“What are you doing?” she had asked after some time had passed.
Not seeing the point in lying, he told her the truth. “I’ve come to kill myself.”
“Why?” Her feet had continued to dangle and swing.
“Because I am unfit to be heir, my responsibilities are too great for me.”
“That’s a stupid reason, try again.”
“Who are you?” I asked her.
“Katherine.”
“What are you?” The more important of the two questions.
“Harpy.”
“We talked all night, or she would ask a question and I would try to answer.” It kept his head out of that dark place he had been living in for so long. “The question would be something like, ‘Do penguins have knees?’ I would answer the best I could. ‘I have never seen one before. But if I were to guess, I would say they do.’ Then she would ask another right away that had nothing to do with the one prior. I always wondered what would come out of her mouth next.”
“The following night I went back, and again the night after that. It became a nightly ritual. After a month of our secret meetings, I found myself infatuated with her.” Dacea waited a beat; he feared his story had put Hailey to sleep. Just as he was about to ask if she was still with him, she spoke up.
“Then what happened?” Hailey asked impatiently.
“She was not my true Mate,” he told her, “but it was not law that I could only with my one true Mate. I asked Katherine to be mine and she agreed. The next night we mated under the new moon.” He had not told his parents about Katherine until after they were mated, she had insisted on it. The look of betrayal in his mother’s eyes after he told her haunted him to this day.
“Bringing her back home to my family was a mistake. In hindsight, everything with Katherine was a mistake.”
“Hindsight is a bitch,” Hailey injected. He couldn’t agree more.
“My family didn’t trust her, but at least they tried to be civil with her. Katherine turned out to be jealous and narcissistic.” That was putting it nicely. They fought all the time and most of the problems had been made up in her mind. “I was put in the middle of my Mate and my family. She was jealous of the time I spent with them and would yell at me for all the things I was doing wrong. After a while, no one could stand to be in the same room as her, myself included.” He remembered the nights of sleeplessness, lying next to her in bed. Dacea soon found things to do in those midnight hours, most of which included his studies.
“During our last fight, I told her to go, that I didn’t care if I ever saw her again. Katherine had stormed off in a fit. The next morning she was gone and never returned. My father had the mating diminished and hidden. No one but my family knows of this.” He realized that by that standard, Hailey was now his family too.
“Do you miss her?” Hailey’s whispered voice sounded thunderous in the quiet room.
“I miss the woman sitting naked on a tree branch telling me my reason for suicide was stupid.” He missed his first friend, not the woman she turned out to be.
“Did you love her?”
“No. I’ve thought about it enough over the years. She wasn’t my Céile, my true Mate. It wasn’t love, just lust and a false sense of debt.” For the longest time Dacea felt he owed his life to her. She pulled him from the dark spaces of his mind and breathed new life into him. But as time went by, he understood that the only person he owed a debt to was himself.
“Thank you for telling me, Dak.” Hailey yawned as she crawled back in bed.
“Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Yeah, I’m gracious like that.”
Chapter Ten
“What does one wear when breaking and entering?” Hailey asked the next morning as she looked at her measly offerings spread on the bed.
“Something you can easily move in,” Dak answered. The flip flops were the first to go in game of B&E Survivor. Stealth was not a word she would use to describe flip flops. As she walked, they would slap against her heals making a sound that reminded her of that one douchebag kid in high school who always started a slow clap.
“Black is regarded as the preferred color,” he offered.
There went her favorite blue Doctor Who shirt. “Sorry ‘Don’t Blink’ shirt, you have been voted off the bed.” It too went to the floor.
What she was left with was a light gray “Beer?” shirt featuring a silhouetted bear wearing antlers, one pair of jeans, and a pair of cotton shorts with dancing gummy bears on it. Dak had laughed the first time he saw them. “What in God’s name are those?” He had asked her one night. She was so shocked to hear him laughing—a good healthy, slightly contagious laugh—Hailey had forgotten she was ignoring him and answered. “They are my gummy bear shorts? I’ve had them since I was 12. Why? What’s so funny?” But his laughter was infectious and by that point she was giggling at her ridiculous shorts as well.
Dak’s smile brushed her mind. He was remembering too. “Whatever you do, don’t wear the shorts.”
“Admit it, you love them.” Hailey slipped on the jeans and the shirt.
“The hell I do!” his voice boomed with laughter.
It was good to be on speaking terms with her dragon. Hailey brushed all of her hair back into a pony tail and thoroughly twisted the elastic band around her hair. Next up, makeup. A smidgen of tinted moisturize, smudged line of black eyeliner, and then finished off with a swipe of mascara. Yesterday she didn’t bother with makeup but it helped her feel normal. The routine of it kept her mind off of things to come.
Hailey left her room with duffel bag in tow. They weren’t sure where this adventure would take them, so Lia and Hailey decided earlier the previous night to pack their stuff up, just in case. Lia and Darby were already up. She set her bag by the door next to Lia’s and poured the last cup of coffee. Hailey was smiling, genuinely happy for the first time in quite a while.
