“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to be asleep. You were the last time I came, too, and you didn’t wake up. Are you okay? Still feeling sick?”
Melanie loved Ava, but she wasn’t sure she could understand how Ava loved and lived with a person who so completely misunderstood the basics of emotions sometimes. “I’m… not okay. Did you need something? Also, what else am I supposed to be doing? It’s not like there are a lot of distractions around here. Sleeping seems the thing to do.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I know, and I hate keeping you like you’re a prisoner. We’ve come up with a solution. Well… a solution was presented to us. Do you want to get dressed?”
She looked down at herself. Yes, talking to Lawson not dressed was just weird. “Give me a second.”
“Sure, I’ll be in the living room.” He popped away. That sound was starting to grate on her. Pop. Pop. Pop. Did they have to do that all the time or could they sometimes just float around or—gasp—walk like the rest of them? Maybe she was just grumpy.
Melanie whirled her magic around her, changing into clothes, and walked, deliberately, into the living room. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting guests.”
He sighed. “Ava says that when you’re feeling vulnerable you go for surly. I’m going to assume that little sarcasm is that.”
“Go ahead, assume that.” She tilted her head to the side. “What’s up?”
“Elliot Boothe reached out to us. Several times.”
She swallowed. He had? “Well, he’s my client that I’m currently working with and a friend of my parents.” She’d leave out her other feelings. If Ava had told him about them, there was no point in adding to them, and if she hadn’t, Mel would spare herself this conversation.
Lawson and she had once threatened to transmorph each other in school while they were arguing. Things were not always calm between them even if they now felt like family.
“Right. Apparently when you didn’t show up for several days, he reached out to your mother who filled him in. I wish she hadn’t for safety reasons, but what’s done is done.” He held up his hand. “Don’t get mad. I’ve spoken, gently, to your mother. She won’t share again. Elliot got in touch with me and let me know that Boothe manor is as safe a place as there ever was. I disagreed until I checked it out. He’s right. The place is a fortress. He doesn’t have all the safety precautions on, but when he does, you really can’t get in there. Even me. I had to work like a dog to get through. It would certainly be enough time to get to you. And we can place an anti-tracker spell on you that means you can be there instead of in one of our anti-tracker houses. A little unusual but… everyone hates the thought of you being locked up indefinitely.”
Melanie swallowed. She knew exactly what he meant by making the place a fortress. There were spells on it that kept people from getting within a mile of the gate, which was only possible because they owned the land for miles around it. If Lawson thought the spells were strong enough…
She wiped her eyes. “I’m like a faucet. Yes, I’d like to be back to civilization. But I don’t want to put Elliot out. I’m sure he’s doing this as some sort of favor to my parents who he loves.”
Lawson made a noise she couldn’t quite decode and then suddenly took her with him in a rush of magic where she landed on her feet in the middle of the Boothe house. She jolted. “A little warning, please.”
“If you’re not used to it, it does no good to brace yourself.” He stepped back. “Better to just get it done, like ripping off a Band-Aid.”
“That’s a human thing,” Elliot spoke from the doorway where he leaned against it. His eyes were covered in sunglasses. “I’m sure Melanie spell casts her bandages on and off. She doesn’t rip the skin away.”
Lawson grinned. “True. I spend so much time with humans, sometimes I sound like them. I’m going to go. We think you’ll be safe here. If that changes, we’ll move you again. Don’t worry, Melanie. Peter Evans is going down. Criminals like him have no place in this world.”
Just like that, Lawson popped away, leaving her in the living room with Elliot, in the middle of the night. She wiped her eyes. He couldn’t see them but it made her feel better. “He’s gone. You can take the glasses off if you want.”
He pulled them from his face. “The Enforcers are coming and going so I’ve been wearing them. I’ve gotten good at feeling their arrival. Even before the pop there’s a ripple in the air. Hard to explain. Might be my other senses finally strengthening a bit.”
“I… I can’t express enough how grateful I am to you for doing this. I know your privacy is important to you and…”
He moved swiftly through the air until he was in front of her. “Stop. This is nothing. You’re… okay. That’s what’s important. I’m so cut off here I hadn’t heard what happened, and it wasn’t until I reached your mother and she told me that I found out you’d been so badly hurt.” He cupped the side of her face. “Mel, this is your childhood home. I can’t think of anywhere better for you to heal. Besides, you’ll be doing me a favor. Edward is in love, and his head is in the clouds. That’s thanks to you. It’ll be nice to have company that can stay focused on a conversation.”
She laughed, the first time she’d felt like doing that since the attack. “It’s safe here, but you’re placing yourself at risk.”
“I’m already at risk. I’m cursed, remember?”
“Elliot, I’m not myself right now. I don’t know how long it’s going to be until I can get back to work. You might want to find someone else to help you. I’m a bit of a mess. I keep crying. Lawson says it’s a natural response to the kind of magic I got hit with and it will stop, but I don’t know when and…”
He hugged her. It was such a strange sensation to be in his arms. Maybe it shouldn’t have been, he was touching her face just a second before, but this was more intimate. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against his shoulder. When she realized what she’d done, she tried to pull back, but he held her steady. “You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
“I work for you. I… you don’t have to… that is to say… this is inappropriate and…”
He sighed. “Let’s take a break with the ‘you work for me’ part. For now, let’s call this a pause. You can go back to working for me soon but not for a while. Deal?”
