by Tim O'Rourke
“Thanks, Nev. You looking pretty good yourself,” I grinned, steering the car back down the road and toward the Ragged Cove.
Chapter Eleven
The town was quieter now as night drew in. But it was still warm and some tourists still wandered the cobble streets enjoying the warm evening, even though most of the cafes, ice-cream stands, and gift shops had closed for the day. The salty scent of the sea wafted on the breeze that blew through the open windows of my car. I stole a glance sideways and watched how the wind blew Nev’s messy hair back from his brow and the sides of his face to reveal his profile. He was handsome, but not in a rugged way, like Potter. I don’t know if Potter could even be described as handsome – I found his attractiveness unexplainable. But whatever Potter had going for him, it had gripped my heart and wouldn’t let go. Nev was simply handsome and dressed the way he was, with that smattering of stubble and clear blue eyes. I guessed he was what Potter would call eye candy – but for females.
“This is the place,” Nev said, pointing to a building that was set back from the road on a thumb of rock that jutted out into the sea.
I could see at once that it had once been a working lighthouse that had now been converted into a restaurant. Parking my car, I reached beneath my seat, retrieved my shoes, and slipped them back on. Pulling the shawl about my shoulders, I climbed out.
“And I thought you looked hot in jeans and a sweater,” Nev said, looking agog as I came around the front of the car toward him. I felt his eyes roam over me.
This sudden attention from another man felt a little disconcerting, but it also felt nice too, and I couldn’t help but suddenly wonder what Potter and Sophie were doing right now. Rowing like usual, I hoped.
“Put your tongue away,” I half-smiled at Nev, taking his arm.
He steered me toward the entrance of the restaurant. “You have amazing legs, Kiera…”
“Are you always so full on?” I cut over him. I wasn’t used to hearing such compliments and it made me feel a little uncomfortable. It wasn’t that I didn’t like what Nev said, it was just that I secretly wished it was someone else saying those words to me.
“I’m just flirting again.” He smiled sideways at me.
“You’re good at that,” I smiled back.
“I know,” he grinned, holding open the restaurant door for me.
I stepped inside and was met by the maître d’. “Good evening,” the young guy said. “Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes,” Nev said, stepping up. “A table for two under the name Nev East.”
The maître d’ scanned the ledger that was open at the desk before him. Finding Nev’s name, he looked up and with a broad smile said, “Excellent. Please follow me this way.”
Together, we followed the suited maître d’ amongst the tables and other diners who were already enjoying their meals. The place looked very expensive with its fine tablecloths, sparkling silver cutlery, and twinkling wine glasses. Even though the summer evening was warm, there was a grand-looking fireplace set into the far wall where a fire roared. Stopping next to a table near to the fireplace, the maître d’ eased back a chair for me.
“Thank you,” I said, sitting down and removing the shawl from about my shoulders.
Nev sat down opposite me.
“Would you like to see the wine list?” the maître d’ asked.
“Not for me, I’m driving,” I said. “I’ll just have some sparkling water.”
I half expected Nev to make me look ridiculous for not drinking like Potter had the other night in The Bucket, where we had first met Ms. Locke.
“I’ll have the same,” Nev said, smiling back at me and handing back the wine list to the maître d’.
“Excellent,” he said before heading away from our table.
I looked in wonder around the restaurant and I felt a sudden sense of excitement that I might just enjoy my twenty-first birthday after all. I couldn’t help but notice three young people – one male and two female – sitting at a table near to us by the fire. He had dark, curly hair which was in contrast to one of the girl’s fiery red. The second girl was as pretty as the first.
“Why do you need our help?” I heard the girl with red hair say to the man.
Instead of looking back across the table, he turned and looked into the fire. His voice was soft, almost a whisper. “I wouldn't know where to start, Winnie and Revekka."
I’d never heard the name Revekka before and guessed that the girl must have come from some far off land.
“Happy birthday,” Nev said, and I looked away from the young trio sitting near to us. Nev had taken a card and small box that had been wrapped with shiny paper from his jacket pocket and was holding them out toward me.
“What are they?” I asked.
“Open them and find out,” he said, eyes glinting in the nearby firelight.
Reaching out, I took them from him, unable to hide the sheer excitement I knew was splashed across my face. The last person to give me a present had been Murphy as he’d slipped that crucifix into my hand. But today he had taken it back. Placing the gift-wrapped box near to me on the table, I opened the envelope that Nev had handed me. I pulled the card out. There was a black and white pencil drawing on the front. I could tell the drawing was of me. The last person to have drawn a picture of me was my brother Jack, and that I had lost while being pushed.
“I had to draw you from memory,” Nev explained. “Hopefully the next time I draw you, you’ll be sitting right in front of me.”
“Why the long, black tear running from my eye?” I asked him, staring down at the card.
“It’s just how I see you, Kiera,” Nev said. “You often look so sad, like there is something dark inside of you – eating you up – if that makes sense.”
“Perfect sense,” I whispered, opening up the card and reading the message Nev had written inside.
Keep smiling, Kiera, because you look beautiful when you do! Happy birthday. Nev xx, the message read.
