Page 4 of Blood Bonds

Then her eyes roamed over to me, standing slightly behind Stacey, and the woman was clearly assessing me for something. Her dark eyes narrowed for half a second before widening, making me wonder what it was she saw in me that had her so interested. But then after a smirk, her wrist jangled with the many bangles she wore as she tossed the coupon to the floor, telling us,

“No matter, you lovely ladies are here now… shall we?” She held her hand out to the side, telling us the way.

Stacey looked back at me first, no doubt to check that I was still cool with it. And even though my creep-o-meter was blaring at me, I still found myself nodding, telling her this was her party. Just because I didn’t want to drink the punch, didn’t mean I would call a cab and call it a bust. So, we both walked toward the back of the store, and before I could ask the obvious, the woman said,

“Sorry for the mess, I only just got the lease to the place so I haven’t had time to renovate. My temporary space is back here, just through the curtain,” she said, following us as we made our way through the shelves, and what had no doubt atone time been a labyrinth of hand tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing supplies, paint, and most building materials. The smell of all these things still clung to the walls. But the moment we stepped through the heavy curtain, one we had to push aside, we quickly exchanged the scent of varnish, metal, dust, and wood for one of burning incense.

I found myself almost saying, “well this was more like it,” because the room was definitely set up in a way that would be expected for her particular profession. The walls were covered in drapes of tasseled red velvet, delicate lace, and strings of red fairy lights. There were candles burning in their various holders that were overflowing with wax, and dark shelves filled with glass jars and bunches of dried herbs.

As for the center of the room, there was very little in the way of furniture, other than where the readings obviously took place. However, there was a little wooden stool in the corner with a colorful glass lantern hanging above.

It was the floor my eyes were drawn to, though, because a large circle was drawn in what looked like chalk. One that had a five-point star in the center. Then around the edge were symbols that looked like runes etched into the wood, with each surrounded with different colored stones.

“Alright, let’s begin, shall we?” the woman said, without introducing herself, but nodding to the small round table in the center of the circle and the two seats that were positioned opposite each other. Each one was draped in even more lace and cushioned in frayed material. I shifted out the way, but when Stacey didn’t make a move to sit down, I looked at her face.

“Well?” the impatient fortune teller said behind us, because she had already taken her seat, clearly waiting to begin. But the second I saw Stacey shaking her head looking nervous, I released a deep sigh. Especially when she mouthed a soundless,

“Please.”

So, I turned back toward the fortune teller and took my seat, no doubt with the skepticism written all over my face… something the woman seemed amused by.

“You don’t believe, do you.” It wasn’t a question, but more of a statement, one I merely shrugged at.

“Then you have nothing to fear by giving me your hand then, do you?” she said, the crow’s feet wrinkles by her eyes deepening with her obvious confidence in her abilities. It was like she was secretly saying, “I will show you, non-believer.”

Instead of saying, “No, I just I think you’re someone who perceptively tells people what they long to hear and get paid for it,” I told her,

“I just have no wish to know my future.”

“And what if others wish to?” she asked, surprising me.

However, before I could ask what she meant, she took me off guard by suddenly grabbing my hand and pulling it across the table, making me gasp. The sensation of cold dread worked its way up my arm as if she had just injected me with pure evil. Something dark, and foreboding. Like some forbidden otherworldly essence. One she should not be sharing but still dared to.

It felt like being touched by death.

However, it wasn’t me that ended up screaming.

No…

It was her.

Chapter 2

Peaches

Suddenly I was up and out of the chair just as the fortune teller did the same. Her eyes were wide and wild, like she could still see whatever horror my life had played out in her mind’s psychic eye.

“It’s… it is impossible,” she stuttered, shaking her head as if trying to rid herself of the memory.

“What is it… what did you…?” Stacey started to ask, only I quickly cut her off.

“No! I… I don’t want to know,” I shouted.

“But…” Stacey tried again, but I turned to face her, and my look must have said as much as the unshed tears did.

“I… I just want to go,” I told her quickly.

“Okay, we can…” Stacey replied but I cut her off again, not wanting to ruin the whole reason we came here in the first place. For her.

---