Scryer (9 page)

He fished his keys out of his pocket.
“Let’s go.”

Magdalena
made no mention of Caleb when he dropped me off at her house. She got straight
to work giving orders that I followed diligently. That was part of the reason
that I liked working for her. There was no idle chitchat or conversation that
went off task. Part of me was curious as to what had happened at the building
that we had just been at, but I knew better than to ask. Plus, the cries that I
had heard in the timid woman’s past assured me that it was something terrible,
and that it would be better not to know for certain.

Still, the event lingered on my mind all
day, as did Caleb. He had given me a full-mouthed kiss before he let me get out
of the car but there were no words about meeting up later. Although, was that
what I wanted? I wanted sex; I wanted satisfaction. Did I welcome this secret
niggling feeling that I wanted him for more than his body? I wasn’t comfortable
with how he was sliding into my psyche and dominating my thoughts.

After Magdalena dismissed me for the
day, I set off on my traipse home. I was near my apartment when I made the snap
decision to see Danilo. He didn’t live far from me, but his apartment was a
rundown studio that he sometimes shared with his alcoholic father who tended to
disappear for months on end. Like all of us, Danilo had inherited his scrying
talents from his mother, but she had absconded long ago, leaving him to try and
make sense of what she had given him.

I banged on the door several times
before a sleepy looking Danilo opened the door. He grunted at the sight of me
and stood aside so I could enter.

“What are you doing sleeping at this
time of day?” I asked him, pulling open a curtain to let some light into the
dreary room. I tried to open the window but it wouldn’t budge. Danilo was busy
grabbing two beers out of the fridge. When he turned around, I saw that he was
stoned, and the scent of
moiraine
drifted toward me.

His face spread into a lazy smile. “Just
relaxing. I’ve been working hard.”

I went to sit down at the table and
found a black lacy bra draped over the back of one of the chairs. I could tell
just by looking at it that it was an expensive item of underwear, and as I
peered closer I saw the telltale embroidery that marked it as being custom
made. It had the elaborate detailing favored by Michael Corin’s wife to hoist
her breasts upwards and make her seem unreal and goddess-like.

Distaste
overcame me. “You’re seeing Dorothea, aren’t you?” Danilo opened his mouth to
say something, but I beat him to it. “You’re a traitor to our kind, you know
that?” I picked up the bra and threw it at him furiously. “Even nature knows
that we shouldn’t debase ourselves by being with them willingly. That’s why
we’re incompatible to breed with them! And you let yourself be with her and
give her what she—”

His face twisted
into a sneer. “A traitor? You should know all about that, Ivy. Your mother was
old man Corin’s whore for years. We all know that she didn’t commit suicide
because she went crazy like the rest of them, no she killed herself because she
couldn’t live without him. But anyway, her whoring set you up well, didn’t it?
It made you into a trust fund baby. Think about that before you point fingers.”

I balled my hand
into a fist and threw all my weight behind it as I aimed for his face. I caught
him on the corner of his mouth and his lip split and a trail of blood began.
The brightness of that blood brought me back to reality. I stared at him in
horror, lifting my blood stained knuckles to my mouth. “I’m sorry,” I breathed.

He wiped at his
mouth. “Doesn’t matter. I provoked you. I deserved it.”

I shook my head.
“No, I’m just a bitch.” I sank down into a chair, holding my hand from my body
with disgust.

He sighed and
sat beside me. “I’m not seeing Dorothea, other than for the
moiraine.
I’ve
met a girl, her name’s Ellen, and she doesn’t know anything about what we are
or what we do. She’s sweet. You’d like her.” He bent down and picked up the bra
that I had thrown. “This is Ellen’s. Her family’s fairly well off, but she’s a
social worker. That’s how I met her.” He gave a laugh and his face spread into
a wide and goofy smile. “She thought that I was a homeless junkie bum and
needed help. I told her that only the junkie part was right…” He was still
smiling, and I imagined that her version of events would be far more romantic
than how he painted it.

