Chapter Twenty
Neith
“Since you’re new in town, and I’m assuming that you don’t know many people yet, we should get a drink sometime. As friends, I’m not asking you out. I mean, you’re hot, but I don’t swing that way,” she groans as her ramblings cut off and actually face-palms herself. Glancing up at me with a wince, she adds under her breath. “This is why I can’t make friends.” Speaking at a normal volume, she says, “Never mind.”
I burst out laughing, “I would love to, anyone who can ramble like that is good with me. I should warn you though I’m likely to ramble more than you.”
Her face lights up as she looks surprised, “Really? Even though I was just super weird?”
I nod, “Yeah. I am way weirder than you.”
“She is,” Raiden teases with a smirk, and I smack his stomach with the back of my hand, making him laugh.
Neera laughs again, “Thank fuck. Here’s my number, give me a text, and we will sort something out. There is only one bar in town, but it’s good.”
I take the piece of paper off her, and slip it into my jeans pocket, “Sounds good. My schedule is pretty hectic and I’m not just saying that.”
Her eyebrows draw in, “You a part of SID too?”
I nod, “Yeah, I’m on their team.” I reply, pointing at a still smiling Raiden. “It’s a new development.”
“That’s awesome,” she replies.
We chat a bit more while she makes our drinks, and by the time she is done and we are walking out, I know that we will probably make great friends. So long as we can both find the time to meet up. It turns out that the coffee shop isn’t her only job. She has a couple of others in town as well. I get the feeling that she likes to keep busy. My intuition was tingling the longer that we were talking, although I don’t know enough about her yet to understand why.
“Where to now?” I ask as I sip my drink.
“You said that you wanted to check out the apothecary?” Raiden asks.
I nod, “Yes, please. All of my usual stuff is obviously at my house.”
He looks confused as he asks, “What sort of things did you use?”
“I learned some stuff from Sully, and it was mostly simple stuff, things to help with pain and to help me heal quicker. Oh, and I make his awesome mix that I like to burn, that smells spectacular.”
“You needed the pain relief a lot?” he asks.
I nod, “Yeah. HID didn’t like to provide me with medical assistance if it wasn’t life or death, and even then, they would bitch about it. It was just less of a hassle for me to take care of it at home. Plus, Sully knew some really good recipes.”
“How come you only stuck three bandaids over the slice from the shifter then?” Raiden asks although it’s clear from the tension in his body that he doesn’t like that I needed the pain relief so much.
“I ran out of the things I needed to make the healing one, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be a problem anyway, not like it is for normal humans. I was tired,” I shrug, “bandaids seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He frowns, “You make it sound like you had been bitten by a shifter before.”
I make the split-second decision, to be honest with him instead of brushing it off like I usually would. “I ran with Dimitri. It wasn’t safe. Shit happens.”
“Fuck, yeah. I keep forgetting that you were with him,” Raiden replies. His eyes dart to mine, “Shit, does that mean that he knows that the bites don’t affect you? That he knows you are something more?”
“That is a two-pronged question, and both have different answers. Does he know that shifter bites don’t affect me? I’m not sure; there were times when he thought I might have been bitten, and I played it off as a close call, but I don’t know if he was suspicious or not. If he was though he never said anything. So, although he may be suspicious that something wasn’t quite right, he doesn’t have any proof of that being the case. The second question is even more tricky to answer. He doesn’t know that I’m something more because I didn’t know. I have also shared more with you guys about how weird I am than I did him.”
“He never saw anything?” Raiden asks, being careful about how he phrases it since we are out in public and should probably be careful about what we say. I am assuming that he is referring to me dying.
I shake my head, “No.”
I don’t elaborate because that would mean admitting that I had died before, and then we would have to get into how many times, and well, that whole conversation would be complicated and horrifying. I also don’t want to lie outright and say that when I died in front of them, that was the first time. I’m actually surprised that none of them have asked me that yet, although a lot has happened since then, so I think that’s helped to distract them from asking.
I can see the wheels in Raiden’s head begin to start turning as his brain tries to connect the dots to ask the question that I don’t want to answer. Fortunately for me, the apothecary that I wanted to go into is just up ahead, and I grab his hand again, pulling him toward it.
“You’re going to have to tell me if there is a scent that you guys don’t like,” I start, trying to distract him and then effectively distracting myself when I add, “Shit, you will have to tell if I pick up anything that is deadly to you guys. It would be just my luck if I accidentally killed one of you.”
Raiden chuckles as he focuses on my random questions and not our previous conversation.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you pick up anything that could harm us, although it's really unlikely that they sell anything here that could do that. I have no idea what scents the guys like. Maybe you should just get the stuff that you usually get, and I’m sure they will let you know if they don’t like something.” He smiles, “To be honest, it's River that you need to worry about with scents, his nose is incredibly sensitive, even when he’s in human form.”
