Who: Reagan and Caius When: morning, Wednesday, Jan 17th Where: home Status: complete
The talk with his mother hadn’t been very productive, and it had been followed by one with Anthony that didn’t yield many answers either. His father had confirmed what he’d suspected -- Miriam was downplaying her moods. Or unaware of them, Caius wasn’t sure which. He’d reached back out to Shayna Mae to tell her he thought the same sort of symptoms she’d described were happening to his mother. She didn’t have any new answers either, so they’d left it at ‘keep me updated’ on both sides, and hung up. Caius had kept Reagan up to date on everything, naturally, and part of him was a teensy bit glad that it wasn’t something happening to them directly. They needed a fucking break.
As he woke up on Wednesday morning and got up to shuffle to the bathroom, Caius got the sneaking suspicion that a break wasn’t actually happening. He felt ... strange. Like there was something gnawing at the back of his mind, something bad that he’d forgotten ... or was it in the air? In any case, it woke him up more than taking a piss had, and instead of climbing straight back into bed, he found himself at the window, studying the falling snow in the dim morning light.
Reagan had stirred when Caius slipped out of bed, but she remained dozing, unwilling to get herself moving just yet. Emma was opening the shop so she had a couple of hours before she needed to get ready for work anyway. Besides, her bed was warm and comfortable and she tugged her blankets up over her body to her chin even more, fading off again as soon as the bathroom door shut. Several minutes later she heard it open again in a vague, sleepy sort of way and Reagan fully expected Caius to slip back into bed with her. When he didn't, she opened her eyes, squinting a bit against the daylight. Caius was at the window and Reagan couldn't get rid of the immediate feeling that something was wrong.
"What is it?" she asked, her voice hoarse from sleep. He had told her all about Shayna Mae's visit, and what was happening. Nothing that truly affected the both of them, at least not directly, but Reagan knew he was likely worried about his mother.
In theory Caius was supposed to be in the office in a few hours, but he had a lot of flexibility when it came from working from home. It helped that Mila was proving herself capable, and Caius had hired another assistant that was all his own to help with some day to day things that were strictly related to the marina. Work smarter, not harder, and all that. And considering the feeling he was currently having, Caius wasn’t sure it was a great idea to go anywhere. He didn’t realize that he was looking for signs of fog until Reagan spoke from the bed. He looked over, thick brows furrowed in close. “Do you feel that?” he asked in a soft voice, like something might overhear them. Some instinct told him she would, that this was something outside of his own head. It was in the air.
Reagan's brows drew together in confusion for a moment before she slowly pushed herself up to sit, her blankets falling down to her lap. Did she feel what? She didn't speak, but took a moment to try and wake up her mind a bit more before answering. It didn't take long, once the clouded air around her mind cleared, to understand what Caius was talking about. It wasn't anything specific. Just a feeling. Something in the air around them. Reagan wasn't sure what it was, which told her it had to be something deeper than just simple magic. "Yes," she said finally. "What is it?" It was possible Caius already knew, but maybe not. It was new and Reagan couldn't quite pinpoint it herself.
Caius waited patiently while Reagan oriented herself. He didn’t know how he knew exactly, but he knew she would feel it too, and he was right. It wasn’t the first sense of foreboding he’d had in recent months, but it was definitely the strongest and the first that felt so outside of himself. “I don’t know,” he admitted in a murmur, turning his eyes back out the window for a moment. Caius thought of his father and Shayna Mae both saying that something was coming. Was this what they’d already felt? He pulled himself away from the window and went to sit on the edge of the bed on Reagan’s side, reaching out to rest his hand on her leg. “Do you have to go into the shop today?”
Reagan considered it before lifting one shoulder in a soft shrug. "I don't suppose so. Emma is opening the shop today and Carrie is closing. They overlap for about an hour." Reagan just liked to be there for the management side of things, and if someone came in needing something they couldn't find on the floor itself. Her frown deepened. "I can stay here if you think I should. It does feel a bit foreboding, doesn't it? Like an intuitive feeling that something is coming." And wasn't there always something coming? Except for this time, it affected nearly everyone, and not just the two of them. Was it wrong to be relieved by that? "Are you going to go to work?"
