Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “Aren’t you Geraldine?” Penny spoke with some hesitation. Shit. If Geraldine wasn’t the one who’d brought them up to the office, they could be in all kinds of trouble.

  “Hazel,” the woman sitting down replied. “The day to day running of the ship is a bit beyond Geraldine, I’m afraid, so I take it from here. Now, what’s this business proposition Geraldine was so excited about? A dating agency?”

  “Wait. Vincent? What do you mean we’re in the commander’s office? I thought all of the stuff Geraldine spouted about bringing everyone onto The Salvation was pure fantasy on her part?”

  “No.” The woman who looked like Geraldine spared Penny a bored flicker of her eyes. “The Salvation was Geraldine’s brainchild to save people on earth when the governments started marginalising minority species.”

  “Marginalising?” Vincent coughed a dry laugh. “They were killing us.”

  Hazel lifted her shoulders, the movement elegant. “Well, now you’re here. I’d say Geraldine’s plan worked quite well for you. Of course, things aren’t entirely as she envisioned them. Gerald has a lot of say in things as well. And there were plenty more she couldn’t bring. You’re the lucky few. Gerald introduced a few caveats.”

  “Brought in two by two….” Vincent’s words were barely audible. “You’re like a veritable management team.”

  What? Since when did Geraldine become Hazel and not Gerald, and when did she have the time? And who was really in charge? “But who runs Absolution?” A question slipped from Penny before she got them all arranged in priority order.

  Hazel looked up from the paperwork she’d pulled from a drawer in the desk and arched an eyebrow. “Geraldine and Gerald, of course.”

  “Right.” Penny sank into one of the chairs and waited for Vincent to do the same, but he remained by the door. “The hosts with the mosts?”

  “Aren’t you sitting down, Vincent?” Hazel returned her attention to the file she was flipping through and didn’t look in his direction as she spoke.

  “No. Thanks, though.” He folded his arms and shifted his stance to one ready to leave. A stone-cold sentinel.

  “Geraldine was excited enough that I can approve you right away.” Hazel paused. “I think Gerald will like it, too, provided you adhere to a few basic rules. He likes things done a certain way.”

  Penny opened her mouth, about to speak.

  “What are the rules?” Vincent’s words cut across anything she’d been about to say.

  “Yeah,” she added, the effect of being Vincent’s echo weak.

  “I’ll build them into the final contract, but they’re quite simple. One, no same-sex couples, and two, like with like—so each magical…creature must be matched with their own kind. Get number two right, and number one will happen naturally because you were brought on two by two for a reason, after all.”

  “What? Why?” Creatures? That word certainly left a sour taste in Penny’s mouth. Too many thoughts filled her head. “Even if I agree to these rules, you don’t need me to set up a business at all. Just issue a decree or something.”

  “This way, Penny…you don’t mind if I address you as Penny, do you? After all—” Hazel paused and made eye contact with Penny before shooting a penetrating look in Vincent’s direction—“we are all friends here.”

  Penny shrugged. It wouldn’t matter what Hazel called her. She couldn’t set up a dating agency with rules like that. She’d be little more than a puppet for The Command Team—Hazel, Geraldine, Gerald…whoever was really in charge.

  “All right. Well, anyway, this way, Penny, we all get something. You get to make a living—we all have to pull our weight here, after all—Geraldine is able to keep her sense of love and romance and happy-happy, joy-joy—” Hazel rolled her eyes “—and Gerald gets to keep control of the population—or ‘twobers’ as you like to call yourselves.” She finished her sentence with her mouth hidden in a wrinkle of distaste.

  Penny shifted in her seat and cast a glance at Vincent. His expressionless face gave away none of his thoughts. “I…I…I still don’t know.” She stuttered her answer through nerves, sure Hazel had hidden a threat in there somewhere about her pulling her weight on board.

  “I can have this paperwork completed and signed off in the next five minutes.” Hazel’s sing-song, sweet voice didn’t match the steely expression in her eyes.

