by A. L. Tyler
I raised an eyebrow, hardly insulted. “My dew collecting skills aren’t up to snuff?”
“No…” He looked down for a moment. “I mean, no, they’re not, but that’s not the reason. You just weren’t born a century ago. We can’t get century-old poppies except from someone who was. Similar complications for roses grown only in moonlight and a dying man’s last words.”
Gates stopped licking eggs from her whiskers, and we both stopped to stare at him.
“Okey dokey…” I said sarcastically. “And where are we getting those?”
“Stonefall,” he said.
“Stonefall?” Gates repeated. “As in, Stonerfall? The hippie town?”
“The very same,” Charlie turned back to me. “Wear something appropriate. I’ll be back for you at nine.”
He shimmered into nothing, and Gates and I continued to stare at each other.
“Stonefall…” I said uncertainly. Calling it a hippie town wasn’t too far from the truth. A lot of free spirit artist and new age types lived there. Gates was right, the town had a reputation for drug use. The idea that there was a legitimate store for magical items hiding somewhere in all of that tie-dye and incense was almost laughable. “What’s appropriate to wear to Stonefall?”
“Tie-dye baggy shirt and pants with hidden pockets for your stash,” Gates said sarcastically. “Wear anything. And Lyssa’s right. I don’t think he’s using this crap to heal himself.”
I took a sharp breath in and glanced around the room. Charlie didn’t reappear; he was actually gone.
“I know when he’s here, even when we can’t see him,” she said. “He kind of shot himself in the foot doing this to me. I never knew cats were so sensitive. But I don’t think this stuff is for what he says it’s for, Annie.”
I nodded. He had gone from requesting an item that made clear sense—Lyssa’s hair—to things far more abstract. And he wasn’t explaining it to me at all.
My mind wandered back to my blood, and for a moment, I worried. But then I dismissed the thought. There was something about Charlie, and his ways, that made me trust him. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t something to hurt me. Maybe I was lulled into a false sense of security because I was his bridge, or maybe he was somehow sedating me, but I felt like I would know it if he had a malicious intent.
On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t have been trying to hide it if his purposes were completely innocent.
I looked back at Gates and nodded again. “I know. You read, and I’ll ask. We’ll figure it out.”
~~~~~~~~~
Much later that day, I stood in the middle of a late-night street fair, unsure what I was doing there or how I had gotten there. I had been sitting in my living room watching an old antique show the moment before, and I was only dully grateful that I had listened to Charlie and worn something appropriate for a night out in Stonefall.
“Thorn.”
I turned to see him standing behind me, dressed as he usually was, like an off-duty educator. I took the coat that I had tied around my waist and pulled it on against the cool night air.
He looked me up and down. “You look nice.”
“I put on eye liner,” I said. “Where are we going?”
“We’re there. Here. I know some people who have what we need.”
“And you couldn’t just get it your damn self?” I raised my eyebrows.
Charlie gave me a crooked smile and an understanding nod. “This isn’t warlock sorcery. It’s witches’ magic, and obtaining things the wrong way will void all attempts.”
“You’re not using this stuff to heal yourself.”
“Of course I am.”
“What are you really using my blood for?”
“My, what suspicions your sister has put in your head.” His frown stayed fixed as he offered me his arm, and I took it.
Together we walked down the street of Stonefall, past all of the old buildings that had been remodeled into quaint boutiques. The city had an ordinance about keeping the aged patina, and the atmosphere was amazing, even if all of the smokers that surrounded us were not.
“Charlie…” I lowered my tone.
He took a deep breath, and then let it out sharply. “Trust… yes. Thorn, I am using the supplies to heal myself, but not in a traditional fashion. I wish to be human, and I require certain elements like hair and blood to make it happen. I don’t know why I hid it from you, as I’ll need you to compose the final ceremony anyway.”
I stared at him as we walked, wondering if he was joking again, but he seemed serious. “You want to be human? Why would you want to do that?”
“So that I may die,” he said.
I stopped walking. Charlie stopped with me. He patted the hand I had looped through his arm with impatience, but explained anyway.
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, and seen what I’ve seen, and done what I’ve done in the employ of Stark, immortality starts to wear on you,” he said with shining eyes. “The world, and all the doe-eyed little girls in it start to wear on you. It’s hard to keep going, wondering how long you’re going to be wasting your talents on the high school frenemies and crushes of the world before another megalomaniac comes along wanting to destroy everything he touches. I want to die. I’m ready to die.”
“You’re committing suicide?” I said in shock. “You’re using my blood to kill yourself?”
“Now, keep your voice down!” he said, leading me more firmly as we walked. “I didn’t say that. I said that I wish to become mortal so that I may die. I may live to a ripe old age after I’m mortal, though I hope not—things start to go south in a very literal and figurative way after forty for you peons, but still. I’m not making myself human to off myself as soon as I can. I just want…an expiration date. That’s all. An end to look forward to.”
I tried to swallow the information without making an emotional scene. I didn’t even know why I cared. Charlie had been the bane of my existence since he had come into my life, and I should have been happy that he was getting an “expiration date,” as he called it.
“But…why?” I asked. And then it occurred to me. “You haven’t been making me try to summon Kendra. Not since you came back. You decided I’m hopeless, and you’re becoming human so that you can do the spell yourself?”
“Thorn…” he took a deep breath and sighed. “You’re too young to understand. I’m holding on to this world by half a bridge now that I’m stuck between you and Kendra. I’m exhausted all the time, and I have the fullest confidence that you will find her eventually. But after you do, after I have my closure, that’s it. I always promised you I would leave you alone after you summoned Kendra, and this is no different. It’s just that instead of disappearing back to the Other Side, I’ll go out your front door.”
“No,” I said. “You told me you would leave me alone if I wanted you to.”
Charlie paused, raising an eyebrow as he turned to me. A small, sentimental smile crossed his lips. “You’re reconsidering the offer?”
I took a deep breath and smiled at him. He wasn’t going to manipulate me that easily. “No. Happy funeral, Charlie.”
“You think you’ll come to it?” he asked cordially. “I would like that. It’s not like I have any family here to—”
“Annie! Annie!”
I turned around, surprised. I didn’t know anyone in Stonefall. A young man with ambiguous hair that sat somewhere between blond and brunette was waving and walking over. I knew the hair. I knew the face…too well. I had been crushing on him since middle school. He was part of the reason that Charlie was here now, because Jennifer Wilmot had started asking him out on my behalf just to mock me.
“Anise Hawthorn,” he said. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Vince!” I said in a high-pitched voice. A nervous smile crept onto my face as I glanced back to Charlie, laughing shrilly. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here meeting my new roommate, who is from here,” he said with a smirk. “And
why are you here, again?”
I took his meaning. He thought I was here to buy weed, and we had an ongoing thing about clever banter. Charlie licked his lips and raised his eyebrows, staring at me as I stared at Vince. He was wearing a shirt that was slightly too tight and showed off his swimmer’s body, and I stuttered pathetically and failed to respond to his question.
Charlie’s eyes finally left mine, and he tentatively offered a hand to Vince, who shook it.
“Charlie,” he said conversationally. “Annie’s cousin on her mother’s side. She’s here to buy weed.”
“Oh, damn it, Charlie!” my words finally returned. “I am not here to buy weed. He told me about some book store out here where you earn free coffee when you buy stuff and offered to take me.”
Charlie raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed that I had rebounded so quickly. Actually, it had been Gates who had told me about the bookstore; she had found it while she was in Stonefall with one of her older college friends. (He was there to buy weed.)
“Oh yeah, Buzz Words. It’s great, I go there with my mom all the time.” He pointed. “I’ll walk you if you want.”
I smiled. “No, I’m sure we—”
“We want,” Charlie squeezed my arm a little too hard and I had to stop talking to bite my lip against the pain. “In fact, maybe you could join us, on me. I’ve never been and I would love a guide to what’s good. You’re going to college out here?”
“Same one as Annie,” Vince said. “We filled out our applications together in study hall. Of course, I didn’t think she would get in, because her ACT score was so low…”
My jaw fell open a little and I tilted my head. My score was in the top ten percent of the entire country, but it had fallen one point short of Vince’s. He had taken the test a second time because he had the flu the first time, and I stood by the fact that taking it twice constituted cheating if he was going to compare our scores. “You failed an art class. An art class—!”
“That’s so wonderful to know she has someone she knows going to college with her.” Charlie talked right over me, and then gave me a wink when I finally fell quiet. “I bet he could help you with that math stuff we were talking about earlier.”
“Roomie!” A guy with dark, shaggy hair and a beard to match came up behind Vince. He had a bottle in a paper bag in his hand and his eyes fell on me. “You moving in on the girls already, bro?”
Vince pursed his lips, and I saw a spark in his eye. “Walter, this is Annie and her cousin Charlie. Annie and I went to high school together.”
“Annie…” he offered his hand to me, and we shook. Then his eyes moved to Charlie, who hadn’t moved an inch to offer his own hand, and whose smile remained fixed like it had been artificially cast in plastic. Walter’s own smile fell a little when their eyes met, and he dropped his hand very suddenly. “Cousin Charlie.”
“Walter,” Charlie said in a dangerous tone.
“They’re going down to Buzz Words,” Vince explained. “I was going to walk them, if you want to come.”
Walter made a pained face. “I don’t want to cock block you—”
Vince made another annoyed face as he crossed his arms.
“—but we’ve got to get going if we’re going to make the game later.” He grinned as he looked at me and Charlie. “Ultimate Frisbee after dark. You’re welcome to join if you want?”
Charlie jumped in before I could even consider my response, mimicking Walter’s earlier expression. “I wish we could, but I promised her dad I’d have her back before eleven, so we’ve got to start driving right after we leave the book store. But I’m sure we’d love to join next time. Annie, give your number to Vince so he can tell us when they’re playing again.”
I didn’t know how it had happened. Vince was smirking at me again, and I should have been blushing, but instead I had accepted Vince’s phone and input my number like I was any normal person who didn’t care. We said a quick goodbye, and I managed to escape without embarrassing myself again.
