by D. N. Hoxa
“Or, you can learn to shield your powers.”
“Fallon’s right. The sooner we get out of here, the safer we’ll be,” said Grover.
My stomach rolled. I didn’t get why, at first.
“We’re not going anywhere until the girl wakes up, at least,” Luca said, looking like he swallowed something awful just now.
“Yeah, at least,” I whispered.
“Luca, if they find us again, they could kill us,” Grover insisted.
“We were fine back home. We never came across those people until her,” Fallon said, nodding at me. Suddenly, she looked like she despised me.
“It’s not my fault they exist.” I did understand where she was coming from—I’d have hated my guts, too—but the truth was, I didn’t make them come with me. They chose to listen to what I could tell them first.
“If we leave now, we have a very good chance of making it back home,” Grover said, looking at Luca, who just kept staring at the floor and shaking his head.
“Look, I promise you we’re safe here. You need to think about this with a clear head.” You need to stay, was what I really wanted to say, and it caught me so off guard, I fell back a step, stunned.
Had I lost my mind? Where the hell was this coming from? I shouldn’t have wanted them to stay. Had I forgotten about how dangerous the mindless thingies were so fast?
I hadn’t. But what if they could help? Alone, there was only so much I could do. But five other people like me?
And the company wouldn’t be too bad, would it? They were the only people I knew who were like me. Who breathed the same magic, were dealt the same hand, were living the same way—in hiding—as me. Until then, I’d never even considered belonging, but now that they were there, in front of me, claiming to be just as fucked up as I was, it was just too tempting to look away.
“I’m staying.”
We all turned to look at Ax, who hadn’t spoken a word until now. Butterflies in my tummy.
“You are?”
“We’ve done nothing but run and hide for a long time. We can’t train our magic, we can’t work, or even speak to others. I get that it’s a necessity, but I’d rather be doing something.”
“You’re out of your mind!” Grover shouted, and Fallon walked over to Ax, grabbing his shirt with her fists.
“Axel, no. We stick together, remember? We stick together no matter what,” she breathed. Ax’s face softened immediately, and let’s ignore how I felt about it.
“Fall, what we’re doing isn’t life. If there’s a chance we can help others by killing whoever those people are, what more can we ask for?” he said, his voice satin soft suddenly.
“We’re not going to help anyone by dying,” Grover said.
“We already are helping people. We found you, didn’t we? We found Grover,” Fallon said. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. I felt like a stranger again in their midst. That’s more like it. It was how I was used to feeling all my life.
“If she can do it, so can we,” said Luca, nodding at me.
“This is absurd!” Fallon shouted, turning away from the both of them. “We don’t know anything! She could be lying!”
I shook my head. “I’m not.” Why would I lie?
“We saw them with our own eyes, Fall,” Luca said.
“And we survived because of her,” Ax said. Did I sense reluctance in his voice?
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her,” Grover spit, giving me a hateful look.
I slammed my hands on my thighs, feeling helpless all of the sudden. I wasn’t wanted there, that was for sure. In my own goddamn apartment.
“You know where the door is,” I said, then turned around and went to my room, slamming the door shut like I hadn’t done since I lived with my parents.
I fell on my bed, exhausted. Angry. Just…pissed off! Not only at them, but at myself. I’d fooled myself into thinking that I was fine living on my own, and all it took was a bunch of strangers with the same magic as me to shatter that illusion and open my eyes to reality. It’s true what they say: ignorance is bliss. I’d been happy not knowing.
And now that I knew there were others out there, how was I going to convince myself to stop looking for them? Witches broke apart all the time. There were a lot of covenless witches out there, people who’d willingly left their covens for whatever reasons. Which meant there could be others like me, but it didn’t necessarily mean we’d have to be close.
With a loud sigh, I rubbed my face and ordered my racing heart to calm down. The good it did me. I kept waiting to hear the door close while they all left, and it was making me anxious. Looking at the ceiling wasn’t working like usual. I used to be able to just stare at it for hours during many sleepless nights, and empty my mind of any thoughts.
