More Than This

by Alexa Land

  A crease appeared between his dark brows. “Javier and your mom loved each other, and he was a lot of fun. He made her laugh. I think that’s why she fell for him. But he didn’t take anything seriously, and that’s what got them killed.”

  “Was it his idea to do the magic act?”

  “One hundred percent. Ari and I both begged your mom not to do it, because it was too much of a gamble. But Javier craved fame and fortune, and he convinced Lola to be a part of the act. They got away with it for nearly six years.”

  “Until a hunter figured out they were using real magic.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why didn’t Ari change you back after my mom died?”

  “I didn’t want him to. Elias was still in L.A., and it was much easier to fly under his radar in that form. Besides, you needed me.”

  “Elias is your mate?”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  “Thanks for always being there for me, Fig. I mean, Mateo. I kind of wish you’d been around in this form, though. There were a lot of days when I really could have used someone to talk to.”

  “You talked to me anyway. And your aunt Roz had no idea the supernatural world existed, so how would we have explained a grown-up who wanted to hang out with her eight-year-old?”

  “That’s a good point.”

  He stood up and said, “We can continue this conversation later, but for now, let’s go downstairs. Your vampire friends know you’re awake, and they can hear every word of this conversation with their freakishly sharp senses. The annoying one is really anxious, because he doesn’t know if you have enough fuel left in the tank to help his husband.” He raised his voice slightly and turned toward the open doors. “That’s right pendejo, I called you annoying, and I might bite you when I get down there!”

  I chuckled at that and got up, too. My sore muscles ached in protest. As we crossed the room, I asked, “Are you psychic?”

  “A little. Vampires are easy to read, because they’re such simple creatures. Eat, fuck, repeat. That pretty much sums them up.” He chuckled and added, “Your buddy’s pissed that I called him simple.”

  “Maybe try to get along with August, since we’re guests in his home,” I told him, as we headed down the stairs.

  “We’re here because he needs you. What do you think, do you have enough magic left to help his husband?”

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  When we reached the ground floor, Mateo grabbed the seat of his pants and pulled. Then he said, “I should have gone with the sweatpants. That vampire called Nate bought these jeans for Ari, and your boyfriend’s tiny. They feel like a permanent wedgie.”

  “After two decades without pants, there’s bound to be an adjustment period.”

  “You think? Everything seems off. Even walking on two legs feels weird as hell right now. I keep thinking I’m going to tip over.”

  I glanced at him and said, “I don’t know why I just thought of this, but since you’re part warlock, were you the one who erased the burn marks in my room a while back?”

  “Uh, yeah. Who else would have done that?”

  “I had no idea, so I thought I was going crazy. Why’d you erase them?”

  “You didn’t want them there, did you? You were thinking you wanted everything to be perfect for Ari, and they definitely didn’t look nice, so I took care of them for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “It did make me think I was losing my mind, though,” I said.

  “Dude, I can’t do anything about your crippling self-doubt.”

  “I suppose not.”

  We’d been cutting across the living room while we were talking, and as soon as we stepped outside, everyone turned to look at us. “This is Mateo Figueroa,” I said, as I gestured at my companion. “I guess you already heard the story when we were talking upstairs.”

  Ari had been sitting with Laurie, Ty, and Nikolai, and he got up and gave my companion a hug as he said, “Hi, Mateo. It’s nice to see you back to your old self.” Then he took me in his arms and kissed me before saying, “Hi sweetheart. How are you feeling?”

  I nuzzled his hair and admitted, “Everything hurts, and I want to sleep for a week.”

  “Why don’t you go back to bed?”

  “I will, but only after I help Tinder.”

  August and Nate were sitting right outside the gazebo with its walls of pure energy, and Tinder was extremely agitated and pacing back and forth inside it. Now that I could see the jumble of his magic, I said, “I know exactly what I need to do, but it has to happen without those walls, and without all of you in close proximity. It’s lit up like the Fourth of July out here with all the energy you’re putting out, and I have to be able to concentrate on his alone.”

