Love Charms (65 page)

Chapter Six

Endless Optimism is for
Suckers

I sighed as the gentle breeze
caressed my face. It was a welcome break from the sun that hung heavy in the
sky, plastering my hair to the back of my neck. My legs moved in rhythm with
the tires against the asphalt. It rivaled the thundering of my heart as each
rotation pushed me closer to the office.

My boss, or B as we all
called him, was rarely in a good mood. I still hadn’t nailed down what he was
exactly – Greek god maybe? He did have a thorough hatred for the mortal
world yet took a special delight in sleeping with any woman he came across. 

At any rate, he only dragged
himself to our realm for two reasons: interviewing and training supernaturals
and ‘special’ humans for positions with NACA, and cleaning up a mess.

I hopped the curb, skirting
into the alley beside the office building. I kicked down the stand and pried
off my helmet. I didn’t bother with a ward of protection. In New York I’d be
foolish not to, but downtown Raleigh had all the quirks of her big sister and
little to none of her hang-ups.

I walked up the staircase,
clutching my purse like a security blanket as I pushed through the entrance. I
scanned the lobby with a smile. The mediocrity of the office in the daylight
never ceased to amaze me. The walls that hung darkly under the light of the
moon were now beige and bland. The metal chairs and table that stood like empty
claws in the darkness now seemed flimsy and ordinary. It really was remarkable
how the cool quiet of the night and a handful of candles could completely
transform a place.

Naomi Jones, NACA’s
secretary, looked up from her tabloid magazine, flashing me a toothy grin.
“Hiya Jade.”

“Naomi,” I mused, giving her
a once-over. “Love the new look. Very Angelina Jolie circa Hackers.”

She ruffled her short, spiky
hair, narrowing her round green eyes. “Not too shabby, huh?”

Two weeks ago, Naomi had
ebony skin, with long, soft dreadlocks that spilled past her waist. Now, her
skin was pale, her hair crafted into a pixie cut that accentuated her high
cheekbones and voluptuous lips. Naomi was a shifter – able to take form
of any human she laid her eyes on. It made her age nearly impossible to
determine, but I had a feeling she had to be old and disciplined to put up with
B’s moods.

“Naomi!” a baritone voice
thundered from the back office. “Where the hell is the contractor?”

She rolled her eyes, flipping
her magazine back open. “Asking every five minutes isn’t going to make them get
here any faster!” she hollered back.

“Maybe I should come back
later,” I said nervously, my grip tightening on my helmet.

“You could come back next
week and he will’ve found something new to complain about,” she chuckled.
“Better to just get it over and done with.”

“But I-“

“Jade’s here!” Naomi shouted,
cutting me off. “Go on back, honey.”

I crept to the back office
and knocked gingerly on the door.

“Come on in,” a gruff voice
barked.

I pushed open the door and
gasped in shock. Glass crunched beneath my feet as I surveyed the damage. The
desks were overturned, their contents spread all over the floor. There were
scorch marks branded into the stained carpet and charred wallpaper hanging
precariously from the once pristine walls. B stood beneath a large hole in the
ceiling, the sun highlighting a very pissed off look on his face.

B was built like the ancient
ruins of Greece, all reverence, their power unswayed by the test of time. His
gray hair hung in soft ringlets around his chiseled features, swirling around
his harsh face like a tornado as he whirled around to face me. “Do I ask too
much?”

I swallowed hard. “I-I’m
sorry?”

He stepped from beneath the
gaping hole and his dark eyes glimmered in the shadows. “Do you remember how
you were when I found you?”

My cheeks burned with
embarrassment. “I-”

“Rhetorical question,” he
interrupted. “You were drowning your abilities in a sea of booze and dicks.
Your magical talents were rudimentary at best.” He picked up an overturned
chair and turned it upright, sighing as he sank into it. “You were putting
summoning ads on Craigslist for crissakes. Many wanted you to just be…dealt
with.”

“I appreciate all you’ve done
for me, B,” I said, my lip trembling.

“All of you, ‘necros’-” He
dropped the word like it was toxic in his mouth. “I pay you well. Do I not? 500
dollars for an hour of work.”

I nodded.

He gestured at the mess. “I
just ask that you put aside your innate stupidity and think before you act!” He
blew out a steam of air that rattled the walls. “Amateur hour! Summonings are
only to be held under the light of the full moon.” He held out his hand and a
bottle of water zipped through the air, stopping in his hand. “And then I hear
about your little lunch meeting.”

