Dominion 4 - Ascendance (2 page)

“Okay, Scrooge. I can expect no presents from you, then?”

 

Did I need to get him presents? I was new at this friend thing. I opened my mouth to ask, but he held up his hand.

“No worries, Sei. We’ll exchange Solstice wishes. Okay? Gifts are not needed.” He gestured to the room, even though it was just the bathroom, and said, “This is my gift. I don’t have to live with my folks. I don’t have to live on campus with those assholes. My best friend doesn’t look down on me for being gay or a witch, and I have a guy who likes to wake up with me. What more could I ask for?”

I glanced down at his battered Nikes. “New shoes?”

Kelly’s burst of laughter made me smile. “Sure. Buy me some shoes. I’m a size nine, but get dressed, please. We need to play nice with others, your boyfriend included. Clown tree or not.”

I sighed. He was right. Damn, I hated when he was right. Kelly was so much better with people than I was. He knew when to play nice and when to turn on the fake charm. My charm had lost its autopilot button weeks ago, and I was still struggling to get it back. I trudged to my room to dress for the cold evening coming my way.

Chapter 2

G
ABE
and Sam stood together pointing and discussing things like length, height, and number of branches. The cold brought a shiver to my legs. Stupid Minnesota winter. A heavy weight dropped on my shoulders, but it was warm and smelled of spicy aftershave and Jamie. He tugged my hat down over my ears and smiled at me.

“You’ll get cold,” I protested, trying to give him his coat back.

“Nah. I’m good. Wore my long undies.” Jamie pulled me toward the slaughtered trees with him. How could he stand to be here with so much death surrounding us? “Breathe, Sei. You’re turning blue.”

Kelly held his hand but looked out toward the trees, a frown on his face. He turned back and gave me a weak smile. The snow lightly falling on us made him keep glancing toward the sky. Was there a storm coming?

“I should make a live tree grow in his house,” I said to no one in particular as Gabe turned down the little path toward more piles of trees. The trees ached from the separation from the earth. They could live a little longer, sure, but it wasn’t really living any more than a human on life support lived.

“It would die without sunlight. Even a Northern Pine needs some UV rays,” Kelly told me absently.

Christmas was so not my holiday. My mom, Tanaka Rou, a leader of the Dominion, had always made a show of having a big party for Solstice, presenting a big tree, cut fresh each year, in the foyer, full of decoration. Beneath the tree sat hundreds of multicolored presents for little Dominion girls. The giggling and rushing of fluttery dresses always annoyed me. I remember sitting on the top of the stairs watching those unknown girls tear into gifts from a mother from whom I’d never received a single present.

Gabe paused and turned my way, patting Sam on the shoulder before skipping back to me, eyes twinkling and smile huge. He was just a big kid and Christmas was his thing. “They aren’t very big, but they smell nice.”

They smelled like dead tree and cleaner. I just smiled at him. He sighed and pulled me away from Jamie, hugging me tight. “I can get a fake one if you want.”

’Cause plastic smelled so much better than cleaner, right. I shook my head at him, then kissed his nose. I could make compromises too. He wanted a dying tree in his living room, so be it. “Go pick your tree.”

“You sure?”

“Yep.” The faster he picked the tree, the faster I was in the warm car headed for home and maybe some snuggling. A recipe for cocoa sat on the counter next to the stove, a little smiley face drawn on it by Kelly. Nothing said Solstice more than the smell of melting chocolate, cream, and cinnamon.

Gabe kissed me again, then let go to bounce back to Sam’s side and the trees that surrounded them like a forest fire waiting to happen. Kelly nudged me. He handed me the silver cap of a thermos filled with some steaming liquid. I expected it to be tea, but when I brought it to my lips, the smell of chocolate broke through all the pine that tainted my nose. I raised a brow in question at him as I took a sip. His rose in return. It was good. Damn good. My recipe, the rich taste of cream, bitter bite of dark chocolate, a spicy kick of cinnamon, and a hint of something else. Chili pepper?

“I did good?” he asked.
“Yum. Very good.” I bumped his hip with mine.

Sam and Gabe wandered back through the windy paths of trees, both frowning. “Find anything?” Jamie asked.

