There was an awkward silence.
“Okaaaay,” I said slowly. Andrea had always seemed to prefer the horses to boys. Or girls, for that matter. “I wasn’t planning on having anyone ruin me. Not today, anyway.”
Her lips curled up into a smile. Or, what looked like a smile. Her eyes were dead. I could tell she was putting it on, just for me. “I’m okay, Eve. I’m sad about my horse. I’m not feeling myself.” Her mouth opened, and she showed her teeth. I couldn’t help but flinch back from the smell of her breath. It was worse than any horses. “I just came here to wish you happy birthday,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m not in the mood for dancing.”
“No, I understand,” I said hastily. “Thank you for coming. And Andrea, you will feel better soon. Look,” I cast around wildly for ideas, “maybe tomorrow I can come with you to put flowers on Horace's grave? Maybe you could bring your ukulele and sing that song he always liked?”
She nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
I couldn't take any more. I felt so bad for Andrea, and for not supporting her when she most needed it... but her breath was so rancid I thought I would puke.
I plastered a bright smile on my face. “I gotta go do the rounds of the party,” I said. “Have a great time, okay?”
“Okay.”
I took one last look at her. She’d lost weight - she was no longer the sturdy, well-muscled stable manager that she’d been. She also sounded like a robot.
Andrea had always been one of the strongest humans I’d ever known. Whatever illness she had must have devastated her. As well as Horace dying… I guess it was enough to chip her armor away.
Both reluctantly and eagerly I backed away from her, straight into the waiting arms of Zel, who whipped me around in a spin. Suddenly I was in the middle of the dancefloor. Zel had been doing the booty-scooty with Dale. Clover and Nimue were having some sort of crazy twerk-off on the dance floor, to excited hoots and hollers from the rest of the crowd.
Both of them seemed to be exceptionally good twerkers, but Nimue really had the edge. In awe, I watched her clear a circle in the crowd, flip upside down into a headstand, her whole body completely still apart from her butt, which jiggled like it had a mind of its own. Giggling, I spotted Alex on the edge of the dance floor, his head in his hands, clearly absolutely mortified at his mother's behavior.
The party raged on. Despite being tired, I had a pretty good time. Metatron proved himself to be a pretty fantastic DJ. I danced with some of my night staff friends, singing along at the top of my lungs. At midnight, Margot and Gail brought out the cake, and everyone gathered around to sing.
I was weirdly emotional and had to turn around to wipe away a tear. It was such a strange moment in time. Everyone was happy, and happy for me. Like I’d done something amazing.
I suppose I had. I was still alive. Despite all the odds.
A little past midnight, my tiredness overwhelmed me, and I found myself edging towards my bedroom. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep though. Met continued to spin records on his decks, and the bass was still pumping.
Most of my friends were now horribly drunk. Dale had told me that the Revelations courtesy bus was picking most of them up at 5am, so no one was headed to bed anytime soon.
I didn’t feel drunk at all. Metatron had been topping up my glass, so I had no idea if I had very much to drink at all. I also doubted more alcohol was going to help my tiredness.
I decided a quick lie-down might help me re-energize myself, so I let my feet carry my body to my bedroom.
I swung the door open. Two writhing figures on my bed jolted and flew apart.
“What the?”
I flicked on the light.
It was Dale and Zel. Dale wriggled upright with a bit of effort, red-faced. “Uh, hi, Eve,” he panted, obviously a little breathless. “We were… just… uh...”
“Admiring your enclave,” Zel declared. He hadn’t moved much at all besides propping himself up on his elbows, still sprawled elegantly on my bed. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Then again, he hardly ever did. He looked extremely pleased with himself.
“Ugh,” I grunted. “Gross. It’s my bed, Zel. That’s where I sleep.” I frowned. “I mean Bruce.”
“He told me his real name,” Dale said, the redness in his cheeks dying down a little. “ He also told me the real reason why he used a fake one.”
“Did he really?” I couldn’t help the sarcasm dripping from my voice.