  “Let us read over that, and we’ll get back to you.” Vincent’s speed and stealth allowed him to move behind Penny and reach over her shoulder before Penny realised he was there.

  Hazel pulled backwards. “Sorry, it’s a limited time offer. One of the better commercial spots has just become available on the main corridor through Commerce, but I have a whole list of applicants I could go with if I don’t get Penny’s signature where it counts.” She tapped the faint dotted line with the end of her pen.

  “And if I don’t sign right now?” Penny’s chest tightened at the situation, and she didn’t know how she’d forced the words out.

  “Well, I suppose Geraldine might be quite sad, and that could put Gerald in a bad mood.” Hazel paused and studied Penny’s face. “But nothing worse than that…although, no one likes it when Gerald is in a bad mood, right?”

  Magic uncoiled itself deep within Penny and stretched along her limbs, reaching wispy fingers through her veins. She scratched at her forearms, leaving long red welts on her skin, before sneezing.

  “Tissue?” Hazel offered her the box.

  Penny sneezed again as she rubbed her thigh through her jeans. “No, thank you.”

  “Pen?” Hazel turned the contract around so Penny could see the words of the tiny print.

  Vincent tightened his grip a little on her shoulder—a warning—and she flinched in surprise.

  “Everything okay?” Hazel glared at him, although, she couldn’t have known. “It’s all fairly straightforward. Just those two rules I mentioned.”

  “I really should read it.” Penny barely heard herself speak over the pounding of her heart.

  Hazel sighed. “You drive a hard bargain. Look, I can’t do much else, but I can throw in a rental allowance each month so you can move to one of the better apartments. I have a suspicion you’re thinking of looking for a new space?”

  Penny’s eyes widened. “Don’t say anything else. I don’t want you deciding where I live. Gerald can’t know.” Panic sent more magic fizzing through her, and she scratched at her neck as the pen wobbled its way across the desk towards her waiting hand.

  Hazel waved her hand. “Don’t you even worry your head. I’ll just arrange for that rental expense to be placed in your account each month. It’s the least I can do after the way Gerald scared you, and you’re finally bringing some acceleration to the”—her mouth puckered in distaste again, and she gave an audible swallow—“mating. Just stick to the rules, and everyone will be happy. I can almost guarantee it.”

  As Penny scribbled her signature onto the last page of the thick pile of papers and initialled everywhere Hazel pointed, Vincent’s stare almost burnt a hole through the back of her head. She didn’t turn and look at him because she couldn’t face the accusation and anger that could be in his eyes, but she knew he was watching her.

  FIVE

  “OH MY GOD!” Vincent threw his arms in the air as Penny continued to stuff clothes into her duffel bag. “What the hell were you thinking? Why would you sign that piece of crap contract? They own you now. Didn’t you hear her? Creatures. Mating.”

  She didn’t shift her focus from packing. “Don’t be ridiculous, Vincent. I’ve got a business, now, that’s all. I’ll be pulling my weight, now, or whatever Hazel said.”

  “That’s another thing. Have you ever met Hazel before? Ever even know she existed? How the hell do they keep her hidden?”

  “I’m sure it’s all fine. She’s running everything smoothly, right?” Penny pushed her hair from her face and turned to her wardrobe, yanking the last item of clothing from its hanger.

  “I’m just
worried about you. Do you have any idea what you’re getting into?” His voice dropped to something soft, warm, and Penny steeled herself against the emotion she heard there.

  “Shut up, Vincent. I don’t have a choice. You heard everything she said, same as I did.”

  He ran his hand through his hair and blew out a frustrated sigh. “Look, I need to go and get some sleep. Come with me?”

  She barked out a short laugh. “What? You want me to sleep with you?”

  He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath his body didn’t need through his nose, taking a moment before he answered. “I need you safe. Keeping you near me equals safe.”

  “Oh.” Her heart lurched at his clarification.

  “You’ll be safe with me.”

