by Kimbra Swain
I sat in a chair in the kitchen and George draped a sheet around me. I could feel her hovering in the doorway when George pulled out the buzz clippers. “I can't watch,” she whined and sulked off to another room.
“Just trim it, George,” I said.
“I had no intention of doing anything else. We both have to live with her,” he said plainly.
“That we do,” I agreed, and George trimmed my hair.
After my trim, I found her in the bourbon room leaning on the bar talking on the phone and looking at pictures on a tablet. When she saw me, she smiled knowing very well I'd give into her. I winked at her and plopped down in one of the recliners.
“Ashley, please call Zuhair’s people and beg them to deliver the dress to the hotel,” she said and paused. I could hear Ashley talking but not exactly what she said back to Abby. “Fine then I will wear the red Ralph & Russo,” she said and continued to pause after each statement. “Yes, I know the split goes to the crotch,” I turned around looking at her wide-eyed. “Tadeas approves,” she said.
“Leave me out if this, whatever this is,” I said leaning back down in the chair.
She talked over Ashley and said, “I'm picking out a dress for the auction. She sent me pictures on the tablet. She walked over and sat down on the arm of the chair. She handed me the tablet to see the pictures of dresses. I grimaced. Dress choices were not part of the job interview. There wasn't much dress to look at, and yes, the split on it went way up. At least the top was mostly covered. I shook my head no. “Why not?” she said and Ashley kept talking.
“Because it is hardly a dress, Abby,” I said. She looked at the phone scrolling through pictures while Ashley talked. She showed me another, and it was completely sheer like the ones I saw at the party in the compound. “No, absolutely not!” I said.
I heard Ashley clearly say, “What's his problem?”
“Nothing. Tadeas is a prude,” she laughed. I heard Ashley laughing too.
“Women,” I muttered, and she lightly punched me in the arm.
“Just pick one Ash, just as long as I can get to a knife strapped to my leg, I'm fine with whatever you decide,” she conceded to Ashley.
“Now that's hot,” I replied to the knife comment. She punched me again, harder this time.
“No, I have not showed him. I will. I'll do it right now. Not on the phone with you. Bye Ash,” she said and hung up.
“Show me what?” I asked.
“This,” she said and I turned to look into the violet eyes of a dark chestnut brown-haired beauty. It looked like Abby, but not.
“What the hell?” I said and jumped out of the chair to get a better look.
“It's a glamour,” she said.
“I know that, but why?”
“Did you think I would walk into that auction as Abigail Davenport?”
“It didn't occur to me,” I said trying to see past the glamour. Most of the time my animal sight would let me. But not this one. It was too sophisticated. “Who are you, and why don't we take this to my room before my crazy partner gets back? She gets jealous.”
“Cute,” she said. “I go by Annalise Madden at these kinds of events.”
“Do I get one too?” I asked.
“If you want,” she offered.
“No thanks. I'll just be me,” I said.
“You still need an alias. You can either pick or I can pick for you,” she said.
“Just do something simple like Carlos,” he said.
“Carlos is boring,” she said getting up and gathering her various electronic devices. “How about Alejandro or Sebastian?”
“Ew, no, Carlos is fine. Or Juan.”
“We can decide once we get there. I’ve got to grab some stuff downstairs in the lab,” she said.
“Lab? I didn’t see a lab down there,” I said.
“It’s a small closet off to the side of the office,” she said walking that way, and I followed her. Beside the office there stood a door that I’d never noticed before, and the room was the size of the walk-in closets upstairs. It held various containers, rocks, crystals, jars and books. On the concrete table, there was a small inlaid silver circle. She picked up a couple of blue colored crystals and handed them to me. “Those are teleport crystals. It’s how we get back home. I’ll show you how to use them. We’ll have two just in case. If something happens to one of us, the other has a crystal.”
“I’m not leaving without you,” I said immediately. She stopped and looked at me stunned.
“Silly, no, I mean like if you have a fainting spell, I can drag you with me and use my crystal, or if I like do this amazing feat of magic, and become too weak to come home, you can use yours,” she joked.
“I mean it,” I said. “I’m not leaving without you.” She did not know what to say. I was not going to beat around the bush with her anymore about these kinds of things. If we went in together, we came out together.
I could tell she understood. She walked up to me, and kissed my cheek. “I’m going to change clothes. I laid some out for you. Okay?”
“Okay. Then we go?”
“Then we go,” she said.
I got to my room, and it wasn’t anything special. A nice pair of black dress pants with a matching sport coat. There was a deep blue button up shirt, and black dress shoes. I figured everything else we would need would already be there. I learned that she planned ahead for everything. I walked out of the room buttoning up the shirt, and she stood there in her glamour with what had to be the sexiest black dress I’d ever seen. My jaw dropped, and I stood in amazement as my hormones went wild. I closed my eyes and swore, “Damn it.”
“Thank you,” she said. When she started walking to the basement door, there was very little on the back side of the dress except what covered her butt. I gritted my teeth and forced back the raging hormones. I caught up with her, that way I didn’t have to stare at the rear view.
