Dahlia

by Tabitha Barret

  Rushing into the building, I flipped the lights on as I ran for the front door. I was only 20 minutes late. That was totally within reason; right?

  Someone moved in front of the glass door as I tried to get it open.

  “I’m so sorry. My phone alert didn’t go off and I had a strange night. Please come in.” I looked up to find the asshole from the pub who had stepped on my foot, standing in front of me. “You! Are you here to apologize?”

  I somehow felt better that the security guy had left and would hopefully reschedule with me. I’d rather deal with the asshole than apologize to the security tech.

  His mouth hung open for a second before he cleared his throat. “I’m Daire Foxworth, co-owner of Charmed Securities. You must be Dahlia Huston.”

  I nodded while my brain tried to reconcile the fact that my security prospect was an asshole.

  “Hi.” Thankfully, I no longer felt bad for making him wait.

  “Admittedly, we got off to a bad start last night, but I’m hoping we can put my mistake in the past. I was having one of those nights where everything seemed to be going really well until suddenly it blew up in my face. I made several attempts to apologize, but my stupidity kept getting in the way. I didn’t mean to step on your foot or piss you off last night and I’m not just saying that because I want your business. I was up all last night reviewing the incident and came up with 73 different versions of how things should have gone instead.” He nervously ran his hand through his curls as he rambled.

  I examined his brown blazer, dark blue-collared shirt, dark jeans and Converse. In his left hand was a vintage leather satchel instead of a boxy briefcase. I lowered my defenses when I realized that he was nothing more than a bumbling klutz who didn’t know how to speak to women and not a pretentious asshole.

  I bit my lip ring. “I’m sorry for throwing someone else’s beer on you. I was tired and hungry. Being short, I get stepped on a lot, so it’s a point of contention for me. Please, come inside, Mr. Foxworth.”

  He chuckled and held up his free hand. “I will try really hard not to step on you.”

  I smiled and stepped back to let him inside the building. “I’m going to hold you to that promise.”

  He bashfully nodded and looked up to scan the walls. Taking a self-guided tour of the storefront, he walked around the edge of the reception desk and into the waiting room, careful not to bump into my favorite sapphire blue armchairs. It looked like he was making a mental layout of the room. He silently pointed to tattoo room # 1 on the right side of the store. I shrugged and he ducked his head in to take a look.

  He came out of the room and nodded in a non-judgmental way before viewing the other tattoo rooms. Once he was done, he headed down the hallway to the back-office area.

  When he finished, he placed his satchel on the glass coffee table and sat on the couch. “You did mention you had a security system in place. Do you mind telling me why you’re upgrading?”

  “Well, it’s mostly due to my father’s urging, but I do want to be safe. I do more cash transactions than you would think, so we do keep money on the premises. I tend to get higher end clients, but sometimes we do get guys with prison tats. I try not to judge people, but I worry about being here late at night. This section of Silver Springs pretends to be upscale, but there are concerns about break-ins. The town has its share of strange deaths and weird stories. A girl can’t be too safe.” I didn’t want to sound like a paranoid little girl who had visions of being hunted by someone, but it was better for him to know what I expected from his company.

  He grinned and nodded knowingly. “You’re right. This town does have its share of strange stories, so I understand wanting to protect yourself. I promise to be fair with my pricing and give you different options, but know that I’m more concerned about keeping you and your employees safe than making a huge profit off your security system. I will admit that we are a new company, so we need to build our list of clientele before we can make a name for ourselves.”

  I snickered. “Basically, your company would be ruined if the 10 o’clock news told everyone about my untimely death because your security system sucked.”

  He slowly nodded and bit the inside of the cheek. “Exactly.”

  Seeing him squirm at my joke put me at ease. He wasn’t a smarmy sales guy looking to make a fast buck. He was the brains behind what he was selling. I liked his easy going approach, which went a long way towards erasing last night’s blunder.

