“Too soon to tell, they all feel the same in the beginning.” Phoebe examined me for a second. “If you’re not going to die, I have a race to take care of.”
“I’m not going to die. Go have fun.” I urged her; ready to get home where I knew Jakob would spoil me for the rest of the night.
Chapter Eleven
We went back to my place, and I took a long hot shower with Jakob’s help. He did wonderful things that left me clean and well satisfied. Afterward I snuggled into bed next to him resolved to start running more often. I hadn’t realized how out of shape I was until the almost blacking out part of the race.
The next morning my body let me know running that fast without any training had been a bad idea. Everything hurt. Parts of me I didn’t remember having wanted to register how upset they were with me. Thankfully Jakob was dead to the world and couldn’t hear my groans. When the phone rang, I was sore enough to contemplate letting it go, but eventually I stumbled down stairs and managed a weak hello.
“What do you know about Ben?” A familiar voice said in an unfamiliar no nonsense tone.
“Good morning to you to, Isaura,” I said struggling to remember everything I knew about the big man. “Let’s see he’s an air witch.”
“I knew that.”
“Right, he’s got a big family back in Hawaii, but he’s the only one that left the island. That’s not how he says it though; he calls us the mainland.” I searched for something else. “I think he’s single, and he works the night shift.”
“You think he’s single? You’re not being particularly helpful here.”
“I assume he works out. I mean you don’t get to be his size naturally.”
“Oh I’m sure he works out. Did you see his chest? The man is buff. The question is does he only date other buff people? Are those people women?”
“Sorry, you’ll have to ask him yourself.”
She sighed a little. “You’re right, of course, but I was looking for some bit of brilliant insight.”
“Go call him,” I said. “Come up with some stupid pretense and call him, mention you’re going to be somewhere and wait for him to invite himself along.”
“I can’t. I gave him my number; he didn’t give me his. I mean, we were talking and hitting it off, so I’m sure he would have given it to me but I didn’t think to ask. Now I’m stuck here waiting.”
“Do not wait by the phone. The man works night shift. The chance he’s up and around at…” I searched for the clock and was a little shocked at the time. “You got me up at seven?”
“I was curious. Besides, it’s not like I woke Jakob.”
“Good to know his sleep matters to you.” My sarcasm was lost on the lovelorn. “Go do whatever you were going to do today, if you hear from Ben it won’t be until later.”
She grumbled a bit but finally agreed with my logic. I took two ibuprofen and hobbled back up to bed, hoping the drugs would kick in by the next time I woke up. They did, but when the phone woke me again at one o’clock, I cursed myself for not bringing it upstairs to the bedroom. Jakob stirred next to me, but I ended up back downstairs.
“Good Morning, Mors.” I couldn’t believe the voice I was hearing.
“Is it really morning?” I asked Ben. To hell with it, I was taking the phone upstairs and getting back in bed.
“Early morning for some of us. You know why I’m calling, don’t make me play detective here, tell me everything you know about Isaura.” I winced as my knees cracked on the stairs.
“She’s a Jewitch, she keeps kosher, and she woke me up at seven asking about you.” I shook my head and sat down halfway up the stairs. “You two really should call each other.”
“She’s my next call; I wanted to wake up a little first.”
“Don’t we all.” A trained investigator, Ben picked up on my sarcasm right away.
“It’s one and you’re not night shift. You should be finishing lunch. Unless the run last night took more out of you than you’re letting on?”
My pride stung, it was bad enough he had to help me breathe after I crossed the finish line. Admitting how sore I was would get me a week’s worth of flack at the office.
“Hey, I practically live with a vampire. We keep late hours around here on the weekend.” It was a plausible defense.
“Uh-huh.” He wasn’t buying it, but he was too polite to call me on it. “Do you know if she has her pumpkin yet?”
“Her pumpkin, what pumpkin?” The question threw me.
“Samhain is next weekend; don’t you have a pumpkin for carving into a jack-o-lantern yet?”
“Umm, I’m not superstitious.” I shook my head. Pumpkins and candy weren’t at the top of my list lately. “If I know Isaura she’s got three or four and would love to have another half a dozen.”
“Perfect, anything else, maybe something you two did together that she liked?” I’d seen him do this enough in the interview room that I expected him to offer me a donut or some coffee.
“She has an insane sweet tooth.” I said, remembering our midnight excursions to Fantasía Del Chocolate. “We go dancing at Convenire a bunch; she’s pretty good.”
“Convenire? The witch bar?”
“Vampires and changelings too,” I protested, but it was hard to argue with his categorization, witches definitely made up the bulk of the customers. Then again, there were a lot more witches around here than any other supernatural minority. It was straight demographics that there would be more of us at any bar.
“Sure. Thanks for your help, Mallory.”
“Call her,” I ordered, hoping his call would stop her from calling me back. “I’ll see you at shift change on Monday.”
I hung up and climbed the stairs again. Crawling next to Jakob’s still form, I realized I was only a little stiff, all of my stair sets had loosened me up.
