Page 2 of Witches and Wine
“Oh?” Erebus flicked his gaze to my hornless forehead. “Did someone saw them off?”
Godsdammit. Why did it have to be aprimordialwho waltzed into my club?
“Tartarus, no.” Leaning my elbows on the table, I lifted the glass between us, flashing a sinister grin. “Why? You miss ‘em?”
“Yámas, you prick,” Erebus said deadpan and clinked his glass against mine.
Guzzling half of it down, I wiped my sleeve across my mouth. “And what about you? Aren’t you supposed to be in Chicago?”
“I gotbored.” Erebus eyed the alcohol suspiciously after taking a swig. “Is there ambrosia wine in this?”
Smiling proudly, I interlaced my hands behind my head and leaned back. “And that’s why my place is the most popular spot in town. Because only at Bacchus can a mythical, paranormal, or fairytale creature find a buzz.”
“Fitting,” Erebus scoffed, resting the glass on the table. “I decided to move the business away from humans.”
A black bear sauntered past us, following a woodland nymph toward the bar. The bear shifted into a hulking male clad in leather pants before curling an arm around the nymph’s waist and sitting on a stool.
“And you chose to bring it to a place with some of the most dangerous beings in the universe? Gee, Bus. The Cove is agreatplace to run an organized crime outfit.”
A rare smirk bordering on a subdued smile quirked Erebus’s lip. “Precisely. What’s it to you? You’re not the Cove’s sheriff, too, are you?”
“No. That’s Herb. A porcupine shifter.” Shaking my head, I leaned toward the primordial and lowered my voice. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you do with your time, and considering the gods and primordials have an agreement, I don’t have a choice but to look the other way.” Erebus’s glass had gone empty, andI pressed a finger to it, magically re-filling it. “But you bring that shit into my club, and I’ll have a little chat with my pops about releasing the Titans again out ofspite. Do we have anunderstanding?”
Erebus’s jaw clenched, his ominous gaze casting shadows between us. After giving a curt and barely noticeable nod, he pointed at my bare chest beneath my jacket. “It seems you’ve forgotten how to get dressed.”
“What?” Pretending I hadn’t realized I wasn’t wearing a shirt, I peeled open my jacket and snapped my fingers. “Nope. I’m positive my shirt is right where I left it—” I paused and downed the rest of my drink, locking eyes with the embodiment of darkness sitting across from me. “—your mom’s bedroom floor.”
Erebus’s hand coiled into a fist atop the table, a smoky halo forming around his head and shoulders.
“But that’s right.” Interlacing my fingers and resting them in front of me, I let the snarkiest of grins curve my lips. “You don’t have one.”
“How does it feel to be such an insignificant god that they charge you with sex, frenzy, and festivity?” Erebus arched a dark brow, the shadows billowing around him settling.
Scoffing, I pushed my back to the seat. “Did you just hear yourself?”
“Yes, but these are things most gods delight themselves in regularly between a more meaningful existence.” Erebus swirled his hand through some of the inky tendrils near his mouth, producing a cigar. A lackey was quick to trip over the table to light it.
It’d been a while since someone tried to crawl under my skin.
“I don’t think you spend enough time around mortals. Sex and festivity are rather high on their enjoyment lists.” I raised my hand from the table to above my head and chuckled.
After taking several puffs from his cigar and wasting one more minute of my damn time, Erebus replied, “Enjoyment. Not necessity. Not aspects that enrich or embody their livelihoods.”
“I’m pretty sure sex is necessary for human life to continue, or did you miss that day at tyrannical primordial school as a kid?”
Erebus spent ash directly onto the table despite an ashtray resting inches from him, inciting a growl to bubble in my throat. “Fertility. That, when you want to get technical, is necessary. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that jurisdiction belongs to a goddess who tried to have you killed once, right?”
It was old news that my dad and his former queen had an arrangement to take lovers outside of their marriage. My mother was one of his first conquests, and the hatred the queen bore from her pregnancy announcement never bothered me. It was the fact thatmymother died as a result of it. Fury and frenzy coiled up my spine, firing at the base of my skull.
A vibration went off several times from my front pocket, immediately pulling me from the inferno that’d been building in my chest.
“You’re lucky my ass is vibrating,” I said to Erebus, pointing a stern finger at him as I stood and walked away, relishing that quizzically shocked look on his dumb face.
Slipping my phone from my jeans pocket, I halted when I saw the notification blazing on the home screen—a text from “Red.” The woman I hadn’t heard from in months with the fiery auburn hair and my polar opposite whom I couldn’t get off my fuckingmind.
Holding my breath, actually pinching my lips together, I swiped the screen. A random drunken demon smelling of sulfur and tequila hugged my shoulders from the side. As politely as I could, I shoved him away, an equally drunk warlock catching him with a hoot of laughter.
The air escaped my lungs when I read the text message:
