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After eating breakfast with the twins and everybody who didn't live at the cottage left, I lounged around in my bedroom all day reading the books the guys had given me about tarot cards.
I desperately wanted to sit at the round table in the shop across from a customer and read their cards for them. The guys were all for this but, unfortunately, I actually needed to know what the heck I was doing before I could start. I was a fast learner and if I kept on it, then it wouldn't be long before I was sitting right where I wanted to be.
I had a quiet lunch with Dash before he left to do things unknown to me. He didn't return until the wee hours of the morning, and Binx and I enjoyed a quiet day to ourselves. Something rare I treated like the gift I knew it to be.
I also took advantage of the time alone to get caught up on all of the laundry, something Dash would not have allowed me to do had he been home to stop me. Out of the two of us, he was the domestic one, only because he wanted to be. He got off on taking care of me and I apparently got off on letting him. But, every now and then, when the opportunity arose to be the one to take care of things for the two of us, I took it. I didn't ever want him to think I was a mooch or a horrible roommate.
I called it an early night and crashed on my bed with Binx tucked up beside me, and Coach Taylor bossing boys in football gear around on the TV. It was official, I was gone for Tim Riggins. Taylor Kitsch was a hottie and the long-haired, brooding character he played on one of my favorite shows was exactly the kind of guy I seemed into in real life. Except for, you know, the drinking and being a hot mess part.
After the last dream I had, I wasn't taking any chances of falling asleep underneath anything that wasn't my beautiful dreamcatcher, so I crashed in bed instead of the loveseat.
I woke up when I heard Dash come home. It might have actually been because Binx got up and left me for his main human, but I couldn't be certain.
I expected them both to join me in my bed, but fell back asleep before they got there.
Chapter Eight
The bell over the door rang out, signaling someone entering the store. I looked up expecting it to be one of the guys and immediately looked away when I realized it wasn't.
It wasn't a complete stranger, either, and I very much wished it was. Or that he'd walk right back out the door and disappear into a poof of smoke.
The short, bald, exceptionally round man that resembled a genie and was a big time, hot shot member of the Council of Elders for the American Witches, strolled into the store as if he owned the place. I looked down at his feet, expecting him to have slippers that curled up at the toes with little bells on them. Alas, he wore no such thing. Instead, he wore a three-piece suit that might have looked good on him if it didn't look so out of place with the piercings on his ears and protruding, pregnant belly.
He looked deathly pale underneath the garish lights that ran along the ceiling in here, and the gold hoops in his ears gleamed so brightly they almost blinded me. The same could be said for his bald head. I wondered if he waxed the damn thing, that's how shiny it was.
Unfortunately for me, and it was unfortunate no matter how you looked at it, the door didn't have a chance to close behind the short man. And it didn't because he wasn't alone. This being another unpleasant surprise. Every time he'd come to see me before he'd been alone. But, then again, he'd never come to see me here and had only visited me at the Alexander’s big house. As far as I knew he didn't even know this place existed or that it was owned by Tyson Alexander.
It didn't feel good to know that he very much knew of FFTU's existence.
The thought of Rain being in the apartment next door made my stomach churn painfully. He couldn't be found here. Not by these people. It would be bad for all of us.
I plucked my phone up off the counter where, thankfully, Binx was missing from and shot off a quick emergency text.
Ariel: The Council is in the shop. Do not come out here. Text Quinton.
My phone immediately vibrated with a text message, but I put it on mute and tossed it on the shelf below the counter before looking at it.
I hoped to all that was holy that Rain could, for once in his life, follow simple directions. If he came down here and confronted members of the Council, then there was no telling how that would play out and who it would hurt in the end.
I didn't think it boded well for me that the two gentlemen who came through the door behind Adrian weren't people I had ever seen before in my life either.
The heat that blasted off of them and filled the room up with their presence told me all I really needed to know about the two men. They were witches like me and they had a whole lot of magic. I didn't think I'd ever felt something so powerful before. Then again, all the witches in my acquaintance didn't wear their magic on their sleeve for the whole world to check out. They kept a lid on it and made sure they had control over it at all times.
This gross display of magical power was like the witch’s version of a pissing contest. I wasn't sure who they thought they were competing with here, but I was sure they both wanted me know that there was no shame in what they were packing.
"Hello, child," Adrian Almatiez purred in his cultured voice, which even put Marcus Cole's to shame. "You are looking lovely and it has been far too long since I've seen your beautiful face."
I wanted to gag but managed to keep my face pleasantly blank. It wouldn't do well to insult the man as soon as he walked through the door, or ever, for that matter.
"It has been a long time, Adrian," I replied in a voice devoid of all emotion. I couldn't quite pull off pleasant so I went for blank with my tone. I was happy to hear I'd succeeded. Even though I didn't want to ask, I did it anyways. "How have you been? I hope well."
Honestly, that last part wasn't exactly a lie because I would never wish ill will on him. He was scary and probably had some magical juju going that would alert him the moment someone had bad thoughts about him, and he probably had a box stuffed full of voodoo dolls poked full of pins because of it.
He walked right up to the counter and held his hands out toward me. Reluctantly, I reached out and took hold of his hands as I leaned down over the front of the countertop. I had to lean down far because I think he was five-foot tall tops, and I wasn't exactly a short girl. Adrian brushed soft, plump lips against my cheek before pulling back and staring into my eyes. He still held on tightly to my hands and I couldn't help it when they started to sweat.
He made me nervous and it was starting to show.
"I must tell you I've been disappointed that you've not kept in touch with me." He squeezed my hands gently before releasing them and stepping back.