  “I’m certainly willing to give you a chance to prove yourself. Let’s see what you’ve got in mind and then I’ll look at the price tag.” I looked forward to negotiating the hell out of his price, just as I did with everything I’d purchased for the studio.

  I headed for the couch, but stopped when someone walked through the front door. Looking up, I saw Aiden standing awkwardly in front of the reception desk with his hood pulled around his face. With his dark sunglasses on, he didn’t look like much of a morning person.

  Aiden saw me and waved. “Morning.”

  “Excuse me, Mr. Foxworth. I need to get Aiden started.” I waved Aiden into the room hoping that Daire had a minute to hang out.

  In the light of the day, Aiden didn’t look like a scary stalker, but a college kid who needed a job.

  Pulling off his sunglasses, Aiden smiled. “This place really is nice. I can see why you’re concerned about keeping it clean. It definitely stands out from the tattoo shops my buddies used.”

  His warm smile pushed away some of the fear and doubt that had crept in this morning.

  “Thank you. Come on, I’ll show you where to start.” I turned to lead Aiden towards the storage closet in the back office area when I nearly stepped on Mr. Foxworth, who was standing directly behind me. He was glaring at Aiden as if they were mortal enemies. “Oh, Mr. Foxworth. I’m sorry. You promised not to step on me and here I am stepping on you.”

  I tried to lighten the mood, but Daire continued his weird staring contest.

  Aiden held out his hand to Daire, but the tech guy didn’t accept his hand. Awkward.

  Shrugging at Aiden, I ushered him past the man who would never be my security advisor and pretended as if I wasn’t phased by the incident.

  Aiden listened carefully as I told him which cleaning solutions to use with each brush and how best to clean each room since I wasn’t sure if he had ever scrubbed anything in his life. He had probably just moved away from home where his mother had done his laundry.

  He suddenly looked up at me as I handed him the mop. “Thank you again for the job, Dahlia. I promise not to screw it up.”

  “Thank you?” I said it as a question since his promise sounded like he was trying to convince himself that he wouldn’t screw up.

  By the time Aiden was ready to tackle the employee bathroom, I had decided to toss Mr. Foxworth out on his nerdy ass.

  I stormed out into the waiting area and found Foxworth sitting on the couch with a folder in his lap.

  I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off for a second time in 24 hours when he suddenly held up one finger and looked up at me with wide eyes. “Give me one more second. Now that I’ve seen the store, I want to tweak my proposal a little. I hadn’t anticipated certain needs.” He scribbled some notes at the bottom of the page and looked back up at me. “I really believe my company has exactly what you need, Miss Huston.”

  Shaking my head, I held up my hands. “I’m sorry Mr. Foxworth. I’ve decided that my first impression of you was right. You should leave.”

  His face fell and he stood up so fast that his papers spilled across the floor. “Please, call me, Daire.” He mumbled his name quickly and shook his hand around as if he were trying to clear the air or clear his mind. “I’m sorry for somehow offending you again, but I really want to help you. Please, just hear me out.”

  I crossed my arms and nodded towards the door. “We’re done, unless you want me to grab a beer from down the street and throw it at you again.”

  He sputtere
d for a second, trying to figure out how to salvage our conversation until he saw the hard look in my eyes. He finally held up his hands in defeat.

  “Fine. I can see that you’re upset about something, so I’ll go.” He bent over to scoop up his papers and shove them back into his satchel. Looping the shoulder strap over his head, his eyes darted towards the back office when the sound of a bucket and mop handle knocked against something. Once more, he looked at me. “Please reconsider my proposal. You were right when you mentioned the strange stories about this town. I know that my company can help keep you safe.”

  Surprised that he was pleading with me, I thought about changing my decision to kick him out.

  My head turned slightly when I heard the sound of water rushing across something it probably wasn’t supposed to be.

