Chapter 9

T rixie

"Oh, thank the Fates. You're awake."

I blinked, shifted onto my elbows, feeling like I had one helluva hangover. I pinched at my forehead, my arms wobbly.

"How much did I drink?" I muttered. "Man, I need an Advil and some water."

Emmy's face split into a grin. "You really are okay."

"I'm fine. It's just a hangover—" I stopped myself abruptly as the truth hit me.

One memory after another pummeled my consciousness. The misty alley. The creepy reporter, the glow of magic, the fade into nothingness. The pair of strong arms carrying me to bed.

"Oh, no," I grumbled. "Did Dom call you?"

" That's what you're worried about?" Emmy handed over an Advil and the water I'd requested. "You've got bigger problems than who helped you."

I groaned. "I hurt everywhere."

"You're probably exhausted. From the sounds of it, you really wrecked that guy with your magic."

"That's right," I murmured. "Dom stopped me before I could..."

My breath hitched as a panic set in.

"Emmy." I felt like I couldn't breathe. "I could have killed that man."

"You wouldn't have killed him," she assured me. "You would have stopped even if Dom didn't find you. "

"This is why magic sucks!" I threw my head back onto the pillow. "I don't know what to do now, Em. Do I turn myself in to The Circle? Do I beg Dom not to say anything? Do I find the reporter and, I don't know, apologize?"

Emmy was looking at me like I was crazy. "Take a deep breath. No, you don't need to turn yourself in. I think both you and the reporter are best just going your separate ways at this point, though it really wouldn't hurt you to file a police report. If he's blackmailing you, then he's probably doing it to someone else too."

"That would open up a whole can of worms," I said, wincing. "Who knows what he's going to tell the police? Then they'll want to investigate and arrest me for attempted murder, and maybe kick me out of The Hollow for magical repression—oh, Emmy."

"Or maybe we circle back to the idea of you and the reporter both going your separate ways and hoping he got the bejeezus scared out of him enough to learn his lesson?"

I blew out a painful breath. "I can't deal with this right now."

"Eat, calm down, let's go home," Emmy encouraged. "You are okay, and that's what matters."

I nodded, feeling robotic. I went through the motions of eating and showering and dressing in my normal clothes, mostly to appease Emmy and let her know I was fine.

Physically, I was fine. I felt tired, like I'd been wrung out, but it was the sort of fatigue that I knew I'd recover from, like how I imagined it'd feel to run a marathon. Not that I possessed the gene that would cause me to run twenty plus miles for absolutely no reason at all, but still .

We gathered up our things, leaving this place a lot more somber than we'd entered it. The drama in the alleyway last night had me almost forgetting the reason we'd come here in the first place. With any luck, the reporters would drop off when they realized that I was serious about not campaigning and there was nothing interesting to say about me.

We made it out to my car after tunneling through a scraggly group of reporters that were much more receptive to my "no comment" mumbles than the group from last night. Or maybe most of them were remembering Dom's warning and were smart enough to back off.

When I finally looked up from staring at my feet, I found an unwelcome figure leaning against my car.

"What are you doing here?" I dropped my bag, completely exhausted from the walk out to the car. "Where's your girlfriend?"

"My head of security, Vix, chose life over riding in a vehicle with you," Dominic deadpanned. "I, however, like to live life on the edge. Are you taking a fare home?"

"Nope." I moved around him, feeling the crackle of electricity as I brushed against him to open my door. "Cab's closed."

"Not according to your profile." Dom held up his phone. "You're BadWitch13? I requested a ride from you."

I rolled my eyes. "You're BigBadWolf? How creative."

Emmy stifled a laugh. I gave her a look that told her she was a traitor.

"I'm not driving you home," I said to Dom. Not mad, just exhausted. "Call your security girl. "

Dom looked over my head to Emmy. "Can you talk some sense into her? I'll pay off Chopstix for another year if that helps."

"Just let him sit quietly in the back," Emmy said softly, the humor leaving her eyes. "We're all going to the same place."

I gave some weird growly response that everyone else took to be acceptance. Dom slid into the back of the car, dressed in a nice suit that was way out of place at this hour in this sort of car. In my leggings and sweatshirt, I suddenly felt underdressed.

We made the drive home in silence. Dominic refrained from commenting on my driving abilities this time, though I did see his fingers tighten as I blew through a yellow light and forgot about one little stop sign. I was pretty sure he was worried I'd pin him to the wall with unbridled magic if he so much as hiccupped wrong, and I wasn't totally upset about it.

When we reached our shared building, I pulled to a stop at a meter out front. However, Dom refused to get out until I pulled the car around and parked in my weird space behind the restaurant that was definitely a front for the mob. All three of us walked awkwardly through the back alley together.

"You do this nightly, huh?" Dom asked. "Walk back from Chopstix's place?"

"Whenever I'm working," I muttered. "We're not all loaded because we sell peoples' homes when they don't want to move. "

"We've circled back to that little issue, I see," Dom mused. "And we're going to ignore last night?"

I just glared back at him.

"Trixie, can I speak to you upstairs? Privately," Dom said as he pulled open the door to our apartment building. "I'll bribe you with a coffee."

I was about to flat out reject him when I realized that I hadn't had coffee this morning. Plus, the way Emmy looked at me told me that maybe I should consider his offer. One could argue that the two of us had a few things to discuss, and I did feel like maybe I should thank Dom for his help last night.

"Do you have milk?" I grumbled. "I don't like black coffee."

Dom winked. "I have whatever your heart fancies."

Behind his back, Emmy feigned swooning. I gave another hard eye roll.

