by Macy Blake
Sol kissed him. He couldn’t resist. He had to tighten the reins on his control once more and force himself to pull away before he gave into the urges driving him. He wanted to feel Cody again, to lose himself in the wonder that was Cody’s body. He wanted to abandon all the things weighing him down. But he wouldn’t. Because Cody deserved better. He needed to lead and not hide behind the hope that Shaq would come back and manage it all. The chess pieces were definitely being moved around the board. Sol pulled away and gently pressed his forehead to Cody’s. “There are things you need to know, need to understand and accept, before you make any promises to me.”
“Then tell me.”
Sol took Cody’s hand in his and led him into the back room. There wasn’t a ton of space in there, but enough to close the door and keep the prying eyes off of them. “I don’t even know where to start.”
Cody grinned and squeezed his fingers. “How about this whole hellhound business. Because seriously, Sol, hellhound. What is it? What do you do? Why are all those people outside?”
Questions were easier to answer. “Hellhounds are protectors. Those of us who are other are tasked with keeping our presence in this realm secret. The hellhounds enforce that rule and keep the peace between humans and creatures like us.”
“So, you’re like the tough guys. Or, oh my God, you’re totally like mob enforcers.”
Sol arched a brow. “More like supernatural cops.”
“So you’re actually a combination of mob enforcer and super soldier with super serum. Am I right?”
Sol couldn’t help but grin. Cody was doing it on purpose, trying to ease his fears, and it was working. “Sure. Let’s go with that explanation.”
“Smart man. Just agree with me, and it’ll all go better for you.”
Cody grinned up at him, and even if the sparkle wasn’t in his eyes, he was still honestly trying to help. Sol let go another piece of fear and felt his strength return. How had it taken him so long to realize what Cody could be to him?
“So, where’d you go to get fixed and where’s Shaq? Because somebody has to be stronger than you, right? Like, you’re not the boss or something if… I don’t know what I’m asking.”
“We are the champions of the goddess of fire,” Sol explained. “There are three goddesses, and each is tasked with a different duty. The mother goddess divided her powers between her daughters and gave them each a responsibility. They each have a champion and an animal to call to assist them in their duties.”
“Wait,” Cody said, his eyes wide. “You actually like…work with an actual-for-real goddess?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s who you went to see.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s who healed you.”
“Yes.”
Cody seemed impressed. He processed for a moment, before he frowned. “So why doesn’t she just… keep you from getting hurt. Like that creepy ass thing that attacked us had that shield bubble thing. Why don’t you have one of those?”
“We have different types of magic. Mine is from fire, and my goddess has gifted me with abilities that pull from that strength.”
“Right. The whole flamey eye thing.”
“Exactly.”
“So, what’s the deal with me and Izzy finding out? Big trouble?”
“No. You’re pack. Shaq explained it to me after Drew learned our secret.”
“Dude, wait. You mean Drew didn’t know at first?”
“No.”
“Oh, that explains so many things, though. And are they like magically fated to be together or something? Because if Disney had a happily ever after cartoon for princes, they’d be the stars of that movie, Sol.”
Sol grinned and ran his fingers over Cody’s hair. “I’ll be sure to tell Shaq you think so.”
“Uh, yeah, you can not do that, okay? I like my job. Make that my life. I like my life. He’d probably kill me.”
Sol laughed. “One, he’d never kill you. And two, you think he’d fire you? You could demand ownership of this place, and he’d give it to you as long as he didn’t have to work behind the bar all the time.”
Cody laughed as well. “Yeah, I actually knew that already. The man has poor customer service skills, Sol. Oh, man, that makes sense now, too. He has more important things on his mind. Whoa.”
“He enjoys working at the bar, Cody. He chose it as our base here for a reason.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, it makes sense. Anybody who needs to come see the champion— I mean, that makes Shaq like the goddess’s main guy on Earth, right?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, so all these people are here to see him because he’s her voice here. Or something like that.”
