by Gray Holborn
“That might have been the very first thing I noticed about you,” he answered.
“So anyway, she told me that since I was so used to falling, it only made sense that I should conquer the biggest, longest fall I possibly could. Like it was my sacred right and duty. And then she may have mentioned something about how now every time I trip, I’ll be forced to remember her and that day.”
“And?”
“And what? That’s it.”
“Well, how’d you like it—falling out of a plane? Was it as terrifying as you thought?”
I grinned, recalling the feeling. “I loved it. We go every year now.”
The rest of the jog home was peppered with a tennis match of stories, Jax would tell one and I’d repay with one in return. He never revealed too much about the Veil, but told me little things about his life, his likes and dislikes, important moments. When we finally made it home, I found myself grinning ear to ear. I was definitely grateful for the fighting techniques and training strategies he taught me throughout the morning—but I was particularly happy that by the time we ended up at the house, it felt like we were becoming friends.
Chapter Seven
The kitchen was filled with the smell of bacon when Jax and I pushed through the door. I was clutching my ribs, caked with sweat, while Jax looked like he’d just stepped off of a photo shoot, the skin on his chest glistening but not soaked, his breathing steady and even. I probably looked like a drowned rat in comparison. How could I expect to protect El from supes hellbent on kidnapping or hurting her if I couldn’t even complete a light morning workout without almost dying?
My face flushed when I realized that Soren was watching me study Jax, his smirk growing at the evidence of my embarrassment. “Jax, put a shirt on and give the defenseless human some breathing room before she joins your fanclub. I don’t want to chance her following us around like a lost puppy when we go home.”
I clenched my teeth and squared my body towards Soren, annoyed that he’d mistaken my jealousy for infatuation. Would El mind terribly if I killed her brother?
I was saved from voicing my retort when Charlotte walked in. She was in her seventies, with long gray hair that was always partially hidden by a strikingly unusual hat. Today, she was wearing a purple sombrero with a stuffed duck hanging off of the rim that clashed horribly with her red and green sweater. She could hardly see more than two feet in front of her face, but she refused to wear eyeglasses. Instead, she walked around with a large magnifying glass hanging from her neck that she was constantly holding up to her right eye.
“Odessa, Ellie, I made a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls this morning. Make sure you save some for Luis too, you know they’re his favorite.” She shoved a large plate of baked goods that smelled heavenly under my nose, and I waited approximately one second before grabbing one and sinking my teeth into it.
“Oh my god Char, you’ve outdone yourself, these are great,” I moaned, passing one over to Ellie as she shoved Jax over to get her hands on the plate.
Charlotte moved into the house next to ours only a few short months after I moved in with Sam, and she almost immediately made it a rule to check on us a few times a week. We were always ecstatic about that because she was always baking, even though she was diabetic and couldn’t eat anything she made. If she had children they never came by to visit her, so she had kind of adopted us. Sam and I didn’t have any family left of our own, and we were greedy for whatever hodgepodge lineup of warmth we could get. Between Charlotte, Ellie, and Luis we weren’t doing too badly.
“Odessa, girl, I haven’t seen you in days.” She kissed my forehead and pinched my cheek while Sam ran up the stairs from his basement apartment, likely lured by the combination of cinnamon and Charlotte’s pungent perfume coating the air. I could feel the soft imprint of her red lipstick even if I couldn’t see it, like a third eye. After greeting Ellie and me, she turned around to envelop Sam in a hug. “Good morning Samuel, don’t think I can’t see those dark circles under your eyes. Don’t make me come over and slip you some sleeping pills. You kids these days run yourselves ragged. Never get enough sleep.”
I smiled at her motherly tone. “You staying for breakfast Char?” I asked. I looked over at Soren who was quickly making his way through a plate of bacon while he studied Charlotte with an unreadable expression on his face. “There’s bacon already made and I’m sure Sam could whip up something else if you’d like.” Charlotte learned long ago not to consume anything El and I attempted to cook.
