Chasing Magic (14 page)

Instead of answering he leaned forward and kissed her again, this time wrapping his arm around her to pull her close against his warm hard body. A long kiss, a
real one, that she felt all the way down to her toes. He kissed her under that wide impassive sky and she kissed him back, and it reminded her that she did have a place in the world, she did have a home, and that home was being built right there where she stood. With him.

He broke the kiss but kept holding her for a long moment, resting his cheek against the top of her head. “Love you, Chess.”

Her eyes stung; she squeezed them shut harder, willing it to stop. “I love you, too.”

Another minute, and then he let go, took a step back. “Wanna get us in now? Can stay out here the whole time iffen you’re wanting.”

She grinned. Some of the weight lifted from her chest. “The sooner you meet Elder Griffin, the sooner we can leave …”

He jettisoned his almost-finished smoke. She took his hand, and together they walked through the open double doors, back into the party, leaving the sky alone outside.

The first thing they did was head for the bar set up against the far wall, near the door to the elevators. There was a bathroom back there, too, and she wanted to bump up quickly.

She also wanted people to stop looking at Terrible. He didn’t react, but she knew he noticed it; no way he wouldn’t, he paid too much attention to his surroundings for that.

Of course, speaking of paying attention, doing a bump had its own problems. She’d never let anyone at Church see her take even an aspirin, much less anything else, so she needed to be extremely careful. Normally she’d let it go, but normally she wasn’t about to introduce Terrible to Elder Griffin. Normally she wasn’t watching the two separate parts of her life come together with a crash that sounded like murmured gossip.

She needed either more speed or another Cept to take the edge off that. Both would be even better.

She gave him a quick kiss and headed down the hall.

Thankfully the bathroom was empty, so she could flush the toilet while she opened her pillbox, flush it again when she closed it. Much better. One more Cept,
and sure, one little bump, too, just a small one, just to keep her from mellowing too much.

She’d have to chug some water, too, which she did. Fuck, she felt good. What a relief.

She continued to feel good while she walked back in to the chapel and saw Terrible holding their drinks. Felt even better when she kissed him and better still when they found a spot near the windows to sit.

“Ain’t you wanna chatter with any else?”

“Not really.” She shrugged, reached up to flip her hair back from her bare shoulders. The dress was cut straight across the front, with spaghetti straps. She couldn’t decide if it was fun or not to wear it; she’d never worn anything like it before. “If you weren’t here I’d probably end up standing around by myself or talking to Elder Griffin, anyway.”

As if to deliberately prove her wrong, people started approaching them. Of course. Everyone wanted to know who he was, what he was doing there. Well, she figured it was obvious what he was doing there—holding her hand, sitting next to her, kissing her—but it had been fucking dumb of her to think for even a second that people wouldn’t be desperate to shove their noses into her business.

Because nothing was more entertaining than other people’s lives, right? And nothing would make them feel better about their own than the chance to judge someone else’s.

Whatever. She smiled at them all, introduced Terrible to them all, forced herself not to glare at them when they double-taked on his name.

They were coming in from another smoke break when she finally saw Elder Griffin and his new husband coming toward them. “There he is. We can go after we talk to him, okay?”

The relief on Terrible’s face would have made her
laugh if she wasn’t busy feeling guilty instead. Of course he was uncomfortable; how could he not be?

Elder Griffin’s gaze traveled up and down Terrible’s body. Chess didn’t see disapproval or judgment in his expression, which was nice, but that didn’t ease the tension starting to build in her abdomen again. Not a lot of tension, but as much as was possible considering the narcotics in her system. And thank fuck for those.

Elder Griffin took her hand. He’d taken off his hat and stashed it somewhere, so his light hair haloed his head and made his blue eyes seem even darker. “Cesaria. I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Me, too. It was great, it was a beautiful ceremony.” That was the right thing to say, right?

It seemed to be.

