Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) (2 page)

“What does it matter anyway?” I snapped, looking up at him, my hands balled into fists. “I was fine down here before you decided to barge into my life, Dad!”

“It matters because you should live a normal life, and normal girls go to school,” he said, but his voice was to calm for it to match his words. He reached out, wrapping one arm around me, pulling me close to his body. He smelled like old pine trees and camp fires. “They do not go out in the middle of the night hunting monsters.”

I thought about pulling away, but it seemed like a petulant thing to do. I knew, deep down, he was just projecting onto me. Ever since mom died a few weeks ago, well, my dad had been extra caring. I knew he felt guilty, but realistically my rival had killed her. If anyone was to blame… it would be me.

“Don’t you even want to hear about what I found?” I asked as he led me into the house.

“No, I want you to get inside and lead a normal life,” he replied, shutting the door and bolting the lock behind us. “Is that too much to ask?”

“We’ll never have a normal life,” I mumbled as he led me toward my room. “It’s just not possible.”

“Not with that attitude,” he replied, hugging me one more time. “Not if you don’t try. Promise me you’ll try, Lillim.”

“Okay,” I said, mostly because I knew it was probably the only way he’d let me go. My father had the annoying habit of hugging me until I agreed to do what he wanted. “I’ll try.”

“Good, now get to bed before I ground you for an eternity.”

Chapter 2

School sucks. That was what I’d learned in my first twenty minutes of being at High School. Part of it was that I was still in the counselor’s office, and by office, I meant sitting outside of it on the little forest green faux-leather bench waiting to see her. Apparently, my schedule wasn’t ready since prerequisites hadn’t been filled out correctly or something.

I’d even showed up early, but now, thanks to the counselor, I was likely to be late for my first class, whatever it was. I sighed and looked down at my blue baby doll tee and jeans. I wasn’t even sure how I was supposed to dress at school, and I’d tried on nearly everything in my closet before settling on jeans and a t-shirt because that always works, right?

My wardrobe wasn’t exactly extensive. When your apartment burns to the ground, you tend to not have a lot of outfits. I’d had that happen twice. A vampire had done it the first time, and a giant orc had done it the second time. Since then, I hadn’t bothered trying to collect things like clothing.

I glanced up at the little window to see the mousey-haired counselor laughing into her phone, and barely resisted the urge to growl. Instead, I stood and stretched, dropping my black backpack onto the bench. It was filled with a single notepad and a package of blue pens I hadn’t even opened. I was pretty sure I probably needed other things, but I was willing to play it by ear my first day. Besides, how was I to know what I needed anyway? I’d never been to high school before.

If I went by the television shows I saw, I was pretty sure as long as I showed up to class and was quiet, most teachers would be content to let me doodle. If only I knew how to doodle. Let’s just say that art and I did not have what you’d call a ‘cozy relationship.’

The door creaked open, and I glanced at it as the counselor smiled at me. Her cherry-colored lips stretched into one of those hostess smiles that never quite reached her eyes. “Miss… Callina, is it?” she asked, pronouncing my name totally wrong.

Instead of correcting her, I smiled and nodded at her. “Yes, ma’am,” I replied, smiling at her as sweetly as I could.

“Here is your schedule,” she replied, thrusting a pink slip of paper toward me.

I snagged the paper and glanced at it. Okay, so I had six classes. “Um…” I said, looking back up toward her… but she wasn’t there. I watched as her door shut with a near-inaudible click before staring back down at the paper in my hand.

“Okay… I have physics first period,” I mumbled to myself, which was a little embarrassing. I really needed to stop doing that before I did irrevocable harm to my image.

“Physics, eh?” asked a boy who stood just on the other side of a wooden half-wall that separated the counselor’s waiting area from the rest of the office.

“Uh… yeah,” I replied, blushing and shaking my head. “Do you know where that is?” I asked.

“Yup, there’s only one physics teacher,” he said, glancing around before covering his mouth with one hand. “Want me to show you?” he asked under his breath.

“Okay,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him because he was acting suspicious. Then again, he was a teenage boy dressed in a black skull and crossbones t-shirt and black jeans. If that didn’t say “I’m creepy, be wary of me” I wasn’t sure what did.

