9. 9

I opened the door and welcomed the blast of warm, bread-scented air. West Side Sandwiches was home. Even when everything was wrong, this place was right. My mind full of lunch ideas, I didn't quite register who was standing behind the counter, wearing a white apron, slowly and carefully attempting to cut a tomato.

Daniel, my ex-boyfriend, Lord of the Blessed. Being taught how to slice a tomato.

By Jessica.

With my knife.

Flames boiled in my palms before I had enough control to snuff them out.

James popped up from behind the glass case. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he said. "Aren't you supposed to have some time off today?"

"Who got my knife out?"

James, sensing my mood, began to inch sideways, possibly to avoid being killed when I finally decided what I wanted to throw at Jessica and Daniel. "Oh, uh—your knife? I didn't have anything to do with that. I was just refilling this case here…"

I walked on without hearing the rest, and invaded the tight galley space.

Daniel looked up. "Hey, Zelda! Jessica was just teaching me how to cut a tomato the right way." He stepped back from the cutting board and lifted the knife, as if I didn't see it already.

Entwined magic sparked up and down the blade. My skin pricked as if there were an electrical connection. "Really. Jessica was teaching you."

Jessica forced a brazen smile.

"With my knife."

Her smile faltered.

Daniel, not exactly fast on the uptake but not stupid, either, laid the knife on the cutting board and wiped his hands on his apron. "She said you'd been teaching her. You know I'm no good in the kitchen, so I asked her to show me."

I loomed closer to Jessica until she was practically scooting up onto the counter. "I'd like to see that."

Daniel slid the cutting board over.

"Not that knife," I said, moving back a fraction of an inch so Jessica could reach for one of the regular knives.

She turned around to face the cutting board, her short hair falling forward and obscuring her face, and began to slice.

"Wrong," I said, moving in from the side and rearranging her grip on both the tomato and the knife. I braced her knife hand and moved the blade the proper way, feeling some of her Blessed power begin to move into my fingers.

I'll admit: I was angry.

So I didn't just let it sting and spiral its way up my arms. I let her thorny red vampire magic set its hooks—and then I pulled, not passively receiving but actively drawing the power away.

Jessica gasped. "What are you—"

I kept my grip and finished, leaving a perfectly cut tomato slice behind. "Don't. Touch. My knife," I said. I picked up my special blade and tenderly wiped the steel with a clean side towel.

Jessica patted herself down as if she'd lost her keys. "What did you do to me?"

"I reminded you who's in charge."

Fury lit her eyes. "You're not in charge of me."

I carefully replaced my knife in its case. "Is that so? Who's in charge of you, then?"

Her gaze flicked uncertainly to Daniel. "He is the Lord of the Blessed."

I closed the case and latched it. Then I looked at Jessica. "And who turned the Lord of the Blessed?"

She looked down at the floor and mumbled something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

Daniel opened his mouth as if to say something, but I held up a finger.

"You did," Jessica said.

"Then if he's not doing his job… I will. Capisce?"

She nodded.

"Take five." I turned my back on her and returned the case to its cabinet. When I turned around again, Jessica was gone, the front door was swinging shut, and Daniel was staring at me.

"Little harsh, don't you think?"

"Take that apron off, I can't hear you when you look ridiculous."

He pulled it off and tossed it on the counter. "I saw what you did to her."

"So?"

"You didn't need to do that."

"Oh, no? If you don't show their kind who's boss, they'll walk all over you."

"There is no ‘they' anymore. I'm ‘they.'"

"No, you're not—"

"And so are you. You said it yourself: who turned the Lord of the Blessed?"

I looked away.

"Answer me."

"I did." I leaned on the counter, my hands flat on the cold metal, letting my head fall forward. "I did," I repeated. Oh, how I promised myself I wouldn't get caught up in magical drama.

And here I was, power-tripping over a tomato slice.

I was a fool.

"I'm a fool," I said.

"Yes, you are."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "Thanks a lot."

A warm hand touched my shoulder. "You're a fool because you try to be responsible for everything. For Jessica. For the Gentry. For me. Your mother's probably throwing you for a loop right now, too, isn't she?"

I straightened up. "How did you know?"

He tilted his head and gave me a look.

"Okay, yeah. You're right. Maybe it's all a bit much."

He gave my shoulder a friendly pat and stepped back. "See? I'm right."

"Rarely," I said, but I was too busy trying to process what had just happened. Daniel didn't pass up chances to raise the heat level to something interesting, even if it was just to pass the time. He had moves as smooth as turning up the gas on the range. Yet he had patted my shoulder like a priest and moved further away.

Honestly—I wasn't offended so much as I felt like we'd started a new dance, one for which I didn't know the steps.

"Jessica's not so bad, anyway," he added.

"Oh?"

He shrugged.

Suddenly the steps were becoming clearer, like an old-fashioned dance diagram with arrows and footprints. "How's that going, anyway? Living with Jessica."

"She's not a terrible roommate."

"She teaches you how to slice tomatoes and everything, huh?"

"What are you implying, Zelda?"

"What are you doing, Daniel?"

"Is it any of your business?"

"No." I smiled and crossed my arms. "But I love being nosy."

"Stay out of it."

I didn't need to be a vampire to scent blood. "Not on your life," I said. "You're sweet on her, aren't you?"