When the door to my room opened, I almost fell to the ground, startled.
Ax was by the door, looking at me like he’d just seen a ghost. I straightened my wild hair and tried to pull my cropped shirt down, as if I were suddenly embarrassed to show so much skin. I really couldn’t understand myself. None of my thoughts made any sense.
“Can I come in?” he said, looking around my room.
“Sure.” I waved for him to enter like it was no big deal. Like there weren’t three bras on top of my makeup desk, and two pairs of panties on the floor next to the armchair. Or that said armchair wasn’t completely covered by all the clothes I was going to fold and put in the closet later. Blushing was useless now, so I just decided to hope he’d somehow miss all the mess and focus on me instead.
“We’ve decided to stay for a few days, if that’s okay,” Ax said, standing on the other side of the bed with his hands in his pockets.
“Good,” I said with a nod, trying hard to stifle a smile.
“We want to know what we’re up against first, and we’ll share with you everything we know so far.” His eyes moved fast from one side to the other. Dammit, he’d seen my underwear, and now he was making it awkward by trying not to look at them. Stepping back, I tried to discreetly push my panties under the makeup desk.
“What about you?” He’d seemed very determined before, when he said he was staying.
Sighing, he met my eyes. “I’ll be here for now, but you didn’t let me finish. We’ll stay and we’re willing to learn, but I need to know your price first.”
Surprised, I shook my head. “Price?” Was he joking?
“I want to know what’s in it for you,” he said, pinning me in place with his stare. “We all saw what you could do. We know you’re better off on your own. Easier to survive that way. So why are you agreeing to help us?”
Looked like I hadn’t been wrong when I thought he could see right through me. I rolled my eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re the only other people I know who share the same magic as me. What are the odds that you found me when you did?”
His brows shot up. “Are you saying it was meant to be?”
“I’m saying that I don’t believe in coincidences, not like this.” I was running out of words to say, and I absolutely, under no circumstance, would ever tell him that I wanted them to stay because I was lonely, and because I wanted to see what it was like to belong, even in a group full of hopeless individuals, like them.
“You said something before,” Ax said. “You said it wasn’t your fault that they existed.” So? “What if it is? Has it ever occurred to you that we were…made?”
Speaking was not an option for a long second, until I got my head back together. “I’m sorry, did you say made? Who can make witches?” I’d judged him completely wrong. This guy apparently had a screw or three loose in his head.
Ax shrugged. “You tell me.”
Laughing out loud, I shook my head. “Are you insinuating that I know why we’re like this?” The blood in my veins had reached a boiling point and I was very aware of all the weapons on my person. My fists were itching to meet his face and I wondered how he’d look with that pretty nose of his brok
en.
“I’m not insinuating anything. I’m telling you that I don’t trust you.”
I strode forward, ready to fight him until one of us died. I grabbed him by his shirt, and though he was a good head taller than me, it didn’t intimidate me. “I don’t care who the fuck you think you are, but you’re in my home, and you’re alive because of me. I didn’t make you follow me. I didn’t force you to come here. You decided that for yourself. You know damn well where the door is, so if you don’t trust me, walk out right now. But if you stay, I will not tolerate any of you to disrespect me,” I said in a breath.
Wrapping his fingers around my wrist, he nudged me a bit, and I let him go. Stepping away was smart, because I was already starting to notice too many details about his face, like his thick lashes, and the faded scar above his right eyebrow he probably got while trying to learn how to ride a bike. Just a guess.
“Where did you learn how to fight like that?” he asked me instead, throwing me off for a second.
“I learned.” That was all I was willing to share with him for now. If he didn’t trust me, it was probably because he didn’t think I should trust him. I wasn’t taking any chances. “Where did you learn how to be an asshole?”