“Exactly. They know we are tasked to protect them. And they’re afraid.”
“Yeah, I bet. Of those scary bubble death guy things.”
“Aswangs.”
Cody snorted. “Wait. What? You’re serious? They’re called Ass Wangs. For real?”
Solomon had never really thought about it. He couldn’t help but smile. “I believe your pronunciation is a bit off, but yes, aswangs.”
“No freaking way. That’s both awesome and terrible, and I don’t care if I’m missing a… what are those funny accent letters called again that make the letters sound different?”
Solomon shrugged.
“Yeah, I don’t remember stuff like that either.”
Cody leaned into him once more and they stood quietly together. “I’ll keep your secret, Sol. I’m scared for what’s happening and what this all means, but I’m not going to leave. Izzy had to. You get that, right? She had to get Sophie out of here.”
Solomon nodded.
“It had nothing to do with you or what you are. If the aswang got to Sophie—”
Solomon growled and his eyes shifted.
“Exactly. So you need to tell me what I have to do to stay safe, and we’re going to figure this out.”
Sol cupped Cody’s face in his hands. “How are you being so calm right now? I’ve seen humans panic and run screaming from this world.”
Cody smiled up at him and it was one of the truest smiles Solomon had ever seen from him. It humbled him and took his breath away.
“Because,” Cody said quietly, “that would mean running away from you, Sol. And I can’t ever imagine that being the answer for me. Isn’t that strange? I’m more excited about us than I am afraid of the world around us. Besides, I’m going to hold all of this over your head for soooooooooo long.”
Sol laughed and kissed him quickly. “Oh yeah?”
“Totally. I don’t know what sort of recompense I’m going to demand. But it’ll be big.”
“Whatever you want, it’s yours.”
“Aww, Sol, don’t say shit like that when I’m kidding around. Because you’re all serious and I was going to be like, I want a Mercedes or something dumb just to be ridiculous.”
“Mercedes are very safe cars. They have excellent—”
“Stop.” Cody kissed him again. “We’ve stalled long enough. You need to go be the leader of the pack, right?”
“Yeah. Our pack is better now that I’m here, calmer, but outside…they need reassurances, especially since Shaq isn’t here.”
“Then let’s go.”
“You don’t—”
“Sol, shut up and take my hand and go introduce me to all the people outside and tell me what they are so I can start my own bestiary of epic proportions. It’ll no longer be Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It’ll be Cody’s Paranormal Extravaganza.”
“You can’t—”
“Don’t steal my fantasies, Sol. I’m going to write an epic paranormal romance novel with creatures the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
“I’ve never seen?”
“Okay, well, I’ve never seen.”
“Well, if you’re wanting to write a romance, I should tell you about the satyrs.”
Cody
“Hey, Sol?”
Cody stood at the entrance to the bar, looking out over the parking lot. He knew there were people out there. He’d heard Teague and Walt talking about it, and Cosmo had even explained a little. But he’d not been prepared for this.
“Yeah?” Sol replied.
“We’re gonna need a bigger bar.”
Sol looked at him for a minute before he cracked a smile. “Probably so.”
“They look like they’re planning to stay a while.”
It was barely ten in the morning and the parking lot was full.
“They are. Until the threat is over. It’s safer for them to be with us than separated. The aswangs seek to attack smaller groups and those of us who live alone. We stand in as their pack when a situation like this arises.”
“Huh,” Cody said, his brain trying to process the information and implications. “So, nothing like this has happened since I met you. Because I’d have noticed this. You know, at the place where I work. Because there are about a hundred people standing around here looking scared and worried. I’d totally have noticed.”
“Nothing like this has happened in… since… it has been hundreds of years. At least.”
Cody turned to Sol, and he was pretty sure his eyes might be bugging out of his head. “Um, Sol?”
“Yeah,” Sol said as he grabbed Cody’s hand and began walking toward one of the groups.
