Page 94 of Hellfire

Saturday night poker became a thing, dealing in matchsticks, because hey, money and power corrupted, and we didn’t want any part of that. Mary and Luke sometimes joined us, but they were at a high school party tonight with their new group of friends.

Blaze, the dealer for tonight, slid a card across the green felt poker mat Gable invested in for our weekly card games. Each week, we took turns as the dealer.

“Nice.” Gable checked the card and fitted it into his hand.

“We all know you’re bluffing, naga.” Talon sipped at hisGreat Northernbeer.

Cole and Blaze grinned at each other.

Gable always pretended he had a good hand, his ability to trick us learned from his days in the Brotherhood. He only deployed it for games, though, because all was fair in games and war.

“Stop trying to read me, Stoney.” Gable took a drag on his pipe, blowing out more smoke to add to the curtain fanning the room.

“It’s my job.” Talon tossed another matchstick into the pile in the mat’s center. “You’ve got something to hide.”

While Gable enjoyed subterfuge, Talon enjoyed playing detective and psyching out his competition to make them capitulate, fold their hand and deliver him glory. I didn’t know who was worse. They had fun and that was the best thing.

Heart warm and dewy, I smiled at the two of them, beyond happy that all four of my men got along, looking out for each other and joking with the other.

“Want your pipe, Princess?” Gable changed the topic to throw off his competition.

Turned out, I loved the smell of his sweet tobacco smoke, and I also picked up smoking pipes too. Gable bought me my own pipe with a dragon’s mouth, where I smoked peaches and vanillatobacco or cherry and vanilla flavors for me. Tonight, his smoke had the scent of apples, which he said reminded him of me.

“Yes, please.” I blew him a kiss from my side of the table opposite him.

Gable got up to prepare it for me, emptying out the ash and cleaning it with a pipe cleaner, before stuffing fresh tobacco, lighting it for me and handing it to me. I was never able to get the tobacco burning strong enough to stay lit and relied on him to do it for me. And, well, I kinda liked being spoiled.

Blaze loved the scent of the smoke and the fire with his djinn powers. Cole coughed every once in a while, and Talon had a nose of steel, thanks to his gargoyle side that wasn’t bothered by the smoke.

Tonight, we upped the stakes, adding a strip clause for the loser. So far, Cole lost his cap, me my coat, Talon both socks and his coat, and Blaze his scarf. I had the world’s worst hand, and unless I could pull off my bluff, was down to lose another item of clothing.

Cole tossed two matchsticks into the pot. “Hit me two, please, brother.”

The tension in them seemed like a lifetime ago, and they were back to the way they used to be. Brothers. Best friends. Lovers. And it made me one happy Dark Princess… girlfriend…

Even happier that Blaze was back to full-time teaching now that his powers were restored and the wards cleared him of any dark magick taint or connection to the serpents.

I squeezed Cole’s thigh, catching up on time with him, as he’d been traveling the last two weeks for his promotion, weaponizing and training different Guild locations with his new technology. He arrived back yesterday, exhausted, and we crashed and watched a movie, but he fell asleep pretty quickly, snuggling with Brimstone and Hunter. Sadly, Hellcat never came around to cuddling and always kept vigil.

Blaze allocated the cards to his brother. Cole picked them up, arranged his hand, and leaned back, studying them, probably calculating his odds of success.

We actually started off with something different tonight at my request, watchingThe Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring, playing a drinking game, and taking a shot every time Samwise said the words “Mr. Frodo”. After twice in a short period, Talon put his foot down, changing the game to strip poker since he had an early morning, and he knew we were in trouble with that character.

Boxes were packed and stored by the entry wall in Gable’s loft as he, Luke, and Mary were in the process of moving to a larger place. His space, while big enough for one, didn’t accommodate the two of them as well. Plus, she needed a bedroom with a desk for her schooling. And Gable needed his own room for our sleepovers.

“Your turn, Hotshot,” Gable knocked back some apple cider.

Blaze studied his hand and scratched his neck. “I’ll sit.”

Talon’s expression was as hard and unreadable as his gargoyle stone. Years of training and working as a Tollen gave him the advantage.

He pretended to lean in his direction and got punched in the leg. “Don’t even try, Captain Underwear.”

We all laughed at him.

Talon leaned back in his chair, smiling smugly. “Don’t have that problem anymore.”

“Does anyone else miss the underpants?” Cole asked, and I snorted my drink into my can, Gable hooted, and Blaze chuckled.

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