Sticks & Stones

by Merdith Medina

Eli chuckled weakly, and I caught the barest glimpse of his fangs.

  “The sun’s about to come up... can I come in?” he asked.

  “Oh, shit... No. I don’t think so.”

  Eli’s expression hardened, “Oren said you’d be like this,” he said. His voice was bitter, and I felt my magic surge just a little. This was not the right time for him to be a douchebag. I was so far from being in the mood to deal with this shit.

  “Pardon me? Oren said I’d be like what? Upset? You’re goddamn right I’m upset, and you can tell him he was right, too. I’m sure he’ll love that. You attacked a civilian. That’s now how Laudan operate. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but jumping on people in public and biting them isn’t exactly the best way to ‘blend in,’ now is it?” Eli hated it when I used air quotes, and I used them as often as I could, specifically to piss him off.

  “Those are Bishop’s rules,” Eli scoffed, dismissing my statement with a wave of his hand. I bristled. No one dismissed me.

  “I’m pretty sure that when you signed your contract to Spiral that you were also signing on to follow Bishop’s rules.” I narrowed my eyes at him, “Has that changed in the last few days?”

  The color of the sky over Eli’s shoulders told me that dawn was coming.

  Red sky in morning; sailor, take warning.

  “Let me in, Ophelia. The sun is coming up,” Eli knew what time it was.

  “Where’s Oren now, Eli? Isn’t he your figurehead now? Should he be taking you to a safe house or something? Finding you food? Taking care of you while you come down from your feeding?”

  Eli looked down at the toes of his boots. “Bishop wouldn’t even talk to me. I was just released. They said my bail was paid and that I shouldn’t leave town.”

  I chuckled. Telling Eli what to do was a surefire way to get him to do exactly the opposite. However, the fact that Bishop didn’t talk to him was a little bit... odd. Something wasn’t right.

  “What do you mean Bishop wouldn’t talk to you? Bishop’s supposed to be looking after you. He’s your manager for fuck’s sake.”

  Eli shrugged and jumped down from the railing, landing lightly on the fire escape. He stepped towards me slowly, his pale hand extended; palm up... a penitent figure, “Can we talk about this inside?”

  I looked over my shoulder at the couch where Lacey was sleeping. Eli’s gaze followed mine, and when he saw who was on the couch he recoiled, his back hitting the fire escape railing, the impact strong enough to shake the plants.

  Lacey stirred in her sleep, rolling over but not waking up.

  “What is your damage, Eli?!?” I whisper shouted, gesturing angrily for him to be quiet.

  “She... she...” he stammered.

  “I know. I know; she was in the park tonight while you were busy being an asshole. She called the cops. But you got yourself arrested. It’s not her fault you’re trying to run away.” I paused briefly, reaching out to touch Eli’s arm. He jerked away from my touch.

  “Look,” I said, pulling my hand back and trying not to feel hurt that he had flinched. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I wiped her memory. She won’t remember much about tonight except the fact that we drank a lot of dandelion wine and talked about how stupid romance novels are. Your little secret is safe with me.” I was trying to be funny, but he didn’t laugh.

  Strike three. You’re out.

  “You don’t know what you’re playing with, Ophelia.” Eli looked over his shoulder, the red light of the approaching sunrise tingeing his features. “Are you sure you won’t come with me?”

  I didn’t hesitate, “No. I won’t come with you. I’ve got shit to do here.”

  “Serves you right,” Eli said. He sat on the railing, looking at me for just a moment.

  “Serves me right? What the shit is that?”

  Eli didn’t answer; he just flipped backwards over the railing.

  I ran forward hoping that I wouldn’t see him sprawled on the pavement, knowing that he wouldn’t be.

  Of course, there was nothing on the sidewalk below. The street was quiet.

  The sun broke over the buildings, the deep red of the sunrise staining the buildings in gore. I heaved a deep sigh and gestured for the window to open. It slid halfway and stuck, straining against the ropes. Surprised, I relaxed, wondering if my anger had caused it to jam. It had happened before, and I had been trapped on the fire escape in a rainstorm for over an hour until I’d finally calmed down enough that my magic relaxed and let me in.

