The Sin Collector (9 page)

“What was the last thing I asked you to do?”

I bit my lip and couldn’t help but squint my eyes, Billy wasn’t bright red anymore he was a darker red, like the color of congealed blood nearly black and his whole body pulsated with it.

“You asked me to stay in the room.”

“And what part of that confused you?”

I was irritated now; I could go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. I was one-hundred years old and over the need for a father.

“I had a theory and I needed to test it so I went to the lobby.” Ok so it was a lie, I hadn’t really come up with the theory until after I’d gone down to the lobby but he didn’t need to know that. He was caught off guard by my answer.

“Do I get to hear the theory?” I didn’t need to see his color to know he was pissed. He pulsed brighter and I hurried through my explanation.

“Well I was thinking that maybe the colors I was seeing weren’t
like
auras, but they
were
auras. I wanted to find out if I could see yours because you’re a Collector or if I could see everyone’s, so I went to look. What did Clara say?”

Changing the subject at the end there was hopefully a good trick, I sat down cross-legged next to him on the bed.

“Clara was just as confused as we are. She’s never heard of a Collector being able to shield itself like your attacker did.”

“No one attacked me” I pointed out. “It could have been a coincidence.”

He looked skeptical and he was fading back to a light blue, which was a relief to my aching eyes.

“Well are you going to tell me what happened with the lobby experiment?”

I smiled wide. I was excited to have someone to share my findings.

“I think that it’s a way for me to see people’s moods and their sins more clearly. Some of the people were similar colors but a few weren’t. It wasn’t until I saw the baby that I was sure. She was a blinding white light, which I’m assuming was because she was sinless. It was so beautiful Billy I wish you could have seen it.”

By the time I was done Billy was a pleasant golden glow again and I was glad to see he wasn’t angry anymore, but his bright blue eyes still looked troubled.

“Why do you look so worried?”

“It’s unusual for a Collector to have other gifts. It’s different and I don’t like different when it can’t be explained, especially since there was another Collector at the Pub. It’s too big a coincidence. There are just too many coincidences.”

When he put it like that, I couldn’t help but agree with him. It did all seem to happen in perfect synchronicity.

“Just promise me something ok. Next time you want to experiment just wait for me to go with you. What if you ran into the Collector again? No one would know what to do.”

He was an even brighter gold than usual and he looked so wonderful I threw my arms around him hugging him tight.

“I promise to wait for you.”

“You don’t
have
to be alone now LiLi. You have to trust me.”

I nodded staring at the painting on the wall behind him, I was glad we were still locked in a tight hug so he couldn’t see my face. Trust was not something I was accustomed to giving. I felt silly and my stomach felt uneasy. Billy had never given me a reason not to trust him. Was I being dramatic?

I pulled away, and as I stood up found myself unsteady on my feet. Billy caught my arm and lowered me down onto the bed.

“I think you should rest.”

I didn’t argue with him, I pulled myself back on the pillows and couldn’t complain when Billy settled in next to me.

“So what are we going to watch?” He said smiling and pulling the remote from the nightstand.

“Anything but horror, I think I’ve had enough of that today.”

He pulled me closer to him and we settled on reruns of the Dean Martin Show. I closed my eyes, and I was happy to find myself not alone again on the porch of my teal green house.

I was in the shower when Billy had gotten the call from Clara. She heard rumors of another Collector in the area. He called himself Anthony, but that was all the information she had gathered. She heard he would be in the city and wanted to warn me. It was clear that Billy thought this was my attacker by the way the blood had drained from his face. He got ready quickly and kissed me on the cheek before making sure his phone was with him this time. He looked at me wearily for a moment with his hand on the doorknob, a faint red glow around his gold edges.

“I promise I will stay in this room.” The memory of the last time I’d run into another Collector was still far too vivid for me to disobey. He nodded and I heard the click of the door as it swung shut behind him. I was up and dressed in a dark pair of jeans, a black turtleneck, and once again wanting for something to do in the large hotel room. I walked around leisurely towel drying my hair wishing I could be with Billy. I didn’t like the thought of him going off to find Anthony alone. The knock at the door startled me out of my gnawing worry. I answered it without thinking, without looking, and I felt my blood run cold when I looked into his dark brown eyes.

Chapter 7

I braced myself for the pain. Holding my breath, I was grateful that at least there was nothing in the foyer for my head to bounce off when I fell, which undoubtedly I would. I counted to ten in my head, and the pain never came. I could feel my face frozen in fear. Olexander stood in my doorway staring at me with deep brown eyes. He wore the same expression I remembered so often from my childhood. The expression he had when he was trying to teach me something and I was taking too long to understand.

He looked the same of course, and yet seeing him was like a new experience. His 6’5 frame towered over me and he looked very striking in his white button down shirt worn underneath a tight fitting black vest that complimented his athletic body. He wore a pressed pair of black slacks and black men’s dress shoes. He removed the black fedora he was wearing and I took in the rest of his features. His black hair was long as I remembered but with a slightly more modern cut. His pale features seemed almost menacing compared to his dark eyes. He was nearly clean-shaven, just a bit of stubble, which only added to his attraction. Despite that, he wore a kind but hesitant smile and a soft green glow. The color reminded me of beautiful spring grass. Olexander was 460 years old, the oldest Collector I had ever known, he was standing a foot away from me, and I wasn’t crumpled on the floor in agony.

