I held the door open for Vivian, and she walked inside, and I followed her. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys as we passed the desk. Curtis nodded and went back to reading his Hustler as we made our way to the ‘employees only’ door and navigated our way downstairs to the apartment. Once inside, I turned to see if everything was as I’d left it. So far so good, and the canvas bag of weapons were still on the end of the couch. I lifted it off and flopped down, a plume of dust rising.
“I don’t know if I have it in me to make it back to my apartment,” Vivian said after a moment.
“You can stay here. The couch is comfortable,” I told her.
“I mean, I don’t want to impose—”
“She’s nervous that after she kissed you that you’re going to think she’s going to get all naked and jump your bones. She’s got your mojo after all,” Rose snarked.
“Enough about my mojo,” I told her and stood up and walked to the old fridge/freezer combo and opened it.
“Anything good in there?” she asked.
“Not for you,” Rose said. “But it looks like there’s two cans of fruit cocktail and one carton of expired milk.”
“So what are you going to eat?” Vivian asked short stuff.
I watched her give Vivian a disgusted look and I pulled out the beers I had stashed there a while back and handed her one.
“See, he has beer,” Vivian said smugly.
“I didn’t know he was going to share with you!” Rose shot back.
I walked over to the bed and picked up the landline phone that was there and called the front desk. “Curtis, can you order three deep-dish pies and a fruit salad from… exactly. Yeah, I’ll run you up the cash in a minute. I forgot my cell phone. I appreciate it, yeah, I’ll catch you up when the pizza gets here. Thanks.”
“He must know what kind of pizza you like,” Vivian said dryly.
“He does. Since I’m the owner’s funny nephew or something, he’s not in a hurry to piss off the owner. He gets paid decently for keeping people away from my apartment here.”
“And run the upstairs?” Vivian asked.
“Yeah, he rents out rooms, but nobody is pimping here.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you owned a brothel.”
“It’s not a brothel,” Rose and I chorused.
“Jinx,” Rose said first, and I flopped back down on the other end of the couch, as far away from Vivian as I politely could be.
“So…” Vivian said with a yawn.
Still, I said nothing.
“You’re not going to ask why Rasmussen said we had the week off?”
Can’t say it.
“Okay, this is stupid. If we’re going to play the silent game and get all weird because I kissed you… really? That’s it isn’t it?”
Rose started giggling and landed on my shoulder. I was biting the inside of my cheek and almost brayed donkey laughter as I had to unclench my jaws to take a swig of beer.
“Why do guys get all weird about that kind of stuff? I mean, it was the heat of the moment, and you were all pressed up against me. For once I felt like you trusted me again, and I got swept up. It’s not like my crush on JJ was a big thing, and he’s got a new lady now. That kiss really didn’t mean anything.”
I almost choked on my beer. I covered that up by taking another swallow.
“Seriously, I’m not that bad of a kisser am I?”
Rose giggled harder and snorted loudly before covering her mouth with both of her hands. She took to the air between Vivian and me and turned to face both of us.
“He can’t talk because I jinxed him.”
“So undo your magic and—”
Oh man, this felt like middle school. If I wasn’t so tired, I would let this go on longer, but I couldn’t. Using the healing charm that used my power really sapped me hard. Using the rechargeable charm had taken me past my hard limit, but Zania had healed and fixed me somehow. Maybe she had given me a little of her mojo? I mentally shuddered.
“She yelled jinx first,” I interrupted. “I was waiting for her to say I can buy her a Coke, but then you started talking and…” I started laughing.
“This is not funny,” Vivian said, turning a deep shade of red.
“No, it’s okay. When you get to be as old as he is, everything is funny. He’s gone soft upstairs, given up sex with women for a while.”
“What?” Vivian said, turning to focus on Rose.
“He had the sheriff in bed with him, and all they did was sleep,” Rose said.
“Hey now,” I told her, “TMI and none of her business.”
“Maybe he’s gay?” Vivian asked.
“I am not—”
“Maybe he is?” Rose shot back, cutting me off.
Years of my own rules prevented me from dating, from getting too close. All too much lately I’d broken each and every single one of my rules. I knew the girls were ragging on me to hide Vivian’s embarrassment, but I was worn out and… I didn’t know. I was unsettled. I did want to know what Rasmussen meant by us having the week off. I didn’t have a day job, and I’d been deputized in order to help in the fight against Vassago and probably The House of Shadows. My focus was on the man who killed my parents or facilitated their deaths. I still didn’t know for sure, but he wasn’t big on denying any of it either.
Walking back to the fridge, I pulled out some more beers, putting them on the counter. Then I grabbed a stack of paper plates and dropped them on the short table.
“You want a fruit cup or some fruit salad?” I asked, my back turned as the two of them whispered conspiratorially, a quick laugh coming from one of them.
“My mojo says I want all of it,” Rose shot back.
“My mojo says I’m eating at least a pizza,” Vivian said as I turned to face them.
“My mojo says… screw it,” I said and slumped into a kitchen chair, holding my beer and putting my head down between my arms on the table.
“He really did zap you good with his mojo.”
