Titus growled. “You’re bullshitting me again. We both know you haven’t looked at anyone for years, since you started taking whatever shit you’ve been taking.”
“I haven’t –”
“I’ve caught you so many times,” Titus interrupted, brushing back the hair that had escaped from his bun. “You were so fucked up, I doubt you even remember. It’s probably the reason why you’re not interested in sex, because you numb yourself with all that fucking poison.”
The tremors were getting worse, moving up his arm. “I don’t –”
“And then there’s you staring at the bartender like some teenage boy with a hard-on, and I thought maybehewould get it into your thick skull –”
“Titus, stop jabbering on and listen to me. I haven’t taken anything.”In a few hours,he mentally added. “And I’ve never taken anything with the intention to get high.” Which was the truth.
“You’re literally smoking something right now.”
“Get off your high horse, you smoke this stuff too.”
A muscle in Titus’s jaw twitched, but he remained silent as Axel continued.
“Anyway, what’s with your obsession with my sex life? I abstain because I want to, not because of anything else.”
Titus chewed on his bottom lip, twirling the silver ring that pierced through the centre. “Being celibate to get back at your mother isn’t healthy.”
“Probably not, but that doesn’t change the fact I’m fine. I haven’t taken anything, I promise.”
Titus’s eyes narrowed. “You’re an arsehole, but I have to trust you.”
Axel’s stomach tightened. “Ofcourseyou have to trust me, we’re blood. Now, come on,” he said taking one last, long inhale, hoping he could hide the tremors. “The first to triple digits is the winner.”
* * *
The brown paper bag fell to the footwell when Axel slammed on the brakes, his finger automatically lifting to flash the driver who had cut him up. He wasn’t even sure why he had a fucking car in London, not when the roads barely moved from traffic. Not to mention the speed limits that were slower than walking.
But then he would have had to take the trains, or buses and Axel knew he couldn’t deal with the attention on any sort of public transport. Reaching down, he grabbed at the ingredients that had fallen from the bag, catching the ball of dried oleander as it rolled. Placing everything back on the passenger seat he knocked the centre console, accidentally flicking the air conditioner as he turned down his road.
The car coughed, and a fine powder shot out of the vents. “Fuck!” Axel swerved to the side, blinking rapidly as he pulled over. Glitter, he was covered in fucking glitter. “Titus you prick!” Grabbing his phone he dialled his cousin, relaying the curse as soon as he answered.
“Told you not to touch my guns,”Titus chuckled down the receiver.“Besides, you started with the glitter.”
“I could have died.”
“Unlikely.”An amused tone.
“I could have killed someone else, Ti!”
“I trusted your instincts.”The laughter didn’t fade.“You finished with your errands? I thought we could go another round on the course, considering neither of us are on rotation tonight.”
“I have some stuff to do at the apartment, but I’ll be back to destroy you later.”
“We both know you can’t beat me,”Titus chuckled.“But I’m happy to slow down for you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Axel muttered, frowning at the mess inside his car. “Only because you cheat.”
“It’s not cheating if we both agreed to the rules beforehand,”Titus said.“Oh, I forgot to mention earlier, but Laolao was asking about you. You haven’t visited her in a while.”
Axel hesitated at the mention of Titus’s grandmother, the woman that essentially raised them both. She was a soft woman, one who only saw the sunshine and never the storms. She was the person who was tricked into signing them up to become Guardians, not knowing or understanding what would happen. She hadn’t been brought up amongst their Breed, and after her husband died, she was easily manipulated by the Archdruid.
Titus and Axel had agreed even as kids that they would never tell her what they had suffered, the severe training or the ritual of their beasts. They never blamed her, but they knew she would blame herself.
“Axel?”
