“Tell me about it. I’ve been swamped with filling out job applications. So you want to meet up?”
I winced. “I’d love to, but that isn’t my main reason for calling.”
“Go on?”
“I need a huge favor, and I need it kind of now.”
“What is it? You know I’ll help if I can.”
“Remember I told you I ran this soup kitchen?”
“Yeah, the one by Leicester Square station.”
“Well, did you hear about the attack?”
“Oh, my god, was that your kitchen? The IEPEU caught those bastards, didn’t they?”
“Ahuh. And now we’re inundated with people needing to be fed, and we don’t have enough food. So … I was wondering if I could place an order for delivery within the hour?”
“For the soup kitchen?”
“Yeah.”
“I can do you one better.” She said with a smile in her voice. “I’ll provide the food for free. Dad’s been talking about giving back to the community, and this could be the perfect opportunity. We usually bin whole batches of food, so it won’t be any loss to us.”
“Really? Wow. Thank you so much.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
We said our byes and I switched the SIM cards back. Victor’s phone beeped and a strange symbol flashed on screen just for a second. A figure eight laying on its side … what had it been? What? Why was I staring at his phone?
“Victor, heads up.” I threw the phone back to him. “We have food on the way.”
“Great. Now come help.”
More people poured in through the doors and the heat in the room ratcheted up.
A slender, delicate-looking woman appeared at my elbow. “Can I help?” She smiled sweetly across me at Victor.
Who the heck?
Mira.
Oh.
Victor straightened. “Sure Caro, grab a ladle.” He turned his attention to me. “Caro’s been helping me the last couple of days. Hope that’s okay.”
I shrugged. “Who am I to turn away a good-willed volunteer?”
She pushed between us and took the ladle out of my hand. “Why don’t you take a break?” she said to me.
Paimon sighed. Mira infatuated is not a pretty sight.
Stepping away from the table I projected my response. Victor?
Mira, in her new form, was simpering and dimpling for him.
I focused on Paimon. It’s really disconcerting.
“Carmella, thank god you’re okay,” an all too familiar male voice interrupted.
Paimon tensed as I turned to face Drake.
He looked harassed. “What are you doing here?”
“I tried to call you several times, and then I swung by the bakery and Urvashi told me … she told me you were with Banner?”
Was that a question? “Okay. So what did you need me for?”
“Wow.” He stepped back, hands on hips. “So it’s true. You’re dating him. The city’s playboy. Do you want to get hurt?”
Had he seriously just asked me that after what he’d done to me? A strange sensation wrapped itself around my hand, kinda like someone was holding it.
Paimon.
“Who I date is none of your business.” I kept my tone low and even.
“You’re staying at his house?”
It was like he wasn’t listening to me. Well that wouldn’t do at all, time to raise the volume. “Who I date is none of your damn business!”
He blinked at me. “Carmella, you don’t get it. The guy is bad news. He uses women like tissue paper and then screws them up and chucks them away.”
“Yeah, well at least he’s upfront and honest about who he is and what he wants.”
His lips tightened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
And there it was—the elephant in the room neither of us had addressed—the reason why our relationship had been doomed to fail.
“It means you used me.” My throat tightened as if rebelling against the words. But fuck it, it was time to push through the discomfort and shame. “You knew you could never love me, but you led me on to believe you did. You pretended we had something. You used me as a buffer between you and Penelope until this buffer just didn’t work anymore. So yeah, in my book, Banner is twice the man you are.”
Paimon’s phantom grip on my hand tightened. How he was doing that? Was he standing beside me right now in the in-between? It didn’t matter, he was here and it helped. The words I’d been holding back ever since Drake and I’d ended came pouring out.
“You knew how I felt about you. You could have ended it early, saved me the heartache, but it was never about me. It was always about you.”
He stared at me in silence for a long moment, his throat working. The hum and buzz of the kitchen finally filtered through the pump of blood in my ears.
“Carmella … I’m … I’m so sorry.” He dropped his gaze. “I did care about you. A lot. I still do, and I don’t want you to get hurt again. Not if I can prevent it this time.”
The fire seeped out of me. It was done. Over. “I’m not a naive fool. I have no misconceptions about Mal. Please. Just go.”
“Carmella. I do consider you a friend.”
“Yeah I know you do.” But I wasn’t sure I felt the same about him. Not any longer.
The doors behind him opened and Honey pushed through, carrying a crate filled with food.
This conversation was over. “If you’ll excuse me, I have hungry mouths to feed.”
You did well.
The sick feeling in my tummy that was always present around Drake was gone. It was liberating.
“Honey.” I cleared a path for her. “Thanks so much for this. It smells awesome.”
“A little of everything: samosas, onion bahjis, rice and curry, oh and pasta too.”
She followed me into the kitchen carrying the heavy load with ease—yaksha strength and all that.
Victor joined us a moment later. “This is great, thank you.” He locked eyes with Honey.
Honey cleared her throat, eyeing him with interest. “No probs. Dad says he’d like to sponsor the kitchen. Basically do this on a regular basis. You have a fridge right? Freezer?”
