“I’m sure they are. Thanks again for your help.” Andi paused. “Where can I get a nice red lipstick?”
“Couple blocks down there’s a little shop that does custom cosmetics, handmade soaps, all kinds of good-smelling bath stuff, and the best hair dyes you can buy.” She patted the side of her bouffant hairdo. “Bombshell’s Bath & Beauty. If she doesn’t have the right color, she’ll make it up for you. Tell her Stella sent you.”
“I will, thanks.” Bag in hand, Andi left the Bargain Bin behind and went in search of the perfect red lip.
Bombshell’s Bath & Beauty was a couple of blocks down and on the other side of the street. Andi could tell even before she crossed that it was the kind of place she could spend oodles of time just browsing.
She walked in and was greeted by all kinds of wonderful scents. The place was packed with everything Stella had described and more. Andi stood there in a slight daze for a moment, taking in the sights and smells and wondering where to start.
“Hi there. Can I help you find something?”
She turned to see a gorgeous woman with lavender hair. Here and there, her skin seemed to shimmer. Down her throat, at her wrists, at her hairline. A second later, Andi realized that was because the woman had iridescent scales in all those places.
Holy fish out of water, the woman was a mermaid. There was no other explanation. “I, uh, I’m looking for something.”
The woman laughed, a light bubbly sound. “Isn’t everybody? Anything specific? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.”
“Um, red lipstick.” Andi, never one to beat around the bush, dived in. “Are you a mermaid? I’m sorry to be blunt, but I have to know.”
The woman smiled and nodded. “Guilty as charged.” She waved one hand, showing off webbed fingers. “I’m Sirena, and this is my shop.”
“Hi, Sirena. Nice to meet you. Your shop is amazing.”
“Thank you. So you’re looking for red lipstick?”
“Yes. Stella hooked me up with a great outfit, then sent me here to find a great red lipstick.”
“Love Stella.” Sirena nodded. “And I’ve got just the color for you.”
By the time Andi left the shop, she had a great red lipstick, a killer black eyeliner, and a face powder guaranteed to make her skin look perfect all night. The bill was about what she’d have paid normally for ordinary drugstore makeup, which was fine. There was no way every place in town could have free goods or crazy-low prices.
As she strolled back to the Gilded Page, she practiced the conversation she was going to have with Con after the dinner.
She’d have to start with what had actually gone on between her and Cassi, and what Cassi thought had happened, because without the whole truth, Andi came off pretty badly. But she also had to be able to explain why Cassi had reacted with the curse the way she had.
Then she’d tell Con that going back to see her sister was the only way forward. And probably the only way to get her wings back. And that there was no telling how long that would take. No telling what hoops Cassi would make her jump through for them, but Andi had no doubt there would be hoops.
And that she would do the jumping. Because without her wings, she had no ability to fly, no magic dust to help her through life. Her powers, such as they were, would continue to diminish until…
She stopped walking. Would she die? Was she already dying?
It did happen. Sprites who were physically stripped of their wings rarely lived out the year. But her wings hadn’t been cut off. They’d been removed with magic.
Hadn’t they?
Honestly, she’d just assumed that was why they were gone. She’d been so preoccupied with getting Con to fall in love with her that she hadn’t thought that much about how they’d been removed, only that they had been and how much she wanted them back. But she needed to know. And she needed to know now.
With a soft whimper, she ran the rest of the way to Con’s shop, hoping her time wasn’t running out for a wholly different reason.
Chapter Eighteen
“Con, Con, Con—”
At the sound of Andi repeating his name with such urgency, Constantin looked up, a small frisson of panic running through him. “What is it? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I don’t know. I need you to look at something for me.”
“Okay, sure. What is it?”
“Not here. In your office.”
“Let’s go, then.” He led the way. Fletcher would be in shortly, but the man didn’t need Constantin’s guidance to take over the shop floor.
Once in his office, Constantin shut the door. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“My wings. I need to know if they look like they were removed cleanly with magic, or if they were physically cut off.”
“Wouldn’t you feel that?”
She shrugged impatiently. “I don’t know. Being trapped in that book was like being stuck in a nightmare. I was more worried about surviving than thinking about my wings. I couldn’t use them in there anyway.”
She dropped her shopping bags, then shucked her jacket and turned her back to Con. With her arms wrapped around her waist, she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and yanked it up, revealing her bare back.
And a black lace bra.
For a brief moment, Constantin’s breath caught in his throat.
“Can you tell anything?” she asked.
He could tell that she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. “I don’t know where to look.”
“Where my shoulder blades are, a few inches out from my spine. My hair might be in the way.”
He brushed her hair aside, his fingers coasting over the warm silk of her skin. He’d forgotten how tantalizing the feel of a woman could be. “I see two small slanted lines. But they look more like birthmarks than any kind of wound.”
“Magic, then.” She exhaled and slumped forward, rounding her back a little. “Good. Can you touch them and make sure? They should be smooth. If they’re bumpy, it could be scar tissue.”
