Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
I woke up feeling much better, practically back to normal. My eyes popped open, and I was ready to conquer this day, make every appointment and have time left over for a guilty pleasure like chocolate or The Detective Warlock . Maybe both.
What did I need to do? I needed to establish my new identity as soon as possible so that I could open a bank account, get a driver’s license, not that Bones had seemed to need one, and start building my portfolio. I needed to somehow let my parents know that I was safely dead so they could stop looking for me. I had to contact Fin and have her hack into the Singsong train station feed so I could watch myself get off the train with Bree and Callie. My friends. I needed to find them and figure out what had happened. What if the psychopath who had mutilated me had one of them in captivity? I needed to stop him. Why couldn’t I remember?
“I can hear you getting into trouble, and you’ve been awake for three seconds,” Mercury grumbled.
I sat up, except I fell back down because my arms were entangled with his. That is, my arms had been wrapped around his like a teddy bear I’d clung to irrationally when I was younger. I was still clinging to his arm after how many hours?
I squinted at him in the dark. “Are you in my bed?”
“Yes. It’s very dusty,” he grumbled, sounding like my dad when I woke him up in the middle of the night with a nightmare.
“Why are you in my bed?” He wasn’t my dad. He was an extremely attractive man, and I’d never had an extremely attractive man in my bed before.
He exhaled a sigh. “You were hanging onto me and I didn’t want to wake you up, because I knew you’d catapult yourself into a career path or other mischief the second you woke up.” His eyes flickered with lightning in the dark. “And I’m not wrong. I can hear you thinking a mile a minute about all the things you’re going to do to get into trouble today.”
Well, he wasn’t entirely wrong. Oh. I was so incredibly out of his league, he didn’t even think about the implications of sleeping in my bed with me. As Cassandra Clarence, if I so much as smiled too warmly at a man, I was pursued to the logical conclusion, according to man-think, but now, as Nova Nativitae, it didn’t even cross his mind to take advantage of me. I cleared my throat and tried not to feel bad about my lack of sex appeal. “I wasn’t thinking about trouble. Actually, I was thinking about job options, so tell me what you think.”
“You see? I knew it!”
I rolled my eyes. He could probably see in the dark, but I couldn’t. “Aren’t you clever? Diabolical is probably part of your surname. Anyway, what you really need is someone who can teach Bones to cook, and I know just the person.” I beamed at him while I tried not to notice the fact that he was still lying in my bed, in the dark, while I sat there trying to get a job. If I were all goblin, I’d be thinking about a lot of other things, like how many layers of clothes he had on. Happily, I only thought about thinking about that and focused on the important things instead.
“You’ve taught cooking classes before?”
“No, but I’ve taken hundreds. I’m an exceptional cook.”
“And a swimmer, so if you accidentally fall into a vat of tomato soup, you’ll be able to swim to safety.”
“Exactly. I could even pull Bones with me if necessary.” I jabbed his side, trying to get him to be serious. “Come on, Mercury. I have to do something with my life, because I’m alive, and you have to admit that it would be nice if Bones wasn’t always trying to kill you with his cooking.”
“He’s a very good cook.” He said it stubbornly, like he’d defend Bones to the death. Because he was one of his precious undead, and he had to protect their feelings.
I snorted. “He made me an omelet, Mercury. I ate the entire thing, which tells you how hungry I was, and I didn’t die, or maybe I did, but I didn’t notice because I regenerate so quickly.” I poked him again. “Well? It’s something you need, and something you want, and something I can do. It’s worth a regular paycheck and benefits.”
He cleared his throat. “It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
Wait, he was buying it? I grinned in the dark. “It’s brilliant, Monsieur Mercury.”
“Why do you call me Monsieur?”
“You’re French, aren’t you? Sometimes your accent is decidedly French. Also your clothing and aftershave.”
“Hmph.”
“Hmph? Even that sounds elegantly disgusted. Well, Mercury, my handsome hero, my light in the sewer, my provider of armored clothing and dust, will you hire me to teach Bones to cook?”
I waited in the dark, holding my breath while I tried to look at him. He helped me by turning on the lamp next to the bed. He was still fully clothed, including boots, and so was I. There would be so much chafing, but I wasn’t thinking about that right now. I wasn’t thinking about the shadow on his cheeks that gave him an even more dangerous and attractively seductive edge, either. Or the open neck of his shirt that gave a hint of chest that goblins would pay to see. I wasn’t in his league, which meant that I could say whatever I wanted, however shocking, and he would never, ever take me up on any of it. It was depressing, but also somewhat liberating.
“Are you certain you can cook?” he asked, looking skeptical.
I rolled my eyes and picked at his black silk-velvet sleeve. “Of course I can cook. Why would I lie when you’d find out five minutes into the affair?”
