by Lan Chan
“It’s easier than you think to get women to hand over their clothes,” he said. Throwing a general look of disgust in his direction, I paced towards the window.
“Whoa!” His arm snaked around my elbow and stopped me. “I was just kidding. The windows don’t even open.”
If he laughed at me one more time, I was going to seriously consider slugging him. “The nurses have swapped shifts and no one’s going to think that you’ll be up and walking after such a short time. In the meantime, I’ve arranged a bit of a decoy.”
He opened the door and motioned to someone outside. A girl roughly my height and weight ducked under his arm and stepped into the room. She had a book in one hand and a shy smile on her delicate lips. Her hair was a lighter shade of brown than mine, but if I squinted, we looked pretty similar.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Ryan said to her. Then he held the door open for me to walk through.
“Thanks.” Her nose was already stuck in the book while she climbed onto the hospital bed.
“Do I want to ask where you got a girl who looks like me from at such short notice?”
“Depends on how much you want to hear about my extracurricular activities.”
“I think I already know too much.”
Keeping my head low, I followed him from the ward to the elevator. Every time someone walked past in the opposite direction, I pretended to adjust the cap. After the first few times, it seemed like wasted effort. No one really paid me much attention with Ryan beside me. He strode around with his hands in the pockets of his tracksuit pants, nodding at people and generally being obnoxious. He winked at the pair of nurses coming out of the elevator we needed.
“Hey, Ryan,” the chirpy brunette said. Her eyes made that stop-dash movement that was fleeting but gave her enough time to take my measure. I kept my head down and stared at her sensible black shoes.
“Ladies, always a pleasure.”
They smiled at him and then at each other before the elevator door shut. Ryan pressed the button for the basement car park. The ride was blessedly short, which meant that I was only up on about level three. If something happened I could very well jump out the window and escape that way. Whether I could take Adam with me was another issue. While we waited for night to fall, I’d pestered Ryan so much that he allowed me to see Adam. There wasn’t much to see but for the jerking of his eyelids as he dreamed or fought to repair his mind and body. Two minutes was about all I could stand in his company before the stone in my throat felt like it had grown thorns and was tearing me up from the inside.
Whilst Ryan drove us from what appeared to be a facility not far from the border of Kew Gardens, my thoughts settled on the note that someone had left for me.
It begins with a whisper. Even now the words sent a chill down my spine. The double-edged meaning threatened to cut me into ribbons, and I had nothing to trace it back to the person who had written it. Over the years, I’d spent a lot of time stalking people in the depths of night. Being on the receiving end of such behaviour was not pleasant.
“Does your mum know we’re coming?” I asked when I finally allowed myself to consider my surroundings. We were coming up to City Square, which was unavoidable if we wanted to get across towards the Row. At this time of night, the place was crawling with people. They were everywhere, walking against the traffic lights, spilling out of clubs and bars, brawling on the street.
I couldn’t help glancing up at the twinkling lights in the skyline, hoping to see Gabe looking out over the streets of his domain. It was strange that I’d always thought of City Square as his when Blake was the King. Caleb’s taunts came back to me. Did Blake have the guts to strike out against Gabe if he thought Gabe was going behind his back? Court law would accept no other course of action.
“I called ahead,” Ryan said. “She said she’s free.” Something in his clipped tone made me glance over. It occurred to me that he’d been quiet for too long. His grip on the steering wheel wasn’t tight but there was an abruptness in the way he turned the wheel. As though his mind was preoccupied.
“If she says no, we’ve got other options.” We didn’t, but I figured it was polite not to pin all my hopes on his suggestion.
“She won’t say no.” In his mind, I heard the errant thought that seemed to come from a suppressed part of his psyche. She never says no, it seemed to spit. In his turmoil, he didn’t notice that I’d lifted the impression from him, even when I frowned. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who had trouble keeping my mind closed around certain people.
We circled around the block a couple of times before Ryan finally snuck into a parking spot. Instead of jumping out of the car, he cut the engine and picked up his phone. The volume was loud enough that I could hear the ringing and then the beep of it going to message mode. He tried three times before taking the phone away from his ear.
“Problem?” I asked.
“She’s not picking up.”
“Maybe she’s in the bathroom? Making tea? Baking so her hands are busy?”
“Oh her hands are busy alright.” He almost spat the words out. In the reflection of the street lamp on the other side of the road, his complexion seemed warm. He drummed his fingers on the dashboard in what might have seemed like a casual gesture had I not had so much experience with Lily and her anxious stimming. If I didn’t know better, I would think he might be embarrassed. It was an odd thing to associate him with. I’d never seen anything fluster him and found that it left an odd feeling in my chest.
His distress was evident in the way he grabbed my arm when I made to open the door. “Give it a while.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes and the gesture set my teeth on edge.
“She knew we were coming, right?”
“Just leave it. You’ll only encourage her if you rise to it.” His resignation pushed my irritation over the edge. I guided the door open with my mind and levered myself out of his hold.
“Give me ten minutes and then come up.”
“I’ll come with you.”
