by Kimbra Swain
“My concerns lie only in that if we ever split from the GEA that those within it might come after us,” Chito said.
“Nonsense. Doro loves her money. She would not dare risk it. Donovan has his own agenda as you know, some unfinished business. The Priest has no function in the grand scheme at all. That leaves us and the Director. With no one to direct, the position becomes impotent. No one will come after us. I’m tired of trying to justify our actions. We are doing this for the betterment of all humanity, and to create a power base that will set us up for ages to come.”
“I believe in you Mwenye. I do have concerns about your loose cannon,” Chito said.
“Miss Vaughn, I know you are listening. Please come here,” Mwenye said. I hate it when he does that. I did not interrupt him. I hated that he knew those kinds of things. It made it so much harder to do the things I wanted to do. I put on a robe and came down the hallway slow and sleepily. Chito looked shocked that Mwenye knew I listened. “Chito, there is one thing you need to understand about Miss Vaughn and I. She does as I tell her to do, when I tell her to do it with no exceptions. Isn’t that right, my dear?”
“Yes, my love,” I responded. I wanted to strangle him. How dare he parade me out in front of Chito?
“Vanessa, were you listening to our conversation?” he asked me.
“Yes, I was,” I admitted.
“Why were you doing that?” Mwenye said.
“To see what you were talking about behind my back,” I admitted.
“This isn’t necessary,” Chito interjected.
“It most certainly is necessary. While I agree Miss Vaughn can be a loose cannon, she has infinite talents that make up for it. She is excellent at apologizing for things. Aren’t you my love?” he said coolly.
“I am,” I said. I looked at him and pleaded with my eyes.
“I would like you to apologize to Mr. Chito for your rude behavior,” he said and motioned to Chito.
“I am very sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation, sir,” I said.
“That isn’t good enough Vanessa, please get on your knees and beg him for forgiveness,” Mwenye insisted.
“John, that’s enough, really. This isn’t necessary,” Chito said looking at me horrified. I bent to my knees and bowed my head.
“Nalusa, you questioned my authority over her. This is your answer,” he said. “Beg him, Vanessa.”
“Please Mr. Chito, forgive me for being rude,” I said. The day quickly approached that I would find a way, no matter what to kill John Mwenye. I don’t care how many bodies he would jump with his creepy necromancy skills. Sometimes I wanted to kill him, cut his dick off and shove it in his own mouth.
“You are forgiven child. That is enough of this,” Nalusa said.
“Now, I’m going to get a shower for a meeting later. Vanessa, please sit there on your knees until I tell you to move. Nalusa, it was good to see you. I am glad that we are on the same page regarding the split from the GEA. We will start making preparations immediately. I’m going to start siphoning money off these investors for our own interests even if I have to make them do it, because I can make anyone do what I want them to do, can’t I Miss Vaughn?”
“You most certainly can, my love,” I said and almost gagged. I did not want to say it, but a long time ago I gave him power and dominion over me without knowing exactly what I was doing. We made a deal. He would teach me necromancy, and I would do as he commanded. We sealed the deal with a kiss and sex. Ever since he could assert his will over me. Sometimes I loved it. Sometimes I hated it. Lately, mostly all I wanted to do was kill him.
Nalusa looked pained. I knew his relationship with his apprentice was not like this. Mwenye was far darker than even than Nalusa Chito. “I am very sorry my dear,” he said as he got up to leave.
“I made the choice, sir. I made it a long time ago. There are times when the rent is due,” I explained.
“Still, just because you can exert your will on another, does not mean you should,” Chito said. “Good day, Vanessa.”
“Good day, sir,” I said. Chito left. Mwenye showered, and I heard him moving around in the bedroom.
“I could have made you fuck him,” he said.
“Thank you for not doing that to me,” I replied. He entered the room dressed for a meeting.
“You just sit there until I get back,” he commanded and the force of it rippled over my skin in goosebumps.
