“Her place, in about an hour.”
“And we’re wearing?”
“Dancing shoes, of course, see you then.” We said our goodbyes, and I stepped on the train. I got home, showered and dressed in record time. I caught the blinking light on my answering machine as I rummaged for dinner. I ended up pulling a chicken wing out of an old to go container and hitting the button. Jakob’s voice filled my apartment, offering to take me out to a real dinner before he went to work. There was no way I’d have time for dinner and dancing with the girls. I felt torn for a second, but when he mentioned E joining us at the end of the invite, all doubt evaporated.
I called him back, apologized profusely that I already had plans, and asked him if he wanted to meet me after dancing. I made a point of telling him how much I really wanted to get to know E and how I would have loved to do dinner before I hung up. As I walked out of the house, I did my best to ignore the little voice in my head calling me a liar.
Anna lived in a development of upscale homes that pretended to be normal suburbia, when really they were custom designed with the latest features. Lucky for me the community center, with its golf course, swimming pool, and club house, operated a shuttle from the train station. From there it was only a short walk on the well-manicured sidewalks to get to Anna’s two-story piece of the American dream. Her parents lived a few houses away; a situation they hoped meant they’d get to spend a lot of time with their grandchildren. They’d given her the house with that in mind, but Anna hadn’t produced the necessary grandkids yet.
I walked up the steps to her front porch, amused as always at the gas light over the door. Before things had gotten weird between us, Anna had me over for lunch, so I knew my way around. I went through the open door following the sound of voices in the living room.
“‘Veteran seeks special lady for friendship and fun. I’ll overlook your scars if you can see past mine.’ I’m circling it; doesn’t Raya have a thing for scars?”
Isaura’s voice came in from the living room, but in the kitchen Anna was pouring wine like she never heard a thing.
“Why are we reading the classifieds?” I asked.
“We’re trying to get Anna a man,” Isaura called out. I raised my eyebrows at Anna. She didn’t seem ready to share that the right man for her was a woman.
“Why pray tell?”
“My father seems to think Raya is upset by my lack of a serious relationship.” Anna rolled her eyes. Her family took their religion seriously. Anna gulped a healthy drink of wine and refilled her glass. “Isaura thinks if I’m involved, Daddy will be less likely to set me up with someone.”
Isaura joined us in the kitchen. She was soft and curvy, with full lips and short tight curls that barely brushed the bottom of her ears. She was a perfect contrast to Anna’s tall, thin frame. Thankfully the two of them appealed to different crowds, so tonight there would be more than enough dance partners to go around. Sadly, we were one girl short from moving on to dancing and off the painful subject of Anna’s love life.
“What about that nice vampire Mallory introduced us to this summer?” Isaura said, putting down a set of classified ads so covered in red they looked bloody.
“No luck, he’s still in Phoebe’s mandatory I-might-get-back-together-with-him waiting period.”
“Wait, Phoebe broke up with Mark?” It was the first I’d heard of it.
“Hola Chicas!” Phoebe blew in the room. “Your door was open.” She smiled at Anna and took her glass of wine.
“Shut the door, Isa.” Anna poured herself a fresh glass. Isaura looked up from the paper, and a strong wind blew through the house. I heard the front door blow shut. Isaura was a fairly competent air witch who didn’t mind showing off.
“You broke up with Mark?” I repeated my question, this time directing it to the one who could answer it best.
“Uh, yeah, umm, things weren’t working out…” she hedged.
“Because, you know, he turned out to be normal.” Isaura laughed.
“What?” It was Phoebe’s turn to be confused.
“Face it girl, you don’t date anyone who doesn’t need fixing,” Anna pronounced. “You’re practically incapable of a long-term relationship with someone decent.”
“Look who’s talking. How many of your relationships last past breakfast the next morning?” Phoebe teased.
“I don’t want a long-term thing, you do. We love you and all, but your taste in men sucks.” Anna’s voice was harsh.
“Mallory, help a girl out,” Phoebe appealed to me.
