Amaretto Flame Page 2

It was a beautiful old plantation house; white with an enormous front porch and hardwood floors. It was filled with antiques, and it was clear that Ivanna had hired someone to clean up and stock the refrigerator.

  Despite the house’s charm, I was miserable, and by the fourth day, I had to get out of there. With my cell phone and some money jammed into the pocket of my jeans, I walked. There was still a chill to the spring air, although the sun was out in full force, casting a bright glare on every reflective surface in sight. I’d never been to Staves before, and in the harsh daylight, it was easy to see how small the town was. As I walked, I couldn’t help but study the humans that were out here and there. I wasn’t studying them the way they’d want to study me – like a science experiment – but I found them interesting.

  Near a small park, a tiny human girl begged her father for an ice cream cone. His indulgent grin brought a small smile to my face as I walked on. The buildings on Main Street were close together, and some of them were huge, with four or five businesses housed under one roof. As I approached a building that sat back further than most, I found myself staring. The building had no windows; only a glass door that was tinted black. Three girls stood out in front, one of them puffing on a cigarette.

  They wore white collared shirts with small black ties, tiny black skirts that flared slightly, and black aprons that tied around their waists. Two of the girls were younger – maybe a few years older than me – and the third looked like she might have been in her late thirties. They were deep in conversation by the time I was within earshot of them.

  “I’m dead serious,” said one of the younger girls, with bleach-blond hair that came to crisp ends near her chin. She wore sparkling blue eye-shadow and earrings that dangled past her hair. “I need to take some kind of self-defense class or something. Every single time that guy comes in here, he puts his hands all over me. And I’m completely weak and fragile. You either get strength or overwhelming beauty.” She shrugged, as if to say ‘it’s a curse.’

  “You could hit him hard enough to make him leave you alone,” said the other young-looking girl. She was pretty, with chestnut-brown hair that fell down her back in layers. The woman in her thirties watched the younger two as she smoked, seemingly amused with their conversation.

  “I’ve never hit anyone before,” Blue eye-shadow replied.

  The pretty girl sighed, and lifted her chin. “Hit me,” she said.

  “Hit you?”

  “Yes. Just hit me as hard as you can.”

  “Fine,” said the girl with the blue eye-shadow. “I’ll hit you.”

  She balled up her small fist and stood still a moment longer, preparing herself. Then, she brought her fist back and punched the other girl directly in the mouth. The girl who’d been hit stepped back a few feet and slapped her hands against her mouth, while the other girl hopped up and down, shaking her hand.

  “Why did you do that?” The pretty girl shrieked.

  “You said to hit you,” replied the other.

  “Not in the MOUTH!”

  The situation was so humorous, but I didn’t realize I’d been laughing until the girls both turned their heads to look at me. Immediately, my laughter died and I could feel my face growing hot.

  “What are you looking at?” said the girl with the blue eye-shadow.

  “Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Jenny,” said the prettier girl, in a reproving tone.

  “Do you think you could do better?” The girl, who was apparently named Jenny, started to walk toward me. I should have turned around and walked back to the house, but the challenge in her face anchored me to the ground. If she wanted to play tough girl, I wasn’t going to rain on her parade.

  “Yes,” I answered, shrugging. I watched her eyebrows shoot up with surprise. Her fist balled up at her side, and when she got just a foot or two in front of me, she stopped walking.

  “If you plan on hitting me,” I said, “don’t aim for the mouth. Hitting me in the nose would be much more effective. Plus,” I looked at the bloody spot on her knuckle, “you won’t risk hitting a tooth.”

  The girl narrowed her eyes at me, not threateningly, but curiously. She was probably wondering if I was completely full of it, considering the fact that I’m so small. She was more than a few inches taller than me.

  “If it’s a man you’re fighting, you’re better off kicking him…I guess you know where. Take the easiest hit and the one that gives you the most time to get away,” I said, wishing she would speak instead of staring at me. Suddenly her face lit up with a grin that made her instantly prettier, and she put her hand out to shake mine. Apparently, she'd decided to like me...or she had a habit of becoming instant friends with anyone who advocated kicking men in the crotch.

