Angel's Ink (34 page)

“Hello, Sofie,” I said with a smile.

“Hello, Gage. It’s been a while,” the old woman replied as she took a step back and motioned for me to enter. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me before following her and her cat into the crowded living room. Large, bulky furniture filled the tiny room so that I had to sidle sideways in order to sit down on the couch. The old woman paused next to a big rocking chair with thick cushions. “Would you like some tea?”

I shook my head, relaxing against the back of the couch. “No thank you. I can’t stay long. I was hoping for some information.”

The old woman laughed, wagging one bony finger at me. “Oh, you naughty boy! You’ve come here trying to get me into trouble.”

“You know I would never do that to you, Sofie. I’m in a bit of a bind and I could really use a little insight into what’s going on.”

The old woman nodded and settled into the rocking chair. The Russian blue jumped into her lap and curled up while the old woman gently stroked her soft fur. Frowning, I leaned over to my left and turned off the old black-and-white TV, silencing the evening news. I didn’t need the distraction.

“What can I do for you?” the old woman inquired.

“First, it would be great if we could drop the act,” I replied with a shake of my head. “You know I find the whole thing too confusing.”

The cat lifted its head and fixed its intense yellow eyes on me before giving its tail a quick flick. The old woman’s eyes drooped and finally closed before soft snoring slipped from her. The cat sat on its back paws, facing me.

“Most people prefer the pretense. They feel it is easier to talk to an old woman,” the cat said.

“Yes, but I find it uncomfortable since I know the truth.”

The cat swished its tail back and forth in a lazy motion. “To each his own. You’ve always been an odd one, Gage Powell.”

“Thanks, Sofie,” I said and smiled at her. Some things didn’t change despite the passage of time or even the unfortunate morphing of a body. Sofie still had an incredibly thick Russian accent that made her somewhat difficult to understand at first. It also didn’t help that she was trying to talk around a mouthful of sharp fangs.

I had seen Sofie only a couple times in human form, and then she had been a relatively sweet old witch with a plump body and curly gray hair. Unfortunately, she had run afoul of someone stronger and found herself cursed to live the rest of her days in the form of a cat. What little I could get out of Sofie about her situation revealed that she couldn’t change back into human form until the person who had worked the curse died. I didn’t know who had cursed her and I wasn’t brave enough to bring up the topic. Despite being a cat, Sofie was still a formidable witch in her own right.

As I understood it, after being transformed into a cat, she quickly realized that in order to maintain a comfortable lifestyle she needed to acquire an owner. The old woman was allowed to live her normal life under most circumstances, but Sofie put her under tight mind control when someone from her past, such as myself, appeared. Sadly, I didn’t even know the old woman’s real name. I just called her Sofie for the sake of simplicity. It didn’t matter since she wouldn’t remember my visit once I left.

“Have you had any problems?” I asked.

“None. You’re one of the few who still visits me. I’m sure that everyone else has forgotten about me by now.”

“You’re a hard one to forget.”

Sofie let out a long soft purr of pleasure. “While I certainly appreciate it, I know you didn’t come to visit me just to throw sweet compliments at my feet. What’s troubling you?”

“Simon,” I grumbled.

“That annoying old windbag is still giving you problems? I thought he had finally let you go,” Sofie said, her tail stopped in its swishing about at the mention of my former mentor’s name. There seemed to be too few witches and warlocks in existence who had a good memory of Simon. Even if he hadn’t been a warlock, I had a feeling that man had been born to be an asshole.

“It had been a while since I’d last encountered him. I’ve got my own personal guardian keeping tabs on me and generally harassing me whenever he gets the chance.”

“Who?”

“Gideon.”

Sofie nodded once as she settled down to lie on her stomach on the old woman’s lap. “He’s a fair one as warlocks go. It could have been worse.”

“Possibly, but I’m getting the feeling that Simon has told Gideon to step aside for a while so that he can personally take care of me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A few days ago I used a little magic in a fight and Gideon was all over me. Since then, I’ve used magic several times in some questionable circumstances and Gideon hasn’t taken those excellent opportunities to haul me in front of the council and let me get fried. On the other hand, Simon seems to be popping up all the time now even though I haven’t seen him in years.”