  Snapping out of her disappointment, she replaced it with the armour of irritation. “You honestly think that won’t be the first place Gerald would check? Your room? You sleep like the dead, too. For God’s sake, Vincent. You are dead. You couldn’t protect me if Gerald came looking.” Before she finished her irrational attack, the door slammed behind him, and his rapid footsteps echoed down the corridor.

  But you do need someone. As the thought echoed in her head, she locked her door then sank to the floor and flattened her hand over her mouth to keep her sob inside.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Penny jerked and wiped away the thin stream of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth.

  “Come on, sleeping beauty, up and at ‘em.”

  Vincent? He hadn’t even been gone for five minutes. She staggered to her feet and rubbed her numb cheek.

  “I’m not getting any younger out here.”

  She clicked the lock with a violent flick of her wrist. Stupid immortal. Swinging the door open, she fixed her face into an icy glare. “You’ve only just left. What do you need?”

  He made a show of checking the watch he never wore. “I’ve been gone a full twelve hours, sweetums.”

  “What?” She scrubbed a hand over her face. Twelve hours? She hadn’t slept for more than five or six in a row since she’d boarded The Salvation. All the excitement of planning her new business must have been more exhausting than she thought.

  “Why have you got an imprint of the carpet on your face?” Vincent trailed his forefinger down the side of her face.

  “I…err….” She waved a lazy hand in the direction of the patch of floor she’d fallen asleep on.

  “Come on.” He enveloped her hand in his cool one. “We haven’t got time to waste. We need to go and see Geraldine. Maybe she can sort out this whole dating agency with rules mess you’ve signed yourself into.” His pointed look communicated his disapproval.

  She allowed him to drag her from the room. He was right—surely Geraldine had the power to fix everything, or even just amend the contract. She tripped at Vincent’s heels as he travelled through corridors, his speed almost too fast for her to keep up.

  “Slow down, man!”

  “Time is of the essence. We need to catch Geraldine. She should be setting up the bar about now. Gerald usually leaves her to wipe things down, make sure glasses are clean, and tidy around ready for opening.”

  “Oh.” Penny took another deep breath as he pulled her even faster. “Just leave my arm in the socket, then.”

  The door to the bar was locked, the lights were dimmed, and nothing moved inside.

  “Give me a break!” Vincent cupped his hands between his face and the ceiling to floor window and peered through. He raised his fist and pounded on the glass. “Geraldine! Open up!”

  “Is she even in there?” Penny tugged his arm as she whispered the words.

  “Well, someone is. They’re sat at the bar.” He raised his fist to knock again.

  “Stop it. You have no idea who it is. It might be Gerald.”

  “In high heels?”

  She took in Vincent’s look of amusement. “Maybe not.”

  The figure inside turned on the stool and stood. As they approached, Penny inched behind Vincent—just in case.

  “Hello. What are youse twose doing here?” Geraldine’s words were a little slurred as she opened the door and gave them a sad smile.

  “Are you okay?” Penny answered her question with a question.

  “Yeah, just a bit tired.” Her smile widened, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “We actually came to ask you a favour.” Vincent flashed Geraldine a quick grin and scooted past her, into the bar.

  “Anything. Did you sort out your dating agency? I can’t remember where we got to with that.” She directed the question at Penny, then clapped her hands. “I’m so excited!” A little squeal punctuated the end of her sentence, and she clapped again before tapping her feet on the wooden floorboards in a little dance.

  “Well, that’s the thing,” Vincent said. “I’m not too sure about all of the details in the contract that Hazel had Penny sign. We wondered if you might have a word with her.”

  “With Penny?” Geraldine’s eyebrows formed a little peak above her nose, and her forehead had a wrinkle of confusion.

  “With Hazel.”

  “Oh.” She appeared to think for a moment. “Who’s Hazel? I thought I’d met everyone on the ship, but that’s a name I don’t know.”

