Seventh Mark (Part 1 +2) (12 page)

Grace spoke
quietly but the power behind her voice made me glad she was on my
side. “This place is a dump. You should be shot for the care you’ve
offered. I’ve seen scum in this world, and you appear to be on the
lowest rung. Rouge deserves better than this.”

Startled, Jim
shot her a nasty glare. “Shut up!”

Grace didn’t
bat an eye. “I never met Sally, but I’m not surprised she left.”
She laughed a sound between disbelief and sarcasm. As she stepped
back, she grabbed the duffle bag. “You’ve been such an example for
Rouge—”

“Of course we
have,” he snapped.

“—On what not
to do in life,” Grace finished.

“Get out! Both
of you and don’t ever come back, Rouge. Ever!” Jim hollered.

Grace pushed me
toward the door to the fresh air outside, and led me to the
passenger seat. She threw the bag into the back of the car.

“Stay here.
I’ll double check if there’s anything else in your room you’re
going to need.”

I sat in the
car, too dumbfounded to respond.

Life freakin’
sucked. I was officially screwed. Being able to read a weird
language as if English and kicked out of the only place I was
barely able to call home.
What do I do?
I leaned my head
back onto the seat and closed my eyes.
Where was I going to
go?

Grace jumped
into the driver’s seat and tossed my iPod, along with a roll of
hundred dollar bills wrapped in elastic into my lap. She set my
laptop on the backseat. “You deserve your last government check.
That’s all the cash he had on him. I should send Caleb back next
week for the rest.”

I stared at the
cash, then unrolled it and counted.
Eight hundred dollars
.
Folding them, I aligned the corners and then stuffed them into my
jeans pocket. My mouth didn’t know how to move and my brain
couldn’t get out of its fog of disbelief.

“Don’t worry.”
Grace patted my forearm. “Everything’s going to be fine.” She
squeezed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “You need a
place. You can stay with me in my room, but you’re going to want
privacy. With our abilities, you’ll never feel like you were on
your own.” She sat in silence, glaring at the front door then
straightened. “I got it! I’ll talk to Sarah first, but I know she’s
going to say yes.”

“Uh, what’re
you talking about?” I sat watching the windows fog, unsure of what
to do and scared to think.

“We have a pool
house in the back. Sarah had it built last summer in case… in case
we invited school mates over and didn’t want to worry about Caleb.
It’s not huge, but there’s a big room with a futon, and it has a
bath and a bar that could be used as a kitchen.” She nodded as she
started the car. “Yeah, it’ll work out perfectly.”

“I can’t stay
at your place.” Caleb, if he were still alive, would probably have
a coronary.
However, being that close to Michael...
I shook
my head to clear my thoughts.

“Put your pride
away. Be realistic. You’ve got no where and we have space. We can’t
– I won’t let you go back to Niagara Falls. You’re my best
bud.”

“Thanks. I’m
just not sure what to do.” I rubbed my temple. Had I told her I
used to live in Niagara Falls? “Maybe for a few days I’ll stay.
Then get myself sorted.”

Grace sighed.
“Rouge, you’re involved in this – in us - whether you want to be or
not. We’re not leaving you. I made that mistake last time, now I’m
making up for it.”

The house in
front of me began to blur. I wiped the tears away with the back of
my hand. Grace wanted to look after me. No one in my entire life
had ever stepped up for me. She’d put Jim in his place, and now
planned out where I’d rest my head. “Th-Thanks.”

She smiled and
reversed the car. “Think nothing of it. Be glad I came instead of
Michael. Things would’ve been flying then.” She laughed. “He can be
a bit like Caleb sometimes.” She shifted into drive and tore away
from the house. “Don’t worry about sleeping arrangements. We need
to go home and get you into Caleb’s office. Maybe you can find
where the Grollics went. Seems all the beasts go into hiding or
running when Caleb comes around.” Grace danced in her seat. “I
can’t wait till Monday. I want a camera to take a picture of
Damon’s face when we walk in together.”

I chuckled, the
tears drying up.
Great, now I’m relying on dead people to keep
me safe and entertain me.
Something was wrong with this
picture.

