Flames, page 14
Anyway, I figured I could use that to my advantage.
I called Michael. “Where are you?” I said.
“Uh, Naelen didn’t tell you?” said Michael. “You two having a fight or something? That why he’s all fired up to go to some slummy bar in the south part of town?”
“We’re not fighting,” I said, but maybe I said it too quickly. “I’m just worried about him is all. Doesn’t he seem a little… off to you?”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t expect him to go to this bar,” said Michael. “We’re not there yet. I’m still driving. Should be there in a few minutes.”
“Can you drop him off and then come back for me?” I said.
“Yeah, I can do that,” said Michael.
“Good,” I said.
We hung up. Naelen had turned my bow to ash, but I had another one. My quiver and other arrows were all fine, thank goodness.
I waited for Michael to come back in the kitchen, nervously tapping my hands on the counter for minutes on end. When that started to hurt the tips of my fingers, I began to pace.
My face felt funny, and I wondered if I’d really managed to scrub off all the makeup that I’d worn to the party that night. I didn’t wear makeup all that often. I was a low maintenance kind of girl. Anyway, I wasn’t adept at removing it, and I felt as if I still had another layer of skin on my face. An uncomfortable one, made of flour and water or something.
I resisted the urge to go back into the bathroom and scrub my face again. What if I missed Michael?
Besides, I was afraid the scrubbing had been the problem. I’d used my special face cleanser on my skin, but I’d used a lot of it, and now my skin felt… tender. Maybe I’d dried my skin out. Maybe what I needed was lotion.
But I couldn’t afford to worry about that either.
Moments passed.
I paced.
Still no Michael.
I set down my bow and arrows and ran up the stairs to the bathroom, where I yanked open the medicine cabinet and found some face lotion. I spread it over my face and cheeks as quickly as I could and then I dashed back downstairs.
Turns out I didn’t have to rush, because it was another seven minutes or so before Michael showed up.
“Sorry it took me so long,” he said, as I slid into the back seat. “Naelen was twitchy. He said he wanted me close in case he needed to make a fast getaway.”
That alarmed me. What the hell did that mean?
“What’s he doing?” said Michael. “Armed robbery?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Well, I see you got your bow and arrows,” said Michael. “I thought maybe it was one your things that you two do. With the vampires or whatever.”
“Not exactly,” I said.
Michael drove me to the south part of town, which was where most magical creatures called home in Sea City. The notable exception was the dragons, who lived in the northern part of the place, right on the border of Delaware. He took me to a bar that I’d never been to. I had to admit that I’d been half-afraid he was going to take me to Happy Harry’s, which could maybe qualify as a slummy bar if you were being hard on the place. But this place was just called Chrome, and it seemed to be a biker bar. How many of the bikers were vampires, I couldn’t be sure. Vampire motorcycle gangs were a thing.
I got out of the car and told Michael to stay close.
“In case you need to make a fast getaway?” he said.
“In case of… I don’t know what. Just don’t go far.”
I stepped into the bar. The sound that greeted me was the roar of cheers. There were big screen TVs hung up on all the walls, and they were blaring a sports game. Apparently, something good had happened.
There was a long bar stretching down the length of the room, several bartenders behind it, all of them in leather with bandannas tied around their heads.
I scanned the place for Naelen. I didn’t see him anywhere. Great. Just perfect. I dug out my phone and scrolled around until I found a picture of him. Then I marched up to one of the bartenders.
“What’ll it be?” he said, nodding at me.
“Actually, I’m looking for this guy.” I showed him the picture of Naelen. “You see him tonight?”
“Yeah, he’s here. I think I saw him go downstairs.” The bartender jerked his head in the direction of a door that opened onto a set of steps.
“Thanks,” I said, pocketing my phone.
“Hey,” said the bartender. “Your bow and arrows?”
I ignored him and started down the steps. Lotsa places in Sea City weren’t cool with my bringing weapons inside. I gave exactly zero fucks about that.
At the bottom of the steps, there was a room with two pool tables and two lights with stained-glass lampshades hanging over them. Both of the pool tables were empty.
“Naelen?” I called.
“God damn it, Clarke, didn’t I tell you to sit tight?” came his voice from around the corner.
I rounded the corner and there was Naelen sitting on the floor with a guy who was clutching his hand. The guy’s hand was bleeding. There was blood everywhere.
“Naelen, what the fuck?” I said.
“I had to compel him not to scream,” said Naelen. “Don’t worry, I called an ambulance.”
“Did you do this to him?” My voice came out as a funny screech.
“It’s only a finger,” said Naelen. “It’s not like I killed him. And this is what Jacques wants.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. “What did you do?”
“Help,” said the man, looking at me. “Help me, please. He cut off my finger and then he burned it up.”
“Sacrifice,” said Naelen. “To Jacques. I give him a finger now and then, he backs off and I get to keep my personality.”
“What?”
“God, you’re freaking out,” he said. “I knew you would freak out. That’s why I didn’t want you around for this. Geez.”