  SIX

  VINCENT GRUNTED as he pushed a heavy box of books from one side of Penny’s new office space to the other. “You absolute chicken. You had a prime opportunity to speak to her about Hazel, about the shitty contract you just signed, and you caved the second she waved keys for this place in your direction. What’s the matter with you? Were they just so sparkly you couldn’t resist?”

  “Shut up.” Penny huffed her hair from her face as she crawled along the skirting board and wiped ineffectively at rust-coloured stains around the bolts that held the smooth metal panels together. “Shut up. She didn’t know anything. You heard her say she doesn’t know Hazel.”

  “Right. You believe that? Funny how she just happened to have a list of everyone living on this floating metal coffin right there on the bar, ready to hand you to start your ‘little matchmaking enterprise.’”

  Penny’s lip tugged down in one corner. “Ugh. You know it was never meant to be that.”

  “Of course I do. You think I thought you wanted a handy reference to every single being on here divided into ability and gender?” He snorted so loudly it sounded like something backfired in the engine room. “Still, makes it really easy for you to just go ahead and pair us.”

  She turned her head at the sudden sad sound in his voice.

  “What if we don’t want it to be that easy, though? What if we want something else?” He paused and met her gaze square on. “Someone else.”

  Sleep wasn’t happening. Penny lay in her new bed in the new room where she’d put away all her old stuff and stared at the ceiling. Her office was a short ride in an elevator away, and she buzzed with the desire to get back there, continue setting up, and get herself sorted. She could put the crazy rules out of her mind and focus on arranging her office space, bask in the bright hope of uniting people. Yet the thought of the list of names, pre-compiled for her convenience and lying ready on her desk for morning, sent a fresh chill through her.

  She rolled over again, tossing her blankets from herself before pulling them back under her chin. Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to clear her mind. Vincent always said he slept deeply, like someone had switched him off. She needed just a little bit of that.

  Shaking her head, she flopped onto her side. Thoughts of Vincent wouldn’t help her sleep, either. The way he’d looked at her earlier, she almost believed…but no. Just no. Gerald wanted pairs on his space ark. Two by Two. A private collection of Adam and Eves.

  But poor Geraldine.

  A mental snapshot of her tear stained face nudged its way forward, and Penny fought to clear it away, sweeping it into her hardest to reach memories. Doing Gerald’s bidding, matching everyone up, might appease him or even make him happy, and it might annoy some of the
residents with romantic interests elsewhere, but what would it do to Geraldine? Where was the other half to her pair? Penny took another deep breath, a last-ditch effort to draw sleep forward. Those were all issues for another day.

  Her desk chair creaked. Every time she rocked back, even just a fraction, it sounded like an encounter with Psycho. She picked up the pen she’d placed on the desk a moment before and held it poised over the list she was compiling.

  “You all right, angelface?”

  She didn’t look up. Vincent. Her heart beat a frantic rhythm, and she pressed her hand over it. “No, actually. I’m a bit stressed about everything.”

  “Mm.”

  She glanced at him, catching his slow nod.

  “You’ve got a big responsibility to answer. Too many people to keep happy.”

  “I know.” The words came out almost on a wail. “It’ll never work. How the hell can I be expected to just pair people up and have them go for it? At it? I need to have them go at it and breed. Oh my God!” She threw herself backwards to a particularly loud screech, and Vincent winced.

  He moved to the edge of the desk and perched on the corner, letting his left leg swing. “Like I said, tough spot.” He shrugged, and though his face seemed to offer sympathy, his perfect features didn’t offer any assistance.

  “You could at least try to help, you know?”

  His mouth stretched into a grimace. “By doing what? Talking you up to a male witch? Finding my name on your list and going on a date?”

  She angled her head to one side. Vincent. On a date. With her.

  No.

  No, no, no.

  With his vampire counterpart. No. Yes…why didn’t she think of that? “That might actually—”

  He raised his hands. “Don’t even finish that sentence.”

  “And don’t you look at me like that. You brought it up.” Her counter-command, along with the reminder that it had been his comment that sparked her idea, had him cocking an eyebrow before he moved closer to look at the paperwork on her desk.