I forced myself to move, to step away. “You’re too late, Grim. I already remember everything.”
Shock passed over his face as the disguise melted. That was probably the first time in his long, long life anyone had ever really surprised him. A slow smile spread across his face, and it even reached his eyes. “I’m beginning to like you, little human.”
“The feeling isn’t mutual.”
***
I stumbled out of the tent into the cool night air and bumped right into Gwen. “Hey, are you ok, Iz? You’re paler than usual; I really didn’t think that was possible, but you are.”
“I’m fine, let’s go.” I stuffed my hands inside my jacket pockets and started towards Alex. I wanted to get them as far from that fortune teller’s tent, as possible.
“Hold up. I haven’t seen the fortune teller, yet. I’ve been out here getting hit on by Guido, the gypsy pimp.” The last thing Gwen needed was to see the fortune teller. I hoped that Grim had taken his leave, but I suspected he would wait, if he thought Gwen would come in.
“Was that what all the noise was about?” The carnie kept his distance, I noticed.
Gwen shrugged. “He started to get handsy. I convinced him it was a bad idea.”
“We need to go, Gwen, I think they’re about to close.”
“Well, shit, I wanted my fortune told. How was it, by the way?”
“Gibberish. Mystic bullshit. Past, present, future. She was a fake.”
“Here, Izzy. You look like you could use this.” Alex handed me a hot chocolate from the drink carrier he held. I took it, grateful for the distraction.
“Thank you.”
Alex handed over a Styrofoam cup to Gwen. “Coffee; extra sweet, extra creamer?” Gwen nodded and took it greedily. She seemed to recover from her disappointment about missing the fortune teller once she had coffee in her hands. I was just happy to get them both away from the psychic’s tent. Gwen had already been exposed to too much, and the more she knew, the more danger she was in. Alex was better off being left in the dark.
We walked slowly towards the midway. I had a completely surreal feeling, ever since I’d left the fortune teller’s booth. Asher was here, somewhere, watching me. I just knew it. I sipped my hot chocolate and sneaked little glances around me, hoping to find him. I sighed, disgusted with myself. Asher had tried to take my memories. I should be angry, and I was, but the pitiful truth was that I had missed him. That didn’t mean that I still didn’t want to kick his ass for what he’d done. He deserved a good ass-kicking.
I was only half paying attention to the conversation Gwen and Alex were having. Instead, I pretended to look at the jack o’ lanterns lining the streets. Some of them were pretty spectacular; real works of art that would rot and cave in on themselves, in a few short weeks. It made them more special, in a way. All that effort put into a carving, and it would be gone in such a short time. It was like life: here today, and gone tomorrow. Depressing thought. I shook it off. I was supposed to be having a good time with my friends, not dwelling on death and a jerk who had ditched me. Who happened to be Death. How ironic.
At least my headache was just a headache, and not a migraine, like I’d originally thought. I couldn’t help thinking about Grim. There were things that I needed to remember, he’d said. Why would he care if I could remember? More importantly, why would he try to undo something Asher had done to me? What was he up to?
Alex’s hand slipped from my shoulder to my waist as we walked. It was nice. Maybe a little too friendly for my taste, but nice. At least he seemed genuinely happy to be with me. Gwen caught the motion and grinned at me. “I’m gonna go see what I can get into, so you two can be alone. Have fun, kids.” She waved at us, as she turned to go.
"Wait, Gwen, which way are you going?" Suddenly, the idea of having her out of my sight left a queasy, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had no idea where Grim had taken himself off to, or if he would be back.
Gwen stopped and turned back, grinning as she rolled her eyes at me. "I'm just gonna go look around. I swear my mom worries about me less than you do," she said with a laugh.
"That's because she doesn't know you as well as I do. I know all the crap you're capable of getting into."
"It's all good, see," she pulled a can of pepper spray from her jacket pocket to show me. In her other hand, she held her key ring, a key sprouting from each knuckle. She shrugged, modestly, "And in a worst case scenario, I'm not opposed to punching someone in the nuts." Alex actually cringed when she said that. I should’ve told him that she wouldn’t really do something so awful to someone, even though I knew full-well that she would. "So you two go have fun. I have Alex's cell number if I need anything, and I remember where we parked the car."
