“It’s okay, Lex,” I hear Cali say behind me. She puts a hand on my back in between my shoulders and says, “We’re here. We’re with you.”
I exhale, unlock, and open the sub-basement door. I step in and let Milo, Cali, and Matt come in after me. I close the door and wait to hear the click that the door is secure. The security lights cast an ominous glow throughout the room. Only the outlines of the first two cubes are visible in the low light. I unhook Milo and put his leash in my bag, and take three steps into the room — just far enough to activate the motion sensor. The room floods with light.
“Wow,” Cali breathes out.
“I had no idea this was even down here let alone how huge it is,” Matt says dropping his bag at the door and walking over to the first cube to peer inside it. As the novelty of the space wears off, he turns around and stares Cali and me down. “Alright, we’re here, we’re inside. Now tell me, really. What is going on?”
“I told you, Moose. Lex is a witch.”
“Cali,” I start. “I don’t know if—”
“Actually, she’s not just a witch. She’s a descendant of multiple magical creatures, but witch is the easiest to explain. Right?”
She turns to me expectantly. I sigh resignedly and say, “Yes.”
“So there you go, Moose.”
“Okay, Squirrel. You’ve obviously been eating too many nuts lately and it’s starting to affect your brain. Because you sound completely crazy right now.”
Neither of us says anything. He starts laughing again but with more nerves and less humor. “Okay, someone explain. Because what you said just isn’t possible.”
“Actually,” I say nervously. “It is.”
“Okay, sure. Yup. You’re both insane. My best friend and my girlfriend: insane!”
“We’re not ins— wait, girlfriend?” Cali asks. “Really?”
“Really?” I ask.
“Damn, Moose. You do have it bad.”
“Cali now is not the time for this! I mean, let’s put a pin in the word ‘girlfriend’ and definitely come back to it later and all, please. But right now, I have to get Matt on board before Darius shows up and kills us all!”
“You’re right, you’re right. Okay,” she says sitting down on top of the large duffle bag with the supplies in it. “You’ve got the con.”
“Lex?” Matt looks at me shocked and terrified. His face bears the expression I imagine someone would have after being told that not only is Santa real, but the heat his sleigh generates traveling around the world is the actual cause of global warming.
I take a deep breath and decide to just dive in head first. “Matt, I’m a witch.”
“Stop,” he puts both hands up angrily. “What is this? Some kind of sick joke?”
“No, Matt. We’re telling the truth. I’m telling you the truth.”
His mouth turns down in hurt and disgust. He turns away from me.
“Matt, please,” I say. My voice is heavy with emotion, about to break under it all. I can’t lose him now too.
He heads to the door, aiming to leave, but Cali blocks him.
“Hear her out, Matt. I’m not above playing jokes, but this is serious. She’s telling the truth. And she needs our help.”
Just like Cali has never called me “Alexa,” I’ve never heard her address Matt as anything other than Moose. When he hears that, he rears back as if she’s slapped him.
“I don’t understand.” His eyes dart between the two of us.
“Matt,” Cali says again, he turns to face her completely. “When Lex first told me everything, I needed five or six shots of vodka to process it. You don’t have that luxury, and we don’t have that kind of time.”
He looks at me over his shoulder as Cali continues.
“The Cliff-notes version is this: Your girl here is crazy powerful, like with actual magical powers. And there is a demon, Darius, after her who wants to kill her, steal her powers and use them to literally burn the world to the ground. Plus, Milo over there? Dude can sense evil. That’s why he was so wound up when those guys grabbed me. They were demons—”
“Victus,” I correct.
“Right, Victus, which is just a fancy name for the demon’s soldiers. The guy coming for her has a literal army at his disposal. But what does she have? Us. You and me.” She points to herself and then to him to emphasize her statement. “And she was actually going to face this guy alone. I had to basically convince her to let me help. And I told her that you would help too, because you love her, Matt. You’re in love with her.”
“Dude!” he exclaims in embarrassment.
“Now ain’t the time to be modest, man.
“Look, she told me what the deal is if we help her: that we’d have to go with her if she has to leave, thus the packed bags. She told me that we’ll have to leave everything and everyone behind for an unknown length of time, possibly forever. Hence, this.”
She pulls on an envelope from the pocket of her jacket. I don’t need to see it up close to know that it’s addressed to Mickey.
“I’m choosing to help her, Matt. If you don’t want to help, I understand and I’m sure Lex will too. I just hope that you can at least understand why I have to. I’m going to tell you the same thing this letter will tell Mickey, and what I said to Lex back at our apartment: the only thing I’m choosing is my chance at a future with the blue-eyed, brunette, good-souled, gorgeous love of my life. And I’ll be damned if I let some douche-bag demon destroy it.
