Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
T he next morning, I was teaching Bones how to make bread when a brunette woman walked into the kitchen like she owned it.
“Bones! How is the master?” she asked, smiling eerily at him, the dramatic scars across her face and down her neck and chest making her look like a mobster, or maybe that was the fedora perched rakishly on her head.
“Mistress, he is well,” Bones said with a bow to the woman.
Mistress? Was this female Mercury’s girlfriend? Wife? Lover? Her brilliant blue eyes were even more stunning than my contacts had been, probably because they glowed slightly. She was a sorceress? There was something familiar about her. Ever since last night and the madness that had me shamelessly kissing Mercury in front of Philip, and my mother, and the rest of the world, I’d been trying to understand what I’d been thinking, but I wasn’t sure I’d been thinking at all. Who kisses a dark sorcerer, much less one at a funeral, particularly one that’s obsessed with who you used to be, and won’t ever be again? He’d propositioned someone at their own husband’s event. He was vile, and yet, he’d kissed me like a tornado, uprooting all of my fear and insecurities, leaving nothing behind but desire.
“You have to let the dough rise, right?” she asked, coming to peer over my shoulder. She was slightly shorter than I was and seemed extremely good-natured in spite of whatever magic she possessed.
If she was one of his inappropriate relationships, I would be particularly polite, because I was one of his pathetic dead. I nodded politely and turned to Bones. “Remember, we have to set the timer so we don’t get distracted by the show.”
He nodded ponderously. This was the fourth time we’d gone over it, but he had difficulty remembering details. I smiled warmly at him. He would get it eventually, and then we’d move onto something more interesting, croissants maybe.
“Perfect,” the woman said and grabbed my elbow with iron fingers. “I’m taking her out to lunch,” she told Bones. “If Mercury asks, we’re at the Cat’s Pause.” She turned and waved a hand, ripping a hole into the kitchen and into another space, then pulled me through, into a chaotic sushi and piano bar, with afternoon light coming through the window.
I gasped and blinked around me in confusion, the old woman playing the piano like a drunk, or maybe the piano was drunk, and all the decorations from Easter to Halloween, perched between fish tanks and the two bars, one for sushi and light drinks, the other around the piano. She’d just ripped a hole in space and pulled me through. That wasn’t small magic. Mercury didn’t throw around magic like that, but this woman wasn’t anything like Mercury. Maybe she was going to kill me for touching her lover.
“It didn’t mean anything,” I stammered.
She raised a brow. “Tell me your name. Mercury didn’t mention it when he brought your samples. Rynne, I’ve got the guest I called you about. Make sure everything’s cooked well. If I get her sick, Mercury will probably behead me. She’s his special friend.” My samples? This was his associate he’d talked to about me with?
A waitress with purple streaks in her hair nodded at us and headed through the bar and into the back kitchen, leaving a cloud of steam to escape into the bar behind her.
“Sit down and tell me everything,” Mercury’s associate said, dragging me to a table in the corner furthest from the windows and the piano. It was almost private, if you could be private while looking out over a busy street.
“I’m sorry, but why did you bring me here?”
Her eyes twinkled. “I’m going to get information out of you. I’m the wife of his only friend. I would say that we were friends, but he doesn’t want to be friends with married women. My husband is extremely protective of me and would happily rip off Mercury’s arms.”
“Oh, you’re the one Mercury propositioned at Vincent’s ball?” And I’d said that out loud. How could I be so rude?
She just flashed a sharp smile at me. “Yes, but he was only joking. And I’d never be interested in him, which he knows. Although he does have nice hair, and his rats are sweet. My taste in men runs to the extreme in beauty and wealth.”
I stared at her, relieved that she thought he was joking, and shocked that she’d say that about herself and her husband. He had been handsome, but I didn’t think he was any more handsome than Mercury. His hair was very lovely. I cleared my throat. “You’re very open about it. Most people hide their interest in money and looks. You must be very honest.”
She nodded and then a squirrel leapt onto her shoulder and she pulled a nut out of her pocket and fed it to him. “Let’s start over and I’ll introduce myself properly. I’m Anna Doe Bellham, Grand Sorcerer. My father is King Crown, if you know what that means.”
King Crown was the largest name in elixirs. Clarence Corp. had done some business with him in the past. He was extremely wealthy, and this was his daughter? She was an heiress? Without the scars, she would have been a much more beautiful woman than I was without surgery. “You didn’t try to get rid of the scars. You don’t actually care about beauty, because you have at your disposal all the magic, all the elixirs, all the money you’d need to at least wear constant glamours, even if you couldn’t completely erase the scars. Your husband might be handsome, but that’s not why you love him. Also, you aren’t very honest.”
