by Gray Holborn
“Odie, I ordered your plain cheese, it should be out soon.” Luis had an ability to speak with his mouth full without being completely gross about it—a rare talent.
“Hey, what about mine?” El sat down across from him, picking off a piece of pepperoni and popping it into her mouth.
“Don’t worry, double meat lovers is on the way too.” He shoved her hand away before it could steal another piece. It always amazed me how much El could eat, despite being pint-sized and thin. Forget the whole werepanther thing, that was her real superpower.
“Thanks Luis, you spoil us.”
“So you guys feel like catching a movie at the theater tonight or should we just watch something at your place?” Luis turned to me, giving El the perfect opportunity to grab a slice before he could protest.
“I vote theater,” El said between bites. “There’s nothing quite like forking over an hour’s worth of pay to hear people talk and obnoxiously chew popcorn while you try and listen to the movie. True American experience, right there.”
Most people would think she was being sarcastic, but Luis and I knew better. That was one of my favorite things about El. I didn’t know if it had to do with being raised in the Veil or not, but she was always genuinely amused by things that drove everyone else nuts.
“Okay, wow. See you should’ve left off everything after ‘I vote theater’ because I’m pretty sure Luis and I are now firmly in the stay-at-home category.”
Luis nodded while El scrunched up her nose in protest. A huge smile spread across my face as the smell of just-out-of-the-oven pizza wafted over our table. Bobby, our usual server, automatically set the cheese pie in front of me and the meat lovers in front of El. What could I say, we were creatures of habit.
El picked up a slice before Bobby returned with plates. “You beautiful man, you. I think I’m in love.” His lip twitched revealing his dimples, the color in his cheeks reddening a bit. He’d been crushing on El for as long as I could remember, but she was completely oblivious. Bobby was in his late twenties and always wore his long blond hair in a low ponytail. His arms were covered in tattoos, and if it weren’t for the layer of grease that always coated him from the kitchen, he could pass as a grungy model or a rockstar. “Fine, fair enough. Are we going with chick flick or horror film tonight?”
“Horror film, obviously,” Luis said.
El and I looked at each other and smirked. Luis liked to pretend he hated romances, but the dude got sucked into the Hallmark Channel just as quickly as we did.
“Chick flick it is,” El beamed.
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes, stretched back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. “The things I do for friendship.”
“What time does Michael get home tomorrow?” El was pulling pieces of pepperoni off of Luis’s untouched pizza and adding them to her own heaping slice.
“Good question, I’m not sure.”
We boxed up the remaining pizza and El got up to pay. Luis and I grinned from the booth, watching Bobby’s cheeks flush pink while El obliviously chattered on, and then we followed her out the door.
Luis fidgeted, pulling down on his sleeves and avoiding eye contact. “Am I gonna get to meet the mystery boy anytime soon or are you just going to keep him all to yourself? Wedding invitation at the very least?”
I laughed nervously. “Yeah of course, so long as you promise to behave yourself.” He put a hand to his chest in mock outrage. “That means no embarrassing stories or obscene threats to his manhood,” I added.
“Odie, if a guy can’t handle one of your best friends making a few threats, he’s not worthy. And I would never threaten another dude’s junk—that’s a total violation of guy code. His life, on the other hand—if he hurt you—now that I would threaten without losing sleep.”
Leave it to your friends to give you warm fuzzy feelings by threatening murder. Having Luis and El for friends was more intimidating than having a football team of older brothers.
“Let’s stop at the corner store on the way back and grab some snacks for the movie,” El said, nodding her head sharply, as if her own approval was all she needed. She then proceeded to walk along the curb as if it were a balance beam. Did I mention she was wearing heels?
Luis ducked his head by my ear, his voice a feigned whisper, “we did just watch her eat almost a whole large pizza by herself, right? Like, I wasn’t seeing things, was I?”
I smiled and opened my mouth to reply when I saw a brief flash of a figure turning down the neighboring side street. It was too fast to get a good look, but the golden glow emanating from him, or it, had my heart racing plenty fast.
