Watercolour Smile (5 page)

“The Duchess is slumming it with the rest of the peasants today, huh?”

I looked to the girl who spoke, and then turned back to the xylophone when I didn’t recognise her. Maybe she had been talking to someone else.

“
Burn
.” Someone else laughed. “Too bad, Kellie.” This was a boy, and I again raised my head before quickly lowering it.

I realised, then, that the girl—Kellie—must have required some kind of a response from me. I
really
needed to work on my social skills.

“Yes,” I eventually said, looking at her. Inwardly, I cringed, wondering if I sounded like as much of a robot to them as I did to myself.

Her brows arched high, a stunned look overtaking the one of annoyance that had previously clouded her expression. Beside me, Poison snickered. I returned my attention to the little instrument, and the others seemed to fall into easy conversation around me, as though I had given them permission to relax.

Strange
.

At the end of the day I returned to Quillan’s office and knocked on the door, not wanting to walk in on another encounter. He opened it and looked down at me. There was the tiniest smile hinting at his mouth as he stood aside for me to enter.

“Get to work,” he said lightly, returning to his desk.

I remained where I was standing as he sat behind his desk and started scribbling down notes on a stack of papers. When he looked up again, fixing me with a look, I hurried over to the easel and let the transformation take me. I slipped out of Seraph, and embraced the adrenaline that rushed into me, morphing me into a cloud of fear and focussed energy.

As I worked, the painting grew definition, and it broke my heart. I painted shadows into the eyes of my baby brother; I brushed a strand of his chaotic hair red with blood, the colour smudging as it stuck to his forehead, like it was still wet. There was a deep graze somewhere on his head, and I could feel the stinging throb of it, the lacerated edges of having crashed into something sharp. I almost regretted using the watercolours for this painting, because the pain was immense. I gritted my teeth, flowering the bruises over his neck: a ring of finger-shaped indentions that reminded me of my father. I tasted Gerald all over this picture. I smelt the liquor on his breath and heard him uttering my own name over and over.

Seraph…

Seraph…

Seraph!

My hand hesitated, my head spinning. Quillan was beside me again, steadying me as the room swam around me. I blinked my eyes open, and Quillan’s anxious face swam into focus. He was on the couch, and his hands were on either side of my face.

“W-what?” I slurred, my fingers tangling into my hair, tracing a wound that didn’t exist.

“You passed out, sweetheart.” Quillan helped me to my feet and I stumbled back to the painting, meeting the ruined image of Tariq’s face.

It was the worst thing I had ever drawn.

I fumbled to get my phone out of my pocket as Quillan dialled someone on his own.

“Silas?” Quillan spoke into his phone, moving away.

“Tariq,” I breathed, as my brother picked up.

“Hey, Seph.” He sounded happy, if a little strained. “I was going to call you tonight. How is everything? Are you coming back soon?” He asked me the same thing every time I called him.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m coming back tomorrow. Can you pick me up from the station?”

“
Yes!
Ah, I mean, sure. Yeah, that’s cool. Just text me the time.”

“I will—Tariq?”

“Yeah?”

“Stay away from Gerald, okay?”

He hesitated. “I was going to go over there tonight to drop some money, I’ve been putting it off for too long.”

“Don’t go.” My voice turned hard, unyielding. “I’ll do it when I get there.”

“It’s no prob—”

“Don’t go!” I began to shake, my grip on the phone unsteady, and he must have heard the hysteria that laced my tone.

“Seph, what’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you when I see you. Stay safe.”

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you, too.” I hung up, my breathing slightly erratic, and walked to Quillan, tapping him on the shoulder.

He held the phone away from his ear.

“Can you ask Silas to book me on a train tomorrow morning?”

Quillan nodded. “You heard? Okay, thanks. We can’t all go; it’d be too obvious. Just you.”

I waited for him to finish the conversation, my arms wrapped around myself.

“Don’t tell Noah or Cabe until they’re back tonight,” Quillan warned me, ending his call and returning his phone to his pocket. “They’ll abandon their assignment and come back early if you do.”

I nodded. “Sure.”

“I would suggest that we bring Tariq here, where we would at least be able to keep a better eye on him, but I think that’s possibly a very bad idea. The messenger followed us over here, and he killed Aiden just for talking to you. The last thing we want to do is plant more people under his nose that he can use against you. Your father might be a piece of work, but this guy is worse.”

I nodded again, frustrated tears gathering in my eyes. “I know, and I won’t let him kill anybody else. Tariq needs to stay out of this mess. He has a safe place to stay, and Gerald won’t bother looking for him at school. He won’t bother with anything much as long as he has money to drink away and occasionally buy food with.”

“Then we’ll keep him buttered up,” Quillan said. “And Tariq won’t need to go over there anymore.”

“I need a job,” I repeated glumly. “I don’t feel right, not paying for these things myself.”

Quillan crossed his arms tightly, boring a hole right through my skull with the intensity of whatever was turning the clogs in that brain of his.

“Alright,” he seemed to decide. “I’ll talk to the others about it.”      

“
Thankyou
!” I reigned in the urge to hug him.

“Don’t thank me yet, you’ve got no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

I didn’t care. I was overjoyed by the time I barrelled into Poison in the car park.

“Awe.” She laughed, patting my head as I hugged her waist. “Aren’t you the most adorable thing that ever lived, with your hugs and your hair and your boobs and whatnot.”

I rolled my eyes at her and Clarin found us, swinging his bag into the back of her car. Poison had picked us up for school that morning since Noah and Cabe were on assignment.

“Don’t empower her with boob compliments,” Clarin said with mock seriousness. “We need to keep the little mouse pure.”

“But they’re glorious,” Poison protested, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Who knew a girl so small could be packing that much into a t-shirt?”

