by Sarah Black
Until a pain impales my skull.
“Nope. I can’t do it.” I spin back into Aja, her brows raised and her eyes stuck on Valentino. Her hands clamp on my arms. It’s a hold that’s easy to get out of, but getting out of it means facing the man at my back, and that I’m not ready for.
Especially because I keep imagining him naked. My pulse spikes and my body shudders.
“That’s interesting.” Aja smiles down at me before spinning me back around. “Valentino.” Her voice mimics her mother’s in that moment. No-nonsense and holding a warning. “Don’t bite her.”
She shoves me at him, leaving my mouth gaping at her antics. One pointy clawed nail taps the sign. “Don’t forget to read the sign, Penny!” To Valentino, she says, “Half hour, that’s all you get, and don’t think we won’t be watching you from the window.”
I stare at her retreating form, the door shutting on well-oiled hinges. All around the traffic buzzes as cars honk and hustle from one location to the next. My eyes look everywhere but at him.
Except—I can feel him.
His scent drifts to me on a faint city breeze, dissipating the foulness of the air and replacing it with a spice that teases my senses. Unable to help myself, my eyes flicker to his, his body mere feet from mine. Yet that gaze heats every place it lands, caressing me from the inside out. This close to him, and clothed, skyrockets my heartrate, my blood pounding in my ears. I break his gaze, glancing at the cars that dart by.
“Penny.” I shiver at my name on his lips. No man should be this deliciously sinful. Yet here we are. “I’m almost put out that you stood me up last night.”
Ah, arrogance, thank you for your appearance. I didn’t think I could get through this moment without you.
I cluck my tongue, once again making eye contact, his sunglasses perched in the nest of his inky dark hair. “Valentino, it’s interesting that you believe I stood you up.” I steel my spine and force myself to stand ramrod straight. “Considering it wasn’t a date.”
He places a hand on his chest, mocking a knife slicing through, done all with a lazy smile. “You wound me, doll face.”
“Couldn’t come up with a better pet name?”
He hums, the sound a vibration low in his throat that I feel from my head to my toes. “I didn’t realize we had moved to pet names.” He’s really putting on a show for me. I almost wish I had an actual knife to stab him with. “Boo-boo kitty?” He pouts.
Nope. Can’t even address that line of bullshit. “Valentino, why are you here?”
“Fine, my love.” The oh so slight accent breaks through. One I can’t place. “As I said, you stood me up.”
“And as I said, it wasn’t a date, it was for a job.” A move I’m truly not feeling guilty about anymore.
“Yes, for me. If I were a better employer, I’d have to fire you.”
“I got sick.” I fake cough, putting a bit more effort into the noise and turning it into a real cough. “See.”
“I do see. Then we need to get you home.”
Before I can even blink, he’s swept me off my feet, my body pressed to his and leaving no space between. My heart flutters in my throat as a pleasurable shiver dances up my spine.
“Valentino, let me go.” My body betrays my words, eliciting yet another pleasurable shiver.
Said he-man presses his nose to my neck. “I don’t think you want me to do that, now do you?” His breath rides a wave to the shores of all my erogenous zones. I’m as helpless as a fish not to fall into his net.
“I believe the lady said let go.”
“She’s sick.”
My head finally plays catch up, and I hold my nose, his scent doing ridiculous things to my body. I wiggle, trying to break free, only Valentino holds me tighter, his dark brows pulling low as he glances down at me like a petulant child.
“I advise you to remember where you are and to put her down now.” I glance over my shoulder to the gravelly voice. It’s the exact one belonging to Aja’s office crush.
“Oh, hi! I’m Penny. We haven’t yet met. I’m new here.” I smack Valentino in the chest. “Let go.”
He grunts but doesn’t release me, his eyes focused solely on the Adonis at the opening to the alleyway. Aja really does know how to pick them. Tall, surfer hair, a tad scruffy, and a deep voice.
His lips tick up into a pleasant grin, even though his lips aren’t quite as full as Valentino’s. “Jeb.”