  I lowered my arms and took a deep breath. If this guy was a decent enough security contractor, I should probably at least accept that he was concerned about Aiden working here. As much as I didn’t want to go back to my “maybe this was a bad idea” theory, I didn’t know anything about Aiden. Not that I knew anything about Daire either, but if I had to put my trust in one of them, it would be the guy with ties to the community and not the drifter.

  “Look, I’m a little pressed for time and the studio is about to open. Leave the proposal and I’ll review it later. If I like what I see, I’ll call you.” For some reason, just saying that I would review the bid made me feel better. I felt like I had options in case Aiden wasn’t who I thought he was.

  Daire clasped his hands together and nodded. “Thank you, Dahlia. I mean, Miss. Huston. I look forward to hearing from you. Please, if you have any questions, call my office and I will happily explain everything.”

  The knot forming at the pit of my stomach eased up as I walked Daire to the front door. I looked over my shoulder towards the back office, hoping that I hadn’t made a mistake about Aiden.

  Daire held out his hand to me and I absently reached out to shake it. I realized too late that I wasn’t wearing the latex gloves that served as a buffer between my psychic abilities and all the positive and negative energies that resided on the surface of the skin. A shockwave of ice mixed with fear rolled through my arm to my chest. I screamed and pulled me hand away, recoiling from his hand.

  An overwhelming feeling of terror made my body shake and tears roll down my cheeks. I closed my eyes and saw shadowy images of people lurching towards me as if there was something wrong with their legs. Their moans and groans echoed inside my head. I tried to swat away the images, knowing that what I was seeing and feeling wasn’t real.

  What the hell was Daire so afraid of?

  Chapter 6 Daire

  “Dahlia, breathe. Focus on my voice. You need to calm down. I don’t know what you’re seeing, but it’s not real. Come back to me, please.” Seeing Dahlia screaming and crying, I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew for certain that it was a result of her touching me. Nothing else in the shop would elicit such a reaction.

  “You are worthless! A disgrace! No one will ever take our family seriously if you continue to flaunt your curse. I wish you were never born!” Dahlia’s voice was different. It was deeper and colder than before. My heart sank when I heard my father’s condemnation of me flowing out of her beautiful face.

  Somehow, Dahlia was channeling my deceased father, who had gone to the grave hating me for being a necromancer and sullying the family’s prestigious name.

  Careful not touch Dahlia’s skin and have her channel my Great Aunt Gertrude, who believed that all necromancers should be burned at the stake, I did what I could to guide Dahlia out of her vision of my sadistic father.

  “No, no, no. Dahlia, you are not a disappointment. Ignore whatever that bastard is saying to you. Tell him to go to hell and walk away. Be strong. You can do this. Please, come back to me.” I put my hands on her shoulders that were covered by her black short sleeve Lady Blue Tattoo shirt to help guide her back to reality.

  “What’s happening to her?” The vampire dropped his mop and sprinted over to us so fast that I lost track of him.

  “She’s having a vision. Does this happen often?” I shouldn’t have been as dismissive of the bloodsucker, but I was more worried about losing Dahlia than offending the undead.

  “I have no idea. I just met her last night.” He reached out to touch her but I slapped away his hand.

  “Don’t touch her if you want to keep your secret safe. I understand now why she hired you. She has no idea what you are.” He gave me a surprised look but quickly shrugged, implying that he didn’t understand what I meant.

  Gasping, Dahlia’s eyes flew open. Her eyes bounced around the store as if she was searching for my father or whatever she had seen earlier, which was probably a horde of zombies if she had channeled one of my last favorite nightmares.

  I stayed calm and smiled at her. “You’re safe. It’s okay.”

  She slowly nodded as she processed the fact that she was back in her studio.

  “I came back to you.” She muttered more to herself than me. A warmth spread through my chest when I realized I had said, come back to me, not come back to reality or the studio. Grateful that she heard me, I smiled. “Yes, you did.

  She reached out to touch my face, but I carefully used the sleeve of my blazer to divert her hand. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. I don’t want to lose you again.” She gave me a small smile, and nodded.