“You said that like you were speaking from experience. Personal experience.”
Sol paused and looked at him. “I was.”
Sol started walking again, but Cody was pretty sure his feet were frozen to the spot. When Sol realized he wasn’t following he turned to look at him with the patented Sol scowling frown.
“Exactly how old are you, Sol?”
“Why? Does it matter?”
“Holy great fire goddess in the sky, that means you’re like ancient, doesn’t it? Wow. This is like a May December romance on crack. Oh, or like Janus December. Did you know that Janus is Latin for January? I learned that on Buffy.”
“You’re so strange. I never know what you’re going to say.”
Cody grinned and scooted closer. “Good. Keep you on your toes, old man.”
Sol scoffed and pulled him closer still. “Watch that smart mouth of yours before I find something to fill it, boy.”
“See, you say that like it’s a threat, Sol. But I’m kinda thinking that’s just waving a red flag in front of a bull. You think I wouldn’t suck you off in the back room in a heartbeat? And wow, I actually want to do that now.”
Sol’s eyes flickered with red glimmers Cody had always thought was a trick of the light, but now realized was Sol’s beast getting wound up. He did not mind at all, even if he was playing with fire.
“I am going to take you up on that offer.”
“Good. Now be a good hellhound, and go say hi to the people and mark your territory or whatever.”
Sol grumbled and tugged Cody after him. “You’re going to break me.”
“Nah, you’re tougher than that. Hey, is the cabin off-limits now because of what happened or, you know, can we go there again?”
“We can go back there when this is over.”
“Okay. Because it’s really amazing, Sol. I want to go there sometime, just us. Is that okay?”
Sol squeezed his fingers. “That’s more than okay.”
Cody couldn’t help but smile as they approached the first group. Sol spoke to them all, introducing Cody to the ones he knew and getting the names of the ones he didn’t. Every group they passed seemed more at ease the longer Sol stood with them. And he wasn’t even saying much. It wasn’t like he was giving them this big stay with me and you’ll be fine line. He asked about their homes and made sure they had what they needed. He asked about friends and relatives. He shared stories about events that made some of them laugh. Cody didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t this aura of calm that he felt spreading through the gathered crowd the longer Sol stayed out there.
Sol was going on about something Cody didn’t understand when Cody caught sight of something moving in the woods. He tightened his hold on Sol’s hand, who squeezed back, stroking his thumb slowly over Cody’s knuckles. Someone was there, and Sol wasn’t concerned. Cody realized quickly that he’d be inside the bar in five seconds flat if Sol thought he was in danger. So it definitely wasn’t an aswang. But it was something. Or someone.
Cody glanced at Sol, but he still had that calm, cool, and collected thing he going on. He was trying to let the person in the woods decide for themselves. Which was sweet and all, until Cody caught another glimpse and realized he needed to take action. He saw their face, this time. Young and scared. Cody gave Sol’s hand another squeeze before letting it go. He moved around the small group they were talking to and approached the edge of the woods.
“Hey,” Cody said softly. “You okay?”
She didn’t answer, but she let him see more of her. Long, tangled blonde hair and jeans which had seen better days. She looked exhausted. She was so pale, not the pretty kind, but the sickly kind. She had purple marks under her eyes. Poor thing. He needed to help her.
“Can I come closer? I won’t hurt you. You can probably tell that I’m human. I’m guessing you aren’t. I’m not sure because this is all new to me so if I’m mistaken, um, well, I hope I’m not mistaken because then you’ll think I’m a crazy person. Which, let’s be honest, you might think that anyway because I’m told I occasionally give off the crazy vibe.”
Of course, he could kind of tell she wasn’t human. Something in her eyes looked… off. Kind of how Sol’s did now that he knew what he was looking at. Something inside them that wasn’t completely obvious and could be written off as nothing unless you knew.
She nodded, and he stepped forward again.
