Angel's Ink (15 page)

Gideon arched his eyebrows, mocking me. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“I didn’t start this!”

“And since you didn’t start it, you felt that it was okay for you to use some very aggressive spells, spells that don’t fall under the category of self-defense, which is the only thing you are currently permitted.”

“Damn it, Gideon! Simon Thorn attacked me! He attacked in broad daylight without any kind of provocation!”

Gideon released me suddenly, looking genuinely surprised. Apparently, whatever he was using to keep an eye on me permitted him to see what kind of spells I was casting, but not who I was casting them on. I was a little worried that he knew all the spells I had been casting. I might be able to argue my way out of some of them, but not the one that permitted me to rip off a part of Simon’s soul.

“Why was Master Thorn after you?” Gideon demanded in a deceptively soft voice.

Leaning my butt against the wall behind me, I bent over and dropped my face into my hands. I didn’t have time for this crap. The aches in my body seemed to throb to life again and I felt tired down to my bones. “I don’t know,” I said in a rough voice. “I was honestly hoping that he had forgotten about me, but apparently not.”

“Don’t tell me you actually thought that?” Gideon scoffed. “You’re a blot, a blemish. You should never have been allowed to live and your very existence is an embarrassment for Master Thorn. Of course he wants you dead.”

“Well, that’s not what we agreed to!” Jerking upright again, I pushed off the wall with one foot and walked over to the guardian until I was in his face. “The council agreed to a live-and-let-live attitude so long as I didn’t use magic for anything other than self-defense. Simon’s the one breaking the agreement by coming after me. Hell, he’s not even supposed to know where I am. If anyone needs to be brought before the council, it’s Simon.”

“You know quite well that’s not going to happen,” Gideon replied in a low, warning tone. I got the message and backed a step away from him. There was no need to antagonize the warlock. At that moment, I desperately needed him on my side. If not, he was going to take me before the council. While Gideon had always been a harsh warden, he had also been fair. He could be reasoned with.

“Why now?” I paced down the alley, walking away from Gideon and the main street that ran by the front of the shop. I clenched and unclenched my fists at my sides in impotent frustration. “I haven’t done anything to capture Simon’s attention. I haven’t stepped out of line. If Simon hadn’t attacked me, you wouldn’t be here now.”

“Really?”

I swung around to look at him, a frown pulling at the corner of my mouth as my stomach twisted into a new knot. I didn’t like that look on his face.

“As I recall,” he continued with a slow drawl, “part of your agreement with the council was also anonymity. I believe you were forbidden to tell anyone of your past with the Ivory Towers.”

Trixie.

“Hell! I appeared from out of nowhere looking like I’d had the shit kicked out of me. And then she goes down into the basement and sees—”

“Your collection,” the warlock smugly provided. I had never had any doubt that he was aware of my basement hideaway. I just prayed that he wasn’t entirely aware of its unique contents. There were things down there that shouldn’t be in anyone’s hands, and the council would definitely prefer that they weren’t in my hands in particular.

“Yes,” I said with a slight hiss. “I had to tell her something and I was tired of lying to her.”

“Lying would have kept her safe.”

I stalked angrily back toward the guardian, instantly throwing to the winds my earlier decision to try to win Gideon over with logic. “Are you threatening her?”

Gideon stopped me easily with an absent wave of his hand. An invisible force hit me in the chest, slamming me against the wall. I tried to push off, but I was pinned. “I wasn’t threatening anyone, boy,” he said a tad wearily. “I’m only stating the obvious. Anyone who knows about you is a potential liability. You risked her life when you told her about your past, and you know it. Your conscience should have overlooked the so-called discomfort of a lie in favor of sparing her life.”

I stopped struggling and leaned back against the wall, letting his words soak in past the anger and fear. There were a few rare moments when I dealt with Gideon that I felt as if I was back in the Ivory Towers. But with him, it was never about learning how to use magic, it was learning how to manage life. While Gideon was persistently on my ass about using magic, he was at least careful to see that I didn’t kill any innocent bystanders as I attempted to commit suicide by thumbing my nose at the council.

