I admitted my truth.“It’s a spell.Keeps my pheromones under check.Well, it keeps everyone else from noticing my pheromones.”
The pheromones were working just fine, I now realized, courtesy of this attraction between me and Daruka.Or, more accurately, they were now singularly focused.Just as Dad had warned me.
She narrowed her eyes.“And the spell doesn’t work on me and Selina?Just the two of us?”
I sighed.“Selina is the one who cast the spell, and she excluded herself.Which, for the past four years, I’ve tried to convince her to adjust.”
What I didn’t add, because honestly, it was water under the bridge, was that the day I’d arrived in Arrythmia and had asked Selina to cast the spell, there’d been a price to pay.There was always a price to pay.
In this case, it was me, in her bed, for twelve hours.Naked.At her bidding.
And since I’d been single at the time and figured it was worth it to get everyone else off my back, I agreed to her terms.
Problem was, one time wasn’t enough for Selina.Which, I’ve pointed out to her, was a result of my lust demon nature and that all she had to do was include herself in the dulling spell.
Which she promptly ignored each and every time I pointed this out.
“Hmm,” Daruka said.She drank her coffee and nibbled at her scone and did not ask why she was immune to the spell.
Finally, I waved at the street and gave her an out.“You still need clothes.”
We crossed and headed two doors down to the boutique, where I introduced Queenie and Daruka.And then I stepped outside and sank down onto a bench, because as much as I’d love to watch the process and offer my opinions, soak up the conversation I knew Queenie would coax out of her, I also knew Daruka needed a break from me.Room to breathe.
While I was curious about what brought her to Arrythmia—everybodywho came here had a story—I could bide my time, let her come to accept our intertwined fates at her own pace.
River meandered up to me with his hands stuffed into his pockets.Like most animals in this town, he had the ability to shift forms.Although even in his humanoid form, he still strongly resembled a bird with his beak-like nose, black eyes, and hair brushed away from his face like a spray of feathers on the back of his head, similar to the phoenix he was.
Before ending up in Arrythmia, River had a stalker who kept setting fire to wherever he happened to be at the moment, because they liked to watch him burn and regenerate.Except the last time it happened, there had been other people in the building, and, although all the innocent bystanders had safely escaped, River had been traumatized.If they hadn’t escaped…
The experience ultimately led him to Arrythmia, where he now happily inked the inhabitants’ skin and hadn’t had to regenerate since he arrived.
“What’s going on, man?”he asked, standing over me, rocking on the balls of his feet.
I shrugged and tossed my empty cup into a nearby trash receptacle.“We have a new resident.Queenie’s fitting her with a new wardrobe.”I stabbed my thumb over my shoulder at the boutique.
River looked up, the wide shop windows reflecting in his sunglasses.“I heard there’s a new supe in town.”
Arrythmia was no different from every other small town in that gossip spread faster than, well, damn near anything.
“Yep,” I said, nodding.
“You said her.What is she?”
“A mermaid,” I said, and then added, “and demon.”That side of her nature was a lot more obvious, and ever since Gal opened the hellmouth, the residents had understandably been a little gun-shy about demons.“But she’s cool.”
“A mermaid, eh?Can’t imagine a mermaid would be happy here.Like, where’s the nearest body of water?The Gulf?”River was apparently not one of the residents who was nervous about demons living here.
I frowned.He had a point.Mermaids needed water.Like, literally, Daruka could die without it.Sure, everyone needed to drink water, but Daruka needed to actually soak in it on the regular.
I still wasn’t sure whether they had sex organs while in their mermaid form.Hopefully, I’d find out in person one of these days.
“Hey,” River said, “come to my shop while you’re waiting.I drew some new designs.I’d love your opinion.”
River’s designs were, generally speaking, spectacular.I hadn’t added any fresh new ink in a while.And I knew from firsthand experience that Queenie needed time to work her wardrobe magic.Even when she’d outfitted me with a single velvet smoking jacket and a dozen vests and matching leather pants, it had taken a solid two hours.
Plus, the tattoo parlor was directly across the street.I could keep an eye on Queenie’s shop, head back when I saw Daruka was ready to leave.
I bounced to my feet.“Let’s go.”
