Sterling (27 page)

A light tapping noise snapped me back to reality. Justus touched the window with his fingertips and I reached up running mine along the glass.
Please don’t leave me
.

His arms lifted over the car and he leaned over so I could no longer see his face.

My body came three inches off the seat when heavy fists slammed down on the roof of the car. If my heart was asleep before, it was now wide awake and on its fourth cup of coffee and chilling out in my throat.

“One finger harms her Samil, and I will bury you.”

“Tsk Tsk. Careful Mage,” Samil replied with edged humor. “What would the Council think of such threats?”

“It’s not a threat. It’s my word of honor.”

***

My seatbelt was pulled off and Samil dragged me across a gravel driveway. The rocks were white and sharp at the edges, as my hands could attest to.

“Home sweet home, little girl.”

I cringed as my bag landed on the arm I used to shield my face. Samil straddled me, bending over with his hair spilling down like dirty rain.

“Last time we met like this, I believe you looked a little….different.” He spun a lock of my black hair between his fingers. “Took time to find you, but when I picked up on your energy it was unmistakable. You can’t run from me, Silver. You belong to me and I will always find you.”

He stood up before I had a chance for my thumbs and his eyeballs to make their introductions.

“Get up,” he snarled.

I tightened my lips and shot profanities through my eyes.

He backhanded me.

I spat a mouthful of blood on his big black boot and redirected my anger. “Thought you could use a shoe shine.”

They say the first hit is never the last. They’re right. Whoever
they
are, they know.

“It’s going to be so satisfying to break you.”

Except what he didn’t know was that I had
been there
and
done that
. I was a survivor, and would never be broken by anyone.

The white paint was so pristine on the three story house that it was almost as if it were freshly painted. It was surrounded by a well manicured lawn, illuminated fountains, and rose bushes all along the outside walls. There was a lot of money and pretentiousness put into this place. The porch was adorned with two life size bronze sculptures of snarling lions and I thought if I stared in their jeweled eyes too long they might spring to life and gobble me up. I had never been in a house that fancy and always wondered about the people who inhabited them.

Now I knew.

Sailing across a smooth polished floor, I hit the end of a banister with my shoulder.

I looked up and against his hellboy appearance of the long black trench coat and matching heart, was a stark contrast of—for better lack of words—baroque. Gaudy mirrors with brass frames hung on maroon walls. The furniture was crushed red fabric with gold trim, black chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, the windows were arched and an oddly constructed staircase curved up three levels of the house.

I laughed uncontrollably. “You look like a piece of shit in a porcelain toilet.”

“Maybe you should clean that toilet with your mouth,” he said.

Halfway down the stairs that led to the basement, Samil shoved me the rest of the way. I landed on my bag, which broke the fall.

“Welcome home, Silver. I think you’ll find your quarters quite accommodating. Let us go over the rules, shall we?”

His heavy boots stomped down the wooden steps, making a hollow noise in the empty room as he spoke. “You will not disturb me when I am upstairs. Save your screams, no one can hear you out there and those who come to visit me won’t care. Test me little girl, I just dare you.”

“You only have me for seven days.”

One foot retreated before it forcefully kicked me in the side. I groaned with my face flat against the cold concrete floor, coughing in pain.

“Rule number two: every time you smart off with me, I will beat you until you have no more fight.”

Big deal. I had a feeling this asshole was going to do it regardless.

I looked at my new home. The basement only had two lights, which didn’t offer much. There were boxes by the stairs and the floor was as concrete as the walls. A pile of dirty blankets in the corner told me that this was my bed, and I wondered if I was the only one who had ever slept there. Samil’s arms were folded tight and he seared me with his cold, sharp eyes. I wiped the blood from my mouth on the back of my hand.

“Beg me to heal you,” he demanded.

Samil had a strange accent; his tongue rolled thick and made the pronunciations very rich and dark as if it might be Eastern European. But like Simon’s, it was perhaps not his true accent. If these men were hundreds of years old or more, then living in different places would influence their speech. It could have been Egyptian, given I had never traveled anywhere or met anyone to truly know the difference.

“Go to hell.”

He sneered and shook his hands over his coat. “You first. It’s only going to get worse little girl, I have all the patience in the world. I’m going to enjoy making you beg. Make no mistake about it, you will beg. They all do…eventually.”

“Beg for you to take a shower; I always thought your B.O. was just an urban legend.”

His eyes narrowed to razor thin slivers, but to my astonishment, he turned and went up the stairs sliding a series of locks into place. I had a feeling that wasn’t a get out of jail free card—it was a rain check.

I flipped on the switch and stared at a concrete wall in the bathroom. There was no mirror and I guessed that it was removed because it could have been used as a weapon. I felt the residual pain on my arm and thigh and knew it would not be long before they bruised, but I healed faster than humans did so I wasn’t overly concerned.

My bed of blankets stank of mold and I turned my mouth in disgust. I shook out of my coat and slipped a sweatshirt on that Adam gave me. My body shook with a violent chill as I placed the coat over my bag and used it for a pillow.

***

When I woke, my thigh was screaming.

“So much trouble, you. And worth it all remains to be seen.” He bent down and grabbed a fistful of my hair. “Ready to beg, Silver?” he laughed. “Oh, how I bet you love your new name. Did you ever watch the Lone Ranger?”

I jerked my head back and scrambled up against the wall, knees pressed against my chest as he crouched in front of me. Bastard kicked me in my sleep.

“Why did you do it, why me? There are a million people who would want immortality, why force it on someone who
didn’t
want it?”