  “You know, you burned a huge amount of magic saving me from the wraiths,” Ari said. “On top of that, you’re in pain and exhausted. Maybe it’d be best to hold off for a few days. That way, you’ll be stronger, and your remaining magic will have a chance to take root. Otherwise, you might not have any left at the end of this.”

  “We really can’t put this off.” I let go of Ari and walked up to the enclosure, then studied the tangle of energy inside Tinder. It was surprising that what I was seeing made perfect sense to me. “In fact, I think I should do this right now. He’s on the verge of losing his humanity forever. I don’t know if it’s a matter of hours or days before it’s totally consumed by the other parts of him, but once it’s gone, he’ll never return to what he was before.”

  “If we leave you two alone and you take down those walls, he’ll tear you apart,” Ari said.

  “Not if I hold him back with my powers.”

  “But then you’ll burn your remaining magic even quicker.”

  “I know, but it can’t be helped.”

  Nikolai asked, “What if we chain Tinder, so he can’t attack you?”

  Tinder threw himself against the wall of energy, then let out a bestial yell when it pushed him back. “He doesn’t want to be chained,” I said, “and while I don’t expect him to cooperate, it’d be helpful if he wasn’t angry and actively fighting what I’m trying to do.”

  I met Tinder’s gaze as he stepped up to the invisible wall again and glared at me. Looking into the eyes of a hungry tiger probably felt much the same, since he was mostly a predator right then and focused on his next meal. But I also felt fear, anger, and frustration in him, as the last little shreds of his humanity pushed back against the tidal wave of magic that was trying to drown it. I felt all of that as clearly as if I was experiencing it myself.

  “Maybe there’s another solution,” Ari said, as he took my hand. “Several of these guys have at least some magical ability, and that probably adds up to more than you have left. If they work together, maybe they can save him.”

  I turned to my boyfriend and caressed his cheek. There was so much worry in his eyes. “They already tried that, and I can see why they failed. Look at it this way. Since I’m only a warlock, my magic is like a single instrument playing a tune, so it’s easy for me to keep track of it. Meanwhile, the combined magic in each of them is like several instruments playing different songs at the same time, and it’s creating a cacophony. There’s no way to clearly identify what’s happening in Tinder if a bunch of noise is drowning him out.” I grinned and added, “I don’t have August’s flair for metaphors. That one didn’t quite hold up, but hopefully you got the gist.”

  Ari’s expression remained grave as he conceded, “I did, and I guess I see why it has to be you. This still makes me nervous, though. He won’t think twice about killing you, if given half a chance.”

  “I know, but trust me. I can handle this.”

  Ari glanced at Tinder and murmured, “It’s not you I distrust.”

  Nate started herding everyone out into the field beyond the edge of the yard as he said, “You heard Griffin. Give him some space, so he can save my best friend. Just to
be on the safe side, let’s make a big circle around them, but at a distance, so we don’t throw off what’ll be happening here. In case he overpowers Griffin and bolts, that’ll give us a shot at trying to tackle Tinder, before he goes on a murderous rampage throughout Southern California.” Now there was a cheery thought.

  August came up to us and squeezed my shoulder as he said, “Thank you, Griffin.” Then he told his husband, “See you soon, love,” before joining the group crossing the field.

  I hugged Ari and told him, “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  He took a deep breath and tried to look optimistic as he said, “Okay. Please be safe.”

  Mateo came up to us and told me, “You totally got this, bro,” before leading Ari toward the road.

  That just left Tinder and me. I turned back toward the enclosure and found him watching me intently. His body was tense, and his hands were curled at his sides. He knew what was about to happen, and he was absolutely ready to pounce the moment those walls came down, no doubt about it.

  I paced around the yard for a minute or two. I’d managed to face off against three huge, terrifying wraiths, and this was just one smallish vampire. Piece of cake, right?

  So, why was I stalling?

  There was a book sitting on a chair near the back door, and just to make sure I actually had some magic left, I tried levitating it. I smiled when it rose into the air, and then I gave it a spin before putting it back where I found it.

