Chapter 7 #2
“Pants and a long sleeve,” I state. Jullia doesn’t question it as she hands me a pair of skinny jeans and a tight fitting ribbed turtleneck.
I’ve reasoned with myself that I don’t have to feel guilty for borrowing Jullia’s clothes tonight because I’m hopefully getting Thorne off my back as well as Asher’s.
I don’t need anyone else getting hurt because of me.
I lay the pants and shirt on my bed as I start stripping. There’s a tiny gasp behind me and as I turn I just now remember that Hanna is still in the room and she hadn’t seen any of my scars before.
She’s standing in the middle of the room holding what looks like a sparkly lilac dress but it almost slips through her fingers as she stares at me.
Fuck.
Is it bad I hope she’s not like Jullia?
“You kept talking about scars. . . “
Her words trail off as her eyes continue to trace over my body.
I watch them eye the teeth marks and the ones from knives.
Since my back is facing her she’ll be able to see the ones from whips and other things I can’t always remember.
That devil had been cleaver with his punishments.
And his little mage fated never cared enough to stop his atrocities.
Pulling Jullia’s shirt over my head I begin pulling down my skirt and stockings. “There’s more on my legs,” I call out. “Just to give you a heads up.”
Neither of them say anything as I straighten in just the shirt and underwear and lay my skirt and stockings on the bed. Then I grab the pants and shove a leg in. They’re not quite as tight as I’m sure they would be on Jullia. She has slightly bigger muscles than I do.
At least I can wear my heeled biker boots with this outfit. They had been what I was wearing when I had been “turned”. I wish I had the rest of my clothes and shoes. Jullia had mentioned a family’s day, I wonder if Ms. Elaycia would be able to come visit. Or if I could visit them?
Sitting on my bed to put on my shoes, I finally face the two girls and both of them are awkwardly quiet. Hanna is already changed and pulling out makeup with Jullia still rummaging through her closet.
Sighing, I rub my eyes with my thumb and fingers. “Okay,” I announce, getting both of their attentions. “I know it’s a touchy subject, I know it might be difficult or you feel weird about it, but they’re just scars.”
Jullia’s face wobbles and Hanna looks guilty.
“It’s awkward, I know, the girls at the brothel had the same reactions.
It was a really bad point in my life. But the devil is dead and not even a witch was able to get rid of the scars.
You can ask questions if you want, you won’t hurt my feelings and I will tell you if I don’t want to answer something so you won’t push boundaries.
I don’t talk about the bite marks, and don’t touch me unless there’s a barrier of clothing or something between us.
I would also prefer if you didn’t tell anyone either. ”
Jullia throws a piece of clothing onto her bed and comes towards me. Sitting down beside me, she wraps her arms around me like she did last night.
“I’m sorry. About what happened to you and about being awkward about it.” She pulls back and gives me a watery smile, though no tears spill over her cheeks this time. “Thank you for telling me.”
I give her a small smile as Hanna asks, “When did you get them?”
Jullia makes a noise and growls at her sister. “You cannot just ask that Hanna!”
“She said we can ask questions,” she argues. Jullia scoffs and shakes her head. It makes me feel better.
“It’s fine.” I wave Jullia off and she winces before going to her side to change.
“I was found on the side of a trail when I was about three months old in upstate New York on Earth. The devil and mage adopted me when I was three. He didn’t start beating me till I was almost five.
I remember because the day I turned five was the first time he left a wound that would scar. ”
Jullia turns to face the wall but I had seen her face paling. Hanna also hunches in on herself but tries to keep a neutral face.
“I lived with them for seven years, and a week before I turned ten they both died. They both had heart attacks was what I heard, though I didn’t know devils could have heart attacks.
After that I went into the foster system and honestly that was its own hell.
I ran away when I was thirteen and met Ms. Elaycia the day I turned fourteen.
And despite her being a succubus and living in a brothel, it was home, and they are my family. ”
Jullia smiles at that and Hanna nods, accepting the answer. Turning back to her makeup, Hanna begins with whatever she’s starting on. Jullia skips over now with a smile and urges me over.
“Come on, this is the best part.”
“You sound like Cordellia,” I mumble. Jullia quirks a brow but I pull my chair over and sit next to Hanna.
Me and Jullia watch as Hanna carefully uses brushes and spungs to sweep and glide the products onto her skin. Not that she really needs it, but the girls at the brothel always got onto me about rolling my eyes at makeup.
They always said they needed a controlled base for everything else. Sometimes they would practice on me or dress me up for fun when it was a slower work day. I didn’t hate it, it often felt calming when they would brush over my face. Like when they would play with my hair.
That was the best part about having older girls acting like big sisters. We were always dressing up and having tea parties.
Hanna doesn’t do much, not like the girls at the house, but she still looks more.
. . more. She and Jullia have that natural dye-eyed beauty, but she just looks even more gorgeous.
With her curly hair she’s left loose and framing her face.
She has it shorter than Jullia’s, the curls ending right on top of her shoulders.
Jullia begins on her makeup and I inch back as Hanna looks at me. She smiles at me and I inch back more because it looks entirely too malicious for my liking.
“Your turn.”
It sounds like a threat.
“Actually – “
“Nope,” Hanna interrupts, popping the p in the word. “I am glamorizing you because that outfit really isn’t doing much. At least we get to see your waist, which I am jealous of, but this will be my repentance for being a bitch you.”
