Brightly (Flicker #2) (57 page)

“He went out. I think he was going to see Danielle.”

Lee frowned, wondering why Jason would leave Nasser alone just to see his on-again, off-again girlfriend. “I thought he and Danielle broke up.”

“They break up at least once a month. It’s tradition.”

“True.” Last winter, the four of them had gone on an ill-fated double date that fell apart when Jason and Danielle called it quits halfway through dinner. “Want to take bets on how long it’ll last this time?”

“I give it until next week.”

Lee carried their plates into the living room and sat on Nasser’s right side. Being at home seemed to have relaxed him. When he smiled, it didn’t seem forced. He was more talkative than he’d been in a few days. Seeing him like this was relief. For much of the drive, he’d been visibly uncomfortable. Lee hadn’t known what was bothering him: his leg, his head, a combination of the two, or something else entirely.

“Did Jason say when he’d be home?” Lee asked after a while, trying to sound casual.

“No.” Nasser glanced up at her. “Don’t be mad at him. It wasn’t his idea. I told him to get out of the apartment for a while.”

“There’s plenty of time for that,” Lee said, because she couldn’t truthfully say that she wasn’t mad. She set her plate on the coffee table. “It’s only our first night back.”

“He needs to do something normal. He shouldn’t be stuck here because of me.”

“You make it sound like hanging out with you is a punishment.”

He snorted. “Hanging out, or babysitting?”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like that.”

“You don’t have to—” Without warning, Nasser’s whole body tensed and he jerked, as if he’d been shocked. His plate clattered to the floor. “Get off my leg!”

Lee sprang back, startled to hear him shout. She raised her hands to show that she wasn’t touching him. “I wasn’t on your leg,” she said, though she was suddenly unsure. Had she accidentally bumped against his leg and hurt him?

The color had drained from Nasser’s face. He was staring at the space where his right leg used to be.

“I know,” he said finally, his voice taut. “I just—for a second, I thought I could feel—” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Lee knew he would never have raised his voice if he hadn’t been in pain, but she was still a little stunned. “Does it still hurt?”

“No. It’s fine.”

But she could see how stiffly he was holding himself and knew that he was lying.

A tense moment passed, and Nasser seemed to remember that he’d dropped his plate. Noodles and rice had spilled all over the floor. “Crap,” he muttered, leaning forward.

“No, no, I’ve got it,” Lee said immediately, hurrying into the kitchen to grab a handful of paper towels. When she’d cleaned up the mess and squared away the rest of the food, she returned to the living room.

“I’m sorry about that,” Nasser said, not quite looking at her.

“Don’t be. I don’t mind.”

“I do.”

She hesitated, then sat next to him, on his left side. Quietly, she said, “It’ll be better now that we’re home. It’ll get easier. Everything’s going to get better.”

“Not everything. I keep thinking about work. I can still do some things, but the rest is too much for Jason to do by himself. I can’t figure out how this is going to happen now. I can’t figure out how anything’s going to happen.”

“Filo and I will help. Alice will, too.”

Shaking his head, Nasser said, “You have your own workloads to deal with. I can’t ask you to—”

“You don’t have to ask. We’ll take care of it.” She placed her hand between his shoulder blades. “I don’t want you to worry about any of that. I just want you to focus on yourself right now. Okay?”

For a moment, he was silent. “Lee…”

“Yeah?”

“I’m kind of tired.”

She heard what he wasn’t saying. Since the surgery, Nasser had never told her outright when he wanted her to leave, when he needed to be alone, but he had his ways of cluing her in.

Just now, the thought of leaving him by himself sent a pang of anxiety through her. But as much as she’d like to wait here until Jason came home, she couldn’t stay if he wanted her to go.

“Okay,” she forced herself to say. “Do you need anything, before I go?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Where are your pain pills?”

“In the bathroom.”

“Can you get to them all right?”

He gave her a flat look. “I’m getting pretty handy with the crutches, you know.”

Lee felt herself flush. “Right. Sorry. The leftovers are in the fridge,” she added, squeezing her hands together. “You’re sure you don’t need anything?”

He offered her a thin, patient smile. “I’m
fine
. Go home and get some sleep.”

“As long as you’re sure.” She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Lee smiled at him as she went to collect her shoes. When she left the apartment, though, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was doing something wrong.

Filo wasn’t sure how he’d allowed himself to be talked into this, but he was already following Jason into Chimeric, and it was too late to back out.

After he and Henry parted ways, Filo had wandered aimlessly. He’d considered going to see Rodney, but found that he couldn’t face him yet. Rodney would have questions, and Filo wasn’t ready to answer. When he returned to Flicker, Lee was gone. She’d left a note, explaining that she’d gone to see Nasser.

When Filo heard the bells jangle downstairs, he assumed it was Lee, but it was Jason who came upstairs. Jason had been out with Danielle, the werewolf he dated in fits and starts. He was a little hazy on the details, but evidently, it took them less than an hour to find something to argue about and break up. That had to be a new record.

The point, Jason concluded, was that his schedule had unexpectedly cleared, and he wasn’t quite prepared to go home and listen to Nasser’s relationship advice. Filo had been so desperate for a distraction from his own mind that he’d agreed to join Jason at Chimeric.

Chimeric was like another world, a dark planet filled with orbs of multicolored faerie lights that darted and swarmed. The air smelled of sweat and the sweet, smoky tang of magic. Bodies packed the dance floor, and the music was loud enough to make the floor vibrate. Scales, feathers and skin flashed in the ever-shifting light.

