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My fangs throb as they get sharper. I can’t help but notice the flex of his tendons where his neck meets his collarbone. I’m transfixed, but Kai doesn’t seem to notice that he’s reduced me to a puddle of brain cells again. He looks at a point beyond my shoulder, keeping his voice low.

“Keep an eye on Belinda and Lifo. He’s absolutely obsessed with her, but she hasn’t given him the time of day until tonight. Something’s going on. It’s almost as good as your app thing.”

He says it like he doesn’t demand I tell him the latest stories every time I’m in. He’s hooked, we both know it.

“Not now ! Be cool, dude!” He says when I turn to look at the pair at the other end of the long bar. Covering the slightly too loud moment, he stands up and starts cleaning the bartop with a towel he’s picked up from somewhere.

There is another moment. A glimmer of something in our shared smile. The way his eyes sparkle with laughter. The conspiratorial tip of his head and raised eyebrow. The snickers we share over the night as I keep an eye on his coworkers.

There is something definitely different going on there.

For starters, Lifo is actually being nice .

Which is a change. I hope I don’t look like he does when he stares after Belinda—all pathetically doe-eyed like a hopeless sap.

But Kai is right… There is something different going on.

Usually, Belinda is oblivious to Lifo’s pining, almost pointedly so.

Tonight though, she’s almost… entertaining it.

The whole thing entertains me, at least. And Kai’s right again—it is almost as good as a solid Crumbles drama. By the time I’m curled up in my bed, the run in with the shitty checkout attendant is all but forgotten. All thanks to Kai.

I almost feel bad, scrolling through the videos, about jerking off to yet another compilation of him dirty dancing on a bar top. Almost.

***

“So I said to the witch that we didn’t have it in stock and she was just going to have to get a grip.

And then she had the audacity to try and curse me!

In the shop! And blame me when she got banned!

Outrageous, really.” Lusce finishes his story with an irritated growl, glaring at the spot between Jax and Bedeer like he can still see the witch who dared cross him.

With a final snarl and a shake of his head he throws back his drink and another huff. With his head thrown back, I manage to sneak a glance in Willan’s direction, looking for some kind of confirmation of the witch’s behaviour.

I mean, having worked in customer service—albeit briefly with my time at the call centre—I’m naturally on Lusce’s side, but you never know. Unfortunately, from Willan’s eye roll and hand wave, I don’t know if he’s confirming or denying anything.

Despite my many promises to myself—the most recent being only two nights ago after that shitty experience trying to buy blood—I’m back at Bloody Temptations. Honestly, it’s out of control.

I really didn’t have any choice tonight, though.

Not when Bedeer bailed me up in the breakroom, telling me off for ghosting the group chat.

I genuinely didn’t think anyone had really noticed my lurking, but they had.

And, apparently, I’ve hurt some feelings.

I promised myself that I was going to make up for my shitty-friend behaviour tonight, before they realise I’m a dead weight and cut me off.

Plus, Bedeer said that Willan is still being a weirdo about the club, and Jesminda is determined to find out what is going on with him. Obviously, I can’t miss out on that.

“What did she even want a corion dick for anyway?” Bedeer asks, fiddling with Jesminda’s hands on the sticky table top.

Corion are a serpent-creature that lives only in the Whisper Woods. Their fangs aren’t strong enough to pierce most being-skin, but their venom is incredibly powerful, which is why I thought they were usually poached. Apparently, poachers were after other things too.

“Love spell,” Willan says over the rim of his glass, pausing to take a sip of the dark liquid inside. “It’s an old custom, but honestly, the results are not worth the effort. There are far more effective means.”

“Love spells are like, super illegal though, right?” Jax asks, pushing his glasses up his nose again.

Apparently, his eyes were irritated from work and he couldn’t wear his usual contacts.

The thick black frames look good on him.

Even if he’s having trouble getting them to stay up comfortably on the flat bridge of his nose.

Lusce helps him out, or at least seems to.

He waves his long elegant fingers in Jax’s face over the glasses and the glasses finally stay put, the two besties sharing a quick, secret smile.

“They are mega illegal.” Jesminda cuts in. “You aren’t selling that sort of thing at the shop, are you? It’ll get you shut down, then where are we going to go? I’m not going to Bethesda’s. She sucks.”