“I can do that.” His hand paused a half inch above the marks. He’d touched her when he’d moved her hair, but this was intentional. His fingers traced over the marks.
Goose bumps rose on her skin, and she shuddered.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I know my skin is cold. One of the downfalls of my kind.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s…” Her voice hitched oddly. “It’s been nearly a year since anyone touched me so intimately.”
He nodded, then realized she couldn’t see him. “I understand.” It had been longer for him. A good deal longer. He focused on what she’d asked him to do. “The marks are flat. No bumps. Not scar tissue. Really, just like birthmarks.”
“Thank you. That’s what my skin should look like when my wings aren’t on me.” She pulled her shirt down and turned to face him. “That buys me more time.”
“More time for what?”
She was about to answer when a knock on his office door interrupted her.
“Mr. Thibodeaux? It’s Fletcher. Just wanted to let you know I’m here.”
Constantin frowned. “So you have.”
“I’ll be at the counter if you need me.”
“Good.” Constantin looked at Andi, lost in her lilac gaze. What had they been talking about? He couldn’t remember. But staying in the shop wasn’t going to help. “Should we go eat lunch?”
She nodded as she pulled her jacket back on. “I’m ready.”
“What are you in the mood for?”
“I don’t know. What’s your favorite place for lunch?”
Here. In his office. And lunch usually came from the small fridge next to his desk, which held the only sustenance vampires truly required. “I…”
She laughed softly. “You don’t usually go out for lunch, do you?”
“Not often. No. But I don’t usually have such a lovely guest to feed either. Come on, what’s your favorite thin
g to eat?”
“Sweets. But that’s not really lunch. How about something simple like a burger? I think I saw a diner. They probably have burgers.”
“They do, but they also have UV bulbs in their overhead lighting. Hence the name Sunshine Diner. It’s a great place for people to get a sunlight fix, but not my people.”
“Oh. Ouch. Okay, new plan.”
“How do you feel about sushi?”
“You realize that’s kind of the opposite of a burger, right?” She grinned. “But I’m in. Haven’t had it in ages. Well, obviously.”
“They have other things besides sushi, but that’s all I get there.” He grabbed his wallet off the desk. “Let’s go. We can walk, if you don’t mind.”
“Nope. Walking is great. I get to see the town better that way.”
As they passed by the counter on the way to the door, he spoke to Fletcher. “Going out to lunch. Back in an hour.”
Fletcher’s face lit up. “You got it, boss.”
Constantin narrowed his eyes. “Don’t break anything.”
Fletcher nodded vigorously. “No, sir.”
Constantin constrained the urge to smile, going ahead of Andi to open the door for her. “Head right.”
She did, and he kept stride beside her, shortening his steps a little so she didn’t have to jog.
Two blocks down, they took another right onto Warlock Avenue. A few more blocks and they’d arrived.
Andi shook her head. “Once again, the name gives me pause, but if you say it’s good, I’m willing to believe.”
He glanced at the sign. Maybe Finding Nemo was a little tongue in cheek, but the food here was excellent. He leaned in closer. “The man who owns this place is named Nemo. And he’s a merman.”
Andi’s eyes widened. “Is he related to Sirena who owns Bombshell’s? She’s a mermaid.”
“I don’t know. You can ask him if we see him.” Constantin held the door for her.
The restaurant was small, about ten tables and another dozen seats at the sushi bar that traversed most of the back wall, and because it was lunchtime, seats were at a premium.
Constantin pointed to one of only two tables available. “Let’s go there.”
Once they got settled, Andi leaned toward him. “It has to be good with this kind of crowd. Or aren’t there that many places to eat in town?”
“There are a good number. But only one sushi restaurant.”
She glanced around. “We need a menu.”
“Right here.” He picked up the little notepad and pencil stuck between the soy sauce, the napkin dispenser, and the chopstick holder. “Just put a checkmark by what you want.”
“Cool.” She studied the menu in earnest for a moment before looking up at him. “What do you recommend?”
“I’ve never had anything here I didn’t like. The dragon roll is good. So is the volcano roll. And the lava lava roll.”
She snickered. “You do like your hot stuff, don’t you?”
“Especially the one across from me.” The words slipped out before he could stop them.
She grinned. “You’re cute. I’m glad you’re the one who opened that book and not some boring, crusty old academic.”
He snorted. “There are some who might say that label applies to me.”
She lifted one shoulder. “Well, you are old. And academic. But not boring.”
“Good to know.” He picked up the pencil. “Start marking, or we’ll never get anything to eat.”
She took his words to heart and got busy. A server came by to pick up their order and get them drinks, returning a minute later with the waters they’d both asked for.
When they were alone again, Andi folded her hands on the tabletop. “What’s on the menu tonight?”
“Hard to say. Could be some kind of roast. Could be seafood. Jambalaya. Possibly gumbo and corn bread. My mother’s even been known to make fried chicken with all the traditional sides. Whatever moves her in the moment.”
“Wow, I’m hungry all over again.”
“Good. A healthy appetite is very much appreciated at the family dinner.”
“And your brother and sisters will be there?”