A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. It was a sight to see. “I’ve had an interesting life.” That sentence was designed to feed my curiosity monster.
“Look, we’re all tired and in need of some sleep. You’re welcome to stay here, but I won’t make you.”
“You don’t have to, Scarlet. I want to learn to do what you’re doing, and I want to know exactly who those people are,” Ax said, saying my name like it was a sin.
“I searched everything and found nothing on them.” I’d paid people to investigate, too. There was nothing to be found about the mindless thingies.
“But you searched alone,” he said with a grin, and stepped back. “Let’s rest for a bit, because we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
On that, we agreed.
Five
Fallon and Luca took the guest room with only one twin bed to sleep in, and Grover and Ax decided to remain in the living room. The new girl was sleeping on the couch, and I gave them blankets to put on the ground. It was the best I had, and I wasn’t exactly feeling sorry for Ax after he’d flat out told me he didn’t trust me. Did I give him any reason not to? I didn’t think so, but if he was just trying to be an asshole, he’d get treated like one, no problem.
I was supposed to be asleep an hour ago but it was impossible to shut my brain up. Imagining what it was going to be like to actually have somebody who understood what it was like to not understand anything was the topic of the day. I kept preparing mental lists on what to say to them once we woke up, and how to teach them everything I knew. It was exhausting, and at some point, I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, my bladder was screaming at me, and the clock on my phone said it was nine pm.
Tiptoeing to the bathroom to not wake the others up was no easy feat; I was used to living on my own for so long that I just now noticed how clumsy I’d gotten. Everything I touched seemed to make noise. Taking in deep breaths worked only half way, and before going out to wake them up, I washed my face with some cold water. My bathroom was small, but pretty. Just how I liked it. And the oval shaped mirror with the golden outline above the sink made me look more alive than any other mirror, or so I liked to think. My eyes, a mess of brown and yellow around the pupil, fading into a dark blue-grey color, were wide, as if I hadn’t slept at all. My cheeks were flushed and my bottom lip painted with dried skin. I must have chewed on it the entire time without realizing. The deep red color of my hair, which started right above my ears and blended perfectly with my natural dark brown, looked a bit faded. I hadn’t dyed it in a couple weeks out of pure laziness. Not like I had a whole lot to do. I combed through my hair with my fingers until I got it to look decent, and checked myself for one last time before I walked out of the bathroom…
To find everybody wide awake.
When the hell had that happened? I looked back to the bathroom. How long had I been in there?
Grover strode fast toward me, and I almost reached for my knives—I’d taken everything else off me when I went to bed—but he practically pushed me to the side and threw himself inside the bathroom. His bladder must have been screaming, too.
Clearing my throat, I walked over to the others. The girl we’d found in the alley had finally woken up. She held her knees tightly to her chest, and sat at the corner of the couch, refusing to look at anything but the floor. She looked scared—traumatized.
“She doesn’t know,” Luca whispered, nodding at her.
That wasn’t a surprise. “Neither of us really do.” Everything we knew was a guess, at best.
“No, I mean she grew up with humans. She doesn’t know anything,” Luca said, and I smiled.
“She couldn’t have grown up with humans.” It just didn’t work that way. Humans forgot about us, and if she’d really been with them as a baby, they’d have forgotten to feed her on the first day.
“Apparently, it’s possible,” Luca said with a sigh, nodding at Fallon, who cautiously sat on the couch next to the girl.
I looked at her, at the long brown hair falling in waves around her shoulders. At her pale skin. I didn’t doubt that she was like us, or the mindless thingie wouldn’t have gone after her. But did I doubt that she’d really been raised by humans? Very much.
“Come on, let’s get you a shower,” Fallon said to her when Grover walked out of the bathroom. The girl jumped when Fallon touched her, and she immediately stood up and ran to the bathroom by herself. Slamming the door shut, she turned the lock and we didn’t hear from her for a long hour.
