Page 8

BEAU

W elp, how do I explain the perils of being a bat?

“I promise it’s not what you think.” I chew on my bottom lip. “It’s ridiculous, really.”

“What the fuck happened?” Poe uses his sexy, deep demon voice that seems to rattle not only the house but me. Which is unfortunate when I’m naked and he’s not. He doesn’t take his eyes off my back. My very scratched up back that looks like someone attacked me.

“Did you know cats like to smack bats out of the sky and, in some cases hunt them? I didn’t.” I shuffle from foot to foot nervous of his reaction.

“A cat did this to you?!”

“It was my own fault. I shouldn’t have flown so close to the ground. I didn’t see the cat and by the time I did, it was too late and it batted me to the ground to either play with or try to eat. I got away as fast as I could, then nursed the wounds in an attic for a few days.” Those were not great days.

Poe pinches the bridge of his nose. “I never would have come up with a cat. I was imagining all sorts of nefarious scenarios.”

“This time was a cat. But this...” I point to a dip in my shoulder. “Some guy stabbed me and that’s?—”

“Fucking stabbed you?!” Poe’s eyes glow brighter and I swear smoke comes from his flared nostrils.

I can’t help but laugh. “Yes, stabbed because he thought I was trying to steal his food. All I wanted was to share his fire. I’d already raided the dumpster. The only thing that sucks about being a bat shifter is I can shift and eat all the insects and fruit I want, but if I want to shift back, I’ll have to eat more. I can stay bat and eat as a bat for as long as I want. But I’m a shifter and sometimes crave human things. I also don’t want to be feral. I heard too many horror stories of feral shifters and don’t want that happening to me, so I try to shift regularly.”

“That’s a wise choice, even if the most severe of the feral shifters tend to be wolves rejected from their packs. Speaking of packs. Were you a part of a colony?”

I nod. “We were heading there to reunite when the storm came through.”

“And you didn’t want?—”

“I didn’t really know where we were other than a forest in West Virginia. I didn’t know how to get where the colony was. All I know is that it was somewhere in West Virginia. I’ve never been able to find it.” My shoulders drop. “As much as I loved Edward, I wish I would have stayed in the woods. Someone probably would have come looking for us and found me.” I blink back tears. “As much as I understand why places like Hex are so secretive, there are people like me out there. And I don’t blame you for my life, okay? Shit happens. I just wish I didn’t have to relive the death of my parents every time it storms and every time I try to sleep.” I’m tired. So fucking tired.

Poe’s face softens. “Have you been to Renaud’s Solution Shop?”

“No? But I don’t get out much. Sparkle is trying to get me out of my hidey hole.”

Poe slaps his knee and straightens his posture. “Next time you go on an adventure with Sparkle, you should stop in. Get something called sleep powder. It’s from a Sandman and calibrated for sweet dreams. I’d pop in right now, but it’s closed.”

“I’ll look into it. Thank you.”

Poe dips his head. “I should let you...” He waves towards the bathroom door and then he’s gone.

I let out a breath and race to the bathroom to glare at the shower. I hadn’t examined it earlier because I was in panic mode. What the hell is this contraption? There are dials and knobs and an overhead shower head and one on each side, then what appears to be jets on the sides.

I poke a button, and the side jets turn on, making me jump. I poke it again, hoping to turn them off and by now I’m drenched. Thank goodness Poe has shower essentials in bottles attached to the wall, but I need to figure out the shower first.

I turn a knob, and a gentle stream of water comes from the center head. The water is so slow it really does remind me of the rain. Evil rain.

I pump the shampoo bottle a few times and scrub it through my hair before stepping under the water. It’s warm and cozy despite me being prickly about being wet.

My hair suds up as I scrub the shampoo out and I go back for conditioner. Sparkle told me all about it and I like how it makes my hair so soft.

I power through the rest of my shower with the supplied soap bar and washrag, making sure I hit every inch before shutting off the water.