Dale nodded, and glanced shyly at Zel. “I think Zel is a lovely name,” he said, his eyes going soft. “You don’t need to try and hide your ethnicity. We should all be proud of where we came from.”
Zel pouted. “I have heard that Australia is so racist,” he said. “I was worried that I would be picked on.” He ignored my indignant snort, and locked eyes with Dale. “Then I find you," he went on. "The most precious thing I’ve ever seen, a doe-eyed boy with the blood of the world’s most ancient race running through his veins…”
Their faces moved closer together.
I held up my hands. “Okay, okay, I call Uncle. Stop. Please stop. Get out.” I pointed towards the door.
“Homophobe,” Zel muttered, scooting off my bed.
“If I had’ve found Clover making out with one of the valets on my bed, I’d be far less polite than I’m being to you two,” I snapped. “Now go. Out!”
“Did someone invoke my presence?” Clover appeared in the doorway, draping herself against the doorframe seductively. “Eve, are you okay?”
“These two,” I jabbed a thumb, “were making out in my bed.”
Her face screwed up in distaste. “Even I wouldn't do that to you.”
“I know.”
“In your bathroom, maybe…”
I glanced at her sharply. “You didn’t.”
“I didn’t! Not tonight, anyway,” she added under her breath.
I sighed.
Zel led Dale out of the room by the hand. “Come on, lover. I want to show you a little trick I picked up in Athens.”
My sigh became a grimace.
“You okay, Doll?” Clover asked again. “You sneaking off for a lie-down?”
“How did you guess?”
She tilted her head, sympathetic. “You’ve been tired lately.”
I nodded. “I have.”
“I came to find you to see if there was any gossip. Your boyfriend and your other boyfriend are having a tense discussion.”
“What?”
Clover's face became eager, scenting gossip. “They’re huddled out on the balcony, hissing at each other. All low tones and glowering expressions. It’s very sexy. Whatever they’re talking about, they’re not happy.”
“Oh, God.” Unease spread throughout my stomach. We’d had such a beautiful moment of contentment in the car on the way over here. I wished that feeling had lasted.
To be honest, there were some things we really did need to talk about. Together. The truth was, I loved having Nate around. He loved Alex. They were brothers.
I couldn’t stand the idea that I would come between them.
“You know, you never told me what happened with Alex,” Clover’s voice penetrated the fog in my brain. “We haven't had the chance. You’ve been hanging out with him and Nate a lot. And boy, Nimue has been keeping me busy.” Clover sighed dreamily. “I love her. She’s like my idol.”
I smirked. “I think you guys have a lot in common. You both have a lust for life.”
“A lust for lust, you mean,” Clover said, giving me a nudge and a dirty chuckle. “But what happened with you and Alex?”
I opened my mouth, she held up her finger to stop me. “Let me guess! You and Alex did the deed, you’re deeply in love, and Nate is a little jealous that you’ve taken the love of his life away.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I muttered.
“Well then,” she plonked her butt down on my bed and patted the spot beside her. “Tell me.”
The temp
tation was overwhelming. I took a deep breath and sat down beside her.
“Yes,” I sighed out. “Me and Alex made love.” I rolled my eyes at Clover’s squeal of delight, and grinned. “Yes, it was magical and wonderful and everything I ever imagined.”
Clover did a little shimmy on the bed and squeaked happily for a few moments, while I waited patiently for her to calm down.
Suddenly, her mood vanished. She turned to me sharply. “I’m guessing there’s a ‘but’ involved here now.”
“You got it.”
She cocked her head. “What happened? You said it was good. You enjoyed it, right?”
I nodded.
“So what was it?”
“Well,” I began, hesitant on how much I should share. I wanted desperately to unburden myself to someone else, but the full truth was much too scary.
“The morning after... he wasn’t next to me. He’d disappeared. And he didn’t answer my texts.”
Her face fell. “Oh.”
“Later that day, I got a text from him telling me that he’d gone. He’d left me.”
Clover’s expression dissolved into grief. “Ohhhh. Eve….”
“Nate was upset too. We thought he’d left us both. We kept getting messages telling us to move on.”
