Since then, Eden had been on her own. She was thirty-two now and only a few parts away from finishing the work her father started. She was just a superconductor and nuclear fusion generator away from saving the world.
Chapter Two
An Unexpected Visitor
That Saturday Eden woke up early to get a jump start on what she called her “weekend work.” She reserved Saturdays and Sundays for her work on the Hadron Collider. She wanted to get everything ready so that when she found the remaining parts she needed, she could just plug those puppies in and get the thing going. The sooner the portals were closed, the sooner Twin Glades, and the rest of the world, could finally get back to normal.
Not every place had portals, and many cities and regions that didn’t had built walls to keep out the spirits and demons. Subsequently, these walls also kept out anyone trying to flee the infected cities. It was mainly humans who sought refuge. The shifters had a sort of unspoken agreement with the conscious demons and most of them were more than strong enough to take on an instinctual one. The wolf gangs had been running the show in Twin Glades long before the portals opened, and they were not about to let their status fall to a bunch of thick skulled hellcats. Instead, the shifters made deals with the demons.
The black markets were where most of these deals went down. The shifters used their status as Twin Glade citizens, which the demons, obviously, were not, to get into places highly populated by humans. Once there, the shifters grabbed just about anything they could get their hands on, including humans themselves, and brought it to the market to sell it for cheap to the demons who could mark it up and sell to the demons from other areas who had achieved more prestige and wealth. Human women were one of the hottest commodities on the market. Even though she had magic, Eden also went out of her way to make sure she wasn’t an easy target. Her shop was close to impenetrable when she had all her security up, and she had taken years of self-defense classes. If all else failed, she always had Cricket, who could deliver a fifty-thousand-volt shock if the situation demanded it.
Saturday mornings were usually quiet. Most of the people who lived in this area of Twin Glades were still sleeping off the night before, and the streets wouldn’t be busy until the afternoon. Eden found she got her best work done during these silent, sunny hours. Expecting no one to be out, Eden took down most of the security measures she put in place every night, save the alarm system and the deadbolt on the front door, and got to work. The collider she kept in a corner of the back room, under a sheet. It was about the size of a coffee table, only taller and rounder. In order to get to the parts she was tinkering with today, she needed to sit on the floor and bend over at an odd angle. At around ten her back started to hurt and she decided she had earned herself a break.
Stretching and kicking out her left foot, which had fallen asleep, Eden went to the front of her shop and opened the door. She figured she might as well flip her closed sign to open, in case there were any early morning customers. She’d heard from a group of customers who came in late the night before that Isaac was getting back sometime today. If history were any indicator, hers would be the first shop he visited upon arriving in town.
She opened the door to head back inside when a voice stopped her.
“Hello there.”
Eden turned around to see a large viper man wearing a leather jacket and heavy boots. He was staring down at her. Vipers were snake shifters. They looked mostly human, besides their skinny, forked tongues and the few patches of scales which peppered their otherwise human skin.
“Can I help you?” Eden asked. She was still wearing sweatpants and the t-shirt she had slept in the night before. Her belt, in which Cricket was charging, was slung over her chair in the back room.
The man took a step towards her. “My name’s Vince,” he said. “I’m new to this area. I thought I would stop by and introduce myself.”
Eden raised an eyebrow. “It’s nice to meet you Vince.” She took a step backwards, her back now pressed against her door. She thought, if she yelled her loudest, Cricket may be able to hear her from there. “Did you have some electronics that need fixing? Or maybe you are looking to buy or sell some parts?”
He shook his head. “No thank you, not today. I have a lot of other shops I need to visit before the day is done.”
“You’re introducing yourself to everyone?” Eden asked. “How… neighborly.”
He smiled. “I think so, yes. Especially since I will be running these streets in a short while.”
“Is that so?” asked Eden. She bit the inside of her lip to keep from scoffing at him. There had been many shifters like this, who thought they could take the power away from the wolves and start their own empire in Twin Glades. The “leader” of these new gangs was typically killed a week into his stay and the rest were run out of town before any real damage could be done. It wasn’t that Eden liked the wolves. They were horrible and violent, but at least with them there were no surprises. Knowing thy enemy was a key part of surviving in cities like Twin Glades. “Well.” She smiled back at him. “Good luck with that.”
He nodded at her. “Thank you. Have a nice day.”
She slipped back inside the shop and her hand hovered over the lock. He stared at her for a second longer through the glass of the door and then turned and disappeared around the corner. Eden turned the deadbolt and hoped any customers who showed up would be smart enough to knock.
Isaac arrived around dinnertime, food in tow. He more pounded than knocked on the door, making Eden jump a little and nearly cut the wrong wire on the piece of junk desktop computer she was trying to repair. She let him in and he put the heavy grocery bag full of chinese food on the counter, next to the cash register. Eden locked the door.
“What’s this for?” Eden asked.
