“This cake is awesome, by the way.” I was getting a little slurry in my words, but it was the truth. Rich, chocolate sponge, raspberry filling, and a luscious buttercream. I hadn’t had many birthday cakes in my life, but this one was definitely the best.
“I told Gino who it was for and he made it special, just for you.” Kitty wiped a smidge of buttercream off the corner of her mouth with a bar napkin. “You know he wants you to marry his boy.”
I almost snorted cake. “His boy is seventeen!” I yelped.
Kitty cackled. “Hope springs eternal in the minds of youth.” She pointedly did not look at Billy, who was looking miffed at the idea of anyone else being interested in me. I sighed inwardly and stabbed at my cake with my fork.
Billy finished his drink and set his glass down firmly. There was a determined look in his eye. My mouth went dry, and the mouthful of cake went down hard.
“Hey, Sia, can I talk to you for a moment? Alone?” He flashed me his most reassuring smile. I was not reassured.
“Be right back,” I muttered to Missi and Kitty, ignoring their hopeful, romance-sodden eyes and cursing inwardly at how many loved ones I was about to disappoint.
Billy led me to the back room, where Mr. Donovan and his “boys” spent most of their evenings infusing the walls with cigar smoke and colorful Irish invectives. I perched on the edge of a table and tried not to look sick to my stomach. From the look on his face, I wasn’t the only one.
“So.” Billy cleared his throat and stepped closer to me, reaching for my hand. I edged back on the table. Personal space is precious to me. He stopped, awkwardly clasping his hands behind his back. “You’ve been working here for a while now.”
“Three years.” I nodded, then flashed him a wry smile. “You’re not firing me, are you?”
“What? No!” His eyes grew wide, his voice flustered. “I… um… damn it, Sia.” He laughed. “You see, this is why I like you so much.”
I winced despite myself, then recovered. “I like you too, Billy. You’ve been a great friend. I’m glad to know you.” Gentle emphasis on “friend.” Please pick it up, please…
He did. His face fell, but to his credit he recovered quickly. “Yeah. Friends. I just wanted to say, I’m glad you’re part of the team here, and happy birthday.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I raised a fist. He bumped it gently, then turned and left. I sat alone for a long moment, heard him say his goodnights to Missi and Kitty, then heard the door open and close with a jingle of bells.
“You can come out now,” Kitty called.
Slowly, I walked into the main room, lead in my belly and a tightness around my heart.
“You let him down gently, I hope?” Kitty asked in a motherly tone. I nodded. She sighed softly. “Best thing for it, then. You okay?”
I nodded, then shook my head. “What if he hates me forever?” I looked at Kitty and Missi. “You guys don’t hate me for it, right?”
“Sit down, girl. We don’t hate you.” Kitty’s voice was a mix of maternal and exasperated. “Of course we don’t hate you. Hell, I respect you for it.”
I looked at her like she’d sprouted a second head.
“Seriously. A lot of girls would have said yes because they thought they had to say yes. You’re friends. You don’t want to hurt your friends. So you go along with it, even though it doesn’t make you happy. And he’s happy, until he realizes that you’re not happy. Then, no one’s happy.” Kitty took a swig of her drink. “Best you let him down gently now and let him be a little unhappy, ‘stead of going along with it and downright breaking his heart in a month or a year.”
“Billy’s good people, Sia. He’ll get over it.” Missi gave my arm a squeeze as I settled on my barstool. “There are a few regulars who are gonna be out a few bucks on the Sia/Billy ‘shipping pool, but they’ll get over it too. Eventually.”
I squinted at her. “That’s not really a thing, is it?”
She smirked. “That would be telling.”
“Ugh.” My forehead hit the bar. “Why do things have to get complicated?”
I felt a hand stroking my hair and I froze for a moment, then relaxed again. Kitty’s hand was soothing. “Life’s a complicated thing, my love. It’d be boring if it wasn’t.”
“I’ll take boring,” I murmured into the bar top.
“Bah. No way.” Missi ducked down so that her nose rested on the top of the bar. “You will live in interesting times.”
“That’s a curse, Missi. ‘May you live in interesting times’ is a curse.” I snorted indelicately. “I’ve had enough interesting times for a lifetime.”
“That you have, love. That you have.” Kitty pet me like a stray kitten. But then, I’ve always been her stray kitten. She took me in when no one wanted me, fed me, gave me a place to stay. Just add a ball of string and I’d be set.
“Okay. Less interesting times, more fun times.” Missi gave me a gentle poke in the shoulder. “You, me, and a cheesy Disney film like you always insist on.”
“Missi, it’s after three in the morning.” I faked a snore, never moving my nose from the bar. “Whiskey and old age makes me sleeeepy.”
Kitty gave a loud snort. “Old age. I’ve got underwear older than you, kid.”
“Ew.”
I could hear her grin. “Lacy ones.”
I chortled and lifted my head. “Augh. Mooom.” I slapped my hands over my ears. “La la la!”
