“Did you see that?”
“I heard it,” Rose answered, afraid to glance over her shoulder. I followed her back to the courtyard, nunchucks in hand.
I wouldn’t see the room again for years, but I took comfort in knowing my mum’s solitude had been too beautiful to cover up.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The Red Book
Rose
If I could take comfort in one thing, it was the predictably of my lessons. I sat on the wicker couch in the conservatory with Stan, going over the spell book—until it disappeared from my hands.
Weird, I thought, but before I could look to my mentor, I felt the sun coming up, warm rays through the glass of the skylights above us. It was oddly bright, then again, this was a strange house.
My knees were bent away from him, but we were sitting on the same wicker sofa. We never sat this close.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
“I haven’t even faced true evil yet,” I reminded him.
Without warning, he brushed his hand across my bare leg, from the hem of my dress down to my knee, slowly caressing my bare skin. I shivered—even more—when his other hand brushed across my lips. I waited in anticipation for the inevitable. I waited a moment to close my eyes. My patience ended when our lips softly pressed against each other. And after we drew back from the innocence of this, he spoke.
“I’m proud of who you’re becoming.”
I jolted awake, throwing the covers off of me as if they had me in a scissor choke. The strange light from the conservatory was only the morning light from behind my opaque white shades.
I had been sleeping in the same position as my dream, but my head was on my pillow. I hadn’t been wearing a dress, only a long t-shirt over shorts.
I touched my hand to my legs clad in shorts. I could still feel his touch.
What.The.Hell...
I knew my emotions had been jostled around in my body lately, but Stan?
Was it someone else? No. Definitely him.
It was time for my morning ritual of a shower, clothes, a coat of mascara, and coffee, and I wanted them all to be normal. I knew that in a few minutes the dream would vanish from my consciousness.
When I opened my bedroom door with fresh clothes in my hand, the bathroom door opened instantaneously, the divine scent of sandalwood and burnt woods drifting out into the hall with a hot steam following behind it. I nearly closed my eyes to take in the scent and the warmth, but it was impossible.
At first, my attention was on the one layer Stan was wearing, the sage green bath towel wrapped low around his waist, but my eyes were helpless to stay there. As I studied his wet hair and smoothly shaven face, I reminded myself that this was bound to happen sooner or later, but I wasn’t sure if it was the lighting from the hallway or water still clinging to his chest that stole all of my focus, that made his skin look so soft, touchable. I could feel my heartbeat speed up as my dream from last night played in my head. I willed it to stop, knowing I’d die from embarrassment if I mentally repeated what dream Stan had told me.
“You’re up early,” I blurted out, when in a sleepy haze, his eyes met mine.
“I couldn’t sleep all that well,” he shared. His power to make himself less conspicuous, was so not working on me. My eyes became mesmerized by finding clues about who he was when he wasn’t with me. I could tell he focused on core work when he trained, and his arms were cut but not excessively bulky—which meant he would be a quick opponent. His chest was broader, more muscular than I dismissed it being under all those hoodies and jackets. I held my change of clothes tightly to my chest. I knew my face was blood red—there’s no way it wasn’t—but he was so tired that he didn’t notice.
“Uh…” I said to avoid thinking any clear thoughts.
“Oh, sorry, I’m not dressed yet. I don’t mean to throw off your routine. I know how much you like those. See you downstairs in a bit?”
“Yeah…” I said, turning to disappear into the foggy bathroom and locking myself in it.
When I shut the door I wasn’t sure how far his telepathic range worked, and if I even stood a chance at stopping the lucid thoughts raging through my mind.
As I undressed and tied my hair up, I felt the tingle of chills everywhere. I looked at the fair hairs standing up on my arm. What kind of fire element got chills?
Stan must have taken a long shower because the hot water grew tepid after five minutes. In order to conserve water, hot water would grow colder to signal someone to get out, and it wouldn’t replenish for three hours. Many conservationists had served in the Coven.
I thought about him being in the exact place I was now, void of any clothing, and I let my thoughts run with the water. This was where he left his layers. It was just his body. That was all. I couldn’t unsee it though, and for some reason, I couldn’t unfeel my dream. I focused on the smell of my lavender body wash as opposed to his masculine, intriguing woodsy man smell, washing all traces of him down the drain.
When I changed and went downstairs I tried again to clear my thoughts. When I saw him standing in the kitchen I remembered what he said in the dream.
“I’m proud of who you’re becoming.”
That was clearly my inner dialogue, disguised as my mentor.
“Okay…” I said out loud. I was clearly dreaming in a pink haze because of my powers mix up. Such a large transfer of energy and the emotions from everyone at the pub on Imbolc wouldn’t just go away overnight.
“Hey, Stan,” I said.
“Oi,” he greeted back. “I made extra for you.”
“Did you even drink coffee before I came here?” I asked him.
“I tried it, but I used to drink tea. Blood mixes better with coffee.”
My mom always said it went better with red wine, but Stan wasn’t much of a drinker. Speaking of…
“So Seven’s tonight?” I asked him.
“You sure you want to go out to Seven’s tonight with the lot of us?” Asked Stan.
