Burning in a Memory

by Constance Sharper

  “So this is your family?” Adelaide asked, feeling nothing less than stupid.

  “We’re called a coven, meaning we’re extended family that lives together. It’s hard to explain in…simple terms. But this is Priya and Preeti. You’ve already met Angie and, of course, Tony,” Adam explained slowly.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and committed the names to memory. If she could have stopped her hands from shaking, she would have been set. Charlotte brought over a vibrant some fruity drink concoction. Adelaide couldn’t smell what was in it but she took a quick swig anyway, letting it hit her stomach like a rock. She suspected that there wasn’t alcohol but nursing the liquid made her calm down a bit regardless.

  “So are we really going to talk here?” Angie cued the conversation. Adelaide tried to prepare herself for anything, but was surprised when the questions came. No one asked her much about her personal life, but they did ask about the rockslide. They asked if she told anyone and if she’d seen a doctor. Angie did most of the questioning while Tony stayed silent. The women in the corner watched her more than listened to her. Adelaide eventually noticed that the two were twins.

  By the time the pizza came, Adelaide felt too tired to enjoy the food. When the meeting came to an end, she happily let Adam escort her out.

  “Nice meeting you, Adelaide,” Tony said on behalf of the group. He stood apart from them in the parking lot but earned nothing but a curt nod from Adam. Only after they made it back to the highway did Adam finally open up some.

  “I think you’re the only person I’ve ever had to apologize to this much,” he admitted.

  “Don’t,” she said. “I mean, I’d be lying if Tony didn’t scare the hell out me but he was looking to see if I was something evil, right?”

  “Yea, a shade. That’s another story for another time. Tony’s just overly paranoid and thought that something must be up. I think it made him feel better seeing you—as was the point of the trip, but I’m sure it didn’t make you feel better about us.”

  She paused for a calculated moment.

  “Is something after you guys?”

  Adam kept his attention on the road, and the wheel in a steel grip. He pulled off for her exit while pumping the break.

  “Again, another story for another day.”

  His words felt dismissive and his mind appeared to be other things. For the first time, Adelaide sensed that she’d lost his undivided attention. If his mind stayed on other things, there was the chance she would become irrelevant. All they had thus far was a pizza date and rockslide. It wasn’t enough and it made Adelaide uncomfortable. She suddenly wanted to reach out and touch him; she wanted to say exactly the right thing to strengthen their bond. She wanted to, but came up with nothing. By the time they pulled up to her house, he seemed more despondent than ever.

  “Have a good night, Adelaide,” he said half-heartedly. He watched the road in front of him, his gaze distant. “Thank you…”

  She hopped out of the car. He didn’t wait until she got inside before driving away. Her gut churned and her mind threatened to tear as it stretched in a dozen different directions. Her fingers sought out the hard metal lump of her phone in her pocket before she thought about it. Dialing, she stuck the phone to her ear.

  “Hello?”

  “What’s up, rubber duck?” she asked, though her voice lacked enthusiasm.

  “...nicknames aren’t making up for deadbeat sisters who didn’t come to my birthday party. Or my graduation. In fact, I’m almost insulted you called at all. What do you want?”

  “Chill out, Bradley. You know why I couldn’t make it and I sent you gifts for both of those.” She felt awkward having this conversation outside at a moment like this so she made for the house.

  “You need a favor then.”

  “I do…but this is for the best. And I’m thinking it may get me a one-way ticket to come home for awhile.”

  She struck a chord, she knew, because she heard the waver in his voiced answer.

  “Tell me what you need.”

  “There’s a mage out west around Denver that I need to find. Subtly though, I can’t have him think that I’m looking for him. I’ve meet everyone else in his coven but no one even talks about him. I’m worried now. Maybe he left for somewhere else. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place.”

  “Um, okay…”

  She could hear the scratching of a pen in the background.

  “I need you to find him for me and tell me I’m looking in the right place.”

  A moment ticked by and the scratching stopped.

  “Okay, just give me the name.”

  “The man I’m looking for is Leonardo Colton. And I need to know if I can go through his brother, Adam, to finally see Leon in person.”

  Five

  A jolt of excitement raced through her when her phone buzzed. When she grabbed the Nokia and read the screen, the excitement rapidly disappeared. The text message came from an anonymous number which really only meant one person. And that person wasn’t Adam. Her hope turned back into frustration quickly.

  “Green light,” it said and nothing more. She recognized it as Bradley’s incognito way of telling her that he’d caught the first trail and that she was in the right place. While it might have been good news, she was still waiting for Adam to call. It made sense now that he had only taken her phone number and never given out his.

  She frowned until she found the strength to delete the text and toss the phone back on the jumbled sheets of her bed. Sitting cross-legged in the bedroom, she returned to watching the rain fall outside through the foggy window. Nothing really happened in suburbia and even less with the bad weather blowing through. The place didn’t have cable or internet and she was already sick of reading.

