“Boys verse girls, except Emmy is on our team because she hits like a bloke?” Esper asked.
“Hey!” Helaine and I said.
“Girls can be just as strong,” I reminded him.
“I know where you sleep,” Emmy reminded her brother. “And I’d be careful because someone is trying to take your place as my favorite brother.”
As if on cue—and you never really knew if Luisons had heard something from behind a door or not—Jaime came back in with Travis. They looked perfectly fine as if the storm had blown over, and all of the gold in the room suddenly looked yellow, the way the sky does after harsh wind rages through.
“Jaime, want to play a game with us?” I asked.
“Mine’s better; it has wine,” Travis mumbled to him.
“Maybe I’ll catch you on the second round,” Jaime said, following his father into the kitchen to be with the parents. “Thanks, Rose.”
What little I knew about Jaime was that he was choosing to be an adult. When Jen and Kalista got here, they’d jump right into our game.
“What is it?” Helaine asked me.
“Nothing, help me set this up, will you?”
When we got home that night, I waited up in the living room for Stan, to tell him my good news. As soon as he walked in the door and hung his jacket on the hook, a cheeky smile crept up on my face.
“Guess what.”
“No,” he said instinctively and then followed with “what?”
“I can see colors.”
“Me too.”
I rolled my eyes, but a laugh escaped all the same.
“Emotions are colors now.”
“Fire chose you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that’s… remarkable.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your wavering control. It doesn’t make sense, but something triggered it. What exactly happened?”
“Travis and Jaime were arguing at Christmas dinner,” I explained, but it can’t have had anything to do with either of them.
“I bet it did. But it’s no consequence to me. Great job. Rose Avereis, fire has chosen you.”
I almost thought to hug him, but there was a mistletoe directly over the door, and I wasn’t moving to stand next to him. I’d have to observe a Pagan tradition if I walked directly under one. No, thank you. The closest I’d get to Stan’s approval was his sincere yet unenthusiastic statement about me winning over fire, but I’d take it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The Countdown
Helaine
Our witchy New Year was Samhain in October, so when the calendar New Year came about, we didn’t have rituals to perform and found ourselves attending the most brilliant party the underground was putting on this year: Seven’s New Year’s Gala at the hotel.
All of the subcultures met in one place, reveling in the fact that we were right under the noses of humans and they hadn’t a sodding clue. Occasionally a party crasher got in, but it was no big deal. It wasn’t like we were putting on a talent show with our powers. The last week of my life had been uneventfully human, with no integration of my element to speak of. Rose even got a break when Stan was off doing Royal stuff that I didn’t ask about.
The other Coven members told me not to drift too far away from them, but it fell on deaf ears. If they didn’t know me by now, it was their own problem.
The first familiar face I saw was Esper, and I walked over to him, nearly taking his breath away. Poor lad. I had on a tight dress covered in silver sequins, with an embellished halter around my neck. My shoes left me four inches shorter than Esper, and I had coated my feet in peppermint and wintergreen oils to stop them from hurting.
“What fake ID brings you here this time?” I asked Esper.
“Richmond Luff,” he answered back.
“And your brother is around?” I asked.
“No, just me, Emmy, and Gray. Bliss tried to come and they wouldn’t let her in.”
“So what, you left her outside?”
“Well… we had no choice.”
“Oh my goddess, Esper. Go back and look for her. You can’t just leave a man behind.”
“What about leaving a girl behind?”
“Go!” I yelled. That little wanker had to do what I said now because I was in the Coven. “Un-bloody-believable…”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “We’ll go to the kid’s party, happy?”
“If she’s okay yes,” I warned, “but if I’m investigating a missing person’s report tomorrow you are the first one whose arse is on the line.”
He fake saluted and rushed to grab Emmy and Gray. I couldn’t believe that they would do such a thing. Rose and I would never, but who knew where a teenage boy’s mind was at? And Emmy? This was nothing like her. They had no rules at Travis’s new house, and I knew they had probably pre-gamed. I sincerely hoped Bliss wasn’t puking in the bushes outside.
Fortunately, the kids just missed seeing Rose’s dad, because he found us not even a second after Esper, Emmy, and Gray bolted from the party.
“Hey,” Rose said, smiling at him, however guiltily.
“That dress is…” Rose’s dad said to her.
“What are you, the fashion police?” she asked him. “You always said I could wear what I wanted when I moved out, and here I am.”
“My famous last words,” he said.
In his defense, there was a lot of leg and a lot of cleavage going on in Rose’s red dress. I usually opted for one or the other, but this was New Year’s Eve. In her defense, they didn’t have too many holiday dresses in flame retardant designs.
“I know a lot of people are looking at me,” she explained, “but I’m doing the same thing I always do and ignore them. I suggest you try it.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “I can’t ignore an order from a Coven witch.”
“If I need you I know where to find you,” Rose reminded him. “But seeing as how I was trained by you, I doubt you need to worry about me.”
“Have a good night,” he said. “I’ll tell your mom to keep her distance too.”
