Without another word, Max slowly reached a hand out towards me.
My stupid stomach kicked with blissful, tingling nerves. It didn’t matter that there was a particular triumphant glint flickering through his gaze. All that counted was the hand, the fact he was reaching towards me….
But when I didn’t act quickly enough and grab the hand? He simply let out a heavy sigh, pushed forward, grabbed the back of my chair, pulled it out, and shoved me.
I stumbled onto the clean kitchen tiles. “Hey,” I protested.
He turned hard on his camel-leather boots and headed towards the door. “No time to waste,” he said.
Though I didn’t agree with a lot of the crap he said, I had to appreciate how true that statement was. Because, like it or not, the sudden tight twist of nerves pulling through my gut and wrapping tightly around my middle told me just the same.
No time to waste.
No time to waste.
Chapter 2
Max was true to his word. He must have honestly thought we were running out of time, because he gave me none as he dragged me out of the front door to his waiting car.
I caught sight of his expression several times.
Though sometimes Max was an enigma, now even a baby would be able to read his consternation, confusion, and fear.
That’s right, fear. The longer I hung around with Max, the more I appreciated he wasn’t as simple as I’d first imagined.
There was more to the fairy than his scowling expression and dark moods.
Though now was probably when I should have been concentrating on the fact someone was out there stealing people’s hearts, my mind ticked back to that question.
The big question. Just exactly who Max had been and what his terrifying secret was.
I had to hope I was right – and despite the fact he was busily hiding something, it wouldn’t turn out to be the kind of secret that would bop you on the head and kill you.
Because if I was wrong…
Max growled at me to get in the car when I hesitated.
I piled into the passenger seat, watched him shove the keys in the ignition, then quickly became distracted as he pulled out from the curb.
Though the drive into the city was a short one, I somehow packed as much time into it as I could, letting my mind wander endlessly through the various possibilities of Max’s secret life.
It was a relatively thankless task, because I still had zero idea what a fairy actually was. Okay, so it was clear he had magic, but how was his magic different to a pixie’s, or a wizard’s, or a witch’s?
Though I’d googled these things in the faint hope that there was a legitimate Wikipedia entry on them, of course there wasn’t.
So they just left me back at square one, and unfortunately square one meant I had to find out all of this stuff on my own. Probably violently as it smacked me on the noggin.
All too quickly, Max pulled up on the side of the road and grumbled, “We’re here.”
I ticked my head around so fast, I could have given myself whiplash. “We’re where?” I swallowed hard, throat pushing against my tight collar.
I was in jeans, a turtleneck, and sensible shoes. I knew this adventure could turn ugly, and I didn’t want to be in heels and a skirt.
Max didn’t answer my question. He piled out of the car and paused, almost as if he were questioning whether he should be a gentleman and whether he should open my door for me.
The gentleman didn’t win.
He stalked up onto the pavement, shoved his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans, and waited with his trademark scowl crumpling his brow.
When I got out of the car and shut the door, he inclined his head to the side with a quick jerking tick of a move. It revealed the tension running through his jaw, seizing the muscles of his neck and chest.
I frowned. I frowned, because it struck me. No more being distracted by thoughts of Max’s secret. Because, hello, it was time to investigate a murderer who was cutting people’s hearts out.
I paled, and this, this made Max snort. “Finally taking this seriously, ha?”
Though I’d been content to ignore his baiting insults this morning, suddenly I cracked. I shot him a scowl of my own. “What is it with you, anyway? Are there two people occupying your head? Do you have a split personality, A?”
“What does that mean?” he snapped.
“It means that you have to be two different people, because one moment you’re sweetness and light and you’re cooking perfect pancakes. The next—” I didn’t bother to finish the sentence. I gestured to him with a quick, dismissive flick of my hand.