  The house felt smaller with each day that passed and with each minute she felt more anxious than ever. She hated waiting. She’d made it a point throughout her life never to wait for a guy and she didn’t like it now. When she couldn’t sit still any longer, she paced the familiar confines of the house. She sized herself up in the bathroom mirror. Her outfits had becoming increasingly less thought out until she wore her last cotton dress and tights. Her makeup got thicker but she left her hair down and free. When she gave up on her appearance, she walked by the garage and checked on her car. It had collected dust since the last time she’d seen it. She sized up the tags and registration that would lead back to her old dorm mate. She left the garage and double locked the front door and windows. Then she heard the crash.

  Looking for the source of the loud sound, she crept to the window. The rain blew sideways now and made the outside world nearly impossible to see. She scrubbed the glass panes with her sleeve and worked at the little condensation that she could. She squinted; lightning lit up the sky and the street. With the flash, she saw the bright red car on the curb. Its entire hood had been crushed but she couldn’t immediately identify the cause. Adelaide backed away from the window.

  Instinctually, she knew immediately. It took another minute for her brain to piece it together. Senses becoming hyper aware, she walked around the house one last time. Adam sensed a bad vibe in this place. Mistel had caused a bad vibe in this place. She wondered immediately if any other shades had sensed the magic here and would come to investigate. It drew them like maggots to a bloodied wound.

  The doors remained shut and windows intact, but when she returned to the front living room, she felt no better. The Hawthorns were powerful shades, but they were far from common. Most shades were weaker and more desperate. She wondered twice if they’d listen to her like Mistel did.

  She looked at the car again. It definitely appeared to be supernatural damage now but she saw no shades in the area. Adelaide knew by the location of the car that it had to belong to the neighbor to the east. He always parked the car between their houses. She was certain when she heard him screaming. Reluctantly approaching the window a second time, she peered out. The rain had lessened a bit and visibility improved
. The neighbor from the east stood outside. He screamed and waved his hands erratically. His car was destroyed with no apparent culprit.

  Watching his behavior finally acted as the tipping point. Adelaide could wait no longer. She rushed into the bedroom for her phone, wallet, and shoes. She marched out of the front door, straight into the drizzling rain. Her eyes sized up the area and she saw no shade activity. Adelaide slammed the door behind her and the sound made the neighbor look up.

  “Did you do this?” he suddenly accused when he spotted her.

  “How would I do that? I heard the sound and came out,” she pointed out. He would have to buy that since she barely looked able to put a dent in the car if she tried. The man fidgeted, his eyes raking up her body about as subtly as a sledge hammer.

  “Must have been a tree branch,” he said, abruptly dismissive of the accident.

  There weren’t even any big trees on this street, but she wasn’t going to argue. Instead she sized him up in return. The man looked more like a boy from this close. Wild red hair touched below his shoulders and thick rimmed glasses took over his face. The guy must have been the son of whoever owned the house. She took in her surroundings one last time before she thought up her new plan. Then she returned her eyes to him and smiled coyly.

  “That’s awful. Is that your only car?” she asked as sweetly as she could muster.

  He looked suddenly happy, like they weren’t standing in the rain near the ruins of his Infiniti.

  “No. I fix them up. I have a badass Mustang in the garage.”

  Or maybe it was his parents’ Mustang. She suddenly decided she didn’t really care.

  “Does it work?”

  He cocked his head to the side.

  “Why baby, wanna take a ride?”

  The hint of bile tasted sour in her throat, but she swallowed it down. She raised her face slowly to let her eyes linger on his. The rain nearly soaked blouse. It might not have been white, but it was enough. The redhead didn’t stand a chance.

  “I need a ride. Could you give me a ride in your Mustang?” she purposefully asked slowly. She was actually impressed his head didn’t exploded when he heard her.

  “I’ll get the keys. Don’t go anywhere!” He raced in to the house.

  Cold and wet, she wrapped her arms around herself. A quick look around and she saw it. Below the puddles of water on her driveway were new cracks in the concrete. This wasn’t a natural disaster happening in a twenty square foot radius. Something had been here. Adelaide lost her composure and dashed to the neighbor’s house. She arrived just as he ran out and they nearly brutally collided.

  “Please, please. I’m in a rush. And I’ll owe you one.” She had to slow down at the end to add a beckoning twist in her tone. When he unlocked the car, she dove in the passenger’s seat and closed her eyes. She couldn’t feel anything in the area. There was always a chance the shades came and went when they didn’t sniff any mages out in the area. She could only hope that a ride with the human would dispel the last of their interest. When she couldn’t smell any smoke over the scent of rain and Axe cologne that clung to the seats, she forced herself to relax a bit. The neighbor sprung in and peeled out on the street.

  She rocked in her seat from the abrupt stops and the bad shifting.

  “Where we taking you babe?” he asked.

  “JoJo’s pizza parlor, downtown. Market Street.”

  He turned his head to watch her for a lot longer than he should have with the car in motion.

  “Huge rush for a pizza parlor?”

  “You don’t even know why I’m going,” she countered back. He shut up for only a moment.

  “How long have you been living next door? I don’t remember seeing you.”

  She bit the inside of her lip. Even Bradley had seen that question coming better than she had.

  “Recently,” she refused to give more details. Before he could question more, she drew her knees up higher on the seat until the wet skirt pooled back toward her thighs. He might have caught a glimpse of more leggings, but it didn’t matter so long as he thought he saw something he wasn’t allowed to see. He almost wrecked the Mustang when he finally pulled up.

