by A. S. Oren
Is?
I stand up. “The person who put the curse on my kind is still alive?”
She shrugs. “Well, I’m twice her age and I’m still, as you young things say, kickin’ it. Can’t see why she would be dead now. Haven’t heard anything, anyway. Not that we liked each other’s company. I can’t stand the bitch, but I still think I would have heard something. Last time we spoke was around 1609. I had came here with the Crescent. I was a healer for the Dutch. My shop grew from there. I didn’t always sell Chinese food on the side. That came a whole lot later. I. . .”
“Not that your life story isn’t thrilling, but can you just tell us how we can go about finding her?” Bullock asks.
I glance at him. Not that he didn’t say what I was already thinking, but I didn’t expect him to be the one to actually say something. He’s changed. Ever since we went down in those tunnels, he has been different: more assertive.
Agnita folds an arm across her chest and uses it to brace the arm with the nearly out cigarette in it. “Well, don’t you just make a woman go weak in knees,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Still a stubborn brat as ever, I see.”
She takes the stub of a cigarette off her holder and tosses it into the wastebasket. It sizzles in my puke. She reaches into her cleavage and pulls out a black case with another of her black cigarettes and sticks it into the holder. She lights the end with her finger. She sure does like to take her time getting to the point. If it wasn’t for the fact that she has a shop in Chinatown, I would think that she was some type of recluse.
“Only way that sorceress is found is if she wants you to find her. She hasn’t done anything for humankind or dragon shifters, since she cursed you around 5 A.D. Guess love will do that. I’ve never been in love, so I wouldn’t know.”
“In love with who?” I ask.
Agnita shrugs and waves her hand around. “Some woman. They were bisexual before it was cool.”
“Anna, in the legend her name was Anna,” says Kearn. He crosses his arms over his chest.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Paden asks . He stands from the couch and moves to face the young man that should be in a butler uniform back at Spearwood. I’m wondering along the same lines. How did he know I was in need of his help?
“I’m the eyes and ears of Spearwood. I know what goes on inside every corner of its walls. I know what he did to her, and I knew she would need more than these two to restore her.” His London voice speaks with such conviction, I can’t help but take a few steps toward him.
“How did you know we would be here?” Triton asks .
Kearn eyes him for a long moment. “Other than the sorceress Sibi, the Sea Witch Agnita is the only creature alive who can restore minds after they have been fragmented.”
I take another step toward him and place my hand on his shoulder. He looks down at me, and I smile. “Thank you for helping me and . . .” I grasp the glass locket. “. . . for helping me fix this.”
He turns to me now and bows at the waist. “It was my pleasure to help you, Miss. However, I did nothing to fix the necklace. You did that on your own.” He stands again, his bi-colored eyes looking into my own. I frown. He’s lying. I felt his magic in my hand, moving with my own. They may have been fake memories, but the Avalon I was only a little ago, remembers what it felt like to bond with Paden. What I felt with Kearn was a lot like that. Is he a shifter too, or something else?
Dinner
“Since you will be staying the night, I will have the girl fix you all some dinner. My own shop’s classics. People travel from miles around to have my food, and get my spells or potions on the side”
Agnita leaves the room, her clove smoke trailing behind her.
“I need to get back to Spearwood. They haven’t figured out where you have gone, yet. I don’t think they know where the Sea Witch’s current station is. I have been holding them off for a while with false leads. I’m not sure why they let you go in the first place . . . considering they are looking for you now. I don’t know what they are planning. The only place I don’t have ears is Roseman’s office. I can give you guys a night. Long enough for Miss to shift in and out of her dragon form. After that, I can’t promise anything. I advise you move on to somewhere else before noon tomorrow.”
“How do we know we can trust you? That this isn’t some type of trap set by Roseman?” Triton asks.
“You don’t know. I may not be a born member of the Vox, but I do want to keep Miss safe. I have the power to do that for a little while longer. Now you can heed my warning, or ignore it and get caught. It’s all up to you.” He bows to me again. Before he rises back up, he grabs my hand in a gentle grip. My heart does a flip, when his warm lips press into my skin. A visible shiver runs down my spine and I bite my lip. “Stay safe, Avalon,” he whispers. He releases his hold and steps back. He walks out of the room and through the door that leads to the underground of Outcasts. I resist the urge to stop or follow him, and watch him go.
Paden walks over to me, “Avalon, how are you feeling?” I force my eyes away from the empty door way and look to him. He’s frowning. I can’t help but get the feeling it’s a rare occurrence with him.
“I feel good now, as if I’ve just woken up from a night of rest. I don’t feel very different, like I thought I would. The uncovered memories aren’t all at my disposal yet. I guess I will have to wait for them to rise to the surface.”
He raises his pointer finger and turns his head to look over his shoulder at Maverick. He looks back, as if unsure of something. Paden cocks his head and Maverick steps forward. One stands on either side of me and raises their pointer fingers. Together, they make three ghost lines on each of my cheeks. I frown. The sensation brings forth a new memory.
I’m in a large house. I lounge in a sofa-sized bean bag. This time I’m around ten. On either side of me lies one of the boys: Paden and Maverick. Their heads rest near my own at angled positions. A bowl of popcorn sits on my stomach, and we all grab from it at our leisure.
