Shit.
“Oh, no way, girl. I mean... not with your skin tone,” the girl with blue bangs said carelessly. “Don’t feel bad, Trix, that color only works on like... five people in the world.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to stay quiet. Better to pretend that I was just a new member of their group, and not a witch who using the overpowering reek of patchouli and white musk to hide from a bunch of punk vampires on public transit.
Dear, Diary...
“Do I know you?”
“Huh?”
It was blue bangs. I swallowed thickly, my eyes widening. There was no way she could see me. My glamor was perfect. My face should just be a blur to her, a familiar blur, but still a blur.
“I said, do I know you?” BB turned to another girl in a fashionably worn fringed jacket. “Has she been here the whole time?”
The girl in the jacket was a little drunker and she laughed gaily and swatted at her friend. “Oh, totally. She’s with Brendan. Right?”
BB turned narrowed eyes to me. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve been here the whole time,” I managed to blurt out. “Thanks for noticing.”
BB’s cheeks reddened slightly, and if I were actually the kind of person who would hang out with these girls, I’d know that I’d made an enemy. But I didn’t give a shit. I only needed them for a few more stops and then I was home free.
My eyes darted to the group of black-clad supernatural douchebags. They looked like vultures. Long and lean, hanging off the handrails and trying to pretend to be everything they weren’t.
Young, drunk, and human.
They weren’t fooling me.
“Do you go to NYU?” It was BB again. A dog with a bone.
One more stop; that’s all I needed
“No. I graduated forever ago,” I said, my eyes on the city lights that raced past the window, watching the group of Laudan in the reflection in the glass. It wasn’t a lie. I had graduated forever ago... like before they were born. Before their parents were born. Maybe even their grandparents. That made me smile just a little.
The train lurched to a stop, and the sinister group of guys slunk off the train without giving us so much as a backward glance.
Was I being paranoid? Maybe I was in the clear.
The train took off again, speeding towards my stop. I was almost there. Eli would be waiting for me just like he always was on the nights we went out like this. I mean, not every night was like this. Tonight had been fucked up and I was so over it.
“What’s so funny?”
The train slowed, and the billboards came into focus.
Prospect Park
Finally. The doors slid open and I flipped up the collar of my jacket.
“Nothing, BB, I gotta go. Thanks for a great night.”
“What the fu—“ The door closed on her outraged face and I ran for the exit.
7
Eli was waiting for me, leaning against a garbage can with his arms crossed and a pleasant smirk on his face as though he’d just had the most normal night ever.
“Hey, doll, have a good ride home?” He drawled, his moonshined eyes glinting in the orange glow of the streetlight.
“Oh yeah, a real barnburner,” I said bitterly, heading the direction of my apartment building.
“Come on, Ophelia, don’t be like that,” he jogged around me, full of energy. “Did you like the show? I sang that song I wrote for you...”
“Vex me, hex me? Yeah, I heard it. No wonder your band mates were pissed at me. I’ve turned you into a shadow of your former badass self,” I laughed. Hello, cynicism, my old friend.
“Yeah, well, you know how they can be. It’s no big deal.”
I stopped short, pushing my finger into his chest and bringing my face close to his. “No big deal, Eli? No big deal? Oren wants to talk to you. When was the last time the Blood Outlaws wanted to talk to you, huh?”
Eli had the good sense to look a little sheepish as my words sunk through his skull. He shrugged and pushed my finger away.
“It’s nothing. I promise. No big deal, didn’t I say it was no big deal?” His fangs flashed in the sickly electric light, his skin looked strange. It must have been the light. It made everything a little unnatural, and when things were already unnatural, it just made that shit worse.
A couple walked past us, holding hands tightly and pretending not to be listening to what we were saying.
“Can you hear them?” Eli asked, his mouth close to my ear. “She’s thinking that she’s glad they don’t fight like that, only after her mother comes to visit and he has too much whiskey after dinner.”
I pushed him away, “Have you eaten?” I asked sharply. Sharper than I had intended. His skin was warm, and felt waxy under my fingertips.
“Oh yeah, I ate on the fly...” he said loudly. Louder than I liked.
“Shut up, don’t be like that.”
“Be like what, Ophelia? Hungry? Maybe I’m hungry!” Another couple passed us and he lunged at them. “Maybe I could use a snack!”
“Sorry! He’s been drinking!” I shouted at the couple, as they darted away from us. “You cut that shit out right now! You’re being a freak.”
He’d never acted like this before, and it was starting to creep me out. I could feel my magic swelling in my veins, but I couldn’t bust anything out in public. Not like this, and especially not after the night I’d had. I still wasn’t feeling great, and having to deal with Eli when he was like this was not how I had planned to spend the tail end of my night.
“You’re such a killjoy, Ophelia. I’m just trying to have a little fun!” He jumped up on the back of a park bench, balancing easily on the wooden frame.
“I have to be up at 5am, if you want to hang out in the park being a creep that’s your business, but I have to go home.” I jammed my hands into my pockets and glared at him. “You can either come with me now, or not, I don’t care. I don’t have time for this shit.”