She laughed. “I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Sure it does. We’re pausing the working for me thing. We’ll just be here. Okay?”
She was so relieved to not be wherever it was that Lawson had put her. It felt like she could breathe in this house. There was someone else to talk to. “If you don’t mind having a person in your house who is alternating between crying and sleeping all the time for however long it takes for the residual magic to leave my system.”
“That’s fine. We’ll just take it easy.”
Elliot waved his hand, and it sounded for a second like the house groaned. She jolted, but he held onto her. “It’s just the security magic turning on. I haven’t used it since my father died. But it’ll be like a fortress now, impenetrable. I promise. That man isn’t getting anywhere near you, but we can let people in that you want to see. Lawson also put consensual spells on Edward, your mother, your father, anyone who knows you’re here, so it makes it impossible for them to discuss it. That way it can’t be accidentally spoken about.”
All right. It was time for her to put her big girl panties on and pull it together. So many people were working to help her when the truth was she’d done this to herself, taking a case she knew was dangerous and dismissing Lawson when he’d brought it up the first time.
“Thank you. I… I should go lie down in the servant’s house. I can…”
He shook his head. “Unless you have some strong need to go back there and stay in the exact room you slept in as a child, stay here with me. As safe as I just made us, I’d really rather have you close.” He winced. “Not that I can do anything particularly useful to protect you. The whole I can’t see thing
. But still, it would be nicer to have you here. I don’t mind company if you don’t.”
She wiped her eyes. “I don’t. I’ll go make us some food.”
“I should offer, but I was never good at that even when I could see.” He spoke the words, but he didn’t let her go. “In a second, okay? I’ve been a little… worked up, thinking you were out there unprotected and someone had nearly killed you. I know we barely know each other, and technically, you were working for me, but I think of you as my friend.”
She smiled. Friend wouldn’t have been what she wanted years ago when she dreamed about being with him. Where they were now, however, in the way that things had turned out, friend seemed pretty damned wonderful. She’d just put aside the fact that sometimes she still dreamed about him now.
“Say something. I just said a pretty ridiculous thing, and I’m out here dangling with it.” She loved the laughter in his voice.
Melanie pulled back to look at him. “I had a huge crush on you when I was younger. Like for years and years. Never in my wildest imaginings could I have thought we’d end up hiding out in your house and really becoming friends. Thank you for being you.” She stepped back. “There, now I said something ridiculous, too. We’re both hanging out there.”
He widened his white eyes. “Wait. What? Really? You’re kidding.”
“No.” She flung her dark hair over her shoulder and headed for the kitchen. “For years. I’d hide under the table and watch you. Sorry, guess I was an early stalker.”
He followed after her. “I really had no idea.”
“Why would you? Most teenagers aren’t aware of the fascination a five year old has with them. It would have been weird for you to notice. Do you like chicken?”
He nodded. “I do. I mean, I like all food. Thank you.”
This really might be okay. She stared out the window as she headed to cook them something to eat. All she needed was for the scary stuff out there to stay away until Lawson could arrest Peter Evans. Then life could return to normal—with some major changes she’d be making to see to it that she learned this lesson. She wasn’t invincible, and acting like she was cynical and didn’t care wasn’t working for her.
She was soft inside.
* * *
“Do you like music?” Elliot asked her all of a sudden as they were finishing dinner. She was having a hard time staying upright in her chair and maybe she’d missed the transition to it somehow.
There was a flush to his cheeks, an alertness to his manner that was different than he seemed most days when they were working on the estate. She tilted her head to the side and stifled a yawn. “I really do. All kinds. Do you?”
He nodded. “I love music. It’s what I do most nights. That and watch movies I’ve already seen. I can see them in my head since I already know what they look like. I was thinking about going into the living room and listening to some for a while. Do you want to come?”
“Oh, I don’t want to get in your way. You should do what you were planning. I’ll clean up and…”
He reached across the table and found her hand. It took him a second, but he did manage to do it without knocking anything over. “Mel, I’d love the company. I didn’t used to be so completely solitary. And since you don’t seem to mind my eyes or want to run away scared, I’d really love to have you listen with me. It’s a new artist, purely strings.”
Melanie yawned. “I’d love it, but I don’t think I can keep my eyes open. I’m not usually a sleeper. Like maybe four hours a night max, but I keep having to go to bed.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry. Another night. And I won’t let it get loud so it bothers you.”
This was his house. He could play his music as loud as he wanted. “I really don’t want to be a bother…”
He held up his hand. “Stop. You’re not. Take any room, Mel. Even mine if you want it. I don’t sleep anymore, not really. Maybe an hour or two every few nights.”
