Drinking Demons

by Kat Bostick

  For three days, Alan refused to hold her. She screamed in her grandmother’s arms, calling uselessly for a mother that would never come. When Mari was finally placed into his unwilling hold, he knew without a doubt that she was everything Jane believed she would be. He knew with absolute certainty that she was everything he dreamed. Even as a child, she was abuzz with magic, nearly glowing from the divine gift that was bestowed upon her.

  Alan stopped praying that day, hadn’t uttered a single word to the goddesses above or below since. As far as he was concerned, they stole his wife away as much as Mari did. They were so swift to claim the life of one of their most devout followers, to destroy a young family, for designs that none could understand.

  Jane would have said it was all about balance. Mari was a weight placed on one end of the scale or the other. Darkness required light just as light required darkness. At what cost to the rest of them was this balance achieved? In a world where magic hardly mattered anymore. Magic folk were dwindling. Was his daughter intended to be the final nail in the coffin? Would she wipe out the weakest links? The imbalances?

  Not if Alan could help it. There were promises he kept and promises he didn’t. The most important one he made was to himself. He was responsible for Mari’s creation, so he would be responsible for keeping her in check. Perhaps Jane was right and he was a fool to deny Mother Moon her games. It wouldn’t stop him from trying.

  Mari was a risk to him, to his new family, and to everyone around her. He had to bring her home, if only to keep a close eye on her and ensure darkness wasn’t ruling her. Whoever this man was that intended to marry her—whatever he was—Alan would make him see the reality of what Mari could become.

  None were safe so long as his daughter was allowed to live freely. Mari was born with blood on her hands and she would live with blood on her hands unless he could stop it.

  Chapter 16

  Mari

  Whatever reaction Aubrey had to Mari’s confession, it was interrupted. Just as those words tumbled from her lips—“I killed her”—the sound of tires drew their attention to the long gravel driveway.

  “Your dad is here.” Aubrey blurted, skirting around Mari and hurrying for the greenhouse door. “Let’s go say hi.”

  Nice going, Mari. Confess to murder right before the rehearsal dinner for your wedding, why don’t you? Perhaps honesty wasn’t always a virtue. She was loathe to admit it, but there were times when it did someone no good to know the truth. This, she was realizing far, far too late, was one of those times.

  “Help me, baby werewolf Jesus.” She muttered, rushing to catch up with Aubrey and to meet her father before Jasper and Charlie got there first.

  Mari wasn’t sure what kind of reunion she anticipated with her dad. She knew he wouldn’t run and hug her, knew there would be no happy tears. Still, she hoped it would be at least a little amiable. Maybe Dad would even act like he missed her, like he was here because he cared about her and not because he probably planned to chastise her and drag her home like a wayward child. She shot her best friend a sidelong glance as she hovered awkwardly far away from Mari, wondering if Dad wasn’t the only one in on that plan.

  Traitor.

  The last time her father saw her, Gran was alive. The house hadn’t been burned to the ground by a misguided wizard. Dad hadn’t even expressed condolences, only annoyance that Mari didn’t come back for the funeral, leaving him to deal with all the arrangements.

  Mari recalled Jasper’s reunion with his family, the tight hugs and laughter, the subtle glances clouded with relief. Cora had even shed tears. He’d been gone much longer and they weren’t entirely confident he was alive, but she’d seen some shit too.

  Dad didn’t seem to care. “Mariella.” He tilted his head forward, eyes narrowed. “You look different.” The cock of his head told her that he sensed more than saw her differences.

  Mari held her breath, waiting for the whole thing to fall apart. Any second he would sputter with fury when he realized what her differences were. She half expected him to mention the undeniable buzz of wolf magic circling the front of the house. Only Jasper and Charlie were in sight but Mari could feel the rest of them hovering.

  “I am different.” She told him. “A lot has happened.”

  “Yes, we should talk about that.” He managed to make it sound like they needed to have a business meeting.

  “Where’s Sam?”

  “Your brother had a prior engagement.” Ah, of course. What wouldn’t be more important than her wedding? “He’s spending Christmas with his girlfriend’s family.”

  “I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.”

  “If you came home, you wouldn’t be so out of touch.”

  She floundered near the front step, feeling embarrassed more than disappointed. Any disappointment that came from her father’s disinterest in her had dulled years ago, becoming a quiet but persistent ache whenever she dealt with family matters. Now that he was here, in this place that felt like home to her, with people who were becoming family, she was ashamed.

  Would the pack see that she wasn’t good enough for her own flesh and blood? Who would want someone that wasn’t even wanted by their own parent?

  Jasper’s hand swallowed hers, effectively swallowing her doubts too. It wasn’t her fault that Alan Sowka was an uncaring, spiteful man.

