by Eden Briar
“Sure. Though I guess that depends on what you mean by work out.”
We end up down in the basement of the building, in what looks like a pretty ordinary gym, but Lynea calls it a training room. She starts us off with a warm-up, and I mimic her movements, stretching my limbs and trying to let go of the lingering tension that came with being constantly off-balance and on-guard.
Knowing we’re probably going to get into more complicated stuff, I take advantage of the moment and ask her some questions.
“So, about that room I’m staying in.”
“What about it?” Her expression turns wary.
“The guys, Jazz and Ben, said that they thought it had belonged to Archer’s daughter. But that doesn’t make any sense to me, because they said she died a long time ago. And that is not a little kid’s room. Either Archer’s a lot older than he looks, or—”
She stops me before I can muse any further, her voice tight as she speaks.
“He redecorates the room every few years, to match the age his daughter would be now. Everyone has their way of grieving, of dealing with loss.”
I don’t voice my opinion but, seriously? That sounds like denial, not coping. You don’t redecorate a room, again and again, unless you thought someone was returning to it.
“Was she a half-blood?”
“She was. Archer, as I’m sure you know by now, is a caster. His bonded—his wife—was a druid.”
“Is she still—”
“She died back then, too.”
“What happened—”
“Let’s move on to the assessment stage, shall we?” Lynea says, neatly side-stepping my question. “I think we’re all warmed up.”
I let it go, but I’m starting to put the pieces together. Something must have happened, something big, that decimated the guild’s numbers and killed people. That was why no one wanted to talk about it, why everyone was dodging my questions.
“You’re a caster, right?” I ask Lynea, trying to remember what Jazz had told me. I don’t know how to tell what anyone is.
“A shifter. And also a spellcaster. Though the name is a bit of a misnomer, since many of our powers are innate, and we don’t use spellwork to—” She pauses. “And that’s enough stalling, young lady. Let’s see what you can do.”
I spread my hands wide. “That’s just it, I can’t do anything.”
“You have some kind of clairvoyancy. Otherwise, the vampires wouldn’t have come down on you like a ton of bricks. Jazz told me you were able to use it during the confrontation. It gave you an edge.”
How had he seen that?
“Which didn’t matter one bit. Those guys were fast.” I wince when I realize I’ve just confirmed what Jazz told her.
“Good, then we’ll start there. I might be fast, but I don’t have the natural speed that even a moderately strong vampire has. Have you got any martial arts training?”
“Just some self-defense stuff.”
I have Lincoln to thank for that. He’d paid for the classes and everything, saying that every young woman alone in the world needed to know how to kick ass, even if they did have mindreading superpowers.
“Excellent. It’s always easier if you have a base to work from. I’ll talk you through some simple moves, how to block, that sort of thing, and then we’ll practice.”
Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I decide maybe this isn’t the worst way in the world to get rid of some of that excess nervous energy inside me.
It’s another twenty minutes until she’s satisfied I know the two blocking maneuvers she’s taught me.
We move so that we’re facing each other on the mats.
“Now, I want you to tap into that power of yours and, using the blocks I taught you, defend yourself.”
She barely gives me a moment to get ready before she’s coming at me. I throw my arm up too late, and her hand taps my shoulder lightly.
“Concentrate, Indy,” she snaps.
Easy for her to say, she isn’t the one being attacked. Still, I knuckle down and do what she’s asked, curious to see if it’ll actually work against another magic person. There’s a moment of double-vision, and then I’m seeing through my eyes and hers. I can feel her: her energy, her focus, and how it all pulls together as she decides to—
I throw my arm up a split second before she moves, effortlessly blocking her punch. Her eyes widen in surprise before she smiles. And then I’m facing a volley of attacks, her fists throwing punches, her feet kicking out at me as I struggle to anticipate each movement. I block about half, but she’s faster than any human I’ve trained against, and I’m out of practice.
When I fall backward off the edge of the mat, throwing my hands up to protect myself, she stops. She leans over, bracing her hands on her thighs as we both catch our breath.
“I’ve never seen anyone able to do that before,” she tells me. “It’s like you can anticipate my moves before I start them. Once you’re trained up, you won’t have much of a problem protecting yourself. You might even make a pretty decent fighter.”
She holds out a hand, and I take it, letting her pull me up. I can tell she has more to say about it.
“Many clairvoyants see the future, but rarely their own, and rarely so… immediate. And, of course, being what it is, probability may be a factor.”
When I frown at her, she explains. “Every move I made just now involved a split-second decision. Am I hitting with my left or my right? Am I punching or kicking? Where am I aiming? Even the best clairvoyant won’t be right one hundred percent of the time. But then, you didn’t block one hundred percent of my punches. Still, being able to correctly anticipate many of an opponent’s moves gives you an edge.”
“Not a useless talent, then?” I’m torn between pride and disappointment. Part of me wants to be proved right, that I’m just an ordinary girl in a messed-up world, and not the other way around.
“Far from it.” She pats me on the shoulder. “We’ll pick this up again tomorrow.”
