"Wow," I breathed as he winked and tugged me towards the front of the building. Had he just winked? What the Maker?! Absolutely not. That was not allowed.
"Now you have to show me all about this silly human holiday," he mumbled.
"I won't leave your side. Wouldn't want you to have a question and not have someone to answer it," I teased.
He chuckled, "Exactly, little lamb."
I couldn't believe that this was where he and I were right now in our life. I mean, hadn't it been only a week ago that we'd been trapped in the Demonic realm? And now we were going to a fucking Halloween party. He squeezed my hand as if his thoughts were in the same direction as my own. My smile grew slightly at our closeness.
I had a different relationship with Draven than the others. I mean, all of my relationships were different, but Draven was less... polished? Or less human? More damaged? More haunted? I felt insanely protective over the man. He was fucking mine, and no one would hurt him ever again. Two thousand years had been two thousand years too fucking long. Although, I would never regret going there, because it brought me to him.
I was starting to become a firm believer that everything happened for a reason.
Maggie's voice popped up next to me, "Do you want to come help me put out all the treats?"
I flashed her a smile. "Sure, Draven is coming with. He doesn't know what Halloween is."
Maggie rose on her toes to pin him with a look. "You need a freakin' binder on crap you don't know."
I let out a laugh as she flashed me a smile. I examined her curiously. "You look super cute tonight, I love your makeup."
"Thank you," she preened and then blushed. "I know some of the pride members are bringing supes from our school who live outside of the compound and... I wanted to make a good impression."
I gave her a skeptical look, because I totally could hear the lie in it, but she hurried us ahead, avoiding my question. Right. I am sure it was because of that, Maggie.
The entire community center was decked out in Halloween decor. Dean pulled up next to us, and I sighed happily between Draven and him, all of us drawing others' gazes. My lips pulled up because for the first time in a long time... I felt normal.
Let’s see how long we could maintain that shit.
14
Draven
“She gives me presents
With her presence alone
She gives me everything I could wish for
Gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home.”
-Angel by Jack Johnson
Human culture was very odd.
I knew that none of these attendants were human, technically, but it was still very odd that they had adapted their culture. I mean, I'm sorry, but the humans seemed sort of fucking dumb and delicate. I smirked, wanting to tell my little lamb that, knowing she would probably be entertained by my analysis, but currently she was helping Dean's sister lay out treats.
I wasn't positive if Lorcan noticed how many people were staring at her. Maybe it was normal, because Dean didn't seem bothered by it. I mean, he was still growling, but that seemed natural for him. I hated to admit it, but I sort of liked the guy. I mean, he still needed to fucking realize he wasn't completely in charge, but I couldn't fault him for having an obsessive devotion to my little siren. He just thought he was doing the right thing, and I couldn’t blame him for that. If anything, I think I begrudgingly respected Dean.
My eyes ran over her body as she laughed about something, the sound making me smile. An action that had been unusual in its own right before meeting her. The others were hovering nearby as people started to dance and eat, a weird type of music playing over the speakers.
I looked at the couples dancing and frowned, not recognizing the style since they were essentially... humping one another. Like I said, very odd. Although, I had to admit, the concept of Lorcan rubbing her hot little body up against me did sound appealing.
As I scanned the rest of the room, my eyes fell on Zander.
I had no idea how I felt about the bastard. I didn't think he remembered me from our last interaction before the Cosmos Wars, but he seemed different. At the time he'd been much younger and full of himself, but this time around he seemed different.
Frankly, he sort of reminded me of Lorcan a bit. He had that same numbness to his gaze that sometimes closed over his emotions, like Lorcan had back in Broken House. I wasn't positive why I didn't hate him more than I did, considering he almost got my little lamb hurt.
Maybe it was because he had come out to explain to us what the hell was going on despite pulling shit to begin with. Maybe it was because I could see the authentic concern. Maybe it was because when I found him, bent over a glass at some shitty dark bar, he looked like he had been fucking miserable over what happened. Who the hell knew why it was, but I think everyone felt fucking off on how to feel about him.
Except for Zander. He knew exactly how he felt, and the man watched Lorcan like a kicked fucking puppy. I mean, did I understand it? Sure. Did I like it? Fuck no. The concept had me tugging Lorcan's hip back and pulling her onto my lap. I kissed her shoulder and whispered 'mine' as she offered me a sweet smile.
"Yeah?" she teased, her eyes lighting up. "You're mine too, then."
No doubt about that fucking shit.
Maggie let out a small squeak, Lorcan and I both snapping our gazes to where she was now ducked down behind the table, looking nervous. I watched in confusion as Lorcan slid off me and crouched, my general interest piqued because it was nice to focus on smaller things in my life. Not just torture.
Although torturing others was a fun pastime.
Lorcan spoke quietly, “Maggie, hun, what are you doing?”
Maggie winced. “Okay, so, remember how I told you there may be people coming? They are here. More specifically, the Nadar brothers, and we are sort of arguing…”
Lorcan’s lip twitched. “So you wanted to look good because you are pissed at them?’
Dean let out a small laugh as Maggie nodded.
“So are you guys dating?”
I was actually rather interested in how all of this would play out. Mostly because my little lamb seemed so interested in it.
“Maggie,” a young guy’s voice had me looking up. I nearly smiled, because I was going to assume these three teenagers were the Nadar brothers. Was I the only one finding all of this a bit amusing? It was probably because Lorcan’s body was shaking with silent laughter.
Desmond looked over from a few feet away, and I realized that he had recognized their djinn heritage almost as quickly as I had. I had to admit that even around maybe sixteen or seventeen, they were very good at hiding it. I looked over at Dean to gauge the situation, because I didn’t know what it was like to have siblings. Any that I had were killed thousands of years ago, and even then, we hadn’t been close.
Dean offered a tired, dry expression at them as I saw Maggie's eyes widen at their words. Lorcan popped up, and surprisingly none of them even gave her a look, which, let's be honest, was surprising as hell for a teenager. Nope, they were solely focused on Maggie as she stood up, offering an awkward smile.
"Oh, hey!" Maggie said brightly. "Had no idea you guys would be here."