Poe has fresh clean towels and I press one to my face, breathing in the subtle scent. Everything in Poe’s house screams luxury. It’s a nice difference in comparison to my own life. Edward was a simple man. Then I chose to live on the streets.

Could I have gone out and gotten a job and found an apartment among humans? Yes, but it felt wrong all alone. It felt like a lie I didn’t want to live through. My life isn’t horrible, I love flying and being bat. But I also love the human treats and stuffed toys and blankets. Blankets are the best. Being cozy is the best, and it’s hard to be cozy as a bat sometimes.

I dry myself quickly and throw on a pair of leggings and a shirt that’s always been too big on me. Sparkle says I look cute in the outfit and I trust his judgement.

I swipe my hands through my hair, hoping my curls don’t dry weird. When I leave the bathroom, I grab my headphones from the bag and plop them over my ears. Creamsicle purrs from the bed and I pat her little head before leaving the room.

I do wonder one thing about Poe that doesn’t set right with me and I need an answer.

When I reach the kitchen, Poe’s still shirtless, but he’s switched to a pair of gray sweatpants. Sparkle told me about gray sweatpants and I didn’t believe him at the time, but Poe’s ass fills his out.

I swallow, and he turns to face me. My eyes immediately dart down and my skin burns hot at the imprint of him.

“There you are. I hope your shower was satisfactory?”

I cough and force myself to look him in the eyes and not the dick. “It was lovely.” My voice is a croak, and I cough again.

“Water?” Poe’s cropped tail opens the fridge while he continues cooking something on the stove.

“What happened to your tail?” I slap a hand to my mouth. “Sorry, that’s rude isn’t it?”

Poe looks back as if he’s forgotten he has a tail. “Ah, that. Prank gone wrong. Had to amputate a bit of it.” He shrugs. “Still works though.” He grabs a water bottle with said tail and hands it over. “I forget it’s not as long as it used to be.”

“What do you mean a prank gone wrong?”

He leans against the countertop with a spatula in his hand. “I hope you like pancakes. I should have asked.”

“I don’t think I’ve had them before?”

“Then you’re in for a treat!” His tail sways behind him and he grabs it with his free hand. “This happened decades ago, Pike was eager to make his fellow crechelings laugh. He called for me. I showed up only to land in a pile of marbles. I lost my footing. Fell down a flight of stairs. Crushed my tail so badly it wouldn’t heal, so we ended up chopping it off.” Poe shrugs. “I didn’t have a tail before the curse, so losing a part of it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Speaking of this curse...” I hop up to a bar stool against the island. “Why did you insist I tell you my drama trauma and you tell me I have to wait to understand what you mean about being a chaos cupid and about this curse business? I didn’t know crossroads demons were cursed. I thought you just existed.”

“That’s what we, well, I, wanted everyone to think. I fucked up.”

I watch as he flips a few pancakes cooking on a griddle on the stove. “Tell me about it. It might help.”

He laughs and waggles his spatula at me. “Using my own words back at me. Very clever.”

“I’m pretty smart once I understand something.” I tap my temple and lean in.

“That’s what I hear.”

I groan and throw my head back. “Sparkle told you about the grocery, didn’t he? I just analyzed the store one night while I stocked and?—”

“You know most people don’t do that, right?”

“Well, I do now.” I grin up at him and fight to keep my eyes from drifting down his chest.

“You are right, though. It’s not fair that I keep you from my own drama trauma.” He frowns though and flips the pancakes to a plate before starting another round.

“What you see is part of my punishment. I wasn’t born with horns or red eyes or leathery wings. My demon type, a chaos cupid demon, is soft. My wings were feathered. My eyes were a lovely shade of brown. Not as lovely as yours, though.”

I swallow because I’m pretty sure he’s flirting with me. “And no horns?”

“Exactly, no horns. Chaos cupids create love in chaos.”

My brows scrunch. “Create love in chaos?”

“Yes. Take Pike and Lark, for example.” Poe gestures as if to point them out in a crowd, but it’s only the two of us.

“The demon and fae that run Flutter and Fangs?”