That wasn’t good news. The constant bright light could make the person crazy, and it had to be hard to sleep. If she recalled correctly, he’d quickly move from no longer sleeping to losing memory and forgetting things he’d always known. Then the madness set in and it was over after that. She swallowed down the sob that threatened. This had been hard to think about when she didn’t know Elliot at all. Now getting glimpses of what a good person he was would only make this harder. Added to the fact that she was already a mess? Yes, a retreat to her bedroom was what was called for.
“I won’t take your bedroom. What an idea.” Melanie tried to laugh. “Thanks. I’ll go find one of the open ones and settle down for the night. Maybe tomorrow my energy will come back.”
He touched the side of her face, rubbing his thumb over her cheek. “I made you sad when I told you that I wasn’t sleeping. Hard for me to tell things like that right now because I can’t see, but I could tell, almost like I could feel it. I’m sorry. You actually know what that means. It helps for me to be able to say it.”
“The Curse has always been this burden you guys bear. I hate it for you. And you don’t need to worry about how what you say or what you’re going through affects me. That’s for me to deal with. You can live your truth, Elliot.”
He nodded. “Get some sleep, Mel.” His smile broadened. “Besides, tomorrow you can tell me all the things that you liked about me during your so-called crush phase years ago. All of them.”
She groaned. “I’m already regretting telling you about that.”
“Can’t take it back now. I know.”
She smiled all the way to the bedroom she picked out. It had been easy choice for her. When she used to play in the house, the room with the butterfly wallpaper had been her favorite. The house was old and no one had bothered to update the decorations in the rooms they hardly used. As there hadn’t been a female born in the family in at least three generations, this room was thought to have been Elliot’s great-great-great-great-aunt’s room. She’d died in childhood and the room had remained cleaned but relatively untouched ever since.
Melanie had loved it as a little girl. The room had always seemed inviting, like someone should live in it, play there, surrounded by the butterflies on the wall. She touched the wall now. There was no dust anywhere. The cleaning crew did a great job of keeping the place looking like it wasn’t closed off and unused most of the time.
She lay down on top of the bed, barely managing to kick off her shoes before sleep washed over her.
The house was quiet, and she just couldn’t force her body to stay awake any longer.
Unlike the nights in Lawson’s safe house, she dreamed. She was alone, heading from her office to her car. Looking down, she could see she wore her hated black high heels. They pinched her feet but looked fantastic with her black suit that she wore to court. It was a funny detail to focus on. She hurried, there was somewhere she was supposed to be.
“Melanie Syed,” the voice called out to her as it had done that night after the show. She whirled around and this time as the magic hit her, she went down to the ground, pain overtaking her until she couldn’t think at all.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder, bringing her back from the dream. She sat up fast, her gaze finding Elliot even in the darkness. His eyebrows, slanted downward, as he looked at her with concern, even though she knew he couldn’t see her.
“Mel? You okay?”
She tried to catch her breath. “My mind is doing screwed up things. I… I may need to get myself to a healer. Or have Ava make me something to drink that will help or something. I took the attack and twisted it. This time I died.”
He floated over her until he could sit down on the side of the bed next to her, more toward the center. “That’s awful. I know bad dreams quite well. I’ve had a number of them myself, and I don’t have any easy solution. I heard you cry out, and I came. I hope that’s okay.”
It was more than okay. “You needed a lawyer and now you have a wreck living in your house.”
“Stop.” He
pulled her against his side. “I’ve had to do nothing but take and take and take from people since the curse got me. It’s nice to be able to help someone else. Plus, there is the whole lusting after me all through your childhood as some kind of sexual fantasy thing.”
Her cheeks heated up. “I didn’t put it like that.”
“No, but as I expand on this story in my head to fit my own tragic need for an ego boost, I am growing the scope of your so-called crush on me.”
She groaned. “Elliot… don’t make me pinch you.”
“Oh, go ahead, pinch away. I have clearly struck a nerve here.” She didn’t pinch him. Instead, she poked him once in the side. He jumped before he laughed. “Poking the blind cursed guy. I see how it is, Melanie.”
The dream was gone, fled from her mind like it had never been there at all. She was sure that was why he’d done this, thrown her crush over the top until they were both laughing. He leaned back on the headboard. “You picked this room? I always thought it was creepy. No wonder you had bad dreams in here.”
“Creepy?” She looked around. “I find it just the opposite. Warm. Inviting.”
He scrunched up his face. “The little girl—what was her name?—my mother always knew it—oh, Andrea—she died in here. Like maybe in this bed.”
Melanie doubted it was the same bed. Magic could do a lot but not preserve a mattress that long. Plus, it was a king-sized bed. There was no way the twelve-year-old girl had one of those back then.
“Do we know how Andrea died? And I’d like to point out the hypocrisy of you finding this room creepy when you are apparently being visited by ghosts in your room.”
He tugged on her arm, and she moved closer to him. It should have been strange to do so but it wasn’t. After a second of readjusting, she lay with her head on his chest. Beneath her ear, his heart beat slow and steady. “I can be as hypocritical as I want on this matter. This room is creepy. I think she got sick. They called it magic poisoning back then. Who knows what that means? Scary room.”
Tragic Magic: Wards and Wands #3 Page 6