She leaves me to make my own way back upstairs. I’m lost in thought, hurrying through the corridors, when I round a corner and almost collide with Ben. He jerks back.
“What the hell? Watch where you’re going, why don’t you?” He edges around me like I might bite if he gets too close.
Tired from the workout, overwhelmed by the shitty turn my life has taken, I snap back. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but whatever the kids in the playground told you, you can’t catch girl cooties.”
His eyes flash with anger but he doesn’t respond, storming off without another word.
Running my hands through my hair, I groan in frustration. I’m supposed to be making friends here, not enemies. It would help if they could at least be… normal. But maybe that was my problem—I was looking for normal in the middle of a magical guild for half-bloods. Whatever that was.
8
My heart’s still racing after my run-in with Ben, my adrenaline up from the training and my annoyance at losing my temper. I shower and change, wondering how to occupy the rest of my day. Glancing out the window, I decide what I really need is some air. I make a pit stop at the kitchen, chugging down a glass of water and munching through an apple, half-hoping I might run into Jazz. But he’s nowhere to be seen. Now that the idea’s come into my head, I’m itching to get outside. No one has told me not to, and besides, how dangerous could it be in the middle of the day? All the vampires are fast asleep.
I traipse down to the first floor and wander around until I find the front door. Like the guild house back in Bristol, there’s a mirror beside the entryway. I walk right past it, hoping that it doesn’t do its glamour-stripping trick on the way out. Going unnoticed sounds good right about now.
Once I step foot outside the door, I know I’ve made the right decision. Sure, it’s a little overcast, but it’s warm and bright. There are people, regular people, just going about their day. I practically skip down the steps of the building and onto the street, looking left
and right before deciding it doesn’t matter which way I go, so long as I remember my way back.
I walk for a while until I reach the fountain Jazz drove us past the day before. The water’s still flowing upward, turning into mist that dissipates into the air. Crossing the street, I stand in front of it, getting lost in the mesmerizing illusion. Is it still an illusion if magic is causing the water to actually flow upward?
Standing and staring gets boring quickly, so I circle around the fountain a few times, watching people throw in pennies and make wishes. When I move closer to get a better look, I realize that they may be pennies, but they’re not any currency I’ve ever seen before. Magic pennies?
While I’m contemplating that, I hear the couple next to me whispering and giggling.
“Excuse me?” the woman asks.
It takes me a moment to realize she’s talking to me.
“Uh… yeah?” I wince at how uncertain I sound.
“Could you take our photo? Selfies are fine and all, but my grandma is always complaining. ‘Jessica, I want a proper picture, not one with your faces all squished together.’” She rolls her eyes as she smiles at me and holds out her phone. “Pretty please?”
I glance behind her to her boyfriend, who has his hands in his pockets and looks embarrassed that she’s even asked.
“Sure, why not?” I say, taking the phone.
It takes no time at all to take a few photos of the two embracing in front of the fountain, and I feel a flash of jealousy as I snap the last photo of them kissing.
“Here you go.” I hand the camera back.
Jessica grins as she looks through the photos. “Thanks, these are great. New to the city, by any chance?”
“How’d you guess?”
It’s her boyfriend who answers. “Oh, the fountain’s only a novelty for the first week or two. We should know, we’ve been here… what… ten days now?”
Jessica nods. “This place is amazing. Are you finding your way around okay?”
I shrug, torn between wanting to make my excuses and leave, and my desire to engage in a normal conversation for a few minutes.
“I’m still figuring it out,” I admit. “I only got here yesterday.”
“Then allow James and me to be the voice of experience and show you where to get an amazing cup of coffee.”
“Amazing coffee, huh? The stuff of legends.”
“Yeah,” James says. “It’s this quirky place just a few blocks from here. They also do an amazing caramel tart.”
Their enthusiasm is infectious, and I find myself grinning back at them. Maybe I can make some new friends here.
“Okay, I’m sold. Lead the way.”
It’s only as I’m following them down the street that I think maybe this is a bad idea, and I should go back to the guild house. But then my mind flashes back to the look on Ben’s face. Since they don’t really want my company, there’s no harm in finding some people who do. James and Jessica seem so normal. A touch of normality is exactly what I need right now.
“I’m Indy, by the way,” I throw out as we walk. If I’m trusting them enough to lead me to good coffee, I can trust them with my name.
“Jessica and James.” Jessica points to herself and her boyfriend in turn. “Though I’m sure you figured that out already.”
We stroll side by side through a maze of streets, Jessica chattering about everything and anything with James chiming in. I try to keep track of where we are, but there are so many twists and turns, I soon realize I’ll have trouble finding my way back. I slow down to take stock of where I am.
“Indy?” James asks. “Is something wrong?”
I shake my head. “I’m still getting my bearings in the city. I’m just not sure I can find my way back from here. Is it much farther?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll walk you back after our coffee,” he promises me.
Though there’s a little pit of unease inside me, I push it aside and keep going. With any luck, there’s caramel tart at the end of this rainbow.
“Oh, if you like Italian, you just have to try this place in Garden Fair,” Jessica says as we come to a stop outside a door.
