Page 84 of Of Blood and Smoke

“Remember when Josiah would yell at you all the time?”

“I do. He was trying to fight his attraction to me.” I smirked. “Didn’t really work out for him.”

Sitting back, I let out a deep breath. So much had changed. I’d never expected the things that happened with Brett to happen. Lowering my voice, I asked, “Is everything okay with Andy?”

Her eyes flicked to mine. “Yeah, of course. Why?”

“Last time we talked, you basically said they were a little rocky.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, everyone goes through stuff. Why are you asking me this? I can tell you have something on your mind, spit it out.”

“Uh, so Brett hinted, strongly, that Andy would hurt you if I didn’t cooperate.”

Ashley huffed out a sharp laugh. “Brett was just talking shit. Andy wouldn’t do anything.”

My ex knew what Josiah was, he knew about wraiths, and he had seemed totally fine with it. There was Vincent, too, who he’d worked with. Nobody had seemed all that bothered that vampires and demons were just hanging around and running things. I couldn’t be confident Andy wouldn’t hurt her.

“Does Andy have any friends that seem different to you?”

Ashley wrinkled her forehead. “Different? Different than what? They’re a bunch of street thugs, basically.” She looked apologetic for a second. “Maybe not all of them are thugs. Andy’s not gonna do anything to me, don’t worry.”

She tilted her bowl and scraped at the bottom before dropping her utensil with a clatter.

“Ugh, never mind. Guess I’m still in shock.”

Ashley gathered her stuff and placed it on my tray, taking the whole thing. I followed as she dumped it, and we began walking across the dining room. I glanced around to see if there was anyone I recognized, since the same people always seemed to be here every time I was, but there was no one I cared to acknowledge. While I examined our surroundings, I found myself wondering if they were all human.

“Has your dad met Josiah yet? How’s dad doing anyway? I should stop by and visit,” Ashley said as we walked out, interrupting my thoughts.

We stood outside the bank of elevators, with my two shadows watching and scanning for threats. “Thing one and thing two,” my friend muttered under her breath.

I laughed, glancing at them for a moment. I’d forgotten they were around.

The doors slid open. “He has. Not that dad would know it.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. She gave me a hug and we separated when the lift brought her to her floor. Micha was waiting for me near the partition dividing my space from Christina’s former area. He eyed the guards behind me, appraising them, until they backed away while still remaining in the area.

Micha had done this before, this strange motionless appraisal of whoever was in front of him. He’d done it to me, one day when he’d called me into the office. It was disturbing and I had no idea what he was doing.

“What are you doing?”

He arched an eyebrow at me, pinning me with his silvery eyes. “Making sure you are suitably safe. Josiah would eat my heart if something happened to you while you were in my company. I rather enjoy my organs not being dissolved in stomach acid.”

“Makes sense. That you want to keep your heart in your rib cage, I mean. Also, that was pretty descriptive.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“I never said it was.”

He was scowling now. “Get to work.”

There was no coffee waiting on my desk and its absence both relieved me and saddened me. I’d gotten used to the little gift every day, but I was still deeply unnerved by what’d happened the last time a cup of the aromatic brew had been waiting for me.

One look at my Ipomoea email account and it was clear Onychinus was a tremendous success. Its launch had gone extremely well, and the reports were here with that evidence. More orders kept pouring in on a daily basis. I hadn’t had much to do with that, other than to act as an intermediary between companies, investors, and the two heads of the company I worked for. But still, it put a smile on my face. I’d never been a part of something big like this before and it was a satisfying feeling, watching everything fall into place.

“What are you working on next?” was the text I sent Josiah. He wasn’t big on texting, preferring face-to-face conversations and I held my breath waiting for the “seen” notification to materialize on my screen.

He sent a one word reply. “Expanding.” He really was a workaholic.

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