Shift

TEN.2

"I can't believe you dragged me all the way to California for a pointless five minute meeting!" Helio moaned. He leaned against the peeling wall of their shared motel room, twirling Lexi's origami heart between his fingers.

Blaze sat down on the bed; it squeaked like a dying mouse and released a cloud of dust into the air. "It wasn't that bad," he said, but he knew he was just making excuses. The meeting had been useless. He had thought the Congregation had at least a general idea of what had happened and maybe even a tentative plan on how to fix it, but it was apparent they had no clue. And that wasn't going to help his situation one bit. "At least Lira Fallon had some actual ideas. She handled things much better than Carsten and Naven did, at least. And Wheeler hardly said a word."

"They're all useless," Helio said, unbuttoning his shirt. "We shouldn't have come here; we should have just stayed in New York, as far from these stupid politicians as possible."

"Well it's too late for that now." Blaze felt a throbbing in his side, a pulse of pressure that made him feel slightly nauseous. It had been bothering him since the meeting. "God my stomach hurts."

"Probably the bad air in here. Sorry about the motel room," Celery apologized, carefully pulling back the comforter to reveal a set of off-white sheets. "I can't exactly magick up a nicer room, and I don't have a lot of cash on hand seeing as I had to book a separate room for Kayden and Lexi. You two don't mind sharing a bed, right?"

"It's fine," Blaze said. He and Helio had had a number of "sleepovers" when they were younger. After a night of building pillow forts and eating homemade cookies, they would either sleep on separate couches in Blaze's living room or collapse on the floor out of pure exhaustion. They had never shared a bed, and Blaze would have preferred to keep it that way, but Celery had done so much for him in the past twenty-four hours that he didn't have it in him to complain.

"Too bad we couldn't book one big room," Helio said. "Lexi is hot; I'd have no problem sharing a bed with her." His eyes glinted. "I bet you she's a she-wolf in bed."

"We get it, she's hot," Blaze said wearily, taking off his shirt. "I don't need the disgusting images in my head."

"Disgusting?" Helio clicked his tongue and stripped down to his boxers. He tossed his clothes from the day onto a peeling dresser in the corner. "You're just mad you can't tap her cousin."

Blaze laughed dryly, undoing his belt and slipping off his pants. "Yeah, that's it. Sexual frustration is definitely my biggest concern right now."

"Stop it you two," Celery warned. He set the outdated alarm clock on the side table for 7:00am. "Tomorrow I'm going to the teaching conference, and you won't be allowed in. So you guys will have to get along without me."

"No problem, Celery. We'll find some way to keep ourselves entertained as magic violently disintegrates around us," Helio said, bounding into bed. Looking up at Blaze, he patted the space next to him. His hazel eyes flashed in the flickering lightning. "Ready to cuddle?"

"Helio, shut the—"

"Stop it," Celery bit, climbing into his own bed. "Go to sleep."

"Fine," Helio conceded, reaching over to turn off the lamp. "Good night."

Blaze climbed into bed as darkness pervaded the room, carefully leaving a large space between him and Helio. The cool covers felt nice on his bare chest, but his stomach still throbbed. He rubbed it anxiously. I can't be getting sick now, he thought. He hated how things always seemed to happen to him at the most inopportune moments. Like blowing up that building, he thought grimly.

Initially he had felt bad for dragging Kayden into this mess. But now he also felt relieved. It was nice to have someone else around, someone who didn't drive him up the wall as much as Helio did. Despite her occasional moodiness, he enjoyed talking with her, and she definitely wasn't bad to look at—after all, his subconscious had deemed her attractive enough to shatter several large windows. He suddenly remembered how on the day he had cast the Bonding Oath she had lost her balance and fallen into him, knocking them both to the floor of her bedroom. As she landed onto his chest, her long hair had tickled his face...