“What would you do if I died?”
Spencer, you remember left field, don’t you?
Oh hey, sorry to hear about your breakup, left field, but I’m kind of in a thing right now.
There’s only one thing I can think of, though, as I sit up next to him and shrug.
“I wouldn’t let you die.”
He grumbles, sits up next to me. “Spence, you have to be realistic. Someday something’s going to kill me. I’m the Ra’keth. It’s a question of when, not if.”
“So I’d stop them. I’m a Coyote, they’d never see me coming.” I put my arm around him, rest my head against his.
“Well, what if you’re not there? And Hades shows up to personally collect me? I’m dead, gone, judged, all that. So what do you do?”
I shrug again. “Go into Hades to rescue you, I guess.”
He pulls himself free, looks at me crossly. “Jesus, would you take this seriously?”
“I am taking this seriously. You get in trouble, I back you up. You get in a jam, I rescue you. That’s what the sidekick does for the hero, especially when, well, you know…” Oh God, did I just blush?
“Spencer, this is not going to be a forever kind of relationship, okay? I just want to be sure that when someone finally kills me, you won’t lose it.”
I hold his face in my hands, make direct eye contact. “And you’re not listening to me. I would not let you die. Take it or leave it.”
I can tell that he fights off rolling his eyes, but his tonality conveys it all the same as he pushes my hands away, resumes his previous position. “Fine.”
“So what would you do if I died?”
“Huh?”
“C’mon, you made me answer, I don’t get to ask the same question? What would you do if I died?”
“I’d incinerate your corpse until it was naught but ash and then spread those ashes to the four winds.”
I blink. “Uh…that was a quick answer. Jesus, have you been thinking about this?”
“It’s because if you’re burned in the magical equivalent of a nuclear furnace, there’s no chance you’d come back as a zombie. And if by some chance you do come back as one, I’ll hit your head with an ice spell and shatter it without alerting the rest of the horde.” He shrugs simply. “I don’t know, that seems like what you’d want.”
I just stare, agape, until he finally notices and asks, “What?”
“And that is why I love you, James.”
“Because I’d—” James doesn’t get to finish his sentence. A tongue in your mouth will do that, as will hands moving to certain places and working a certain appendage.
For that answer, he’s really getting my A-game.
Ozzie
I should’ve expected something like this, to be truthful.
Everything had been going so well, at a good pace, I’d found someone I could make a connection with, could love. Maybe I thought that was enough to overlook him being a guy, being human and being one of the Keth. The first two I’ve had some experience being okay with, the last one…
I can still see his eyes, two pools of black oil that light would never find the bottom of. It triggered something…primal in me, an innate compulsion to just go along with whatever he wanted, to serve him properly because the Ra’keth created the Fae. We were created to be their smiths, to make more interesting weapons for them to kill each other with. That part, luckily for me, was diminished by all the interbreeding with humans over the centuries. The other part is what made me leave.
I was afraid of him.
I love the guy, but it finally hit me that after one bad day he could just wave his hand out of annoyance and that would be the end of me. I know he wouldn’t actually do it, especially after what the Coyote told me about his last beau, but a man still needs time to process all of that. There’s a difference between playing Dungeons & Dragons with your boyfriend and him cracking a joke about how his character could wreak more havoc than he could, and then actually witnessing what he’s capable of. Kinda puts things in perspective.
That’s why I needed time to figure this out, and at least James was understanding about that. I think he gets how big a deal this all was for me too.
Hell, if I can ride on his back while he’s a crazed dragon and still not be scared off, then maybe this is the real thing, minus a bit of naïveté on my part.
To think I was actually considering proposing at six months.
Nah, we need some more time to work through things, maybe make his moving in more formal, give him more than just a drawer at my place, or maybe we could find our own apartment. I don’t know, but I like thinking about the possibilities, and that’s how I know we’ve got a shot.
Parking isn’t much of an issue. I found a spot a couple blocks away, and the diner’s already picking up, even fifteen minutes after opening.
“Mornin’, Ozzie.” Sharon smiles at me when I come in and climb onto one of the stools.
I’m aware that I’m putting things off, but James tends to sleep in, and I want to give him a few more minutes. I nod to Sharon with a smile of my own, and she makes the time to stop by.
“Usual?”
“Looks like. Guessin’ he hasn’t come down yet?” Already a coffee cup’s in front of me, filled up.
She shakes her head and puts an order on the wheel. Bacon, scrambled eggs, home fries. I’m a simple guy when it comes to food.
“How’re classes going?”
“Easier than expected.” She gives a few refills, checking in with customers while Monica works the booths. “You? How’s work?”
“A few new projects this month.” I sip the coffee. It’s not fantastic, but it gets the job done. “You uh…” I chew my lower lip. “You hear anything from John?” Her husband, still overseas.
She cashes out a customer, keeping her attention on him. “I’ve been through this before. Doesn’t mean anything.” She then looks at me. “It’ll be a few minutes, we’re pretty busy this morning.”