Grace tilted
her head and inhaled. “What are you wearing?” She sniffed the air,
her little nose scrunched up and her lips puckered. “You always
smell like licorice, but now I smell something different.”

I started
laughing. “I smell like licorice? Not sure if that’s a compliment.
I’m not wearing anything different. I just showered.” Then I
remembered putting perfume on. I hardly ever wore it, but did it on
a whim. Suddenly my fingernails needed a good picking. I debated
leaving it at that, but knew better than to lie to her nose.
Get
ready to be teased for trying to smell pretty around her
brother.
I mumbled, “I’m wearing a bit of perfume.”

“Hmmm… it’s
nice. What is it?”

“Eternity.” My
head popped up, instant burn hit my cheeks.
They’re immortal and
this little human looks like she’s trying to be around forever.
Great, and now I’m talking in my head in third person.
“I
honestly…I didn’t…do it on purp—”

“Sure.” Sarcasm
dripped from her voice. She did her one eyebrow raise, same as
Michael’s, and we burst out laughing. We couldn’t stop. Each time
we calmed down, we’d look at each other and start all over
again.

Pulling into
their driveway, we finally sobered. I swallowed, my gut muscles
hurt like crazy. “Seriously though, I hope I’m able to help. I
still don’t get how the Grollic book isn’t in English.”

“Total freaky,
but so awesomely cool. Bet you wish you could do the same with
calculus.” She giggled. “We’ll go through some old books of
Caleb’s. You need to understand our history, not just the opinion
of some Grollics on what started the war. You being able to read
part of that book is invaluable to us. He’ll be bringing it to the
elders of the Coven--you’re going to be famous in our world. The
mortal who could read Grollic.”

We walked into
the house, having to drag my meagre belongings due to being weak
with laughter.

Sarah met us in
the hall wearing an apron and a smile. “I’m cooking dinner. It’s
going to be about an hour.”

“Th-Thanks,” I
stuttered, suddenly very conscious of how homeless I actually
was.

“Has Grace been
rubbing off on you?” She pointed to the bags. “First time you
stayed here, I thought you only had a backpack.”

“She got booted
out of her house.” Grace put her arm around my shoulders. “Her
foster parents are losers. Basically Rouge turns eighteen in a
couple of weeks, and they don’t want her under their roof
anymore.”

“They just
kicked her out? Didn’t give her a place to live or even let her
finish high school? And we call Grollics monsters!” Sarah clapped
her hands. “You stay here for as long as you need.”

“I was thinking
she could stay in the pool house,” Grace said. “You know, give her
a bit of privacy.”

“Hmm…” Sarah
nodded. “Let’s see what happens at the meeting with the elders. If
there are no issues, then I don’t see why not.”

I needed to say
something. “I really appreciate this, but–”

“But nothing,”
Sarah said. “You need a place, we have the space.”

I stopped my
meagre attempt to argue. She was right and I really wanted to
stay.

“The boys have
left.” Sarah checked her watch. “Maybe the two of you should get
working as well. Caleb’s pulled some books and set them on the desk
for you. He thought some of them might be helpful.”

I reached for
Grace. “Can you not say anything to Michael yet?” I tapped the side
of my head. “No sense in getting him worried.”

“Good idea, but
you know he’s going to be ticked at me.” She grinned. “No worries,
I can take it. Come on.”

I followed
Grace into the living room and stretched to look over her shoulder
at Caleb’s closed office door. My heart beat switched to an erratic
pattern and I wiped my palms across the front of my jeans.

Without a hint
of nervousness, Grace pushed open the door and strolled inside. She
chattered away about something, but I had absolutely no clue what.
My senses were too busy absorbing everything in front of me.

Caleb’s room
was an understatement of the word office. An enticing aroma hit me
before I could concentrate on the view. A hint of some kind of
tobacco, old books, burning cedar, and musky vanilla infiltrated my
nose. I couldn’t place the exact scent but boy, was it yummy…and
relaxing…and sexy…and mysterious…and... How did Caleb get any work
done with these smells in the air?

The oval room
had gorgeous built-in bookcases you only saw in the movies. Between
the cases, a large fireplace with wood burning and popping away. I
couldn’t believe the amount of books. There were also bookcases
which rolled around on brass bars in front of the built-in
cases.