  I struggled to get my breathing under control. Eli was Bishop’s problem. The Laudan had paid his bail, so he must have known what was happening and been able to explain enough of what had happened away to get Eli out of there. I didn’t care what had gone down. The fact that he’d gotten Eli out of police custody made it worthwhile. I owed Bishop a bottle of wine; that was for damn sure.

  Now my problem was Lacey, who was currently snoring on my couch.

  I woke up to Suki gnawing on my wrist with her sharp little teeth. After Eli had disappeared over the railing, I’d climbed into bed, knowing that I wouldn’t get much sleep. The nightmare I’d just woken up from did help either.

  In my dream I was running through the rose gardens, desperately trying to get to the subway, I knew I’d be safe inside the subway car. Safe from what? I had no idea. But whatever it was, it was chasing me, and the rose garden path kept twisting and turning, taking me farther and farther away from the subway station until finally I was alone under a flickering streetlight, the orange glow making the concrete look surreal underneath my feet. Everything else was dark, and the roses looked black in the unnatural light.

  I knew I wasn’t alone, and that was the worst part. I could hear whispers in the dark, and the crunch of hard-soled boots scraping against the concrete. My mouth was dry, my heart was jumping in my chest like a caged animal, and my head felt like it was going to explode. Even in a dream that was a shitty combination, because whatever ‘dream Ophelia’ had experienced, I had to deal with in real life.

  Why did I have a headache?

  Oh wait... dandelion wine. My magic might have protected me from the worst effects of the alcohol, but the older I got; the more the little annoyances crept in. When I was 200 years old, four bottles of wine would have been nothing. But at 330? That was a headache.

  But it hadn’t been the headache that had woken me up; in my dream Eli had materialized out of the dark. He didn’t reply when I called out to him either, he just bared his fangs and grabbed for my arm, trying to pull me close. His breath was hot and damp on my skin and even though I struggled, his cold fingers dug into my arm painfully as he dragged my wrist towards his mouth. Before I could do anything, faster than a rattlesnake he sank his fangs into my flesh. I felt the sharp pain as they broke the skin heard him growl as the blood began to flow—and then I was awake and Suki was gnawing on my wrist.

  I sat up and rubbed my face, as Suki jumped on my shoulder and chewed on my hair. I pushed her off gently, “I’m fully aware that if I died in my sleep that you’d eat me before your food ran out; stop rubbing it in.”

  Suki grumbled and jumped down from the bed, pausing to stare at the couch where Lacey was sprawled on her back, still asleep. Her eyes were half open and she was snoring lightly. I smirked; I’d enjoy reminding her about this for the next few weeks.

  I rolled out of bed and got dressed quickly. We were just going to the café, so I didn’t feel the need to fuss over my appearance. I piled my hair on top of my head, washed my face and then fed Suki, making as much noise as possible as I did it. I bashed cupboard doors, dropped a metal bowl and made a huge deal of putting the empty wine bottles underneath the sink.

  Lacey groaned from the couch and I smiled as she sat up and held her head in her hands. “Ohhhh my godddddd,” she groaned.

  “Rise and shine, Lacey. David’s expecting us to be at Haven by ten,” I said brightly. I threw her a bottle of water from the fridge. “You’ve got twenty minutes to get yo
ur shit together, and then we have to go.” Lacey took a drink of water, grimaced and then fell face first down onto her pillow.

  “Do you think they’ll notice if I’m not there?” she groaned into the pillow. “Tell them I died... I feel like I’m dead.” She lifted her face out of the pillow, her expression miserable. “Was that really just made out of dandelions and flowers and stuff?” she whined. I nodded, a smile on my face.

  “Yup. Prospect Park dandelions and a couple of oranges,” I said happily. Lacey made some more unhappy whining noises before finally kicking off the blanket I’d given her and stomping to the bathroom.

  I puttered in the kitchen, hoping that the spell I’d used on Lacey last night hadn’t been too strong. She seemed fine, just hungover. The hangover was a good thing, it would hide any remnants of the memory wipe, a spell hangover felt pretty similar to a self-induced one, so it would all be easy enough to explain away.