I looked down at my chest. I was well-aware that my size was entirely average, if a little on the small side. Poison must be trying to boost my confidence for our double-date.

“Yeah,” Clarin relented. “They’re pretty good, as far as boobs go.”

This made me smile, since Clarin complimenting boobs was a rare thing. Poison, on the other hand, spoke about boobs far too much to be considered within the scope of ‘normal’.

“Thanks.” I said.

Clarin chuckled.

Poison snorted. “You wouldn’t know good boobs if they smacked you in the face.”

“Neither would you!”

She gasped in fake outrage. “I am a
girl
, Clarice, we notice
everything
.”

“Name’s Clarin,” he corrected her with insurmountable, fake patience dragging at his tone.

“Clarice is better,” Poison decided. “Seph loves my nicknames, don’t you, cupcake?”

“Sure.”

They both laughed, and Clarin slid down his seat to wind his arms around my neck from behind.

“Little Seph,” he lamented. “You’re so eager to please. The entire student body hangs off your every gesture—of course it’s probably because you’re pretending to be Cabe and Noah’s sister. Have you noticed, Poison?”

“Sure I’ve noticed.” Poison clucked her tongue in a disapproving manner. “They call her the Duchess.”

“Huh?” I looked at them both, but they apparently weren’t in a particularly informative mood today. Poison was too keyed up about her date.

“Do you think Mike’s a secret sex-fiend?” she asked Clarin.

“He’s got a few tattoos that he keeps hidden.” Clarin seemed to be considering her question seriously. “I saw them at Sierra’s pool party last month. And he runs with Hallagan’s pack outside of school. They’re pretty wild sometimes. It’s a possibility.”

“I can sense it.” Poison sighed. “Whenever he pushes his glasses up, he secretly looks at my boobs.”

“That’s because your boobs are hanging out.”

“They are not!” Poison tugged down on her Charlie Chaplin shirt until her black bra was peeking out.

“Skank,” Clarin shot out from the back.

“Man-whore,” Poison returned quickly. “Don’t forget, cousin, your reputation proceeds you.”

“Apparently it runs in the family,” I said.

Clarin barked out a laugh but Poison shot me a concerned look. It softened when she realised I was joking.

“Cabe and Noah are reformed, remember?” Clarin’s tone insinuated that he didn’t believe it for a second. “It’s all on you, Seph. You’re the only Weston-spawned bastard in the country with a squeaky-clean rep. Do us proud, kid.”

We arrived at Poison’s mansion and I waved them inside, dialling Cabe on my new phone as I lagged behind in the front courtyard.

“Adair residence,” he answered. “You’ve reached Mr. Adair’s assistant, Gillian IV, how may I be of assistance?”

“You’re supposed to say Gillian the fourth, silly. Not Gillian IV.”

“
Ugh
, Seph, hearing your voice is too much. Give me a warning next time so that I don’t fall off the roof.”

“What are you doing on a roof?”

“Can’t tell you that.”

Nothing new there
.

“Um… can you get off the roof for a second?”

“Why? Are you going to tell me something that’ll make me fall, or something that’ll make me jump?”

I laughed uneasily. “I’m going on a date.”

“Jumping it is.”

“Cabe!”

“Sorry. What the hell are you talking about?”

“Well it’s actually Poison’s date, with Mike, and I’m kind of tagging along, and so is Mike’s friend. Poison said everyone is gossiping about how you guys are suddenly not interested in girls anymore, and she thinks it’s attracting too much attention.”

“It is,” he admitted. “But what does that have to do with
you
dating?”

“I’m setting a precedent. It’ll be fine. Harmless conversation and all that.”

“Have you ever even been on a date? Before you started hanging out with us you were kind of a loner. Tariq told me all about it—you barely even used to speak to him, and he’s your brother.”

“Dating has become really loosely defined—”

“That’s a no, then.”

“
Hmph
.”

“Silas is going to flip the hell out; you know that right? He might not want to be part of a bond, but he goes all psycho-alter-ego whenever somebody touches you.”

“I’ll deal with him.”

“When?”

“After the date.”

His laugh was muffled, as though he was trying to mask the sudden sound. “Good plan,” he eventually said, his voice clear again. “Seph?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the heads up, I’ll let Noah know. Don’t let the poor sucker touch you. I’m serious.”

“I know, Lucifer.” I worked to soften my voice, and he paused on the other end.

For a moment, neither of us spoke, and it was like he was right there, in front of me. I turned from the house, looking out to the road as my breath whispered out in a light sigh. I had spoken to Cabe first for a reason, and now I was starting to feel a little guilty about it. Him and Noah had feelings for me, I knew that, I just didn’t know exactly what that entailed. I also didn’t know whether to attribute the bulk of their feelings to the bond, or whether they genuinely felt a certain way about me—outside of our obvious friendship. It was hard to tell, especially with the knowledge that they had been actively dating for a year before they really got to know me—all the while
knowing
that I was their Atmá.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Cabe’s tone was as soft as mine, but then it quickly gained a sharp edge. “At a reasonable hour, young lady.”

I laughed and pushed aside the guilt that I was taking advantage of his good nature to break the news to Noah gently. “Yes, Sir.”

I found Poison’s mother in the kitchen, mixing a salad at the counter. She had maids to do this sort of thing, but I always found her in the kitchen anyway. She wasn’t home very often, so I supposed she liked to enjoy it when she was. I had learned that Poison had a step-father, a man by the name of Dorian, who lived in New York—and that was the reason that her mother was mostly absent. It had surprised me to learn that Aiden had actually been her step-brother, but it didn’t at all surprise me that her mother had married someone other than Poison’s father… since Poison’s father was Weston… and Weston was…

He was…

Fine
, I had no idea what Weston was—but I was ninety-five percent sure that he was a terrible and dangerous person.