“Okay,” he replied, gesturing for me to come toward the gate. “But don’t tell anyone I helped you, it would ruin my image.”

“No problem,” I said, smirking as I opened the gate and stepped through.

“So…” he said once we were out of the office. “Who does your hair? I mean, I tried to color mine,” he pointed up at his hair which was a cross between black and forest green. “But the color never comes out like yours.”

My left eye twitched as I reached up and pulled a lock of hair down in front of my face. It was soft lavender. I felt my cheeks burst into flames as I glanced nervously at him and was partially tempted to just tell him the truth: that I was a freak who had purple hair. I’d dyed it black yesterday… how had the dye already faded?

“My friend did it for me back home. It was a going away present,” I said nervously. “It doesn’t look all messed up? I was worried it wouldn’t look… uh, natural.”

He shook his head, sending his mop of half-green hair whirling around his face. “It looks natural, but you won’t find someone who is that awesome at hair coloring here.” He glanced at me as we came to a stone stairwell. It led upward as though it was the entrance to a castle tower. “I’d enjoy it while it lasts.”

“I will,” I said, already deciding to get hair dye on the way home even though it probably wouldn’t last very long. Do they sell travel dye packs? Maybe I could skip my first class and go to a drugstore now…

He opened the door in front of me and gestured at it. “After you,” he said, ushering me inside.

Before I knew what was happening, I was standing inside the room with several dozen faces staring at me. Had I missed the first bell somehow?

“Connor,” a man in his mid-twenties with long red hair and a goatee said, “is this our new student?”

“Yes, Dr. Matthers,” the boy who had escorted me said, glancing down at his black skater shoes. So… he had been sent to get me? Why that little… and here I thought he was being nice.

“Well sit down, Connor,” Matthers said, weaving effortlessly through the throng of desks until he was standing next to me. He looked me up and down before his eyes settled on my hair. A small sigh escaped him. Then he turned, glancing at the rest of the class who were all staring at me, the freak with the purple hair. Already, I could hear people starting to murmur. Why had my hair picked today of all days to fade back to normal so quickly? Why? Normally my hair took at least a week to shed the dye, this was fast, even for me.

“Class, we have a new student starting today. Her name is Lillim Callina,” he said, turning toward me. “Why don’t you come to the front of the room and tell us just a little about yourself.” He glanced up at the wall clock. “But be quick about it, we have a state-mandated schedule to keep.”

“Um… okay,” I replied as I followed him up to the front. When I turned, everyone was staring at me, and somehow, I forgot how to speak.

“So, Lillim, tell us why you’re starting halfway through senior year at a new high school,” Dr. Matthers said after what felt like an hour of me standing in front of everyone like an idiot.

“Um… I was homeschooled and my mom died a few weeks ago so my dad wanted me to have a ‘normal’ teenage life and enrolled me in school,” the words tumbled out of my mouth so quickly I couldn’t stop them.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Matthers replied and stood there unsure of what else to say.

“It’s fine,” I said with a shrug. “It’s not like she was the world’s best mom or anything.” I swallowed, looking away from him but everywhere I turned, people were staring at me like I was a horrible person. Some had their mouths half-open, probably wondering why the new girl was such a cruel, unfeeling person.

“Okay, well if you need to talk to someone, please let me know,” the teacher replied, moving next to me and pointing at a desk toward the back left of the classroom. “I’m afraid that’s the only open desk.”

I nodded and made my way woodenly toward it. As I flopped down in the tiny chair, I dropped my head onto my desk and cursed under my breath. I’d been in school all of ten minutes and already everyone was probably laughing at me, or worse, thinking I was a heartless monster. But I wasn’t really. I was mostly trying to play it cool. Besides, weren’t teenagers supposed to hate their parents? Wasn’t that like a thing?

The bell rang what felt like a second later, and I looked up, realizing I had missed basically the entire class. Well, this day was off to an excellent start. I grabbed my backpack and slung it over one shoulder, fishing my schedule out of my pocket. I was still staring at it when Connor grabbed it out of my hand, glanced at it, and grinned.

“Oh no,” he said, gulping. “This schedule means only one thing. Math!” People were staring at us, and I felt my cheeks turning red as they filed around us muttering to themselves. “Quick, divide three-hundred-sixty-seven by four.”