“That’s it Luis, tomorrow we are having a girls’ night and you aren’t invited. I’ll not be mocked or shamed for my love affair with food.” El looked back playfully before disappearing into the corner store.
“You coming, Odie?” Luis held the door open.
I nodded and followed him in.
Fifteen minutes, two bags of junk food, and a six pack of beer later and we were home. El shuffled through her bag, trying to find her set of house keys. “Do you have yours on you, Dess? It’s like looking for Waldo in here. Except finding my keys is much more difficult. Maybe I need a bigger bag.”
“That bag weighs almost as much as you, maybe you just need to clean it out.” Pushing her to the side, I opened the door and bowed dramatically. “After you my lady.”
Laughing, she walked in, tossed her purse on the ground, and turned on the light. I was in the process of pulling off my shoes, a balancing trick that had me leaning against the wall, while Luis waited patiently outside carrying our haul. I fell forward slightly, slamming into El who was turned to stone. “Dude, move so I can get into the house too. You know, for such a tiny person, you really know how to capitalize on space.”
“What are you doing here?” Her tone had gone flat, defensive.
“What do you mean what am I doing here, I live here. What’s up with—” I looked up over her shoulder and saw the seduction-feeder from the club sitting at our kitchen table, a giant smile plastered on his face. He looked just as beautiful and lethal as he did last night. Behind him, leaning against the wall with a dark expression was the powerful, gray-eyed supe I waited on at The Tavern.
His cold eyes briefly met mine before focusing back on El. “Nice to see you too, little sis.”
Chapter Four
“Sis? El, what the hell’s going on?” I asked. She hadn’t moved or made a sound since originally spotting the two supes. I looked back at them, afraid they broke her. El was never silent. “Who are you people and what the fuck are you doing in our house?”
“Aw, come on, are you telling me you didn’t miss me, Desi-girl? Have to say though that I did not expect to find you living with Elliana.” Jax winked and a giant grin spread across his face, his brown eyes laughing at me. “Not that I’m disappointed. In fact, for the record, this totally qualifies as a good surprise. And who’s this handsome dish behind you?” Jax smiled at Luis and I felt him tense slightly at my back.
While that only earned an impatient exhale from Jax’s light-haired companion, it got El’s attention. She turned to me and tried to blink away her confusion. “You know Jax? How do you know Jax?”
Out of all the questions running through my head, this seemed like the least important thing to focus on. But it was also the only one I could actually answer. “He was at the club last night.” My eyes widened and I tilted my head slightly towards Luis. Hopefully she’d figure out Jax was one half of the supe duo responsible for the Inferno shitshow without me having to spell it out for her in front Luis. “We danced when you were outside with Muscles. El, seriously, who are these people?”
“My brother and his stupid friend.” Her hands trembled slightly, but she managed to reign in her expression and body language to a semblance of composure. Jax started to rise out of his seat in protest at being called stupid, but was immediately pushed down by Gray Eyes.
El moved forward a
bit so that Luis and I could enter the house too, but her body was still angled in front of ours. Every attempt I made to stand next to her was rejected. Was she trying to protect us? If so, it was kind of hilarious, seeing as I towered over her tiny 5’2” stature by half a foot and Luis by even more. Jax was looking rightfully apprehensive though, so maybe he really did know her. She propped her hands on her hips in a Wonder Woman stance that had me biting back a smirk.
“Why are you here? Is everyone okay?” she asked.
“Everyone’s fine. For now.” Her brother glanced over at me before covertly adding, “why we are here is...complicated.” His head nodded into the next room, a clear signal for El to follow them and leave me stranded in the kitchen.
El rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of—” she glanced back quickly at Luis and stopped. Then with a loud exhale, I watched as the tension slid out of her small frame. She walked over to the kitchen table, quickly grabbing them both in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you jerks. A lot more than I will ever admit to your faces,” she paused briefly, “except for now, when I am admitting it to your faces.” She turned around to look at me, her eyes sending a silent apology for everything that just happened and for whatever explanations would follow. “Dess and Luis, this is my brother, Soren,” she nodded briefly in my direction “and you know Jax already, I guess.”
