by K. F. Breene
Mordecai turned around to look at Bria, his expression sour. “I have more control than to go around peeing on walls, thanks.”
“You wait. I see a very embarrassing sleepwalking situation in your future,” Bria said, rinsing her dishes.
“Excellent.” Daisy clapped. “That’s a good reason to set up motion-detecting cameras.”
“That’s an invasion of privacy!” Mordecai was back to hollering. She’d really developed a talent for getting under his skin, lately.
“It’s the common areas. It’s not like I would set them up in your room.” She made a face and stuck out her tongue. “Gross. I do not want to know what you do in there.”
“Good time for a subject change.” Bria slipped her dishes into the dishwasher. “It’s your house, Lexi. If you want to drop the thing at the pound, it would find a home really quickly. It’s got that soft, snowy coat—someone is bound to pick it up.” She tucked the fruit bowl into the fridge. “And that woman is your new stylist.”
“Oh. Yes.” The woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, flashed me a set of straight, blindingly white teeth. “Hi.” She practically pranced up to the other side of the island. “I’m Aubri, with an I. Like Bria mentioned, I’ll be helping you with styling. Demigod Kieran called my office this morning asking for a representative. We’re usually booked up solid, but…” She rolled her baby blues. “When I heard you were looking for someone? Of course I jumped at the chance.”
“I told Kieran he needed to outsource because you were dragging your feet,” Bria said, switching off the coffee pot. Apparently I was done with it. “He had only held off so long because he didn’t want you to think he was calling you a mess.”
“She is a mess. Always has been,” Daisy said.
“That’s part of her charm!”
Daisy exaggeratedly leaned away from Mordecai. “Oh my God, Mordie, I am sitting right here. Why are you yelling?”
He looked abashed. “Sorry. Autopilot.”
“All the big dogs use someone.” Aubri nodded at me with big, serious eyes. “All of them. Life in the spotlight can be harsh. It’s best to go in armed.”
I sighed. “I’m not going to lie and say this isn’t a huge relief, but I feel…unfeminine. Like, I should know how to dress myself and do makeup. Isn’t that a girl thing?”
Aubri stuck out a hip. “There is dressing yourself, which you really excel at.” She nodded adamantly. Daisy turned in her chair and draped an arm over the back, a goofy smile on her face. “And there is dressing yourself, you know?”
I didn’t.
“So I’m just going to nudge you in a focused direction, that’s all.” Aubri squinted as she looked me over. “It’ll be so easy, just you watch.”
“It wasn’t all that easy when I was doing it myself,” I murmured.
Aubri leaned against the counter. “You look really great, by the way. You have a natural beauty my clients would kill for. I love your spunk.”
Daisy’s lopsided smile grew.
“A few little touches, a quick clothing change, and you’ll be singing.” Aubri beamed at me.
“A few…touches?” I looked down at my outfit. “But this was how it looked on the mannequin.”
Aubri nodded with a supportive smile. “Totally. And it really smashed the runways last season. But I think we can get something a little more”—she pulled her lips to the side and squinted one eye in apparent thought—“your style.”
I slid off the chair at the island like a lost lamb. “My style?”
Boman set the cat down and grabbed my dirty dishes. “I got this, Lexi. Go get beautified.” He unleashed his wide, glittering smile. Aubri froze for a moment, looking at him like she was staring up into the sun.
It occurred to me that I was the butt of the joke in an ongoing sketch.
I spent the next hour listening to Aubri sing my praises while she compiled a lengthy list of clothing that would suit me better. All my makeup was scrubbed off, but only to give her a “blank canvas” for the entire store of new products she’d brought. Finally, I was given the green light to leave the house.
“But what about my hair?” I asked, looking in the mirror at the same old face but with way too much makeup. I looked like Bobo’s wife, about to head into the circus. “And I’m not feeling all this makeup. It makes me tired. Like, physically. It physically makes my eyes tired.”
“It makes you tired?” Aubri looked down on me, trying to make sense of my nonsense.