I crammed my hands in my pockets and stalked off down the street. Problem was, I had no idea where I was going. As I scanned the street, I realized I hadn’t been here before – which wasn’t saying much, as this entire city was pretty new to me. So, I quickly ticked my head from left-to-right and surmised we were probably heading for the shady-looking supply store two doors down.
I didn’t reach it. Max suddenly put on one of his characteristic blinding bursts of speed and crossed several meters between us in half a second. He reached out, placed a hand on my shoulder, and drew me to a halting stop. I imagined Max could reach a hand out, place it on a speeding car, and draw it to a halt with that exact same move. Heck, the look in his eye could probably stop a jet plane.
“Hey,” I began.
“You don’t know where you’re going,” he replied. Then, his hand still locked on my shoulder, his palm weighing heavily against the crinkled wool of my turtleneck, he turned me around.
When I’d stalked past these two buildings, heading to the shady supply store, I hadn’t noticed there was a significant gap between them. It wasn’t large enough to be an alley – you wouldn’t be able to fit a vehicle down there. And yet, it was plenty big enough to fit a human.
I frowned. Had that been there several seconds ago? Was I so distracted—
“Whatever you do, you follow my lead. You speak only if I tell you to. And, Chi—” he leaned in, practically bending in half as he brought his face close to mine.
My stomach kicked as a pulse of nerves seesawed into my heart. It wasn’t fear. Oh no, it was the exact opposite. Exhilaration. For my confused, pathetic little heart told me Max was about to kiss me. Which of course he wasn’t.
He smoothed that same sneer over his face. “You stay by my side, got it? Doesn’t matter what happens. It doesn’t matter what shiny things distract you. Stay by my side.” He brought up a finger and pointed it next to him as if I were a dog and he was asking me to heel.
I just stopped myself from sticking my tongue out at him. I was an adult, after all. I could not stop myself, however, from curling my hands into fists and stiffening my lips until they were two white, bloodless lines. “I’ve got it. Where are we going, anyway? You haven’t told me anything.”
It soon became clear that he had zero intention of telling me anything. He just grumbled at me to follow, and he pushed off down the small laneway.
Now, though I understood magic was a thing, my brain hadn’t really gotten used to it yet. It was still very much rooted in the real world. And in the real world, buildings and laneways and cars and trees tended to stay the same size. From moment to moment, unless there was an earthquake or a roving demolition ball, buildings didn’t move.
Well, that wasn’t the case right now. I swear as we pushed off down that tiny little alleyway, it got all the smaller. It wasn’t perspective or anything. It wasn’t the fact that as the laneway wound out of sight, I couldn’t see where it led from the mouth. Nope – because I heard the bricks creaking. They pushed in towards us, this echoing groan filtering down the laneway, sounding like a tree growing all around us.
“Ah, Max?” I began.
“Relax,” he said in a bored, monotone voice. “It’s just a security precaution.”
“A security precaution?”
“So no non-magical creature can make it to the bar.”
“Bar?” My nose scrunched up. “It’s 9:30 in the morning. Isn’t it a little early for alcohol?”
He snorted and shot me a look that told me I was truly pathetic. “We’re not out on a date, Chi. We’re here to investigate something.”
I blushed. I mean truly blushed. My cheeks felt like they became iridescent as all the blood in my body pumped through my face.
Why the heck would he phrase it like that? I hadn’t suggested we were out on a date—
Before I could finish that truculent thought, Max stopped.
There wasn’t anything around us – just the same drab brown brick walls covered in mildew and coated in years of grime. They were still creaking, sounding like old bones as they shifted in and out.
Max looked as if he were concentrating as he brought a hand up and paused, fingers several centimeters from one of the chipped bricks. “Now, which one is it?” he muttered under his breath.
Though I wanted to ask what the hell he was doing, I now knew enough about Max to appreciate he wasn’t going to answer. So I crossed my arms and just waited.
