They’re mythical, Sully.
They don’t have pussies because they don’t exist.
Ugh, my temper was the length of a shoe-lace and threatening to snap.
Ocean.
I needed to wade into that wet haven and drown away my pain.
Cal noticed my huff of annoyance. “I can write the cipher. No big deal.” He chuckled. “Be kinda cool to see what sort of human-world rules I can break.”
My eyes swooped to his. “I can do it.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have to. That’s why you pay me. I do the crap you don’t need to—”
“When have you known me to take a sick day?”
He frowned, legitimately thinking. “You know…I don’t think you have.”
“Precisely.” I grimaced and straightened my spine. “I’ve put myself through worse and survived. This is nothing.”
“Yeah, but…” He came toward my desk, his suit pressed and slate-grey sleek. “I haven’t seen you that drained in a very long time. Ever since you—”
“Enough.” I gave him a warning glare. “It’s just another day, Cal. That’s all.”
“If you say so.” He sniffed with history, glowering with his own temper. “But you fucked up last night. You know that, right?”
“Quit it,” I growled.
“You shouldn’t have prepared her or removed her from the VR hook-up. You should stay the hell away from her.”
“For fuck’s sake—”
“No, just listen.” His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth, knowing he shouldn’t say what he was about to but was going to anyway. “You never usually interfere with the everyday housekeeping…so you shouldn’t start now. And you know full well why.” Planting his fist onto my desk, he muttered, “You gave me one clear guideline when you started his place. One unbreakable rule that doesn’t make a shitload of sense to me, but you made me swear…so here it is. You said if you somehow forgot, I was to remind you why you choose animals over humans.”
I bristled. “I remember.”
“I don’t think you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done what you did last night—”
“I told you to back the fuck off.” I shot upright, ignoring the disgruntled pain of my body.
“And you told me to keep you away from anyone who threatened everything you’ve become. You told me that you’d rather stay alone than let someone else have a power over—”
“Leave.” I pointed at the door. “I know what I said, and I know why you’re reminding me, but I have things under control.”
He snorted. “Yeah, if this is you under control—unable to stay away from that walking Jinx of a curse—then you’re in deeper shit than I thought.”
My mind skipped back to last night. Of holding Eleanor. Of my heart kicking when she snuggled close. Of all the other bullshit that’d happened since she’d arrived.
It was a minutely struggle not to ask him how she was this morning. Not to stalk to her villa and make sure she’d drunk her smoothie, taken her vitamins, and stuffed her face with life-giving food.
Had she enjoyed Euphoria?
Was she in pain?
Did she hate me less or more?
Ah, Christ.
He was right. I let her have way too much monopoly over me…and I couldn’t fucking stop it.
Sighing, I sat down and pinched the bridge of my nose again, trying to squeeze out her curse like an ugly zit.
“Look, Sinclair…I get it. She’s unique. There’s obviously something going on between you two. You’d have to be blind as those fat-ass fruit bats you rescued. But…I’m only doing what I promised—” He held up his hand in surrender. “—Guarding your back.”
Before I could argue, apologise, or agree, Pika flapped through the see-through curtains and landed on my laptop. Squawking and doing his little foot-stomping dance, he attacked the letter K, going at it like a feathered Rottweiler.
“Ah, no you don’t.” Plucking him from the computer, I held his little body, so vibrantly aware of his tiny thrumming heart in his very breakable chest. His sharp beak pecked at my fingers. His black glossy eyes gleamed with mischief as he squeaked like a dog’s chew toy, trying to get me to free him.
“Ugh, why do you do this? Your cuteness is pissing me off.” I opened my palm, expecting him to fly away, but he flopped upside down instead, rolling on his tucked-in wings, a strange aerial version of a turtle on its back. I rolled my eyes at his scaly little legs waving in the air. “Yeah, yeah. Good morning to you, you little nightmare.”
He squawked loudly, making me wince. “Morning! Morning. Pika. Pika. Pika!”
My eardrums physically ached. A swim was definitely needed. I refused to waste the entire fucking day to this residual agony.
“God, you and that bird.” Cal scoffed. “Get a room.”
My lips twisted into a half-smile, glad our previous conversation was over and fully aware that Cal had a soft spot for this little menace, just as much as I did.
After all, Cal had been in my life almost as long as Pika. He’d been the first to learn of Pika’s origins. The only guy I trusted when it came time for my massive liberation.