That was when I realized that Azriel didn't know that Meri was immortal. Meri couldn't die until the last of our family was dead, but Azriel had no idea. The fact that Meri could rat him out for hurting me wasn't the reason he hadn't tried because he didn't know that.
I was being super paranoid.
I could still feel Azriel's emotions, and he meant me no harm. It wasn't a trick or a trap unless he, a non-witch, was somehow overriding my intuition entirely. It was impossible. Azriel was as drawn to me as I was to him.
"I don't know what to do with this,” I said.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, neither one of us got to say another word. The sound of sirens approaching ended our little conversation on love and relationships.
"Stay here,” Azriel said. "I leave them alone for a couple of hours..."
His voice trailed off as he walked toward the door. "Azriel?"
"Don't worry. I will take care of this."
The knowledge that Azriel was the leader of an outlaw biker club came roaring back. I'd nearly forgotten it watching him with Tangerine, and feeling the deep well of emotions inside of him, but he was technically a criminal.
My heart began to thunder in my chest, but not in a good way. I was terrified, but I wasn't sure of what. Maybe it was of him getting arrested. If whatever they did was bad enough, I might never see him again.
What if I got arrested for being there? I'd have to use my magic in a way I didn't believe in using it to spare my family. Could I use it to spare him? The thought of Azriel being ripped away from me before I could figure out the connection between us was almost unbearable in that moment. Again, the way I felt about him made me want to do stupid things.
I ran to him before he could open the door and threw my arms around him. I pressed my ear to his hard chest and listened for a heartbeat that I was surprised to find. He took a deep, shuddering breath and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
"Please come back," I whispered. "Don't go away."
When I looked up at him, Azriel's eyes practically glowed with a feeling I didn't understand. Before I could pull away, his lips met mine. They were cold, but it wasn't unpleasant. We lingered that way for a few seconds, but then it had to end. I had to pull away. I didn't know if I wanted it to end, but I wasn't that kind of person.
"Your hair,” he said and ran his hand over the back of my head.
I grabbed a lock and pulled it up so I could look at it. My hair had turned jet black. "It's black,” I said bemused.
"It's beautiful,” he said and kissed the top of my head. "I have to go. Stay here. I will come back."
Tangerine, who had settled down for a nap near the sofa, came to attention as Azriel began to open the door. He slipped out, though, before she could get up or I could say anything else.
"Your eyes are black too,” Meri said once we were alone.
"No,” I said and rushed down the hall to the bathroom.
He was right. My irises had turned very dark. They weren't entirely black. Up close, I could see that they were just a very, very dark purple. But, from any kind of distance, they looked black. In the light over the bathroom mirror, my hair had a deep red sheen to it as well. Since my hair changed with my magic, I had to wonder what the colors meant. Black, red, and purple all had very specific meanings. It was some sort of weird mixture of royalty, love, and I was sure the black had to do with me using necromancy. It was a strange combination, to say the least.
"It's not so bad,” Meri said. He must have sensed my distress. "I think your customers will eat it up."
"Thanks,” I said.
"Whatever."
He sauntered out of the room and down the hall.
"What do we do now?" I asked as I followed.
"You think this guy has any bacon?"
"I doubt it. I'm sorry. I should have shared my dinner with you,” I said. "Let me look in the pantry again. I swear I saw a can of something."
I went into the kitchen and opened the pantry door. Inside, I found a can sitting on the top shelf. I pulled it down and examined the label.
"What is it?" Meri asked eagerly from the kitchen.
"It's caviar. Do you like caviar?"
"What do you think?" he said and appeared in the pantry doorway.
"It looks expensive,” I said.
"The guy said he owed you his life. I think he can spare a can of caviar for the familiar that helped save his dog."
"You're right,” I said and popped the top of the can. "Here you go."
The sound of the can brought Tangerine running, but the two of them managed to share it without getting into any fights. When they were done, we all made our way into the living room. Tangerine resumed her nap, and I sat down on the edge of the sofa. Meri joined me, and I flipped on the television with the remote on the end table. It was on one of the news stations, but I didn't pay any attention. It was probably a weather forecast or something, but I was staring at the door.
It was as if I was trying to will Azriel to come back through it. I wanted to know he was all right, and I hated feeling trapped too.
Thorn was out there too. He had to be. I felt dreadful hiding inside, but what was I supposed to do? If I went outside just to assuage my guilt, I'd probably end up getting arrested. Things between Thorn and I would probably never be the same either. I wasn't ready to pull the pin on our relationship yet. Not over some shared feelings. It was all too fast.
I just wanted to go home and get some space from the situation. That was not what was going to happen.
The door opened, and I practically sprung off the sofa. Azriel came through first. "Kinsley, could you grab Tangerine? I don't want her to get out again."
Sure enough, she started to dart for the door, but Meri blocked her. I scooped her up and started toward the kitchen. That's when I saw Thorn and his deputies filing through the door.
Thorn saw me holding Azriel's dog. He heard him call out to me to grab her like us being alone in his apartment together was something we did all of the time.
