“No. It’s not that, but… I was in the bathroom, and I heard Tiffany and a guy… I thought it was Vin, but if he was here the whole time…” Each sentence trailed off as my brain tried to think as my mouth kept talking.
“Did the guy look like Vin?” She scanned the crowd, searching for another man built like a mountain.
“I didn’t see him. I just heard them.”
“Oh. Then it was probably just some other couple making out in the bathroom.”
“Sure. Probably, except that the girl was wearing the same shoes as Tiffany.”
Vanessa turned to face me, finally as freaked out as me. “Oh, crap on a stick. She had those custom made. She spent a few months in Europe picking out crystal, beads, and stuff for her dress and the shoes. Are you sure they were doing it?”
I crinkled up my face, the echoes of the sounds they made replaying in my brain. “Maybe they were sucking on popsicles while kneading bread… in a bathroom… that she had made sure was empty.”
She groaned. “Maybe I’ll do Vin a favor and buy her a one-way ticket to Greece.”
“Or maybe you’ll go tell him?”
She shook her head. “No way. Remember how she was grinding up against that stripper at her bachelorette party? I told Vin the next day, and he chewed me out. Said that he had to marry her and I had to stop hassling him.”
“Had to? How romantic.” I gasped. “Do you think she’s… expecting?”
“If so, the baby will come out with horns and a tail ’cause she’s the devil.” She caught sight of my shocked face. “Relax, I’m just kidding. She’s been drinking like a fish, and I heard her say that she is having her period right now. She’s not pregnant. She’s just evil. Frankly, Vin and she deserve each other.”
“Vanessa!”
She looked a little sheepish but defended her point. “He’s just been such a pain in the rump for weeks, and he and Mom fight constantly. I can’t wait for the wedding to be over. In twenty-four hours, it will be all over, and we can focus on something fun, like finding a killer and drug dealer.”
“Fun times. So you don’t think I owe it to Vin to tell him what I heard?”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure, tell him, but just don’t be too close in case he bites your head off. Now why don’t you go grab us some drinks? I think I need to find Raymond again. I haven’t seen much of him since Vin and his guy quit working at the casino. I’m positive that tomorrow at the reception will finally be the night for us.” She let out a sigh as a dreamy look filled her eyes.
She turned and left before I could argue I left the restaurant for the semi-attached bar next door. I could have waved down one of the waitresses to order for me, but they all looked a little harried.
After I got our drinks and turned to leave, I noticed Vin, alone, at a table in the corner. He couldn’t have been there too long, but he already had three empty glasses in front of him. I weighed Vanessa’s advice against my gut, and in the end, I decided that seeing him was a sign that I was supposed to talk to him.
I quickly grabbed a beer from the bar then went over and took the seat opposite Vin, sliding the beer in front of him.
He gave a grunt and drank the beer until the glass held only bits of foam that slid down the side as he put it on the table between us. He looked at me defiantly, and I sensed that he was ready to argue.
Maybe he already knew what I was going to say. My guess was that he realized the wedding was a bad idea and figured I was going to warn him off of it, but perhaps he didn’t realize Tiffany was already fooling around. I debated what to say and how when he cut me off.
“I was wrong about you.” His tone was aggressive and more than a touch angry.
“About?”
“Being a mage. I figured you were doomed from the start. I mean, you’re still a kid, but your training should have started decades earlier.”
“I’m almost thirty.”
He shook his head. “Just a kid. But you’ve pulled yourself together pretty well.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. It clearly pained him to admit my success. “Thanks.”
He grunted again and held up two fingers to the bartender. Mages had a much higher tolerance for alcohol than humans, but if he kept up at this rate, he was going to be under the table in a few minutes.
“Vin, my dad gave me some advice once. He said that often times people stay in a situation because of all the time and money they invested, and that will make them stick with an investment that’s gone bad. You have to ask yourself, ‘Right now, at this exact moment, if I had the money or my freedom or whatever back, would I invest again in this situation?’ Do you get what I’m saying?”
He stared at the table and nodded.
Time stretched out. I wanted to leave it. I was pretty sure he understood my point, but I hadn’t given him the specific information he needed. Even though I didn’t have any feelings for him, I knew he deserved better. Anyone deserved better.
“I was in the bathroom, and Tiffany came in. She was with a man and—”
“Stop!” It was said with calm authority that clamped my mouth shut. “Go.”
Despite the anger he was radiating, I wasn’t intimidated and didn’t look away as he glared at me. I was sad for him. He deserved better than a partner that was cheating on him even before their wedding.
I should have looked away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to say more, but then the anger in his eyes shifted, and I saw his sadness, hopelessness, and still under all that, determination. Like a man determined to walk the plank.
I turned and left him. I couldn’t fix the situation, and it appeared that he wouldn’t, but I could give him privacy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After a full twelve hours of sleep, I felt recharged as I drove Vanessa and myself to the salon to get ready for the wedding. Not just rested but renewed. The pain, both physical and emotional, from the past week felt a million miles away. My body and mind were rested, and I had a plan. A plan I had made. I was going to try dating, on the sly of course because mage society still expected Monzas to be celibate, but I had made my best attempt to learn the lifestyle with no one to teach me. That meant I could make my own rules, right?
