by D. N. Hoxa
But I knew I couldn't. I had to clamp my mouth shut because Arturo and the pilot were just a few steps away from me now.
I was still looking at where Aaron had disappeared when Arturo hugged me to him without warning and planted a kiss on my forehead. I hugged him back because I needed something to lean on. His body was warm, and I was just so cold.
“Bella,” Arturo said, “you wanted to leave without saying bye?”
“Thought you were asleep,” I mumbled, still unable to move away and stand on my own. The bastard took advantage of it and kissed me, again. But maybe I was glad he did.
His lips were warm, but they couldn't break the ice inside me. In my mind, I kept seeing Aaron running from me to her. I was angry and desperate at the same time. I didn't know what to feel, but one thing was for sure. I had to get used to seeing Audrey around Aaron from now on. And get used to him leaving me to go to her. Might as well have someone there when that happened—and yes, I realize how that sounds.
So I put my arms around Arturo’s neck and kissed him back, praying, begging to feel something for him. Anything. It would make my life so much less complicated, but no matter how warm he was and how eagerly he claimed my lips, I didn’t feel it. Not the way I was supposed to.
“I have to go,” I whispered. He gave me one more kiss before he let go of my face and my breath caught in my throat again.
Aaron was standing just a few feet away, watching us. God only knew for how long.
I wanted to call out to him and run to him, but I didn't. I gripped Arturo’s hand tighter.
This is the right thing to do, I told myself. So I immediately hid the emotions on my face the best I could and headed for the chopper.
“Stay safe, bella,” Arturo called, but I only waved at him without turning.
“Let’s go,” I said to the pilot and buckled up. I didn't even look up when Aaron got inside and closed the door behind him. He dropped on his chair with a sigh and didn’t move for a while as he watched me. I could feel his eyes on me, but he didn't say anything. I pretended to be busy with the seatbelt and then other things, like my shirt and my jeans.
When the pilot took us up, I stole a glance Aaron’s way. He had his head turned to one side and was looking outside the window. He looked sad, as sad as I felt. And my heart skipped a beat at the thought that he was probably thinking of Audrey.
“So you believe him now?” Aaron asked abruptly, causing me to almost jump.
“How was Audrey, do tell me?” I spit back. The question had been at the tip of my tongue, I realized.
“Audrey was fine,” he hissed. He was pissed, all right.
“Fine!” I hissed right back, and he shook his head.
“You like him? You really like him, Star? Is that it?” he said, leaning in as much as his seatbelt would let him. I leaned in, too.
“That’s none of your business,” I said because if I said yes, he would know I was lying and I wanted him to believe that I liked Arturo.
“You kissed him,” he shouted. He reproached me. Like he had the right to, the jerk.
“And you ran after her! You wanna tell me that you haven’t kissed Audrey? Do you?” I yelled. He was so frustrating.
But his eyes closed and he leaned back in his chair again with a sigh.
Come on! Deny it, deny it. Please…
I ignored the sting of disappointment and tried to not imagine him in her arms, kissing her, touching her…caressing her auburn hair and hugging her…shit.
“Thought so,” I whispered and leaned back in my seat, too.
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t you dare cry in front of him! But it was proving to be harder than I ever thought possible to keep desperation at bay.
“What the hell happened to us?” he asked after a while, and my breath caught in my throat again. If he only knew…“What did my dad say to you that night?”
If I’d been standing, my legs would’ve let me go already.
“Nothing,” I said and looked away immediately.
“Goddamn it, Star! What the hell happened to us?” he shouted. He was furious. Sad. He was as fucked up as I was.
I never doubted that Aaron knew his father had told me something that had changed my mind about us that day. But what did it matter that he wanted to know what it was? Nothing could be done about it, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. I needed to hurt him—and myself more—if I was going to keep my promise to a dead man. So I took a deep breath and did it.
“What the hell makes you think that your father told me something?” I said raising my brows in hopes of wiping the misery I felt from my face. “No one has to say anything to me to make me realize how I feel. Stop asking me what happened because nothing did.”
My hands were gathered in fists while I prayed for the tears to not fall from my eyes. While I begged my heart to stop beating so loudly. While I begged my blood to stop rushing in my veins. All of them were making me dizzy.
And the look Aaron gave me…his now dark eyes looked like an ocean on the stormiest night. I saw sadness and then anger and then disappointment appear and disappear again from his face. I saw his fists and his white knuckles.
Wet. Something wet was on my cheek. A fucking tear. I jerked my head to the side and wiped it off with the back of my hand. Traitorous little pricks.
Aaron surrendered a moment later. He dropped back on his seat and didn’t say another word for the rest of the way.
***
Finally, Texas. The flight was so long and…heartbreaking.
But the streets of Eldorado, Texas, worked at keeping me distracted. Not that many people were around, since it was barely dawn still. Aaron and I walked side by side without saying a word to each other. The chopper had left us far from where we were headed, so we still had to walk. I really didn’t want to get into a cab because I feared I might tell Aaron that what I said earlier in the chopper was bullshit.
And so we walked, and he, like always, was the first to let go and forget we ever even had an argument.
