I broke protocol to hug Yves and Imogen, but I seemed to miss my mom every time I got close. I’d catch her by the end of the night.
I followed Stan over to the next table, hoping dinner would start so that we could sit down.
“Avereis, this is police detective O’Callaghan,” Stan told me. “He’s one of two officers privy to our world and consults with us from time to time. There are no supernatural people on the police force, to keep our worlds separate but guarded.”
“Hi,” I said shaking his hand. “I’m Avereis, Rose Avereis.”
O’Callaghan was young for a detective. He had on a grey suit, no doubt to appear older, blue eyes, sandy hair, and a perfectly dimpled chin. I had just given him my full name.
Luckily, I was born with the best poker-face you had ever seen.
“Nice to meet you,” I told him, remembering how flawless my fake English accent was when we had—ahem—met” before. I shook his hand, replaying the wonderful, shadowy memory of ours. I could nearly feel his hand on my thigh again, but I’d be damned if I let him notice.
“Congratulations on becoming part of the Coven,” he said. “I look forward to working with you, but I always hope that I won’t have to see the Coven on a regular basis.”
“Likewise,” I said. “Thankfully, it’s been quiet.”
“Aye, no news is good news.” Was he Irish?
With a last name like that, yes.
Don’t make me glare at you.
I ran over to Helaine as soon as Stan became distracted by someone else, upset with myself for being so sloppy as to think a tattered thought. Luckily, it was tattered enough that Stan thought it was innocent.
It was nowhere near innocent. It was up my dress, knew exactly where to touch, and was something I should never have done. On the night of Dia, I had been two minutes away for receiving a sexual favor from the most important human at my job. I downed my champagne on the way over.
I caught Helaine who stood by as Onyx gabbed to the man next to him.
“Oh my goddess, I just saw him.”
“Who?”
“The guy from Dia! I absofriggenloutely expected him to still be in a coma, according to how long we made out for. He’s completely immune.”
“Who is he?”
“Detective O’Callaghan.” I gulped, but Helaine was calm.
“Did he remember you?” She asked, concerned.
“No, and you have to take these cases for me so he doesn’t. I told Stan I wanted to investigate Halloran further, but I can’t.”
“He won’t find out,” Helaine said. “But you’re sure you don’t want to go talk to him?”
“Authority figure,” I said.
“Rose, you’re the authority figure. NO one has higher standing than you beside me, Gregory, Maddi, and Stan.”
“I know but it was just a dare. If we are meant to meet again, we shall.”
“You are meeting again you’re just in bloody denial!”
“Oh look, dad and grandpa at ten o’clock. I better go intervene.”
I shot her a sharp, biting smile and rushed over to them.
They seemed to be getting along, and they always appeared to, until you heard what they were actually saying. Dave Weltier and Audin Avereis were not each other’s biggest fans. “Good evening,” I told them.
They both said hello, and my instinct was to bow to my dad as if we were at class, but we weren’t. We were at an event solidifying me as a stronger power than him. I was now Fire with a capital F.
“Dave’s keeping me company. I lost your mom. She’s off making new friends.”
“Naturally,” I said. “You two actually look like your having a good time.”
“We are,” Grandpa Dave spoke up. “We’re so proud of you.”
“Where’s Gray?”
“At home,” dad answered.
“That little ba—” I cleared my throat. “See if I go to his high school graduation.”
“Don’t worry about us, go enjoy the Solstice,” Dad said.
“We’re fine, really,” Dave emphasized.
Dinner is starting, take a seat.
Words are just as useful as thoughts, I said back to Stan, but then I smiled at him across the room. There were few people Stan missed introductions with tonight, and my father was one of them. I cackled softly, making my way passed the Yule Tree.
The other witch families were respectful of me, and Dave and my dad were getting along.
What world was I living in now? And then I remembered: one where my mentor only cared about scoring attainments and getting a new power, not the quality of our sessions. I’d be sure to ask him about his new power at the after party tonight.
After all, Helaine and I were the after party, and my one and only goal for it was to get wasted. If O’Callaghan recognized me, I’d have some explaining to do to everyone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Confrontation
Helaine
I couldn’t have been more excited to go out to the pub for the first time that night. I was finally legal and allowed out of the house. I begged Rose not to go drinking without me when she turned eighteen last March, and she agreed to wait. It encouraged our popularity to go out and have a laugh with our friends, and this party would be much better than our witch one.
I changed my dress, donning skintight jeans and a low-cut red top under my favorite brown leather jacket. The night was warmer than it usually was near the solstice and no one would stop me from wearing what I wanted. I didn’t have the last say when I lived at home, and water witch Helaine was going to dress hot.
“You look good,” Rose said when I met her outside of her room.
“I’m finally me. Maddi says always look your best when you leave the mews house.”
Rose smiled and linked her arm in mine before leading me down the stairs.
“Don’t get in too much trouble tonight, Laurence,” she instructed. “This is your conscience speaking, and it is reminding you that everyone is watching.”
“I know I can count on you to keep me in line,” I told Rose. Even though my family was no longer defining every step I took, Rose was annoyingly in tune with the fact that I wanted to rebel for the sake of the rebelling.