I sat there
silently as I took in the information. “I’m happy for you,” I finally said,
trying to sound genuine.

Danilo lit a
cigarette. “I’m happy for me too. For the first time, I can see a future for
myself. I’ve seen her past; even the
moiraine
doesn’t stop everything,
and she’s
good.
She’s the best human being that I’ve ever met and she
likes me. Can you believe that?” He inhaled deeply, sucking the nicotine into
his lungs and then exhaling through his nose, all the while, never really
losing that smile on his face. “Can I give you some advice?”

His question
caught me off guard and I gave a slight nod.

 “You need to
start living your life. Otherwise, you’ll be old, bitter, and withered before
your time. You can hate them, God knows I do, but don’t let it consume you,
Ivy. Who cares about what your mother did? Who she loved? Why is that
important?”

I sucked in a
breath and managed to smile, but felt as if my face were cracking as I did so.
“I guess you’re right.” My voice was raspy and low, like I hadn’t spoken for a
long time.

He got to his
feet. “Anyway, seriously, I’ve got to kick you out. She’s coming back soon, and
I don’t want her to meet anyone connected to our lives. I want to keep her a secret.”

“Fair enough.” I
stood, fingering my phone. I would call Caleb. Danilo was right. I needed to
start enjoying my life. “Bye, Danilo.”

“I’ll meet you
for dinner tomorrow. Seven? At that pizza place down the road?”

I gave a nod.

“Goodbye, Ivy.”
He gave me an unexpected kiss on the cheek before I left, and I felt like
everything about him had become lighter and happier somehow in expectation of
being with this Ellen girl.

My phone was dialing
Caleb by the time I was out of the building. It went through to his voicemail,
and I made my voice cold and detached as I told him to come by later. It
sounded like an order, and I wondered if he would really come when he heard it.

Still, I felt
some promise rise in my thoughts for the future. If Danilo could be with
someone normal, why couldn’t I? Penzance was out when I got home, her customary
mess marking the living area. I resigned myself to cleaning it up.

A knock on the
door interrupted me. Caleb lounged in the doorway after I opened it.

“That was quick.”

“I was in the
neighbourhood. Come on, let’s get something to eat.” He was grabbing my hand
and pulling in toward me.

“I’d hoped that
you’d be hungry for something else.” I didn’t struggle as he pulled me in
against his chest while his hands slid down to cup my ass.

He answered by
kissing me, tugging on my bottom lip with his teeth. I imagined my lips turning
red under his bite. “Later, I promise,” he said in a low voice. “But right now
I’m starving.”

I sighed, my
panties felt uncomfortably moist, and I was to be denied any release right
then. “Fine.” I grabbed my bag and keys, locking the door behind me while Caleb
waited.

He took me to a
high end restaurant where the tables were covered in crisp white tablecloths
and decorated with flowers and crystal.

“Wow. I really
have moved up in the world,” I said sarcastically after the waiter left us
after pulling my chair out for me.

“Only the best
for me,” Caleb said with a grin as he perused the menu.

The truth was
that I could have afforded to eat at places like this thanks to the money my
mother had gained from her Corin lover over the years, but I didn’t. I didn’t
even really like to touch that money. It was as if it were stained with the old
man’s semen and with my mother’s pathetic weakness, her
love
for one of
them.

And Lake. He
could have certainly spared the expense of dining here, but instead he took me
to dark places that looked like dives from the outside, yet served the most
divine fare within. We would sit in corners lit only by candlelight and drink wine
or beer while some performer would grace the room with soulful jazz that set
the tone for love and romance.

Later, I
reasoned that we went to these places so he would not be seen by anyone that he
knew, and his secrets would not explode amongst tasteful silverware and polite
manners. But at the time, I loved these places that he would discover, like
they were our own little secret, our own little world, in which nothing could
touch us.

