“Get your arse in gear,” Steven said, pointing a knife at me before slicing into the eggplant.
I reluctantly obeyed, dragging myself out of the chair and into my bedroom. If I was going to go on a blind date, I might as well make a little bit of effort. It’d be a great distraction from the horror of today’s events.
I pulled a black dress with a lacy back out of my closet. It was the kind of thing I usually bought on a whim, but never wore. Tonight, would be its maiden voyage. It paired great with my knee high boots and NARS Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl red.
Checking myself out in the full length mirror, I admired the way my muscular thighs peeked out from under the short dress. The tattoo outline of my wings barely showed through the intricate weaving of the lace back. I left my customary silver cross necklace on, which fell just above the neckline. It was a reminder of better times – times when I wasn’t constantly in fear for my life. Topping it off with a dangly pair of silver earrings, the outfit was complete.
My date knocked on the door exactly four minutes after eight o’clock. Not too early – he didn’t want to look desperate. And not late enough to be a jerk.
I opened the door to greet him. He was a relatively good looking man with light brown hair and matching eyes. Dressed up in a casual suit, he stood there with a single yellow rose in his hands.
I took a breath and put on the best smile I could muster under the awkward circumstances. “I’m Aya, but I’m sure you already figured that out. I’m guessing you’re Eddie.”
“Yeah, Angel told me about you. I’ve been looking forward to this date all week.” He held out the rose. “For you. I hope you don’t have allergies.”
I took the flower with a smile and dropped it on the counter behind me. Nothing said friendship zone more than a yellow flower, but I didn’t mention it. The idea was nice, and it wasn’t often that men bought me flowers. I couldn’t complain.
“Should we go?” Draping my purse over my shoulder, I shut the apartment door behind me.
Steven and Johnny were snuggled up in front of the TV. It was Walking Dead night on AMC. I didn’t want to linger and give them the chance to drop in with some embarrassing questions.
“I picked a restaurant that I like on the other side of town. We can take my Ford.” Eddie smiled shyly at me, revealing his overlapping front teeth.
He escorted me out of the apartment and onto the street. The sky had already turned a deep shade of midnight blue. A few stars dared to twinkle against the streetlights of the city, dotting the sky in random patterns.
I breathed in the cool night air, filling my lungs to capacity with the sweet scent of a fall evening. Soon enough, the city would be inhabited by winter’s chilling breezes and perfect crystalline snowflakes.
The trees on the sides of the streets would be decked out with white lights, and the store fronts decorated in reds and greens. It was my favorite season in Arcana. Supernatural or not, everyone would be in a Christmas mood.
Eddie’s ride was a white Ford Focus parked on the street outside my apartment. He opened the door for me before hopping in the driver’s side, turning down the orchestra music when it began blaring through the speakers. We rode in silence for a good ten minutes, before I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“So, Eddie, what’s a nice guy like you doing in a city like this?” I asked, attempting to break the ice. “Did you move here for a job?”
“I’m an accountant at Sextant Cooperation, but no, I didn’t move here for a job.” He pulled at his collar, swallowing loud enough for me to hear. “Actually, my ex-girlfriend got me to move here. I wanted to stay in Massachusetts, but she got a job here doing interior design work.”
The ex-zone was not where I wanted to go, so I steered the conversation another way. “Oh, do you like working at Sextant? I’ve heard they have great benefits.”
So far, on our short date, we’d discussed jobs, ex-girlfriends, and now benefits. Not exactly stimulating conversation. I tried to think of something interesting to say, fast.
“They’re okay.” Eddie parked his Focus outside The Tiny Pub, a restaurant known for its pasta dishes and assortment of beers.
I hadn’t eaten there, but it seemed like a good choice. A large wooden leprechaun in green overalls was stationed outside the door. The silence threatened to come back, so I rushed to find something to say.
“Did you know that during the Troubles conflict in Ireland, over 3,600 people were killed and more than 50,000 injured?” I clenched my jaw closed. Of all the things to talk about, I chose a thirty-year war on the other side of the world? The leprechaun must’ve thrown me off.