“Yes, no harm was done, remember?”
But it was, and it pained me how easily I could lie to Stan.
“I brought some fire witch books for you to read. They’re advanced, but I cleared them and you can see the text.”
“Thanks.” I spied the texts on the wicker table. They were red or gold in color and one had lost its title jacket. I knew the mysterious book would be my favorite.
“I’m going to meet with O’Callaghan today if you want to come.”
“Honestly, I’d rather not work with police detective O’Callaghan unless you really need me there.”
“Why? He’s a fine detective.”
I had promised Stan I’d try to be a little less defensive.
“I went on two dates with him, and…”
“It was the children wasn’t it?”
I don’t know how Stan understood that, but I was immediately humbled by it.
“Among other reasons. He had one school picture from his oldest, nothing else…I don’t see how someone could dismiss their kids being part of their life.”
“If my parents were still alive I’d call them every day.”
“Stan…”
“But I never got to meet them and even I can’t channel them and I talk to the dead. They were murdered when I was a few months old, and they’ve always been… gone to me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. And then I saw it.
It was turquoise, like a mist around him. I wanted to reach out through the mist, into it, and tell him that he was going to be alright.
And then it was gone.
Was that sadness Stan opening up to me?
“They were good people,” I said. I wanted to see it again, but why ruin his day? “No one ever says anything bad about them, and I hear that the world loved your mom, and they still honor her life to this day.”
He smiled.
“She was strange, much like me.”
“Strange is always a good thing,” I said.
&nbs
p; “So you stopped seeing him so you wouldn’t have to tell me?” asked Stan.
“I didn’t want to tell the Mages I was starting a relationship until I was sure about it,” I said, having thought the conversation about Detective O’Callaghan was over with.
“Did you have sex with him?”
“What? No!” I defended myself. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to sleep with a guy who has two accidental children he never speaks to?”
If he thought otherwise I didn’t even care. I did what I wanted, and this time was no exception. O’Callaghan was not exceptional, and I would have had to of been stupid to think so. I had more power than I could control, not excess naivety.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to ask like that. Your control had improved for a time. You know that repeat romantic engagements warrant notification to the Mages, or you could be kicked out.”
“Dinner and me snooping around his house to figure out his dark secrets don’t,” I reminded him. “Thank you for caring about it though.”
“I’d like to think the others would do the same for me, even though I like to keep things about myself private.”
“What’s your deal then?” I handed back. I was surprised I hadn’t just handed him a “none of your business” line. He wasn’t getting off the hook easily. Last night had me curious.
“I don’t think I can feel that way about anyone right now.”
“Sure you can,” I answered back. “I get that you have to be selective. There is a lot on the line for you. The Coven and a kingdom are more than many people can say. I know I’m different than most people my age too, but it’s how I am. Why should I be the one to change? You shouldn’t either.”
“I don’t trust easily. I don’t even trust my brother,” he said. “I love him and I’ll do anything for him, but I know that people only look out for themselves.”
“I trust people more than I should, and I open myself up to get hurt because of it, but you know what? I wouldn’t change.”
“I like you the way you are,” he said. “Oh, and I’m sorry for earlier.”
“For what,” I asked, almost spitting out my coffee all over the books he had stacked up for me.
“For taking all of the hot water, what else?” he asked with a grin. I got the impression that that wasn’t entirely what he meant.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Sophie
Helaine
Going with my mentor to a bar seemed positively superfluous when the entire Coven was going along, but I knew Onyx wanted to keep an eye on Stan so he didn’t give Rose any more tasks outside of her proficiency. It was probably Stan who asked Onyx to go anyway, knowing how royally he had messed up last time. We settled into the pub as if nothing happened last time.
Gregory and Onyx got on extremely well since they were both earth witches, and Gregory gave into Onyx’s famous puns, which were much better when you just accepted them.
Tomas met up with us when we got to Seven’s, and as usual, he was positively cute every time he looked at or talked to Maddi. They were so perfect together.
I was looking for our under-aged peers (including the brother I never had and the stalker I never wanted) when I spied Sophie at the bar instead. Cecily the barkeep poured blood into her drink, such a weird appetite for a Luison. Unless…
When we saw Jaime that night, wearing only the second tightest pair of pants he owned, I tried to pretend that this wasn’t the scene of a horrible lesson in magic a few days prior. All was well, but he still annoyed me to bits. My neck always got stiff trying to talk to him, because he was nearly a foot taller than me. I swallowed hard as he approached us, and then my dread evaporated. I was standing next to Rose after all. I love you, I thought to her.
“Hey, witches,” Jaime said to the six of us as we came over to the bar.
“Fancy seeing you awake, Jaime,” Gregory said.
“Don’t you have a job?” I asked Jaime to change the subject. He always seemed to be here, and why not? He couldn’t die from drinking, and wouldn’t stay dead for long anyway.
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m on a visa.”
“Ooooh,” Rose said, who had to have been thinking he was just freeloading off of his celebrity father, as I had been.
“I’ve been working since I was ten,” he responded to Rose. “I thought a witch would be happy that I was looking for a legal job in her city.”