“They will. And my cousin Isabelle, although she’s having a flare of laryngitis and can’t speak.”
“How does a vampire get laryngitis?”
“It’s her curse, actually. Placed upon her by a jealous rival. Another singer who wanted Isabelle’s job.”
Andi clucked her tongue. “What? That’s awful.”
“It is, but it’ll pass.”
Andi sipped her water. “Do you guys do the dinner every week?”
He nodded. “Every week.”
Her expression was wistful. “It sounds really nice.”
“Does your family have any traditions like that?”
She shook her head slowly. “Cassi and I were raised by our grandmother. Sprites don’t make the best parents. We’re a pretty flighty lot, no wing pun intended. It’s kind of fifty-fifty if you’re going to get any maternal instincts at all. Cassi takes after our gran.”
“Who do you take after?”
Andi exhaled a long, unhappy sigh. “Our mother.”
“You don’t seem pleased about that, but I’m guessing that if your grandmother raised you, then it was because your mother wasn’t around.”
She twirled the little pencil on the table. “She was in and out of our lives. More out, really. Always busy with some new guy. Kind of the way…the way I’ve been with Cassi.”
She looked like she might cry.
He didn’t like her feeling bad. “But you’re young. And that’s what young people do. You certainly don’t owe your sister all of your time. She can’t expect that either.”
“She doesn’t. But…I need to be a better sister. I was actually trying, but things don’t always go the way you hope, you know?”
He nodded, wishing he knew a way to comfort her. “Trying is better than not trying.”
She shrugged, sniffing hard.
His heart ached for her. He had to say something to make her feel better. “I’m not a very good brother.”
She looked up. “I doubt that.”
“I could be better.”
Her mouth bent in disbelief. “Thank you for trying to cheer me up, but I need to make changes in my life.”
“So do I. More than the ones I’ve made since you showed up.” And he realized as he said the words how true they were. “I don’t want to be a stick in the mud.”
“Who called you that?”
“Who hasn’t?”
The server returned with two of their rolls, which he put in the center of the table, and two small plates and tiny soy sauce bowls, which he set in front of them. “Lava lava roll and blue sky roll.”
“Thank you,” Constantin said.
The server nodded. “I’ll be right back with the rest.”
Constantin helped himself to a pair of chopsticks.
Andi did the same, slipping them out of their paper sleeve and snapping the two wooden sticks apart. She nestled them in her fingers and clicked them together like a duck’s beak. “I’m starving.”
He smiled. “Dig in. I’m about to.”
She did, and he had a feeling they were both happy for the change of subject. That didn’t mean he wasn’t wondering what Andi felt so bad about.
After all, she had yet to tell him what she’d done to her sister that had caused Cassi to curse Andi into a book.
And that was a question Constantin was really starting to want the answer to.
Chapter Nineteen
Andi kept herself busy the rest of the afternoon by helping Fletcher, who was a very nice young vampire, with inventory and straightening and changing out the window display. They discussed in detail the lack of a romance section, and Fletcher confessed, in a hushed voice, to loving books by Nora Roberts.
It was one of the best afternoons she’d had in a long time.
She’d never really had a
job that she cared about, but she cared about her work here. It was Con’s business after all, and she wanted him to be pleased with everything she did. That mission made the time fly, and she was surprised at how satisfying it was to get things done when you cared.
A life of apathetic leisure didn’t really give you the fulfillment of accomplishing anything.
Con stayed in his office, for the most part, coming out now and then to do something at the counter or add a book to the shelves. But every time he was on the shop floor, he seemed to make a point of catching her eye and smiling at her.
It was sweet. Sweeter than she deserved, because she couldn’t stop thinking about Cassi. If she were here, Andi had no doubt her sister would warn Con away, telling him what a nightmare he was in for if he let himself care about Andi.
The saddest thing was, Cassi wouldn’t have been wrong. Not about the Andi of the past.
But Andi didn’t want to be that person anymore. Not even a little bit. She’d already begun the change—or at least she had before Cassi had spelled her into the book. But if completing that change meant settling down in a town like this with a guy like Con, then Andi was absolutely positively in.
In fact, she was ready for it. The very thought erased most of the cloud that had been following her since lunch. She started to wonder if maybe she had inherited a little of her gran’s nurturing goodness. And why couldn’t Andi be a nurturer? If she didn’t want to turn out like her mother, she didn’t have to. She was in charge of her own destiny.
Or would be as soon as the curse was broken and she had her wings back.
Then she’d tell Con exactly how she was feeling and that she wanted to try life with him as his real girlfriend. No pretending.
Con was a very independent guy, but even the most independent of men liked to be looked after by the right woman.
And she wanted to be that right woman for Con. With all of her heart.
Scary, that. Like, involuntary shivers right down to her toes scary. But being afraid of change, this kind of good change, wouldn’t move her forward in life. She had to face the fear and get over it.
Around five o’clock, she and Con left Fletcher at the shop to work the evening shift, and Con drove them back to his place to get ready for dinner.
The Vampire's Cursed Kiss (Shadowvale Book 2) Page 13