Rose & Thunder by Lilith Saintcrow

Author:Lilith Saintcrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fairytale, beauty and the beast, fairytale fantasy, fairytales retelling, saintcrow, fairytale urban retelling
Publisher: Lilith Saintcrow

Chapter Fifteen

Knocked away from the vision, a clean crack like a baseball bat getting a good piece of a fresh new ball. Contact, my head snapping aside, and I thumped back into the meat that carried me around on a daily basis. The candle, snuffed, sent up a thin curl of smoke, and the salt was gone. How that happened, I didn’t know.

I never know, but it always happens.

Thirsty and aching, I put my mother’s ashes safely away and drank most of the Evian stashed on the night table. I scrubbed at my face, roughly, and it took me two tries to get to my feet. I made it to the bathroom and sighed at myself in the mirror—high hectic color in my cheeks, my hair working free of the braid, coal-black curls flying anyhow.

I looked like I had galloping consumption. Great-grandmama would have told me so.

“Shit,” I whispered.

Then I mixed myself another huge wallop of absinthe, put the bottle away, and crawled into bed. I started to drink with a faint feeling of something not right, and ended with a haze of green smoke over the world and completely shot nerves. As a sedative, the booze wasn’t helping. I just wanted to walk around and find some munchies. Explore the house some more, maybe have a chat with the painting of the woman in white. I had the unsettling feeling that tonight she might talk back, helped along by the mild hallucinogen in the bottle I considering finishing just for the hell of it.

I got out of bed, scratching languidly under my T-shirt. The gilt mermaid door was somehow locked—the invisibles looking after me, maybe—but I slipped out into the familiar nighttime quiet of 4444 Tremont.

I made it down the stairs and turned slowly toward the kitchen when I heard voices.

“—came as soon as I heard.” A woman’s voice, soft and clear. Another midnight visitor. The green smoke around me lit with sparkles; I sighed softly.

“Not necessary.” Tremont’s voice. I tried to decide if this qualified as eavesdropping. After all, I was half-drunk and wanted something to eat, right? “Cal shouldn’t have said anything.”

“A witch, here, after so long? It’s news, Jeremy. This town has been attracting vrkolak for a long time.” The woman sounded concerned. “You’ve got a population of hungry s’lin, kalaks, and Kine. Not to mention other things.”

“The locus is safe,” another male voice said. This one was vaguely hurtful, full of cold sharpness. “Tremont’s a Protector, Mhari. He knows his duty.”

“Don’t preach duty to me, longshanks,” the woman retorted. But there was amusement and affection in her tone. “Well, Jeremy? What is it? Stay or go?”

“You’re welcome in this house,” Jeremy said, a bit stiffly. “You know that. As long as you follow the rules, I have no quarrel with you.”

“But her, Jeremy. A witch girl. From what clan? What coven?”

She’s talking about me. I’m so popular with these people I haven’t even met yet. A half-drunk giggle drifted upward from my stomach, I clapped my hand over my mouth.

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