Twenty-Three – Kit
I’d found the perfect dress and it only took three hours! Better yet, I’d found amazing heels in the same pewter grey colour. I carried my bags back to the flat, checking my watch and figuring I had time for a shower. Nick would meet me in about two hours. My stomach was grumbling. I headed to the fridge the second I got in, letting William out of my bag. He fluttered out and sat on the counter, watching as I checked for something edible to tide me over.
“Miss Chase, would you mind if I asked you something?”
“Uh huh?” I closed the fridge and boiled the kettle instead. I’d have a cup of tea and maybe some toast or a piece of cake.
“What is it that you like about this man?”
I sighed. “He’s…” A creep? I shook my head. A nice guy? I laughed out loud. “He’s different.”
“Different from whom?”
“Uh…”
“Forgive me for saying, Miss Chase, but you don’t seem sure about this man. I’m not sure about him either.”
Was I not sure? I frowned at the kettle as it boiled. “I like him.” It sounded wrong. Why did it sound wrong?
“I’m not sure that you do. You’re acting rather oddly, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
Was I? I took a breath. I felt light-headed. It had been so long since I’d been on a date. “I need to get over Mickey.”
“Mickey?”
“He likes boys.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I didn’t know. I can’t believe I wasted so much time on him. I always thought we’d end up together; like he was my soul-mate or something stupid like that.”
William apparently didn’t have an answer for that. I always knew when he felt sorry for me. He would go quiet for a while. I felt tears welling up at my admission. I’d never admitted that to anyone before, let alone saying it out loud to myself. It hurt my heart to hear it worse than it had to hear Mickey tell me the reason we could never be together. “I have to move on.”
I wiped at my wet cheeks before I poured my tea. I heard the ruffling noise of a tissue being pulled from the box before William dropped it by my hand. He looked up at me, cute little eyes wide. I picked up the tissue and blew my nose. “Thanks, William. I’m all right now. You can go for a sleep.”
He hesitated before he flew up over my shoulder. I watched him head through the open door to my bedroom. I cursed myself for crying as I went and got a piece of cake. I’d just have to hope I hadn’t made my face red or anything. The more I ate, the more relaxed I became. I’d been hungry, that was all. I was looking forward to the date. I put my mug down when it was empty and got to my feet. It was time to start getting ready.
Twenty-Four – Mickey
My head was banging. I grabbed painkillers out the shop on the way home, doubting Pete had any in the flat. I wasn’t really in the mood for more beer, but I got a six-pack for later and some crisps and microwavable burgers. Pete was anxious to get back; he kept hopping from foot to foot as he waited on me choosing my snacks.
When we finally got back the flat door was already open.
Pete glanced at me. “Eh, did you not lock this?”
I was sure I had. “I know I locked it. Does someone else have a key?”
Nick’s door opened. He was in a tuxedo. It was better than the usual grungy ripped up t-shirts and jeans with chains, so I didn’t bother asking what he was doing looking far better than he usually did. He’d even gelled his messy hair back. He looked at my cousin. “Ah, Pete. I asked Mark for a key to your flat. Seeing as how you’re an Animate under my control he had to give it over. I take it you don’t mind.”
Pete was grinding his jaw. This was probably a bad thing.
“I’ve gotten you a room-mate. The rest of Britt’s Animate’s are going to the King.”
Pete’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Oh, aye, and Britt’s not dead. Well she is but it’s all hush, hush. One of her clones took over.” Nick shrugged and motioned to us. “You’re blocking the stairway.”
I moved but it took me a second to process what he’d just told us. One of Britt’s clones had taken over from her? I didn’t get why. “Uh…”
“Oh and no telling anyone what I just said,” Nick said as he headed down the stairs. “Top secret!”
Pete had frozen in place. He opened and closed his mouth. The downstairs door slammed shut with a bang. “What the hell was he wearing?”
I shrugged. “No idea.”
