Bombshell (Monstrous Ink #2)

Chapter 5

“ I don’t like it any more than you do, Dall, but what else am I supposed to do?” Cash muttered quietly as we sat together in my tattooing suite.

Today was the second time that Cash, Daphne, and Effie went to the mayor’s mansion and I’d practically crawled up the walls for the duration. I was definitely going to need to pack the days that they went up the hill full of clients or I was sure I was going to lose my damn mind.

As usual, Daphne and Cash returned first, Daphne looking healthier than she had in the morning with color in her cheeks and Cash looking less like his entire world was about to crumble around him at a moment’s notice.

But also, as usual, Effie remained at the mansion for several hours for her ‘lessons’ with Alexander Finch. Lessons that I was expressly forbidden from sitting in on.

“I’m not blaming you for this, Cash,” I shot back with a shake of my head as my fists tightened in my lap. “It’s a shit situation all around, I just wish she didn’t feel like she needs to save everyone all the time. ”

Despite her sometimes prickly exterior, Euphemia Finch had a heart of gold and a savior complex to top it off. It was probably one of the reasons I’d fallen head over heels for her—even if it also made me want to throttle her at times.

When she’d cut the deal with Alexander that night I’d been absolutely livid. That mansion at the top of the hill had been a prison for her when she was younger and she’d willingly made a deal to keep Daphne safe without considering any other possibilities first.

Though, if I was being honest, I wasn’t having any luck finding another magic user that could cast protective spells on a human pregnant with a supernatural creature’s baby and would be willing to venture into the North Coast coven’s territory.

Not only that, with the creation of the Accords that allowed monsterkind to step into the light of society, so too had come with it laws about casting spells on humans—even if they were meant to help—so most of the witches and wizards capable of it had gone underground and even my contacts were struggling to find anyone.

We could have tried to find a warlock as they seemed to be a dime a dozen these days, but warlocks were of infernal origins thanks to their demon parentage and they were more likely to try and take the child in the deal rather than just the money.

No, I wouldn’t risk Daphne for that. The human woman had been through too much in her short life to be subjected to a grimy warlock—even Alexander was a better option than that .

“If it makes you feel any better she seems to be taking it all in stride. She wouldn’t even let me come and pick her up today and is riding her scooter,” Cash pointed out as he sat back against the wall of the room. “It doesn’t help that I’m also worried if I say the wrong thing they’ll boot me out too and I’ll go nuts if Daphne isn’t nearby. My instincts are already going haywire with a pregnant mate. I can’t even imagine how they’ll feel once there’s an actual baby here.”

It was sometimes easy to forget that there was so much that even Cash didn’t know about being a gargoyle. He’d been kicked out of his clan at such a young age and had only old Ronan the crazy gargoyle to go to for counsel so he was almost as much in the dark as the rest of us.

We’d agreed not to alert the local gargoyle clan about Daphne’s pregnancy unless we absolutely needed to—there was no telling what those snobby assholes would think about a halfling gargoyle—but I almost wondered if it would be worth it if only to get information about what gargoyle pregnancies are usually like.

“Effie always pretends like everything is fine. The woman wouldn’t admit she was hurting even if she wanted to. She’s too damn prideful to do that,” I grumbled, my mind turning to her avoidance of me over the past week ever since she’d let me hold her the night of her panic attack. She wouldn’t even make eye contact with me most days and it was driving me fucking crazy.

“Well excuse me for not wanting to put my problems on others,” the sharp snap of Effie’s voice made both of us jump. Whirling around to the now open door of my suite where the half-nymph was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and a furious expression on her face.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Neither of us had even heard her enter the room because we were so wrapped up in our conversation. Daphne was hovering just behind her shoulder silently waving for the both of us to shut the fuck up, but it was far too late for that as Effie’s face flushed with anger.

“Lass—” I began, but Effie cut me off before I could even start to get the words out.

“Don’t you ‘Lass’ me, Dallan Elder, and I don’t ‘pretend like everything is fine,’ because I don’t need to. Everything is fine.” With that, she whirled on her heel and gently pushed past Daphne before stomping back down the hall.

“I hope you know that you’re both idiots,” Daphne said before she turned to follow her friend, leaving me and Cash behind.

We sat in silence for a beat before Cash clapped me on the back hard, a pitying expression on his face despite the fact that this was half his bleeding fault. “Well, Dall, you wanted a moment to talk to her. Now might be that moment.”

I shot him an incredulous look. “She’s more likely to strangle me with those vines of hers rather than let me talk.”

Cash shook his head, his silver eyes still locked on the doorway. I could tell he also wanted to follow Daphne, every muscle in his back and shoulders twitching with the desire to go and comfort his upset mate. Even still, he finally turned to me with a sheepish expression. “Let’s be honest, if Effie was going to try and choke you out, she wouldn’t have run away to do it. She’d have strung you up in front of the whole shop and embarrassed the fuck out of you.”

Maybe he was right. I thought about Effie’s face before she turned to leave, and how at that point, there hadn’t been any anger. Just hurt and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

The tentacles on my face curled inward with frustration. Why did everything with Effie have to be so fucking complicated? Why couldn’t we just be together the way Daphne and Cash were?

Standing up and pushing my chair back, I left Cash behind and followed the two women up to Effie’s apartment where I could already hear Daphne quietly talking to her and trying to calm her down.

“Was he really wrong, Eff? I’m worried that you are getting in too deep just for me…”

“And I keep telling you that it’s fine. I’d go back a thousand times if it meant you and the baby are healthy. Whose side are you on anyway?”

“Yours, always, but I also think you’re pushing people away because you’re worried about how attached you might—” Daphne’s words were cut off abruptly by Effie .