Clover bit her lip. She looked like she might cry. Her chin trembled.
Then again, with another sudden switch of mood, the sadness wiped off her face. She narrowed her eyes at me. “Is this something to do with that flashy bitch that came back from Rome with you guys? Nate’s sister?”
My mouth fell open. “How did you know?”
“I can spot a snake from a mile away,” she pursed her lips. “That girl looked like Heaven, but she stunk like Hell.”
I snorted at such an apt description of Mags, and had to cover my mouth with my hand.
“She lured Alex away, and texted you and Nate from his phone, didn’t she?” Clover went on.
“What the actual fuck, Clover? How could you possibly guess that?"
“She had a thing for Alex. She was obsessed with him.”
“A long time ago,” I said, taken aback at the accuracy of her assumption. “Are you sure you’re not some kind of psychic or something?”
“When it comes to the crazy actions of a broken-hearted woman, I’m an expert,” she sighed. “You know I don’t mess with married men on purpose, Eve. If they tell me they’re married, I back off. Yet, they usually don’t tell me. Occasionally, the scorned woman who he left behind comes after me with the vengeance of a thousand suns.” She scowled. “Instead of the lying, cheating bastard who hurt her. It makes no sense to me. Anyway,” she said, tossing her hair back. “I’m somewhat of an expert in reading hurt women, as a consequence.”
“Well, you’re right on the money with that one.”
“So go on. How did you find her out? Did Alex see through her?”
“Yes, but he couldn’t leave to come back to us. He was just… a little tied up.”
“Normally I’d be excited by that, but it’s a bit less sexy when it’s non-consensual,” she muttered. “It was non-consensual, wasn’t it?
I nodded.
“You and Nate both realized that Alex would never leave you guys?”
Trust Clover to be so sure of that truth. She was more faithful to her heart than I was. Alex would never have left us. But we’d doubted him.
I swallowed hard, feeling the guilt rage through me, as fresh as ever. “No. We believed the lies, and drowned our sorrows in rocket-fuel proof whiskey.”
Clover looked at me expectantly.
I groaned. How could she be so perceptive about some things, and not about others? “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you? Nate and I both got stupidly drunk, and we ended up in bed.”
Her jaw dropped. “Eve. Whoa.”
I rushed on. “I was so drunk I thought it was Alex.” I shook my head, feeling sick. “Nate was so drunk I have no idea what he was thinking. The next morning, I snooped into Mags’ stuff and found Alex’s phone, and realized she’d set us up.”
Clover’s face twisted. “Did you smack that bitch up?”
“Uh, I didn’t. I ran off to find Alex. Nate smacked that bitch up, then she ran off.”
“Did Alex forgive you both?”
I nodded. “He is kinda unique like that. His forgiveness is endless. He understands how everything happened. It’s just-”
“What?”
I sighed, and slumped down on my bed. “I don’t know. Before all that happened, everything between the three of us felt so right. Now everything is… complicated.”
She squinted at me suddenly. “You were safe, weren’t you? With both of them?”
I nodded. “Of course. It’s kinda important to me that I not get pregnant right now, Clover.”
The squint sharpened until she was almost glaring at me. “Are you sure?”
I opened my mouth. But I shut it again.
“Because you’ve been so tired lately…” Clover went on slowly. “And you’ve been nauseous a lot, too.”
A soft chime went off in my head. Suddenly, the world went fuzzy at the edges.
I felt the blood rush from my lips. “It was that thrice-cooked…” my voice trailed off, barely a whisper.
“You’ve been absent-minded,” Clover continued relentlessly. I heard her words from very far away. My breath sounded faint in my ears. “You’ve been tired," she said. "And feeling sick. Are you sure you’re not-”
“No.” It was almost a shout. “I can’t be, Clover.”
“I can see how you’d not want to be,” she muttered. “You just turned twenty only a few minutes ago. You have choices though.”
I shook my head, unable to form a coherent thought. Tingles shot up and down my limbs, and my vision was almost black at the edges.
I could hear my breath. Little pants. I focused on expanding them. Slowly in, slowly out.