“Good morning, Sunshine,” Lia spoke with a grin of her own. “Ready for today?”
“Somewhat. Think we have time to stop at a Target or something? Somehow I don’t think this is feasible attire for our activities today.”
Darby and Lia looked her over and nodded in agreement. The plan was for Hailey and Lia to go do a little theft; Darby would stay behind and put stronger wards on the cabin. Now that Silas’s minions were near, they could use all the protection they could get.
*****
“I’ll be quick, I promise.” Hailey and Lia split up inside the Target. Her goddess friend took off towards the Starbucks while Hailey scoped out the clothing. There was no time to try anything on so Hailey stuck with the basics. Within ten minutes she had five t-shirts, three tank tops, two sports bras—She figured she should be comfy when breaking and entering—and yoga pants, in both calf and regular length. All that was left was the shoe department.
This was a Target she had never been in before, and it was ass backwards. She had never understood why they couldn’t all be the same. Somehow Hailey ended up in the toy department instead of the intended shoe department. There were small children running all over the place. It was panic, chaos, and it made her miss being a kid.
Something bright red was calling to her out of the corner of her eye. In the clearance end cap there were marked down stuffed animals. One lonely dragon stood out above the rest. It was about a foot tall of candy apple red awesomeness, complete with wings and spikes. Its two beady black eyes scowled at her, a look she imagined Dak having permanently implanted on his face.
“It’s perfect,” she said in awe as she picked up Sparky.
“No.”
“But Dak, Sparky needs a home.” Hailey pouted and flapped Sparky’s glittery wings.
“You named it already?” he said in astonishment.
“He looks just like you.”
“It looks nothing like me. Besides, cuddly and cute are not in my vocabulary.”
“Sure they are. You just said them.”
His exasperated sigh spoke
more than words. “If you must.”
“I must, I really must.” She tucked Sparky under her free arm and decided to just walk down random aisles till she found shoes.
“There you are! It’s been 45 minutes; I thought you said in and out,” Lia scolded with the largest ice tea Hailey had ever seen.
“Crap, sorry. I couldn’t find shoes then I rescued Sparky from the bin of misfit clearance, after which I found other clearance sections.” Lia didn’t seem to understand the “epicness” of a Target clearance section. “They have towels over there for $3.98, such a steal. Dak said he wouldn’t buy them for me, he’s still pissy about me loving Sparky more than him though.” She bent over to lace the sneaker on her left foot. “He’s like, ‘Why do you need towels?’ and I’m all, ‘You don’t need a reason when they are only $3.98.’ Sometimes it feels like we are speaking two different languages.”
Lia looked at the pile of clothes on the bench acting as a throne for her newfound mini Dacea. “Hailey, we really need to get going.”
“Two minutes.” Hailey stood with two different shoes on. She walked down the aisle, the unused shoe dragging along behind each foot. When she made her way back, the right shoe had won its place in her closet.
“Okay ready.” She gathered her items and turned toward the front of the store. Lia had her arms crossed and was standing in her way. Pursed lips and a knowing eye stared Hailey down. When she tried to walk around her, the muse just stepped into her path. “What?”
“Empty your pockets.”
“Huh, why?”
“Hailey, you can’t fool me. Empty them.”
“Do you have a warrant?” Hailey fidgeted.
“Hailey!”
“Ok, ok I’ll empty them.” She had to drop her mound of clothing once more on the bench to free her hands. In her left pocket she pulled out a pair of earrings, a compact mirror and a small jar of purple glitter nail polish. In her right pocket she had a brass kitchen knob and a Harry Potter magnet set. The small pile of stolen goods stared at her in disappointment. This was becoming a problem, but the first step toward help was admitting it was a problem, a step she was not ready to take.
Lia looked at the pile and nodded in satisfaction. “Okay let’s go.”
*****
Silas lounged waiting for the show to begin. In nothing but jeans, he stretched his legs out across the length of his worn leather couch. The room was filled with the soft beginnings of Beethoven’s Symphony No 7. Glass two of his bottle of Pinot Noir was almost finished. He swirled it gracefully around the glass to the music and watched the liquid slide down the side.
They were late, he had been expecting the little spit fire of Dacea’s about an hour earlier. He went to all this trouble to set up the performance and they didn’t even show for the first act.
There were two monitors set up on the coffee table in front of him each with four camera views. Silas would know every step she took in his house. He would have every shaky panic ridden breath on tape. When her eyes glazed with the fear of being caught and she looked around, he would be watching.
His phone vibrated on the arm rest. With the hand holding the wine stem he pressed “answer” with his pinky.
“Speak.”
“They are here, Sir.”
Silas quickly sat up, tossing his feet to the floor. Finally, the show was about to start..
“Let them in. Follow, don’t hound.”
“Yes Sir.” The line went dead.
From his monitors he saw two women walk down the sidewalk. He recognized Hailey right away, but the blonde one was new to the Justice League. The house was at the end of the street, secluded from the others on the road, no one would notice them walking around. His family’s river house was one of the largest on the Susquehanna River. They had only used it for the occasional party when his father was alive, and now even less.