“Dallan, I know you’re out there,” Effie’s muffled voice came through the closed door. “You may as well come inside rather than stand outside and eavesdrop.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I opened the door and peeked inside to find Daphne sitting on the little sofa in the living room as she watched Effie flutter around her potions table. Whatever Effie was cooking up smelled awful and looked even worse as she sprinkled something inside of the clear pot, turning the green color into an even more putrid color.

“Are you finally making something to poison me with, Lass?” I tried to joke but Effie’s pinched expression quickly put an end to that as she pointed a steaming wooden spoon at me.

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d just smother you in your sleep.”

“Effie, you realize I have gills too right? Smothering me would be incredibly hard,” not to mention that I can hold my breath for an inordinately long time , I added silently in my head. Somewhere in my fucked up, salt-water addled brain her threat was actually somewhat affectionate… and at least it meant she’d be straddling me. Something I found myself missing more with each passing hour.

If I’d known our ink collection that night would be the last time I’d be able to feel her silky smooth skin against mine, I would have made it last longer.

“And on that note,” Daphne said as she stood up, her whiskey-colored eyes darting in between us. “I’m going to let you two fight it out. ”

Effie’s eyes widened as she realized she was about to be alone in a room with me. Her mouth opened as if she was going to call Daphne back, but instead she dumped a little bowl of something in her potion and I watched the color change from a disgusting green to a deep shade of royal purple.

“If you hear screams you should come and save Dallan before I really do kill him,” she said, giving Daphne a jaunty wave despite her face still looking as angry as it had when I came into the apartment.

Daphne mouthed a silent good luck to me before firmly shutting the front door to the apartment, leaving me and Effie alone to our squabble.

Effie continued what she was doing with her potion, using a funnel to split the purple liquid into different vials and slamming her utensils down more roughly than she normally would have if she were in a better mood.

“Effie…” I began, trying to get her attention as I approached. I reached a hand out to her only to be stopped by one of her vines wrapping around my wrist.

“ Don’t , Dallan,” she warned, not looking at me. “I’m still very angry with you.”

“You aren’t even going to let me explain? That’s not fair.” I waited for the vine to loosen its grip before pressing my hand flat into her back. All of the muscles were twisted together in a tight, tense bunch .

With my free hand I forced her to put the half-empty pot back on the hot plate and turned it down so the potion wouldn’t burn while we hashed things out.

“Effie,” I tried more firmly, gently reaching for her chin and turning her to face me. “Talk to me.”

The tense muscles in Effie’s back finally seemed to start to melt under my palm as her shoulders sank back down. “What’s there to talk about? None of you seem to agree with my decision to go back to the mayor’s mansion, but you also won’t acknowledge that Daphne looks healthier now that Alexander is taking care of her. So fuck me for being a sucker who sacrifices herself for the people she loves, right?”

She wasn’t wrong. Color had returned to Daphne’s cheeks after only a few days of Finch’s spellcasting and so had her appetite.

“That’s all well and good, Lass, but what about you? You spent fifty years avoiding that house and the people in it and now it’s like you’ve never left.”

The part I didn’t say out loud—the part that had been worrying me ever since she made the deal with her father—was whispering nastily in my mind as Effie chewed on her bottom lip.

She’s going to go back for good now,’ it hissed nastily. ‘She belongs there finally, why would she want anything to do with you?’

When Alexander Finch had told Effie that her magic matured I’d watched her expression change, and how despite her reservations about her father and the coven he led, there would always be a part of her that wanted desperately to fit in with them.

“It’s not so bad,” Effie murmured, slanting her gaze away from mine as she spoke, doing little to assuage my paranoia. “It feels like my magic is finally going to work the way it’s supposed to, and hey, maybe it will be a good thing in the end. It means I won’t be so useless anymore. No more relying on enchanting items and making potions, I could actually cast real spells.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but I could see the same hurt that always entered her eyes whenever she talked about her complicated feelings around being a halfling.

“You are not useless, Euphemia Finch,” I insisted, pulling her into my arms and squeezing her tightly to me. Her palms flattened on my chest, and for a moment, I thought she was going to push me away. She had every right to after hearing me and Cash downstairs.

But instead her fingers curled on the collar of my open button down shirt and she melted in my arms.

And fuck if it didn’t feel amazing.

I wondered if she could feel the hammering of my two hearts as she pressed her ear to my chest, her sharp, minty scent filling my nose.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I leaned down to get a better purchase on her thin frame, nearly lifting her off of her feet as I tightened our embrace.

“For what?” she asked, her voice stifled by my shirt .

“For being an ass,” I supplied as I reached over and turned the burner off, my mood suddenly starting to shift as I felt the curve of her breasts pressing against me.

“And?”

“And for talking about you to Cash, I should have brought my worries to you first.”

“ And ?” Effie was clearly playing with me now, I could feel the curve of her lips pulling up into a smile against my chest.

“ And I’m sorry that you’re such a tease,” I said, leaning down to lift her fully up off of her feet, a grin on my face when she squealed and drew her legs up like she was afraid I was going to drop her.

Effie’s green eyes flashed up to meet mine before darting down to where my ink glands were hidden by my tentacles. “Do you need some relief, Dallan? I know it’s been a while…”

Irritation filled my chest and I quickly pushed it down. It was my fault Effie associated sex with ink collection in the first place. I’d let our little business-with-benefits agreement go on for longer than I ever should have.

Effie was my mate and over the past couple of days of watching her slip away from me I realized I was going to need to tell her sooner rather than later or risk potentially losing her forever.

Walking toward the beaded curtain that led into her bedroom I shook my head. “It doesn’t always have to be about ink collection, Lass,” I said before dropping my mouth to hers.