“Um… no, I didn’t. That’s interesting,” he mumbled.
Eddie held open the door for me. We slipped inside and were shown to a cozy little booth in the back. A tea candle inside a red jar did nothing to light up the dark wooden nook of our table. I sat down and resisted twiddling my thumbs in the long stretch of awkward quiet.
“Did you study history in college?” Eddie bit his bottom lip and looked up at me. “Or, do you just like Irish history?”
“Yeah, actually, I studied history and minored in anthropology. I’m the curator at the supernatural museum downtown.” I could feel myself lighting up. There was nothing more interesting than the objects in my museum. Now we were really cooking.
“My girlfriend was Irish.” Eddie folded his hands on the table and stared at them. “She always wanted to travel to Ireland, but we couldn’t afford it.”
“That’s no fun.”
I looked around for the waiter. We weren’t even twenty minutes into this date and already his ex-girlfriend had made two appearances. I wasn’t getting a good feeling about this.
“Yeah, I think it’s one of the reasons we broke up.” He began to shred the napkin wrapped around his fork. “Sarah always wanted me to take a job at a bigger company. Make more money. But, I like the guys at Sextant and it takes a long time to really fit into a place.”
Was it too early to ask for the check? I grabbed the glass of ice water the hostess had left for me and gulped half of it down.
“And it’s not like she made much money as an interior designer. Anything she brought home went to expensive clothes and shoes. Who needs a five hundred dollar pair of flip-flops, anyway?”
Eddie locked eyes with me over my emptying glass of water. I choked on an ice cube and sputtered a reply which seemed to satisfy him, because he continued.
“Yeah, relationships are hard. Sometimes I wonder if that Charles Manson guy had the right idea.” He waved his hands in front of his chest. “The commune thing, not the murder thing. You know, a group of people that stick together for life. Teaching each other how to live away from society.”
“I guess you could just go to prison like the Manson Family and find your commune there.” I bit my tongue, but it was too late.
Eddie cocked his head at me, frowning. The waitress showed up just in time to distract him.
My order spilled out of my mouth. “I’ll have the spaghetti, the garlic bread, and a beer. A giant beer.”
Our waitress looked at me over her notebook, and then nodded her head in a knowing way. It probably wasn’t the first date she’d seen go south in The Little Pub.
“I’ll have the same, but no beer,” Eddie said.
We handed her our menus and stared at each other’s elbows until my beer came. It frothed over the glass, spilling onto the dark stain of the table top. I greedily sucked it down, relishing the tart taste on the tip of my tongue. The hops filled my belly, leaving a delightful little buzz in my head that almost erased the headache leftover from my vision.
“You sure can drink.” Eddie sipped daintily at his water and returned to shredding his napkin.
I’d barely swallowed a fifth of the glass, but pushed it away.
“So, did you like that latest James Bond film?” Now I was reaching, desperately, for anything to connect on. I hadn’t even seen the film, but it seemed like a safe
enough topic.
Eddie’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, it’s great. I love the new guy playing Bond. He’s got that suave attitude really down pat. And I just love the whole Bond franchise. It’s genius.”
Finally, something positive. “Yeah, they’re really great. A lot of action and mystery. That’s what makes a good movie, in my book.”
We chatted more about each Bond film, pausing only to thank the waitress when she brought us our food. It turned out, Eddie had every collector’s edition DVD and various memorabilia from the films. He was a die-hard Bond fan and spent a long time mulling over his choice for the best Bond actor. We were already done with our food by the time he made up his mind.
“I mean, Brosnan did alright. Peter Sellers wasn’t as bad as everyone says. But I think Sean Connery would have to be my favorite.” Eddie flashed a smile at me as we got up to leave.
He’d more than warmed up during our meal, even daring to touch me on the hand once. But somehow, he’d missed my lukewarm smiles and the not interested neon sign flashing on my forehead. Talking about movies was great, but the chemistry between us was nil. Story of my life.
