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With a horrified grimace, she peeled my hand off her face. “I think I’m going to be sick. You clean toilets with those.”
I shook my yellow rubber finger in her face. “So don’t say crazy things like that where people could overhear and get their own ideas. And don’t be such a guppy. These are clean.”
She scrunched her freckled nose and backed away. “It’s still gross.”
I bent to pick up the few escaped cleaning bottles and tucked them back into the caddy. “Don’t say anything to Frankie.” I stood, hoisting the caddy. “This will work.”
“If you say so.” Marissa’s words carried after me as I entered the locker room, but she didn’t follow me this time.
As usual, the stench of musty body odor slammed into me, but I’d long since become accustomed. Since the majority of our members were shifters and therefore not especially self-conscious, we didn’t bother separating men from women or any other designation.
Plus, the gym just wasn’t big enough to offer more than one changing room. No one had complained yet, so we kept things as they were.
Ignoring several people in various states of undress, I got to work while thinking over my conversation with Marissa. Having babies wasn’t something I’d ever seen myself doing, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t felt a thrill of excitement when Marissa mentioned having Dominic’s.
Yep. It was official.
I was certifiable.
CHAPTER 15
Bree
The next two days passed in a blur as excitement over the new massage service grew. Word had continued to spread, and even more members had come in on their off days just for a chance to sign up.
Spraying a punching bag with a cleaning solution, I used a cloth to wipe the bag down thoroughly before moving onto the next. The gym wasn’t open yet that morning, which was the only time I had to clean these suckers.
Marissa had tried to convince us to go digital with the sign up form, allowing even more business to accumulate, but neither Frankie nor I were especially tech-savvy. We needed to handle sign ups when my sister wasn’t around, which was roughly ninety-nine percent of the time.
While Frankie claimed her fae magic made all things electronic go on the fritz, I was already sixteen when we’d left home, an adult under the ocean and nearly an adult in the human world. I’d started working right away and had no time to learn new things, while Marissa had only been ten. Adapting to changes like phones and computers was easier when all your friends and schools used them.
Once, she’d even tried to convince me to read books electronically on my phone, but I’d squashed that idea with a hearty laugh and a hard nope. Nothing smelled or felt better than an actual, physical book in my hands.
Besides, I didn’t want her schedule to get out of control. She still had school to finish, and if I let her have access to anything digital, she’d drop out, claiming she didn’t need school when she was doing fine on her own.
Fine with our kind, maybe, but she’d still need a license to practice massage therapy on humans. There weren’t enough Gifted people in D.C. with the money and interest to keep her in business indefinitely.
A glint against the wall caught my eye, and I bent to inspect the source. Frowning, I picked up what looked like a tiny red rock. Hm, maybe a crystal or a funky-shaped bead. It probably came from that bag passed between the two strangers the other day.
I didn’t know what it was, and I had no interest in finding out who those men were. It wasn’t a ruby or anything like that and was likely too small to be of any importance. No one had come looking for it, after all.
Once I finished cleaning, I would ask Frankie about it. For now, I tucked the rock into my pocket and returned my attention to the task at hand, allowing my imagination to take over. Daydreaming about my latest book boyfriend—or a certain dragon—always made the day go by faster.
I finished everything on my Friday to-do list by early afternoon, so I poked my head into Frankie’s office, where I found her muttering at her computer screen. “Hey, any idea what this is?” I pulled out the red rock from earlier and held it up.
Frankie peered at me over the frame of her glasses and squinted. Then her eyes widened, and she shoved her glasses up into her hair. “Where did you get that?”
“It’s not a ruby. I found it on the floor earlier.” I dropped it into her open palm.
“I know it’s not a ruby.” She sniffed the rock and grimaced. “It’s a pyrocrystal.”
“A what?”
“A type of drug for us Gifted types.” She gave it a tentative lick. Smoke swirled off her tongue, and her irises briefly swirled with violet. “Ooh-wee, strong one, too. You said you just found it on the floor?”
I told her about the near-skirmish from a few days ago when I saw the bag of red crystals being exchanged.
She glared at the rock. “They better not be doin’ what I think they’re doin’ in my gym. These suckers are dangerous. Who was it?”
