Re-emerging from the kitchen, and fist full of impromptu kitchen towel ice pack, my neighbor paused to frown at me. "That's not quite what I meant," she said gesturing to my sideways-in-the-armchair position. "I guess it'll do," she said and handed me the ice. She smiled a real, un-enamored smile.
I'd never seen anyone drop in and out of enthrallment before.
It made me nervous.
She was clearly in the first stage of enthrallment. I should have time before she became dangerous, but with her strange way of turning it on and off, I couldn’t be sure.
Plus, I did have a history of attracting the one-off energy drains.
I broke eye contact, but not before noticing her features. Her natural, ash-blonde hair and warm hazel eyes only served to make me feel guilty for never really seeing her before.
Yes, I did it on purpose; avoiding people's faces helped me keep my distance, which kept my energy and magic safe. And yeah, she was annoying, but only because she was dreamy-eyed for me. I had the feeling that if it weren't for the human/practitioner dynamic, she'd be someone I'd like.
Except for those damn cutesy scrubs. I’d never seen such garishly bright owls before. She had to work with kids, that was the only explanation for the terrible color choice in already horribly boxy and ill-fitting scrubs. Right?
"What's your name?" I asked with a wince as the ice touched my knee.
"Lucy Steig," she said with a smile. "Now let me see your knee before you ice it."
I lifted the kitchen towel and Lucy unlaced my boot and rolled up my pant leg. Her movements were efficient and careful especially considering my jeans weren't exactly loose fitting. We both gasped when she exposed it.
“Holy shit,” I groaned. The sight of my swollen, purple, and angry knee made it hurt that much more.
Lucy leaned in, getting a better look. "It's a small cut, but it's deep. You may have nicked the bone. What did you cut it on?"
I couldn't answer - I was trying not to be sick. The pain in my knee and of her in my energetic wound was too much. The knee throbbed through my whole body while the wound scraped and mashed every nerve ending. My stomach roiled and flipped, vision brightened then tunneled. I was going to puke.
And then I wasn't.
"Are you alright?" Lucy asked from across the living room. I wiped the cold sweat off my face and neck before nodding.
I could handle the throbbing knee as long as she kept her distance, and she seemed to be catching on.
Lucy looked at me a moment, gauging whether I truly was alright. Deciding I was, she turned on her heel and aimed herself down the hall. "I meant his ethnicity," she said from my bathroom. "Your boyfriend, where is he from ethnically?"
Enamored Lucy was back, picking up her babbles right where she left them. Fuck. This was serious. Lucy kept dropping in and out of enthrallment, and I had no idea how long I had until she became dangerous.
The scar across my ribs twinged an ephemeral warning.
I lifted myself out of the armchair, just enough to fish the knife out of my back pocket. I had it stuffed under my thigh, but within easy reach, before she came back.
I had to get her out of here.
"If I had to guess I'd say he's Mediterranean - oh, or maybe even Middle Eastern.” She babbled from the hallway. “He's definitely got the dark, mysterious thing. Are you two serious? How long have you been together? Have you met his family? Do you have any peroxide? Oh, there it is. How about antibiotic cream? I can't find any."
I waited to see if she'd actually stop talking. "I'm a pretty good healer. The peroxide should be fine," I said and carefully rearranged my legs. My feet were going numb from dangling over the arm of the chair, but I knew walking to the couch would be even more uncomfortable.
"Here we go," Lucy said, reemerging from the bathroom. She stood at arm’s length and gave me the peroxide and a hand towel.
I handed her the ice.
"Thank you." I meant it. I couldn't care less about the peroxide, but I was very grateful she hadn't stepped into my space again.
She nodded and smiled, and for a moment I caught a glimpse of the real Lucy again. Just as I gave her an acknowledging look, she disappeared behind a glaze of babbling.