“Never mind. But what about my hair?”
“Oh no.” She waved it away, packing up a little bag that she then strung over her shoulder. “We’re going with a shabby chic style for you. Your hair, a little wild, really sets off the whole look.”
“Shabby?” I asked, following her down the stairs to the front door. A new handbag awaited me. I didn’t recognize the symbol on the side, let alone the name stamped on it, but you’d think it was made of gold from the way Aubri gingerly handed it to me.
She laughed as everyone else filed in the doorway, including the cat, who clearly had been taken hostage and was desperate to escape. “I just mean…we’re doing a play on a half-tamed wild thing. You have this raw…like”—she looked like she was grabbing and manipulating something in the air—“violent exuberance about you, but then you’re so pretty and graceful. It’s a really fun mashup. It’ll be the next big thing, just you wait. After this season, we’re going to see a lot of people trying to duplicate this look. But there is only one you.”
Bria checked her watch. “See?” She headed out the door first, followed by Red. “Didn’t I tell you that one time? You got that look down pat.”
“The makeup is way overkill,” Daisy said. “You look like a crack whore who tried too hard, one rock away from waking up in the gutter.”
I opened my mouth to chastise her, but honestly, I was still working through what she’d even said.
“Good notes.” Aubri nodded at my other side, also analyzing my face. “You know her best. Comfort is a real concern. I can already see this tightening her up. Yes, I’ll think about that.”
“I think you look pretty,” Mordecai said, following us out.
“Why is everyone going with me?” I asked as the sunshine and Frank greeted me.
Frank let out a long, low whistle. “Look what the cat dragged in. I knew you had it in you. Your mother, in her heyday, would be hard-pressed to outdo you. I wish she could see you now—she’d be so proud you finally cleaned yourself up. Now this is the way to keep the boy from straying, Alexis. You’ve got the right idea.”
“Frank, I will throw you over the Line, don’t think I won’t,” I said.
He put up his hands. “You look very nice. Like a lady. That’s all I’m saying. Oh, and there was some riffraff around here not that long ago.” He pointed off to the right as I slowed.
The others fanned around, Aubri somewhere between slightly confused and incredibly wary. She knew what I was, but not many people knew how it worked. I hoped she wasn’t afraid of spirits.
Frank turned and pointed in the opposite direction. “It was very strange. I thought I saw someone over there, walking along the side of your— Scat, you vile thing.” He kicked at the cat, whose tail flicked as it sauntered by. It clearly was not susceptible to spirits. “That thing came from the other side of the wall.” He meant the dual-society zone. “You better be careful with those things around. They’ll lie on a baby’s face and suffocate it.”
“I don’t have a baby, Frank,” I said dryly.
“Well, someday you will. Demigods don’t shoot blanks. They’ve got real strong stuff, I hear. Like shooting it out of a cannon.”
I sighed. “About the riffraff?”
“Yeah, I thought I saw someone walking on the side of the house last night. The house was dark and everyone was asleep except for that prowling girl you got. You’re really going wrong with her.” The move from my old house—which I really needed to fix up and get rented out—to th
is one had made Frank much surlier. I kept hoping he’d simmer down, but he’d just doubled down on the worst parts of his personality. “But when I went to check it out, he was gone.”
“You’re sure it was a he?” I asked as Bria drifted closer.
He thought for a moment. “No, as a matter of fact. It was all shadows. I couldn’t make out any distinct features.”
Cold dribbled down my spine. I’d checked my repellent magic this morning. It was still there, so nothing had gotten in—they would’ve had to tear it down for that. Nothing from the spirit world, anyway. But I didn’t have repellent magic on the grounds. Nothing had gotten in, but that didn’t mean something hadn’t been scoping me out from a distance.
“How big was the shape? Enormous?”
His brow pinched. “No, it was just…” He put his hand up, gauging height, then lowered it about level to his own head. “Normal height. Then, when I was coming back this way, I thought I saw him again, on the other side.” His eyebrows lowered. “Whoever it was just wasn’t right. They were standing there, staring at me. Still in the shadows, mind you, keeping hidden, but I knew they were checking me out. So I yelled, ran after them. I’m no coward. That scared ’em off.”
