No Rest for the Wicked

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No Rest for the Wicked Page 24

by Krystal Jane Ruin


  Gretchen lets out a low whistle. “Check out the sexy truck.”

  “You and trucks,” Kalin says, laughing again. “Is Tessandra dating? He must be rich.”

  “It’s not that nice,” I say. “There’s a dent on the side of the bumper.”

  “And no one sees it but you,” Gretchen says.

  As soon as we open the front door, the scent of fresh-baked banana bread and barbecue chicken wafts around us.

  Gretchen closes her eyes and inhales deeply. “Mm, dinner.”

  But Tessandra is not in the kitchen when we pass by. Happy chatter drifts from the sitting room down the hall.

  “Mom! Is the food done?” Gretchen heads towards the voices while Kalin and I carry supplies and orders up to my room.

  Gretchen’s excited cry travels out down the hall. “Oh my god!”

  “What if Tessandra bought her that truck for her birthday?” Kalin says. She organizes a colorful array of stones on the windowsill.

  “No way. And you know her birthday was three months ago.”

  “Yeah. Right. Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe it’s her father.”

  I place the pad of orders on the little table in front of the window. “I doubt it. But even if he did show his face, do you really think Tessandra would let him in the house? She’d make him wait outside.”

  “Right! Even if there was a blizzard.” Kalin kicks off her gold- and-red-embroidered flats and bends down to pick them up. “I’m going to go change. Bobby’s taking me to a restaurant with cloth napkins.”

  “Ooh, serious. Maybe he’ll propose.”

  She looks at me and laughs. “God, I hope not,” she says, even though she knows I’m joking. “It’s too early for that crap. I still can’t believe Milly up and got married on us. And to someone so normal. The guy has a 401k. Isn’t that disgusting?”

  I laugh and kick my own shoes off into the corner. “Bobby doesn’t have one of those?”

  She shakes her head. “Bobby is a farmer. He invests in land and livestock. Which is why I’m surprised he’s taking me to a restaurant with foreign words on the menu. Excusez-moi, do you serve tap water here?”

  I laugh at her horrible French accent. “Please, say that when you get there. That would make my life.”

  She dissolves in a fit of giggles.

  Two sharp knocks sound against my doorframe, and the laughter dies from my lips.

  Emmerick stands at the door, dressed in clean slacks and a soft green button down. His dark blond hair is a lot longer than the last time I saw him. It’s pulled back in a ponytail behind his head. He looks different. And it’s not just the clothes.

  Kalin turns to the door and gasps. “I’ll be damned…”

  He bows his head in greeting and gives me a small, timid smile. “Mind if I step in?”

  “Please,” Kalin says. She crosses the room, grabs his arm, and drags him inside. “Oh my god,” she mouths behind his shoulder. When he turns to look at her, she smiles and waves. “I have to go. Got a fancy date.” She laughs and hurries away down the hall.

  We stand in the room together in silence, throwing awkward glances each other’s way.

  “Um…” I gesture to his shirt. “Wow, that’s different.”

  He lets out a little laugh. “Yeah.” He settles his gaze on my face. The gray irises of his eyes have dark flecks of green in them that weren’t there before.

  “You look good,” he says. “You look happy.”

  “Happy as I can be.” Silence starts to drift between us again. “It’s good to see you. I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

  “I…” He drops his eyes for a moment. Then he brings them back to my face. “I got my life back.”

  My heart expands a little behind my ribs. “What? They’re gone. All the…”

  He nods, and a bright smile covers his face. “Yeah. They’re all gone.”

  “You don’t belong to the shadows anymore?”

  “I don’t.”

  A strange mixture of emotions well up in my stomach. Relief. Happiness. Fear. More fear.

  He bites down on his lip. “I just wanted to stop by and see everyone. Tessandra invited me to dinner.” He laughs. “She also offered me the basement apartment again, if I want it.”

  “Do you?” My throat feels tight.

  “Depends.” He stares at me, his face unreadable. “Is it okay with you?”

  “Yes,” I say immediately, and he smiles again. “Well, come in.” I wave him over to one of the chairs by the window. “Sit.”

  He walks across the room, his movements somehow more labored than they used to be, and slides into one of the chairs. I take the other one.

  “Still selling in the black market?” he asks, raking his eyes over the assortment of stones on the sill.

  “Gretchen and Kalin and I have a booth down there. Gretchen has rigged some crystal balls that show stronger images than the standard shadows. She started selling those down there this week. They’re pretty popular. Of course there are creeps down there, but they don’t bother us too much.”

  “That’s good.” His gaze settles back on my face. “I’m glad you’re still here.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t really have a reason to move out. Being around people doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. I also really like it here.”

  “So do I.” He picks up one of the stones, a yellow citrine, and holds it up to the light slanting in through the window. “Tessandra says you’re not seeing anyone.” He sets the stone down and smiles. “She told me to ask you out.”

  I laugh. “Of course she did.” She would do that to me. But I can’t bring myself to even be irritated with her about it.

  “So…” he says.

  “So?”

  He laughs. “Can I take you out tomorrow?”

  “Hmm, tomorrow.” I tap my chin and pretend to think. “I think I can make some time for you between staring off into space and sleeping.”

  He grins. “I appreciate the sacrifice.”

  I try to stop smiling before my face starts to hurt, but it’s too late. It’s already starting to hurt. I watch the sunset for a moment. The orange-and-violet hues stretch out long in all directions. It’s beautiful, and now I know what people mean when they say they want to freeze a memory in time.

  I turn back and find him watching me.

  “If I remember correctly,” he says, holding up his palm in the space between us, “you promised me a reading.”

  A reading? Excitement flares up in my veins. I scoot to the edge of my seat and rest my hand under his, even though it isn’t necessary, and let the warmth radiating off his skin sink into my palm. “Anything in particular you want to know?”

  He locks his eyes with mine. “Tell me my future.”

  His future…I brush my fingers along the back of his hand and pull myself into his mind.

  Acknowledgments

  First, I want to thank my family for their much needed support and constant reassurance: my sister, Kim, my brother-in-law, Jamar, my brother, Kenneth, and my parents.

  To my cousin, Alex Anderson, my uncle, Terence, and my friends Unita and Kae for their support and talking through a great number of random story things with me that helped me out a great deal.

  More thanks to my editor, Jennifer Chesak and her colleague, Michael Mann for their amazing hard work.

  To Sarah and Marion for having mini writer powwows with me at work.

  To Michelle Athy, Jodi Perkins, and Emma Adams for being awesome and for their help and ideas in helping me get this project together and for inspiring me to go after my dreams.

  To Tonja Drecker and Michelle Tran for lending their eyes and suggestions and support to this project.

  And I couldn’t have navigated the waters without Kristen Martin and her helpful emails and informative YouTube Channel.

  About the Author

  KRYSTAL JANE RUIN is a writer of supernatural and paranormal fiction living in the Tennessee Valley. She can often be found knee deep in S
udoku, in a Youtube hole, or blogging about books, writing, and random things at www.krystalsquared.net.

  Can also be found here:

  @planetkrystal

  www.krystaljaneruin.net

 

 

 


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