Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) (6 page)

“
Daniel,” I said to his back, and louder when he continued to ignore me. “Daniel. I didn’t kill her.” Surely that counted for something.

He stopped, and without turning, said, “Yes. But you tried.”

I let him walk away. The truth dawned on me. I nearly killed a girl and I enjoyed trying. Part of me wanted to kill again. Without a guardian to guide and teach me I had no way of controlling my powers. I swore then never to use my powers again. If Leeza attacked me I’d ignore her. I was petrified, because I couldn’t control my power or stop myself from turning into a wolf.

Mostly I was petrified because I’d had a taste of immense power and I wanted more.

Mom cried when she saw my torn skirt. I expected her to complain about how much the material cost, not to mention the work that went into fashioning it.

“
I’m sorry, Mom,” I said.

She didn’t say a word, she was far too worried about paying the electric bill and no doubt wondering where the money for next week’s food would come from.

Calculator in hand, she’d been staring at a pile of bills for the last ten minutes. Eventually shoving the whole lot into the already full draw of unpaid bills, she moved to the sink. Silently washed the dishes, clearly exhausted, she knocked a plate off the bench. When she stooped down to get it tears were in her eyes.

“
Here, mom. Let me get that.” I collected the broken parts of the plate and wrapped them in newspaper. “Leave the dishes, Mom.”

She let me take the dishcloth from her hand and smiled wearily. I couldn’t do much to help her with the bills, but at least she might get the chance to rest.

“
I should go into work early today. See if I can put in an extra shift.” Brushing a soft kiss on my cheek, she grabbed her jacket from the hook by the door, shouldered her purse and left.

Seeing her leave the house to work a double shift pretty much pushed my case of guilt right over the top. Mom needed a break. She worked seven days for months on end, only stopping when she was forced by public holidays.

I decided to make up for the trouble I caused by finding myself a part time job. I phoned Carrie to see if she’d be willing to talk her dad into throwing a few shifts in his coffee shop my way. Carrie was ecstatic; she hated working and only did so because her father forced her to. Since his daughter only agreed to work for money, he wouldn’t lose out by hiring me instead. In fact, because he only had to pay me minimum wage, I guessed he’d probably be better off. I got the feeling I might end up working there every day.

I went straight to the shop after hanging up the phone. She was going to show me the ropes on my first day, which suited me because I wanted to talk to her about what happened with Leeza and Daniel.

Carrie began showing me how to work the till when her mother arrived.

“
Carrie, darling,” Karen Gale said, kissing the air either side of her daughter’s rouged cheeks. “Jim tells me you have the afternoon off.”

The women exchanged conspiring glances and something told me Karen’s presence wasn’t entirely coincidental.

“
Yes, mom. Did you hear there’s a sale on a the jewelers?”

“
Oh, really,” she replied, sounding not the least surprised. “Well, we might just look in on our way to the salon.”

They practically raced out of the shop.

Jim Dale looked pale and I imagined he was considering the beating his credit card would take.

“
Lucy,” he said when his girls left the shop. “You need to make a lot of sales today.”

No pressure then.

“
I’m going to the bank for some change, I won’t be long.”

I thought about asking him to show me how to work the cash register but he seemed like he had a lot on his plate. Besides, how difficult could it be?

“
Hi, I’ll have a skinny latte and a chocolate chip muffin,” said a slightly over weight guy.

Before I had the chance to consider the logic of buying a low fat coffee and pairing it with a high fat muffin, someone cut into the line.

“
Excuse me, I ordered a Chai Latte.” A dark-haired girl placed her cup in front of me, sloshing hot liquid all over the counter. “This is coffee. I can’t drink caffeine after twelve PM.” She said it as if someone had served her up a plate full of dog droppings.

“
Sure, I’ll just whip you up a cup in a second.”

I quickly scribbled the guy’s order on a notepad the way I’d seen Carrie do and clipped it to the coffee machine before turning to work on the angry customer’s drink. I knew from conversations with Carrie that the Chai was made from syrup instead of authentic herbs and I mentally chastised myself for not paying enough attention when she made them in front of me.

“
Hey, the girl gave me the wrong change before,” someone else said, butting into the line. “I gave her a twenty dollar note and only got change for a ten.”

“
Sure, how much do we owe you?” I said, remembering what Carrie told me about having to give in to customers who lied about their change in order to keep the peace.

She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically as if I should magically know how much money changed hands before I came on shift. “Five dollars.”

I stared at the cash register, trying to figure out how to open it. Pressing a few buttons did nothing. So I pressed some more. The machine let out a huge scream, showing an error sign on the screen. “Hang on. I’ll just try . . .”

I pressed the enter key again and nothing happened. So I pressed a few more random buttons but to no avail. It was frozen.

“
You need to use a key to reset it,” a familiar voice informed me. “It’s over here on a hook by the phone.”

Nick had arrived and he looked like he knew his way around the place.

“
Do you work here?” I asked.

“
Yes, sorry I’m late. I just had something to do after school.”

Carrie had conveniently left the part about Nick working here out of our conversation.

“
Looks like you made it just in time,” I said, with relief as he opened the cash register and showed me the reset button.

He took care of the latte and I watched closely as he filled the other orders.

“
Here, take this order to table three, will you?” Nick said kindly after I managed to over fill a cup of coffee.

I carried the tray laden with cups and cake carefully across the room, determined not to add broken china to the list of my mistakes.