“As you wish, my love,” I said reluctantly, and he left. And I sat on my knees waiting on him to return. He was gone for 6 hours and 32 agonizing minutes. When he returned, he released me from the position. I went to bed, and thought of all the different ways I could kill him.
“If I had known that all I had to do to get a date was to lie to you, I would have done it a long time ago,” Meredith said as she sat on my couch. I didn’t want her to come in, but I didn’t want her shouting my business in the hallway either. I had slipped into the bedroom to remove the suit. I put on a navy-blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
“Could you be any pettier, Meredith? I don’t think you’ve laid it on quite thick enough,” I said to her frankly. She started to get on my nerves. She’d gone from attacking Abigail to berating me from the moment we entered the elevator until I rushed her into my room because she made a scene. I’d just about had enough of it. “We tried that a long time ago. It didn’t work. If you want something more, I’m telling you right now, I’m not interested.”
“I didn’t mean it for real, but thanks for that reminder of how I’m not the right one for you.”
I sat down beside her and looked her in the face. “I’m tired. It’s been a long emotional day. I don’t handle emotional very well. You know that. Can we please save the rest of this argument for tomorrow?”
“You won’t have time tomorrow. You are meeting her again in the morning.”
“Wait, you were listening in on our conversation?”
“I’m sorry, was it private?” “It was behind a closed door, Meredith. That’s pretty damn private. I’ve tolerated you tonight because we ARE friends, but I’ve had enough. You need to go.” She stood and stomped to the door. She looked back at me just before she passed through it.
“She will be the death of you, Tadeas. I wouldn’t be able to stand it,” she said and walked out the door, slamming it on the way.
“Holy hell! Enough freaking drama!” I said to the empty room. I stood up switching all the lights off in the apartment, making my way to the bedroom. I wondered what I would have been doing had Meredith not shown up. I hadn’t fully decided that I was going with Abigail to her home. I needed to process everything we had talked about. Dinner was tense, but once we got out of the restaurant things got better. Mostly because I did want to know what the hell was going on, I put away my anger and she opened up.
At first, I admit, my interest wasn’t genuine. I was curious though. I just needed to relax, and I could tell she did, too. But the longer we talked the more I actually liked her. She had a quick wit and a way to explain things that made her likeable. She was beautiful which I noticed in class but did not allow myself to entertain the thought. She was almost too pretty, like she was part Fae. She’d make every man in the vicinity look at her. I’m not sure I could handle that in a relationship. Not that I considered having a relationship with her, just that I tend to be jealous. Between her lying to me, because Meredith was right about that part, and her beauty, oh and the money, I don’t think I’d ever be able to trust her in that sort of thing. I walked into the bedroom and took off my jeans and crawled into my bed. The bed felt great. I relaxed but my mind still wandered through the events of the night. From the point where I decided to go meet her until now trying to let the day’s troubles pass, so I could sleep without nightmares. I went through a ritual of assessing the day and calming myself before falling asleep. I thought about every moment. It would be easier to hate her had I not enjoyed myself. It would also be easier to decline the job offer, if she wasn’t
absolutely right about how we needed to approach training and changing it up to keep these kids alive longer. I needed more time to decide. She didn’t say she was on a deadline.
She obviously knew a lot about me before ever coming into my class. She struck me as the kind of person that was thorough and did their homework. She probably knew about my past. About the first time I shifted. The pain of that memory struck me anew. It had been almost a century since it happened, but it was a fresh wound every time I thought about it. I don’t really age now that I’ve reached adulthood. Something about my shifting abilities that I was never taught much about because there was no proper shaman to teach them to me growing up. But I didn’t age. I got the distinct feeling that neither did Abigail. The way she talked about setting up proxies in the US, I knew that she had to be older than she looked, but I wouldn’t dare ask. That’s not something I would dare ask any woman. She looked to be between 25 and 30. I wouldn’t even dare to guess. That’s a hole you can’t dig yourself out of and I knew better.