  God, I loved that.

  I loved the power that flowed through me, and the fact that it made me something special. I loved all its potential, and the opportunities it provided to do something great with my life. In fact, I loved everything about it.

  And that was why I was stalling. I knew my magic was basically running on fumes, and I had no doubt that this was going to take all I had left. That meant these were my last few moments of being the man I was born to be.

  I turned back and studied Tinder, with his messy, dark hair, bare feet, and disheveled clothes. He didn’t deserve what was happening to him, and I was the only person who could do something about it.

  If this was going to cost me my magic, so be it.

  I took a deep breath and held my hands in front of me, palms facing Tinder, and with a flick of a finger, I brought down the walls of energy. He ran at me, moving unbelievably fast. Just like when I’d produced the shield, I reacted without a conscious thought and stopped him just inches from me, with his hands pinned at his sides.

  He was surprisingly strong, or maybe I was just weak after giving so much of myself to destroy the wraiths. I struggled to hold him back as I quickly went to work on the mess inside him. I kept both my hands raised, one to hold him back, and the other to make small motions with my fingers, which helped me picture what I was trying to accomplish.

  Just because it calmed me a bit, I started talking. “This reminds me of the time my aunts and I decided to take up knitting,” I told him. “I really don’t know what the hell we did to our yarn, but it ended up a huge, tangled mess, kind of like what I’m seeing inside you. I’ve assigned each part of you a color, and that little dash of werewolf in you is green. Maybe we can just snip that out and throw it away. You don’t need it for anything, right?” I waved my hand, and the thin strand of green yarn disappeared in my mind’s eye.

  “The rest of this is tricky, though,” I said. “The bit I’ve colored yellow is your hunter magic. Since you don’t hunt vampires anymore, I’d almost think we could just get rid of it, but it’s a huge part of you. I feel like you really wouldn’t be yourself anymore if it wasn’t there, so we’ll let it stay, and I’ll go ahead and work on untangling it from the rest.”

  For several minutes, I tried to divide the jumble into four distinct sections—the warlock, human, vampire, and hunter sides of him. The flimsy human part, which I saw as a thin blue thread, was at his core, with everything else wrapped tightly around it. No wonder it had almost been lost amid those thicker, more robust fibers.

  My legs started to shake, so I sat on the ground. Tinder crouched down too, still just inches from me, and I whispered, “Please don’t try to kill me the moment I drop this mini shield that’s holding you at bay. I have a terrible feeling some part of me will fight back automatically, and then we’ll both die.”

  As I worked on untangling the vampire from the human, I murmured, “How are you so many things at once? I’m barely even one thing.”

  It was taking too long. My hands were shaking now, and I was getting dizzy, but I’d barely scratched the surface of what needed to be done.

  For just a second or two, I blacked out. Then I regained consciousness and found someone was holding up my hands for me. When I opened my eyes and realized it was Tinder, my heart leapt with fear.

  But he just held my gaze steadily, and my voice shook a little as I whispered, “Hey, look at that, you’re not killing me. Yet.”

  He laced his fingers with mine and continued to hold up my hands, even as his lips parted to reveal his fangs. I felt a surge of energy and watched as his warlock side lit up. He was helping me.

  I got back to work, but after a few minutes, I said, “Your vampire side is too strong. It’s overpowering the rest of you, especially your human side. What do you think about cutting it out, like I did with the werewolf part?”

  I felt his answer, rather than heard it. His energy pushed at me, a clear no. Unexpectedly, that was followed by an overpowering surge of pure love, and I nodded and said, “I get it. You need to keep it because it makes you immortal, and you want to spend eternity with August. Okay, I won’t cut it out.”

  After another minute, I leaned back and muttered, “I’m so stupid.” Tinder stared at me quizzically as he let go of my hands and sat back on his heels.