I. . . oh fucking hell.
Sighing in defeat, I scoot my chair closer and it earns a triumphant smile from both of them.
Pulling out more product, Hanna turns her chair so she can face me and takes my chin in her hand.
“What was it like living in a brothel?” she asks me.
“Just like this,” I answer dryly, though truthfully.
But it makes me smile, and then Hanna scolds me saying not to move too much.
“Yeah, just like this. Ms. Elaycia said I could work under Nana in the kitchen.
On the outside it is a strip club, but upstairs and behind the stage and private rooms are more exclusive rooms hidden by a barrier.
“Not all the girls who were there are for hire like that. Most of the regular strippers are human and don’t even know about it. Only the for hire girls live in the apartments behind and above the club. Ms. Elaycia owns the whole building. And we’re all basically one big family.”
Hanna finishes brushing product around my face and starts focusing on specific places. She doesn’t tell me to stop talking so I don’t. I like talking about home.
“Ms. Elaycia is like the mom, Nana is like an old grandmother who pretends to hate everyone but would kill for any of us, and Rosemary has been there the longest and acts like a big sister to everyone. She’s actually a goblin and attended Syngenia with Ms. Elaycia.
She showed me her true form once and for all the humans would know they’d have thought she was some elven princess. ”
I purse my lips to keep from smiling wide at that.
Despite what humans think goblins are not short little green monsters who are mean and cruel.
Those are gremlins. Goblins, while some have different colored skin and they do have long sharply pointed ears, look almost ethereal. Like war gods and goddesses.
Defined and sculpted muscles and bodies but celestial features. I can see why most wear enchanted amulets or apparel to make them look more humanly, even here at Syngenia.
Hanna hums as she blends some more and then begins working on my eyelids.
“Then there’s Ana who stays in the attic.
She’s like me, an orphan Ms. Elaycia took in.
She’s a panther shifter and doesn’t do well around other people, especially males, so Ms. Elaycia let her turn the attic into her own private tower.
I would spend a lot of lazy afternoons up there with her reading or painting.
She loves concocting new flavors for things – cakes, teas, syrups. I always got first try.
“Cordellia would get second. Jullia reminds me a lot of her. Cordellia is a half-waterway shifter. She can shift her legs into a tail and webbing attaches from her arms to her sides so when her arms are extended she almost looks like a manta ray, but her chest, back, and face stay the same. She told me before that instead of waterway shifters her and her ancestors used to be called Le’af’s.
It was the name of the overall race for sirens, mermaids, and most waterway shifters, but she said no one really knows about that name. ”
Jullia hums and asks, “Is that why you have so much information about things that aren’t common? I had meant to ask before after our first Magic History class. You knew that Syngenia was first used as a name for the first blood witch and her daughter.”
Hanna stills the brush dusting over my eyelid.
“That’s old knowledge,” she hesitantly adds.
“Not even the professors are able to openly teach that unless a student explicitly asks. Most things before the War of Gods aren’t commonly known and I think the Mage Board does that on purpose.
There’s a reason there aren’t any humans or vampires on the council, and why there isn’t a witch seat anymore. ”
Jullia hums again. “Yeah, even Professor Asier was surprised you knew that, Mavyn. Did your bone witch teach you that?”
I slightly shake my head and Hanna grumbles at me.
“No, Nana has taught me a lot and she is older than this university, but she didn’t tell me that. That fact. . . “ I hesitate for a moment as I remember it.
Sometimes if a vampyr is powerful enough and the human they’re turning has a strong enough mind, some memories from the vampyr can transfer over. It’s not common, but it does happen and it’s rare enough that not too many people know about it. I guess I could also blame the poison if anything.
“I think the vampire who shoved the blood and venom into me wanted me to attend this school.” Hanna fully pulls the brush away and I open my eyes to look at them.
“He kept repeating the word syngenia as he did everything and afterward I started knowing things. The Mage Board didn’t think I would pass the exam, and I shouldn’t have been able to. ”
They both stare at me and for a moment I worry I shouldn’t be telling them this. I’m not outing my secret, and I still have that knowledge so the Mage Board can’t really do anything about it, but there is always a chance they could just say I cheated.
Dropping my shoulders, I decide I don’t care if either of them want to report me. I doubt they will, but I won’t be surprised if they do.
“I’m far from dumb, but my knowledge doesn’t really extend to linear algebra or astrophysics.
A day or so after I ingested the blood I also seemed to have gained, whoever the vampyr is, his or her text book knowledge.
I don’t know who they are or have received any memories from them, but I have their education.
Syngenia being the name of the first blood witch and her daughter was one of them. ”
I shrug and discretely pick at my fingers.
“All the rest of the knowledge seemed common enough for the school so I figured that answer would have been obvious.”
Both sisters make the exact same face at the exact same time. Slightly tilting their heads while peering at me as I know their minds are working.
“You are quite the paradox,” Jullia hums. Hanna’s face says she agrees but she doesn’t say anything as she lifts her brush back up and I close my eyes letting her finish.
It takes Hanna about thirty minutes to finish with my face and when she’s done it feels just as heavy as it always does when I have makeup on. Like there’s a skin tight mask over my face.
She looks happy enough though as she marvels at her work. “Those boys are going to die when they see you like this and you threaten to sick your bone witch grandmother on them.”
Jullia marvels at my face too and smirks at Hanna’s words.
“Oh, this is going to be so much fun.”