“At least we still love you?” I offered. “Let’s go dancing and forget about it.”
We split into two cars for the ride to the club. I gladly took a seat in Anna’s zippy sports car, happy to be able to spare her from more of Isaura’s matchmaking. The car only served as a reminder of the bigger issue. Like the house, it was a gift from her Dad.
“What’s going on with your folks?” I asked.
She hesitated, nibbling the lipstick off her bottom lip for a second, then sighed. “I guess you know the big secret; I might as well let you in on this one. You know my family is pretty much the thing when it comes to fire witches around here.”
“Blah, blah, name everyone after the fire goddess, blah, blah, four generations, blah. I’ve heard.” I rolled my eyes a little. Anna was actually Ray-Anna. Everyone else was Ray-something to honor their goddess. The pressure on Anna to be a witch was a bit laughable at times.
“Right, except lately we’re not. It’s gotten to the point where nobody has any fire left.” She made a display of shifting gears, desperate to avoid my eyes.
“Three months ago you channeled the goddess to turn a bunch of werewolves into ash and save my butt, doesn’t that count?”
“Sure, but that was August, now it’s October. Dad can’t light a candle. My aunt, the one who can heal third-degree burns? Yeah, she’s got nothing. The hospital put her on leave.”
“What about you?” I asked the question I was afraid to hear the answer to.
“Mating fire, a little, sometimes, but not always. Raya doesn’t like us anymore, Mal. It’s like we pissed Her off or She’s busy or something. The fire doesn’t come. She’s just…” Tears gathered in her eyes for a minute, and she stopped to pull it together. “…Just gone.”
We were quiet for a second as the car headed toward downtown. In front of us, Phoebe was driving badly, talking animatedly with Isaura. I felt a twinge of jealously at their casual conversation.
“And your Dad thinks you finding a man will bring her back?”
“Dad thinks a baby will bring her back. Mom’s not so convinced, but being a witch was never that important to her. She’s like you and Isa, the only one in her family, a happy accident.”
“What about your aunt?” I searched for some family member who wasn’t ready to turn Anna into a baby-making machine.
“Which one? Aunt Jo doesn’t have any say; she’s not a witch. She’s barely a family member. Grandma practically disowned her for being what we’re all turning into. Aunt Lynn is depressed. I mean, like, can’t get out of bed, doesn’t remember to eat, depressed. I don’t know what’s going to happen to her if I don’t find some guy soon.”
“Wait a minute you’re not seriously considering this, are you?” It was insanity. I didn’t worship the fire goddess, but I couldn’t believe Anna’s family was right.
“What’s my choice, Mal? My family is falling apart.”
“Tell them you like girls.” It was harsh, but it had to be said.
“You going to stand next to me when I do? Remember they barely speak to Aunt Jo, and all she did was make the mistake of being born normal.”
“If you want me to, I’ll stand there. I’m your friend, friends do that.” I stressed the word friend a bit too much. I’d told Anna once I could never love her. I didn’t want to confuse the point when she needed me so much.
“Sorry, Mal.” The tears in her eyes threatened to spill over. “I appr
eciate it, but I’m a wimp. I’d rather live a lie than face my father.”
And with that the tears did come. We pulled into a dark parking space at the back of Convenire, and she cried.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” I said, giving her a strong hug. Thankfully Convenire prided itself on looking like a destroyed shack. It sat back from the edge of the river, away from the rest of downtown, without a single streetlight of its own to display Anna at her most unsexy. Phoebe and Isaura gave us our space, no doubt helped by Phoebe’s ability to tell Anna was upset.
I wondered how much the perky spirit witch actually could see about our emotions. She’d never picked up on Anna’s sexual preference. But then, Anna was good at hiding. Until she’d told me, the myriad array of sexual comments, the frank looks, and the way she danced with men fooled me. Maybe I was wrong to push Anna into telling her family; maybe she could be happy with a man, fit into the life her family wanted for her. Bullshit, even in my head, I didn’t believe it. She might not mind a man on the dance floor, but when she told me she loved me that was real, it meant something. I didn’t want anyone to live a meaningless life.