On a wall-sized flat screen TV an anime plays out before us. Dubbed in English, with teeth-grinding voices.
“Sauske!” cries the main character. Just as the fight scene was getting good, they leave it at a cliff hanger, like always.
“Not there!” I cry in outrage, through a mouth full of popcorn. Now we are going to have to wait until next week for another 15 minute fight scene.
Both boys roll onto their sides. “You’ve really gotten into this show,” Maverick says.
“It’s your fault. You were the one who showed it to me. I can’t help that the fight scenes are epic. I can’t believe I have to wait an entire week to see if Naruto saves Sauske from himself. I want them together so bad!”
Maverick tsks. “You’re gross. They aren’t gay. That kiss was an accident!”
“Hey, I can’t help what I like, butthole.” I shove him in the shoulder. He shoves me back with less force than I did him. His hands attack my sides with tickles, and I burst out laughing.
“Uncle! Uncle!” I call. He eases back, and I finish laughing. When I open my eyes again, a box with the Naruto characters hovers in front of me, held up by Paden. I see the words ‘Complete first series’ on the cover. I grab it from him and sit up. “No way, no way, no way! This is freaking awesome!”
“It’s the Japanese version with subtitles. They won’t be releasing the dubbed version on DVD for a while,” Paden says.
I lie back down between them and pull out the case that has the episode number we would be on. There are only a few more cases that follow. We’re nearing the end, and then I will have to find the sequel. “I don’t care. I will still watch it, multiple times.”
“I think I know why you like this show so much,” Maverick says. “You are a lot like Naruto, just a tad less annoying.”
“You know, if you put marks right here,” Paden runs his finger over my cheeks, mimicking the markings that Naruto has, “she would look a lot like his Sexy Jutsu.”
&n
bsp; Maverick mimics the motion on my other cheek. It tickles. “By George you’re right!”
From that point on, they always marked my cheeks like that.
“Naruto?” I ask, unsure if that was real or not. It had to be, but I can never be sure.
A smile passes over both their faces. I will take that as a yes.
“So you remember?” Maverick asks.
I shrug. “A little bit. Not a lot. It’s all puddled together with what I believed about you before all this brain washing crap came into play.”
He bows his head and takes a step back. I grab the belt loop of his slacks. The motion came out of nowhere, but it was done on instinct, like I have done it a thousand times before. I stop him and pull him back. I let go. “I have no idea why I just did that,” I say, now taking a step back myself.
“You used to do it all the time when we were kids. Usually right before you pinned him to the ground and gave him a wet Willie,” Paden says, a grin now on his face.
Someone grabs my hand. I look back to see Dante standing there. I can’t read his face. “We should go see about that food now. I’m sure you need it after everything that has happened in the last 48 hours.” He pulls me away, before I can say anything. I stumble, as I hurry to keep up with him. What’s with him? I wanted to get more information from Paden and Maverick. I want more of my memories back.
The scents coming from the kitchen make my stomach growl with need. A few people stare at us. It must be a weird sight . . . a group of teenage boys and girl stumbling out of a back room, when none of them saw us come inside. I pull the blazer tighter around me.
Lavish doesn’t even touch the décor I wonder how famous this place is? It looks like it makes quite a bit, and almost every table has more than two people. Where are we going to sit?
After a moment, everyone goes back to how it was before we appeared. A young man walks up to us wearing a half black apron around his waist. He makes Paden, Maverick, and Dante look short, and they aren’t. His black hair stands on end, as if he rolled out of bed. His chin is broad and a playful smile plays on his lips. Chocolate brown eyes look down at me.
“Hello and welcome to Miss Peacock’s! I’ve been told to take you all to one of our VIP tables. My name is Romulus and I will be one of your servers for the night. Follow me please.” He leads us to another area in the back of the place. Across the way from where we came out of. Through another door we go. It feels as if there are a hundred in this place. This room also has a similar color theme to the back room. Reds, blacks and gold make up everything. A long black table sits at the center of the room.
Romulus pulls out a chair at the other end, farthest from the door. He motions for me to sit. “Ladies here always take their seat first.” I give a small smile, before taking the offered chair. I look at the rest of the guys. They all look so stiff.
“Relax,” I say to them. “The worst of tonight is over. I feel fine right now. Take your seats.”
Maverick and Paden take the seats directly to my left and right. A sense of ease fills me. Dante frowns as he takes the seat next to Maverick. Bullock takes the seat next to Dante and Amr takes the seat across from him. Triton takes the seat across from me and Horace finishes of the rectangle with the seat to Triton’s left. I can’t help but feel as if this represents their order, who’s in position of leader and who is not.
Romulus’s hand goes to my shoulder and squeezes it. “Don’t worry, love; they’re uncomfortable because of me.”
The door opens and Vex comes in carrying a tray with two sets of jade tea pots and cups. “Yeah? Only because you’re a dog, literally. You hump anything with two legs. I’m sure they can sense it.”
“Literally?” I ask. She has to be using that word wrong.