  “I’m Jenny,” she said.

  “Olivia,” I offered, as I shook her hand. By that time, the other girl had strolled up next to Jenny, and introduced herself as Erika.

  “I could teach you a few moves, if you want,” I shrugged. “If you need to protect yourself or something.” I felt awkward as I spoke. The offer had sort of jumped out of me before I'd known what I was saying. I couldn't help it. My entire life had been spent learning how to protect humans...why shouldn't she know how to protect herself?

  Jenny shot a look at Erika and then looked back at me. “Yeah,” she said enthusiastically. “How do you know…moves?”

  “I took a self-defense class,” I said, smiling inwardly. One that had lasted my entire life and prepared me for fighting enemies much scarier than anything Jenny might encounter in the town of Staves.

  “Cool,” she said, with all the excitement Max might have at the thought of a new computer program. Before I knew it, the two girls were dragging me inside the building. They introduced me to the third, a woman named Renee, with frizzy red hair and a scratchy voice that suggested her smoking habit had been going on for years.

  It was dim inside, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to it after having been outside in the bright sunlight. It smelled like stale cigarette smoke, and I could see that it was a bar of some kind. Tables lined the floor, and along the walls were booths with pale green vinyl seats. To my right was a bar and what looked like hundreds of bottles of alcohol.

  I spotted a bottle I’d seen before back in Eagleton. Perry had his own stash that he dipped into occasionally. As I followed them up to the bar, I felt a strange shift in the air. I recognized this shift, and immediately, my whole body went on alert. For me, it was a tell-tale sign that magick was near. I glanced back and forth between the faces of the girls, and saw nothing that indicated that they’d felt it too.

  I looked around the bar. It was completely empty. A moment later, a man came out of a room behind the bar. He was shorter than me, with a big round belly and dull russet eyes. With adrenaline running through my body, I waited for him to make a move. Surely he’d been the source of the strange shifting I’d felt.

  “Okay Renee. You’ll probably have to pull a double tonight. I know you’re glad to hear it,” he said, shooting a sarcastic grin her way. When his eyes fell on me, I saw them flick up and down quickly. “Who’s this?” He asked.

  “This is Olivia,” Jenny said. “She’s going to teach me how to kick some butt.”

  By this time, I realized the man wasn’t a threat, and I wondered if I was going crazy. Maybe my body was responding to four days without any serious exercise or magick. I smiled at him, hoping I didn’t look out of place.

  “Kick butt, huh?” He chuckled. “Say, you don’t need a job, do you?” I laughed and started to shake my head, but he spoke again.

  “It’s not that hard. Don’t worry if you don’t have any experience. Jenny and Erika can teach you the ropes. You just gotta make sure the customers’ glasses are full and that everyone’s having a merry old time.”

  Jenny and Erika looked at me expectantly, and I glanced again at their uniforms. The seed of revenge that I hadn’t known was in my heart suddenly shot up and bloomed. Th
e thought of Ivanna seeing me in the short skirt, the pantyhose that put a sheen across the thigh, and the flirty tie was too pleasurable to ignore. Me, her future high-priestess, dressed like that and serving drinks to humans in a bar. Suddenly I smiled. She’d said I was supposed to live like a human, hadn’t she?

  “Yes. Yes, I am looking for a job,” I said slowly, allowing the rebellious feeling to gather throughout my body, warm and satisfying.

  The next hour went by quickly. The man’s name was Bob Stallott, and he was the owner of the club. I learned quickly that he had an obvious appreciation for attractive girls, as his eyes flicked down several times to the milky white skin of my chest as he spoke to me. Even so, he seemed very serious when he told me that he didn’t want any hands on his girls.

  “You smile and laugh, and make sure they’re having a good time, but you let me know if some creep tries to get touchy-feely,” he said. He glanced at the clock every few minutes, and I assumed it was because it was nearly time for the club to open for business. Jenny, Erika, and Renee pulled the high-backed chairs down from the tables as I talked to Bob, readying the place.

