“That explains a lot.” She sighed with a smile. “Like everything. Wow.” Her hands went to her belly and her grin got wider. “We should celebrate.”
“A minute ago you were crying. Now you want to celebrate?”
“Yeah, I do. I really do,” she said, warming up to the idea. “Will you call the girls? There’s food in the fridge.”
“Sure, I’ll call them but what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to pray.” She practically danced out of the room, leaving me wondering what craziness went on in her head. I went into the kitchen, my cell phone tucked between my head and my shoulder, trying to guess what kind of party food someone who didn’t cook could come up with in a few minutes.
I called Jakob first and let him know I’d be late. Then I called the girls. Phoebe got there first, smiling about a phone call she’d gotten from an old friend, a male friend who happened to be a stripper. Rhythm got there last, still breathless from rehearsal. Isaura brought a bottle of Champagne, tied with a cute pink ribbon.
“Pink?”
“Of course she’s going to have a girl! Come on, Anna have a boy? What would she do with him? Take him on fashion shoots?”
Our laughter brought Anna down from upstairs. Her worried look replaced with a smile and the fabled inner glow pregnant women were meant to have. I pulled a pizza out of the oven and followed it with a plate of cookies. The girls were so impressed with my cooking skills, I didn’t mention it was all wrapped in plastic an hour ago. We dug in to the crazy mix of cookies and pizza while Anna told them the story.
“So there it is, I’m pregnant, Aden’s on his way over, and Nancy’s gone.”
“Hurray!” Phoebe shouted earning a harsh look from Anna. “I mean over the Nancy thing not the pregnant thing.”
“No, she means the other way around, really Anna.” Isaura punched Phoebe lightly on the arm.
“Actually, full disclosure here, I meant what I said,” Phoebe corrected, rubbing her arm.
Anna shook her head, admitting defeat. “You’re right, you were all super nice about it but Nancy moved way too fast.”
“Is she gone forever? Or moved out so you can work on things?” Isaura asked.
“Gone for good, I mean, I think. She hasn’t called me since Wednesday. I went to work in the morning to talk to my editor. When I came home everything was gone. I stopped by her old place on Wednesday night but her old roommate didn’t know anything. After that she started avoiding me I guess, not answering her phone. But I mean, she’s like that. I have to be the one who’s wrong, the one who apologizes and asks her to come home. And this time I’m not asking.”
“Good, because her Holiday cards freaked me out,” Isaura announced.
“Me too,” I agreed.
“Me three,” Phoebe said. “And I didn’t like the way she sponged off of you.”
“And she had horrible taste in clothes.” Rhythm wrinkled her nose.
“Oh like you’d know. You’ve barely been around since Yule,” Anna chided her.
“I’ve been rehearsing, which reminds me.” She got up and pulled an envelope out of her bulky dance bag. “Tickets to the season opener in six weeks. The first set is on me—”
“Just like a drug dealer,” Isaura joked.
“After that I expect you guys to buy tickets, lots of tickets. So that’s two for Isaura and Ben, two for Mallory and Jakob—”
I happily took my two tickets, amazed at the way dance tickets could look like every other ticket I’d ever seen. Somehow in my head they’d been special, different.
“And two for Phoebe and uh, is it still Ethan?”
“Not anymore.” Phoebe shook her head. “Mr. Nice Guy turned out to be friends with a bunch of thugs who tried to sacrifice me.”
There was a round of gasps and while Rhythm passed over the tickets Phoebe started her story. My role in it was significantly more heroic than I remembered and Amadeus didn’t even show up. Mark did, in ways I knew would make Jakob blush, but since none of us would ever tell him, that was all right.
“What about when Ethan met Mark?” I asked when Phoebe finished with most of her story.
“What?” She looked up from her pizza confused.
“Ethan said he stopped by your place last night but he ran into someone who wouldn’t let him in the door. The only two someones there were you and Mark. So-o-o-o-o?”
“So nothing, I was either in the shower or asleep. I had no idea he stopped by.” She frowned a little, and I worried she might be considering giving Ethan a second chance. “Actually, you know Mark might have started to tell me but I was only wearing a bath towel at the time and then I invited him to—”
“Okay, I don’t need to know. I still have to work with him, remember?” The girls burst into howls. When they settled down I deftly changed the subject. “Speaking of other guys I work with, what’s up with you and Ben, Isa?”
“Hmmm.” She nibbled her lip discreetly and I knew we weren’t about to get the kind of details Phoebe had given us. “He’s a sweetheart. I’m trying to talk him into taking me to the gym. I mean I don’t love working out—”
“Or exercising at all,” Anna put in.
Isaura shot a dirty look at her. “But it’s important to him so I’m willing to try. It’s only fair; he’s been willing to watch Buffy with me.”
“He watched Buffy?” Rhythm asked with mock gravity. “Even the musical episode?”