Caius didn’t think it was wrong to be relieved that whatever problem this was didn’t exist solely at their doorstep, because he felt the same way. They were tangentially involved, since his mother had been injured in the fog along with some other people exhibiting concerning signs, but it at least wasn’t a curse hanging directly over their heads. If this feeling was related to everything else, that was. Caius didn’t know for sure. “I had planned on it, but ... think I’d feel better working from home today,” he said, tossing another wary glance toward the window. “If you’re all right with staying home, I would prefer it.” The feeling wasn’t strong enough for him to insist that she stay no matter what, but if this kept up Caius would definitely worry about her if she was out. “I’ll make you breakfast and everything,” he added with a faint smile.
Reagan nodded. "I can probably stay home. They can call me if any emergencies arise." Who knows how busy the shop would be today anyway, with the weather. She reached out to push her fingers through the hair just above his ear, returning his small smile with one of her own. "I can't possibly say no to breakfast." She knew he was still worried about his mother, especially since she didn't seem to realize anything was wrong. And if she did, she was trying to hide it. That was more worrisome than anything else. "Do you want me to reach out to Nate and my mother? See if maybe they're feeling the same thing?" If she and Caius could feel it, reason said the other witches in town could as well, but Reagan had been surprised before, so who really knew.
Caius leaned very slightly into the touch. Reagan was the only person in his life who actually made him feel better with touching instead of more irritated. Which was probably a good thing, considering they were married now. “Just to be safe,” he murmured, then nodded a bit. “I’ll text my father, see if he’s feeling the same thing. Maybe Shayna Mae. When she was over here she mentioned feeling like something bad was coming too, or that it had already started.” More and more, he was respecting her as a peer instead of just some backwoods hillbilly witch. Maybe there was something to be said for staying so isolated and connected to nature. Caius caught Reagan’s hand and kissed the back of it. “It’ll be nice to have a day to ourselves anyway.”
If they were feeling this, the chances were good the other witches in town were feeling it too. But she would text her family to make sure, because given their history, there was a slight possibility this was isolated to just her and Caius. But gods, Reagan was hoping not. She didn't think she could take another fucking problem regarding their relationship. Staying home wouldn't be too bad. Emma could always text her if she needed something and Reagan could get some other things done around the house. There was plenty she could do in her workshop. "I need coffee," she sighed, leaning in to kiss his jaw before pushing her blankets off of her body. "And I think we should strengthen the wards on the house."
Caius wasn’t sure how he knew -- and he didn’t know, not yet -- but he didn’t feel like this foreboding was limited just to Reagan and himself. It just felt bigger somehow. Or maybe that was just previous conversations affecting his thought process. A few texts and phone calls would tell him for sure. Caius smiled faintly at the kiss and nodded, then stood up to get out of Reagan’s way. He could put some clothes on so they could have breakfast, then get to work. “I agree,” he said as he padded toward the dresser. “But let’s do that first. ... after coffee, of course.” Hell, maybe the bad mojo feeling would just fade away once they woke up more, but Caius wasn’t going to hold his breath for anything. He fished out some lounge pants and a t-shirt to be his uniform for the day and started slipping into them.
After coffee. Reagan slipped out of bed and headed for the bathroom. When she finished up in there she changed into a comfortable pair of yoga pants and a sweater, grabbed her phone and headed downstairs. On the way she shot off texts to her brother and mother, just to see how if they were awake, and how they were feeling. She really hated it when something got under her skin that she couldn't explain. She and Caius had been dealing with so much lately and they finally got a reprieve. Reagan selfishly hoped they wouldn't have to handle anything new and a part of her wanted to persuade Caius to leave town with her, even if only for a little while. They could go back to Anguilla for a week and let this fucking town sort itself out. Reagan found him in the kitchen and she set her phone down before walking up behind him to slip her arms around him while pressing her face against his back. "I texted my mother and Nate. I suppose we could reach out to Zania and Nic too, but I think it's safe to say we're all going to be on the same page here."
Caius had started up the coffee machine as soon as he’d gotten to the kitchen, then gone to the fridge to pull out ingredients for omelets. If they were going to have an inside, cautious day, they could at least have some delicious food. Reagan wasn’t the only one who’d thought about leaving, jetting off for somewhere tropical and peaceful and letting other people deal with whatever problem this was growing to be ... but he knew that wasn’t really an option. His mother was involved somehow, for one, and abandoning the people who had just recently helped them out seemed like a dick move. That didn’t stop the desire completely, but he knew they weren’t actually going anywhere. He smiled faintly when he felt Reagan’s arms slip around him, and Caius gave her arm a squeeze with his as he worked on cracking the eggs into the pan. “Let me know what they say,” he murmured. “I’ll text Shayna Mae and my dad in a few. I think you’re right though, we’ll get the same answers. I’m gonna try not to worry too much yet, we’ll see how long it lasts.”
