Ivy was the first to the table, predictably taking the chair with her back to the wall. Jenks took the one next to her, and I reluctantly sat with my back to the room, scooting my chair in with a thump that was unheard over the music. Depressed, I gazed at the wall behind Ivy. Swell. I was going to have to look at a stuffed mink nailed to the wall all night.
The hair on the back of my neck prickled, and I turned when Ivy's eyes jerked to the door. Our Were escort had arrived, looking more out of place than we did. I wondered how long Walter would be able to hold all three packs together once the 'focus' was destroyed. Seconds, maybe? Brett was with them, bruised and moving slow. Walter must have farmed him out to the street pack as punishment. Clearly he was at the bottom of their social ladder and taking a lot of abuse. Not my fault, I thought. At least he was alive.
They settled at the bar, and I gave Brett a sarcastic 'kiss-kiss' bunny ear gesture before I turned to sit properly. Watching the humans around them stiffen and mutter, I was glad my little party of freethinking sexual gamers had already been accepted.
Jenks's casual tracking of someone behind me gave me warning, and I leaned away when Becky bustled forward. She stood a step farther back than usual, but after Ivy's stellar welcome, I didn't blame her. It was noisy, and I wished they'd turn the music down. I couldn't hear a thing over the electronic pop music. Must have been retros night at the old Squirrel's End.
'Welcome back,' she said, looking sincere though nervous. 'What can I get you? Twenty-five bucks gets you a wristband and all the beer on tap you can drink.'
Damn. Either it was really good beer or the locals could slam it.
Ivy wasn't listening and Jenks was making eyes at one of the women playing pool. She looked like Matalina with the cue in her hand and her little filmy skirt that barely covered her butt when she leaned over to take a shot. Disgusted, I tapped his shin. What was it with men?
Jenks jumped, and I smiled sweetly at him. 'Could we have a plate of fries?' I asked, thinking that to ask them to put chili on it would get us thrown out.
'You betcha. Anything else?'
Eyeing her over his sunglasses, Jenks became sex incarnate. 'What's on the desert menu, Becky? I need something…sweet.'
Ivy raised one eyebrow and slowly turned her attention to him. We exchanged looks as the matronly woman grew flustered, not at what he said, but at how he'd said it.
'Peach cobbler?' Becky encouraged. 'Made it yesterday, so the top is still crunchy.'
Jenks carefully slid an arm behind Ivy. Without a show of emotion, she grabbed his wrist and set it on the table. 'Put some ice cream and caramel on that, and you've got a deal,' he offered, and Ivy gave him an irritated look. 'What?' he said with a shit-eating grin. 'I'm going to need all the sugar I can get to keep up with you two ladies tonight.'
Becky's plucked eyebrows rose higher. 'Anything else?'
'How about one of those drinks with the cherries on little swords?' Jenks asked. 'I like those swords. Can you put a cherry on a sword for each of us?' His smile grew seductive, and he bent toward Becky, hiding his wrist. I think Ivy had bruised it. 'I like to share,' he said. 'And if these two aren't happy when the sun comes up, I'm going to be a dead man.'
The woman's eyes darted between Ivy and me. Ivy's lip quirked once, then steeled her features to a severe emptiness. Playing up to them, I cracked my knuckles in warning.
'Ooooh, hit me baby,' Jenks said, moving suggestively where he sat.
'That's my job, sweetie,' Ivy purred, pulling him close and tucking her head into the hollow between his shoulder and ear. Her hand was a stiff claw upon his pristine neck, and I saw a flicker of concern in Jenks before he realized she was playing and was nowhere close to losing it. 'I'm the bad vamp this time,' she purred. 'She's the good witch.'
Ivy drew her hand back to give him a tart slap on the face, but Jenks was faster, catching her wrist. Eyes sultry, he kissed her fingertips.
'Mmmm,' Ivy said, her dark eyelashes fluttering against her pale cheeks and her lips parting. 'You know what I like, pixy dust.'
Becky's face reddened. 'Just the cobbler?' she stammered. 'And the drink?'