We split ways on the seventh floor as Emmy headed into our shared apartment. Dom and I continued up, up, up to the penthouse. Dom had to swipe a key to get us into his place. His was the only apartment on the top level. Again, not surprising, seeing as he owned the whole damn thing.

"Welcome home," Dom murmured, holding the door open for me. "Give me a minute, and I'll have your coffee ready."

While Dom disappeared, somehow having no bags despite our traveling overnight, I parked my janky pink overnight bag by the door and waited, taking in the space.

While I'd expected the big, airy windows and the open floor plan, I hadn't pictured the delicate elegance of the place. Instead of all white walls and white countertops and light colors that were en vogue at the moment, Dominic had opted for a darker design that suited him well.

His kitchen, visible from the living room, was all blacks and caramel-woods with pops of emerald from the occasional plant—all fake plants, of course. Dom didn't have the heart to care for something real.

Except, he did, didn't he? The thought niggled in the back of my brain as I walked into a living room with black leather couches and minimal modern art hung on the walls. He'd taken care of me last night for no reason at all, and I was very much a living thing. He didn't owe me any loyalty. And yet here we were.

Dom returned and set to fiddling with an expensive looking espresso machine on the counter. A few minutes later, he cursed under his breath, and turned to face me. "How do you take your coffee?"

"Any way really, so long as it's not black."

Dom turned to his phone and typed something out. Then looked up to me.

"I should say thank you," I blurted.

"You should say thank you?" Dom's ridiculously handsome face crinkled. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Trix."

"What I'm trying—and failing—to say is thank you." I cleared my throat. "Thank you for what you did last night."

"I didn't do anything."

"You were there for me," I admitted. "When I passed out after the incident, you made sure that I was safe. "

"That doesn't make me a hero by any means. A decent human maybe, but that's it."

"Well, considering you're not totally human, it's still a win."

Dom barked a short laugh, ran a hand through his hair, making him appear a little unruffled for the first time since I'd known him. "Point taken. Trust me, I know you think I'm a monster."

I shifted uneasily before him. It was true that I was holding onto the fact I was conditioned to hate this vampire. We were at odds on a variety of levels. But even so, I found myself sometimes wondering why I was required to hate him in the first place.

"So thanks," I said. "I know you witnessed something that could get me in a lot of trouble. If you feel the need to turn me in to The Circle, I'd understand."

Dom took a step closer to me. "You're going to get hurt, Trixie. You can't continue to keep your magic locked inside. I don't care about The Circle's opinion, and I'd never turn you in. But for your sake—your safety—I urge you to reconsider your magical repression."

"Noted, considered. Thanks for not saying anything," I garbled out in a rush. "Is there anything else?"

Dom licked his lips. "How do you feel?"

"Fine. Tired," I amended at his look of disbelief. "But really, fine."

Dominic opened his mouth, but before he could speak, there was a knock on the door. I didn't see who was there, but when Dom returned from answering it, he held two bucket-sized cups of coffee out to me .

"I didn't know what you preferred, so this is some mocha concoction, and this..." Dom winced as he tried to remember the other drink. "I don't know. I got you something iced, something hot, both sweet."

"Thank you," I said, accepting two cups with a wry smile. "You don't want one?"

Dom gave a shake of his head. "Not my cup of tea."

"You do realize you'll be able to hear my heartbeat from a mile away if I drink all this caffeine in one go?"

"Good. It'll make it easier to keep tabs on you."

"Well, thanks for the drinks." I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. "It's probably time for me to leave your penthouse of glory to go back to my humble abode."

"Penthouse of glory?" he echoed faintly.

I gestured around. "I'm just saying, you don't know what it's like to live like the rest of us. You live up here without a care in the world. Money solves all your problems."

"I have cares," he grumbled. "Plenty of them. Sometimes too many."

"Not financial," I said. "I bet you don't worry if your appliances break. I bet you don't hunt around in couch cushions for spare change in order to fix them."

"Why wouldn't you call maintenance to fix your appliances?"

"I do," I said. "But things still cost money. Car repairs cost money. Food costs money. I'm just saying, you're never going to get it, Dominic."

With that, I yanked at my tattered pink bag and let myself out the door. I closed it behind me, well aware that there were things still unsaid between us. I made it down to my apartment, feeling a swirl of emotions in my chest. As much as I was trying to convince myself to keep on hating this vampire who was about to ruin my life, a part of me couldn't help but like him.

I pushed open the door to my apartment and froze when I found Emmy standing there, stock still, as if she'd been petrified.

"Emmy?" I asked. "What is it?"

"Well, there are two things," she said as if that would make it better.

"Good news and bad news?" I asked hopefully.

She cringed. "Bad news and worse news?"

I swore under my breath.

"There's an article about you in the paper," Emmy said. "It's everywhere online too. I don't know if it's from the reporter who cornered you last night, but I wouldn't be surprised, judging by how much the writer seems to hate you."

I let out another curse as I scanned the headline.

OUT OF CONTROL WITCH WINS WILDCARD BID FOR THE CIRCLE.

"I'll take this nice light reading to my room for later," I said. "I'm not up for more nonsense now."

"Okay, well, here's the other news."

"Is this the bad news or the worse news?" I asked, accepting another letter on thick cardstock from Emmy.

"Honestly, I've no idea," Emmy blurted. "But it's not good."

I opened the letter, read the words twice before they connected. "How can this be possible? "

"I imagine it's legally possible," Emmy said softly. "After meeting Dom, I'm sure he's got a team of lawyers overseeing this deal. It's the official letter that the apartment building is getting sold, Trixie, I'm sorry."

"Two months?" I blinked. "We've now only got two months to officially move out of our home?"