“We haven’t gotten to it yet; we started at the beginning,” Isaura replied, oblivious to her sass. The rest of us caught it and started laughing.
We were still laughing a while later when the doorbell rang. The room fell completely silent. We looked at each other not sure who should say what.
“Oh for Goddess’ sake, it’s Aden, he’s worried sick, and you people are just going to sit here?” Phoebe declared, standing up to get the door.
“She’s reading people all the time now,” I told the group while she was gone.
“Athena knows I would, if some guy I thought I loved let me end up tied down,” Rhythm said.
Aden came into the room carrying a bottle of Champagne with a yellow teddy bear hanging off the top.
“Uh, hi,” he stammered, clearly surprised to see all of us. We all gawked. In the dark of the bar no one had really looked at Aden. Now that we were there was a lot to look at. His hair was a dark red brown and close cropped. It ran neatly down the side of his face in sideburns and then along his jaw line, coming up under his bottom lip to meet a fine mustache.
Aden was thin and his features had a hardness that was definitely male. He was wearing a dark pinstripe suit, a bright blue shirt, and a tie that swirled with a half-dozen colors: the red of his hair, the blue of the shirt, even a bit of the cream from his suits’ pinstripes. Anna might not have liked men but Raya picked a damn good looking one for her.
“Hi.” Anna looked at him and completely ignored us.
“Hi,” he replied, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty for the way we were all staring.
“Why don’t I get us some glasses?” I said, more so I had an excuse to leave the room. When I came back I brought the Champagne Isaura brought and all the glasses we could need.
“You’re all witches?” Aden was asking. He’d managed to sit on the couch, a discreet two cushions away from Anna.
“Not all of us!” Rhythm told him. “I’m a muse. Any chance you dance?”
Before he could get a word in Phoebe interjected, “Don’t answer! If you say yes you’ll be dancing before we get a chance to toast the baby!”
“Right.” I popped open the bottle and started filling glasses.
“Wait!” Aden stopped me from handing one to Anna. “I got non-alcoholic, you know for the baby.” He blushed, turning pink all the way to the tips of his ears which caused everyone in the room to coo over him.
“Okay, guys enough, you’re making him nervous.” Phoebe stood up and raised a glass to the two of them, clearing her throat a l
ittle. “To the two most crazy, star-crossed soon-to-be parents I’ve ever met, may your kid have a lot of love!”
We all joined in and Anna started crying again. Phoebe comforted her while Aden looked awkward about it all.
“Yeah, I think we need to leave these two alone. Finish your drinks, ladies, then we’re out of here,” I declared.
“You’re a spirit witch, too?” Aden asked.
“No.” I shook my head.
“She’s death, I’m air,” Isaura explained. “Phoebe’s our only spirit witch.”
Phoebe looked up at the sound of her name and Rhythm helped me get everyone outside. They were all going to head to Convenire. I thought about joining them, celebrating my case being closed, Phoebe being safe, and Anna’s new baby. I thought about it but instead I pointed Lara toward Jakob’s place. I could think of better ways to celebrate.
Chapter 20
Jakob
The sun set early, before six. Amadeus headed to the SIU, a move Jakob first interpreted as cowardice or malice, but the man hadn’t stayed long. Certainly not long enough to place some hold on Mallory. A moment later his cell phone rang and she confirmed it, she was safe. Jakob left the roof top and followed his prey to its home.
A strong vampire would be more dangerous there, but not this man. This man’s only strength was his knowledge, his ability to manipulate and seduce. Jakob felt the rage he struggled to control last night grow within him again.
Weakness was not an unpardonable sin, and to compensate for a lack of strength with magic was within reason, but the type of magic Amadeus practiced would not be tolerated.
He thought back to their first private conversations, he’d judged the man to be a petty elitist, but not without merit. Now he questioned himself, at what point did you see in another a baser instinct and take that as justification for destroying them? Men could rise above their lesser natures. He knew that, but did he trust it enough to risk the woman he loved? No. He entered through an open window, wondering if Amadeus invited death.
“I knew you would you come.” The man cowered in front of him, his chest bare, the long cuts still healing. “Tell me how I can save my life.”
“First by teaching me everything you know about controlling death witches and then, by suffering a great deal.”
Amadeus bowed his head in submission, as he explained the darkness he worked desperately to master and then tried so hard to forget.
A word about the author…
Rachel Graves writes urban fantasy detective stories with more than a few steamy scenes. Her work creates dark and dangerous fantasies that explore the many shades of gray found between the lines of right and wrong.
Focusing on strong heroines, their fears, and the men they lust after and maybe, eventually, love, her writing incorporates myths from the familiar vampires to lesser-known creatures like selkies and yuki onna.
Rachel is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. You can read more about her at http://www.rachelgraves.com/ where her blog offers short fiction and more.
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