by Eric Asher
Alexandra started counting on her hand. “Me, Nixie, you, Vicky, Frank, Casper, Park, Aideen, and Foster.”
“No Sam?”
“No,” Frank said. “She’s taking a shift to watch Vik tonight. He’s still doing well, but they don’t want to leave him alone.”
“I’m sure he’s thrilled about that.”
“Very. But I think he’s amused with how annoyed Sam is with the hobgoblins.”
I laughed at that. “What did you bring us?” I started toward the bags.
“Salt and Smoke,” Vicky said. “Frank mentioned you’d been on a barbecue kick lately.”
“Accurate.”
Something chittered and pulled on my jeans. I looked down just in time to see Jasper rolling up my leg and twisting around my arm before settling in against my neck.
“Hey, buddy.” I scratched the reaper between the eyes. “How’s he been?”
“Good,” Vicky said. “I think he likes spending time with Sparkles, too. As long as it’s not too much time? They get a bit snippy if we leave them alone too long. Drake thinks it’s because they’re solitary by nature.”
“He’s probably right.” I scraped my tongue against my teeth. “Now I need another shower.”
“Did you really fight basilisks today?” Vicky picked up four of the overstuffed bags and carried them toward the back.
I followed her with the rest. “Three of them, actually.”
Vicky hesitated. “You know, you could have called. Jasper and I could have helped.”
“I thought about it.”
“You should have done more than think about it. Haven’t you heard the stories about Ward and the basilisk?”
I nodded.
“Then do it next time.”
I smiled at Vicky and started lining up the carryout on the cabinets. “I will. Just … with everything you’ve been through lately. Saving my ass. I thought you could use a break.”
“I’m probably sharper than I’ve ever been right now because I had to save your ass. So let me help.” She pulled a stack of paper plates out of the cabinet and sat them next to a tower of napkins. That done, Vicky popped open a smaller container with deviled eggs and started snacking as she made her way to the front.
“I like that kid,” Foster said as he pulled out a chair.
I blinked at the fairy. “You’re, uh, big?”
“A victory feast should be observed in the Proelium state. Right, dear?”
Aideen exploded into her full height. Unlike Foster, she was careful not to cover the food in fairy dust, which was much appreciated. “Right, dear.”
After a short sneezing fit, it wasn’t long before I heard another bell, and we were all soon crowded around the Formica table with a few extra folding chairs thrown into the mix. Once Foster started to mow down on the pulled pork in his Proelium state, I realized the food never had a chance.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Park and Frank were arguing about the best way for Aeros to reinforce the underground base when a loud knock came at the back door. I heard the deadbolt harassing someone before he squealed and the door swung in.
A cloaked figure stood just outside, the magrasnetto charms in her hair catching the light as she lowered her hood.
“Zola!” Vicky shouted. “You came!” She was out of her seat and halfway to the old Cajun before Zola could even respond.
“I can’t rot at that damn cabin forever, girl.”
Park stopped arguing with Frank, instead offering his chair to Zola. She waved him away and pulled an extra folding chair out of the closet.
I wasn’t sure what to say. But I finally settled on something simple. “It’s good to see you. It’s damn good to see you.” I stood and walked over to her before she sat down, wrapping her scratchy cloak up in a huge hug.
“You too, boy, you too. Now, what do you have to drink?”
Alexandra sipped from a red Solo cup and smiled. “That depends. Do you want to remember tonight in the morning?”
“Tonight?” Nixie said, blowing out a breath. “More like the last month, thanks to Calbach.”
Zola looked up as I gestured to the barrel of ale balanced on the counter. “Ah’ll try one.”
I poured two, now that my first drinks were gone.
“Are you drinking more?” Vicky asked.
“Yes. The whiskey is gone, so I think it’s time to switch to something, umm, lighter?”
Vicky snuck a sip of Foster’s ale as I tried not to spill the overly large head on my last pour.
“I saw that.”
Foster threw back the last drops from a bottle of Irish whiskey and looked between me and Vicky. “Saw what?”
