by Tim O'Rourke
“I thought we had a deal,” Calix said.
I raised one eyebrow and said, “Deal?”
“You cook for me and I teach you how to shoot,” Calix reminded me.
“Not today, Calix,” I said. “I’m not in the mood for shooting today.”
Calix grinned at me. “So what are you in the mood for?”
“Not your wit and charm, that’s for sure,” I said, pushing my chair back from the table and standing up. “I have work to do.”
“Work?” Calix asked me. “What kind of work?”
I’d already decided I wouldn’t tell Calix about the meeting that had taken place between myself and Sidney Watson and what we had planned. But I couldn’t see any harm in telling Calix that I needed to figure out what the truce I hoped for between the werewolves and vampires involved. So I said, “I’ve decided to make a list of things that I need to be put in place if I’m going to find a truce.”
“Let me help you,” Calix said.
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s something I want to work on alone.”
“How about you put on your list that we round up all the vampires and execute each and every one of the motherfu–”
“And that’s why I want to work on the plan on my own,” I cut in. “There isn’t going to be any rounding up, shooting, killing or any bloodshed. We need to make things better, not worse.”
“Have it your way, Julia,” Calix said, getting up from the table and heading toward the kitchen door. “I’ll be back later.”
“Later?” I called after him.
“For my dinner,” he shouted over his shoulder, swinging open the front door. “We have a deal, remember?”
Then he was gone, the door swinging shut, finding myself alone once more.
Chapter Three
I spent the day sitting at the kitchen table, scrawling notes and ideas across the pad, trying to come up with some kind of plan that I could present to Veronica Cabal when I met her. The only sound, apart from the scratch of my pen racing across the notepad, was that of the wind buffeting against the windows and the rustle of leaves from the trees outside. It seemed like forever since I’d last heard any music, and although there was a radio in the living room, it was useless unless I wanted to listen to the constant hiss of static. There was very little point turning it on. So I sat alone and made my plan, humming to myself the songs I had once listened to. And despite the scary realisation that I was pregnant constantly gnawing away at the back of my mind, I felt strangely at peace. For the first time in ages, I felt a sense of hope. The truce I had come looking for now seemed within my reach and I wanted to grab it with both hands. It was more important than ever. And although I hadn’t planned on having a child so soon in my life, I tried to be happy about it. What else could I do? I could kick against the idea, I could scream and shout, beat my fists against my pillow as I cried into it, but what would be the point? None of that would make the baby that was growing inside of me disappear. Nothing, not even magic, could turn back the hands of time to that night when Trent – looking like a wolf-man – had climbed into my bedroom window. But even if I could go back in time, I wasn’t so sure that I would turn Trent away even if I knew then what I know now. In my past life, I had known very well the dangers of falling in love with a vampire and werewolf but it had not stopped me from doing so. In fact, knowing such a thing had been like waving a red flag at a bull. There had also been something inside of me that made me blind and deaf to the dangers that my parents and the other Wicce tried to warn me of. What was done was done, and I couldn’t change any of it. I could only now try and put right what I’d put wrong. So with that thought at the forefront of my mind, I returned once more to my notes and continued to write until it had grown dark outside.
It was only the sound of someone knocking at my front door that eventually stirred me from my work. Guessing that it was Calix returning from his evening meal, I hid the notepad once more in a nearby drawer and went to the front door. In the twilight, I could see that Calix carried a brown paper bag of supplies in one hand, and tucked beneath his arm was what looked like a wooden box.
“Jeez, it’s dark in here,” Calix said, brushing past me and into the hallway. “How do you work in the dark?”
Closing the front door, I followed Calix into the kitchen where I lit some candles. He placed the bag of supplies to one side, and then grinning at me, dark eyes twinkling in the candlelight, he said, “Guess what I found today when I was nosing around some of the old and empty houses in this town?”
“I have no idea,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“I found this,” he said, taking the large box that he carried beneath his arm and setting it down on the table. The box came in two halves. He took off the lid, and to my delight, I could see that he had found an old record player.
With eyes growing wide with childlike wonder, I whispered under my breath more to myself than him, “You must be a mind reader.”
“What do you mean?” Calix asked, reaching into the brown paper bag and pulling out several records that were tucked inside flat cardboard sleeves.
As I watched him take out one of the large black discs, I said, “I was thinking to myself only today how nice it would be to have some music. You know, to brighten the place up.”
“You know what they say, great minds think alike,” Calix mused, lifting the arm of the record player. He placed one of the discs onto the turntable.
“How’s it going to work? There’s no electricity,” I reminded him.
Grinning at me like a schoolboy, Calix fished two large batteries from his coat pocket and said, “The record player is portable, and therefore, runs on these big boys.”
I stood to one side and watched him put the batteries into a compartment fixed into the back of the record player. Once in place, he switched the machine on. Carefully, Calix lifted the arm once more and lowered the needle onto the spinning black disc. There was a crackling and popping sound before the music began to swell and play, filling the kitchen with noise. With or Without You by U2 started to play, and Calix began to nod his head and tap his foot in time with the music.
