“I’ve never met a siren,” I say, forgetting about my embarrassment long enough to start to study him anew.
“Well, you strike me as someone who doesn’t hang out with Made fae very often.”
My gaze hardens at that. Didn’t he just say sirens are rare? So why would that indicate I don’t hang out with Made fae? “Why do you keep acting like you know anything about me?” My eyes threaten to start unleashing droplets. And those aren’t the tears I need. I start to turn, but he reaches out and tugs on my sleeve, getting me to turn back to him.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just Goddess’ Trance isn’t a mixed band, so I just kind of assumed there’s a reason for that.”
I shrug. “It’s not on purpose,” I explain. “We just all grew up together, except for Taser and Blake.”
He nods in understanding. “I guess I was just thinking about your old guitarist. He hates Made fae.”
My hand goes to my neck at the mention of Jordan. Pisces’ eyes track the movement and his throat bobs. “Yeah, well, that’s one of the reasons he’s not in our band anymore.”
“What are the other reasons?” Pisces asks, his voice soft and gentle. His gaze travels back to mine.
I let out a hollow laugh. “You got a few hours? It’s a long story.” I look down to the ribbons in my hand and let out a sigh. “Thanks for cleaning these,” I say. It actually was very thoughtful of him. I could always get more, but these ones are special. Liz and Amelia got them for me one year for my birthday.
“Sure,” is all he says. He continues to stand there, towering over me.
I smack my hand to my forehead. “Your hoodies! I keep forgetting to get them back to you!” I turn towards thetownhouse but pause and look over my shoulder. “Come on, I’ll go grab them.”
“Erm, okay.” He follows me at a little bit of a distance, as if he’s too good to walk next to me. I roll my eyes, even though he can’t see it.
We enter the townhouse a few doors down from where Voracious Maw is staying and I groan as I see all the band members gathered around the living room. “Hey, Bliss,” Dericia calls cheerily. “How was your date with the super sexy Grim? Oh, did you bring him back to recharge—” She breaks off as Pisces, not Grim, follows in after me.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Taser says with a chuckle, patting Dericia on the forearm.
Amelia just arches her brows at me in question and I ignore all of them. “Wait here,” I call to Pisces as I race up the stairs. I grab both his hoodies and race back down, coming to a stop before him in the entryway. I hand over the black hoodies, a little sad to see them go.
He doesn’t take them immediately. I wave the bundle towards him, trying to get his attention. He shakes his head as if he just mentally went somewhere else and focuses on what I’m offering him.
“I guess you can’t wear another man’s clothing if you’re dating Grim now,” he says quietly.
“I’m not,” I say quickly, too quickly. He looks at me, his head tilting in that perpetual question. He knows that I know that he saw me kissing Grim earlier. “I mean, well, we went on one date, that’s all.”
“Hmm.” He takes the hoodies, tucking them under his arm and turning to the rest of the band. “Have a good show tonight,” he says and heads out the door. I go out after him, but I don’t have anything to say so I just watch as he heads down thesteps, throwing one last glance my way as he strides back to his townhome.
“Mystery solved.” Blake quietly sniggers to Tubbs, who tries to keep in a laugh but blurts it out.
“You were hooking up with Pisces Penrose?” An incredulous look passes over Tubbs’ face. “I’m a bit impressed, actually.”
“Please, why be impressed? He’s the one who won the lottery hooking up with Bliss, not the other way around,” Amelia says, swiping up a magazine from the coffee table and swatting Tubbs on the head with it.
“What? He’s sexy, and incredibly talented, and even I can appreciate the abs— What?” he yelps as Amelia continues to swat him.
“Bliss is sexy and incredibly talented and she has amazing tits and an amazing ass so that lanky, nerdy, too tall douche should be throwing himself at her feet.”
“Amelia, please,” I say, going to take the magazine away from her. “You might accidentally hit him in the eye and then he won’t be able to play the show…”
I trail off as Tubbs breaks down in a fit of coughing. At first I think he’s just laughing too hard.
Blake claps him on the back. “You okay, man?”
Taser gets up, going over to Tubbs, but he jumps back as Tubbs starts vomiting blood all over the floor.
“Okay, I swear I did not hit him that hard,” Amelia says jokingly, but her eyes reveal concern as she takes in all the blood.
Tubbs looks around the room, eyes growing wider as blood starts to drip from his mouth onto the floor. He continues to cough and can’t seem to stop.