My foot snagged on something and, almost in slow motion, I fell. As I went toward earth the tray flew through the air, sending coffee cups and plates in all directions. When I hit the ground the sound of broken china greeted my ears, and to top it all off a sticky pudding landed on my head, covering me in ice cream and hot chocolate sauce.

“
Oops. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you coming.”

I looked down at the leg sticking right out in the gap between tables, following it up to a cruelly grinning face; Leeza. As my eyes took in the faces assembled around the table, I recognized the girl who claimed we got her order wrong, and the one who demanded more change.

They’d set me up.

I struggled not to lose my temper. Luckily I didn’t feel anything from my tattoo, and I assumed, after how I nearly strangled her, Leeza was too scared to transform and spark a repeat performance. Thank goodness, I really didn’t need to add sudden hair gain to my problems.

Nick was kind enough to help me clear up the mess, sweeping the broken china into a rubbish bag and even bringing out a mop to clean up the spilt liquid.

While he took care of the mess I rushed to the bathroom to sponge the muck out of my hair and clothes. After that I manned the cash register, thankful that Nick had showed me how to make simple transactions. It didn’t scream at me once. By the time I made several coffees without burning myself or breaking any more cups, I started to feel better.

For the next few hours things ran smoothly. I actually thought I’d finish the shift without any more dramas.

“
My coffee is cold.” I knew that voice.

I grabbed the cup, avoiding Leeza’s eye because I couldn’t keep my temper if I saw the gloating look she undoubtedly wore on her smug face.

“
No, get me a new cup. I’m not having microwave coffee.”

The cup shook in my hand and the thought of dashing it in her face crossed my mind. “You should have drunk it more quickly.” Like straight away instead of waiting ten minutes for it to go cold, I thought.

“
Am I going to have to speak to your boss?”

I couldn’t believe it. Carrie’s dad asked me to make him money, and at this rate he’d be lucky to break even, what with the broken mugs. I couldn’t stand the thought of throwing the coffee away. The cup grew hot beneath my hand, and steam poured out of the drinking hole in the lid.

“
What’s happening?” Leeza asked. “Are you doing that?”

“
I’m not doing anything,” I replied. The cup got so hot I had to put it on the counter.

Okay, so my powers were changing. Or rather, they were appearing more readily now.

“
You made it hot,” Leeza said in disbelief. She started to back up.

I grinned. “Don’t you want your hot coffee?”

“
No,” Leeza said, scrambling to get back to her table. “I’ll pass.”

She gathered up her jacket and urged her confused friends out of the coffee shop.

“
Yes, can I help you?” I said to a customer approaching the counter, as I hurried to wipe it clean of spilt coffee.

When they didn’t answer I finally looked up.

“
Daniel.”

He stared at me wordless.

“
About the coffee, I don’t know how it happened.”

He remained deadly silent.

The silence went from uncomfortable to downright harsh.

“
I didn’t know you worked here,” he sad, ignoring my comment about the coffee, though I knew he saw it. I could see it in his eyes; that same horrified look he gave me when I nearly suffocated Leeza. Clearly being able to heat up coffee wasn’t an every day occurrence for Ink Mages. In fact, any sort of magic, outside of transforming into dangerous creatures, seemed to be unusual.

“
I didn’t mean to use magic,” I said. My tattoo still burned blue, the way it did when I used magic. Daniel’s attempts not to look at it merely highlighted it more.

“
It’s not the intent that concerns me,” he replied.

“
Well, what then?”

“
You can’t control yourself.” He turned and walked back to the table.

Right. Well, if he didn’t want to give me his order, I’d go to him. As soon as Nick returned from clean up duties I strode toward the table where Daniel and his cronies sat, noting, with annoyance, the pretty brunette sitting next to him.

“
Hey, Lucy,” Nick said. “You forgot the order for table four.”

I headed back, grabbed the tray of coffee and went straight for Daniel’s table. “Hi, can I take your order?” I asked Daniel.

He continued on his quest to perpetually ignore me.

“
He’ll have a latte and a plate of hot fries, to share.” The Brunette was taking food orders for him? How sweet?

“
Is that my order?” the customer from table four inquired.

“
Yeah, hang on a second,” I said over my shoulder, before turning my attention back to Daniel. “Is that right, Daniel? Do you want a latte?” I’d refuse to take his order until he spoke to me.

We both remained resolutely silent, Daniel staring off into space while I tried to will him to look at me.

“
Here, I’ll take that off your hands,” Nick said, suddenly appearing to relieve me of the tray.

I stood there with my arms folded. Nick hurried off to hand over the order to table four.

“
Excuse me, do you mind if I borrow your waitress?” Nick said to the group a moment later. “My lady, are you ready?” he said, holding out his arm to me.

“
Ready for what?” I asked.

“
Dinner, remember?”

I took in Nick’s appearance. At some point he must have changed into dress pants, shirt and tie.

“
But, what about the shift?”

“
Carrie came back early,” Nick explained and when Carrie turned up beside him they exchanged knowing glances.

I placed my arm in his, preparing to let him lead the way. It seemed these two wouldn’t give up until I agreed to be wined and dined.

Daniel surged to his feet, shunting the table forward several feet and spilling coffee everywhere.

“
You are not going to dinner with him.” Daniel spoke the words with exaggerated clarity, dragging out each syllable.

Nick froze. Daniel stepped out from behind the table and strode toward him.

Daniel towered over Nick, though what the latter lacked in height he made up for in bulk. I never really realized how muscular he was before. Not that Daniel was small. He was well muscled, in an athletic sort of way.

“
I beg your pardon?” I said, if only to break the staring contest going on between them.