Electric Blue (15 page)

"That's part of the problem," Cecelia said. "Karma and
Orlando
have supposed to have been looking after her. Alicia is Poppy's Guide, the one to make sure that Poppy's changes don't kill her, the one to teach her about what she is, yet she knows nothing."

David stood abruptly at that news. "What?" he said. He turned to
Orlando
. "Is this true?" he asked.
Orlando
said nothing.

"
Orlando
, baby. . ." David pleaded. "Tell me she's lying, tell me she's crazy." David knew not to doubt Cecelia; he had seen his fair share of magic.
Orlando
, however, remained steadfastly silent and stared at the floor.

* * * * *

Orlando
remained silent and continued to stare at the floor. "
Orlando
?" David said. His stomach felt as if it would fall out of his body, felt as if it were being twisted all up in knots. "
Orlando
? Is what Cecelia said true? You and Alicia are Poppy's Guides?"

Orlando
remained quiet for a moment as Alicia began to cry. Soft tears tumbled down her cheeks and she made no effort to stop them. Finally,
Orlando
spoke.

"It's true," he said. "Every word of it is true. Alicia and I were supposed to be helping Poppy."

The silence in the room was thick. "You knew," David said. "The entire time, you knew what was going to happen, didn't you? So, getting involved with me last year, was that just all for the sake of convenience?"

"You weren't supposed to get hurt,"
Orlando
said. "I didn't mean to lie to you."

"But you did. You didn't just lie to me, you kept secrets from me. I don't know you at all do I?" David eyed him quizzically.

"You
do
know me,"
Orlando
insisted. "You do. In the beginning, Alicia and I thought it would be good to get close to Poppy, to protect her. We had no intention of falling in love."
Orlando
took a breath. "I didn't plan on falling in love with you. But I DO love you, David. I do."

"If you loved me, you would have been straight with me about who you were, what you are." He looked at Alicia and Karma. "Same goes for you two. This is betrayal; this is a slap in the face. And now your secrets, your little game, may have cost us our friend."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about Poppy," Cecelia said. "Only one girl died in the Coven House."

"Someone died?" Lucia said. "What happened to her?"

"It was the reason I left the Coven. Karma's grandmother was in power then, and what a nut she was. She believed that young girls should be sacrificed to increase the power in the house—that their magic would flow into the Harrow House. The girl’s name was Monica and she was imprisoned to die in the attic of the Coven House, never to see the light of day." Cecelia sighed. "I left the Coven the next day. I could not be in a house that would approve of such actions."

"Then why is Poppy safe?" Lucy asked.

"Because, after Monica died, the Coven disbanded, until you see what we have of the Coven before you." She motioned at
Orlando
, Karma, Alicia and Lucia. "There is no large Coven now, no evil struggling for power. Poppy is free to roam and do her quest at her will. While inside the house, she is not subject to the house’s spirits that may do her harm."

"My grandmother was not evil," Karma said.

"What would you call imprisoning a child?" Cecelia spat.

"Enough!" David said. "We're getting off track here." He turned and addressed Karma,
Orlando
and Alicia. "You three lied and covered your tracks when the smartest thing to do would have been to tell the truth from the beginning. Our friend, Poppy, is lost inside a house, and she does not know what she is. I know this is all pre-ordained, and all that, but since you guys let her go into this without any help, I suggest you find a way to get her out. I'm going outside."

"David, wait!"
Orlando
said.

"I don't want to look at you," David said to him. He wouldn't look
Orlando
in the eyes. "You have lied to me from the moment we met. I need to some fresh air." David, choking back tears, turned away from him and ran back upstairs. He could not bear to face the man who broke his heart, could not even be in the same room with
Orlando
right now. His heart was too sore. He ran outside, the front door banging behind him.

Orlando
looked after his lover for a moment and went after him. Those that were left in the room were silent until Lucia spoke.

"I still don't understand how I fit into all this," she said. She explained to Karma how she had gotten the bone Buddha with her name carved into it in large black letters. She pulled it out of her pocket. "Alicia and Orlando got one like this too," she said.

Karma looked as if she had been slapped. She turned to Alicia. "How could you not tell me?"

"I thought it had to do with Orlando and me watching over Poppy. I figured that Lucia was another member of the Coven."

"Never assume, don't you know that?" she stood and looked at David. "It looks like David will get his wish."

"What do you mean?" Lucia asked.

"The house knew where this would be coming all along." She said this more to herself than to the others. "It looks as if you will be going on your own journey very soon," Karma said.

* * * * *

Outside, David sucked back a cigarette, relishing its taste, its smoke. He let it fill his lungs with smoke, warmth, fire. He felt he would never be warm again. He heard
Orlando
behind him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have told you from the start what I was, that I was a Coven Witch. I should have been straight up with you, but I had kept this secret for years. Alicia has kept her secret since Poppy was born," he said. "I couldn't imagine that."

"Are you as old as she is, then?" David asked.

"I have never lied to you about anything aside from Coven business. I have been Honest with you about my profession, my life. Just not about this."