“It sounds so good,” Calix beamed, “like an angel crying into my ears.”
Surprised, I looked at him and said, “That’s a rather poetic thing for you to say, Calix.”
He grinned back at me, and with a knowing smile said, “See, girls like you have me figured out all wrong. I’m not just a sex-machine; I have a sensitive side, too.” With his hip, Calix pushed the table to one side and rearranged the chairs so that there was more space in the centre of the kitchen. Without warning, he grabbed both my hands and pulled me toward him.
“Let’s dance,” he smiled, just inches from my face.
Conscious of my baby bump, I pulled away, not wanting him to feel it as he pulled me close. But his hold was too tight and he pulled me against him all the same. With one hand placed in the small of my back and the other resting on my shoulder, Calix began to sway against me.
“Julia, relax and have a bit of fun,” he teased, his whiskered cheek brushing up against the side of my face.
“I can’t,” I said, leaning away from him, not wanting to get too close.
And as the music continued to play, and Calix gently swayed from side to side, he whispered into my ear. “It’s okay, Julia, I know you’re pregnant.”
I tried to stifle a gasp, but it was out before I could pull it back. He continued to hold me gently but firmly against him as we continued to dance.
“How do you know?” I whispered into his ear, the music growing all around us, drowning out my words so only he could hear them.
“I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?” he hushed, entwining his fingers with mine and turning slowly around and around in time with the music. “What, with you feeling sick and tired all the time and now the bump…”
Hearing that single word, I tried to pull away from him again, but Calix held me tight.
He
whispered once more, his breath warm, almost burning, against my cold cheek. “Is Trent the father?”
“Yes,” I whispered back.
“Does he know?”
I shook my head. “We mixed just once the night before he left for Switzerland. He was gone the following morning.” As I said those words my cheeks flushed hotter still, not because Calix’s face was pressed against mine but because of the hot tears that now streamed the length of my face. My body began to tremble against Calix as I started to sob. But instead of letting go of me, Calix held tighter still. And for the first time since taking me into his arms, I hugged him back.
“There’s no need to cry,” he whispered, over the steady beat of the music.
“I’m so scared, Calix,” I said through my tears.
“You have nothing to be scared of, Julia,” Calix said. “I’m your friend and I won’t let you down.”
“Does that mean that you think Trent might?” I said.
“Might what?”
“Might let me down – might not want to have anything to do with me when he finds out I’m carrying his child,” I said.
“I don’t think Trent will leave…” Calix started.
“He’s left once already,” I cut in.
“That was before he knew you were pregnant,” Calix said.
“He promised me he would stay. He promised he would send you in his place. This is all your fault.”
“My fault?”
“If you hadn’t have bitten me – changed me – I would never have been able to become pregnant. The baby is only growing inside of me because of you.” At once I regretted what I’d said. But the words were out there, and Calix had heard them.
Slowly, he eased me from his arms and stepped away. With his back to me, he pulled the table back into place and reset the chairs around them.
Realising that I’d hurt him, I said, “I know how that sounded but it’s not what I meant.”
Looking back at me, Calix said, “So what did you mean?”
I stood looking at him, my cheeks damp with tears. I had not only upset myself but Calix, too. Despite his arrogance and tough veneer, I knew only too well that there was a sensitive side to Calix and I’d just trampled all over it. Perhaps if I hadn’t been so blinded by my lust and desire, I would have fallen in love with a man like Calix and not Trent. And although Calix came across as brash and insincere most times, it had been him who had brought me food each day. It had been Calix who had come to my home each day to make sure that I was okay and that I had enough food to eat. It had been Calix I’d shared my secrets with. It had been Calix who had taught me how to shoot when I’d asked him, who had brought me a record player and asked me to dance with him. Trent had done none of those things. Trent had got what he wanted from me and then left.
Breaking Calix’s stare, for I could not bear to see the hurt in his dark eyes, I said, “I wanted Trent to stay in your place because I thought he was the right man for me. I stupidly believed him when he told me that he loved me and would stay. But it seems that I’ve made yet another mistake.”
“Mistake? What mistake?” Calix asked.
Finding the courage to meet his stare once more, I said, “My mistake was realising that the right man for me is standing here, right now, right in front of me.”
“Not for much longer,” Calix whispered, brushing past me and heading back along the hallway to the front door.
Without looking back, I heard the front door open then close. Wrapping my arms tight around me, I let the music drown out the sound of the sobs that took hold of me.
Chapter Four
I spent the following day alone in my little house on the edge of the park. I played the records that Calix had brought me as I finalised the truce that I proposed to put forward to Veronica Cabal when I met with her. Neither Calix nor Morten paid me a visit. At times, I found myself getting up from the table, heading into the living room, and peering out at the front windows. I tried to convince myself that I was merely looking up at the sky and checking on the weather, when really, in my heart, I knew I was looking for any sign of Calix. But he kept away, and there was a part of me that understood why. He had been a good friend to me, only to find out that I would rather have had Trent stay in Shade than him. Not only that, I’d been stupid and cruel enough to blame him for the fact that I was now pregnant. I knew he had taken my remarks as a slap in the face – and why wouldn’t he? I would have felt exactly the same.