“You don’t care?” He jumped down from the park bench, his expression confused and a little petulant. Ugh. Younger men.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it, but if you’re going to be an arrogant shit, then yeah, I don’t care. I need to go to bed. Tonight was bullshit. I need a bath and a drink. You can go run around being a ghoul on your own time. It’s almost Halloween, people might get a kick out of it.”
Fuck it, I was mad. And fuck him for pretending that nothing had happened tonight. I had almost frozen to death in that coldroom.
Witchcicle.
“Fine,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Fine? That’s all you have to say? Fine. Fine, fine, fuck you. I’m outta here.” I turned to cut across the park towards home. Furious.
“Ophelia... stay with me.”
Eli was at my elbow, holding my arm too tight, his hand was around my throat, yanking my head to the side, exposing the vein.
No. No, no, no. Not again.
His mouth opened, the feeding hiss that I remembered so well echoing in my ears. I could feel his teeth...
“Fuck you!”
I planted my palm in the center of his chest and pushed.
The flash of purple light that had accompanied my escape from the coldroom earlier that night lifted him off his feet and flung him into the grass a few feet away from me.
He lay there, groaning, but I didn’t run over to see how he was feeling. I ran the opposite direction, straight towards my apartment. Rage, hurt and confusion filling my legs with determined power.
I raced up the stairs to my floor and didn’t even bother with the pretense of jangling my keys before opening the lock with a quick burst of magic. The door slammed behind me and I ran to the living room window. I had left it open for Eli, but fuck him.
I slammed it shut and threw the latches.
He might be a vampire, but he couldn’t open my locks. Permission was one thing, but he could still be locked out. I slammed the curtains shut with a wave of my
hand and began to tear off my clothes, throwing them on the floor and on the couch.
Suki was sitting on the table, her tail lashing the air. I knew that she could sense my moods, even when I was confused about how I was feeling she always seemed to know what was up. This mood wasn’t hard to judge, and I had a feeling that she had been alert and waiting for my return for a little while. I went over to the table and pressed my forehead to hers.
“Tonight sucked, you should have said something,” I said accusingly. Suki yawned and jumped down from the table, her tail twitching. She stared at the living room windows, covered by the thick blackout curtains. “Don’t worry, he’s not coming in here tonight. I’m pissed.”
Suki meowed her tiny meow, satisfied by my answer, and padded towards the bathroom, pausing to rub against the doorframe. I smiled, grabbed a new bottle of dandelion wine from the rack and followed her, kicking my black jeans onto the bed as I went. A bath would fix me right up, and that bottle of wine wouldn’t hurt either.
The sound of the hot water rushing into the tub drowned out the noise Eli was making on the fire escape. I knew he was pacing, but I didn’t give a shit. He was probably angry at me, but I was angrier at him.
It had been a long time since the night we had met. That was also the last time I had used my magic on him, before I had admitted that I needed to get into marital arts… I hadn’t meant to put him through that wall, and it had been an unbelievably lucky thing that no one had been around to see what happened. I couldn’t take that chance again.
I set the bottle of wine down on the tiled floor next to the tub. I tipped the contents of a little wooden box into the water. Dried rose petals from my spring harvest. I may as well steep myself like a tea bag in an attempt to wipe away all of the stress that had landed on my threshold in the last few weeks. I had been really happy with my uneventful little life.
Being remarkable was only interesting for so long, and the novelty had long since worn off.
I stirred the bathwater with my fingers and let a little magic trail out into the steaming liquid.
“You’re worth it,” I murmured before pinning my hair on top of my head with some chopsticks that had come with my dinner last night.
I twisted the cork out of the bottle of wine and stepped into the tub. I eased myself down into the water with a sigh and took a drink from the bottle. The tub was too short for me, but I’d gotten used to the fact that these buildings had been built in a time when being tall was an anomaly, it was a small price to pay for living in an apartment that had a bit of character.
The chill of the wine slipped down my throat and I felt my muscles slowly begin to relax and unknot themselves from the stress of the day.
What had happened tonight? I was just minding my business, waiting for Eli’s gig to be over. I would have happily ordered more drinks (there were at least four more drink tickets in the back pocket of my jeans) and sat in that booth for the rest of the night. Typical band girlfriend stuff. At least they didn’t make me sit at the merch table.
I leaned my head against the tiled wall and took another sip of wine. The bartender. I hadn’t seen him before, and that was saying something. New vampires weren’t exactly a common thing, and from what Eli had told me, the Laudan were very particular about who they turned. I snorted, remembering the look of the kid who had tried to block our exit from the club.
Judging by the quality of the Blood Outlaws, those strict ‘clan rules’ were made to be broken.
But why would a Laudan report me? And why report me to the Malleus when they could do just as much damage to me, if not more, themselves. Why outsource?
There was a thud on the fire escape and the unmistakable sound of scratching at the window.
“Fuck! Off!” I shouted, knowing that my voice would carry through the apartment and through the walls to Eli’s sharp ears.