“Right!” I enthusiastically said out loud.
Vanessa jerked up in her seat. She was not a morning person, especially when she had a massive hangover. While I had slept peacefully from the moment my head hit the pillow until my alarm went off, apparently, Vanessa had spent several hours throughout the night worshiping at the throne of the porcelain gods. Or as she had put it, “Yacking up everything but her shoes.” I had warned her, “Beer before liquor, never been sicker,” especially when she chased it down with two entire cheesecakes.
This morning she had insisted that all she needed was a Bloody Mary, but based on what I heard during my breakfast, the Bloody Mary had been returned to sender.
Vanessa groaned and shielded her eyes from the sun. “Please save me from this hangover. I have the rune here in my bra.”
I stopped at a red light and snuck a better look at her, noticing that the front of her shirt seemed pretty lumpy. “What else do you have in there?”
“Oh, my channeling stone and a few potion vials, just in case.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to let your channel stone touch other magical items.” My channel stone, or key, was also tucked into my bra, but it wasn’t noticeable since it was hidden in my cleavage. I had discovered it was a convenient place to keep physical contact, which recharged it, and its power was ready for me when I needed it, which had been often.
“You are such a Goody Two-Shoes. No, I’m not supposed to have them all touching, but I want to have them at the wedding, just in case, and I can’t carry a purse.” Her voice had quite a bit of snap to it.
“Can’t you just—”
“Stop! You are going to make me sick with all this nagging.” She reclined her seat abruptly, startling Patagonia in the back seat, who let out a yowl and batted a
t Vanessa’s wild hair.
I accelerated as carefully as possible, as I didn’t want Vanessa to throw up in my car. I wasn’t going to let her bad mood ruin my morning. I was full of hope and possibilities for my future. I had a date, a direction, and a daring new do. I was unstoppable!
I pulled into a familiar parking lot and threw the car into park. “Let me do a little something for the hangover.”
Vanessa turned to face me and pulled her sunglasses to show her bloodshot eyes. “Really?”
In general, we didn’t heal hangovers or sore muscles. It was considered part and parcel of living life. Do the crime, do the time, or in this case the crippling nausea. But mage etiquette wasn’t my biggest concern. It was going to be a long day already putting up with Tiffany. I needed Vanessa as an ally, not another enemy.
“Come on. We’ll live dangerously. And frankly, I’m doing this more for me than you.”
She sat up quickly then covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. I held my breath until her color turned normal again. “That was close. Okay, I’m ready.”
I grabbed her hand, the contact making it easier, and worked the spell. It was going to take some of my energy but probably not as much as fighting with her all day, so I considered it time well spent. When I worked magic, I always lost track of time, like little pockets gone from my day as I went into a trance.
I had a general sense of both our magic swirling around me, a product of using the rune for the magic, and it pulling from both of us. The process was over much faster than I expected, and I wasn’t as drained as I predicted.
“Ow ouch ouchie!” Vanessa grabbed at the front of her shirt right as I finished up the spell.
“You okay?”
She stopped and rubbed at the space between her breasts. “That was weird. For a second, the rune felt really hot, but…” She pulled out her shirt to look down inside. “I don’t know. I guess I was… confused. I feel a lot better. Like so much better. Oh, hey, you didn’t hold the rune, and the spell worked!” She flopped back on her seat, her face smooth, where before it had been tensed up in pain.
“I was in such a hurry to get rid of your attitude that I forgot. Interesting…” I was distracted as I looked at the building, which held fancy condos. I was familiar with it because Bear lived there, and occasionally I had studied in his extensive library. His car was still in his reserved parking spot.
Yesterday after my appointment with Dr. Trout, I had updated Bear on the investigation, and we had set up a time to meet on Sunday. He had mentioned that he was sorry things hadn’t worked out with Colleen and that she was flying out around noon on Saturday, during the wedding.
They obviously hadn’t left yet, and I knew what I had to do. I had insisted we leave extra early for the salon even though I had no desire to be in Tiffany’s presence a second longer than necessary. I had taken the slightly longer way to the salon, the way that passed by his building. I had pulled into his parking lot to help Vanessa rather than waiting until we arrived at the salon.
Each decision had happened without any deep thought, but some part of me knew that I wanted to talk to Colleen before she left, and looking at the building, I knew what I wanted to say. How the plan had formed in my mind was a mystery to me, but now it felt inevitable.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I jumped from the car and slammed the door. Racing to the front door, I pressed the button to his apartment before I could think things through. If I had, I was pretty sure that I would have realized it was a terrible idea, but I was hyped up on new-hairstyle confidence.
Bear buzzed me up, and after I got there, going three steps at a time to the third and top floor, he let me in then excused himself, leaving me alone with Colleen.
