Scryer (11 page)

My hair had
fallen over my face, and for once, I was glad for the coverage as my cheeks
burned with embarrassment and shame at his rejection.

His head was
bent down and his hand rested on his forehead so I couldn’t see his face
properly. He took several deep breaths before raising his head to look at me.
“I’m sorry, Ivy. This is…wrong. I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Wrong? I
thought it was wonderful,” I said in a faint voice that did nothing to mask my
disappointment.

His mouth
twisted into a crooked smile. “It was wonderful, Ivy.” His hand reached over to
grip mine. “I just…I can’t explain. I shouldn’t have let it get this far but
you’re so…” He didn’t finish what he wanted to say, and his shoulders seemed to
sag as if there were a weight on them. I felt a pang of sympathy go through me
at his obvious distress.

“Are you
married?” I croaked out, that was the only acceptable excuse that I could think
of.
He shook his head at me. “I’m not married, Ivy. It’s just that it’s too soon.”
He gave a sigh. “I think that I’d better go.”

“No,” I blurted
out. “Don’t go. Whatever it is, maybe I could help you. Just don’t go. Please?”
The desperation in my voice should have sent me sinking to the floor in shame,
but I didn’t care. I wanted neither lies nor games. I just wanted him to stay.

His forehead
creased. “I want to be with you. I really do.”

“Then we won’t
have sex,” I said, hope flooding through me. I crawled closer to him across the
bed, settling on my knees beside him. “But let me pleasure
you.
”

And I had, making him release himself
into my mouth, and I swallowed it down willingly. After, we both fell asleep,
clinging to each other like there was no one else in this world.

I
checked my phone for the tenth time and still there was nothing from Danilo.
The pizza parlor was getting busy, and evil looks were being directed at me for
taking up a table. Eventually, I sighed and threw my phone back in my bag as I
stood. The table was immediately swooped upon by a bunch of impatient
teenagers.

I tried calling him one more time once I
made it outside, but again there was no answer. I was getting pissed now. There
was nothing worse than being stood up. It was a shame I couldn’t predict my own
future to prevent things like this happening.

Unhappily I stomped up the street,
heading for Danilo’s apartment. He was probably in bed with that Ellen girl and
hadn’t given me a second thought. But as I turned the corner, the flare of
police and ambulance lights greeted me, and all anger within me died.

Maybe it was his father’s liver finally
giving out. Maybe Ellen had an asthma attack, or maybe they weren’t even there
for Danilo. Maybe it was for someone else…

A cop prevented me from entering and I
sucked in a breath, ready to give my best argument. Before I could though, an
authoritative voice said, “Let her through.”

I stiffened and twisted my head.

“After you, Ivy.” Lake gestured with his
hand for me to go forward and everything in me died at that second. There was
no doubt now—something bad had happened to Danilo.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

He looked at me with hard eyes. “You
know.”

Hugging my bag to my chest, I turned as
if defeated and moved past the policeman guarding the entranceway, my feet
automatically taking me to the stairs and propelling me up each one even as my
mind screamed at me that I didn’t want to see what was up there. Lake was close
behind me, his footsteps echoing as a constant reminder of his presence.

More police crowded the hallway, but
seeing Lake, they let us through with no question. The Corins owned people. It
was no surprise that the police would be on their payroll. The door to the
apartment was wide open, and I stepped through it silently to be confronted
with the backs of several men, one of whom was Michael.

He turned and frowned as he saw me.
“What’s she doing here?” he asked Lake.

“She needs to see,” came the answer.

This angered Michael. “No she doesn’t.
Get her out of here…”

But I pushed past him as if he had not
spoken. Bile rose in my throat, and I felt hot and cold all at once. I tried to
swallow and couldn’t. Nothing about me could move. Neither my legs that were
dying to remove me from this scene, nor my eyes that I desperately wanted to
tear away and stare at something else, anything else.

Red.

Red.

Red.

If the carpet had ever been another
color, it was indiscernible now. A small amount of the original white wax was
visible on the blood-splattered candles. Just like if Danilo had ever been
alive and intact, it was hard to imagine by the horror that lay at my feet. His
naked form lay on his back with his eyes staring upwards. At least his face was
the same. But his torso had been ripped open from his throat to his waist. An
unmoving lump of flesh had been torn out and placed on his skin. His
heart,
oh
God, it was his
heart.
It no longer belonged to Ellen. Instead it had
been rendered useless, there for anyone to take.