Jeb. I roll that around on my tongue before voicing his name. “Jeb.” I like it.
Valentino squeezes me tighter, like I’m his new doll. His sparkling eyes glint in the fading sunlight as he looks down at me. “I’ll call you my lucky penny.”
“Oh, please don’t.” I groan, elementary school haunting me with that ridiculous nickname.
“Demon, unhand her.”
“I am no demon.” Fury vibrates from Valentino, his demeanor shifting quickly, and he finally allows me to slide down his body. Slowly, purposely. Allowing me to feel every hard line.
Well then.
He takes a step away, but the smug smirk on his face tells me he knows exactly what he just did. Nope. I’m out.
“Goodnight, Valentino.” I move toward Jeb, however Valentino’s hand snaps out, gripping my arm.
The world slows then stops as anger surges through my veins, and inside danger flickers. The ice pick piercing me burns hotter than any flame. There’s a crack in my facade. Without thought, I twist under his arm, ducking and swerving to dislodge his grip. Once free, I snap my hand onto his wrist and bring it up behind his back, then for good measure I knee him in the groin.
Time slows back down, and I step away, horrified as Valentino bends over himself holding onto—
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” I clasp my hand over my mouth, truly sorry. I wasn’t in any imminent danger, and yet something inside me spoke louder than my conscious mind, screaming at me that I was in peril. I reacted. Pure and simple.
A sliver of fear takes my heart in its icy grip. Laying low doesn’t mean move like a freak.
My eyes dart up to Jeb, who also moved far too fast, his eyes flickering between me and Valentino. I know, I’m trying to figure it out too. That isn’t even normal for a freak like me.
Clapping nearly pulls me out of my body as Aja struts toward me. “Shit, I didn’t even need to send Jeb out.” She holds out a fist that I bump like a zombie. “Didn’t even know you had it in ya.”
Valentino slowly stands. I take one step back, ready to run at a moment’s notice until that voice in my head tells me I have steel in my spine. I jut my chin up to his six-foot frame, meeting him head-on.
What I find there isn’t anger, nor is it the joking attraction from moments earlier. It’s pure, unadulterated desire. For some reason my actions only turned him on.
“I’m done.” I spin around, marching to the door, the entire world has lost its mind.
“Hey, check the sign,” Aja calls out, still blocking Valentino from my view.
Right, the sign. Whatever is so fricking important about that bloody sign? Huffing out an exhausted breath, I glance at the sign.
Davis Tribune.
My footsteps falter, forehead wrinkling and pulling my skin taut. I blink at the sign stupidly. “Impossible.” I almost trip over my legs to get to the front of the building. The window sits just as it did before, open and clean. Nothing else mars the surface. The painted ouroboros isn’t chipped or peeling.
My fingertips glide over the surface, feeling the raised paint before I tilt my head back to read the damn window again.
Davis Tribune.
My mind stutters, and I jump to run my hand over the paint again, this time feeling the lightest of tingles race across my skin. Yanking my hand back as though it was burned, my mind halts.
One hour. We were gone one hour. “The paint should still be wet.”
A hand lands on my shoulder, startling me. My heart flutters before settling as Aja’s warm presence engulfs me. Beyond, Jeb
and Valentino bicker, their voices muted as their eyes dart over to us every once in a while until Valentino stalks off, his cold glare promising any conversation between us isn’t over.
“I don’t understand.”
Yes, you do.
That voice whispers to me in the back of my mind, that haunting lilt of a violet-eyed raven goddess. A woman I barely remember. Yet her presence haunted my childhood. My shoulder blades begin to itch, and panic threatens to set in.
“We only see what we want to see, Penny.” Her voice is soft, but her gaze is unyielding and hard. “You’ve been away from us for far too long and it’s no longer safe.”
All of this because of a sign? I just wanted to eat. I wanted to feed my cat. And I wanted—I don’t know. My eyes dart from one person to the next.
