Repossessed (12 page)

He merely shook his head with a small smile. “Let’s get you home.”

The trip was quiet—although the kiss lingered on her mind with each step. When he delivered her safely to her door, she took her time messing with her key-ring, wondering if he’d kiss her again, but when she turned around to say a few words, she found him long gone.

He had too many annoying habits.

She rolled her eyes and went inside. She’d deal with him again soon enough.

After a nice power nap, Tessa ambled into the bathroom. As she passed the wall mirror, she caught the first faint circle of red on her neck. Oh, damn! She faced the mirror with wide eyes. Then she craned her chin up to view the carnage. Hickies sprinkled over her neck screamed out, “You sure got it on last night!” One in particular was bright red with a light purple spot in the middle.

Once the shock wore off, Tessa dressed for work. Her makeup though, took longer than expected. Twenty minutes later, her neck’s giraffe-like appearance was covered in enough foundation to put Mary Kay out of business.

A few hours later, Tessa was in the middle of assessing a client’s file when Ursula sent a call her way. “Phone call from the accountant.”

Her eyebrows lowered. Why would Aunt Daisy call her? Her aunt usually sent an email if there was something wrong.

“Aunt Daisy, how nice of you to call.”

“Ursula left a message regarding the mishap with the car payments. Sorry about that.” Aunt Daisy added stiffly, “You should pay more attention to your account.”

“I thought that’s what I hired your firm to do.”

“Tessa, I contacted you as a courtesy since you’re my niece. We balance your books and pay your debts, but you’re responsible for guaranteeing that there are enough funds for withdrawals.”

Tessa’s fingers tightened on the pencil she held. A pencil that would snap any minute now. She stood and started pacing the five feet of her office.

“Help me understand this here. Is there some kind of policy that prevents you from acting like a family member who cares for the well-fare of my business?” After she spoke, she wanted to take back her words. But her anger couldn’t be contained.

Aunt Daisy snickered into the phone. “Just ‘cause my mother favored you over everyone else doesn’t mean I give you any breaks. You should be grateful I called.”

Grateful? She’s kidding right?

“Don’t think most of us didn’t know about the extra gifts.”

Not again. “Both you and Aunt Lenore can’t let it go. Grandma’s gone and I can’t change her will. She wouldn’t want you to be unhappy like this. She’d want you to find your own happiness and let bitterness go.”

Her aunt huffed. “What about the car for your high school graduation or the extra money to insure you’d afford the scroll, yet have enough money to start your business? Didn’t think we knew about that, did you?”

Tessa’s teeth ground together. “I never asked for any of those things.” Aunt Daisy always went for the jugular when Grandma Kilburn wasn’t present.

“I could go on and on. But we all know you’ll waste it all. My mother thought you were so perfect. At the rate you’re going, you’ll be back in Chicago quite soon.”

“Do you have anything else to tell me? Something related to you doing your job correctly?”

“They’ll be plenty to talk about in the coming months.” She could sense Aunt Daisy’s smug smile through the phone. “By the way, you keep transferring funds from your savings. I suggest you generate more income from those clients of yours. If that doesn’t work out, you could always find work as my assistant.”

Time passed far too quickly for Rob. He’d been apart from her for four days, but he’d used his time wisely. He’d managed pay enough money to stop the creditors from calling, but a couple thousand wasn’t enough. He needed to keep working. He’d pulled a few all-nighters and still had strength in his hands.

One month wasn’t enough time to get a job, work for a bit, then quit.

With a sigh, Rob sipped a cold coffee at a local bakery and scanned the want ads. No one really wanted temporary workers these days. Not for a few weeks anyway. He’d hauled around boxes in stuffy basements, swallowed his pride as he packaged blow-up dolls, and even worse, he’d dressed in a chicken outfit to drum up business for a store. He refused to use magic to make an honest dollar.

“Don’t be a
gumbengi
,” his dad used to say, blending Korean and English. He’d heard the word often during his old man’s “pep talks.” The term, which meant maggot, also roughly translated to someone who was a lazy loser with no job.

