Drained: The Lucid

by E. L. Blaisdell

  Riley pressed her lips against her best friend’s forehead. Heather grumbled unintelligently in her sleep but snuggled closer.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “You have way too much plaid in your wardrobe.” Heather picked at the shirt she’d borrowed from Riley that morning. “I thought you were pansexual, not a lesbian.”

  “Maybe you should have thought about that before you left your house dressed in only a short robe,” Riley jabbed back.

  “There’s James.” Heather beamed and waved at her boyfriend, who was seated by himself at their brunch table. “Babe, did you get my message?”

  “Yes, I did.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a chaste kiss. From a distance, the couple looked like newlyweds at their honeymoon stage. Riley marveled at the grins always plastered on their faces when they addressed each other, and that was saying a lot considering one of the parties in question was Heather.

  James pulled his focus away from the woman in his arms long enough to look at Riley. “I want you know that I forgive you for stealing my girl away from me in the middle of the night.” He grinned as Heather placed one last kiss to the side of his face before pulling away.

  Riley allowed herself a small smile. “I can sleep soundly now that I’m forgiven.”

  Heather and James sat in their usual chairs, but Riley remained standing. Heather picked up her laminated menu, but not before noticing Riley.

  “Planning on joining us, Riles?”

  Riley’s eyes darted across the café patio. “James, have you seen Amber?”

  He took a sip from his coffee before answering. “Not this morning, no.”

  “Are you still panicking about the L-word thing?” Heather asked.

  “The L-Word?” James looked confused, but a sharp look from Heather cut off his line of questioning.

  “No. I’m over that,” Riley lied. It wasn’t the first time she had heard those three little words, but it was the first time she had felt blindsided by the admission of love. She wasn’t sure how she was going to react upon seeing her girlfriend the morning after.

  As if hearing Riley’s thoughts, Amber appeared out the front door of the café, her apron tied smartly around her waist and a half-empty coffee pot in one hand. Her red hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, which, combined with the subtle rouge on the apples of her cheeks, accentuated her high cheekbones even more. The annoyance of the breakfast rush fell from her features at the sight of Riley, still standing on the patio.

  Amber crossed the outside section with long strides. “Hey, you.” She beamed, and her emerald eyes overflowed with warmth. “I missed you this morning.” She rested the coffee pot near her hip.

  Riley couldn’t have felt more unsure of her actions than if she’d woken up naked next to a stranger. She licked her dry lips. “Yeah, sorry about that. Work called. I would have left a note, but I couldn’t find a pen.”

  The smile faltered on Amber’s mouth momentarily. “Work,” she echoed the word. “When you’re manager are they going to keep pulling you out of my bed in the middle of the night?”

  “Manager?” James couldn’t help overhearing.

  Riley grimaced. “Uh, Hyrum offered me a new position yesterday.”

  “Why am I just hearing about this now?” Heather demanded. “After I—.” Thankfully, Heather had the sense to not reveal in front of Amber that she’d been sleeping in Riley’s bed a few hours earlier.

  Amber looked awkwardly between Riley and her two friends. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. My mouth does its own thing sometimes.”

  “That must be why our Riley likes you so much.” Heather’s snarky comment made the waitress’s cheeks flush as brightly as the hair atop her head.

  “I should get back to work.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.” Riley glowered as she watched Amber scamper away, the latest victim of Heather’s sharp tongue.

  “Well maybe if you weren’t so keen on keeping secrets from me,” Heather bit back. “Seriously, what’s up with that?”

  “Well maybe if you noticed the new car in my driveway.”

  “Maybe I assumed you finally opened up that damn wallet of yours and bought—”

  James cleared his throat and gained the attention of the table. “How about we all calm down and have a nice breakfast,” he suggested, acting the peacekeeper. “This should be a celebratory brunch,” he noted, lifting his coffee cup in salute. “Our little Riley is moving up in the world.”

  Riley slumped down in her chair. “I haven’t even decided if I’m going to take the job yet.”

  “I don’t know why you wouldn’t,” Heather said.

  Riley gave her two closest friends a helpless look. “I have my reasons.”

  Madison plopped down in an empty chair. The brim of her floppy, straw-woven sunhat bounced. She tossed her usual oversized bag onto the table, nearly upsetting Riley’s cold coffee cup. “Where’s the funeral?” she said. Worried eyes shot between each of the members. “You all look as serious as a beaver.”

  “Riley’s just feeling a little conflicted today,” James said, trying to censure the newcomer.

  “Is she sad because she missed the BOGO sale at the boutique on Sunset, too?” Madison leaned over the table and patted Riley’s hand. “It’s okay, Riles. They totally markup their prices, so you don’t even save that much anyway. Tricky bastards.”

  Seven’s purposefully unkempt head bobbed above the black metal fencing that surrounded part of the front patio. “Gods, do I have news for you.” He struggled with his words as he panted. The normally well-composed incubus threw himself into an open chair at the table.

  Heather’s eyes narrowed as she regarded him. “Did you run here?”

