2 Pocket Full of Posies

by Angela Roquet

  I put my hands on my hips. “You’re a demon. How exactly do you expect me to feel with you standing directly behind me?”

  “Well, I could tell you how most women feel when I’m directly behind them.” He winked.

  “Oh, grief.” I sighed. “You really just can’t help yourself, can you?”

  He came around from the bar and handed me the drink. I took it from him and tilted my head back to down it in one swallow. I’d show him uncomfortable.

  Bub’s perpetual smile faltered as he swept his fingers under my chin and tilted my head back once more to examine my neck. My pulse quickened again. “You’re healing up nicely.”

  The scarf I had worn to hide the nasty burn on my neck laid abandoned on the sofa with my jacket. The blistering had gone down, but I still had a pinkish gray handprint wrapped around my throat. I was feeling less self-conscious lately, since all of Eternity seemed to know about it anyway.

  “I’m really hoping it’s gone before the placement ceremony.” I said, gently pulling away from him.

  His smile returned, and he took my empty glass, letting his fingers linger over mine. “Another?”

  I looked at the clock again. “I can’t.”

  “Afraid I’ll take advantage of you?” he asked.

  “Don’t you have enough ladies to tend to without having to harass me?”

  “But none of them blush quite as brilliantly as you do.”

  My thoughts dove off the deep end and somehow circled back to the memory of the Oracle Ball and the late night coffee with a blushing Maalik. My stomach knotted. “Are we finished?”

  Bub frowned. “For today.”

  “Good. I have a study date tonight.” I snatched my jacket off the sofa and tugged it on.

  Bub beat me to the scarf. I folded my arms as he slowly looped it around my neck and tied a knot over the side with the scar. “See you in the morning, pet.”

  “Yeah,” I said, tucking the strap of throwing stars in my jacket pocket.

  I made my way back to the foyer and out the front door. Like most homes in Eternity, currency travel was inactive while inside. I took a few steps away from the patio and found my coin. Rolling it three times, I said the coordinates for the courtyard outside Holly House and left Tartarus behind.

  Chapter 16

  "My grandmother was a very tough woman.

  She buried three husbands and two of them were just napping."

  -Rita Rudner

  Living at Holly House still seemed strange. I felt like a vandal every time I stepped foot in the courtyard, like any minute snipers would pop out of the bushes, demanding to know what I was doing there. I could have sworn that I was the only one in the entire building who even owned a pair of blue jeans.

  “Evening, Ms. Harvey,” Charlie called from the front desk as I hurried towards the elevators.

  “Oh, hi,” I said back.

  He always caught me off guard. At the Coexist Complex there was no front desk and no chipper, friendly face to greet residents or guests. I considered myself lucky if the landlord even answered the phone when I called to register a complaint about a leaky faucet.

  I rode an elevator up to the tenth floor and entered my condo to find Saul and Coreen fighting over a dainty, white couch cushion. “Drop it!” I snapped.

  Saul let go first, sending Coreen tumbling into the coffee table. He wagged his tail and innocently pranced over to me to lick my hand. I glared at him for a minute and then sighed, reaching down to scratch his ears. Coreen slipped up beside him with her tail between her legs. I scratched her chin and her tail looped in time with Saul’s.

  “I’m sorry, you guys. I’ve just been so busy. Go fetch your leads,” I told them.

  They raced for my bedroom and dug their leashes out of a basket on the floor. I still had an hour before Craig would make an appearance, and the hounds desperately needed to get out of the condo for a while, before they destroyed it and each other.

  The park didn’t get much action as far as I could tell. I’d only seen two or three souls wandering through the gardens in all the times I’d gone to visit Winston. So it came as quite a surprise when I ran into Anubis and his jackals sniffing around the rose hedges.

  “Lana!” Anubis gave me a nod with a cheerful smile. He had a lead in each hand, same as me. His simple black robe would have made most mistake him for a reaper, if it wasn’t for the jeweled belt at his waist.