"Ok, but be careful.”
Alex’s fingers twined with mine and pulled me insistently away from Gwen. Briefly, it entered my mind that he might need to be punched in the nuts. It was just a random thought, gone as quickly as it had come, but still I felt guilty for thinking it. Alex had been nothing but nice to me. I should try to be nicer to him.
I was just being silly. Probably. Gwen was more than capable of taking care of herself, and Grim probably had better things to do, people to kill, and stuff like that. If he were a threat, he’d already had every opportunity. I just didn’t like the way he looked at her.
Gwen disappeared into the crowd, and I watched her go with a cold, sick feeling. I was being stupid. She would be fine; she’d survived for days without me, she could survive a few hours on her own. I was just being over-protective. That was all it was; a bad combination of chronic insomnia and too much caffeine. No wonder my nerves were shot.
Alex’s hand at my waist was a constant pressure. “Come on, Izzy, let me win you a cheesy teddy bear at the dart throw.”
“Ok, just as long as it’s made in Taiwan, and not too fancy,” I joked, lamely.
Alex smiled easily and let his hand drop from around me. Seconds later, he took my hand and rubbed his thumb across my wrist. “Only the best for my girlf—“He made a sound like a dying frog as he tried to swallow the word before it fully reached his lips.
Such a look of horror crossed his face at his unfortunate slip of the tongue, that I didn’t know whether to laugh at him, or be offended. A couple of dates certainly didn’t make us a couple, but I wasn’t mean enough to point it out. So, I decided to take the high road and pretend that I hadn’t heard him say it. I just kept walking.
I’d started out on high-alert and searching the crowd for a familiar face. Asher was supposed to be here, but I could see no sign of him. Half an hour later, I had given up looking. I found myself standing around bored senseless, while Alex worked at getting me that cheesy teddy bear he’d promised. Absolutely nothing was going to stand in his way, either. Half-deflated balloons and darts with dulled tips, be damned; he was a man on a mission. His single-minded determination was a little frightening, honestly.
I’d already gone through most of the stages of waiting. They weren’t unlike the stages of grief, in my opinion…utter disbelief that he wouldn’t give it up, denial that I even wanted a bear, anger that he wouldn’t just leave, bargaining so we could get to the rest of the midway, and finally bored acceptance. What can I say, I’m not a patient woman. I had some serious thoughts about just tip-toing quietly away when I saw something that caught my full attention.
Two kids darted out from between the elephant ear stand and the snow cone vendor. They ran past me like they didn’t even see me standing there. I had to jump out of their way to avoid being run over. “Hey, watch where you’re going!”
The boy kept going, but the girl actually slowed down and looked at me over her shoulder. Her face was a picture of disbelief that turned quickly to panic. She turned and doubled her pace to catch up with the boy. They might have been ten or eleven years old. It was hard to tell, since they weren’t stopping for introductions.
I didn’t get much of a look at the boy, but he seemed strangel
y familiar. He was just a dark-headed streak going by, but I’d seen him somewhere, before. The girl, however, had hesitated just long enough to give me the impression of a china doll; long, curly black hair and cornflower blue eyes. The thing that bothered me wasn’t that two kids were running through a street fair at high speeds. That sort of thing happened all of the time. No, the strange thing, the weird thing, was how they were dressed. They wore clothes that looked like they belonged to a different century. The boy had on a short-sleeved white shirt and short britches held up by suspenders, if I wasn’t mistaken. The little girl had a dress with petticoats underneath. Nobody wore petticoats, anymore, and certainly not in late October, with no coat on. We were getting close to Halloween, though. Maybe they were dressing up, early?
Alex turned towards me, smiling broadly, and presented me with his hard-won teddy bear. “Thanks, Alex. It’s adorable.” It was, too. It had cream colored fur and one eye was closed in a wink. Flirty bear.
“Who were you yelling at?”