Clover edged closer to me and hugged me tightly. “First things first, honey. Take a test. Then we go from there.”
I nodded dumbly. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Clover stroked my hair. “Okay?”
“I want to do this part alone,” I whispered. “I’ll go back to Revelations. Will you cover for me?”
“Oh, honey,” Clover squeezed me tightly. “Are you sure? Of course I will.” She pulled me out of the embrace and looked me square in the eye. “It might not be that. I’m sorry to scare you. It just makes sense, considering how you’ve been feeling lately. The first thing you need to do is find out for certain.”
I nodded again, firmly this time.
“Whatever happens, you know I’ll support you, Eve. Alex and Nate both will too.”
Oh, God.
Chapter Thirteen
I left straight out of my bedroom window. I climbed down the guttering, landing firmly on the ground. My only goal was to sneak out of the house without anyone spotting me. One thing at a time. Once that had been achieved, I had to figure out how to get to Revelations without anyone knowing.
I could take Margot’s car. She didn’t have to work tomorrow. Gail had said she was leaving first thing, so she’d be needing hers. But Margot’s car keys would be on the hook in the hallway, and I wasn’t going back inside. Not until I knew for sure.
My gaze went to the only other car in the driveway - Alex’s. I could easily take his. It would give me a good head start too, once they figured out I’d disappeared they were sure to come after me. But again, the keys would be in Alex’s pocket.
I whirled around in a circle, feeling desperate, when a large figure on the edge of the driveway caught my eye.
I ran up to him. “Rux,” I panted.
He turned. “Hello, Eva!” His previously high-pitched voice was now a deep bass. “Good party. Rux enjoy very much!”
“I’m glad you liked it. What are you doing out here, Rux?”
“On guard,” the imp said, nodding seriously. “I swap with Nux and Phil.”
�
��Uh… Phil?”
“Other nuntius,” he shrugged. “You don't know Phil?”
“Um. No, I don’t. Listen,” I said, refocusing. “I need a favor. You’re here to guard me, right?’
Rux nodded his big head once. Now that I was doing this, it made sense to take a guard with me.
“I need to get back to Revelations in a hurry. Can you take me? Keep me safe?”
He nodded again and reached out his hand. “You want me to take you by portal?”
I backed away a little. One thing at a time. “Uh, I was actually thinking we’d take Alex’s car. Can you get the keys off him without him noticing?”
Rux cocked his head, confused. “You no tell him you leave?”
I bit my lip. Even while I was hiding from my lover, trying to get some privacy while I found out if I was pregnant by him or his best friend, I still felt uncomfortable lying. “No,” I said slowly.
Rux’s eyebrows shot up, and he smiled. “It a game?”
I exhaled, and smiled. “Yes, Rux, it’s a game.”
That wasn’t a lie. Life was one big game. And I was desperately trying to win it.
The big imp grinned wider, and he took my hand, completely encasing it in his own giant furry fingers. “We no need keys.”
He led me towards Alex’s car.
“You can start it with magic?” I asked, getting in the passenger seat and putting on my seatbelt.
“No,” Rux replied. He popped the hood, tinkering with something in there, then got into the driver’s seat. Bending his massive body in half, he pulled the panel under the steering wheel right off, and fiddled with some wires. “I know how to hotwire.”
The car started, purring like a kitten. I was grateful that Alex had chosen an electric vehicle. No one would have heard that start.
“You boost cars, Rux?”
He just smiled at me.
It didn’t occur to me to question if Rux was a good driver or not. He was so confident and had started the car with barely any effort at all, I let him take the wheel.
As soon as we hit the road, I instantly regretted my decision.
He was good. Terrifyingly good. He drove with the headlights switched off, in complete darkness, at one hundred miles an hour the whole way, taking the corners like a formula one driver. We only passed one car the entire way, and we flew by it so quickly that it wouldn’t have even suspected we were there. I surrendered, closing my eyes and focusing on my breath until we got to Revelations. It was so quick we might as well have flown.
Revelations: The Fallen Page 18