  I heard the squeal of the bathroom cupboards. Lacey was looking for aspirin. Unfortunately for her, I didn’t keep any. Over the counter drugs don’t work on me, so there was no need to keep them in the apartment. I relied on my herbs and my magic to keep me balanced. Lacey would just have to suffer.

  “Come on, Lace, we have to go!” I shouted. Lacey’s reply was just a string of whiney noises but she shuffled out of the bathroom and flung herself on the couch to tie her boots.

  “You shouldn’t have let me drink so much,” Lacey pouted. “What were we drinking about anyway?”

  “You called me and wanted to hang out, we talked about Rachel a bit. I know you were sad that her parents wanted a private funeral,” I said quietly. It was a bit of a lame story, but she might buy it.

  “Yeah, that was kind of shitty…” Lacey said absently. She picked up her phone, and I had the sudden thought that she would see that she had called the 9-1-1 before she’d called me... I wouldn’t be able to make up a story about that.

  “Ugh. Of course my phone is dead,” she groaned and threw the offending electronic into her purse.

  Close call.

  18

  Despite the fact that I wasn’t really responding to any of her questions, Lacey kept up a bubbly stream of conversation for the entirety of our walk. I took us on a different path through Prospect Park that didn’t take us past the rose garden Rachel had been found in. Not to mention the fact that if I took her through a location that important so soon after a memory wipe it could shake some of my magic loose. It needed time to permeate her memory, and I didn’t need any of that sliding away and making room for her to ask the same questions about Eli that I wasn’t willing to answer, or lie about.

  “Oh my god, Fee! The window!” Lacey exclaimed, pointing ahead of us, a broad smile on her face. In the few days since we’d been on imposed holiday David had replaced the window, and a sign-writer had re-painted Haven’s cartoonish logo in bright teal and cream colors. “I love the colors,” Lacey said excitedly, “so trendy right now.”

  Great. Trendy was my favorite.

  David was in the middle of explaining a new buddy-system policy when we arrived.

  “... from now on, we’ll do out best to make sure there are two people on every shift, and that you live near each other so that we can be sure that everyone gets home safe. Make sense?”

  David was trying to keep things light, but everyone knew what he was thinking. If Rachel hadn’t left the café alone that night, she might still be alive.

  I wondered if he was trying to be subtle about blaming me for letting her leave alone. Sure, that might have been my own tiny sense of guilt rearing its head, but it was hard not to feel a little bit singled out. Even if he didn’t mean it that way. Shit happened. A lot. Especially in New York, especially to women walking alone at night.

  Everyone felt the weight of what had happened, and the girl who had taken Rachel’s position looked really uncomfortable. I hadn’t bothered to learn her name yet, but I still hadn’t decided if I was going to stick around or not.

  Lacey, however, seemed to have forgotten why everyone was so somber.

  “Oh my squee, Fee! David, Fee and I live super close to each other, will you be scheduling all of our shifts together?” Lacey wrapped her arm around my waist and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Pleeeeeeease, David?”

  David raised his eyebrow and looked at me. He knew I’d rather work alone, but his new scheduling policy meant that I’d have to kiss my quiet morning opening shifts goodbye. I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “Whatever works, David, you know I don’t care.”

  Lacey squealed and released me long enough to clap her hands gleefully before hugging me tightly again. The other girls looked on with what seemed like envy and I sighed heavily before gently extricating myself from her grasp. Lacey didn’t seem to notice, and wound her arm through mine instead leaning against me every so often or squeezing my arm and smiling happily.

  Fantastic. Maybe inviting her up to my apartment last night had been a bad idea.

  * * *

  The meeting didn’t drag on long, and I stayed behind with David to help him work out the new schedule based on his new rules. It was decent of him to care about his staff, but if I was being targeted by the Blood Outlaws, my co-workers were going to suffer whether they were in pairs or not. I had to do something, I just didn’t know what.