“Look B-” My words were cut
short as he flew across the room quicker than I could say “Holy shit.” With one
talon-like finger he lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him dead-on.

“You know what I find
pathetically charming about you humans?” he growled, his nostrils flaring.

“W-wwhat’s that?” I
stammered.

“Your endless optimism,” he
said smoothly. He released my chin, brushing past me. “You have every reason to
just find the closest .45 and blow your brains out, but you just soldier on
thinking everyday might be better. That you control your story.” He stopped at
one of the overturned desks and with a flick of his wrist, it stood upright.
“You couldn’t be more wrong,” he continued. “Humans only exist because we allow
them to. Whether it’s because you taste so deliciously or because you humor us,
WE are in charge of your destiny…not the other way around.”

He turned back to me, crossing
his burly arms. “It’s easy to see why you got so cocky, riding off to the save
the day, Jade. You’ve got a little special ‘oomph’ that makes you more precious
than the average walking ape.” He lowered his voice, his eyes becoming narrow
slits. “But make no mistake – if you become more trouble than you’re
worth, I’ll smite you myself. Clear?”

I nodded eagerly. “Crystal.
Won’t happen again.”

“It better fucking not,” he
said acidly. He whirled toward the open office door, his fists becoming
boulders of rage. “Where the HELL is the contractor?”

I slid out of the office
while I still had my head attached to my shoulders.

Chapter Seven

A New Client

I pushed inside Royal Bean,
breathing in the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. For a moment, I wasn’t
thanking my lucky stars that B didn’t rip me a new one – I was in
Ethiopia, sipping an espresso beneath the burning sun.

Royal Bean was filled with
its usual fare – students from Meredith and State sat huddled over
textbooks and frappes, a smattering of businessmen typed away at laptops, and
hipsters sipped their fair trade coffee as they read Kafke and Bukowski.

I slid up to the counter and
the barista gave me a friendly nod, reaching for a mug. I didn’t even need to
drop my order. She knew it by heart. I swiped my latte and stuffed a couple of
dollars in the tip cup before sinking into a couch near the front.

I tried to relax and
de-stress, but I couldn’t get the Kenny situation out of my head. Everything
about it was odd – what was the bizarre symbol I saw etched on the
wallet? What was the gibberish Kenny spewed before shoving the wallet down his
throat? None of it made sense.

I pulled out my trusty
grimoire. To the untrained mortal eye, it looked like an old spiral notebook
that had seen better days. But it was so much more – it contained a
wealth of magical knowledge. From how to purify an area for spellwork to a
dictionary of virtually every supernatural creature that had a name, it was my
own little Google that had saved my ass more than once.

I flipped to the back,
scanning the yellowed pages for the symbol I saw in Kenny’s wallet before he
went bananas. I eyeballed the quick sketch I did from memory at the police
station. From what I gathered from the second I glimpsed the thing before Kenny
snatched it away, the symbol was two circles, one inside the other. Lines shot
from the inner circle outward, like spokes on a bicycle. It didn’t give me much
to go on and according to my research, no such symbol even existed.

I ran an exhausted hand
through my hair and massaged my temples. B hadn’t exactly said to stop digging,
right? Hell, if I could figure out what happened, I’d save him the trouble. I
sipped my latte, still mulling the situation over in my head, when a heated
discussion at the counter caught my attention.

“…ma’am, if you could lower
your voice-” the barista said through clenched teeth.

“I will NOT be quiet!” the
woman said, slamming her fist on the counter. She looked like she’d gone to
hell and back. Her fiery red hair looked oily and misshapen, falling around her
blotchy face in knots and tangles. Her blue eyes were wild and swollen, like
she’d spent every waking hour sobbing. Her voice was authoritative, but the way
her hands shook told me that she was doing all she could to keep it together. “I
gave you a twenty, and I demand you give me correct change!”

“No, ma’am, you gave me a
five, and that still leaves a balance of-”

“Twenty!” the woman shrieked,
her voice drawing the eyes of all of the customers. “I gave you a twenty and I
want my change!”

The barista sniffed, her jaw
set. I had a feeling this wasn’t her first unruly customer. “If you want to
speak to a manager-”

“Fuck you,” the woman said
acidly, knocking over the paper cup in anger. “Keep it.” She stalked from the
counter but swung her purse too hard, spilling the contents all over the floor.
Most of the customers watched her, fearful that if they attempted to help she’d
lash out at them as well.

I let out a sigh and pulled
myself off the couch, squatting down to help her.  My hand grazed a bottle of
lotion, but she snatched it away from me, stuffing it back where it belonged.