“What? A guy can’t buy a witch a meal as payment for her saving his life?” He grinned. “It’s honestly the least I could do.”
“Honestly.”
He looked around the room and frowned. “You know,” he said. “I didn’t really think this one through. I forgot you live in squalor and don’t have any decent place to sit and have a meal.”
“It’s always good to compliment your good deed with a snide remark. They pair well together.”
“Just like.” He pulled two red containers out of the plastic bag and put them on the counter. “Spicy Chicken and Fried Rice. Do you at least have forks?”
Eden looked off and up, as if trying to remember if she did in fact have any utensils.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” said Isaac.
She smiled. “I am.” Eden went into the back room and retrieved a couple of forks and two beers from her mini fridge.
She had two bar stools, of different heights, which she brought to either side of the counter. They dug in. It had been a long time since Eden had eaten such good, greasy take out and she was taking it all down so fast, so consistently, that she at one point forgot to breathe. Once they were both overly full and their mouths no longer otherwise preoccupied, Eden asked Isaac how his travels had been.
“Fruitful,” he said. “I have a lot of goodies that I know you’re going to be eager to get your hands on.”
“Sounds great!”
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your help the other night. This trip was a very important one for me and there was no way I would have been able to go on it had you not healed me so quickly.”
Eden shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.” Then, putting her fork down she silently vowed she would not pick it back up for at least an hour. She really needed to give her stomach some time to digest. “You aren’t going to tell anyone right?”
Isaac shook his head. “C’mon, you know me better than that, don’t you?”
Eden nodded. “Yeah. I do. I just had to make sure.”
“I understand.” He took a final bite then he too put his fork down. “So, what’s up with all the locked doors and closed shutters? You decided to close up shop early toda
y?”
“Oh, uh, it’s nothing.” Eden had tried to forget about the encounter she had with the viper all day but the memory of him towering over her, the confident and eerily polite way he spoke to her, would not dissipate. “I just had a weird encounter with some guy this morning. Thought it might be a good idea to keep everything under lock and key for the day.”
“Who was it? Anyone I would know?”
“He said he was new in town. He was a Viper. I had never seen him before, but he’s one of those dummies who thinks he’ll be able to take power from the wolves.”
Isaac leaned over the counter and squinted at her. “His name wasn’t Vince by chance, was it?”
Eden looked back at him wide eyed. “You know him?”
Isaac stood up and let out a long breath. “Not personally. I know of him. He and his crew are vicious. They were over in Green Valley last week and apparently overthrew the dragon shifters who run that place with a single raid.” He looked sweaty and his voice had taken on a panicked tone.
“Isaac, can you stop pacing like that? You’re making me nervous.”
“We should all be nervous,” he said. “These guys are trouble. Green Valley is where my sister and mother live. They left two weeks ago after getting some anonymous tip from someone my mom works with that Vince and his gang were coming. I went to visit them in their new place a few towns over. That’s where I was the past few days. My mother was telling me about Vince and what she’d heard.”
Eden waited for Isaac to elaborate but he didn’t. “And?” she said.
“And you need to get the hell out of here.” He stopped pacing and stood facing her with an unnerving expression. “They are famous for rounding up all the human women in the towns they occupy. Most of them they sell to other shifters, and the ones they decide are special, they keep for themselves. These vipers aren’t like the wolves here. The wolves are only out to make some extra money, and as long as you don’t get in their way or make yourself too easy a target, they won’t bother you. These guys though, they enjoy what they do. They love a good challenge, and you Eden, you are going to give them their hardest, most enticing challenge yet.”
It wasn’t until Isaac said this last part that Eden felt uneasy. She wasn’t afraid of some fork-tongued brutes, but if what Isaac said was true, it was her lack of fear that would make her a prize to Vince.
“I can help you get out of town,” said Isaac. “I know people who can smuggle you out. Tonight. You should leave tonight.”
“Where would I go?” Eden said, but what she was really thinking was how she was going to be able to bring the Hadron Collider with her. “I don’t have any family or friends that I could stay with.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Isaac paced again, but now his expression melted from that of fear to that of determination. “I will figure all that out. You just focus on packing.”
“This is crazy,” she said. “I can’t just leave! I have a shop to run and projects that I’m in the middle of working on. It took me years to make a name for myself here. I can’t just start over somewhere new.”
“What other choice do you have?”
Eden looked down at the container of fried rice on the table. “Isaac, you don’t understand. I’ve been working on something— it’s very important. It could change everything. But it’s too big to take with me and besides, I’m so close to finishing it and when it is completed, I’m going to have to be here to use it.”
“What is it?”
Eden didn’t answer. She twisted her fork around in the food, too full to eat anymore but yet still fighting the desire to take a bite, just so she would have something to do with her mouth besides telling the truth.
“I can’t tell you.” She let go of the fork again and closed the container. She started packing the food into the plastic bag. “You should go. It’s getting late.”
