by R. A. Gates
Feeling bold, she pulled her hair
over her other shoulder, exposing her
neck and face to him. After about a
minute of running her comb through the
same section of hair she stopped. Oh
gawd, I’m flirting with him.
Horrified with herself, she threw
the stuff back in the bag and jumped off
the bed. She needed to do something
constructive to get her mind off the hot
guy—
No, no. Garren is not hot. He’s
obnoxious and stubborn and very… not
hot.
Instead of dwelling on exactly
how she felt about him, she picked up
the mess she made earlier; anything to
distract her from the tiny flutter in her
belly.
She had just finished when
Athena got back, a bag full of bagels and
schmear in hand. The scent of the warm,
fresh bread rocketed straight to her
empty stomach.
An hour later, bellies full and the
room returned to its original state, they
got ready to leave. Garren gathered an
armful of dirty clothes piled in a corner
to stuff in his bag.
“Son of a bitch.” He lifted up a t-
shirt and held it up by the shoulders. A
huge green stain sat on the front, and
soaked through to part of the back. He
sniffed it and immediately pulled back in
disgust. “It's piss. Ivy...”
“What? I didn't pee on it.” She
looked around the room to find Sparky
before Garren did.
They both spotted the baby
dragon curled up on her pillow at the
same time. Both darted to get him, but
she was quicker. She swooped Sparky
up in her arms and ran behind Thane,
who was watching the scene with
amusement. He made a decent shield as
Garren tried to get her.
“That's it. Say bye-bye to your
little friend.” He managed to grab her by
the arm, her bad arm. He let her go at her
hiss of pain. “Sorry, sorry.” But it was
too late.
Fire shot out of the petite
dragon’s mouth.
Garren hit the floor as the fire
streamed past his head and hit the wall.
“No,
Sparky.
Stop!”
she
screamed.
The dragon ceased, but not
before singeing the bed and part of the
headboard.
The bedspread was ugly
anyway.
Thane snapped into action and
smothered the flames on the bed with a
blanket. Before the smoke could fill the
room, he tore the alarm off the wall and
dumped out the batteries. Athena opened
the bathroom window.
When the coast was clear,
Garren pushed himself off the ground.
“What the hell? That thing tried to
barbeque me.”
“Maybe it’s because you're
nothing but nasty to him.” She stroked
the animal's back, desperately trying to
calm him down before he lit the entire
hotel on fire.
“You gotta admit, he’s much
better at breathing fire now,” Thane said
as he patted out a lingering ember
smoldering on the bed.
“Why don't you guys go load up
the car,” Athena said.
Garren glared at Ivy and Sparky
as he rammed the rest of his clothes in
his pack. Grabbing Athena's bags, he left
the room in a huff.
“Ivy, can I talk to you for a
minute?” Athena asked before Ivy could
walk out.
After shutting the door to give
them some privacy, Ivy sat on the
opposite bed. “What's up?”
“You’re not interested in Garren,
are you?”
“What? No,” she answered
immediately. What did he tell her? Did
he notice me watching him, watching
me? Does he think I’m interested in
him? She was pretty sure she found
nothing interesting about him. Well, his
shields were cool and he did help her
out this morning with the nightmare, but
other than that, totally un interested.
“So, you won't mind if I go out
with him then,” Athena said, interrupting
Ivy’s racing thoughts.
Her stomach twisted at the
thought of the two of them together,
making out right in front of her. She was
going to throw up. “Isn't he a little young
for you, by like, six years?”
“He's eighteen, right?”
“Well, yeah... barely.”
“There you have it. It's not like I
want to marry the guy. He's hot and
looks like he could be a lot of fun.”
Athena stood up and slipped her
sunglasses on. “I'm glad we had this
talk.” She strolled out the door without a
second glance.
To
say
the
car
ride
to
Sacramento was awkward was an
understatement. She pressed herself as
far away from Garren as possibly in the
cramped backseat. She couldn't even
look at him anymore, especially since all
he seemed to do was flirt with Athena.
They made her nauseous with their thinly
veiled double entendres.
Thane
was
oblivious
to
everything around him as he engrossed
himself in the potions book he brought
along. Every now and then he'd toss out
some fact only he found fascinating.