Though I could appreciate that Max was my magical bodyguard, and, considering recent adventures, I knew just how much I needed him – I also couldn’t deny that a lot of my problems were created by him. I couldn’t help feeling that this would be no different. It was probably some test, or at least that would be how he explained it to himself. By not pausing to fill me in on what was happening, he could see how I reacted in the real world. He could measure me up against some impossible concept he had in his head.
My thoughts became all the more bitter until finally Max appeared to come to a decision.
A relaxed, easy smile spread across his face as he reached a hand out and selected one of the bricks. He pushed it in. There was a grating sound as his fingers shoved against the brick, and mortar and dust filtered out from the move, dashing against his camel-leather boots.
He never took those boots off. It was almost as if they were part of his uniform or something. They were always perfectly clean, too. Not a scuff. It didn’t matter if he spent all afternoon in the garden, didn’t matter if he chased some magical fiend away from the front door – those boots were always clean and shiny.
“You want to stop scowling at me?” Max spat as he whirled on his foot, brought a hand up, and jammed his thumb towards the wall. “Now come along. Like I already said, we’re running out of time.”
I looked at him blankly. “It’s a wall, Max. What exactly do you want me to do with it?” Just as I finished that bitter little insult, the wall… well, it shifted. It happened abruptly, smoothly, too – kind of like a door opening. It went from being there one second, to not being there the next second.
And it revealed? It revealed a bar.
I knew my cheeks became pale, sallow, slack. I felt my heart quicken, felt sweat slick across my brow.
Max didn’t give me the option to stand there and stare. He leaned forward, locked that same strong hand on my shoulder, and pushed me in.
Despite the fact it was 9:30 in the morning, the bar was open. In fact, it was packed.
Though we’d arrived here by magically selecting the right brick in a tiny laneway, the bar itself… it looked relatively normal. Or, at least the decor did. The patrons?
I shivered. Boy, did I shiver. Tight, pulsing nerves raced up and down my back, seizing every muscle in turn.
I had never seen a collection of such creepy looking people in my life. None of them overtly looked magical – there were no 10-foot-tall pixies dragging chains around. Nope, at first glance, they were human. At second glance? Oh, at second glance, the primal instincts of your brain kicked in, telling you to scream and run.
The guy to my left was creepily tall, wore a massive leather jacket that ran all the way down to his scuffed leather boots, and had the kind of broad-chested body a professional wrestler would be proud of. But that was nothing whatsoever to mention his face. He had all the right features – eyes, chin, mouth, and nose – even if it looked as if his nose had been broken by a sledgehammer. And yet, his features didn’t quite work. It was as if they’d been painted there by Picasso.
“You’re staring. Stop staring,” Max said as he leaned in and whispered into my ear.
Though my heart wanted to tremble at his proximity, we didn’t have time. He pushed me in the small of my back, and I let out the cutest little squeak as we shifted through the bar.
Though I was just starting to learn about how magic felt, I swore I could sense it. Swore it was a faint crackle in the air, a distant hum as if a radio had been left on in a nearby room. Heck, I even smelt it – like melted candle wax, old incense, and snow.
We pushed all the way through the bar, and I discreetly stared at all the patrons in turn. One of my grandmother’s journals had listed most of the various magical races, from witches to wizards, pixies to fairies, to seers. I imagined the three long-legged, stunning brunettes in the corner were witches. The creepy guys in long leather jackets with bodies that looked like bulls crossed with wrestlers – wizards. So that just left the guy to my right—
He pushed up from his chair, turned hard on his foot, and shoved his hand towards Max. “Max, crap, is that really you? It’s been a long time.”
According to my grandmother’s journals, fairies looked the most like humans. They didn’t feel like humans, though. The more you became acquainted with magic, the more you learned to feel its subtle vibrations, the more you appreciated that fairies existed in a different realm. Their magic was more direct, more powerful, and unlike witches and wizards, they could utilize every cell in their body to create power. Their magic tended to cost more, too – whether it be their memories, their mind, or their lifespan.