I nod as I grab an adorable wicker basket from by the door, “Okay, I can just get him to sniff everything before I use it.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Raiden replies, watching curiously as I start to put things in my basket.
Sully always drilled into me the importance of knowing what it is that I am using and not using anything that’s not on the list that he has given me. So, even though there are all of these bottles and boxes of interesting looking things, I only get what I know. It’s a good job that I now have my black card because this is going to cost a lot of money. I usually stick to buying an ingredient when I get a paycheck or getting samples when I can, which helps to keep the cost down. This is probably the first chance I have had to buy everything at once, and just like with the clothes, it is a nice feeling.
I don’t know how long I spend looking around the store, but I get completely absorbed in it, and Raiden must sense this because he just follows me around quietly and watches what I pick up. After a while, I realize that his silence might have to do with the supe behind the checkout, who is watching him with distrust in his eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t notice the way that he is looking at Raiden until I’m at the checkout, otherwise I would have insisted that we leave.
He quickly rings up everything, clearly wanting to get rid of us as quickly as possible.
“Well, that wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the coffee shop and Neera,” I say as we step outside.
“Sorry,” Raiden replies, drinking the last of his coffee and then throwing it in the trash can.
“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” I reply, doing the same thing. “Do you want to just head home?”
Raiden shakes his head, “I’m good. Do you want to look at another store?”
“Well, if you are sure, I would love to check out the blacksmith. I saw it when we came through town on the way to the mall, and I wasn’t going to risk looking at all of the pretty swords in case my one got jealous, but I think that may be a bit ridiculous,” I explain as we start to walk down the street to the blacksmith’s store.
Both of Raiden’s eyebrows rise as he shrugs, “I don’t know, your sword does seem like it has a pretty big personality. I think if it knew that you were here, then it would definitely be jealous, but as you said, there is no way for it to know. Enchanted swords are powerful and amazing, but they are not able to know what you are doing at all times. They are also supposed to work with you. It’s not like one of you is in charge, and the other one has to listen. It’s supposed to be a partnership when it comes to enchanted weapons.”
I frown, “I bet that not all of the supernaturals that have had the privilege of an enchanted object have stuck to that hierarchy.”
“No, many of them assume that they should be the master of the weapon and then wonder why their weapon doesn’t come when it’s called or why it abandons them completely.”
“They can do that?” I ask. “Just decide that they don’t like you anymore and leave?”
Raiden frowns, “In most situations, it’s not that they don’t like you anymore, it’s that they have fulfilled their purpose with you, and it’s time to move on. I don’t know how they know that they are no longer needed, and I don’t know how they make sure that they are found by the right person. No one does, and there has been extensive research on the subject.”
“They don’t always find the right person,” I comment.
“How do you know that?”
“I’m just assuming because there is a really big market for stealing enchanted objects. All enchanted objects, not just weapons. Dimitri had a team that would go and locate the objects and then sell them in the Obsidian market,” I explain.
The Obsidian market is the equivalent of the human black market except for a few significant differences. The human black market is pretty much just a name, a place where unsavory humans can sell services and stolen goods mostly, but usually business is conducted online.
The supernatural Obsidian market is an actual market. It moves location every day, which obviously can only be achieved with magic, and it sells all things supernatural. Ingredients for spells and potions, and by that, I mean body parts of supernatural creatures and things that are really fucking difficult to get hold of. They also sell stolen goods and services. I have been to the market a couple of times, and the place disgusts and fascinates me all at the same time.
It's a really dangerous place to be, especially for a human, as humans are needed for some spells, well parts of humans at least. The only reason that I was safe was because of Dimitri, he was, is, feared amongst most supernaturals including the ones at the Obsidian market. They either feared him or wanted to get into his good books so that he would do business with them.
“Yeah, that’s true. I think it has become a lot harder for the enchanted objects to find the next person that they should be with, but I do like to think that even if they do end up getting sold at the Obsidian market, they still manage to find their person,” Raiden replies, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, maybe,” I agree. It’s a nice thought.
Magic is obviously heavily involved with the enchanted objects, and I am sure that it has a way to make sure that the object, whether it’s a weapon or something else, still ends up in the right place.
Our conversation is put on hold as the blacksmith comes into view, and I grin with excitement.
“Hang on a moment,” Raiden says, and then adds with a chuckle, “sorry, I know that you are excited to get in, but I think one of the guys has an order here. I can check on the progress of it since we are here anyway, but I need to check which one of the guys had the order first.”
I nod, and try to wait patiently as Raiden taps away on his phone, thankfully he gets a response straight away, at least I assume he does because his phone makes a noise.