“She deserved to hear the truth,” I said with a sigh.

“She needed to have her memory wiped.”

“I respect her more than that!” I shouted, losing my grip on my temper. “You’re not a god! You don’t have the right to manipulate their lives with impunity.”

Gideon surged toward me, pressing his forehead against mine so that I couldn’t escape him. “You can try to wrap yourself in all these pretty ideas that you have, but they aren’t going to protect you from reality. If you care about this woman, then you need to start taking some responsibility. Take a good look around yourself, Gage! You’re not protecting her by telling her about our world.”

The guardian jerked away from me, one hand propped on his hip while the other rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. His eyes were clenched shut and I could see a muscle ticking in his jaw. I had succeeded, as usual, at pushing Gideon’s buttons. But I didn’t understand it. He seemed more peeved that I had told Trixie about my past than about my very public fight with Simon. The man made no sense, but then I also didn’t know what was going on in the Ivory Towers. He could have received different orders from the council, or he could be getting some other kind of pressure regarding me. Politics were a bitch.

I forced myself to suck in a calming breath. I had Simon chomping at the bit to rip off my head, I didn’t need Gideon hunting for me as well.

“Look, I’m sorry about Trixie. I was raised to believe that honesty is the best policy. I’m seeing now that it doesn’t apply to . . .
our
world,” I began, using his choice of words. I didn’t see myself as part of the magic-wielding world any longer, but I guess I was if I was going to be policed by the guardians and carry a wand in my sock. Even if I never cast another spell for the rest of my life, I would still have to answer to the Ivory Towers, making me a part of that world despite my best attempts to escape. “Can you just tell me why Simon has a renewed interest in seeing me dead after so many years of ignoring my existence?”

Gideon dropped his raised hand back to his side and turned slightly to look at me. Some of the tension had eased from his jaw and he watched me speculatively, as if he were weighing my words against my sudden change in temperament. “I think you’re the one who can best answer that question. Have you done anything recently that might catch his attention?”

I bit back my angry denial and waited until I knew I could speak calmly. Yelling at each other was getting us nowhere. And in truth, if Simon had somehow found out about my mess with Tera, then he would have a very good reason to be after my head. I just didn’t think that he knew about Tera’s newfound immortality. If he did, Simon would want the angel feather before he killed me. Right now, the bastard seemed focused purely on my gruesome and painful death.

“I’ve been a good little boy,” I said sarcastically because I simply couldn’t help myself. “I haven’t done anything that would have caught his attention. I mix potions, tattoo, and sleep. Life is pretty dull. Nothing to interest an all-powerful warlock like Simon or even you.”

A wicked smile slashed across his face. Gideon seemed to take great pleasure in stepping closer to me. “Then I guess I can’t help you.”

I snorted, trying once again to push away from the wall, but the warlock’s spell continued to hold me in place. “Help me?” I laughed when I finally stopped struggling. “Since when have you done anything to help me?”

The grim smile disappeared from Gideon’s face in a flash and I was left with a cold weight in the pit of my stomach as I stared, unblinking, at his dark expression. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

And I had the sickening feeling that he alone was responsible for the fact that I still breathed. I didn’t know why when he obviously hated me, but I had a dark suspicion that Gideon had more scruples and honor than most of the warlocks and witches I had met combined. For that, I was grateful, and I didn’t want to be.

Gideon stepped back from me, brushing his hands together as if trying to wipe away all evidence of this distasteful conversation. “While I’m sure I’m wasting my breath, I’ll tell you anyway in hopes that something will sink into that thick head of yours. If you want to live longer, keep your head down, out of trouble, and away from Master Thorn.”

“I didn’t do anything in the first place to attract his attention.”

The guardian raised one eyebrow at me in disbelief, but he had to know better. In all the years he had known me, I had never gone out of my way to attract the attention of anyone in the magic world. I didn’t want the attention. The few puny little spells that I bothered to weave were generally beneath his notice. What in the world could I have done that would attract Simon’s sudden attention? Other than the Tera mishap, which I still adamantly believed he didn’t know about.