I thanked our waitress and she gave me a knowing wink. This was going to be the hardest part. Letting them down easy was never actually easy.
“Would you be interested in coming over to my place? I have Diamonds are Forever on Blu-ray.” Eddie’s shy smile returned.
In the moonlight outside the restaurant, I caught a glimpse of his true form. In the glimmer, his head grew bright red feathers and he sprouted the scaly tail of a lizard. In a flash, they were gone, and Eddie’s human form returned.
I should’ve known Angel would set me up with a Cockatrice. She’d thrown every other magical creature at me, so why not try a scaly bird combination? I didn’t like to be prejudiced against my own bird kind, but Cockatrices didn’t exactly turn me on. Eddie was definitely out of luck tonight.
“Oh, ow,” I said, pretending to turn my ankle on a crack in the sidewalk.
Eddie grabbed my hand and kept me from falling to the pavement, leading me over to a curb to rest. I watched a rusted out school bus and black sedan drive by while I moaned in fake agony.
“Did you break it?” He pulled on my boot, intent on examining the injury.
I pushed his hands away. “No, just a sprain. But it stings.”
He squeezed on the leather and I hissed in pain for effect.
“You’d better ice this tonight,” he said, looking up at me with sad eyes. “I guess that means we’ll have to watch Bond another night.”
“Yeah, another night.”
Faking an injury was the only way I could think of that wouldn’t tear poor Eddie’s heart into shreds. Sarah had obviously done enough of that.
“I’ll take you home.”
He stood up and offered his hand to me, but I waved it away.
“No, you live on the opposite side of town. I’ll just take a taxi.”
“Are you sure?” He looked around suspiciously, as if thugs waited in the shadows to attack me. “Let me take you.”
“No, I insist.”
If Eddie took me home, he might think he had a chance of getting an invite into my place. Better to cut it off here, nice and clean.
“I saw some taxis down at the corner. I’ll just flag one down.”
He helped me to my feet and watched me gingerly test my ankle, stepping forward a few paces.
“I just need to walk it out,” I told him. “But, thank you for the meal. It was nice meeting you.”
Eddie gave me a hug that was a little too tight and went in for the kiss. I turned my head just in time, his dry lips landing on my cheek. Poor guy needed some Chap Stick. He pulled away, laughing nervously, and then waved before he walked around his car and got in. I waited until he drove away before taking off in a brisk pace toward the stoplight on the corner.
Tomorrow, I was going to tell Angel to quit it with the blind dates. My love life might be pathetic, but it was going nowhere fast with her castoffs. I could find ways to humiliate myself, thank you very much.
I was almost to the light when the same black sedan that drove by minutes earlier came sliding into the parking space next to me. Speeding up my pace, I tried to pass it, but it kept pace with me. It wasn’t the first time I’d dealt with creepers in this city.
Six months ago, two kids had tried to harass me during my evening stroll around the block. They each got two nasty talon cuts across their backsides when they tried to touch me. Lesson learned.
I was about to turn and give the driver a piece of my mind when the window rolled down. Sitting inside and grinning like a fool was Gideon. He stopped the car, waving for me to come near.
“Was that sorry sap your date?” Gideon’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Hot date you had there.”
“He wasn’t bad and you know it.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
Gideon could barge into my life and accuse me of crimes, but he didn’t have the right to judge my dates.
“In fact, he was quite handsome,” I said with a nod.
He laughed and put the car in park. “Maybe for a rooster hybrid.”
Inwardly, I cringed. He’d spotted Eddie’s true nature, too.
“Let me guess, you used the old I-sprained-my-ankle get out of jail card,” he added. “Nice move.”
“Oh, you recognized that one? Too many girls use it on you?”
I smiled sweetly at him through the open window as he chuckled.
“But seriously, what are you doing here?” I looked around at the mostly empty street. “Are you stalking me now?”
“No, I was just driving by. I’m staying at the Grandview Hotel on the corner.”
Gideon sounded entirely too defensive. I’d only been kidding him.