I wasn’t getting out of this tub for anyone. Especially him. He could sit on the fire escape all night for all I cared. If I thought about it hard enough, I could probably make it rain. He deserved it. Then again, I didn’t want to draw any more attention that I already had, and any expenditure of magic, especially on a scale like that, was bound to bring the Malleus running right to my door.
Maybe just a little wish for rain. The goddess could listen if she wanted to.
I sighed and took another drink. I didn’t even know if my spells were working anymore. The cracks in the protection spells I had put over the shop had been bigger yesterday, and tonight on the train my glamor had slipped. Fully slipped. That blue banged hipster chick had seen my face. She would be able to identify me… and my subway stop.
Shit.
If only I had been able to resist that parting shot. My smart mouth was going to get me killed one day, I was sure of it.
The bathtub steamed and I tried to force myself to relax.
There was nothing I could do about the bad attitude that shitty bartender at Spiral had towards witches; but if he had called me into the Malleus, that meant he had a connection there, which meant he could have had Eli followed. That was the shittiest part of all of it.
Eli had become a liability, and I didn’t know what to do with that information.
Living the way I had for so many, many years had made me paranoid. Trust was hard, and I had put aside a huge amount of that fear the night I had given in to temptation and invited Eli into my living room window. After thirty-five years, it looks like it only took one good scare to make me ready to drop him like a sack of wet leaves. How’s that for loyalty.
Then again, as a Daughter of Hecate, I was expected to have loyalty to two things. My family and Hecate’s laws. My family was dead, and in the 330-something years I had been alone, Hecate had never spoken to me. That meant I could only be loyal to one thing.
Me.
I took another long drink of wine. Grimacing as the bitter liquid slid down my throat. Maybe it was time to move on to mead. Dandelion was too bitter... even for me. And that was saying something.
I spent a good four hours in the tub. When the water got cold, I drained a little, added more hot water and little magic, and stayed right where I was. Wrinkled fingers and limp hair be damned. The only time I got out was to run, dripping water everywhere to grab another bottle of wine and then jump back into my rose petal filled bath.
When I did finally go to bed, it was more to do with the fact that I was bored than anything else.
Ugh.
Boys.
8
I woke up to Suki nibbling on the end of my nose. It was her favorite way to wake me up for her breakfast, which meant that the sun had only just come up.
I had nothing to do today, and no reason to leave the building, it was ideal. Except for the fact that my boyfriend was discovering his predatory side again, and not in a good way.
Suki walked in a circle over my chest, meowing her little meow. “Ow,” I murmured, pushing her away gently. How did cats always know exactly where to step to cause the most discomfort? Little fiends. “Fine. Fine, fine, fine. I’m getting up.”
Suki jumped to the floor, landing with a little feline grunt that always made me laugh. I pulled my blanket around my shoulders and shuffled to the kitchen to get her breakfast.
When she was purring happily, her face shoved into her bowl, I flicked open the living room curtains to see what kind of damage Eli had done to the inhabitants of my fire escape. I kept some of the bigger pots of herbs out there, and a small Japanese maple. Eli had brought it home for me one autumn night a few years ago; he told me that the leaves matched my hair and that was why he had liked it.
Everything looked untouched, and I flicked the latch and slid the window up. A deep orange rose, probably snatched from the Cranford rose gardens, rested on the window ledge. Its petals were wet, and the deep green leaves were shone in the early light of the morning.
Eli would have to do better than this to get himself out of the doghouse, but it was a start.
I had slept soun
dly, and dreamlessly for once, thanks to that dandelion wine. And the earplugs I’d shoved in my ears to drown out the sound of Eli pacing on the fire escape hadn’t hurt either. I’d be having some serious words with him about boundaries when I saw him tonight.
If I saw him.
The last time we’d had a fight he had disappeared for three weeks, He claimed he had decided to follow one of Bishop’s other acts down to New Orleans, ‘tag along and show some solidarity,’ he’d said.
Bullshit, sez I.
I knew he was sulking. This would probably be no different. Then again, I wasn’t sure if this fight would be as easy to forgive.
The last time we’d had an argument, I had found him on my couch with one of his groupies, it’s not what you think, he really was planning to bite her. But they had fallen into a deep philosophical conversation about new wave punk and its meaning to society, and I was not in the mood for entertaining guests. After a brief ‘meeting’ in the kitchen, I had stormed over to the couch, pulled the surprised young woman to her feet, wiped her memory, and pushed her out of the apartment.
The lecture I’d given Eli about bringing ‘takeout’ to my apartment hadn’t been well received, but I’d been mad as hell. The only takeout allowed in my apartment was the stuff I ordered online. Period.
If he was going to sulk, let him sulk. He had been an asshole.
I rubbed my neck where his fangs had grazed me. His grip would have left a mark, but I didn’t want to check. He hadn’t broken the skin, but I didn’t need a reminder of how it had felt when those same teeth had pierced flesh and opened veins. No, thank you.
Luckily for Eli, the second time we had met had gone much better for him, but he was shit at first impressions, and I still didn’t feel bad about putting him through that wall.
Sticks & Stones: (Urban Fantasy) (Daughters of Hecate Book 2) Page 5
