Darkest Before the Dawn (male/male)

Barty

For a guy with a boarded-up window, Felix’s room was surprisingly bright in the morning. He had left a lamp on for me after I fell asleep, curled up in his bedsheet, halfway through Captain America. Somehow, my head had migrated from the pillow to his shoulder, his hand in my hair being the thing to have woken me up. His arm was bent at the elbow, bicep supporting my neck, his fingers lazily curled up in my messy waves.

Carefully, I lifted my wrist to check my watch. Seven-fifteen in the morning. I probably should have been headed home.

The issue was, I didn’t want to leave our cocoon. Felix’s down comforter was bundled around us, my left leg tossed casually over both of his, my free arm flopped over his stomach while my right one was scrunched against my body. In his chest, his heartbeat would thump randomly every now and then.

Fuck, I really didn’t want to leave this.

And goddammit, whatever lightbulb he had in his bedside lamp cast a golden glow on his skin that made him look sun-kissed and radiant, achieving that ethereal appearance again. Long eyelashes created a shadow beneath his closed eyes. There was a slight part in his lips, which he frequently wore when he was relaxed. He was too fucking attractive. I didn’t deserve to be sharing his bed with him, not when I looked like a goblin most of the time.

Not when, for months, I had disparaged him for being a vampire.

If I had known in June that I would be cuddled up to Felix, wondering if I made him as antsy and nervous as he did to me, wishing we could block out the rest of the world to just be alone together, I would have sent myself back to therapy for having finally snapped.

At this moment in time, when a soft groan came from him as he turned his head closer to mine, I would have killed just about anyone who interrupted this.

That boarded window caught my attention again, a reminder that I would kill Richard for hurting Felix. Felix was healed, I know. He was perfectly fine. But the principle of the matter was that he thought it was okay to come into Felix’s home, tell him everything he did to me, then drop him from a window. It was a warning to us both.

I wasn’t going to abide by those kinds of warnings.

My throat closed when Felix’s eyebrows scrunched together, and exhausted eyes blinked opened to meet mine. I hadn’t noticed the depth in his irises before, how they were light gray on the surface, like every vampire, but had brown and faint blue speckles interlaced. I wondered what color his eyes were as a human. “Good morning, starshine,” I whispered, nudging his shoulder, hoping he wouldn’t kick me out of his bed yet.

Instead, he grinned and wrapped his other arm around me, settling his chin on the top of my head. I wasn’t used to this, always having been taller than anyone I was in bed with. “You look wonderful all snuggled up like this,” he whispered. “I felt your breath and heartrate change, so I thought you may be waking up. Sorry that I’m not the most comfortable.”

“You’re exactly the right amount of comfortable.” I sighed, feeling my eyes close, breathing in the tea and freshly laundered cotton scent clinging to his skin and clothes. “I thought vampires couldn’t wake up during the day,” I murmured, enjoying the ways his fingers strummed through my hair.

“What? No, we can.” His laughter was delicate, not condescending, just warm. “Books and movies have portrayed us as not being able to, but my body doesn’t know the difference in the time of day. I can obviously get around better at night and have been on this schedule for decades.”

“What I’m hearing is that I’m able to come visit you during the day,” I teased.

“Yeah, absolutely. But my bedrooms are the only rooms with the sun-blocked windows, so we’d have to stay in here all day.” It was said without any hint of perverseness, but I wanted so badly to turn it into something despicable.

“I don’t see any problems with that. I’m sure we could find things to do.”

His fingers stilled, but I felt his chest rumble with laughter. “Isn’t it too early in the morning for you to be a pervert?”

“Nope,” I groaned with a stretch, extending my arms until my hands touched his headboard. Between my deodorant having worn off and the morning breath, I became self-conscious of how I smelled, meaning I had to do the unthinkable and get out of bed. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I need to take care of myself before you realize how disgusting I am.”

“You’re the furthest thing from disgusting.” He flopped over to his stomach when I rolled off the sheets, tired eyes lingering on me as I crossed over to the bedroom door. “Be fast about it, yeah?”

There was no fucking reason for me to be here, at his house, brushing my teeth in his guest bathroom. Falling asleep in his bed had probably been a mistake. Coming over to have a date with him had definitely been a mistake. Allowing myself to loosen up these locks and chains around my emotions had been straight up stupid of me.

He was supposed to be my fucking enemy, the pretentious asshole vampire that was stealing my sister and best friend from me. Twenty goddamn years of telling myself that I was justified in hating vampires and thinking they were vile creatures, and it was all for nothing.

Not when there was still the phantom tingle from his fingertips at the crown of my head.