"I'm not as much concerned with how long it lasts than why it's happening at all," Reagan said. She pressed a kiss against his back before letting him go to check on the coffee. "Then again, considering where we live, it could be nothing. At least nothing we really have to worry about. Maybe it's not connected to the fog at all." She had a feeling it was wishful thinking, but Reagan was willing to cling to a bit of optimism. If they had to get involved, they would, but maybe this feeling had nothing to do with them at all. Maybe they were able to feel it because they were in tune with nature, and that was that.
That would be ideal, which was why Caius wasn’t going to put much stock in it. Very little around here ended up being ideal, in spite of appearances. On the surface, they had the perfect life, secure and happy and peaceful, but things definitely hadn’t been playing out that way behind the scenes. Not so far, anyway. Caius occasionally felt a little smug when he thought about how much their marriage had already been through and how they’d come out still in love on the other side. It hadn’t been a sure thing, so he took it to mean they really did belong together. “We’ll find out one way or another,” he said, sounding rather light about it. “If you want any veggies in your omelet, grab them out of the fridge. I just got ham.” They weren’t going to figure it out on their own before breakfast, so they might as well just enjoy what they could.
Reagan grabbed two coffee mugs from the cabinet to set down on the counter before she moved to the fridge. She grabbed a red pepper and the small basket of mushrooms before carrying them to the island countertop. Caius said he would make breakfast, but she didn't mind helping by cutting up the veggies. Her phone buzzed just as she started and she checked it quickly. "Nate's feeling the same way," Reagan told Caius. She frowned briefly and thumbed in a quick response before placing her phone to the side again. "He said he's been feeling exhausted lately, but I don't know if that's related to anything. Considering how much he works, that seems pretty normal." It would be so easy to try and connect anything and everything to whatever had happened in the fog, but this town had always been full of badness that what they were feeling today could be completely unrelated to what was going on with Caius's mother, and a few others.
Caius almost asked if they all weren’t exhausted lately, but he knew he and Reagan had been going through some extraordinary circumstances in the past couple of months. And things had gotten much better ... until now, at least. If this continued to be a bad thing, that was, it all remained to be seen, didn’t it? As Reagan cut up the ingredients, Caius sprinkled them into the cooking omelet. “It’s pretty normal for a lot of us,” he settled on saying. “But good to have the confirmation that he’s feeling the same foreboding. ... well, maybe not good, but ... reassuring.” That meant it wasn’t just them, and lately that meant a lot. Once peppers and mushrooms were both added to the mix, Caius carefully folded the omelet over. He wasn’t the greatest chef in the world, but he could get by.
"Right." Reassuring. Reagan supposed it was, because then it wasn't just the two of them again. But at the same time, if it was bigger than the two of them, then what? "If this is affecting the entire town... if something is coming, or already here... what are we going to do about it?" Reagan left Caius to finish the omelets and she walked over to pour the coffee. "I understand helping your mom. And Shayna Mae's brother, and Gavin's son. What if this is too big for us?" She paused, aware that they were about to have breakfast and this was probably a conversation to have later. But she couldn't help but think this was going to engulf the both of them... or at least Caius. "I think we need to know our limits."
They were supposed to wait until they knew more to really talk about this, but Caius was seeing that was probably going to be impossible. But what could they plan against a bad feeling? It was still lingering of course, making the back of his mind uneasy, but he didn’t feel like they were in any imminent danger. It was difficult to feel that way when one was making omelets. “Those are a bit difficult to set when we don’t know what we’re dealing with,” he said mildly, glancing over at his wife. Caius plated her omelet and offered it out to her before he started making one of his own. “If it’s too big for just us, we have help we can enlist. If this is related to the fog, it’s town-wide. Everyone will have a stake in it. We convened into a coven once, I don’t see why we couldn’t do it again.”