“I don’t need your help,” she
spat, eyeing me defiantly.

“No problem,” I said, holding
out my hands in defense. That’s what I get for trying to be nice. I rose to my
feet and gasped. Right above a turquoise Swatch, her pale skin was branded, a
black handprint seared into her flesh. It was the touch of the dead.

I hesitated. The last time I
tried to help out someone with a ghost problem, they ended up six feet under. But
as the woman kept swiping angrily at the floor, tears streaming down her face,
I knew the decision was already made. I lowered myself back to my knees,
putting my hand over hers.

“You lost someone, didn’t
you?”

Her pale eyes wet round. “I -
how did you know?”

I stood back up as she put
the final items back into her bag, extending my hand. “Why don’t we go to the
bathroom and get you cleaned up?”

She was still a little
skeptical, so I whipped out a little disarming spell. In most cases, spellwork
that affects the activities of others is frowned upon, but I figured The
Watchers had better things to do than babysit me.

“Ego vilis vos haud vulnero,”
I said under my breath. Instantly, she swiped at her runny nose with the back
of her hand and nodded, following me toward the bathroom.

When we pushed inside, I
stepped inside a stall and unrolled a ball of tissue. I walked back to the
sinks where she stood and offered it to her.

“Thanks,” she sniffed, wiping
her face. “I-I’m Amy, by the way.”

I gave her a small smile.
“Jade.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said,
turning to the mirror. She shuddered when she saw her reflection. “If Cady
could see me now, she’d probably die from fright.” She laughed at first –
loud, uncomfortable guffaws that transformed into a series of gut-wrenching
sobs.

I unrolled another handful of
tissues. “That’s who you lost? Cady?”

Amy nodded. “My partner.” She
let out a loud sigh, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “But she was so
much more…she was strong and opinionated and when she smiled-” Her voice broke
then and she wrapped her arms tight around her body, like she was remembering
every touch, every kiss. “She was everything.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said,
touching her forearm. I purposefully reached for the area where the ghost had
touched her. I was 99.9% sure that the ghost was her lover, but every now and
then some creepy ghost liked to piggyback on some poor soul’s grief. This was
the only way to be sure.

As soon as I made contact
with the mark, images hit me like a ton of bricks. First was their first kiss
– at the drive in. They were both so nervous, the butterflies dancing
furiously in their stomachs. Next was when they moved in together – they
were painting the living room, Cady admiring how beautiful Amy looked in overalls,
with green paint smudged on her cheeks. The last was the birth of their
daughter—a searing white-hot pain followed by an all-encompassing love
that brought tears to my eyes.

I pulled away from Amy then,
staggering a bit. I’d gotten reads through marks of the dead before, but it was
usually just short blips, memories from the ghost that left behind the goo. But
nothing was this earth shattering. I’d always heard about love like this, read
about it, dreamt about it. It was the most terrifying and beautiful thing I’d ever
experienced.

I looked at Amy with a whole
new respect. I felt like I wanted to roll up in a ball and weep until my body
was dry. It was the kind of love that most people wished for but never really
found.

It was a love worth dying
for, but she had found a quiet strength, something that kept her from joining
her soulmate.

“For Hayden,” I murmured.

“H-how?” Amy’s eyes widened
as she inched away toward the door. “Who are you?”

I turned to the sink,
splashing water on my face. I blotted my face with a paper towel and turned
back to her. “I’m someone that can help you.”

“Help me?” she repeated.
“How?”

“You need to talk to Cady,” I
replied. “I can help you communicate with her.”

Her eyes narrowed as she
balled her fists in anger. “You have a lot of nerve-”

“Your first kiss was at
Raleigh Road,” I cut in. “You went to see Drag Me to Hell. You moved to a
townhouse near Cameron Village and you would make Cady grilled cheese
sandwiches to eat on her way to campus. Two and a half years ago, Cady gave
birth to Hayden.”

She covered her mouth, her
eyes filled with fear. “How did you-”

“Ego vilis vos haud vulnero,”
I repeated, sensing that she was seconds from bolting from the room. Her
breathing slowed down, her hand dropping from her mouth. “I just want to help,
Amy.”

She nodded slowly, swallowing
hard. “How can you help me?”

I ruffled through my purse
and pulled out a business card. “Call this number, ask for Naomi, and tell her
that Jade referred you.”

I pressed the card into her
hand as my eyes searched hers. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

I turned and pushed out of
the bathroom and embraced the smile that played at the corner of my lips. It
was nice to finally use my gifts for love.