Apart from selling potentially illegal corion dicks, Willan’s uncle's shop also runs classes and meeting groups for witches. I still haven’t caught the name of it yet, everyone just calls it ‘the shop’, which is really unhelpful.

From their stories, it seems to act as part shop, part drop in centre for beings and the magically inclined .

Jesminda’s accusation has Willan rolling his eyes again.

He’s really very good at it. “Jez, for starters, no. Lusce just said it wasn’t in stock, which means we aren't selling it. Today, anyway.” He mutters the last bit under his breath and gives her a pointed look.

“And more importantly, you know as well as I do that it’s used in other, very much legal, rituals.

And we source it ethically, so don’t even try to start on me with that one.

And last, you bought milky puff ‘shrooms last week, which are in a pretty dark ‘legally grey’ area, if you ask me.”

Jesminda grins, completely unabashed. “I know, but they are a lot of fun.”

“Too right they are.” Bedeer clinks his empty glass against Jesminda’s. “Oh! Drinks are here!”

I catch a flash of his teeth in his smile before I notice who he’s looking at.

“Finn! Fancy seeing you here over in the booths of all places. I didn’t believe Lifo when he said you were in tonight.” Belinda unloads her tray and then, out of absolutely nowhere, gives me a quick side hug.

Even though I’m on the edge of the U shaped booth seat, the hug is really awkward because Jax’s arm is around me—it’s the only way he fits being so big.

Also because I didn’t know that Belinda and I are at the ‘hugging’ level of friendship.

I kind of thought we were at the vague wave hello level of acquaintanceship.

I mean, apart from the other night, I’m not even entirely certain we’ve had a full conversation, and now she’s hugging me like we’re best buddies.

I don’t know if I’ll ever exactly figure out how friendships work.

All eyes are on me. I get a little dizzy from the blood rushing to my cheeks in embarrassment.

“Uh, yeah. Just, you know, hanging with my friends and whatever.”

Several sets of eyes ping pong back and forth between me and Belinda, who doesn’t give them a second look. Nope, she taps me playfully with her tray then tucks it under her arm to straighten her long, brown pony tail.

“Well, don’t be a stranger just ‘cause Kai’s not at the bar. Come say hi.”

I manage to stammer out an agreement and turn back to the group of beings staring me down.

“Finneas Albert Tabernacle!” Jesminda admonishes on a gasp. It shouldn’t be audible over the music but it is. “You’ve been keeping secrets!”

“That isn’t his name,” Bedeer chuckles, pulling Jesminda back. She’s half over the table so it’s a bit of a fight to wrangle her. They get into a heated spat, which I actually think is just their version of foreplay. The rest of us ignore them. I ignore them the hardest.

“Did she say that you know Kai? What about Nikolo, do you know him? Wanna hook us up?” Lusce pumps his eyebrows with a flirty smile on his delicate face. Willan, who is sitting next to them, is not impressed. He turns positively glacial at the mention of Nikolo.

Jesminda’s right, he is being weird. I don’t even know the mage well and I can tell.

This reaction is what I’d been hoping to avoid tonight. Between leaving work and coming here, I managed to reassure myself that Kai wasn’t going to be working and I thought that if I avoided the bar I wouldn’t have to explain how the staff suddenly knew my name.

“Hrm, how about no?” I try to make it playful, because my first reaction is to tell Lusce that I will cut him if he tries to horn in on Kai. I may not be great at making friends, but I know that’s definitely not how to do it.

“Naw, don’t be like that!” Lusce laughs, leaning back in his chair, wrapping an arm around Willan.

I don’t think Lusce’s caught on that there is something going on with the mage.

Or if he has, he's purposely ignoring it. Willan is rigid as a board under Lusce’s arm.

“Oh! I know! A group thing! How about that?”

That seems to be the end of it for Willan, who shoves Lusce off the end of their side of the booth. It’s too rough to be considered friendly. “You’re disgusting. Get out of the way. I’m going to the bathroom.”

Lusce manages to right himself, and we all watch Willan stalk away, forcing the crowd to part with his magic, black coat swirling around his thighs in his anger.

“What was that about?” Bedeer asks, pulling his mouth off Jesminda. Poor Jax has them falling into him on the other side.

“No idea.” The big guy says, sliding down further into the booth, taking me with him when he does. “No idea at all.”

Between the drinks and the thudding bassline, the moment passes. Once it does, the group is dragging me onto the dance floor with them.