Samil’s words rolled from his tongue like molasses, “I am compensated well for my deeds, and I take great pleasure from the Learners I have made.” He huffed out a short laugh. “It’s a formula girl, one in which I intend to keep secret. Why you? Well I can’t take full credit…but you should thank me. How dare you turn your nose at what I have given you. Your life has more worth than it once did…humans are nothing but cattle. Tell you what? I’ll let you have one shot at me. You only get one—so make it count.”

I heard a loud snap as I realized my hand had flown across his cheek. I didn’t even stop to wonder if he were serious about giving me a free hit or just baiting me.

“We have all the time in the world to play.” With that, he landed his knuckles on my face and I blacked out against the concrete wall. The bastard lied.

“Ow.”

I opened my eyes, groggy and with the worst kind of headache. Pulling my neck up was not without its agony, either.

I sighed when I saw all the contents of my bag tossed over the floor as if a tornado had blown through. I picked up tiny bits of plastic near the wall that once belonged to my cell phone.

At the foot of the stairs, there was a tray with a silver lid. When I lifted it, an empty china plate stared up at me.

Hearing latch to the door unlocking, I ran back to the blankets and threw them over my head. I struggled to steady my quickened breath as the door opened. A swish of liquid from a glass bottle sounded along with stumbling feet. Was he drunk? Would be nice if he left me the bottle, I could use it more than him.

“No,” he mumbled, “She’s not like the others and that’s why we’re negotiating. I’ve been more than generous with my previous Learners for a fair price, but this one is special.”

Panic went full throttle when I heard a second set of footsteps.

“So this is she?” the voice spoke. It was sharp, clear, and sent a chill up my spine. “Scant little thing, and you want to negotiate for a pile of rags?”

“Are we good on the temporary agreement or not?”

“You forget yourself; it was one of mine who spotted her, careful how you speak with me.”

“Fuck you, because without me you wouldn’t have these toys. You
f-forget
, that without a maker, without what I alone can do like no other…” his words trailed off by the sound of a bottle and swallowing.

“While you are her maker do not forget who I am. You are in my debt, and I will decide when the debt is no longer owed. Show some gratitude.”

There was an audible grunt. “What makes me think this debt will never be square?”

“Your previous endeavors were less than acceptable, this one better be worth it. Do tell me why you beat her— it would appear you are damaging the merchandise.”

“That pile of crazy is dangerous. If she’s not broken she’ll grow wild…” another swig of alcohol. “Have your sample and we can negotiate upstairs. This one I’m not giving so freely as the others, she was a pain in the ass to get. I’ve made her official with the Mageri and—”

“You
what
?” he shouted.

“That’s right,” Samil said in a satisfied tone. “So don’t get any ideas because they have watch on her now. I have to think long term and guarantee my claim on her.”

His heavy gait trampled up the steps until I heard the door slam. And lock.

My heart thundered as the stranger loomed above me.

One word kept echoing in my head:
sample
.

“Silver, is it? No need to play dead, child; I know you are awake.” He ripped the blanket off of me and frowned.

He was not a big man; he wore round glasses, a neat grey suit and dusty brown hair crowned his head. He looked like he could’ve been a banker who worked a very boring job. A slender pointed toothpick rolled across his tongue to one side of his mouth and he slipped out of his jacket, lightly dusting it with his hand. Behind the reflection of his glasses was only a physical resemblance of a human, but no humanity existed in that stare.

“Now you don’t look like much trouble, Samil always did exaggerate.”

Slowly the spectacles were removed from his face and he neatly polished one lens at a time with a white cloth he removed from his pocket. When he finished, he folded the arms together and slipped them into his coat, giving it a casual shake as he flung it around the bottom knob of the staircase railing. He rolled up his crisp white sleeves, and I began to back up and crawl away.

“Easy, girl.”

That’s all it took to set me off, talking to me as if I were an animal. I scrambled to get on my feet when his arm yanked my ankle. The breath crushed out of me when he came down over my back and flattened me against the floor. He wasn’t very big, or strong, and yet he was dripping with power.

Hot breath that stank of garlic slithered across the back of my neck and I turned my head as if I had been burned.

“Keep it up, I like it rough. I didn’t have any intention of using you this way—but if you keep tempting me I just might reconsider,” he laughed.

“What were you going to do?” I growled through my teeth.

“Were?”

He flipped me onto my back and straddled my sides so there was no going anywhere. My fists balled to hit him but he pinned me down and my fingers were pried open.

“Let me go,” I yelled. “I don’t know what you want from me!”

My fingers tightened into a fist so impenetrable that his efforts to pry them open were in vain. He looked at me with calmness and made no effort to fight with me. He lifted my arms by the wrists and repeatedly slammed the back of my hands against the hard concrete floor.

Over and over. Until my knuckles bled.

When I could no longer endure the pain, I let out an angry scream and opened them.

“Now I see what Samil means, you keep this up with me and I will not show the kindness he has. I am far more experienced in punishment.”

His lips peeled away from his teeth in a snarl. “Let me see what you have for me.”

When his thin cold hands touched mine, I cried out from the pain. The toothpick suddenly fell from his mouth and rolled onto my chest. I shuddered.

With everything happening, all I could think of was how I wanted that vile thing off of me.

***

The Mage sat in a stupor after stealing my light, but eventually he lifted the jacket from the banister and left the room. The clock upstairs chimed once and I pushed myself through consciousness until I was standing by the rock at the Grey Veil.