Zamani (16 page)

Later, after her shift was
over and the only customers left in the club were the few sad, lonely tourists
who had spent more than they could afford to spend sat nursing their warm
drinks and negotiating with dancers for a little private attention, she went in
the back and pulled jeans on over her G-string.
 
She left the lace t-shirt on, and she
pulled the duster on over it.
 
She
had shorter boots with a short heel that she often wore to work, and she slid
those on.
 
She left her nose ring in
place, shook out her hair, and freshened her lipstick.
 
She made her way down the street to
Oz.
 

Even if she hadn’t been the
lone woman in the sea of shirtless dancing men, Alex still would have noticed
her.
 
Wren slid between two of the
bar patrons and sat on a stool, shrugging the duster off her shoulders.
 
The contrast between the dark lace and
her pale skin peeking through it was too much for Alex to ignore.
 
Wren took her home that night after her
shift, riding beside her in the cab up St. Charles to the Delphine Hotel where
Wren rented a room.

And for a few glorious
months, they were inseparable.
 
Wren
loved the contrast between them; Alex’s soft butch exterior and focus on school
were in stark contrast to her image on stage, and she found refuge in the quiet
stability that Alex offered her.
 
But, of course, Wren had sabotaged herself.

Wren’s bisexuality and work
as a stripper were two elements that made it hard for Alex to completely trust
her.
 
Eventually, Alex couldn’t deal
with the uncertainty, and she broke off the romantic relationship.
 
She’d been to see Wren perform a time or
two. It was incredibly arousing at first, but Alex soon became aware of the
reality of the business and started to fear that Wren was playing her in the
same way she played convention goers from Idaho.
 
Wren understood Alex’s objections, as
every relationship she ever had seemed to follow the same trajectory.
 
She’d begged Alex to wait it out,
telling her she wouldn’t dance forever, but she wanted to get what she could
while it was still lucrative.
 
Alex
tried, but in the end she couldn’t overcome the doubts and fears and the
inevitable break up happened.
 

They remained friends, and
Wren accepted Alex’s choice and her later relationship with Liz.
 
Once she was turned, though, she
realized she had the power to seduce with her mind, to bend someone else’s will
through thought. She became even more powerful than she was when her body was
her main weapon.
 
She pursued Alex. As
she invaded her brain, she found some embers from their past relationship still
smoldering.
 
She took advantage of
that, and she was blind to everything else.
 
Knowing that Alex still had feelings for
her made her bold and reckless.

Chapter
Twenty Three

Wren turned over in her
bunk.
 
She’d been barely conscious
in the days between her arrest and now; she vaguely remembered being torn away
from Alex’s body, her blood still on her tongue, still warm.
 
The scene had been chaotic, and she
remembered Olivia there, for just a moment, before the blue flashing lights,
the sirens, the hands all over her and Alex, separating them.

In the weeks she’d been in
this cell, she’d dreamt of Alex a lot; not the blood soaked Alex, but the
younger Alex who had loved her until she couldn’t take the challenges of Wren’s
job anymore. When the break up happened, Wren had told herself that it didn’t
really matter that much; they were still friends, and after all Wren didn’t
like to limit herself to just one person.
 
Now that Alex was dead, she could see that for the bullshit it was.

Wren had woken this morning
clearheaded for the first time since her arrest.
 
She devoured her breakfast.
 
As the coffee helped dissipate the
mental fog, she thought back to the previous night and Olivia’s words. She’d
been in jail for almost two months, yet she had little memory of anything
beyond her dreams of that horrible night when she’d killed Alex and last night
when Olivia had come to her, kissing her and telling her the horrible truth of
what she’d done.
 
She turned it over
again in her mind, as she stared into the bottom of her empty cup, wishing she
had a full pot of coffee.

She’d killed Alex.

Even though she had to
believe it given where she was, the truth of her crime didn’t make sense to her.
Not only could she not imagine that she’d allow herself to kill the one woman she
truly loved, but she could still feel Alex’s presence.
 
It was like a certainty she had that she
was out there somewhere, waiting for her.
 
But Olivia had been so sure of it, and she had taunted her last night
for still having feelings and feeling sorrow over the whole situation.

Last night, Olivia appeared
in her cell, and at first Wren was sure she was hallucinating.
 
It wasn’t until she felt Olivia touch
her that she realized that this was more than a hallucination.
 
She felt relief at first; she’d been
driven nearly mad by the lack of feeding. Wren closed her eyes and remembered
the feeling of Olivia’s lips on hers, of the bloodletting, of the taste of
copper and violets that filled her mouth as she fed.
 
Once she was no longer desperate for
sustenance, she’d seen the events of the last two months in flashes.
 
She realized why she was here, and she
also was aware that Olivia had been to see her before, but had not let her feed
those times.
 
Wren knew that she had
one chance to stay clear and to convince Olivia she deserved to be saved.

She’d bargained last night,
begging Olivia to take her away from here.
 
Olivia refused, but she agreed to allow Wren a chance to prove
herself.
 
Today, she would meet with
her public defender and try to find some way to work through this mess—if
there was a way.

She felt tears forming as
she thought about Alex.
 
I must
be in denial
, she thought. After all, she was here because Alex was
dead.
 
It wasn’t fathomable for her,
though.
 
She loved Alex.
 
When the two of them were a couple,
she’d been willing to do anything for the relationship short of quitting her
job.
 
The money was too good, and
despite Alex’s objections, Wren refused to quit dancing.
 
At first, Alex hadn’t been bothered by
what Wren did for a living, but after she stopped by the club and saw her in
action, she started to complain.
 
Knowing that Wren was bisexual also was a sore spot for Alex.
 