I nod. “Noticed. I’ll go check on Sleeping Beauty. Save my chair?”
“Don’t I always?”
“When I tip well, yeah.”
“You gonna tip well?”
“Fifty percent, as usual.”
She smirks. “Then it’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”
We’ll have to find a place in Beckettsville, I’m guessing, to be close to the diner, Dave, everyone. Just feels homier around here.
The stairs going up make me thankful for my human heritage every time I climb them. My grandfather’s almost pureblood, and the steepness of these would kick his ass.
“James?” I call. “You up yet?” I crest the stairs. “It’s past eight.” I see him on the futon. “I figured you and I needed to—”
“Ozzie?” James’s face is one of shock when it emerges from beneath the covers.
He’s not alone.
He was… He’s… There’s another…
I don’t know what to do.
“Ozzie, what are you doing here?” There’s no anger, just surprise.
“I… You were… I thought after we’d taken some time to think about last night that…” I’m breathing rapidly. My chest feels empty. “Tell me it’s not… Please say it’s not Spen…” I can’t finish the sentence.
Stone, what do I do? My face feels hot, wet. I shake my head quickly. “No.”
“Ozzie, I thought we were…”
“You son of a bitch!” I yelled that.
I’m vaguely aware I’m heading downstairs. I make it out the side door to the alley before my throat seizes and something warm pours out my mouth onto the pavement and scattered trash.
I start walking away from the diner.
“Ozzie!” Of course it’s him.
This time the Coyote gets it in the face.
/> He’s knocked to the sidewalk, his hand rubbing his jaw. “Fuck, I’m sorry. He said you two broke up.”
“You couldn’t wait, could you?” I stand over him. Stone, I want to hit him again. “Not even twelve damned hours? And him, he couldn’t…”
“Fine, you’re right, I swooped in, I fucked up, I was wrong. I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly go back. I don’t know why you’re so pissed, you were the one who broke up with…”
His mouth opens a few seconds.
“You never actually said to him that you were breaking up with him. Am I right?”
“I needed time!” My fingers are still clenched into fists, but I won’t hit him again. “I just needed time to work through it.”
“Listen, I’ll back off if you two—”
“You think I’d take him back now?” I narrow my eyes at him. “Did you plan this?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No. It just happened, and I’ll step aside if it means—”
I shake my head. “Don’t even bother. Just…just don’t bother.”
“Hey, he came on to me, okay?” He instantly winces, but that’s about enough.
I throw my hands up. “Fuck both of you, you deserve each other.”
And I walk to my car. I don’t look back.
Spencer
“James, think back to last night. Think hard. Did Ozzie at any point in your conversation say that it was over, or that you two were breaking up, or anything with a definite weight of finality to it?”
He’s sitting on the futon, just in his underwear.
“I…I thought that’s what it meant.”
“Oh Jesus.” I sit down on the floor. “At the end of the day, I really am a Coyote.”
“I am so sick of people being boiled down to terms instead of who they are. I tried with Ozzie, we were Ozzie and James and it was… But it had to turn into a Dwarf and the Ra’keth. So what does being a Coyote have to do with anything?”
“Because the best way for a ’Yote to trick a sorcerer is to fuck with their relationship. I was doing everything I could to not do that, and we still ended up in the same place.” I half-glare at him. “And like I told Ozzie, I did not plan this.”
“Why are you rubbing your face?” He takes my hand away from my jaw, sees the bruise there. “Fuck, did Ozzie do that?”
“I had it coming, I slept with his boyfriend, and he got to see you and me in the middle of…” I wave it off. “It doesn’t mat—”
“Heal.”
My face feels hot as the magic repairs the damage, but to be honest, I was okay with it hurting a while longer. When the hero fucks up like this, he’s supposed to take his knocks and pay the price. And I’m his hero. Looks like I’m off to a great start.
“Well, if he’s going to hit somebody, that’s not the kind of guy I want to date anyway. Fuck, I never even saw it and the whole time he’s—”
“He’s not Heath, James. I fucked his boyfriend in front of him. I told him I was in love with his boyfriend. So, yeah, he hit me. He socked me in the face once, he didn’t beat the shit out of me.”
“I’m still going to—”
I stop him there. “You’ll do nothing, James. Trust the guy with more relationship experience. Let him be pissed, angry at you and me. We both deserve it. And after a while maybe you reach out when things have cooled down and apologize. It’s what every romantic-comedy protagonist is supposed to do, but ends up screwing up with some last-minute gesture.” I shrug. “I guess this means that you’re stuck with me.”
“So what happens now?”
“Now?” I lean back, stare through the skylight a few seconds. “Now we take our licks, face the music, all that. Don’t try to magic your way out of it, you’ll only end up summoning some horrifying demon or turning someone into a supervillain. I’ve watched enough Buffy to know magic isn’t the answer to everything.”
