We all shared a moment of silence before Mona spoke.
“Oh, before I forget.” She dug in her purse and pulled out the apartment keys. “You are on the fourth floor. 423 is your apartment number. You two have a great night.” She got back into the limo and there we stood in front of the building. Adam grabbed my carry-on and his backpack and we went inside.
Into the elevator we proceeded and punched the button for the fourth floor. We rode in silence. When we got out, we followed the long corridor to the apartment number and put in the key, turning the lock. We walked in and both of us gasped. The place was gorgeous.
“I will say this for your father, he has taste.” He put my bags down and grabbed me around the waist. “This place is magnificent.” He pressed his lips to mine and everything around me melted into nothing.
***
“So when are we going to go and find this girl?” Adam asked, rummaging through the extensively stocked refrigerator.
“Nick said she works at a tattoo parlor in Deep Ellum. Personally, I think that is pretty vague. I was thinking we could start with the closest parlor and work our way further out.” I had changed into one of the dresses my mother had bought me and pulled my hair back into a neat ponytail.
“You thinking about getting some ink?” Adam looked overjoyed as he pulled out the high-priced meats and cheeses and began making himself a sandwich. I think the boy could live on them if he wanted to and the fact that we had more than just bologna made him increasingly happy.
“I don’t know. What about you?” I eyed him.
“I was thinking, maybe the element signs on my back.” He brought his plate around and sat down on the couch next to me.
“You are really getting into this whole thing, aren’t you?” I poked him and he glanced at me with a half-smile on his face.
“So have you Googled it yet? Where is the closest place to here?” He swallowed.
“Yeah about a mile away, we can walk there in about twenty-five minutes or so.” I had actually looked it up in the bathroom when I was changing but I wasn’t going to tell him that. There was silence before Adam spoke again.
“So I said I wasn’t going to ask, but what happened before we came here?” He looked at me, chewing.
“Well it’s pretty cool actually.” I started fidgeting. “You were chosen for a very big job.”
“Chosen by who?” His mouth was full so I had to guess at what exactly he was saying.
“Heaven apparently.” I was becoming uncomfortable.
“Huh?” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I wondered if he saw the paper towels by the sink.
“OK, so you see there are humans that fit into this whole biblical thing. When Heaven finds someone worthy of a quest of some sort they grant them these powers.” I watched as his eyes lit up.
“Do I have super speed? Sonic hearing? The ability to swing from buildings using spider webs?” There was an excitement to his voice that was making me want to laugh.
“No, silly. Ramiel said it will make you faster, stronger, and more agile; but you are still human.” I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling. “He also said that if, for any reason, you feel that you cannot live up to the expectations then you can always give it back.”
“I don’t even know what it is! Why would I want to give it back without trying it first?” He laughed, stuffing the last bite of the sandwich in his mouth and getting up to put the plate in the dishwasher.
“Well I don’t know what it did for you. I didn’t notice any changes.” I stood up and looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearing eight. If we were going to do this we needed to get going now. “You ready?” I grabbed my debit card and driver’s license and stuffed them in the side of my bra. Adam looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“You could have just given them to me. I would have carried them for you,” he said as I walked up to him.
“It’s cool. At least one of us won’t get pickpocketed.” I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him on his cheek.
“So, we going to try this couple thing?” he suddenly asked, looking at me, confused.
“If you want.” I was starting not to understand what was going on. I thought that we had pretty much showed that we wanted to be together, but he seemed resistant to the idea of being with me. Was it my blood?
“Dawn, I know I said we needed to talk about this. Do we know what we are doing?” He stepped away from me toward the entry way.
“No, and I think that is what makes this so amazing,” I sighed. I knew we were going to have this talk, I just wasn’t sure if I wanted it now.
“It seems so surreal to me. We cannot go back to just friends. That fine line has been stepped over.” He stuffed his hands in his back pocket and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.
“You know Helen sensed something a while back.” I stepped toward him and he looked down at me, his brown eyes glistening.
“She did?” He didn’t look convinced, just hopeful.
“She told me there was something going on whether I chose to accept it or not.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and he smiled down at me.
“Well good. I thought you were too good for Aaron as it was,” he laughed, pressing his lips to my forehead.
“Let’s just see where this goes. Worst case scenario: I die in battle.” I tried to make that sound like a joke but there was a coldness that burst through my heart. I could really die in battle.
“I don’t even want to think about that,” he cringed. “You want to go with the flow, so we will do just that and see where we go. We don’t have to be exclusive now, we can just casually date.”
I laughed. “Casually dating means you can see whomever you want.”
“Well I may have to take this new girl out for a date or something to get her to trust me enough to talk to me.” He poked my side and I jumped.
“I don’t want to think about that,” I said through clenched teeth. Sadly, I knew he was telling the truth.