She shook her head. “I already ate, but I’ll let Sam cook me something later at The Tavern. I’m going to stop over for lunch—I haven’t seen Luis in a few days and want to bring him some food. A growing boy like him needs some homemade cooking every now and then.”
El met my eyes and grinned. Charlotte was Luis’s was biggest fan. Swallowing his laughter, Jax grabbed a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen, helping himself to the plate of bacon El had abandoned. I grinned while I watched her icy blue eyes shoot him a death glare. El shared many things. She did not share her bacon. And judging by the way Soren huddled protectively over his own plate, that was a family trait they both shared.
Charlotte paused and did a double take, as if just noticing the added bodies at our table. “Who are these good looking young men? Suitors?”
“Charlotte this is my brother, Soren, and his best friend, Jax. They’re going to be staying with us for awhile.” El beamed. Over the last few years, she’d fallen in love with Charlotte just as much as Sam and I had.
Charlotte huffed and waddled closer to Jax and Soren while the rest of us followed. She was quite short, so even though they were sitting, she still had to look up a bit to meet their eyes. Jax tried to hold his laughter in when Charlotte brought her magnifying glass within an inch of his face. She moved over to do the same to Soren, the glass enlarging one of her blue eyes and making her look like an exaggerated fish. Soren studied her with equal fascination. He looked more invested in gaining her approval than he had when he met the rest of us. “Ooh, they are cute. Odessa, if you won’t listen to me about marrying Luis already, I like these two better than that stuffy doctor student you’ve been hanging around lately. Such a bore.” She paused, a giant grin sweeping across her face and highlighting her wrinkles. “Yes, if I were young again, I might pass myself back and forth among the whole lot of them!”
El pretended to gag at that behind Char’s back. I stifled my laughter when I caught the look of horror on Soren’s face coupled with the laughter on Jax’s.
Noticing the room’s embarrassment she let out a bark of a laugh. “Trust me, kids. When you’re my age you’ll learn right quick that subtlety is a waste of time. Honesty is the essence of a life well-lived.” Charlotte turned towards the stairs before staring at the dark gray wall, her huge hat bobbing awkwardly on her head. “Well I better get going, want to run to the grocery store before it rains. I have quite a day of errands ahead of me this morning.”
Sam’s eyes bulged when he realized she thought she was staring out the window. “Here, I’ll drive you Charlotte. I need to pick up a few things myself.” He guided her down the steps, sparing the rest of us a quick glance. “You three have fun at class today.”
Not a moment after the door closed, El turned on her brother. “What does he mean by you three?”
“You’re looking at Walesh’s soon-to-be-enrolled seduction-feeder. Sam’s persuasion skills are handy. He’s talking to the Dean this morning. In fact, that’s probably one of the errands he left to tackle.” Jax pushed back from the chair, balancing it on two legs. “Which means I’ll be in class with you and Desi. Soren will wander the grounds in his usual moody state, scaring away any would-be attackers with his scowl.”
El couldn’t even be free of her guard while on a crowded campus? “Is that really necessary? Would anyone really harm her in such a public place?” I asked.
“Your own uncle, who has only a fraction of the power persuasion-manipulators are ca
pable of, manipulates human minds with ease.” Soren turned to look at me while he passed around a plate of eggs. “You’ve seen nothing of the power Veil dwellers have. You know nothing of our people. Crowd or no crowd, it won’t matter.”
✽✽✽
True to form, Sam had no problem convincing the Dean to let Jax sign up for all of our classes half-way through the quarter. He was even able to wrangle a student pass for Soren so that he could get into all of the buildings and wander around the campus without garnering unnecessary suspicion. Normally, I didn’t think twice about the amount of power Sam could hold over humans. After Soren’s harsh reality check, the thought of what those more powerful and malicious than him could do left me breathless.