Her smile was almost soft as she relaxed in her seat, studying me openly. “You aren’t intimidated by money, power, or scars. What are you afraid of?”
A memory of waking up alone to rats and cold misery, with pain enveloping me, hit me pretty hard. I swallowed. “Nothing I haven’t experienced. Why did you want to take me to lunch?”
She snorted. “You’re too polite. Let’s call a kidnapping a kidnapping, shall we? Well, when my husband’s good friend, Oswald Mercury, a notorious bachelor and lover of rats makes out with some mystery girl at a very public funeral, I get curious. Were you drunk? You don’t look the type. You’re a little uptight, if you know what I mean.” She poked my shoulder with a bony finger.
She wanted to know why I’d kissed Mercury. I was trying to figure that out myself. I spoke slowly. “I’m used to holding back what I think and feel, but I haven’t kept most of my thoughts to myself since I died. You’re the associate he took my samples to? The Grand Sorcerer of the world? But you’re a woman. That’s funny.”
She poked my shoulder again. Ow. “You say that’s funny, but you don’t laugh. You’re so repressed. And yet, you were making out at that funeral like you were a fifteen-year-old in the back of a car. Not that I know about that. I was five times more repressed than you at your age. I was a great surgeon, and trying to be the perfect son for my father, who never wanted a girl. I had to leave everything behind, including my mind, to realize what was really important to me, who I really was, and what I really wanted. You died, but you remember who you were?”
I hesitated, then nodded. “I remember everything up to the train ride before I was murdered.”
“So, why don’t you go back to your old life?”
I hesitated, then glanced up at the waitress while she plopped two large bowls of stir-fried noodles and a side of gorgeous sushi before she smiled at me and then left us alone. I refocused on the woman across from me, with so much power, she must be incredibly wily, in spite of how careless she appeared. And yet, there was something trustworthy about her. She didn’t waste time on things that didn’t matter to her.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re living with Mercury, doing PDA with him, and teaching Bones how to cook. You must be as patient as a saint if you have actually taught him anything.”
Cassandra Clarence was the saint. “Ha. I’m not a saint. I still don’t understand why you want to know.”
She leaned back and frowned at me. “I’d like to know your intentions regarding my old friend.”
“I thought he was your husband’s friend.”
She pointed at me. “That’s what I thought. You aren’t going to tell me what you’re running from. Whatever it is might come visit Mercury.”
That was a terrifying thought. Was Mercury really in danger from whatever had murdered me and killed all those people? “Do you really think he’s in danger? He seems rather competent, but if you think…”
She put her hand over mine and leaned close, eyes intent. “No, Mercury can handle it. Don’t go running off into the night out of a misguided desire to protect him. I’m actually worried about his heart, what you’ll do with it, and how he’ll react if you abandon him. Why are you running away from your old life? Are you going to run away from Mercury too once you’re triggered?”
I stared at her, confused at her misunderstanding. Then again, I had made out with him in public like some fifteen-year-old in the back of a car. I’d never been kissed like that, so thoroughly devoured, exactly how you’d imagine a dark sorcerer would kiss someone, exactly how I’d always wanted someone to kiss me.
I cleared my throat. “He was just humoring me, protecting me, because I’m one of his pathetic undead. I can’t go back because I’m a completely different person now. I’m not fit for my old life anymore, not when they needed me to be exactly how I was. Being dead, coming to life, it changes you.” I gripped the table and smiled at her, my creepy smile. “Now it’s my turn to ask some questions. You’re a magic user, right? Do you know Winston the Warlock?”
She blinked at me. “No. I’m a dark sorceress. I have very little to do with neutral magic users. We have different politics, a very different agenda, and while I can appreciate the work he does for his kind, I’m still tempted to kill him for juxtaposing neutral magic with the dark arts. Neutral magic users are notoriously conscienceless and go on killing sprees at least as often as dark magic users.”
“Does Winston the Warlock have a reputation for being without a conscience?”
“No. He has a reputation for being clever, careful, and charming, not necessarily in that order. You’re saying that if you can’t be who you were, you’re accepting who you are now? That’s very reasonable. If you’re so reasonable, why did you make out in public with a necromancer, hm?”
Back to that. She was hard to distract, and hadn’t told me anything useful about Winston. I took a large bite of noodles that I ate slowly before I finally swallowed and wiped my mouth. “I wanted to.”