“Affair?” His eyes glinted, and he looked decidedly seductive lounging in my bed. Was he trying to look seductive, or could he not help himself?
I stared at him for a long time while I inwardly drooled. “Are you offering?” I finally asked. “Because the goblin in me could probably be very interested in you without a shirt.”
He rolled off the bed and straightened his jacket. “And somehow you’d sell tickets. Yes, I know exactly why you’d be interested in an affair with me.”
“That’s good. At least one person knows something,” I mumbled, irritated at myself for thinking for a second he was interested in getting in and out of affairs with me.
He turned to frown at me. “I know many things, one of which is that Bones is eyeing your produce with a great deal of interest. I’d give him ten minutes before he took matters into his own hands.”
I rolled out of bed and started looking around for something to wear that wasn’t armored.
“The underpinnings would be in the armoire on the shelf, carefully wrapped as the salesperson left them,” he said softly.
“Oh, thanks!” I beamed at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was looking at the bed with a dark frown.
I looked at the bed, and saw how small it was, and how my head had been in the center of the only pillow, and he must have been falling off all night next to me. I looked at him and leaned close to check the dark circles under his eyes.
“Did you sleep at all? How could you, perched on the edge like a bird?”
“I like birds.” He pushed my face back and then turned towards the door. “Nine minutes.”
I hurried to the armoire and took the whole bundle, which was very large, and carried it with me to the bathroom. He was already gone by then, moving silently. He could be very quiet, and with his magic, couldn’t he just spell me to sleep if he was worried about me waking up?
I hesitated at the thought. I’d held onto him all night. I’d needed something to hold onto, and I was his pathetic dead whose feelings and emotional health he had to safeguard, however hideous I was. I’d woken up feeling so much better because I wasn’t alone, because he’d been watching over me while I clung to the only thing I could rely on in my new life. He really was dedicated to his dead. I was so lucky that his rats had found me, that he’d come to get me. Otherwise, I’d still be trapped in that tiny chamber, unable to live or die.
I shivered and opened the package, focusing on the ridiculous underwear. I found a hard lump in the middle and fished out my phone. Aha! I did have some time for trouble this morning.
I’d memorized almost every number I’d ever called, so I had no problem remembering the place that we sourced IDs for unfortunes without any other alternative. As in victims who were trying to escape their pasts, but the government couldn’t help them because they didn’t find them useful enough. My mother had started the program, not exactly legal, but it made a real difference in the lives of ordinary people. Right now, I was the one who needed help.
If Mercury wasn’t the one who found me…
I shivered again and called, going through the ridiculously bright and impractical underwear while I listened to the dial tone.
Finally, she picked up. “How can I help you?”
“I need a new identity,” I began.
“Yeah, I figured since no one else would use this number. How many do you need?”
“Just one. Five-seven, blonde, I can send a picture now through this number.” I pulled down the towel so I could look at my reflection, still shockingly bald, with those creepy pale green-blue eyes that were not goblin gold, but just as creepy. My eyes couldn’t see in the dark, either.
“Great. What’s your routing number?”
“My routing number…” I had bank accounts, but there was no way I could touch them without my mother noticing.
“We aren’t running a charity. If you don’t have the cash, contact Clare Corp and maybe they can set you up if they consider you eligible.” She hung up without another word, leaving me blinking at my reflection, holding the phone in one hand and a neon rainbow thong in the other.
I dropped the thong and took a deep breath. I didn’t have time to freak out about the fact that one door had already slammed in my face. “Mercury will pay me, and I can set up an account, or maybe he’ll let me use his account for the money transfer.” That was logical. I nodded and then called Fin.
It took her too many rings to answer, and meanwhile I was sifting through the underwear, searching for something wearable.
“What do you want?” she finally slurred. Oh lovely. She was drunk.
“Hey, Fin. I’m…” My voice wasn’t the same, and I didn’t want her to know I was alive. “Cassandra Clarence’s cousin. I wonder if you could hack into the train station feed in Singsong city and send it to me.”
“Are you kidding me? Scammers are getting creative.” She hung up, leaving me with a shortage of time and a lurching stomach. Another door slammed in my face.
Instead of letting myself drown in frustration, I hit that lingerie with a vengeance and finally found one pair of bottoms in silver holograph that had some coverage and smoothing effect. The bra that was the most practical, the least spiked or with large flowers, or gumdrops, or… were those dog treats? In case I wanted to seduce werewolves, I guess. Anyway, it was black velvet with silver moons and bows on the straps. When I put it on, I was astonished to see how well it fit. I’d had so much surgery over the years, it was like dressing somebody else’s body. The silver holographic bottoms almost matched the silver moons on top. It was certainly a look with my bald head and asymmetrical features.