It was our last semester of school, so our schedule was light. While we sat down for the lecture in our science fiction class, El and I tried to hold in our laughter. Every few minutes, or however long it took for him to get bored, Jax would start to pull energy. It wasn’t a shock to see the girls surrounding him begin to feel the effects of his power, but I wasn’t expecting my professor to do the same. Especially since he was a seventy-year-old happily married straight man. The first time Jax began to work his magic, Professor Sadjwick pulled his glasses from his face blinking hard—probably confused to be questioning his sexuality so late in life. Or at the very least, surprised to be feeling aroused in the middle of a lecture explaining a convoluted, intergalactic war metaphor. The second time I could tell Jax was pulling energy, Professor Sadjwick’s voice squeaked uncomfortably high while he rushed to stand behind the podium, his eyes casting nervous glances in Jax’s direction. Poor guy.
I still didn’t totally understand the whole seduction-feeder ability. Jax explained that he very rarely took enough energy to cause any harm to humans. His exact phrasing was something along the lines of never leaving them ‘anything but satisfied.’ El later explained that it could be used as an energy draining weapon if he wanted it to be one; that powerful energy-feeders not only used the energy to survive, but to heal and increase their strength and senses. In theory, I’d always assumed that energy-feeders were the lesser supes—holding weaker power and utility in their abilities. Watching Jax as he manipulated the entire classroom as if it were his own personal buffet, with a control Sam could never achieve, I knew that wasn’t true. It was becoming increasingly clear that Jax used his laughter and flirtations as a mask. That beneath it he was powerful, dangerous even.
In my years at Walesh, I had only seen one other supernatural on campus, the boredom-feeder, years ago. But El and I had never seen him again after that one class. Walking around with what I knew now, with this fear for El that wouldn’t quite leave my bones, my eyes were peeled for any slight glimmer or glow. Our classes were uneventful, minus the entertaining show Jax put on, and I was almost happy to head back to the safety and isolation of our home, where we controlled more of the variables.
Still, campus was beautiful this time of year. It was in the early stages of spring and the cherry blossom trees were starting to bloom. The lawns and benches were filled with students soaking up some much needed sun, and we even walked past an instructor who had brought her class outside for the day’s lesson. Even with the larger than usual crowd, Soren stood out. He was leaning against a tree and spotted us just as we spotted him. Like Jax, he seemed to be popular with the college crowd and had already gained a group of admirers camped out on a blanket in the quad, one girl pretending to read an upside down book while throwing not-so-covert glances his way. Unlike Jax, Soren didn’t seem to notice his effect on women—and if he did, he didn’t seem to care.
“Any suspicious activity among the coeds, Agent Tesker?” Jax was grinning ear to ear, eyes focused on the group of admirers, their attention now focused on him. “I love college. Should have enrolled ages ago. Nothing quite like the hit of horny humans thrust into the world of sexual experimentation.”
Soren ignored him. “You guys done with class? Let me grab my bike and I’ll follow you home.” Barely sparing us a glance, he scanned the perimeter, alert and cautious.
“How is it that you have a motorcycle in the first place, Soren? Did you bring it from the Veil?” I asked. It never occurred to me how little I knew about the Veil—Sam had never been there and Ellie never discussed it. Even with all of the information thrown at me the last two days, I couldn’t help but feel my curiosity about the place rise—I wanted to know more. Did they have the same types of jobs as us? Wear the same clothes? Listen to the same music? How did they even slip from one side to the next? As far as I knew, no human had ever been to the Veil or even knew how to access it. Hell, I only knew about it in the first place because of Sam and El. How did they hide something so huge from humans? And why did they call the other realm the Veil if they also called the seam between our world and theirs the Veil?
Soren glanced at me, but it was Jax who answered. “Nah, he keeps the bike here. Usually parks it at his house.” The look Soren shot him would have have turned me to ice, but Jax laughed it off. “Dude, not a big deal. Desi is as good as family now.” He turned back towards me. “Soren has a cabin a few hours away from here. We spend a lot of our time on this side of the Veil, whenever we can get away from our duties.”
“Damnit Soren,” El said tightening her grip on her bag. “You’ve been spying on me this whole time haven’t you?”