The look on his face said it all. "I'm going to need you two to wait outside while we do the search,” he said coldly.
"The search?" I said and handed Azriel the squirming Tangerine.
"They have probable cause to search my apartment. Come on,” he said.
"You should listen to him,” Thorn said curtly.
Azriel walked all the way to the edge of the lot and I followed. "What's going on?" I asked as soon as we were out of everyone's earshot.
"Someone called in a suspicious activity complaint,” Azriel said. "When the sheriff got here, he and his men rolled up all quiet until they were practically in the lot. They turned on the lights and sirens and startled a few of my men that were doing some business outside. In the open. That gave your boyfriend probable cause to search the whole place."
"What are they going to find in your apartment?" I asked.
"Nothing,” he said and smiled at me softly. "I'm not going anywhere tonight. Can't say the same for some of my men, but that's their own stupid faults. I'll be able to get them out in a couple of days."
"Have you ever considered not being a criminal?" I asked.
"Not before tonight," he answered.
"Something changed tonight?" I asked, but I already knew what he was getting at.
"Yeah, you standing out here with me while they toss my apartment changes everything, Kinsley. I never want this to happen again. That gives me two options. One of them, I can't abide."
I didn't have to ask him what he meant. Either he stayed away from me completely, or he had to give up his business. Those were the only two options to ensure I never got wrapped up in something like that again. But what if I was the one that pulled the plug? I could tell him to leave me alone and never contact me again. We could pretend like what happened had never happened. I could just let it go.
Couldn't I?
"Don't even think about it,” he said.
"How do you know what I'm thinking about?" I said. "We barely know each other."
"Don't,” he said. "I've never had something like this with someone before. Please don't ruin it."
There was a pleading in his voice I hadn't expected. For just a moment, the tough exterior melted away again, and Azriel's vulnerability was laid bare for me.
"This is going to cause huge problems,” I said. "I could already tell that Thorn was upset. Like, way beyond upset."
"He didn't even consider giving you the benefit of the doubt,” Azriel said. "He just assumed you were up to no good. I could see it in his eyes. What does that say to you?"
"That's not fair,” I said. "What would you have done in the same situation?"
"Probably take the other guy's head off,” Azriel said with a shrug.
"You see. This is all going to be a problem."
The thing was, I had no idea. It was all about to get a lot worse than Thorn being upset and not trusting me.
When the whole search and arrest thing was over, Thorn didn't speak to me. He didn't even look at me. Since Azriel didn't get arrested, he took me home.
"I'm not going to disappear for months again,” he said.
I just hugged him and went inside. It seemed like the thing to do. At that point, it was getting pretty late, so I put on my pajamas and went to bed.
When I got up the next morning, I made the executive decision to ignore everything that had happened. I was going to go to work, run my shop, and pretend like I hadn't become a necromancer with a disaster of a love life.
Neither my mother nor father texted me at any point, so I assumed that Thorn hadn't snitched on me. That made me feel a little bit better until I pulled up into the parking spot in front of my shop and saw that my windows were smashed in.
"What the... fluff?" I asked no one in particular as I got out of my car.
I looked around the square, and while there were people milling around doing what they were doing, no one was paying any attention to my smashed windows. I was about to yell something at all of them about how it was weird that no one had called the police when I noticed what looked like a wallet sitting in the middle of the smashed glass fragments on the sidewalk. That was enough of a distraction to keep me from losing my mind at everyone in the square.
Gingerly, I made my way over to the purple lump with a brass catch on the top. I probably should have called Thorn instead of just picking it up myself, but I wasn't thinking. I used my thumb and forefinger to twist open the little nubs that held the catch closed.
Inside the wallet was a stack of one- and five-dollar bills, two hair ties, a tube of lip balm, and a driver's license. I plucked out the driver's license and read the name. My breath caught in my throat, and I thought I might scream. A rage I hadn't known was even inside of me, that I was capable of, bubbled to the surface.
Without thinking, I slipped the license into the pocket of my jeans and snapped the wallet closed. I tried to breathe as I marched across the square toward Astra's shop. What I should have been doing was calling the sheriff, but I was blinded with rage. It was as if everything that had been piling up on me since my ex-husband had said he wanted a divorce had finally hit me. I'd been pushing through or leaning in since the start of my troubles, but in that moment, I was just... pissed off. At everything. And I didn't have myself collected by the time I got to Astra's shop.
My hand shot out in front of me and I pushed the door open with such force that it hit the stopper and almost bounced back and whacked me. I barely noticed as I barreled forward toward the cash register where she was standing there smiling at me. Ooh, that smile made me want to chuck the wallet at her.
"Good morning, Kinsley,” she said in a sing-songy voice that made steam come out of my ears. Not literally because that would have drawn way too much attention. I was doing that well enough without physical manifestations of my fury.
"What is the meaning of this?" I asked, holding up the wallet.
"Where did you get that?" Astra asked with a confused look on her face. It almost looked genuine. "How did you get my wallet?"