  “If you can work Wednesday through Sunday from four in the afternoon until closing, you can have the job. You have to be able to handle a lot of time on your feet, and it’s a fast-paced job. You look tough, though. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

  I watched him as he spoke. How odd it felt to be sitting at a booth in this nightclub, talking to this human. I almost felt as if I were in a dream. It was so far from anything I’d ever experienced. I nodded at him as he told me how much I’d make per hour, and that any tips I received were mine to keep.

  “You’ll stay an hour after the club closes to help clean up and wash the dishes, and that’s about it,” he said. “You can start tomorrow. Jenny and Erika will show you everything that needs to be done. If you write down your address,” he pointed to a pen and sheet of paper on the table, “I’ll send someone over with your uniform. Oh, and you’ll need to bring me your ID tomorrow so I can fill out the necessary tax forms.”

  I picked up the pen quickly, writing down the address at the old plantation house. An ID. This would be a little tricky. Technically, I guessed I probably wasn’t even allowed to be in this club at nineteen years old. Even better, I thought. If you’re going to be rebellious, you might as well go all the way.

  I smiled as Bob stood, and I waved goodbye to the girls as I made my way across the indoor-outdoor carpet toward the exit. Stuck as I was in my thoughts, I barely noticed the stray plucks of a guitar coming from somewhere in the club. As I reached toward the door, the stray notes picked up in speed, forming the beginning of a song.

  The sun nearly blinded me as I exited, and although I craved some quiet place to think over the events that had just occurred, I was in no rush to go back to the huge, empty house. A few times as I slowly made my way back through town, the wind picked up, making chill-bumps break out on my arms. As I passed the park where the little girl and her father had been earlier, my cell phone rang. I snatched it out of my pocket and grinned. Everett’s name was on the little glowing screen.

  “Everett.” It wasn’t a question, or even a statement really. It was a sigh…a relief that someone had remembered me. It was the first time since my banishment that anyone in Eagleton had called.

  “Livvy! How are you?” His voice boomed into my ear.

  Shrugging off the question, I told him I was fine and asked about Eagleton; about my brothers and sisters.

  “They miss you,” he replied, his voice quieter. “And they’re letting Ivanna know that in no uncertain terms. It’s busy here, with preparations for Beltane. I’ve carried enough wood to build a house,” he laughed.

  Beltane. The time of year when all the world was in love; the animals of the forest in their mating dances, the seeds in the ground beginning to wake up and stir. The Mother Goddess took the form of a young maiden, seeking her lover, the Horned One of the forest. My brothers and sisters would jump over bonfires for luck, and the whole coven would circle the property in Eagleton, making any necessary repairs.

  There would be a huge feast, and dancing into the night. It was one of the biggest celebrations in Eagleton, a chance to honor the youth of the year, and it was the first one I’d miss since going to Eagleton.

  Last year, after Charlotte had mentioned something about the Beltane dew bringing great beauty, Sylvia had talked me into going out early with her. We rose at dawn, and I indulgently followed her as she collected the dripping dew from blades of grass and flower petals, swiping it all over the warm brown skin of her face. I smiled sadly, wishing I would be there. Then I nearly laughed at the thought of Sylvia needling Everett or Max to go out with her and wash their faces in the Beltane dew.

  “I wish you were here,” Everett said, bringing me back to the moment.

  “Me too,” I sighed. “Listen…can you have Max call me as soon as possible? It’s really important.”

  “I’ll tell him. Oh, Ivanna says you should be ready Friday morning. I’ll be there early to get you. We’re meeting with the Moss Point coven.” Everett’s voice didn’t change, but I sensed the tension even from this far away.

  “Have there been more attacks?” I asked quietly, looking around. I’d wandered through the fence and into the small park, and now I sat at a weathered picnic table.

  “I don’t know,” he said. It seemed as if he wanted to add something, but he remained quiet.