“Yes, have you been? It’s lovely since they took over. The born witch that owned it before was a piece of work.”

I shake my head. “Sparkle keeps trying to get me to go, but I’m too afraid.”

“Of what?” Poe cocks his head and leans against the counter again, watching me.

I try not to squirm under his stare. “I’m pretty much a scaredy cat, okay? If I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t want to deal with it. But Sparkle helps.”

There’s a tick in Poe’s jaw.

“Are you jealous of Sparkle?” I tease.

“He’s a very attractive man.” Poe basically grinds his teeth as he speaks.

“He is, but I’m not attracted to him like that. He’s just a friend.” We’ve had a whole conversation about it. Sparkle is attracted to Daddy types. Then he had to explain what that was, and I learned about kinks that day.

“A friend you cuddle with naked.”

I snort out a laugh and slam my hand over my mouth again. “He told you about that, too?”

“He also told me you were a virgin.”

“Fucking hell, Sparkle.” My face is on fire and I bury it in my hands.

“You’re very cute when you’re flustered.”

“Don’t make it worse!” I laugh and fake a glare.

“Adorable.” He plates the pancakes and nods his head to follow him. “I enjoy eating in the dining room.”

I follow him to a room with a table big enough for probably twenty people. There are already place settings at the head of the table and next to it and a tray full of syrups, butters, jams, and fruits. I hum a happy tune at a pair of teacups and saucers on the table.

“I have canned whipped cream, if you like that? And I can heat some chocolate.”

“I’m good with this. Thank you.” The spread is already impressive enough.

He pulls out a chair and gestures for me to sit. So I do. He scoots the chair closer to the table. He’s so elegant as he takes the seat at the head of the table.

“These look delicious.” My mouth waters as he places two pancakes on my plate.

“Thank you. I like to think I’ve perfected them.”

“How do I eat them?” I follow Poe’s lead as he cuts his into squares.

“Of course you can eat them however you like, but I drown mine in syrup.”

I lick my lips and watch as he picks up a glass bottle and the pancakes soak in the thick syrup.

He wiggles it at me and I take it to do the same.

“Edward never made you pancakes?”

I chuckle. “No. He taught me how to cook a lot of things, but never pancakes.”

“What sort of things?”

“Spaghetti is one of my favorites.”

“That’s always a good choice.”

I take my first bite and pure bliss bursts in my mouth. Sweet treats are my favorite. “Pancakes go on my list of favorite foods.”

“I’m glad you enjoy them.”

“Now back to you being a chaos cupid.” I shove a bite in my mouth and stare him down.

“You don’t give up easily.”

“I only momentarily get distracted.” Another bite and I have to keep from moaning.

“Okay, we create love in chaos. For Pike and Lark, it was past time for Pike to find love. He’d been cooped up in the demon realm for twenty years after acquiring a soul from one of his deals. He didn’t have to work unless he was summoned, and he wasn’t going to be summoned again without a little help. He was stubborn about leaving the demon realm too and I’d had enough of his moping.”

“I don’t understand. I thought?—”

Poe smiles. “I’m still a chaos cupid despite being the king of crossroads demons. I still crave and require chaos and matchmaking.”

“Sparkle said crossroads demons don’t even know what their real demon types are. How do you?”

“Because I’m the original. Almost all outside knowledge is wrong, even what my crossroads demons know about themselves. That was my decision.”

I eat more pancake as I take in the information.

“The rules of the crossroads demons are my creation to keep order. No killing outside of a deal. Can’t tell anyone where your crossroads is. The sacrifice must have meaning. The sacrificer must be at least eighteen. Years and souls are never rejected, well almost never.” Poe takes a few bites and we sit in silence as we eat. So far I’m a little confused, but hopefully everything makes sense in the end.

Poe dabs at his chin with a cloth napkin. “No one knows what their true demon type is until they’re set free. And to set a crossroads demon free?—”

“You destroy their crossroads. That’s why they can’t tell anyone where their crossroads is or how to free them. Then everyone would be free. Right?”