Reagan bit back the urge to sigh as she took the plate of food. "I guess you're right," she murmured. She sat down to eat, glancing occasionally at Caius. "This may be too big for a coven too. But I guess we won't know until we figure out what it is." She wondered if the mystery man would know. Westin. He had helped her figure out that a coven could help her regain her magic. Not that Reagan had any idea how to reach the man, if he was indeed a man. She sipped her coffee and then cut into her omelet, fighting back the urge to smile. "You really enjoyed leading that coven, didn't you?"
It was possible that they wouldn’t know what they were dealing with until it was upon them. Caius didn’t want that to happen either, but he also wasn’t sure how to prevent something like that. He understood Reagan’s worry and shared it, he just always felt calmer and more in control when she was obviously fretting, like he had to balance them out. Caius plated his own omelet when it was ready and turned the stove off. He was smiling as he turned to join Reagan at the table. There was something a little fierce about the expression. “How could I not?” he said. Caius settled and sipped on his own coffee before he picked up his fork. “It was an incredible, intoxicating experience.” He paused and gave Reagan a sideways sort of look. “I don't have any delusions of grandeur about it though, don’t worry. I know all of them listening to me was a rare occurrence at best.”
"I don't know about that," Reagan said with a small shrug. "They seemed to recognize how powerful you were, even the McCarthys. I know the coven isn't a permanent thing, but if it were, I don't think there's any doubt who would lead it." And she wasn't saying that just to flatter him. Caius's abilities were undeniable. She didn't know who else could challenge him besides Anthony, and Reagan didn't think her father in law had any desire to practice with others. "I think if it comes down to a serious situation, they would listen to you. And maybe that's all we would need a coven for. I don't know." It was difficult to imagine the lot of them coming together just to hone their skills. They were all too different, and there were a lot of strong personalities in the circle.
Hearing the phrase ‘how powerful you were’ gave Caius a thrill that was almost erotic. He knew he was powerful, but he always loved hearing so from other people. Mostly Reagan. And thinking of himself as the head of a coven? It made his groin tingle, and the Obscurities stir in his mind. He almost mentally spiralled off into everything he could do with that sort of power at his fingertips, but Caius dragged himself back into the present moment. It wasn’t the time to daydream about things that likely would never happen. He was very much aware of all the clashes that would likely be involved in trying to get all of them together regularly, or exert any sort of influence over them. “Let’s hope that’s all we would need it for,” he said. “I don’t know how manageable it would be otherwise. All the families have been independent for so long. But I’d like to think if any of us called for a coven out of need, the rest of us would step up now. At least the Castells and the O’Reillys.”
Reagan knew power was something of an aphrodisiac to Caius. It was for her too. But he had always seemed content building his magic on his own, so it was a bit surprising to Reagan that he was on board with pulling together a coven again if they needed to. Maybe he would have been more reluctant had someone else been in charge, but who could do what he could do besides his own father? Focusing on her coffee, Reagan nodded. "I think you're right. We're on good enough terms with them at this point. I don't know about the McCarthys. Maybe the age difference is a downside for them? I'm not sure. Ideally we can work out what this is without the coven. If it's affecting Shayna Mae's brother, we may be able to work with her and not bother anyone else."
Caius had been taught early by his father that he could only rely on himself -- Anthony had included himself on that short list early on, but Caius felt like he knew better now. That particular aspect of their relationship was hit and miss and probably would never be any different. He thought he might be able to call on him for this, if it was related to the fog troubles, which were related to Miriam. Caius knew how powerful he was and why that should give him authority, but he wasn’t so sure about convincing the others again. Time would tell. He chuckled a bit and tilted his head slightly. “The age difference and Baron possessing their son, her trying to kill me through him ... we’ve got a rocky recent history with the McCarthys. But we’ll see, maybe they’ll come around. We’ll keep assessing the situation. If we can take care of whatever it is just with the O’Reillys, that would probably be ideal.” He ate some breakfast and sipped on his coffee, looking contemplative as he mulled over it all. “If it’s all related, I’m sure I can rope my father into being involved too,” he added, eyes ticking to Reagan.