“Liliana, are you in any pain?”

“None” I whispered. This seemed to relax him immediately. I reached out automatically to touch him. I was having trouble believing he was even real. He took my hand and kissed it lightly.

“May I come in?”

I nodded absentmindedly. He walked into the room slowly sitting his hat down on the coffee table and turning to face me.

“You look like you need a moment to collect your thoughts.” He sat down on the edge of the sofa and I sat across from him mesmerized.

“I suppose you are wondering why you aren’t in pain?”

As he spoke, he unbuttoned the top four buttons of his white shirt. He pulled the fabric to the side revealing a tattoo, about the size of my hand, over his heart. It was a very ornate spade. It was inside a circle of letters, no, not letters, runes perhaps. It was black and it’s point faced up. Two intricate birds flanked it, I couldn’t be certain but they appeared to be sparrows. It didn’t make sense, I would have to get closer to sort out the symbols, but still no symbol would hold this kind of power, would it?

“That’s what’s stopping the pain? I’m not on the floor in agony because of an unspectacular looking tattoo?” I couldn’t hide the skepticism in my voice.

“It’s not just a tattoo Liliana. There is a ritual of protection. Sacrifices make it culminate in success. It’s a process, but alas in the end I get to move about the world without fear. It has been so refreshing these past dozen years. And then, it means I get to see you.”

“If you’ve had the tattoo for a dozen years,” my brain was finally starting to work “then it wasn’t you at the pub last night?” The fact that Billy was off meeting a stranger still bothered me.

“I only got into town this morning. There is another Collector here?” His voice rose as he spoke his words, he was starting to look, and glow, angry. “Did another Collector attack you?”

“Billy thinks it was intentional but I’m not so sure. He will be happy to have someone who thinks the same thing he does.”

Olexander looked at me with complete perplexity. “Who is Billy?”

“Oh maybe he was trying to find you using an alias, Christopher Owens?”

Olexander began to get even more anxious.

“Liliana, no one has contacted me, I came to find you, to warn you.”

“To warn me? What are you coming to warn me about?”

“I met a Mystic in Prague years ago, Nela, she was very kind and she had the Sight. She could see what was about to happen at times. I hadn’t even spoken with her in six years or so when she tracked me down. She said someone I loved was in danger, and when she described the girl from her vision, of course I knew it was you.”

I was suddenly trying to remember all I’d been taught about Mystics. Mystics were hard to find. I was shocked one cared enough for Olexander to contact him. Some referred to them as witches, which was a name they abhorred. They wanted no association to cauldrons, black cats, or pointy hats. Mystics usually practiced their magic in Covens. A Coven consisted of a group of women that never exceeded seven members. Mystics were human. Essentially, they just had a little something
extra
. Every Mystic was different. I’d heard some could speak to the dead, others could predict the future. Once I had even heard a rumor that a powerful Mystic could throw you across the room with a single thought. They kept to themselves, and stayed among their fellow practitioners. Therefore, even as a Collector I didn’t know the extent of their powers. I had never even met one in real life. Olexander had told me once that Mystics stayed out of wars, and politics. Whether they were concerning humans or Collectors. Above all, Mystics were peaceful. They simply lead their own lives, and rarely made allegiances. They strove to keep a balance in a world that was constantly shifting.

“Why would this Nela Mystic care about what happened to me?”

He didn’t answer and stood up walking toward the bedroom.

“So you came to warn me and…where are you going?” I was beginning to think I was surely a pulsating red aura by now. I got up to follow him. Olexander however never changed from his pleasant green.

“Liliana, I think you misunderstand.
We
have to leave here, right now. Which bag is yours?”

Yes, definitely a pulsating blood red by now.

“I’m not going
anywhere
with you,” I screeched. All shock had worn off and I was purely pissed now. “I haven’t seen you in literally one hundred years. You come here with some vague threat and I am supposed to leave with you? Are you completely insane?”

“Liliana there is no time. I need to have the protection ritual performed so you are at least safe from other Collectors. It will be easier to hide you, then we need to get you far away. An island by the Americas seems like the safest place.”

As he spoke, he was rooting through the closet pulling out my clothes and tossing them toward the bed. I was now oddly calm, pacifying.

“The tattoo ritual thing sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think it’s necessary to panic, Olexander. I have managed to stay safe from other Sin-Eaters for a long time.”

“I’m not worried about other Collectors harming you. Other Collectors are just a mere inconvenience.” He stopped his rummaging and took both my shoulders as if to push the very slow intensity of his words through to my very core.

“We aren’t running from our kind Liliana, we are running from the Castus.”

It didn’t make any sense. The Castus didn’t exist anymore. Why would they want to start something now? Hardly anyone even knew about us.

“You’ll have to say goodbye to your friend Billy in a letter or call him. We can’t have a human tag-a-long despite you already telling him all about us. Which was not smart Liliana, I thought I taught you better than that.”