“So, there’s a lot of people out there, and I don’t know, but I’m thinking you’re a little nervous about that. But if you need help, I can help. I can walk inside with you, if you want. Maybe get you something to eat or drink? If you want. Or you can hang out here and I can bring you something if that’s better?”
She looked nervously over Cody’s shoulder where Sol had last been standing.
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” Cody said. “That big lug’s my… well, boyfriend I guess, but now that I know what he is, that seems like a pretty lame word. You’ll have to forgive me if I sound like an idiot. I literally just learned about all this like… an hour ago or something.”
“R-really?”
“Seriously. One minute, I was all this guy is hot like burning and I want to do bad, bad, things to him, and the next I find out he’s like actually hot like burning, and then I did bad, bad things to him. Well, not technically in that order. But things happened. Life changing things, if you get my drift.”
She giggled and leaned against the tree. “You’re funny. I like you.”
“Thanks.” He paused and smiled at her. “I’m Cody. What’s your name?”
“L…Leandra.”
“Oh, man, that’s so pretty. I got stuck with a boring name. So, you want me to walk you inside? My friend Shelly is in there, and she’ll help you, too. And Walt’s a little cranky, I’m not going to lie, but he’s a great cook and I know he’ll make you something to eat.”
She blushed and glanced behind her nervously. Cody couldn’t help it. He panicked a little. Sol appeared at his back, a big hot presence behind him. He’d probably done the steaming half-hound thing again. “Cody?”
He didn’t need to panic. If something scary was out there, Sol wouldn’t have let him get this close to it. It was really crazy how he knew that, but he had zero doubts.
“Sol, this is Leandra.”
Sol put his hand on Cody’s shoulder.
“I told her she could come inside.”
“Okay,” Sol said. He pressed a kiss to the top of Cody’s head before speaking again. “You’re safe here.”
“I…I’m not alone,” Leandra whispered.
“Get your cu
bs, Leandra,” Sol said gently. “They will not be harmed.”
“Cubs?” Cody asked.
She went into the woods again and returned with two squirming…holy hell on wheels those were lion cubs. They looked like baby Simbas, and they were the cutest things Cody had ever seen in his entire life. Leandra had on a backpack, too, and another bag over her arm. One of those over-stuffed diaper bag things the moms at the grocery store always had. Izzy had carried one around for years, and Cody had been convinced for a long time that it was a magical Mary Poppins’ bag. No matter what she needed, Izzy pulled it out of that bag. Once, she even got him dental floss from the bag. Why did she need floss in a diaper bag? Those things were a universal mystery. He couldn’t think any more about it, though, because Leandra swayed. Sol moved faster than Cody could process and caught her as she fainted.
“Cody, get the cubs,” Sol said.
He darted forward and reached for one of them, but it hissed at him.
Sol growled and his eyes flashed red.
The cub whimpered and rolled over before nearly falling off of Leandra’s chest. Cody caught it, and then grabbed the other.
“Get them inside,” Sol ordered.
Cody turned and hurried toward the bar. Every eye in the parking lot was on him. Intense didn’t begin to describe it. Cody wasn’t sure he completely understood what was happening. The cubs tried to hide themselves in his armpits. Cody didn’t have time to wonder how he was going to get the door open, because the moment he was close enough, it opened for him. Calli looked at the cubs, her breath hitching a little, then at Sol.
“Get me a Jerrick,” Sol commanded.
She nodded and stepped outside. She didn’t even bother going around the side of the building. Cody heard the swoosh of the flame circle as he carried the cubs inside. Shelly seemed as surprised as Cody was by the little lion cubs in his arms. Sol carried Leandra to one of the longer tables at the back. Jedrek helped him untangle her from the mess of bag straps before they lowered her carefully onto the table. Both of the cubs whined.
“Shh,” Cody whispered. “You’re safe here. We’ve got you.”
He wasn’t entirely sure if they were people or actual lions, but a soothing tone never hurt anyone.