She laughed. “Why did you want to?”
“I was under a lot of stress, being around all those people who I knew but didn’t recognize me, and then seeing a very handsome man who used to think I was not bad looking, but now thinks I’m sewage. Mercury doesn’t mind sewage, so I used him to help me feel better about myself. I don’t appreciate having to say that out loud to a stranger. My vulnerabilities are none of your concern, except that I displayed them out in public for the world to see. Yes, I understand that sort of thing has consequences, but I resent it. I’ve had a hard enough time being murdered and then coming back to life. I don’t need to deal with insecurities too, but being alive is like that. I should be grateful to be alive, but being dead was easier to cope with, even if I was undead.”
She nodded and leaned her chin on her hand. “You were really beautiful, but got ugly once you were reanimated?”
“No, I had a lot of plastic surgery that made me beautiful, but now I went back to being how I’d be without it. My fingers grow back. Plastic surgery is out for me.”
Her eyes widened. “You had that much work done? You’re used to suffering for beauty, but now you have to suffer just to be alive, and beauty isn’t even on the table. I guess you’ll have to find other things to live for.”
“I’m looking for a job. Are you hiring?”
She studied me thoughtfully. “I’m not, although an immortal, demonic girl would come in handy for blood rituals. Of course, Mercury wouldn’t approve of using you for blood rituals. Pity.”
I stared at her. “Demonic?”
“That’s right. I studied the energy waves that stimulate rejuvenation in your cells, and it’s absolutely demonic. And you have goblin blood, right?”
I stared at her in confusion mixed with horror. “I’m demonic?”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “I apologize. I’m not being at all sensitive to your obvious discomfort, like I don’t care. I do, though. We’re going to be great friends. Then we can go on double dates. Have you ever gone bowling?”
I blinked at her. “I’m not demonic.”
She patted my hand. “It’s all right, dear. Demonic is as demonic does, and you clearly do not do demonic. My husband, Vincent Bellham, is the most handsome, wealthy, brilliant, magically dangerous man in the world. Not demonic, but capable of mass destruction. And me, I have a healer gene under all that dark sorcerer that helps me grow an amazing vegetable patch. Blood isn’t everything, and looks are even less.” She gestured at her face. “If someone with a face like this can catch such a beautiful man, then so can you. Looking at a beautiful man is even better than being beautiful yourself. Just be sure you don’t catch the wrong kind of beauty, if you know what I mean. Listen to me. I sound like a fortune cookie. That reminds me. Rynne, can we get fortune cookies and the check? I’ve got to run. It was so nice to meet you.” She stood, ripped a hole in space to somewhere that looked like a ballroom, and left me there, without waiting for the check or the fortune cookies. Was she always so abrupt? And was I actually demonic? Also, she’d just left me here. I had no idea where in the world, literally, I was.
I stared down at my hand with its almost fully regrown fingers, curling and flexing them until Mercury appeared. He stood across from me, very close to where his associate had been, studying her chair with a frown.
I said, “She didn’t finish. Would you like to join me?” I gestured at the other seat. “Oh, you’ll have to pay because she left me with the check.” And the news that I was demonic, like it was no big deal. It was a huge deal. Everything I’d lived for was crumbling around me.
He pulled out the chair and sat down, then picked up a pair of chopsticks and snagged a sushi roll skillfully. “I will pay and then send her a bill for five times as much for stealing my prisoner. This table is heavily warded against eavesdropping.” He waved the air with a slightly pinched look on his face. “She used too much magic. She always does these days. She has no reserve, not in anything.”
“You sound like you know her well. Did the two of you date before she was married?”
He raised a brow then held his chopsticks towards me, holding a sushi roll. “No. I was her father’s enemy, so it’s her husband that introduced us once she’d left Crown’s care. She was already deep under her husband’s spell.”
I hesitated because I’d never had sushi, but he wanted me to eat it, and I couldn’t refuse him, not when he’d let me kiss him in public. I opened my mouth, then chewed and swallowed quickly so I wouldn’t taste it, but it wasn’t bad at all. “You use the word ‘care’ lightly.”
“Naturally. You know dark sorcerers.”
“I do. At least now I know sorcerers. Before today, I only knew sorcerer, and I have to admit that it didn’t inform me about any habitual carelessness. She also cares about you, says that I might break your heart, but that makes no sense. You told me that I couldn’t hurt you, didn’t you? Doesn’t that include your heart?”
