Smoke & Silver

I woke up to the flick of a lighter and the sound of a cheap coffeemaker gurgling the first brew of the day.

"Well, Georgia, now we know that you never got over your snoring." John grinned at me from where he was leaning against the bathroom/kitchen counter.

"Bite me." As I stretched, I realized that Isaac wasn't in the bed. I sat up, looking around for him.

"He went for breakfast. There will be a greasy bag of donuts here any minute," He set his cigarette on the side of the sink and started toward me, "What was this about biting?" His voice was low, a feline set to his shoulders as he put one knee on the corner of the bed.

I felt every ounce of strength in my body fade. Flashes of times we'd been in bed together flickered through my head like heat lightning, every one sending a spark through me.

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

"He'll be a bit, and wouldn't be surprised to find us together anyway. It wouldn't be the first time." He was leaning over me now, smelling like smoke and motel soap. I remembered the time he was talking about. It was after he'd moved out of the complex and I'd moved in. I'd had a hell of a day, and Isaac was doing his best as my boyfriend to make it better, although there was no way I could talk that particular problem away. We still weren't exclusive. John was visiting, sleeping on the same couch he'd given me for the duration of the trip. He just sat beside me while I smoked and let Isaac try to calm me with encouraging words. After Isaac gave up, heading up to his apartment to get some sleep before work the next day, John gently took my hand and walked inside with me.

Twenty minutes later, we were gasping for breath and peeling clothes off of each other in my bed. We heard my door open. Isaac's head popped into the gap between jamb and door.

"Oh. Didn't realize you were busy." He ducked out, the image of John's bare shoulders and my bare thighs wrapped around his denim-clad hips surely in his head.

John and I finished what we started, and noticed a faint clattering noise from my kitchen. I put on a tshirt from another out of town lover and went to see what was happening.

Isaac stood at my kitchen counter, more than a little drunk, and playing with a metal cap from a bottle of beer. He looked up as I came out of my room.

"I just wanted to tell you that I love you and goodnight." He said.

"I love you too." My voice was thick with emotions I didn't expect to have.

Then, John was kissing me and I was back in the present in the motel bed. Before I realized, I had my hands tangled in his hair and was arched up off of the bed to kiss him. It was like no time had passed at all.

I left him lying smugly in the bed as I went to shower. Isaac still hadn't returned, and I was worried. John didn't seem to be, though, and I was sure he had a better sense of things than I did. As I turned off the shower and started to dry off with a thin, rough towel, I overheard their voices in the main room.

I dressed and was unprepared for the scene that I walked into.

The conversation that had begun in whispers was now being held in exclamations bordering on screams.

"I know you just want to protect her, but she's as in this as we are, and she deserves to know!" Isaac slammed his hand on the top of the mini-fridge, making me jump. John's back was to me, and he hadn't heard me come out of the bathroom. Maybe he didn't care.

"Nothing good can come out of her being tangled up in this any more than she is already."

"You're the reason she's in this! If you'd come to me first, she wouldn't be involved. She'd be just as happy as she was before you showed up. Maybe happier." Isaac's eyes flashed.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked.

"John doesn't want to tell you what's going on with the coins or what we think is going to happen."

"Isaac, to be honest, I don't care-"

"Georgia, we're better with you than without you. If you're fully informed-"

"Then you'll be in MORE danger!" John whirled to face me.

"Someone left a dead mobster in my apartment, and now, I'm in a motel room with two of my ex-boyfriends. Hearing more about these Judas coins can't make this any worse."

John went pale, then flushed red.

"You already told her."

Isaac looked at me with annoyance. I didn't realize that it was any sort of secret, so I just leveled my gaze at him. He should have told me to keep my mouth shut.

"Not everything. Just that they were dangerous and why. I didn't tell her anything else."

"How much do you know?" John's voice was dangerously flat and cold, like black ice.

"That they can be used to summon a demon." I started to pour myself a paper cup of awful coffee.

The men were silent. John spoke, "They can also be used to buy back a soul." His voice was soft.

I spun around, coming dangerously close to spilling the steaming coffee in my cup. Isaac's jaw was slack.

"So. Now we don't just have to worry about someone who wants to summon a demon. It could be someone desperate to have their soul back, which would make them even more dangerous." Isaac sounded numb. John just nodded.

I swore into the steam from the cup in my hands. John drew in a breath to speak, but there was a knock on the door.