"Chiefy?"
"Shut up. It's cute."
"Okay, Dotty." He slid into the booth across from me.
"You didn't stay over last night."
"You noticed." He chuckled and waved at Marge.
"Yep. I'm super observant like that. You went home?" I raised an eyebrow, curious to how that went.
"No. I was busy getting the good doctor admitted and getting Judge Reinhold to sign off on it."
"Judge Reinhold?"
"Yes?"
"You're fucking kidding me, right?"
"No?"
"Never mind." The day was getting weirder by the minute and I wanted nothing to do with it. If I ignored it, it might just go away.
Marge set a cup of coffee down in front of Chief and then settled the three plates of food she'd managed to balance on one arm in front of me. She looked to Chief. "You hungry?"
"Uh. Too early for lunch, I just came for the…show." He was staring at the mountain of food in front of me.
"We got a pool going in the back. You want in?"
"On whether or not she finishes?"
"Boy or girl." Marge giggled and walked away. I stared at Chief with a horrified expression on my face.
"I'm not fucking pregnant."
He looked at Mount Saint Burgersteak and raised his eyes, cocking a disbelieving eyebrow at me.
"Not another word."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Smart boy. So, if you weren't at my place and you didn't go home…"
"Slept on a cot in cell seven."
"Ouch. Not the most comfortable accommodations."
He just stared deadpan, not having the courage to mention that I would know because he had made me spend the night in one of them when he arrested me. He was truly getting wiser in his old age. "Nope." Marge saved the situation by depositing a piece of pie in front of him. "This for me or her?"
"You. She'll probably want one with ice cream. And by one, I mean one whole pie."
I picked up my empty burger plate, snagging one more French fry, and handed it to her. "Nope. No pie for me. Gotta watch my figure." I grinned and cut a piece off my omelet with my fork.
"Watch it do what?" Marge rolled her eyes and walked away.
"Well, I was going to offer to pay, but I think I might have to wait until payday." Chief grinned.
"Okay, you can stop picking on me now. I was actually going to skip brunch, but my stomach was gnawing on my backbone. Think I've been using too much juice lately and my body is having trouble keeping up. Kind of like when I go all vampy and have to feed off Yuki."
"Ew."
"Shut up." I tore off a piece of steak, not having realized I'd picked it up with my fingers instead of using my fork and knife.
The shockwave hit first, blasting out the front windows out of the diner. The pain of shards piercing the skin of my neck and back registered before I heard the sound of the explosion. Then the searing heat instantly warmed the blast of cold air that filled the diner from the gaping hole in the plate glass.
Chief's face immediately started dripping blood before he got his arms up to protect himself. The rest of the diners dropped to the floor, but thankfully we were the only ones sitting by the window.
"What the fuck was that?" He got up and ran to the door.
Whatever it was had been far enough away to spare the diner any real damage. It had to have been one of the closer stores. I tossed the steak on the glass filled plate and gingerly got up, not wanting to slide my ass across any shards on the seat.
"Dot…"
"What?"
"Bookstore," he said morosely and ran through the door.
My heart throbbed in my chest and I followed, glass crackling beneath my feet as I slipped trying to gain traction.
The front of the store was concealed by a cloud of black smoke as fire poured out of the massive hole in the front of my building. Throbbing in my chest ceased when my heart stopped beating. Putting one foot in front of the other, I forced myself to cross the street. "No…no…nooo…nooooooo," I wailed.
By the time I got there, the fire was out, and the smoke drifted away from the building. Closing my eyes, I prayed that the store wouldn't be littered with bodies. In the distance, I could already hear the warble of the fire engine sirens as they started.
The smoke cleared enough for me to see Chief run through the front door into the store. Panic overwhelmed my dread as I took off after him.
The store was filled with people. People and undamaged books and shelves. People staring at the glowing wall of magic inside the store separating the smoke, fire, and damage. My ward wall. I choked out a sob of relief. "What the hell happened?"
