Dark Prelude

by Leigha Wolffe

  “In this town, I can’t imagine there are a lot of people clamoring to get their hands on it. Especially not right out in public where anyone could see. That’s pretty brave, I’d say.”

  “Yep, that’s me. Brave. Now, can I have my book back, please?” I made a grab for it, but he moved it away just a second before I made contact.

  “Ah, ah, ah… not so fast. How about my book?”

  “I called your guy. He’s not interested. Now give me my book.”

  “No. Not yet, anyway. What did he say?” I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off. “Exactly.”

  My eyes narrowed, and I could almost feel my hackles bristle like Shadow’s when he got a whiff of someone he didn’t like. “What he said was, ‘Do not call here again. And if I were you, I’d make it a point to avoid anyone looking for this book.’ Exactly. Then he hung up on me.”

  His eyes narrowed as well, then one eyebrow quirked, and he smiled. “Yet, here you are, not avoiding me.” He regarded me thoughtfully for a few moments. So long, in fact, that I was about to speak up and ask him what the hell was going on when he finally continued. “That didn’t scare you? Even a bit?”

  “Suffice it to say, that isn’t the strangest thing that’s happened to me today. So, no, it didn’t scare me. It’s just weird. Like you’re weird. And your girlfriend’s weird—”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  It gave me pause. It shouldn’t have, but it did, and he noticed. How could he not, considering he was studying me overtly and unapologetically?

  “That’s what you got out of what I just said? Really?”

  “What can I say? I have my priorities straight.” His eyes were laughing at me again, but then he cocked his head to one side like a dog listening to a sound only they can hear. And then he smiled. “Well, Dani, it’s been lovely.”

  It took a second for me to realize I hadn’t told him my name. “How the hell did you—”

  He strode across the alcove and stopped so close to me his chest brushed up against mine, sending a fresh wave of tingles and shivers and crimson coloring across the entirety of my body. “You should listen to the warnings people give you, Dani. For instance, your friend over there…”

  He nodded toward the front, and I knew he meant Charlie. Who else could he mean?

  “You’d do well to steer clear of him. He’s more than he appears to be. And as for me, well… you’d do well to steer clear of me too. Don’t worry about the book, love. My associate-not-girlfriend just hacked your system. We’ve got everything we need.” He winked as I gaped at him, then brushed past me, setting off sparks all through my arm and torso where he grazed me.

  “It was nice to meet you, Dani. Oh,” he said, turning to face me as he continued to back away. “It’s Damien, by the way. Mind if I hold onto this?” he asked, holding up my book and chuckling. “Memento.” He winked again, then turned and was to the door in a few strides. With the ding of the bell, he was gone, and I was left wondering what the hell had just happened.

  Part of me was sad, watching him go, but my life wasn’t one of possibilities. I had a moment with a stranger and, ultimately, that was all it could ever be. There was no possibility for more, so I let him slip away and kept the beautiful, infuriating memory.

  5

  Sam

  “How in the heavens are you out again?”

  Cassandra raised an eyebrow at me and regarded me silently for a moment. “We knew when we started this process that there were a lot of unknowns. It’s never been done before. She’s going through it faster. With each new shipment, we run out quicker than the time before. She’s needing stronger and stronger concentrations just to attempt to control her symptoms as her resistance grows. There’s nothing that I can do about that. Unless you’re all ready to come clean with her… Or let her confront what happens on too low a dosage on her own.”

  “Fuck!” I swung blindly, knocking several glass jars of herbs off the shelf closest to me. “You know that’s not up to me, and even if it were, I would never let her suffer.”

  Cassandra eyed me silently, but her gaze was heavy and making me uncomfortable. I turned and paced the length of the small back room of her shop.

  “How is she? Is she… healthy, otherwise? Is she happy?” I kept my eyes on the baseboards in the corner.

  “She is. They both are. They make a good team. You should go see her for yourself.”

  “I’m not supposed to. My presence could attract unwanted attention. Besides, this arrangement was only made out of necessity, to protect the child. I don’t want to put her in a position where she feels obligated.”

  “You’re not giving her enough credit. She’s not the type to make any decision because of what someone else wants. She’s strong, smart, independent, and incredibly compassionate. I know you know more than you’re letting on. Are you sure you’re not avoiding her for your own benefit?”

  I turned my head and glared at her over one shoulder.

  “In my limited experience, He doesn’t really work that way. That sounds more like fear. I don’t have a dog in this fight, so while I’ve not been around as long as you, I’m also not biased like you.”

  I turned to correct her, in no mood for this disrespect, but I stumbled suddenly, feeling a wave of something I couldn’t name. I felt dizzy and weak, euphoric. I grabbed a nearby shelf to steady myself and took a few deep breaths as Cassandra rushed to my side with a tight expression. She helped me straighten up but whatever it was, it was passed. But before I could speak to tell her I was fine now, the bell on the front door sounded.

  I shook it off and straightened up.

  “I’m fine now. I should get back, in case something is wrong. Just tell me how much more you need and when. I’ll bring more in a couple of weeks.”