“Oh, and one more thing. Her name isn’t Alexa, but that’s like, the least important of all the things I’ve told you.”
Matt runs his hands through his hair, very similarly to how Cali did when she first heard all of this. Hearing Cali stand her ground and defend her choice to help me, I expected to be weighed down with guilt again. Instead, I feel like my energy has been renewed, and it’s made me more determined than ever to fight back and give Darius the biggest surprise of the millennia that he’s spent on earth.
“Cali,” I say, my voice strong and steady. “Give him a moment.”
I pick up the duffle bag, my laundry bag, and my purse and start walking into the room, down the faux hallway to the side of the cubes. I whistle over my shoulder and Milo, who’s been patiently observing this entire time, jumps to his feet and trots after me. I hear Cali lift her own bag and the scuff of her shoes on the thick carpet as she catches up to me.
I go around behind the last cube so the only thing behind me is a cinderblock wall. I drop the bags in the corner and kneel down to rummage through for the plastic bag with the tennis balls. I talk to Cali over my shoulder.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” I say taking the tennis balls out and putting them on the floor one at a time. “We’ll leave the bags here that way they’re out of sight. We should come up with a code word for when it’s time to go. I can transport us out of here, but I have to be touching you. Milo won’t be a problem, he’ll be by my side the whole time. And we can use telekinesis to grab the bags if we have to.
“Also, I’m not going to call you Cali, from here on out you are only Squirrel. We shouldn’t risk Darius hearing your name. Just so that we have another way of keeping everyone else safe.”
I let a heavy silence settle between us. I wait for Cali to understand that everyone else means Mickey. I watch her gulp and nod as she gets it.
“Okay, so what do I call you?”
I can’t help but smile softly before I answer her. “Royal.” She cocks her head, silently asking why. “It’s what my brothers called me when I was little.”
“You have brothers?”
I nod. “Two. They’re both older so I was always tagging along with them. Whenever I would annoy them, which was a lot, they would tell me I was being a royal pain in the ass. Eventually, to avoid getting in trouble, they shortened it to them just saying to me, ‘You’re being a real royal right now.’ So I would knock off whatever I was doing.
“Huh,” I shake my head and snicker. “I hated
that nickname as a kid, but now I miss hearing it.”
“Royal,” she says. “That works. What’s the safe word? Mine is Strawberry Fields Forever.”
“I don’t kn—”
Before I can answer her completely, I feel someone pull me into a standing position and whip me around. I get a whiff of laundry detergent, Old Spice, and peppermint before I feel Matt’s lips cover my own. He kisses me more passionately than ever before. I don’t hesitate for a second before I’m responding in kind wrapping my arms around him.
After a few good and hot seconds, Matt slows down and kisses me sweetly and tenderly. When he pulls away from me, he tucks his head into my neck and hugs me tightly.
“I love you,” he says releasing me. “That Squirrel is right, I keep forgetting she’s smarter than she looks.”
“I take offense to that,” Cali lazily offers from her spot a few feet away.
“I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. I fell in love with you the first time we talked. When you kissed me last week, I nearly died right then and there from happiness. I don’t want you to say it back, I don’t need to hear it back right now.
“I just want to tell you that I’m choosing the same thing that Cali is: I’m choosing my future with you over some...” He stops, searching for the right word, “...thing that thinks he can take it away from me.”
The blood is pumping so hard through my body right now that I’m sure he can hear it along with the pounding of my heart. I kiss him one more time and caress his stubble covered cheek. I could get lost in this moment with Matt, but thankfully Cali speaks up before I do.
“Well, then I guess there’s only one more thing to do before we get this party started,” she says.
“And what exactly is that?” Matt asks.
The smile Cali gives him is one of badass determination. “We join her army.”
● 55 ●
Darius
The demon and his three Victus are driving on Interstate 85 on their way to Atlanta International Airport. It’s just before 10 P.M. and the drive is smooth with very little traffic. Viribus is behind the wheel of one of Darius’s many luxury SUVs.
“Go over it one more time,” Darius instructs from the back seat next to Damon. He has his window cracked slightly to allow the smoke from his cigarette to escape.
“I drop you three off at the airport, go back to the bar, and wait for your call,” Viribus answers obediently.
“I handle our bags and print out the tickets from the kiosk,” Julius chimes in from the front passenger seat.
Darius swings his head around to face his newest soldier.
“I stay out of the way and do what I’m told,” Damon says in a monotone.
“Excellent,” he praises. “Then what?”
“We land in Seattle, and use the potions to transport to Portland,” Julius says first. “We start at the library to search for any leads. From there, we find the girl and kill her. Then, we use the potions to head to the portal.”
