The man casually glanced to the side. Whatever illusion kept his less human features hidden slipped and I saw the outline of sharp points rising from his disheveled, windswept hair, because of course this douche laughed in the face of helmets. I squinted and tried to focus on the glimpse of horns I saw but a second later they were gone. Though his face gave nothing away, that little display wasn’t an accident. He wanted me to see he was not human. I was getting tired of his games.
“Let’s cut the bullshit,” I demanded. “Either you’re a crazy person or you’re here because of Lex.”
He tilted his head, almost curious. “You’re playing with forces you don’t understand. Walk away while you still can. Hell and your Lex are bigger than little mages playing with magic tricks.”
"And who the hell are you?"
He gave me another terrifying smile. "I’m bad news."
I scoffed. "Weird ass name."
He climbed back on his bike and nodded at me. “This is your only warning.”
The engine roared to life and he sped off.
"Real nice to meet you!" I hollered.
He was already gone, only exhaust fumes and a queasy feeling in my stomach left in his wake.
~
Rob
“Honey, you’re home!”
Orion froze dead in the doorway to his apartment.
Only as he developed that deer in the headlight’s expression like an oncoming semi-truck calledcommitted relationshipwas suddenly bearing down on him did it hit me how domestic the scene was. I greeted him as soon as he walked in the door like I’d been waiting for him and sounded super glad to see him.
Okay, Ihadbeen waiting for him and Iwasglad to see him. We needed to discuss the intimidating biker demon following me ASAP. But the incubus didn’t know any of that since, duh, we hadn’t discussed it yet.
To him, it just looked like I eagerly awaited his arrival because I missed him or some shit like that. The ‘honey’ thing was a joke. Damn my poor comedic timing.
When he finally got moving, shut the door, and stood before me, he seemed… calm. Not deadly calm, regular calm. He wasn’t freaked out by my clingy boyfriend routine anymore. Weird. Maybe he had a good day at work? Maybe he sold his money for lots more money?
“You made me a drink?” he asked. Did he sound happy? His thumb traced over my fingers around the stem of my martini glass.
“No, this is for me.” I gulped it down to illustrate. “Get your own.”
Ah, that was better. Now he looked annoyed and regular. The warmth in the room I thought I could feel evaporated so fast I must have imagined the whole thing.
The grumpy incubus in front of me could deal with fixing his own damn drink. Alcohol made me happy too and he had plenty of his own available in the apartment without stealing my drink.
This was my third martini. I could have shared but my day really called for three martinis. At least. I’d browsed his top-shelf liquor cabinet and decided on the drink because wasn’t a martini just vodka and a bit of olive juice? This seemed like a great way to polish off a bottle of vodka without just chugging directly from the source.
We went into the living room, and I caught him up on my chat with the biker demon. To prove I could share, I also offered him the rest of the vodka in the bottle on the coffee table, which still had enough for one more drink. He declined as he listened to my story and even made me tell it again after I finished.
"This is a good sign," Orion decided.
I rolled my eyes. "Then you can deal with the literal hell’s angel next time."
"We’re getting closer. Lex is threatened since we’re closing in. So, he sent a warning with this…"
Orion trailed off since I hadn’t told him my visitor’s name. The biker demon did not give me a name, but I had some ideas.
“Bad Motherfucker?” I suggested. “Intense Motherfucker? ‘Motherfucker’ is definitely in his name.” Orion did not seem to love these amazing suggestions of mine. “Oh, got it. Bad Mother. Do you prefer that?”
"Prefer is a strong word, but okay. Now we know his partner and you’ve seen his face. This is good, it’s…" There he went, trailing off again. His lips always formed a thin line whenever he got lost in thought.