I thought about Meredith and how angry she was at me. I didn’t tell her that I was going to meet Abigail on purpose, because it wasn’t her business, and part of me knew she’d blow a gasket. Which is exactly what she did. I didn’t realize, however, that she still harbored such deep feelings for me. It had been several years ago that we both agreed that we were just friends and that’s all we would ever be. Perhaps I did know that she felt that way, but dismissed it thinking if we didn’t discuss it, that it would go away. And her final words to me about Abigail being the death of me. Ugh, so much drama. I was exhausted just thinking about all of it again, and I drifted off to sleep thinking about driving a sweet Mercedes around Boulder, CO.
I had forgotten to set an alarm. When I woke up, I had that panicky moment when you realize you are supposed to be somewhere but you forgot to plan ahead. I grabbed my phone, almost lost my balance and fell off the bed. It was only 9a.m. I still had time to get up and get a shower before meeting Abigail at her office. While showering I decided it might be best if we finished our discussion in her office instead of going back to her home. I would be uncomfortable wherever she lived, and I wouldn’t be able to make a sound decision because I was distracted or nervous. I slipped back on the pair of jeans from last night and a clean t-shirt. This one was black. I put on my boots, and started to head out the door. Then it struck me, if Meredith waited out there in the hall I really wanted to avoid another confrontation. I paused for a moment and cleared my mind. I let my feline senses take over and reach out into the hallway. I couldn’t not hear or smell anyone out there. I could smell Meredith’s lingering scent from last night. She smells like lavender and sage. I accused myself of being a coward, and stepped out into the hallway. I walked to the elevators and rode up to the fourth floor.
I approached Abigail’s office, and I could hear the squeak of her chair, and the rustling of papers. And the soft steady rhythm of her heartbeat. It was a predator thing, but I used it in every situation to gauge the mood of anyone that I encountered. I lightly knocked on the door.
“Come in,” I heard her call with a muffled voice.
I opened the door and walked in. She sat at her desk with a doughnut in one hand and using her right hand to peck out something on a laptop on the desk. She glanced over and grinned at me. She pointed at the box of doughnuts on the desk. The top of the box had a logo for a bakeshop in Boulder. Surely, she didn’t go all the way back into Boulder for doughnuts this morning. She wore a light turquoise shirt that dipped in the front, but not low enough to really show anything. I could see the edge of her jeans just above the desk line. She wore a pendant shaped like the sun around her neck with a red orange glittering jewel in the center. I couldn’t name the stone, but it was pretty. “Help yourself, Tadeas, I’ve got a couple of emails I need to respond to and I’ll be ready to go.”
I reached for a glazed doughnut, and said, “Yeah, about that.” She immediately stopped typing and turned to me with questions in her eyes. “I thought it might be better that we talk here rather than going back to your place. Just to keep it neutral territory.” Her eyes darkened a bit with disappointment.
“We will do whatever you wish, Tadeas. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable by inviting you into my home. I will call George, and tell him to cancel the lunch preparations.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you would go to the trouble.”
“If there is one thing I know about this supernatural world that we live in, it’s that you don’t skip hospitality.” She was right. Hospitality was an old-world tradition. If you invited someone to your home, you should swear to not to harm them while in your home and offer them food and drink. It was a bond that if broken could start a war.
“Well, maybe since you went to the trouble, we could discuss things here, and we could have lunch there. If you would like,” I offered. Her disappointment cleared and this seemed to be acceptable.
“Like I said, whatever you wish.” Once again, she gave me authority in the conversation and for whatever the duration of the day we spent together. I watched her as she typed away at emails and shuffled papers around on the desk. The doughnuts were exceptionally good. At one point, she pointed out the coffee in the corner. The pot was full.
“Would you like me to fix you a cup?” I asked her since she seemed too busy to do it herself.
“Um, no thanks. I don’t drink coffee.”
