“Just don’t blame me later.”
Fian leaned in close.“Never.”
The same driver who had taken them to the mall picked them back up.The big yellow pickup truck turned quite a few heads in the lot as Fian and Kai got in.
As soon as Fian closed the door behind himself, he turned to Kai.
“Kai, meet Zazine!She’s a friend of mine.I apologize for not telling you earlier.She’s a demon too.”
The driver whistled when Kai slowly turned to face her.“You have tentacles as well?”
“Me?No, oh no.I’m from a seahorse family.He told you, huh?Tentacled you, huh?”
There’s more of them.That’s not really a surprise.It also is.
“Tentacled me?I guess he…did?That sounds very naughty though.”
“Zazine is like that.You get used to it.”Fian was leaning over to Kai and fastening his seat belt once more.“I told her about you.I had to because we needed a ride out of town.”
“Right.Thanks for that.”
Zazine shrugged and fiddled with her radio.“Oh, it’s fine.I have a bunch of brothers, so I know how needy they are.I’m used to being on call, you could say.”
Kai looked from Zazine to Fian.“Are there many demons here?Like, living here?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so.”Fian put on his own seat belt.“I mean, I guess some spend more time in the human realm, but the Morpheusrealm is a more comfortable place to live.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to hide, and your skin doesn’t dry out as fast.”
“Oh yes.That’s a really good point.”
Kai fiddled with his new phone, sleek and comforting in his hands.He’d still remembered all his passwords, and to his shock, he’d not checked his emails and other messages once in those three years.It was daunting and not something he’d be able to tackle in an afternoon, especially not an afternoon that was slowly turning to evening.
“Does that mean it’s normal for you to tell me what you are?Or are you going to…wipe my memory?”
Fian reached for Kai’s hand.“Never.We’d never.”
Zazine glanced from the road over to them.They were almost out of the brightness of civilization again, leaving the comfort of it behind the closer to Salt Harbor they got.
“Fian said you two were dating.”
“I mean—” Fian turned blue, literally.His eyes went wide, and his color stabilized.“I mean?”
“We did hook up in a dream,” Kai said.“I’m just in the process of getting out of some shit, that’s all.My life has been…”
“Magic shouldn’t be done by humans against humans,” Zazine said.“Or by humans at all.Some try to use it to capture demons, can you imagine?Oh, if a human ever tried to capture one of my baby brothers, I don’t know what I’d do.Fian’s decent though.I’d be fine with one of my brothers dating him.”
“Oh, Zazine, that’s so sweet.”Fian sounded moved.It was adorable.
Zazine’s brow drew tight.“Part of the reason I’m saying this out loud is that you seem to only have eyes for the human, so don’t ever repeat it.”
“Okay.”Fian nodded.Kai managed to snap a photo of him, drawing Fian’s attention.“What was that for?”
“Here, look.You turned sort of purple.”
“That…happens sometimes.”
“I know.I read up on octopi.After last night.”Kai saved the photo.He wanted a memory of this day, and even in pale purple, Fian was still a beautiful man.