“That is odd,” Sofie admitted as she rested her chin on her front paws.

“What do you think?”

“It doesn’t look good for Gideon. He has always taken his job very seriously, and he was never one to step aside for anyone, particularly Simon. Unless, of course, Simon has gained enough power to actually ascend to the council.”

“Not good for me.” I frowned as my gaze drifted around the room, taking in the floral wallpaper, pretty landscape pictures, and collection of delicate porcelain plates. I shivered, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the air-conditioning, cranked to the max. I would be the last person to say that Gideon was a good guy, but Sofie was right in saying that he was fair. I could at least reason with him, whereas none of the others seemed willing to listen.

With a sigh, I slumped on the couch and looked back at Sofie, who was still regarding me with her bright yellow eyes. “Have you heard any news from the Towers?”

Sofie blinked once and then turned her head away from me and closed her eyes. “Not anything that you’d want to hear.”

“What?” I demanded, jerking upright again so that I was sitting on the edge of the sofa.

“Have you considered moving?”

“Where? Where on earth don’t they have an influence? Where can I run, because that’s what you’re telling me to do? Run?”

Sofie opened her eyes and looked at me again. “Peter died about a month ago.”

“Shit.” I sank back into the couch and dropped my head into my right hand while resting my elbow on the cushioned arm of the couch. The council was comprised of thirteen witches and warlocks who tried to maintain some kind of peace between the inhabitants of the Ivory Towers and the rest of the world. It was never an easy peace. When I decided to part ways with Simon, barely surviving the resulting fight, my case went before the council. The vote had been seven to six to let me live. Peter had been the deciding vote in my favor. I didn’t know who the others were who voted for me and I doubted I ever would. As I was leaving the Towers, Peter had pulled me aside and given me one last bit of advice.
Hide.

“Who has taken his place on the council?” I asked.

“No one yet, as far as I have heard. These things can take a while. But my guess is that Simon is trying to clean up his past so he can be considered.”

“And I’m an ugly blot on his past,” I muttered under my breath. Glowering at the coffee table, a new heart-stopping thought occurred to me. I pushed up so that I was sitting on the edge of the couch. “Can they retry a case if they get a new council?”

“No, they can’t. Once a decision has been handed down, they won’t bring it back up for review. However, at the moment, I wouldn’t risk getting pulled in front of the council. With Peter gone, it doesn’t look like you would have enough votes.”

“And if there’s a tie vote?”

“You’ll be imprisoned until the council seat is filled and the deciding vote is cast. That could be years, my dear. But I wouldn’t worry about that. If rumors are to be believed, you wouldn’t get a tie vote.”

“Why do you say that?”

If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it possible for a cat to sigh, but then Sofie wasn’t a normal cat. She sat up again on her back paws. She was a slightly larger than usual cat, but not so that you’d think it was too out of the ordinary. She had a regal bearing, making it easy to see why cats had been worshipped in Egypt.

“You’re not the only renegade warlock running around now,” Sofie admitted.

“What?”

“They did everything they could to hush up what happened with you, and wipe away all memory of you, because they were afraid that if other apprentices heard what you did, they would rise up as well.”

“I wasn’t trying to lead some kind of revolution for better treatment, I just wanted out.”

“Whether you were the inspiration or not, three apprentices have left their mentors during the past several months. Two warlocks and one witch-in-training.”

“Fuck,” I whispered, flopping back against the couch. “Have you heard whether they’ve been caught?”

To my surprise, Sofie jumped from the old woman’s lap to mine. Standing on her back paws, she leaned her front paws against my chest, putting her face just a couple of inches from mine. “No, but I wouldn’t tell you anything about them if I did know. You can’t seek them out. You can’t help them in any way. If you are seen with them, the council will instantly see it as you trying to lead a rebellion against the Ivory Towers. They won’t hesitate to send everything they’ve got against you, and they won’t stop until you’re dead.”

I picked up Sofie and held her out at arm’s length so that my eyes weren’t crossing as I tried to focus on her. “I have no intention of leading a rebellion. I just wanted to escape Simon and live my quiet life unnoticed.”

