concrete at Ranas feet while she read. Henrick had just
fought off an army of men who wanted to take Anna away
from him. None of those men had sounded much nicer, so I
figured Anna had it pretty good with Henrick.
“Good evening, Ms. Rou. Did you want me to go, or
make him dinner first?” Rana asked my mom.
“Go. I will take care of dinner.” My moms voice was
oddly cold. Shed become that way more and more over the
years.
Rana gathered up her things. “Bye, sweetie. See you
again soon. Win some battles for me.”
I smiled at her and nodded. My mother escorted her to
the door and was back in a flash. “Pick up your toys, Seiran.
Come inside. I have guests arriving soon.” My mother pulled
me up while I scrambled to gather all my soldiers. Moving my army to the stairway was better for strategy,
anyway. We could see the enemy approaching. Todays
enemy was a Ken doll one of my moms co-workers had given
me. He wasnt much of a soldier. Soldiers didnt smile like
that. Or if they did, I never saw them like that on the
cartoons. Brushing my hair out of my eyes, I peered through
the slats of stair rails as the guests began arriving. Dominion. All of them. That they were witches wasnt all
that unusual. Mom had witches over all the time. These were
unfamiliar witches, and they dressed funny. Like they were
going to a party.
“Is that him, Tanaka?” one of them asked, glaring up at
me. “Looks like a girl. You sure they got the sex right?” “Yes, yes. Hes very pretty. Come to the dining room,
have a seat.” My mother ushered them in. “Seiran,” my mom
hissed at me a few minutes later, coming back to the
stairway alone. “Go get something for dinner, and go to your
room.”
I opened my mouth to protest that I hadnt done
anything to deserve room time, but her glare made me
swallow those words. After gathering up my soldiers again, I
made a sandwich for myself in the kitchen, peanut butter
and potato chips, with an apple on the side. Listening to the
conversation in the other room wasnt all that hard.
Dominion witches talked loud, like they had a hard time
hearing or something.
“I dont think youll find a family willing to do a
betrothal. Hes far too pretty. Any sign of power in him?” one
of them asked.
“Of course not, hes a boy,” another replied. “You should
have had another child, Tanaka.”
“The Rou family comes from a very long line of powerful
witches…,” my mother was saying.
“We all know the power of the Rou line. I wish it hadnt
stopped with you.”
I climbed the stairs, sandwich in one hand, toys in the
other, trying to hear what they said.
“I cant have another child. That should not be news to
the council. Seirans birth came with a lot of complications,”
my mother told them.
“You should have aborted when you knew it would be a
boy. Its sanctioned now. We made sure the law was changed
almost twenty years ago.”
If my mother replied to that, I didnt hear her. I shut the
door to my room and began to make my little battalion a
home on the windowsill.
Several hours later, Id already changed into my
pajamas and was half asleep when my mother entered the
room.
“Mom, whats wrong?”
She had a scissors in her hand as she crossed the room
and sat on the bed beside me. Instead of replying, she
grabbed a chunk of my hair in her fist and yanked me across
the bed. Pieces fell away, and she pulled and snipped
tirelessly at my hair. It took only a minute or two for me to
stop struggling and let her do it. I felt the heat of blood on
my scalp and wiped it away when it ran down my neck. “Why did you have to be born so pretty? Why couldnt
you be a girl?” she asked in that no-nonsense voice. “I dont know. Im sorry,” I replied out of habit. “Dont you dare cry,” she told me as she often had
before.
“I wont, Momma,” I whispered and fought back the
sniffle the pain brought. Maybe this had been what Sampson
had been through.
Less than a week later shed enrolled me in military
school. Told me Id be like those little plastic toys that Id
always played with. She had no idea how right shed be. “Youve mentioned before being imprisoned by your
mother. Tell me about that,” the distant voice instructed,
taking me to the memory of my senior year of high school. Id still been at the academy then. Worked hard, could
run longer and faster than others, lift my own body weight,
and swim miles without tiring. We were trained to follow
orders, and classes were taught in a no-nonsense sort of
way. I picked up information easily and was at the top of the
class. That year theyd stopped enforcing the short buzz cuts
wed sported as kids, and my hair had grown around my
ears for the first time in almost eight years.
“I wanted to go to school for nutrition and health
sciences. Spent a lot of time researching and experimenting
with my diet and workout regimes in school. It made sense
to me,” I told the voice. “I felt better when I ate right and
worked my body in the right way. Cardio, some weights,
yoga.”
“When you told your mother, what happened?” It hadnt really been all that unexpected. I went home
every weekend. Ran in the mornings, sometimes swam if the
weather was nice, and taught myself yoga to keep some of
the stiff pain out of my limbs. My mother had come into my
room halfway into senior year while I was doing a yoga
routine.