“I was just heading back to the original crime scene,” he continued. “We need more photos of the victims and I remembered there was a family picture on their wall.”
“Great, you can give me a ride.” I hopped in before Gideon could object, making myself at home in the pristine car. Might as well save a taxi fare. “Nice ride. Is this a rental?”
“Yeah, I’m based in Texas. We flew in yesterday.” He put the car into drive and pulled into traffic.
For a Texas boy, he didn’t have much of a southern drawl. Probably grew up somewhere else.
“This was the car I got stuck with,” he said with a frown.
“It’s not bad.” I ran my hand over the black dashboard. Not a speck of dust on it. “Could do worse.”
“I was hoping for something a little less gangster and a little more James Dean.” He pulled a pair of aviators out of the cup holder between us and slid them on his face, winking at me before they covered his eyes.
A thrill went through my body, but I played it cool. “I could definitely see you in a Porsche. Maybe something candy apple red with white leather. Black trim.”
He tore off the sunglasses. “Now you’re talking. And don’t forget the fur dice.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Something about his carefree ways told me Gideon grew up in a wholesome family home. The kind that always ate supper together, and had board game nights every Friday. Against my better judgement, I decided to do my own investigating.
“Tell me about your childhood. Something interesting.”
Gideon gave me a curious smile. “Why?”
“I don’t know, I guess if you’re going to be following me around, we might as well get to know each other.” I settled down into the seat and crossed my legs. “Besides, I studied anthropology in college and I’m curious about you. You make an interesting specimen.”
He smirked, but played along anyway. “I have two sisters, one brother. They’re all married. Two of them have kids.”
“No, that’s not the kind of story I want.” I folded my hands on my lap, thinking of an example. “Tell me about a time when you were little that you got in trouble.”
“What are you, a reporter?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I’m just trying to give you an example.”
“Fine.” With one hand on the wheel, he rubbed the back of his head.
It hadn’t taken me long to recognize that was his habit when thinking hard. I tended to chew on my nails when I got lost in thought.
“I got one.” He adjusted the rearview mirror, then shot me a smile. “This one’s good. There was this one time when I was ten, me and some buddies wanted to get enough money to buy this new Batman figurine that’d just come out. It was so cool. It had a tool belt that you could take off and switch out for different weapons. There were ninja stars and little grappling hooks, and even a gun that shot little plastic darts. It came with a giant bat mobile that fired…”
I cleared my throat. Someone was getting off track.
“Oh… sorry. Got a little too excited.” He pulled to a stop at a red light and put the car in park. “Anyway, we wanted to earn enough money to buy this thing. We’d been mowing lawns and doing chores all summer long for change. But for some reason – I blame the twenty-five cent candy cigarettes at the local Casey’s – we just never had enough. That’s when I got the brilliant idea to raid my dad’s sock drawer for his emergency cash.”
“Uh, oh.” My own dad didn’t have a drawer full of emergency cash. Any spare dollar he had usually went toward his Saturday night booze runs.
“Uh, oh was right. Three of my buddies and I snuck in there one day while he and my mom were at work. We dug through his whitey tighties and tube socks, clear to the bottom of the drawer. Unfortunately, my dad had recently moved his cash stash to his nightstand, and had forgotten to tell his son. What we did find, though, was even better.”
I closed my eyes and winced. There were only so many things I could imagine finding in my parents’ sock drawers.
“There was a huge opened box of Trojan condoms, just lying there. The little foil wrappers were spilling out onto the bottom of the drawer, just begging to be opened. So, we snatched them and ran out of the house before my sisters or brother could catch us.”
“So, your dad got mad at you for stealing his birth control?”
“Oh no, that’s not the end of the story.” Gideon chuckled, lost in memory. “No, we decided to sell those little gold wrapped condoms one at a time to the neighborhood boys and girls for fifty cents apiece. By the time we were done, we had more than enough cash to buy our batman limited edition action figure.”
Medusa's Dagger: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Aya Harris Collection Book 1) Page 5