  I smiled and nodded back, ignoring my heart as it leapt in my throat. I secretly prayed to Khadija that I had scrubbed vigorously enough to rid myself of any trace of Wosyet.

  The jackals and hounds took turns sniffing each others butts and then resumed panting and wagging their tails.

  “Any luck with your search?” I asked.

  “Not a lick.” Anubis sighed and tilted his head to one side. “Is it safe to assume Horus filled you in on all the extra details of my visit to Limbo?”

  “You mean about how you’re trying to locate where the rebels are slipping in?”

  “Yeah.” He frowned and glanced around the park before taking a step closer. “My boys are catching scents here and there of known traitors, but there’s too much coin activity. The trails go dead in so many random places, it’s impossible to tell which ones are relevant and which ones are decoys.”

  “I see.” I nodded, relaxing a little. He hadn’t mentioned Wosyet at all. Horus had been right. The primary objective of Anubis’s search was to figure out how the rebels were entering the city.

  “I heard you were attacked. How are you doing?” he asked.

  “Fine. I’m fine.” I smiled.

  It was strange having a god genuinely ask after me. Athena and Artemis only seemed to care if they thought it would give them a good subject to gossip about with customers and each other. Anubis had a gentle kindness and humor about him that seemed displaced in a death god. I should have been more on guard around him with his association with Horus, but I couldn’t help it. A comfortable ease settled around me when he was near, like we had been friends for ages. Like I didn’t have to sweat when my back was turned to him.

  “I better get back to work. You take care, Lana. I’ll see you at the placement ceremony.” He gave me another nod and disappeared around the hedges.

  Saul and Coreen tugged me around the park, circling the main fountain several times while sniffing the ground. They had gotten used to aiding me on the job, and I knew they were itching to get back to work, but that would have to wait until after my new placement. I had a feeling they’d come in handy on the Posy Unit.

  We made it back to the condo just in time to run into Craig as he entered the front gate. He looked like a traveling salesman in his gray slacks and blue button-up, complete with a matching gray tie. He sported the same military, buzz cut he had for the past three hundred years. It gave his head a grayish tint, drawing out the splash of gray freckles across his nose and cheeks. He flashed me one of his sparkling, fake smiles, and it was all I could do not to snarl.

  The hounds sensed my disappointment and took the opportunity to stare down my unwanted guest and sniff him over. My mood perked at his bulging eyes.

  “Doesn’t Holly have some sort of pet restriction?” he asked, taking a shaky breath. Coreen huffed and tilted her nose in the air.

  “She made an exception for me,” I said, entering my personal clearance code on the cross-shaped security box.

  “Why’s that?” he snapped.

  “Because I’m special, jackass.” Grace was forcing me to work with him, but that didn’t mean I had to play nice.

  I led the hounds through the lobby and stopped at the front desk to visit with Charlie and let Craig sign in.

  “Did you have a nice walk, Ms. Harvey?” Charlie asked.

  “It was lovely. Say, would you mind bringing me up a bottle of Merlot later, around ten? Maalik should be stopping by if the council lets out early.” Maalik wouldn’t be stopping by again until Sunday, but I wanted to have an excuse to throw Craig out
as soon as possible.

  “Certainly, Ms. Harvey.” Charlie smiled and took the visitors log from Craig, carefully inscribing his initials next to Craig’s sloppy signature.

  “Shall we, Ms. Harvey?” Craig grinned.

  I rolled my eyes and turned for the elevators. Coreen and Saul made sure to take up as much space as possible in the little golden box, forcing Craig to press himself into a corner. I smiled at his mangled expression. “Why, Craig, I was sure you were a dog person.” I snickered.

  “And I was sure you weren’t.”

  “I dated you, didn’t I?” I said as the elevator doors slid open.

  “Hey, Lana!” Warren waited in the hall, cradling a wooden box in his arms. He gave Craig a curious look as he traded us places in the elevator.