“So…now…” I crossed my arms, remembering the other night. “You ran toward the…man or woman last night, but the night before, you ran from the creature that showed up.”
His eyes widened. He’d apparently meant to keep that little episode a secret. A moment later he puffed up, trying to recover his pride. “Well, yeah. It was a creature, as you say. Some sort of demon, I’d wager. It was sending out a real strong vibe for me to get lost. I didn’t want to set it off and leave you to deal with it.”
“Riiight.”
“What’d he say?” Bria asked.
“We got another one.” I walked around Frank, my mind whirling. “Doesn’t sound like the same intruder. This one didn’t mess with my magic, and while it acknowledged Frank, it didn’t run him off. Any idea how we can tell them apart?”
“Not a clue. I need to start making some calls. Someone will know what spirit forms the various Demigods take.”
I nodded then halted, not seeing my car parked in the driveway. Confused, I searched the curb, wondering if Kieran or someone had needed to move it for some reason. Boman’s black BMW was there, with the ding in the door, and Bria’s old, faded Mazda with a key scratch down the side. A red Beemer, which hopefully wasn’t Red’s, because that would be too much, and a pink Corvette, which hopefully wasn’t anybody’s and was a practical joke.
I put my hands on my hips. “Where’s my car?”
With a little grin, Boman tapped his phone, and my garage door shuddered to life. A bumper came into view, but it wasn’t the black one I was expecting. It was a deep, shiny blue.
I walked closer, Boman on my heels.
High on the rounded back end, in the middle, was Maserati.
The breath left my lungs. “What is this?”
Daisy squealed and danced around. “Right? Oh my God, when Jack showed me this morning, I nearly peed. Lexi, I nearly peed myself.”
“But…” I entered the nearly empty garage—it was the first garage I’d ever had, so I didn’t have much to put in it—checking out the sleek design, the huge wheels, and the tinted glass. “The BMW wasn’t even a year old. What do I need with this?”
“I told you she wouldn’t be excited,” Mordecai said. Both of the kids had hustled up on the other side of the car. “You owe me five bucks.”
“How the hell is she not excited? Lexi, how are you not excited?” Daisy spread out her hands aggressively. “Lexi, this is a Maserati. A Mas-er-ah-ti. James Bond drove this car.”
“No, that was an Aston Martin,” Mordecai murmured.
“Whatever, fine. James Bond wishes he drove this car. It’s gorgeous. On what planet do we live on that we get this car? On what planet?” She had an ear-to-ear grin on her face.
“Daisy, this money situation has gone to your head,” I said. “Which reminds me, you need to pull way back on spending. It’s gotten out of hand. Kieran said to get what you needed, not put him out of house and home.”
Both of the kids’ expressions closed down. They fought like cats and dogs when it didn’t matter, but when it came to the important things, they were tighter than any blood relations could be.
They had a secret. I’d been so wrapped up in my own problems that I clearly hadn’t made enough time to check in with the kids.
“Boman, close down the door real quick,” I said in the mom voice I couldn’t help.
The motion-sensor garage light clicked on as the door touched down.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.
Nervousness crossed Mordecai’s face. He was always the quickest to crack, not wanting to upset me. Daisy didn’t so much as twitch.
“Spill it,” I barked.
“She’ll see reason,” Mordecai whispered to Daisy. “It’s for all of us.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “You better not be selling something illegal.”
“She can’t make us give it back. She doesn’t know where it is,” Mordecai continued.
“Give. What. Back?”
Daisy huffed. “Fine,” she said with a condescending smile that was all teenager. “I haven’t kept all those clothes and accessories.”
I waited for more. When none came, I said, “And?”
“And I returned them, obviously.”
“Oh.” I squinted at her. “Why would you be slow to admit that? What are you leaving out?”