When the last rays of daylight were consumed by the coronation of a new night, I set the table with plates, knives, and forks and cooked enough food for two. But Calix failed to show up. It looked like the deal we had struck was now off. I sat alone and ate all the food that I’d cooked in an attempt to sedate my constant hunger pangs. When I felt that I might just split, I waddled upstairs to my room, got undressed, and climbed into bed. Lying on my back, I felt those movements inside of me once more. And I didn’t have to look at my stomach to know that the baby growing inside of me was getting bigger and stronger at an alarming rate. Its kicks were now so strong and urgent that I could clearly see my stomach moving as if it had a life of its own. The pains I’d felt the day before had gone and I no longer felt like I was going to vomit every time I ate. Perhaps I was over the worst of the sickness that came with pregnancy.
Closing my eyes, I spread my hands flat across my bulbous tummy, lacing the fingers together. And with a faint smile tugging at the corners of my lips, there was a part of me that marvelled at the very thought that I would soon be a mother. Whether the child was a boy or a girl, it didn’t matter to me. I would love the baby and I would be happy because for once I would have someone in my life who would love me unconditionally. Daring to believe in happy thoughts, I let myself drift off into a deep and nightmare-free sleep.
The following morning, I ate the last of the peanut butter and the cans of fruit before setting off across the park and into Shade. The sleep I’d woken from had been deep and it was the most rest I’d had in a long time. Despite being pregnant, I woke feeling invigorated and full of energy. The jeans I so often wore now strained against my hips. So after searching for some time through the drawers and wardrobes in the house, I was delighted to come across a pair of loose-fitting jogging bottoms. So pulling the hood of the sweater up over my head, I cleared the park and made my way through the narrow streets of Shade. I passed through the constricted and suffocating alleyway and out into the street where the Weeping Wolf still stood empty and barren, its occupants still not returned from the far-off land they had headed to. Pushing thoughts of Rea and Trent from my mind, I focused on what really mattered. The fact was that I was heading back into the woods and meeting with Sidney Watson in the hope that Veronica Cabal had agreed to meet with me.
Looking back over my shoulder just once to make sure I wasn’t being followed, I headed out of Shade and into the woods. I carefully made my way amongst the trees, over fallen trunks, and stooping beneath low hanging branches. What little daylight that cut through the thick canopy of leaves and branches overhead made dazzling patterns on the ground before me. As I neared the wall of magic I’d created around Shade, I peered ahead and toward the gap for any signs of the reporter, Sidney Watson. At first, I could see no one. My heart hung heavy in my chest, fearing that perhaps he had been unable to arrange a meeting with myself and the vampire leader and therefore had seen little point in coming all the way from Maze to Shade with such depressing news. But as the gap in the wall continued to shift and twinkle with light, I caught sight of the reporter standing on the other side of the hole.
I hastened my step, and by the time I’d reached the wall, I was gasping for breath. Sidney looked at me through the hole, glancing down at my ever protruding bump and then back at me.
He made no reference to how much I’d plainly grown in size since we had last met, and instead said, “Are you okay?”
“Just a little out of breath,” I said, placing one hand to my chest.
“Yes, I can see,” Sidney said, looking somewhat concerned for me. “Perhaps you should sit down or…”
“No, it’s okay, I’m fine. I just need to catch my breath, that’s all,” I wheezed. Once I felt a little better and my breathing had levelled out, I looked through the hole at Sidney and said, “So what is the news? Will Veronica Cabal meet with me?”
Sidney nodded his huge head, his curly hair bobbing up and down like loose springs. “Yes, she will meet with you.”
“When? Where?” I blurted out, part of me still believing that such a thing wasn’t going to happen.
“At midnight tonight,” Sidney said.
“Where?” I said, before giving Sidney the chance to fully explain the plan.
“There is a disused railway station, about a mile from here,” Sidney said, pointing east with one thick finger. “The station is called East Ridge. Just follow the road from here and you’ll find it.”
Hearing this, my mind began to race and I blurted out a series of gargled questions all at once. “Did you tell her about me? Does she know that I want a truce? Does she know that I come in peace? Is she going to meet me alone?”
Raising his large hands before him, Sidney smiled and said, “Calm down, calm down or you’ll be out of breath again. I’ve explained everything to Veronica. She knows that you want to find a truce between the werewolves and the vampires and she is interested in meeting you. As you requested, she will come alone, as you will.”
“Does she want peace?” I asked.
“I guess that she must or why else would she be meeting you?” Sidney smiled again.
“I can’t believe it,” I mumbled, floundering to find the right words. I suddenly felt exhilarated knowing that there was now a chance that peace could be found. I placed my hands over my stomach, hoping that now my child would grow up in a world no longer at war – where all species were treated equal and were free.