I spent too long staring at myself before I threw a towel over the mirror in disgust and pulled those leathery armored things back on.
I ran all the way to the kitchen and arrived just in time to stop Bones from dropping a feathered chicken into a pot of boiling water.
I’d never had to start from quite that much scratch, but at least the chicken was dead. I skinned the entire thing so I wouldn’t have to worry about plucking it. I didn’t want Mercury to think I didn’t know how to cook just because I’d never had to deal with feathers before.
He stood to the side, arms crossed, studying me suspiciously as I explained to Bones why we removed the organs instead of roasting them with everything else. Bones kept commenting on how well I was cooking for the master, which always made Mercury’s brow twitch. Bones discovered what measuring spoons were all about, as well as that chickens needed their heads and feet chopped off before you could cook them, along with internal organs. It was a simple dinner, not as precisely prepared as it would have been if I’d had my own kitchen and the produce from my usual market. My French instructor would have been appalled by the lumpy consistency of the mashed parsnips, but overall, everything looked edible. Delicious, actually. My mouth was watering and my stomach twisted. It had been a long time since the memorable omelet.
I stood by the table with each dish spread out on the wood surface, Mercury sitting at the end looking appropriately moody while Bones hovered behind his shoulder.
“She made such a good meal for our master. You’ll eat it, won’t you?” he asked Mercury, anxiously.
Mercury raised a fork, stabbed it into the golden chicken in the old pan and yanked it out. It looked as good as could be expected from a skinless roast, probably drier than he liked, but definitely edible. I’d taken it out three times to rotate it because the old oven was not going to cook anything evenly.
He gave me a suspicious glance before he put it in his mouth and chewed, swallowed and then said, “Excellent cooking, Miss Nova.”
I tried to look confident, you know, so he’d pay me for my efforts, but the truth would come out in the end. I sighed and let my shoulders slump. “It’s too dry. I’m not used to starting with live chickens, so I don’t know how to pluck them.”
He stared at me. “It is not too dry. It is perfect.”
I stared back at him and then slowly smiled. I was one of his precious dead, so he had to protect my feelings. “Have you ever plucked a chicken?”
“Yes. Next time, I will do it for you. If you’d said that you needed help with the plucking, I would have stepped in. You looked so confident. Now, you will sit down beside me and partake of this feast. I hate eating alone.”
“Oh. Thanks.” I went to grab the chair, but he was already pulling it out for me. “Thanks,” I said again as I sat down, my hands shaky, maybe from hunger, maybe just from coming back from the dead.
He served me, glancing at me with every scoop to get my nod of approval. I was so starving, I wanted to eat until I died from it. Finally, he set the plate beside me, and for a second I noticed how he’d arranged everything so artistically, then I ruined his presentation completely.
It was good. I moaned and wiggled as the buttery parsnips melted in my mouth. And the chicken was so delicious. Yes, there was room for improvement, but not much. And the greens, walnuts and the perfect raspberry dressing, sweet, but not too sweet, and the mushrooms in the sauce. Sigh. Had anything ever been so wonderful?
After the first wave of starvation abated, I looked up, noticing the rest of the world for a moment. Bones was staring at me with big eyes, rapt, like he’d never seen anyone eat before. Oh. He didn’t eat. And I’d been very into it.
I cleared my throat and smoothed my mouth with the napkin that had come from nowhere. “Sorry. I was hungry.” I looked at Mercury’s plate. He’d clearly served himself and eaten a little bit of everything while I’d been lost in starvation mode. I hadn’t been so hungry since I got back from Croatia.
Mercury nodded soberly. “Yes. I should have fed you the moment you woke up, but I forgot to take your aliveness and the calories required for regeneration into consideration.” He looked quite troubled about it.
I patted his arm. “It’s all right. I’m used to being hungry.” That was the price of perfection. Perpetual hunger to go with the pain.
He covered my hand with his before I could pull away. “It is not all right, either that I forgot to feed you, or that you are used to being hungry. You will not be hungry again.” That growly voice was so thrilling, particularly when the lightning in his eyes came out. He looked so dangerous, but was so sweet.
I stared at him, into those eyes, and felt giddy and goofy. “Okay. If you really want to make it up to me, how about…”
He covered my mouth with his other hand and shook his head. “No. I’m not taking off my shirt so that you can sell tickets.” He lowered his hand, and I saw the flash of humor in his eyes.
I sighed heavily. “So unfair. I guess you’ll have to turn on the television then so we can watch The Detective Warlock .”
He winced. “If that’s what you want.”
“Oh, yes. I bet the warlock takes off his shirt.”
“He does on every episode.”
“Of course. It’s so good for ratings. He’s supposed to be a real magic user in real life.”
“Oh, he is.”
I gasped and gaped at him. “Seriously? You know him from your magic circles?”