It wasn't funny, but Reagan's lips quirked anyway as Caius rattled off all of the reasons why working with the McCarthys may not pan out. It probably said something about the state of their situation that they hadn't held Sebastian accountable for trying to murder Caius. Granted, he had been possessed by a witch, but still. It wasn't lost on Reagan that Brianna McCarthy was a descendant of Abigail Baron. She knew the other woman was a long way off from becoming a skilled witch, but once she was, Reagan couldn't help but wonder what that might mean. The idea of Anthony helping made her want to scoff, but then again, if his wife was in danger, surely he was already looking for a solution. But it was Anthony, so who could really tell? "Who would have thought we would be finding common ground with the wood witches," she said with an amused huff before smirking softly. "Or rather, who would have thought you would."
Her name for the O’Reilly clan made Caius chuckle. The wood witches. “Me especially, you’re usually the more personable one,” he said, shooting Reagan an amused glance. It was true, she was generally the one of them that people came to for help more often. Caius supposed he was intimidating for various reasons -- his family, his demeanor, his power. For those who knew about those things, anyway. “While I’m not a fan of their aesthetic, I do respect their power. They stay true to themselves and so do we, so ... why not.” He gave his wife a smile before he took another sip of coffee. Caius could sympathize with isolationists -- there had been plenty of times in his life that he’d wished nearly everyone else in the world would go away. He just wanted to live in luxury at the same time. “Plus their familiar is just ... fascinating.”
Reagan tilted her head in agreement. She couldn't deny that. If people needed something, they generally came to her. Caius could be intimidating, and sometimes outright rude, depending on the situation, but Reagan didn't mind that. She loved that part of him, along with the rest. So yes, it was quite amusing to her to see him working with Shayna Mae O'Reilly, of all people. She wasn't sure they had ever even spoken in high school. But that was then, and this was now and Reagan knew from the coven circle that the O'Reilly family was not one to be messed with. It was probably for the better that they lived out in the woods. Her lips twitched at the mention of their familiar, and Reagan lifted her coffee cup with both hands while arching a dark brow. "He certainly is. And he's so... tall." She shot Caius a pointed look and smirked before sipping from her cup.
Caius shot her a look in return that was amused and slightly aggravated at the same time, but that was probably what she wanted. He wasn’t a big man, even if he was in pretty good shape, and he never would be. It wasn’t a real insecurity, but he did get a pang of jealousy whenever Reagan openly admired a large handsome specimen. “He is pretty damn tall,” Caius agreed, smirking a bit as he forked up some more omelet. “And ... what do they call it? Rugged good looks? If you’re into savagery, I suppose.” He sounded flippant about it, but he was sure Reagan could hear the bit of possessiveness underneath. He washed his bite down with some more coffee.
Reagan shrugged one shoulder. "Sometimes a bit of savagery is enjoyable. Not every day, obviously." She did her best to suppress the smile that threatened. It had been a long time since she had been able to tease Caius about other men. Their lives had been so full of stress since they returned from Anguilla that now it felt good to be able to settle into something close to resembling normalcy. And that included teasing. Reagan couldn't really help it. Maybe she had tiny pangs of possessiveness too, knowing that Caius and Shayna Mae O'Reilly were speaking to one another more frequently. Reagan didn't really feel threatened by her, but any pretty woman with any amount of magical ability around Caius tended to put Reagan on edge. Just a little. Reagan set her coffee down. "I like the little scar through his eyebrow. It adds character, doesn't it?"
He knew it was lighthearted and he didn’t believe Reagan would ever really cheat on him, but it was too easy to imagine some big lug like that sweeping her off her feet to ravish and manhandle her more than he could physically. And maybe that fantasy was a tiny bit hot to him, as long as it stayed strictly fantasy. Especially because he wasn’t entirely sure he could hurt a familiar, seeing as how they were more or less made of magic. As far as he knew, anyway. He just grunted a noncommittal answer on whether it added character or not and sipped some more coffee. Then he mused aloud, “I wonder if that scar actually exists in some way, or if it’s an illusion. He’s a shapeshifter, from what I understand, so he could conceivably look like whatever he wants, right? Or does he have only one human form? Curious. I might ask Shayna Mae more about it.” Caius gave Reagan a smirky sort of look -- two could play at that game.
Reagan folded her arms on the table behind her plate and studied Caius with a mildly amused expression. They knew each other well. Probably too well, depending on the circumstances. She knew Caius would never cheat on her, especially with someone like Shayna Mae O'Reilly, but that didn't really matter. They knew how to push each other's buttons. They had been doing it since they were teenagers. Only this time it was simply designed to tease and not to hurt. At least she hoped so. "You should do that," she said while arching a dark brow. "Because I'm curious about that too. Because if he can give himself a scar and change how he looks, I wonder what else on his body he can alter."