  Sad that she wasn’t able to touch me, I walked her over to the couch to sit her down. I shooed the vampire away to give her space. I doubted that she wanted an audience after her episode.

  “Can you tell me what you saw? I can only go by what you were saying.” I moved back a little to sit on the coffee table and shoved the beauty and Hot Rod magazines to the other end.

  “Shadows lumbered towards me, and then it changed to a man in a suit yelling at me.” She paused for a moment. “Wait, you called him a bastard. Did you know him?”

  “Ahh. Yes. Well, we all have our demons, don’t we, Miss Huston. I’m sorry that you had to see mine.” I looked down at my shoes, embarrassed that she had seen my family drama. “I’m sorry you had to meet my father.”

  “I’m sorry you had to live with him.” She patted my covered knee and sighed.

  “Yes, well, we can’t choose family. Can we? I would have preferred living with the Bewitched family, but we can’t all get what we want.” Seeing that she was lucid, I stood up and moved away to let her breathe. “Are you okay to stand?”

  She nodded and slowly stood, only wobbling once.

  She gave me a small smile and walked towards the back office. “I’ll call you Mr. Foxworth.”

  I felt bad that Dahlia had to go through the aftermath alone, but I hadn’t proven myself as a confidant yet, especially since I had somehow pissed her off a second time.

  Collecting my briefcase, I pinned the vampire with a knowing look as if to say, if they find Dahlia dead in a ditch, drained of blood, I will come back to stake you. Sad to leave without having a chance to talk with Dahlia and figure out if she understood her abilities, I headed for my bike around the corner.

  Who knew that Dahlia Huston was an untrained psychic? I didn’t know why my father had decided to make an appearance now, but it was just like him to continue ruining my life long after his demise. Why shouldn’t he? He’d never cared about my feelings when he was alive.

  Poor Dahlia, she’d probably never had anyone talk down to her like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if that episode scarred her for life, as it had done to me.

  Unlocking my bike and putting on my helmet, I stopped to lean against the side of the building. I thought a vampire was the worst of her problems. Never in a million years did I think Dahlia was a half witch with raw potential. Yet, she wasn’t the average card or palm reader. She could experience the past, present or future of someone she touched. It was hard for witches with those kinds of gifts to maintain a personal life if they couldn’t touch people
.

  I hadn’t seen any wards or charms in the building to protect her or anyone else in the studio, so she hadn’t figured out how to keep herself from having visions at random.

  She also didn’t know about vampires. Aiden, too, was untrained and undisciplined based on the way he stared at her neck in full view of a stranger. He also hadn’t gotten the memo about bringing his blood in a cooler since he hadn’t arrived with a “lunch bag”.

  I had to find a way to earn her trust and subtly broach the subject of the vampire in her employment before she became his lunch. Not to mention the conversation that started off something like, hey, you’re a witch. I bet you didn’t know that. Well, let me give you some pointers.

  Neither conversation would end well, but I had to try; otherwise, Dahlia would die an early death.

  Chapter 7 Dahlia

  Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I listened to the meditation mix on my computer and tried to put the incident with Daire behind me so that I could work. Clicking on the scheduler, I put my glasses on and sighed when I saw that I had a full day booked. How was I going to get through an entire day with shaky hands?

  I tried multiple times to get the imposing image of Daire’s father out of my head. No wonder Daire lacked confidence in himself. His father was a total asshole. And what had he meant when he mentioned Daire’s curse? Daire seemed like a smart guy who cared about people. Why was he a disgrace to their family?

  Daire obviously hated his father and feared him enough to unleash such pain and terror upon me when I touched him. And with good reason. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like if my father had been a tyrant.

  Maybe I was being too hard on Daire. He lacked confidence with women, but hadn’t run away when I started screaming. Most men freaked out when I had a vision and condemned me as a witch. They never stuck around for long once they saw what I could do.