“It’s like a school dance,” Maddi said, a sugariness in her voice. Her, Gregory and Stan were waiting for us in the living room.
“Bugger off,” I complained with a grin.
“Let me take a picture though?” Maddi asked. We agreed.
Maddi snapped a picture of us standing in front of the stairwell, with huge smiles and killer outfits, and sent it to our phones straight away.
“Alright, are you ready to go?” Gregory asked. “I need a drink after having to wear a bloody suit jacket today.”
“I’ll buy you one,” I told Gregory.
As we walked on foot to the pub, I was happy that Seven’s was as close as the nearest tube station. Even though it wasn’t in Block Thirteen, Seven’s was still regarded as an important supernatural haunt, and it was the first one that London ever had. The occasional human still straggled in from the street on a bender from a bar hop, and to me, those who braved the alley deserved it.
When we were thirteen, Rose and I had once dared each other to walk down the alley of the pub, but we were so petrified from the rumors of what it was like, that we never did. It would have been pointless anyway with how awkward we looked at thirteen. Even now, I still looked young, with a low hairline and eyes I’d never grow into, but I wouldn’t be the one laughing when I grew old.
As we approached the darkened brick alleyway, I already had an unsettling feeling behind my navel. The shadows were too sinister for comfort, and little light escaped from the long tunnel ahead.
Raw fear rapt my mind as we started down the pitch black alley.
“A little help?” I murmured to Rose.
“Oh, sorry.” She smirked.
The fear evaporated. I didn’t know how Gregory, Maddi, and Stan had d
one this without Rose.
Set into the end of the alley, Seven’s had a neon blue sign that proclaimed:
Seven’s Pub and Plundery
I nearly squealed out in anticipation, but I was an adult and forced myself to act the part.
Before we traipsed through the bar, Gregory needed to tell us some ground rules.
“Remember, do not ever accept a drink that’s not from the bar,” Gregory said, “initiates have been fooled before.”
“Noted,” Rose said for the both of us.
“Watch your backs, but we’ll be with you the whole time.”
“Above all else, have fun,” Maddi said.
They let us walk in first, and it was noisy, smelled like greasy bar food, and was exactly everything I hoped it would be. I wandered from Rose to the other side of the crowded pub, squeezing around people at high tops.
“Laurence, someone ordered a drink for you,” the barkeep yelled to me, making me turn around and face the bar.
“Not everyone hates me?” I asked the barkeep.
She was around my age, with dark green hair and a half-sleeve of tattoos on her right arm. In barkeep fashion, she wore a low, black top, and tight, gray jeans. Her hair and makeup techniques put the hour I spent in front of my mirror to shame.
“No,” she said. “And you stand a better chance of people being nice to your face while you’re out at Seven’s with the Coven, and not just Rose—Avereis, I mean.” I gestured for her to go on. If I wanted to know how things worked out in the real world, barkeeps knew all. “Maddi is the favorite right now, and as long as she likes you, then you will be alright.”
“Who ordered me this drink?”
“I can’t say,” she said, smiling as I picked up the glass.
“A guy?”
“Most likely,” she said. “He’s the only one who has ever ordered it here before.”
“Thank you. I’m Helaine—or Laurence for the next two years. What’s your name?”
“M—my name?” She gave an unnecessary pause. “Cecily. Nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
I took another sip of my pineapple-tasting drink, wondering who “he” was, and went to find Rose. I savored my drink. It could very well be the only item symbolic of me being liked that I’d receive in the next two years. I had been gathering judging stares since I had entered.
Even Stan was enjoying his time at the pub, despite drinking dark soda as opposed to alcohol. He didn’t take off his bright blue Crystal Palace Football Club jacket, and I never saw him without a jacket or hoodie on, even at home. Though he looked cold, his demeanor was more relaxed when he was out with the lot of us. People respected him.
“Helaine, congratulations,” someone said as I walked past, making me turn around.
“Esper,” I said. “Thank you. You should address me as Laurence, however.”
“You forgot you were the President’s daughter so soon?” Esper smiled. “Kidding.”
“How are you even in here? And with a beer no less? You’re sixteen.”
“Jaime is twenty-two,” he replied.
“You’re getting along famously then?”
“Better then he and Emmy if that’s what you mean.”
He had a similar haircut to Jaime (at least during the last time I’d seen him), longer on the top and nearly buzzed on the sides. Lusions’ hair grew fast in general, so most of them kept it short or grew it out long, like Gregory with his trademark dreads.
“If you’re drinking underage then it’s my responsibility to tell someone,” I said, and then followed with, “just kidding.”
Esper scowled at me.
I bloody loved that he had to listen to what I said now. If someone in the Coven stopped you, you had to answer their questions, and when the Coven told you to do something, complying was encouraged.
“Helaine,” another person greeted.
“Laurence,” I corrected. It was Jaime.
“Your rules, not mine,” he dared. Maybe just for a second, my heart skipped a beat. He looked exactly the same as he did when last I saw him. Messy auburn hair that was a whirl of dark colors and long on the top, noticeably taller than everyone in the room, but not exactly lanky. Now that he stood next to Esper, I could see some resemblance in their round features, and how their eyes still looked incredibly crystal in the low light. I had thought the scar meant Jaime wasn’t a Lusion, but now I wasn’t so sure. “Congratulations by the way.”