I shrugged. “Just some kids that nearly ran me over.” I looked for them in the crowd, but they had both disappeared.
Chapter 21…Asher
“Samael.”
“You rang, Great and Powerful One?” He popped up in front of me, holding an elephant ear in one hand, and a drink in the other. “Would you like some? This fair food isn’t bad.” He spoke around a mouthful of food, even went so far as to lick his fingers clean of the sticky stuff coating them. Sometimes, I thought he existed just to annoy me.
I had to control myself. I could not afford to damage him; he was my one ally in this mess. “You would not care to explain yourself, would you?”
He glanced at the elephant ear. “It’s just fried dough with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on. It’s delicious.” He tore off another piece, and stuffed it in his big mouth.
“Not that, you idiot. Just what do you think you are doing, here?”
He tried to look innocent, but it was hopeless. He was not now, nor had he ever been, an innocent. “I enjoy a good street fair as much as the next fellow, Asher. Halloween is my favorite holiday. Also, much like yourself, my social life is somewhat lacking. So I thought I’d come and hang out with you.” He took a long sip of his drink. “I thought you might like company while you stalked the object of your questionable affections.” He dumped what was left of his drink and elephant ear into the trash can a few feet away, and brushed the cinnamon sugar from his fingers.
I glared at him. “Try again, Grim. Start with the truth, this time.”
“I’m not really sure which thing you’d like me to explain. I’ve been really quite busy, lately. We could be here a while. Care to give me a hint?” He leaned casually against the tree across from me, and waited. Cool autumn air ruffled his hair, but I knew he did not feel the cold any more than I did. We were impervious to it.
“Isabel,” I said, through gritted teeth. He was being purposely obtuse, probably just to irritate me, and it was working. I was irritated.
“What about her? Are you missing her? She’s missing you, I can tell. Of course, she is here on a date, so maybe she’s coping better than you are.” Grim pushed away from the tree and started towards me. “Do you need someone to talk to? I’m here for you, you know.” He raised his arms, and I thought he started to hug me. He hesitated, and dropped his arms back down to his sides. “No? Ok. Well, if you need a hug, you know I’m here for you. Clearly, you need some time to yourself.” He started to walk away.
“Get back here!” Even though I shouted it, the humans surrounding us ignored me.
Grim stared at me sullenly. “There’s no reason to get upset, Brother. I only tried to hug you.”
“No reason? Did you not just try to give Isabel her memories back? That was you, playing dress up and interfering where you should not. Or am I wrong about that?”
“Oh, that, yes, well someone really needs to. The poor little thing looks positively miserable.” He scuffed a booted toe against the ground as he tried to avoid my eyes. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think it worked, anyway. Whatever compulsion you put on the girl seems to have worked a little too well. She still didn’t seem to remember anything, even after I had my little talk with her. I think you might have fried her brains, just a little bit. I’m sure she can get by just fine, though. They have those group homes, nowadays.” His smile brightened after a moment. “On the bright side, I made twenty bucks for reading her fortune, so it wasn’t a total loss.”
Centuries spent with Grim told me when he was lying. He was keeping secrets from me. I took a deep breath. I had to control my anger. Whatever he had done, Grim had meant well. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. “Did it ever occur to you that I might have wiped her memory for her protection?”
Grim shrugged, clearly not even slightly sorry for his interference. “Did it ever occur to you, that you might have created more problems for the girl by wiping her memory, than you solved? Or that she may want those memories. She still has your blood, Asher. She has enormous power and potential, and no real idea of how to control it.”
“If she does not remember, she will not try to use that power,” I insisted, stubbornly. Deep down, I knew that Grim was right, and I hated it. I hated it that he was right. I had done what I had done to protect Isabel. The elders wanted to observe her in her own environment. I had to prove that she was no threat to anyone. By taking her memories I had hoped to leave her as human as possible.
Grim’s eyebrow arched, incredulously. “A teenaged girl, no matter how self-possessed she may be, is still a teenaged girl. There are hormones raging, Asher.” His smile was predatory.
