Page 60 of Pixie Problems
I snapped my mouth closed. Draven eyed me like I was going to squawk in outrage that Rhys had accepted what I clearly hadn’t wanted him to, but I kept my mouth shut. And I was glad, when not a moment later, Draven said, “It’s important for the town, Dice. The town needs you and this apothecary. This isn’t something I’m just being stupidly generous about.” His eyes grimly took in the crater that had been my shop. “And this time, we’ll upgrade your magical protections.”
I nodded, feeling both humbled and very, very grateful. “If I had had the magical protections I’d needed, my shop would have withstood the blast, but . . . I hadn’t had the money to get the handful of others. I hadn’t realized, at the time, how crucial they were.” Newbie mistake. I was kicking myself about that now. If I’d spent less on botanical supplies, and less on making the shopperfectinside, and had put more into protecting it, I might still have a business now.
Draven nodded. “Well, you won’t have to worry about it. I’ll pay for them. And I know you’ve sunk all your capital into this, so I’ll get that back to you, plus whatever else you need.”
I looked up at Rhys, tears dripping down my face, and he must’ve seen what I wanted to do, because the corner of his lip twitched, and his gaze softened as he released me. I released him reluctantly and flung myself at Draven, who caught me with a laugh. “Thank you.Thank you so much.” I sniffed. “And I’m fully behind team Maven.”
The awesome thing about talking to a brilliant male, even when the topic of conversation was completely random, was that hegotyou. Instantly. His shoulders started shaking. I looked up at him and smiled when I saw he was laughing with his head thrown back. My dumb brain wentduh, duh, duh,for an embarrassing blip of time because a vampire was full-on smiling and laughing right in front of me, but then I shook the lure away and laughed with him.
“Maven, huh?” he said. “It sounds like some horrid school mistress in a penny novel.”
Rhys, clearly having second thoughts about pushing me toward his sexy friend, reeled me back in like I was a fish, fisting his hand in my jacket again. I rested against him, my back to his front, as he loosely circled his arms around my stomach, and kissed the top of my head. “Yeah, man, no one says ‘penny novel’ anymore,” Rhys quipped, his voice still gravelly.
Draven shook his head. “That’s too bad. Some of them were very good.” Then he cleared his throat. I’d always thought that was a funny vampire affectation until I realized that things other than health made your throat tight. Like fear, anger, sadness . . .
“The council will be meeting at the Municipio in a few minutes. We’d love for you to join us, Paradise Hart.”
I jolted at my full name but nodded.
“It will give the emergency crews time to clean all this up,” Cy said. Both he and August had stepped back a few paces when Draven had come over, but now they’d moved back into my bubble of space, both of them facing outward, hyper aware of everything happening around us, looking for further danger.
“You both need to be there as well,” Draven said.
They nodded.
* * *
The Municipio was still statelyand elegant, but I was completely tapped out and unable to enjoy its magnificence.
There were about twenty or so vehicles in the parking lot when Cy pulled in. After we’d tried to dig my bike out of the rubble, I’d had to call Chance to come tow it to her shop. It wasn’t a total loss, but it would need some work, and I would be busy for the foreseeable future hunting down a pack of shifters and siccing Cy and August on them. And maybe Rhys, but probably not because he still looked like he wanted to murder someone.
I clung to his hand as we dashed through the pouring rain without getting wet because Rhys was a gentlemen. That now seemed to extend to Cy and August because he kept them dry with his starlight shield as well. Handy thing, starlight and cosmos power. I mean, I heard he evenshavedwith it from Mia. She also claimed he’d turned a poison that she’d been dosed with into something benign while darkly swirling with the night sky.
Even after all that we’d been through together, I’d yet to see him bring out his full night powers. Part of me knew he’d only done it then because he’d needed all of his power to save his best friend. I was insanely curious what a ‘night sky’ Rhys looked like. But on the other hand, he’d only bring out his full powers if something was crazy serious, so I was good with him keeping his full power hidden. Besides, if someone you cared about seemed very grimly aware of how much power they held, and they were a race of beings that supernaturals the world over feared and respected, youpaid attention.
When we came to the council room, I paused and looked at Rhys. He nodded, and the four of us walked in. Unlike when I’d first come to Moonhaven Cove, the medium sized chamber was lit with natural light, and the glossy, dark-grey, natural-stone floor gleamed. Three plush chairs sat all in a row, but Rhys ignored the subtle hint to take his place on the stadium seating and sat down, pulling me gently down onto his lap. His gaze toward the council was both furious and belligerent.
Okay, Rhys was on the warpath.
I didn’t take the time to consider that his actions made me feel both cherished and loved, or that I had no problem sitting in a professional meeting with a council that could toss me out of Moonhaven on my butt with one arm wrapped around Rhys’ arm like I was a koala. I was still shaking a little from the bomb, and Rhys had silently offered to be my strength in a moment when mine was temporarily as devastated as my apothecary shop.
I was gladly accepting his strength to lean on, and I guess for me, that said a lot about both my comfortability with Rhys and my feelings for him.
Shandra, the same person I’d clashed with before, and had wanted to stab with an ice pick, snorted in derision, presumably at my sitting on Rhys’ lap in a council meeting. But this time, before Rhys could open his mouth and spew something nasty at her, Draven stepped in. “If you can’t attempt to be considerate, or at leastadult, Shandra, I need you to leave. We don’t need a majority vote tonight.” His voice was tight with both weariness and anger. I think the master vampire had had it with the catty sea hag. I wanted to cheer, but I somehow restrained myself.
She scoffed but glued her lips shut when Draven’s eyes flashed crimson red as he slowly turned his head to gaze at her in the second to last row of seating. Yeah, not so tough around a ticked off vampire, are you? Draven drew in a big breath, his nostrils flaring wide, before he turned back around and closed his eyes. Rhys whispered in my ear, “He needs to feed. I don’t know why, but it looks like he’s been blood fasting.”
That’s what I’d thought! Finally paying attention to my blaring Insight, I focused on his physical symptoms: sleep deprivation, low blood sugar and electrolytes, pale skin—which was alarming considering he had light, café au lait coloring—and a host of others. It was alarming actually. A vampire shouldn’t have health this screwed up. It was almost impossible for them to even get sick!
I scowled at him. Just wait till I got my hands on him! He couldn’t push himself this hard, for this long. If something happened to him, Mia—and now Rhys—would be devastated!
His lips twitched at my scowl, and I intuited that he knewexactlywhy I wanted him in my apothecary as soon as possible.
The apothecary that had been blown up.
Deep breath.
In. Out.