“Dammit, Aja, I told you it was too soon.” Mama Davis pushes through the doors, anger in every step as she scolds her daughter.
It’s too much, my blood roars in my ears. “I can’t.” Muscles bunch as I step back, emotion clogging my throat. “I can’t remember.”
Not them.
Our parents.
Not my mistakes.
“Poppy called about what happened this morning.” Mama takes a cautious step forward, her hands out as though she needs to calm a hurt animal.
“What—” My head swims. “I got sick?” My brows furrow.
“Your magic—”
“No!” That one little word echoes all around us, bouncing off the alleyway where the darkness swallows it. The sun dips further in the sky, darkening that space, space that creates flashes in my mind of a memory I struggle to repress. “I can’t.”
“It isn’t just your life on the line anymore, Penny.” Mama raises her chin, daring me to deny her once more. But she doesn’t understand. She can’t.
She’s not like me. Like us. Poppy and me.
“Whose life?” But I already know as the chills dance across my skin.
“Poppy’s.”
There it is, confirmation. “How?” My chest constricts. Is this what a heart attack feels like?
“Why don’t we go in and get off the street?” Aja steps up beside me, her hand pressing against my lower back.
Yet my feet don’t move. Perhaps I am a wounded animal, because right now I feel like one. Backed into a corner and bleeding out.
Blood.
“No.” I step out of her reach. All three of them. “I need to do this on my own.”
I stumble backwards and away from them, their eyes now glimmering with that unearthly glow. My mind waking up to a world I ran from.
A world I’m running from once again. My feet clap against the pavement as I run away as fast and as hard I can. My breath coming in and out in small puffs.
Yet now I can’t really run, not anymore when the shadows move and eyes lurk in corners, watching as I pass. Not as my world crumbles all around me, leaving me as that shell of a person I was ten years ago.
8
Shock leaks into my system like venom. Threatening to steal my breath, my oxygen, and my sanity. My knees fall to the pavement at the mouth of an alley with a cobblestone street. A remnant of world long, long ago. Ahead, the sun dips lower and lower, casting the world in a haze of twilight. The last streaks of light lift, allowing the darkness within to emerge. But here the shadows stay at bay as the past keeps it hold in the stone. Nothing moves and dares to come out at me. The world stays as it should be, in the present.
Yet all I see is the past as the world swirls and memories merge the shadows into remnants of what once was.
“What movie do you want to see?” Hands so much larger than my own squeeze once.
I glance up to Dad, smiling. “The dragon one.” My wide eyes flicker to Poppy, who wants to see the princess one. Yuck. We never agree on anything, and somehow she always gets her way. Not this time. Mommy and Daddy are with us, and Mom and Poppy are seeing the princess movie while Daddy and I get to see the dragon movie.
Another squeeze to my hand. “Alright, kiddo, the dragon movie it is.”
A blur of movement catches my eye, not unusual. Sometimes I can see the creatures that lurk there. Only because their blood calls to me. We aren’t supposed to talk about that though, because it freaks Mommy and Daddy out.
Shadows fall and a cool breeze picks up, twisting around my legs and chilling my bones. Something isn’t right, I can feel it.
Poppy stops. I step right into her, our hands instantly twining together. Mommy and Daddy surround us, their tones hushed.
Then he’s there like a ghost. Not that I’d know because that’s Poppy’s gift. Not mine. But that’s how she describes it. There on minute and gone the next.
His body stands in the shadows, taller than any man I’ve ever seen, and dressed all in black. He isn’t right. His blood isn’t right. Even from here I can taste it on my tongue, its foul odor curling around me.
I resist the urge to whimper. Poppy’s hand squeezes my own, pulling me back behind Mommy and Daddy. Back, back until our bodies hit the wall.
“Where are they?” That voice. I expected him to sound like a villain. Full of dark, twisted things. But it isn’t. It’s nothing but normal. Normal but it curdles my blood.
“Who?” Mommy and Daddy glance at each other. They don’t look back, not once, though I know they know we are here.