“Oh, do shut up, would you?” I did not want to hear about Isabel’s raging hormones. I had followed her for days, trying to protect her; watching for another attack. I knew Suriel’s word was worthless, and Clotho was insane. It was only a matter of time before something happened. They wanted their pound of flesh. Mine, preferably.
So far, though, everything had remained quiet. There had been no sneak attacks, nothing of interest at all, in fact. Except, I was forced to watch Isabel from a distance. She was not sleeping well. Grim was right about that. She had dark circles forming under her eyes. There was a loneliness to her, now. She rarely smiled, and there was no sparkle to her eyes. I could sense a feeling of loss through the connection of the blood we shared. And deep down, there was anger.
I knew she suffered, and it was hard, keeping myself from her side, but I had to do it. Fate was like a shark on a blood-trail, and she knew the girl meant something to me; she just did not know how much she meant to me. And I had to keep it that way, for the girl’s safety.
What I had not counted on, was being forced to sit back and watch while that idiot boy tried to woo Isabel. It was none of my business, I had to keep reminding myself of that. In a perfect world, the boy would be a good match for her. I kept telling myself that. I kept lying to myself. Every look, every touch that he gave her, enraged me. And there were so many little touches and looks. I would be glad to show him where he could place that ugly teddy bear he had given her.
Isabel was mine. She had looked on me, known my true nature, and still she had smiled and trembled in my arms. I glanced down at my aching hand and was unsurprised to find that my fingers had distorted into claws and sliced my palm open. My hand squeezed into a fist. Hot blood ran between my fingers and spilt to the ground. It hurt, but I enjoyed the pain. I felt remarkably violent.
“Did you hear a word that I just said?” Grim watched me with shrewd, black eyes. “You didn’t, did you?”
“What,” I snapped at him. I really was not paying attention to him, as I should have been, but I was not about to admit to it. I started walking towards the crowd.
“I said, you’re acting like a fool. A jealous fool, to be exact, but that’s alright; it makes me like you more. You seem more human, this way.” Grim walked along next to me, keeping pace with his hands in his pockets. He did not have t
o be insulting.
My attention was on the Ferris wheel. Isabel walked that way, with the boy, in spite of the fact that she was terrified of heights. “Do find something to occupy yourself, Grim. And please, stop trying to help me.”
“Fine. I can see that you have everything under perfect control, as usual. Try not to kill the boy, if you can help it. He isn’t ripe for harvesting, yet.”
“Your concern is touching, but I have more self-control than that,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Do you? I’m beginning to wonder.” Grim chuckled to himself. He was getting way too much pleasure from my predicament. “Alright, Brother, I can take a hint. I think I’ll just go see what the blonde is up to,” he said, casually. “Maybe I’ll even read her fortune for her. I’m sure she can use a babysitter. That mouth of hers usually lands her into trouble.” Grim had no room to talk about anyone else’s mouth getting them into trouble.
The blonde. He had to be talking about Isabel’s friend, Gwen. He was being coy, but I knew he had taken more than a passing interest in the girl. In spite of the fact that he had always had a particular dislike of humans, in general. From what I could tell of the girl, she also had a particular dislike of humans. They should make a delightful couple.
“Good idea, you do that.” I probably should have put a stop to it; no good could come of his obsession with a human girl. If anyone knew that, it was I, but if it kept him occupied and out of my way, then I was all for it. Let him take up stalking for a hobby. I had my own problems. Grim clapped me on the shoulder and took off in the opposite direction, whistling happily to himself, with a bounce in his step. Silently, I wished him happy hunting.
I found Isabel just as she was strapped into the hard, plastic seat of the Ferris wheel. She bit her lower lip and held onto the safety bar with a white-knuckled grip. The boy smiled and whispered to her as they left the ground. Whatever nonsense he had uttered fell on deaf ears. The seat swayed as the wheel turned. Always the color of ivory, Isabel’s face lost even more color, the higher she rose in the air. Even her lips, usually a shade of rosebud pink, lost their color. How on earth he had talked her into such nonsense, was beyond me. Idiot boy.
Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series Page 23