  “When will I pick you up?” he asked before she could get out.

  She feigned a laugh, but it sounded bitter, even to her. “I’ll get my own ride.”

  Quickly, she hopped out of the car and dashed for the building. He only drove off when she showed no signs of turning back. She stopped under the canopy of the front door for a moment, wringing out her hair and beating the mud off her wedges. There was little she could do to fix the soaked foundation or eyeliner that ran, but she tried her best. Then she finally opened the door and walked straight up to the hostess booth.

  A young man met her there and led her to a small booth in the back. She settled in and thanked him before scanning the other patrons. The place was relatively empty. A few old men mulled in the corner. A guy and his teenage date in sat the next booth over. She’d been so busy sizing up the other patrons in the parlor that she was surprised when Charlotte appeared at her table. The woman slid a steaming mug onto the table.

  “Consider it on the house,” Charlotte said.

  Adelaide reached out and wrapped her hand around the ceramic, the distinctive scent of chocolate reaching her nose.

  “Thank you,” she said. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Charlotte took the opportunity to slide into the other side of the booth. With the parlor so quiet and calm, the woman really had nowhere else to be in that moment.

  “Nice to see you too, darling. But something tells me that it wasn’t the good food that brought you back today,” the woman said.

  “No, but the food didn’t hurt to give me motivation to run through a rainstorm.”

  “That’s sweet. Not many of my patrons are okay with getting soaked these past few days.”

  Adelaide took a long, deliberate sip of cocoa. The heat from the drink raced all the way down to her stomach. The break also allowed her to size up the woman for a second time. She had a mother’s kind face, but Adelaide still felt uncomfortable with the older mage. She wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, but Charlotte did it for her.

  “I wanted to show you at least some courtesy after the last time you were here. My son, Tony, is a hot head, and you didn’t deserve the way he treated you. But I don’t feel like you should keep coming back here. You won’t find what you are looking for.”

  Adelaide felt the immediate tinge of aggravation but kept it off of her face. The old mage watched her to see if it sunk in.

  “You mean I won’t find Adam?” she clarified.

  “What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be here looking. You would do well to stay away from Adam,” Charlotte added bluntly.

  Adelaide abandoned the cocoa and leaned back in the booth. The place was empty enough now that there was little risk of her voice traveling, so she raised it a bit.

  “With all due respect, I feel like that’s something Adam should have told me. He’s my friend,” she said.

  Something flashed across the woman’s face but disappeared just as quickly. Adelaide continued before the mage could get another word in.

  “I also don’t think I deserve to be shunned so quickly. I passed all of Tony’s tests, right? You admitted yourself that you sized me up,” Adelaide said.

  The woman suddenly laughed, and the loud chuckle caught Adelaide off guard. Then Charlotte leaned into the table.

  “I sized you up long enough to see the way you look. Add that sly smile of yours and Adam’s status as a red blooded twenty-something. We had to interrupt it or you two would go from barely knowing each other to very much knowing each other.”

  Adelaide cringed. She’d usually respect someone for being blunt, but that had gone too far. Charlotte continued speaking.

  “It’s just not a good time for you to try and come into Adam’s life like that. And since he’s in my son’s coven and a dear friend of mine t
hat makes it relevant to all of us. You might not understand that until Adam says it, but that’s what is going to happen.” The woman sprung to her feet when a patron on the opposite side of the bar made an obnoxious whistling sound for her attention. “I’ll have the waiter come back for your order. Might I suggest you try the margherita pizza special?”

  Charlotte added a brilliant, blinding smile before she trotted off to the other patrons. The woman left Adelaide with a sour feeling in her stomach. She did not feel like pizza, but she also did not feel like crawling home in defeat yet. The waiter showed up at her table with water and a new menu a few minutes later.

  “Can I order you anything?”

  She reluctantly answered, “Margherita pizza?”

  He nodded and disappeared from the table. Adelaide sunk lower in her seat. When he returned to check on her, he rambled on about combos and soups she might want to try.

  “Garlic rolls too?” he asked.

  She resisted the urge to scoff. She was getting a pizza and eating alone—it hardly felt like she needed to stack more food on. That’s when someone spoke for her.

  “Please. Go big or go home.”

  She recognized the voice immediately. Nearly toppling the table, she moved quickly to find its source. Adam maneuvered by the waiter and slid into the booth. The waiter took an unspoken hint to shuffle off and leave them alone.

  “Hi,” she squeaked before coughing to clear the surprise out of her voice. He nodded in return.

  “Looks like I got here in time to still pay. It’s the least I can do, since the last time you were here Tony ruined the place for you. What kind of pizza did you get?”

  “Margherita,” she said.

  “That is my favorite!”

  She shut her mouth with an audible click. The waiter returned momentarily with another glass of water and when he was gone, Adam addressed the elephant in the room.

  “I know I haven’t called. How’ve you been?” he asked.

  “I’m good. And you?”

  It was starting to feel more like a bad date by the second and Adelaide engrossed herself with her drink.