Forged by Greed (8 page)

A short, plump Puerto Rican woman in her late fifties stood at the
enormous stove, stirring a shiny pot. A sheen of sweat glistened above her
upper lip and her forehead. She hummed a catchy tune. When the girls entered,
she looked up and smiled broadly.

“Lunch is almost ready. Sit, sit,” she said in a thick accent,
gesturing at the table with a wooden spoon, bits of macaroni and cheese stuck
to it. “What are you two up to today? It’s going to be hot.”

“We’ll swim in the pool. Some Summer kids are coming over.”

“Will they eat lunch here? I need to cook more.”

“Nah. I don’t think so. But we might need some cold sodas. I’ll get
it ready, don’t worry.” Jasmira smiled. “Actually, I’m sure they will get
hungry after a while. But we have tons of chips and other junk food.
Double-natured
love
junk food, you
know.”

The housekeeper giggled and pushed her graying black hair away from
her forehead with the back of her hand. She started to hum her melody again.
She walked to the row of cupboards on the wall, and opened one of them,
retrieving two white bowls. Ana filled the bowls with the macaroni and cheese,
topping it with neatly sliced circles of the chicken sausage.

“Ready,” she said, looking at the girls. “Get some forks.”

“Ana.” Jasmira pulled her chair closer to the table. “You’ve been
working here for years.”

“Yes,” Ana answered, loading dishes into the dishwasher.

“Uhm… have you ever met the Summer Goddess? She stays in the Human
World most of the time and makes herself look like a regular human.”

“No.” Ana shook her head. “She doesn’t come over here. She summons
her Shifters wherever she is, right? I’ve never seen her.”

“You know a lot about
us
.
I mean, the Summer people,” Penelope spoke through a mouthful of mac and
cheese. “Oh, this tastes so good.”

“Your Historical Society has to approve a human to work for you. I’m
one of the few. They do a lot of screening and choose only the people who pass
their strict criteria. I had to swear to secrecy. Even my family thinks I just
work for some rich lady. That’s all.” She laughed, wiping her hands on the
kitchen towel. “My husband died years ago, and my two kids are adults now. It’s
not like anything is going to slip when I talk with someone. I’m careful, and
the Society knows that. Mrs. Rosewater pays me very generously too.”

“We’re lucky to have you.” Jasmira nodded, scraping her bowl clean.
“Seconds?”

“I think
you
girls are
lucky. You can eat so much and stay so skinny.” Ana laughed, her round cheeks
rosy. She took Jasmira’s bowl and filled it up. “I baked some banana bread
too.”

“I know. I’ve smelled it through all this sausage.” Penelope stood
up and walked to the housekeeper. She put her arms around Ana and hugged her
tight. “I love your cooking. You’re the best.”

“Ay! I almost forgot,” Ana said. “Mrs. Rosewater called, and said
she needs to stay a couple more days in Berlin. She wants you to call her,
Jasmira.”

“Yeah, I spoke with Grannie an hour ago. They found something weird
in the Race’s Accords. She says they need to have things straightened out
before my coronation. I’m guessing, they’re looking at the old part of the
Accords—whatever wasn’t revised at the last Society Convention,” Jasmira said
between the bites.

 
Ana looked at her with
admiration, smiling. “Oh, it’s like in the movies. You are like Princess Diana.
Will you have a beautiful dress and a crown?”

Penelope giggled.

“I will, but look what happened to Princess Diana,” Jasmira said solemnly.
“Well, good thing, we’re a secretive society, so no worries about paparazzi
chasing after me.”

Ana shook her head. “That was such a tragedy.”

Jasmira’s cell phone rang simultaneously with Penelope’s. Both girls
picked up their phones, looked at the screens, and pressed the buttons at the
same time, bringing the cell phones to their ears. Their movements were similar,
as if rehearsed. Each of them said, “Yeah,” to the phone and pursed her lips.

“Trent,
Willow,
and Soraya are at the gate,” said Jasmira.

Penelope nodded. “Anshu and her brothers are there too. And a couple
of other cars are just pulling up.”

“I’ll go open the gate. You check if we have enough towels at the
cabana.” Jasmira stood up.

***

Winter Realm.

The Winter Goddess watched her two huge black ravens flying away
toward the snow-covered trees. Their screeching filled the air. Bits of snow
fell from tree branches, when the birds beat their massive wings. In a lotus
position, Crystal hovered a few inches over the ground. She closed her eyes and
raised her hands off her knees. A gust of freezing wind lifted her long dark
hair, as if in a rough caress.

The Goddess’s body became ethereal, shimmering in the sun like tiny
icicles. Her eyes snapped open—completely white, iris-free, and eerie. The wind
died down, but her hair remained elevated over her shoulders, moving in gentle
waves, a static charge rippling through it in short flaring crackles.

The ravens sat, huddled together in the trees, and watched Crystal
in silence. One of them opened his beak, but no sound came out. The other bird
flapped her wings a few times, sending large clumps of snow tumbling down to
the ground.

Crystal closed her eyes and rested her hands back on her knees. Her
thick hair fell down, the static charge gone. Her body turned physical again,
and she looked like a young teenage girl, wearing jeans and a simple black
button-up shirt. She turned her face in the direction of the woods and looked
at the ravens.

