“But don’t worry. Everything will go smoothly between you two. I see he’s very powerful.”
Bryn was already giggling. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t hide her happiness, she was just that way.
Arna continued, “You will be at peace. However, problems will come. Though, not with you two, but you will both be a part of it.” She let go of Bryn’s hand, looking at Mia who stretched her hand out at once.
“You will meet someone who is not of your matter, but you will find happiness with him. You have been alone for a long time, which will change when you meet him.”
She put Mia’s hand down and Doris eagerly offered hers.
“You have already found your happiness,” Arna said, smiling while looking at the palm. “You will be a part of the big thing that I see with all three of you, but you and your beau will be closer to it than the rest of the girls. You will find out more than you thought you could know and some people dear to you will turn to be what you least expected.”
When Arna looked at me, I kept my hands on my lap. I’d have probably stayed that way if Doris hadn’t shoved me; so I held out my palm. And the witch stared at it for much longer than the rest without saying a word. Then she put my hand down with such tenderness, it was as if it would break into a thousand pieces unless handled carefully.
“Strange.”
“What?” I asked.
“I see nothing.”
“How’s that?” Doris asked, and I stared in bewilderment. What kind of trick was this? Where was my “happily ever after” story?
“I don’t know. It’s never happened before.”
“How is that possible?” I blurted.
“I’m really sorry, but I have no explanation.” Her perplexed face confirmed her words. She tried to keep it calm and polite, but there was an undertone as well. And I could hear fear? Not surprising, people fear the things they don’t understand.
“Please, tell us more. Don’t traumatize our girl here,” Mia said, even though I wasn’t anywhere near being traumatized; however, I was intensely curious.
“It is only with the dead that I see nothing, but you are very much alive.” She gave me an awkward smile. “That is why I don’t understand.”
“I hope this is not some kind of ‘you-will-die-soon’ things,” I said.
“No, it’s not that. It’s not that I don’t see your future. I don’t see your existence at all—in this moment, and in any previous or future ones.”
When we left Arna’s place, the girls were silent.
“C’mon, that was total bull,” I said. Her words didn’t scare me, but they make me feel unpleasant. And the girl’s silence wasn’t helping.
“Whatever it is, it’s beyond her knowledge,” Doris broke the awkward feeling. “Our girl is alive and well, and that’s not going to change. Not any time soon,” she added, putting her arm around my waist.
“We need a drink,” Mia offered, and we went back to the bar where we’d met. There was a painting of a rooster on its window, which was how I’d described the place to Doris. The clock on the wall showed that I had an hour and a half left before training.
“Four gloggs.” Doris ordered mulled wine, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted alcohol now. “To warm us up.”
“Except for the fact that I don’t exist, you girls received some pretty good news,” I said, and Bryn’s face lit up with joy.
“Isn’t it great, he feels the same way I do!”
“Don’t lose it. She said you two will be at peace; who knows what the hell that means,” laughed Mia.
“She also said it would go smooth, and that’s a good sign! Anyway, I can’t wait for you to freak out over that one meant for you.”
“Yeah, right. I’ll fall in love with a tin man.” And we laughed, thinking of her with someone of another “matter,” whatever that was supposed to mean.
The awkwardness forgotten, we returned to our usual chattiness. Laughing, teasing, and one more glogg. None of the girls asked me about Belun, and since such news didn’t normally slide by easily in this company, I guessed Doris had told them not to say anything—then I remembered my training!
“Crap! I’m late.”
“What?”
“Gotta run, girls.”
Their faces fell and even though I didn’t want to go, I had no choice. That was why I was in Norway; I had signed a contract. This was my job, my obligation now. Putting it like that in the middle of all the fun made it seem so dull.
It was freezing outside, which cut through any dizziness I felt from the glogg. I drove fast on my way back, but still, when I entered the gym he was already there. The punching bag had been moved aside and the mats made a big greenish square on the floor.
“Take off your shoes. Today we learn to fight,” he said, standing in the middle of the square. “This is going to be a martial arts mix that I find most useful in various situations.”
The mats were cold under my feet. He showed me some of the stances I could take, and then we moved onto techniques, which I assumed were the basics due to their easiness. He seemed to be surprised with the way I was taking it, and that was rather disturbing. Did he really think I was an incapable idiot?
“I’m a child of the movies, Belun. I’ve seen those moves like a zillion times before.” I think that was the first time I’d said his name aloud. And I think he realized it as well.
“So do you want to spar then?” His upper lip was a bit vicious. You couldn’t pass up something like this.
“Hell, yeah!”
He added more mats and we faced each other.
“Go ahead, attack,” he said, after a few seconds of staring.
“Why should I if I can’t win anyway?” I smirked.
“So that’s your ambition. To beat me?” he said wryly.
“Well, that’s more of a fantasy than an ambition. I know I could never beat you.”
He took a few paces in my direction, and I don’t know what he had been planning to do but I managed to jump, ducking his move. Then he came at me with a jab, which I successfully blocked.
