.
Did this fire demon just make me his fucking pet?
The flameball barks again, wagging its tail and lolling a glowing tongue. I kneel down and give it a pat.
“Lead me to Rhaz, would you?” I ask the creature.
It barks twice, runs in a little circle, then takes off for the bar.
I follow, and the fiery doorway closes behind me.
The door remains and a label appears on it: a green star just like the one on my wrist. There are other doors flanking it, six in total.
The symbols are all different, and not all of them are lit up with color.
All chatter in the room has stopped, and when I look back at the bar, everyone is staring at me. I do the sane, reasonable thing and wave.
“Hey.”
One creature that could only be described as a biblically accurate angel merged with the creature from the Black Lagoon blinks all twelve of his eyes at me out of order. The blip blip blip of their opening and shutting makes my skin do a little crawl.
“Jade.” Rhazan whip-cracks my name and my gaze snaps to him.
He throws a towel over his shoulder and walks out from behind the bar. I stand my ground, remembering why I came despite all the wondrous things I’ve seen so far.
“Why can’t I leave the café?” I ask, holding up my wrist.
Woah, my body is…body-like. No longer pink energy, but something solid and alive.
He grabs my arm and pulls me close. “Don’t show that off.”
“Why, you don’t want everyone knowing you’ve put me in some sort of magical slavery?” I ask, seething up at him.
He growls and turns, pulling me with him.
I protest, but he ignores me.
“Ten minutes,” he says to another creature behind the bar, who nods.
We march through the back beyond the pantry I saw through the realms the first time, and keep going. Beyond that is a long hall that seems to extend well beyond the bounds of the cafe. We pass several doors, some of which sound like they have interesting things happening behind them.
The door at the very end of the hall has two flaming wings branded on them. It flies open with a flick of his fingers and he drags me inside. The whomp of it shutting behind us is only dampened by his smoky wings snapping out.
I glance at my surroundings, taking in the space that’s one part office, one part bedroom. The entire back wall is shelving for files on one side and books on the other near his bed. It’s not much more than a pile of pillows and blankets on a slightly raised cot, like a nest.
“What are you doing here?” Rhazan barks.
“I asked first,” I say again, holding up my wrist. “What is this, and why can’t my astral body leave the café?”
His jaw muscles bulge. “It’s a power share.”
I shake my head and throw my hands out. “That means nothing.”
“You can use my magic.”
“And the whole no leaving the café?”
“I’m…” He crosses his arms with a huff and his flaming gaze turns toward the wall of books. “Your astral body is fueled by my magic now. It has the same limitations as mine.”
“Which are?”
He hisses a sigh as he looks away, then runs his tongue over his fangs like he’s thinking. He swallows hard and his red cheeks flush deeper. His gaze flicks back to me, then away again.
Is he ashamed?
I grimace. Part of me is feeling like he deserves all the gross feelings he’s feeling for what he’s done to me. But hate and smugness aren’t going to get me answers. I grab his forearm, and he looks back at me with pain in his furrowed brow.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice soft and curious. “No judgement.”
“I deserve to be judged for what I did. And I have been.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” I ask.
He frowns but says nothing.
I bob my head and let my hand slide away from his muscled arm. “Fine, but you owe me, dude. I can’t fly anymore. Night flights were my favorite.”
He scowls. “It wasn’t my intent to limit your magic. I didn’t realize you could manifest your spirit energy into a body.”
“Does this mean I won’t be able to astral project outside the café ever anymore?”
He shakes his head. “No. It’s just my magic that’s bound here.”
“But…then why did I get stuck?”
“Because you’re using my magic,” he says, unfolding his arms to reveal my glowing name on his wrist.
I run my fingers over the mark and a shiver moves down my spine to my lower belly. It feels like a draw to him, a summoning. I step closer, my legs wobbly and head woozy. He grips my waist and steadies me.
“You’re very adept at taking from me, too,” he murmurs.
“Well, this is your own fault. If you hate it so much, take it off,” I say, giving him my arm.
He cradles my hand and stares at the brand for a long beat.
In the silence, I watch his gaze move along my arm, tracing its shape.
My muscles are more pronounced than most girls’, and I wonder how he feels about that.
Most guys in school were intimidated by me, especially because they knew I could give them a beatdown.
Didn’t make me very popular, or sought after…
But Rhazan makes me feel not just seen, but appreciated. His gaze is heavy, and slow. It lingers and traces, caresses. It feels like he’s peeling back my layers and looking deeper.
He pushes open my palm and his touch burns across my fingers. The pad of his thumb sends a thrill racing from my fingertips to my stomach.
I take a shuddering breath. “Rhaz?”
He clears his throat and steps back, separating us. The distance feels almost painful.
“It’ll be safer to remove the mark in your realm.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll lose the tether to your body and the energy required to manifest a physical presence on this plane. I’m not sure what would happen to you.”
The fiery fluffball from before barrels through the door, barking aggressively and making me jump. Rhazan growls and storms past me. It’s pointless to ask what’s going on. I know he’s not going to tell me, so I just follow after him.
We’re nearly to the end of the long hall when suddenly a ball of green liquid flies past the opening and splats on the wall. The black rock begins caving in on itself, melting and crumbling apart from the acidic shot.
Rhazan leaps around the corner with wings flared, and I charge after him. It’s mass chaos in the bar. People are running for the exits as rip after starry-blue rip forms in thin air.
“Skreet!” the creature behind the bar shrieks as he pushes me aside and runs for one of the other doors.
“Jade, go back to my room!” Rhazan yells, drawing the attention of the three nasty bugs.
“Yeah, right!” I say with a laugh.
This body isn’t my real body. I can do whatever I want here without consequences, and I intend to give these creepy creatures a little payback for nearly scaring me shitless the other night.
I grab the broom sitting at the end of the bar and snap off the end with a swift kick, then stand beside him.
“By my creator’s hand,” he grumbles. “You will replace that.”
“It’s a casualty of the interdimensional war,” I say. “Let’s rough up some roaches.”