When he walked away Rose was more at ease. At least I thought so until she grumbled in frustration and pulled down the hem of her dress that reached mid-thigh.
“I’m glad that happened during the beginning of the night!” she told me. “I am going to grow up and it’s impossible to stop me now. So what I have breasts? I’m a woman. Why are parents so overbearing all of the time?”
“Because they care about you.”
“Stan!” Rose yelled, turning around, the heat of a blush filling into her cheeks. Had he heard all of that? It was strictly girl talk meant for my ears only.
“It’s true,” Stan said. He was dressed in black, apart from a teal dress shirt. “I think it’s nice that you weren’t getting blackout drunk at fourteen and weren’t permitted leaving the house wearing the kind of dresses you have on tonight—not that you look bad, I think you both look great—but some people let their children grow up too fast. And girls… Onyx thanked me and Eddy at least twice a year for being boys because he doesn’t know how he would have raised us otherwise.”
“Thank…”
“You…?” I finished for Rose.
It was a Stan compliment, but at least it was a compliment.
“In that case, do you think I look good enough to get a midnight kiss?” I asked Stan.
“Not from me,” he laughed, “but probably.”
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t asking,” I told him back. “It’s tradition, but not mandatory. We’re independent Coven witches and our night will not be made by a guy kissing us.”
“That’s right,” Rose echoed. “Are you waiting up for anyone?” She teased Stan with a chirpsy smile, but it couldn’t have meant anything.
“Nope,” he said, clear as day. “Chinese New Year is far more important to me. Always has been.”
I grinned at the mention of Onyx’s traditions. I liked the moments in which Stan seemed huma
n, and I could count them all on one finger.
When the thirty-second countdown started Rose turned to look at me.
“This just doesn’t feel right without my parents being here,” she told me. “We spent every New Year’s Eve together.”
“Go get them,” I encouraged her. “I think they’ll be surprised.”
“Thanks.” She beamed before dashing off to make their night.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
I felt a kiss on my cheek and turned around to either punch or thank the person who planted it there.
“Brittany!” I yelled. “What the bloody hell are you doing here?”
“I’m here for the party, and glad to catch you,” she said.
Brittany always looked far more amazing than me. Her dress was the perfect shade of metallic gold and her makeup was oddly fresh, lip gloss perfect even though there was a smudge of it on the rim of her glass.
“Helaine, this is Sammy.”
“Hi, Sammy!” I said.
“Hi, Helaine!”
Sammy was a teensy bit more jovial than she was homely, and Brittany had known her from when she went to public high school. She tucked her short, light brown hair behind her ear and she drunkenly smiled at me.
“Nice to see you,” I lied.
“Are you here with the Coven?”
“Yeah. Stan was just here a second ago…” I said, but he was gone.
“We are bar hopping if you want to go with us,” Brittany said.
“I’d love to, but with all of the threats—and please don’t repeat that—” I said to Sammy, “I should be staying with the Coven, and we need to be back by four a.m.”
“But all of the bars are open until four!” Brittany whined.
“I can make a date for when I’m twenty-eight, here and then,” I said.
“Deal, sister,” Brittany said. “But for tonight, I’ll buy you a drink? Mmmkay?”
“Deal.”
I let go of her flaking out on Christmas, and I actually had a brilliant time with Brittany and Sammy. I wished my parents knew she was here with me, but they were at home, staying in as they did nearly every year, away from the cameras and chaos of politics.
I stumbled in at two-thirty, and Rose was waiting for me in the kitchen with tea.
“For a moment I didn’t think you were going to make curfew,” She shot at me.
“I wouldn’t be late for my first New Year,” I said honestly. “Besides, while the rest of the world is off work tomorrow, we have training to do. You didn’t get caught up with any strangers tonight I see…”
“Shhh!” Rose lectured. “I learned my lesson.”
I took a sip of my sugarless tea, nodding at her, and reaching for a sugar cube. Rose was learning a lot about breaking rules, making out with strangers, and getting drunk, and I had a feeling it wasn’t over.
“Do you know what you two are doing tomorrow?” I asked her.
“Stan said it’s something big, but he wouldn’t tell me much.”
“That sounds petrifying.”
“Tell me about it.”
We only stayed up for a few minutes later, both exhausted with sore feet.
“Well goodnight love, I am off to see the Sandman,” I said, standing up. I put our teacups in the dishwasher.
Rose followed me up the stairs.
As I got ready for a short winter’s sleep and to end the last day of our holiday, I reflected on how the last week had made me more balanced and in control. Helaine Laurence was ready to face the new year. I’d leave water no choice but to choose me, and I hoped the sensory-linked power it gave me would be badass.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Mystery Man
Rose
The day of the New Year, Stan decided that taking me to the police station to review the Halloran murder and cold trail to locate Moon was a great idea. What he didn’t know, is that I had a hot and steamy ten minutes with the police detective at the Dia de Los Muertos ball wearing a disguise when I was supposed to be at home on house arrest. There was no way O’Callaghan would recognize me, right?