Her talk about food distracts me—I missed lunch—so it’s only when James knocks on the door that I figure out something’s not right. It’s just a solid metal door on the side of an otherwise nondescript building. No signs, no windows, nothing to suggest it’s actually the cafe they talked about.
“Um.” I take a step back, knowing the situation is wrong but struggling to articulate why. “This isn’t a coffee shop.”
“Sure it is.” Jessica takes my hand and turns me to face her. “It’s this little dinky underground place. The city’s full of little shops like this.”
“Yeah,” James says from behind me, and he sounds altogether too pleased with himself. “The coffee is to die for.”
A bolt of electricity runs through me, my body thrashing in place before the darkness descends.
9
Pain wakes me, the muscles of my left arm cramping. I’m sitting up and stretching before I even register my surroundings. What I’m lying on makes me wonder if I’m still dreaming. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, except in movies. It’s a four-poster bed with a red velvet canopy, gathered at each of the posts and tied with braided gold cords. In contrast, the sheets I’m lying between are pure snow white. If the bed freaks me out, that’s nothing compared to how I feel when I see what I’m wearing. Gone are my jeans and T-shirt, and in their place is a white slip dress that clings to my body and leaves little to the imagination. I scramble out from between the sheets, and my bare feet hit the polished wooden floor with a thump. Stupidly, I pat my pockets, but of course, all I feel is satin beneath my fingers and not the reassuring texture of denim. No phone, either.
I take a look around, relieved to find I’m alone in the room. There’s only one door, and I can’t decide whether that’s a good or a bad thing. It probably all hinges on whether that door is locked or not. As I cross the room toward it, I’m very aware of the fact that, aside from the door, there isn’t a single window in the room. And just like that, I flash on my new ‘friends’ Jessica and James and the windowless building they were leading me to. It’s all pointing to one terrifying conclusion—vampires.
“Fuck,” I murmur, catching sight of myself in a huge wall-length mirror as I cross toward the door.
My glamours are still in place, my hair hanging limply around my face, muddy gray eyes staring back at me, wide with fear. I force myself to the door, take hold of the handle and turn it, crossing my fingers that it’ll open.
It swings open easily under my hand, and I stand in the doorway, staring out. The lounge beyond is no less opulent than the bedroom I woke in, but it’s not empty. There’s a guy who looks about my age coming through another door. He stops and stares, and I stare back. There’s no denying he’s gorgeous, but my mind is screaming about vampires and danger. It kind of detracts from the moment.
He looks past me to the room I’ve just come out of, then back at me. His gaze sweeps down my body, taking in everything, and I’m suddenly very conscious of the thin shift I’m wearing.
“Hello.”
“Uh…Hi?”
Are we seriously doing a meet-and-greet?
“Been here long?” he asks as I start wondering if I can get past him to the door he’s currently blocking. It’s my best chance of getting out of here.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, hoping he’ll hurry up and move. “I just woke up.”
His gaze turns from cautious and curious to regretful.
“I see.”
I guess I’m not the first lost soul he’s found wandering around. He knows why I’m here and what’s going to happen to me.
“Look, I just need to get out of here. People will be looking for me. They’ll be worried.”
I may be overselling it, but a part of me hopes he might just… let me go.
His regret only deepens. “This
isn’t a place you walk out of.”
“Can’t you just… sneak me out the back way? I’m sure no one will notice.”
His gaze turns contemplative, and he beckons me toward him.
As I reach his side, I open my mouth to speak, but he presses a finger to my lips, his voice a low whisper when he speaks.
“This close to dawn, I might be able to get you out. But you have to be quiet, okay? Not a word.”
I nod, signaling that I understand. I don’t know why he’s helping me, but I’m relieved to be getting out of here.
He gestures for me to wait and steps through the door. I move to the threshold, watching him cross yet another lavishly decorated room. This one is definitely a living room, with armchairs and sofas, and a huge fireplace in one corner. I wouldn’t have guessed vampires were fond of fire, but what do I know?
My would-be savior reaches the other door. Instead of opening it, he goes still, tension crossing his body like a wave. Something’s wrong.
Before I can get a word out, a third voice speaks.
“You’re awake.”
Once I see the man lounging in an armchair in the center of the room, I don’t understand how I missed him. He’s older than the first guy, but just as handsome, and a little… mesmerizing. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and that scares me more than anything else has so far. I wrap my arms around myself, aware that I’m outnumbered and feeling more than a little vulnerable.
The man in the armchair speaks again, his voice deep and smooth. “Isaac, get our guest a drink. I’m sure she’s in need of refreshment.” His eyes never leave me. “Please, join me.”
He gestures as he speaks, motioning me into the room. I’m moving before the words fully hit my brain, like he’s reeling me in. It takes effort to push back against the compulsion to move.
“I’m sorry for my envoys’… overzealousness,” the vampire continues, pushing to his feet. Every movement is smooth and effortless.
“Envoys?” I find my voice at last. Belatedly, I realize he means Jessica and James. What had Jazz called them? Human pets? No, proxies.