“Did he just say…” Pete stopped talking when an Animate peered out his doorway. The guy was kind of tall and slightly cautious looking.
“Pete.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “I wasn’t sure it was really going to be you.”
“Oh, hey, Cal.”
“There’s some guy in here hiding and yelling at me. I can’t tell if it’s a ghost or an actual person. It’s so weird. He keeps telling me to get out of his room.”
“That would be Fat Dave,” I told him. “He’s a cunt. Ignore him.”
“He used to live here. He’s a ghost, but he’s stuck in the kitchen wiring.” Pete put in, moving at last. “This is my cousin, Mickey. He usually crashes on the couch.”
Cal nodded, smiling slightly. “I don’t really get what’s going on.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Make that three,” I added. “Can we get in now, it’s cold out here.”
Cal moved back. Pete headed inside and I followed him, closing the door after us.
“Pete?” Dave called from the kitchen. “I need to speak to you. Now!”
“Ah, crap,” Pete muttered, heading to the kitchen.
“Hey,” I told him. “You banished that evil spirit, right?”
Pete glared at me. “For Christ’s sake. I’m not banishing Dave. He likes it here.”
“It was just a suggestion.” A strong suggestion that I fully believed in. I looked to Cal. He frowned at me. I supposed I’d have to get him on side first. I didn’t think that would take long if Dave continued to yell at him.
“I don’t understand why I’m here,” Cal said again. “It was like Britt sold me, but I don’t know why.”
“Isn’t it better than working for her?” I didn’t get why he sounded so hurt by it.
“I don’t know what’s expected of me here, but I don’t want to be here.”
“Well, tough shit,” I told him, sitting down and cracking a beer to swallow my painkillers down with. I scratched at my neck. I might visit Trish later if I decided I wasn’t staying. “Britt’s dead. She can’t be your User anymore.”
He stared at me. “What do you mean, Britt’s dead?”
“You didn’t know?” I thought back to what Nick had said. “Oh riiight. He said one of the clones took over. Shit, I think I was supposed to keep that to myself.” Oh, well. It was out now. It wasn’t like Nick had any control over me.
Cal blinked. He tugged at his hair. “I can’t stay here. I miss her already.”
“You liked your User?”
“Not her. She’s a bitch. Was a bitch I mean. So, her magic went to this new User. I get it now. He killed her then. I just can’t handle this. I need to be with Eight. She was so upset at Nine dying. She needs me. I don’t know what’ll happen…”
God, the guy was having a breakdown. I opened my mouth and yelled for Pete. He came out, hands on hips.
“What?”
“This guy’s in love with one of Britt’s clones, I think. He’s all loopy because he won’t see her again now.”
Pete raised his eyebrows at Cal.
“She loves me back, and she’s her own person. I know you didn’t like them, but not all the clones were like the one you met.”
Pete sighed as music started to blast out from the kitchen. “Shut up, Dave,” he muttered.
Cal was waiting, for what I didn’t know. He couldn’t seriously expect anything more than sympathy?
“Don’t look at me,” Pete said. “I’m not going back there for anything.”
>
I shrugged when the big guy turned his imploring black eyes on me. “There’s got to be something I can do.”
I sighed. Tim could probably go get her, I supposed. Not that I fancied owing him a favour right now. The thought of seeing him again made my stomach churn. Pete knew. Kit knew. It wouldn’t be long before everyone else did too. I folded my arms.
“I could ask Nick,” Pete offered before I could let my stupid mouth fall open. “Can’t promise anything, but he might at least let you say goodbye.”
A weight fell off my shoulders. I drank my beer and reached for the remote.
Cal smiled. “Thanks, man.”
Twenty-Five – Tim
The alcohol flowed a little too freely. Nine seemed intent on clearing out the contents of Britt’s personal bar. She picked up a second bottle of vodka and put it down again, screwing her nose up. She bent down and came back up with a bottle of Amaretto. She let out a delighted squeal as she uncapped the bottle.