I shook my head and then darted around the block to where Scarlet’s apartment was. Taking the stairs two at a time, I almost collided with a couple at the top who were just now coming out of the apartment next to Scarlet’s. I recognised the slim-hipped man with the dreadlocked hair and full lips. He gave me a wink as he leaned in and kissed a redhead in a business suit on the cheek. How very chaste. I hoped he wasn’t being discreet for me. I had a feeling where I was going, things weren’t going to be so politically correct.
It took all of ten seconds to mentally unlock Scarlet’s door. It was one of those hopeless turn-of-the-century locks that just needed you to turn the mechanism on the other side to open it. Piece of cake.
Until now I’d been running on pure irritation, but when I stepped into the apartment and closed the door, the burning in my chest ramped up to fury. She knew we were going to be here and said she was free. So either she had disregarded that fact or, as Ryan’s behaviour indicated, she was messing with him. And judging by his uneasy acceptance of it, it wasn’t the first time. For some reason, I was seeing red when I started banging, pardon the pun, on her bedroom door.
“What the hell,” a gruff voice inside the bedroom called.
“Scarlet,” I said. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
I heard murmuring and then a growl. A thud against the door that wasn’t aggressive enough to be a fist told me that someone had probably thrown a shoe. Then the slick sounds of naked bodies moving against each other resumed.
Screw that. Literally, screw that. I was fuming as I thought of Ryan’s laughing blue eyes and the way he’d cradled me as I spasmed uncontrollably in my unconscious state.
Hopping onto the coffee table to give myself a soapbox, I started reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the top of my lungs. I followed that up by a round of Hail Marys and then the Apostles’ Creed which I surprised myself by remembering. Hearing religious scripture really pissed people off when they were trying to do
the deed.
Somebody outside the apartment banged on the door. “Shut the hell up! That shit’s bad for business.”
“I’m counting on it!” I shouted back. Taking a leaf out of Abigail’s book, I increased the volume so that I could no longer hear the moaning coming from the bedroom. “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the ear –”
The bedroom door flew open and a great lumbering beast with matted, brown curls and a backwards pair of briefs shot out. He charged at me. I leapt as he tried to swipe and used his back to propel myself over him and onto the tiles in the kitchen. There wasn’t much room to manoeuvre, but I was smaller and faster and he was still half dazed.
“You stupid little bitch,” the man snarled as he tried to catch me in front of the portable stovetop. Using the bench as a springboard, I bent my arms and shoved him in the chest with my foot. He went sprawling over the armchair. That was when Scarlet decided to make an appearance. She glided between us, her hair loose and floating gracefully around her head like a cherry nimbus. Her silk dressing gown fluttered as she held both arms out, one in each of our directions.
“That’s enough.” Though her voice wasn’t raised, there was finality to it. “Claudio, I’m sorry. It wasn’t very professional of me to try and squeeze you in at the last minute. I was so looking forward to seeing you that it clouded my judgement. I can have one of the other girls take care of you on the house or we can make another booking?” Her tone made me want to gag. So I did. The daggers she shot me could have skewered the hide of a rhino. The ones I shot back were equally venomous.
Claudio grunted. “This is bullshit. Who does this bitch think she is?”
There was a tiny part of me that so wanted to blow him a kiss to aggravate the situation, but I was pretty sure I was at the limits of my leash.
“Nobody,” Scarlet said. “Just another of my son’s girls.”
Okay, now it was on.
She reached out for him, murmuring platitudes. After another few dissenting grunts, Claudio took her hands. She might be messed up but she sure as hell knew how to make men do what she wanted. They went into the bedroom and the door shut. I was fully prepared to recount as much of the bible as I could remember, but the door opened again, and a fully dressed Claudio stepped out.
Unable to help myself, I winked at him. “You look good in a suit.” If he could slap the smirk off my face, I bet he’d have done it.
Scarlet whirled on me as soon as he was out the front door. “How dare you?” she seethed. Gone was the placidity and in its place was a harpy. Her hands were like claws as she stood and pointed them at me. “Do you have any idea how much that cost me?”
My shrug didn’t help matters one bit, but I was past the point of caring. Something about standing in a kitchen being yelled at by an attractive, middle-aged woman smacked too much of mother issues, and I had that in spades already.
“You should have thought of that before you invited us over.”
“I didn’t invite you over. My son called and said he needed to speak to me.”
“Same difference.”
She covered the distance between us and placed two manicured fingers under my chin, lifting my head so that our eyes locked. “No, not same difference. How dare you interfere with my business? Don’t judge me just because you’ve been born with a silver spoon in your mouth. We don’t all have lawyers for parents.”
Snatching my chin away from her grasp, I snorted. “I couldn’t care less how you want to live your life. I do care when you intentionally mess with my friend.”
Her eyes widened and then a knowing smile changed her features from shrewish to simpering. “You’re not the first girl who’s caught Ryan’s attention, and you won’t be the last.” She looked me up and down. “You’re not even close to the prettiest.”
I took a step forward. “Maybe not, but I bet I can make the most trouble. You think Abigail’s a pain in the ass? Keep pushing Ryan and I’ll redefine the meaning for you.”
“You almost make that sound enticing, darling,” Ryan’s voice said from the doorway. I flinched, wondering how much he’d heard.