“So, who are we meeting today?” Aaron asked.
“Joey, a warlock I’ve worked with in the past when I worked for the Council. He is Council’s and the best thief you’ll ever meet. He might know something because there’s nobody in the States he doesn’t know or speak to.”
“You think he won’t tell the Council that we visited him, even if he helps us?” Aaron had a point.
“No, he won’t. I know something about him that will shut him up for good,” I said, and I wasn’t going to give details, but then Aaron raised his brow in question and I was glad to keep talking. “He steals things, artifacts mostly, and then sells them on the black market. He stole a ring once from Vladimir, the Captain of the Royal Guards. I found out accidentally, when I…” My voice trailed off when I remembered where I had been. I had gone to kill a Red Rebel and found the ring around his finger. He told me that he bought it from Joey. But there was no reason to hide that from Aaron, was there? “When I went to kill a sup. He had the ring and said that Joey had sold it to him for a couple of hundred bucks.”
“And you think that’ll scare him?”
That comment told me that Aaron had never met Vlad in person.
“That’ll scare every supernatural in the world. You’ll understand when you see him,” I explained though I hoped he would never get that chance. Vladimir fighting was not a pretty sight to see. He pierced your heart with that long and heavy sword of his before you could even blink. And he never missed.
Aaron’s phone rang, breaking the silence in the street. He took it from his pocket and checked the number. He looked at me, and I looked at him from the corner of my eye but never turned. He turned the volume off and started to put it back in his pocket. But then, he thought better of it. He answered.
“Hey,” Aaron said, and I heard the smile in his voice. I knew who it was before I heard her voice from the phone. Audrey. “Yeah,” Aaron said, “we just got here.”
And, ground
swallow me right now, she told him I already miss you. Didn’t she ever fucking sleep? My fingers curled up in fists, but I saw Aaron watch me, with half a sneaky smile on his face. The jerk!
Without thinking, I leaned closer to his phone.
“Who is it, babe?” I asked, faking the best high-pitched voice I had.
Aaron leaned back abruptly, surprised just as much as I was. I had no idea where that had come from, but now, I was grinning. And he wasn’t able to help his grin either.
“Nothing, just someone on the street,” he said to Audrey. I tried not to listen in to the rest of his conversation, which was thankfully very short, until he hung up. “You’re crazy, you know?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” I said and ignored that rich laughter of his that made me want to smile myself.
A few minutes later, we were across from Joey’s house—if Kyle had been right. Just to make sure, I reached in with my senses to check who was inside.
I felt Joey’s energy on the second floor. He was probably sleeping. The warlock was a Finder. He could find just about anything for you with the right spell and for the right price. You send him a picture, pay him the money and that’s that. Unfortunately, people no longer trusted him since he stole even the things they paid him to find. Now, he just went around stealing.
We cautiously crossed the road and slowly approached the house. It was two stories high with a faded peach color and a red, round roof, with wooden windows painted black. The yard in front was dead. Not even the grass was green anymore.
“You go around back and I’ll take the front door,” I whispered to Aaron, and he immediately headed for the shadows cast by the bright morning sun.
I stretched my senses wider until I was absolutely sure that there was no other supernatural for miles around, and I took the stairs to the porch and tried the doorknob. The old wood of the door cracked but didn’t open. Cursing under my breath, I took two bobby pins from my hair and worked the lock. It gave in after a few seconds, and I cautiously opened the door.
Silence.
I walked into the dark hallway and closed the door behind me as silently as I could. And then I felt Joey just a few feet away, ready to hit me with a huge baseball bat.
I stopped the bat with my arm and grabbed it with my other hand, pulling it to me together with Joey. I had Bob out and ready, and Joey’s chubby neck almost pierced itself on its tip. The warlock was breathing heavily and the stink of alcohol on his breath couldn’t be ignored. Disgusting.
“Hi there, Joey,” I said, smiling my evil smile for him. When he saw my face just an inch away from his, his eyes widened and he stepped back.
“Raven! What the hell…” he breathed.
With the baseball bat against his chest, I pushed him back down the hallway that led to the kitchen and to the backdoor. But Aaron was already inside, leaning against the kitchen wall and watching Joey curiously.
“Who the hell is this? You have no right to break in—” Joey started, but I cut him off.
“Cut the crap, Joey.”
He looked just like he had the last time I saw him, about a year ago. Chestnut hair that always looked wet, a round face and brown eyes, deep-set, a crooked long nose and thin, long lips. He was already sweating, like he always was.
“How the hell did you find me? I have about ten protective spells around—” Lies, lies, lies. Or he stole the protective spells and they were fake. Or broken.
“C’mon now, Joey. You know I can get around spells,” I said, grinning, but the fun was over. It was time to get back to business. “Take a seat and listen carefully. I will not repeat myself twice.”
I pointed at the closest chair around the dining table. Joey looked at both me and at Aaron like he wanted nothing more than to spit in our faces, before he stepped back and took a seat. The door of the fridge opened behind me seconds before I heard Aaron take the cap off a glass bottle and then hand a fresh, cold beer to me. I took it and returned his grin.