"Don't use too much. There are studies showing peroxide destroys healthy cells as well as bacteria. You also don't want to get any on your pretty chair," she said as an afterthought and looked around the condo. "Your style is very…I don't know, modern bohemian? I don't think I've seen anything like it. It's not my taste, but I can definitely appreciate the aesthetic. It suits you, I think. I bet your bra and panties never match either," she said with a smile.
She was right about that when I could find them at least. "So I take it you're a nurse?" I asked, trying to shift her focus off me. Again.
She nodded, preoccupied with pulling things out of my bag.
"What are you doing?" I asked. She was making me nervous. I tightened my grip on the knife still hidden under my thigh. "Oh," I said as she pulled a dining room chair in front of me and put my laptop on it. She'd made me a makeshift desk.
"I'm guessing you'll want to work," she said, searching through my bag again. Lucy found what she was looking for, my power cord, and plugged the laptop into the closest outlet.
“Keep busy, but you'll need to keep that iced, twenty minutes on and twenty minutes off. Move it around once it's good and numb. It'll keep you from getting stiff. There's another ice pack in the freezer when that one melts. Take something if you feel the need, but stay away from Ibuprofen. It can increase bruising. Any questions?"
My jaw dropped. I'd never seen that before. Her babbles had turned from meaningless prattle to useful information. She was still glassy-eyed, and definitely in the first stage of enthrallment, but her nursing skills were seeping out. "Nope, no questions," I answered.
"OK then. I've got some errands to run but I'll be back in a few hours to see how you're doing. Remember twenty on and twenty off. OK?"
"OK," I said, and Lucy was out the front door before I could thank her.
But I couldn’t let her back in the condo.
Ever.
9
"She's not so bad," I said, smiling at the workspace Lucy made for me. Still, there was something very weird about the way she could flip her enthrallment on and off. And why had she been digging through my bag in the elevator?
My knee wasn't any better, just colder. It still hurt like hell and was just as ugly. It didn't make sense. I was a quick healer even before my initiation - being a practitioner amplified the ability. I hadn't had a cold, headache, or even a sneeze since then. I stretched my peculiar, injured knee but waves of hot nausea rolled through me. "OK, not numb enough for that.” I balanced the ice on my knee, put Kaori's package on the ground to open later, and reached for my laptop.
At least I could use the downtime to get some writing done.
But laptop was a hair beyond my fingertips. I tried to stretch for it, but my knee wailed in protest, shooting searing liquid fire up my leg.
Before I could let vulgarities, and the threatening tantrum out, the doorbell rang. Shit. If that was Lucy, I couldn’t let her in again. Not with me in this state, and not so soon after she’d left. Her enthrallment would grow exponentially if we had contact again so soon.
"Um, Zora?" It was not Lucy's voice.
"Brody?"
"Yeah, can I come in?"
What was Brody doing here? "The key is on the door frame."
"Hey," he said absently as he entered. "Sorry to barge in on you. Amari gave me your address; hope that's OK," he said to the floor. "I have something to show you that couldn't wait." When Brody finally saw my awkward position and the pile of ice on my knee, he stopped short in the threshold. "Gods, Zora what happened?" he asked, holding the door open with a relaxed arm.
"I fell."
"Do you mind if Pilar looks at it? She's good with that sort of thing."
With the mention of her name, a petite brunette stuck her he
ad through the doorway and waved at me.
Like pregnancy, I could smell a non a mile out. "Are you kidding me, Brody?" I growled at him. "Why are you with someone like her? Did I not make it infinitely clear how dangerous non-practitioners are to us?" My knee pulsed in tempo with my anger.
Brody opened his mouth to speak but the brunette put her hand on his arm. "Let me," she said, and Brody's mouth snapped shut in an unfortunate impression of a fish.
"Don't you come near me!" I shouted. "This hurts enough without you getting in my space." The brunette hadn't moved, but cold sweat beaded at my hairline.
"You two were just bonded?" the brunette asked with a calm and even tone as she entered my condo with the cautious restraint one uses with wild animals.
"Stay away!" I warned and put up a hand, but I was completely helpless. Brody tried to stop her, but she pushed his hands away and stepped into my space. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the shredding nerve pain.