“Are we practically living together?” Jakob asked curling around me. His skin was cool despite the blankets.
“We would be if you’d bring some clothes over or offered me a drawer.” I tried not to let my hurt show in my voice. We’d been together nearly half a year, and I didn’t have so much as a pair of socks at his place. I had a key, and there was food for me, but the modern dating rituals seemed to elude my six hundred year old boyfriend.
“Should I offer you a drawer? Is that what comes next for us?” He sounded genuinely confused and I felt like a heel. There was a good chance he didn’t know anything about modern dating.
“It’d be easier, like it’d be easier if you kept a decent set of clothes here, but I know you’re religious.” I was fairly sure his strong Catholic background had something to do with our not cohabitating. He’d never come out and said it, but I suspected he considered our sex life to be a sin. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, but I did hate how it made me feel transient.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was so important to you.” He kissed my cheek and pulled me closer to him. “We can go furniture shopping today; we’ll get you a whole dresser to make up for it.”
“I’m not sure I have that many clothes,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Then we’ll go clothes shopping after we find the dresser,” he said with a smile.
****
Shopping was every girl’s favorite hobby, except mine. It was Sunday, which meant I was busy for a while. The game came on after two, and this time I treated Jakob to the entire football experience, corn chips in the hat shaped plate, my dad’s jersey, and everything else a budding football fan could want. He didn’t see the thrill, but he was content to hang on the couch with me and cheer or boo when appropriate. Football fever would get him; it was only a matter of when. I was willing to wait. After the game we went furniture shopping. It was a nice break from car shopping; at least here I knew I’d be able to make a commitment.
Our first stop was a mile down the street from where Mark had finally given in and bought stuff off the show room floor. There were a few promising pieces in the window, and thankfull
y a big enough sales floor that something, somewhere was bound to appeal to both of us.
“Can I help you find anything?” a bored looking salesgirl asked.
“Not really, we’re looking for a dresser that fits his style but works for me too.”
“Oh you’re getting a drawer!” she perked up. “Dressers are in the back at the left, good luck.”
We wandered back to an array of dressers. I’d never had so many furniture choices before in my life.
“I take it the drawer convention is fairly pervasive,” Jakob said.
“Pretty much everyone knows about it but you. It’s one of the big steps of modern dating.” I replied sliding a drawer in and out of a solid wood option. How does one test drive a dresser anyway? It’s not like I brought an extra set of underwear to see how they would look in there.
“You know these steps are a complete mystery to me,” Jakob admitted.
“And what did you do with the rest of your women?” I asked.
“You make it sound like there were hundreds.”
“Dozens at least.” I moved on to a white veneer model with a mirror attached.
“Maybe twenty.” He laughed.
“In six hundred years? What were you celibate?” My question earned me a look from a salesman. I gave him a nasty look for eavesdropping, and he walked away.
“No, just not dating material,” he said with a shrug. “I already have a mirror in the bedroom, would we really need two?” I agreed with him, and we gave up on the store. Thankfully, there was another furniture outlet within walking distance.
“Why weren’t you dating material? You can love someone. I thought that was enough to make you eligible.”
“I can’t have children or marry in the church.” I started to say something, but he stopped me. “In the last hundred years that hasn’t mattered, but before that it did. The point of courting was to marry; the point of marriage was to have children, and all honest women sought marriage.”
“So who were the lucky twenty then, a collection of widows and whores?” I teased.
“Less than twenty, and there was a brothel outside of Paris…” He let his voice trail off, and I turned toward him shocked.
“A brothel?”
“I lived there for a bit.”
“A bit?” I was so stunned I could only speak in questions.
“Not long, fifty years or so.” He laughed at my shock.
“So longer than I’ve been alive.” I shook my head at him. “Sure you don’t want to revise that number above twenty?”
“I’m sure,” he grinned.
“I suspect there’s a juicy story I’m not getting here. I may have to call Mark.”
“It was before his time. You’ll just have to wonder.” We had walked to the door of the second store. I glanced at the frilly, girly furniture in the window. It would never work with Jakob’s modern bedroom.
“Or I can take you home and seduce you into telling me.” I slid my arm around his back, and he laughed all the way back to the car.
****
“So tell me about the women then,” I asked when we were finished. I curled up close to him, the room was chilly, but I still felt the warmth of our love. There was something delicious about making love to him on a cool October night.
“It was a hundred years before I escaped the one who made me.” He shuddered and I held his hand. His maker had been a pedophile and a rapist. A hundred years as a victim of that kind of abuse, watching others hurt the same way, must have been a nightmare. “When I finally did I was lost. No place felt safe. Everything reminded me of the life I could never return to. I found myself in Paris.”
“This would be when?” I asked not wanting to lose track.
“Toward the end of the fifteenth century.” He stopped, lost in memories. “I ended up working in a brothel, protecting the women there.”
“Uh huh, protecting them?” I tried to lighten the mood. “None of them offered something in return?”
“Many offered, but I didn’t partake. I didn’t like the idea of being another customer.” I kissed him for being so noble; when I stopped, he went on. “After that I was with Catherine, and I knew better than to even admire anyone else.”
