Page 3 of Holy Shift (New Orleans Nocturnes #8)

CHAPTER THREE

“This is amazing. What do you call it again?” Jane scooped a spoonful of the unconventional dessert into her mouth and closed her eyes.

Destiny smiled, her heart warming at her vampire friend’s reaction to her creation. “It’s called sanguinaccio dolce or sweet blood pudding.”

“If Ethan had fed me this when he first turned me, I might’ve caught on to the whole blood-drinking thing a lot sooner. Mmm…” She took another bite and brushed her long, brown hair behind her shoulder.

“You’re supposed to make it with pig’s blood.” Destiny spooned a serving into a blue ceramic bowl and set it on the counter. “It took a while for Gaston to convince me to try it with human blood.”

The senior vampire drummed his fingers on the countertop. “And now it sells like warm pies?—”

“Hotcakes,” Jane said.

Gaston arched a brow. “Like hotcakes to the vampire community, does it not?”

“It does, and as long as I’m using bagged blood that’s been voluntarily donated, I don’t mind making it.” She pushed the bowl toward him.

“I will wait for my guest to arrive.”

“Okay.” Destiny returned the serving container to the fridge. “Where are Maeve and Ethan tonight?”

Gaston strolled toward a glass case filled with mini bundt cakes and tarts and peered at Destiny’s creations. “Maeve is tending to her bats at the sanctuary, and Ethan is crisping numerals at Jane’s club.”

“Crunching numbers,” she said around a mouthful of pudding. “He gets ornerier than a bear with its butt shaved when he’s balancing the books. I keep my distance during his monthly cycle.”

“Perhaps if you didn’t watch over his shoulder the entire time…” Gaston said.

“Meh. It’s fine.” Jane waved off his comment. “I’ll take care of him when he gets home. His stress melts away when Vlad the Impaler gets to do his thing.” She wiggled her eyebrows and took another bite of pudding. “What’s got your halo off-kilter, Destiny? You’re not your usual self.”

“Is it that obvious?” She wiped her hands on a towel before dishing up three slices of her famous demon-subduing angel food cake with strawberry sauce for an online order. “Where’s your friend, Gaston? Does he know how to get here?”

“He should be hopping in at any moment.” He smirked as if he’d just told a joke.

Jane laughed. “Hippity Hoppity. He’s on his way.”

Destiny cut her gaze between the vampires as they shared a laugh, but she didn’t dare ask what it was about. Knowing them, she probably didn’t want to know.

Gaston sat in a yellow chair at a lavender table, his black trench coat and boots contrasting with the pastels she’d decorated her bakery with. “After the Santa debacle, I can’t believe I allowed Jane to attend this reunion. Perhaps my better judgment is waning with my age.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “A girl makes one tiny mistake that almost ruins Christmas, and he’ll never let me live it down.” She plopped into the chair next to him. “I promise not to run him over. Easter won’t be ruined on my watch.”

“Easter?” Destiny tilted her head. “Is the friend you’re meeting the…?”

“The Easter Bunny?” Jane rubbed her palms together. “Yep. In the fluff.”

Destiny’s mouth dropped open. “Wow. That’s… How do you know him?”

Gaston waved a hand flippantly. “He’s a friend from the old days. I haven’t seen him in over one hundred years, so when he reached out, of course, I dropped everything to meet with him.”

“Hmm.” Destiny lowered her gaze. “Over one hundred years.” That sounded familiar.

She swiped open her phone to double-check the online order. “Oh, shoot. The angel food cake was supposed to be a go order.”

“I’ll help you box it up, and you can tell me your woes.” Jane glided behind the counter and picked up a plate. “Receive some help instead of giving it for a change.”

“These are trash. They’ll get soggy before the demons can eat them. I’ll have to put the sauce in a separate container.” She checked the order again. “I could have sworn it said they wanted to eat them here.”

“Maybe they changed it,” Jane said.

“Maybe.” Destiny dumped the contents of one plate into the trash and spun around for the second one. Jane turned at the same time, and they smacked into each other, the plate Jane held smashing onto Destiny’s chest, covering her lemon-yellow sundress in strawberry sauce.