Stupidly, I felt that overwhelming pride of doing
something right, since Id applied to the school of my choice and had been accepted. Even with a partial scholarship, I could have afforded it on my own with a decent job on the side. I felt the urge to share with her, as I never really had
before.
“I got my acceptance letter today. They are reviewing my
information for possible scholarships,” I told her.
My mother looked shocked. “For where? Studying
what?”
“Metro. Ill be studying health sciences. Fitness,
nutrition, overall health.”
“No.”
I blinked at her, not understanding what she was
saying. “Ive already been accepted.”
“You will apply for the University of Minnesota as an
earth magic major.”
“Only girls can do that. They wont even let me test.” “They will, and you will.”
“Mom, I want to do fitness stuff. Im not a kid anymore.
This is my choice.”
“Pointless. Im not going to debate this with you, Seiran.
You are a Rou. You willstudy earth magic,” she told me. I
watched her leave the room with an angry set to her
shoulders I knew meant trouble.
“How did she get you into the white room?” the voice
asked again.
“Drugged me. I had a Chai mix I kept in the fridge on
the weekends when I was home. I drank it three times a day
l
ike clockwork. Bang, that night I passed out and later
awoke strapped to that damn gurney.” The memory still
made me shudder. I could smell the stink of days and the
gnawing hunger. I also never drank Chai again.
The pain from being separated from the earth had been
almost unbearable. Thankfully, Id been released before the
new moon. But Id spent nearly three weeks in that room. “Sounds like she planned ahead. Not many have a
gurney, a spare room, or drugs to get a child to cooperate,”
the doctor pointed out.
Id never thought about it, but that was certainly true.
“Id always followed her rules. I dont know why she would
have expected otherwise.”
“Yet, you believe she will someday kill you.”
“Yeah. When shes done with me.”
“What do you have to offer her now? Someone is having
your baby, right? And youve kept the honor of the Rou name
because youre now earth Pillar.”
“I dont know. Now shes probably too worried about
what would happen if I died. Like a major earthquake or
something.”
“Count backward from one hundred.” And we counted
together until the subtle gray walls came back into focus.
“Someone called. Your brother left. He put a note for you on
the counter.”
I felt pretty groggy again but tried to get up to retrieve
the note. Hopefully, nothing bad had happened. Jamie had
been pretty insistent on staying here today while the doctor
was here. When I got to my feet I felt a sudden case of vertigo
and had to sit down again.
“Are you all right?” Dr. Tynsen asked.
“Yeah, just dizzy,” I told her.
She reached across the counter and handed me the
note. “Sometimes when you go deep into your psyche, it can
cause a head rush like that. Relax for a few minutes, and youll be fine.” She packed up her bag. “How are your
encounters with Gabe going?”
I sighed. “No change.”
“Its early yet.” She patted me on the back. “Dont push
yourself too hard. It takes time to get through these things.” But I didnt want it to take time. Didnt understand
what was wrong with me anyway. Sex had always been a
hobby for me. I enjoyed anal probably more than most. It felt
good. Something just kept turning on that filter in my brain
that said “pain is coming, prepare.”
“I can stop by again later this week if you need, though
you have met the time required by the Dominion.” Dr.
Tynsen picked up her bag and headed for the door. “I will call. Maybe well do a normal session, work on
that list more,” I promised her. If she could help me get
better, I had to keep trying.
“Call me whenever you need,” was the last thing she
said before she left.
I opened the note from Jamie. It read, Went to get Kelly,
be back soon.
Why? It was Wednesday. I didnt have to go to class. I
dug out my tape recorder and sat on the chaise, listening to
it. Maybe sleep wasnt finding me at night because I kept
dozing during the day. The voice of Professor Wrig put me to
sleep less than a third of the way through her lecture. “Come to me, baby.” I heard the voice but didnt feel
strong enough to rouse. “Come to me. Im waiting.” Vaguely,
it sounded like Matthew. The sudden thought made me pop
my eyes open in a hurry. But the apartment was empty. The
elevator dinged, saying that someone was coming down. My
heart beat terribly fast waiting for it to descend.
The door opened. Jamie and Kelly stepped out, making
me sigh in relief.
“Doctor left already?” Jamie asked me.
“Yeah.” I clicked off the recorder and slid to the end of
the chaise. “Can you rewrap my hands? They feel funny.” “Sure. Come sit at the counter. You, too, Kelly,” Jamie
instructed as he went to retrieve his first aid kit.
I looked up at Kelly and realized he was trying to hide a
black eye and split lip. “What happened?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
punching bag,” Jamie told me, the tone in his voice saying
hed like to kill the aforementioned.
“Didnt the teachers do anything?” How many times had
I experienced something similar only to have teachers look
the other way? “Did you hit him back?”
Kelly laughed and showed me his scraped-up hands.