It never came. When I opened a tentative eye the brunette was standing over me, reaching for the ice pack. I looked from her face to Brody's grin. What is going on here? She was clearly a non, already in the last phase of enthrallment, but she wasn't causing me any pain.
"It's bad, but not emergency-room bad, and it should start feeling better any minute now." the brunette said and placed the kitchen towel ice pack back on my knee.
The brunette smiled at my shocked expression. How could she know when my fucked knee would feel better? I shrank away out of habit, but it still didn't hurt when she was in my space. She gestured for Brody to come closer. "How does your knee feel?" she asked.
The throbbing had completely subsided. I was about to say as much but she answered for me. "It feels better, doesn't it? It's because Brody is here."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You and Brody just performed the bonding ritual, right?"
That was the second time she said that. How did she know? I looked at Brody, who still had a sappy grin on his face. She'd gotten her hooks into him fast, really fast; they were in the last phase of enthrallment. He was completely under her control. Had she manipulated him into telling her about our practices?
Fuck! This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have let him leave the bar before he understood.
"Oh, don't look at him like that, Zora. We haven't done anything wrong."
"Hasn't you?" I asked meeting her gaze with an icy one of my own.
The brunette smiled at me, turning her unremarkable blue eyes to sparkling and inviting. "We really haven't," she said and held out her hand. "I'm Pilar Romero, Brody's neighbor." I gave her hand the suspicious look it deserved.
She let her hand fall limp. "I can't make you trust me, but just hear me out, OK?"
I stared at her.
"I know what you and Brody are, and I know about your practices because I used to work for the Corporation."
Huh. Well, I was not expecting that. The Corporation employed mostly practitioners, for obvious reasons. Only a handful of very carefully selected nons worked there.
But that only explained half of the weirdness. "Alright, if you're trained to be unaffected by us, why is Brody acting like your minion?"
"Minion?!" Brody yelped. "I'm not her minion, Zora. She was never enthralled with me, and I'm not under her control." Brody leaned closer to me and took my hand. "Don't you see? That's why we're here. It's why I was adamant about not cutting everyone off. She's different. She can handle it."
I had to see for myself. "Tell him to do something," I said to the brunette, "but don't do it, Brody."
"Brody, get me something to drink." Brody didn't move. I studied his expression. If he had been under her control, disobeying would cause him physical pain. He showed no signs of discomfort, but I wasn't quite convinced.
"Get my bag for me," I said to Brody
"No, Brody should stay there. I'll get it for you,” she said.
"Brody can get it," I insisted.
She shrugged in a suit yourself way when Brody stood.
As soon as he'd stepped out of my space, my knee erupted. It throbbed and pulsed, sending coiled ripples of hellfire through my entire body. I gasped a ragged, tortured breath and clawed at the seat cushion. When he re-entered my space, the pain vanished.
"Told you," the brunette said.
I gave her the scowl her tone deserved and composed myself. Once my breath was under control, I asked her what I'd asked myself many times since she'd gotten here: "What the hell is going on?"
"It's the bonding ritual," she started and sat on the corner of the ottoman. "You gave him a piece of yourself. You're not one hundred percent right now. Not even close."
"But he gave of himself in return," I said.
"Yes, but it's not the same. Think back to your own initiation. Do you remember feeling this way?"
I shook my head.
"It's the nature of the bonding process. It leaves an energetic hole in the initiator but not the initiated. It's like having a physical wound. You are now more susceptible," she paused searching for the proper analogy, "to infection. Well, not really infection, more like infiltration. Others' energy mingling with your own is excruciating, isn't it?" I nodded. "And this thing with your knee, I'm guessing it started as something trivial, a bruise or scrape perhaps?" Again, I nodded. "With part of your energy field missing, you're unable to self-heal. The wound will only get worse unless you keep all of your energy close," she said and gestured to Brody. "It will heal quickly as long as he's in your space. The moment he's out, as you've noticed, the wound will revert to what it was."