“Um…” I said, my mouth opening and closing like a dying fish as I stared at him. He waved his hand dismissively before wrapping his arm around my waist and leading me from the room. I looked down at his arm, and as he pushed us out the door and into the hallway, I shook my head.

“Look,” I said, “you’re very sweet and all, but I have a boyfriend…”

“Okay, so we won’t make out then.” He smirked at me, and it made me even more embarrassed. “The math classes are downstairs,” he added, leading me back toward the stairs.

“Oh… okay,” I replied, feeling like an idiot. Sure, throw me in front of a fire-breathing dragon and I’m be fine, but navigating a high school? That was too much.

“I’m sorry about your mom,” he said, pulling his arm away from me and stopping in front of an obnoxiously beige door.

“It’s okay,” I repeated. “I… um… don’t want to talk about it.”

“No problem,” he replied and pointed at the door. “Calculus is through the door. Prepare to be transported to a dimension none of us fully understand.”

“Can I have my schedule back?” I asked as he turned to saunter away, hands shoved in his pockets.

“Nope, I’ll be here after class to take you to your next one,” he replied, disappearing into the crowd. “If at first you don’t see me, just wait longer.”

“Great,” I muttered to myself as I pulled the door open and hustled inside. “This is going to be one of those days.” I was really going to have to be more upfront about the boyfriend thing.

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion, which I’ll admit, was a little creepy. Still, as Connor walked me from class to class, I found myself not finding him quite as annoying as I should have. By the time the final bell rang, I’d grown used to waiting for him outside my classroom.

Which was bad, right? I mean, I wouldn’t be too pleased if my boyfriend, Caleb, was walking through the halls of his school the first day holding hands with a girl he’d just met. It might give me the wrong idea, and surely, that feeling would be mutual.

I sighed. I hadn’t even spoken to Caleb since right after my mom died… and our last words had been a fight. I’d been in the wrong, I could admit that now, but at the time… well let’s just say out of the two of us only one was basically a god. Of the two of us, only one could have stopped time and saved my mom from bleeding out on the ground like a stuck pig. And he didn’t do it. Instead, like the bastard he was, he had let her die. My boyfriend, the god of space and time, had let my mother die when he could have saved her. I gritted my teeth. Okay, maybe I wasn’t over it.

I shook my head, dismissing the horrible memory and tried to be positive as Connor strolled up to me and took me by the hand. “Miss me?” he asked, pulling me down the hallway toward what I assumed was the exit.

“I don’t think we should be holding hands,” I said, trying to yank my fingers away. “Even if I didn’t have a boyfriend, I just met you. We aren’t even in a relationship where I’d think it was appropriate for friendly hand holding.”

He released my hand and ran his now empty hand through his mop of semi-green hair. “Is this where you say that your boyfriend is really buff and could beat me up?” he asked, pale amber eyes sparkling.

I grinned. I hadn’t been about to say that, but now that I thought about it, it was pretty much true. My boyfriend was over six feet tall and built like a professional athlete. He also was an expert swordsman and had actually mastered the control of fire. He was all that before he became fused with the god of time and space. So… yeah, he could probably take on Connor.

“I wasn’t going to say that, per se,” I replied, smiling stupidly at him.

“Good, because I’d hate to go all Kung Fu on him,” Connor said, shoving open the heavy door with his shoulder as he turned to look at me. “Have I mentioned I am a master of Kung Fu, Karate, and like six other Japanese words?”

“You haven’t,” I said, trying not to smile even though it was a little funny. “Although I think Kung Fu is Chinese.”

“See, I’m a multicultural badass,” Connor replied, holding the door open for me. “Your boyfriend wouldn’t want to mess with me.”

I shook my head, shielding my eyes from the bright sunlight filtering through the trees in the front of the school. “I’ll let him know,” I said, fishing out my sunglasses and putting them on.

“So… do you know how to get home, or do you need someone to walk with you?” he asked, glancing away nonchalantly.

“Smooth, sir. You sir are smooth,” I said, glancing down the street. I’d been about to say something but my jaw fell open, and I stared wide-eyed in horror. Walking toward me in a wife-beater, cowboy hat, and dress slacks was my father. He had a huge cigar tucked into his mouth, which was odd, because he didn’t smoke.