After about six months, Alex told her
they could be friends but she couldn’t continue being her girlfriend and
worrying about when she would finally step out on her or be offered enough
money to meet clients outside the club.

Wren had bluffed well enough
at the time that Alex didn’t have any idea how hurt she was by the breakup, but
Wren was devastated by the loss.
 
When Alex and Liz became an item several months later, Wren channeled
her hurt and aggression into her stage act, making it even darker.
 
After the breakup, she started investing
in her stage persona more. She added her trademark back tattoos—a
pentacle and a triskelion—one on each shoulder blade.
 
She’d also started drinking a lot more,
and she burned through girlfriends and boyfriends faster than ever.

Sienna had been different,
though, and when they first started dating, Wren hoped that she had finally
gotten over Alex.
 
Then Sienna
disappeared.
 
What was it Olivia had
told her in one of those many visits?
 
Something about Sienna being dead, too, and that Wren was under
suspicion for her death?
 
She tried
to push through the shadows in her memory, and she could just barely remember
Olivia taunting her about Sienna.
 
Wren had assumed Sienna had just moved on; she’d been conscious of both
of them starting to pull away from the relationship, something they were both
prone to do when they felt they were getting too close to someone.
 
As her mind grew clearer, she remembered
Olivia telling her she had been the one to take Sienna from her.
 
Wren tried to rationalize at the time
that Sienna being gone was for the best, as they wouldn’t have worked anyway,
but she had to admit now, alone in her cell, that she’d started to unravel when
she realized that Sienna was truly gone.
 

She’d also lost Ryna, a
dancer friend who turned into a playmate outside of work, all thanks to Olivia.
 
Olivia invited them both to her
house, starting the relationship that led to Wanda’s death and eventually to
Ryna’s, as well.
 
Alone in her cell,
Wren realized Olivia took her from Wren, just as she had taken Sienna.
 
Wren feared that Alex would be next.
She’d seen the way Olivia pursued her, and she knew Alex was under Olivia’s
power. Alex worked extra hours outside of class for the professor and had
started a movie night at The Ruby as part of her research work. As an offering,
Wren decided to turn Alex for Olivia, hoping the payoff would be that the three
of them could be together.

Or at least that was how she
had reasoned it out at the time.
 
In
her cell, she sat up as she realized the truth of what she’d done; she hadn’t
tried to turn Alex for Olivia—she’d tried to turn her for herself and to
protect her. In her grief over losing Sienna she’d decided she wouldn’t let
Olivia have Alex, at least not all to herself. It was time for her to stand up
for herself and show that she had some power.
 

Her realization was
interrupted by notice that her lawyer was waiting for her.
 
She was led out to the visitation area.
In her new state of awareness she marveled at the care they took to shackle her
and put chains around her ankles and waist.
 

Jan Solaris greeted her coolly.
 
“I had all but given up on you, Ms.
Anderson.
 
I got a call this morning
that you are lucid.”

Wren nodded and sat
down.
 
“Please, call me Wren. I
don’t have much recollection of meeting you before. I think I’ve been in a
state of shock.
 
What can you tell
me about my situation?”

Jan shuffled her papers
around and finally looked up.
 
“It’s
not good. The prosecution is building a case against you not only for the death
of Alex, but also for Wanda’s death, Ryna’s death, and potentially for Tim
Clark’s death as well.”
 

Wren closed her eyes and
swallowed hard. She was glad Sienna’s name wasn’t mentioned, but she knew they
also suspected her of that murder. The new charges merely hardened her resolve
to find a way out, and made her realize Olivia was setting her up for a hard
fall.
 

She returned to her cell,
determined to find a way to turn the tables on Olivia.
 
She wasn’t sure how she’d manage, but
she knew she first had to convince Olivia she was still in control and that she
would do anything for her.
 
If she
didn’t, she knew she’d be stuck.
 
Her first priority was to feed and gain strength while she planned her
next step.
 

Fortunately, when Olivia
returned that night, Wren found she’d decided to help her in terms of teaching
her to survive and stay lucid.
 

“You did well today with Jan
Solaris.
 
I have connections here,
and your reward is that you can feed as you like from guards who are donors. No
more survival rations.”

When Olivia took her leave
that night, a guard came into Wren’s cell.
 
Without saying a word, she stood toe-to-toe with Wren and slid her cool
hands into the neck of Wren’s shirt, finding the fine silver chain Olivia left
with her.
 
She pulled the necklace
over Wren’s head and pressed the tiny blade into her hand.
 
A single, soft and pleading “Please” was
the only word she uttered.
 
Wren fed
from her, and when it was over, the guard silently took the chain in her hands
again, slipping it back over Wren’s head as one girlfriend might gift
another.
 
She tucked the necklace
out of sight under the neckline of Wren’s shirt before turning and walking out.

Wren felt a surge of anger
toward Olivia, not just for herself and her situation, but for the way that
Olivia could obviously enthrall anyone and exert her will on them.
 
While Wren was no stranger to the powers
of manipulation, she was far more used to being the manipulator.
 
She felt as if she was getting some
traction with Olivia, and she wondered how Olivia managed to come and go
freely.
 
It was more than just
mental invasion; Olivia manifested physically in her cell. This was obvious
because of the necklace—up to that point, Wren had wondered if Olivia had
merely been communicating telepathically—creating the illusion of her
physical presence.
 
She had to
believe that the transformation went beyond mental illusion, given that the
guard also interacted with the pendant. Now she was sure that she was somehow
able to transform herself into the wispy smoke and fog that rolled into the
cell before it swirled together to become Olivia.
 

She puzzled over it for
hours until she finally fell asleep, her dreams haunted by shadow creatures and
the sound of Olivia’s laughter in the dark.