We walked hand-in-hand down Houston Street to Olive then over to Akard which turned into Ervay right before Commerce and there it was. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to open myself up to anything. I had felt an increase in power when Helen showed up at Adam’s this last April—an uncontrollable desire to hug her, and on most occasions in the beginning punch her in the face for touching Adam. Now I felt nothing, not even a cold chill. I looked at Adam and shook my head. The first place we went had been a bust.
He pulled out his phone and opened Google Maps, trying to locate the next closest location. Maybe we would have a better chance with a second choice. “The next place is not even a mile up the road,” he pointed to our left and frowned.
“I was really hoping that we would be able to find her on the first try. You know, like maybe I had some Warden intuition that would tell me where she is.” I took his hand in mine, winding my fingers in his.
“Maybe you will. Who knows what will happen with the next place.” He squeezed my hand and we kept walking toward the next address.
“Do you really think this is going to work?” he asked me.
“I don’t know. All I know is that if I feel her she’s going to feel me.” I sighed. This was turning out to be much harder than I thought.
“How about this—when it comes into sight I will go in and take a look. You said she has red hair, right?” We were getting close to the next location; I could see the sign from where we were.
“Yeah. That’s all I know about her though,” I groaned. Nick had been incredibly vague about this whole thing. We pretty much went in on blind intuition hoping that there would be a sign or something to tell me we were in the right direction.
“How about you go in first and I will follow behind you. Maybe if I act like I can’t feel anything she won’t be so apt to run.” I gripped his hand tighter; I didn’t want to have to let him go.
“All right, but at some point I
have to look available.” He laughed as I unwillingly dropped his hand and let him cross the street to the tattoo shop with me biting my bottom lip. I was going to give him ten minutes and if he didn’t come back out I would go in.
“Hey, pretty thing.” A man with more piercings in his face than I could count said, stopping near me. “Never seen a thing like you around here before.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at him. “I’m sixteen,” I lied. The last thing I wanted was for some perv to hit on me while I waited.
“Age is just a number,” the man said, stepping closer. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Yeah, I think right at that moment that was exactly what he was thinking.
“Ever heard the saying, ‘sixteen will get you twenty?’” I groaned.
“If you are willing, I’m willing.” He was circling me. I was getting tired of his slurred speech. It was taking everything in me not to set him on fire.
“Trust me, I would not be willing,” I moaned, clenching my fists.
“Well that can be arranged too.” He made one major mistake. He touched me.
My left arm shot out, grabbing the man by the throat. I spun around and threw him into the wall behind me, holding him off his feet by the throat. My eyes burned and I saw the fear form on his face. “My suggestion would be for you to leave me alone,” I hissed, clenching his throat just a little tighter and he coughed, squirmed and blinked.
“OK,” he said as I released my fingers and lowered him to the sidewalk. “What the hell are you?”
“Your worst nightmare if you don’t get the hell out of here,” I spat, not taking my eyes off of him until he was safely around the corner.
“You know next time just use pepper spray.” I heard a female laugh and I turned to look at her blinking a few times. When our eyes met there was electricity and I felt like the fire was going to explode from my skin.
“You’re her!” I screeched, a smile on my face.
“I could be. Come on, you can come in the shop for a bit. I work across the street.” She took me by the shoulder and led me inside. Adam looked up at me and smiled. I waved shyly at him and mouthed that this was her.
“Oh, you two are together, huh,” she said, looking between the two of us.
“Yeah. We weren’t sure which shop you worked in so I came in first to find out,” Adam said standing up and walking toward us.
“Yeah, Mike here called me to let me know I had a customer.” She laughed. “So how did you hear about me?”
“A friend,” Adam choked.
“Great!” She looked back at me. “Your girlfriend here is quite the muscle woman. But by the looks of you he’s lucky he got the girlfriend.”
Adam looked at me and blinked. “She’s not my girlfriend.” That seemed to perk her attention and she looked back at him. I felt a pain in my chest but I knew that this is how it was supposed to be.
“I’m sorry, I just assumed,” she said, laughing. “So who’s going first?” she asked, looking between the two of us.
“Dawn? How about you go?” Adam asked, looking at me and narrowing his eyes. He was giving me time to talk to her.
“You have something in mind, Dawn?” she asked as we all walked back to a booth with a bunch of pointy objects. I never liked needles.
“Wings,” I said longingly. Krista and Helen both had wings. If I couldn’t have the real ones I would settle for a pair drawn on my back.
“Wings, huh.” She looked at me quizzically.
“Yeah,” I smiled.
“I think that is a great idea,” Adam said behind me. I turned and looked at him, he was beaming.
“Where do you want them?” She asked, taking a seat and getting her stuff together.
“On my back between my shoulder blades.” I felt like my skin was going to fall off my bones just to avoid being penetrated by the needles. I looked at her arms, tattooed all the way up to her shoulders. They were exquisite. “Did you do those?”
“Some of them yeah. Others I had done by co-workers.” She held them out for me to see. Out of all the intricate drawings it was the two on her wrists that got my attention. A praying angel with a halo was on one and a kneeling demon on the other. This had to be her, there was no question.
