Chapter 8

     Promised

      

       I woke up some time later, it was still early and I could see the faintest hints of the dawn through the windows.  It took me a moment to realize I wasn't in the guest room I was escorted to before, but sprawled across the bed in West's room clad in a large t-shirt.  I took stock of my surroundings, looking for West, and found him asleep on a high backed chair that sat next to the bed.  His long frame, looked uncomfortably slumped down forcing his legs to fall awkwardly on the floor in front of him.  I took a deep breath in, studying the lines of his face, and thought even in sleep he looked strong and handsome. 

       I felt around myself, sending out pulses of my own magic to determine how I fared from last night.  I was sore in some spots and my side still ached but my magic had returned to almost it's full capacity, by dinner tonight I would be right as rain.  I looked around the room, the clock said six and I knew it was still too early for everyone to be waking up.  Snapping my fingers I placed West back in his bed, standing over him and tucking the covers fully over his shoulders.  I stretched, and blushed something fierce when I realized I was wearing clean underwear.  I was suddenly grateful I had passed out before that part.  Looking around and finding I didn't want to go back to bed, lest I wake West, and I ventured down to the kitchen for some much needed coffee and sweets.

       "Feeling better?" I heard someone ask as I was filling up the filter with coffee.  I turned and found Dante leaning against the doorway, speculative eyes scanning my frame.  I was thinking I should have really searched for my bag to put on some pants, even if the shirt fell to my knees it made me feel exposed.

       "Yes, I should be back to normal tonight."  I hit the little brew button and waiting anxiously for it to produce its fruit.  "Thank you for helping me last night, I didn't mean to bring that to your doorstep."  He bowed his head and then glared at me, it started my sleepy tired brain until I realized he was looking over my shoulder, not at me at all.

       "Didn't take you long did it?" Raquel said, and I whipped around to see her standing in another doorway and gesturing crudely to my appearance.  I looked down and realized how it must look, standing in the kitchen in what I was now assuming was West's shirt.  Well fantastic.  "Are you now trying to hit up Dante too?  Let me save you the trouble, he won't date the young ones."  She said it with such malice, I could see some spittle fly out of her mouth.  I looked from her to Dante, they were locked in a stare down that could have set the house on fire.

       "Somehow I think in your case age wasn't the problem," I told her flatly.  It didn't take a mind mage to figure out what had happened between them, and the cause for Dante's dislike of her.  She moved her arm up, and I threw protective spell over where I and Dante were standing, not sure which one of us she was aiming at.  I turned my back on her and faced him.

       "Think fast," I told his as I snapped my fingers and filled his hand with a hot cup of coffee.  His eyes widened then grinned at me, taking a sip and sighing.  "My father used to say that denying someone attention was as effective as physically putting them in their place, only it requires less effort.  I'm a bit tired so if she goes on longer than an hour I might need some back up."  He looked back to Raquel and then to me and burst out laughing.

       "How come I can't hear her?" he asked, still gasping from all the laughing. I looked back and found Raquel staring into our area, like if she concentrated hard enough she could read lips and figure out what was going on.

       "That's my thank you, for last night.  She can't hear us either which makes it better, we can talk about stocks for an hour and she'll assume the worst."

       "Handy," he said taking another large drink from his mug.  I looked back around and found Raquel had left, probably stomping off to find West.  I dropped the shield feeling how tired I was just from holding it there a couple of minutes.  Those damn vampires took too much from me last night.

       "Did she go straight for you first, or did she hit on your while she was with West?"  I felt him stiffen a little and I hoped I hadn't taken it too far, sometimes my brain didn't catch up with my mouth.  He met my eyes, they were full of what I thought looked like a painful memory.

       "No, it was her sister she's talking about, she's a twin," he informed me sourly.  Mercy, two of them?

       "Raquel must be really good in bed" I mumbled under my breath, not understanding why on earth he was still with her.

       "They have been promised to each other.  I told West I wouldn't mention it to you, but I think you deserve to know."  I sucked in a breath and shook my head, hardly believing what I heard.

       "I thought that wasn't done here anymore?" I asked feeling the blood drain from my face.

       "It's more of an informal thing, our parents and hers got together long ago, when they were first starting to notice each other.  They tossed around the idea and agreed to it, provided their attraction lasted.  Now with her father being who he is, mom and dad are over the moon about it.  West doesn't want to disappoint them I suppose, plus it's all they have ever known with each other, it's all...complicated."  I nodded, drinking down the rest of my coffee, feeling the bitter taste on my tongue matching my mood.

