Page 28 of My Dark Obsession
Bitch.
Before the strange urge to slam her face down onto the bar overcame me, she fell into the bar as Rí shook her from his body. He took a step closer to me and placed his warm hand upon my shoulder.
Smoothing down her top she forced a smile once more and rounded the bar and filled up two glasses of the same liquid Rí drank upstairs.
She slid them in front of us, pushing mine a little too roughly so the liquid sloshed over the edge.
I wanted to hurt her.
“Mate did ya say!” Came a strong Irish squeak behind us. Looking behind me I saw the tip of bright orange fluffy hair sticking up. I lowered my gaze and there standing at around 3 ft was a damn leprechaun.
He stood with his tiny hairy hands on his hips with a deep green suit and…flip flops? His hairy toes wiggled in his excitement and I was definitely disturbed.
“Aye! I did indeed. This here is Amaya,” Rí proudly announced, his chest puffing out slightly as his hand tightened on my shoulder.
The entire bar quietened before all eyes turned to us. The silence hurt my head, and I gritted my teeth.
I hated the attention.
I inched away from Rí’s hand.
“Well fook me sideways me ‘lad that's grand!” The leprechaun cheered. He then jumped up onto the bar by using the older man's arms as leverage and lifted my untouched drink in the air and yelled “To Rí and his Mate! Amaya!”
A round of cheers and applause echoed around us, but it was the sing-song yell of “Her eyes are purple!” That quietened the room once more. The atmosphere staled instantly.
“My Mate is a Dark Witch, if tha’s a problem to ye’ get the hell outta my bar.” The dragon didn't yell. He didn't raise his voice. He spoke clearly and firmly.
No one answered.
Rí lifted his drink and swallowed it in one gulp. The cheering resumed.
Huh, were they afraid of Rí? Or was it that he was that respected in this community that no one would argue with him? Either way, my stature of being a Dark Witch was an issue with some of these shifters; I could sense it in some of their stares, the still postures and I could definitely sense it from the hatred stabbing at me from thewoman’s eyes behind the bar.
“Come with me.” Rí’s warm breath in my ear caused a shiver to travel down my spine and settle low on my back, circling around that mark and made it tingle.
So far, the itching had been manageable. It had slightly increased after that ordeal with the stuck-up White witch but again, it had been manageable. The heat it gave off the more Rí touched me was almost, nice. I wasn't used to feeling.
Hopping down from the stool, I followed Rí through his bar doors and out into the humid night.
The difference in the temperature between the portals blew my mind, but I definitely preferred the cooling breeze from the Light city.
Here, the sky was covered in thick clouds and covered the bright moon and stars I knew to be above us.
Typical, that something so bright, so beautiful was covered and trapped by something so grey, so bland.
“I have something to show ye’,” he said, offering me his hand once more.
Part of me wanted to. It wanted to hold that warm hand and accept whatever he was offering.
But the other part of me, it wanted to shut down, wanted to refuse and give him my death stare.
What would the new Amaya do?
Before I could make that decision, two shapes emerged from the shadows and clicked their fingers, and with the snap a rolled-up scroll appeared in one of their hands.
I squinted at them against the dark and tried to make out their faces, but something, magic perhaps, covered them and made them unrecognisable, almost unfocused and blurred.
Rí made a sound of displeasure before stepping in front of me, shielding me from these shadowed men.
