Necromancer Legacy - 15. Bending reality

It was Saturday night and Sasha had to work at the stupid Espress coffee shop. His colleague was tired of doing all the weekend night shifts, so Sasha had gotten stuck with it.

00:06, the digital numbers flashed on the cash register. Tomorrow would be the first quarter of the moon. And then in a week, almost the full moon. Sasha wouldn’t be alone this time. He had been seeing Hazel and they were becoming friends. She would spend the full moon with him and show him all her favorite spots in Central Park. She said it was easy to be discreet if they were careful. Besides, she mentioned her wolf form was more the size of a husky dog, so people didn’t freak out too much even if they saw her.

There were a few customers right now, drinking lattes and checking their facebook or twitter or instagram or whatever instead of studying as pop music burst from the crappy speakers.

As he washed one of the coffee machines in the large sinks behind the counter, Sasha’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it. Partly because his hands were in the soapy water, but also because he knew it was probably from Nick again.

Sasha felt his chest tighten. He had been ignoring Nick the whole week—since that party. Nick was so insistent about wanting to see him and talk to him. But Sasha was having doubts. He didn’t know what the hell was going on. Whenever he thought about Nick, he got all those mixed up feelings—longing, giddiness, but also nervousness, and fear—and it was like an emotional roller coaster.

The problem was that those feelings were too intense. They threatened to overwhelm him. Truth was, he’d never been a fan of roller coasters.

Maybe I’m in love with him, or something.

That was what happened when he thought about Nick too much; weird thoughts happened.

In the next hour or so, people left one by one, and the coffee shop became empty, leaving Sasha alone with said weird thoughts. He had finished cleaning up most of the stuff, and now he sat at one of the pale wooden tables with some notebooks in front of him, thinking that he should try and get some studying done.

A part of him wanted to reach for his phone and read Nick’s texts, but the other part of him—the scared one—won and he didn’t. Instead he let his eyes trail lazily across the room, taking in all the silly decorations. Wall scrolls, a Chinese calendar and a Buddha statue; what did that have to do with anything? Maybe Sasha’s boss dreamed of one day owning a cheap Asian restaurant instead of a coffee shop.

Sasha sighed, opening one notebook. Geography. That wasn’t so bad. He kind of liked geography. He could definitely name all the countries in the world, though he wasn’t an expert with capitals yet.

Two people walked in the coffee shop then. A girl and a guy. Sasha got to his feet and started to make his way behind the counter, but then he saw them. Really saw them, and recognized them.

He felt a lurch in his stomach as though he’d just dropped twenty feet.

Sasha was brought back one year ago, in the shower room after swimming practice, alone with his coach. Everybody else was gone. The coach’s name was Devin Cook. He was young; twenty one years old. Sasha was sixteen at the time.

They got along. They’d exchanged glances and smiles and they’d made conversation a few times. But Sasha had never thought Devin would actually make a move. Sasha was undeniably curious and he was into it when they started to kiss under the shower. But he wasn’t ready for what came next. Devin wanted more and he wouldn’t take no for an answer, cursing at him and calling him a ‘tease’. Sasha remembered the roughness of the floor, the pain, the humiliation.

That was Devin’s last day. They got a new coach after that. Sasha never told anyone. He thought he never had to see Devin again anyway.

Tough luck.

Devin Cook stood in front of Sasha right now. Same black eyes, short-cropped brown hair, muscular, athletic body. He wore an expensive looking navy trench coat. He was smiling at Sasha.

The girl beside him was Liv. Sasha recognized her from that party; wild curly brown hair, blue eyes, red lipstick, very tall in her high heel red boots.

Why would those two be hanging out together?

“Hey, Reed. Long time no see,” Devin said. “How’s it going?”

Devin was one of those guys who always called everyone by their last name. His voice was smooth and low, like a baritone singer. Hearing it again after all this time sent chills down Sasha’s spine.

Sasha felt paralyzed, every nerve in his body painfully rigid. He stood between the table where he had left his notebooks and the counter with all the coffee machines.