“This is my absolute favourite! She let me try it one Christmas and then she never brought it out again. I didn’t know what it was…” She sniffed it after she poured, nodded and added a splash of cola before she took a drink. “Yum.”
“You can get that stuff in most bars,” I informed her.
She rolled her eyes. “Like I go into bars.”
“You don’t… Wait a sec, you are twenty-one though, right?”
“I’m two-years-old if you want to get technical about it.” She raised an eyebrow at me.
“So how old was Britt, then?” According to the media, she was nineteen-years-old. That was clearly bullshit.
She snorted. “I’m not telling you that. That’s the kind of information slip that gets a clone killed.”
“You’re not a clone,” I reminded, starting to wonder why I cared how old that bitch had been.
“Ooh,” she said. “Clever. That makes your question worse, though. Asking a woman to reveal her age.” She shook her head before she put the short glass back to her lips and downed the contents. “Mmm…”
I knew I should leave. She was drunk, and I was getting there. After the last few days, though, the drinking session was a welcome, relaxing change of pace. I took another drink from her, promising myself I’d leave soon.
Twenty-Six – Pete
I left Mickey introducing Cal to his favourite vampire soap opera, heading to bed early to see what else I could find out from the Animate manual. So far it’d been heavy-going to learn what little I already had. The sooner I got to the end of the damn book the better. Cracking the spine, I sighed wearily and sank onto my bed.
It was no use, and I knew it after ten minutes of reading the same yawn-worthy chapter with nothing sinking into my brain. This was a waste of time. I put the book down and stared at the ceiling.
Today had started out kind of nice. I’d felt normal again wearing that glamour. Meeting a girl and getting off had been the icing on that cake. I’d felt like myself again and that had felt good. But it wasn’t real. I wasn’t alive, and I wouldn’t be pulling any women looking like this. I couldn’t help wondering what Kit was up to. At least Mickey had been honest with her. She deserved that.
A knock on my door shook me out of my thoughts.
“Come in,” I called out.
Cal pushed the door open and took a hesitant step inside the room. “Hey. Can we talk?”
“Eh, aye. Okay. What’s up?”
“I wanted to ask about Nick.” He sounded hesitant.
I smiled wryly. “Let me guess. You’re not sure if he’s a good guy?”
“He seemed egocentric, but I just don’t know. He hasn’t made any money from being a User yet, right?”
“Eh, aye. He’s not been this powerful for very long, I suppose.” I wasn’t so sure a rich Nick would make such a great owner. He was full of himself as it was.
“And this is where we live?” He glanced around my room as if he didn’t believe it.
“Hey, pal, this was my flat before I died,” I let him know.
“Sorry,” he said, shrugging. “I guess I got used to things at Britt’s place.”
I knew I should probably also mention we had to pay rent but I figured the news might overload his already overflowing pile of woes. It could wait until later. “Nick’s not so bad. He’s let me take days off already.”
His eyebrows rise. “Days off?”
“Aye. I went to see a movie earlier and that,” I told him, watching his face start to de-gloomify.
“Oh. Cool. So, what else is there to do around here?”
“Just the usual kind of stuff,” I said, not sure what he was expecting. “It’s not like we have anywhere you could surf, but there are probably other sports you could try.”
He nodded. “Okay. Sounds fun.” He looked more hopeful at least, but he didn’t leave.
I bit back a sigh. “Did Dave tell you not to sleep in his old room?”
He grinned. “Yeah. I’m going to anyway, though. Hey, what’s that?”
He pointed to the manual. I passed him it. “You can read it if you want, just don’t lose my page.”
He nodded and took it. “Cool.”
“Hey, where was Nick going to all dressed up?”
He looked up. “Oh. He said he was taking a woman out tonight. He sounded real excited about it.”
“Taking a woman out?” My stomach turned at the thought. The way he’d been acting lately I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know about it. What he’d been doing the other night was wrong. He had to know that. Yet somehow I wasn’t convinced that he did.
