All The Wrong Signs

The next two mornings were much the same. I’d awake to find Blaze gone and Petra in his place. While I enjoyed her company, it bothered me to no end that Blaze was still holding a grudge against something I couldn’t prevent.

I had been ignoring Lakyn’s phone calls, but I knew I needed to let her know I was ok. She had just been trying to help. How could she know I had grown some type of affection for my stupid demon?

Glancing down at my phone, I knew that going to see her in person would probably be best, but I was also a little leary to see her again. After all, it was because of her that Blaze had bent sent away to begin with.

Hitting her name, I stood up and started pacing around my backyard. Petra was in the house doing one of my diamond paintings while she complained the entire time about how stupid they were.

“Riley,” Lakyn answered. “I’ve been calling you nonstop. Are you ok? I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just trying to help.”

“I know,” I admitted. “I just…” Did I tell her I didn’t want him to go? That I had gone through hell to get him back. “I just wished you would have warned me.”

“You are right. I should have. I was just so excited.” Taking a breath, she paused. “Did it work?”

“It did,” I admitted.

“Well good,” Lakyn said. “I can’t believe that something so simple could work when sage didn’t.”

I stayed silent. What could I say to her? It’s not like she would understand.

Picking up on my lack of enthusiasm, Lakyn paused. “Riley, are you mad at me?”

“No,” I said, not sure if that was the truth or not. “I’ve just had a lot of work to get caught up on.”

“Oh,” Lakyn said. “Why don’t you come to the shop? We can order takeout and…”

“I’d love to, but I can’t. I’ve got a lot going on. The move, and the demon threw me really behind on work.”

“Riley…”

“Look I’m sorry. I just wanted to let you know I was ok,” I said, cutting her off. “I promise as soon as I’m done, I’ll call you and we can plan something.”

Without saying bye, I hung up the phone. I felt a little guilty for turning her offer down, but I wasn’t ready to face her yet. Not with things still so fresh.

Walking into the house, I sat down by Petra. She had moved my diamond painting to the living room. “You don’t owe her an apology,” Petra said.

Had she heard my conversation? “I…”

“Blaze said she is a witch. She should have known to ask your permission before marking your hand.”

Looking down, I shrugged, “she thought she was helping. It’s not like she could have known that Blaze and I had come to an agreement.”

Petra looked over at me, “he’s still not talking to you?” When I shook my head, she rolled her eyes. “You need to yell at him. Get in his face and tell him how you feel.”

“Are you crazy?” I asked?

“He won’t hurt you? Not for that anyway.” Petra looked down at me. “Poke the beast, honey. Trust me. “

I arched my brow. Was she trying to get me murdered? Petra’s only loyalties lie with her brother, not me.

“If I’m dead, I can’t help him.”

Petra laughed, “I am aware. And so is he.” She turned to face me, “trust me, ok. Poke the beast. It’s been a long time since anyone has stood up to him.”

“And you want me to be the one?”

Nodding, Petra looked down at her progress. “Have I ever lead you wrong?”

“I haven’t known you long enough to know,” I answered honestly.

Petra laughed. “Trust me. He won’t hurt his little witch. If he had plans to kill you, he would have done it already.”

“I’m not his little witch,” I mumbled. Petra only arched her perfectly sculptured eyebrow at me.

Ignoring her, I grabbed my MacBook and went to my room. Sitting in my bed, I refused to get up until I had both of my projects completed and submitted. It wasn’t my best work, but it was good enough to pass as acceptable.

It was after lunch when I came out of hiding in my room. My stomach had been growling for the past 30 minutes, so I headed to the kitchen and opened the fridge, frowning at what lay inside. I had not bought groceries since the day I moved in, so why the hell was my refrigerator full of food?

“Did you buy me groceries?” I said, rounding the corner to the living room.

I stopped short in my tracks, seeing Petra had left and Blaze was now in the same exact spot she had been. He looked up from the book he was reading but didn’t speak.

I took a deep breath. How childish could he be? He was acting like a 4-year-old boy and I had about enough of his temper tantrum.

“Answer my question,” I yelled at him.

Blaze didn’t even bother to look up from his book this time. Deciding if he wanted to act like I child I could do, I headed to the kitchen and drug my trashcan over to the fridge. I began throwing everything out I had not personally bought.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Blaze yelled at me, appearing by my side, grabbing my hand out of nowhere and stopping me from throwing anything else in the trash.

“I don’t know where this food came from. I’m not eating food that magically appeared in my fridge. It could be poisoned.”

Blaze looked down at me, and I could see his nostrils flare in anger. “You know damn well I brought this food into this house. Stop being stupid.”

“Stupid? Stupid!” I yelled at him. “You are acting like some spoiled brat who didn’t get his way and you are calling me stupid.”

“I’m not the one throwing good food away. Isn’t there something about starving children in…”

“No. No, you don’t get to play that card with me.”

Blaze stared down at me. I’m sure plotting what angle to come at me when he decided to throttle me. “You are no good to me, weak.”

“Weak?” Weak! Do you know what I went through to get your ass back? I felt like I was dying. I thought my mind was being broken.”

Blaze shrugged, “Only fitting. You were the one who sent me back.”

Before I could even register what I was doing, I reached out, slapping Blaze across his cheek, leaving an angry red mark on his face. I knew I should be afraid of him, but in that moment, I felt vindicated.

Blaze stood up straighter, looking down at me. His eyes had turned almost pitch black, making him look more like a demon that he ever had before.

Why the hell had I just slapped a demon in his face? A demon prince at that? Was this considered poking the beast?

I jumped as Blaze let out a small laugh. “Did I make you angry, little witch?”

“I didn’t send you back,” I shouted at him. “I brought you back. You should thank me.”

“Thank you?” Blaze said, laughing. As he took a step closer to me, I tried to retreat, but I almost fell over the damn trashcan. Blaze caught me, preventing me, but not the trashcan from falling.

My back was now up against my counter. There was no escaping Blaze. The turned over trashcan lay to my left and my open refrigerator door was to my right. I had clearly not thought this plan of attack through clearly.

“Nowhere to run?” Blaze asked as if he could read my mind? Petra said he could read ill intentions, but I wasn’t plotting his murder. I was fearful of my own.

I gasped, feeling his hands move to my waist as he picked me up and set me down on the counter. Before I could react, he had moved between my legs, putting us face to face. He was so close our noses were almost touching.

“I can admit what you did was tough. It takes a strong mind to bounce back from that as fast as you did. But you are still the one who sent me there, and that I can’t forget.”

“But I didn’t,” I said, looking into his still dark eyes. “Lakyn grabbed my hand and before I knew what she had done, she x’d your sigil. I tried to remove it, I ran home as fast as I could. But it was too late.” Tears ran down my face. “You were gone.”

Blaze took a deep breath. I flinched as his hand came up, wiping my tears away. “Don’t let it happen again,” he said simply.

When I looked back up at him, it surprised me to feel his lips against mine. They weren’t the soft, loving lips of a lover. They were hard, possessive. Everything that I had expected, yet more at the same time.

And just like that, he was gone. I lifted my hand to my lips, wondering if I had imagined the whole thing. My lips were still swollen from his stolen kiss. My heart racing.

Carefully, I jumped down from the counter and began picking up the trashcan and the contents that had spilled.

He had kissed me.

He had kissed me and god I’m glad he disappeared because demon or not, I craved more of him.