George waited downstairs and had pulled the main rug back in the room. It sat rolled up in the corner. A large silver circle was imbedded in the floor. She picked up a small purse from the desk and pulled out the blue crystals. She walked over to George and hugged him. He shook his head at the dress, but she just smiled. I looked at him, and gave him a pleading look. He walked over and shook my hand, “Good luck.”
“For what?” I asked.
“For that,” and he pointed at her.
“Thanks, I’ll need it. Say a prayer for me,” I said.
“Already done,” he said.
“You two done now?” she asked.
“If I wasn’t, would it matter?” I asked back.
“No.”
“That’s what I thought,” and I joined her in the circle. She pulled out a small knife from the purse and cut her finger. She put her finger on the silver circle and a cyclone of wind swirled up around us which was very dangerous in that dress.
“Both of these crystals are tuned to this circle. They can be used from any circle anywhere. See how they glow while we are here in it?” I nodded and she continued. “You take one, and I’ll keep the other.” She handed it to me and stuck hers in her bra. It surprised me she even wore a bra. So little fabric to cover so much.
“Aw, damn Abby, seriously?” Maybe she was right, I was a prude. Not completely, because even though I wasn’t trying to take a peek, I got one anyway. I looked up at George, and he shook his head. Perhaps the angel knew the meaning of blissful torment.
She grinned at me. She was doing all of this on purpose. “This crystal,” she said as she pulled out a green one, “is tuned to a circle in a safe house in Paris. KBS has an operative there that has empowered the circle for us. Since I’ve been there, I’m going to use this one, but we need to be in physical contact.”
Two could play this game. I walked up to her and put my right arm on her bare back and pulled her to me. She didn’t flinch.
“All you have to do is concentrate on the place you want to go. If you end up having to use your crystal, fo
cus on this room and the island. Once you’ve focused on it, say the magic word.”
“What’s the magic word?” I asked.
“Transilio,” she said and the wind whirled inside the circle. It blew around enough that I squinted my eyes. When I opened them, we were in a small apartment with sparse furnishings. The circle in the floor glowed. Outside the circle, two rolling suitcases sat along with a hanging garment bag.
“That’s really awesome,” I said standing there in awe of jumping to an entirely different place through a circle.
“Here’s the tricky thing though, jumping back to the island is different. The only way to get on the island is through the portal. Basically, we just jumped through the portal, and then here with no stops in between. As long as the portal is intact, the magic works. If not, then you can’t jump to the island,” she explained. “And you can let go of me now.”
“No, not until you quit playing games,” I said.
“I’m not playing games,” she protested.
“Yes, you are. I know you are beautiful. You know that I think you are beautiful. You don’t have to parade around for me. This is serious now. You need to concentrate on our task here and stop trying to throw me off,” I said.
She looked hurt, but she said, “I understand.” I let go of her, and she walked up to the edge of the circle. She told me that circles could only be broken by the person that put them up, or someone more powerful than the circle itself. “Rumpo,” she said as she touched the invisible barrier. A small gust of wind blew around the room and the protection of the circle dispersed. She went to grab the luggage, but I hurried over and got it before she did. We exited the room and went downs several flights of stairs. I assumed the place did not have an elevator. When we got to the bottom, we stepped out on the street and a cab waited on us. I loaded in the luggage and opened the door for her. She got in and slid over in the seat, and I followed her into the cab.
“19 Rue de Caumartin,” she told the driver. He said something in French, and he pulled out. I’d never been to Paris before. I watched as the city passed us by. Paris traffic was conjested, and the ride from the safe house to the hotel took about 45 minutes. Abby pulled out a wallet from her purse, and counted out Euros to pay the cabbie. When we got to the destination, she paid him and thanked him in French, “Merci pour le tour rapide.” He spoke to her again, and I watched him watch her get out of the cab. I couldn’t blame the guy. I watched her walk down the hall earlier and then scolded her for it.
The hotel did not look like much from the outside. It actually appeared to be an apartment building. We entered the hotel, and while it had been a little while since we had done it, I heard her voice softly speak in my head, “You take over. You are in charge. I’ll follow you.”
“I don’t speak French,” I informed her.
“The guy at the desk speaks English,” she said.
We approached the check in desk. “Good afternoon sir, how may I help you?” the clerk said in English.
“Afternoon to you as well. We have a reservation under the name Madden,” I said remembering her alias at the last minute.
“Why yes, here it is right here. You will be in room 20. It is on the top floor. Here is your key. I see the room has already been paid for as well as all room service and the wet bar. I hope you enjoy your stay sir,” he said to me, but stared at Abigail.
“Thank you, sir,” I said and picked up the envelope with the key card in it and placed my hand on Abby’s back and guided her to the elevator. A bellhop came by us with our luggage. He passed the elevator, and I watched him go by. I assumed there was a service elevator. We entered the elevator and she pushed the button for the top floor.
“Well done,” she said. “I’d like you to continue to do that if you don’t mind.”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Lead,” she said.
“Sure, but why?”
“It allows me to watch the room around us, and prep for any kind of attack. If I’m dealing with hotel clerks or waiters or whatever the case may be, I can’t concentrate on the elements around me that I could pull power from,” she explained.
