Page 62 of Pixie Problems
I gulped.
Predator, meet prey.
Rhys growled at him, and Roark’s eyes lit up with a smile. “Speaking of mates.”
Huh?
Oh, no he didn’t just go there. I hadn’t even told Rhys that I loved him yet.
I went instantly still.
I loved Rhys. Whole-heartedly.
Forgetting where we were completely, I turned in his arms and pulled him down to me so I could kiss him. I kissed him very thoroughly, so it went on for some time before Roark said, “Oi, we don’t need a show right now. Go find a dark corner somewhere.”
Rhys pulled away and laughed. He stepped closer to Draven. “Please drink from Roark.” He wasn’t messing around with that plea, and I could tell it smacked Draven right in the heart, because his angry brown eyes went soft, and he sighed again.
Poor Draven. He was having a rough few months as well.
“Fine. Roark, sit your butt down. I need a lot of blood, and I don’t want you to pass out.”
Roark scoffed, but sat, mostly because he towered over Draven and it was a matter of convenience. “As if your puny body could fell a dragon.”
We left them to it.
As we made our way across the damp parking lot to Cy’s idling jeep, Rhys asked, “What brought that kiss on?” He sounded totally baffled. Willing, thrilled, but baffled.
I stopped and looked up at him. His hair was askew, his clothes and jacket were torn and bloody, his face was marred with soot, and he was wincing like he had a headache. I thought of all the evenings and nights we’d spent laughing and joking at the Laughing Elf when I’d worked there, all the days at Finn’s, all the late-night talks we’d spend talking into the early hours of the morning. I thought of the expression on his face whenever he looked at me, and how he came to my defense, again and again, even at the risk of his own life. It probably wasn’t the best time to talk about this, or to tell him how I felt, but I wanted to anyway. With the way that my life had been going lately, every moment counted.
“I love you,” I said simply.
He gaped at me for a moment, and then, before I even realized what he was doing, his lips were on mine in a fiery kiss that could give pure volcanic magma a run for its money. When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine. “I love you too, angel. So much.”
He held me close to him in the lantern lit parking lot, and for the life of me I didn’t want to leave his arms. Like, ever. I had become super sappy in my old age, I guess. I rolled my eyes at my thoughts. Or maybe Rhys just brought out the best in me. We held each other until Draven and Roark came out of the building, and Roark shouted, “Oi, get a room you two.”
Rhys and I laughed and climbed in the jeep.
Chapter18
Dice
The next few weeks passed in a flurry of activity. Draven, as good as his word, began reconstruction onPixies Potions & Botanical Notionstake two the very next day. They had to clean the street and what was left of the building up, demolish the shell that was left, repair the concrete under the old shop that had been gouged by the bomb, and start rebuilding. With the massive beehive of workers that Draven had put on the project, it would likely be ready by lunchtime tomorrow.
Possibly earlier.
It was a seething mass of people and absolute chaos, but I was ecstatic because it meant the grand reopening was that much closer. Roark and those that could fly swept the town, from one end to the other, looking for Hux. I’d thought initially that he was maybe feral, and that was why he’d been acting so crazy, but Ben had assured me that shifters in their two-legged form could not go feral. It turned out Hux was just the regular crazy.
The day after Thanksgiving, I was at the newPixie Potions & Botanical Notions, putting all my new stock away, and getting everything ready for the grand reopening in a week, when two shifters walked into my store. Stupidly, I’d forgotten to lock it. August and Cy both sniffed the air, and then were on the two shifters faster than I could blink.
One of them, a scrawny ash blonde who looked no older than nineteen, raised his hands in the air, and shouted, “We mean her no harm! We’ve come to turn ourselves in!”
The other, looking perhaps sixteen and maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet, turned completely ashen and looked like he was going to pass out. He was nodding jerkily in agreement with what his friend had said and stuck his arms up as well, shaking like a leaf.
“Please,” he whispered. “We don’t want to hurt anyone.”
I sighed. “August, Cy, back off.”
Cy growled and August’s lips twisted in a sneer, but they moved away from the young shifters immediately. Although they looked like if the guys made one wrong twitch they would be on them, and it wouldn’t be pretty. August’s eyes were crimson. Never a great sign when it came to vampires. The crimson eyes came out when they prepared to feed. Luckily, the vampires in Moonhaven were required to play well with others.
