Page 12 of Missiletoe
“He’s not harmless, Baz,” Vale said through gritted teeth, and he glared at me. “Give Vix to me. Now.”
As soon as he locked eyes with me, I feltsomething.It was dark and wrong, and it radiated out from him, hitting me like a load of bricks.
Vale wasn’t harmless either.
It was a foreign sensation to me, but instead of tensing against its otherworldliness, I let it pass through me. It wasn’t voluntary. It was more like my body knew what to do, and I was just along for the ride. Whatever Vale had tried to do had had no effect on me.
Neat.
It was always nice to learn new things about myself and the world.
Then I realized my bunny had been in my arms when Vale did whatever he’d just done, and I looked down at him in panic.
“What did you do? Is he okay?” I shook Vix, and he flopped loosely in my arms. There was no difference that I could tell, but since the small man was out like a light, there was no way to be certain.
“Vix is fine—I would never hurt him. I’m more interested in whatyoujust did.” Vale had lost the edge to his anger and something thoughtful replaced it. It didn’t make him look nice, though. In fact, the expression on his face made me feel like I was an insect that had just done something interesting, and he wanted to dissect me.
The guy needed some outside time for sure. Maybe some dog time too.
I shifted Vix until his head was propped on one of my shoulders and his tiny little butt was sitting on my forearm. Then I reached out to give Vale a pat on the hand. It always seemed to calm the grumpy ones down in my experience, and the less grumpy people around my bunny, the better.
Before I made contact, Vale stumbled backward ungracefully to avoid my hand and shouted, “Oh god, don’t touch me.” He looked at me like I had tried to burn him.
Vale took another step back and stumbled when his foot found a loose grate on the floor.
I stepped closer, thinking to grab his shirt to keep him from going down. I wasn’t going to touch him. Consent was a thing, after all. But I couldn’t just let him fall, even if he was kind of a dick. Everyone had their off days.
I mean, I wasn’t wild about Vale being around my bunny, but he did seem to care about him. Maybe if I showed Vale some compassion, he’d become a nicer person. He might even lose some of the shadows crowding around him.
But Vale didn’t seem to want my compassion. Instead of letting me help, he did some weird Matrix-style maneuver, dodged my hand, and managed to keep his footing.
It was pretty cool, actually.
He threw a look at Baz who stood just past my shoulder, glared at me in horror, and raced out of the garage like I’d just tried to throw a bucket of acid on him and was planning on doing it again.
I turned around at the howl of laughter behind me to see Baz doubled over and clutching his stomach.
“That…was…fucking amazing, Paris.” Baz gasped as he tried to pull himself together. “I wonder what would have happened if I’d shoved you at him just now. I bet he would have pissed himself!” Then Baz was gone again, lost in laughter.
I just sort of stood there because I had no clue what had happened.
After a minute or so, I collected myself and checked my bunny again, stroking the lock of hair that had fallen over his face. He seemed no worse for the experience, so I wasn’t going to worry about it, but if I found out later that Vale had done something to Vix, I’d hunt Vale down and givehimsomething to worry about.
“Okay, Paris,” Baz said, wiping a tear from one eye. “I don’t know what your deal is, but I think you’ve earned the right to carry Vix to his room. Follow me.”
He made for the opposite side of the garage where Vale had escaped to and began to skip straight toward a metal wall. Before he slammed into it, he screeched to a halt, slapped his hand against it, and the wall opened to reveal an elevator. Baz gave a graceful little spin and motioned me inside like an overly enthusiastic game show host before following me in.
“Feel free to do that anytime you want, by the way. Next time I’m definitely going to try the shoving you at him thing.” Baz tapped his chin thoughtfully, and then he flopped against the elevator wall with careless ease. “But I’ll have to get Gareth to do it. I think he’s the only one other than Vale who’s strong enough to move you.”
I was beginning to hate the Gareth person Baz kept mentioning. It wasn’t like me, so I shoved the feeling down and said, “Vale doesn’t look that strong to me.”
Tall? Sure. But strong? I was easily twice as wide as him. He looked like I could snap him in half without much effort.
“You’d be surprised,” Baz said softly. His face was slightly flushed, and he bit his lower lip. Then his eyes flicked to Vix in a knowing way that had my stomach clenching with unease.
As the elevator ascended, all kinds of thoughts began to flood my brain. Ones like,Am I being protective, or am I just being creepy?andMy bunny has an entire life I know nothing about. Is it fair to either of us for me to get this attached this quickly?’
The first one I discarded as soon as it came. Protective and creepy were merely two sides of the same coin. Ultimately, I wasn’t the one who could decide which one I was being. It was Vix’s thoughts on the matter that counted.