Jason shook his head, standing next to the two new cashiers.
"Is everybody okay?"
He looked around the store. "I think? What the hell was that?"
"You tell me. I was across the street."
Chief was walking closer to the wall, slowly reaching out his hand and pressing it against the magic barrier. As soon as he touched it, it sizzled and faded from view. There was a blast of heat, but it quickly dissipated as the damage came into view.
Something had blasted a hole through the front window of my store. Some of the display materials in the window were still smoldering, but that was the extent of the damage.
"Well, I think we can rule out a gas leak." He rubbed the toe of his shoe over the fire blackened floor at the base of the window, flipping a metallic ring covered in tiny fins over. There were several other mangled pieces lying around the site of the blast. "And that's something you don't see every day."
"What is it?" I moved closer and stood next to him.
"Looks like the tail piece of a rocket, but I'm no expert." He looked over at me, giving me a questioning glare.
"Somebody shot a rocket at my store?"
"That's what it looks like."
"Who the hell would want to blow my bookstore up with a rocket? The OWLs?"
"You know how much one of those costs?" Jason had moved closer to survey the damage.
I looked at the customers inside the store. Normally, a scene like that would have caused people to scream and scramble for safety, but there they all stood, too shocked to move. "Uh…folks? We're going to be closing early today. Take what you have and just head home. My treat. Sorry for the…boom."
An elderly lady closest to the register nodded, smiled, and headed for the front door, pausing to rub her hand over my shoulder before she left. "Thank you, dear. And thank you for saving all of us."
"Wasn't me. It was the store."
She winked and headed out the front door, the rest of the customers slowly following her lead. More than a few of them offered words of thanks and comfort as they passed. I waited to do or say anything until only my family and staff were left. The two newbies at the register looked like they needed to change their underpants. "You guys can go, too if you want."
The taller guy looked ready to bolt but stood his ground when his shorter female counterpart made no motion of leaving. "Well, at least go grab a coffee."
I looked up to see Josie and Candace standing at the entrance to the coffee shop from the bookstore. Josie raised her eyebrows at me and tilted her head. "What the hell happened?"
"We got blowed up."
She just shook her head and led the kids into the coffee shop.
"That's an RPG," Jason said as he bent down to inspect the piece of explosive on the floor.
"RPG?"
"Rocket-propelled grenade."
"And you know this how?"
"Video games."
"Seriously?"
He nodded solemnly. "Somebody wanted to turn this place into Last Moon Books."
"Funny." I rolled my eyes, anger overshadowing the fear that had been weighing me down like a wet blanket. "Who the fuck would blow up my store?"
"My uncle," Yuki said disapprovingly from the door. I hadn't even heard her open it.
"Uh. It's almost noon. Couldn'
t have been your uncle."
"You think he would shoot a rocket himself? Hell no. He'd hire some dumb human to do it."
She had a point.
"He's lucky he didn't do any real damage."
"Thanks to your wards and shields. Holy shit, Dot. I don't even think I could stop a bullet, let alone a rocket." Chief had a tinge of awe in his voice as he looked around. "If you hadn't had that strong of a shield over this place…"
"Yeah. Let's not think about it. I kind of want to throw up." I started breathing heavy and leaned against the counter, bracing myself with my hand and trying not to hyperventilate. Things could have been exponentially worse. A rocket launched into a building with that many people in it… The death toll would have been tragic.
He rubbed his hand over my back and the rest of the guys moved closer to support me. "Your shield is probably why we felt it so bad at the diner. The explosives didn't have anywhere to vent but out. Hence the gigantic shock wave."
"Shit. I need to go make sure everybody is okay over there."
"I'll go," Yuki answered and took off.
"I'll go fix the windows and give your apologies," Jason said solemnly and followed her.
"Pay my bill, too!"
He waved over his shoulder while I tried to get my breath back.