“Uh, yeah. She had a kind of funny name, but he said he’d been waiting a long time to get a chance at her so tonight was gonna be special.”
That really didn’t sound good. I straightened, bad feeling growing. “You remember her name?”
“Uh… Kit, I think. You know, like the talking car in Knight Rider.” He nodded. “Yeah, her name was Kit.”
Twenty-Seven – Kit
The closer it got to eight, the sicker I felt. It had been so long since I’d even been on a date. How the hell was I going to manage this without turning into a nervous wreck? I liked this guy, even if I couldn’t quite seem to put my finger on what it was that I liked. The doorbell rang and I jumped up, knocking my ankle against the leg of the coffee table in my haste.
It freaking hurt! Not to mention that I also managed to rip my tights when I did it. Damn. I pulled them off and dashed down the stairs with my heels in my hand. I slipped the shoes back on as I got to the door, checking my ankle for visible bruising. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Nick was standing there in a tux, his dark hair gelled back. “Damn,” he said with a grin. “You look amazing.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Funny, I didn’t even think about laughing after I said it. I must have gotten over that weird nervous reaction to thinking about him in a sexual way. He stepped back to let me out, catching my hand in his a moment later. The compulsion to yank my hand back soared and retreated. “I just need to lock the…”
A click from behind me when he snapped his fingers made me jump. “It’s done. You ready?”
“I suppose…”
It happened in the blink of an eye. He pulled me into his arms and in a whoosh of cool air we were transported from my doorstep to the deck of what appeared to be a luxury cabin over water on some warm island I’d probably never heard of. The water was bright and clear, sparkling in the sunset.
“Where are we?”
He smiled at me when I finally pulled my attention back to him. “We’re in the Maldives. Dinner won’t be long.” He motioned to the set table behind us. Champagne was chilling in an ice bucket. He picked up the bottle and poured for us. “What kind of food do you like?”
“Uh…” This was unreal. I’d never been anywhere like this before in my life. I could have just stood on that deck staring out into the ocean for the rest
of the night.
Nick came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I leaned into him. “It’s stunning.”
“Not as stunning as you are,” he told me, kissing my shoulder.
I shivered as his lips went to my neck. The piercing felt cold against my skin. A shudder of revulsion rolled over me. What was I doing here with him? He wasn’t my type at all, he was a…
Warmth filled me suddenly, lightening my head and replacing my worry.
“You don’t like my piercings,” he said, sounding disappointed.
“They’re fine,” I said. “They’re just… kind of cold.”
He moved back. “Come and eat.”
I turned and followed him to the table. He pulled back my chair for me. “What are we having?”
“Whatever we like.” He sat down opposite and I stared in shock.
He’d gotten rid of the piercings, magically I assumed, but still… “You look good.”
“You sound surprised,” he told me, raising an unpierced eyebrow.
I didn’t know if it was the tux or the sunset or what, but I was glad I’d worn my best sexy underwear.
“What’s your favourite food?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Pasta?”
“You don’t sound sure…”
There was a big difference between good food and date food. I couldn’t think what would be best for tonight. I felt strangely relaxed but it was still a first date. An eye-blink later the table was filled with take-out cartons, all of my guilty-secret, lazy-night-in dinner options surrounded us.
Nick was grinning when I tore my gaze away from the food. “I take it you approve?”
He’d just ripped these things from my head and put them in front of me. What a… great guy. I picked up my fork and skewered a piece of sauce-slathered kebab meat. I tasted it before nodding. “It’s amazing.”
“Good,” he said, picking up his champagne.
I stared at his fingers as he drank. The sunset was messing with my vision. There was a pinkish tint to his hand; no, not just his hand, it was washing over everything. I looked at my own hands, at my fork and the plate in front of me. Everything was tinted. I stabbed at a piece of pakora. It almost looked like it was pre-dipped in sauce. I blinked. The strange visual illusion didn’t break. I put down my fork, suddenly less interested in the food.
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