Devils & Thieves (Devils & Thieves #1)(14)

“Then tell me.”

“I can’t,” he answered.

“Of course not. Because it’s complicated, I’m sure. Or maybe it’s club business.”

He exhaled with frustration. “Everything is always complicated in our world. You know that.”

“Except what happened had nothing to do with magic, and everything to do with us.” My voice rose as I went on. “You kissed me that night and I kissed you back, and what did you give me for it? Silence. Absolute fucking silence.”

“Jemmie,” he growled. I could barely see him through the shimmering fog of his magic. My tongue was coated with it. The meat on the counter popped and hissed some more—and then the sausage caught fire.

With another curse, Crowe stepped away, crossing back over to the kitchen counter. He swept both packages into the sink and turned on the faucet. “I’ll have someone bring over more.”

“Don’t bother.” I leaned over beside him and shut off the tap. “It’s just one more reminder that you ruin whatever you touch.”

His expression turned into a hard scowl. “Fine,” he said, and the meat caught fire again despite having just been doused. I coughed from the mixture of smoke and sweet magic, holding on to the counter to stay upright.

“I hope it’s reminder enough for you.” He turned away from me, tore open the back door, and slammed it shut a second later.

I couldn’t help but watch him through the windows as he strode away, a dark shadow in a dark night.

I was better off without him.

Kissing him that night at his house, over a year ago now, had been the biggest mistake of my life. We had both been drunk, too caught up in each other. I wouldn’t make that mistake ever again.





FOUR


I FINALLY BREATHED A SIGH OF RELIEF ONCE I HEARD Crowe’s car start up and tear off down the street. I made my way down the hallway to my bedroom, wanting desperately to peel off my jeans and get into a pair of comfy pajama pants. But as soon as I stepped inside my bedroom, I knew I wasn’t alone.

I flicked on the lamp on my dresser. Darek lay in my bed, half propped up on an elbow, his phone in his hand. “When did you get here?” I asked.

“About fifteen minutes before you did. Parked my bike up the road.” He nodded toward my open window, which I’d left unlocked just for him. “And for a second there, I thought I was going to have to come to your rescue.”

“You heard all that?” I dropped on the bed beside him and lay flat on my back.

He slid his arm over my middle slowly, like he was waiting for me to push him away. I didn’t. Instead, I sighed and sank into the mattress as my muscles unknotted from the tension of the last hour or so.

“How could I not hear it, Jem?” A backward baseball cap covered most of his sun-bleached blond hair, but a few loose strands had managed to escape.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t intervene.” I scrubbed at my face, suddenly sleepy. “You and Crowe in the same room would be a very, very bad idea.”

After all, Darek was a Deathstalker prospect, due to be voted up to a full-patch member of the club in a month or two. To Crowe, he was the enemy, straight up. Even if the two gangs supposedly had a truce.

Darek offered me his easy, sweet smile, one I’d seen through video chat at least every week since last summer. We’d met at the festival—right after I’d seen Crowe with Katrina for the first time. I’d needed a distraction, but he had become more than that. “I think I could take Crowe Medici, don’t you?”

I laughed. “When did the Deathstalkers get into town?”

“Few hours ago.”

“Seen any of the Devils yet?”

“Oh, yeah. I ran into one at that ice cream place by the library.”

I sat upright. “Are you serious?”

He hung his head back. “You think I’d be sitting here if I crossed paths with a Devil all by myself? I can’t hurl a hex to save my own skin—you know that.”

“God. Don’t do that to me.” I collapsed again on the bed. “Tensions are high right now. I don’t want you to get hurt.” I debated telling him about Old Lady Jane meeting with Crowe but decided maybe it could wait. Even though I was pissed at Crowe, blabbing about it felt a little disloyal. Besides, I didn’t want to think about it now. I was just happy Darek was here.

The night we’d met, I’d tried to escape the festival after drinking too much. I’d been trying to cope with both my heartbreak over Crowe and Katrina, and the extreme amount of magic in the air. I’d accidentally wandered off the path and into a swamp, where Darek found me buried up to my knees in muck, still clutching an empty bottle of Jack.

To say I had been messed up was an understatement. By all accounts, I was a pathetic disaster. But Darek, all blond, blue-eyed, sunbaked, and lean, merely asked me which I’d like first—a piggyback ride out of alligator territory or another drink.

I chose the piggyback ride. When we got back to the festival, he got me a huge cup of lemonade (nonalcoholic) and we talked for hours, just wandering the edges of the grounds. We had more in common than I ever expected. Our fathers gone, our powers a disappointment, our lives spent in others’ shadows. He handled it more gracefully than I ever could.

And now he was lying next to me, the line of his body pressed against mine, and I knew the time had come to make a decision. Anything less was unfair to Darek. We’d never progressed beyond the friend zone, but our e-mails and phone conversations had circled ever more tightly around the possibility that we would. Both of us knew this year’s festival would bring us together again. Neither of us knew exactly what to expect, though.