  Seven leaned back in his chair, looking exhausted. He wiped his brow with a paper napkin from a dispenser on the table. “Maybe if you guys actually checked your phones once in a while, I wouldn’t have to,” he openly complained. “I’m older than all of you except Heather, and it’s like I’m the only one who knows how to respond to a text message.”

  “Well, I got it,” James clarified and his face hardened.

  Riley pulled her phone from her back pocket. She’d forgotten and had left it on silent during dinner with Amber. It reminded her that she still needed to e-mail Josh about Morgan’s profile. She saw a missed text from Seven at the top of her screen.

  Madison gasped beside her before she could open and read the message. “Sean is really back?”

  “Did someone actually see him?” Heather pressed. “Or is this another one of those friend of a friend of a friend things?”

  “Ophelia saw him,” Seven said gravely.

  “Ophelia?” James repeated. “When did you talk to her?”

  Seven raked his fingers through midnight black hair. “Uh, I saw her at the office earlier. I had paperwork.”

  “What else did she say?” Madison’s blue eyes were wide with worry.

  “She didn’t give me too many details,” Seven admitted, “we didn’t have much of a conversation. But she did confirm what I’ve heard from some other cubare—Sean is in Los Angeles.”

  “Why here? Why now?” Madison’s features scrunched in concern. “Do you think it has anything to do with Trusics?”

  “He could have chosen any city to terrorize,” James noted. “It can’t be a coincidence he’s in one of the seven cities in the world with a Trusics headquarters.”

  “Do you think he’s responsible for this mess with those bloggers?” Heather posed.

  “Sean was never a great brain,” Riley finally chimed in. “He’s pissed at Trusics, sure, but that seems a little too nuanced for the revenge he’d want.” As displeasing as the news was, she thought all her friends were being overly-dramatic.

  “I have to agree,” Heather said. “That Neanderthal has the subtlety of a charging bull. He’s more of a blunt tool than a refined flechette edge.”

  “Only you would use those kind of metapho
rs at a time like this.” Seven chuckled and reached for a full water cup that hadn’t been claimed.

  Heather shrugged, unaffected, and confiscated James’s coffee for herself.

  “Do you think Niall and the rest of the board know he’s back?” Madison wondered aloud. “I mean, should we say something to someone?”

  “My guess is that if Ophelia knows, Niall knows,” James said. “She’d use that kind of knowledge to crawl her way up the corporate ladder.”

  “Shit, Riley. Ophelia is going to be so pissed when she finds out about your promotion.” Heather’s impish chuckle filled the air. “What I wouldn’t do to see her face when she finds out.”

  “Promotion?” Seven’s brown eyes locked onto Riley’s. “What did I miss?”

  James beat her to the news. “This one got offered a managerial position.”

  “Which I haven’t made up my mind about yet,” Riley was quick to add. “And we don’t know if Ophelia is getting one of the other open spots herself.”

  “Well done, Riley. Glad to see that insane work ethic finally paid off. Now you can stop making the rest of us look bad,” Seven said and winked.

  “Back to the Sean problem!” Madison was overly excitable. “Why hasn’t Trusics caught and punished him yet? It’s been forever. He can’t be that good, can he?”

  James stroked his squared jaw in thought. “It is disconcerting. In theory they would be able to find him wherever he decides to go, our contracts stipulate it. But who knows what happened when he went AWOL.”

  “What if he found a way to extract and store energy so he didn’t have to go into the realm so often?” Riley proposed. “If he didn’t need to use his powers as much, he could stay off the grid.”

  Her idea was met with anxious stares.

  “You know we’re not supposed to …” Madison whispered uneasily.

  “Sure, we’re not because it’s in our contract, but Sean doesn’t have to follow rules.”

  Riley looked around at her friends’ faces, each busy staring at their plate of food or drink. She could tell they were all too uncomfortable to contribute to her conversation because the topic was that taboo.

  “Really?” Riley darted her eyes between the different members. “No one has one thing to say about this?”

  “Well—” James began to speak but was interrupted by the approach of Darren Clay.

  “Good morning, everyone,” the vice president of Clay & Dunbar greeted. He appeared tableside with his own coffee in hand.

  Madison didn’t look up from her eggless omelet. “Why is he talking to us?” she blurted out with her usual tact.

  Darren hesitated a moment too long at the table. Riley regarded the incubus with curiosity. He looked uneasy as he attempted to perfect his already straight tie. Something was off—something she probably wouldn’t have noticed the previous night because of Kenner’s passive aggressiveness.

  His eyes landed on Riley. “Can I … talk to you?”

  Riley could sense the perplexed faces of her friends all around the table.

  “Sure.” Riley stood, her patio chair scraping on the concrete.

  She followed Darren a few feet away from their table, away from the stares and straining eyes of her friends. Riley slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

  “What’s up, Darren?”

  “How’s your girlfriend? Amber was it?”

  “I know you didn’t drag me away from my breakfast to talk about my girlfriend.”

  Darren frowned, his handsome features sagging. “No. Liam’s missing.”

  Riley blinked. “He’s what? How can you tell?”

  “I haven’t been able to get in contact with him for the past twenty-four hours. And I know he hasn’t been in the realm either.”