  “Everett, what if I really messed up?” The words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “What if they find him and somehow they’re able to--” He interrupted quickly.

  “Olivia, that’s not going to happen. Besides, the attacks that have happened are not Venator. We’ll talk about this when I come to pick you up, okay?”

  I nodded like he could see me through the phone. “Okay. I’ll see you Friday morning then, and don’t forget about Max.”

  “I won’t. I’m hoping Ivanna caves Friday and lets you come home. I think she misses you more than anyone else, other than me of course.”

  I imagined the smile on Everett’s face and refused to let my eyes tear up. “We’ll see,” I said. I hung up, thinking of Everett. He had come to Eagleton just a few months after me. He was six then, and a scrawny, timid thing. I had doted on him from the moment he arrived, with his soft, pale hair and shining eyes. We were inseparable. For a long time, he wouldn’t talk to any of the other coven members. He would whisper to me what he wanted me to know, or what he wanted to say to the others but couldn’t bring himself to.

  He probably would have used his power – the ability to get inside someone’s head and talk to them there – but we learned a long time ago that normal spells didn’t work on me.

  For years after he arrived, I’d wake up and find him curled up beside me in my bed, his little fingers clutching mine as if I were his only life line. Slowly, he came out of his shell and began to speak and interact with the adults. A few years after Everett came Max, and then Sylvia.

  I knew their histories. Each of them had gone through terrible ordeals at the hands of the ‘parents’ who’d created them. Sitting at the picnic table, I experienced one of my bitter moments. Normal human children had parents that loved them, that adored them even. They grew up secure in the fact that they were loved. Some Wise Ones even shared that fate, but not many.

  It was as if we were cursed; abandoned—and worse—by our human parents, and then we were expected to protect humans from the Venator. Maybe not all humans would abandon Wise Ones as soon as they realized they were different, but I instantly doubted that thought. Even through the bitter feelings, I knew that I would die defending humans from the hunters if need be. Because, despite their stubborn refusal to acknowledge anything that was different from them—beliefs different from theirs—humans were innocent, and they didn’t deserve the cruel end the Venator would have them experience.

  I shook my head to clear it, and stood from the picnic table. The af
ternoon was wearing on, the sun a bronze disc in the clear sky. As my feet shuffled toward the old house slowly, I found myself remembering those first days of my arrival in Eagleton. I was so caught up in my memories that I didn’t notice the black jeep parked in front of the house until I had nearly reached the low gate. I whipped my head toward the house in alarm. If Ivanna was sending someone, she would have called, and I knew no one in Staves.

  A tall man was standing on the wide front porch, a crumpled brown paper bag in his hands. As I watched, trying to place him in my memory, he shifted the bag to his other arm and knocked on the door. I glanced back at the jeep and wondered if perhaps Ivanna had called to have something delivered. The man ran a hand through his unruly hair and just as he was starting to turn, I called out to him.

  “No one’s home,” I said. “Maybe I can help you with something.” He swiveled around to look at me with bright, honey-colored eyes. Whoa. “

  Uh…hi,” he said, his head cocked to the side. “I’m looking for Olivia Landry.”

  “What do you need her for?” I asked, crossing my arms as he began to descend the steps. The hair that had looked brown shone copper in the sunlight as he reached the cobblestone walk. Curly sideburns of the same color lined his angular jaw. He didn’t speak again until he’d nearly reached the tiny gate, and then he stood still and looked at me for a moment.

  “Listen,” he lowered his voice. “Someone paid me to drop this off to her, and to be quite honest, I’m a little afraid for her safety.” He looked suspiciously at the paper bag, which was rolled closed at the top.

  “Why?” I asked, my own voice lowered as well.

  “I think I heard it ticking in the jeep…like some kind of bomb or something,” he answered. My hands went slowly to my sides as I backed up a few steps, and then I realized he was laughing.

  “I’m kidding,” he said. “It’s your work uniform. Bob sent me over with it.” Wow. That was fast.

  “That’s not funny,” I said, unable to conceal a smile.