Page 34

DANTE

Dante carried drinks to a booth at the back of the bar. The Breeze was dark and cool for a summer evening, the décor dated and seeming largely unchanged from thirty years ago, but the shady atmosphere was refreshing rather than unpleasant.

He passed a few people clustered around tables, some playing cards. Nico seemed familiar with the bar staff and a few of the customers, like he came here often.

“I’ve got two beers and a bourbon.” Dante set the drinks on the table, passing the beers to Ollie and Harper.

Nico reached for the bourbon. “Thank you.”

Dante gave him a nod as he scooted in next to Ollie.

“You don’t want a drink?” his mate asked.

“I don’t enjoy the taste of alcohol.” Dante caught Ash’s eye. “And it has no effect on the likes of us.”

Ollie’s brow furrowed. “But it still affects me, even though I’m immortal?”

Nico choked on his bourbon, and Harper patted his back. “Sorry, don’t mind me.” Nico cleared his throat, muttering immortal .

Ollie sipped his beer, squirming in his seat .

Dante wished they were alone so he could check in. He didn’t need to feel Ollie through the bond to know he was getting overwhelmed.

“It’s not immortality that makes demons immune to alcohol. It’s the strong magic in our blood. The bond didn’t turn you into a demon, even though it gave you some of my abilities. We aren’t quite the same.”

“Makes sense when you put it that way.” Ollie had another swig of his drink.

“Yes, but you’re telling me you two are immortal? Without becoming vampires?” Nico’s eyes bounced between Harper beside him and Ollie across the table.

Ash pointed a menacing finger. “Hey, don’t get any ideas.”

“No ideas.” Nico’s mouth thinned, eyes raised like he was praying for patience. “I’m not after immortality. Just looking for clarity. I don’t know anything about mates, remember?”

“Well, there’s only two of us in this realm, so that makes sense,” Harper said kindly. “And we definitely aren’t vampires. No drinking blood here.”

Ollie’s cheeks flushed and he hastily had another sip of beer.

Dante slipped an arm around his shoulders and tugged him closer. Ollie seemed to have a thing for biting, vampire or not. It was adorable.

Ollie pressed against Dante’s side, closing the last bit of distance between them. Dante barely resisted purring out loud. He loved being able to touch Ollie and indulge his urges to physically comfort his mate.

Ash eyed them from across the table, a wide grin appearing. Dante hadn’t mentioned the shift in his and Ollie’s relationship, though Ash and Harper’s convenient disappearance from the apartment last night likely meant Ash overheard enough to put it together .

“Do you know many vampires?” Harper asked Nico. “I can’t say I’ve met a whole lot.”

“A few.” Nico shrugged, spinning his glass in circles on the table. “I’m close with one of the city’s older vampire covens. And a couple of my friends are in a hybrid coven.”

“Hybrid?” Harper leaned forward. “Witches and vampires don’t always form separate covens? I mean, my experience of witches has been pretty limited to certain factions, but still. I’ve never heard that.”

“You’re not totally off base. Hybrid covens are rare,” Nico agreed.

Eventually, the conversation strayed away from magic, most of the back and forth staying between Harper and Nico, with the occasional comment from Ash.

Ollie was uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t even speak up when Nico started talking about the arcade that used to be next door and how he got into gaming because of it.

“Come up to the bar with me to get another round?” Dante muttered in Ollie’s ear.

He nodded and followed Dante out of the booth, bringing the remainder of his drink.

Dante leaned against the bar in the corner farthest from the register and the bartender, hovering near a few seated customers. “Would you like to get out of here?”

Ollie perched on a stool. “No. It feels mean to abandon Nico with Ash. I know he’s got Harper, but still.”

Dante chuckled. “Ash likes Nico plenty. He told me on the way over. They’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Ollie ran a hand through his hair, attention traveling from Nico to Dante. “I’m really sorry I blew it with the secret thing.”

“Don’t be. It was my fault, and I doubt there’s anything to worry about with Nico.” If anyone had to find out, he seemed like the safest option. Ash wouldn’t trust him for no reason, and neither would Harper.

Ollie didn’t seem in a hurry to agree. Dante laid a hand on his shoulder. “Is not knowing demons were a secret what’s bothering you?”

“A bit. I wish I hadn’t been blindsided, but I get why you didn’t mention it. You can’t tell me everything at once.”

“I’ll still keep you better informed. It’s been hard to know what to share and when. I never wanted any of this introduced to you this way.”

“I know.” Ollie squeezed the hand covering his shoulder.

“There’s something else.”

Ollie’s lips twitched in a smile. “You’re getting good at reading me.”

Warmth radiated from Dante’s core. “It comes with getting to know you.”