Certainly not when disappointment filled my lungs at the sight of seeing him asleep again in his bed. The comforter swaddled him tightly like a toasty vampire burrito. Those normally slightly raised eyebrows were now relaxed. It may have made me a creeper to watch him for the time that I had, but I wanted to soak in what I hoped was a rare sight.

“Your phone keeps vibrating,” he muttered, voice muffled from the comforter. “I’m too warm to move and check it.” He burrowed his head further into the blanket.

I would have given up my horns, my magic, anything, if it meant I could have crawled back into bed with him.

Reality came snapping back into view when my phone vibrated once again, two rapid buzzes to indicate a text. Two more buzzes came immediately after, and still another pair after those.

By now, Felix’s eyes had reopened, glaring at my phone on his nightstand. “Why do people get up so early in the morning?” He scooted the blanket down from his shoulders and sat up to watch me check my phone to see who the hell was interrupting this.

Four missed calls from Goldie. Seven texts from her.

Call me back ASAP!!!!

Are you awake? We need to talk NOW.

BARTY!!

Call me AS SOON AS YOU SEE THIS

I swear to god

WAKE THE HELL UP

I’m getting Cadence to call you and wake you up

“Oh, fuck,” I hissed, hitting the phone icon to return her call, my heart thudding in my chest and hands growing clammy. Goldie wasn’t a panicking type. She was the eye of my constant anxiety storm, bringing about an energy that could soothe even the worst of my nerves.

“Thank god you called me back,” she sighed into the phone once she answered. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I couldn’t call Felix since he’s sleeping, and you’re usually awake by now.”

“’m awake,” Felix rumbled behind me, leaning against my back once I took a seat on the bed. “Put her on speaker, please.”

Goldie’s little choked noises showed her confusion. “Um, okay, I thought since it’s day—whatever. Okay. Um, so, Akiya called me this morning. Apparently, last night, two members of the BRF broke into his home to try to abduct Evander.”

Ignoring the fact that breaking into the home of a reaper, who could kill on contact, was fucking suicidal, there was a shortlist of reasons why the BRF were trying to kidnap the spouse of a council member. “They’re trying to get something from Mazerene or Akiya, then.”

Felix nudged my back. “It’s fighting dirty, but I wouldn’t put it past them to take a political prisoner. That man that used to work with Cadence in HR must have told them about Akiya and Evander.” He hesitated, both of us knowing Madeline could have also been the one to tell the BRF about the Mazerene councilors. “The other two councilors don’t have family and live on Mazerene, making Akiya an easy target. Akiya lives in St. Augustine, Florida, however, which is concerning that the BRF is moving down south that quickly.”

My back felt cold when he removed himself from it, reclining against my side now, head on my shoulder.

“Exactly why I’m headed down there,” Goldie confirmed. “Akiya wanted me to come check on the demons there since the BRF has made the move outside of Georgia. We were aware of them moving into other states, but this is the first time that we know of where they’re now impacting others in those states.”

“Come pick me up. I’ll go with you,” I offered, ignoring now how Felix’s hand gripped onto my knee.

“Barty, that’s not your call,” Goldie responded. “I need to hear it from the bossman.”

“You’re not supposed to be on this case anymore.” Felix’s stare was hard, a scathing glance that he had mastered. He could display his rage so simply with that look, and now I had the luck of having it directed at me. “You just returned from Hell, which you were brought to because of your parent’s concern for your safety, and you’re wanting to dive back into this without any regards to your well-being, again.”

Biting my tongue wasn’t easy. Before going to Hell and thinking about him in the way that I did, I would have snapped at him and called him names and told him where he could have fucked off to. Being off my medication, without anything to reel in my anxiety and the whiplash anger that could come with it, made this more difficult.

“Fee,” I started slowly, swallowing as much exasperation as I could. I had to remind myself that biting off his head wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere. It would, in fact, disrupt the sanctity of his bedroom and make him question why he liked me to begin with.

“Mew, don’t.” His right eye flinched, and he squeezed his fists. “Come and get him, Marigold. He can go with you to Florida.”

“Okie dokie. I’m already on the interstate, so I’ll be there in about twenty.” Her voice had been skeptical, probably feeling the tension through the phone.

Felix escaped into the bathroom once I hung up. The sound of sink water filled the rigid silence. There had been plenty of times when I’ve upset him, but the anger rolling off of him was palpable.

My sweating hands were shaking now. It was tough to breathe.

Disappointment from making him feel like this quickly washed into my veins, almost to the point where I wanted to call Goldie and tell her to go on without me.

I didn’t fucking realize the control he had over me until that moment.