“Nope. We’ll look somewhere else. Sam’s hungry.” Gabe glanced at the new vampire next to him. Sam didn’t look at me at all. He and I hadn’t talked much since his transformation. I got the feeling he blamed me for a lot of the crap that happened to him. I guess I was partially to blame, but I had no idea how to even ask for forgiveness, since I hadn’t actually done the damage. And because Gabe was saying he’d be taking Sam out to hunt instead of home cuddling with me, I wasn’t really all that worried about being forgiven.

“We can drop you off,” Jamie said as we headed for the car. “We’re going to do some shopping before heading home.” We were?

“Yeah, I have to find some gifts for my family.” Kelly shrugged into the back between me and Sam. The two of them got along just fine.

Wait, what? We were going Christmas shopping? Could the night get any more torturous? Maybe some jock to knock me around, or a vampire to bite me just to watch me bleed? Surely those things would be less painful to me than shopping for presents. Kelly winked at me. Okay, so we weren’t going shopping?

Jamie pointed the car toward downtown. Kelly chatted the whole time about some football game he’d watched. Sam stared out the window. Gabe played with his smart phone, and I contemplated what we’d be doing for the evening. The new moon was weeks away yet and I didn’t really like the cold, so I had no plans to be outside unless I had to.

We let Sam and Gabe out in uptown. The lights and many bars meant the streets would be filled till well into the early hours of the morning. I planned to be sleeping by then. Gabe opened my door and kissed me good-bye before taking off with Sam at his side like some superhero and his sidekick. I guess it bothered me more than I cared to admit.

Jamie smiled in the mirror at me. “Let’s go shopping.” “Can you just pull out my fingernails instead and call it a day?” I had to ask.

Jamie’s laughter filled the car. “We’re going home. Kelly is going to do his shopping on the internet while you and I bake something tasty.”

Oh. Okay. “I like that plan.”
“Sei is a regular old scrooge,” Kelly commented.

“Am not. I like giving presents. But I can give people presents year round. Why do we have to have some jolly man in red telling us to cut down trees and give gifts to people, or else we don’t love them? It makes no sense. It should be about the rebirth of the earth, not about elves and toys.”

“Commercial conspiracy,” Jamie said. “My family wasn’t into the holiday much either. A dinner for Solstice and that’s it. No presents, candy, or men in red suits.” He glanced back at Kelly with a lecherous smile. “Though it has possibilities.”

“Men in a red suits? Not a chance.”
“Bows are fun.”

I laughed at the two. They’d been like honeymooners for the past few weeks. It only annoyed me because Gabe spent so much time with Sam these days. A sudden flash of pride came through my bond with Gabe. Something Sam had done made him proud? I ground my teeth. If I had to watch more of the coddling I was going to hurt someone. Most likely Sam.

“Let’s not go home.”
Jamie glanced back. “You want to go shopping?”

“Yes. Let’s go to one of the department stores.” An idea formed in my head. Someplace that had luggage.
“Huh?” Kelly asked.

“I just want to pick up some new clothes. Maybe look at some shoes.” I smiled at Kelly. He frowned back.

 

“I feel like I’m not in on a joke here,” Jamie said.

“No joke. Let’s get the stupid shopping done before all the crazies are let loose from the sanitarium.” I didn’t even like going to grocery stores this time of year. When some granny smacked you around with her cart just to get to the giant stack of canned pumpkin, you knew
that
time of year had come again.

Money, and now time, were something I had a lot of to use up.

I’d been working like crazy at Bloody Bar. Lots of people I’d never even met sent me money for graduation. Maybe they thought I’d never find work. And maybe I wouldn’t, not in magic, at least. But I could do a lot of other things. If people wanted material things to prove that I cared, so be it.

Jamie pulled into the lot of the nearest department store. We parked in the back. The heavy piles of snow made the lanes uneven, and cars jutted out everywhere like a bad accident. The bare trees around the massive building wore lights that danced to overplayed Christmas tunes. Would it be like this in California? Would everything feel so cramped, cold, and dead, while the world moved around at blinding speeds?

I could probably afford a trip to last through the holiday, which was only a week and a half away. Not that anyone would miss me much now that school was over. Jo would cover the bar for me, and we had a few temps who were always looking for shifts. The Dominion had gone silent as they prepared for the many holiday parties filled with aristocracies of witches. My boyfriend had a Christmas buddy in Sam, and Jamie and Kelly had each other. That sort of left me as odd man out. A vacation to someplace warm sounded like a great idea to me.