Directly across
from the fireplace was a desk.
Gorgeous. Probably older than
Moses.
It was made of oak with wonderful big grains and knots.
On top of the desk lay a stack of books, probably fifteen but the
pile looked small compared to all the books in the room. Two red
leather ottoman chairs sat in front of the desk, a large antique
chair behind it.

Grace plopped
on one of the red leather chairs, her legs dangling over its arms.
“Awesome, isn’t it?”

“Really nice. I
can’t get over the smell.”

“Kind of
everything and anything rolled into one?”

“Exactly! Is it
some kind of Glade Plug-in or candle?”

Grace laughed.
“No plug-in or special voodoo-thing. It’s Caleb.”

I had never
been close enough to the guy to notice. “He smells like this? No
wonder Sarah tossed her Siorghra at him.” If he actually smelled
like this, maybe he wasn’t so bad.

“I know what
you’re thinking,” Grace said with a bemused smile. “He’s hard, like
he appears, but he does have a few soft spots.”

“It’s
interesting in this room…” I glanced at my watch. “It feels like
dusk, and it’s only three o’clock.”

“Caleb set the
windows high for that effect. You can be here in the middle of the
night or the middle of the day and it feels the same.”

“Sorta like a
casino – they say it’s always bright inside so you never know the
exact time!” I walked over to the desk and picked up a book. “What
do you need me to do?”

“You sit in the
black leather chair and start looking at books. Just browse through
the ones on the desk and make a note if anything looks unique or
seems similar to the Grollic book. I have no idea how you read that
journal so do what you do. Whatever catches your eye or triggers
something.”

I nodded but
had no idea whatever it was that I did. I was useless to them but
wasn’t about to admit that here in Caleb’s sacred study. It felt
wrong sitting down in Caleb’s chair, but I swallowed my anxiety,
determined to find something Michael could use. There were two
piles of books set on the desk, a shorter one hidden behind the
tall one.

The book in my
hand dated back to the 1920s and had very small writing; a
headache-maker. I put it aside. The next book had long paragraphs
and no illustrations, boring. The third book’s cover caught my eye.
It had a beautiful hand drawn girl in a flowing white dress by a
forest's edge. About to turn to the first page, a pair of dark
black and yellow eyes peering through the forest caught my eye.

The Red Riding
Hood story, but their version. Old, like the journal, but this book
was written in clear calligraphy, and definitely in English. I
flipped to the first page and started to read:

A beautiful
young angelic girl had been sent to learn the wrongs of mankind and
learn angels were different. Too tempted by lust and sins, she
found a handsome man and fell in love. Afraid, she hid him in a
cottage deep inside a forest.

She dressed in
white, her wings packed tight almost appearing as a cape behind
her. She’d been warned by the local folk to avoid the woods after
dark, but held no fear. She came upon a man who was sitting upon a
fallen tree. His shoulder appeared wounded so she stopped to help
him. After cleaning his wound, she offered him water and food.
Assured he was alright, she headed back on her way.

Unknown to the
girl, the man was not as he appeared. To most he presented himself
as a man and his true being was a Grollic. As the forest darkened,
the man became a beast and hungered after the girl’s delicious
scent. It led him to a clearing in the forest where a small cottage
stood. He crept inside as the scent was now familiar to him and
begged to be sated.

He leapt onto
the bed and attacked–only to realize after he’d killed a man with
the woman’s scent all over him. The mistake angered him. He hid and
waited for the maiden to return.

The maiden
arrived at the cottage shortly thereafter. She walked into the room
and approached the bed. Seeing the bloody lifeless body on the
floor, she screamed and rushed to his side. Blood seeped into her
dress and wings. As she cried, the killer leapt from behind the
bed.

The girl stood,
unafraid and faced him defiantly. She realized the beast was the
man who’d she’d helped in the forest earlier.

The Grollic
hesitated as he watched the maiden’s eyes turn from brown to blue.
What he thought had been a cape, was actually her wings. She raced
into the forest to hide. The Grollic, thinking she’d run in fear,
licked his jowls in anticipation.