“She thinks my heart is delicate.”
I peered at his chest, sadly covered by a thick black shirt and buttoned all the way up. “Do you have a heart? Don’t sorcerers put them in jars or magical objects?”
“That is a different kind of sorcerer. I like my heart where it is, locked in my chest.”
“Sounds very secure. You should tell her that you’re in no danger.”
“Or I could tell everyone that I’m desperately in love with you. The latter would be more amusing.”
For some reason, my heart plummeted. I didn’t like him joking about that. The memory of the kiss was still haunting me, and here he was, right in front of me, joking about being in love with me. “Would it? In what way?”
“Novelty. I’ve never told everyone that I’m desperately in love. I have told everyone, repeatedly, that I am in absolutely no danger of compromising my heart.”
I nodded. “You don’t need to take your heart out of your chest to protect it. You’re lucky.”
“I am. Here.” He held out another sushi, and I obediently ate it. The next time my mouth was empty, he had another roll for me, and another, and another, until I started feeling self-conscious. It’s just that when he held it out to me, I leaned forward, and he leaned forward, and I saw the silver in his eyes and remembered the fire in his kiss, but remembered that I was hideously ugly and possibly demonic. Probably. I’d have to be something spectacularly abnormal to come back from the dead. That just didn’t happen to humans without serious intervention.
By the time the sushi was gone, I was feeling awkward from the stares of people who noticed my white-haired stubble, or maybe they noticed that I was with a notorious bachelor and looked like his date. It wasn’t a high-class place by any means, but the food was good, and the atmosphere was unique. And the way he looked into my eyes was so startlingly intense. Like he saw me for so much more than what I looked like on the outside. And not the demonic part. Or maybe that was a perk. Blood rituals and all that.
Shudder.
I pulled away and fiddled with my napkin. Was I actually accepting something so ludicrous as that I was a demon? Why didn’t Mercury tell me? Did he not know? Would he despise me if he knew? What about the fact that he’d been obsessed with Clarissa Clarence? And the kiss.
For the first time with him, I kept my mouth closed and didn’t say anything at all.
When we’d finished eating, he dropped some large bills on the table and then helped me with my chair before offering his arm. I didn’t need to hold onto him for physical or emotional stability, but it would be rude to refuse him, and holding him was like snuggling a teddy bear on a stormy night. Was I actually demonic? Where in the world had I gotten my blood, goblin and demon? My parents had always talked about how precious human blood was, and how it had to be preserved, which is why it was so essential that I marry someone without tainted blood, like me. And now I had demonic blood? The source of all taint?
“Are you all right?” Mercury asked me.
I looked up at him, startled. “Yes, I was just wondering…Can you be infected by demonic blood?”
He raised a brow as we hesitated at the door. “I don’t believe any human could absorb demonic blood. Bites from demons don’t infect humans, either. Why do you ask?”
I didn’t want to tell him, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t putting his safety at risk, and I wasn’t talking about his heart. “She just mentioned that I rejuvenate because I’m demonic.” I tried to sound upbeat and look cheerful as I pushed through the door. As I went, I brushed shoulders with a guy coming in.
He glanced up at me, only for a second, but I knew those violet eyes. I grabbed my arm and then felt the pain. He’d pricked me with a needle, like the last time I’d seen him. I whirled around, but as I touched his coat, he melted away into nothing, leaving his beige trench in my hand. He knew who I was. The last time I saw him, I’d noticed the prick in my arm a few minutes later and asked my mother about it. She’d told me it was nothing, then promptly tripled my bodyguards.
“Nova?” Mercury growled, taking the coat and inhaled its scent before he raised his dark, dangerous eyes to me. “Who was that?”
“Someone who wanted to sample my blood. I should have worn the armored shirt today.” I looked down at my vest and my bare arm. I hadn’t meant to go anywhere, but I’d been kidnapped. And someone had taken my blood. Like before, when my mother… She knew about my tainted blood. She must, so why had she insisted on me living the lie of a perfect human when she knew I had so much darkness lurking beneath the surface? She’d taught me to be honest. Polite, tactful, but honest. And all that time she’d been lying to me?
Mercury put a hand on my lower back and then escorted me outside, where Bones waited with the car. Mercury helped me in the backseat and then leaned down to give me a tense smile.
“Miss Nova, I will try to follow the creature and bring back your blood. Bones, take our lady home.”
“Yes, Master.” Bones took off immediately, and so did Mercury, vanishing along with the coat.