Never Say Die- Chapter 20

 

Chapter 20

 

 

            When I woke up Rhys was there sleeping next to me and I realized that I was in my own bed. I glanced over at the clock to see that it was four in the morning. I had really been worn out by my effort to put together Flan’s outfit which surprised me because I’d never had that problem before when I’d used my ability for things like cleaning up my closet.

            As I mulled this over I came to the conclusion that the multiple attempts was what wore me out, I’d remember that the next time I argued with Flan over clothes, or maybe I’d just try it out in her closet and see what happened.

I kissed his cheek gently and he opened one eye to look at me through heavy lidded, sleepy eyes.

            “Hey beautiful.” He sighed before propping himself up on his elbow with his head in his hand, which seemed to take a great effort.

            “Hey you.” I whispered, touching his cheek with my fingertips.

            “So much for never getting sick huh? Flan told me you’d nearly passed out so I came over to return the favor and take care of you. I hope you don’t mind.” He looked a bit sheepish about the possibility that it would bother me that he was there. What a silly man he was.

            “I would never mind having you here, you know that.” I told him quietly, feeling sleep pulling at me yet again. In the back of my head I vaguely remembered thinking that I seemed a little sleepier than what I felt should be normal for the situation and drifted back into unconsciousness with an uneasy feeling.

            When I woke up again Rhys wasn’t in the room but I could hear him talking to Flan downstairs; the sun was shining brightly into the room which led me to assume that it was late morning if not early afternoon. I rolled over to look at the clock and it was noon exactly, I groaned, why had I been so tired? I remembered that I already owed my dad a phone call from my fire episode and decided that I’d be doing that today.

            Since I was still in the clothes I’d worn the previous day, I rolled out of bed and wandered downstairs to talk to Flan and Rhys before taking a shower and changing. I had a feeling that they had both stayed home to take care of me but Flan was doing it as more of a ruse to keep Rhys from being suspicious as to why I was so tired when I was, obviously, going to be showing no other sign of sickness.

            I walked into the kitchen and went straight for the coffee maker but Flan already had a cup ready for me and handed it over when I was close enough.

            “Thanks.” I said before taking a sip gratefully and heading over to the bar to sit on one of the stools.

            “Are you feeling better this morning?” she asked and I nodded.

            “I’m still a little tired but not like I was last night.”

            “I don’t know how you could be, you’ve been asleep for nearly 15 hours.” She replied disbelievingly.

            My head snapped up and I met her eyes, “What time did I fall asleep?”

            She looked back at me, “Around seven thirty…” her words trailed off for a moment as she stared at me open mouthed.

            What?

            Your eyes, the pupils are bright red!

            What?!?           

            “Um Rhys would you mind running to the store for some antacids? I’m not feeling so well.” I lied without looking at him, knowing that I had to get him out of the house while I fixed this.

            Pretend to throw up or something and get away from him before he looks at you! Flan hissed in her head and I did what she said without question. Throwing my hand over my mouth I bolted from my seat and ran to the bathroom, making a gagging sound as I went.

            I feel ridiculous doing this. I thought at her.

            Would you rather he saw your bloody eyes? She responded testily and I groaned inwardly as I looked myself over in the mirror.

            Just get rid of him please!

            Flan knocked on the door when Rhys had left.

            “Boy that was a close one.” She said sounding slightly relieved as I came out of the bathroom and headed for the phone to dial my fathers’ office.

            “Well, we’re going to find out what’s going on before Rhys gets back if I have to lock him out of the house.” I said angrily as I pushed the buttons on the phone. I couldn’t believe this was happening, I wanted to know why and I wanted to know now.

            I took a deep breath to calm myself while the line rang until the receptionist picked up, “Mason Law Office, how can I help you?”

            “I’d like to speak to Mr. Mason please.” I replied.

            “I’m sorry Mr. Mason is unavailable at the moment, can I take a message?”

            “This is his daughter, make him available.” I told her and Flan looked at me curiously, it wasn’t normal for me to be so abrupt with people but I was short on time and frustrated as it was.

            “Just a moment Miss Mason.” I heard the sound of smooth Jazz as she put me on hold.

            I thought it was a brilliant idea for my father to handle his business behind the front of being a law office, only the sleaziest of people would dare to come to him for contracts which made sense for a lawyer and business had a way of finding him, he had no reason to advertise and attract the attention of people who wouldn’t want to deal with him.

            “Mason speaking.” My father came on the line, just his voice sounded like he was busy.

            “Hey dad it’s me are you busy?”

            “I’m always busy my dear but never too busy for you. To what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?” he replied pleasantly and I smiled.

            “Can I come by and talk to you about some things I’ve experienced lately?”

