for tonight

Cup in hand he’d stood at the windows and watched them start drifting through the square below. Wildly coloured specks rushing around like pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope. It had been kids at first, their shrieks not carrying up this many floors but he could imagine them. Grey sipped, blue eyes narrowing as he watched two knots come together for a moment, swirling before they parted. Probably heading off to knock on doors for trick and treating, they’d spill home later hopped up on candy, bodies vibrating with all of that sugar. A far sweeter holiday here than it had been when he was a kid.

His mouth pursed, his tongue rasping against the roof of his mouth. Some of the kids in the village had trailed door to door, little plastic buckets or bags shaken as they’d chirped ‘trick or treat’, penny sweets ratting in them, cheap plastic masks hanging drunkenly from their ears. It had been the older ones who’d braved getting near the farmhouse. By then his dad had already had a reputation. Get too close to the Maddox place and old man Maddox might just come out ranting and raging. Grey had watched them from an upper window then, wanting to slip out to join them but caught in his dad’s ravings that always intensified on a night like that there’d been no escape.

Breathless teens crawling up to the door, eggs in the hands of the braver ones. Pelted at the stones until either his dad or a member of the pack would go chasing them off, growls piercing the night until they’d shit it and bolt.

No eggs here, no ravings spilling out of the front door of the hotel, although he had his staff on watch for the one bitch who might try crawling up to the place in disguise tonight. Just Destiny’s childlike joy, glittering bright, taking the darkest edges of what Leah had done at her reappearance. Try as she might, his sister hadn’t managed to destroy yet.

It had been close though.

Grey grunted, drank the last of the coffee before he set it in the sink and went to bask in that glitter for a while. Destiny’s place where her joy for the holiday was probably strung around the place in scores of jack o’lanterns, candles burning bright. The last event in this town had been the start of the fix on what he’d nearly broken after Leah had purposefully cracked it. Tonight would be different. A pulling close in contrast to all that pushing away, no confessions needed to close that gap between them again.

Those bright flurries of costumes spilled in front of his car as he drove over, lit up pumpkins blazing grimaces and leers from almost every window. He parked up outside her building, not intending on the vehicle moving before some time tomorrow. A kid with fake fur pasted to hands and face pausing in front of him on the sidewalk, flashing fake fangs in a grin before he roared. Grey clutches a hand to his chest, took a stumbling step back as he fake yelped. The kid lit up, bouncing from one brown furry boot to the other. He didn’t have candy, had trusted Destiny to have all of this handled with that eager capability that had her buzzing from one need to the next. ”Scary,” he told him. ”Thought you were gonna bite me then.” At the rattle of the kid’s bucket, he dipped a hand in his pocket, tugged a ten from his billfold. ”Share this with them OK?” There was a small knot of kids a yard off, all big eyes and whispers. With a whoop the kid was off, fur flapping as he ran back.

Shaking his head Grey headed for Destiny’s building, a hop up to the door a thousand times more spritely than that first stumble in. His thumbs thumped over the screen. ’Downstairs, gonna huff and puff til you let me in.’ Moments later the door buzzed and he was heading up the stairs, anticipating her as much as the rest of the night.

Fingers spread lightly on the apartment door, blue eyes scanning the apartment as he stepped quietly in. Berlioz was there in an instant, muscular body writhing in rapturous greeting. As was his way now, he bent, both hands scrubbing over the dog’s head in greeting before his mistress fluttered out. Oh he’d been right. All that fairy dust glittered, on her face, on the flower studded dress, shimmering on those diaphanous wings sprouting from the back.

”Hi.” His greeting a low, warm rumble as his hands carefully found the curve of her waist. He expected her to launch herself at him, as was her way but she held herself back, that sheepish smile on her lips. ”Crushed flowers are a no-no huh?” Dark brows rose, amusement a vibrating rumble in his throat as he pressed his lips to those painted ones. He could have had real ones sprouting again with the power in his veins. Like Tinkerbell would’ve done.