The design was easy, as easy as it could get without opening the front gates and escorting her to the safe. The boundary wall was just something they had to figure out on their own. Ten feet of stone stood between them and their prize. Hailey and the woman walked quickly to the side of the house; there they were blocked by a line of trees from the road.
The women looked around pleased with their entry point; the blonde wove her fingers together creating a step for Hailey to put her foot in. She struggled to lift herself up which was endearing. Dacea must hate what his life had come to. Hailey gathered her strength, and as the sheen of sweat just began to glisten on her forehead, she swung her leg up over the edge.
Silas applauded.
A short conversation, a few good lucks thrown around, and the other woman headed back to the car. Hailey was now on her own and about to enter his domain. To capture her would be easy, which was exactly why he didn’t do it. When he took Dacea’s little Mate, it would be done with more flair than a snatch and grab.
Silas poured another glass of wine and sat back into the cushions. He watched her face, her expressions; there was something familiar about her. It was quite possible he had run into her before. In fact he was almost sure of it.
“Jump little dragon,” he told the screen. It took her a few moments to muster up the courage. Hailey pushed off the edge and fell, none to gracefully, to the ground. Her feet hit first. She was smart enough to have her legs soft on the landing but gravity was a harsh bitch and she ended up on her ass.
“I’ll give an eight for the dismount, but the landing was only a two and that’s being kind.”
Just as he directed, the guards were giving them room to move. If this was a real burglary attempt, they never would have made it within a foot of the wall. His treasures were worth protecting, every dragon felt that way. Dacea thinking he could just waltz in and steal his most prized knife was a slip and one Silas knew he would make. Dacea’s been out of the game for a few years; things had changed since he last ruled.
Hailey had made it to one of the windows that just happened to be open. It helped immensely that the day warranted open windows. The week held nothing but sunshine and today had been no different. The fall crispness was starting to settle in the air but the warmth hung on. Soon enough the leaves would begin to change, then he would move south to another one of his houses in Georgia.
Hailey fumbled over the windowsill. From his other monitor he caught her from inside the house. She stood with the window at her back, her hair aglow with streams of light. With this angle he could appreciate her choice of outfit more fully. Black t-shirt with black leggings paired with bright blue running shoes. Silas felt the need to stop her where she was and just tell her to change and come back later to try again. It was sad, on a multitude of levels.
Even through her apparent fear, she pushed on. He watched her across all the screens, mentally guiding her where he wanted her. At times he would inform a guard to walk down the hall, partly to scare her, partly to see what she would do. Every time she would surprise him. Silas had not laughed this hard in years; Hailey would hide herself behind whatever was available, plant, chair, bookcase, none of which actually hid her. He was certain the guards were finding this just as amusing as he was.
Silas put down his glass and slid to the edge of the seat. Hailey had made it. This was his favorite part; he had orchestrated every detail and it all ended with her at that door. She took a look around before placing a hand on the knob. His adrenaline was hammering. A smile grew as she turned the knob and slipped inside the door.
Silas looked up as his door opened. “You’re late.”
Chapter Eleven
Hailey decided, as she stood in the hallway, that criminal was not on her list of career choices. Between her poor attempt at scaling the wall and hiding behind a slim statue in the hallway that barely covered one thigh, she pretty much figured her life of crime would start and end today.
“This door?” she whispered.
“Yes. Hurry now Hailey, before that guard gets back.”
She turned the knob; her stomach was doing the s
amba to her enthusiastic heartbeat. Footsteps marched down the adjacent hallway causing her to swallow that last bit of courage and push the door open.
The closet was dark but spacious. Hailey clicked on her mini flashlight, compliments of Target, and found herself in a realm of Rubbermaid bins. All blue, with an index card sized white label perfectly centered on each. It was the complete opposite of what she imagined a closet in Silas’s house would look like. Unless each of them contained a body, then it was right on track.
“Two things. One, I don’t see a safe. Two, what’s with the bins?” Hailey shined the light around the closet. Each wall was lined with five bins down and six across.
“I have no idea, the safe used to be accessible from the wall to your left.” He sounded as dumbfounded as she was.
Preparing herself for the worst, Hailey grabbed the third bin up on the second row and pulled it off the shelf. It was marked with the number 72. Surprisingly light for its size she set it on the ground and popped off the lid.
“Hailey we don’t have time for this!”
“Oh stop, it will only take a second. Aren’t you curious what are in all these?” She had tossed the lid to the ground and began to rummage through the bin.
“Fine, but make it fast,” he grumbled.
“Sure thing, Ace.” Hailey smiled a bit, inside was a teddy bear, an empty photo album, and a bunch of baby clothes. All blue, indicating the obvious choice for a baby boy. A loose picture lay on top; it was of a young man cradling a baby bundled in pink. The love was evident in his eyes; they shined with awe as he looked down at the newborn. The deep creases where the picture had been folded distorted some of the face but she recognized Silas easily enough.
The Hailey Holloway Complete Series Page 7