Reagan was one of the very few people in the world who had access to Caius’s buttons, that was for sure. He was happy with that, honestly. If there ever came a day where she wasn’t able to get under his skin, he would worry about their bond. This felt nicely light and just fun though, so he wasn't truly bothered. Reagan’s words made him laugh outright, and he shook his head slightly as he lifted his coffee cup again. “Oh I’m sure he keeps his mistress entirely satisfied,” he said, amused. Caius didn’t know if that was true, if Shayna Mae was fucking her familiar, but considering their isolationist tendencies and the handsome skin he wore around, it wouldn’t surprise him. Why not, right? “He’s there to fulfill needs, after all. I can ask her if she loans him out too, if you’d like.”
That made Reagan smile, she couldn't help it, and she shrugged one shoulder before reaching for her coffee again. "It certainly never hurts to ask. But I think I would feel too guilty, having that much fun while you went without." She could take one look at the familiar and know Shayna Mae was sleeping with him. How could she not be? Then again... maybe they weren't. Reagan knew from her own mother that Shayna Mae had virgin blood to sell for more potent, darker spells and who else would she be getting that blood from if not herself? It didn't really matter though, because it was none of their business what the O'Reillys did in their own time. She and Caius were just poking each other. It might have held a different tone if they hadn't been married yet, but their commitment to each other was strong enough now that Reagan could feel those tiny pangs of jealousy and possessiveness and know deep down he was hers, and only hers. That wasn't going to change.
Caius didn’t honestly care what went on out there in the woods on the O’Reilly compound. Shayna Mae could have a harem of hot familiars, or be fucking her own brothers, or whatever she wanted to do. It didn’t matter to him. But joking around with Reagan was fun and it made him feel nicely normal again, in spite of the dark feeling that was lingering. Their banter hadn’t changed, at least, even if many other things had. He scoffed at what she said and leaned over to grab the leg of her chair and pull her in closer to him. “You think he’d be more fun than me?” he asked, a challenge in his tone alongside the light teasing. He wasn’t above using this conversation as foreplay if she really wanted to entice him.
Reagan was well aware of how judgmental she could be and she had been plenty judgmental of the witches in the woods. But they had pulled through, or at least Shayna Mae had, when they needed help, so she felt a bit more lax in thinking of them as incestuous hillbillies who lived in the woods. Gods only knew what they thought about Reagan's family, or Caius's. But the familiar was easy enough to use to get under Caius's skin and she tensed slightly in her chair when he pulled her towards him. She removed her hand from her coffee cup, not wanting to spill it, but kept her gaze locked onto his. It was hard not to like the look in his eye, or the tone of his voice. "I think... he would be different, and different could mean a lot of things. I suppose fun could be included in that."
The familiar would be different, and for the first time since they’d started this exchange, Caius felt a stab of real jealousy. Reagan couldn’t be bored with their sex lives, could she? Surely not. What they did in the bedroom (and elsewhere) was always explosively hot to Caius, and he couldn’t imagine it was much different on Reagan’s side. She definitely didn’t act bored, but women were skilled manipulators, his wife included. “I can be different,” he said, his dark eyes still searching hers. If there was a tiny bit of doubt there, he couldn’t help it. “Anything you want, you know I’ll give you.” Except another person, of course, they both knew that. They were both too jealous-natured for that to work for them. Some couples could pull it off, but just thinking about sharing Reagan put unpleasant pressure in Caius’s chest.
Some of the amusement dulled at the intensity in his eyes and Reagan knew it was probably wrong of her to feel any semblance of smugness that he might actually be jealous of the O'Reilly's familiar. Yes, the man was impressive, but she had no real sexual attraction towards him. Reagan could appreciate beauty when she saw it. That didn't mean she wanted to fuck it. Her expression softened a touch and Reagan reached out to brush her fingers along Caius's jaw, back until she could delve them into his thick hair. "You know I don't want anything different," she told him. "I spent a lot of years trying different, and it doesn't work for me. You're the only one who gives me everything I need. You know that, right?"