The best way to avoid the label was to work. And that meant doing repo gigs. That was the only job that paid very well and made him feel good about what he did. But those prospects didn’t look so good tonight. Bad luck seemed to cling to him like a stick of gum smeared on a sidewalk. Scrapping it off would be a sticky mess he didn’t want to handle.

Pedestrians continued to walk outside, enjoying the cool evening. They had places to go, plans to have fun. He didn’t have such time and thanks to Clive, his trip with Tessa tonight wouldn’t go as planned. No golden amulet meant his access to Limbo was toast. He guessed that would be like a repo man without a tow truck—a truck with inter-dimensional abilities anyway. Rob snorted and crumpled up the empty cup.

Time to face the matchmaker.

Rob met her in front of Clive’s Recovery.

“What crazy place are we going to this evening?” she asked. As usual, she looked casual, yet put together enough to have him wondering if he’d been keeping an eye on her versus the problem at hand.

“At this point, not to a job,” he grumbled as he walked west.

She followed close behind him and grasped his arm. “Rob, what’s wrong? No job tonight?”

“Not until I get another amulet. The cheap piece of shit Clive bought died a few hours ago.”

She frowned. “Can you get another one?”

“That’s where we’re going. It’s a rough place. If you want, you can go back home until I get another one.”

“I’ll be all right. How rough are we talking here?”

“I’m going to a wizard’s bar in Queens.”

She kept a straight face the whole time. He could almost imagine all the things that came to mind. Had she ever left Midtown to see the other boroughs?

“Let’s go.” She strolled ahead of him, keeping her face hidden, but he wondered if he caught a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

Instead of taking a cab or jump point to Queens, Rob took her to the subway station. As they entered the train, Tessa asked, “I’m surprised you haven’t suggested a jump point. Aren’t there any to take us to Queens?”

Rob directed her to a set of seats and plopped down beside her. “The wizards in Queens blocked off the warlock jump points around a hundred years ago.”

“You have turf issues here too, I see.”

“You could say that.” Warlocks and wizards dealt with magic, but in different forms. Warlocks, like himself, had the ability to play with dark and light magic, while wizards were restricted to light magic. Not that this problem didn’t stop wizards from using magically imbued shit to perform dark magic.

In some areas, warlocks and wizards didn’t get along very well. He remembered his father telling him that during riots, like the one in L.A., warlocks and wizards often took advantage of the chaos to make war against each other. Dad had been visiting family there during the time. His old man had said, “I’d just stand there and let ‘em fight. Most of our kind don’t have a spit’s worth of common sense, I tell ya.” Based on Dad’s eloquent words, Rob just saw the fighting as an excuse for men to act like idiots and beat the shit out of each other.

“Do you have any wizards in your family?” she asked. “I have a few extended relatives sprinkled here and there. They don’t attend family functions all that often.”

“I grew up in house with both warlocks and wizards.” He sighed. “Over the years, I’ve seen relatives go rabid over differences in ideals and a bunch of other bullshit most folks would deem trivial. Who cares about the path you follow or what kind of wand you use?” She nodded while he spoke. “I don’t have time or the patience to support one side over the other. I’m trained as a warlock and that is all that matters.”

The ride on the F and A train took around an hour. They were alone for most of time, with a few people entering and leaving the trains. For the first half, he didn’t have much to say to her. She glanced at him a few times, making him wonder what thoughts swirled around that pretty head of hers.

Harabeuji was thankfully silent the whole time.

“Are your aunt and uncle okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, they’re fine. My aunt still asks about you.”

A light blush rose in her cheeks as she smiled. “Did you finish the garden for her?”

He chuckled, remembering the way she looked him over after he entered the house. “Yeah, she’s got rows of squash for days.”

“Hopefully with less pots of lovage.”

He laughed. “She still has a pot or two.”

The noise from the train was the only sound between them. Rob gazed at her profile, taking in the curve of her neck to the soft angles in her face. Her glossy lips parted, reminding him of their heated encounter in the closet. A hunger hit to touch her again. A hunger that hadn’t disappeared after four days. He didn’t stop his hand when it reached for hers. He traced a circle on the soft skin of her wrist.

She swallowed visibly and avoided his eyes.

“I can see you recovered,” he whispered.

