Moving in with My Flutterbun Girlfriend
SNOW
The apartment door sticks on the frame as usual, so I hip-check it open and stumble in on tired legs, already peeling off one boot.
"I need exactly seven minutes to change, then we can go find some HAM assholes and make them tell the truth this time," I say, tossing my keys into the little ceramic bowl by the door.
"As long as you don’t get suicidally combative again," One says, following me in.
He came and hung out at Poison Apple’s bar for the last couple hours.
Despite the disappearances, the place was a madhouse.
Packed with people wanting to stick together and wanting to support Poison Apple after what happened.
Ariel is in charge of the social media, so we got to make our own official statement, directed by Rap, about Carolee being dropped on our door in such a horrific manner.
The statement was that we would not be intimidated, and we would continue to be a safe space for all mage, fae, and humans alike.
Ariel’s on closing duties for the rest of the week. With Ryder promising to look after her, I feel she’ll be okay, so I can work on the real problem. Though no one knows she’s fae, so she’s not as much of a target.
The Seven grabs my arm so hard I let out a yelp. When I look at him to see what his deal is, I follow his gaze to the couch.
Lucifer is sitting in the middle cushion like he’s the one who pays rent.
Which, rude enough. But the real surprise is the white flutterbun who has chosen to stick around is tucked against his side, one ear resting over Lucifer’s front paw while the hellcat licks the top of its tiny head with slow, deliberate strokes.
I blink.
The flutterbun blinks back.
Lucifer keeps grooming it.
"What the actual faefuck?" I whisper.
The cat, who only last week shredded three pairs of my tights, knocked a full bottle of shampoo into the toilet, and left something unholy inside Ariel’s favorite boot, is cuddling the injured sky rabbit like a fuzzy little nursemaid.
Did someone slip me drugs?
The flutterbun gives a small, crooked flutter of its wings, then settles harder against Lucifer’s side.
For one weird second, my chest goes soft.
Then Lucifer’s yellow eyes cut to The Seven.
His whole body arches. Fur spikes straight up. A hiss rips out of him, loud enough to make the flutterbun startle.
The flutterbun launches into the air, flying lopsided across the room before landing on the bookcase in a wobbling heap. It shakes itself once, then peers down at us from beside my leaning stack of unpaid bills.
Lucifer yowls.
"What is he doing here?" One demands with such force, I’m taken aback.
My gaze swings from the cat to One. The way he said it made it sound like he’d discovered a secret boyfriend I’d been cheating on him with.
"This is the devil cat, Lucifer, who I’m sure I’ve told you about.
" I narrow my eyes at the cat. "He’s my arch nemesis. Lucifer is obsessed with this apartment building. No matter how far he strays, and you’d be shocked to hear the crazy places he’s ended up, he always finds his way back here.
" I shoot him a dark glare at that. Lucifer glares right in return.
It’s only then I notice One staring at the cat as if he seen a ghost.
"One? You okay?"
"Get it out of here," he says in a strange, raspy voice.
"I mean...I’ll try."
The cat has One super on edge. Maybe he’s superstitious about black cats? I’ll ask him once I get rid of the little jerk who has no doubt peed in my boots already.
After pushing up the window all the way, I grabbed the broom and started our age-old and horrible game of Cat Hockey.
Just when I thought I was getting Lucifer out of the apartment, he'd feint left and dive under the couch, and I'd have to work the broom handle in after him until he shot out hissing.
The chase takes us to the top of the fridge, behind the television stand, then under the couch again.
"I don’t suppose you want to use your super speed abilities and grab this asshole lickety split?" I ask One, panting from exertion.
All he does is continue to look at me with that haunted look.
"Right." I return to the game, ready for the second half. It only takes another few minutes before I’ve edged Lucifer out onto the fire escape.
With a final hiss, he gives me his little puckered asshole and leaps off the ledge to trot down the stairs.
I round on One, brushing away the hair stuck to my sweaty face, out of breath and feeling like I’ve run a mile. "Okay, so I know why I don’t like the black furry avatar of Satan, but what’s your deal with him?"
One opens his mouth, but the screech of tires interrupts him, followed by a long loud honk. I get to the window in time to see it.
Lucifer is in the street, black fur stark against the yellow line, his head whipping toward the oncoming headlights.
For one awful second, he freezes.
The front right tire catches him before the car fully stops, dragging him under with a sickening thump.
"Lucifer!" I scream out even as I yank the first-floor window open and climb over the sill. My boots hit the narrow strip of alley grass outside before I sprint for the street.
The car peels off with a guilty level of speed. I don’t even have it in me to scream after them, instead I drop down next to the cat. My hands over his crushed body, afraid to touch him as if I might do him more damage.
It’s my fault. If I hadn’t forced him out of the apartment...if I hadn’t exhausted him, he would have probably skittered out of the way. But the center of his body is dented from where the tire rolled over him, and grief grips every muscle in my body as I desperately wish I could take it back.
"You fucking horrible, horrible cat." Tears stream down my face. "You can’t go die. That’s..." I swallow a sob with a sniffle, "rude."