“Oh, my goat cheese. I’m so sorry.” Jane scraped what was left of the cake into the trash and set the plate in the sink. “You can like…miracle it away, right?” She waved her hand over the stain.

Destiny laughed dryly. “I’m an angel, not a magician.”

She wiped the mess with a dishtowel, and the bells above the front door chimed. Without looking up, she said, “Hi. Welcome to Sweet Destiny’s,” in the most cheerful voice she could muster.

“How can I help—” She lifted her gaze and dropped the towel, completely losing the ability to speak or breathe as her eyes locked with his.

The man, the myth, the frigging Easter Bunny, stood about six feet tall. His wavy, brown hair looked like the kind of messy do that he either woke up with or spent half an hour mastering each morning. It didn’t matter which, because his jewel-green eyes literally sparkled as one side of his mouth tugged into a crooked smile.

Hark, the herald angels. She couldn’t tear her gaze away. She had no clue how long she stood there, grinning like an idiot, and she didn’t care. This man was… Well, he was something .

Finally, he broke eye contact, but he didn’t look away. No, he let his gaze meander over her face, down her body, and back to her eyes before widening his smile. “Hi. I’m Pete.”

“You’re the Easter Bunny.” She clamped her mouth shut. Why she felt the need to tell the man who he was, she couldn’t say. Of course he knows who he is, silly. Get it together.

He chuckled. “And you’re Sweet Destiny, I presume?”

Her cheeks heated. “Just Destiny.”

“Why do I get the feeling there isn’t anything ‘just’ about you?” He held her gaze for a beat or two before glancing at her dress. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Jane handed her a wet towel, and her stomach sank as the mortification set in. His meandering gaze hadn’t been one of admiration like she’d thought. He’d seen her current disheveled state and had judged her accordingly.

“I’m sorry. I’m not usually a mess.” Okay, that was a lie. Ever since her meeting with Gabriela at Divine Grace, she’d been nothing short of a dumpster fire.

She wiped her dress, but it only smeared the stain more. “This is so unprofessional of me. I don’t normally look like…”

“Honestly, I didn’t even notice.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged, and she could have sworn his eyes sparkled again.

The heat on her cheeks spread down her neck, no doubt turning her chest bright red. “I’m going to change. I’ll be right back.”

She ducked into the kitchen and leaned against a counter, pinching the bridge of her nose as she reminded herself to breathe. So what if a mouth-watering immortal legend stood in the front of her bakery? He hadn’t come to see her; he was meeting Gaston.

But he had seen her looking like the Hot Mess Express, and that just would not do. Angels had a level of perfection they were expected to live up to, and Destiny hadn’t just missed the mark…she’d smeared strawberry syrup all over it.

“I sure as hell hope you’re both single because the energy between you two is off the charts hot.” Jane grabbed a stack of go boxes and folded three. “I didn’t see any more angel food cake out front. Do you have any back here?”

“It’s in the walk-in.” She tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling, wishing a portal would open up and whisk her away. Maybe she should have taken that assignment in the repository after all. “Don’t eat any. It tempers demonic powers. I don’t know what it would do to a vampire.”

“I’ll stick to the sweet blood pudding.” Jane retrieved the cake and put three slices into boxes. “Aren’t you going to change?”

“I can’t go back out there. He thinks I’m a mess.”

She stacked the boxes and rested a hand on top. “He thinks you’re the most heavenly creature he’s ever laid eyes on.”

“No, he doesn’t. He saw me for what I am: a dumpster fire.”

Jane squinted. “Read the room, woman. I think time actually stood still out there for a moment or two. You glowed, girl. Golden light emanated from your pores, and I’m pretty sure he heard a choir of angels singing the moment he looked at you.”

Destiny tugged on her lower lip. “You think?”

“I know. I saw his eyes literally sparkle. The Easter Bunny has the hots for you, and you know what they say about rabbits…” She wiggled her brows. “Go change and get back out there. Your bunny hole will thank you later.”