I was too stunned to even react. I gaped at him. Who the hell was the man in front of me? He was Naelen, but he… he wasn’t.
In the distance, I heard the sounds of sirens.
Naelen got to his feet. “Well, that would be the ambulance. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I shook my head at him wordlessly.
He grabbed my hand. There was blood on his own hand.
I recoiled. “This is how you’re going to live? Cutting off people’s fingers?”
“Toes would work too,” said Naelen. “Now, let’s go.”
* * *
Naelen took a very long shower, and while he was in there, I tried to figure out what I should do.
I needed help. Who could I go to for help? I called Eden. While the shower blasted away in the background, I told her the entire story, all the words tumbling out of my mouth faster and faster.
“Whoa,” said Eden when I was done. Then she yawned.
“Hell,” I said. “It’s the middle of the night. I woke you up.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s an emergency.”
“Did I wake up your kids?”
“No, they’re still asleep,” she said. “Don’t worry.”
“Oh, good. So… what’s going on?”
“Well, it sounds to me like he’s being influenced by Jacques, but that he’s not completely under his thrall,” said Eden.
“Okay,” I said. “So, what do I do?”
“I don’t know, Clarke,” said Eden. “Can I get back to you? Because, um, I’m drawing a blank. I mean… if he’s really got all the power of Jacques, you can’t even kill him. Cut off his head? He’ll grow a new one.”
“What?” I said, and I had to whisper it, because I wanted to scream it, and I didn’t want Naelen to hear me.
“Yeah,” said Eden.
“Well, holy hell,” I said. “No wonder Cunningham wanted these objects.”
“Look, the more he can resist Jacques, the more time we buy,” she said. “If there’s a way to get Naelen back, I’ll find it, okay? For now, just try to keep him in the house.”
I swallowed. “Okay, I’ll do my best.”
* * *
After Naelen used all the hot water in the water heater, he came out of the shower and said that it felt good to be clean.
I felt basically as though I was in a house with a stranger. I wasn’t sure where Naelen ended and Jacques began. One thing I knew for sure, though, was that I didn’t want to make him angry. There was no need for conflict. It was best if we just acted as though everything was normal.
So, I got back into my pajamas, all smiles, and climbed into bed.
He got in bed next to me and turned off the light.
There was no way I was going to sleep. I knew it.
“I guess there’s no way you’re going to have sex with me after you saw me cut that guy’s finger off,” said Naelen. “Is there?”
“Uh…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to have sex with him, not at all. I was the opposite of turned on. But I also didn’t want to make him really mad, and I thought that if I had to placate him, I could maybe manage lying on my back and spreading my legs. If it would keep him from leaving and cutting off any more limbs.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I’d just have to take another shower afterward anyway.” He yawned, rolled over onto his side, and was asleep in moments.
I, however, stayed awake, staring at the ceiling in horror. I didn’t even know what to do. It was a good thing I was awake, because I needed to make sure he didn’t leave. I resolved to lie there and monitor the situation for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, I’d need copious amounts of coffee.
But I fell asleep.
I didn’t mean to, it was just that I was tired and lying in a comfortable bed in the dark. That’s not exactly a recipe for staying awake.
Anyway, I woke up to morning light bathing the room.
The bed was empty.
Damn it.
I leaped out of the bed and rushed out of the room and downstairs. I was hoping I’d find him in the kitchen drinking coffee or something. No such luck.
He wasn’t anywhere in the house.
I called Michael, thinking I could get the driver to tell me where he’d taken Naelen. But Michael didn’t answer his phone.
Damn it all to hell. Was Naelen out there mutilating people? How frequently did Jacques need these sacrifices anyway?
I gripped the counter in the kitchen and tried to think. What to do? What to do?
I could call Eden, but I didn’t see how she’d help. She was already looking for some kind of solution. And if she knew anything, she would have gotten in touch with me already. She hadn’t, so there was nothing to know. She wasn’t in town, and she was only a human. She didn’t have magic or anything, so—
Penny Caspian! That was who I needed.
I didn’t bother calling her. I’d need to explain this face-to-face. Instead, I grabbed my bow and arrows, called a cab, and instructed him to take me to her hotel.
Penny and her husband Lachlan had destroyed the Green King, who was a nightmare from another world that had been trapped here and had tried to destroy everything. They were incredibly powerful. Together, they had this thing called whiteflame, which incinerated everything in their paths. If anyone could help me, it would be them. They’d be able to contain Jacques. Hell, maybe they could stop Jacques or help me find some way to get Jacques out of Naelen.
On the way down Atlantic Avenue, my phone rang. It was Naelen. “Where the hell are you?” I said, skipping the pleasantries.
“I went out to get us breakfast,” he said. “I got donuts from The Fractured Prune. Where are you?”
“Um… nowhere,” I said. “Look…” Damn it. What should I do? Should I go back to the house or continue on to Penny’s? I did need help. But I didn’t like leaving Naelen unattended either.
“You’re nowhere? What are you hiding from me?” he said.
I took a deep breath. “Okay, honestly, Naelen? I’m going to try to get help.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We need to get Jacques out of you.”