“What are we looking for?” Jamie asked as we hurried through the cold toward the door. Once inside, he went to a shelf filled with colorful stuffed critters. Jamie worked parttime as a pediatric RN. He loved the work. I think the only reason he didn’t work full-time was because he still worried about me. If I had a full-time day job, he’d probably be working full-time too. Just one more reason for me to find something other than the bar.

He’d buy a couple dozen of those critters just for the kids to take home with them if he thought the clinic wouldn’t protest. Plus they were some kind of charity thing, buy a toy and have a donation sent to XYZ or whatever. To someone with a big heart like Jamie, that made sense. Me, I’d wonder how much actually went to help kids. But I’d been raised cynical that way.

I checked the charge on my phone and waved Kelly toward Jamie. “Take your time. I’m going to shop. I’ll text you when I’m done.”

“Okay, but don’t leave the store without us.”

“No problem.” I grabbed a cart, using several wipes to clean off the handle before touching it—cold season was in full swing—then steered it toward the back of the store. In less than twenty minutes I’d grabbed two pairs of new Nikes for Kelly, a smoothie machine for Jamie, some luggage, a couple of cashmere sweaters each for Hanna and Ally, and half a wardrobe’s worth of clothing for me. Booking my flight through my phone was easier than waiting for the old ladies in Santa hats to wrap my presents.

Gabe’s Solstice gift had already arrived and was hidden away in a drawer back home. The first edition of
The Little Prince
had cost me more than a week of tips, but I knew he’d love it. We both had that story memorized now, having read it together so many times. He still thought of me as his unprotected rose. Sometimes that was cute, the rest of the time just annoying. I liked to think I had thorns too.

Jamie and Kelly met me at the entrance, each with a cart filled with things. Most of them were wrapped. I wondered what those jolly old ladies had thought of us tonight. Maybe I should have had them wrap some of the underwear I’d bought. Or bought some for Gabe too, just to make them wonder. People didn’t stare as much, and I didn’t get nearly as many “faggot” calls now that my hair was short. But the odd scratchiness of it made me want to grow it long again. I kind of missed people looking at me and how I could hide behind my hair. Those days it was easier to get what I wanted with just a smile.

“What’s with the luggage?” Jamie asked. I’d chosen a solid case that was bright yellow in color.

 

“No peeking. There are presents in there.”

 

Kelly laughed and pulled us toward the car. “Let’s hope it all fits.”

B
Y
the time we got home, I expected Gabe to be waiting for me in the condo. He wasn’t. Everything was dark and cold, or at least it felt that way to me. The time was past nine and surely not that late for a vampire, but late for me. Jamie dropped my stuff off for me. He and Kelly left for his place upstairs, looking like they’d be having some good intimate time together.

I sighed to the empty room. The luggage at my side had seemed like such a good idea at the time. I’d sort of expected Gabe to be here and see it, then talk me out of going. Maybe this trip was really meant to be.

After detagging and stuffing my new things into the washer, I called the number on the letter that had been sent to me. Jamie told me to leave it for Gabe, but he had other things to occupy him right now, mainly Sam. The lawyer, a man by the name of Jonathon Odagiri, told me he would arrange for a car to pick me up at the airport and take me to the estate. Did that mean the house was mine? What would I do with a house in California?

I worked on laundry, packed, and debated what I would say if someone came back before I left for the airport.
Chapter 3

T
HE
doorman told me the taxi had arrived just after 11:00 p.m. I thanked him and let him help me to the car with my carry-on. He shut the door of the cab for me, and the driver headed toward the airport. There was still time to go back, talk to Gabe, Jamie, or Kelly. They would all try to convince me to stay. Or insist on going to guard me from whatever. Not only did I want to escape the holidays bearing down on me, I wanted to learn more about my family, my uncle, and my father.

The lines and scanners nearly gave me a breakdown. The security guards did stare at me, but they also smiled and wished me a good trip like they did all the other travelers. I hurried to my flight and waited close to the gate, reading until they called to begin boarding. I glanced one last time at my phone before turning it off and stepping onto the plane.