Max looked put-out and even paled slightly. It was obvious he hadn’t been expecting an interruption. It was just as obvious that he knew this man, however, and just as obvious – to me at least – that they were not friends.
Tell the other guy that, though. Because he shoved forward, reached a hand across, and clapped it on Max’s shoulder with a resounding thump, thump, thump.
Then his gaze narrowed as he tilted his head towards me. “Friend?” he asked. He said friend, stressing the F with a hissing purr. Though the guy was measurably less creepy than the leather-clad wizards to my side, I stiffened as if somebody had run their fingernails up and down my spine.
The guy was obviously a fairy. Or, at least he kind of looked like one.
It took several seconds for Max to react. He spread a seriously fake, seriously forced smile over his lips. “Dimitri, it’s been a long time.”
Maybe Max thought he was doing a good job of hiding his disdain for this Dimitri fellow, but it was as obvious as painting “I hate you” over his face in giant great big neon letters.
Yet Dimitri, if he noticed, didn’t appear to care. Again, his attention flicked back to me as a curious smile spread across his lips. “What are you doing here?”
The guy was looking right at me, so forgive me for thinking he was talking to me. I cleared my throat, awkwardly shrugged, and opened my mouth. I didn’t, however, get a chance to speak.
Max gave a small, quiet growl that couldn’t travel, and appeared to accidentally bump into me with his shoulder. “Here for a good time,” he said.
Here for a good time? Not only did his tone and stance suggest that he was looking for a baseball bat to bop Dimitri on the head with, but who on earth said that? Well, apart from drunken guys at 3 o’clock in the morning?
Dimitri got a confused look, again letting his gaze flick towards me. “Well, the bar’s that way.” He gestured behind him with his thumb.
The guy had a deep Russian accent and rolled his Rs. Yet his accent wasn’t nearly as thick as Max’s. From the little I’d managed to find out about fairies, I knew they could live for a seriously long time. Perhaps Dimitri had come over here a couple of decades ago and had managed to smooth away most of his accent. Or, heck, maybe he’d come over se
veral hundred years ago – apparently, fairies could live for almost a millennia.
As I shifted my gaze towards Max, I wondered just how old he was. Fairies tended to live for as long as they had purpose, whether it was revenge or protection. The more determination they had to get something done, the more years they lived.
Though I’d become thoroughly distracted by the prospect of searching for the heart murderer when I’d entered this bar, I realized this was an opportunity.
Dimitri seemed to know Max. Despite the fact Max had shoved into me and pushed me out of the way, I cleared my throat and stepped to the side. “Are you Max’s friend?” I asked.
I felt Max’s deadly gaze slice towards the back of my neck.
Dimitri? He clearly saw an opportunity, pushed forward, plucked up my hand, and shook it before I even realized what he was doing. He obviously had the same speed and agility Max did. Except Dimitri was smoother.
As I let him do all the shaking, I swore I felt a little magic. While Max’s was fiery and felt like grasping a lightning bolt, Dimitri’s was….
Max cleared his throat, reached forward, and locked to hand on my shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Dimitri. Unfortunately, we can’t stay.”
Dimitri sliced his gaze towards Max but didn’t let go of my hand. He was done shaking, and we were thoroughly into the truly awkward stage when people hold your hand for entirely too long.
Max didn’t shift his hand, either. Nor did he shift his rather deadly gaze off Dimitri. “I’m afraid we have to go now,” he repeated.
“Who are you, anyway? And how did you fall in with a fairy like Max?” Dimitri returned his attention to me.
I was now regretting having taken the initiative to question this fellow. Because he still wouldn’t let go of my hand. I politely tried to take a step backward, but his fingers were like glue as they stuck around mine. All the while, Max didn’t shift his hand from my shoulder. I felt like a doll two kids were fighting over.
“What brings you to town, anyway, Dimitri?” Max smoothly changed the topic of conversation.
A Lying Witch Book Two Page 2