20. A Chuglet Walks Into a Bar
A Chuglet Walks Into a Bar
Somehow, Malachi managed not only to convince the owner to let Reena stay, but also to ensure she got her own bowl of pho.
She sat at the table in a child’s booster seat, happily slurping broth and gnawing on slices of unseasoned chicken.
Jaxon sat quietly, eating his own soup, listening as Flick and Malachi reminisced about their childhood escapades.
Luna was also sitting silently, occasionally tapping her chopsticks against the edge of her bowl as she concentrated on maneuvering them like the others.
“Are they always like this?” Jaxon murmured to her, trying to strike up a conversation.
Briefly flicking her gaze at him, she frowned and shrugged half-heartedly before shoveling a large clump of noodles into her mouth. Her cheeks pinked slightly as the other demons paused to listen in.
“Talkative one, aren’t you?” he tried again, his tone light and joking, trying to make her laugh. When she shrugged once more, he huffed out an irritated breath. “You clearly aren’t like them, so why are you here? Are you guys just having yet another laugh at my expense?”
Her eyes widening at his now-heated voice, she raised one chopstick and briefly pointed it at Malachi before dropping it into her bowl.
Leaning back against the stained, cracking vinyl of the booth, she crossed her arms over her chest. She stared at Malachi with a combination of irritation and confusion.
“You didn’t tell him?” she asked, frustration finally giving an edge to her question.
Malachi leaned against Jaxon’s shoulder and nudged him.
“Lunesta is a special case. She’s only part demon and is a little too nice for her own good.
We need to show her how to live on the top side.
Don’t worry, once we get a little liquor in her, she’ll be dancing on the tables and singing.
” His eyebrows waggled with innuendo, and he grinned.
A middle finger was lifted in his direction as she glared.
“He’s right though,” Flick chuckled, a devious smirk curving his lips. “I bet gin makes her sin, whiskey will get her frisky, and tequila—”
“Finish that sentence, and it will be your last one,” Luna growled. She picked up her chopstick and launched it across the table, narrowly missing Flick’s eye. “Zip it.”
Laughing harder, Flick mimed zipping his lips, which caused Jaxon to do a double take as an actual zipper appeared across his mouth.
“Okay, liquor stories aside, we have a mission tonight,” Malachi announced with a broad grin.
“First, show Lunar Eclipse what being in the human world is all about. And, as you all know, my buddy Jaxon here is depressed. His girl dumped him, and he’s moping, so we’re going to have some fun and cheer him up.
Two vultures, one flaming chunk of brimstone. ”
Protesting wordlessly, Jaxon shoved Malachi’s shoulder, almost knocking Reena’s bowl off the table in the process, spilling her soup. The small dog curled her lip and snarled as she licked broth from her muzzle. She glanced up at Malachi with watery pleading eyes.
“It’s okay, princess,” Malachi doted on her. “Uncle Jaxxy didn’t mean it. He’s just miserable since he’s become single again.”
“Oh, come the fuck on!” Jaxon moaned, grinding the heel of his hand against his forehead.
Luna leaned forward and tilted her head, studying him like she wanted to shove pins through his arms and legs, then mount him to a specimen corkboard. The golden shimmer in her eyes was highly unnerving and silenced him immediately.
In a low voice, laced with ice, Luna drawled, “Now I see why your girlfriend left you. Whiny, complaining, and mean to Chuglets.” Flopping back in the seat once more, she nodded righteously since she was half angel and could, then crossed her arms with an irritated air.
Standing angrily, his chair screeching across the floor, Jaxon propped his knuckles on the table and leaned over to her.
“You know what? Fuck off. I don’t care if you are a demon.
Or a half demon. I don’t care if you want to learn about humans.
I’m not here to take your shit just because you see yourself as superior.
Marla took a job across the country, and it was her dream career.
I wasn’t going to hold her back. We parted on good terms; I just miss her. ”
Straightening, he pointed at Malachi. “And I’m not mean to Reena; it was just an accident.