The wine was
brought promptly, and I waited impatiently while Caleb tasted it and gave his
approval. Thinking of Lake made me want to guzzle the whole bottle, but instead
I showed restraint. Once my glass was filled with the dark red wine, I took
polite lady-like sips.

“Do you come
here a lot?” I asked Caleb after we ordered.

He shrugged.
“Sometimes.”

“What do you do,
Caleb?”

He relaxed back
in his chair. “Right now? Nothing. I’m supposed to work with my family but…I’m
not sure that it’s for me.”

“What do they
do?”

“We own an
organic food company, but I’m not as fanatical as they are about it.” He
shrugged again. “Still, family duty always comes first, doesn’t it?” His lips
twisted into something that could have been a smile, but his heart didn’t
really seem in it. If anything, he seemed tense. This was unlike him.

“So what would
you like to do, if you could do anything in the world?”

He seemed to
relax a bit more. “I don’t know. I’m a spoilt rich kid, remember? There are not
many opportunities I haven’t been given.” His phone vibrated on the table and
he took a quick glance at it before frowning. “Sorry, Ivy. Would you excuse me
for a moment? Family duty calls.”

“Take your
time.”

I watched as he walked from our table
and disappeared down a back corridor to take his phone call. I sipped more wine
and looked around the room at the other diners. I let out a slight laugh as I
realized how underdressed I was. Other women wore numerous diamonds that caught
the light and flashed brilliantly. They were all immaculately coiffed with
their hair twisted into elegant chignons that made me all the more aware of my
wild mane trailing down my back. In that instant, I decided that I liked my
hair. I liked how untamed it was. These women with their tightly wound and
abused hair seemed like nothing more than conformists to their wealthy husbands.
They were
slaves
…

And in a sense, I was free. Except for
the bindings placed on me by the Circle, I was in control of my own destiny.

Then I caught sight of them, and my
blood ran cold. A weight came over me like chains and my internal musings about
freedom crushed and shattered under the pressure. Michael and Lake Corin were being
led by a waiter to a table where several men already sat. They all shook hands,
and although the table was circular, when Michael sat down, it was like he was
sitting at the head and they all deferred to him.

Except for Lake, of course. He had that
stoic, unimpressed look on his face, and there were no cracks of a smile, no
aim to pleasure or please, to be seen. I cast my eyes away from them and
thought about leaving, but the food was placed down in front of me. I squeezed
my eyes shut, not wanting to see anything about the server in the shiny
silverware as he lightly brushed against me.

Fuck them, I decided. I wouldn’t go
anywhere.

Caleb returned. “Sorry about that,” he
said as he sat back down. “And I’m even more sorry that I can’t come back home
with you after we’ve finished dining.”

I stopped myself from showing any
disappointment. “Why not?”

He let out a breath. “Family meeting.”
He reached his hand out and gently touched mine. “I’m sorry. I’d rather be with
you.”

“It’s fine.” I left my hand where it was,
enjoying his touch for a moment, but then I returned to reality and eased away
from his warmth, taking my hand back and picking up my fork. “We should have
fucked when we had the chance like I wanted to. Now, we’ll both miss out.” I
speared a pear from my salad and brought it to my mouth.

He watched me eat, making no move to
touch his steak that sat bloody in front of him. “You’re an odd girl, you know
that?”

“Yes,” I said once I had swallowed my
mouthful. “I do know that. I’m not sure why people feel the need to tell me
something that’s such an insult, yet they still do.”

“You’ve got me all wrong, Ivy. I like
your oddness. It sets you apart.” He leaned in closer. “It makes you fucking
sexy. It makes me want to screw you on this table in front of everyone.”

I leaned back, not letting my
satisfaction cross my face. “Eat your steak before it gets cold.” I dug my fork
in the slice of pink lamb buried amongst the pear, walnut, and blue cheese and
placed it daintily in my mouth. I liked him talking like that; it made me feel
desired.