“When all your paperwork goes through we’d be more than happy to help you find one,” she said.
“You’re alright, Rose,” he agreed.
“Avereis,” the Coven responded.
“Avereis,” Jaime said rolling his eyes. “But your friends are a little uptight.” He smirked and turned away.
“I can’t figure that bloke out for the life of me,” Maddi said. “It’s like he has no regard for our institution, but knows what he can get away with, and then when confrontation happens he disappears faster than my air-wielding Granny when she sees one of her exes at the market.”
“Don’t worry about it, darling,” Tomas said to her with a laugh. He must have seen Granny in action. “Looks like he’s that girl’s problem now anyway.”
Jaime was talking to a girl in black with golden colored eyes.
Sophie.
“Oh no,” Rose said to Tomas. “That’s one huge-ass problem.”
“What, does she have a boyfriend scarier than your father?”
“Hey, Tomas.” Rose laughed. “No one is scarier than my father, but I’m working on it myself, promise.”
“That’s uh…” I figured I should just trust Tomas since Maddi did. “That’s Travis’s other, other kid.”
“You’re kidding me,” Tomas said.
I looked toward Rose, mirroring his worried look.
“Yeah well… pink everywhere. He’s attracted to her alright.”
“Sophie knows,” Stan told Tomas. “I just need to divert his attention now. Sophie is far too fragile to handle this on her own.”
Rose and I quickly followed Stan over to Jaime, but I hung back just before we reached him. I knew Jaime would go out of his way to disobey anything I said, but Stan and Rose were neutral.
“Oi, Jaime, want to do a shot?”
“I’m busy.”
“Go on,” Sophie said. She did look absolutely piff in her silhouette of black. Her metal earrings caught the gleam in her golden eyes. Living at The Hallowed Locus was doing her well. “When the Coven asks to buy you a shot that’s a good thing.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Jaime reminded Stan. “We’re fine, and I’m not stuck on what happened. I let things go easily. Also, I’m busy.”
His teeth gritted into a smile, trying to give Stan a hint that he wanted to do more than get to know this girl.
“Come on, mate,” Stan said, the messy burden of familial ties was great on his shoulders. “Gregory already ordered it. Come over to the bar with us, yeah?”
Jaime looked from Stan to Sophie.
“I see what you really want,” he told Stan.
I looked toward Rose again. Two beers in meant the glass was more than half full of trouble. Now that he thought that Stan was into Sophie, Jaime’s need to show dominance was about to overflow.
Jaime said, “I’ll be right back,” to Sophie, and to our horror leaned in slowly to pull her to him, landing a slow, wet kiss all over her face.
I made an accidental gagging sound and watched in horror and Sophie broke away from him at once.
Rose was too stunned to do anything.
Stan’s eyes grew bigger, greener, and he pursed his lips together.
It was Sophie who pushed Jaime away, sending him towards a high top table. I had forgotten that she had the strength of a Luison, and as I suspected from her drink, possibly a Bathory.
“I’m your sister you blooming, conceited, ignorant prick!”
It got so quiet that I was pretty sure the jukebox was changing songs at the moment she shouted. Everyone noticed the girl who had
managed to push Jameson Juliet into a table, and they couldn’t overlook his defeated position from the floor. She stood shaking with her fists clenched.
Jaime got to his feet and stumbled to the bar. Reaching a long arm over the countertop, he grabbed a bottle of vodka. Half the room watched as he poured the bottle straight between his lips, washing his tainted mouth out with it. Cecily the barkeep just let him, her hand resting on her neck and a frown for Jaime plastered across her face. He looked toward us.
“You knew?” Jaime accused the lot of us.
“You’re jealous, Jameson,” Rose said, “I implore you to try and control it better.”
“I tried to stop you,” Stan said, “So you could figure out in your own time, but Avereis is right. Meet your sister: Sophie.”
Sophie was breathing angrily, trying not to cry, and everyone had backed away from her.
“‘Avereis is right,’” Rose muttered to me with a smile I was quick to mirror.
“Oi, what’s going on?” someone asked, as the next song on the jukebox grew louder at the chorus.
It was Travis.
Of course, Travis had heard everything.
“I’m your…” Sophie said, but her tears finished the sentence for her.
Travis looked from Jaime to Sophie, and I thought for a moment that he would burst out into tears. I might have even felt bad for him if he did.
“You can go to the back,” Gregory told the three of them.
Cecily nodded in support of us before going about her next task.
“Thanks, mate,” Travis said to Gregory before looking at Stan and asking darkly, “Is that all of them?”
“You have four children, this much I know,” confirmed Stan, crossing his arms, leaning back.
Three women, four kids? I asked Stan.
I’m afraid so. And I can’t even find one decent woman, he thought back before continuing his conversation with Travis. Stan was so quick that no one knew he paused to talk to me.
“I’m surprised you didn’t come ask me sooner. You do show up at our house once a year. You could’ve asked then.”
Travis’s crooked smile faded as he motioned for the kids to follow him to the back. They kept a reasonable distance from one another.
Death's Primordial Kiss (The Silvered Moon Diaries Book 1) Page 29