  “Dad, Veronica,” Mari gave Jasper’s hand a little tug, bringing him down the drive with her. “This is my fiancé, Jasper.” Her heart fluttered with that introduction and she couldn’t tell if it was nerves or excitement.

  “So your invitation said.”

  Mari scowled at them. There they stood with Emma in tow. Their suitcases were stacked neatly in the back of the Jeep. They’d obviously accepted Charlie’s invitation to stay. Why wasn’t he even trying to hide his disapproval? What were they doing here if not to celebrate the wedding? A simple phone call would have sufficed if all he wanted was to tell her what a mistake this was. They were getting married tomorrow. She hadn’t exactly given advanced notice, but it was long enough for Dad to make his objections before arriving for the ceremonies and the preparations that preceded it.

  “Your fiancé?” Veronica stepped forward, manicured hand outstretched. She didn’t bother to hide her admiring gaze as it moved along Jasper’s face, dropping to his shoulders, then lower. “It’s so nice to meet you, Jasper. I’m Veronica.” Her eyelids fluttered in what Mari assumed was flirtation. “Call me Vee.”

  Jasper stared at the sparkling pink nails on her hand, obviously fighting a glare. Mari always found Veronica’s perfume to be just a bit much. To him, the sickly sweet scent must have been cloying. Still, he took her hand and carefully, if not a little awkwardly, shook it. He wasn’t so uncivilized that he didn’t have basic manners, he simply chose not to exercise them most of the time.

  Mari and Charlie spent longer than should have been necessary convincing him to behave around her family. If Aubrey’s visit was a test, Jasper bombed. He needed to behave more human if he was going to win Dad over...or whatever the goal was here. Now that her family was standing in front of the pack house, Mari wished she could resend the invitation.

  Some foreboding feeling churned uneasily inside her, a tide growing restless with a coming storm. The darkness seemed to hover around her, whispering discouragement and anxiety. Apparently it had only been waiting for the right opportunity to make a comeback.

  “Wow, you have such big hands.” Veronica covered her glossed lips with lithe fingers and tinkled a noise that a woman her age should know better than to make. “That’s not surprising. Just look at you! How tall are you, Jasper? Six four? Taller?”

  Behind her, Dad let out an almost imperceptible sigh. Veronica was not subtle about her wandering eye.

  Jasper could be devastatingly charming when he needed to be. In that moment, he was speechless, his tongue as useless as Mari’s while he gawked at the bleached blonde that crowned Veronica’s bobbing head.

  Mari cleared
her throat. Veronica’s smile turned brittle as it shifted to her but she played her role well, turning to give her stepdaughter a stiff hug. “Mari, we’ve been so worried about you.”

  Worried I would come home and need a place to stay, maybe.

  “Thanks for coming.” Mari glanced over her shoulder, hopefully conveying just how much she wanted to kick Charlie for agreeing to this. He could have said no guests and that would have been the end of it. Eventually Mari’s dad would stop calling and she could have faded away into their memories, nothing more than a ghost. She wished she could be incorporeal and float away.

  Charlie understood her look well enough. He stepped down from the porch, his genial smile fixed in place. “Welcome to Humble Springs! I’m thrilled you’re here. The snow makes it a perilous journey this time of year but you’ve made it unscathed.”

  “Oh God, I thought Alan was going to kill us half a dozen times. You’d think he would know how to drive in the snow by now!” Veronica fluttered her hand dramatically against Charlie’s bicep, lingering longer than was polite. Mari felt like gagging. “I’m Veronica, so lovely to meet you...?”

  “Charlie Dunne, Jasper’s father.” Charlie shook her hand, the slightest lilt tickling out when he spoke his name.

  Veronica looked between the two men, searching for a resemblance that wasn’t there.

  “He’s adopted, Vee. Remember?” Dad pushed off the car and held out a hand, not bothering to smile. “I’m Mari’s father, Alan Sowka.” The word “father” sounded like some sort of accusation.

  Jasper’s smile was a little too toothy. “Jasper O’Connell, Mari’s fiancé.”

  Mari blew out a breath. At least he didn’t say mate.

  Dad’s blue eyes clouded with suspicion the moment his skin came into contact with Jasper’s. He jerked his hand away abruptly, glaring down at his palm, then at Jasper. Obviously he wasn’t so out of practice that he couldn’t detect the magic that lived in Jasper’s veins. Would he know what kind of magic it was?

  Gran identified Jasper as a werewolf immediately, but how could she not when he was walking around the living room as a massive, four legged beast? Very few magic folk became acquainted with the feel of wolf magic and lived to speak of it.

  Mari went rigid, waiting for the horrified response from her father. Would he say anything in front of Veronica? As far as Mari knew, her stepmother was still in the dark about magic.

  Dad’s lips puckered worse than if he’d eaten a lemon but the only words he uttered was some pleasantry he didn’t mean before moving on to greet Charlie. Jasper raised his eyebrows and grinned.