Jax walked over with a smile that would make most girls go weak in the knees, picked me up, and swung me around in a monstrous hug. His warm vanilla scent washed over me. Hell, he was two seconds away from making my knees go weak and I was supposedly immune to him. Soren barely acknowledged the introduction. Jax set me down on my feet, careful to catch me when the room started to spin, and then held out a friendly hand to greet Luis.
I leaned against Jax while I recalibrated my relationship to the floor.
Luis gripped Jax’s hand and I watched as his eyes hooded briefly at the contact. He quickly dropped his hand and shook his head rapidly. I shoved Jax lightly and mumbled a quick “turn it off,” while Luis tried to reign in his confusion. Totally figured. I’d spent almost a full six years keeping everything about supes and the Veil a secret from Luis and Jax was ready to blow the whole thing in just as many seconds. Men.
“Sit down Jax,” Soren snapped, his icy stare locked on Luis.
The room was getting smaller from the increasingly awkward situation, so I asked the first question my mind could actually handle. “Is Ellie really short for Elliana?”
Jax’s shoulders shook gently with laughter against me.
“I wouldn’t laugh too hard there, Therjax,” El shot back. He stiffened instantly and I bit my lip trying to hold in the giggle threatening to escape. “You best swallow that laugh there too, Odessa.” She dragged out the ‘oooh’ sound of my name to make it sound even more ridiculous. Then she smiled, briefly, like the Awkward Name Club gave her a way to start patching up the giant rift that suddenly separated us. “My real name is Elliana. But I’ve always gone by Ellie.
Not one to let the tension drop, Soren turned his attention back towards El, “in the other room, Ellie. We need to talk.” Without another glance at the rest of us, he took off into her bedroom. Though how he knew it was her bedroom was beyond me.
I watched El open her mouth with a retort. She wasn’t one to be bossed around. Like ever. But one quick glance at Luis and she nodded in surrender and followed him, the soft click of her door leaving the kitchen in a blanket of stunned silence.
Jax grabbed a beer from the six pack Luis was still cradling, popping the cap off on the metal lip of his belt buckle before he sat back down at the kitchen table and took a giant swig, his eyes dancing with mirth.
Luis took a few careful steps farther into the kitchen before depositing our groceries onto the counter. He studied the distance between Jax and me, as if unsure how much he should say in the unfamiliar man’s presence. “Odie, did you—did you know that El wasn’t an only child?”
I shook my head, swallowing what felt like an unfamiliar dose of betrayal and hope. I knew that Ellie didn’t like talking about her past, something she made abundantly clear early on, but I couldn’t pretend to feel a bit bruised by the fact that she never felt comfortable enough to divulge that she had a freaking sibling. Was Soren the only one or did she have a whole horde of secret family back in the Veil? I’d known El for six years, hell I’d lived with her for three, and I racked my brain trying to piece together all I could about her life before the one she created here. All I was left with was a broken puzzle with more holes than pieces. Hell, I didn’t even have the outlining frame or finished picture to go off of.
“Do you know anything about her family? Or where she lived before Seattle?” he asked, pressing me further.
“No, I know as much as you for the most part.” The words were more clipped and terse than I’d intended them to be. Luis wasn’t to blame for my frustration. And I felt bad enough as it was that the few things I did know about El, he wasn’t allowed to be a part of.
Luis scratched the back of his neck, ruffling his hair while he put away the food. “Should I head out? I’m guessing movie night is cancelled and El is probably going to want to catch up with her brother.” He turned around, his eyes passing over Jax as briefly as possible. “I can stay though if you want of course.”
I shook my head, smirking a little. Jax’s feeder surge from a few minutes ago must have had Luis a bit spooked. Especially since Luis was straight. “I’ll give you a buzz tomorrow if I don’t see you at The Tavern.”