  “Keeping busy?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes. I’m going to need an assistant if I keep going at this rate.” He laughed as the doors pinged shut.

  “I don’t remember you being so social,” Craig said as I opened the door to my condo.

  “A lot changes in two hundred years.”

  “So I see.” He took a deep breath as we walked into the dining room and I flipped on the lights. The city was gently fading through the enormous window in the sitting room, and our ghostly reflections stared back as us. Mine looked irritated and bored, while Craig’s appeared surprised and a little uncomfortable.

  I took Saul and Coreen’s leads off and gave their ears a ruffle before they scurried around the table to wait at their food dishes. I sighed and went to fetch their Cerberus Chow out of the pantry.

  Craig opened his messenger bag and carefully stacked his text books and folders on the table. I was sure he already had our final complete. This was just his way of trying to weasel back into my life. To get in on all the action and information he was so sure I had, and then use it to somehow take a step up in life. That’s all I had been to him while we were dating. But I had learned a lot over three hundred years, and my secrets were just that, mine. He was going to have to find someone else to be his stepping stone this time.

  I flipped on the coffee maker and found a mug, hesitating before I grabbed a second one. Assholes like coffee too, I suppose.

  “You still take yours black?” I asked.

  “I’m touched that you remember.” Craig grinned as he arranged his pencils and calculator out on the table like the OCD freak that he was.

  I resisted the urge to spit in his mug and instead filled mine with all the sugar and cream I could stand. While I waited for the coffee to finish, I slipped out of my jacket and laid it over the counter. Craig knew about my demon encounter, but I left the scarf on. The last thing I needed tonight was his insincere coddling. I filled our mugs and took the seat across from him.

  He eyed my throat a moment and then met my glare. “Wouldn’t this be easier if you sat over here, so you can see what I’ve got drawn up so far?”

  “Is it so difficult to slide it across the table? I mean, I’d hate to spill my coffee on you,” I said.

  “Fine. Have it your way.” Craig pushed a notebook towards me.

  Grace’s final assignment sounded simple enough. There were three scenarios for us to pick from, and then we had to map out a strategy solution and present it to the class. Since the Wandering Souls course covered the Posy Unit and Lost Souls Unit, we were expected to identify which unit was best suited for each catch. Three souls were in question in each scenario.

  Craig had already picked a scenario for us, of course.

  “Ax murderer,” I read aloud. “John Smith has recently murdered three women and buried them in his backyard in New Mexico. The traumatic circumstances of their deaths have caused their souls to leave their bodies before their scheduled harvests. Jane Doe A was abducted from a gas station fifty miles south of Mr. Smith’s home. She was a single mother of two and a ballet instructor for twenty plus years. Jane Doe B had a flat tire and was picked up by Mr. Smith thirty miles south of his home. She was a senior in college, majoring in child psychology, and she worked at a daycare not five miles from where she was abducted. Jane Doe C was a waitress, abducted from the parking lot of the café she worked at forty miles east of Mr. Smith’s home. She had recently moved to the area from Mexico, after the death of her parents.”

  “Does that one work for you, or would you prefer the plane crash or suicide bomber?”

  “This one’s fine.” I folded my arms. “I’m sure it’s easier for you to relate to, having to harass and abduct women before they’ll give you the time of day.”

  His grin tightened, but he cleared his throat and took the notebook back, maintaining his poise. “Obviously, Doe C is most suited for the Lost Souls Unit. I think Does A and B would be covered by the Posy Unit, especially considering their closer proximity and local histories.”

  I don’t know why, but I was a little surprised that Craig wasn’t drilling me for more personal information. He was actually focusing on our assignment. Maybe he did need to pass the course. Then again, maybe this was just a new tactic of his, I thought with a frown.

  “So I’ll take A and B,” I said. “If we’re working on separate parts of this, we don’t really have to work together, right?”

  Craig looked panicked for a moment. “Well,” he stammered. “We’ll still need to present the assignment together, and we’ll want to prepare and practice.”

