All That Glitters

by Dawn Ibanez

  “That was a gift,” Kalina said. When Faust turned his attention back to her, she swallowed her fear and held her ground. “You don’t dictate what I can have around me.”

  Faust’s eyes glowed red before returning to their crimson state. “You don’t understand what that is.” He snapped his fingers and the amulet floated across the room and hovered next to him. “This isn’t just a magic dampener. It’s a demon seal.”

  Her mouth dried up. She looked at Ryan, who was staring at her with wide green eyes. She turned her attention back to Faust. The idea forming in her head was impossible. Her mother wouldn’t have… Kalina shook her head as she faced off with the being in front of her.

  “Why would I need a demon seal?” Kalina asked. “I’m a witch.”

  “And my daughter,” Faust added.

  Her entire body went numb at the thought. The idea of her father being a demon was something that never in her life thought was a possibility. But it did make a twisted sort of sense. She backed away from his approach. “I won’t believe you,” she said.

  “Won’t, or don’t?” Faust asked.

  Questions swam in her mind. She tried to keep her composure but knew she was failing. Her hands shook and she felt on the verge of tears. The disgusted look on Faust’s face made her want to run. But the closed expression on Ryan’s face made her want to cry. “Did you know?” she asked.

  “No one knew. And if you believe me or not, it doesn’t change any of the facts,” Faust said. “You are my daughter.”

  Her shock and fear turned into hot anger. She stepped closer to him. “And what? Come into the fold?” she challenged. “You knew I was out there. Now all of a sudden you’re trying to act as if you care oh so much about whether or not I’ll blow myself up like my mother did?” Kalina asked. She shook her head. “You don’t care. You’re either just trying to clean up your mess or you want to use me the same way she did.” Her lips turned up in disgust. She looked from Faust to Ryan and back. “That’s it, isn’t it? You want to use me for my magic, just like my mother. That’s why he showed up at my shop. You sent him there, didn’t you?”

  “What if I did?” Faust countered. “You don’t know what is about to happen to you, and the only way to help you was to send someone to train you. But now you have a target on your back.” Faust turned to Ryan. “Which brings me back to my original question. Why is someone after my prize?”

  “I am not your prize.” Kalina’s anger radiated from her. She felt her magic pulsing around her and was sure her hair changed color again. She felt a gentle hand on her arm and knocked Ryan’s palm away. “I am a person. I have a will of my own. I had a life of my own. None of you get to decide if I should live or die or be surrounded by magic when I was perfectly fine until you came into my store.”

  “Free will isn’t free, Kalina,” Xian said.

  “How many times do I need to say, I don’t want to live in your world,” Kalina said slowly. “I was fine before.”

  “Before what? Gold going into your store? Or were you fine when you struggled to make ends meet at that little shop your aunts ran.”

  “Leave them out of this.”

  Faust shook his head. “I don’t think I will.”

  Kalina turned on her heel and started for the door. Ryan went after her. “Kalina, wait.”

  She turned to him. “Don’t you dare.” She poked him in his chest. “You wanted me to trust you. Why? So, he could owe you, just like I would? Two birds, one stone, right?”

  “It isn’t like that.”

  Her heart was pounding in her ears. “Why should I believe you? You said it yourself, don’t trust anyone.”

  Ryan lowered his head slightly. “I don’t want you to be used. Or hurt.”

  “Well, you suck at your job,” she said before opening the door to his apartment. “I’m feeling pretty used and hurt right now.”

  She left the apartment and went to the elevators. She needed to get away from them all. It was too much to deal with. Meeting everyone, seeing how at ease they were with their magic. Finally having an answer to why her mother used her so much. She pressed the call button for the elevator and leaned her head against the wall.

  The man she had always thought of as her biological father was nothing to her. She hadn’t seen Lenny Hall since he told her to leave 12 years ago. He hadn’t been there for any of her milestones after her mother died. Carly’s father had. The Harts taught her about what being a family was supposed to mean. Tears fell from her eyes as the elevator doors opened. She entered the car and pressed the button for the lobby. When the doors closed, she looked at her reflection. Her hair was the dark magenta everyone seemed to favor. She tucked her hair behind her ears and leaned against the back wall.

  A shadow moved, making Kalina jump. She turned and saw her reflection. But inside of it was a man that resembled Faust. Kalina examined his face. “You’re not Faust, are you?” she asked. The man shook his head and started to speak. She frowned as he made no sound. “I can’t hear you,” she told him.

  His lips pressed together in a thin line. He turned away from her for a moment before touching the side of her reflection’s face. Kalina shook her head when she felt nothing on her cheek. The car reached the lobby and Kalina looked at the stranger. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t help you.”

  The man nodded and stepped back into the shadows. Kalina frowned as the doors to the elevator opened. It was yet another mystery for her to figure out. One that she didn’t have time for.

  She went to the concierge desk and smiled at the man behind the counter. “Is there a way I can call a cab or something from here?” she asked. “My phone was stolen yesterday.”

  His eyes raked over her form and his lips turned down in a frown. “We do not allow outgoing calls from the front desk. Apologies.”

  His condescending tone grated. “Okay. Are there any public phones around here that I can use?”