It needed to be put back where it
belonged. It needed to pulse with love and desire for a little while longer to
make up for all the bad that had been inflicted on him in his short life.

The frozen spell that had taken over me
seemed to break, and my hand went to my mouth. “Oh, Danilo,” I breathed and
started forward, hand out, to take that heart and put it back in its rightful
place.

Strong arms grabbed me and forced me out
before I could touch anything. I didn’t fight. I just allowed Michael to
maneuver me like he always did while I stayed as compliant as a doll. He placed
me down on the floor of the corridor so I could lean against the wall for
support. “Are you going to be sick, Ivy? Ivy?
Ivy?”
His voice sounded
like it was through water, muffled and thick. Why was he taking care of me? Why
wasn’t Lake?

“Fine,” I said when I found my voice.
“Fine. I’m always fine.” Then I met his eyes and sneered. “Get away from me.” I
pushed his arm away and stood, squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin. My
grief had now turned to anger, and I liked that much better.

Michael stood from where he had been
crouching next to my pathetic form and straightened his tie. “Lake will take
you home. You should rest, Ivy. You’ve had a shock.”

“No.” My voice was like steel as I
simply walked past him, ignoring Lake, and headed for the stairs. No one got in
my way. If they had, I would have plowed through them with no mercy. I didn’t
need to touch the railing as I flew down the stairs. My legs powered me on;
they were the only thing that I could depend on. Suddenly, I was out on the
street and ducking under crime scene tape.

Then I stopped. I could run as much as I
liked, but that scene of Danilo’s desecrated body would never leave me. My mind
needed to burn with other things; with people I didn’t care about.

A man stood by the tape. I didn’t think
that he had any real purpose to be there; he was merely being nosy and getting
in the way. His cell phone was out, and he was recording the events in hope of
seeing the body, perhaps. Clumsily, I stumbled toward him and blindly reached
out. His skin was warm under my fingers and the reflective cell phone screen
shimmered and then came the inevitable fog. In front of my eyes, unseen to
anyone else, I saw the man beating his wife. The leather belt was doubled over
in his fat hand as he swung it down toward where she lay on the floor with her
hands uselessly up in an attempt to defend herself. I heard the slap of the
belt on her skin and her mournful cries and pleas as he continued until she was
an unmoving mess.

“What the hell are you doing?” he
sneered at me as he snatched away his arm.

I smiled. That was better. I just needed
to see all the other terrible things in the world, and then Danilo’s heartless
body would just fade away from memory, buried by a world of despair and horror.
He wouldn’t stand out.

The man’s hand formed a fist as if he
fought the urge to punch me, and I almost wished that he would. But instead he
just snarled at me, “crazy bitch” and turned away.

I reached for someone else, but a firm
hand on my upper arm pulled me aside roughly.

“What are you doing?” Lake asked.

“Making everything better.” I gave him a
rough shove, and he let me go easily.

“I’ll take you home,” he said.

“No.” I stepped back. “Someone needs to
find his father and tell him. And his girlfriend. Her name is Ellen.”

He stepped towards me, but I stepped
back out of reach. “We have people to take care of that.”

“Good,” I muttered. “Good.” And I
lurched away like a drunk, my legs no longer as reliable as they had been. They
wouldn’t run when I told them to and Lake wrapped his hand around my wrist,
turning me to face him.

“Can’t you pick up anything about who is
doing this?” His forehead was creased like he was disturbed.

I tried to wrench away from his grasp.
“I can’t pick up anything about other scryers. You know that.”

He pulled me closer. “Then I’ll take you
home with me until we can assure your safety.”

“I’d rather take my chances.” I kicked
him in the shins and his mouth tensed into a thin line as he released me.

“You’re being foolish,” he said tightly.

There was no point answering him. With
my head down, I walked away, making sure that I brushed against as many people
as possible in order to bury the memory of Danilo down deep. By the time I
arrived home, I had seen the worst of humanity, and it made me want to sink
down to my knees in despair.

Every light in the apartment was on, and
immediately I turned them off. It was better to live in darkness. I heard a
shuffling sound, and Penzance came into view. She wore a robe and her pink
fluffy slippers. Her hair had just been washed and hung down in wet, bedraggled
strands around her face. Her face was pale.