"Well, first thing's first. Let's get this place fixed up," Chief said and gently let me go after he made sure I had my balance. He frowned at the damage and knelt as close as he could without jamming his knee into a pile of broken glass.
Putting his hand on the floor he whispered the word of his canting and my legs prickled as he poured his magic into the foundation. Blue tendrils of power fanned out and crept over the debris and shattered frontage. Everything blurred as the shards slowly rolled and tumbled back into their original position as the cracks slowly sealed shut. Within a few minutes, you couldn't even tell someone had launched an incendiary device into my place of business. The only irreparable items were the poster board promotions that were burnt beyond recognition. As the damage faded, so did my heavy breathing.
"Thanks, Chief."
"My pleasure." He smiled as he nodded.
I poured even more power into the shields and wards, expanding them outward a smidge. Next time, if there was one, the rocket wouldn't even make it through the window. Smiling as I finished, I managed to stammer, "Everybody take the rest of the day off," before passing out.
∞ ∞ ∞
At least someone had taken me home and put me in my own bed and not left me passed out on the carpeted floor in front of the registers. So, I had that going for me. A splitting headache was the other.
"Welcome back," Yuki whispered from behind me.
"Ow, my head."
"I thought witches didn't get headaches?"
"We don't. Hangovers, sometimes, but headaches no. This is the second one this week. What the hell." I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I rolled over on my back.
Yuki propped her head up on her hand and gave me a worried look. "When was the last time you fed?"
"This morning. I had a burger and a bite of steak before bookstore went boom boom."
"I didn't say ate, I said fed."
"Tomato, tomahto."
"Damn it, Master. You need blood now, too. I thought you figured that out."
"Liquid diets are for when I get dentally challenged. I used my witch power at the store."
"We need to get you a supernatural nutritionist or something." I heard a soft crunch and then she held a bleeding finger over my lips. "Does that make you hungry?"
I looked at the ruby red drop hanging from the tip of her index finger and nodded. It was almost seductive in its allure. Without thinking, I lifted myself from the mattress and licked the drop from the source, nearly whining as the flavor exploded in my head.
Yuki sighed and snapped her fingers.
To my surprise, a shirtless Ellis entered my room.
The hunger that had been momentarily filled by diner burger instantly expanded and demanded to be filled again by sangreal du noir elf.
Ellis crawled into the bed, pulling me on top of his rather chiseled chest, and offered me his neck. My fangs pierced his flesh and his blood splattered across my tongue. Inhaling his scent, I pressed my forehead against his silky hair and pulled my meal from his vein, refusing to stop until he started slamming his open palm against the mattress between Yuki and me.
"Master," she warned softly.
I let go and rolled off him, letting him catch his breath.
Preparing to be sated, I rubbed my tummy and smiled happily until the pain twisted in my gut again. "More," I groaned.
"Shit." Yuki offered me her wrist.
Grabbing it frantically, I sank my fangs between her tendons and guzzled her blood. She had a completely different flavor from Ellis. He was spicy, she was sweet. When she frantically pulled her arm from my mouth with a twist and a wince, I cried out for more.
Shea and Dar stepped from the shadows and looked at the three of us worriedly. Without thinking, Shea stripped off his shirt and crawled atop me, offering his shoulder. If he had been three times his size, he wouldn't have filled my hunger. When he tapped out, Dar took his place.
Shea was a side dish, but Dar was a meal. Wrapping my arms around him, I drank and fed and drank some more. He was endless. When his hips started bucking against me and he cried out with a shudder, I was full.
"Houston, we have a problem."
I looked over at Yuki. "What?"
She sighed and let her head fall to the pillow beside me. "Think about who and what you just ate."
I looked at the men spilled across my bed and the vampire beside me. "Shit."
"Yeah. Your belly needed to be filled by all your domains. Let's just hope your hunger is sated long enough for us to recoup what we lost."