“Eden, don’t do this.” Isaac’s eyes were glistening in the dim light from the lamp on the counter. “I’m telling you, these guys will not take any mercy on you. This is my last chance to help you. With Vince in town, I’m going to be on the first train out of the Glades tomorrow morning. Please, come with me.”
Eden handed him the bag of food and smiled. “Take this. You can eat the leftovers on the train.”
Isaac didn’t grab for the bag immediately. He kept eye contact with Eden, perhaps trying to convince her with his soon to start falling tears. It didn’t work. Her arm stayed outstretched and steady, her resolve unwavering, and finally he took the food and left. He said goodbye, somberly, as he closed the door to the shop behind him.
“Cricket,” Eden said after the door was closed. “Close up shop for the night.” The robot critter hopped from her belt and went about locking, shutting, and alarming the building as Eden prepared for bed.
Vince and his men, for reasons unbeknownst to Eden, took their sweet time in overthrowing the wolf shifter empire of Twin Glades. She spent eleven entire days locked up in her repair shop, only opening the door for customers she recognized and the delivery food people. So far, she hadn’t heard any news of the new gang, save the fact that they were in and the wolves were out. No vipers came busting down her door and she didn’t hear women screaming in terror during the night. Isaac must’ve left when he said he would because she hadn’t seen him either. She tried to convince herself that she was being stupid, that she was a powerful witch who could take any shifter who tried anything, but every time she went to open her front door and put her theory to the test, something stopped her.
She put up some wards around the shop, just a few basic protection spells. This area of magic she hadn’t practiced much. She never saw much of a use for it. She preferred knowing how to restart a failed engine on the side of the road, which for the record she could do with or without magic, than knowing how to best hide from a fight.
But that’s what she was doing anyway, wasn’t it? Hiding?
Or was she just being practical? That’s what she decided on. She was being practical. It wasn’t that she was afraid of Vince. She was pretty sure she could take him. But she was so close to finishing the Hadron Collider and now really wasn’t the best time to get sidetracked by being abducted or killed. Maybe next month.
On the tenth day of Eden’s “practical time spent at home” she ran out of toilet paper and was down to the last, itty-bitty slice of her soap bar. She begged the man who brought her pizza that night to go to the convenience store around the corner and grab her a few things, but he said his boss strictly prohibited his delivery personnel from delivering anything besides pizza. Apparently, in a city like Twin Glades, it wasn’t uncommon for people to ask for personal favors from their pizza delivery man.
Realizing she was going to have to venture out on her own, Eden decided it was about time she gave Cricket a little upgrade. She ramped up the volts of his taze and sharpened the tiny blades that he could protract from each of his six legs. The next morning, she woke up just before the sun and shaved her head. Wearing her curly locks cropped close to her head didn’t make Eden look any less feminine. In fact, most people would probably agree that the short hair made her face even more striking. She had high cheekbones and smooth, caramel skin. Losing the afro only made her look less like her mother, and it made it easier to hide her face underneath the hood of her baggy sweatshirt. Wearing that, a big scarf around her neck and chin, and a pair of unflattering sweatpants, Eden slipped out onto the quiet streets of her neighborhood and speed-walked her way to the convenience store.
The guy who rung her up must’ve confused Eden for a man, which was exactly what she was going for, because when he tallied up what she owed he said, “That’ll be $6.50, brother.” Eden handed over her bills without saying anything, keeping her head down.
“Have a nice day!” he said as she walked out.
She waved a hand without turning around and left.
Her purchases made the four-block walk back to her shop cumbersome and she had to slow her pace. She�
��d purchased a few bars of soap, toothpaste, some gross looking vegetable juices—she figured it was about time she put something besides pizza and egg rolls into her body—and a 24 pack of toilet paper. The nice thing about the toilet paper was that she could carry it in a way that shielded most of her face and the top half of her body, ensuring that no one could possibly get a glance at the curves of her body.
She was half a block from home when she heard someone shout behind her. “Hey!” the man said. “You forgot your change.” She stopped in her tracks, trying to figure out the best way to handle this. If she ran from the man, he might keep yelling after her, attracting a lot of attention. Alternatively, she wasn’t sure she should risk another interaction with him. There was the sound of soft, hurried footsteps and then the man was behind her.
“You gave me a ten and forgot to grab your change,” he said. “I figured you would want it. It’s nearly four dollars.”
Eden didn’t turn around. She was holding her breath, hoping that might cause Cricket to take notice and wake up without her having to say anything to him.
“Uh, hello?”
The guy tapped her shoulder and at his touch Eden spun on her heel and grabbed the crumpled dollars and coins from his hand. “Thanks,” she said gruffly, balancing the pack of toilet paper against her hip with her other arm. As she went to take the money and turn back in the direction of her house, the man’s fingers closed around hers and he held on.
Auctioned to the Werewolf Princes Page 2