It made sense to let her have as much control of her magic as possible. The elevator doors opened, and we approached the door with the 20 on it. It was the only door on the floor. The bellhop waited for us, and the luggage sat inside the room. She slipped him some cash. “Merci,” he said and slipped out of the room.
I expected a huge room, but actually it was pretty small. Inside the room was only a small desk and chair, a bench at the end of the bed, the king-sized bed which took up most of the room, a small fridge and table, and a door way that opened to the bathroom. “It’s small,” I said.
“Yes. The venue is a short drive, but not too close. Plus, we didn’t need anything else,” she said. “Will you order food? I’m hungry. Then I need to set up my laptop and see who is in town.”
“Sure,” I said taking off my coat and laying it across the end of the bed. She walked over to the luggage and pulled a laptop out of one of the bags, and set it down on the small desk. She turned it on, and grabbed a couple things out of the bag, went into the bathroom, and shut the door. I just shook my head and went over to the phone next to the bed. Of course, the menu was in French. I took out my phone and started translating the menu. A double glass door led out to a small balcony with a table and two chairs. I dialed the number for room service. I ordered what I hoped would be a couple of grilled chicken sandwiches and fries. I opened the doors to the patio and a cool breeze flowed through the room. When Abby came out of the bathroom, she had on jeans and a t-shirt. Goodbye little black dress. I watched her as she walked to the door and put her hand on it. She said several words and a golden light shimmered over it. She then put her hands on the wall next to the door, and spoke more Latin. The whole room shimmered. She placed wards over the room to keep us safe, or at the very least provide a warning of attack. She walked over to the laptop and sat down. She started clicking away at emails. Her cell phone rang from the bathroom.
“Could you get that for me?” she asked politely. I walked in the bathroom. The black dress was in the floor tossed in a corner. I picked up the phone. The screen said it was Ashley calling.
“It’s Ashley,” I said to her.
“Just answer it,” she said as I walked back in the room.
“Hello,” I said.
“Oh, hey Tadeas, did you guys make it okay?”
“Yes, we did,” I said. I suppose it sounded dry, because she picked up on it.
“Oh no, what’s happened now?” I didn’t respond to the question.
“She’s on the laptop, and wanted me to answer the phone,” I said.
“Oh, okay, you aren’t going to tell me, because it will make it worse. I get it. Tell her the dress will be delivered this afternoon as well as your suit. I sent her all the emails on the intelligence of who has entered Paris in the last 48 hours. If you guys need anything, one of us is monitoring the phone constantly, okay?”
“Thanks Ashley, anything else?”
“No, but please you two try to get along, okay?”
“Everything is fine Ash. See you soon,” I said and hung up the phone.
“Thanks,” Abby said. I sat the phone down next to her, and she touched my hand, “Everything is fine.”
“I know,” I said and walked over to the bed and laid down on it. I stared at the ceiling and waited on the food.
It wasn’t long until it arrived. I set hers out for her on the desk next to her, and I took mine out to the table on the patio. I sat down, and she got up from the desk. She picked up the food and brought it to sit with me.
“You don’t have to entertain me Abby,” I said. “I know you are working.”
“We won’t have many more opportunities in the future to sit and have a meal when we aren’t in a fight, or on a job, or on the run. I’m going to take every opportunity we get, because I never know when I’ll get another chance to enjoy time
with you.”
That was the best reason I could imagine hearing from her. She started talking about the venue for the auction, and where the exits were. She went into full business mode. I let her talk and took it all in while we ate. Someone knocked at the door, and I went to get it. She pulled a roll of Euros out of her pocket and slipped them to me as I passed. The bellhop stood there holding two garment bags. I gave him some cash and took the bags. I put them in a small nook just outside the bathroom with a pole for hanging clothes. I unzipped the one that felt like a suit. Inside I found a black Armani suit with black shirt and tie. I unzipped the other bag, and a beautiful pink dress flowed out of it.
“Wow,” I said. She looked up from her food, and her eyes widened.
“I didn’t expect that,” she said.
“Expect what?”
“Pink. Technically its rose,” she got up and walked over to it. She reached inside the suit and pulled out a wallet and handed it to me. “Oh, this is a Tony Ward. Very nice.”
I opened the wallet, the identification inside had my picture and the name Carlos Madden. “Um, Abby,” I said and handed it to her.
“Damn it Ashley,” she said, and handed it back to me.
“Married?” I asked.
“Yes, married,” she responded, “And apparently you took my name.” I could tell it frustrated her. Ashley pushed a relationship on us again.
“She means well, Abby,” I tried to calm her.
“I know she does, but it’s not like we needed any added tension,” she said.
“Is there tension between us?” That confused me because other than the comment about the dress, I thought everything was fine.
“Not that kind of tension,” she said and sat back down at her food, but she didn’t eat.
I went back over and sat down, “Hey, we are doing our job, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “I just, we just.” She stopped and tried to gather her thoughts. “This auction thing is going to be rough, and we don’t need the added distraction. But I figured we probably would have to have a very outwardly show of affection to each other while there to make sure you were connected to me and my reputation at these sorts of things. Or rather Annalise Madden’s reputation.”