As we walked down the street, I took a breath, and felt my relaxed mood slowly evaporate into the night sky. I had given Vince my number, and thanks to Charlie, the process hadn’t been even slightly embarrassing for either of us.
“On the house?” I finally asked.
He looked over at me darkly, his mood transformed from when we had been talking earlier. “Hardly. Your friend has a poor choice of roommates—”
“They’re randomly assigned,” I said. It was part of the reason I had opted for an apartment instead.
“Whatever.” Charlie looked back over his shoulder, but Vince and Walter were already lost in the sea of people shopping the outdoor mall. “His roommate’s a werewolf.”
Chapter 6
“Excuse me?” I twisted to look behind us. Walter had been shaggy, but a werewolf? “Like, for real?”
“Like, for real!” Charlie said in a mocking tone. “Werewolf hide is a commodity for warlocks because it makes great gloves. You’ve just been seen with a demon, so he may have some assumptions about you.”
“Okay, whoa!” I held my hands up. I wasn’t sure if I was more blown away by the idea that werewolves existed, or that Vince had one for a roommate, or that warlocks were skinning them to make gloves. “What are you saying…he thinks I want to make gloves out of him?”
“Something like that. I suggest we steer clear until we know if he’s going to try to preemptively attack.”
I glanced over my shoulder again.
“Preemptively attack?” I squeaked. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“Stop—” He grabbed my arm firmly again to keep me from looking around like I thought I was being followed. “Stop making a scene. Werewolves are a little faster to action than to thought, and they have tempers. If he comes after us, tonight or ever, I’ll take care of him.”
“Take care of…?” I said in a whisper, now trying too hard to walk naturally. “He’s his roommate!”
“Take care of him in self defense.” Charlie rolled his eyes. “But you are going to love those gloves when you feel them.”
My head snapped over so fast that I pulled a muscle. “I will never—!”
“Joking, Thorn.” Charlie laughed.
I shook my head, but a moment later I couldn’t help but grin.
“What?”
My grin widened. “He invited us to play Frisbee with him.”
“Oh, Thorn…Now that’s just racist.”
A little farther down the way, he directed me to a small boutique grocer that specialized in gluten free and organic items. We went in, and Charlie left me browsing a long aisle of pills with unlikely claims written on the bottles, and about five minutes later he gestured me over to the cash register.
The girl behind the counter gave me a smile and a wink as she rang up a bag of supplies. “That’ll be seventy-six dollars and three cents.”
I cocked an eyebrow at Charlie, and he only nodded at me. I took it that there was some reason I had to buy the stuff, or else it wouldn’t work, so I dug my wallet out of my purse.
A hundred-dollar bill had magically appeared in it, and I paid it to the clerk, accepted my change, and then took the bag and we left.
The next place we stopped was a little tea house with a large front window lined in bonsais that had been expertly trained. When we walked in, the gentleman host seemed to know immediately who we were, and he disappeared into the back before returning with a large paper bag that was stapled shut at the top and leaking water at the bottom. He gave Charlie a wary glance before leaning forward to whisper in my ear.
“Keep it shut until your demon can take it somewhere safe!”
My eyes were practically bulging from my skull, and I couldn’t manage any words, so I nodded. I couldn’t believe that other people not only knew about demons, but that they could be so blasé about them. I reached for my wallet, and the host immediately backed away and shook his head. He gave us both a little bow.
“No, no…
It’s a gift. Remember us when your karma turns.”
I forced a weak smile, and saw Charlie wink at the man as we emerged onto the street again. He took the bag from my hand, careful to support the water-weakened bottom, and it disappeared from sight into the Other Side.
“One more stop,” he said with a satisfied smile.
I followed him, still carrying the bag from the organic grocer, and hardly looked up until we stopped.
We were at Buzz Words.
I glanced at Charlie with a small smile as he held the door for me, and then stepped inside. He nodded at a little booth in the corner. I sat down, setting the bag on the bench next to me. Charlie came to the table a moment later toting two coffees, and sat down across the table from me.
I thanked him as he set my coffee in front of me.
“Am I allowed to look in the bag?” I finally asked.
Charlie cringed a little. “Curiosity kills, Thorn. It’s not a great quality to have in this profession. But yes, you can look.”
“More than seventy dollars?” I chided, opening up the bag and pulling out a handful of small vials of dried herbals and an empty jar, and lastly, a small cast iron cauldron, just big enough to fit in the palm of my hand. I looked back at him, baffled. “All of this cost more than seventy dollars?”
“The cauldron costs more than seventy.” He leaned back in the booth and stretched out. “The rest was a gift. One witch to another. They lose potency if you buy them.”
“The clerk was a witch?” I asked.
Charlie nodded.
“Was the guy at the tea house…?”
“A superstitious old man,” Charlie said dismissively. “A little touched, perhaps, because his mother was one.”
“What did he mean about my karma turning?”
“He means that warlock spells are all about shifting balance in the universe. You take from one person and give to another. So he gave you a present, hoping you’ll choose to bless him instead of curse him, should the opportunity ever arise.”