  She shook her head back at him, whispering, “This is only the beginning.”

  Emma was still leaning against the door of the Jeep, tapping on her cell phone and looking bored. When she glanced up, Mari waved in her direction. Emma rolled her eyes and went back to texting. There was something strange about being related to a person by marriage, sharing the same house as them for years, and barely knowing them.

  When dad and Vee first married, Mari thought it would be fun to have a sister. Emma didn’t agree with that notion at all. She never tormented Mari or intentionally got her in trouble, she was just...uninterested.

  By the look of her, Emma was still uninterested.

  Until she did a double take and nearly dropped her phone along with her jaw when she saw Jasper. He was gorgeous, Mari was the first to admit that, but it made her skin crawl to have her stepsister ogling him.

  “Who’re you?” Emma asked, blushing.

  “Emma, this is my fiancé, Jasper. Jasper this is Emma, my—“

  “Stepsister.” Emma tucked her phone in the pocket of her very tight jeans. “We’re not related.” As if the blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale complexion weren’t a dead giveaway. Being surrounded by Dad and his new family made Mari feel like an outsider. The stark contrast of her black hair and tan skin always drew unwanted attention. More than once people asked if she was adopted. Though he shared their mother’s coloring, her older brother Samuel never received the same inquiry.

  Outsider. Interloper. Unwanted. The words buzzed in her head, making her irritable.

  Emma crossed the lawn to stand in front of Jasper, smiling shyly at him. She was startled from her obvious perusal when Veronica sang, “Emma, come introduce yourself to Charlie. Don’t be rude.”

  The tingling along Mari’s skin hadn’t ceased. If anything, it worsened with Veronica’s proximity as she circled back around to babble at Jasper. That awful, dark pit in her stomach grew, hollowing out her insides.

  Veronica paced around them a second time, looking Jasper up and down with an uncharacteristic smirk. Her voice was an odd purr as she said, “I’ll never figure out how she hooked you. Apparently, you have a skillset after all, Mari.”

  “Dad’s waiting for you, Vee.” Mari said impatiently.

  “I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised after how they found you at the park.” Veronica’s grin stretched until it was unnervingly wide. “The question is, will every man you throw yourself at end up dead, or only the ordinary ones?”

  Mari hadn’t realized what she was doing until Jasper’s hand clasped her wrist, freezing her palm only inches away from Vee’s face. She winked at Mari, still grinning, then waved as she skipped to catch up to the rest of the party entering the house. “Toodles!”

  Shock didn’t even begin to cover what Mari was feeling. “What. The. Frick.” She pulled her arm free so she could rub her face. “Why are we doing this? I’ve changed my mind.”

  Jasper tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You wanted to marry me.”

  “You asked me to.”

  “Nope, I just supplied the ring.”

  “Jasper!” She swatted his arm. “Don’t kick a girl when she’s down.”

  He caught her wrist again, bringing her palm to his lips for a kiss. “You know I want to marry you.”

  “I just hope that doesn’t change by the time dinner with my family is over.”

  ✽✽✽

  Thirty minutes later, Mari was leaning against the kitchen counter and watching her father avoid her. He’d spent months pestering her, insisting she come home and stop being childish, and now he would scarcely look at her. When he did, the expression he wore wasn’t encouraging.

  He knows. She chewed her lip. He knows how you’ve changed and he hates you for it.

  The mini quiche she was nibbling on suddenly felt too dry to swallow. She coughed, chugging down the champagne someone handed her to soothe her throat. When Veronica sidled up with a too bright smile, she almost choked.

  “You didn’t tell us they were wealthy.” Vee said through her teeth. It was quiet but not nearly quiet enough. “Now I understand why you didn’t want to come home.”

  Mari set her glass down hard enough to make Clem bug her eyes out. She was the only member of the pack who slipped in to introduce herself. Charlie must have planned it that way. The introductions with their last guest were a bit overwhelming.

  “This,” She pointed to the kitchen which, admittedly, was luxurious. Most of Charlie’s home was on the showy side. He liked money and he liked looking like he had it. “Is not why I didn’t come back to Klein.” Mari’s eyes traveled to where Jasper sat at the dining room table. “This feels like home now. That’s why I stayed.”

  “Seven figures would feel like home to me too.” Emma said from beside her mother. Was that a champagne glass in her hand?

  Veronica sipped from her own, either not noticing or not caring that her teenage daughter was drinking. “Don’t be shallow, Emma. Mari found someone who tolerates her. That’s more important than a big house and fancy cars and nice clothes, isn’t it?” Vee gave the hem of Mari’s plain black shirt a tug, as if pointing out that she very much wasn’t indulging in the overpriced clothes Clem wanted to purchase for her.