Eternal Ever After (25 page)

I found Trina bent over a counter, wiping crumbs onto the floor. “Hey, Trina.”

“How you been? You here to pick up your check?”

“Yeah,” I said, walking past her to knock on the door to Marshall’s office.

The door stood open a crack and I gave its surface a tentative tap. “Come in.” Marshall had the barking voice of a heavy smoker. I entered the office and stood in front of his desk but didn’t dare sit in the single chair. The chair always made me feel like I was being interrogated.

“I suppose you want your pay.”

“Uh-huh.”

He slid the drawer to his desk open and pulled out an envelope. “Here,” he said, handing it to me. “I decided to write schedules for a whole month instead of each week. If you need time off, you girls need to work it out yourselves.”

Marshall handed me a piece of paper that looked like a calendar he’d printed off the Internet, with initials and hours in each block. I walked out of his office and looked the schedule over. Sitting at the counter, I pulled out my cell phone and brought up the web address for the gala.
Shit.
He’d scheduled me to work that night.

“Trina, do you think you could switch with me?”

“When do you need me to switch?”

I tapped the schedule, showing Trina the date. “I’ll have to check, honey, but I’m pretty sure that night is winter formal. I have to take my daughter to get her hair done and take pictures.”

“Right. No problem, I’ll figure something out. I can ask someone else.”

Although I wasn’t friendly with some of the other staff and I figured if anyone could help me out it would be Trina. I knew if she could she’d do it for me in a heartbeat. I knew if I asked Marshall if I could have off it would be like swinging a bat at a hornet nest. I had some time before the gala, and decided to wait until my next shift to broach the subject. It wasn’t going to be pretty. Then again it’s not like working at the Coffee Grind was the most thrilling thing in the world, and I had more important things to worry about at the moment.

CHAPTER 18

With everything changing, sleep provided a time when my consciousness couldn’t focus on the complexities in anything other than dreams. And in dreams it was easier to ignore the unreal experiences that should have been impossible in real life. I kept expecting to wake up in a straitjacket and discover I had imagined a world with vampires, witches, and fairies. I didn’t think I was crazy, or that my life was so boring that I needed to create a fantasy for the sake of entertainment. Sometimes I just couldn’t be sure.

I woke up in a cold bed to the sound of opera music. I’d picked up my paycheck and headed back to the loft to wait for Arie. But he and Victoria had been on the search for Katarina following my dream and it was after midnight when he returned. As soon as he did my head hit the pillow. Comforted by his presence, I was finally able to sleep. I stretched on the bed and rolled over to pet Mystic. His furry presence always made me feel better.

Trudging to the shower, I lounged under the hot water, grateful to bask in normalcy. Even though I didn’t want to get out, I toweled off and donned a pair of jeans and a faded green Dr. McGillicuddy’s t-shirt. Arie sipped coffee at the breakfast bar and rose when I entered the room.

“You don’t have to get up every time I walk in a room.”

He grinned. “Old habits are hard to break.”

He sat back down and watched me put cat food in Mystic’s bowl. I poured myself a cup of coffee before perching on the stool next to him. Sometimes I wanted to pinch myself. Arie could be such a gentleman when he forgot and lapsed into old customs. It was so different than the Arie I saw most of the time.

“What are your plans for the day?” he asked.

“I have to head over to the club. I’m supposed to help Victoria with the gala.”

“I don’t like you going there without me.”

“Why?”

“Holly, it’s hard enough to keep you alive but if you’re willing to throw yourself in harm’s way, I don’t know why I bother.”

I gulped. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be with Victoria.”

Arie sighed. “I’ll drop you off then. I have some things to do for Tessa. She’s put a deadline on finding Katarina. Or rather, the Legacy has put a deadline on finding Katarina. They want this resolved by the night of the gala. I’d like to find her before then and give her the opportunity to leave. Are you going to eat breakfast?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You should eat, Holly.”

I ignored him and continued to drink my coffee. I knew he was scowling at me. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. Finally, he took his coffee and walked out on the balcony. It seemed silly to disagree with him over something as insignificant as breakfast, but it made me smile anyway. Something about it seemed normal even if it was petty.