“Thank you. Are you having a wonderful time sneaking your underage half-brother into bars tonight?” I asked.
Jaime slid his tongue over his mouth, unthinking, gathering any lost drops of beer before replying.
“Not so much now. Have a great night, Helaine,” he said, steering Esper and himself away from me.
That prick.
Of course, I was right in thinking that he was trouble. His reckless disregard for the rules would land him in heaps of trouble with the Coven, just as soon as he had the opportunity to undermine us. I just hoped no one would be around to witness it.
As I tore my eyes from Jaime’s back, I felt someone watching me and got that same paranoid feeling I did at Dia.
Whipping my head around, I saw a lad who was most likely university age, with a thirsty gaze that licked me up and down, and a flirty smile to match. Could I be so lucky on my first night out? Maybe I had overreacted at first.
I grinned back, accessing his dark clothes, and a strange amulet around his neck. He had to have been a witch, which meant he would understand just about everything about me.
I took another sip of my mystery drink as he motioned for me to come over to him, and as soon as I made the step forward, I bumped head-on into a girl walking past. My drink splashed all over her.
“I am so sorry,” I said. She glanced at me with tired, gold eyes. She looked clean, but her hair could have used a brush. My attention was completely on her, and I’d catch up with the guy later. “Let’s get you cleaned up and I’ll buy you a drink, come on.”
Without protesting she followed me to the loo.
“I’m Laurence,” I said.
“I saw you in the papers,” she answered back, taking a slip of paper from her pocket in an effort to dry it off in the better lit loo.
“It soaked all the way through? Some luck…” I bemoaned. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing,” she said. But I spied her slip the paper into her other pocket, noticing it was a ticket from the astronomy observatory that used to be an old castle.
I’d be damned if she hadn’t spent her last penny on admission. Her hoodie was fraying at the sleeves, and as she dried the bottom of her dark shirt off, I noticed there was a security tag stuck to it.
“If you saw me in the paper then you know I have to ask what that’s about,” I said all too guiltily.
“Look who it is,” a girl interrupted, as the music from outside filtered in. I recognized her honey blonde hair and the bright blue dress I’d seen before. The door shut behind them.
“Bessie Berkshire,” I said. And Ingrid Staph, and Contessa Fortwit.
The three of them circled around me, the strange girl still behind me.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
The girl I had spilled the entirety of my mystery drink over wore worry on her face. Her hair was stark black, and apart from her eyes that reminded me of Gregory’s, she wasn’t a bit familiar.
“We want the go we deserve at being in the Coven,” Contessa hissed. Her extremely wide smile and thin upper lip always made her small face appear sinister. Her eyebrows arched high above her eyes every time she spoke.
“I get that you’re mad, but I don’t want to start a fight.”
I repeated what Audin had always told us. Say you don’t want to start a fight and make an effort to retreat before it does happen. Have witnesses. Cover your own ass.
“The lot of us think the President’s daughter cheated to get in,” Contessa said as her friends looked on
ward. Ingrid hadn’t even competed, so I had no idea why she was looking at me with narrowed eyes and a rotten attitude. “I bet you bribed a Mage, and we only have two guesses as to with what.”
“Slag,” Bessie said to me.
That didn’t affect me. That wouldn’t affect a Coven witch.
“You were there, Elizabeth,” I said, using Bessie’s legal name. “I tried out same as you. It’s done.”
Her face screwed up in anger and I thought she might cry. These twits couldn’t be in the Coven at the same time anyway, so why gang up on me?
I was alone with her pack and had left the protection of the Coven on my first night out. My water element wouldn’t be any stronger than Bessie’s right now, and it would be embarrassing to show how weak it was.
Stan, I thought, if you can hear this, ring an ambulance. And it’s not for me.
“I’m giving you one last chance to back away,” I said to her.
“No. That place in the Coven was mine!”
Bessie lunged at me and I blocked her, turning my forearm outward and side-stepping. She had consumed far too many drinks to even stand a chance. Bessie stumbled and hit her bobbing head on the sink, a hand flying to her eye.
I wanted to get the stranger outside of this room where it was safe.
The other two girls tried to grab either of my arms at once, and I landed a kick to Ingrid and brought my elbow down on Contessa’s hand. Nothing was broken yet, but if they didn’t back away, I’d land harder blows.
“What’s going on here?” asked a new voice.
Stan.
“You’re not allowed to be in here,” Bessie said, stumbling in her shoes as she picked herself up.
“I’m Spirit on the London Coven. I’ll walk into a women’s locker room if I have to,” he said.
“Sir,” the stranger said, “We were in here minding our own business—actually, she was being incredibly nice to me—and these three attacked her for no reason.”
“Is that what happened?” Stan asked me, green eyes unamused.
“I’m the President’s daughter, you know all too well.”
“I do,” Stan agreed.
Death's Primordial Kiss (The Silvered Moon Diaries Book 1) Page 20