Butterflies took flight in Destiny’s stomach at the thought. If Jane felt the chemistry between them, maybe she hadn’t imagined it. She pushed from the counter, ready to follow her friend’s advice, when reality sank in. “I can’t. He’s an immortal fae, and I’ve only got two weeks left.”

“Two weeks left for what? Where are the sauce cups?”

“Second shelf from the top.” She hadn’t told a soul about her predicament. A full week had passed since Gabriela had given her the ultimatum, and Destiny had put in two miracle requests so far. The first one had been auto-rejected, which was no surprise. The gator shifter who’d asked for help had wagered his left nut in a deal with Satan fair and square. Yes, it would take a miracle to get it back, but angels weren’t in the business of helping people renege on deals with the devil.

The second made it through the initial screen, which meant it was currently sitting in the new assistant’s inbox, and heaven knew how long it would be there. Housing all the unhoused in New Orleans probably wouldn’t get approved either. It was too big of an ask.

She inhaled and blew out a hard breath. “I have two weeks to get a miracle approved and perform it.”

Jane tilted her head. “You’re an angel. That’s easy-peasy, right? Don’t you perform miracles every day?”

“No, and that’s the problem.” She ran a dishtowel under the faucet and dabbed it on her dress. “I can perform small acts of magic, but it takes months to get an actual miracle approved.”

“Why does it take so long? And why do you have to get them approved?”

The stain refused to budge, so she tossed the towel onto the counter. “Because miracles are life-altering, and angels thrive on helping others. If we went all willy-nilly and changed people’s lives on the daily, they’d never learn to take responsibility for themselves.”

“That makes sense, I guess.” Jane poured sauce into three plastic cups. “What happens if you’re late?”

“I’ll lose my wings and my immortality. I’ll be a regular human, grow old, and die.” She threw her hands into the air. “So you see why I can’t get it on with an immortal bunny? What would be the point?” No matter how hot a fire he lit inside her.

Jane snapped lids onto the sauce cups. “Why did they only give you two weeks if it takes months?”

Destiny dug her fingers into the back of her neck, working out the tension. “They gave me three. I’m already one week in.”

Jane added the cups to the cake boxes and crossed her arms. “And you haven’t asked anyone for help, have you?”

“How can I? This is my problem. I slacked off, and now I have to pay the price.”

“Destiny, honey. That’s not how friendship works. We’re going to find you a miracle to perform, and we’ll get it approved if I have to fly up to heaven on a reindeer and hold your boss at fang point.”

“Divine Grace is in the angelic realm, not heaven.”

“Wherever I have to go.” She took Destiny’s shoulders in her hands. “You’re not alone, okay?”

“You don’t need to get involved. I’m sure you’ve got plenty on your plate.” She pressed her fingers to her temples.

“My plate is huge and made of industrial-strength polycarbonate. Load it up.”

Destiny drew in a shaky breath, remembering how it felt when people refused her help. Acts of service was her love language. How could she deny her friend expressing the same kind of love?

She flashed a grateful smile. “Thank you, Jane. I don’t know how you can help, but I do appreciate the support.”

“Good. Now, go change and get your celestial ass back out there. Your future snuggle bunny is waiting.”

Her stomach fluttered, but her smile faded. “There’s another problem, though. He’s a fae.”

“So?”

“Faeries and angels don’t exactly get along. We’ve been at odds for millennia. Sometimes even at war.”

“Uh-huh. So, you don’t like him because he’s a different species?”

“I never said I didn’t like him.”

“Then why are you sabotaging your chances before you even get to know him?” Jane wagged a finger. “And don’t you dare say it’s because he saw you looking imperfect.”

Destiny sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Satan’s balls, woman. Go. Change.”

“I…” She clamped her mouth shut before she could utter another excuse. Her friend was right. She was self-sabotaging, which was no surprise. She needed to focus on her miracle, but maybe…just maybe…Fate had sent the Easter Bunny to help her figure it out.

And why not? Stranger things had happened in this town.

Destiny grinned. “I know just the dress.”