“Can we go in now?” I ask. I’m aware I’m being impatient, but honestly, bladed weapons are my absolute favorite thing, well, one of my favorite things.
Raiden chuckles and pulls open the door for me, “Yeah, we can go in. It was Evander who had a sword commissioned with him. He lost the last one on our last job, but he said that it won’t be ready for a while yet.”
I nod. I don’t bother to reply because I’m too excited, and I just want to get inside and see how good he really is. I need some swords made now that I’m an agent at SID. Guns have a tendency to go a bit wrong around some supernaturals, so they are good in some instances, like, for example, shooting a raging hybrid intent on eating you. In other situations, guns won’t work, and I will need a sword. If in doubt, chop the head off is usually my motto.
I could buy one readymade, but I would much rather have one made specifically for me. I know I have my enchanted sword, but I need more than the one sword, and my sword will just have to get over it if it does get jealous.
“Hey man,” the guy who is obviously the blacksmith says.
I smile, I like this guy simply because he’s talking to Raiden like they are friends and not like he is terrified of him.
“Hey, we just came to have a look around,” Raiden says and then gestures to me, “this is Neith, she’s a new member of our team. She is going to need a sword. Neith this is Lewis.”
Lewis smiles at me, “Nice to meet you, Neith. I’m sorry, but I’m actually just about to close, I’ve got an appointment to get to.”
Disappointment thrums through me momentarily before I smile, “No worries, we can come back another day. It’s going to take me a while to design and choose what kind of blade I would like. We probably don’t have enough time before we have to get back to the house anyway.”
Lewis’s eyes light up, “I like you. Raiden and the guys know when I’m usually open, get one of them to message me when you are free next, and I will make sure that you have the store to yourself.”
“Seriously?” I ask, my eyes widening as I start to bounce on my toes with excitement.
Lewis chuckles, “Absolutely.”
“Thanks, man,” Raiden says as we walk back out of the door, and Lewis follows behind us to lock up.
“No problem,” he replies.
Before I can tell him my thanks as well, he waves and rushes down the street in the opposite direction to the one that we came from.
Raiden glances down at me apologetically. “Sorry Neith. I know how badly you wanted to go and check the swords out.”
I grin, “You’re kidding right?” I ask, and then carry on excitedly, “I get to have the store all to myself while I design my weapons with someone who clearly knows what they are doing. That’s fucking awesome.”
Raiden’s smile is big as he adds, “Yeah, Lewis is a fucking master at what he does. I honestly don’t know why he chose to settle in our small town, but I am incredibly grateful that he did. I honestly wouldn’t go to anyone else to get my blades made. He makes custom bullets as well, specifically designed to take down all sorts of creatures, and not just to kill but to stun as well. He’s a fucking genius.”
My eyes widen, “Wow, that is so fucking cool. I hope that we manage to find the time to come back soon.”
Raiden frowns, “Hopefully we will. But with the way that things are going at the moment, I’m not going to make any promises.”
“Fair enough,” I reply with a smile.
“Do you want to walk around town for a bit longer and have a look at some more stores?” Raiden asks me.
I shake my head, “It looks like it’s going to rain, and I have had enough exploring for one day. Do you want to head back?”
Raiden nods, “Yeah, that sounds good to me.”
We get back to the bikes, and Raiden takes the bag with Wallace’s cinnamon buns in and opens his jacket, zipping it back up. I’m guessing that there is no more room in the bags since they are full of my clothes, and he’s got no more of the magical appearing from thin air ones. They will be squished, but I highly doubt that Wallace will mind too much. If he does, I will eat them.
Once we are out of the town and back on the road that we raced on before, we both automatically start to race—trying to beat each other and playing more dangerously than when we were on the way here. I guess Raiden has a similar view of death as me. Actually, scratch that. He’s a supe, so he could probably come flying off at these speeds and survive with barely a scratch.
I really appreciate the fact that he isn’t treating me like I’m breakable, and trying to stop me from flying on the bike, it would really piss me off he tried.
It doesn’t take as long as I would like it to, and we are soon pulling up the long driveway that leads to the guy’s house and through the gates.
“What are they doing?” I ask as we come around the corner and I see all of the guys pulling stuff out of, what I am just realizing are their individual garages, and putting it all outside of them. Although all of their attention is now on us as we drive up.
“They’re cleaning their garages,” Raiden replies, sounding slightly confused as we come to a stop. Suddenly, he bursts out laughing, and not just a small chuckle, nope, he is full-on belly laughing.
I take my helmet off, and wave at the guys before I turn to look back at the still laughing Raiden, “What’s so funny?”
“Hey!” River exclaims, rushing up to me and picking me straight up off the bike, giving me a giant hug that I practically melt into.