“The girls, where are they?” His voice sears into my brain. Something isn’t right.
I close my eyes, feeling Poppy’s wash of magic coat us further as we sink to the ground.
“Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look.” Her voice is nothing but a whisper.
But I look, and I know she does as well. Daddy is on the ground, his head turned toward us, his eyes on us as his chest rises slowly. Too slowly. His blood seeps from him. Not where it belongs.
It rushes down under him, calling to me, whispering that death is imminent. It’s coming for Mommy too. Her body dangles in the air before dropping beside Daddy. Her movements slow and sluggish as she reaches out for him, her hand gripping his.
Blood pools faster under them. Calling to me. Their death calling to me. I can speed it up. I can’t save them. I can’t knit them back together. I can’t fix this. The promise of death has been made and it won’t go back on its word.
Death never goes back on his word.
“It’s not right.” The murderer’s voice tries to seduce me away from them as sirens wail in the distance. His shadowed body turns toward the echo as a string of curses leave his unseen mouth.
But the blood calls, demanding my attention. Poppy’s hand grips mine tighter, yanking me back even though I hadn’t realized I’d moved. My body shakes as their breathing slows. My body craves to take their blood, to use it. Power lies in their blood, blood that flows to the gutter to be washed out to the sea.
I hold back my whimper, that seductress in my head whispering of everything we can do with their blood. I push her away. I push it all away. Shoving it deep down inside me so that I won’t be tempted to use their blood.
My parents. I don’t want to use their blood.
Overhead, thunder rolls as the sky opens up, dumping rain down on us. Diluting the blood and washing it away. The man is gone.
I sink against Poppy, my body shaking with the strength it took to push the need away. Her voice mumbles something over and over, louder and louder.
“What have you done? What have you done?”
The present snaps me back to reality. The rubber band broken as memories crash into me stealing my breath. I didn’t know it at the time, but by cutting off what made me uniquely me, I’d cut off what made Poppy her. I can still feel the wash of magic rushing over my skin as her words echo over and over.
Magic that simmers just below my flesh, whispering of all the things we could accomplish. All the things we could achieve. And in the back of my mind one word plays on repeat.
Revenge.
I sink to the cobblestones, the echo of blood calling to me once more.
But it’s been ten years, ten years of stuffing that call deep down until it began to make me sick. Poppy didn’t give me liquid Pepto this morning, she gave me an elixir. A potion of magical properties reviving me better than any prescription medication.
A sob tears free of my chest. Poppy always looks out for me. Even after all these years. I curl onto my side, my eyes staring at the alley as darkness washes over the city. People walk over me, dismissing me and my mental breakdown. Just another homeless fool on the brink of insanity. Yet I hold on by my fingertips, grasping at the life I tried to make.
Everything catches up to me. Magic is real, I’ve always known that. And magic killed our parents. Something killed our parents.
I don’t know how long I lie there, allowing the past to haunt me. Until the rumble of an engine sounds far too real to be just another hallucination. The creak of a door echoes in the night before slamming, shattering the illusion of the past. My unfocused eyes catch on scuffed dark shoes. Slacks bunch as a man crouches before me, his warm brown eyes all-knowing and understanding far too much.
“Hey, peanut.”
Mouth dry, I run my tongue along my teeth before peeking up at him. “Joe.”
I knew it was him before he even walked over. His blood sings to me of his status—human. Nearing his late thirties, his hair still holds those streaks of white in the dark strands. Stubble marks his face in that salt and pepper array, giving him a distinguished look. But there are far too many lines at the corners of his eyes, telling a story of a hard life on the force. Though dressed in street clothes and now a detective, I still see him as the man who broke my gaze from the blood that night. Dressed in his uniform with an air of justice rolling off of him. He’s one of the few good men left in this world.
One I haven’t seen in far too long.
“Whatcha doin’ down there?” He doesn’t make a move to help me up or force me to do anything but what I’m doing right now. Opting to wait it out. See how I play this charade.