  Lacey had stayed behind as well; I could hear her chattering on to David’s wife about her Halloween party plans while she re-arranged the decorations that had been destroyed by the vandals. I wondered again if my spell had been a little too strong. What if she’d forgotten Rachel entirely? No more magic when you’re drinking. This was why it was better for me to stay hidden. The more I put myself out into the world, the more bad shit seemed to happen around me.

  “Ophelia,” David’s voice shook me out of my thoughts, and I shuffled the schedule papers in front of me to cover the doodles I’d made on the corners while I hadn’t been listening to him. “I’m serious about offering you that management position,” he was saying.

  I hated this discussion. He started it every year around this time, and every year I had to shut him down.

  “You’ve been here for a few years now, and you’ve always been really reliable and level-headed. Casey says you’re an ‘old soul,’ and the other girls need someone like you around to keep them grounded.”

  Old soul? Buddy, you don’t know the half of it. I covered my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Oh, Casey. I took a deep breath and stood up from my chair, handing him the schedules.

  “Thanks David, but you know I’m just happy that you guys take care of me. I mean, my situation is a little… special,” I said warily.

  David lifted his hand, “I know, and I know you don’t want to talk about it, but Casey and I are always here if you need us. Besides… did I mention that the management post comes with full time hours and a medical plan?”

  If I’d really been the age I said I was, and hadn’t been blessed/cursed with my long lives and magical powers, I’d totally be tempted, but I didn’t need that shit. I hesitated like I was interested, and then shook my head.

  “You guys are awesome, but I’m totally fine with the way things are. No change is good change as far as I’m concerned.” When they’d hired me, I’d told David a very vague story about personal hardship and hiding from a stalker ex-boyfriend who used to be a cop… I needed a job, but I needed to be untraceable. David had needed an employee, and he didn’t hesitate to ignore the fact that I didn’t give him a social security number. I took a lower wage, and was paid in cash every week. It suited me just fine, and it was working out pretty well for David too.

  Well, until the Laudan decided that I was on their intimidation list. But David didn’t need to know that. It didn’t change the fact that I felt just a little bit responsible for the broken front window.

  David reached over to a pile of teal aprons and threw one at me, “Suit yourself, but if you ever change your mind, I have a manager’s nametag waiting for you…�
�

  I unfolded the apron and raised my eyebrow at the freshly embroidered Haven logo. Teal was not my color. I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace, “You’ll be the first to know.”

  David waved me away and I folded up the apron and took a deep breath before stepping into the shop.

  “Fee! Oh my god there you are,” Lacey called, her head buried up to the shoulders in a box full of decorations that had appeared out of nowhere. “Come and help me! Casey just brought out this box; I’d forgotten I’d brought it in!”

  I looked over at Casey, who shrugged and used the opportunity to flee our company for the safety of David’s office.

  Great.

  Lacey emerged with a length of glittery orange and black garland clutched in her fists and a massive grin on her face. She held out the decoration towards me eagerly. “Come on, Fee, it’s almost Halloween and I’ve definitely decided that you need a little more pumpkin spice in your life.”

  This whole thing was getting really old, really fast.

  I took the garland and held it gingerly as she dove back into the box, “Now, where did I put those spiders,” she muttered.

  The floor was littered with plastic ghosts and candy corn decorated plates. She threw a plastic bag full of cotton webbing at me and cackled gleefully.

  “What are you standing there for?” She pointed at the brand new shop window, “Get those spider webs going, lady!”

  Spider webs? This was too much.

  “Look, Lacey, we don’t have to be here until tomorrow morning. Can’t we do it then? I’d really like to go home and go back to bed. Aren’t you still hungover?”

  Lacey shook her head and beamed up at me from her seat on the floor. “No way, I feel amazing. I think we need to have girl’s nights more often, don’t you? Maybe it was the dandelion wine… do you make it yourself? Or maybe it was all the herbs, your apartment is really amazing, you know.”

  I nodded absently and set the decorations down on a table. Was she really not hungover anymore? I found that hard to believe. She’d drunk more of the wine than I had, and I still had a light headache lingering behind my eyes. I looked at Lacey carefully. She’d been totally worse for wear only a few hours ago, and I was having a hard time believing that she felt as ‘amazing’ as she said she did.