He rubbed his hands over his head. "Oh, my God. Don't start."

"Is that the wrong word, ‘sweet'? ‘Seduce' sounds vulgar. Or are you letting her think she's doing the seducing? That would be more like you."

"Am I not allowed to be attracted to someone? Is that what this is?"

"Of course you're allowed to be attracted to someone. I just think we ought to look at why."

"We don't need to do anything."

"You can't stand it, can you? That she has one over on you."

Daniel scoffed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"She overpowered you. It kills you, doesn't it?"

"Spare me the armchair psychology."

"Then look me in the eye and tell me I'm wrong."

He looked me in the eye. His eyes glinted red, as usual, but this time they reminded me of dark stars, glowing deeply in the night sky, distant and alien. He said nothing.

"Don't do this to hurt her," I said.

"I'm not."

"Don't do this to win."

"I think it'll be a draw," he said.

It was the only thing he could have said that would have made me believe him. She scared him. And how did Daniel deal with fear and awe? He captured the source of it, like a butterfly collector.

I had been a butterfly, once. I even enjoyed it. But now…

I was free. Just as my power over him had ended, so had his over me. I searched for regret but found only a new freedom, like rising bread, in the place where sadness should be. Daniel and Jessica. Stranger things had happened.

I chuckled.

"What?" Daniel said.

"I get you."

"Are you coming up with another way to insult me?"

I shook my head.

"You're smiling."

"Am I?"

"Does that mean you're going to plant that knife in my spine when I turn around?"

"No." I clapped his shoulder, then gripped it. "Unless you mess with Jessica. Then I can't promise anything." I gave him a little shake and let him go.

"Why are you so concerned that my intentions are good? You hate Jessica."

"Your intentions are twisted, just like she is. If you don't screw it up, you'll be perfect for each other."

"They're never going to put that on a Valentine card."

"They should. There should be a whole lineup: Valentine's Cards for the Twisted, Messy, and Complicated."

We looked at each other, both of us knowing that we had been all of those things together.

But maybe we could be something new, apart.

James, who had been keeping quiet and out of the way, piped up. "Yeah, there's nothing that can go wrong with a crush on Jessica. I should know."

"Thank you for the input, James," Daniel said.

James waved. "Anytime." He turned and looked out the window. "Table for"—he counted by pointing—"one, two, three… do dogs count?"

"Yes," I said.

"Five, then. Table for five."

Shadows flicked across the floor as a bustling group passed in front of the windows. Two tall silhouettes, one short. Then the door opened to the shuffle and huff of Jester and Georgiana leading the way, followed by Berron, Poppy, and my mother.

A fuzzy black blur cannonballed into me.

"Jester!" I cried, scooping him up. "Did you keep everyone safe on their big trip? Did you guard them from fierce monsters with your buffness?"

"He is a hero to all," Berron intoned solemnly.

"Of course you were," I said, kissing Jester's wooly head and running my hand over his silky ears.

"I can take none of the credit," Berron added.

"I wasn't giving you any."

Berron noticed Daniel behind the counter. "Daniel," he said.

"Berron," Daniel replied.

"James," Poppy said, holding out Georgiana's leash, "could you hold her for a moment so I can get some coffee?"

"I'll get the coffee," Daniel said.

"Slicing tomatoes and serving coffee? We'll make a restauranteur of you yet," I said.

"Yes, I've always had a secret dream of leaving my high-paying job to serve sandwiches."

"You had him slicing tomatoes?" Berron asked.

"Jessica had him slicing tomatoes," I said, raising one eyebrow and giving him a can-you-believe-it look.

"Fascinating," Berron murmured, although his gaze lingered on me rather than shifting to Daniel.

The door swung open again, admitting the vampire in question. She froze in her tracks, taking in the crowd, then put her head down and speed-walked to the back room.

I followed.

She had pulled out a clipboard and was already checking produce bins when I stepped into the small space and closed the door. "Are you here to suck away the rest of my powers?" she said, concentrating on a very uninteresting bin of russet potatoes. "Or did you get enough earlier?"

"Jessica, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Her pen tap-tap-tapped on the clipboard.

"I'm not going to insult you by saying ‘I don't know what came over me,'" I said.

"You don't need to tell me what came over you. I know how you feel about Daniel."

"You do?" I said, surprised. Expecting her to wax on about jealousy, or something.

"You don't want him."

"I don't?" Jessica was wrong-footing me left and right.

She gave me a look. "Don't be stupid. Of course you don't. You like his attention, right? It's like the heat of the sun. Nice at a distance. Not the kind of thing you want right up in your face all the time. You'd melt."

"And you won't?"

She met my gaze without blinking. "I eat stars for breakfast."

I stared at her. It's not every day you share closet space with potatoes, onions, and a vampire woman who's low-key threatening to annihilate or possibly marry your ex-boyfriend. "Well, then," I said, at a loss for words. "I guess that's all hunky-dory. I'll let you… get back to it," I finished, gesturing to the bins. I opened the door and was almost about to leave when suddenly a thought occurred. "So, just asking—no reason—if the Lord of the Blessed were to take a consort, would that person become… a Lady of the Blessed?"

"Funny," Jessica said, almost absently, "I never thought of that."

"I'm sure you didn't," I said, slipping out and shutting the door. I had to stop and lean on it for a second.

Truthfully? They would be perfect for each other.