“Underage drinking,” I said. “Very bad. Going to tell your parents, I am.”
Vicky scoffed at that. “Are you kidding? I was dead, and then the Destroyer, and am now hanging out with a Demon Sword. Two Demon Swords, depending on the day.”
“Look, my parents raised me to feel guilty about a lot of things. They weaponized guilt, so I’m rather averse when someone tries to guilt me.”
“You?” Frank said with a laugh. “How about Sam? I’ve seen her knock a vampire out for laying the guilt trips on too thick.”
Vicky took this opportunity to steal Foster’s cup in full.
The fairy seemed oblivious as he started on his second pound of ribs.
“Foster,” Aideen hissed. “If you don’t slow down, you’re going to lose a finger.”
Foster raised an eyebrow as he stuffed half a pork rib in his mouth and stripped it like it was a popsicle. “Look, if I was going to die eating barbecue, this is the barbecue I want to die on. I didn’t even know they had pork ribs! Pork ribs!”
“Might be some sugar in that sauce, too,” I said with an awkward smile to Aideen.
Aideen sighed.
Park slammed his hand on the table. “Look, look, I know Foster can probably eat all of us under the table, but have you seen Casper?”
We all turned to look at the sniper, blending in a bit more outside of her fatigues with a Pinky and the Brain T-shirt.
“What?” she said around a mouthful of rib meat. “Look, no dogging on the cooks at the base, but this is a hundred times better.”
But it wasn’t the quality that was in question; it was the log cabin worth of bones on her plate that pretty much brought us all to silence.
Foster leaned forward and nodded with approval. “Damn. You sure you’re human?”
Casper grinned, displaying a somewhat horrifying smile filled with rib chunks. “Not today, Foster. Not today.”
It was all downhill from there.
* * *
I wasn’t entirely sure when I’d ended up in the front of the shop with Vicky and Frank. Probably after the cu siths had stolen Foster’s plate and devoured the rib bones like industrial garbage disposals.
Vicky pointed up to the shelf above the counter. “I never noticed those before.”
I took another drink of Calbach’s ale and raised an eyebrow, looking up at the row of carnivorous plants as they swayed a bit in my vision. “Oh, yeah, Cara liked to keep those. They’ve held up pretty well.”
“How are they still alive?”
“I feed them,” Frank said.
“You do?” Vicky and I asked in unison before we broke down in laughter.
I sobered up for a moment. “Are you drunk? Good God, your parents are going to kill me. Frank, I’m going to hell, you know that?”
“She’s crashing here,” Frank said. “It’ll be fine.”
I blinked, quite possibly unevenly, and looked back at Vicky. “Really?”
“Yes, and my parents already know. They’re fine with it. I’ve had drinks with them a few times. You know that’s allowed in Missouri, right?”
“So I’m not going to hell?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re a bad kid, kid.”
Frank leaned across the counter. “Did you ever hear the story about Damia
n blowing up a pitcher plant? Happened when Cara was still around.”
“I may have heard something about that,” Vicky said. “And with your necromancy?”
“Sort of,” I said. “Here, watch. Well, it’s a little different since Gaia supercharged that part of me, but …” I reached out with my aura, letting the Titan magic wrap into it before I just tapped a Venus flytrap. It was barely a poke, barely a touch, so I was a bit surprised when its pot exploded with the sudden growth as it fell off the shelf and snapped closed on my head.
I had exactly zero idea how long it would take the mutated plant to dissolve my face, so I did what any slightly drunk and very panicked necromancer would do. I set it on fire.
But it wasn’t a normal flame. I was still tied to the plant with the power of a Titan. One moment I was trapped inside the plant, and the next glowing ash drifted to the floor.
Vicky took a sip of her beer and a slow smile crawled across her face. “Oh, never going to forget that.”
“Me either,” Zola said.
I turned to find my master standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.
“Uh, hi.” I gave her an awkward smile and wave.