Liv looked around the place distastefully, moving a few paces forward until she stood in the middle of the room, her heels clicking the floor. Her long legs were clad in high-waisted skinny jeans. She crossed her arms over a tiny black and red leather jacket—she looked like she belonged in an eighties music video.

“My name is Liv,” she told Sasha with her British accent.

“I know,” he replied.

She beamed. “Nicholas told you about me?”

Sasha ignored her. He addressed Devin: “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

Devin said, “This thing called Facebook. You may have heard of it. Though I don’t think you’ve heard of that option where you can hide your personal information—like your work place—to people who aren’t your friends.”

Sasha stepped back, his lower back hitting the counter.

“What’s going on? Why are you with her?”

“Liv found me,” Devin said. “She’s a fan of my powers. I’m a fan of hers. It’s like we were meant to be best friends.”

Sasha just stared at Devin. “Your powers? What are you talking about?”

Liv wound a brown curl around her finger. “I don’t think he knows.”

“You really don’t, do you?” Devin snickered. “All this time, you thought I just wanted to have some fun with you, back then? That wasn’t it.” His dark eyes raked Sasha up and down. “Well, okay, that too.”

“Please arrive at the point, Devin,” Liv demanded.

“I stole some of your powers,” Devin said.

Sasha was frowning. “What? But I wasn’t even using them back then.”

Devin shrugged one shoulder. “That’s why you didn’t notice. Believe me, I stole them. I can steal any supernatural powers—except,” he said, his eyes narrowing, “your new boyfriend’s powers, for some reason.”

“Nick?” Sasha’s heart was racing. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Devin sighed. “His powers were off limits. Like something was blocking them from me. I’d never seen that before. But you should check up on him, you know? Poor guy was so tired he was sleeping on the job.”

“What do you want?” Sasha asked.

Devin stepped closer to Sasha, walking around the table with the notebooks.

“I want more,” he said, spreading his arms.

His presence was commanding, his black eyes magnetic. Sasha felt exposed. He leaned back into the counter like he wanted to disappear into it. But Devin closed in on him and gripped Sasha’s arm in a swift movement, pulling him close like he wanted to envelope them both in his navy trench coat.

Liv called, “Do you absolutely have to sleep with him to get the powers? Because I haven’t got all night.”

“Well,” Devin grinned, “I don’t have to.”

Devin reached around Sasha to snatch the keyset that had been tossed on the counter carelessly. He half-turned to throw the keys at Liv.

Liv caught them and went to lock the front door.

“Let go of me,” Sasha hissed, and he tried to twist himself away from Devin.

But Devin’s nails were clawing into Sasha’s arm, unyielding. And he was doing something. Sasha’s eyes darted up as he felt it. Devin was smirking.

“What’s wrong, Reed? Feeling a little weak in the knees?”

Sasha’s heartbeat was becoming erratic. His chest constricted painfully. So did his throat. He felt cold and shivery. His legs were shaky. His arm pulsed and throbbed where Devin held it.

On the other side of the room, Liv was still trying to lock the door. “Which bloody key is it? Ah,” she said as she stopped fumbling, “this one.” They heard a click as the lock latched into place.

Using his free hand, Sasha reached inside his pocket for his phone. He thought he could dial 911, or something. If Devin wanted to attack him, or even kill him—

But Devin saw what he was doing and snatched the phone.

“Give it back,” Sasha shouted.

Devin was looking at his phone. While he was distracted, Sasha tried to get away again. As he pushed Devin he almost broke free, but Sasha froze when Liv pointed a gun at him from the center of the room.

She smiled pleasantly, tilting her head. “Most reapers prefer swords. I’m more of a Glock 38 type of girl.”

Sasha swallowed and stopped moving completely. He’d never had a gun pointed at him before, but it felt exactly like he’d have imagined; bone-chilling and incapacitating. His life—his heartbeat, his breathing, his entire being, his future—depended on a little flick of Liv’s red-tipped finger.

“Now be a good boy,” Liv said, “and give Devin your powers.”

“Trust me,” Sasha stalled for time, “you don’t want them. I mean, the ability to turn into a fox. Who’d want that?”

“You have several other interesting abilities, love. Sped-up healing being one of my personal favorites. Speaking of speeding up, Devin, darling, would you stop looking at that phone and—?”