Ollie’s dimples flashed, then disappeared. “I’m having trouble getting my head around everything. Hearing you talk about mates in The Herb Emporium freaked me out. You came here to find your mate—to find me—and then waited forever . It’s so much bigger than I realized.”

“I know, and I let it seem less daunting for a reason. The weight attached to finding my mate has always been there. I’m used to it.

I didn’t want a long history to put pressure on you.

Finding you is a miracle, not only for me but for other demons too.

It means our search isn’t a lost cause. But finding you is also the most natural thing.

The significance doesn’t have to weigh us down. ”

Ollie hunched over the bar, leaning on his elbows, and turned to look at Dante from beneath his lashes. He was silent for a long moment. “I’m glad you didn’t tell me everything right away. I’d have run scared. Maybe it seems like I did anyway, but it would have been worse. ”

“I don’t think you ran scared at all.”

“But I didn’t exactly get on board either.”

“I never expected you to. Not with the way everything was thrust on you.” Dante paused. Ollie was taking this final revelation better than he’d expected. “Does hearing all this now scare you?”

“No, not so much.” Ollie pushed off the bar, twisting around so he faced Dante fully. “I think I get what you’re saying.” He laughed, shaking his head.

Dante shifted closer. “What do you mean?”

“I finally get it.” Ollie’s brow wrinkled.

“You’re saying something having a larger impact on the magic world doesn’t have to impact us.

Me—your mate—existing is this big thing, but to me , existing isn’t a big deal at all.

It’s just my life. Both realities are true.

And me being a big deal to a bunch of demons doesn’t change who I am. ”

“Exactly, Ollie. Finding you is big, and we will have something special between us, but it’s also you and me. Doing ordinary things, unaffected by the weight of it all.”

Ollie broke into a grin. “I like that. It’s big and small.

Even if it’s guaranteed, it’s not all predetermined.

Even if we know it’ll work out, we don’t know how.

I think I can live with that. I’d choose to sit here with you even if we weren’t bonded.

I know I would. And I’m still choosing even though we are. ”

Dante squeezed Ollie’s shoulder. “Yes, more than one thing can be true at once without canceling the other out. We can be fated and choose this at the same time.”

“Big and small,” Ollie repeated, a tiny smile twitching his lips.

Dante leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “You got it, darling. We’re whatever we want to be.”

Ollie raised his drink, cheeks flushed. “Cheers to that.”

Dante’s demon fire flared. He signaled the bartender and ordered a Coke and another beer for Ollie. “Cheers.”

They clinked glasses.

“So, can this be our first date?” Ollie asked.

“Certainly.” Dante ran a hand through his hair. “Drinks is a common first date, or so I’ve heard.” He’d read a bunch of dating advice online before the art show. He could finally put it to use.

Ollie’s expression turned sheepish. “I was so worried you thought dinner at my place with Harper and Ash was a double date.”

Dante set his soda down. “Worried? Why?”

Ollie picked at his beer bottle. “No relationship was worth the risk. Even good people couldn’t protect me from my bad habits, like wanting to please others over staying true to myself.

And since I was so against anything, it freaked me out that you might have thought it was a date when I hadn’t agreed to that. ”

“I’d wondered if something happened that night.” Dante’s face heated. “I confess, I’d hoped to ask you out when I saw you again.”

“But then you were so accepting of being friends,” Ollie said like he didn’t understand.

“It’s what you wanted, and that was more important than my preconceived notions of what mating bonds looked like. I had to open my mind a little, but I trusted that whatever we’d have would be right for us. Friends or lovers, or anything else we dreamed up.”

“You trusted fate. Huh.” Ollie seemed to mull this over like it meant a lot to him.

“I suppose I did.”

Dante had trusted fate, hadn’t he? Even after all this time. Maybe that’s why he never gave up. He’d never have put it that way if asked, but it fit. And it seemed Ollie was starting to trust fate too.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Dante flagged the bartender down. “Do you have cocktail cherries?”

She smiled indulgently. “We sure do.”

“Can I have…?” He considered the size of his drink. “Eight cherries, please?”

The woman bit her lip. “Sure, love. Be right back.”

Dante beamed at Ollie, who giggled. “What?”

“That’s a lot of cherries.”

“This soda isn’t exactly small.” Dante lifted his pint glass.

“No, it’s fine. Good to know how many cherries you need for when I take you out next time.”

Dante grinned.

The bartender returned, dropping off a small bowl of cherries.

“See.” Dante pointed. “Why have the perfect bowl if it’s too many cherries?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s meant for nuts or pretzels.” Ollie popped a cherry in his mouth. “Yum. This might actually be the superior snack option.”

Dante leaned in and kissed the sweetness from his lips. “Then it’s a good thing I ordered enough to share with my mate.”