“I knew that as soon as you got home, you’d be on your way to Florida and would somehow find Akiya’s house.” Felix returned to my side, now smelling slightly of astringent and minty toothpaste. Noticing my trembling hands, he laced his fingers through mine. “I’ve met plenty of people from different walks of life while I’ve been alive, but you’re truly the most obstinate man I have ever met.”

Swallowing the rush of panic, I forced a smirk. “But that’s what you like about me, isn’t it?”

His eyes slid closed, like he was irritated with himself. “Yes, unfortunately, it’s something I find myself admiring about you. You never know when to stop, even if it means you getting injured or killed.” Tenderly, he brought my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “I shouldn’t allow my personal feelings about you interfere with your job; I know. It’s not professional of me, and it’s insulting to you to make you think that I don’t trust your capabilities as a detective. You’re a damn good detective, and we both know it.”

“I knew you’d see it my way one day.”

“I’ve never doubted your abilities, you know. You’re passionate, intelligent, and cunning. The problem is that you’re also incredibly tantalizing and too damn gorgeous for my own good, so I couldn’t help but fall for you and involve emotions in this.” The smile that greeted me when I kissed his temple filled me with a sort of satisfaction I hadn’t experienced before, one that solidified that I was competent enough to make someone happy.

“Fuck, you’re amazing,” I found myself whispering to him, surprising myself at the forwardness. Shyness had never been something I battled with – one could even say I was fucking obnoxious sometimes. Being around Felix, my head flooded with pops of vibrant colors that I couldn’t give words to, only positive emotions that made me euphoric to be there with him. It made it difficult to think properly and find the right things to say to him.

Felix was leaning into me, eyes closed, those lips slightly parted but smiling. “You should probably get packed,” he advised, voice low and wistful. “I’ll be there this evening to assist with checking on the demons in Jacksonville and St. Augustine.” Leaning away from me, his eyebrows furrowed, distress filling his expression. “Promise me you’ll be careful. I know the risks are low with it being daylight, but I also thought my house was safe from Richard.”

We caught ourselves staring at that window again, apprehension filling me. It was hard to tell if we were nearing the end of this investigation or only starting to scratch the surface. Too many hiccups kept happening that felt like a setback whenever I would get my hopes up for progress. “I promise I’ll be okay.” It was a self-assured promise, one I had to maintain for both our sakes.

Goldie arrived soon after I packed up everything. I had considered leaving my toothbrush or phone charger to have an excuse to come back over, but Felix assured me that he wanted me to come again as soon as possible.

Goldie’s fingers were tapping on the steering wheel, waiting for the light to turn green when we got a few miles out from Felix’s place. “So?” she started, wriggling in her seat and blinking her long golden eyelashes at me.

“So, what?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t immediately going to dive into the fact that she saw me kiss Felix goodbye. It had been harder than I thought it would be to leave him.

“So, like, you and Fee. What’s going on with that?”

“Could we not discuss this right now?”

“When did you get all shy with your private life? You told me about your top three best orgasms the first time we hung out outside of work.” When Goldie and I hung out the day before, it was hours spent catching up with each other—my time in Hell, trying not to question my existence, and her time working with Felix, going to the Halloween Ball with him, and her new hobby of learning ukulele.

Now we were back on track with each other with the borderline invasive line of questioning.

And typically, I would have told her everything about the date, even the private stuff that I’d sworn not to tell. With Felix, I felt almost protective of him and our night together. It was all purely innocent, and honestly the most vanilla date I’d had since I was a teenager, but it made it all the more special to keep quiet about. “I’m not shy about it; I just don’t want to embarrass Felix or anything. We had a nice night. Talked a lot. Watched a movie. I stole some of your mushroom jerky, so I’ll buy you a new bag to keep over there.”

“Get me the Cajun flavored kind next time, please.” I allowed her some silence while she merged onto the ramp to get back on the interstate. “Okay, you had a good time with him, and I’m sure he loved it, too. Are you dating now or taking it slow or what?”

“Goldie,” I groaned, fingertips in my eyes.

“Inquiring minds need to know.”

“You and Cadence, you mean.”

“Absolutely. We spent at least twenty minutes every few hours wondering how your date was going last night.”

Thank Satan, a topic change. “You slept at our place last night?”

“Curled up in your bed and everything. Cadence wanted me over to keep her company for the first night back home. We got your security system set up, too. Once Felix meets up with us, I’ll give you guys your passwords and everything so that you both get alerts, regardless of where you are.” She sounded proud of herself, probably having been the one to get everything screwed in and set up. Cadence was still in the twentieth century when it came to technology. At least Goldie had some awareness of it.