“Yeah, a few days of drinking Benadryl is the best cure.”

He’d never admit it to her, but he wanted to kiss her. A real kiss this time. For the past few days, he thought over and over again of a situation like this where they’d be together again. And none of them involved a closet.

The tension in his body increased. He itched, no more precisely, he yearned to touch her. The train jolted to a stop.

“Are we there?” she asked.

“Yeah.” His chance would come again soon enough.

He wouldn’t hold back next time.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Dating Tip #19: Dating websites on the Internet offer the opportunity to seek out people you wouldn’t have likely met in person. But stay true to yourself and don’t post a picture of the current celebrity du jour, even if HR declined to post your photo for Employee of the Month.

The ride with Rob had turned out nicer than she’d expected. The moment they left the subway station, such niceties ended. The neighborhood, with its revitalized homes and business, appeared small-town cozy and such, but supernaturals prowled the streets offering services she didn’t want, even if she was sloppy drunk. After walking for a few blocks, she spotted a succubus among a group of prostitutes across the street. One of the streetwalkers approached Rob asking if he wanted her to join “their little party.” Tessa kept her mouth clamped shut as Rob shook his head. “No, thanks.”

They were propositioned four more times to do things she’d rather not remember. Most of them whistled cat calls to Rob, including a man dressed as a woman—with a better fashion sense than most women in Manhattan—who wanted to count the tattoos Rob had on his body. Her escort declined the show-and-tell opportunity.

Eventually, once past the prostitutes and drug pushers, they reached a street where the lights of The Bubbling Cauldron could be seen. The faint sounds of music drifted across the street. An old Chevy without front wheels had the words, “Piece-O-Shit Car” on a bumper sticker. Tessa assumed she wouldn’t find the honorable elements of society inside.

“About time we got here,” she said.

He laughed. “I should take you here more often.”

“The next time your amulet breaks, I think I might sit things out.”

“Oh, we’ve only had half the fun. Are you sure you don’t want to turn back home?” He swung open the door to the bar.

“And go back to be propositioned to a party in an alley? I think I’ll pass.”

The roar of rock music hit her ears. The door definitely did its job of noise control.

Inside, the bar appeared much larger. Magical folk sat in rows of tables with the bar located along the wall to her right. Two patrons snored beside their drinks as others partied around them. A few gazed in their direction with various states of emotion: lust, anger, and indifference.

Tessa’s attire, or the fact she had
too
many clothes, made her stand out like tooth fairy at a dental conference. A few biker nymphs at a table pointed in her direction and cackled.

Rob headed toward the back, searching the faces for someone.

“Who are we looking for?” she bellowed over the music.

“I’ll know him when I see him.”

Rob searched for a few more minutes before he pulled her to the bar. A humongous cyclops bartender served him a beer. How did he maneuver behind the counter anyway? Somehow, he managed to serve another patron a double shot of Jack Daniels. “Hey Rob, what does the lady want?”

“She’ll have—”

She squeezed between Rob and a wizard who laughed it up with his friend. “I’ll have a
light
Corona with lime please.”

The one-eyed giant made a disgusted face. “To each his own.” He gave her the drink and Rob tossed a few bills on the counter.

“Your friend isn’t here?” Tessa tried to take it all in. College bars didn’t come close to the rowdiness here. The place was swarming with supernaturals.

“He’ll arrive soon enough. Harry can’t go an hour or two without being slightly inebriated.”

As Tessa took a sip of her beer, a large hand clamped down on her bottom. “Well, aren’t you a sweet treat?”

She whipped around. “Hey!”

In an instant, Rob stood. He grabbed the wizard’s wrist and twisted it behind his back.

The air cracked with magic around them. A strange buzz tugged her ears. The offending wizard’s meaty face contorted into a snarl. The stench from the greasy gel in his hair intensified.

“Rob!” the bartender barked. “Take it outside, or else I will.”

Rob released the man. The wizard slinked to the front of bar cursing.

“You all right?” Rob asked her.

She nodded, wiping away an invisible film of disgust from her rear-end. After taking a few more sips of her drink she wondered what else was waiting to greet them. “What does Harry look like?”