I curled up on the sofa with my coffee and a book. Hours passed and still he stood out in the cold. My feet had fallen asleep, curled underneath me as they were. So I stretched my legs before standing and headed to the kitchen. I nuked some bacon and threw slices of bread into the toaster. BLTs would be a quick lunch to assemble for a peace offering.

Without making a sound Arie entered from the balcony and when he seated himself on the barstool, I startled. I had my back to him while slicing the tomato and the knife slipped, cutting into my finger. Drops of blood oozed from the nick. Arie’s eyes darkened at the sight of my blood. I blinked and suddenly he was standing beside me.

“Here,” he said, taking my hand. He placed my finger to his lips, kissing the wound before sucking it. My intake of breath was sharp. Arie let my finger go and he bit his lower lip, drawing blood. “Kiss me.”

My mind stuttered like it always did when he looked at me. All I could think of was how hot his kisses made me, regardless of the blood dotting his lip. Standing on tip-toe, I touched my lips to his and he tangled his hand in my hair. The metallic taste on my tongue wasn’t as gross as I’d anticipated it would be. Feeling dizzy and breathless, I pulled away and when I looked down at my finger it had healed.

“You could have just given me a Band-Aid.”

Arie laughed. “What would be the fun in that?”

“Your blood healed me.”

“It can do more than that if we’re not careful.”

I nodded.

I finished putting together our sandwiches and we ate them. It seemed to make him happy that I ate. After lunch he drove me to the Hellfire Club and didn’t drive off until I’d walked inside. Victoria sat at the bar with her laptop open in front of her, and Luna, the moon faerie, sliced limes behind the bar, watching Victoria while she worked.

“Hey, Tessa told me to stop by and help you get ready for the gala.”

“I have to do an email blast and update the website. If you want to help, take these flyers and highlight the ticket price,” Victoria said, handing me a purple highlighter and a stack of papers.

I slid onto a bar stool and began marking the papers. The click-clack of Victoria’s fingers flying over the keys seemed impossibly fast. Her fingers moved in a blur. I couldn’t see how she needed my help, but I suspected that Tessa had given her the task of babysitting me.

The smell of heavy cologne made me lift my head. A man who looked like Tony Soprano walked across the black marble toward the three of us. Gray hair encircled his head, but other than that he could have been his older brother. He wore a collared shirt with black slacks molded to his hulking figure. Jesus hung from a gold cross around his neck; rubies marked the arms and feet of the cross in bloody symbolism. I blinked. A ball of red light seemed to flicker behind him, but it could have been my eyes playing tricks on me.

“Luna, I need to have a word with you in private.” Luna frowned at the man but she followed him out toward the lobby.

I turned toward Victoria. “Who
is
that?”

“That’s her father. He’s a fire faerie and founder of the Chicago Crew, mafia bootleggers dating back to 1910.”

I laughed. “You seriously expect me to believe that the mafia is controlled by a bunch of faeries?”

“No, not controlled by faeries. They are faeries. At least in this city.”

“And he lets his daughter work for Tessa?”

“I don’t think he has much choice in the matter.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know the whole story, but rumor has it there was a feud between the Crew and the regent in charge of the Hellfire Club back when bootleggers controlled the flow of alcohol. This place used to pass for a jazz club downstairs. Granted, it was still a sex club upstairs. I don’t know what started the feud but the Crew cut off the supply of alcohol. Her father used her as a bargaining chip when we retaliated and now she’s responsible for paying off her father’s debt.”

“These kinds of stories make me glad that I never met my father. But don’t you think she should be about done paying off his debts by now? That was a long time ago.”

“That’s not for me to decide, and besides, time passes differently for them.” Victoria shrugged.

“Well she didn’t look very happy to see him.”

“It’s none of my business,” Victoria said. “Are you about done with those?” She nodded toward the flyers.

I only had two more flyers to highlight. “Yeah.”

“Good. We have to take care of something. Set them on the table in the lobby when you’re done.”