She reached for her purse, and I watched as she searched through it. When Astra got to the bottom, she set the purse back down on the counter behind her. She turned back around to face me, but I spoke before she had the chance.
"I found it in the glass on the sidewalk outside of my store. In case you don't know what I mean, and I highly doubt that, my shop windows are smashed in. Your wallet was lying in the middle of it all. Do you want to explain that?"
"What are you talking about? Are you nuts?" she spit.
"I'm not crazy, Astra. You destroyed my shop, but you made a mistake. You dropped your wallet. Probably while you were trying to get away."
"No, I didn't,” she said. "I didn't smash your windows. I bet you stole my wallet. You knew your shop was going to fail, so you're setting me up. You probably smashed your own windows for the insurance money."
"That's... crazy! You did this!" I could feel my tether coming loose. I was about to actually go crazy. Not only did she destroy my store, but she was gaslighting me. "I told you not to mess with me, Astra Argent. You thought you'd get away with this, but you've made the biggest mistake of your life!"
And then Thorn's cruiser pulled up outside. No one had called the police about my windows being smashed, but me confronting Astra must have done the trick.
Thorn's face went from concerned to completely defeated when he saw it was me that was causing the "disturbance". For a split second, I felt bad, but then I got even angrier. He was making assumptions about me again. I could see it in the grimace he wore as he walked into Astra's shop. Not for one second did he even consider I might be in the right.
"What's going on here?" he asked Astra as he approached. He. Asked. Her.
It felt like my spine turned to cold steel when he ignored me. Clearly, he'd decided that she was the victim, and I was the criminal in the situation. Finding me at Azriel's had apparently tainted the way he saw me. On one hand, I could understand some of it. On the other, I was ticked that he'd lost faith in me so easily.
"Have you seen my shop?" I asked before Astra could say anything. I needed to get out ahead of this. "My windows are smashed. It's hilarious how no one has noticed. Oh, and I found this," I said and thrust the wallet toward him, "in the broken glass. It's her wallet. She must have dropped it when she was vandalizing the front of my store."
He took the wallet from me and looked it over. "This might have been evidence if you would have left it where you found it. Now, it can't be used because your prints are all over it."
"I..."
"How do you know it's Astra's wallet?" Thorn asked.
"I opened it and her driver's license was inside,” I said. "Plus, I came here and she asked me how I got her wallet. So she admitted it was hers."
Thorn opened the catch and looked inside. "I don't see a driver's license."
"It's in my pocket,” I said and pulled it out. "I don't know why I put it in there. I was upset, and I wasn't thinking."
He looked at me skeptically and then turned to Astra. "Is this your wallet?"
She thought it over for a moment. "I don't have any way of knowing for sure, but mine is missing. I certainly didn't smash her windows though. I swear. Kinsley said she was going to get revenge on me for daring to open a competing shop, but I didn't think she'd stoop to this."
"I didn't smash my own windows,” I said.
"What other damage is there?" Thorn asked. "Is anything missing from the store?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "I didn't go inside and check. I was so upset, I came right here. Because I found the wallet. It was her."
"It's good that you didn't go inside, but you should have called right away instead of coming in here,” Thorn said. "We'll deal with that later. Let's go see what other damage there is in your store."
"You're not going to arrest her for stealing my wallet?" Astra hissed.
"Ma'am, I'm going t
o investigate the damage to the store where your wallet was found. After I'm done with that, I will discuss your wallet with you,” he said firmly.
It didn't entirely feel like he was on my side, but he definitely wasn't on hers. Perhaps I had read him wrong. It was entirely possible that he was disappointed but also worried about me.
"Why didn't you call me?" he asked as we crossed the street.
"Because she did this, and it got under my skin,” I said. "I got angry, and I wasn't thinking straight."
"Does that have something to do with the new hair?" he asked softly. "Did you dye it that way for Azriel, or is there something deeper going on?"
I was taken aback by how calmly he'd just asked if I'd dyed my hair to please another man. We'd been dating for months, and he should have known me better than that. I could've given him the benefit of the doubt that he was still upset over the night before, but if that were the case, then he should have talked to me. Yeah, it was probably late when he got home, but I would've answered my phone.
"I can't believe you'd think I dyed my hair to please a man,” I said.
"So it was magic that turned it that way," he whispered because there were people close by. "Magic that you did with Azriel Malum. What did he get you involved in?"
"What did he get me involved in?" I asked incredulously. "It's like you don't know me at all. You think a man is leading me around like I don't have a mind of my own?"
"I didn't say that," he countered.
"Yes, you did. That's pretty much what you said."
"So, can I ask why your hair is that color?"
"Of course you can ask,” I said. "I'm not hiding anything from you."
But wasn't I? It's not like I was just coming out and telling Thorn that Azriel kissed me. I told myself it was because we needed to focus on the vandalism. I would tell him eventually. There was no way I'd lie to Thorn or withhold something like that. But, it needed to be the right time.
"They why were you at his place? Alone?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"We should talk about that,” I said. "You should come over tonight and we can talk. It's not something I can just give you a five-second synopsis of."
Midnight Magic Page 4