“Liv,” Devin interrupted her, “you’re going to love this.” He was laughing as he scrolled down Sasha’s texts. “This is adorable. It’s from his boyfriend: ‘I really miss you, and I need to talk to you about so many things. It would be great if we could see each other. Are you at home, or are you working?’ And then this: ‘I’m really worried about you. I can’t wait anymore. I need to see you. This is important. I called Gabriel and he said you were at work, so I’m coming right now.’”

Devin looked up and exchanged a glance with Liv.

“How long ago did he send this?” she asked, still aiming her pistol at Sasha.

“Not very long,” Devin answered.

As if on cue, they heard the sound of someone trying to open the door. It startled Liv. Everyone went silent.

“Shit,” Liv hissed, “we’ve left the lights on. He’ll know someone’s inside.”

“He can’t get in, anyway, right?” Devin replied. But he sounded nervous. His hold on Sasha’s arm tightened.

Having him so close made Sasha squeamish. Everything about Devin triggered bad memories. His scent—in moments like this, Sasha cursed his over-developed olfactory sense—was the worst; Devin still used the same obnoxious body spray as one year ago.

Sasha’s thoughts cleared suddenly as a dark smoky cloud appeared right next to him, coiling in the air. And the next instant, Nick stepped through it, seemingly showing up out of nowhere.

Nick’s dark hair was windblown. He wore all black and he held up a long, dark steel sword. The hilt was black with a red snake curling around it. Nick took a fighting stance, his eyes scanning the room.

“You,” Nick said as his eyes rested on Devin. “I’m going to kill you.” His voice was calm but threatening.

All of a sudden Liv aimed her pistol at Nick and shot. The sound of the gunshot ripped through Sasha, and he wanted to scream but nothing came out.

But the bullet never hit home. With a flicker of his sword Nick stopped the bullet in flight and it was sent ricocheting to the floor, all the way back to Liv, and it came to a stop as it touched her red boot.

Sasha was too shocked to speak.

Liv arched an eyebrow. “Cyan showed you a few tricks, then? That’s cute.”

But Nick ignored her completely. He glared at Devin, and if a glare could kill, Devin would have dropped dead.

“Let go of him,” Nick said in a very quiet but icy tone. “I won’t ask twice.”

Devin hesitated, still gripping Sasha’s arm. There was a connection between them, with Sasha’s powers leaking through and Devin absorbing them. The connection would break if Devin let go. Sasha’s arm hurt like a thousand needles were stabbing it at once and specks of black were starting to fill his vision.

Nick did not ask twice.

His arm moving deftly, Nick brought his sharp blade down on Devin’s arm. And cut it clean off.

Devin screamed and scrambled to the floor, holding his mutilated arm, blood pouring out.

Sasha freaked out as he saw that Devin’s cut off hand was still holding his arm. Horrified, Sasha grabbed it and threw it to the floor next to Devin. Devin took it and sort of tried to put it back where it belonged. Sasha swallowed hard and looked away, the brownie he’d snacked on earlier threatening to come out.

Liv had gone to a crouching position next to Devin. Nick looked very calm and unbothered as he stared them down.

Smoke rose around Liv.

“All right,” she said, “you win. We’re leaving. You had good timing, Nicholas. But that won’t always be the case. No one is safe. Do you understand? Or have you forgotten about Zelda already?”

They disappeared, leaving only a small puddle of blood on the floor where Devin had been clutching his arm. Silence fell. Nick sheathed his sword. Was this really Nick, Sasha wondered, or a completely different person?

Sasha clung to the counter behind him. He couldn’t stop shaking.

“You cut his arm,” he said.

Nick didn’t flinch. “I did.”

“Who the fuck is Zelda?” Sasha blurted out.

Nick sighed. “You and I, we have a lot to talk about.”

***

Nick told him everything. He talked for a long time. And Sasha listened.

While Nick talked, pacing the room, Sasha sat at a table in the corner—the farthest possible from that puddle of blood on the floor. He held his arm in his hand. It was all bruised up where Devin had been holding him. Other than that, Sasha felt fine. He knew, though, that the supernatural side of him was not fine. Devin had stolen almost everything. His mother would have been so disappointed, Sasha thought with a pang.