At the bar, Jason ordered a shot of something Filo had never heard of, which he knocked back as easily as if it were water. Filo bought a drink just to have something in his hand. It didn’t really matter what it was. Chimeric didn’t normally serve alcohol, as the substance didn’t do much for faeries, werecreatures or vampires. In turn, most of the drinks that could actually get them drunk didn’t have the same effect on humans.

Jason’s gaze fixed on something behind Filo. When he glanced over his shoulder, Filo spotted a faerie girl with spiky pink hair and a silver lip ring sitting at the other end of the bar. She grinned at Jason and sauntered toward the dance floor, never taking her eyes off him until she melted into the crowd.

“Duty calls?” Filo drawled.

“It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.” Jason bumped Filo with his shoulder as he started after the girl. “I’ll catch you in a bit. Don’t leave!”

When Jason disappeared, Filo slunk away from the bar. The walls were lined with mirrors of varying shapes and sizes that threw back strange reflections. In one mirror, he had a dozen eyes, all of them gushing black blood. In another, he was being devoured by flames. Though Filo could see the black etchings along the edges of the mirrors, the little runes that manipulated the reflections, what he saw still unnerved him.

Eventually, he found an empty table. Filo sipped his drink dully, watching the crowd and regretting his life choices.

A girl at the next table kept looking over at him. Her black hair was shaved on the sides, and the swirling lavender markings that wound up her arms, across her bare shoulders and up her throat glowed softly against her dark skin. After several minutes, the girl finally got up and crossed to his table. Her bright purple irises glowed with the same light as the swirls on her skin.

“I’m Cherie,” she called, raising her voice to be heard above the music. When he didn’t say anything, she tilted her head. “You’ve got a name, don’t you?”

“Filo,” he said.

The look on her face told him that she didn’t quite believe that was his name. Plenty of people didn’t. He couldn’t blame them: Filo was an admittedly odd name. It sounded fake. In a way, he supposed, it was.

Still, Cherie leaned her elbows on the table. “Want to dance?”

“No.”

She smiled with sharp little teeth. “In that case, you can just buy me a drink.”

Cherie tilted her head, still smiling. She looked not unlike Jason when he started chatting up a girl. Filo thought suddenly of Juliet Hennessey. Had she ever looked at him like this? Had she wanted him to kiss her before the day he traded her for the amber charms? How had he never noticed?

Girls had never interested Filo that way. He’d never thought much of it. From time to time, in the grocery store or on the sidewalk, Filo caught himself looking at a boy with nice shoulders or striking eyes or a loud laugh, but that was as far as it ever went. One moment, one look, and then he moved on. That was best. That was safe. That was what he allowed himself. Until he met Henry.

With Henry, he hadn’t cared about what was safe. Kissing Henry made him feel bright and unbreakable, like something the world couldn’t touch. But when the moment passed, he felt unbalanced, like he was falling into something depthless.

“I don’t think so,” Filo said, trying and failing to push Henry from his mind. “I’m fine right here.”

Cherie straightened. The hint of a smile still tugged at her mouth. “Suit yourself. If you change your mind, I’ll be around.”

With that, she slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

Moments later, Jason emerged from the throng, a drink in each hand. “If I’d known you were going to mope all night, I wouldn’t have invited you.”

“Sure you would’ve. I make you look charming by comparison.” Filo picked up one glass, peering down at the ruby-colored liquid. “What is this?”

“It’s good. Drink it.” As if to demonstrate it wasn’t poisonous, Jason took a swig of his own identical drink. “Who was that girl?”

“I don’t know.”

“She ask you to dance?”

“Yeah.”

“And you said no?”

“Uh-huh.” Filo took an experimental sip. The drink was both sweet and strong, searing pleasantly all the way down his throat.

“God, you’re a total bore. Is this about Henry?”

Filo choked a little. Coughing, he asked, “What about him?”

“You liked him, right? I saw how you looked at him. And he was clearly into you.”

“Don’t be dumb. Why would you even say that?”

Jason lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I know these things,” he said sagely. “Also, once, I saw him staring at your ass. Not even very discreetly. He’s got it bad.”

At that, Filo looked down at the glass in his hand, trying to think of a way to brain himself with it.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Come
on
. It’s okay to have a feeling every now and then. You won’t get a rash.”

Filo pinched the bridge of his nose. There was a tight, pressurized feeling in his chest that he couldn’t quite breathe around, like something wanted to escape. “Salt and sage,” he groused. “Fine. I liked him. Not that it matters. Happy now?”

“Happier,” Jason said. “You know, I have a metaphor involving fish and the sea that you might find helpful.”

Sighing, Filo glanced at the wall. In one mirror, he had the head of a jackal. “Who the hell cares about fish?”

“Filo!”

He whipped around. Alice was edging through the crowd, away from the press of bodies on the dance floor. She was wearing a shimmery, silver dress he’d never seen before. The hem fluttered around her thighs. Her face was flushed and her eyes were incredibly bright.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asked, looking faintly bewildered but pleased as she joined them at the table. “Filo, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before.”

“I talked him into it,” Jason said. “It was quite a feat. Feel free to heap praise on me.”

“What about you?” Filo asked. “I didn’t know you came here.”

“I came with Tipper. She’s around here somewhere.” Alice lowered her voice so that she was barely audible above the pounding of the music. “They’re not going to be here much longer. Conall and Tipper.”

Filo frowned. “What do you mean?”

“When I got in today, I told Conall what Amelia said about the Guild expansion. They’re going to get out of town, at least for a little while. Conall doesn’t want to deal with the Guild at all. He said it’s too much hassle. He wants to wait it out somewhere else.”

“Where does that leave you?” Jason asked.