Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“The second thing I must ask is for you to hold off your visit.” She pointed at the ground. “Come back later tonight. Find her, and go to her unannounced.”

“Find her, as in…you don’t know where she’ll be?”

“Correct. I have no idea. But it must be tonight, and then not again until…” She flexed her fingers. “Fogginess. You are blinding me!”

He barely stopped from rubbing his temples.

She squinted and chewed her lip. “I could really use some acid.”

“If I don’t allow you to get readings on me…”

“Reagan will die.”

“You’re sure?”

“No.”

He felt his eyebrows rise. “Then what assurances do I have in trusting you?”

“A wing and a prayer.”

Three

“Jimmy, listen to me, I know all about it.” I stood beside the merman bouncer outside the Purple Bear. Penny had to pee really badly, so I figured I had a few moments to chat through the whole merpeople sex thing before I needed to get her drunk enough to forget about her first real Garret experience. The other time with him hadn’t counted because she’d been too new to magic to feel the full weight of his annoyance.

“Yeah?” A big man with a unibrow and a permanent scar, he stood with wide legs and squared shoulders and basically scared underaged people with his mere presence.

He eyed my stringy ponytail. My hair had dried during the hundred-mile or so drive back into town, but without a brush, it gave the decided appearance of having been wet at one stage.

“How’s that?” he asked.

I briefly described my watery voyeurism.

He shook his head and grabbed a young man’s ID, checking it out before giving it back and jerking his head, allowing the man admittance into the bar. An older woman and man with him paused with raised eyebrows, obviously the kid’s parents. They were probably thrilled they could now go to bars on family vacations. Jimmy waved them on.

“That won’t make you any friends,” he finally said.

“I already don’t have any friends. I seem to break them all.” I couldn’t stop my gaze from drifting down to his crotch. “Question—”

“Don’t start asking questions,” he warned me, eyeing a couple of young women who’d stopped in front of the bar and looked in. They noticed his gaze, frowned, and started moving along. “That stuff is not talked about outside of our people. Just like the two dozen other times I’ve told you.”

“Right. Got it. But is your junk the same size now as it is in water?”

“Fucking hell,” he murmured, taking a middle-aged man’s ID and barely flicking his eyes at it. He waved him in, along with the next few people in the party.

My gaze drifted down to his crotch again.

“How would I get my fucking pants on if it was that size all the time, Reagan?” he growled, the words nearly indistinguishable. That answered that. I was a little relieved for him.

“Do you have a mate?” At his scowl, I put up my hands. “That question is between friends. I won’t tell.”

“We’re friends now?”

“Best friends, yes. Always have been. I lied earlier when I said I didn’t have any. I have you.” I gave him a wide grin.

He huffed out a laugh. “No, I do not have a mate.” He glanced around. “Yes, I have tried every season since I was of age. The more powerful mermen can usually lure two or three women a season. I manage two, usually.” I opened my mouth for the next question, but he seemed to know in advance what I was going to ask and then some. “No, matches aren’t easy to find. Yes, sometimes you can tell when you’re on land, but not always. When you find your mate, it’s for life. Even if you split, you ain’t gonna have kids with no one else. There is no point in even heading out to the water at that point.”

“Mhm, mhm, hmm.” I tapped my chin. “Lure, huh? Is that the feeling that made me horny?”

He rubbed his shaved head and ran his large hand over his face. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I know, but honestly, I’ve got so many problems, I won’t even think to tell anyone all of yours.”

He looked down at me and furrowed his brow before huffing out another laugh and shaking his head. “You do got a lot of problems. I’ve heard.”

“No, no.” I put my finger in his face. He swatted it away. “You first, then I’ll tell you anything you want. Anything at all. Secrets? I’ll spill them.”

“Why do you care so much about my kind?”

“Mysteries were made to be solved, bud.”

He sighed. “Yeah, that thing that made you feel horny is a constant…secretion is the wrong word. It’s more like a constant vibe we have in the water. We enhance it to attract the ladies. The more powerful we are…”

“The better it works. Got it. So they come slinking around, and you try for the deed, and…biology shuts you down, or…?