“Something’s not right,” said Ax, looking at the door.
“She could be lying. There’s just no way she would have survived humans, even as a baby.”
“She could be with the ECU,” Luca said, though his heart wasn’t in it.
“How would the ECU know about us?” Grover asked.
“I don’t know but they killed a kid last night, right in front of me,” Ax said, looking a bit offended.
“Grover’s right, they don’t know we’re here,” Luca said and took a seat on the couch next to Fallon.
“I still think we should leave while we can,” she said, grabbing Luca’s hands in hers. “It’s too dangerous here.”
I’d already made up my mind not to try and stop them if they wished to leave, but something in my gut was telling me that that wasn’t going to happen. Could have been false hope, but it didn’t even let me worry.
“Why do you have those?” Ax said, nodding his head at my three computer screens.
“To watch movies,” I said with a shrug. “And to hack into the ECU.”
“Get out of here,” Grover said, laughing, and slowly stepped in front of the computers. I went and sat on my chair, and touched the mouses to turn the screens on proudly.
“I don’t exactly hack the ECU, but I hack someone who is connected to them and gets jobs from them all the time. It keeps me calm to know what those people are up to.” And if, for some reason, my name popped up on the wanted list.
“Who?” Luca said as he and Ax came to stand behind me. Fallon stayed on the couch.
“Have you heard of Finn’s Agency for Unusual Orders?”
“Of course. Everybody has,” Grover said. I spun my chair around to face them, and my grin told them all they needed to know.
“You’re hacking Finn the werewolf?” Ax said, his brows shooting up to the sky. He was surprised. He was impressed. He was everything he would never admit being, but I was easily pleased. I’d take his facial expression as my compliment.
“They say he’s even more protected than the ECU,” Luca said, coming closer to the first screen on my right, to look at the program I always had running.
It was true—Finn the werewolf was better protected than the ECU. Which meant everybody believed it
, and nobody even tried to find loopholes. I’m no programmer or anything, but I had my parents’ money to spend, and I hired a top notch Green witch to find me a back gate into Finn’s kingdom.
Finn was a werewolf, as big as they come. He was well connected and a very dangerous man, because he ran the most famous investigation agency in the States for paranormals. He did everything from finding things and people, to imprisoning and killing them. Everybody pretended that it was just rumors that he had special agents he sent out to do unspeakable things, hiding under the façade of a reputable investigation agency. I’d had my share of doubts, too, until I got into the software he used to keep track of his unusual orders. His clientele was a bunch of powerful, rich paranormals, but mostly, he got his orders from the ECU. They hired him to do everything they had no time to do, and everything they didn’t want the public to know they were doing. He had assassins, the best of the best, on a payroll, and that made him a guy you didn’t want to mess with.
Unless, you know, you’re me, and have nothing better to do.
Besides, I’d rather mess with him than the ECU, so it was an easy choice.
“Can you access his database?” Luca asked, going over the orders Finn had received for the past two months that were already opened on the program.
“Some of it, not all. Some required special permission,” I said. “And if you’re wondering, he has nothing on me.” I flinched. “Us. He has nothing that even comes close to what we are.”
“If you can do this, why not go directly to the ECU?” Ax asked, still resisting the urge to see what Luca was seeing up close.
“Because if the ECU catches me, there’s no telling what they’d do to me. And if Finn does…” I shrugged. All he’d do was kill me. He’d have no reason to want to experiment on me, and that was my biggest, worst nightmare, something I’d do just about anything in the world to avoid.
“What about the people who attacked us?” Luca said as he kept on reading the orders. Finn sent them as a form to his agents, which I suspect the clients filled in.
“Nothing on them, either. They seem to drop off the face of the Earth whenever I don’t see them. Nobody knows they’re there.” And that had haunted me for a long time. It had made me believe I was just seeing things a few times, too. It was hard to fight, or even run from an enemy nobody knew existed except for you.
