Dark Hearts, Sweetheart Deals, and Donuts.

A gangly teen with stunning brown eyes and shaggy hair rolled a mop bucket past Ellie’s table in CC’s Confectionery and Café’.

He moved with purpose, quick but careful. When he noticed her watching, he grinned.

“Who’s the little heartbreaker, CC?”

“Jack. More like heartbroken. He lives at the group home across the street.”

“Troubled teen?”

“Nope. Troubled parents and a missing brother.” CC sighed. “Michael was a good kid, too. Listen, Jack is always looking for work. Will you be hiring for Magique?”

“I can use him right now.” Ellie stood and waved him over.

“Jack, right?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Ellie Vecchio, the new owner of Magique. CC said you’re looking for work, and I need help. Interested?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, way interested.” He looked off. “But what hours?”

“Whatever you are available for until school starts, then we can work around your schedule.” A plan and a handshake later, Jack toured Magique. “I’ll work hard for you, Miss Ellie,” he promised.

Jack crossed the street, smiling to himself until reality poured over him. No one to tell. “Michael, where are you?” He choked back a sob.

~

Michael watched Jack leave the magic shoppe, then slipped into an alley, behind a garden wall. He was on his hands and knees retching when he saw the combat boot. “Was it worth it?” Ka’pel kicked his shoulder.

Michael groaned, but didn’t look up. “Get the fuck away from me, Ka’pel.”

The demon crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. His perfect olive skin and black hair looked Mediterranean, but his icy lavender eyes screamed Hellion. “All this for a glimpse of your brother.”

Michael sat back on his feet and glared at him. “Let me go, Ka’pel.”

Ka’pel laughed. “The deal was twenty years.”

“Not my deal! Get the rest from the junkie bitch who sold me.”

Ka’pel scoffed. “Fourteen years to go.”

“Years of what? I’m spent. No telepathy, no precognition, no magic.” He stood. “Let me go or kill me. I’m not worth anything to you like this.”

“True enough.” The demon’s brow furrowed. “I’m only required to deliver the magic. Maybe we could rework the terms.”

“I’m listening.”

Ka’pel’s shrewd eyes sparkled.

“Deliver a surrogate – a talent to finish out the fourteen years.”

Ka’pel put up his finger to stop Michael’s response. “Plus, five and a half years for brokering the arrangement.”

“That’s 40% interest. Kind of steep, don’t you think?”

“Not interest. Half is for the Hellions below, so they don’t kill me for letting you get away. The other half is for me.” He put his hand over his heart. “You know, shipping, handling, risking my life.”

“So, nineteen and a half years of magic. Am I out as soon as I deliver?”

Ka’pel gave him a nod before he flickered out.

“Bye, asshole.” Michael’s mouth twitched into a smile. "Time to give back, Mom.”

Ka'pel's disembodied voice jarred him. “Clean her up first.”

~

Remaining undetectable, Ka’pel slipped between buildings to the front of Marty’s Bar and Grille. The putrid blend of whiskey breath, cigarette smoke, and bathroom sex rode on the wind of the exiting patrons. Demonic delicacies, but not tonight.

Inside, he strode through the crowd past the bar. A voice in his head thundered over the metal band. “You look like the demon who ate the canary.” Ma’gador taunted him from the last barstool. Ka’pel kept walking. "If I wanted company, I’d have shown myself.”

Beyond the bar, he sniffed the air and ducked into the lady’s room. He tapped on the full-length mirror until it swung toward him, revealing a staircase. Ma’gador was waiting for him at the bottom.

"What's going on Ka'pel?"

Ka’pel pushed past him, heading into the labyrinth of stone tunnels. “I gave Michael an out.”

Ma’gador followed him to a dead end. "We’re demons, Ka’pel, not social workers.”

“He’s my brother.”

“Half-brother.”

“So are you, Moggy, on my demon side.”

Shoulder to shoulder, they watched Michael through an ornate mirror.