I sense when One comes to stand behind me. "Snow," he says gently.
"I’d threatened to kill him a hundred times, but I never really meant it.
" I can’t stop crying, and I can’t help but pick up his limp body and hold him to mine.
"He was an asshole, but I didn’t really want him dead.
And nobody probably even cares that he’s gone.
He always hung around our apartment, no home, no family. I should have been nicer."
"Snow," One says again. "You need to put him down."
I shake my head, my tears soaking his fur. I bury my face in him.
"Snow," One says with such uncharacteristic sharpness, I look up at him.
"You need to put the cat down, sweetheart, or you’re going to get scratched to hell in two seconds."
"What?" I look up at him, like he’s lost his mind. The poor cat has just been run over and he thinks—
"Ow!" I cry out, as the body suddenly jerks up, claws out and swiping.
I drop the furry body the same time my hand claps to my neck. I pull it away and find a little blood.
My skin goes ice cold while my blood rushes hot. Two images keep grinding together, Lucifer crushed in my arms, Lucifer alive on the street, and my stomach turns.
The dent is still in my hands. My fingers stay curled around the weight of a dead cat.
But Lucifer shakes himself off, as if disgusted I ever touched him. His ears flatten and his tail lashes once. Then he lifts a paw and starts licking it.
"What. The. Hell." I'm not sure what the fuck is happening. "He was dead. His body had a tire-sized dent." My words come out through numb lips.
After finishing licking his paw, Lucifer flashes me his arsehole for the second time tonight before trotting off into the dark.
I round on One. "You knew. How did you know?"
His discomfort is palpable as he digs his toe into the ground and avoids my eye. "The cat is...he is...that one has more than nine lives."
I get to my feet. "More than nine lives?" I throw my hands in the air, completely unsatisfied with his answer. "What are you talking about?"
One pinches the bridge of his nose. "Snow, I can’t talk about it."
Can’t talk...
I close the gap in two steps, my finger poking his chest. "Listen, I know you love your secrets, your mystery, and all that bullcrap. But what. The. Fuck. Just. Happened."
The line draws tighter between One’s brows until his eyes flash green. Red. Blue then white again.
"We aren’t discussing this," he says, and walks off. Like he's done with me.
"What?" I shriek.
He simply pulls his hood over his head as he strides for the alley mouth.
Oh helllll no.
I catch up to him in a second, stopping him in his tracks by grabbing the back of his beloved hoodie he loves to hide in. He twists around to see where I’ve held onto him.
"I want to talk to Two."
"Snow, I’m not going to do that," One says with terse impatience, like I'm some kind of child he can’t bother to humor.
"I want to talk to Two," I grind out again.
"I’m leaving," he warns, ripping his hoodie out of my grasp. He can do it. He can run, and I’d never catch him.
"TWO!" I yell.
One recoils and shudders before opening his eyes. Purple.
Two came.
"Tell me what is happening," I ask again.
Two’s normal, devil-may-care, too cool for school attitude has been replaced with a pensive hesitance.
He doesn’t want to tell me either, but if any of them will, it’s him. He rebels against One, like a middle child resenting an older, more perfect sibling.
"One won’t tell me. He’s trying to control everything. He’s trying to control me. I won’t be controlled. I want the truth." It’s a bit of a wild guess that Two will respond to this, but I need to push that button if I want to get what I want.
Two sighs with frustration, looking at the sky while shoving his hands in his pants pockets.
"One is protecting someone else," Two explains, throwing me a bone.
"Who? Not you."
He shakes his head, still not meeting my gaze.
"You don’t get it, Snow. We’re wrong. All of us."
I shake my head, not understanding. We just went over this crap last night. We fucked out all of that nonsense, and here he is back to his old lines. Why?
"Magic," he finally says, throwing his arms out wide. "It’s an abomination. It’s unnatural, and it’s corroding this city, the world, the realms. We are part of that problem."
Okay, now I’m officially lost. I was asking about a dead cat. Then it slowly dawns on me.
"Did you..." I hesitate, not wanting to say the wrong thing. "Two, did you do something to the cat? With your magic?"
His face twists with pain and anger as if I’d jabbed a dagger in him and twisted.
"It’s wrong, Snow, and that’s why he can never come out. Never again. To be safe. To keep everyone safe. To keep the world safe."
The pieces slowly click together with painful finality. "Seven. Seven did something to the cat."
Air rushes past my ears, and my back slams into the brick of my apartment building. My skull cracks against it. His forearm is across my collarbone, and my boots aren't touching the ground. One pinned me here once. That was nothing like this.
The Seven’s eyes flash through all the colors, except for black. As if they are all protecting him, or maybe hiding him.
"You say you want to be like us," they say in a mix of tones and voices, "and you have no idea how fucked up that is. How wrong that is. You can’t love us, not when we are a source of the disease."
Despite the way he has me pinned, I laugh in his face. "What, like you can create more magic? Don’t be—"
I cut myself off. Not only because it makes perfect sense, but because Two has gone white. His eyes are wild, chest heaving as if he's run for miles, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s angry or terrified.