“If you do that, the mating bond might come back.”
“So, who cares?” I said. “I can’t deal with you cutting of people’s limbs.”
“Oh, Jesus, Clarke, it was his pinky finger. People can live utterly full lives without their fingers. As heinous acts go, I think it barely registers.”
“Would you listen to yourself? If you think it’s okay to cut off people’s fingers, then there’s something wrong with you.”
“Where are you getting help from?”
“Penny and Lachlan,” I said. “I’m going to tell them all about it. They’ll know what to do.”
“No,” said Naelen. “No, you stay away from them.” There was a note of fear in his voice. “If you tell them anything, I’ll break into their house and grab their kid and cut off his fingers. You want that?”
“What?” I said, utterly stunned. Penny and Lachlan had a little boy who wasn’t even two years old. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Get back here, Clarke,” said Naelen, and he didn’t sound like himself at all. “Get back here now.”
I went back there.
* * *
Naelen shoved his hands into his hair. “Look, I know that sounded extreme, but you have to understand that we can’t do things that are going to upset Jacques, okay? You going to Penny and Lachlan is out of the question.”
I was sitting on the couch, debating how to even talk to him about this. He was still partly himself, considering he was trying to explain, but he wasn’t enough himself that I could behave the way I wanted to behave. I had to hide my anger and fear. “Well, I didn’t go to them, now, did I?” I said.
“No, you didn’t,” he said. “And I appreciate that.” He sat down next to me, and he put his hand on my thigh. “You have to understand that I did this for us. I don’t like having to offer the sacrifices to Jacques, but I can’t go back to the mating bond.”
I still didn’t know what to say. I nodded.
“You don’t know what it was like, having that stupid bond. It was always at the back of my head. I felt this… tug toward her, and I hated her for it, because she was ruining my life.” He roared the last bit.
I flinched.
“Oh, hey.” He patted my thigh. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry I yelled. It’s better now. No more bond. Now we can be together. Everything can be perfect now.”
While he was cutting off people’s fingers. Right. I cleared my throat. “Er, how often do you have to make those sacrifices to Jacques?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I feel when he’s dissatisfied, and that’s when I have to do something to placate him.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly.
“Hey, Clarke, I know you’re not pleased about this, but trust me, it is better this way.”
I nodded, but inwardly, I was losing it. How could he possibly think this was better? This was so much worse that it wasn’t even possible to compare the two. I had to do something about this, but I didn’t know what.
Abruptly, there was a knock at the door.
I sat up straight.
Naelen got up off the couch.
But before either of us could do anything, the sound of the door opening, and a cheery voice calling, “Knock, knock!” It was Reign. I recognized her voice from having spent so much time with her the night before at the party. Good. He loved Reign. She was the most important thing on earth to him. He’d practically raised his baby sister himself, and he would do anything for her. If anyone could keep Naelen anchored to reality, to the goodness within him, it was her.
I stood up and bounded past Naelen to intercept Reign as she came through the dining room into the living room.
“You left without saying goodbye last night!” she said, putting a scolding finger in my face. “I went off to get us drinks, and you just disappeared.”
“Sorry,” I said. “But there’s, um, a bit of a situation with Naelen.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Situation?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of bad,” I said.
“Hi there, Reign,” said Naelen. “How are you doing? Hungover from last night?”
“You know I just shift and heal that up,” she said.
“You can do that?” I said, feeling jealous.
“Perks of being a dragon,” she said. “Anyway, what’s this situation?”
“Why don’t you let my sister come into the living room so we can all sit down, Clarke?” called Naelen.
I stepped aside, and I whispered. “He’s not exactly… himself.”
“What do you mean?” said Reign, going past me toward the living room.
Naelen greeted her at the doorway. He gave her a big hug. “Good to see you.”
Reign hugged back. “You too.” She released him and gave him a wary look. Then she shot a glance back at me.
I ushered us all into the living room. “Let’s all sit down.”
We did. Reign and I sat on one couch. Naelen sat on the other.
“So,” said Naelen, “what brought on this visit, Reign?”
“I, um, wanted to check on you because you disappeared last night.” She looked at me again, worried and confused. “So, what’s going on with you?”
“Oh, Naelen was just explaining to me how it’s cool for him to cut off people’s fingers now and again,” I said.
“What?” said Reign.
It was a gamble. Airing what was going on might enrage Naelen. I didn’t know how he’d react. I was hoping that he’d feel guilt, though. If he didn’t want his sister to know what he was doing, I could use that to help him realize that he didn’t want Jacques at all. I could get him back.
Naelen shrugged. “Better a finger than a whole hand.”
Reign turned to me, her eyes the size of saucers.
I rubbed my forehead. Okay, that hadn’t gone according to plan at all.
Naelen leaned forward, smiling reassuringly. “Listen, little sister, it’s not that big of a deal. I couldn’t handle the mating bond anymore. I had to break it, and this was the only way. Sometimes you gotta cut off a few fingers to make an omelet.”
“What?” said Reign, clutching the sides of her head. “What is going on?”