Victor nodded. His gaze still fixed on Honey’s striking face. I caught a glimpse of Mira’s expression over his shoulder. If looks could kill, Honey would be a goner.
I’ll speak to her. Paimon said softly.
Please do.
The doors opened and another wave of people entered. It was going to be a long night.
_____
The taxi dropped me off outside Banner’s house at almost eleven that night. The kitchen had been mega busy. If it was going to be crammed every night we’d need to get more volunteers. Victor was working on it.
Mal answered the door, his hair mussed, eyes sleepy. He was dressed in loose joggers and a T-shirt. He looked like a supermodel doing an I’ve-just-got-out-of-bed-shoot.
“Shit, were you asleep?”
“I may have nodded off. I was getting worried. Your phone was off.” He stepped back to let me in.
“Now you sound like a real boyfriend.”
He chuckled. “If I hadn’t nodded off, I’d have been out looking for you.”
“I was at the soup kitchen. It got real busy.”
“Did you eat?”
“Yeah, I grabbed a bite while I was there, sorry. You weren’t waiting to eat together were you?” His expression was answer enough. Shitty, shit, shit. “I did tell Hannah to tell you I’d be late … to eat without me …” I trailed off.
He shrugged. “She told me. I just didn’t listen. It’s all right. We can chat in the morning. Get some rest.”
I turned to him, looking up at his face, soft in the hallway’s dim lighting. “You sure? I can sit with you while you eat?”
He smiled. “Now you sound like a real girlfriend.”
He reached up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Thank you.”
“Wha
t for?”
“For trusting in me …”
Uh-oh, there was an expression on his face … the one that signaled the beginning of something, except there was no answering flutter in my chest, no kick in my pulse. He was supposedly a playboy, but I’d seen a side of him unrelated to that persona—a side I’d be happy to have in my friend circle but that was all. But if I wasn’t honest with him now, I’d lose that chance.
“Mal, I …”
He closed his eyes and exhaled. “Ouch.”
“It’s not like that—”
“Don’t. You don’t have to say it. You’re a special woman, Carmella. The way you look out for others … you have a pure heart and that is an aphrodisiac to a man like me. Thank you for being honest. A lesser woman may have strung me along just for the benefits of being on my arm.” His mouth turned down. “Life is too short to waste by living a lie.”
Damn, the mood had grown somber. “Well, I figure since I’m getting the benefits regardless …”
He chuckled. “Get a good night’s rest. I’ll be at the Piccadilly residence most of the morning but make yourself at home. Lawrence will drive you wherever you need to go.” He smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes.
I’d hurt him and I hated it. But keeping my mouth shut and playing along would have been ten times worse for both of us. It would be so easy to let him love me, to fall into the life denied to me by my mother and my lack of power. On his arm I’d be part of the coven. I’d be accepted and revered. But it would be a lie.
I couldn’t do to him what Drake had done to me.
My heart was healing. The words that needed to be spoken had been said, and I was ready to move on. It just wasn’t with Banner.
A cool breeze stirred the hairs on the nape of my neck.
Yeah … it wasn’t Banner.
18
I ’d planned to lie in, but the blazing sun had other ideas. No one could possibly sleep in this heat. Rolling out of bed, I padded into the bathroom to wash up and felt Paimon stir.
You slept well.
Yeah, did you?
I didn’t sleep. We don’t require it like humans.
So what did you do? What’s it like in the in-between?
Silent … there are noises sometimes, strange scuttling and moans. But whatever is out here leaves me alone.
It sounded horrific. Can’t you just materialize here, for short periods, just to get a break from it?
A deep sigh. Too much of a risk. I will leave you to your waste expulsion.
Did he have to put it like that?
The door between us closed and I was as alone as I could be.
I stepped into my room ten minutes later to find Mira lounging on the bed, picking at her nails.
“How did you get … never mind.” I grabbed my cut offs and a T-shirt. “Checking in?”
“This is cushy, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. “I guess.”
She sat up, eyes narrowed. “Cushy while my lord suffers in the in-between.” Her tone was brittle. “So you lounge about flirting with Banner and ladling soup for your smelly homeless humans, while my lord suffers the deadlands?”
What the fuck crawled up her butt and died? “Look, I didn’t ask for this. You chose me, remember? And if there was something we could be doing then trust me, I’d be on it.”
She snorted, averting her gaze.
“And you know that, so what’s the real problem?”
She swung her legs off the bed and stood. “It’s taking too long. This whole thing. We need to be back home.”
Mira, what has happened?
Mira growled low in her chest. “Viceroy is making noise. Claiming it is all a conspiracy tailored by you. That you’ve sold our people out and are now off collecting your reward. The people are beginning to listen. I fear if you do not return with answers soon then there will be war.”
Paimon was silent.
“Did you hear me?” Mira said, hands on hips. “We’re running out of time.”
I know.
Mira shook her head in exasperation.
Dammit, Mira. You know how this works. If I break this binding to return, then I may not have the strength to rebind.
She arched her brow. “There’s a way and you know it. You just need to take control of your human.”