“Then why is there a whole pot of it here?” I asked.
“It’s there for you, if you wanted. There’s also sodas, milk and bottled water in the mini-fridge.” There was a mini fridge under the counter that held the coffee pot. There was an assortment of creamers and sweeteners. I drank coffee black, but she had all the bases covered. I got the feeling that’s how she did everything. Covered all her bases and impressed the hell out of whoever she negotiated or spoke with.
“Will you do me a favor?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Please put these doughnuts over there on the counter. I need to quit eating them!” she laughed. I picked them up and placed them on the counter, but grabbed one more as I headed back to the chair across from her desk. Most people had two chairs adjacent to a desk, but she only had one. I guess she had been away from the office since she came into my class. I couldn’t imagine being behind for 3 months on emails and work. But methodically she went through each of the papers she had on the desk, and clicking deftly through emails on the computer. Half of her blonde hair was pulled back in a clip behind her head but there were several strands that weren’t quite long enough and they fell down around her face framing her green eyes and the light freckles on her cheeks. She smiled as I admired her. Surely, she smiled at an email. I didn’t think that I stared enough for her to pick up on it. I diverted my attention to the rest of the room. The walls were lined with a rich dark wood, but the whole room seemed light despite the aged-wood look. There was a small 4 tier bookshelf lined with old and new books alike. A wooden file cabinet set behind the desk. On it sat 3 shining spheres in a stainless-steel dish. One looked to be solid iron, the other looked to be stainless steel and the last one appeared to be a milky glass. There were a few plants spread about the room, mostly succulents that didn’t require sunlight. There were no pictures on the walls. None on her desk. In fact, besides the papers she was currently working on, the desk was empty. I saw her reach earlier down into a drawer and pull out a pen. She scribbled something on one of the papers and placed the pen back in the desk. Once she finished, she gathered the papers up. Rearranged the order of a couple of them, and placed them in the top drawer of her desk. With a couple of clicks her screen popped up a picture of a beautiful Spanish style stucco mansion on a hill covered in grapevines. A winery. It looked like a peaceful place. She saw me looking at it and smiled. “Looks like a nice place,” I said feeling awkward because I got caught staring at her computer screen. She lifted a mug to her lips, one I hadn’t seen before this moment, and I
saw the steam lift out of it as she took a sip. She sat the mug on the desk.
“Wait. I thought you didn’t drink coffee.”
“It’s tea. Chai. It is a pretty picture,” she replied not offering any further information. “Before we start into our conversation from last night, I would like your permission to cast a bubble of privacy around us. It will keep anyone outside the walls of this room from hearing what we are saying. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said. I hadn’t really seen her cast any spells. I was eager to see her in action. I also wouldn’t put it past Meredith to try to eavesdrop on our conversation. She simply took a deep breath and spoke one word.
“Bulla.” I could feel the pressure of a light wave pass over me and suddenly it felt like we were in a cage. I had to calm the beast inside me, because no animal wanted to be caged, “You okay?” she asked.
“Yea, just got a little claustrophobic for a moment.”
“That’s a normal feeling. It will pass in a moment and you won’t be able to feel the magic anymore. It's just a small, subtle spell. If you continue to be uncomfortable, just let me know and I can remove it.”
“Okay. I’ll let you know.”
“So, what new questions do you have for me, Tadeas Duarte?”
All the questions from the night before suddenly slipped my mind, and I felt like an idiot. I should have written them down. She looked at me with concern, but offered, “Why don’t I ask a couple of questions to get us started? Is that okay?” I got the feeling she was good at negotiations. She tried to ease me into the deeper conversation. She was probably good at everything, and I hated people like that.
“Sounds good. And I should have said it yesterday, too. You are welcome to ask me anything. I have nothing to hide from you.”
“Excellent. I’m curious. Are you okay after last night? You did seem to have a little fun driving my car. But the end of night didn’t go as either of us had planned. Is Meredith okay?”