Chapter Four
The inside of Convenire didn’t match the tattered shack exterior. The bistro tables surrounded a polished oak dance floor. The long bar was a darker wood, with floor to ceiling mirrors behind it and recessed lighting hidden away. There was a second floor that opened in the center so you could stand and look down at the people dancing.
I knew from my first hours with Jakob that the floor’s overstuffed velvet furniture was comfortable enough to pass the night away, even when the music was booming. The whole place seemed dark, with the colored lights on the dance floor and the occasional strobe effect making the experience surreal. It was everything I’d imagined a dance club to be when I was little. I loved it.
Of course the dance clubs of my dreams didn’t have a water witch bartender who could split liquor into four streams to pour several shots at once. He wasn’t showing off when he mixed drinks by putting his hand over the rim of the glass and making the fluids swirl. At Convenire witchcraft was expected, not exceptional. Anna would dance with mating fire coming from her fingertips, and Isaura swirled breezes around her partners.
Rhythm, the fifth girl in our group, was a Greek muse. No one here minded the way she threw power around, inspiring us all to dance. Phoebe and I were the odd ones out. She might get a contact high from all the emotions, but there was nothing either of us had to show on the dance floor.
Rhythm was already out there, her long dark hair swirling around as some man who probably had never danced before spun her expertly. Outside it was early-October cool, but inside her olive skin was already coated in sweat, moisture soaking through her white linen dress. She broke off the dance as we walked in.
“Ladies!” she squealed and offered air kisses all around. I took my kiss and tried not to notice how sweaty she was. “Anna, sorry about the daddy thing.”
“Thanks. No advice?”
“Sorry, when your dad is the head of an entire pantheon, he tends not to bother with you. I promise you’ll dance the night away though.” She smiled and led Anna out to the dance floor. Phoebe went after them while Isaura and I grabbed our usual table and ordered drinks. True to her word, Rhythm saw to it that Anna wasn’t worrying about her family in a matter of minutes.
“So you’re going to get Anna a man?” I asked Isaura as the waiter dropped off five glasses. I wasn’t ready to head out to the floor yet.
“Not a man, a boyfriend. She gets plenty of men every time we’re here.” Isaura and I watched Anna dance close to the table. One of her frequent partners, a fire witch who never wore anything but tight black leather pants with a chain for a belt, was dancing behind her. They looked like a happy couple, but I knew better.
“Having someone to dance with doesn’t seem to be a problem for her.” I turned back to Isa. “What about you; why do you always go home alone?”
“Guys you meet in a bar are fine for a night, but in the end they don’t appreciate my callipygian properties.”
“Callipygian?” I asked.
“It means she has a fat ass,” Anna said. She had stopped by for a drink; one swallow later, she was back out on the floor.
“Not every man wants some stick of a model like you,” Isaura called after her, but she was too far away to retort. Isa finished the sentence for my benefit. “Just the ones who comes to a bar.”
“Good point.” I remembered when I was heavier, how men had stopped seeing me. A thin woman would walk into the room, and it was like I didn’t exist. At a size eighteen, I was a buddy, a friend, a pal, now that I was down to a twelve, I was someone to notice again. “Should we be dragging you somewhere else?”
“To meet someone? No.” She shook her head. “I’m Jewish, remember? My mother sets me up with more than enough good kosher boys. I don’t need you and the girls doing it too.”
“I’ll keep an eye out all the same. Any other requirements?”
“Make sure he has a pulse. I want kids someday,” she said with a laugh.
We danced the night away, switching to bottles of water as it got late. We were young and supernatural, but we all still had to work the next day. Isaura might not think much of the men at Convenire, but she didn’t sit without a dance partner for long. After midnight, she begged me for water from the dance floor, and I headed over to the bar, ready to buy a round for the crew. The bartender was chatting with a man who looked out of place. I waited for a few minutes, cursed myself for never learning the bartender’s name, and finally walked over. I was two feet away when I realized it wasn’t a man but a woman with a boyish figure and haircut. And not any woman, E.
