Chapter Five
Luke called for a cab so I wouldn’t have to walk back. Then again it could also be for him since he was staying somewhere in the city. I didn’t know where but he rode with me back to the Guild. We sat outside Sword & Arrow for a few moments and I couldn’t help but feel like those seconds were awkward and somewhat tension filled.
“What was it like? Going back there?” he finally asked.
“It was ok at first. But then again the lobby and the stairs were never the problem. It was always that room and when I saw all those little girls in pink leotards and tutus…it just felt wrong.”
Luke got out of the car, rounding the trunk so he could open my door. I got out and he paid the driver. Guess he wasn’t taking the cab back to where he was staying. It was a good night to walk I guess.
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
Luke crammed his hands in his pockets. “I don’t really know. Do you?”
I looked at the two glass doors that would let me back into the Den of Slayers. Aidan stood next to one, looking up at the sky like he used to. Only this time there were no stars to see just this ugly glow.
“Sometimes.” I looked at Luke. “It’s hard not to when you feel like one.”
“You’re not a ghost, Georgiana.”
I looked at him and gave him that fake smile I’d perfected. “I’ll see you in December.”
He gave me a hug and then left, walking off into the night like he was a ghost himself.
I headed inside, Aidan following after me. Hank sat at the desk, Cosmo magazine spread across the counter in front of him. He looked up and grinned at me like he had a secret he really couldn’t wait to share.
“The wayward orphan returns,” he joked. “I have a message for you.”
“Is it ominous?” I leaned up against the counter, putting my chin in my hand. “You look like you could deliver an ominous message.”
Part of me suspected it was a note from the personnel department, telling me to collect my stuff because I was being dismissed from the Guild for breaking the rules. I know I said I wouldn’t care but now that the possibility of it really happening was staring back at me…
Hank just continued to grin and started shaking his head. “It’s from Gregori.”
“Oh.” I straightened up. “How mad was he?”
“At first he was worried and then he got really pissed. But then he cooled down after some recon teams came in and told him many of the hold outs finally left.”
“So what did he say?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘When she decides to rejoin us, have her meet me at the Tavern.’ I think he’s going to buy you a drink or possibly yell at you in front of everyone so the point gets driven home. I haven’t decided yet which one is the best bet.”
“I thought he might be here, tracking my every move.”
“Nope. That was my job.” I turned and watched Jesse saunter into the lobby. “How ya doin’, kid?” Gregori introduced me to him yesterday and besides James, he was becoming a friendly face. Or at least I hoped he was.
“Oh good lord. Does everyone know?”
“Most of the security office. The Cap was pacing the bullpen there for a while. And don’t worry no one’s going to hold it against you. Normally the recruits wait a week before running off but you’re a rebel. We all expected it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why? I figured some of the men would be pissed at me for riling him up.”
“Everyone pisses him off at some point. It just makes you one of us, kid. You maybe Captain’s recruit but you have our respect. After what you did today…” He shrugged. “Now, let’s go.”
“Do I have to?”
He hooked his arm around my neck. “You know it. Can’t get out of it.”
“But I don’t drink.”
“Tonight you do. Captain tells you to jump…”
“I jump. Blah, blah, blah. Why does everyone have to be difficult? I just want to go to bed, get some sleep…”
“He is your mentor.” Jesse pulled open the door. “You can’t do any of that until he tells you you can. And right now he says you go to the Tavern.”
We walked out into the cool night after telling Hank goodbye.
“Jesse?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you like this life?”
He chuckled, not fully understanding why I was asking. “It’s not bad.”
“Yeah but…”
“I don’t have anything against it. Its good pay, I get to kick a little ass…” he looked at me and smiled, “and at the end of night I get to go home to my wife.”
“Wife?” I grinned. “You have a wife?”
“Yeah. Her name’s Maria. She works in the real world.”
“Slayer?”
He shook his head. “Human. But she knows all about this. Doesn’t really care. She just got her Masters this past May and now she’s working at a publishing company.”
“Wow. I never thought you’d be married. You don’t seem like the type.”
He squeezed my shoulders in a friendly manner. It reminded me of my brother. It was something he might’ve done. “Don’t worry. You’ll get to meet her. She comes in every Friday for lunch and she’s really excited to meet you. I told her all about you last night. She couldn’t believe Phillies let a girl into his office pool.”
“Oh goodie.”
“Don’t worry.” He pulled open the door to the Tavern. “You’ll like her.”
“How do you know?”
He just smiled and opened the second door. I didn’t take off my jacket since I wasn’t planning on staying long. I had some wallowing I wanted to do and I didn’t intend on doing it in public. I’d take my tongue lashing and go back to the apartment.
Gregori sat on the same barstool as he always seemed to. I noticed he never sat at a table or booth like some of the others. Perhaps he just liked to drink alone, choosing to not regale the crowd with tales of past triumphs. A half empty glass of whiskey sat in front of him while he stared down at it.
I slid onto the stool next to him and hoped this would be over quickly. “What’s up?”
He didn’t respond right away. “You went off script today.”
I nodded. “It happens.”
He twirled the glass around. “You are a recruit, Vertigo. You’re not supposed to go off script. Ever.”
“I had a bad day…”
“Everyday for you is a bad day. Try again.”
I sighed. “Are you objecting to me going to the…ballet studio or running off after?”
“Both.” He drained his glass and looked at me. “You can’t…revisiting the past right now is not good for you. Why did you do that?”
“Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?”