  I wrinkled my brow at him. “I think we each have plenty of other people we can practice on.”

  Craig’s frustrations were beginning to peek through his scholarly façade. “Am I so awful to be around? Don’t you have a single good memory from all the time we spent together?”

  “Those memories grew a little pale, once I found out how meaningless it had all been to you.”

  Craig’s grin suddenly warped into something that might have been considered sincere, if I hadn’t known better. He unfolded his hands and reached across the table towards mine. I almost fell out of my chair as I jerked away before he could touch me.

  “God, Lana.” He sighed. “I know we have a sordid past, but I had no idea how hard you took the breakup.”

  “Please,” I scoffed, feeling myself redden. “That was centuries ago. Why can’t you just let me be?”

  “I’m trying to apologize, and you’re not making it very easy,” he said.

  “It’s a little late for apologies, Craig. And that’s not what I invited you over here for. We have a final due next week. If you’re not interested in passing this class, I can do it on my own.”

  “Right,” he shot back. “I’m sure your new friend Jenni would be thrilled to help you.”

  “Yes, I imagine she would be. So I really don’t need you hanging around after two centuries, sticking your nose in my business and trying to turn my life upside down all over again.”

  “Hey, you invited me over.” Craig folded his arms.

  “Yeah, well, now I’m uninviting you. I think we’ve coved enough to get us through this final.”

  “You’re impossible.” He sighed and began stuffing books back in his messenger bag. “I can’t believe I was actually going to ask you out to dinner.”

  I threw a hand to my chest. “Oh, no! Looks like I blew my big chance. Whatever shall I do? Oh, I know. I’ll celebrate. With my boyfriend. Tonight.” I opened the door for him.

  Craig’s jaw tightened as he reached up to loosen his tie. He gave me one last look, like he might have just one more stupid comment left in him. I lifted my chin, daring him to try me. Instead, he drew his lips together in a tight line and shook his head before storming out. What an asshat.

  I don’t consider myself an unreasonable person or hard to get along with. I was still friendly, or at least civil, with most of my exes. Craig just rubbed me the wrong way. It was true that he was my first and longest relationship, but that wasn’t what grated my cheese. Craig had used me. Really, truly, used me. He cheated on me at least twice that I knew of and dumped me numerous times for random, half-ass reasons. And every
single time he came back around to kiss and make up, it was coincidentally right before a big exam. We had naked study parties rather than actual dates. The only reason the bastard scored higher than me on the exit exam was because I had spent the night before crying my eyes out after he had dumped me, yet again.

  I was sure he was at least subconsciously responsible for my complete disdain for school. It was also possible that he was partially responsible for my lack of ambition. By staying at the bottom of the totem pole, he was less likely to try to use me as a stepping stone again. I should have expected him to come sniffing around once I started moving up in the world. Fortunately, I was beyond over him. The only thing I felt when I saw him now was the sting of embarrassment. No one likes to be reminded of how stupid they were once upon a time.

  Chapter 17

  “The rules of fair play do not apply

  in love and war.”

  -John Lyly

  By Wednesday evening, I was actually beginning to look forward to going back to work. Between the nerve-wracking training session with Bub and Josie’s little study party obsession, my body and mind were suffering from extreme overload. Bub had gone mild with the flirting today, but only because the new lesson involved more concentration than I could muster with him breathing down my neck.

  After another vigorous session with the throwing stars, he had busted out the text books. I was expected to identify all seventy-two demons who worked for Solomon, and the difference between an Incubus and a familiar. Bub even had a collection of bespelled jars containing the essence of various demons that he demanded I learn how to recognize by scent alone.

  I almost cried when I got home and found the study gang waiting for me at the dining table. I seriously considered asking Josie to give back the spare key I’d given her. That was for emergencies only. Study parties did not register as an emergency in my book.

  We barreled through three hours of studying, and just about the time that I decided throwing myself out a window might be a reasonable solution, they left.