       "Well, I think that settles things."  I said more to myself than anyone else.  It came out sounding more resigned than I had intended.

       "Settles what?" West said, appearing next to his brother and looking amused.  I didn't see his girlfriend with him, and it puzzled me.  Perhaps Raquel didn't go right to him like I thought.

       "Oh I'm leaving for the next two weeks.  I don't have school so I'm just going to travel a bit." I said smiling to myself.  I earned some vacation time after last night.

       "Please, you can stay here or at our place.  We will all keep you company, you are much too exciting to let go now," Mave said playfully coming up behind me and ruffling my hair.

       "You can stay here," West said giving Mave a direct look. 

       "Sorry boys, I'm out of here.  There is an island that's calling my name."  I reached behind me and stretched, feeling still a small ache in my side.  "Have fun at school though!" I said cheerily snapping my fingers and filling Mave's hand with a mug of coffee.  He looked down to his cup and threw back his head, laughing till the tears came flowing out of his eyes.

       "You don't own a bathing suit but you own an island?" West said cutting off Mave's cackles.

       "I don't own it per say, I won free use of it last night.  I get it for the next five years."  I looked off in the distance in fond memory of Miguel's face when I won it.  It was almost worth the beating, almost.

       "You won an island in a poker game?  With vampires?" West asked, looking stunned.

       "No Miguel is some kind of water sprite I think, I can never get a good lock on him for long enough to figure it out.  Could have merman genetics too, possibly Norse or Celtic heritage.  Regardless he smells like a mixture of mold and seaweed so that's my guess, bad teeth too."  They were all gaping at me, but I smiled and turned for the stairs.  West was still blocking my path, and not looking like he was likely to move either.

       "You tucked me in bed?" he asked me in a soft tone, it was more of a statement, like he was reminding me as much as he was asking me if it happened.

       "You looked ridiculous in the chair, your long legs sprawling out in front of you like a spider.  It was the least I could do."  He looked me, an unknown expression crossing his face.  Just then I saw an arm slip around West's waist, followed by another one as Raquel attached herself like parasite around his tall frame.

       "You sure you won't stay?" Mave asked and I took a step back so that I wasn't so close to her anymore, I didn't trust my restraint. 

       "Pass up the island, I think not.  Plus I need to lay low for a while, Candance is likely to retaliate for last night," I said, letting my mind wander back to the look on her face.

       "Candace?" Dante asked, his whole body stilled and I knew he likely recognized the name.  Oddly, he waited for my reply and it made me curious what he knew of her.

       "She's another witch, a very powerful and vicous one at that but in the end I caught her cheating.  She underestimated my game play and tried to trick me as well as the table.  I caught her, but at the same time opened myself up too much and they knew I was...using skills Frank had barred me from displaying at his tables."  I could feel my face construed in a grimace as I rubbed a spot over my eye that was started to smart.

       "What skills would that be?" Raquel said snidely, emphasizing the word skill with a nasty inflection.

       "Oh, you don't get info like that easily, I'm sure I'll catch you 'cheating' at some point and you'll know.  Until then it would be best to keep your mouth shut, I've had a hell of day yesterday and your passive aggressive taunts are going to get you into trouble."  I leveled my stare at her and she shrunk back behind West.  It reminded me of what Dante told me and it sent a surprising wave of pain through me, I need to get out of here, and fast.

       "Oh s**t my bike!" I yelled out when I realized it was still at the warehouse.  I hoped I parked it far enough away that no one messed with it.  Just as I popped up I heard a ding, it took me a minute to realize someone was at the door, even their doorbell was fancy.  Dante and West shared a look and then the older brother slunk off towards the front of the house.  I heard a voice that sounded almost familiar, and as if unconsciously some part of my body responded to the voice before my brain could catch up.

       "Where is she?  I know she's here Dante, Candace said it's the address she gave Frank when they dragged her out so don't bullshit me," JP said his bulky muscular frame filled up the doorway.  The hard look on his face reminded me of an avenging angel.

       "I'm here, it’s okay Dante you can let him in."  Dante looked from JP to me and made a small move to clear the entryway for him to enter.  I saw Veronica right behind him, shadowing him and throwing some confusing glances at Dante.  Interesting.

       "I got a call last night, what happened?  Why the hell would you do something that stupid!" JP yelled, shrugging off where he was standing with Veronica to pull me towards him.  I shook out of his hand and looked back to him.