“That’s my beer,” Joey complained, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“Not anymore,” Aaron said and then raised his bottle to the warlock, before he took a sip. He was like the partner I never knew I could have. The partner I never knew I wanted.
“You probably know why we’re here,” I said to Joey. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the situation. And I’m sure you’ve heard rumors about something going on within the Council.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joey mumbled while he scratched the wood of the table with his fingernails.
“Of course you do,” I said with a wink and an evil smile. “But what I want from you is the evidence to prove that your Master has been a very naughty boy. He’s doing something that he’s not supposed to be doing.”
His breath caught in his throat but I ignored it and took a seat next to him.
“What do you say, huh, Joey? Think you’ll help us?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know anything, I swear!”
“Lie,” Aaron said from behind me. He rested his elbows on the old countertop, waving his beer bottle around and smiling at Joey. “Don’t lie to us, Joey.”
“I’m not lying. I don’t know anything,” Joey hissed, and he looked like he was about to cry.
I drew Bob out again. “The only way that you’ll live to see today’s morning is if you tell us right now everything you know.” I touched his right cheek with Bob’s tip, and he jerked back.
“I’ll tell Master,” he whispered, his voice shaking.
“See, I’m pretty sure you won’t.” I stood up from the chair and sat right on the table instead. He freaked out when I got closer to him. I could see the shivers run down his body. “You want to know why?”
“You should tell him,” Aaron said when Joey kept staring at me.
“You think?”
“Yeah, he’d like to hear it. Go on, tell him,” Aaron said.
Joey was ripping him apart with his eyes, but he still didn’t say anything.
“Okay, I’ll tell him. Remember a ring, Joey? It was made out of white gold with a round, grey and purple stone in the middle that glowed in the night. It was one of a kind so I’m sure you’ll remember it.”
By the way his eyes moved from one side to the other, I could tell he knew exactly what I was talking about. I smiled wider.
“I’m sure you also know that that ring belonged to Vladimir, Captain of the Royal Guards. Imagine my surprise when I found it on the finger of a warlock I killed, and he told me he bought it from you.”
I pointed Bob’s tip at his chest. Joey was shaking now, violently. I took a sip of my beer before I continued.
“Good thing is, I haven’t mentioned anything to Vlad since I’m sure you knew that the ring was a family treasure and very dear to him. Bad thing is, if I don’t get everything you know from you right now, I just might have to call him and tell him.”
“He’s not going to believe you,” Joey said, shaking his head so hard, so fast, he had me dizzy.
“Should we try?” I asked, leaning in until my nose almost touched his. He was breathing heavily, and I could almost hear the fast beating of his heart.
“I don’t know anything, Raven. Please!”
I rolled my eyes. I started shaking my head while I sipped my beer in silence. I didn’t have to look at Aaron to know that he was lying.
“Then we have a problem here, Joey.” I left the bottle on the table to grab the back of his neck with one hand and to touch Bob’s sharp blade under his chin. “But an easily solvable problem. After I am done cutting off small parts of your body, like your chin and some fingers, and toes maybe, I’ll tie you to this chair, and I’ll call Vlad and leave him a message. Then he can come and finish the rest of the job.”
Unease began to creep up on me. What if he didn’t talk? I’d have to fulfill my promise. I’d have to torture him just like I said I would. And I really hated torture. So I pushed Bob further, slicing a clean line on the skin right under
his round chin.
He screamed. “No, stop! Stop!” He tried to move away, but I had my hand on his neck and I held him in place.
“Why should I stop, Joey?”
“Because…I…I can tell you…but only if you swear to not tell Vladimir about the ring,” he said, his bloody chin trembling. I leaned back a little and let go of his sweaty neck.
“I’m listening.” I dropped on the chair again. “And don’t you think about lying to us, Joey. He’ll know the second you open your mouth.”
I pointed back at Aaron who was calmly enjoying his beer and looking at Joey.
“Rumor has it that Master has been transformed, and he is planning to lead alone after something that he has planned happens. Some members are freaked out because they don’t know what to believe, but that’s it. I don’t know anything about where to get evidence, if there is any.”
I stood up with Bob in my hand again.
“But!” he shouted, crossing his arms in front of his face, as if that was going to stop me. I took my seat again and I finished my beer.
“But, I know someone who worked for the Master until last month. Something that involved a lot of data and documents, and I don’t know what…but that’s all, I swear. That’s all I know. And if you think I’m lying then kill me right now because I have nothing else,” Joey cried desperately.
His eyes were now filled with tears and sweat beads fell on his dark brows from his forehead. I looked at Aaron, but he didn’t meet my eyes. He analyzed Joey for a few seconds before he nodded his head once. That was enough for me.
“Who?” I asked Joey.
“You know her, too. Adele.”
“I don’t know any Adele.” I had never heard that name before. I would’ve remembered.
“Yeah, you probably know her as Jacqueline,” Joey said, breathing more evenly now.
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “She changed her name again?”
I knew exactly who Jacqueline was. I had worked with her before. The witch changed her names every few years and no one could figure why. Joey nodded. “But I saw her a little over a year ago, and she’d just changed her name to Jacqueline.” Witches were really weird.