“Sure. Victoria, can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“I noticed Luna has sliver beams trailing her and a ball of red light follows her father. I thought faeries would have wings.”

“Those
are
their wings. The light forms into wings only when they fly. I can’t believe you can see that; only the supernatural can see fae.”

I shrugged. “I’ve seen plenty, far more than I’ve wanted to.”

“Hmmm… Maybe because you’re clairvoyant.”

“Or maybe because I’m a witch.”

I’d been trying not to think about it because it was a lot to take in. I’d wanted to ask Arie what he knew about witches, but by the time he got home I was too exhausted to care about anything other than sleep.

“You’re a witch?”

I nodded. “Apparently.”

“Try being albino and a witch. They burn you at the stake for that one. Arie saved my life. They used to called me a phantom, a demon, evil,” Victoria said with a harsh laugh. “I’m more of a demon now than I ever was.”

A haunted look shimmered in her eyes. Something disturbed her and I felt bad for her. I understood better than anyone what it meant to be different.

“You’re not a demon.”

She looked away. “That doesn’t matter in minds filled with intolerance.”

“I think you’re nice.”

Victoria smiled. “You would have been burned at the stake too, you know. You’re way too pretty and you don’t hide your visions like you should.”

I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. “I’m not, but it’s nice of you to say.”

“I like you. I think we would have gotten along smashingly if I had met you in 1763.”

I laughed. “So what do we have to take care of?”

“Let’s just say it’s the spring cleaning of a century,” she said with a smirk.

I could only imagine.

***

We both stood there staring at Katarina’s picture for a long time. Victoria and I were standing in the living room of Arie’s old apartment. He told Victoria he wanted it to be donated to the Chicago Institute of Art and to handle the details. I guess he meant to get rid of it a long time ago but hung on to it like he did the mounds of baggage that got in our way. Holding on to something that isn’t meant to be doesn’t make it any easier to let go. I figured that’s how we ended up with the job of donating the damn thing rather than him doing it himself.

I remembered a superstitious story that said if a dead person appeared to you in a dream or if a picture of the deceased falls off a wall, there will be a death of someone you know. As I looked at the painting it seemed like she was sneering at us. And I kept waiting for it to fall off the wall and then for me to drop dead. Victoria and I looked at one another as if to say, “You do it.” Our unspoken conversation made it clear that neither of us wanted to touch something that didn’t belong to us. I think we hold on to something so tight because we fear it won’t happen twice, or worse…we fear that it will, and history is destined to repeat itself.

Part of me felt a sick satisfaction that he wanted to get rid of the painting. Still, those moments that you wish you could erase and forget have a dangerous way of forcing themselves back into your life. Her outstretched hand appeared as if it would grab me by the shirt and pull me into the painting. She looked beautiful, like there was nothing wrong with her, and if I didn’t know better I would never know she was completely psychotic.

But growing up in the foster care system gave me a bird’s eye view of damaged. It didn’t matter to me how twisted someone was, as long as they were honest about it and had a fragment of sanity underneath the broken bits. With Katarina there was nothing left under the broken pieces.

“My car doesn’t have a backseat. You?” Victoria asked.

“We can take the BMW, but maybe we should wrap the painting in something first, like a sheet.”

“Hold on. I’ll get one from the spare linens in Tessa’s dungeon.”

Before I could say I would go with her, she was gone. The time-bending trick could be maddening at times and I didn’t want to be alone with the painting. In the logical part of my brain, I laughed at myself. Yet it didn’t seem silly in the eerie silence with Katarina staring at me. I could almost hear her menacing threat.
Leave here.
A chill ran through me and I jumped at the sound of the radiator letting out a loud whistle.

“Are you okay?” Victoria asked from the doorway, holding a sheet.

“I’m fine.”

“Let’s do this.” She grabbed the painting, lifted it off the wall, and wrapped it in the sheet.

“Do you think they’ll take the painting without us making arrangements ahead of time?”

“I think they’ll be grateful to procure something of this age and condition without having to pay a dime. But if they don’t I’ll just dazzle them into taking it or dump it on their doorstep.”