Frank sifted through the ash on the counter, frowning. “It didn’t even scorch anything. Not even the floor. What was that?”
“Panic.”
Zola let out a long sigh. “I’m glad one of you has control of your powers.”
It took me a moment to realize she was talking about Vicky. “Hey.”
Zola grinned and walked to the back. I followed. We made our way to the Formica table where Foster had foregone his usual leather pants for a ratty pair of sweatpants I was fairly sure a werewolf had left in the closet a very long time ago.
Three cups were upside down, and Aideen had her arms crossed, glaring at Park.
“There is no possible way you shifted that packet to another cup. You cheated.”
“I did not,” Park said, an equally annoyed look on his face.
“Do you know what we do to cheaters in this house?” Aideen pulled the cork out of another bottle of whiskey and poured two tall glasses. Not shot glasses, mind you, but enough to bring pretty much any human I’d ever met to his knees. And quite possibly a fairy, too.
Aideen slid one cup to Park and picked up the other.
Casper was biting her lips and almost laughing, but I had no idea why.
“Is that a shell game?” Zola asked.
“It was,” Aideen said. “Until our guest cheated. First on the floor loses.”
Park, apparently compromised enough already to agree to these less than wise terms, started drinking immediately.
I looked around the table, realizing three bottles of Irish whiskey and an extra bottle of barbecue sauce had been annihilated. Almost all the pork was gone, and that was a ridiculous thing for so few people.
“Where’s Nixie?” I asked.
Park hit the floor as if in answer, and the unfocused smile on Casper’s face told me she probably wasn’t far behind.
“Is he dead?” I whispered.
Aideen set her bottle down. “Damian Vesik, do you honestly think I’d let a guest die? Unless he cheated at a game of chance?”
I glanced down at Park again. “Did he?”
“Park?” Casper laughed. “Park would never. I cheated and blamed it on him. Aideen made him go shot for shot.”
I looked at the towering glasses of whiskey. “Those weren’t shots.”
Casper broke into what might have been the most evil cackle I’d ever heard.
Foster groaned. “Maybe if I eat more fudge, it will speed up my metabolism so I can finish these ribs.” He tossed another bone to the cu siths, who shattered it instantly. Nugget sat in the corner, politely drinking from a bowl of water and silently judging everyone in that room.
Aideen looked like she was about to argue, shrugged, and pulled out a log of peanut butter fudge. “We need to keep an eye on Park, anyway. Might as well enjoy it.”
Vicky refilled her Solo cup, which I thought was quite a terrible idea, so I of course did the same. Zola sighed and gave in to peer pressure. We followed her up the stairs and down into the reading nook, where we found Nixie snoring in one of the overstuffed leather chairs.
I took a sip from my cup. “I feel like all the Fae really underestimated Calbach’s ale.”
“The empty bottles of whiskey probably didn’t help,” Zola muttered.
Nixie woke up when I flopped onto the chair next to her, blinking at us before stealing my cup. Her skin looked a little cracked at the corners of her eyes. She passed the cup back after only a sip. “That’s not water.”
“No, it is most assuredly not.”
She gave me a forlorn look and then shuffled off in search of what I assumed would be a great deal of water.
None of us spoke for a time, settled into the chairs on the second floor of Death’s Door. Zola leaned back and looked toward the end of the hall.
“Finally moved in, did you?”
I nodded. “I’ve been wanting to for a while. With everything that’s been going on, it just felt right.”
Vicky took a deep breath. “I’m still living at home, which is weird.”
“You’re still a kid, kid.”
“It doesn’t always feel like it, though. It feels like my parents shouldn’t have to worry about me anymore. Like they’ve done enough, seen enough, been through enough.”
“I can understand that,” I said. “Don’t think my mom will ever get over the first time she saw Graybeard.”
Zola laughed under her breath. “The bird. Andi never did quite get past that.” She turned her focus to Vicky. “How are your parents, girl?”