  “I’m letting myself believe this notion of a bunch of strings tangled up in your brain,” I said. “But that’s not what it is at all. It’s just light and energy. The rest is just a mental construct to help me make sense of an abstract concept, kind of like one of your husband’s metaphors. And that means I can do this.”

  I raised my hands, then pulled them apart, and the strands transformed into three individual balls of light, each a different color. It put a tremendous strain on me, but it worked. I told him, “Your human component is still inside you. I thought you might keel over and die if I pulled it out.”

  After I condensed the balls of light, I returned them to their owner in nice, neat, separate compartments. It all began to fade from view, but at the last moment, I constructed a tough, virtual shell around his human side, so the other parts could never overwhelm it again. In the next instant, all of it disappeared, and I knew my magic was spent.

  Tinder grinned at me and teased, “Why’d it take you so long to figure that out?”

  “I told you, I’m stupid. How do you feel?”

  “Fantastic, and no you’re not. That was a brilliant solution.”

  “It should have occurred to me a lot sooner,” I murmured, as I curled up on the ground in a fetal position. “It’s like The Matrix. Once you understand that you’re in control, nothing’s impossible.”

  He laughed and stretched out on the grass beside me. “I’m so happy you just made that reference. Sci fi movies are my favorite thing ever.”

  “I like you, Tinder, especially now that you’re no longer a terrifying, nonverbal killing machine hell bent on my destruction. I’m going to pass out now. Tell my angel I love him.”

  A moment later, Ari curled himself around me, and Tinder said, “You just told him yourself.” He started laughing again when August pounced on him. The couple kissed passionately, and then he whispered to his husband, “Thank you for never giving up on me.”

  August brushed Tinder’s hair back and told him, “Of course I wasn’t going to give up, love. You know I adore you.”

  The rest of our friends jumped on us, talking excitedly as they welcomed Tinder back and congratulated me. But Mateo stood back and said, “A dog pil
e? Uh uh, too soon. I’m not going there.” I chuckled as I gathered Ari into my arms.

  My boyfriend and I left the celebration after a few minutes, because I was in desperate need of a nap. Several hours later, he woke me with a series of light kisses along my jaw, and I grinned at him as I raised an eyelid. “There’s a party downstairs in your honor in fifteen minutes,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t want you to miss it.” The clock on the nightstand told me it was almost nine p.m.

  I sat up and reached for my glasses as I murmured, “I need a shower.”

  “I’m going to go downstairs and finish birthday cake 2.0 while you do that.”

  “I’m sorry, I forgot to get the first one when I left the rental house.”

  “It’s fine,” he assured me, as I got out of bed. “I made you a much better one.”

  “Thank you for doing that.”

  “My pleasure.” He kissed my cheek and gestured at the shopping bags in the corner. “Nate bought us both some clothes when we first got here. He was surprisingly thorough, so I’m sure you’ll find something party-worthy.” Ari was dressed in jeans and sneakers, a white T-shirt, and a pale blue V-neck sweater, which were perfect for him. Nate had clearly put some thought into that shopping trip.

  After he left the bedroom, I went into the bathroom and stripped off my T-shirt and pajama pants. Then, while I waited for the water to heat up, I tried to conjure a spark between the tips of my thumb and index finger. Absolutely nothing happened.

  The disappointment stung, even though I’d fully been expecting that result. I muttered to myself, “When I write my memoir, I’ll call it ‘The Thirty-Five-Hour Warlock’. I’m sure it’ll be a smash hit.” With a sigh, I stepped into the shower.

  A few minutes later, I adjusted my glasses and went downstairs. I was wearing a new pair of jeans, a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled back, and a pair of loafers, all in black. I’d been impressed with Nate’s idea of what I might want to wear. He seemed to have a much hipper image of me than I had of myself.

  The ground floor, which had been dimly lit every time I’d visited, was cheerier than I’d ever seen it. All the lights were on, up-tempo music was playing, there were flowers on all the tables, and glowing paper lanterns were strung across the ceiling. Above the fireplace in the living room, a big, handmade banner read: Happy Birthday, Griffin!