He shook his head and stood. “No. Absolutely not. I’m not doing a shirtless mage battle with Winston just so you can up your ticket prices. Stop thinking about it.” He pulled out my chair and ushered me to the couch. He also sat down very close to me, but I hardly noticed because I was still thinking about Winston the Warlock and Mercury having a battle. Shirtless. Mostly Mercury, to be honest.
“I’ll turn it on,” Bones said eagerly, grinning as he advanced on the television like it was a serious opponent.
“So, what kind of mage battle are we talking about?” I whispered.
“We aren’t.”
“But think of the tickets! Seriously, that would make incredibly good money to do magic shows with you and Winston.”
“Magic shows?” he said with a coldness that made my skin prickle.
Had I gone too far? Probably. I never talked like this with anyone other than my dad. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
He turned and studied me, his eyes intent, the force of his presence incredibly heavy, like a warm blanket draping over me on a cold day. “He’s actually a very talented magic user as well as being a brilliant strategist. That whole show started as propaganda to create good feeling towards neutral magic users like himself. He wrote the first season himself, sure to make an enormous distinction between his kind of magic and mine.”
I stared at him. He was explaining to me instead of being insulted? How refreshing. “Neutral magic isn’t inherently more good than dark magic?”
He hesitated. “If it were only a matter of the magic, then there wouldn’t be any opposition. No one would go against their conscience, and no one would decide to fight for the better good against their self-interest. Things would be very simple, but there wouldn’t be any room for somewhere like Singsong. I wouldn’t be resisting my own dark impulses.”
“Are you? Do you have a lot of dark impulses that you resist?” I wanted to know if any of them involved affairs with freshly regenerated bald girls, but of course, that was ridiculous. He was Vilus, and I was one of his regenerated rats.
He frowned at me and then turned to face the television. “At the moment, not particularly. I’m too distracted to diabolically plan anything other than finding your killer. I should be getting the feed from the train station later this day, if you’d like to watch me go through it.”
I stared at him, gaping again until he tapped my chin until my mouth closed. “You got the feed? How? Isn’t that illegal?”
“Illegal? Only if I get caught. Will you turn me in to the authorities for trying to find your killer?”
I sputtered for another moment because it was so incredibly irritating that all of my efforts had been nothing, and he’d come up with the answer so easily. I’d used to wave my graceful hand and everything fell in line, and now I was a nobody with nothing, completely relying on Mercury. I wanted to scream or hit something.
“Miss Nova?” he asked, sounding concerned.
How could I explain how I felt when it wasn’t rational to be upset because I wasn’t the one getting results, because I had to rely on him?
My eyes started to burn, like I was going to cry, but thankfully Bones got the tv turned on finally, and backed away, looking at the screen with a frown.
“It should be on now, but there’s only news,” he said sadly.
The news announcer’s voice came over a video of a burning building, plumes reaching the sky. “New information has come out about the death of the three gemstones. A video was sent in of the three before the fire so tragically took so many lives at The Detective Warlock conference.”
The video changed to a shaky recording of an extremely beautiful blond girl surrounded by Callie and Bree, who were also completely stunning, if different from the central figure, who made every movement a poignant expression of grace. Cassandra Clarence. Was that really me? Did I really gesture like that, so incredibly confident that everyone was looking at me, that I had complete control over everyone and everything?
She, I mean, I, was leading the way to safety from the crackling fires, keeping everyone calm, being a beacon of hope in the chaos, but then The Detective Warlock ’s mystical cat darted to the left, back towards the burning flames, and Cassandra Clarence turned and chased after the creature, her friends right behind her.
There was a screech of metal, an explosion of flames, and then the ceiling came down on the three girls.
I blinked at the screen as it went suddenly blank with a pop and a blue spark of lightning that came up out of the television. It had exploded. A buzzing filled my ears, so I barely heard Bones say, “Master, I believe we’ll have to get a new one.”
Mercury was standing. So was I now that I thought about it. I’d burned to death? Callie and Bree…
“They didn’t make it.” My heart emptied of all light and hope and filled up with barbs and slithering snakes instead. I couldn’t breathe. But it didn’t matter because I could survive not breathing. My chest ached so much. I couldn’t bear it.
But my nose was cut off along with my fingers. I looked down at my fingers, still short, particularly on the left hand where my last fingers had been cut off into the hand. Did the ceiling chop them off?
Mercury paced away from me, a sleek silver rectangle at his ear, the phone a model that wasn’t on the market yet. He must know people, and not just the magical ones. I’d burned to death, crushed by a roof chasing a cat? My mother must be furious. It was like that time in Croatia when I’d given my priceless charm bracelet to the girl. I could be so stupid sometimes.
Mercury’s murmur on his phone was interrupted by a, “Bones, catch her!” And then everything went black.