“Did you know that when
dragon's blood is mixed with the crushed
petals of a snowdonia hawkweed, it can
sever magical ties, like bonds or oaths?
Interesting.”
She went back to admiring the
landscape of Northern California on her
side of the car. After all the green of
Washington and Oregon, the brown grass
and rocks was a nice change of pace.
Sparky was enjoying himself as
he flew right above their car. Thankfully,
he stayed in stealth mode to keep the
other drivers around them from freaking
out. Baby dragons drifting on air
currents weren't common sights along the
California highway. Every once in a
while, he'd land on the car to rest before
kicking back up into the air.
It only took a couple hours
before the Sacramento skyline came into
view. The sensation of being submersed
in ice water washed over her at the
sight. She'd sworn to never return, yet
there she was.
I must have lost my mind.
“Exactly where in the city is
Ivy’s Prince Charming?” Athena asked
Thane as she drove along the highway,
glancing at the road signs.
Ivy perked up, anxious to hear
the answer. She’d been running down a
list of possible
hiding places in her head
since they left that morning. It wasn’t a
long list.
Thane squirmed in his seat and
turned his face to the window before
answering. “I don’t know.”
Everything around her seemed to
fade away and only those three little
words swirled around in her head.
“What?” Surely, she heard him wrong.
“All I know is that he’s
somewhere underground.” He held up
his tattered notebook with all his
research as if daring them to argue with
his facts. She fought the urge to grab it
from his hands and chuck it out the
window. Anger throbbed as a dull ache
in her skull. Couldn’t anything go right
on this trip?
“I hope you don’t mean six feet
underground,” Garren moaned as he
slouched down in his seat.
“I’ll drive you to whatever
cemetery you want, but I don’t dig,”
Athena said.
Ivy chuckled. “Unless you’re
hiding a nice, juicy bone in the garden,
right?” She couldn’t let that pass when
the werewolf set herself up so nicely.
Athena growled and glared at her
in the rearview mirror. “Watch it,
witch.”
“No, no. I don’t think he’s
buried,” Thane said quickly. “My source
mentioned an underground room of some
kind.”
“Like a basement?” She racked
her brain for anything else that sounded
even vaguely similar but nothing came to
mind.
“I figured we could ask around
the local magic community.” Thane
furrowed his brow. “I’m just not sure
how to find others like us.”
“Let me handle that, sweetie,”
Athena said. “I have a gift for sniffing
out our kind.” She looked pointedly at
Ivy in the mirror, as if daring her to
make a joke.
But before she could open her
mouth, Garren elbowed Ivy in the ribs
and shook his head. It was almost
painful letting such an obvious opening
go unanswered but she did, this time.
The
ensuing
silence
was
interrupted by a loud growl, and it
wasn’t from the werewolf.
“I’m ready to eat,” Garren said,
putting his hand over his stomach. It was
early afternoon and they hadn’t eaten
since breakfast. A greasy, fast food
hamburger sounded like the perfect
solution right about then.
“Why don’t we dash through a
drive-through and then check into a
hotel?” Ivy offered. It wouldn’t do to go
parading around the city in the middle of
the day with Eradicators around. They
needed to stay under the radar.
“On a nice day like this?” Athena
said, waving her hand over her head.
“We need to get out and stretch our legs,
do a little sightseeing.”
The pounding in her head
intensified. “This isn’t a vacation. There
are Eradicators all over the city. It’s not
safe.” She looked to Garren for back up
because he was supposed to be on
security detail.
“I think we’ll be all right as long
as we stick together and stay among the
crowds,” he said.
Her fists clenched in her lap. She
forgot Garren was mooning over Athena
and would therefore agree with anything
she said. His judgment was no longer
reliable. She looked to Thane, her last
hope for reason.
He merely shrugged and avoided
eye contact.
Coward. Her instincts screamed
to lay low until dark and she always
followed her gut. It’s kept her alive so
far. Of course, she wouldn’t be in this
situation if she followed her first hunch
and stayed in Salmagundi in the first
place.
“I don’t like it. It’s too risky.”