“Good luck with that,” she mumbled, her ears twitching slightly. I lowered her back down to my lap where she sat looking up at me.

“So Simon wants me dead in order to get a position on the council, and the others would prefer seeing me dead so I can’t assist those who have escaped. It’s sad they don’t take this as a sign that maybe times have changed and that the apprentices need to be treated better.”

Sofie made a little noise in the back of her throat that sounded like she was trying to cough up a fur ball. I was starting to reach to push her off my lap when I realized that she had actually given a little laugh at my comment. “They’ve been doing things this way for centuries. They’re not going to change.”

“No, I guess not.” I lifted my arms and dropped them over the back of the couch as I lounged there, staring at the sleeping old woman. Sofie was one of the most compassionate witches I had ever met, but she still had the mentality of her peers. She hadn’t thought twice about moving into the old woman’s home and taking over her mind for her own ends. The old woman had become little more than a fleshy puppet to be used. Was that how all the witches and warlocks saw the creatures of the earth, particularly the humans?

A substantial change to the council also didn’t offer any promise of a bright future for humanity. The Great War that had been waged with the Ivory Towers had decimated the human and fey populations nearly a century ago and had led to the extinction of at least two races. The resulting peace when a surrender was finally tendered had always been a shaky one. Many who inhabited the Ivory Towers had argued that the warlocks and witches had not acquired enough concessions or enough power. I was sure that Simon was one of these. If he rose to the council, a new war seemed to hover just over the horizon.

But I couldn’t worry about any of that. I had enough with my own problems. “So what am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“I think you know what you need to do,” Sofie said.

“Run and hide again?”

“No.”

“Kill Simon,” I replied in a soft voice, to which Sofie simply nodded. Yeah, I thought so. Simon’s death would not only buy me some time, but everyone else as well. “Murder isn’t high on my to-do list and I’m not even sure I’m strong enough to accomplish such a thing.”

“Well—” Sofie started and then suddenly stopped, her body going stiff while her ears perked up and forward as if she was listening for something. I turned my head as well, straining to hear a sign of someone coming up on the front porch, but everything was silent.

“Were you followed?” Sofie demanded, turning her face back toward me.

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“Someone is here.”

“Who?”

“Don’t know,” Sofie replied as she jumped from my lap and back over to the old woman’s. She pressed her front paws against the woman’s chest and meowed once. The old woman’s eyes opened and closed a few times before she looked over at me. “We need to leave now,” she announced.

I pushed out of the chair at the same time that the old woman rose. Laying my hands on her frail shoulders, I stopped her as she tried to shuffle toward the front door. The cat threaded through her legs, meowing desperately.

“She can’t go, Sofie,” I said, looking down at the cat.

“Why not?” the old woman asked, jerking my eyes back up to her face. I hated it when Sofie talked through the old woman. I wasn’t sure who to look at when I replied.

“She’s old, Sofie. She won’t survive running from anyone who might have come looking for you or me. She has to stay behind. They are not looking for the old woman and won’t harm her.”

The old woman stared at me, frowning for several seconds before she finally stepped back, out of my grasp. She sat down in her rocking chair and promptly fell asleep again. She was out of Sofie’s grasp.

Bending down, I scooped up Sofie while briskly walking toward the door. Propping the cat on my left hip while holding her by her stomach with my left hand, I slowly pulled open the front door and peered out. The neighborhood was empty. A bird chirped from the white picket fence by the sidewalk, which was a slight reassurance. When a witch or a warlock was about, wildlife was quick to flee.

“Wait!” Sofie commanded as I took a step into the doorway. I paused, still peeking out the slender opening. On my left, I could feel a stirring of energy as Sofie started casting a spell, for which I was grateful. She hadn’t been banned from using magic, unlike me. In fact, she was still technically a member of the Ivory Towers community if she wanted to return. I wasn’t sure if she’d left because she was stuck as a cat in a largely humanoid world, or if she was afraid that she’d be easier to kill in cat form. Either way, she’d left it all for a seminormal life as a house pet.