“Thank you,” I said, looking up at him, tears threatening. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything,” Nev said. “Just smile. That says it all.”
Placing the card to one side, I picked up the little box. I peeled back the wrapping paper, as I did the maître d’ returned, placing a large bottle of sparkling water on the table. He set down two menus then disappeared again. I pulled free the wrapping paper to reveal a small box. It was covered in scarlet velvet. With my heart starting to quicken, I opened the box.
“Nev, it’s beautiful,” I gasped, taking out the necklace that was inside. Five tiny seashells had been attached to a thin length of leather twine.
“I made it for you,” Nev said. “I didn’t have enough money to buy you anything, so I thought I would…”
“Money couldn’t buy something like this,” I whispered, holding the necklace up and marvelling at the tiny pink shells that he had fixed to the twine with small silver hoops. “The shells are so pretty. Where did you find them?”
“I went back to where I found you crying on the beach the other day,” he explained. “That’s where I found them.”
“You did that for me?” I breathed, looking at him. “Why?”
“Because I’d do anything to see you smile, Kiera,” he said, his own smile faltering now and looking at me with an intensity that I had seen in his eyes before. “Someone so beautiful should never look so sad.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I whispered, looking back at the necklace and how the shells almost seemed to shimmer in the light from the nearby fire.
“Don’t say anything,” Nev said, getting up from the table. “Just put the necklace on.”
He came around the table, standing behind me. Nev gently brushed aside my hair and I handed him back the necklace. I felt the soft touch of his fingers against my skin as he secured the necklace in place.
“Happy birthday, Kiera,” he whispered, his breath warm against my neck. I felt my skin ting
le there. He planted the gentlest of kisses on my neck.
I felt my hair fall back into place as he came around the table, sitting before me again. My fingers went to the necklace that now hung about my neck. “It’s perfect,” I smiled back at him.
The maître d’ appeared at the table again. I half expected him to ask both Nev and me if we were ready to order our food, but instead he said, “C’mon, Kiera, get your stuff, we’ve got work to do.”
“Huh?” I frowned, looking up, then gasping in surprise.
It wasn’t the maître d’ who had suddenly appeared at the table, it was Potter.
Chapter Twelve
“What are you doing here?” I gaped. Potter was standing over me dressed in a smart charcoal coloured suit. He wore a black shirt that was open at the throat. I had never known him to wear a suit before. It looked good, stretched tight over his broad chest and powerful arms.
“I could ask you the same question,” he said, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. “Get your stuff and let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I scowled.
“Who are you?” Nev said, standing up, a look of bewilderment in his face.
“Who are you?” Potter shot him a disdainful look.
“I’m Nev…” he started.
“Nev?” Potter smirked. “What’s that short for – Neville or summin’?”
“My name is pronounced, Neev…”
“Good for you,” Potter said, turning his back on him and looking down at me. “Get your shit together, we haven’t got time to waste…”
“I’m Kiera’s friend,” Nev tried to cut in again.
“And I’m her boss,” Potter snarled, turning on Nev again and going toe to toe with him.
“But it’s her night off and it’s her…” Nev started, not backing down and holding his ground with Potter.
“Nev is right,” I said, standing up. “I’m not at work now…”
“You were only whining a few days ago about wanting to be paid some overtime, so now’s your chance,” Potter shot at me.
“I wasn’t whining,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “I don’t whine.”
“No?” Potter scoffed, taking the smouldering cigarette from his mouth and dropping it into Nev’s glass of sparkling water. “You seem to be doing a pretty good impression right now.”
“Whatever the problem is, it will have to wait until tomorrow,” I said, dropping down into my chair again, folding my arms across my chest.
“It can’t wait until tomorrow,” Potter said, fixing me with his jet black stare. “We have to deal with this tonight.”
“What is it you actually do as a job, Kiera?” Nev asked looking confused. “I thought you said you were some kind of receptionist…”
“She is, and I have a shitload of typing for her to get through,” Potter barked at Nev. Then turning to look at me again, Potter said, “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”
Our eyes locked, both of us trying to read what the other was thinking. Part of me was mad as hell that Potter would dare to come storming into the restaurant on my birthday and demand that I leave. But there was another part of me racing up to the surface that was desperate to know what the urgency was all about. But more than that, the thought of working with Potter on another mystery was just too hard to resist.
So breaking Potter’s stare, I looked across the table at Nev. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go.”
“Really?” Nev asked, looking suddenly crushed.
My heart sank in my chest. I couldn’t look at him. The guilt I felt inside threatened to overwhelm me, and if it did, I might not leave with Potter – however much I wanted to. However much I hated myself for feeling it, I knew my loyalty and heart belonged to Potter, even if he wasn’t mine in this world. I just couldn’t shake those feelings off, however much I tried.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered at Nev, pushing my chair back and standing up again.
“Me too,” he whispered back.
Gripping my arm, Potter led me back across the restaurant to the door. I stopped and looked over my shoulder at Nev. He sat alone at the table by the fire. It was then I remembered the card he had drawn for me.