Scarlet’s demeanour did another backflip. She was seriously the woman with a thousand faces. This one was blissfully maternal.
“Darling,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. His body stiffened but he didn’t do anything to discourage her hug. At that moment, he reminded me so much of Abigail that I couldn’t help snorting. I sat down as she doted on him in the most disgusting manner.
“Do you want something to drink, darling?”
“No, I’m fine.”
If you ever call me darling again, I said in his mind, I’m going to make you eat your shoes.
He didn’t respond but his shoulders seemed to relax a little as she flitted about him. After making herself a cup of tea, she sat down next to him on the couch and ran her fingers through his close-cropped hair.
“As amusing as this is,” I said, “can we move it along?”
She ignored me completely, turning her back and inching herself closer to Ryan. “You said you need to ask me about something?”
He came right out with it, and I was glad that he at least wasn’t buying into her act. “We need a couple of S2 pills.”
Her back straightened at the very mention of the drug. “Why in the world would you think I have access to Second Sight?”
“Come off it, Mum.”
She held a hand over her heart as though wounded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and if that’s what you’ve come here for, then you can forget about it.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened. “Do you know the Psi-Ops came to the home to speak to Abigail’s minders? They waited until I couldn’t be reached and then swooped in on her. They’re keeping tabs on every known Amp in the city. The Psi-Ops think it could be her blood in the drug. It took me two days just to get her to come out of her room afterwards. If you’re not going to look after her, then don’t play coy with me when I’m trying to.”
Shit. It made a lot of sense. Of all the espers, only the Amps had the power to increase telepathy. It made sense too that a Siphon might be targeted on the other end of the spectrum. As I watched the anger pouring from Ryan, I had a sinking feeling that he and Rich might have been questioned too. Unwilling to give up her charade, Scarlet pouted her marshmallow pink lips.
“If I had any, you know I’d give it to you. Even if you keep bringing her here where she stirs up trouble.”
“Technically, I came on my own all those other times,” I said.
You’re not helping, he thought.
Not trying to. Despite his firm words, he was going easy on her. She had a free pass by virtue of giving birth to him and she knew it. If I didn’t take control of the situation, we were going to get nowhere fast.
“Look,” I said, standing up. “I’m getting hungry so make with the pills fast.”
“Or what?” Her hair fell over the side of her face and covered the serpentine grin she gave me, knowing Ryan couldn’t see.
“Or I tell the Shadowman you’ve got S2 anyway and I’ll let the foot soldiers sort you out.” The colour slowly drained from Scarlet’s face, leaving behind a paper-thin veneer of bravado. “I hear Second Sight has been banned from the Row. Tick, tock. Seriously, you don’t want to see me when I get hungry. It’s not pretty.”
Scarlet glanced from me to Ryan. Her eyes pleaded with him, but when he crossed his arms over his chest, she knew I wouldn’t back down. A dark cloud descended over her features. She stomped into the bathroom and I could hear the distinct sound of floorboards being snapped open and cast aside.
A moment later, she returned and shoved a tiny Ziploc bag into my hands. “If that’s all, I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. I’ve got clients and she’s ruined my evening already.”
I didn’t feel a shred of guilt. It must have shown because Ryan was completely silent all the way back to the League hospital. If he thought I was going to apologise,
he was dreaming. I spent the time rolling the four little pills in my hand and wondering what would happen if we were pulled over by the Academy.
My body double had actually fallen asleep with the book over her face when we arrived back in my hospital room. She snorted when I shook her gently. “Thanks for holding the fort,” I said. She rubbed her eyes which I saw were a light grey rather than my hazel and saluted us before disappearing out the door.
“She’s very chatty,” I noted. If he registered that I was making a dig at his quietness, he didn’t react. Toeing off my shoes, I slipped the pills into the left sneaker, figuring it was the least conspicuous place anyone else would look.
“Instead of standing there brooding,” I said, “could you ask them to bring me a double portion of dinner?”
“What the hell are you doing?” he finally said. Turning his head to the side, he peered at me as I tried to lift myself onto the bed which had all of a sudden gotten much higher. It appeared that my doppelganger had messed with the setting to allay her boredom.
“What does it look like? I’m trying to get into bed.” Correction: It was me trying to get into bed without turning my back to him. Call me crazy but I didn’t care for the Mr. Hyde side of his personality. If I was going to get told off, yet again, I would prefer to do it face forward.
Bracing my hands on the steel rail, I pushed up using the strength in my elbows. My arms gave out at the last minute and I succeeded in getting one side of my butt onto the railing before slipping off completely again. As miraculous as my healing could be, it still didn’t seem to replace proper rest.
The next time I slipped, it was because I’d pushed the bed off its axis. One moment I was trying to bear down, and the next the bed was tilting. Ryan’s arms appeared on either side of me. He grabbed the rail as I let go and pulled upwards to get the bed back on its four legs. The scrape of metal on tile made me jump. Unfortunately, Ryan’s chest blocked my way. His hands came to rest on the swell of my hips. With one fluid, effortless motion, he lifted me up and set me down onto the mattress. It dipped under my weight and then sprang back, causing him to tighten his grip to settle me.