So, you can all take your opinions and shove them up those incredibly tight asses of yours because I don’t want it.
Fuck this. Malachi, I appreciate what you were trying to do in your weird demon way, but I’m not going to listen to this bullshit anymore.
See you later.” He spun on his heel and stormed out of the restaurant toward his car.
Blinking in the face of Jaxon’s whirlwind departure, Malachi glanced at the others. “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”
Leaving Reena in Luna’s questionably capable hands, Malachi smoked after Jaxon and followed him into the parking lot. He hovered low behind the man who was too angry to notice the shadows building under his car. He listened to the rant as Jaxon paced back and forth.
“Fucking demons, self-righteous assholes. All of ‘em,” he grumbled. His teeth were grinding so hard, Malachi idly wondered if they would crack.
Jaxon angrily reached for the doorknob, then deflated slightly.
“What else am I going to do? Spend another night on my couch, watching reruns of Marla’s favorite shows just to feel a connection to her?
” He groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face and whispered another round of, “Fucking demons.” Turning to the bar, he studied the beckoning glow of the neon light proclaiming The Handlebar was open and sighed.
“If I’m gonna be a mopey loser, might as well meet all the stereotypes and do it over a beer. ”
With a resigned groan, Jaxon’s feet carried him toward the beat-up door of the bar.
The glass was covered with so many old stickers and posters that anyone walking by could not see inside.
Malachi smirked when Jaxon yanked the door open and stepped into the dim building.
He watched as the man stood on the threshold, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the hazy gloom of the interior.
There was no longer any smoking inside due to city ordinance, but the remnants of decades of cigarette fumes lingered like a bad memory.
Slipping back into the restaurant, he quickly paid for their meals. Chuck would skin him alive if he didn’t and urged the others to the bar next door. As they walked inside, Luna stopped dead in her tracks, just past the entrance. Her mouth dropped open in awe at the sight before her.
Everywhere they looked, flickering neon beer ads assaulted their vision, and at least one of the speakers pumping out the music was blown out, adding scratchy static to the already too-loud offering.
The bar itself was crowded with men bellied up to the scarred surface two deep.
Their denim-and-leather attire screamed their ride of choice and where they’d ridden before.
Several heads turned toward Malachi and Flick, raking their forms head to toe, then swiftly dismissed them as non-threatening, although not entirely welcome.
Gazes lingered longer on Luna, some eyebrows lifting in surprise.
Although none of their party fit the bill of the usual clientele, she stood out the most. Shaking their heads, the crowd collectively turned back to their beers and resumed complaining about the unfairness of life and politicians making things harder for the hard-working man.
Shifting on his feet, Malachi’s gaze roved over the room looking for the darkest corner, knowing that’s where Jaxon would likely have gone to perch. He finally located him near the billiards area where a group of women was holding court over one table, talking trash to more bikers at the other.
Gingerly, testing his weight on the rickety wooden chair, Jaxon had just lowered himself into the seat.
He grimaced at the loud clack of a broken round as another game of pool started up behind him.
Studiously ignoring the women catcalling him, his eyes roamed the hazy room, looking for a waitress or bartender.
His shoulders drooped in relief as a server swept over to him and wiped down the table with a rag that was probably dirtier than the table had been to start.
Cocking out a hip and studying him with a salacious grin, the woman nodded.
Her large poof of frizzy curls nodded with her.
She smacked a piece of gum while curling her cotton candy pink lips.
“Mmm, nice to see someone in here with a six pack instead of a keg.” She arched one eyebrow at him and continued her smirk. “So, what’ll it be, handsome?”
Jaxon had just opened his mouth to order when Malachi waltzed over, companions in tow. “Fuck me,” he moaned, slapping a hand over his eyes and rubbing it down his face before glaring at the demons.
“Hmm, that’s not on tap, but I’ll see what I can do for you later, sugar. You want a beer or something a little stronger?” The server chuckled with a throaty laugh, likely the result of the lingering smell of smoke.
“Oh, uh, sorry ‘bout that,” Jaxon mumbled as he blushed.