“And on that disturbing mental image…” Missi snickered as she hoisted her purse onto her shoulder. “I’m out. You have a happy birthday sleep, Sia. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, bright and early.”
“Night! Be safe!” We exchanged a quick squeeze, and the door jingled behind her as she left.
Kitty followed her to the door and locked up. “Just the two of us.” She gave a yawn and an elaborate stretch. “Augh, my old.” She rubbed the base of her spine and grinned at me. “Looks like I need me a second bartender. All this running around is killing me.”
My heart pounded in my chest. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.”
I squealed and ran up to her, then stopped short. “Any shift. Any day. Any double shift. All day. You’ve got me. I’m all yours.” I bounced in front of her like a Jack Russell puppy.
She laughed and caught me in a big hug. “Watch it, love. I’ll hold you to it.”
I relaxed into her arms and laughed with sheer joy. “Best birthday gift ever.” I paused. “Okay, second best. But very close to the best.”
She nodded. She knew what I meant.
“I still want to find those bastards and give them what for,” she murmured into my hair.
I sighed. “They’re not worth it.”
“Throwing a teenaged girl out on the streets with not a penny, not even a change of clothes.” She growled. “You were still in high school, fer fuck’s sake.”
I shrugged. “I was eighteen. No more foster care checks. And they had a new girl coming in that night.” A dry laugh slipped out of my throat. “Apparently, she wore my size.”
“Monsters. Abominations.” She held me tighter. “They didn’t deserve you.”
I felt my cheeks getting hot, my throat constricting. “You… didn’t have to do what you did, taking me in like you did. Thank…”
“Don’t you dare thank me for that, Arysia Bellmont.” She held me at arm’s length, tipping my chin up to meet her eyes. “You are the dearest, sweetest child I’ve ever been lucky enough to know. And someday, you’ll believe me when I tell you that. And I want to personally murder each and every one of those monsters who made it so you don’t believe me.” Her intensity was fierce. I nodded, half-terrified by it. Kitty McKinnett loved with every fiber of her being, and woe betide you if you didn’t let her. “I just wish I had more to offer than…”
It was my turn to be fierce. “Don’t you dare apologize for giving me a place to stay, a high school diploma, a job, food, clothes,” I squeezed her arm, “and love.” I sniffled hard.
“All right, all right, we’re turning into a right mess.” Kitty sniffled wetly and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. I did the same, laughing. “We should turn in. Another day, another pack of inebriates to keep in line.”
“Looking forward to it,” I beamed.
“Good. You’re working a double, to get the hang of the bar.” She slapped me on the shoulder and winked. “Be ready.”
“I will.”
“I’m headed upstairs. Goodnight, my love.”
“Goodnight, Kitty.” I listened as she slipped out the back door and locked it behind her. Her apartment was over the pub, so I didn’t have to worry about her walking far.
When my last foster parents kicked me out, Kitty set me up with a cozy little space in an old storeroom at the back of the bar. She set me up with a bed and a dresser, and I’d kitted it out with thrift-store finds and the few treasures I’d kept from my many foster homes. Missi often joked that I was McKinnett’s Pub’s own Harry Potter, but I could think of far worse places to live. I’d lived in a few of them.
As I reached for the lightswitch to kill the bar lights, a jingle startled me. My head whipped around to see five burly-looking guys walking through the door. All wore black hoodies with the sleeves cut off. All were heavily tattooed along the arms, in the same strange swirling black tribal patterns. It wasn’t a gang I recognized, but new ones cropped up all the time around here. Shit. A robbery.
“The money’s gone for the night, guys. I’ve got nothing for you.” I raised my hands shakily over my head in surrender.
The one at the front, the biggest and burliest, fixed me with a horrifying leer. “Not here for the money,” he hissed. “Here for you.”
I shuddered, chills running ragged through my entire body. Not like this. No. My back slammed up against the bottles along the wall. I thought hiding thoughts, knowing there was no way they’d work but desperate for anything. Then I saw it. Kitty’s Louisville Slugger, tucked under the bar.
It probably wouldn’t help, but damned if I wasn’t going to go down fighting.
They laughed as I gripped the wooden bat tightly in my fists. One of them leapt over the bar. I squealed and vaulted over the bar into the open area beyond, tucking and rolling. My shoulder hit the ground harder than I would have liked, and the bat dug into my chest, but I came up swinging. To my astonishment, I clipped the leader in the jaw with the tip of the bat. His head snapped back hard, then swiveled to stare at me with eyes that were not human in the least. His irises were yellowish-green, his pupils vertical slits. I yelped and stumbled backward into a table.
“Come quietly and we won’t hurt you,” he hissed. The tattoos on his arm moved. I swear, they moved. The thick swirling lines undulated like tentacles. Or snakes. That last thought screamed in my mind as his form shimmered before me and his legs vanished, replaced by a long, thick, black-scaled tail.
The last thing I remember was my own scream echoing through the pub.