“Can’t you at least look into Simon? See what kind of bug suddenly crawled up his ass?” I asked. Gideon pinned me with a mirthful look and I dropped my head back against the wall, rolling my eyes skyward. “That’s right. Silly me. I’m on my own in dealing with Simon unless it means using magic and then you’re up
my
ass.”

“I think that’s a correct assessment of things,” Gideon said, sounding as if he was trying to stifle a laugh.
Bastard.

“Thanks for the help,” I muttered as he started to walk toward the mouth of the alley and back onto the street.

Gideon paused, turning partially back toward me. “You want my help, then heed my advice and put that damn wand back where you had it hidden. Wave it once and I won’t give you a chance to worry about Simon Thorn.”

My heart felt as if it had stopped in my chest, only starting again when he rounded the corner of the building. The spell he had created to pin me to the wall disappeared and I collapsed to the ground, landing hard on my ass. I barely noticed, my eyes locked on the last place I had seen him. I was vaguely aware of the cars resuming their way down the street, the chirp of the birds, and the hot breeze that swept down the alley, carrying with it the rancid scent of rotting garbage.

Fuck. He knew.

The warlock had known that I was carrying my wand. Hell, he could have hauled me up before the council for just possessing it. I didn’t have to wave it about to get my life revoked. And for some reason that I doubted I would ever understand, Gideon had just walked away from the perfect opportunity to get me permanently out of his hair. I would never understand that man, and I honestly didn’t want to.

Leaning my head back against the wall, I closed my eyes and tried to will my heartbeat to slow to a normal pace. Simon Thorn wanted me dead. The grim reaper wanted me to clean up my mess or I was dead. But the one man assigned to kill me if I stepped out of line had walked away from the perfect opportunity to make me dead. I didn’t know if he was hoping that Simon would take care of the job or if Gideon had other plans for me.

I reached down and patted the wand shoved in my sock, making sure that it was still secure. I was sorely tempted to grab the second chance that Gideon was giving me and put the wand back in the box in the basement. But I couldn’t. Without it, I was dead if Simon attacked again. Of course, there was a chance I was dead if I continued to carry it. I was damned no matter what I did, so I might as well fight for my life.

Chapter 13

T
he taxi let me out at the end of Berkman Street in Over the Rhine, barely pausing long enough to allow me to pay the fare and give him a generous enough tip to make it worth his while for coming into this part of town. As the yellow car sped away, heading back into the secure bosom of downtown, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the leather thong with the scrying stone that held a drop of my blood. It was still bright red, and had begun once again to swing, as if a breeze had pushed it despite the relative quiet of the air.

I was more concerned with the dozen or so people watching my every move. Out of the corner of my eye, I could pick out groups gathered on street corners and on small concrete stoops that served as front porches for dilapidated houses. They whispered at the sight of me and wondered about the crystal I was holding out. Others didn’t bother to speculate in so low a tone of voice. I had no doubt that some of the inhabitants of this part of town thought I was insane, convinced that this little bit of stone could protect me against any attack that might come my way, while others were smarter and warier. Only someone well-acquainted with magic would be brave enough to pop into this part of town waving around a bit of useless crystal. I might not look like a warlock, but then, as everyone knew, appearances were deceiving.

Keeping my gaze glued on the stone as I slowly walked down the street, I reminded myself that I had a handgun shoved down the waistband of my jeans and more than a few tricks up my sleeve. I already had Simon pissed at me, and Gideon wasn’t in a much better mood, so what did it matter if I started throwing around some magic in hopes of preserving my life a little while longer? It also helped that the sun was still high in the sky. The vampires were still abed and the trolls were lurking in dark homes, waiting for the sun to finally set. While goblins could come and go during the day, they preferred to wait until at least dusk before showing their ugly mugs out of doors. There were a few other faerie folk that could be a nuisance, but I wasn’t likely to find them here unless they were really down on their luck. OTR was way too far from anything that resembled forestland or even a small park, which would help to rejuvenate their meager powers.