Ma’gador shook his head. “You’re risking everything for him.”

Ka’pel shrugged. “Guessing you wouldn’t do the same for me.”

~

Jack startled awake. When he sat up to catch his breath, he caught movement in the mirror that faced his bed. He moved closer, but the image retreated. “Michael, wait!” Tears blurred his vision. When he wiped them away, he found only his own reflection. Bewildered, he went to Magique and told Ellie. “Am I losing my mind?”

“Your mind is fine, but you need to see something.” He followed her to the full-length mirror in her reading room. It opened to a stairwell. “No one has a basement in New Orleans, Jack. This goes to a maze of tunnels and mirrors.

"Portals?"

"Maybe. Maybe you have to exit the tunnels from the same mirror you entered. Where was Michael last seen?”

“Leaving CC’s. He hung out there.” His eyes widened. “There’s a mirror in the back.”

_

After hours of searching the tunnels, Jack leaned on the wall and closed his eyes. “Come on, Michael. Be here.”

He felt hands on his shoulders.

“I missed you so much.” Michael pulled him in for a hug. Jack held on, sobbing, until Michael pulled away. “We need to get out of here. Can you find your way back.”

Jack grinned at him and pulled out his phone. “I took pictures.”

At the sixth tunnel, Michael sniffed the air. “I smell donuts.” They followed the sweet aroma through the seventh tunnel. It dead-ended at a mirror. Michael pushed it. Ka’pel was waiting for him.

“Is he for me?” Ka'pel menaced, pointing to Jack.

“Back off, Ka’pel. You’re not getting my brother.”

“Yeah, about that.” He shook his head.

“What?” Michael urged.

Ka’pel looked back and forth between Jack and Michael. “That talent you’re planning to trade is also my mother.”

“Bullshit.”

“If only.” Ka’pel vanished leaving a box of donuts in his place. “Enjoy.”

“Michael?” Jack spun around looking for the source of the disembodied voice. When he swayed. Michael steadied him.

“Don’t be passing out. I can’t carry you anymore.”

Jack jerked out of Michael’s hold, red-faced and white-knuckled. “Gee, why would I pass out? My brother lives in a tunnel with my other brother, who turned into a box of donuts. Are you going to tell me that I’m part donut, too?”

Michael’s mouth twitched. “I forgot how funny you are when you’re angry.”

“Angry doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel. He swiped a rogue tear from his cheek with a trembling hand, and slid down the wall. “Why did you leave me?” His voice broke.

Michael dropped to his knees in front of him. “I would never leave you, Jack. They took me.” Michael sat beside Jack against the wall. He explained the tunnel demons. “They are brokers of magical power, and I had plenty. Mom traded me to Ka’pel for drug money.”

Jack hung his head. “I hate her.”

“I know.” Michael sighed. “I can’t stay out here, Jack. Not until he has her. They won’t let me go.”

Jack’s eyes glistened. “No. You’re my brother. I want you back.”

Ka’pel lingered on the other side of himself. He was invisible to his brothers, but he saw them clearly, in living, loving color. Watching them made his heart hurt. He rubbed the middle of his chest.

They both jumped when Ka’pel flickered into sight. In natural light, Michael couldn’t deny the family resemblance. Ka’pel sat cross-legged next to the donuts. He opened the box, took out a sugared donut and passed the box to Jack.

 “This is so not fair.” Jack pulled out a glazed donut.

“He got the better deal, kid,” Ka’pel scoffed. “They can take my immortality for this.”

Michael stared at him until he found his voice. “Then, why help me?”

“What Jack said...” He took a deep breath.

Jack and Michael looked at each other, then back at him, wide-eyed and waiting.

Ka’pel looked off, then back at Michael. “You’re my brother. I knew I’d want you back if I let you go, and I’d lose you to yourself if I let them keep you.”

Ka'pel drew a long breath waiting for Michael’s rejection.

It never came.