Page 24 of Always Eros

“Sure. It’s a quiet night. Nothing in the wild.”

“The owner told me last time they have a new curated blend they’re ready to taste test. Maybe we can get in on that.”

“I could eat. Let’s go.”

* * *

Hours later, we enter our home to find our crew standing in the common staring upward. Yves is shaking his head with his hands on his hips while Bowie and Tru are cracking up.

“What’s going on?” I ask as Raph and I enter the fray.

“Look up,” Syn says.

I do, only to see Thorn hanging upside down from a rafter high above our heads.

“What the fuck, Thorn?” Raphael exclaims, chuckling.

“Remember the old ways?” Thorn says, swinging from his bent knees. “I was wondering if I could still do it.”

“We never hung from the rafters,” Yves says, his tone full of disdain. “Our kind evolved past that.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still pissed we can’t explode into a cloud of bats when we want to,” Thorn calls down.

“Feel free to sleep upside down,” Yves says. “Would you like me to order a coffin?”

“Why? Is it fun?” Thorn swings back and forth, then flips, dismounting like a gymnast.

“It’s claustrophobic,” Syn says.

“How do you know?” Bowie asks. “Did you sleep in one?”

“Once. Accidentally.”

“How do you accidentally sleep in a coffin?” Tru asks.

I lean against the column, smirking. “You participate in a voodoo ritual in New Orleans, get so fucked up you can’t remember your name, then crawl to the cemetery and into a coffin.”

“Eww. Wasn’t there a body in it?” Tru asks.

“Yes,” Raph, Yves, and I answer simultaneously, while Midnight cackles with laughter.

“You should have seen his face when the potion wore off,” Midnight continues, slapping his thigh.

“Funniest shit ever,” Raph says, nudging Bowie’s arm. “Your normally stoic love was truly scandalized. He ran through the cemetery like his pants were on fire.”

“I can’t even imagine it,” Bowie whispers, staring at Syn with pure awe.

“A moment of curiosity that I paid for,” Syn says, trying but failing to hold back his grin. He actually chuckles. “Thank Hades for Yves bringing the priestess to me to counteract the ritual.”

“What happened?” Bowie asks.

“The ritual wasn’t meant for supernatural beings like myself, so it was slowly dragging my soul to the underworld. An average mortal’s soul protects them from seeing too far beyond the veil.”

Yves nods. “I was able to scent him, and I found him in the cemetery beating on the lid of the coffin, too weak to get out on his own.”

“Would you have died?” Tru asks.

“Worse,” Syn says. “Trapped in the underworld, but not dead. Just stuck.”

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