“Catherine?” I asked wondering why the name sounded familiar. “Blonde, blue eyes, incredibly smooth skin?”
“That sounds right, however did you hear about her?”
“I asked Mark once what scared him, and she came up. He completely freaked out.”
“Then it was definitely Catherine, she was a formidable woman.”
“I’m not sure that sounds like a good thing, please don’t ever describe me as formidable.” I settled down into his arms.
“I wouldn’t, you two have nothing in common.”
“Just you.”
He shrugged, not willing to admit any connection. “When I was with Mark, we concentrated on,” he hesitated, “other things.”
“So the bulk of the twenty have been recent.” I pointed out the obvious.
“Less than twenty,” he corrected for at least the tenth time. “I shouldn’t have given you a number should I?”
“It’s another of those modern dating rules. You never give a number, people obsess about them,” I said with a solemn tone.
“Is there anything else I need to know?” he asked.
“If I remember something, I’ll let you know,” I promised.
Jakob had a project at home that couldn’t wait. He apologized profusely before he left but didn’t tell me anything about it. I had my suspicions that it was something for me and maybe car related. I did my best to keep my mind off the raffle tickets on the fridge. If Jakob did find some car and present it to me, I would fall all over myself with gratitude, even if I was still hoping the next phone call would be Isa telling me I’d won. The call hadn’t come by the time I left for work the next morning.
I arrived at the squad room bright and early, with a box of donuts in one hand and my head filled with the hope that this week all of the annoying cases would get wrapped up. Ben was making a fresh pot of coffee in the break room. Morris, a detective from the night shift I didn’t really know, was finishing what was left of a pound cake. I slid the donut box in place beside it; making a mental note that the night shift seemed to have better munchies than we did.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
“She’s great,” he smiled widely. “Really great: funny, sweet, completely not freaked out by witches.”
“Well, she is one that sort of takes care of that.”
“You know what I mean, and it doesn’t hurt that she looks amazing.” Ben shook his head. “But the best part? When we went out for lunch she—”
“Mal? Your friend is here for you.” Danny put his head in the break room to deliver the message, but with the coffee pot less than full, there was nothing to keep him there.
“Wow, Ben said your friend was hot, but I didn’t believe him,” Morris chimed in, before I could say anything Ben replied.
“Not her.” Ben looked out of the break room window. “She’s just another scrawny model.”
“Oh come on, you don’t think she’s hot?” Morris countered.
“The red hair is nice, but I could snap her in half with one good—”
“Stop!” I held up my hand. I refused to stand there as they discussed my friends like they were cuts of meat. “Both of you stop.”
“I only meant that Isaura is a real person, like when we went out on Sunday she actually ate lunch, she didn’t pick at her food and complain about her weight.” Ben had the decency to look chagrined.
“I’m sure,” I said. “I’m going to talk to Anna, my other friend. You know what? It’s day time, and you’re both night shift, so get your macho bullshit out of my squad room.” I was trying to look fierce, but I could see it wasn’t working. I settled for annoyed and rolled my eyes at them as I walked out.
Anna was never up this early. It wasn’t her style, but then I realized
she was wearing her extremely crushable sleeveless black travel dress and heels that were only two inches high. Standing next to my desk with a bag over her shoulder and her long red hair pulled back in a perfect ponytail she looked every inch the model she was.
“Going somewhere?”
“New York for a spring showing,” she said.
“You do know it’s October right? Spring won’t be for another four months at least.”
“Spring fashions show in fall, fall fashions in spring. Guess they don’t teach that at college, huh?”
“Funny, very funny but I know you’re not here to educate me.”
“Nope, I’ll be back in a couple of days, but this couldn’t wait. It’s about your case.”
“Tell me.” I hoped Anna had some supernatural insight.
“Every Sunday after services we do this big family supper, since pretty much every important fire witch in town is related to me—”
“Except E,” I interjected.
“Well, yeah, except her. All the rest are, cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed. Anyway, I figured if you’re looking for a fire witch they might be there.”
“And?” I asked hopefully.
“No, sorry Mal. But when I mentioned how every family member was there in the back yard, Aunt Jo got the strangest look on her face, and then later after we were away from everybody, she asked for your card.”
“But she’s not a fire witch.”
“Neither are the rest of us these days,” Anna frowned.
“Still having problems?”
“It’s impossible. Dinner yesterday was like a funeral. Honestly, I think Dad might be okay with me, I mean with the other thing, if it means getting over this.”
“So how are you going to handle it?”
“I’ve got four hours in the air to figure it out. I wanted to make sure you knew about Aunt Jo; she might call you. Be nice to her, okay? I don’t know the details, but with the way grandma scowls at her, I think she’s had it pretty rough.”
I promised Anna I would be nice and gave her a quick hug goodbye. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Morris had lingered long enough to watch her ass as she walked out of the room. I rolled my eyes again, suddenly grateful my partner was a grown up.
Fire in Her Blood Page 18