  “That’s not so long.”

  “For Liam it is. He might not look it, but he’s C&D’s top-energy producing incubus. The man practically lives in dreams.” He shook his head. “Kenner puts up with his shenanigans because he’s family, but more because his production keeps us afloat.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Riley reasonably inquired. “I’ve barely spoken a word to Liam in my life.” She met Heather’s inquisitive stare across the open-air patio. She held up a finger to tell her friend she’d be a moment longer.

  “I know Trusics and C&D haven’t seen eye-to-eye in the past.”

  “It might have something to do with how free and loose you supervise your employees,” Riley said as she resisted the urge to glower. “It’s incubi like Liam who threaten to expose who we are.”

  Darren held up his hands. “We have different business models, sure.”

  Riley arched a brow and crossed her arms. “Understatement.”

  “But the point I’m trying to make is that in the end, we’re all the same—cubare. And if one of us goes missing, we should all be on alert.”

  “You really think something bad has happened to him?” Riley sobered. She thought about Seven’s latest news about Sean’s return but quickly dismissed it as a coincidence.

  “It’s just a gut feeling,” Darren admitted. “Or, he could be on a bender in Vegas, and I’ve been worried for no reason.” He shrugged helplessly. “If you could let me or Kenner know if you or anyone at Trusics hears anything, I’d be indebted.”

  Riley nodded. “Sure, Darren. I’ll let the others know.”

  He bobbed his head, looking grateful and humbled at the same time. When he turned to leave, Riley stopped him.

  “One more thing, Darren.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Why’d you single me out? You could have told everyone at the table.”

  Darren looked back in the direction of Riley’s friends. They’d all returned to their conversations and breakfast, apparently having lost interest in Darren Clay and his need for a private conversation. “You’re different, Riley.” He offered a small smile. “You always have been.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  October

  Madison touched every inch of the interior of Riley’s new car. Like a curious child, her fingers grazed over the dashboard, the leather-bound shift knob, and most of the trim. She opened every compartment, from the glove box to the middle console, even though Riley assured her that they were all empty.

  “So this is yours?” Madison grinned, giddy with Riley’s new toy. “Like, once we move, can you take it with you?”

  “Maddie,” Riley said. “I don’t think that’s practical. What if we end up overseas again?”

  “But you could ship it.” Madison buzzed with excitement. “I don’t want you to ever get rid of this thing. Don’t tell Heather, but I think this beats out her car.”

  Riley chuckled at the admission. “Don’t you think it’s more reasonable if the company gave me another car in the country that we move to next?” She hummed as she drove through the LA streets.

  “Wait,” Madison frowned. “Will you even be with us?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Well, you said this gift was because they were considering you for manager.” Madison’s fleeting touches of the interior stopped and she tucked her hands between her legs. “Will your request to change locations be the same as ours?”

  “I don’t know.” Riley knitted her brows in thought. Madison had voiced a valid point. Every time they’d switched locations, their managers had changed. She had only been assigned Hyrum since being in Los Angeles. “I’m sure that it won’t be a problem though.”

  “What if it is, and you can’t go with us?”

  “Don’t think like that, Mad Hatter.” Riley glanced over her friend who looked lost in thought. “Hey, don’t be sad.” Riley opened her right hand and offered it to her passenger.

  The subtle movement caught Madison’s attention and she wrapped their fingers together.

  “How about this,” Riley reasoned. “I won’t be manager if they refuse to let me transfer with the group.”

  “Really?” Madison perked. She sat straighter in
her seat and gripped Riley’s hand tighter. “You would honestly do that?”

  “Of course. All of you matter more than some metal on wheels.”

  “Oh, you’ve made my day!” Madison returned a smile that crossed from ear to ear. “I say we celebrate.”

  “And what would you like to do, Miss Wyatt?” The mention of her last name made the blonde giggle. It always did.

  “Sweetie, there’s only one way to properly celebrate and that is …”

  Riley shook her head and laughed. “To shop.”

  “You’ve got it.” Madison beamed. “I’ve trained you so well.”

  • • •

  “Maddie, I have a question, and I need you to be perfectly honest with me.”

  “What is it? If it’s about your outfit choice for today, I’d say it’s perfectly hipster gay of you.”

  Riley frowned and observed her attire. Next to Madison, most people would look like they weren’t trying too hard to make themselves presentable.

  Madison looked concerned, and her brows furrowed. “Should I put Heather on speaker for this?” She dove into her bag in search of her phone.

  The action was amusing but Riley laid a hand on Madison’s arm to still her movement. “Heather isn’t needed for this. I’m looking for your opinion.”

  “Oh, okay.” Her head tilted to the side. “What is it?”

  “How do you feel about saying the words ‘I love you’ to someone you’ve only been dating a few months?”

  “Oh, this is an Amber issue.” Madison made a pained face. “Are you sure you don’t want Heather here for this? I know this is kind of her territory.”

  “I’m sure.” Riley wrapped an arm around her friend. She gave Madison a quick squeeze. “I’m looking for the opinion of my favorite sex blogger.”