Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

"That earthquake was wild, huh?" Ben Dover, Razorsedge's sequin-clad barman remarked, grinning as he stacked clean glasses away. "Shook the whole of Demontown, I hear."

Zee side-eyed me. "Didn't feel a thing," he said. "Must have slept through it."

After our shower adventure, I'd slept so deeply even the earth moving hadn't woken me. Victor still slept now.

It had been an effort to get out of bed while he lay naked on his back, arm thrown over Zee's pillow, sheet pooled at his waist.

Ben's dark chuckle suggested he knew why we'd slept so well. "You lookin' mighty fine this morning, Zee."

Now it was my turn to side-eye Zee. He did look good. His hair fell in glossy swooshes around his horns, and his wings shimmered under the bar's multicolored lighting.

"Amazing what a good night's sleep will do for the skin. You should try it sometime."

"I could do that, or I could get paid for serving drinks and keeping the rabble under control while Ramone's doing whatever had you all stumbling in at six a.m." The barman smirked. "Instead of sitting there looking pretty, you two could help tidy this bar?"

"Sure." I needed to do something to burn off the excess energy I was sporting.

Zee played coy, but shared a secret smile with me while Ben disappeared behind the bar to collect more clean glasses.

I hopped off the stool and headed behind the counter to help out. Zee joined me, and we shuffled glasses and drinks around. "So, uhm ... Was that us? The earthquake?" I asked.

"Pfft... Nah." He shrugged and his wings bobbed, dusting glitter as he reached for the top shelf and grabbed a bottle of something expensive looking. "Probably not." He tilted his head. His nose wrinkled. "Maybe?" Popping the lid, he poured himself a drink, then replaced the bottle.

He gleamed, all shining wings and bright eyes. A lot of that was his innate incubusness, but he'd had a definite boost since last night.

"You do look amazing," I told him.

He preened, fluttering his lashes. "You're lookin' pretty good yourself. And hey, look." Lifting his semitransparent black shirt, he revealed a pinkish smudge on his waist where last night there had been a bullet wound. "No more gunshot wound. Instant sexual heals. How do you feel?"

I considered my mood—good. My skin felt lighter too, as though a heavy blanket had been lifted away. "Yeah, great, actually." And there were none of Tom's cocaine chasers in sight.

"And by Victor's adorable snoring, I figure he's feelin' fuckin' great too," he added. "So the ground shakes when we fuck? Happens to everyone."

I snorted. It definitely did not happen to everyone. With the wards growing, and the earth moving, and my curse wobbling, something was going on when we... got personal. Zee was powerful, always had been. I was... different. And Victor? Victor was Victor. Strong, wise, old. He didn't broadcast his abilities like Zee did, but he had them. The voice thing was unique to him. I'd seen him fight too. He was Murder Daddy when unleashed.

Put the three of us together... Yeah. We were badass.

We tidied bits and bobs behind the bar. Ben returned with more glasses, then vanished again. "Hey Zee," I said, after thinking more about Victor. "You know when we rescued you from the truck? And you and Victor got reacquainted?"

"You mean the mouth fuck he gave me?" Zee grinned. He'd given up stacking glasses and was back on the bar stool, dazzling. "How could I forget?"

"You don't have to tell me. It's probably private." But I was dying to know. "Uhm... What did he say?" Victor had said something that had shattered Zee's expression back in that truck, leaving him raw. Zee's grin faltered now at the memory.

I regretted asking. "I mean, it's none of my business. It's just... It looked heavy. You don't have to say—I shouldn't have asked."

"He uh." Zee swallowed and peered into his drink, making it swirl in the glass. "He said uh... He told me I was uh... all the color in his life , and if he lost me he'd... well... He'd lived long enough to know that he didn't wish to live another second without me in it, or you . So yeah, that's what he said..." Zee swallowed again, but this time his cheek twitched, and the shine in his eyes sparkled. He wet his lips, then downed the rest of the drink. "Nobody uh..." He coughed. "Nobody has ever spoken to me like that. There's me and you, but it's different with him."

"Good different?"

"Yeah. I think. Fuck, what do I know? "

An emotional lump formed in my throat, that took some effort to swallow. "Victor has a way with words."

"Yeah, yeah he does. I'm uh... trying to get my head around it, you know?" He leaned on the counter, and eyed the empty stage and catwalk where he used to perform. "Around all of this, and my place in it—in us—and how not to fuck it up. Fury Fists was right, I've never really had a meaningful relationship that didn't start and end with my dick. And then there's you and the whole prophecy thing ." He air quoted.

Yeah, it was a lot. I forgot this was all new for them, when I'd been carrying it around my entire life.

"It is a very nice dick," I said.

Zee snorted a laugh.

"But if you didn't have a dick," I continued.

"Fuck," he spluttered. "Why say that?"

"I just mean, if you were dickless?—"

"Stop," he laughed.

"If a vampire chopped it off and sent it back to us on a cushion."

"Adam Vex." He waggled a finger and laughed. "Why you gotta bring back those memories?"

"I'd still love you." I leaned against the counter and planted a kiss on his mouth, silencing him. And me. We opened our eyes together. He grabbed the back of my neck, desperately deepening the kiss, turning it meaningful.

"Good afternoon," Victor took a stool beside Zee and smiled at us both as we separated. "Adam, Zodiac."

"Fancy Fangs." Zee settled back on the stool but caught my eye, reminding me of Victor's heartfelt words.

It wasn't just one of us that was powerful, I realized, looking at them both side by side. It was all of us together.

We could save Claymore, and we didn't have to stop there. Maybe, just maybe... the prophecy was true. "Zee... Did you say you had some of those beads left?"

"I may or may not have some left. It depends on whether you're still pissed at me for eating one."

I smiled innocently. "Can I borrow them?"

Zee's eyebrow arched to new heights, but it was Victor who asked, "Why?"

"We're going to the Dine and Fight finale."