Page 35 of Leviathan's Song
Levi stepped over to the refrigerator and opened it, peering into the drawer full of blood bags. “Looks like it’s mostly AB positive.” He jostled the drawer a little. “And there’s a bag of O negative.”
Jordan’s door burst open, and he wheeled around the corner on one foot, needing to grab the wall to keep from toppling over. “I’ve got O neg? How did I miss that one?” He snatched it out of the drawer and danced around Levi to grab a plastic sport bottle out of a cabinet.
“Hey there… Elara, right?” He pointed at me with finger guns, then emptied some of the bag into his bottle when I smiled at him. He capped the bag and put it back in his drawer.
“I offered to do that for you,” Levi said, pushing at him. “Get out of my kitchen, I’m working in here.” Jordan held his bottle over his head while he capped it and then dodged around Levi to drop it in a cylindrical device on the counter and flip a switch.
“Stop it. No touching! I could make one wrong move and snap your puny little body like the twig that it is.” He bent at the waist and shook his booty with his hands on the counter, humming a little song as he stared at the light on the appliance. In a lot of ways, he reminded me of Sidney’s brothers.
Levi grabbed a kitchen towel from the oven handle, deftly twisting it and snapping Jordan on the rump before I even noticed what was happening. “That’s rich,” Levi said to him, “coming from the guy currently heating up his dinner in a baby bottle warmer.” He filled some wine glasses for us and set one in front of me with a fork, giving me a quick peck on the mouth before returning for his own glass. I tried not to blush and failed.
The timer popped on the bottle warmer, and Jordan grabbed the bottle out, drying off the clinging water droplets with the towel. “If it’s stupid and it works, then it isn’t stupid,” Jordan called over his shoulder as he headed back to his room. “I’m studying for a test. I might be out later.”
Levi sat with a sigh and took a gulp of his wine. “I don’t understand why he doesn’t just heat it up himself,” he muttered.
Jordan yelled through the door, “Melted plastic makes it taste weird! Let me study!”
“He’s taking some online courses,” he said, by way of explanation. I didn’t really understand any of that, but I didn’t want to bother Jordan by talking about him, so I let it go.
His pasta was delicious, and we talked for a while about everything he could think of to ask. Every time my mind would start to drift back to the sprite, he would pull me back to the present by asking me questions about things like my favorite flowers or what genre of music I preferred. I learned that he mostly ate seafood and was currently obsessed with some human music called K-pop.
By the time Grim came home with an armload of groceries, we had moved to the couch with our wine and were watching a documentary about the Boundlands and cringing at some of the wild inaccuracies it contained.
“How hard would it be to just ask someone who lived there if The Orc Wars had destroyed a whole country?” Levi muttered. “I’ve never heard about that in any of my history classes.”
Jordan wandered out while Grim was unloading his groceries and stretched his arms in front of him. “Hey, now that Grim’s back, we have four people. You guys want to play that settlers game?” Jordan asked. “I could use a break from studying.” His face looked like a hopeful puppy’s. Grim just shook his head slightly without looking up from the food he was pulling out of the bags.
Levi gave Jordan a slightly dirty look. “Last time we played we ended up having to replace the kitchen table, you moose.”
“I said I was sorry.”
I bit back a grin. Definitely like Sidney’s brothers. “Maybe next time,” I hedged, “I should probably be heading home actually.”
Levi stood and took my glass. “Let me walk you out.”
I put on my jacket and waved goodbye to his roommates. We walked silently side by side down the stairs to the front of his building, where I turned to say goodbye. “Thank you for dinner. It was lovely.”
Levi’s face brightened considerably when he smiled in return. “You’re welcome. Can I walk you home?” He glanced down the darkened street, lit only by streetlamps making pools of bright light in the maritime haze.
I wrinkled my nose. “It’s a long way, especially for you to just turn around and come back. I feel pretty safe now that I’ve got all my wasps with me.”
His eyes roamed over my face, as if he were trying to discern my truthfulness. “To the Gate, at least? It would make me feel better.” Did he notice that his luring enchantment pulled harder at my ward as he said that?
When I shrugged a shoulder in acceptance, he took my hand in his, and we walked the blocks down to the Golden Laurel Gate while I reveled in the simple luxury of getting to touch his hand. I had to push away the feeling of guilt that crept in when I thought about how much I’d enjoyed tonight and the little fairy who would never know an enjoyable night again. ‘Life is for the living,’ my mother had said to me once.
When we were just outside of the city park entrance, he pulled me gently to a stop and ducked his head to brush his lips faintly against mine, as if he were asking permission to kiss me again. Did he think I would refuse?
I met his mouth with mine and felt him smile briefly against my lips. His kiss was gentle, soft, and sweet, and he slipped his hands into my jacket pockets and tugged me closer to him. After a second, he pulled away slightly and looked down at his hand. “What do you—” He held up a tiny, folded paper in the dim light. “It poked me.”
I didn’t recognize it, so I plucked it from his fingers and unfolded it. It came to about an inch and a half square, with tiny letters in a language I couldn’t read. My mind darted back to the sprite. This was the same pocket I’d carried her pouch in. Had a note fallen out?
I turned it to Levi. “Can you read this?”
His eyebrows drew together as he took the tiny note and held it at a normal reading distance.
“Do you need more light?” I asked.
He shook his head but kept his eyes on the note as he scanned it. “I can see fine in the dark,” he said absently. “It’s from the sprite.”