The rest of the drive was spent in a combination of comfortable silence, updating each other on what we knew about the case, including Richard’s invasion of Felix’s home, and me pulling up the census of Florida-based demons on Goldie’s laptop. It felt amazing to get back into the swing of the investigation, knowing that I was allowed to be working on this and no longer had to deal with backlogged paperwork.

It was a good return to normalcy.

The abnormal thing was seeing how frazzled Akiya was when we finally made it to his beachside home. Something about a vampire living in Florida, right on the beachline, had always been counterintuitive to me, yet Akiya swore that Evander loved it. “You’re finally here,” he huffed.

Akiya reminded me Felix in the sense that they were both always impeccably put together in their appearance and wardrobe. Akiya went the extra mile and rarely displayed his emotions, always hiding them behind a wall of indifference, making him both a terrifying and respectable council member. Anyone being sentenced could never tell what his decision would be since he had a damn good poker face.

That was the Akiya I had known for years.

Showing up at his house made it different. His dark eyes, the color of the body he was inhabiting, were a haunted golden, encircled by dark rings of exhaustion. Squared-off teeth were replaced by pointed ones, similar to shark’s teeth. The outfit he wore was clearly thrown on for the sake of getting dressed in regular clothing.

“Councilor, you look like a whole mess,” I quipped, stepping past him when he allowed us inside.

“Yes, well, when your spouse is nearly abducted by cult members, we’ll see how put together you are.” He sighed and rubbed his temples. “I apologize. I know that was a joke. I didn’t get any sleep last night. Please come inside. Hopefully neither of you are allergic to dogs. He’s in the bedroom with Evander, but I don’t want the fur to bother you.”

Goldie’s eyes did a once-over of the home, probably hoping that the dog would magically appear if she willed it hard enough. Knowing her, she wasn’t going to say anything, given the seriousness of the situation, but the temptation was there. “You have a beautiful home,” she covered, noticing how Akiya was eyeing her. It was a vintage nautical theme, again something that I’d never associate with Akiya and Evander. They gave off more “Oxford library” vibes than anything else.

“Thank you. We’ve been here for a few years and have never had any problems before last night.” He picked up his coffee mug from the kitchen counter and gripped it tightly in his hands, to the point that I thought he was going to shatter it. “I’m sorry. You know I’m not typically disheveled and so. . .unhinged, but I always assumed that Evander and I would be safe. I’m a reaper, for Christ’s sake. I take souls by touching people and can see the future, but I couldn’t. . .”

He took a deep breath before drinking his coffee. “I suppose I’ve gotten too comfortable. I never look into Evander’s future out of respect for his privacy and because there are infinite possibilities until he makes his mind up, but I feel as though maybe I should start in order to prevent things like this from happening again.”

“You’re really shaken up right now, it’s completely understandable.” Goldie was already starting to emanate her warmth for him, which he must have picked up on because he nodded slowly and took the smallest step towards the nymph. “Thank you for trusting our team to be the ones to help with this. It’s a big honor for us.”

“Absolutely. The council is cognizant of the advances your team has made in regards to the BRF.” He nodded towards me, now taking on the role of council member and not distressed husband. “I’m also glad to see Detective Elliot has put you back on this investigation. I’m sure you’re aware that I specifically wanted you on this case due to your history of being rather brutal, as well as your history involved with Richard.”

“Yeah, Felix told me that from day one of this.”

“Please understand, I’m not the kind of person who necessarily believes in ‘an eye for an eye’. However, if it so happens that the man who nearly took your life is now leading a death cult, then who am I to stop you from delivering justice?” He cleared his throat and took a long sip of his coffee, positioning himself towards Goldie now. “Thank you for sharing your nature magic with me. It’s rather delightful. I’ve never experienced it before.”

“Of course. It’s come in handy quite a bit recently.” Goldie was practically glowing now, and a little rosebud sprouted behind her ear.

“It makes it much easier to tell you the news that I’m likely going to be suspended soon.”

Goldie glanced at me, both of us with furrowed eyebrows, silently asking each other if they knew what was up. “Why would you be suspended, councilor?” Goldie asked slowly, watching as Akiya settled on the sofa, gripping his coffee cup in one hand and running his index finger along the couch seam with his other hand. The rosebud that had been in Goldie’s hair began to wilt, feeling the announcement settle in.

“In my anger at having my home broken into, as well as almost losing my husband, I acted more off of instinct than on logic.”

“You accidentally killed the intruders,” I surmised, my shoulders slumping, knowing this was going to be more complicated on his end than just having us check on the demons in the area.

“I accidentally killed the intruders, yes.” Akiya gestured to the sofa for us to sit. “Please take a seat. I’ll make you both coffee while we brainstorm how to decimate the Blood Rights Foundation.”