"I hope to goddess it is." I frowned, not wanting to contemplate the implications if it wasn't. I could barely feed from my friends. The thought of strangers opening a vein for me turned my stomach. Just not in a hungry way.
"Now we need to talk about my uncle."
I couldn't roll over to face her as I was covered in hunk, but I turned my head and almost frowned at the seriousness etched upon her face. Yuki was many things. Broody, comical, angsty, and even snarkastic, but serious wasn't one of them. It was kind of scary. "Do we have to?"
"No. You can wait until he launches a rocket at someplace without wards and shields. Like the diner or the vampire's house."
"He wouldn't do that…" I trailed off. Judging by the look on her face, he would. He might even enjoy it. "But they're innocents?"
"And you love them. And it would wreck you."
"It would," I answered thoughtfully.
Yuki put her hand on my cheek. "Bring the war to him before it spirals out of control."
"So, what? You just want me to pop over to Ashville all willy-nilly and assassinate your uncle?"
"Yes! That's exactly what I want you to do."
"Yuki…"
"Please, master, for one time, just please listen to me."
I silenced her with a finger to her lips. "I hear you, and on some level, I agree with you. I have no problem killing in self-defense. I have no problem killing when there is no other option. But as long as the thought that there is another option is in my head, I can't do it. That's not who I am and that's not who I want to be."
"But he almost killed innocent people in your store!"
"And if he had, this conversation would not be happening."
"So, you're going to wait until he does?"
"No. I'm going to scare the fucking shit out of him. I'm going to make him understand that he is nothing compared to me. Want to know why? Because I have all of you." I poked her in the forehead.
"Never bring a gun to a Yuki fight." Dar chuckled against my chest.
Yuki blushed and it was the cutest thing ever.
Chapter 21
The sound of the end credit symphony woke Yuki up. She
hadn't even lasted half the movie before putting her head on my thigh and interrupting the quieter parts of the movie with soft snores and mewls. Yuki's dreams were apparently scarier than her real life, and she only quieted with a soft touch on her shoulder or face.
Josie and Candace hadn't even made the attempt at a late-night movie. They snuck off to their room as soon as it started. Even Chief hadn't been tempted and wandered off for a shower and bed as soon as he walked through the door. With all the energy coursing through my veins, I knew better than to try to sleep.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Yuki humphed from my lap.
"Because you're so damn cute. When you're sleeping."
"Well, I'm going to my room to be cute. I donated too much blood tonight. Can't keep my eyes open."
"Sorry, sweetie."
"No worries, Master. I'll see if I can get one of the other vamps to donate, too. Amir would probably be happy to take one for the team."
"Yeah. Now I just need another demon, shadow walker, and dark elf." I rolled my eyes.
"Probably not. Vampires are anemic by nature. We don't produce blood, we consume it. You don't feed enough to bother the others."
"We'll see." The thought of having to feed off another vamp bothered me more than it should have. I could barely accept Yuki's sacrifice. To feed off someone who wasn't close to me… It wasn't a pleasant thought at all. "Night, Yuki."
She leaned and looked out the front window. The subtle glow of pre-morning illuminated the street in blue. "Closer to good morning, but whatever. Night, Master."
I smiled as I watched her retreat into her room, listening for the subtle click of the lock. Once I heard it, I let the shadows swallow me into the couch.
Dreading what had to be done, I walked through the realm of shadows slowly, playing voyeur along the way. Most people were asleep, some were getting ready for the day, some were still in the throes of passion. Whatever they did, I smiled as I passed, getting a tiny thrill at the ability to peer into everyone's life as I strode by, feet soundlessly padding over the shadow stuff beneath me.
As I roamed, the shadows began their subtle song. Pinpricks of gooseflesh crawled over my arms as the sibilant symphony wrapped me in warmth. Then the chorus of shrieks and snarls joined in as the shadow demons crawled closer.
Seventh Seal: A Reverse Harem Tale (Lovin' the Coven Book 7) Page 19