“She buys them on the credit card and returns them for cash,” Mordecai said. “Not to mention what she’s taken from the house and pawned.”
Daisy’s expression turned defiant. I just waited. She knew I was going to chastise her for stealing, so there was no point in wasting my breath.
“I will not get in a situation where he owns us, Lexi,” Daisy finally said. “You guys are in love or whatever now, but what I heard about that twat Nancy just cemented why this is necessary—”
“Big no on that swear word. Big no.”
“He’s going to end up super powerful, we all know that,” Daisy said. “And girls are going to be throwing themselves at him. One misstep and you’re done, we all know that. And that’s if he doesn’t go crazy like his dad. We need an exit plan, but guess what? You’re in his house. Sure, your name is on it now, but if you tried to sell it? That nut-sack would just close you down. If you need to leave, you’ll need to leave quickly. You’ll need to get out from under him. We all will. You don’t really have a job anymore, and that hundred grand you got isn’t enough to buy new identities. If this goes sour, we’re worse off now than we were. I’m just looking out for us. Making sure we have a nice nest egg and a few unseemly friends who can help us if it all blows up. I got this, Lexi.”
My heart was full, but my head could not believe my ears. I didn’t even know how to respond.
“Kieran was Valens’s heir,” Mordecai, the more reasonable of the two, said. “His dad hadn’t changed that before Kieran killed him. So Kieran got all Valens’s holdings, plus the millions he already had. He’s a billionaire, Lexi. He’s sitting on an empire. He won’t even miss a million or two.”
“It’s like Robin Hood,” Daisy said.
My mouth dropped open. “A million? When have you had time to buy all these clothes?”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “He means long term. I’m going at a reasonable pace, Lexi, don’t worry. I’m very careful to show off everything in front of Kieran at least once. I gush a little and everything. I only buy as much as an air-headed, spoiled teenager would. And I never return too much at one store. I spread it around. Disguises, too. Or I have other people do it for me.”
“What other people?”
“Street people. Or college kids who have showered. Whatever the situation calls for.”
“Street people? College— Where are you meeting these people?”
She look
ed at me like I was dense. “San Francisco State, city college—the other day, I got a guy from the art school to take back a TV. Two grand into my pocket, a hundred spot for him. Everyone was smiling.”
I leaned against the car, then jumped back, afraid I’d scratch it somehow. My mouth opened and closed like I was a fish out of water. I just could not believe all this had been happening without my knowledge. When we were poor and in that tiny house, with nothing but each other, I knew absolutely everything that went on. Everything. But now, when life was so much easier financially and I had a plenitude of time to look after them, everything was going sideways.
“Stop it.” I put out my finger, knowing I’d get flack. “Just stop. That is stealing, it’s immoral, and it’s not right.”
“Whatever happened to taking the handouts?” Daisy pushed back.
“Take the handouts.” I gestured at the car. “I’ll be taking this. It’s way too much—way too much—but it’s expected of me, he is at fault for that, and I need to look the part. But it wouldn’t be okay to sell it and pocket the money. That’s wrong. If you aren’t going to use what he gives you, fine. But don’t steal.”
“Okay, but it’s not really stealing, is it?” Daisy pressed. “He sees the purchases. He’s not batting an eye. What’s the difference between cash and clothes? He’s giving me the same amount; they are just in a different form.”
“He’s giving you clothes as a basic necessity of life,” I said.
She laughed theatrically. “The clothes we’ve all been buying over the last few months are not the necessities of life. The clothes we used to wear? Yes. Our new clothes are outrageously expensive because of stupid labels. Do I love wearing those stupid labels? Yes, I do. But not as much as his kind of people do. So I am living up to his standard, yet I’m also taking what I don’t need at present as cash. I will need it down the road, so I’m putting it away. It all comes out the same.”
A knock sounded at the garage door. I stared at Daisy, fuming. “Mordecai, what do you think about all this?” I asked, needing some sense here.
Daisy smirked. “Yeah, Mordecai, what do you think? Better yet, tell her how often you help me.”
