We drained.
We did not fight.
And if we did, we did it as an army so we knew we would win.
A demon and an angel.
It was laughable.
More confused than before, I quietly stood, grabbed my keys, and left the house.
Feeling darker than ever.
My palm pulsed.
My heart ached.
And for some irritating reason—I thought of her, the beautiful girl with name like sunshine.
And for the first time in millennia, I felt my face heat.
KYRA
I had a double shift that day, apparently they weren’t just short staffed, they needed to hire another person after me. Tarek said it was because people quit only a few weeks in because they couldn’t handle the stress.
I wasn’t sure what was so stressful about a bar full of drunk people. I mean the entire place was beautiful when it wasn’t crowded at least. The lights were a silver blue pointed toward the dance floor, all of the tables and chairs were white, and they had a wooden bar that extended all the way across the room. It was classy, unique.
Just… crowded.
I checked my phone and frowned. My parents were on another dig, I swear all they did was search for mythological things that never existed in the first place. I’d been sad when they left the US again and even more confused when my mom looked at me as if I was the reason they were leaving. I shoved my phone back in my purse and shoved it in the employee locker then pulled my short hair back into a ponytail. After washing my hands I made my way toward the bar to set up the menus. Tarek was already pouring booze into bottles.
He pulled out two small shot glasses and dumped tequila in them. “Cheers! You’re going to need it today.”
I stared him down in confusion. “We can’t drink on the job.”
“Correction, we shouldn’t drink on the job, and normally I’d agree with you, but trust me on this,” He slid the shot glass over. “You’ll wish you would have had at least ten of these. Trust.” He grabbed a wash rag and started wiping up the bar just as the front door opened.
I wasn’t aware slow-motion walking actually happened in real life.
In movies, sure, they slow it down, edit, boom, you have the perfect entrance. But it wasn’t reality.
At least I didn’t think it was.
But I was fully experiencing it as Timber walked into the bar, his white blond hair looking like a halo over his head. His eyes went from what I could have sworn was red to a bright blue, and the smirk on his face, well let’s just say I averted my eyes because I was one hundred percent sure my heart couldn’t handle it.
Who looked like that and owned bars? Wasn’t he missing the Academy Awards or something?
I tried to busy myself despite the sudden heat I felt in my chest, and then realized I was literally staring at a shot glass, on the clock, and looking guilty.
“Day drinking?” He breezed past me.
“No.”
“Good.” He took my shot, downed it, and grumbled. “Wish it worked better.”
“Want me to pour you another?”
The corners of his mouth tilted into what felt like a mocking smile. “You could give me several bottles and I promise I could still drive home. It doesn’t work well for some people. I’m one of those people.”