She watched me with a cool expression on her face. Not angry but not open either, it gave no indication to what she was feeling or thinking, and neither did her tightly shielded emotions. My confidence faltered. What was I doing? What did I hope to gain? I didn’t have the answer to either question, but I also couldn’t stop my mouth from talking. It moved on its own, bypassing my brain altogether and speaking from my heart things that I hadn’t even understood.
“I lied about something and want to explain, not to change your mind but to be honest with myself. It isn’t right that I came to you and begged for help but wasn’t truthful. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I shouldn’t be a Monza at all.”
I half expected her to interrupt me and say that she never said I wasn’t a Monza, but her only reaction was a slight cocking of her head to the side. I swallowed hard, my cheeks heating up, but I pressed on.
“I didn’t really decide to be a Monza. I didn’t even know what it meant when I declared it. But I am sure that I made the right choice. At least then. But I do—”
“Why did you declare yourself a follower of the old ways if you didn’t know what that meant?”
I stuttered to find my answer. I had been told by a seer that following the old ways would protect me, but mages believed that repeating a seer’s vision was bad luck, though that was too light of a way to put it. Repeating a vision could set the whole situation off the rails. No one was willing to risk it. Except Tiffany, who had bragged about the fact that she would marry Vin based on a seer’s prediction, and that was coming true.
But I wasn’t willing to risk it, especially given her refusal to work with me, so I would be as honest as I could. Vanessa was right about me being a Goody Two-Shoes. “I knew it was what I needed to do in the moment I said it. I just didn’t know the repercussions.”
“You said that you wanted to help people. Was that a lie?” Her words should have sounded accusatory or angry, but her voice was so calm it was a bit chilling. She was asking for facts.
Despite that, anger still curled up in my chest. “It’s true, but that is not why I first said it. I said it for self-preservation, but as I learned more about it… I mean what I could learn about being a Monza since nothing seems to be written down… but people expect certain things from me, and so far, I like that. I want to help people, and I will help people with or without training.” I turned to leave, my triumphant moment. I was going to do what I wanted, and no one would stop me.
That was until I caught my foot on something and stumbled across the room. Patagonia had joined me in Bear’s loft and obviously had to stand in the worst possible place. I grabbed the back of a chair, but my moment was ruined. I refused to turn around, my face burning with embarrassment as I headed for the door, but stopped when Colleen’s calm voice called to me.
“But you didn’t want to be a Monza?” Her voice carried a significance I didn’t understand, and that was the only reason I didn’t stomp from the room.
I turned around to face her. “How could I? I didn’t understand what it meant… still don’t technically.”
“Sit down.” She gestured to the chair opposite her. When I didn’t move, she sighed. “Please? I have something I need to tell you.”
I was suspicious but went to do as she said. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I realized that I had been lying to myself. I came over, not to tell her that I didn’t care. I had hoped to change her mind.
“I was supposed to marry a man. I did not want to marry him, but I got some… advice to say I would.” She put a special emphasis on the word to give it an additional meaning. “My parents were so surprised but too pleased to question my change of mind. There was a terrible fire, just terrible, but I lived because I had gone to meet my fiancé. But then I was stuck with a fate that I considered worse than death by fire. I would have to marry this man. In another turn of fate, I got some advice to be a Monza. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but it saved me. Do you understand?”
I nodded, not sure that I understood, but it sounded familiar enough to my own story that I could guess at what she meant. “So you did it to save yourself?”
“Yes. In fact, it appears that every Monza is the same. It is something that life forces you into. Wanting to
be a Monza is a sure sign that you aren’t meant to be a Monza. Can you understand why I turned you down?”
“So if I had told you the truth, you would have agreed to train me?” The devastation hit me like a ton of bricks.
She laughed, not unkindly. “I’m not explaining this well. If it were true that you had chosen to be a Monza, I could not train you because I would be unable. Being a Monza isn’t a vocation like being a waitress. It is more like having red hair or green eyes. One of the greatest indicators is that you are forced into it. Not everyone that gets… advice… to be a Monza takes it, but declaring your intentions because of a threat to your life or safety is the surest sign of what you really are.”
“So when I said that I wanted to be a Monza…”
“I knew you weren’t.”
“But now that you know I did it by accident…?”
“I know you are. It sure is a crazy thing, isn’t it?” She laughed.
“So…?”
“So now I can train you.”
I wasn’t sure I had heard her correctly. “What?”
She smiled broadly. “I can help you. I can train you.”
Every emotion pounded through my body. I went hot and cold and had the most natural of reactions. I burst into tears.
From somewhere deep in the condo, Bear yelled out, “Everything okay out there?”
Colleen moved over to pat my back. “We’re fine, dear. But I won’t be going to the airport today.”
I dabbed at my eyes. “I’m so embarrassed. It’s just…”
“You’ve had a long week, but don’t worry. We’ll get this worked out.”
“Okay.” I sniffed again but was pulling myself together.
“Did you try the potion?”
I crinkled up my face. “What potion?”
“The one I left for you when we last spoke. I put it on the counter. I thought you knew. It was to lift the veil on Edward’s death scene.”
Nice Day for a Mage Wedding: Casino Witch Mysteries 4 Page 18