Cackling, the waitress slapped her thigh. “Oh, you are just too delicious. C’mon doll. What can I pour ya?”
“Whiskey. Make it four,” Malachi purred from behind her.
Spinning, the woman stared at Malachi’s chest that was now at her eye level.
Slowly, her eyes traced up his throat and roved over his chiseled jaw, lingering on the sultry curve of his full lips, shadowed by the faintest trace of black stubble.
His long wavy hair curled enticingly around his face, framing his cheekbones and shadowing his dark brown eyes.
The server audibly caught her breath and rattled out a small squeak. “Fuck me,” she whispered.
“I heard that wasn’t on tap, but maybe an exception can be made?” Malachi replied with an arch of his raven’s wing eyebrows, nearly making the poor waitress swoon. “Easy there darlin’, I’m just teasing. Four top-shelf whiskeys please, and a bowl of your finest top-shelf water for my girl here.”
Staring over his shoulder, she took in Flick and Luna, then back to Malachi.
“Water in a bowl?” she blurted, then glanced down as a wet nose pressed into her calf.
“Oh!” she squealed, delighted by the sight of the Chuglet.
“How cute!” Her gaze moved back up the hard abs in front of her and frowned slightly. “Um.”
“It’s okay for Reena to be in here, right?” he breathed while a small tendril of shadow caressed her jaw. His eyes turned to obsidian as his incubus power surged over her. He smirked as her shoulders went slack and her eyes blurred for a second before she nodded agreeably.
“Absolutely! What a doll baby!” she cooed. “Four whiskeys and one water coming up!” She sauntered away, her ass swaying with every bit of sassiness she could fit into it as she glanced over her shoulder, biting her lip with her obvious desire for Malachi.
Sitting heavily, Malachi lifted Reena into his lap. “See, told you it wouldn’t be a problem!” He lifted Reena’s paw and made her wave at Jaxon while she yipped in excitement.
Snorting in disgust, Jaxon shook his head. “Yeah, ‘cause you used your incubus magic on her. Cheating.”
“It’s not cheating when your gifts are from the Morningstar himself.
” Grunting in amusement, Malachi smiled and let his gaze linger over the crowd in the gloom as he set Reena in her own chair.
Taking in the regulars and the offerings in the small dive bar, he grinned even harder.
Rubbing his hands together in undisguised glee, his eyes lit up with Hellfire briefly. “Oh yeah, this is the place.”
Glancing around dubiously, while ignoring Luna who was sitting primly and quietly across from him, Jaxon snorted. “Place for what?”
“The place to cause a riot, of course!” Flick crowed as he flipped his chair backward and dropped into it with a solid thunk.
He crossed his arms over the back of the wooden top and flashed Hellfire in his eyes.
As Jaxon’s eyes widened, the tips of Flick’s fangs peeked out from under his lips before he grinned, a full display of wicked sharp points ready for mischief.
“No. Absolutely not. Not fucking happening, no riots. I’m a police officer.
I can lose my job for something like that!
” Jaxon protested loudly. “Malachi, you of all people—demons or otherwise—know that!” His head whipping side to side frantically, Jaxon rose slightly from his chair, and he stabbed his pointer finger on the table so hard, the whole thing rocked violently.
“No!” he snapped as Malachi merely grinned, making him pull out the ace up his sleeve. “Do not make me call Chuck!”
The ultimate threat had Flick releasing a soft, dramatic whistle. “Oh, damn! No, he didn’t!” He nudged Luna’s elbow and jerked a thumb at Jaxon, waggling his eyebrows. “The balls on that one.”
Shrugging nonchalantly, Malachi leaned back in his chair. “Go ahead. I mean, her phone’s off. Spa rules. Plus, she already knows about this. But go ahead, Jaxella, call her,” he challenged. Raising his arms, he laced his fingers together casually behind his head as he smirked.
Continuing to glare, Jaxon slowly lowered back into his seat. “One drink, and I’m leaving. Anything you do after that, not my problem. I’m not risking my career for you, puppy chow.”