“Yup,” Romulus clarifies. He steps away from me and moves to where I can see him. Within seconds, he shifts into the form of a black wolf with the front left paw looking as if it has been dipped in white paint. He opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue, letting it hang to the side as he pants. His tail wags. His mannerisms are much more doggish, I guess. He pads forward and places his head on my lap. Hesitantly, I stroke his fur. It’s softer than I thought it would be.
“I wouldn’t do that,” says Vex, as she sets down my cup and pours a light colored tea into it. Jasmine wafts from the steam. “It will make him think that you want to have sex with him. Like I said, he humps anything with two legs, and I sometimes wonder if he wouldn’t go for four if it was offered.”
He pulls away from me and shifts back. “I resent that comment. Don’t bash just because you’re jealous.”
She places the tea pot down, having served all of us some tea. “Please. I would take Remus over you any day, at least he has moral decency.
“Of course, perfect Remus always gets your attention,” his tone bitter. He must really like this girl. “I created Rome, you know.”
She scoffs. “With his help, and then you made him fake his death, so you could take all the credit, and he was kind enough to do it for you.”
“Wait, you’re the actual Romulus from Roman Mythology?” I ask.
“Of course, what parent today would name their child Romulus?” asks Vex.
Romulus frowns. “This is about last night isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ll be back in a little while with your food. You’ll be receiving the best off the menu.”
Vex slams the door open and walks out. I wonder what he did to piss her off.
“I’m sorry. She’s acting like that because of me. I will return later with your food. Please, pull the rope over there if you need anything before then.” I look to the rope hanging down near Triton and Horace. I didn’t even notice it until now. He leaves also.
“Is it really possible for him to be thousands of years old?” I ask.
All of them nod. “None of our kind our quite that old, but there are ones even older than Romulus. Vex is older than him by a thousand years at the least,” Bullock says.
“How do they stay looking our age? Even the Ancients look old.”
“I can’t speak for Romulus, but I assume he is in the same boat. Vex is cursed. Agnita is a collector of sorts. She likes to have valuable and rare things. Vex is a mermaid. She used to be able to go between both the sea and land freely, but when Agnita joined the Colonists, Vex’s father sent her on land to retrieve her and bring her back to the sea. Vex battled with Agnita and lost. Ever since then she has been cursed. She can’t leave New York, or get in the sea until her contract with Agnita is up in another thousand years. Unless she can break the curse.”
“So that’s why she was excited to see you. She thought you had figured out how to break the curse and get her out of here.”
Bullock nods. “I have figured out how to break her curse, but I haven’t told her yet. She’s not going to like it.”
I sit foreword. “What will break it?”
“A kiss from someone born on land, her true love.”
I scoff. “True love’s kiss? Seriously?”
He nods again. “Agnita is known for writing that into all of her curses. Spearwood had a lot of books on her. Several of them have been broken with that. Perhaps she’s a hopeless romantic.”
“Could it break my curse?” Could true love really be the cure? It just doesn’t seem possible.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about the gypsy queen that cursed the females of our kind. You are the first one to be born in centuries. I’m sure if there had been others before you, it would have been broken by now if that was the case.”
“Why aren’t there more females like me? If our kind is populated by 99.9% of men, how are new dragon shifters being born?”
Dante grins at me. “Well, Fire, when a man and a woman…”
I shake my head. “Don’t even try to go there.” I smile though. It’s the first joke he’s cracked in what feels like forever. “I’m serious though. What are your mothers like?”
“They’re human, if that’s what you’re asking,” Horace says.
“I figured that.”
“It’s different for everyone. Some have mom’s that are full human, not an ounce of supernatural ability. Others are from other species: shape shifters, mermaids, demi-gods, fallen-angels… you get the point. There are also the ones that have their gender changed,” Triton says.
A twinge of ire raises in me at the sound of his voice, but I force it back down. It must be left over from the other Avalon; even though we are now all one whole personality. “Are they different from normal transsexuals? How are they able to physically have children?”
“The magic of our world can do a lot of things. Including changing the gender of a person who truly wants it. They become the body they would have had, had they been born that gender, working insides and all. The magic can only be performed once and the person must want the change with every fiber of their being,” Paden says.
I give him a soft smile. “So if they become female, why aren’t they cursed like me?”
“I don’t know. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Maybe because they were born guys first and then became girls after they passed the age of adulthood?” questions Dante.
The door to the room opens again, hitting the wall behind it. Vex comes in carrying a tray. “I don’t want to hear it, Rom.”
Romulus follows in behind her, carrying his own tray. Behind him follows a guy that could be a carbon copy of him, but his hair lies flat against his head and curls at the ends. “Stop fighting in front of the VIP’s. You remember what Agnita threatened last night if you two continued to fight while in front of the customers.”
“Always the bloody voice of reason, aren’t you Remus?” snaps Romulus.
Vex grabs a fold out stand for trays and sets it down. “Both of you shut up.” She begins to place some of the various dishes on the table: duck, pork, beef, and chicken. My stomach turns at the sight of it all. Vegetables, rice, and several kinds of soup join everything as well. The scent of it all gathers into my nose. A growl emits from my stomach. I place a hand on it. I don’t think I realized how hungry I was.