“Now I’m lost entirely,” he sighed, pushing up from the ground. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Whatever little crush you have on me is pointless,” I commented and he slowly turned towards me, a look on his face that said he thought I was crazy. “You’re denying it?” I asked.
This happened a lot. People were naturally attracted to nokkens—much to my annoyance.
“Denying— “ he broke off, his mouth dropping open. “You honestly think I have acrushon you? You’re the biggest asshole I’ve ever fucking met! And you’re a fucking…” he motioned towards me with a grimace. I shifted back to a human appearance. I’d forgotten I was still in my true form.
“Better?” I grit out, feeling slightly exposed. It was harder to see like this. The lantern’s warm, flickering light wasn’t the most effective with human eyes.
“Hardly. Now you’re just the same asshole I’ve had to deal with for years,” he spat out, sounding like he was getting worked up.
“Oh you mean the asshole who’s responsible for the band’s success,” I responded. His eyes flared with anger.
“You’re like a siren, aren’t you?” He asked. I eyed him warily. “There was always something about your music. You just lean back on your magic abilities while the rest of us had to work our asses off.”
“You think everything is easy for me? Is that it? You don’t know a fucking thing,” I said, rolling my eyes. He immediately pushed into my space like he was ready to fight.
If he wanted to fight then I was here for it. I was itchy with agitation, wondering where the hell Ava was. A little bloodsport would help relieve the pressure. Just the idea of it was already washing a subtle calm over me. I cracked my knuckles.
“I know that our band’s success was the biggest dream the rest of us had and you didn’t give the slightest shit fucking us all over so you could obsess over Ava like a creep.”
“What, rather I be looking at you?” I asked with a snort, egging him closer to boiling point. He sneered in response.
“Ava actually seems decent. Nice, pretty. You know, Matthias and I almost didn’t come. Do you want to know what made us decide to follow you?”
“What?” I asked in amusement.
“Because I was worried about that sweet, clueless girl I met at our concert. She had zero fucking idea who you really were.” My eyes widened in shock. The calm of an approaching fight instantly vaporized and was replaced with raw anger.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I growled down into his face.
“I think you’re insane and obsessed. It’s a bad combination,” he said, watching my reaction.
“Shut up,” I said quietly. “I’d never hurt her.”
“Really? Tell me, why did you send her off with that monster then? You’ve been as territorial as a deranged stalker and now suddenly you want some beast taking care of her?” His eyes pierced mine.
“You don’t understand,” I sighed.
“Ah, so there is something to understand? He’d laid you out flat earlier and you almost seemed relieved by it.” Brandon was far too astute for my liking at the moment.
“This is bullshit, you didn’t come to keep an eye on her. You came to get me back on tour,” I insisted. He leaned back with a self-satisfied smirk. He thought he was onto something and the bad part was hewason to something.
“Two birds, one stone. Why do you think I kept insisting we stay close to you two? The campfire storytime. The river. Why do you think I was going to ask her to join us? I’m not the fucking bad guy here, Caspian.” He leaned forward, making sure I was looking at him in his angry eyes—twin blue flames rimmed in red from all the crying and dirt. “You’re the bad guy. You always were.” I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“I’m not going to be the fucking villain of this story just because I’m not as human as you would like.”
“Really?” He asked, his one pierced eyebrow going up. “Why did you make Mothman take you down? Why did you send Ava off with him?”
“Back the fuck up,” I said. Brandon had somehow honed in on the biggest issue of all and I was not in the mood to talk about it. I ground my teeth and felt coiled with violence. He must have seen something in my expression or the way my muscles tensed.
“Go ahead,hit me,” he spat, shoving me roughly.
“Well, if you fucking insist,” I said, with apsychopathicsmile for his benefit. I pulled back my fist and he lifted his chin, managing to look down at me despite the half-foot difference between us.
This was going to feel good. I did love the way Brandon bled and I was beginning to think he was some type of masochist since he kept insisting on goading me into physical fights.
A big fluffy fucker rammed into my side, sending me sprawling on the ground. I spit out a mouth full of pebbles, grit, and fur then tried to roll over but Mothman was still on me.