When I look back at him there’s a weak smile on his face. “This mean you’re going to be my common sense?”
What the hell, I return it. “God knows you could use some, and I don’t see anyone else willing to stand up to you.”
“You realize that if I went full Ra’keth and wanted to, I could just command you to see things my way.”
I shake my head. “Nope. Wouldn’t work.”
“Because?”
“Because I love you. And there are countless movies, stories, myths and legends about magic getting its ass kicked by love every single time.”
“And you believe them?”
I smile my Coyote smile. “I’m a trickster, you’re the Ra’keth, we play D&D with an actual dragon, I’ve made out with one of the Fates, and my favorite bar is run by a troll. Belief is something I have in abundance, James. And even though you fuck up from time to time, and you’re afraid of your power, I know you can use it responsibly to make the world you created a better one than the last, and you know why?”
He doesn’t respond, he just looks into my eyes and lets me finish.
“Because I believe in you.”
“Spencer?”
“Yeah, James?”
He takes a deep breath, holds my hands in his. “I don’t love you, Spencer. But…”
“Thank God, there’s a but.”
He smiles, kisses me gently. “But I believe in you too. So just…give me time.”
Some part of me should think this is a mistake because I can’t imagine a romantic comedy or TV show that goes like this. But for the life of me, I can’t tell myself to back out on the chance he’ll grow to love me. I’ve already stepped outside the friend zone, I don’t want to go back. So there’s probably a story out there that’ll supply the happy ending I’m hoping for. Even though as a Bard I know plenty of stories where this sort of thing crashes and burns, I want to believe that there’s a perfect happy ending out there for James and me. And if not?
Well, then fuck it, we’ll just make our own.
About the Author
Writer, Scorpio and self-professed waffle addict, Vaughn R. Demont received his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from SUNY Oswego and his Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College, where he studied creative writing and being poor. He has published several novelettes and novellas, as well as the Broken Mirrors series. Vaughn lives in central New York, where he is working on his next novel.
Visit Vaughn at his website, www.vaughndemont.com.
Look for these titles by Vaughn R. Demont
Now Available:
House of Stone
Broken Mirrors
Coyote’s Creed
Lightning Rod
Community Service
Never forget what you are.
Community Service
© 2013 Vaughn R. Demont
Broken Mirrors, Book 3
The King is dead, long live the King. And, uh, could you float him a couple bucks?
Life as the only human sorcerer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for James Black, the Lightning Rod. Between gremlins in the closet, paladins crashing through skylights and working spells in a storage locker, hunting a body-hopping spirit is a welcome distraction. If only he didn’t have to partner with a Coyote.
After being punted to the curb by his roommate (with benefits), things are looking dire for trickster Spencer Crain, until an old friend offers him a shot at a big score scamming the best of marks: a vampire. Thing is, he’ll have to work with his worst enemy to pull it off.
With lives in the balance, James is learning the hard way what being a sorcerer really means—and that he picked a hell of a time to quit smoking. Spencer is faced with the choice between his future and his friends. Yeah, like he’s never seen that movie before…
Warning: This is a work of urban fantasy containing arguments for and against Dungeons & Dragons, a cl
oseted My Little Pony fan, awkward flirting, switching POVs, heist-movie logic, and a Dwarf who can’t hold his liquor.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Community Service:
“What’s going on, Spencer?” There are bags under his green eyes, his red hair mussed just on the right side of attractive, save the white streak that’s plastered to his forehead. He also sounds annoyed, but sorcerers always sound like that at four thirty in the morning, for some reason. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Time for breakfast? And some coffee? God, I need coffee. Could you let me in, I’ll even get it started.” I don’t give him a chance to refuse. It’s not like Coyotes need an invitation, so I slide past him and head out into the diner proper, getting the coffee pots ready while James follows me. “Don’t suppose you can conjure a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster?”
He gives me a blank look.
“Jesus, James. Hitchhiker’s. I cannot believe you’ve never read it.”
“I’m just not into satire, okay? Now what’s going on?” He sits at the counter, oblivious to Bank and Thornton who are outside.
I glance back at him. “Regular for you, right?” I pour in the water, set the machine to percolating.
“Spence, just spill it so I can get around to talking to you about something?”
I peer at him. “Wait, you’re giving me the ‘we need to talk’? Don’t we need to have sex at least once before you break up with me?”
He grumbles. “We’re not—” The sorcerer takes a deep breath. “I’m happy alone, okay? I don’t have the best track record and I don’t want to inflict it on someone else.”
I turn, leaning against the counter. “What are the odds you’ll go out with another guy who gets…” I don’t finish the sentence. No one wants to be reminded that both serious relationships in their life ended with a scissor blade through their lover’s heart. “You need time, I get it. In the meantime, could you get the grill going?” I motion to the front doors. “My buddies are hungry.”
James looks back through the window at Bank and Thornton, who wave and smile genially. He rolls his eyes. “What, recharging before you get back to the threesome?”
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