He turned so his whole body was facing me. “I’m your mentor, that’s who. You live, breathe, eat, sleep, shit how and when I tell you.” He got off the barstool and invaded my space, that heat he put off scorching my skin so much that I wanted to push him away to make it stop. “Don’t you ever go off script again or I’ll make this whole experience a lot worse.”
I looked up at him, making eye contact. “Why don’t you just kick me out?”
“Because it’s what you want and I’m not going to let you quit.”
“You can’t dictate my life,” I hissed. “If I want to quit, I’ll quit. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“Until the year comes to a close, I can and I will dictate everything you do. I’m not going to let you quit just so you can purposefully go off and hurt yourself. You may think no one cares about you but that’s not true. I’m here now, Geo. It’s just me and you’re going to have to get used to that. No more stunts like the one you pulled today or this training gets taken up a notch. Got it?”
I didn’t even want to know how worse it could get.
I blinked as Aidan appeared next to me. “Just do what he wants so you can go.”
“Fine,” I bit out. “But don’t expect me to like it.”
I made to get off the barstool but he pushed me back down. “You’re not leaving yet.”
“God, what else do you want me to do? I’m not drinking, it doesn’t do anything. So what else do you want me to do?”
He glared at me. “Until I’m ready to leave, you’re not going anywhere.”
“Why not?”
“Because from now on, you’re attached to me at the hip until further notice.”
“We’ve already been over this…”
“No. I mean it. You messed up today and now you have to deal with the consequences.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Ana…”
“I had Hank deliver a cot up to your room while you were off gallivanting in the park. I’ll be staying with you until you prove to me you can handle being by yourself.”
“All because I went back to the building where I almost died?”
“Yes, Geo. Because you went deliberately down memory lane. You did it to yourself on purpose for god knows what reason. I don’t know what you were looking to get out of it but now you get to deal with the consequences.”
“You can’t stay with me.”
“I can and I am.”
“I hate you.”
“That’s just fine because I don’t really like you right now either.”
I hopped off the barstool, glaring at him and headed for an empty booth. There weren’t many choices since this place was pretty packed but I finally found one. I slumped down on the vinyl seat and put my head in my hands. This sucked, major big ones.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
“No. Go away.”
I didn’t even look up to see who it was. They walked away without hesitation and when I did look up, Aidan sat across from me in the booth.
“Ana…”
I looked down at my hands, not able to look at his face right now.
“Not now, Aidan. Please?”
“We need to talk about what happened.”
“No we don’t. There’s nothing to talk about.” I looked up at him, tears welling in my eyes. “It’s never going to happen, is it? The pact breaking—you remembering…”
He reached across the table with his transparent hand.
“Don’t say that,” he whispered. “Everything is going to work out, you’ll see.”
“No, it’s not.” I sat back and folded my arms over my chest. “The world’s moved on while I stayed still. Maybe it’s time for me to move on too.”
“Ana,” I looked up at him, “don’t say that.”
I ran my hands down my face and then through my hair.
“I just…I think I’m losing it. I don’t care what Luke says…I really think I’m losing it.”
“You’re just under a lot of stress. You’ll be fine once you go home and relax.”
I shook my head. “It’s going to take a lot more than that.”
“You need a drink.” A glass was placed down in front of me, the familiar smell of whiskey floating up to me. I glanced up and saw Gregori but then looked right back down at the drink, pushing it away.
“No thank you. I already told you I don’t want to drink tonight.”
He sat down in the seat across from me, putting his own drink down.
“You were just talking to thin air. Drink it. You’ll feel better.”
I looked up at him, glaring. “I highly doubt that.”
“What is it about you that makes you go through this every day? Is it something you like doing to yourself?”
“What part of ‘I hate you’ didn’t you get? I don’t want to talk about why I went to the studio. I don’t want to talk about…”
“The Vampires?”
I pressed my lips into a hard line and stared at him.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“If you don’t talk about it then it won’t get better.”
“I thought you didn’t want to know.”
“I don’t. But I’m your mentor and you have to talk to someone.”
I grabbed the drink suddenly and downed it, not even bothering to take my time with it. If I was going to spill the beans, I was going to be sloshed when I did it.
“Wow, I think you’re getting used to the liquor.”
“I hate this,” I whispered. “I really, really hate this.”
“The drink or just everything in general?”
I looked up at him. “Everything.”
He leaned forward, the vinyl creaking underneath him. “What is it about your life that you hate so much?”
I blanched at him. “People whisper about me in the dark. They call me blood whore and filthy hybrid and thanks to you, I can add abomination to the mix. Normally I’m used to the names but since I’m a little unstable at the moment, it’s all getting to me.”
“Why thanks to me?”
“You had me go out with David and Parker. The freaking…” my vision started to blur, “th—the…are you sure th—this is ju—just whiskey?”
I looked at my hand and it looked like I had ten fingers instead of five. I looked back up at Gregori but he looked…wrong.
“Who…?”
“Don’t worry.” They propped their head against their closed fist. “You’ll be out in a few seconds.”
“Ana…call Max.”
“I can’t call Max…”
The guy across from me smiled. “That’s what makes this so…easy. You won’t do the obvious thing to save your own life. See, we heard about your promise to the Angels and we plan on taking full advantage of that.”
“Ana, fight it. It’s just a drug…”
“What did you give me?”
“Sleeping pill. I hear it does wonders for your kind…”
I moved to get up but the room started swimming when I moved. This was something other than a sleeping pill…
“Ana.” I looked to my left where Aidan was sitting next to me. “Scream.”
I frowned. “What?”
“Scream, Ana. Scream before you pass out…”
I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. A few seconds after that, the drug took over making my world blacker than it already was.