I considered my options. I could act like I didn’t recognize her; I could go back to the table and hide, or I could act like a grown-up about this. I’d already told Phoebe I was going to be a grown-up. I might as well do it. I didn’t even have a good reason to avoid her; we’d just gotten off on the wrong foot. Jakob helped raise her; she had to be a good person, right? The little spat we’d had at the fire wasn’t important. My shock at meeting her was no big deal. Friends. We were going to be wonderful friends. I ordered the waters, took a deep breath, and turned toward her with mock surprise.
“Hey,” I said with a smile. She gave me a blank look. “We met at Jakob’s place. Mallory?”
“It wasn’t really a meeting.”
This friendship thing wasn’t going to be easy. “I didn’t realize you came here,” I shouted over the bar’s sound system.
“I don’t, not really anyway, I mean I’ve only been back in town a week so first time.”
“I’m a regular.”
“Really? You know Patrick?” She gestured to the bartender who had turned around to grab my order. I was grateful he couldn’t prove me wrong.
“A little. I’m more of a dance floor kind of girl.” I pointed back to the girls.
“Ah, dancing’s not my thing.”
“So why come?”
“Raya wants me here. She says go, I go.”
“Well I can’t leave you sitting alone, come met my girlfriends. I’ll introduce you to one of the local fire witches.” I hoped my smile didn’t look as fake as it felt.
“Really? You don’t seem to like me.” Her frankness completely disarmed me.
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t need to.” She shrugged.
“Jakob likes you. I think I can trust his judgment.”
“Oh, I don’t know, he’s let Mark stick around longer than I would’ve.”
“He’s gotten better you know. He’s not nearly as much of an ass as he was.”
“And what cosmic force managed that conversion?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Phoebe. Come meet her.”
“E, like the letter? Strange name.” Phoebe commented when I introduced the two of them. Anna and Isaura were greedily gulping down their water.
“It�
��s a nickname. My real name is a mouthful. I got stuck with it because of family tradition.”
“Don’t tell me your family does the Ray-something for the fire goddess too?” Anna rolled her eyes.
“Oh, it’s worse than that. The first girl in every generation gets stuck with it. Story goes that the first one died terribly and we all get named after her, so she’s never forgotten.” Her tone of voice told me she wouldn’t mind forgetting all that much.
“What’s the name?” Phoebe asked.
“Elsebeth.”
“And are you anything like the first Elsebeth?”
“No,” she said, but at the exact same time I heard Jakob say, “Yes.” I hadn’t even realized he’d arrived. She laughed and finished speaking, “Well, you would know; you were married to her.”
“Wow, so you two are related?” Isaura asked, but I didn’t bother listening, I was back in Jakob’s living room, remembering how he’d held her, held a woman named after his dead wife. I tried to sort through my feelings—hurt that he hadn’t shared the story behind her name with me or hell, even her actual name. Worry, too, what did it mean that he hadn’t shared it with me? Anger, or maybe jealousy, that she had a connection with him that I couldn’t have. Sure, she was his descendant so not really a romantic rival, but until she showed up, I was the only woman in his world. Yep, jealousy, that’s what I was feeling for sure.
“And there she goes.” Anna sighed as Rhythm waved goodbye from between perfectly matched bodybuilders.
“While the rest of us go home alone.” Isaura sighed and leaned her head on Anna’s shoulder.
“It’s tragic, isn’t it?” Anna agreed, giving her a gentle pat.
“You can give me a ride home,” E suggested. “I won’t be nearly as much fun as those twins, but at least you won’t be alone.”
“Sure, why not.” Anna sounded flip, but I doubted she was happy being stuck taking a stranger home. The two of them left, and a minute later Phoebe and Isaura walked out to the parking lot with Jakob and me. I was still more than a little upset, but their laughter covered it. If Phoebe noticed something, she kept it to herself.
Fire in Her Blood Page 6