Vicky sipped at her drink and shrugged. “Good, I guess? They … I think they still have a hard time with things sometimes. I mean, I get it. But they know the world isn’t what they thought it was too, you know?”
“Oh, Ah know that thought quite well.”
“What about you?” Vicky asked. “Talking to Philip had to be weird.”
I chuckled and took another swig of Calbach’s ale as Nixie walked back down the hall, plopping into the chair next to me.
“I remember being that unfiltered,” Nixie said. “Before I spent so much time with you mortals.”
“Unfiltered?” Vicky said. “It was just a question.”
“It’s fine,” Zola said. “Ah’m fine. Ah don’t need to tell you three, times will come you have to do things you do not wish to do. Was a time Philip could have been a good man. He chose a different path.”
I’d been wanting to ask Zola that same question, but I knew she needed time. I doubted the two weeks that had passed were enough, but maybe they were enough for now. “You really okay?”
“Yes, boy. Ah wouldn’t be here if Ah wasn’t. You have to remember we have that history. Times aren’t what they were, but there are things that haven’t changed. There was darkness in men two hundred years ago, and there will be darkness in another two hundred years. We have to be the light, and sometimes that is a hard thing to do.”
“You sound like Carter,” Vicky said.
“Hmm.” Zola smiled. “That wolf saw some shit in his time, girl. That he did.”
“You know who’s seen some shit?” Vicky leaned forward. “Luna. She looks like she’s what, like twelve years old or something? Did you know she’s fifty? Fifty!”
“She’s rather spry for fifty,” Zola said, drumming her fingers on the head of her cane.
“Is she?” I asked. “I’ve never really tried to tell how old a bat is.”
Vicky crossed her arms. “You two are too old to understand. I thought she was younger than me! She’s older than my parents.”
“You’ve heard Stump talk about the death bats,” Zola said. “They do not mature at the same rate as humans. Luna won’t be full grown for a century.”
“And she’ll still be adorable.”
“Look on the bright side, you don’t have to worry about
wrinkles,” I said.
Vicky glanced at Zola and didn’t say anything.
“Girl, did you just look at my wrinkles? Do you know how old I am?”
Vicky laughed into her cup and took another sip. “Sorry. They give you character. Like a map of everything you’ve been through.”
“You’ll want to stop talking now, girl.” Zola gave her a stern look.
I didn’t miss the grin on Vicky’s face.
“You all are adorable,” Nixie said, almost melting into the chair. “I’m going to miss this when I go back to Atlantis.”
“Irresponsible drinking and late-night chats?”
“Yes. Euphemia is strict about behavior and protocol. Can you imagine the outcry from the undines if they knew their queen was drinking iron-touched ale with this lot?”
“Glad to be part of your lot,” Vicky said.
Nixie sat upright. “You need to come to Atlantis. You all do. I know you’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I feel like breathing would be a problem,” Vicky said.
Nixie shook her head. “No, no, we have magic for that. If we couldn’t get commoners to the bottom of the ocean alive, how could we … umm, never mind.” She flopped back into the chair and something screeched beneath us.
I shifted and found a gray furball trying to get himself unstuck from where Nixie had wedged him deep into the cushions. Jasper thinned out and rolled up onto my shoulder before launching himself over to Vicky.
“Can Jasper come, too?”
“To Atlantis?” Nixie asked. “Oh, definitely. Jasper can come just so I can see the horrified look on Euphemia’s face.”
“A reaper in Atlantis?” Zola said with a chuckle. “Ah’d rather like to see that myself.”
“You should really all come down to Puerto Rico, at least. It’s a beautiful place. And I’m afraid I’m going to be stuck there for some time.”
“We’ll come visit,” I said. “Don’t you worry about that. Just don’t drop the ocean on me. Seems like a bad way to go.”
Nixie squeezed my thigh and took a deep breath.
Vicky looked up after she scratched Jasper between the eyes. “You doing okay, too?”
I was the only one who hadn’t answered that question. But I might have been the only one who wasn’t entirely sure how to answer it.