“Ha! Yeah!” My adrenalin kicked in from this sudden turn of luck; however, my guard fell and in less than a heartbeat he was behind me with his arm around my neck. His body against mine, blocking my every move.
I couldn’t make even the smallest movement, with him so close to me. Barefoot, like that night not so long before, when I knocked on his door . . . when I heard Simona’s voice.
And then, I started feeling it again; the same rage boiling under my skin since I had come to this place, or maybe since I’d met him. His being so near was some sort of a trigger.
My breathing deepened profoundly, as if I was someone else. I bent my hips to the side and, using all of my strength, hit him with my elbow. His hold loosened and I wiggled my way out, facing him. He was my target. He was the enemy and my body was fully ready to fight ‘til the death. My vision was slightly blurry, but everything else seemed so sharp.
At first, he looked puzzled, then his face changed shape as well. I wasn’t going to wait for him to start this time; I stepped on his left foot, launching my knee into his chest with my hands aiming at his neck. He didn’t stagger; he just bent slightly backward, pinned by my foot on his. I was keeping him close so I could reach his neck. But he pushed me so hard that I flew back a couple of steps. Nevertheless, I didn’t fall; I kept my balance and landed on my feet.
Belun unlocked his knees. The stance he took probably gave him more stability, but the difference in our height shrunk—and that was in my favor. I launched myself toward his chest, without planning a next move, using only the strength of my rage. I grabbed his wrists hard; I was much stronger than I thought I could be. Still, he knocked me to the ground and wrapped his legs around me, like a snake—like the predator he was.
I was kicking and punching, trying to free myself from his grip. It was futile, and my frustration over my inability to beat him made me want to explode. His arm was locking my
head again, and, realizing that, all I wanted was one thing and one thing only.
“Nika! . . . Nika! . . . Nika!!”
A voice was reaching through the thick walls of the blur. I didn’t want to hear it, I felt safe among the slippery clouds in my mind.
“NIKA!”
It was Belun’s voice. He was screaming, screaming at me—there was something in my mouth! Something weird tasting.
His arm! I was biting his arm!
Oh, my God!
I released it immediately. I looked up at him expecting a slap or hit. What the hell had I done?!
I looked at the damage I’d done to his pearl skin. The print of my teeth was deep in his arm, next to his bicep. It was so deep that it was strange that blood wasn’t dripping everywhere. In fact, there was no blood at all! Suddenly, my head hit the tatami and his body covered me, blocking my arms and my legs with his own. His face was next to mine and he was furious. His breathing slowly calm but his jaw was tight. There was a chill dripping off his eyes.
I started to shiver.
He sniffed at my lips.
“You drank wine. What is wrong with you?!”
My body gone beyond shivering and was already shaking. My limbs were moving completely uncontrollably and my eyes were wide.
He let me go and his look turned wary.
“Nika? Answer me.”
“I’m soo-rr-y,” I could barely speak the words.
“Is something hurting you?”
“No.” I was still shaking.
“You’re in shock.”
He gathered me in his arms and pulled me up into a sitting position, against his chest. All I could do was repeat over and over: I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Chapter 11
A Hobby
“Do you remember the feeling when you were summoned?”
“No.”
Silence again.
“But I do remember when Lolo flew into me.”
“What was the feeling like?”
“Pure explosion of all my senses. I felt the light and myself for the first time. Well, the second.”
“And how much of earlier you is in this present version of you?” I asked Tertius.
“Me before I died?”
I nodded.
“I cannot say that I am the same person I used to be. But I am not strange to myself either.”
“Try and give me an approximate percentage.”
He shrugged. “Maybe 15%.”
Today Tertius didn’t seem annoyed by my questions. He spoke slowly and with effort, but at least he did speak.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“I had a very strange outburst yesterday.”
“What kind of an outburst?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, remembering the awful bite.
Tertius gazed at me patiently, seeing my moodiness. He took a piece of paper from the stack next to him on the table and, with a pencil, drew a question mark. Then he pushed the pencil and paper in my direction.
I bit someone, I wrote, and he chuckled while reading it, then scribbled over it.
All the way down?
God no!”
Oddly, he was probably the only one I’d tell about that incident. I couldn’t imagine sharing my savageness with anyone else. I wanted to talk more about it, but there were too many ears around, so I took a deep breath and returned to the previous subject.
“What is the ritual of summoning?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who summoned you?”
“A Priest did.”
“A Priest, really.” I was being sarcastic.
“What, that isn’t in those books they gave you?” he teased. “His name was Doroteo, which means ‘gift from god.’ Ironic, huh?”
“Sure, if you’re giving symbolism to your existence.”
“And what is my existence according to you?” he asked.
“You’re a weapon for mass destruction.”
He lowered his gaze under my tone. Today I was much sharper than usual, and, oddly, I didn’t feel the need to justify my behavior.
