Chapter 28

28

R enzo

I can’t sleep. My mind’s too wired, a thousand voices jabbering away inside my head all at once. I sit in an armchair, my legs hanging over the arm, slinging my magic silently across the room.

The voices won’t stop. Not if I try and make them. No use arguing with them. I have to wait for them to run out of steam. Or wait for little rabbit. All the voices go quiet when she’s around as if they want to pay attention to what she’s doing.

It’s the middle of the fucking night though. Little rabbit asleep herself.

I toss another ball of magic across the room and fling back my head.

Upside down, I see the professor walk across the ceiling towards the windows. It’s dark. He hasn’t seen me .

He’s wearing tight boxers. The prof’s cock is as big as the rest of him. Not surprising. I’ve heard the way he makes her scream. Bet she loves the feel of that cock.

“Hey,” I say. “Your cock’s bigger than I remember it.”

The prof jumps. Yeah, even after all that’s past, I can still scare the shit out of him if I want to.

Good to know.

“What the hell,” he mutters. “What are you doing sitting in the dark like that?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” I say, tossing more magic up into the air and then catching it in my palms.

“Yeah,” he says, rubbing his hands through his beard. His eyes slide to me and then he walks over and slumps down into one of the other chairs. He rests each hand on the armrests and taps his fingers against the leather. “Why can’t you sleep?”

I flip upright, so I’m looking at him straight on, and tap the side of my head.

“Too many voices.”

He looks straight into my eyes. “There are drugs for that, you know.”

I snort. Yeah, I know about those. My mom spent a lot of her time trying to shove various drugs and potions and other shit down my throat.

“You ever taken those drugs?” I ask him.

“No.”

Didn’t think so. Anyone who had wouldn’t be recommending them.

“They make your mind fucking sloppy. I’d rather stick with the voices.”

“What are the voices saying?”

I sigh, and lean forward, resting my forearms on my knees, legs still jiggling .

“Shit, well, there’s this little old lady,” the corners of my mouth tug, “she’s my favorite. She’s always rattling on about the weather and her cakes and whether her dog’s got diarrhea or not.”

“Right.” The prof’s brow creases.

“Least favorite’s this dude. He’s a real fucking asshole. Likes to remind me about all my fuck ups. Constantly encourages me to, you know …” I mime wrapping the rope around my neck and tugging.

“Fucking hell.”

“Yeah, he’s a cunt. There’s a couple of voices that sound like my mom used to. One that sounds just like Lowsky’s pa. Then there’s this one,” I shuffle forward on the chair, “that’s talking in this language I don’t understand. Never even heard it before. He’s always fucking insistent but I don’t know what the fuck he’s saying.”

“That sounds … rough.”

I slump back in my chair. “You get used to it.” My eyes slide towards the bedroom door. “And she, she silences them.” He nods. “So, how about you, prof? What keeps you awake?”

The speed at which he’s tapping those armrests increases.

“I have a bad feeling about this place.”

“A feeling? I thought you were academic or something. I thought you only dealt in facts and proof and shit?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t have any proof or shit right now. Only a feeling.” His hands freeze and he leans in. “These people are hiding something. They’re excited about something. I can read it in their minds. I just can’t understand the words.”

“Their lost princess.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s it. But she’s so happy to be here, to find her dad. I don’t think I can go and destroy that for her just because I have a ‘feeling’.” He starts tapping all over again and I consider him.

“Can you read my mind? All those voices.”

“Yes.”

“Then why’d you make me say all that shit, man?”

“I was curious.” He scratches at his beard, considering me in return.

“You … you changed that dude’s thoughts before, right?” I ask. He nods. “You think you could stop the voices in my head?”

“Would you want me to?”

I think about it, all those voices rattling on as I try to anyway. “Nah,” I say. “It’s just who I am.”

The prof nods again and then stands to his feet.

“I’m going back to bed. You should try and get some sleep too.”

“Sure,” I say, but I stay where I am and watch him go. There’s no point. I’m not sleeping tonight.

After a while I pace the room a bit, then I play with the knife. Flicking the blade up and down, and finally I retreat back to the chair.

Morning arrives, but the room doesn’t get a whole lot brighter, the window’s darkened. Some dude knocks at the door and then proceeds to place all kinds of breakfast food out on the giant table without saying one word to me.

The smell of all that food wakes all the other dudes up until they appear one by one. First the prof again, then the Kennedy boy, followed by the enforcer, and finally the were and little rabbit together. Instantly those voices in my head go quiet. Like someone slammed off the radio.

Her hair’s all tangled and her skin has that flush which tells me he’s already made her come this morning.

I’m chewing some pastry shit with a ton load of chocolate and I watch them tiptoe over together, hands linked, little rabbit wearing his shirt.

“Morning,” the were says, looking exactly like a dude who just got laid.

He pulls a chair out from the table for her and she sits down.

He takes the chair next to her and as his backside hits the seat, a magic sweeps through me.

“Shit,” the Kennedy boy says. “You feel that?”

“Yeah,” the were-boy says, “like electricity is passing through my body. What is that?”

“The bond,” the prof says. He has dark circles under his eyes and I guess he didn’t get that sleep he wanted after all. “All the bonds are sealed now.”

“You fucked?” I ask them.

“You know they did,” the enforcer hisses. I shrug. I wanted to hear them say it.

“What does it mean?” little rabbit asks.

“It’s our magic, linked and entwined together now. The circle complete,” the prof answers. I dart my gaze around the table. He’s right. A goddamn circle. He rests his hand on the tabletop. “I reckon there’s a good chance it’ll be even stronger if we link hands.”

“I’m not holding hands,” the were snorts.

“You were just holding her hand,” I point out.

“She’s a girl.”

“You’ve got a problem holding boys’ hands,” the prof asks, his hackles rising.

The were, darts his gaze towards little rabbit and shifts on his chair.

She rests her hand on the table like the prof. “Come on, let’s give it a try. ”

The were takes her hand and then the prof’s – I’m pretty sure the prof must squeeze it because he winces.

I stuff the rest of the pastry shit in my mouth and then lick the crap off my fingers, offering my hand out to the Kennedy boy and the enforcer.

With his eyes on little rabbit, the enforcer hesitates, pulls a slight face, then takes my hand. And now there’s only one break in the circle. The one between me and the Kennedy boy. I shake my hand at him and he looks at it like it’s diseased.

“That is gross.”

“What is?” I ask.

“Your hands got your fucking saliva all over it.”

“You know what else my saliva’s been all over,” I say, winking at him and snatching his hand in mine. He mutters under his breath.

But almost immediately that magic swoops around us, so fast it’s like it’s on drugs.

“Shit,” I say, feeling it swoosh through me again and again.

“It’s strong, right?” little rabbit says, “really strong. I feel like we could blast a hole in the sky itself.”

“Or torch the world,” I mutter.

Little rabbit snatches her hands away and reaches for one of those pastries. She doesn’t like that idea. But I can taste that dark magic inside her, even stronger than it was before.