Could this non-practitioner really know more about my kind than me? I lifted the ice, daring a peek at my knee. "Holy hell," I said, staring at my nearly healed knee.
How could this nobody know more than me about my own damn magic? And why hadn't Amari told me any of this?
He was going to get an earful when I saw him.
10
“See, you’re wrong about nons. Pilar proves that,” Brody said.
“You’re not getting it, Brody. I’m not wrong. You just happened to find the one exception.” First Pilar, now Brody thinks he knows everything there is to know about magic. The little shit just initiated yesterday!
“Do you honestly believe that?” Brody asked. “You really think that of all the people in The Circle I just happened to fall in love with the one person who was taught to control her energy? Isn’t it more likely that you’re wrong about the whole dynamic?”
“Who the hell do you think you are? You’re brand fucking new to this whole deal…why can’t you just trust me?”
“Zora, you’ve got a lot working against you. The bonding wound, they physical wound, and I’m guessing some wounded pride.”
“Shut up, Pilar. Nobody asked you!” Pilar raised her eyebrow at my unprovoked verbal assault. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Take it easy Zora. I don’t not trust you. I just think there’s a different way.” Brody said, calm and careful not to mirror my growing anger.
I stood up, dragging Brody with me. “Come on,” I said. I’ll prove it to you.
The three of us walked the short distance to the traffic circle the town was named for. Five major roads converged to form the circle, and off one of those spokes was Amari’s bar. But that’s not where we were going.
I knew I was going to regret this, but Brody had to see for himself, plus the walk helped dispel the anger in my gut. I grabbed his hand and pulled him and Pilar across two streets until we were dead center in the middle of the circle.
“What the hell are we doing here?” Brody said as I planted myself in the middle of the grassy easement.
“Just wait.”
Nobody crosses major roads to get to the center of the traffic circle. The city did a nice job of sprucing it up with ornamental grasses and perennial flowers, but people traveled each spoke of the circle, either by car or by foot, to get from one street to another, not sit in the middle of it.
That is until you plopped two practitioners in the center of it.
BEEEEEEEEP. “HEY! What the hell are you doing!?” yelled a driver as he slammed and screeched to a halt in front of a group of people jaywalking across one of the spokes. The same scene played out on every other spoke of the circle until about a dozen people were making their way to us.
They came from everywhere, out of the stores they were browsing in, out of the restaurants they were eating at, a few even came out of the gym, in full workout clothes.
They couldn’t help it. They sensed our magic as something they wanted. It normally wouldn’t have happened so quickly, but Brody had the disadvantage of being freshly initiated. He couldn’t contain his own energy if he tried.
Plus, I was throwing as much energy as I could into the ether. Just to make sure the nons could sense us.
“Um, OK. I get it. We should probably get out of here.” Brody said as the first few nons crossed over the truck apron.
They were only ten feet away from us.
I knew they wouldn’t hurt us, not at first at least, but seeing so many people close in on you is - well it’s fucking unsettling.
“Come on,” I said, and pulled Brody in the direction of the least amount of nons.
“HEY! HEY, YOU! What the hell do ya think yer playin' at?”
Shit. I knew that grating voice. It was Aerwin, a fae man that like to pick on me at The Laughing Cat. He was coming up on us faster than any of the nons.
“You should know better, ya daffy gypsy cunt! Bringing yer newling out in the wide open like this! Get the bloody hell outta here before ya cause a real ruckus!”
Before I could say a word Aerwin walled up to Brody, pulled back and popped him right in the mouth.
“What is wrong with you?” Pilar yelled as Brody grabbed his mouth and checked for blood.
“ME? What’s wrong with you lot? Get him inside before you all get sucked dry!” he said and pushed Brody toward an opening in the forming crowd. “GET OUT OF HERE!” he yelled again.
Brody and Pilar elbowed and shoved their way through the crowd. I followed close behind, watching every nons attention shift from Brody to me as we passed.
Enthralled Magic (The Circle Series Book 1) Page 4
