"What are you even doing here?" I asked, shoving past him. I think at some point we'd both mutually decided not to acknowledge how good it felt when we touched. Ziff, however, had no such problems and used my very brief connection with Fin's elbow to bounce up and onto his shoulder.
Kneeling down next to Chris, I put my hand against his forehead. He was clammy as hell, his skin an almost sickly yellow-gray color. But he was smiling when he tilted his head to look at me. Since I had no clue how much dust he'd taken, I also didn’t know if it was a genuine smile or if it was just a bunch of magic meth thrilling through this veins.
"I didn't come here to see you; Chris called me," Fin continued from behind me. His nearness said the complete opposite of his words. I could feel him, his body heat warming my back as I swiped some hair from my best friend's forehead.
"You keep in touch with Fin?" I asked, looking down at my friend's wide eyes. He was batting his long lashes innocently enough, but the beautiful turquoise color of his wings was faded and dulled, the sensitive appendages curled at the edges.
Yep. He was already starting to go through a dust withdrawal. This motherfucker …
"Fin was always my favorite," Chris whined as he rolled toward me and tried to grab my hands. I jerked back from him and let my mouth twist into a snarl. "And I figured win-win, right? You show up and see Fin, or at least … I'd have someone here to get me through this."
"Do not play that shit on me," I growled back at him, standing up and turning to give Ziff a similar glare. He didn't seem to notice, happily grooming his tail while Fin's three, orange ones danced in frustration behind him.
My own tails mimicked the motion and my ears lay flat against my dark hair in anger.
Fin's eyes, the brilliant orange of autumn leaves, watched me with a vibrant mix of hate and lust. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down. I was not going to sit here while Chris screamed and hallucinated, tried to claw his own eyes out and …
Fuck.
I spun around and grabbed the handle on Chris' nightstand drawer, yanking it open and revealing a very healthy array of sex toys. Most of them I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, but the fuzzy handcuffs were safe enough. I clamped one around Chris' left wrist and hooked him to the decorative wooden pole on his nightstand before he even realized what I was doing.
"You know I love you, girl, but our relationship doesn't really extend to S&M. Sorry, but pussies are just plain gross."
"Shut your mouth," I told him as I leaned onto the bed and trapped his left wrist, too. I debated going for his feet, but a faerie—and I mean that in the species sense, not just the fact that Chris was gayer than rainbow anal beads—coming down from a dust withdrawal was not going to be coordinated enough to do any damage with his feet. "And stay here while I get rid of Finley."
"Thea," my ex started as I rose to my feet and pointed down at Chris, completely and utterly ignoring the man who used to be the love of my life. People change, circumstances change. And I wasn't going to be tethered down by anyone, not even a man that used to make my blood boil in the best possible way. That still did make my blood boil in the best possible way.
Ugh.
Hormones sucked; feelings sucked worse.
My nipples pebbled and I sent up a silent curse to the universe. Kitsune pheromones were powerful as hell, and Fin was exuding so damn many he could probably bottle and sell that shit.
"If you scream too much, I'll come in here and use that ball gag on you," I informed my bestie, adjusting my finger so that I was pointing at a pink sparkly ball gag with a unicorn on it. Oh, Chris. "And then I'll put girl-on-girl porn on. Not a single dick in sight."
"Oh, for the love of the fucking Veil," he moaned, already thrashing against his bonds. I watched Chris for a moment, gave Ziff his you-best-not-ignore-this whistle, and felt his tiny warm form bounce onto my shoulder. He bit my ear and trilled his displeasure, but he stayed put. At least when push came to shove, he'd choose me over my ex.
I turned and left Chris in the bedroom, but when Fin moved to shut the door, I spun back and gave him an are-you-stupid look.
"You can't leave a dust addict on a comedown alone in a room like that," I scoffed as Fin crossed his own arms over his lean, muscular chest. Holy foxfire, Thea, get it together. What I needed was a one-night stand, something to smash my hormones down and put them in a little box. I so did not need this shit right now. And I sure as fuck didn't need the poison of lust chasing through my veins when I went for a hit—an unsanctioned hit that Mikhail was going to kill me for.
Mikhail.
Goddamn it.
Between him, and Riot, and Fin, I was pretty much done with men. Well, I mean men that I knew. A stranger sounded really good right about now—especially when I considered how pissed all three of the above men would feel if they knew about my plans.
"I can't close his door so we can have privacy? You weren't even going to come over until you knew I was here." Fin tilted his head to one side, orange ears twitching at me in curiosity, like he was sizing me up in my stiletto boots and long, black trench. When I'd lived at home, I'd always trounced around in short denim cut-offs and crop top t-shirts, barefoot and proud.
I'd come a long way since then.
"Why are you here anyway?" I asked, backing down the hallway. Fin dropped his arms to his sides and followed after me. There was something about the way he moved that made my heartbeat pick up, my throat get dry and tight.
"Riot told me you were trying to ship some bride over from Japan. Sorry, Thea, but that's not going to work for me."
My mouth twisted into an expression I wasn't particularly proud of. It felt mean, and spiteful. I wasn't either of those things, but I also didn't like being bullied. Riot and Fin had always been overprotective, almost cloyingly so.
"Work for you? What would work for you then? Me to come crawling back?" I laughed, this caustic, ugly sound, as I turned away and glanced down at Chris' glass coffee table. There was a used condom on the surface; I almost gagged. I loved my bestie, but the last thing I needed to see were his sex accoutrements. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Fin's orange eyes flashing with fire. He looked like he might come at me. I fucking dare him to try. "Have you ever taken a moment to wonder why I left in the first place? You and Riot, you drove me away."
"Don't say that!" Fin barked—pretty literally barked, too. I turned all the way around as he came forward, standing so close that our toes touched. He was barefoot, unsurprisingly, and only a few inches taller than me while I was wearing my heels. Most kitsune had some Japanese heritage mixed in, but Fin looked … Irish? I wasn't quite sure what human species he had in his DNA background, but he was only a good six inches taller than me when we were both barefoot. Most men towered over me which I fucking hated. Towered. That word, it was like a misogynistic romance novel term that made women swoon when really, it should make them sick.
Who the hell wants someone to menacingly tower over them?!
"You and Riot drove me away," I repeated as Ziff shrieked his frustration—he hated to see us fight—and darted back and forth across my shoulders, nibbling at my ears. "And you were the one that asked for a female. Whether or not you take her as a mate isn't my problem. The council will complete my binding, I'll have my magic back …" I stepped in even closer to Fin's lean body, his muscles tight and compact, made from nature and not a gym. Putting my left foot between his legs, I leaned up and put my mouth to his ear. "And I'll be this much closer to leaving you in the dust forever."
Chris screamed from the back room as I hovered there, my mouth enticingly close to Fin's ear. My fingers itched to reach out and stroke along the soft fur of his tails. Instead, I pulled back and slipped out of my trench, tossing it onto the couch and flashing all my curves (the few that I had anyway) in the tight denim jeans and lavender tank I was wearing.