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“Iggy!” I took a calming breath. Ally was hard to stop once she got started on the waterworks, and I was bound and determined to have a relaxing evening. No tears. No fights.
“I have a few book questions,” Jesse said, and from the intensity of his voice I was fairly sure it was not in an attempt to rescue me. Jesse’s bookshop, Tomes and Tea, was half contemporary, masses friendly fiction, but he had a collector’s drive that meant that the best place to find books of magic was in Jesse’s store.
Technically, it was my store, too, but I ignored that detail.
The sensitive books were on display in enhanced glass boxes that were soldered to silver and steel pedestals. They couldn’t be removed without the keys that were woven into his skin and mine. I bought more than a few—and I knew damn well that he sold them to me for less than they were worth. It was one of his sneaky ways of paying me.
“TheConstabulary?” Iggy leaned closer. “Oh, that was a hard to find one even in my day!”
As they spoke Jesse slid an envelope toward me without making eye contact. I knew what it was. I used to rip them up, but that was insulting. I fronted the start-up costs for his bookstore the first year, and Jesse was still refusing to remove my name from the deed. I was also refusing to cash his checks.
Family was complicated sometimes.
And this was my family in all ways that mattered. I loved my mother, but there were no blood-siblings, cousins, aunts, or the like. We were a family of two for most of my life.
Sera and Christy were discussing bookkeeping, Jesse was scribbling notes from a dead guy on possible families who might have a copy of theConstabularyin an attic moldering somewhere, and Ally was singing along with whatever music Eli had queued up while he was away getting me a bowl of cherries and oranges.
They were mine. My family. My center.
My great-times-great grandmother was out there, as was my mother, but this was the family I’d chosen. And time with them re-centered me so I was ready for the next crisis.
“Bonbon?” Eli slid a cocktail glass of fruit toward me.
I popped an orange slice into my mouth as he dropped a few lime slices into my glass of tequila.
A waitress stopped by with cocktails he’d ordered, too, and I smiled as I leaned closer to Eli. Mine. That was what he was, too. Not just a friend. Not just an accidental fiancé. Not just a partner in my business.
He pulled me closer, so we were a bit more like one of those always-touching couples that used to annoy me.
“What does that look you are sending me mean?” he whispered.
“Mine,” I admitted.
He chuckled, brushed a quick kiss over my lips, and agreed, “As you are mine.”
Maybe he said it to remind me that not onlydraugror witches have the urge to create a group, coven or nest—or maybe he was simply as relaxed as I was. Either way, I rested my head on his shoulder and smiled at my odd assemblage of family and obligations.
Chapter Thirteen
I might not have agreedto patrol for NOPD, but I still intended to do so. Eli was closing the bar with Christy, and I saw Sera and Ally to Ally’s car. Ally had plenty of security—and an underground garage. So I knew that after she dropped Sera off, Ally would be fine getting home.
Jesse was gathering the last of the trash with the lingering employees. He wasn’t required to do so, but he was just like me when it came to having idle time. We sucked at it.
Iggy and I were alone at the table for a few moments.
“Talk to me Iggy,” I offered. “Why can’t I get rid of you?”
“Because I know hexes you need to learn.” He leaned back in his chair, and for a flicker of a moment I realized that he was truly relaxed here. This was a man who was fond of taverns or gentleman’s social clubs in his day.
“So if I learn them,poof.” I snapped my fingers.
Iggy gave me a hard look. “You want me here, Hexen. If you didn’t think I had knowledge, and if I didn’t think I did, I’d be hustled off to my grave.”
“How many spells?”
“Damfino.” He lifted the cigar that had been in a pocket somewhere and stared at it the way I stared at a pint of ice cream on a rough day. Iggy sighed and said, “I used to love a good cigar.”
“Damfino?” I echoed.