Wait, what was she talking about? Take control of his human? Take control of my body?
I will not break my word.
“Then you will be starting a war.”
Paimon’s agitation was a palpable force, it seeped into my veins and became my own. He needed to go back, to show them he was on their side, to shut this Viceroy dude up, but he couldn’t … not without breaking the binding, something he couldn’t risk doing right now. So he needed me to go with him, but Mira was wrong. He didn’t need to control me.
“I’ll go with you.” The words popped out before I could think them through further.
Mira exhaled. Her tense shoulders relaxed.
No, it’s too dangerous. Humans are considered cattle to my people.
“But she’s not—”
Mira! Enough. You will go back and you will convince them of our cause.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Mira huffed in exasperation.
I couldn’t let him risk war. “We have to go back. I’m not worried.” I shrugged. “You and Mira will be there to protect me, right?” I looked to the hinn.
Mira nodded. Her gaze was speculative.
You would do this for me? His tone was soft, unguarded.
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Yes. I would.”
Mira made an exasperated sound. “Well, let’s get the fuck on with it then.”
So how did this work? “What do we do now?”
Now we go to the place where our worlds overlap and we step through.
_____
“The red zone? The overlap is in the red zone?”
“Is that what you call this cesspit?” Mira snorted, crunching through the broken glass littering the sidewalk leading in to one of the most dangerous places in the city.
The flimsy barrier erected around the area was more a warning than a preventative measure of any kind. The kind of creatures that came here did so to fly under the radar, escape the law, or simply to live their lives out in peaceful malevolence. For the most part, the enforcement agencies left this place alone. The IEPEU had gone in a few times to retrieve a criminal on their list, but those excursions had ended in the loss of too many operatives and now the council merely turned a blind eye to the place.
I grabbed Mira’s arm. “We can’t go in there. It’s dangerous.”
Her brows snapped down. “You think I am incapable of protecting you?”
“No, I—”
“Then what?”
Mira, please. Carmella, trust that you are safe with us.
I blew out a breath. The last time I’d been here, it had been with Hugo, my mohawked infatuation. He’d taken me in and sold me to the radical fanatical sect called the Kubera. Thank goodness Malina had come for me. She’d saved my life.
Mira glanced over her shoulder. “Look, the quicker we move the faster we’ll get there.”
Paimon’s phantom hand gripped mine and squeezed gently. “Right.” I followed.
It was strange being here in broad daylight; less ominous. No way as scary. If I didn’t know what kind of shit existed behind the dark windows of the dead-looking houses, my heart wouldn’t be trying to tunnel out of my chest. Rogue Yaksha toting guns, vamps intent on feeding off the vein, and everything in between, because this place was like the unexplored part of the Amazon where new species kept cropping up.
“This is the worst place for the overlap to be. How many of the creatures living here have found their way to your world?”
I sensed Paimon’s shrug. A few. But they do not survive for long. The air in our world is toxic to your kind if ingested for long periods. When searching for the creatures who were taking the ascended djinn,
we came across several of your vampires and Yaksha and dispatched them with ease. The longer they remain the weaker they become, until they simply die.
“So what about me. Will the air affect me?”
Not while you’re bound to me.
Down the empty street we strode, Mira skipping ahead without a care in the world. Paimon kept his hand wrapped around mine. In a few minutes we’d be stepping into the overlap, a part of his world, did that mean … “Will I be able to see you?”
Yes.
My pulse sped up.
Up ahead Mira let out a growl and then her body was blurring, morphing into something else, not a panther, no this was larger—a wild cat I’d never seen before. She bounded off around the corner.
“What did she just turn into?”
A lisabre. Viscous and not found in your world.
A howl, a yip, and then a whine. Sounded like Mira had neutralized the threat. She sauntered back around the corner, wiping blood from her mouth, her face twisted in a grimace.
“Yaksha taste foul.”
Come on, the overlap is just up ahead.
We strode round the corner, past an overturned mini car and a warped bicycle, and onto a wide road lined with what used to be shops. The awnings, which at one time must have been bright and colorful, were now faded and torn. Broken furniture littered the pavement, and the gutters were strewn with debris. It was like walking through a ghost-town. A forgotten part of London.
“Where is this overlap?”
Paimon squeezed my hand and tugged, forcing me to pick up the pace, and then the air rippled, the ground shifted beneath my feet, and the terrain melted into something entirely different. Color assaulted my senses—vivid, bold, and aggressive. Sparkling golden sands and rippling azure skies greeted us.
“Whoa.” My eyes ached and teared up.
“Just give yourself a moment,” Paimon said.
Wait? He’d spoken … not in my head but to my ears. I glanced down at my hand, where the pressure of his was now real and completely solid. His fingers, pale blue and lithe, gripped mine.
“Carmella. Look at me.”
Oh shit. I slowly raised my gaze, allowing it to travel up his bare blue arm, across his tunic covered shoulder to his beautiful, perfectly carved face. My breath caught on an exhale as our gazes locked. His eyes … oh god it was like staring into a perfectly serene, cerulean sea. His pupils dilated as he took me in.
Binding Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 1) Page 11