Soren, always the cold and collected one in the group, visibly flinched. “Not spying. I’ve checked up on you a few times over the years. You’re my sister, I just needed to know you were okay. Mostly though, I stay at the cabin to get away from court.”
Almost as soon as the tension filled El’s frame, it left. “Yeah, I can see that. The days mom used to take us out of the Veil were always your favorite.”
Picturing a young Soren excited about visiting the human world seemed almost impossible. Maybe it was just strange to believe he enjoyed spending so much time among humans when he’d devoted so much energy critiquing me for being one. Truthfully, it was sounding less and less like Soren had a problem with me because I was a human and more and more likely that he simply had a problem with me.
After picking up some food, we made it home. When we pulled into the driveway, I had to do a double take. Charlotte was standing in the front yard, now wearing a large yellow and orange fedora, glaring at a figure seated on the porch steps. Before I was even able to unbuckle my seatbelt and open the door, Soren had parked his bike and walked over to her, blocking my vision.
“Who the hell are you?” Soren asked. He squared his shoulders next to Char, like a menacing sidekick, animosity wringing from his voice.
Chapter Eight
“Umm, I’m Michael, who are you?”
At the sound of his soft, low voice, I exhaled in relief, pushing Soren out of the way so I could see him. Michael was sitting casually on the steps, his dark hair gleaming in the sun. Brown eyes, usually so amiable and unassuming were glaring daggers at Soren. As soon as he saw my face, the tension in his face neutralized a bit. “Dessa, hey. I thought I’d swing by and surprise you after class, see if you wanted to hang out. Didn’t realize there would be a welcoming committee, of course.”
He walked over to kiss my cheek and pull me into a hug, my head barely coming up to his chin. “Hey Michael, I’m glad you came. You know El and my neighbor Char. This,” I motioned to Soren, “is El’s brother Soren and,” waving behind me, “his friend Jax. They’re staying with us for a little while.” He nodded to each of them, a crease forming between his brows.
A soft tap on my shoulder had me looking down. Charlotte was shoving a plate of fresh cookies into my stomach, her magnifying glass poised to study Michael’s face. “Here, Dessa. I baked these this afternoon.”
“Thanks Char, you really didn’t need to though. I think we’re all still on a sugar high from the cinnamon buns.” I felt my lips tug down a little. Char baked for us fairly often, but usually if her oven was going twice in one day it meant she was feeling particu
larly lonely. I made a mental note to bring her with me to The Tavern sometime this week for lunch, just us girls.
“Nonsense, sugar highs don’t last that long. And besides, I’ve had a very busy day today, and baking helps me unwind and replenish my energy. These old bones aren’t quite as resilient as they once were,” she brushed me off with a wave of her deeply-lined hand before continuing her appraisal of Michael’s smooth skin. “Saw the medical man creeping on your steps so I figured I’d stand guard until you all got back. You never know with young men these days. I say give him the boot for showing up unannounced and without flowers. Manners are important, girl.”
El glanced over at me, trying to hold in her laughter. We both knew that the only reason Charlotte disliked Michael was because he wasn’t Luis. For as long as she had known him, Char had been pushing me to date Luis. We’d jokingly entertained the idea of trying to be more than friends a year ago, if only to please Charlotte. If she’d known she would’ve been beyond excited. Or mortified since it didn’t actually happen. It could go either way. We’d never see the end of her baking.
The look on Michael’s face during Char’s inspection and speech was priceless, caught somewhere between fear and amusement. Not that I could blame him. As short as Char was, there was something about her that inspired respect. Power? Charisma? Whatever it was, she had it in spades. I grabbed Michael’s hand and offered it a quick squeeze as I looked up at him. “What did you have in mind tonight?”
His body language loosened up a bit when he turned back to me. “Kevin’s band is playing. Remember when I mentioned them a few weeks ago? You said you’d be interested in checking them out. I figured we could grab a quick bite to eat and then head over. If you’re down that is. We can reschedule for another time if that’d work better for you.”