When Nick stopped talking—and pacing—he came to sit with Sasha. He looked exhausted. But at the same time there was a fire in his eyes, like he stood for everything he’d just said. Like he had no regrets.

From what Sasha gathered, Nick had been using his demonic powers over and over lately, even though he knew they were dangerous, kind of like a junkie with dope. But Nick had a good reason: he wanted to stop Liv from taking over the city. Liv’s hobby was killing people and then bringing them back to life to do her bidding. When Liv had mentioned Zelda, she hadn’t been talking about the video game. Zelda was a student of Nick’s at the rock climbing gym—she voluntarily paid money to be tied in ropes and get stuck way high up in the air. So a crazy person. Anyway. Liv had turned Zelda into her slave just to mess with Nick.

One more thing. Nick already knew about Devin. Shay had told Nick all about that, apparently. Shay was an annoying nosy spirit guide. Who had asked him to get involved? Not Sasha. Shay used to be Lilya’s spirit guide before becoming Sasha’s. And Lilya had never liked him nor trusted him. So Sasha didn’t trust him either.

“So you’re a necromancer,” Sasha told Nick.

“You don’t look too shocked,” Nick replied. “Wait,” he held up a hand, “let me guess. It was in your mother’s journal.”

“There were a few pages about necromancers, yes.”

“I really should’ve read that.”

“Told you,” said Sasha. “But I thought only reapers could become necromancers.”

“You’re looking at the lucky exception. So how’s your arm?”

“Better. I can’t believe what you did to Devin.”

Not that Sasha wanted to defend Devin, but no one deserved to have their hand cut off like that.

Nick seemed to harbor a different opinion. “He’s lucky I let him live.”

Sasha raked his eyes over Nick, taking in the tense shoulders and clenched jaw, the narrowed and restless pale brown eyes.

“That guy raped you, didn’t he?” Nick added.

Sasha froze. Hearing the word spoken out loud was like a slap across the face.

“Shay told you that?”

“He didn’t have to,” Nick replied. His voice softened. “I figured it out. Wasn’t that hard to put two and two together.”

There was a silence. Sasha glanced through the blinds at the street. It had started to rain, but very softly. A couple passed the coffee shop. They glanced at the door, but they didn’t stop. Good, Sasha thought. He didn’t feel like making coffee for anyone right now—except maybe himself.

“Sasha,” Nick said, “you should’ve told me.”

“So you’ve been training with Cyan?” Sasha replied, clearing his throat. He was very much eager to change the subject.

“All week, yeah. I told my bosses and everyone I had the flu.” Nick tucked raven strands of hair behind one ear. “Cyan’s old-fashioned. So mostly we were training with swords.” Nick touched his sword’s hilt.

“The whole week? Dude, you got a training montage.”

Nick smiled. “I guess so.”

“How’d you stop that bullet?” Sasha felt like a week wasn’t quite enough for someone to be that skilled.

“I cheated,” Nick admitted, a glint in his eye. “There’s this thing I can do. Cyan showed me. He calls it ‘bending reality.’ It’s amazing, Sasha. I can make time slow down—or, Cyan says I’m the one that becomes faster. I don’t know. Half the time it doesn’t even work. I have to be in the right mindset for it. I just got lucky earlier. Beginner’s luck, maybe.”

“Whoa.”

Nick pulled his chair closer, rattling the floor.

“Hey, so Shay told me he’s your spirit guide but you won’t let him,” Nick waved with a hand, “um, guide you? I don’t know what to call it.”

“My mother never trusted Shay. She said he was a trickster.”

“He’s the reason I’m here tonight, though,” Nick said softly. “He’s the one who warned me against that son of a bitch.”

“Devin.”

“I don’t care what his name is.”

Sasha let out a nervous laugh.

“If you ever need to talk about it—” Nick started.

“I don’t,” said Sasha stubbornly, crawling deeper in his seat.

Nick gazed downward, a few strands of hair falling in his eye.