  “None that I know of. Again, apologies.”

  “Is the honeymoon over already?” a male voice asked.

  Kalina turned around to see the man from the day before, Jasper, watching her. “In a manner of speaking. What are you doing here?”

  “I just finished having a meeting with a new client. Unlike Ryan, I can’t spend the day hanging around doing as I please. I like to run empires.”

  She wouldn’t comment on his opinion of Ryan. She wouldn’t care anymore. Kalina leaned closer to Jasper and frowned. He went heavy on his cologne. She could almost taste it. “Can you show me how to open my own portal?” she asked in a whisper.

  He smiled and gently took her hand. “I can show you whatever you wish,” he said before kissing her knuckles.

  She fought the bile threatening to rise. “That isn’t necessary.” She pulled her hand out of his grip. “Just how to portal would be fine.”

  Jasper nodded and gestured for her to walk in front of him. As she left the building, she felt an odd sensation along her back. She turned to look around. Nothing was near her. But the stranger from the elevator was in the reflection of the glass doors. “Is something wrong?” Jasper asked.

  His arm was around her waist, and Kalina fought the urge to strike out at him. She needed him for the next few minutes. “Nothing that getting away from here won’t fix.” She moved away from him.

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re playing rather skittish.”

  “And you’re playing really creepy. I just want to leave, not be mauled by the person that said he was going to help me.”

  “You didn’t mind Gold pawing at you.”

  And Jasper was no Ryan. Kalina was beginning to see his point. “That doesn’t leave an open door for you to do the same.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. “There used to be a time when I could have had you executed for saying that.”

  She nodded as she took another step away from Jasper. “Then it’s a good thing we live in different times now, isn’t it?”

  “Where did all
of this backbone come from?” he asked. “Yesterday you were a fragile flower, and today you are… different. What did you discover?”

  “That is none of your business.”

  “Kalina?”

  As much as she didn’t want to get Carly and her family involved in her problems, seeing Carly’s father on the curb with his car was a sight she would burn into her memory. Kalina looked at Jasper and smiled. “It looks like I won’t need you after all. Thank you.” As she started for the car, Jasper grabbed her hand.

  Before Kalina could turn, Alex Hart was between her and Japer. He was surrounded by a black miasma. “I suggest you leave her alone.”

  Jasper released Kalina’s hand and snapped his fingers. As he disappeared, so did Alex. Kalina looked around and saw him sitting behind the steering wheel of the car again. She ran over to the car and quickly got in. Before she could say anything, she was pulled into a rough embrace. Kalina held on to the only father figure that ever showed he cared about her and did the only thing she could think of.

  She cried.

  CHAPTER 9

  “Carly told you to come get me?” Kalina asked.

  He laughed as he pulled out into traffic. “She told us what happened yesterday. Reese and I agreed that if you didn’t come home by lunch, I was going to hunt you down and bring you back.”

  Kalina looked at the clock on the radio. It was an hour off. “Still haven’t changed from daylight savings?” she asked gesturing to the clock.

  He smiled. “At least it’s right six months out of the year.”

  She looked out of the window and leaned her head back. “I didn’t want any of you to get involved. Carly threw herself at Xian and could have been killed. I know she’ll do it again at the first chance.”

  “So, it was Cao Xian that attacked you.”

  Kalina shook her head. “How many women are there with dragon tattoos that come to life?” she asked.

  Alex shrugged. “There’s Xian. And since you’re using her first name, I can only assume you two are on decent terms right now.” He waited for Kalina to nod before continuing. “There was a woman named Sif, but I don’t know what she goes by anymore. There’s an entire clan of assassins that house dragons on their body in the same fashion, but they’re weaker than those that have bonded with actual dragons.”

  “Ryan said something about phoenixes and thunderbirds being kept as well.”

  He nodded. “Those that have creatures bonded to them can be serious trouble.”

  It was Kalina’s turn to nod. She saw what the dragon Xian wore could do. She swallowed nervously as they approached a stop light. “Ryan said that Carly is what’s known as a death dealer. Does she get that from you or Mom?”

  He glanced at her. “Both.” He continued to drive when the lights changed color. “We tend to keep to ourselves a lot. Most people, and this includes those in the magical world, tend to steer clear of those that take your souls for final judgement.”

  “They’re scared of their own mortality.”

  “And most also have hang-ups about what heaven and hell are supposed to be like. So, they’ll always want to know if they do something, where will they end up.”

  “And it’s not supposed to work that way?”

  “It does. But if I tell you what choices to make, then I’m doing nothing but stacking the deck in one favor.”

  “But I was told free will isn’t free.”

  Alex nodded. “It’s not. If you take something because you want it, say, the last burger from the grill. Someone else has lost it. That’s the price paid. Or if you realize you’re holding the one thing that could stop a child from crying, and you sacrifice your beloved, perfectly charred dinner, you lose. But in both instances, you made the choice.”

  Kalina smiled. “Carly mentioned something about you wanting to grill this weekend.”

  “After we make sure you’re safe and back home, I was going to the store to pick up a few things.” He turned down a street. “Carly said that Ryan Gold was the one that helped you.”