He introduced her to Keith, whose eyes were as kind as his. Good. Elder Griffin should have someone kind. Well, she wouldn’t have expected him to be with someone who wasn’t.

Please, please let them like Terrible, and please let him like them. No, it wasn’t as though they’d be spending a lot of time together, but still. “Elder Griffin, this is—”

“Terrible, correct?” Elder Griffin smiled, the kind of smile that made relief wash through Chess’s body like the first rush of her pills in the morning, and held out his hand.

Terrible took it. “Aye.”

Elder Griffin hesitated. His eyes cut to Chess, so fast she wasn’t entirely sure she’d seen it. What was that? It looked like a double take; it looked like some kind of surprise or even disappointment. Shock, really. That was it, shock. Why? Because of the way Terrible talked?

Shit. Disappointment washed over her as quickly as the relief had. She’d thought for sure Elder Griffin wouldn’t be like that, that he wouldn’t decide Terrible
was worthless or whatever for some dumb superficial reason.

But then, he was still smiling. “I’m glad to meet you. Cesaria has seemed quite happy of late.”

Shit. Good thing Terrible already knew how happy he made her, or that would have been so embarrassing.

Terrible nodded. “She tells me on you a lot.”

“And what do you do?” Keith asked. Maybe she didn’t like him so much after all.

And maybe she and Terrible should have come up with an answer for that question, which was fucking inevitable, wasn’t it?

But Terrible had apparently done that on his own. “Construction.”

Of course. Made sense. It was certainly believable. And, duh, of course this wouldn’t be the first time he’d been asked that. He didn’t have all those IDs just because he thought they were pretty. How many of those did he have? Six or seven? Different names on his driver’s license, his electric bill and water bill and cellphone bill, none of them the same. Bump had a few forgers—well, of course he did—and they took care of all that stuff.

How did someone become a forger, anyway? She’d never really thought about it. Getting all the Church forms and everything—

What? She flipped her head back to their conversation in time to hear Keith say, “And are we going to see you here having a marriage ceremony?”

Oh, for fuck’s—

Terrible shrugged. “Aye, if Chessie’s wanting.”

Her mouth fell open. No, he hadn’t— Okay, she was going to pretend she hadn’t heard that.

But her cheeks felt hotter than they should.

Keith asked Terrible about his tattoos, taking Terrible’s left arm to examine the almost full sleeve he had there. Okay, she definitely liked Keith. And the way he
stood, occasionally reaching out to touch Elder Griffin, glancing over to look at him. That was good. That was right.

Elder Griffin sidled up to her, bringing with him the scent of white wine and incense. His eyes were serious, his expression the same. “Cesaria … you know I will not be in my office for the next week.”

“Right. And you won’t be there at all, right, if your—when your promotion comes through.” She hoped she managed to sound cheerful and optimistic about it, not dismayed and unhappy that he’d be leaving his position and letting another Elder take over the Debunkers.

“Yes, well. But …” He glanced at Terrible. “You know which house we’ve been given, correct? The one you and I looked at.”

Yeah, she remembered. Remembered looking at it with her heart in useless pieces in her chest because she and Terrible had had a fight and she’d thought their relationship was over, and she’d been in so much pain she could barely talk.

Not a good memory. But she did know where the house was. And she should probably say something about that, too. “Oh, that’s great! No, you didn’t tell me they’d given it to you.”

He nodded. “Can you come there, on the morrow? Perhaps for lunch. Half past eleven or so. Can you? I’d like … I’d like to talk to you.”

He’d stopped looking at Terrible directly, but she saw him peeking out of the corner of his eye, his gaze darting over and back, over and back, fast and sneaky.

Cold crept into her chest and out, spreading through her body like she’d snorted liquid nitrogen. He didn’t like Terrible. He was standing there smiling at him and being nice, but he wanted to warn her off, wanted to tell her he didn’t approve or whatever.

It shouldn’t matter. But it did. It mattered because
they were each one of the main parts of her life, they were both important to her, and bringing them together was … Well, shit, what did she expect? Wasn’t like she didn’t already have plenty she needed to keep from the Church.

