Page 36 of Witchy Chick

Sage looked up, wide-eyed for a second while she took in my outfit. “You look good. And then afterwards you can go to a bar and pick up a hot guy. Don’t come home too early.”

Somehow I managed to not look at Ray. Yes, because picking up guys in a bar was such a smart decision. “I shouldn’t be late, but if I am, could you get the boys to bed for me?”

“Of course. Have fun!”

I gave her a stiff smile before I walked out. I didn’t want to lie, but there was no way I was telling anyone that I was meeting with the Council’s Teeth, who might have some connection to my husband. Was it possible that those trips were part of the magical world? It could be, and yet…

I drove my white SUV to the city then southwest near the bridges until I got to the lovely street that looked abandoned by everything other than nasty diseases and dead dogs. I could practice raising them.

I shuddered, hurriedly got out, and made my way down the block to Heart’s Ache. When I walked inside, someone was singing about his achy breaky heart on the low karaoke stage. The light was dim, and there was a haze of fog smoke and the scent of really good pizza. The ceiling was low, dark, cavern-like, and the tables were mostly filled with different kinds of people. Different different. One guy had sparkling wings. Like diaphanous fairy wings. The girl next to him glared at me, and I saw a flash of fangs and fur while her eyes went golden and wild.

I blinked at her then forced myself to move, to look around for the broad shoulders of the Council’s Teeth and not see anything else. There he was at the bar, but there were no open spaces on either side of him. Women were talking to him, a green-haired one with a hand on his strong forearm to his left and a copper-haired one leaning against his shoulder to his right.

Awkward. Did he bring them or did he just attract women that much? He was clearly the most dangerous person in this room, and that was without him channeling his power. He could kill me so easily. And more importantly, he could kill Ray of Sunshine.

I adjusted my purse strap and marched across the room towards him, ignoring the way that people looked at me as I passed. Like they were gauging whether or not I was prey.

I tapped his shoulder, the one that didn’t have the copper-haired girl leaning on it. “Excuse me, Mr. Teeth, did you want to get a table?”

He removed the hands of the green-haired girl on his left and picked up the one on his shoulder, moving her so she was leaning on the bar instead. Then he spun around on his stool, and I was looking into blue eyes that were so much like Clark’s, but this guy was wary, not warm. Was he a cousin? With tattoos on his face.

“A table?” he growled, the sound sending a shiver of goosebumps over me.

“I’m hungry,” I said, refusing to show how terrifying I thought he was. He was. So terrifying. How could girls touch him so casually?

He held a glass of something that glowed blue. “But we’re here to get drunk together. That was the deal.”

“We can’t get drunk at a table?”

He shrugged and stood, towering over me with his massive energy and shoulders. The tattoos on his face were so alive, like they wanted to burst into blue flames. “I suppose if you’d rather be at a private table, I have no objections.” He gestured me forward. “Please lead the way.”

I hesitated for a breath before I turned, giving him my defenseless back. It didn’t matter if I was facing him or not. If he wanted to kill me, I was dead.

I went to the booth the furthest from the door, in the darkest corner, and slid in on one side, gesturing the Teeth into the other. He sat, massive body flexing as he fit into the small space. “What will you have to start?” he asked, spinning that glass of glowing blue.

“Pizza. It smells really good.”

He blinked at me. “To drink.”

“You shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. Lark came to see me today.”

He raised a brow. “Did he? Interesting.” He sounded utterly disinterested.

“You’re related to them, aren’t you? Are you a cousin? What’s your name? You told Clark that I thought he was cheating. You know he wasn’t, but what was he doing? What is he doing now? I thought he’d be here instead of you.”

He stared at me, eyes calculating, before he stretched out a hand and dropped something to the table with a thud.

I stared at my wedding ring, and then, before my eyes, it melted into something raw and hideously ugly, all rough rocks in a mess of twisted metal.

“It kept you protected. Safe. The innocent human wife needs all the safety precautions. But you took it off. And now we’re here.”

I frowned at him. “Where are we?”

He flashed his teeth in a terrifying thing that, after a moment’s frozen horror, I realized was a smile. “In a bar full of all kinds of supernaturals that you have no idea how to defend yourself against. You asked a lot of questions. If you want answers, then you’ll have to give me something in return.”

I looked over at the bar and waved. “Can I get a server?” I called.

The guy at the bar stared at me, looked at the Teeth, then shrugged. I started sliding out because if he wasn’t sending over a server, I’d go order. A massive hand came down on my wrist, sealing me to the table while I froze, a rabbit beneath the shadow of a hawk.