  “You need to consider what this means, Sam. The implications of her dosage changing so quickly. If her resistance gets much stronger, nothing will be able to contain her symptoms. You need to start preparing for that possibility.”

  “Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen anytime soon. I’ll see you in a couple weeks. Call me if she needs anything.”

  Cassandra nodded and then her eyes went completely white for a moment. She looked at me and said, “Maybe you should go out the front. There are people around, and we don’t want anyone seeing something suspicious. Don’t want something weird on the cameras, either.”

  “Since when do you have cameras?”

  “Crime has been worse lately, so I had them installed a few weeks ago,” she said without hesitation, but something about it felt off.

  Either way, I nodded and headed toward the door leading to the main part of her shop.

  I was making my way through the aisles of the shop toward the front door, distracted and anxious, when a young woman burst out of the end of an aisle and ran straight into me. I felt like I’d been struck by lightning, but when I looked up, all the pain and shock disappeared as the girl grabbed her head where it had smacked into mine. Then Dani smiled at me and everything else disappeared.

  6

  Dani

  Charlie’s and my normal coping method for most issues was to pretend the problem didn’t exist and hope it went away. It usually worked, but today was different. We hadn’t yelled at each other before. We’d never really even argued, let alone fought. This was uncharted territory, and at its heart, there was an issue we’d been avoiding for a long time. I didn’t want to lose Charlie. Not remotely. There were more than a few times I’d considered just giving in to him and giving up whatever it was I was looking for. I loved Charlie in my way, and he was a great guy.

  Charlie was smart and funny, ridiculously loyal, protective and caring and responsible, sexy… I could see a life with him, and it was nothing to scoff at. We would be happy, but I didn’t think I’d ever love him the way I imagined loving someone, and that didn’t seem fair to either of us. Then again, this wasn’t a book. It was real life. Maybe soulmates didn’t exist, and I could d
o a lot worse than spending the next sixty to eighty years with my best friend.

  Charlie approached me after work, sullen, but polite. He wasn’t his usual self as he offered to carry my bags to the car. And while this was the last moment I wanted to ask a favor of him, I’d forgotten about picking up my mom’s tea.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, Charlie. I forgot to ask. Mom wanted me to pick up her tea after work. You look pretty ready to go, though. I can walk home if you want to just go.”

  Charlie looked at me with hard eyes that grew quite suddenly soft. “No. Not after this morning. You’re not walking home alone… ever again, maybe. I don’t care if you’re mad at me, I’m not letting anything happen to you.”

  “Charlie, I’m not mad at you...”

  “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t your mom get her tea at Cassie’s place?”

  “Yeah, just down the street.”

  “Okay, cool. We can do that. I need to run by Live Fitness anyway, and it’s basically next door. Let’s walk, huh? It’s a nice evening.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  We headed down the street under the red and pink sky as the sun began to complete its daily journey. The air was warm against my skin, but I could still feel a chill coming from Charlie. I needed to fix this. Fast. Losing Charlie was not on the menu for today, but just as I turned to him, he reached across me and opened a door. Cassie’s place. How had we reached it so fast?

  “I’ll head down and grab what I need, then I’ll head back here to get you. Stay inside until I get back, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay. See you in a minute.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie said, then walked away down the sidewalk as the door swung slowly closed.

  I stared after him for several moments before I let it go and turned to the store, heading to the front to find Cassandra. As I reached the front, Cassie was nowhere to be seen, but I could hear voices in the back, so I perused the shelves as I waited for her to finish up with what I assumed was another customer. I loved this store, the smell of the teas and the herbs. It was the only herbal store in town, and there were things you just couldn’t find anywhere else. Cassie could mix as well. If you had an ailment, she could make you an herbal tea mix from scratch that would solve it, and my mom had been coming to her for years. Since before I was born.

  I heard the door in the back open and close, so I turned and stepped back out of the aisle. I stepped directly into the path of a man hurrying past though, and he ran right into me. He stepped on my toe, and our foreheads banged into one another as he tried and failed to stop.

  “Ow!” we both cried out at the same time, jumping back and grabbing our heads.

  “Are you okay?” rumbled a deep voice with a not-quite-accent that I couldn’t place. He wasn’t from here, that was for sure, but I couldn’t really tell that he was from anywhere else either.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. You?” I asked, rubbing my head as I finally looked up to see my victim. And the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. He had to be at least five years my senior, but I’d wager it was more like a decade. His face didn’t look older, but his voice and the confidence in his eyes spoke of experience.

  “Yes. I’m fine. Sorry about that. I was in a bit of a hurry, and I didn’t see you until it was too late.”

  “Hmmm... well, same. I was rushing up to see Cassie, and I didn’t look before I leapt.” I laughed, and he gave me the oddest look before laughing along with me. My heart fluttered at the sound of his laugh, making it hard to breathe. Are you kidding me? Wow. Not a flutter my whole life, and suddenly now, I can’t calm the damn thing down.

  “So, you know Cassie, then?”

  “Yeah, I do. Well, my mom knows her, really. They’ve known each other forever, it seems.”

