Page 12 of Elixir of Strife
I winced as Leon cleaned up the cut on my cheek. Wouldn’t sting so damn much if he didn’t insist on using alcohol on it, but he wasn’t taking any chances, apparently.
“You don’t know what that brownish liquid inside those bottles was. Might’ve been pee. Old pee. You want old pee in your bloodstream?”
He shook his head, so close to my face I could feel the warmth of his breath on my skin. It smelled of rich coffee, freshly brewed after he’d insisted on a cup in my apartment.
“Don’t be so ridiculous. It wasn’t pee. Why would they have a display room with bottles full of — ouch! Fuck.”
Leon leaned back and gave me a sheepish smile, massaging the back of my neck to counteract the sharp pain of my wound. “Sorry, sorry. One last check to make sure we didn’t leave any glass in there.”
I rubbed my cheek — the one without the cut on it — throwing him an accusing glare. “This would have been so much easier if you just knew how to cast a healing spell.”
He planted his hand on my cheek — the one without the cut on it — and pushed lightly, a gentle, painless slap. “I’m a witch boy, not a wizard. If you wanted someone who could stitch you up on the fly, you should’ve partnered up with a healer.”
“Do you regret partnering up with me, Alcantara?” I grinned as my hand went to stroke at the invisible imprint his hand left on my skin. “I sense some hesitation here.”
He flicked me on the nose. I yelped, then burst into laughter. It came so easily around him. Hard to resist, because he was so easy to tease.
“For as long as we keep it professional,” he grumbled, pulling a bandage out of the first-aid kit.
He unwrapped it, then carefully applied the sticky bandage over my cut, a bit of his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he pressed it into place. This was all so new, having someone to pamper and fuss over me. I liked it. I liked it a lot.
I hissed, one final, feeble attempt to wring some sympathy out of him, possibly even some cuddles.
“Maybe I don’t want to keep it professional.”
Leon’s frown turned into a menacing scowl. I almost flinched, remembering the image of the illusory dragon he’d used to scare my pants off the night we first met.
“Stop flirting with me and give those Succulence goofs a call already. Why would they give us bad intel like that?”
I shook my head and shrugged. We had no idea how this particular Aqueous Elixir’s bottle was supposed to be shaped, but Daniel Lyon had been very specific about one thing. If the bottle containing the turbulent liquid was unstoppered without proper supervision, all hell would break loose, the purest essence of water behaving as only water could.
Those walls of water back at the warehouse? I would have assumed that they were caused by a broken bottle of Aqueous Elixir, if I wasn’t actually standing there when Leon had conjured them himself. Again, when did he learn to do that? Was this “Emanate” spell word he loved so much just a catchall for all sorts of elemental witchery?
Not that I could grill him about it, now that he was all pissy over me teasing him. I could tell he liked me at least as much as I liked him. Maybe this was my way of testing the water, gauging his feelings.
Mainly, I really enjoyed flirting. Didn’t know I was any good at it, couldn’t get enough.
“I don’t think it’s a good time to call.” I glanced at my phone, at my watch. “Way past midnight. I mean, I only have Daniel’s number. Who knows if hagriculturists even use modern technology. You think Edel has her own phone?”
“Ugh. So now we have to wait until morning before we get any answers?”
Leon’s feet stomped heavily as he swept cotton balls and the ripped bandage packaging off the kitchen counter, off the little towel-covered area he’d designated as a sterile space. A sort of sterile space. Good enough.
“Could have been an honest mistake,” I said, reaching for him, pawing at thin air when he dodged out of range. Couldn’t get at him from where I was sitting. I got off the kitchen stool, helping him clean up. “Sometimes magical detection isn’t as accurate as it can be. Or maybe they got some bad intel themselves.”
“Guess I was just hoping it’d be a one and done.” He pursed his lips and sighed, neatly folding up the first-aid kit, stashing it back in its home, the drawer under the knife block. “Okay, honest mistake and all. Let’s pretend that’s true. So why the exploding bottles? Is there an aquamancer out there somewhere on the loose? Like a water wizard?”
“Only aquamancer I see here is you.” I reached for the cupboards, in the mood for a cocktail, a nightcap. “Very fancy elemental magic in the Alcantara line, huh?”
He clucked his tongue in annoyance. “Fancy. Yes. Deadly, too.”
I held my hands up. “Whoa. Okay. I’ll back off. Don’t want to wake the dragon.”
Leon sniffed, turning his nose up. “Best not to.”
He trudged over to the freezer and pulled out the pint of peanut butter fudge ice cream I kept in there for him. I loved that he felt so at home. He shot me one last glower, stuck a spoonful in his mouth, then hummed with satisfaction. Cute.
I deserved a treat, too. I smacked my lips, preemptively savoring the phantom flavor of a good martini. My hand was already reaching for the jar of brined olives on the counter when I stopped. My mouth went as dry as cotton. Fine. Maybe a glass of water instead.