I was a ball of nerves as we walked to the station, and I was happy that Stan didn’t notice. While I still felt more like his acquaintance than a friend, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t try to get to know him. That is if he would let me.
“How was your holiday?” I asked him, as my breath clouded the winter air in front of me.
“It was wonderful, thank you. We have many traditions at the palace that I remember from when I was a child and it’s always very nostalgic. It puts me in a good mood. I do wish I didn’t have to be at the mews house at night though. I miss my old room.”
I grinned. Even though I was an adult, I missed my old house too.
“How is your brother?”
“Eddy’s good,” he said. “Yours?”
“Moody as always,” I muttered. “Tradition, you know?”
We walked up to the human police station, and I could feel the secrets concerning O’Callaghan biting at my heels. Those emotions would come right back if he recognized me.
Calm the hell down, I soothed myself.
“Nervous Avereis?”
“Yeah, I just want to get this connection right. I’m not as well-versed in networking as you.”
“Just walk through to the back office like you belong here. You’ll be fine. Remember, we’re psychics.”
I let out a quick, snorting laugh. Sure I had intuition, but telling the future? It wasn’t like I was Brittany or anything. This would have been a great job for her, but she possessed gypsy blood, not witch blood. Who was I kidding though? Brittany would have gotten kicked out before induction.
As soon as we got to the back office, he was sitting there.
O’Callaghan.
“Nice to see you again,” I told him. That was the truth. In full light, without a mask on, he was wonderful to look at. His hair looked lighter blond in this light—as opposed to the last two times we had met—and I could see that his eyes were a summery shade of blue-green now.
“I’m going to get some coffee,” Stan said. “Want any, either of you?”
“No, I’m good,” I said.
“No thank you,” O’Callaghan returned.
I turned to O’Callaghan and smiled. Of course, Stan would leave me alone with him.
“Nice office,” I told him.
There was no shred of evidence that O’Callaghan worked the paranormal cases. The exposed brick was painted white, and the furniture was cream colored, resembling the color of Helaine’s coffee— the one time I had seen her drink it. The carpet smelled new and the plants were waxy and fake.
“You know I’m a detective, right?” O’Callaghan asked.
“I got that impression,” I said.
“Then why are you about to seem shocked when I tell you I know who you are?”
My heart fluttered.
“Everyone in London knows who I am,” I said. O’Callaghan got our newspaper delivered to his house, which meant that he lived alone. I had also been in that paper multiple times, and he had been seeing my face just about weekly since last fall.
“I remember you from Dia de Los Muertos.”
“You’re human,” I objected. “You weren’t supposed to be there.”
“From what I understand as a human, you weren’t supposed to be there either.”
“Touché, detective.”
“I am not looking for what we had that night,” he said. “I know I might have taken things too far, but if you can get past that, would you want to go out sometime? You don’t seem to like coffee, so dinner?”
“How old are you?” I blurted out.
“I was twenty-eight when you met me.” He smiled. “Rose, I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to, but I think we might have fun. That’s all.”
We had chemistry at least, and Maddi and Gregory always told us that our lives w
eren’t over when we joined the Coven. I knew none of the members would have a problem with me going out on a date, which I hadn’t done before, ever. If I decided to date him though, I’d have to give full disclosure, and because of that, I would have to decide if I wanted to take things seriously, fast.
“You can’t tell anyone I was there,” I told him. “I mean it.”
“I wouldn’t. Not even if you said no to dinner.”
“Okay,” I said, “this weekend?”
“I’m going out of town this weekend. How about tonight?”
“Uh—okay. That will work. Just keep this between us.”
“Stan’s your mentor, isn’t he?”
“Yes, and I don’t want to have to get you involved with the Mages right away if we can avoid it.”
“I’ve met them,” he said in agreement, with a likably mischievous smile.
“Welcome to my world,” I told him.
Stan walked back in, sipping on coffee in a paper cup, grimacing slightly at the quality of it.
“You’re here for the statement of the woman who said she saw Moon?” O’Callaghan asked Stan at once.
“Yeah, Gregory wants to go over it with the lot of us. And if you’re convinced it’s real, it’s worth a shot.”
“I called him as soon as it was reported. It sounds like a water witch, and like Halloran.”
My heart fluttered higher. I didn’t know if I was more excited about going out tonight or at the prospect that someone else besides me and Helaine knew Moon was alive.
“Let me know if you find out anything else, and we’ll correspond.” Stan took the Xeroxed report from the desk. Nothing supernatural was stored electronically.
“Sounds good. Have a good day.”
“See you later,” I said with a huge smile, as soon as Stan turned his back. “Thank you.”
I barely had time to tell Helaine anything before I got dressed three times over and said that I was headed into London to meet up with my mom. Human London was safe for the Coven, despite the minor disturbances between people in general. There was no reason to believe that I or Helaine would be in danger out in the “real” world now that we were initiated.
Death's Primordial Kiss (The Silvered Moon Diaries Book 1) Page 23