“Yes. Trust me. I hit back. What I dont get is that he asked
me to meet him there. Like a date or something. It didnt
seem malicious until he started hitting me.”
Hearing him recount events almost exactly the same as
what had happened to me made me want to wrap my arms
around him, pack up Jamie and Gabe, and fly to somewhere
where there were no people. “You probably shouldnt date
anyone from school now that youre „out as a witch,” I
warned him.
“People did crap like this to you too?” Kelly asked. “Yes.”
“Well shit.”
I totally agreed.
Chapter Eight
THAT night the bar was my retreat. Serving beer and burgers made time fly. Everyone in the bar was a regular, yet every hour or so Id feel someones eyes on me, only to turn and not find anyone looking in my direction. Twice I heard what I thought was Matthews voice calling me. Each time there was no one there.
Jamie and Gabe were busy at the bar, so I tried to ignore it. Jamie had bought me special medicated gloves that replaced the heavy bandages. They let me work and didnt look overly odd. Though I was sure my hands would hurt by midway through the night from all the flexing.
“Can you grab a pitcher for table seven, Sei?” Gabe asked me in passing. He was on his way to the kitchen, stack of dirty dishes in hand.
“Okay.” I pulled up a clean empty, glanced at the computer order screen to confirm their drink of choice, and filled up the pitcher. After delivering it to the table, I made another round of cleanup, stacking plates and glasses.
Id just turned back toward the kitchen when someone grabbed my arm. “Hey, baby. How about another brew?” a voice asked.
The tone sounded so much like Matthew I tripped, sending the platter full of dirty dishes crashing to the floor. Everything shattered. There was a hodgepodge of voices, but that deep drawling voice calling me baby just rang over and over in my head. I couldnt even look at the table. Gabe and Jamie appeared to help clean up the mess. “I got it,” Jamie said.
“Sorry, everyone,” Gabe apologized. “The serving trays
are so slippery.” He pulled me up and led me away from the crowd into the empty locker area. His arms folded around me. It wasnt until then that I realized how badly I was shaking.
“Im sorry,” I mumbled against his chest.
“Theyre just dishes. I can buy more. Everything okay?” I shook my head.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Youll think Im crazy.”
“Been seeing Smurfs lately?”
“Huh?”
“Smurfs. Small blue people. That would be the only way
Id think youre crazy.” He looked thoughtful for a minute or two. “Though I suppose they could exist, especially since vampires, witches, and faeries exist.”
“Faeries arent real,” I protested.
“Are so. Ive met some.”
&nbs
p; “Maybe Matthews a faerie then.”
“Highly unlikely. Male faeries are rare, and about the
size of your thumb. Females are a little smaller but number in the thousands.” Gabe hugged me tightly while he rambled on about faeries. “Reproduction is less than two per lifetime for each female, I think. And with so few males….”
“Youre nuts,” I told him, but just being with him made me feel better.
He laughed. “The two of us are perfect for each other then, arent we?”
I sighed.
“I called Jo. She said shed cover for you tonight. And Mike is on the way to take over for me. How about we take off?” Gabe gave me a suggestive wink. I dont know why he kept trying, but as long as he was, so would I.
“Okay.” I let him help untie my apron and hand me my coat.
Mike and Jo arrived almost at the same time. Jo gave me an affectionate kiss on the cheek, telling me we had to do a movie night soon. Had it really been almost two months since the last time? Before Frank died. Before Brock had messed me up. I sighed and promised wed get together soon. She looked good, healthy, and not so world weary. Her lover had been murdered by Brock. I suppose if there was hope for her, there had to be hope for me, right?
In Gabes car a few minutes later, I was surprised when he leaned across and kissed me like he really meant it. He always tasted like copper pennies unless hed been drinking, and it was something I enjoyed. When he pulled away, he looked a little flushed. But he helped snap my seatbelt into place and started the car.
“Wow,” I told him.
“Liked that?”
“Why doesnt everyone kiss like you?”
“Because then, what reason would you have to love me?” he asked, pulling the car onto the freeway and driving in the opposite direction from home.
“Youre hot, and nice, and hot. Where are we going?”
“So Im two times hot?”
“You know you are. Where are we going?”
He reached across the seat and pulled my hand into his lap, careful to rub the skin above my wrist. “Think of this as an early birthday present.”
“You know I dont like when you buy me things.”
“I havent bought anything for you.” He pulled into the one hotel we had used before. Its reputation for cleanliness almost matched Gabes place.
I swallowed and stared at the big building, so not wanting to fail again.
“You wont.”
“Youre being creepy.”
“Everything you feel is on your face. Youre not disappointing me. Tonight is for us. Just you and me. No Trimega or Dominion or even Jamie to get in our way.” He smiled that sweet curve of lips and flash of teeth that made me fall for him in the beginning. “I have a plan.”