I wanted to yell about kidding me about my mojo, but I was tired. I sat like that for I don’t know how long, until my land line that connected me upstairs started ringing. I barely opened my eyes, but I made it to the phone by the third ring and picked it up.
“Hello? Yeah? Great news. I’ll come up. Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Thanks, man.”
I pulled my wallet out and pulled out four twenties and walked over to the door. I looked behind me, and Rose was sitting on Vivian’s shoulder, and they were whispering. At some point, Vivian had cracked another beer, because there was an empty on the floor next to her foot. She held up her fresh beer as if to say cheers. I grunted and heard a knock. I opened the door, and a sweating Curtis was there. A bag sat on top of three pizza boxes. I took those and gave him the cash.
“Thanks, Curtis,” I told him.
“No problem. Tell your uncle I said hey, and thanks for the Christmas bonus.”
“Oh yeah, for sure, I will,” I told him.
He turned, and I pushed the door closed with my foot and then leaned against it until it clicked and the lock engaged. Then I walked over to the counter and put the pizza boxes down, opening each of them. The smell was heavenly.
“Ham and pineapple?” Vivian asked, startling me.
She’d come up behind me, cat quiet, without alerting me. I realized that me trying not to use my sight might be dangerous. I relied on it so much that I was more worried about not using it.
“Yeah,” I told her.
“Good. Some high-brow pizza snobs hate Hawaiian pizzas.”
“Dig in,” I told her and found the one I was especially looking forward to.
“Macaroni and cheeseburger?” Rose asked, landing on my shoulder.
“Middle one’s a vegetarian with feta cheese,” I told her.
“Ewww… Wait, what kind of vegetarian?”
I pushed the box open, and she made an approving sound. I grabbed a plate and put a slice on it for her
and put her in the middle of the table, then opened the bag containing the fruit salad and put it in the middle. I grabbed a couple of slices for myself and sat down to eat.
“So… catch me up,” I told Vivian, who’d just taken a big bite.
7
That night, we gorged on pizza. Rose even managed a few bites, but after her ordeal, she consumed a large portion of the fresh fruit salad, held together with Cool Whip. She made a couple more cracks about her mojo and the whipped cream, but she started swaying on her feet. I knew how that felt, so I gently lifted her up and carried her over to the nightstand where she’d slept before and put her back on the makeshift bed I’d made for her. She was snoring before I left.
“I don’t get you,” Vivian said quietly.
“I don’t get me either,” I told her.
“You’re a loner, now you’re like a big brother to Rose, JJ, and have your own pack with two territories. I thought you were a paranoid tinfoil hatter.”
“Well, I am.”
“What?” Vivian asked.
All of it.
“Just about everything you said I guess,” I told her.
“Listen, I’m getting drowsy—”
“I can get you sheets for the couch and a blanket. I’ll clean up this joint tomorrow.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I have to tell you what happened. Did you check your hospital bag?”
“No, but it felt like I had my guns, my holsters, the magazines…”
Vivian reached down and pulled up the cloth bag that looked like the reusable shopping bag a green type of person would use at the grocery store, and dug around and pulled out the athame.
“Oh,” I said.
“Yup.”
She put it on the table between us. My gaze immediately focused on the rune work that had been laid out on it. I pulled it to me, wishing I had brighter lights. The athame had started life as a jeweled silver dagger, but carefully etched into the blade and the handle were runes. I recognized a charging rune, one for increased focus, and the rest were runes I wasn’t familiar with. For once I was completely stumped and hadn’t had an inkling what they were. I checked the futures where I—
“Oh god, wake up,” a pair of tiny hands was slapping me on the nose.
“What are you doing?” I asked Rose who was almost right on top of my face.
“He’s back!” Rose shouted and flew backward.
My focus took in the room. Vivian was pacing, her arms wrapped around her middle, and when she heard Rose’s voice, she turned, looking at me.
“Oh man,” she said, rushing over. “Don’t do that again.”
“What did I do? What happened?” I asked, my voice rusty.
“You looked at the knife and passed out. Scared the Beelzebub out of us,” Rose chided.
“I forgot and used my magic,” I told them. “Zania was right, I can’t touch mine for a while.”
“I wondered if it was something like that, or if you were just exhausted.”
“Both,” I told them simply.
I think.
“God, let's get you to the bed. You were too heavy for me to move, and I can’t get your door unlocked. I was almost ready to call Curtis, but I didn’t know how to get the door open without a crowbar and—”
I had a ton of questions, but I got up slowly and walked over to the bed.
“Sorry for waking you up, short stuff, you were pretty out of it,” I apologized to Rose, who landed on the nightstand.
“It wasn’t you, it was Vivian shrieking like a little girl.”
“I am not a little girl,” Vivian pouted.
“You screamed like one. Good thing the mechanical room and laundry is above here, I thought you screamed loud enough to scare the hookers out of the entire building.”
“Rose,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose, “just drop it.”
“Okay, boss.” She sat down on her bed.
“I found the sheets and a blanket, and I’ve put up the food and unopened beers.”
“Thanks, Vivian, and sorry for scaring you. I wasn’t thinking. I use my magic so often, I’ve never…”
“You’re not used to having a hard limit,” she said softly and plopped down on the couch.