After Luis left, Jax stood up and opened another beer for me, and then we both sat in silence while we waited for Ellie and Soren to come back into the kitchen. Part of me wanted to move to the living room which was closer to her bedroom so that I could try and eavesdrop. But I compromised with draining half of my beer and ignoring Jax instead. She needed family time, and I wasn’t enough of a stalker to deny her. It made sense now—the glimpses of supernatural energy I spotted earlier, all the increased activity over the last few days. Jax and Soren had been more or less tailing us for days, circling us slowly like predators, only to pounce on us in our own territory, in our home. What if her brother was here to take her home. Would she go?
After fifteen minutes of silence, the light buzz mixed with my impatience and I turned towards Jax, willingly losing the silence battle. “Is the fire-manipulator part of your crew too?”
He shook his head and my eyes narrowed at his smirk. “To be honest, Desi-girl, I thought she was with you. In case you hadn’t noticed, she was trying to light my ass on fire, not yours.”
My nose scrunched at the stupid nickname. “How did you find us anyway?”
Before he could respond, Ellie’s door opened and she followed Soren out into the kitchen. I couldn’t help but sneer a bit while he helped himself to a beer. Ignoring him, I turned to her. “El, why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?”
She sniped the freshly-opened bottle from her brother’s hand. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you, but I promise that changes tonight. I had no idea anyone from the Veil would be able to find me over here or else I would’ve been more forthcoming before.” She looked at me, eyes pleading, before snapping them back to Soren. “Actually, how did you find me?”
Her fingers tapped threateningly on the kitchen counter while she cocked an eyebrow and looked expectantly at Soren. The typical El, the one that I was used to anyway, was back in control.
Soren shifted slightly before meeting her eyes. “That pendant set I gave you with the protection spell. I didn’t tell you at the time, because I knew you’d murder me, but it was also infused with a tracker in case I needed to locate you. I was the only one who knew about it, aside from a trusted acquaintance.” His eyes darkened from light gray to a shade closer to black when his gaze travelled towards my direction, homing in on my necklace. “Of course, I had no idea you’d give it away, to a human no less.” His lip curled in disgust and I could
practically feel his dislike lapping against my skin.
Clearly Jax could sense it too because he gave my shoulders a comforting squeeze and scooched his chair closer to my side. I tried not to relax under the feel of his warmth, while his scent cocooned us. But I failed. For some reason my Stranger Danger Radar was seriously defective tonight.
“Hey, Dess needs the extra boost of protection more than I do by a long shot. You’ve never seen her try to walk and talk at the same time.” El shoved her brother playfully, trying to lighten the mood. “Come to think of it, the protection charm must not be all that effective.”
“Soren, don’t be an ass. If Desi is a friend of Elliana, she’s a friend of ours. I mean, they clearly spend a lot of time together and Ellie’s still alive, so she can’t be all that dangerous, right?” Jax whipped a bottle cap at Soren who swiftly grabbed it out of midair.
“So okay, you tracked Ellie down. Why wait until now? She’s been living in Seattle for six years now,” I asked.
“Let’s just say that my father is a pretty powerful supe. The human world has all kinds of social and political issues, right? Well, the Veil isn’t really different.” Ellie tugged at her top, uncharacteristically avoiding my eyes. “And lately, the political tensions have been more...complex than usual. My father is kind of tied into that.”
“Ellie, enough.” Soren’s deep voice was quiet, but it carried a note of disapproval and authority. “The issues of the Veil are not the issues of a human.”
Human. He said that word with so much disdain and disgust, even though his sister had been living as one for six years. Did she secretly infuse that much hatred into the word when she thought it, if not when she said it? Was her irreverence for all things to do with the Veil an act?
I let that question settle for a beat. Only a beat.
And then as quickly as the questions came, they left. No, El was not her brother. She was the girl who wasn’t bothered by the annoying human sounds in movie theaters. Every class she could fit into her schedule she took. Every human experience she encountered, she devoured with a fascinated intensity.