  The smile on Kalina’s face fell. “He found me at a gas station after the store was destroyed. He said he wanted to teach me how to use my magic.”

  “He’s a part of a pretty dangerous circle.”

  “I’m not going to accept his help anymore. I’ll figure something out.” Kalina looked at her hands in her lap and frowned when she realized they were shaking. “He said I could trust him. I just found out I can’t.”

  “Did he do something?”

  Kalina looked at the man that planted himself in her life. If she said yes, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind he would go after Ryan’s head. She shook her head. “He was honest with me, up to a point. He said he wanted to help me. What he didn’t say was that a man with the impression that I’m his daughter wanted me to learn magic.”

  “What?”

  “Do you know of someone called Faust?”

  Alex’s eyes darkened as he pulled up to his home. He looked at Kalina. “Faust said he is your father?”

  Kalina nodded. “I don’t know what he’s thinking. I really don’t even care. I just needed to get away from him.” She looked at the house that was her home away from home. “Part of me wants to find Lenny and ask him about all of this.”

  Alex touched her hand and sighed. When she looked at him, he shook his head. “I want you to go with Gold.” She opened her mouth to object, but he held up his hand. “Talking to Lenny will be opening Pandora’s box. And there are things that you still don’t know about the entire story of your mother’s death. Gold’s dangerous, but he’ll do his best to protect you.”

  “What are you talking about, Dad? Why do you sound this way?”

  Alex looked ill as he climbed out of his car. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. When Kalina stood, he wrapped his arms around her in a solid embrace. “Because when you learn the truth, you may hate me and Reese.”

  Kalina heard the door open but kept her attention on Alex. “I could never hate you guys. I don’t understand.”

  “I sent him and Carly to the cemetery that night,” Reese Hart said as she walked over to them. “I knew you were there, because I had been watching you from the shadows.”

  “What? Why would you do that?”

  Reese gently touched Kalina’s face and looked at her with tear filled eyes. “Because your mother’s magic didn’t turn on her. I killed her.”

  *****

  Ryan glared at Faust. He couldn’t rail at the demon the true way he wanted. There was no point to it. “Why entrust me with Kalina’s training if you were just going to come here and announce you were her father?”

  The demon waved his hand and a glass of cognac appeared in it. “I needed to know if her true powers would manifest. They are, and now I can claim her.” He shrugged as he sipped at his cognac. “She really had no reason to storm out of here.”

  “The girl’s world is being turned on its ear. She is a bigger threat now than ever.” Xian stood and opened a portal. “I’ll look for her. If she’s in any trouble, I’ll call. But if I’m too late and she’s too far gone….”

  Ryan nodded. He didn’t want to reveal how badly he was shaking. He didn’t think Kalina would lose control of herself. But it had happened with others with more training than she had. “Call me, either way. I’ll be there in seconds.”

  Xian nodded before stepping through the portal. Once she was gone, Ryan paced around the room. “I need for you to explain what Kalina is to you.”

  Faust rolled his eyes. “I already said, I’m her father. Do I really need to go into the mechanics of that meaning?”

  He wasn’t going to cross that line. “The others I found for you. The apprentices. Were they all your children too?”

  “Are you trying to grow a conscience now, Ryan? After everything you did?”

  Ryan could admit there were things in his past he would never be proud of. But none of that had anything to do with Faust’s love life. “There we
re what? Six in as many months? I know some of them died. A few I just haven’t heard about. Did you kill them for their magic? Are you planning on doing the same to Kalina?”

  “Why do you care?” Faust’s eyes took on a ruby glow as he lifted his glass again. “Is that nasty little curse starting to take over?”

  He couldn’t examine why he cared. Ryan knew doing so would not only damn Kalina but himself as well. “She doesn’t want any of this.”

  “She’ll change her mind. They always do.”

  Kalina wasn’t one to do what everyone else did. Ryan had a feeling she would never accept anything from Faust, and that could end up being her very downfall.

  Faust stood and finished his drink. “You need to find who is after my daughter. And why. I don’t want anything happening to her.”

  Ryan only nodded. He didn’t need Faust issuing orders to know he had to take care of the threat to Kalina. “I need for you to stay away from her. Your nonchalance could do more harm than good when it comes to Kalina.”

  An eyebrow arched. “You think to order me?”

  “I’m only telling you the truth.” Ryan felt magic slowly moving around his throat. “Kalina isn’t like the others. If you want her, you are going to have to let her come to you. No blatant manipulation. Otherwise you will lose her forever.”

  Faust snarled before opening his black portal. “Fine. I’ll leave her alone. For now.”

  Ryan stayed still as Faust stepped through the portal and left the apartment. Once the demon was gone, he let out a breath. He was going to have to sit Kalina down for a long talk.

  It was time to find a way out from under Faust’s thumb.

  CHAPTER 10

  Kalina couldn’t have heard her right. There was no way the sweet woman that treated her as dear as her own daughter would have killed her mother. Kalina looked at the tall blonde woman. “What do you mean?” she asked in a whisper.

  Reese looked at her husband before returning her gaze to Kalina’s. “We should talk about this inside. Anyone can hear us out here.”