“Come to me.” Her voice sounded clearly in the air, although her
small heart-shaped lips didn’t move. The birds glided down from the branch.
They slowly circled over the Goddess.

She looked up, frowning. Sensing her impatience, the ravens landed
quickly on her shoulders. They made a series of gurgling noises deep in their
throats. It sounded like a squabble, but Crystal ignored them.

The birds tilted their heads, looking intently at Crystal. Both of
them, in unison, jumped up and away from her, changing midair into two huge
wolves. One was black, from the tip of his nose to his tail, and the other had
an impeccably white coat. They landed heavily on the ground, clumps of snow
spraying out from under their massive paws.

The impact of landing pushed them a few steps forward. They dug
their claws into the ground, pivoted and ran to Crystal. Both wolves sat back
on their haunches, waiting, the wind bristling through their fur. On the
horizon, the snow-covered hills rose to meet the sunset-colored sky. It was
getting dark quickly, as in a fast-forwarded movie. The sky transitioned
through several hues of blue and all the way to almost black. Thousands of
stars outlined constellations never seen by humans.

“I need to summon Prince Jatred. Soon,” said Winter Goddess,
standing up. “Now leave me.”

CHAPTER 9

Human World. August 20,
around midnight.

Jasmira put the cell phone in her jacket pocket and quietly opened
the window. She glanced back at her bedroom door, but nobody was coming. Her
grandmother was fast asleep in her own bedroom on the third floor. Jasmira
removed a mesh screen from the window. She looked outside, turning her head
from side to side.

Please, please, please don’t
wake up, Grannie. I’m sorry.
 
I’m
disobeying you again, but I need to see him.
Jasmira
bit her lip and stole another quick glance behind her, making sure she wasn’t
about to get caught.

 
It was almost midnight, and
the late summer breeze gently tickled the exposed skin on her legs. She sat on
the windowsill, swung her legs over to the other side, and looked down. She
pushed away from the ridge and jumped onto the grass below. The second floor
wasn’t a real hurdle for a Shifter, but Jasmira landed awkwardly and tumbled
down to her side. She swore silently and looked up at the opened window in her
bedroom. The house was quiet, and so was the garden around her.

Bent at the waist, she tiptoed away from the wall, toward the side
of the mansion. Around the corner she jumped over low hedges and ran on the
lawn, by a paved path. The night air smelled of the freshly mowed grass and
honeysuckle. Tall, neatly clipped shrubs bordered the path on both sides.
Jasmira broke into a run, her black Puma sneakers quietly beating the turf.

The moon hung high in the night-sky, bright and perfectly round. Jasmira
looked up at it and smiled. Without slowing down, she turned her head to glance
behind her, but there was no sign of Jousenne. She was getting close to the
iron fence, when, with a hiss, the sprinklers around her shot out cool water.
Jasmira squealed and tucked her head in her shoulders.

“I wouldn’t worry about the clothes,” she heard Jatred’s mental
voice in her head. “The excess water gets absorbed by your body together with
the clothes when you shift.”

“Thank you for that interesting lecture. I know how the Shifter’s
body works.” She laughed, dancing in circles through the sprinklers. She
stopped, closed her eyes, and lifted her face toward the sky. A smell of damp
earth hit her nostrils, and she inhaled, smiling.

The black wolf paced along the tall fence. He was on the other side,
peeking between the spikes at Jasmira.

“I completely forgot about the sprinklers. They go off right after
midnight.” She twirled with her arms outstretched.

The wolf sat back on his haunches. His mouth was open, the tongue
lolling. He looked as if he was smiling. Jasmira walked to the railing and,
putting her arms between the cast iron spikes, entwined her fingers in the
wolf’s thick coat. He stood up and whined softly.

“I snuck out of my bedroom window.”

“The
window
? Why? The
doors are nailed shut at night in your house?” She heard Jatred’s laugh in her
mind.

“It was just for kicks. I disabled the alarm system in the house,
because there are sensors on every door and window. I don’t know why Grannie is
so adamant about it. She’s got the best alarm system money can buy.”

“I don’t blame her. It’s just the two of you in this huge house.”

“I hope Grannie won’t wake up. She’d have known right away I got out.
Wait, I will jump over to the other side.”

She ran away from the fence and shifted into her leopard form. The
water bursting from the sprinklers made her black fur slick and shiny. With a
quiet growl, she turned around and faced the wolf, then broke into a rapid run.
A few yards from the fence the leopard jumped high, her limbs outstretched and
aligned with her body. She soared over the sharp iron finials, and then yelped
in distress.

“What happened?” Jatred shouted.

She landed awkwardly on her paws, digging her claws into the ground
to slow herself down, then collapsed to her side. The wolf walked over to her
and prodded her with his muzzle. She whimpered and raised her head to look at
him. He shifted into the human form and, kneeling next to her, bent down over
her body.

“J, are you hurt?” Jatred’s voice was filled with concern.

“Oh, just a scratch. I’ll be fine.” Jasmira put her paw over her
eyes. She drew her lips back from her sharp teeth, and growled, deep in her
throat.

He gently ran his hand over the fur on her underbelly. The hair on
her stomach was sticky with blood.