Tracing his tongue over his lower lip, tasting her, he watched. She twirled, the light catching those wings and throwing rainbows all over. Grey mock narrowed his eyes, tapping a finger against his lips as he squinted one eye at her. ”Looks like Tinkerbell’s ready to sprinkle her fairy dust everywhere. Amazing.” They’d stuck, those films that filled everything with light , that he’d half watched and half watched her. ”Lost boy, Peter Pan or…” Hook. Grey laughed low, blue eyes squinting as he looked at her through the screen of dark lashes. ”Bad boy pirate huh?” At least the hook would give him an extra weapon if Leah decided to stomp in, the joy of the holiday tempered with that darkness if it needed to be. He retrieved it from the bag now, slipping it on before he gestured Destiny close with the other hand. As she drew close he snagged the end of the hook with infinite care into the neckline of the dress where everything bloomed ripe. ”I think I can pull it off, don’t you?” Rakish over that core of angry black, willing to do whatever he had to … for her especially.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1045

Domesticity wasn’t his thing, even if he offered it to others on a plate. No examples of it in those formative years to follow. He hadn’t been the four year old making retching noises over his parents getting affection with one another – ewww cooties! – hadn’t been raised in the centre of something functional, normal, loving. The house had been a tomb, filled with madness and grief. Even fighting his way out of that he hadn’t found some apple pie life elsewhere to bask in, his scars and the memories of the torture that had been life before fading.

She hadn’t either but he’d let her draw him into it. One stumbling step at a time until this felt like it could become normal at least. Routine, that easy affection Destiny handed out like candy. It should’ve rot his teeth, had him balking at it burrowing any deeper into his life but after the real rot of Leah had arrived he’d had to come to a realisation. He wanted the rot, wanted her. Sparkly fairy wings and all.

Grey craned to look over her shoulder as he drew out of the kiss, blue eyes narrowing as he pretended to study the mechanics. It wouldn’t have surprised him to see them flutter, all that magic sparking out of her somehow. A wash of light as she held hands over his ruined skin, radiating from those big blue eyes when she looked at him, sparking in that laugh … and those brightening cheeks. ”Get them to stay long enough and they might just grow in,” he warned, amusement lacing his voice with that trace of wickedness. There’d been plenty of stories of the ‘fae’ spilling out of his dad on a wave of madness. Things who had consorted with the druids back in the days before the Romans had arrived and his kind’s days had ended up numbered.

If there was glitter in that bag he might just balk. There were still some limits, even if refusing would dim all the light that was sparkling in her excitement now. Grey made a low sound of agreement, watching her rather than what she’d grabbed for him. ”No clue,” he admitted. That was close though, wasn’t it? To what that son of a bitch had done to her. Lock her up until she wouldn’t even glance at anybody else, beat that isolation into her because the alternative would set her free.

She’d made it out though, trailing to Mystic Falls to stumble over him in the street and drag him back. Gratitude had been there for that but this was well beyond just agreeing to train her now. Grey felt it in his chest, slightly uncomfortable like something was having to shift to adjust to it, but not in a painful way. The kind of aching stretch that let you know something was healing.

Grey’s grin broadened as he saw the heat rise under her skin, the hook, cool as it probably was kissing delicate skin lightly. She came close when he gave that tug, her voice low enough he barely heard he agreement. It would’ve torn right through if he let himself snap but all that had shattered around her when it had been Leah’s fingerprints glowing scarlet on her skin was pieces back together tonight. Blue eyes ticked down and then slid back up, his head tilting s his hands slid under his shirt. ”You keep that up and we won’t be getting anywhere soon,” he warned, a rasp to his voice.

It had become a full on smirk as she tugged his shirt over his head, draping it aside. Not hands on the button of his jeans now but settling on skin, leaving him sliding their arrival at the club a whole hour later. ”Kinky,” he drawled. Grey shook his head, pretending to let out a sigh but he was already trailing his fingers light and cautious over the back of her dress, looking for the way in. ”Call me Cap’ain Maddox.” One blue eye winked as his mouth was captured by hers. Grey let it go deep, his nerves stripped bare beneath his skin. His fingers fumbled faintly as he began to nudge her back towards her bedroom. If that dress hit the couch the wings weren’t making it to the club. ”How do you get into this? Is it magic? Some sort of spell to keep it all buttoned up til the pumpkin carriage arrives later?” No, wait, that was Prince Charming, which would’ve made her Cinderella instead of Tinkerbell. That shoe definitely didn’t fit, he thought as he backed her through the bedroom door.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 775