"Yeah, not this," David said. "Don't think this is a little deal, because it's not. If you had shown Poppy what she is, we might not be in this mess." He took a breath. "More importantly, you kept this from me, lied when I asked you questions about magic and about what happened on Valentine's Day. Lied to me when I asked you that day if you were magic. This isn't just a lie,
Orlando
; you kept a part of your life secret from me and I don't know if I can forgive that." He looked at
Orlando
then and the sight of the pain in David's eyes was like a punch in the gut. "I will be staying at my mother’s for the next few days. I need some space. I understand why you did what you did. I just need to decide if I can forgive you."

David took one last look at
Orlando
and headed upstairs to pack a bag and call his mother.
Orlando
watched him go up the stairs, wondering if his heart would ever stop hurting. He wondered whether David would ever come back to him, or whether David was lost to him forever.

Chapter Nineteen

Mother and Son

Honey groaned when she heard the alarm clock and hit it hard with her fist. Whoever it was that had made alarm clocks, she would like to find him and shoot him; she figured only a man could create something so hated by everyone. She could hear sounds of life moving below her and she smiled to herself. She loved the feeling of a full house and it was delightful to have her son living with her for a bit, even if it was under difficult circumstances. He had been living with her and Jose for a few days now. He wouldn't speak about what was bothering him, but she knew that it had something to do with
Orlando
. She would find out what the bee in his bonnet was today.

Honey got out of bed and stretched, put on her robe and headed downstairs. She loved their new apartment; it was less space to take care of, yet it was spacious enough for her and Jose and the twins. David was sleeping in the spare bedroom on the third floor of their apartment. It was actually the attic, but it had been done up as a studio bedroom. David said it suited his needs fine. Jose was already in the kitchen, feeding the twins their bottles. Honey knew that she should have fed them by the breast, but she was a slightly vain woman and couldn't bear the thought of anyone but her husband attaching themselves to her nipples. Besides, if she could avoid saggy boobs for another few years, she was a happy woman.

She smiled to herself when she came into the kitchen and Jose already had a cup of tea poured and steeped for her. She inhaled deeply. Tea always calmed her, didn't matter if it was caffeinated or herbal, it still had the same wonderful mind-numbing effect on her. Tea soothed her, made her relax. She needed that with twins to look after.

Jose smiled when she came in and kissed her head. "Sleep well, dear?"

She kissed him back. "Yes, I did, thank you. I had the weirdest dream, though."

"Of what?"

"Oh, some myth about a prophecy, I can't really remember. I wonder what it meant though."

"Who knows with dreams?" Jose said. "Experts say that it is all the things we have seen during the day that we try to make sense of during the night time."

"I don't think it's that," she said. "It was an odd dream, full of light and talk of myths and prophecies. Never had one like it before." Honey shook her head. "I'm making too much of it, really, ever since. . .Valentine's Day, I haven't been myself. The children have helped though." She kissed Jose. "You have helped tremendously."

Jose kissed her back. "The world is full of odd things. We have our choice of whether or not to accept the odd and unusual, or staying ignorant and ignoring it. We're choosing to admit that the supernatural exists. I think that's pretty big of us, don't you?" He kissed her on the top of her forehead and began making pancakes for breakfast.

"Did you notice the marks on the children?" Honey asked.

"What marks?" Jose replied.

Honey went to Eileen, who was happily sucking on a bottle while resting in Jose's right arm. He put her down in her chair, bottle finished, so that Honey could lift up her pant leg. She did the same with Kieran and showed Jose the marks. She placed them both in their rockers and put them on the floor so that she could rock them both with her feet. Jose was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was light. "They might just be birthmarks, dear," he said. He rubbed his thumb over one. It was a pentagram, black as a tattoo.

"Those don't look like any birthmark I've ever seen," Honey said. "Vanessa has never seen the like either."

"You showed Vanessa?" Jose asked. "Why did you do that?"

"You were at your golf game, there was no one here. I have no one to talk to during the day, you don't mind do you?"

"Of course not. I'm glad that you and her have been able to become friends."

"I'm really worried about those birthmarks, Jose."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"I'm going to talk to David," she said. "It's the only thing I can think of. He might know what's going on."

"Talk to me about what?"

Jose and Honey looked up to see David coming into the kitchen. Her son looked terrible; there were circles under his eyes and his face looked forlorn. He looked as if someone had kicked him when he was down, which is exactly what had happened.

"We need to know what's going on," Honey said simply. "You've been here almost a week and we don't even know what you've run away from."

David regarded his parents and went and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Are you sure you want to know what's going on?"

"Of course we do," Jose said. "We love you David. If you're hurting or are in trouble, we would like to help."

"Alright, but this could take a while." By the time David was finished relating events of the previous week, it was past noon. The kitchen was silent when David finished speaking.

"So what's happening now?" Honey asked. Her face was ashen. "Poor Poppy, I only hope that she will be alright. I told you that house was evil."

"Lucia, Orlando and Alicia are going into the house tomorrow. We've already wasted almost a whole week," David said.

"What?!" Jose was shocked. "Whatever for?"

"Karma feels that those Buddhas that came out of the house were for a reason. She believes that that means that Orlando, Alicia and Lucia have to make a journey inside the house to find her. We've waited almost a week since Poppy disappeared. We have to send them inside soon."

"But you said that Poppy had a quest to finish. What if she hasn't finished?" Honey asked.

"That's just it. Lucia, Orlando and Alicia are going to go in to make sure that she does. They hope they can still find her. She could be anywhere by now."