            “Why of course you can my dear, how soon should I expect you?”

            I thought for a moment, “Give me about ten minutes.”

            “I’ll see you then.” He replied cheerfully and the line disconnected.

I bolted upstairs to brush my teeth and fix my hair, I figured I could just shower and change when I got back.

            “Are you coming with me Flan?” I hollered down at her.

            “Do you want me to?” she hollered back.

            “I don’t care, as long as we’re back before Rhys is we should be fine. Can you get an idea of how long he might take?”

            There was no response at first but I could hear her coming up the stairs, “He’ll be another half an hour give or take a few minutes.

            “Fine, it shouldn’t take that long, come in here.” I instructed and she walked into my room.

I pulled her into my bathroom and locked the door behind us. “Give me your hand.” I said hurriedly and she did what I asked without question. Seconds later we were standing in the reception area of my fathers’ office and the flames around us were receding.

            A man sitting in one of the reception chairs nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise and gasped loudly.

            “Come on, if you’re here, you’re not that surprised to see this.” I told him and he just nodded, looking away from me with a terrified expression. I remembered that my eyes might still be somewhat scary looking to regular humans and walked purposefully toward the receptionist.

            “How nice to see you again Miss Mason, your father is waiting for you.” She nodded toward his office door; I smiled and thanked her before turning toward the door, the man in the chair looked at me in disbelief.

            “You’re his daughter?” He asked, somewhat awed by the idea.

            I looked back toward him, “Who do you think comes to get you if you break your contract?” I said with an evil grin and a somewhat understanding but admiring look came over his face as if to say, “Well as long as it’s you then that’s okay.”

            I let my eyes turn completely red before I responded to his leering, “You don’t want me coming after you.” I assured him before stepping up to the door and knocking twice.

            “Come in!” he called and I turned the handle. “My dear girl I’m delighted to see you, and you as well Flannigan!” He exclaimed wrapping me in one of his warm hugs.

When he let go to shake hands with Flan, I turned to close the door and saw the man in reception one last time, he was staring at us in disbelief.

            I told you, I projected into his head, smiling at him and he was left with a slightly worried expression, looking around to see where the voice had come from.

            “Saydie you need to stop picking on that poor man.” Flannigan said as soon as the door clicked shut.

            “I was just having some fun with him.” I replied before suddenly wondering why I’d been picking on him, I thought back on our short time in the building and realized that I hadn’t been myself since we’d gotten here.

            “You were scaring him into a heart attack.” She said shortly, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you. Waking up with red eyes and suddenly you’re being mean to innocent strangers.”

            I let out a laugh as I turned to her, “If he’s here you can hardly call him innocent.” I responded before turning back to my father who wore a very concerned expression as he looked into my face.

            “What’s wrong dad?” I asked, not understanding the look on his face.

            “Flannigan is correct, you’re not acting like yourself and I’m fairly confident that I know why.” He paused as Flan and I stared at him expectantly.

            “Well, you know how you try to avoid being around me for too long or other demons for that matter? It leaves lasting effects that take time to reverse doesn’t it?” He asked and I nodded silently.

            “Well it seems that the same applies when you use certain demon abilities in excess. Creating that dress took a fairly decent amount of effort on your part and doing it multiple times didn’t help. You’d have been better off if you’d done the entire outfit at one time. It seems that by using your demon capabilities repeatedly, you’ve turned your personal arrow a little more toward the demon side and away from the human side.”

            I stared at him not daring to believe what he’d just told me and groaning inwardly at my stupidity. For someone who had been a teenager for 200 years, I definitely had it down pat.

            “You looked lovely, by the way Flannigan.” I watched Flan turn beet red as she thanked him in a voice that was barely more than a whisper.

            Tell him about the fire she projected quietly.

            “Fire?” he asked sounding curious again.

I stared at her dumbfounded, trying to figure out why he was getting information from her that I wasn’t.

            She pointed at him, “Devil” and then pointed back at her head, “Open book.” She said smartly and I rolled my eyes at her. Of course, that was the logical explanation.

            “About this fire?” My father hinted and we both turned back to face him.

            “We got into a big argument about sharing our secrets with Rhys and Hadley last week and I got mad and caught on fire.”

            “Completely engulfed in flames.” Flan added, she didn’t mention that she’d used a blanket to cover me and had h talked me down but I was sure he’d know soon enough.

My father sat back in his chair for a moment and scratched his chin while he mulled over the information we’d just given him. It seemed like a century had passed by the time he opened his mouth to speak.

            “My best guess about the bursting into flames is that your emotions are running higher than normal, which isn’t surprising since you’re in love. The heightened emotion can carry over into other things like anger for example. I suggest that you look into meditation, if you gave me some time I’m sure I could find you someone who specializes in working with demons.” I nodded in agreement and waited for him to continue.