       "She was cheating JP, what they hell else was I supposed to do ignore it?  She was about to take me all out before that hand and I was winning, she knew it and tried to play dirty.  I won't tolerate that s**t, you play the game you run the risk of losing.  I wasn't about to let someone weaker than me best me by cheating.  There was 20K on the line, I could pay for the last graft alone with that."

       "And risking your life is worth your precious pride?  You should have taken the loss before you put yourself in that position.  Frank could have killed you, you know that right?"  I knew he was worried for me, but after everything it was too much, this back and forth concern for me was getting to my head.

       "I know it well, I've known Frank my whole life.  He was supposed to be my husband, surely you remember that little story. He's still fond of me, and he looks out for me, he wouldn't have hurt me too bad."

       "Hurt you too bad?  He damn near killed you!" Dante said with an expression that mirrored JP's. 

       "He weakened me, but he would have had to do a whole lot more to kill me.  I deserved it, I didn't obey his rules and I accepted my punishment like a woman.  I didn't even need to be restrained."  I tilted my chin up, I had nothing to be sorry for.

       "That's not how it's supposed to work," West said, reminding me that we had an audience.  His tone was soft, like one used with children who didn't understand something.  "When someone breaks the rules, even in this community, it doesn't give someone the right to do that to you.  What happened to you last night was unacceptable." 

       "Especially just to win some money," JP said, Veronica nodded in agreement next to him, tucked up protectively against his side.

        "Then someone tell me how else am I supposed to pay for an apartment on top of everything else.  You have a jobs, I can't even stay in school long enough without getting suspended.  I needed that money, and I got it, so I can pay for my face and a place to live.  I'm not gambling because it's fun or because I like it, even though I do and I'm damn good at it.  I do it so I can survive, because you and your girlfriend dumped me out without anywhere to go, because I won't last in that school and we all know it.  Who the hell is going to hire me?  You think the governance is going to take one year in school and place me on their payroll?  They won't, and you want to know why?" I asked, drawing every eye to me.  I was being dramatic but the train was leaving the station, I couldn't stop it.  "Because they are scared of me, as much of what I could be as what I am.  They don't know what I bring to them, who I could draw to them.  It's the same reason JP hides inside the school, instead of going back into the field.  His years with me made him a target, both to those loyal to my father and the governance themselves."  I saw Veronica roll her eyes and I snapped.  I sent her straight to the high ceiling, holding her with an air spell so she faced down to us, her long hair was hanging down in sheets around her face, panic evident in her eyes.  I locked JP up at the same time as I walked over to him and got close.

       "I bet when you got back they didn't offer you the position did they?  They recommended you to the school, gave you a good salary and a speech about the difference you could make, how the unique situation you endured would be beneficial to teaching the next generation.  We both know your skill set, and it's wasted in that hell hole.  You should be hunting him down, hunting my rotting family down, not teaching bratty children restraint.  You convinced one of the most powerful mages in the world that you were someone you are not, that is not a skill that should be shut up in a school."  I released the lock on his vocal cords allowing him to talk.

       "What I did to Remy isn't the issue here," he said through a clenched jaw.  Interesting he didn't ask about his girlfriend first.

       "I was talking about what you did to me.  Tricking my father wasn't difficult, he was out of his mind long before you came to us.  What you did to me involved much more magical skill."  I dropped Veronica at a higher speed than was necessary right into his arms.  She made a satisfying squeal and burst into hysterical tears that made me roll my own eyes.

       "You are not welcome around me, if your boyfriend chooses to come see me again he will not bring you along.  I want it noted I could have hurt you but I chose not to, again.  I don't understand or care about what I have done to draw such contempt from you but I assure you it's misplaced."  I turned towards JP.  "Thank you for wanting to make sure I was alright, I am clearly fine so I will see you in two weeks."  I held my arm out towards the door signaling my desire to have him gone.  He gave on long look towards me, still holding his sobbing girlfriend against his chest as he crossed the threshold and left me standing there.

       "I'm always looking at the backs of other people, you think one day someone will walk towards me instead?" I said to no one in particular, but my traitorous body had turned in West's direction.  He locked his eyes with mine, and it said something about his character that he didn't break it to offer me cheap words of comfort.  This was a kind of sadness that couldn't be wished away.

       "I'll give you a ride to grab the bike," Dante said abruptly steering my shoulders towards the stairs.  "Go up and get dressed."