Viribus’s baritone continues, “Once you get to the portal, you let me know and I will meet you there transporting from the bar.”
Again the demon turns his head to the man sitting next to him. Damon grits his teeth and adds his role in a tight voice. “I stay out of the way and do what I’m told.”
“Very good, children,” the demon purrs.
Viribus takes the exit off of I-85 onto Camp Creek Parkway. He follows the signs for departure, pulling up in front of the terminal and shutting off the engine. The three Victus get out of the car, but Darius hangs back a moment. He finishes his cigarette, throws the butt out the window.
“Watch out girl,” he says to the empty car. “Here I come.”
**********
The three had no issues getting through the airport and onto the plane. They are seated in business class. Darius has a single window seat on the left side of the cabin, Damon and Julius are across the aisle in the middle of the plane in a pair of double seats. On the other side of Julius are a second aisle and an empty single window seat. They’re settling themselves in when a male flight attendant comes by and asks if he can get them anything.
“I’ll have a whiskey neat, three fingers,” Darius answers quickly. “And keep them coming.”
“I’ll take a Sprite now,” Julius says. “But right before we land, I’ll take a very strong coffee.”
“I’ll just have a water,” Damon answers last. He’s also the only one to add a “thank you” before the flight attendant moves down the aisle to the galley to prepare their drinks.
A few minutes later, a female attendant brings the drinks back to the men. Damon perks up and starts talking to the woman.
“Hey there, sugar. I’m Damon. What’s your name?”
“I’m Elaine. Here are your drinks gentlemen,” she says handing out the liquor, soda, and water. “Please fasten your seat belts, we’ll be taking off shortly.”
Damon’s eyes follow Elaine as she gets ready to demo the safety instructions. Darius looks around to make sure no one is looking before he reaches across to Damon and punches him in the middle of his chest. The blow lands right on his sternum. The bald man grunts in pain and doubles over as the air escapes his lungs.
“Tell me, Julius,” Darius says in a hushed voice. “Am I asking for a lot?”
“No, boss.”
“You hear that, shit head? I’m not asking for a lot. I’m asking for you to just sit in that fucking seat, watch some cartoons for the next few hours, and attract as little attention as possible. And what’s the first thing you do? Creep out the fucking flight attendant! Is that what I asked for Julius?”
“No, it’s not, boss.”
Damon coughs trying to replenish some oxygen to his burning chest. He takes a long gulp from his bottle of water. He looks at Darius with unadulterated rage on his face.
“Save it, little one,” Darius scolds before dropping his voice to almost a whisper. “Because if you do anything else besides say ‘yes, no, please, and thank you’ to anyone on this flight, I’ll kill you myself before we even land. Got it?”
Damon puts his head back on the oversized chair and stares at the ceiling of the plane. He doesn’t answer, just closes his eyes and nods.
“Good. Jesus Christ, Julius! You think this kid has a problem with authority or what?”
Julius chuckles along with the demon.
“Don’t let go of that attitude completely, little one,” the demon says. “But you’d best drop it entirely when it’s my orders in question.”
The bald man keeps his eyes closed and his head back. He doesn’t open them when Elaine, the female flight attendant, stands at the front of the plane and begins performing the standard safety guidelines. He keeps his eyes closed as the plane taxis to the runway. He doesn’t open them as the plane speeds up and takes off. The repetitive clench of his jaw is the only indication that he hasn’t fallen asleep.
Darius doesn’t have his usual perch to people watch the morons who frequent that cruddy little bar, so he does the next best thing: scan the channels for a reality TV competition. Once he sees people with bandanas, backpacks, and maps on the screen trying to communicate unsuccessfully with each other, he leaves the channel on. He doesn’t put on headphones, he prefers to just watch.
There isn’t enough time for Darius to go into a deep meditation, so he’s effectively stuck in limbo. Reduced once more to waiting.
He hits the call button in the bulkhead above him, and when the flight attendant comes over, he orders another whiskey. As he sips the last of the tepid liquid before his fresh one arrives, he imagines everything he’ll do after killing the girl and stripping her of her powers. The first of which will be to find her family and murder them while he makes that meddling old man watch.
The demon opens the shade of the small window all the way and looks out. His own reflection in the plexiglass catches his eye. He flashes a conniving smile at his image knowing that pretty soon all of this goddamn waiting wi
ll finally be over.
● 56 ●
“Alexa”
As I lead Matt and Cali over to the third cube in the row, I hear Cali behind me giving Matt another crash course. This time the topic is Extensios.
“So, basically, she’s going to say some stuff in Latin, and then her hand will glow, and she’ll touch us, and then BAM! We are her Extensios and can move stuff with our minds.”
“This is all still really unbelievable, you know?”
My Name Is Not Alexa Pearce Page 31