            “As far as your change in attitude and the eyes, if you want to remain inconspicuous, I suggest that you take it easy on using any abilities that adversely affect you. The feeling of being worn out and sleeping for all that time is because you’re not used to using them and you’re so shut down against using them that it takes a lot more effort than you obviously expected to even do the slightest good deed.”

            The snotty teenager in me found that I was annoyed with his knowing all the details without them being spoken, normally this wouldn’t have bothered me but I wanted to hear Flan verbalize her explanation since I couldn’t read minds and was suddenly resentful of it.

            “Okay so I’ll take it easy on the magical stuff and work on meditation, anything else?” I asked with a hint of acid in my tone. My inner “demon” was really showing itself.

            “Would you like me to fix your eyes for you?” He offered kindly, even though he had to be sensing the smart-a*s teenager vibes that were rolling off of me in waves.

            “Can you fix her attitude while you’re at it?” Flan muttered and I playfully nudged her in the ribs, but even I had to admit that using my demon abilities had definitely led me down the road to being an a*s and there didn’t seem to be much I could do to stop it.

            My father smiled at our friendly rivalry, “The two of you are so lucky to have each other, but let us hurry so that you can be back before Rhys returns with your antacids.” He motioned to me to stand still and stared at me for a moment.

            “There.” He said proudly and I looked at Flan.

            “Am I good?” She nodded with a relieved look on her face and I realized that all traces of my inner smart-a*s were also gone.

            “Thanks dad.” I said gratefully and he waved a hand at me like my thanks wasn’t needed.

            “Let me walk you two out, I think we’ve left my next appointment waiting long enough if you haven’t scared him off my dear.” He gave me a stern look but I could see a hint of amusement in his eyes as a slight blush rose on my cheeks.

            Flan opened the door and I followed her out, I turned to hug my father and give him a kiss on the cheek.

            “Thanks again, I really appreciate it.” I told him.

            “That’s what parents are for my dear girl. It was a pleasure to see you both and I hope that I will have the pleasure of seeing you again soon.” He replied cordially.

            “I’ll call mom and set up a time for dinner.” I promised before walking toward the elevator and taking Flan’s hand in mine again.

            The last thing I heard was, “She was quite right you know; you don’t want to ever see her again unless it’s an accident.” he spoke to the man in reception, who was apparently still ogling at me.

            I smiled and chuckled to myself as the flames rose around us and then receded as we found ourselves in my bathroom once again.

            “Well that was interesting.” Flan referred to our method of travel and spoke as if she wasn’t quite sure what to think.

            “It gets me from point A to point B.” I shrugged and reached for the doorknob.

            “That’s true, it’s just weird to experience it through a power besides my own.” She replied.

            “I’d probably feel the same way if the situation was reversed.” I said just as I heard Rhys’s car door slam in the driveway. “Excellent timing.” I added as we hurried down the stairs and tried to look casual as we took seats on the living room couch, she threw a blanket over me and turned the TV on just as he reached the door.

            “Oh good, you’re not still puking.” He said, looking as though he would have liked to avoid my throwing up even more than doing it himself. “I got you some Pepto, Rolaids, Maalox, Gas-X, Ibuprofen, pretty much anything I could think of that might help you feel better.”        

            He handed me a plastic bag full of over the counter medications and I smiled up at him with what I hoped was a grateful expression. When he turned his back to take his coat off, I looked at Flan frantically, What do I take? I asked hurriedly as he turned back around and I tried to look normal again.

            Take the Pepto, it covers just about everything he bought you medication for anyway. She replied with a small smile and I nodded slightly, pulling the familiar bottle of pink liquid from the bag and taking off the safety seal.

            “Here, let me help you with that.” Rhys suggested, gently pulling the bottle from my hand and pouring out the recommended dosage into the measuring cup that had come with it. I wrinkled my nose in disgust as he handed it to me and drank it as fast as I could; it wasn’t actually that bad, just a bit chalky tasting.

            Flan grabbed the bottle and measuring cup from the table when I was done and hurried to the kitchen to rinse the cup out. I stood to go upstairs for my shower but Rhys questioned whether or not I felt well enough. After insisting that I felt ok, I hurried up to shower and change; when I came back down a short time later I curled up next to him on the couch and he wrapped his arm around me.

            “Hopefully you’ll feel better now.” He said kissing my hair.

            “It makes me feel better just having you here.” I replied smiling lovingly up at him and he smiled back.

            “Anything for my girl.” He replied as we settled in for a day of relaxing in front of the TV.

Rhys could now continue to be as clueless as ever about what went on behind his back and sometimes in front of his face.