  “Yeah, same here,” he said over the bell on the door, a slight smile I didn’t understand tugging at one side of his mouth.

  “You don’t really look old enough to have known her forever.” It slipped out with a giggle, and before I knew what was happening, I was batting my eyelashes. Was I flirting? Oh my God, I was.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake...” I heard a whispered mutter from behind me and turned to see Charlie standing there. Oh God.

  “I’ll be outside, Dani. Whenever you’re ready.”

  He turned on his heel and headed out into the darkening sky, and my heart fell. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt Charlie, but it seemed I couldn’t stop today. Damnit.

  “Your boyfriend doesn’t look too happy.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  One perfectly formed eyebrow arched ever so slightly higher than the other as he regarded me. “There is something about you…” Then he shook his head, dispelling whatever thought had taken him away. “My apologies. It was… interesting to meet you…”

  “Dani.”

  “Dani?” he whispered, barely enough air escaping his mouth to make the word audible. “I suppose that is short for Danielle, then?” he said, his voice suddenly weak and his face suddenly a shade paler than it had been a moment before.

  “Yeah, it is. Good guess. And you are?”

  “Sam.”

  “Well, it was interesting to meet you too, Sam. Maybe we’ll run into each other again? I’m here a lot.”

  “Unlikely, but I’m certain it would be a memorable experience every time.” Sam grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips, brushing them softly against the back of my hand, and I swear to God I almost blacked out. What was with today?

  He looked up at me, perfect lips still perched above my hand and whispered, “Have a lovely life, Danielle.”

  Then he straightened up and brushed past me, leaving my shoulder tingling worse than it had in the wake of Damien’s dramatic exit. I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the corner of the aisle behind me as I heard the bell sound, signifying his departure. I needed to get home ASAP. It was clearly not safe for me to be out and about today. I headed to the front of the store, overjoyed to see Cassandra there. She looked up, and the smile that split her face was the brightest thing I’d seen all day.

  “Dani! Hey, girl! How are you?”

  “I’m fine, Cass. How’re you?”

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound fine. Come here.”

  I wandered up to the counter where Cassie reached across, placing a palm on either temple. She closed her eyes and whispered a moment, then jumped back suddenly, staring at me, horror-stricken. Cassie grabbed my hand and flipped it over so violently that it hurt. She began examining my palm, and her eyes turned a milky white.

  Her irises reappeared as quickly as they’d disappeared, and her eyes were back to normal before I really had a chance to process what I thought I’d seen. It must have been a trick of the light. Must have been. She stared at my hand and then at me, her face morphing into a mask of sadness that almost broke me. I didn’t even know why I was sad, or why she was, but I was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion and on the brink of tears. I jerked my hand away, clutching it and rubbing at my wrist.

  “I’m so sorry,” whispered Cassie. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, but… Dani, if you ever need anything, if you should ever find yourself on your own, or in need of help of any kind, I’m always here. Even if you think it’s something I couldn’t possibly understand or believe. You can always come to me.”

  I stared at Cassie for probably a lot longer than what was appropriate, but given the circumstances and the weird declaration she’d just made, I didn’t know what else to do. Eventually, I found my voice and said, “Thank you, Cassie.”

  “Oh, now I’ve upset you more. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just my mom said something weirdly similar this morning, and it’s just been a really weird day all around.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine.”

  “Right,” I said again, uncertain what exactly to say in this situation. “Um, Mom sent me to pick up her tea. Is her order
ready?”

  “Her… Oh! Her tea. No. No, it’s not, sweetie. I’m sorry. The man who just left is the one who brings the ingredients I need to make it. She’s been taking it stronger lately, and I ran out earlier than expected. He just delivered a fresh supply of ingredients to replenish my stock. Just let your mom know I’ll put it together tonight so it’s ready tomorrow before you get off work, okay?”

  “Yeah, that sounds perfect.”

  I smiled kindly and turned to go, effectively freaked out but realizing I was jumping out of the freak pan and into the fire of a thousand painful deaths. Now I had to go deal with Charlie.

  7

  Dani

  Charlie was waiting for me outside, as promised. He was leaning quietly against the wall but stood up as I approached.

  “You ready?” was all he said.

  I nodded, and we headed back the way we’d come beneath the now darkening sky and the streetlights that came on one by one above us. So, what now? Charlie wasn’t speaking to me. It felt like my life had spiraled out of control in less than twenty-four hours, and the proof was walking silently next to me. I gathered up what shreds of courage I had left and opened my mouth to try and make this right, somehow.

  “Don’t. Just… don’t, Dani.” His words were harsh, but his tone was not. He sounded broken, like he was all out of everything that made him Charlie. And it was my fault. “Listen, it’s not your fault. I know this is on me. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lost my cool. I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier. I’m just… sorry. I feel like I’ve broken something amazing and now there’s no fixing it.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, Charlie. It’s not your fault, and whatever this is, it’s not unfixable. I know it may not be exactly the way you want, but I care about you so much, Charlie. You’re my best friend. I don’t want to lose you, but I’m not sure what to do about this situation, you know.”