“Well then, I need you to undo the top of your dress and lower it to your waist,” she said, noticing my intent stare at the two tattoos. She lowered her arms and rubbed her wrists. “Can you close that curtain behind you?” She looked at Adam.
Chapter Eight: Wings
I reached back to undo the zipper of my dress when Adam came up behind me. He pulled the zipper down, his fingers lingering briefly on my skin, and I shivered. I let the bodice drop to my waist and did as instructed. I sat in probably the most uncomfortable chair ever as she took cold alcohol wipes to my back.
“All right Dawn. This is going to hurt a little at first but it should numb out after the first few minutes.” I felt a chill run up my spine.
Weren’t they supposed to put a stencil on my back before beginning?
“You going to freehand?” Adam asked, I could hear the worry in his voice.
“Yeah, I never stencil. It’s like a gift I guess.” She laughed melodically and put the needle to my skin.
“One demon and one angel wing,” I said, clenching my teeth together.
“That is what I figured.” She laughed. “I saw you notice the ones on my wrists. I take it you have a thing for Celestial power.”
I clenched when I felt the needle hit my skin. She was right—after a few moments the pain numbed away.
“Rose!” A guy called through the curtain.
“Yeah, Mike,” the girl answered, turning off the needle of doom.
“You got a phone call.” He peeked around the corner and smiled at me. I reached up and wrapped my arms around my chest.
“Tell them I will have to call them back. I’m with a customer,” she groaned.
“All right, but you know in twenty minutes he’s just going to call again.” The man she called Mike closed the curtain and she turned on the machine again and picked up where she left off.
Rose. Her name was Rose. So pretty, but not fitting for a Water Warden. I had to make sure to keep her name in the front of my memory. With all the beings that I had met here recently I had an issue keeping track of who was who.
I am not sure how long I sat in that chair staring ahead of me as she worked silently on my back. When she turned off the machine I thought that she was just taking a break. Maybe her hand had cramped up and she needed to take a second to let it breathe. Or maybe she messed up and my back looked like a canvas of kindergarten doodles.
“That looks awesome,” Adam gasped, walking to my right and looking at her work. “You have amazing technique. I love the halo and horn you put on there.”
She laughed at his compliment and put some gauze on it and taped it off. “Wash your hair in the sink or under the faucet—do not get this wet for any reason at least for a few days. If it starts to itch you can have your handsome friend here put some lotion on it.” Did she just call him handsome? I was going to kick Nick for having this great, awesome idea of his. First Helen and now Rose!
“Yeah, I had to do that with mine,” he laughed. I could tell it was forced but in a way, I think he enjoyed this conversation.
“Who did yours?” she asked as I pulled my dress back up and waited for someone to help me with the zipper.
“His name is Tony—he does work up in Midvale.” I was still waiting and slowly getting more and more impatient.
“Tony Mendez?” she asked. Again, still waiting! I cleared my throat.
“Oh shit, sorry Dawn,” Adam said, pulling the zipper of my dress up and returning to his conversation with Rose. “Yeah. You know him?”
“I worked with him when he owned a parlor in Phoenix a few years back. Great guy. Does awesome art.” I was officially invisible. “Can I see what he did for you?”
; “Yeah.” I turned and watched Adam roll up the sleeve of his shirt revealing the beautiful flaming broadsword.
“Oh yeah, that’s Tony’s work. That is just beautiful. Why the hell would you seek me out if you have that?” she laughed.
“Well we aren’t exactly in Midvale. Besides, I heard your work was stellar. Judging by the awesomeness of Dawn’s tattoo I would say that I was told correctly.” He was flirting! What the hell was happening?
“So what can I do?” She was flirting back. Great, now I was going to have to fight the constant jealousy again. I had just had the realization that was how I felt toward Helen.
“I actually have a rather large project. It may take several days to do,” he said softly.
“I have several days of openings.” I watched her eyes soften and her pupils dilate. She was totally into him.
“I want all four elements on my back. Earth, wind, fire and water; but I want them connected somehow.” Adam was turning on the charm, something I had never seen him do before.
“Take off your shirt—let me see what I have to work with. What I might do is take a couple of pictures and come up with some sketches for you. You can come in tomorrow and we can choose something that you like.” She looked at me and smiled. “Where did you find this boy?”
“Choir,” I said dryly as Adam reached the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head.
OK, so I hadn’t noticed any changes in his face but there was a definite change in his body. His abs were more defined; his biceps appeared larger and he had more muscle tone than the last night that we had spent together. I had to choke back my shock and I put my fingers to my lips to control the amount of drool that was falling out.
“You don’t look like a choirboy.” Her eyes were wide as she had him turn around. I watched her size him up, her eyes lingering on his ass. Her eyebrows raised and she smiled. OH JESUS! I was going to die right there in that tattoo parlor. “Yeah, we have more than enough room to work with here.” She reached up and touched right between his shoulder blades. “I could do a good six to seven inches in height if you want. Let me get my camera and I will snap a few shots.” She left the area.
The Wardens Boxed Set Page 58