“What kind of emotions are you capable of?” I sounded more like a machine than a human being. He wasn’t looking at me now, and he seemed dejected. What is wrong with me? I felt an edge inside me that wasn’t right. But after a while, everything returned to normal. Any remaining sharpness and anger evaporated from my conscience, so slowly I could almost feel the withdrawal. As if someone else had pulled the plug. Only when the feelings were gone did Tertius look up at me with a tiny smile.
“Welcome back,” he said. How had he known?
I hadn’t seen Belun since the gym before I entered our office. I felt completely uncomfortable and the guilt was eating me alive.
“Hi,” I said shyly.
He gave me an almost smile. “Hi.”
I didn’t deserve that smile—why wasn’t he throwing stones at me, or something like that?
“Stones?”
“What?” I was confused.
“You said stones,” he said.
“Out loud?” Crap, I was blushing. Okay, now he was grinning, his white teeth flashing at me. I wondered how he wore his fangs.
“How’s your arm?” I asked in a tiny voice, approaching his desk. My shame over the previous day’s behavior was beyond the words.
“It’s already healing,” he said.
“Do you guys have some great regenerative skill I don’t know about?”
“In general, yeah.”
There was something unsettling in his eyes.
“Then why the long sleeves?”
“Easy with the Twenty Questions!” His grin escaped me.
“Take it off,” I said, and he looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I repeated it.
“Why would I?”
“So I can see the wound,” I said.
“It’s not really a wound.”
I raised my eyebrows, waiting. He glared at me, but finally gave in. His shirt came off.
I came closer, trying to concentrate on just the injured part and not his entire naked upper body. Naked, just like it was in my dream when he grabbed me and placed over him.
“Your healing powers have failed you,” I said.
The bite mark was as deep as it had been the night before. The only difference was some reddening around it.
“Did you use any medicine? Maybe it’s infected.”
I looked up at him. His nudity was delicious, so I tried to keep looking into his eyes, afraid that if I looked a little bit lower, I would drool all over him. I didn’t know why I felt that way, but I wasn’t willing to risk it and embarrass myself even more. He leaned toward me and my heart sped up. He turned slightly and I let my eyes drop and saw several bite marks on his chest and near his neck. Those were old scars, and their shapes were all very different, although all were obviously teeth marks. Seeing them, I forgot about my attraction and stared at them. Terrifyingly, they were similar to mine.
“I haven’t always been babysitting berserk Inquirers,” he remarked. Great. So now I’m berserk.
“May I?” I moved to touch him. After a brief pause he nodded.
I felt his skin under the tips of my fingers. I brushed over the scars, noticing how his chest moved with breathing.
“How old they are?” I asked quietly, mesmerized by his body and its proximity.
“Are you asking how old I am?” he tried to joke. However, feeling his skin consumed me completely.
“There are more on my back,” he said, turning around.
There were more on his back. Countless barely visible silver lines crossed his body. They were almost at the same level as his skin, and it didn’t look scary or disgusting; they even felt smooth when I touched them. But they were there, and each had its own bloody story to tell. I pressed both of my hands on his back, feeling him twitch. Maybe he was uncomfortable with me touching him, but I couldn’t stop from doing it. For a moment, I closed my eyes to feel him even bette
r, then he moved, pulling his shirt down. I unwillingly removed my hands, and when he turned to face me, his eyes seemed blurred.
“We have to write reports,” he said.
What a buzzkill. I sat in my chair still feeling his skin on my palms.
While writing, I noticed that he scratched the place of my bite a few times. Where the hell did I get the idea to bite him?! I was no better than those creatures who had attacked him, marking his skin forever. How terrible.
“Guess where I was yesterday with Doris?” I felt a stupid need to talk.
His eyes moved from his screen to me.
“We visited a fortune teller.”
“Something troubling you?” He was intrigued.
“Do I look like someone who would ask a witch for advice?!”
He laughed, “Well . . .”
I frowned through a smile.
“So what did fortune teller say?”
“That Bryn doesn’t have love problems, that Mia will soon meet someone who’s not of her matter, and that Doris has already found her love.”
“And what did she tell you?”
“Nothing. She couldn’t see a thing. So, according to her I must be a zombie, I guess,” I laughed and he shook his head silently, as if to say it’s all bullshit.
“So, you never told me how a great Warrior becomes a babysitter?”
I didn’t know where I stood with him. What was I allowed to ask and what was off-limits? He didn’t seem pleased with the question, but he still answered it.
“I’m the only one left of my lineage, and I had to take a place in the Council.”
“What happened?”
“My father died in a Vocati attack.”
“I’m sorry.” This was definitely not a question I should’ve asked, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking further.
“Do you have any family? Offspring, I mean.”
He looked very perplexed.
“So, what were you doing in Iowa?” he asked, after a minute of tension.
Hadn’t we had this conversation? Okay, I know I hadn’t been completely honest then, but still. However, he seemed only interested in truth and not in my marvelous ways of avoiding it. But it was my fault; I was the one who had started with the intimate questions.
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