“Exactly. Except that doesn’t work for me. I have dozens of crossroads attached to me. My curse is more in tune to me as a chaos cupid.”

“Which means?” I wave my fork at him, hoping he’ll give me the answer.

“For me to be free of this curse, someone must fall in love with me.”

I blink back. “Like Beauty and the Beast?”

“Something like that, yes. But a little different. The love must flourish in chaos. While chaos cupids created love in chaos, no one falls for us. No one trusts us.”

The knowledge makes my heart heavy. Everyone deserves love. Not necessarily romantic love, but unconditional love. “Are you the only chaos cupid that wants to help people?”

He gives me a sad little smile. “Don’t get me wrong. I love being a chaos cupid, even if I don’t appear as one anymore, but most chaos cupids are pure assholes.”

“You’re not. If you were, you never would have come and saved me from myself at the grocery store earlier. We met mere hours ago and you’ve already offered to help me.”

“I thrive on helping.”

I stab my next bite harder than I mean to. “So Pike needed a little help to find love. How did you accomplish that?”

Poe snorts and gives me a smirk. I’m sure he knows what I’m doing changing the topic back to Pike. “I tossed a Fae luck coin at Lark and let the ancient artifact do its thing.”

“Which was?”

He shrugs and takes a strawberry from a bowl of fruit offerings. “Help Lark find a way to freedom and to Pike’s crossroads. The rest is history, but I’m sure Lark will tell you their love story if you ever meet.”

I nod. “So you create situations.”

“Yes. Sometimes they go a little off course, but my pairings usually fall in love and last a lifetime. I’m proud of my work.”

“So what happened?” I grab a few grapes and pop them in my mouth.

“I fucked up.”

“You’ve said that.”

“I didn’t know a demon prince was already seeing someone. I put another in his path and it created chaos that blew up his life. I tried to end it, but the new love interest became obsessed and killed the true love interest.”

The heat drains from my face and my hand stops midway from the fruit bowl. “You couldn’t have known.”

“No, and that’s the plight of chaos cupids. When we don’t know the nature of someone, we can create harm instead of love.”

“So this prince cursed you to be the king of crossroads demons where you have to take deals?”

“Yes, and every demon that had ever associated with me, every demon I had matched, was also cursed. Thankfully, they can be freed rather easily with just the destruction of their crossroads. The prince knew none of this was their fault. He wanted to punish me by punishing innocents.”

“That’s cruel.” My shoulders drop and I’m not sure I have an appetite anymore.

“It’s what I deserved.”

I snort, and he looks up at me with a question in his eyes.

“I always tell myself I deserve to be terrified of storms and rain because I couldn’t save my parents. I know deep down I don’t, but it’s hard not to think that.”

“I think?—”

“ No , you didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“But I should have used caution when it came to one of the princes.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you. You shouldn’t be punished for your nature.”

He tips his head and licks at the syrup on his lips. “In any case, I fucked up and have been dealing with it for over three hundred years.”

“Which is super long.” I can’t imagine having to live with such a punishment.

“Not in the grand scheme of things. It’s a blink of the eye. But I’m not looking forward to telling Van the truth one day. He’ll never be king because this is my punishment. Everyone from the creche was taught the kingship could be passed down. Everyone from the beginning had their memories affected so they didn’t know what happened and why they weren’t what they were before. That was the prince’s decision. I would have told him to let them keep their memories. If I’m ever freed from this curse, my remaining crossroads demons will be free, and everyone will gain their memory back.”

“Are you afraid of that?” I would be.

“Terrified. I also didn’t expect so many of my demons to gain freedom. There were hundreds, maybe thousands. I’m down to two.”

“Perhaps it’s time to stop letting fear stop you. And that’s me saying it.” I stuff another bite in my mouth and grin. “Maybe we can help each other.”

“Are you saying you want to fall in love with me?”

“Whose to say I’m not already yours? I’ve been dreaming about a big, sexy demon since I was fifteen.” I shrug nonchalantly and he snorts at me, so I wink. “You left an impression.”