Her stomach flip-flopped just thinking
about running into any number of people
she knew in the city. She didn’t even
notice her leg nervously bouncing until
Garren put his hand on her knee. She
immediately froze at the contact.
“What’s your problem?” he
asked as he pulled away.
The secret I’ve been protecting
for over a year is about to explode like
Mount St. Helens and you’ll all hate
me. “Nothing. I just don’t want to attract
unwanted attention.” Not a lie.
“You’re too paranoid. The
chance that we’ll be seen by an
Eradicator in such a big city is slim. But
if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll only
get lunch and go right to a hotel
afterwards. No site seeing.” Then he
leaned over and whispered, “I won’t let
anything happen to you, Ivy.”
The sincerity in his voice caused
a lump to form in her throat. Her
relationship with Garren was strained
and totally confusing, at best. If she
wanted to get along with him, she’d have
to at least try to trust him. Inhaling
deeply, she took the first step and
nodded.
“Fine.” She hoped she didn’t
regret this.
*****
The group ordered lunch at a
little deli downtown and then sat at a
sidewalk table out in the bright sunshine.
So much for staying low-key.
She hadn’t realized how much she
missed the tree lined streets full of
blooms. But even the reminiscent
fragrance didn’t ease the tension she felt
at being out in the open. Late April in
California was still cool, so she didn't
look out of place pulling the sweatshirt
hood over her head to cover her brown
curls. A box of hair dye sat at her feet to
be used when they finally rented a room.
Too bad she couldn’t talk the others into
skipping this little outing. At least she
talked them out of eating at one of her
old haunts. That would have been
suicide.
She couldn't help eyeing every
person that strolled past their patio table
for a familiar face. She touched the
sapphire
hidden
under
her
shirt,
wondering if she should use it to hide
them all.
Gawd, I am paranoid.
“Ivy, will you stop fidgeting?
What's wrong with you?” Athena asked
from across the table as she sipped her
coffee.
The other three stared at her
expectantly. Time had run out. It was
time to stop hiding from her past and tell
the truth. The worst that could happen
was that they got mad, dumped her butt
and left without her.
They’re going to hate
me. Her
heart already started breaking as she
picked up her hot chocolate and spoke
into the mug.
“I used to live here.”
Garren's brow furrowed. “You
used to live here?” He emphasized by
pointing straight down on the black
wrought iron table.
She nodded and swallowed, but
kept her face hidden behind the cup.
“But you left because...?” Garren
asked.
She set the mug down and stayed
silent, hoping they would put the pieces
together themselves.
Thane was the first to connect the
dots. “Eradicators were hunting you,
because you're a witch.”
She nodded and pushed an errant
curl back behind her ear, her hood
falling halfway back. But that was only
part of it. She gathered up the courage to
reveal the actual reason for her swift
departure from this city.
But just as she opened her mouth
to confess, a voice she hoped to never
hear again rang out beside her.
“Well, well, well. Look who
decided to return.”
Chapter 14
“Who’s that?” Thane asked,
motioning with a jut of his chin at the
man standing next to Ivy.
This was the exact situation she
was hoping to avoid. Knowing she
couldn't get out of it, she sucked in a
breath and turned to face him. “Hello,
Kyle.”
He’d changed. His once long,
dark hair was now so short it was
almost shaved. It suited him. The
eyebrow piercing was new, too. A long-
sleeve blue shirt covered his tattoos,
including the tell-tale mark on his wrist.
Her heart beat a little faster, like it
always did whenever he was around.
But his eyes, those green eyes she could
gaze into for hours, didn't have the luster
they once held. Guilt hit her as she
thought
she
might
be
partially
responsible for that.
Kyle stood there, as though
waiting for her to say something more.
When she didn't, he huffed. “That's it?
That's all you have to say to me?”
“Apparently.” She kept her face
as calm as possible in an effort to keep
the anxious trembling at bay. Would he
spill her secret before she had the
chance to explain?
“Unbelievable.” He ran his hand
over his head, a nervous habit that hadn’t
disappeared with his hair. “We've been
searching for you over a year, Ivy.
Where the hell have you been?”
She didn't appreciate his tone
and straightened up in her seat, not
wanting him to think he could intimidate
her. “That's none of your business.”
