Page 15 of Zodiac Demons

Lane went off to spend some time with High Warlock Wong and several of the other staff members who she once worked with, while I stared at the card for a Madam Claudine that I’d gotten in the Succubus Den. The ancient witch operated beneath the laws of Graves, offering supernatural services and cures that were only debatably legal. A woman who used magic in a way it wasn’t intended, but was important enough to the orderly function of society, that no one ever reported her.

Could she help me? And did I genuinely want her to if she could?

Of… of course I did.

Of course.

Chapter 7

“I think you’ve met just about everyone you need to meet.” I told my mom after that incredibly uncomfortable exchange with Ceto, where I would now be imposing on his vacation on a full moon night in a massive crowd of our classmates and townsfolk, and I had no idea how I planned to survive that. I didn’t know if I was more capable of getting pregnant than my mom, but I did know that if I was, his monster was going to try really, really hard to make that happen.

Was that hot? Sadly, yes. But was I actually trying to have babies in my first year of college? Reasonably, no.

“I’ve only met your coworker though.” She noted with a pout. “And if I recall correctly, you mentioned you have mate marks? Meaning more than one? I don’t know all the ins and outs of how the shifter side of your bloodline works, since demons don’t mark each other in a way that has any magical implication. Your father and I thought the human ceremony was a fun alternative to blood swapping anyway, but I assume that means you have a boyfriend… or two?” Or three, I corrected her in my head, and only in my head. “Are you going to introduce me?”

‘I’d extremely rather not’ was not going to be an acceptable answer, and if not for the fact that my teacher was one of those mates, it probably wouldn’t have been a big deal, either. Marcus was my hot classmate, who was a completely acceptable person to date, and Ceto was my equally hot coworker, who apparently was the son of a family friend, so it probably would have been considered some cute form of destiny that we met and fell into… uh… a doll and puppet master situation. Or whatever that was. It was wild the way every push of my boundaries was starting to feel like a new, fun kink I didn’t know I had, rather than the death defying trauma fucking that it really was.

Ahem. Regardless. It was just this singular pact that hadn’t even been completed that was going to be problematic.

For a moment, I considered that I could still reject Adrian’s mark and this would be a non-issue, but then I also considered that when he kissed me after finals, the thought of rejection wasn’t even on the continent with us.

“Oh, right, I did say that.” I muttered, trying to buy time as I figured out how to redirect this conversation. I was not very happy with hysterical past me who talked too much.

“If you want, I can get you some extra tickets for your little vacation. Fazer Island is such a romantic place.” Again I was reminded that Mom was legitimately the most supportive person in the world, so I needed to not be weird about this. And if Marcus’ mate separation sickness was really that bad, it wouldn’t be reasonable to spend the night away from him again. “I assume your mates all know about each other and get along?”

It was a hard won battle to resist the urge to reactively snort laugh, but by the grace of whatever gods that weren’t just fucked up people that attended my school, I did it.

Adrian and Marcus were unpredictable together. I wasn’t sure how Ceto fit in though. He probably wouldn’t mind if they came. Adrian would be reasonable, but I wasn’t sure how well Marcus knew Ceto, or if there might be some jealousy there now that I had both of their marks. It’s all been very confusing.

I pondered on this as my mom continued, “All I want is to meet him… or her, or them—plural them or nonplural them—I promise I’m not as archaic as my age implies.” She gave me a wink that was so impressively dorky on a face that looked so much like mine, I now understood why people made fun of me. “It’s just so much fun for me to see you finally coming out of your shell and meeting and bonding with people. I feel bad that we didn’t tell you about the magical world sooner, but watching you discover it is like watching you discover the world as a toddler all over again. I’m so glad I get to be your mom.”

Dammit. She was laying it on thick, but she also looked so genuinely happy that it was going to be hard to rain on her parade.

Hard, but not impossible.

“It’s still really new, and I don’t want to scare them away yet.” That sounded reasonable. “Can we maybe wait a bit longer to do the awkward family thing?” I added, hoping she’d take that bait.

Mom frowned, but then her expression softened. “Well, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable just as you’re finally figuring yourself out.” Thank fuck. “But I do want to meet them eventually if it gets more serious. Maybe we can all get together for the holidays. All Hallows Eve isn’t too far off.” She hit her fist against her palm like she’d just had a great revelation. “That’s perfect. How symbolic.”

“Uh… sure.” October was a reasonable amount of time to figure out my life.

Probably.

But probably not.

But I would take any extra minute I could get before ending up at an awkward family dinner.

I waited until Mom headed off for her own dinner date with some old colleagues—which comprised of literally everyone who was anyone, apparently, as she not only taught elementary school and attended Graves, but she was one of the founders of the whole freaking city, I was told—then I picked up my phone and stared at my few but noteworthy contacts to get started on this impossible task of having functional relationships:

On my list of saved numbers, I stared at the names Adrian Karras, Ceto Arya, and Marcus Emery for entirely too long, trying to figure out what to do next.

Linda’s number was also in there, technically in between Ceto and Marcus, being she was, obnoxiously enough, as good a person as she was gorgeous. We were becoming friends in spite of my internal battle with my own jealousy and insecurities. But she’d gone home for the summer, so we would not be leveling up to besties who talked about boys together at this time.

Life would actually be way easier if she had been my mate, but no such luck. Being attracted to toxic men was to be my curse in this immortal life.

Such is the world.

Now, do I text them all and get everyone together for a group therapy session? Or do I try to fool my mother and just lie and say it went south with everyone by October, and pretend there was nothing to tell? How self-destructive was I feeling today? Mild? Medium?