“When I said I put two and two together, it wasn’t just thanks to Shay. At the party, when you told me there was something—someone—you really wanted to forget about, it reminded me of when I said the same thing to Shane, a little while ago. My foster parents before Shane’s parents were kind of shitty. My foster dad caught me watching porn and—”

“You were watching porn?” Sasha said.

Nick’s lips twitched into a small smile. “I know.”

“Who does that?”

“It was gay porn, too,” Nick added.

“You’re definitely going to Hell, my son.”

“It’s not that bad there actually. They throw good parties.”

Sasha pulled his chair closer to Nick.

“What happened?”

“He already had his doubts about me not being into girls. He didn’t like it. He’d had too much to drink that time. He got horny or angry or both I guess.” Nick shook his head. “He didn’t rape me, but he came close, you know? He definitely roughened me up. He made me take off my clothes. I was on the floor and he just kept telling me not to move. Said if I moved he’d… Anyway. He jerked himself off and I just waited for him to finish like an idiot. I can’t possibly know what you went through, but I’m just trying to say that I know that kind of fear and humiliation.”

Nick averted his gaze.

“How old were you?” Sasha asked.

“Fourteen.”

“Did you have to stay with them afterwards?”

“Not too long. I went back to foster care. And then Shane’s parents took me in.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Sasha said, and he meant it. He knew that took courage. More courage than Sasha had.

Nick was still looking away from him. He looked all tense and awkward.

Sasha rose from his chair. “You know what? Let’s get out of here.”

“What about your job?” Nick said.

“Yeah… I’m probably getting fired.”

***

Outside, they walked side by side under the light rain. Sasha looked down at his feet. He wore his green converse sneakers today. They looked tiny next to Nick’s combat boots. Sasha didn’t get people who wore big boots like that all the time. Wasn’t it uncomfortable?

They made a turn on 34^th, heading toward Sasha’s apartment complex. Nick was sort of awkwardly trying to hide his sword under his jacket. It was pretty late though, so the street was quiet and there weren’t any prying eyes.

“Where’d you get the sword?” Sasha asked.

“Little gift from Cyan.”

“You two are getting along, then?” Sasha arched an eyebrow.

“I guess so.” Nick let out a surprised chuckle.

“That first night, you were totally freaked out by him.”

“You mean that time you were a total jerk to me?” Nick retorted.

Sasha said, “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”

“Ha! Good one. Do you remember what you did that night?”

Nick stopped walking. He lowered himself.

“Hey, wait, no, don’t—”

Too late. Nick grabbed Sasha’s legs and hauled him over his shoulder like some heavy package—and yes, just like Sasha had done to him that first night.

“What?” Nick exclaimed. “You seem tired. Are you sure you don’t need me to carry you?”

Sasha couldn’t help but laugh. He slapped at Nick’s back and pushed himself off, so that Nick had no choice but to put him down.

“Well played, well played,” Sasha said. “I’m sorry, okay? I really am.”

It was raining harder now, but they didn’t care. They stood in the middle of the sidewalk, next to a small alleyway between two buildings. Sasha saw a black cat leaping down some metallic emergency stairs.

“You think you can just say sorry,” Nick replied, “and get away with it? Because you’re pretty?” he teased.

“I was stupid that night,” Sasha said. He shrugged helplessly. “I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to do and my brain came up with the most idiotic plan. I thought Gabriel was dying. So I was obsessed with saving him. You know I’d do the same for you now.”

“Oh, really?” Nick leaned closer. His brown eyes looked darker in the night, like espresso. “You mean go out and seduce some guy into coming home with you? What makes you think I’d be okay with that plan?”

Sasha bit back a smile. They stood really close, but neither one made a move.

“It’s raining,” said Sasha.

“Let’s go.”

As they walked, a thought occurred to Sasha and his nerves twanged. It clung to his mind and overwhelmed all other thoughts, filling his heart with worry.

Nick noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“Just something Liv said. That no one was safe.” Sasha started to walk faster. “Nick. What if she meant Gabriel? What if she went after him?”

“No, I mean, I don’t think so. She’s probably taking care of Devin.” But Nick was frowning.

“Come on,” Sasha urged him.

He needed to know that Gabriel was safe.