Anders sat and watched Kiaan’s face as they drove out of the city. The mage was gorgeous, but the frown he was currently sporting was going to be the death of Anders.
The furrowed brow made Anders’ cock twitch. But if he would smile like he had been at first… yeah. Anders would give anything to see that smile again.
To be the cause of it.
Kiaan’s phone rang through the speaker system. And rang. And rang. When it went to voicemail, Kiaan asked his uncle to call him back immediately then stabbed the button on the wheel a little harder than necessary.
Anders couldn’t stop the chuckle that burst out of him at that. He had no idea what he’d done to piss off Kiaan, but he sure was having a lot of fun poking the bear now.
A part of Anders wanted to push Kiaan until he completely lost his control. Anders bet that it would be the most glorious sight in the world.
The other, more rational part of Anders, knew that he should stop provoking the mage because he really needed his bar to be daemon free.
It had already tried to kill him once. It needed to be gone.
Kiaan heaved a huge sigh. “Okay, since you’re here, you might as well tell me what all the daemon’s been doing. Maybe it’ll help me get a better lock on it.”
Anders turned to study him for a minute before saying, “Lights flicker.”
Kiaan nodded. Then just waited. Obviously wanting more.
Ugh. Anders much preferred it when Kiaan talked instead of him. Well, he didn’t like talking in general, but even more than with anyone else, Anders wanted to hear Kiaan’s thoughts. “Liquor exploded.”
“Was it brandy? Or your new IPA? I couldn’t be sure since Kaeden sent me at least four messages this morning about the snickerdoodle IPA. Who makes snickerdoodle IPA? I mean, if I want snickerdoodles, I’m going to eat snickerdoodles. If I want an IPA, I’m going to have an IPA. Why would I want them together?”
“Tequila.” Anders corrected, ignoring the commentary on his most excellent beer. “Pipes exploded.”
Kiaan whipped his head around to look at Anders. Anders just pointed at the road. Once Kiaan was looking in the right direction again, Anders explained some more.
“Hawk’s bathroom this morning. Blood on Blake’s door. Pillows floating and freaking out teens. Yesterday clock moved backwards.”
“Okay, that’s a wide diversity of events. I wonder if maybe we’re dealing with two? Maybe that’s why I’m having a hard time locking onto its signature. One that’s malevolent and exploding things. The blood. But another that’s just a prankster. Pillows and lights and clocks. Huh. I’ll have to see when we get back if maybe I can feel two of them.”
When Kiaan grew quiet, Anders continued to just watch him. It was fascinating watching his mind work.
“Feel?” he finally asked when Kiaan had been quiet for several minutes. Not that Anders minded quiet. He loved it. It just seemed odd to see Kiaan silent. What was going on in his brain?
“Yeah, part of being a mage is using all of your senses–and there are way more than five–to identify everything around you. And some of those senses are just… feelings. But they can be incredibly accurate. I thought I only felt one, but mainly I knew it was a daemon and was trying to get a lock on its signature. But if it were two daemons and their signatures were sort of battling for attention, then that would make sense. Similar enough since they’re from the same dimension, but different enough I couldn’t lock on.”
“How?” Anders asked when Kiaan took a breath.
“How’d they get here? Someone had to open a portal. They probably summoned the malevolent one and the prankster slipped through because it was nearby. I’ll have to look into that theory. It would explain a lot. But either way, I need more dragon scale.”
“Just lying around?”
“I try to keep a stock, yes.” Kiaan blushed, and it made Anders’ cock twitch again. He wanted to see Kiaan’s blush… everywhere. “There’s a dragon shifter I dated for a while. He let me collect all of the ones he sloughed off. I’m getting low. I think I only have one or two left. I’ll have to find another dragon, though. No way I am going back to Sérgio for more. He can suck a dick. But not mine. Never again.”
Anders felt a grin growing on his face and turned to look out the side window. Thinking back to that moment when Kiaan first turned around, that smile on his face, and then the shock that took over… That look in his eyes… Maybe what pissed Kiaan off was that he had a crush on Anders but didn’t want to pursue it.
The thought sent shivers running up and down Anders’ spine. Definitely not leaving Kiaan’s side until the daemons were gone.