Page 30 of Livewire Witch

My first day back to business after months of being housebound, thanks to the blood curse. It’s like rejoining the circus when the elephants are all rampaging, the clowns are high on coke, and the ringmaster’s been busy running a smuggling ring while no one's been paying attention.

Turns out, managing an entire district of businesses that specialize in melding legal and... less than legal activities, is a hands-on kind of thing. And me being mostly absent for the past six months hasn’t done us any favors.

Z and I are heading through the streets of the Nexus District. I’m scanning my phone, trying to get my head around what’s been happening recently when he turns to me, hands stuffed into his pockets and a thoughtful expression on his face.

“You don’t have to do this, bro. You know that, right?” Z tells me quietly. “Me and Ro were talking about it before and we could fake your death. Whatever you want.”

“I can do what now?”

His words come out of the blue and I can’t help gaping at him. Fake my death? In what world would that be a reasonable course of action for someone?

He shoots me a look and gives a casual shrug. “Yeah. Thought it would be worth bringing up. If you go in all guns blazing today, word’ll spread that you’re back in action.”

“Right.” I’m still waiting for him to start to make sense. I know that I’ve left the running of the district to him and Roscoe, with Felix and my dad still at the helm. By now, I figured he’d be champing at the bit for me to return to my role. Not trying to get me to step down from it entirely.

“I’m just saying, man. You never got the choice before. It’s not like you decided one day that you’d be the next guy running the district. All just so your dad and Felix could stay in power for as long as they could.” He clears his throat, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “What I’m saying is, you don’t have to keep going with their plan if you don’t want to.”

“What’s the alternative?”

We have a ton of meetings scheduled for today, and I already feel like I’m failing at playing catch up. The district is a mess. I can tell that without seeing it firsthand. People are unhappy. Our people are rebelling. Zeph and Roscoe got blown up and Z’s leg is still in a cast as a result of it.

“We just need to hold steady,” I tell him. “We’re meeting my dad today and I want to get a lay of the land with the other businesses. Then we can get back to normal. Seb needs to get back to the med bay soon, and I need things to get back on track.”

It’s like life’s been in a state of flux for the past six months, maybe even longer. Ineedto get in control of things. The curse stole my sleep, my strength, my grasp on reality. I’m not about to let it take anything else from me.

I still don’t feel one hundred percent back to my normal self. It’s like I’m a cobbled together, messier version of myself. But I’m not about to admit that to Z.

That I’m exhausted before we even make a start today. It doesn’t help that restless dreams plague me every night.

I figured after I purged the curse out of my system, I’d finally get a good night’s sleep. No more insomnia. No more walls dissolving or tea parties with imaginary friends.

Too bad my nights have been taken over by relentless dreams of those imaginary friends. People I’ve never met before.

There’s one in particular that keeps cropping up. My mind melts the features of her face every morning, but I remember the conversations we have. Her soft voice.

The smell of freshly bloomed flowers fucking haunts me.

I caught a whiff of it the other day, and my dick got hard. Go figure what the fuck’s going on there.

I wake up every morning, feeling barely rested. I’m fucking cored out, and exhausted because of them.

We hop into the waiting town car I ordered earlier. Z’s still hopping around on his broken leg, refusing to use crutches, and we’re going to be doing a lot of traveling around today.

“I need to have a word with my dad about Felix as well,” I say, stifling a yawn. “See if he’s lost his ever-loving mind or if his attack on Seb was a one-off.”

I don’t exactly remember what happened that night. But I know that Seb’s been keeping to his bed even more than normal since we’ve been back above ground. It’s like whenever I try to think about that night, my brain reaches an abyss that I can’t get past.

Like the longer I stare at the abyss and try to overcome the block in my memory, the closer I get to falling in.

We pull up to The Spire and I leave instructions for our driver to wait for us while we head inside to meet with my father. The two of us then head inside, with Z trying to hide his wince as we stride toward the elevator bank. There’s always a steady stream of movement inside the building, and we receive more than one deferential head nod as we pass.

“If you decide to move back to this place, I’m going to stick around the penthouse for a while longer,” Z murmurs to me as we head up to my father’s office.

I can’t say I’m surprised. He probably wants the space, since I’m pretty sure he’s been hooking up with someone recently.

“Sure, man. Don’t worry about it. I won't cramp your style. I’m gonna just be focusing on work, anyway. It’s not like I have anything else to distract me now the curse is gone, other than Seb.” I grin at him, but the look he shoots me in return is confusing. It’s kind of... sad. Pitying. Like I’m missing something.

It’s the first time he’s ever brought anyone home. And even though he hasn’t introduced us, I’m pretty sure bringing them home is a big deal for him.

---