“I’ve got to go back,” I said to Potter.
“He’ll get over it,” he said, dragging me through the open doorway and out into the night.
Once outside, I pulled myself free of Potter’s grip. “What’s so important that you think you have the right to storm in there and drag me away from my friend?” I demanded. “And how did you know where I was going to be? Have you been watching me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, hot-lips,” Potter said, skulking away from where I had parked my Mini and to a darkened corner of the car park. “Murphy told me.”
“Murphy?” Then I remembered telling him that I was going out with a friend for dinner at the Light House tonight.
“If you don’t want to be found, don’t tell people where you’re heading,” Potter said, disappearing into the darkness.
I went after him. “Where are we going? My car is back over there.”
I felt a hand grip mine and pull me into the shadows out from the glare of the lights spilling from the restaurant windows. I felt Potter against me, his breath against me. I felt my heart miss a beat. In fact, it felt like it had stopped altogether as he pulled me close.
“Where we’re going we won’t need your car, we can fly,” he said. In the darkness I felt and heard the heavy rustle of his wings breaking free of his back.
“Where are we going?” I whispered, as he snaked one arm about my waist.
“To a party,” he said, his pale face and dark eyes looming out of the darkness just inches from me.
“A party?” I frowned.
“And you’re dressed perfectly for the occasion. You look as hot-as-fuck tonight, Kiera Hudson,” he smiled, soaring up into the night with me held in his arms.
When the Ragged Cove was nothing more than a sea of twinkling lights in the darkness below me, I let my own wings spring from my back. Potter loosened his grip on me and I swooped away. My long, black hair fluttered about me, as did the dress I was wearing. Potter swooped in close, taking one of my hands in his.
“What’s this party all about? I thought you said it couldn’t wait?” I said over the ripple of the wind and my bristling wings.
“It can’t wait,” he smiled sideways at me. “It’s a once in a lifetime kind of thing.”
A once in a lifetime kind of thing? What was that supposed to mean? I wondered as we raced through the night together. A bit like my twenty-first birthday. That was only ever going to happen once, and Potter had screwed that right up. Then glancing at him again, I wondered if he had. He said he was taking me to a party? A birthday party, perhaps? I dared to hope – to dream. But how would Potter know it was my birthday? Murphy! I smiled. He had told Potter that it was my birthday, just like he had told him where I was going to be tonight.
Sensing that I had figured out what Potter was up to, any anger that I felt toward him for dragging me away from Nev melted. I curled my fingers tighter about his and flew closer toward him. What more could I have asked for on my twenty-first birthday than to be swept up into the night by the man I loved and to be taken to a surprise birthday party? Perhaps Jack had been right and Potter and I were meant to be together in this layer… perhaps we were going to be married just like we had planned… perhaps we were going to have a daughter…
…perhaps it was just a dream, Kiera…
I pushed that voice of doubt – reason – from my mind. I didn’t want anything to destroy the feelings of happiness that now washed over me.
“So where is this party taking place?” I asked Potter.
He looked at me, his wings looking tatty and torn as they rippled in the wind. “The party is being held at a place called Hallowed Manor.”
“Hallowed Manor?” I breathed, trying to contain my shock.
“Yeah,
it’s a big place, set in its own grounds. It has a fucking moat going all the way around it and a drawbridge.”
“It sounds like some kind of fortress,” I said, pretending I had never been there before. But I had. It was where I had first met Kayla and Isidor, and where Potter and I had shared our first kiss in the gatehouse. I thought it had been Luke I’d been kissing, but it hadn’t been. Potter had said that I secretly knew that it had been him all along and not Luke. But I‘d always denied that, but perhaps Potter had been right.
“I guess it is like a fortress,” Potter said thoughtfully.
“So who else is going to be at this party other than me and you?” I asked, needing to know. Not only had I first met Kayla and Isidor there, but my friends Doctor Ravenwood and Lord Hunt had been doctors there. Hallowed Manor was where they’d had a secret hospital wing hidden in the attic. It was where they had nursed the sick half-breeds like Meren and Nessa. It was where Ravenwood and Lord Hunt had developed Lot 13.
Potter looked sideways at me.
“Who else is going to be there?” I asked again, my heart summersaulting in my chest.
“Friends,” Potter smiled, holding my hand tighter still.
Looking front again and feeling more excited than I could ever remember feeling, I raced through the night sky with Potter at my side once more. On the horizon, I could just make out the hulking shape of Hallowed Manor. Desperate to know which of my friends would be joining me for my secret birthday party, I raced toward it.
Chapter Thirteen
It had started to rain by the time Potter and I swooped out of the night and settled on the gravel drive that twisted its way towards Hallowed Manor. Did it feel good to be back? I wasn’t sure. It was like I’d already spent much of two lifetimes here. Some of the memories I had for the manor house were good and others not so. I looked back toward the trees which led to the clearing and the summer house. I had only good memories of the times I spent there with Potter. Beyond the summer house hid the tiny cemetery beneath the weeping willows. I couldn’t help but wonder if all those tiny graves of the dead half-breed children were still there. I hoped not.