“You look sick.”

“So do you,” she replied.

I shrugged. “Yeah, well, a friend of
mine just died.” I didn’t look at her as I said that just in case a lump
decided to form in my throat. It didn’t though, and I gave a sigh of relief as
I turned off the last lamp so that we were lit only by the moonlight streaming
in through the window.

“I’m sorry, Ivy,” she said softly. I had
expected her to rush over to me and hug me, not that I welcomed it; it was just
that was part of the Penzance that I had come to know. Instead, she stayed
where she was.

“Don’t worry about it. Actually, I might
give Caleb a call and see what he’s up to.” I had just decided this. I needed
the carnal, uncomplicated comfort that I found in his hard body. I wanted to
pull him over me like a blanket and forget about everything outside my bedroom
walls.

Penzance straightened. “Caleb? You’ve
been spending a lot of time with him lately.”

“Yeah. So?” I knew that she had slept
with him, but so what? She had slept with a lot of guys. “Are you jealous?”

She paused, seemingly considering her
answer. “It’s just that I don’t think he’s a good guy. I think you should be
careful around him.”

I let out a laugh, one that wasn’t
humorous at all. “Why? In case he breaks my heart. Don’t worry about that,
sister. My heart’s made of stone. You couldn’t rip it from me if you tried.”

And someone may just try…

“Whatever. Just be careful. ‘Night,
Ivy.”

“Goodnight, Penzance.”

Just before she turned toward her
bedroom door, she paused, and turned back to me. “I really am sorry, Ivy.”

I forced a smile. “Thanks.”

She gave a nod and disappeared into her
pink bedroom. After I entered my own room, I pulled out my phone and rapidly
fired off a text. This wasn’t normal. I wasn’t normal. My friend was dead, I
should have been crying into my pillow with rage and sorrow; instead I was
inviting a guy over to fuck me. I wanted to be filled with him to replace the
emptiness I felt.
It was better this way, I reasoned. It was better to strive for happiness with
a person rather than bear everything alone.

My text was promptly returned. He was on
his way.

In the dark of the kitchen, I poured two
glasses of red wine and waited. One of Penzance’s pink candles sat on the
counter. I started to pick it up to hide it away, but paused and replaced it. I
thought of Danilo, of a heart ripped out, of so much blood. Rage and distress
rose in me, my heart began to beat faster and faster, and I felt like I needed
to scream. But instead I channeled the energy straight to the wick of that
innocent looking candle. At first, there was nothing, and that spurred me on
even more. Finally, the wick burst into a flame.

I let out a laugh of amazement and
wonder, and just as quickly, the flame was extinguished. I put the candle away
after that.

 By the time he knocked on the door, I
had finished my glass and was refilling. The alcohol had gone straight to my
head, and I felt almost relaxed and managed to push the horror of Danilo’s
corpse aside. Instead, I thought of my triumph with the candle. I had another
talent, and more importantly, I had another secret.

As soon as I opened the door, I pushed
his glass of wine into his hand wordlessly.

He smirked. “This is the kind of
greeting I like, but first…” He cupped my face and pressed his mouth to mine.
“You taste like wine,” he murmured as he pulled back.

I didn’t speak, just took another gulp
of my drink, and then another.

“You look sad,” he commented after a
moment.

I shrugged. “Do I?”

He waited a beat. “Do you want to talk
about it?”

I let out a laugh, and it sounded
half-crazed. “Talk about it? What good would that do?” Another gulp of my wine
slid down my throat to add to the numbness that I craved. I carefully put my
glass down on the coffee table and turned to him, sliding my arms around his
neck as I pressed my body to his. “All I want you to do is get drunk with me
and fuck me.” I leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. “I just want you to
help me forget.” I leaned back slightly so I could look him in the eye while my
hands went to his belt, then to his fly, to free him from his pants.

“I can do that. I can do all of that,”
he said softly.

“Good.” With a hard shove I pushed him
back so he fell to sit on the sofa. In an instant I was straddling him across
his lap, my skirt pushed up and my panties pressed against him. Gripping his
jaw, I lowered my lips to his and began to kiss him softly and playfully,
before I trapped his lower lip between my teeth and sucked on it hard.

He gave a gasp and then I felt his
fingers delve between my legs to pull at my panties. They dug painfully into my
flesh until they ripped and he pulled them free. I released his lip.