Poe looks at his nails as if to seem disinterested. “I forgot you entirely as soon as I got back home. No offense.” He winks back at me.

“None taken. I was hiding behind Edward. Besides, it would have been super creepy had you lusted after me.” I grimace at the thought and shiver.

“Ew. Very creepy.”

“Anyway, I’m not saying I’m in love with you or anything. We don’t know much about each other. Well, other than some of our deepest, darkest secrets. Dun dun dunnnnn .”

That draws an honest laugh from him and I can’t help but join. Poe is handsome all the time, but most handsome when he’s laughing, or smiling.

He scrubs a hand through his hair before taking a drink of his water. He dabs at his mouth again. “I have a strange question. Well, I have more, but this is the one in the front of my mind.”

“Shoot.”

“Where did you get my phone number?”

I grin into my water glass as I take a drink. I pat my mouth with my napkin like he had. “The library. I walked right in, asked for the information of the leaders and the shock I got when I saw your name, and crossroads demon king as leader. I had no idea you were here. Edward summoned you in West Virginia. Anyway, I wrote your number down and used it for my application.”

“West Virginia is one of my least busy crossroads.”

“We had to climb pretty far up.”

“It was a very old road.”

“I still don’t know how Edward knew about it and why the heck we didn’t go to one closer.”

“Not every crossroads has a demon attached. Calista must have told him how to figure it out.”

“How does one discover the right kind of crossroads to summon a demon?”

“Next time we’re in Hex, I’ll show you.” Poe yawns and stretches. “I can whip up a dessert if you want?”

I pat my stomach. “I think I’m about to burst.” I haven’t eaten so much in weeks.

A soft smile lifts Poe’s lips, but he yawns again, making him snarl. “Excuse me, it’s been a long day.”

“Tell me about it.” I chuckle and fight my own yawn.

“We had a Hex council meeting, and I probably owe them an apology.”

“Why so?” I lean in.

“They wanted to talk about the wards and I shot them down.”

I ball my hands on my knees. “Sorry about that. But nothing’s happened, right?”

“I think we just have the one stowaway.” He taps his bottom lip with a finger. “But I’ll need to investigate tomorrow. I’ll probably be out most of the day. I’m happy to bring Sparkle over if you’d like?”

I chew my bottom lip. “I’m not really a stowaway since I knew about Hex after that lady told me about it. Right?”

“Right, but I still need to find out why the hell the wards didn’t notify me.I should have gotten att least a nudge, but I got nothing.”

“Maybe it’s because my bat is so small?”

“Hmmmm. Maybe? But that’s an investigation for tomorrow. I did put out a notice to be on the look out for people no one knows.”

“People know me,” I point out.

“True. In any case, I put hellhounds around the perimeter. No one is coming in.”

“Unless they can fly.” I shrug.

“I have a flight of griffins on the look out. I don’t think anything is going to happen, but I want to be prepared, since I know there is a tear in the magic.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“You’ve been here three months. I think it’ll be okay to wait until the storms pass through before you show me where you got in. Besides, storms are dangerous times to do this type of magic. So we have to go old school with watchmen.”

“If you’re sure?”

“Yes.”

I can’t fight the next yawn.

“I think it’s time for bed. Let me know if you want me to bring Sparkle over for you tomorrow. I’ll check in on you before I leave.” Poe pushes to his feet and I follow suit.

My bedroom is across the hall from Poe’s and I feel comfortable being so close.

We both hesitate at our doors. Poe looks to me. “If you keep your door open, Creamsicle will probably join you.”

I nod. “I don’t want to steal your cat.”

He grins and shakes his head. “Creamsicle does what Creamsicle does. I’ll warn you, she’ll probably lick you awake or stick her butt in your face.”

I snort. “Thanks for the warning.”

“Good night, Beau.”

I don’t know why, but those simple words fill me with joy.

“Good night, Poe.” I leave my door cracked just slightly.