“Nope. When I’m not so out of it, we need to talk. About who attacked us, about Rasmussen’s words, and…”
I yawned, and Rose flew over to the light switch and hit it. A small nightlight lit up from under the table, giving a very soft glow to the room; it was dark, but not oppressive like the bunker could sometimes be. If I was cut off from my magic for a few days away from the bunker, at least I was here. Thank god I’d left a ton of gear here, or I might have felt a stab of panic.
“Tomorrow’s soon enough,” Vivian said, half yawning and out of my sight.
I woke and heard the shower running. Rose was stretching next to me on the nightstand, her bed pushed out of the way. Her leaves were a different color today, a dark green that looked almost like it was made from felt or crushed velvet. Her heels sparkled with the light that leaked out from under the bathroom door.
“How’d you sleep, short stuff?” I asked her.
“Pretty good,” she said and unfurled her wings, stretching her upper body and fluttering her wings until a light glow emanated from her body.
I’d seen her do this before, it was her morning ritual, but I didn’t know what it had to do with things in general. Did all faeries do this? Was this her form of exercise?
“Vivian found whatever she was looking for. I don’t know what she’s going to wear, though. She’s got that stupid cop suit,” Rose said, taking to the air and flying for the light switch.
I covered my eyes as the lights came on all around me. After a second, I dropped them and rubbed my eyes until they got used to it.
“So now when you go in the bathroom, offer to scrub her back…”
“Rose, don’t,” I told her.
“You know, my heart’s really not into it anyway.”
That admission surprised me.
“You feeling okay?” I asked her.
“No. I mean, yes, I’m fine, all better. My magic is fully restored.”
“What’s the no part?” I asked her.
“You’re a stupid idiot sometimes,” Rose said and turned away from me.
Somehow I’d pissed off the five-inch-tall winged supermodel.
“I know, it’s a guy thing. Sometimes I’m so dense I need somebody with the sense to explain things to me.”
Total lie.
“You almost died trying to save me.”
“I didn’t know it was going to do that,” I told her.
“Did you check the futures?” she asked.
“No, I was too tired.”
“See, dense!” she said, smacking her head. “I can see saving Vivian, but I’m not even a human, let alone a mage.”
“You’re my buddy,” I admitted after a second.
I struggled with that response. I mean, how do you respond to a statement like that without giving her insult? Tell her that she was my responsibility? No, she’d pulled her own weight and saying even that would have been seen as an insult. Tell her that she was my bound Fae? No way, that’s not how our relationship worked, and I wasn’t comfortable even being whatever it was, I was to her. I did like her, and seeing her trembling and unconscious had made me feel… protective, scared, and something deeper. She was part of my pack, and as the leader, I always keep my… That was it. I mean, I would have done it anyway, but the new inner voice had the answer I was struggling to find. So I told her as simply as I could.
She smiled.
“You’re not too bad yourself. Except you snore and you fart in your sleep.”
“You really want to talk about farts? Do yo—”
“Hey, are there any towels out there?” Vivian’s voice called, and I realized the shower had turned off.
“Um… There’s your cue, stud,” Rose said, and disappeared from sight.
&nb
sp; I sighed. It wasn’t like that.
“Coming,” I told her and walked over to the built-in linen closet to the left of the bathroom door.
I pulled out a towel and turned the bathroom knob and slid the door open a crack. I closed my eyes and handed the towel in until I felt the towel pulled from my hands. I turned and opened my eyes.
Oops. I guess it was like that.
I headed back toward the bed, stretching, pretending I hadn’t seen Vivian in side profile. She slammed the door, and I flopped on the bed. This was not going to work. This was bad. I hated this. I lay face down, barely breathing through my mouth.
“Hey, do you have anything I can put on?” Vivian asked from beside my bed.
I laid there silent a moment and then rolled over and sat up. She had the towel wrapped around her body, her hair roughly dried, hanging wild and free over her dark shoulders, her dark olive skin bare above the shoulders and her legs below the towel.
“I’ve got some sweats,” I told her, pulling out a drawer on the dresser. “You all set with the shower?” I asked her.
“Yeah.”
I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt out for her, and then did the same for me. Comfortable clothing. The bottom drawer had more going out in public clothing.
“I’m going to grab a shower,” I told her, standing then walking toward the bathroom.
“Thank you,” she called from behind me as I shut the door.
I cursed mentally and put my clean clothing on the toilet lid and then stripped. I hoped Vivian hadn’t used up all the hot water, but then again, a cold shower might be in order. I turned the valve, and hot, steamy water came out. I sighed and stepped in.
“That was the fastest toss in the hay ever,” Rose said, popping into existence above the curtain rod.
“Shit!”
I slipped and tried to catch myself, but I hit the bottom of the tub and started sliding like I was going down an ice chute. I banged my head and got up, rubbing it, thinking ugly thoughts.
“Rose, what the hell?” I asked her, covering myself.
“Oh, come on. We’ve been around each other; I’ve seen you naked before. It’s nothing I haven’t seen.”
Second Sight: The Rune Sight Chronicles Page 6