Page 11 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

I frowned, unhappy as he pawed through a pile of DVD’s. I could have easily gone over there and looked through the pile myself, he hadn’t needed to get up off of the bed. Not that I really wanted him laying in my bed, of course. Dash could stay there, he was injured and kicking him out would be mean. I couldn’t be mean with Dash. Quinton was a different story. I could be mean to Quinton all the time and not have a problem with it. Payback for his bossy, domineering behavior he was constantly throwing at me.

“We’ve got Dexter, Grimm, SOA… Which I’m thinking he got more for himself than you because he loves that damn show.”

“The same could be said for Dexter,” Dash chimed in from the bed. “Julian hates Dexter and bitches every time Damien binges on that show because he can’t simply watch one or two episodes, he’s got to watch all of it until there aren’t any more episodes left.”

My lips tipped up in a small smile. Damien and I had that in common, it seemed because that’s how I watched Game of Thrones. I had heard about it while listening to kids talking at school, but we had never had HBO, never even had cable for goodness sakes, so I had never had an opportunity to watch it. Since I had access to the school library and had checked out the books because it was free and I read them and fell deeply, madly in love. Much to my delight, Mr. Cole had had HBO and this summer I had devoured every single episode, one right after the other.

“Shameless,” Quinton said, continuing on with his list.

Dash immediately cut in with, “She doesn’t need to watch that, it’s too raunchy for her.”

I decided right then and there I was definitely watching that one when they weren’t around to nay say.

Quinton grunted in agreement. “Hemlock Grove. I have no desire to watch that one with you, Ariel, it’s too weird for my taste. You might like it, though. Orange Is The New Black. I’m not watching that one either. The L Word. What the fuck was Damien thinking? We are not watching Damien’s lesbian shows with you. Christ. What an asshole.”

I decided right there that I was definitely watching Damien’s lesbian television shows when Quinton wasn’t around to nay say those as well.

“The Walking Dead. Breaking Bad. Bates Motel. Supernatural. The Vampire Diaries. I’m sure as hell not watching some teenage vampire crap. One Tree Hill…” His voice trailed off as he rummaged through more and more DVD’s that must have cost a small fortune. “Fuck it, we’re watching SOA. The rest of this is teenage chick shit, like Veronica Mars and I would rather someone scoop out my eyeballs with a wooden spoon than watch that crap. Not for me.”

“Have you ever watched Veronica Mars?” I asked him.

“No.”

“Then how do you know you don’t like it?”

“Shut up, babe, and get into bed.” He ordered.

I shook my head in disbelief as I crossed my arms over my chest. When was he going to learn he couldn’t give me commands to do what he wanted me to and actually expect me to do it?

From the bed, Dash laughed. I wanted to join him. Quinton was outrageous.

Something soft brushed against the inside of my ankle. I looked down and grinned.

“Binx!” I exclaimed. I bent down and scooped the little black cat up in my arms and he immediately started to purr. “Oh, my pretty boy. I’ve wondered where you’ve been and hoping you weren’t at the cottage all by your little lonesome, but I kept forgetting to ask someone about you. Too much other stuff going on and you got lost in the mix. I’m so sorry, pretty boy.”

I cuddled the fuzzy purr box against my chest and pressed my cheek into the top of his head.

Binx was Dash’s cat and I loved him. The cat, not the man. I wasn’t throwing that stupid L word out there in regard to anyone else any time soon. No thank you.

The little feline, however? I loved him. He was a brand-new addition to my life, one I met the first time I went to Dash’s cottage. Then when I spent the night there, the cat had abandoned Dash and his bed in order to sleep curled up into a tight little fuzzy ball at my feet. I had had high hopes of stealing him away from Dash on a permanent level but had been denied the time and opportunity to do so. Until now.

Binx was a dainty, mostly all black little boy with the most pathetic sounding meow I had ever heard. The mostly black part came from a tiny splash of white he had on both of his front paws. He was utterly adorable and weighed next to nothing as I held him close.

I had never had a pet before, not even some stray I had found and brought home with me. Not an injured baby bird with a broken wing and no chance at survival. Not a hungry, scrawny cat who probably had fleas and a litter of baby kittens hidden away somewhere. Not a fuzzy little crawler I had found and decided to keep in a jar I filled with leaves and planned on keeping until it eventually turned into a cocoon and then a butterfly. I never had an ant farm and spiders freaked me out. I imagined my mother would have gotten all kinds of unpleasant with me if she had found wild animals in my bedroom or anywhere in whatever dumpy apartment we were living in at the time.

I had never dreamed of the possibility of one day having a cat. Not that he was mine or anything, I had to keep reminding myself. But, in all fairness, if I lived with Dash, and Binx lived with Dash, then he would kind of be mine by default. Right? I was going with that.

“Bring me my cat, would you please, Ariel?” Dash said, and I immediately headed towards the bed with the furry beast in my arms.

If Quinton talked to me like that, instead of rudely bossing me around and demanding I do the things he wanted me to, the two of us would probably get along a whole lot better. Sadly, I didn’t see a future where that would be happening.

Gently, I placed Binx on the bed about a foot away from his original owner. No matter how far I leaned into the massive bed, I came up short of reaching Dash.

“Where did this bed come from?” I asked as I slid in between soft sheets the color of the sun and scooted over towards the center of the bed. “It’s huge, like it was made for a giant or something. Is there a giant hiding somewhere here in this weird house of yours, Quinton, that I don’t know about?”

I had meant that last part as a joke, but with these people and this house and what I already knew it held, anything was possible. That basement sure did freak me out. My mother was down there.

I needed to not think about that, or her. It seemed no matter what I did or where I went, she was never far from my mind. I wished I could have found some way to erase her entirely from my life. Briefly, I wondered if Julian had some magic potion for that. Some magic elixir that gave me nothing but happy thoughts and made me forget that I ever had that woman in my life. Somehow, I highly doubted Julian would have anything like that available for my use, and if I asked he’d probably look at me with pity in his eyes, and I certainly didn’t need that.

---