Ivy nodded, her free hand wrapping around Jenks's and her tongue coming out to lick his fingertips. Jenks froze, truly surprised. The woman took a breath and walked away, her steps unheard over the noise. Great. Now I probably wouldn't get my fries.
Jenks reclaimed his hand, a faint flush on his face. 'Four spoons!' he shouted after her.
My breath escaped me in a hiss. 'You two are awful!' I said, frowning at Ivy as she shifted away from Jenks, a satisfied-cat smile on her face.
'Maybe,' Ivy agreed, 'but the Weres were watching us, not Audrey and Peter.'
I stiffened, seeing Ivy mentally tick item number two off her list. We had moved that much closer to the end of this, and the first of the butterflies rose in me.
'Jenks tastes like oak leaves smell,' Ivy said, ignoring his fluster as he tapped the table in rhythm with the karaoke machine.
Jenks squirmed, looking all of eighteen. 'Don't tell Matalina about that, okay?'
Ivy said nothing, and I forced myself to the back of my chair. What was keeping Nick? Maybe he'd seen the nice display of low-class Inderlander at our table and decided to stay at the bar. Or perhaps he didn't want to cross the room and draw the Weres' attention to himself. Regardless, I could use that water.
Slowly Ivy's tension started to filter back, unusual for her. For all my nervousness, Jenks and I were handling this better than she was, and I could understand why. Every run was personal to me. Ivy, though, wasn't used to having the outcome of a run mean this much to her. She didn't have the patterns of behavior to cope, and it showed around her eyes.
'It'll be okay,' I said, stifling the urge to reach across the table and pat her hand. The memory of her fingers gripping my waist, the rush of her teeth in me, lifted through my thoughts, and I stifled a shiver of adrenaline.
'What?' Ivy said belligerently, her eyes flashing black.
'It'll work,' I said, putting my hand under the table so I wouldn't touch my stitches.
She frowned, the rim of brown growing about her eyes. 'A Mack truck driven by your ex-boyfriend is going to run over you, and you say everything is going to be okay?'
Well, when she put it like that…
Jenks snorted, shifting his chair a little farther from Ivy. 'Crap for brains is back.'
I turned in my seat, almost glad to see Nick. He had a glass of water with a slice of lemon and two drinks of differing shades of orange. One had a carrot stick in it, and he put the other before Ivy as he eased into the chair beside me. I resettled my bag on my lap and tried to make it look like I wasn't concerned about it.
Ivy curved her fingers about her drink. 'That had better not have alcohol in it,' she said, looking at Nick's drink. Jenks reached to take it, and Nick jerked it away, all but spilling it.
'You aren't drinking anything if you're aiming a truck at Rachel,' the large pixy said.
Bothered, I grabbed the glass and brought it to my nose. Before Nick could protest, I took a sip, almost spitting it out. 'What in hell is that?' I exclaimed, running my tongue around the inside of my mouth. It was mealy, but sweet.
'It's a Virgin Bloody Rabbit.' Sullen, Nick pulled it closer. 'There's no alcohol in it.'
Bloody Rabbit? It was a Virgin Bloody Mary made with carrot juice. 'These are better made from tomato juice,' I said, and Nick blanched.
Jenks tapped his fingers on the table, smiling when Becky stopped at our table and set down a plate of ice cream and pastry along with his four-cherry drink and the requested number of spoons. No fries. Big surprise. 'Thanks, Becky,' Jenks called after her over the music, and her neck went red.
Ivy took one of the spoons and delicately scooped a dollop of ice cream, placing it succinctly into her mouth. She pushed it away as if done, saying, 'Peter is in the bathroom.'
My heart gave a thump. Check.
Nick took a shaky breath. I wouldn't look at him, pretending interest in plucking the cherry with the longest stem out of Jenks's drink. Nick stood, and Ivy reached across the table to grab his wrist. He froze, and my eyes went from his still swollen masculine fingers to Ivy's face. Her eyes were black, a severe anger shining from behind
