Forbidden Parabatai | ✓

(2) Demon in Disguise

"Channy? Chantelle open up.” Laressa said and the door opened. “Chantelle, is Ares inside?” But she answered her own question as she saw Ares lying on the mattress on the floor.

Chantelle and Ares often slept in the same room, but there was nothing intimate about it. It was just a friend kind of thing, and all they ever did was sleep, nothing else. Yet, Laressa couldn’t help but feel a little jealousy bubble up every single time.

“Yeah. He stayed up the whole night but just fell asleep like an hour ago.”

“Why? Because of that weirdo voice?”

“Yeah. He insists someone’s out to get me.”

“Do you believe that?”

“Even if I do, I think I can manage. And besides, we’ve already notified the Clave.”

“Oh.” Laressa leaned against the side of the door. “Tell Ares I need to talk to him. If he’s worried about protecting you, say it’s really important. In an hour, outside.”

***

Ares quickly threw on his jacket to join Laressa. Ares and Laressa had been dating for a month now, and Ares broke into a grin when he saw her.

“Come on, let’s go get Japanese.” Laressa said, as Ares threw an arm around her and they headed to the Sushi Cavern.

They chose a booth seat, and ordered sushi.

“So, what is so important that I had to tear my eyes away from the horse racing channel?” He grinned.

“Since when did you bet on horses?”

“3 hours ago.”

“3 hours ago you were guarding Chantelle.”

“Hey, I can multi-task.” He laughed, and his joking attitude was one of the reasons why Laressa liked Ares. Liked, not liked.

“Whatever. Oh, and your birthday’s 5 days away.”

“Yeah, I forgot. Channy had to wave her calendar in my face for me to remember. I didn’t remember my birthday but I remembered hers—10 days away.”

“Yeah. What should I get for her? Makeup?”

“No offense, but I think makeup is just a Laressa-Lightwood-thing.”

Laressa rolled her eyes jokingly. “So what should I get her?”

“Books, dance stuff, throwing knives, pick one.”

Laressa laughed. “But you never get Chantelle anything for her birthdays.”

“I do. Just that no one really knows. The first birthday she spent with us I bought her the Institute’s library.”

“What? You bought the library for her? I always assumed it was Pablo.” Laressa knew Chantelle kind of owned the Institute’s library (not that a lot of people visited it, considering the lack of people in the Institute. There was once when the Los Angeles Institute was the most popular, but a lot of people got relocated to Idris), but she assumed Pablo, Marissa’s husband, gave her the library after seeing how much she loved books.

“Nah. It was a gift, and a bet. I wanted her to be my parabatai. She said I would have to give her library first. She was joking, and she meant she rejected the offer, but I did it, which she didn’t expect. And the second, I gave her the hunting jacket with the knives.” The hunting jacket had at least 50 knives in there, and they must have cost a bomb. “I remember her face then, she was so happy. I love it when she takes interest in things like these.”