Elder Griffin was still watching her—or rather, watching her and glancing at Terrible—and waiting for her answer.

“Oh, um, sorry. Yeah, I mean, yes, of course. I’d be happy to come.”

“Excellent.” One more sideways glance. “Excellent. I look forward to seeing you.”

Keith’s voice floated into the space between them, still talking to Terrible. “And are you doing a lot of work in Downside? I have some friends thinking about buying property there. The prices are so low and they can fix them up—”

“Ain’t such a good idea.” Terrible glanced at Chess; she caught the half-amused look in his eye, given the discussion they’d had before about gentrification, but she didn’t think Keith saw it. She hoped not, anyway. “Whatany you fix up there just get fu—just get wrecked again, aye? They burn it down afore they see it clean. Ain’t safe.”

Keith shook his head. “That’s what I told them, but they said—oh dear. Thad, my cousin Jill is heading straight for us.…”

Chess forced a smile as Elder Griffin’s expression turned questioning. “You should be talking to people. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Which she would. It made her feel sick, but she would.

Elder Griffin smiled, a real, fond smile. “Trust me, my dear, we’d rather not be talking to Keith’s cousin Jill. Keith, perhaps if we make our way to the other side of the room?”

What if he made her move back onto the Church
grounds? He could do that; his approval of the idea had been the main reason she’d been permitted to live off on her own. If he retracted his endorsement …

Something else not to think about, to push out of her head the way she pushed out her goodbyes and congratulations and all that shit before Keith and Elder Griffin walked away.

She swallowed the last of her drink and leaned into Terrible’s chest, pressing her face to it for a long second so she could breathe him in. “Let’s go, okay? Do you want to go now?”

“Sure you ain’t wanna chatter on any else, aught like that?”

The smile she’d forced turned genuine when she met his eyes. Funny how just the four inches her platform heels added made such a difference, made her feel so much closer to him.

Whatever. Let Elder Griffin try to force her back onto Church grounds. Nobody ever said she had to work for the Church, right? She was a damn good witch; she could find a way to support herself somehow, right?

Because she loved her job, yeah, but she
needed
Terrible, and if she had to give up one of them, it sure as fuck wouldn’t be him. “I’m sure.”

Back in the Chevelle, back on 300 toward Downside. Back to where they belonged, and she could breathe easier again as lampposts flew by and Triumph City surrounded them like an ocean of lights. “I’m glad you liked Elder Griffin.”

He shrugged. “Seemed aright. Ain’t talked to he but minutes, aye?”

Yes, but that was apparently long enough for Elder Griffin to judge him and find him lacking. And that—that was extra disappointing, because she’d thought he was a better judge of character than that.

But, then, he thought
she
was worth something, didn’t he, so obviously she’d been wrong. Hardly the first time.

Terrible rested his elbow on the car door. “Hey. When Keith gave me the ask on—”

His phone rang, cutting him off. He hesitated, then looked down at it. Even in the greenish dashboard glow and the rhythmic flow of pale light through the windows she saw his face darken. Uh-oh.

He pressed the button, held it to his ear. “Aye … Naw, headin—fuck. On the—aye. Be there fast.”

He shoved the phone back into his pocket and downshifted the Chevelle, his face in grim, angry lines. “That powder’s showed up again. Four of em at Trickster’s, screamin the place down an ain’t leavin.”

“Shit, seriously?”

He nodded. “Gotta get them outta there, dig, see if we can get some knowledge out of em. Give Cat-Stan what him pay for, too, keep the place safe.”

“Right.” Funny. She knew very well what he did for a living and what it entailed—she’d seen the evidence of it walking around on crutches or behind bruises for years before she really spent any time with him—but it had never occurred to her that drug or gambling debts weren’t the only kinds of debts he’d collect. Of course Downside bars would pay Bump some protection money, like so many of the other businesses did.