The more petulant side of Caius pointed out that Reagan’s experimentations hadn’t included a being that was almost purely magic, who could shapeshift into any form she could possibly want, and how could he compete with that? But that was stupid. He leaned into her touch a bit, his lashes lowering slightly as her fingers reached his hair. Just as they knew each other’s buttons, Reagan knew exactly how to make him feel better in every way. “Of course,” he murmured. “Just like you know some dirty backwoods hippie witch could never hold a candle to you in my eyes.” Caius didn’t think she’d felt the pang as keenly as he just had, but he might as well say it out loud anyway. He turned his face to kiss the inside of her forearm while she petted him. “But I’m open to experimentation if you ever ... want anything else, you know. With us.”
Reagan might not have felt as unsure about Shayna Mae as Caius might have about her familiar, but she had certainly felt the sting of insecurity when it came to being enough for Caius. If only he knew exactly what years of being jealous of Zania Castell had done to her. Reagan had never had a consistent rebound the way he had, so she didn't think he would ever truly know what self-doubt felt like, at least in their relationship. But it didn't matter anymore. She couldn't let it. He had her ring on his finger, and he belonged to her now. Fully. "I'll keep that in mind," she told him, leaning in further to nuzzle her nose against his before smiling. "And you know I'll stay open to the same. But you're more than enough for me. You've always been more than enough for me. Although I can't help it sometimes. I just love how dark your eyes get when you get jealous."
Caius had always chalked their mutual jealousy issues up to how much they loved each other and how intense they were as people in general, but he’d rarely sat down to analyze it all in depth. That was just how they were. Reagan had never seemed to have trouble finding other people to date, and Caius was still largely clueless about just how deep her feelings about Zania had run. But it was all water under the bridge now. Reagan’s smile made him feel better, and Caius smiled briefly himself before he scoffed again and rolled his eyes, making it a bit more dramatic than it needed to be. “Who’s jealous?” he asked incredulously. Since she mentioned his dark eyes, Caius blinked a couple of times and switched over to his Obscurities vision, sending his eyes into full black mode. He grinned a bit and winked at her, then let them go back to normal. “You’re incorrigible,” he murmured as he leaned in to kiss her softly.
Seeing the black eyes only reminded Reagan that Caius was not entirely human. The demonic blood had been temporarily forgotten in the midst of everything else. But thinking of it now triggered a spark of arousal deep in her belly. "Of course I am," Reagan said, smiling against his lips. She had to admit, making Caius jealous in the past had occasionally led to some pretty fantastic sex between the two of them, especially when they weren't officially together at the time. Those days were gone though, and Reagan found she actually preferred getting the fantastic sex without having to push Caius to the brink first. "I guess we should get dressed and get started," she said after a moment, pulling back from him.
They’d grown out of their jealousy battles of the past, more or less, both of them maturing and settling into security with one another. For the most part. Really, they’d been through so much together now that Caius couldn’t imagine anyone ever stepping into Reagan’s place in his life. It was just impossible, and he thought she probably felt the same way. They were together forever now ... or forever alone. Together was better, and he would fight with everything he had to keep that. Caius gave a soft hum of not-quite-disappointment when she pulled back, then nodded a bit. What were they doing again? Oh yes, reaching out about the bad feeling. As soon as he recalled it, he felt it more keenly again, a dark pressure on the psyche. It was tiresome. “I suppose you’re right,” he said with a sigh. Caius finished off his coffee and stood up, reaching for the plates to clear them. “Another crisis awaits.”
Any doubts Reagan might have had about Caius's love for her had been doused completely after everything they had gone through after eloping. He had fought for her as much as she had fought for him, and they had come out of it stronger. She wanted to just take his hand and lead him back upstairs to bed, but they had things to do and that sense of something dark enveloping the town returning now. "A crisis I'm sure we'll be able to handle," Reagan said as she stood with him. "But before we jump into that, let's get the protective wards around the house strengthened. I may do the same for the shop a little later."
“Yes ma’am,” he said, shooting her a tiny grin. Caius hoped she was right. Not that he doubted their personal abilities, he just worried that one day this town would throw something at them that they couldn’t handle. If the fog was just the start of something worse ... he didn’t know. But that was currently out of his control, and there were things to do that weren’t out of his control, so he was ready to focus on those for a while. He could only do the things he could do and figure the rest out later. It had been working for them so far, Caius just had to have faith that it would keep working.