Page 9 of Blue Embers
“So?” Cora said, biting her lower lip before she shot me a devious smile. “You liked my profile, huh?”
I cocked my head, giving her another full-body scan. “I liked your figure.”
She blinked, unsure how to reply. I was hoping she’d stay that way. I wasn’t craving conversation from her and I doubted she’d be able to carry one that interested me. Admittedly frustrated with the lack of progress I’d made in the last few hours, the thought of plunging into an entirely physical and utterly thoughtless act with another woman was satisfying. Then again, something in me that day felt a need for some other form of stress relief. Something I couldn’t get from someone like Cora.
As she walked toward me, the strong scent of vanilla perfume wafted off her body. Vanilla was among my least favorite scents unless it was plucked straight from the natural source itself. The manufactured odor was too sweet and simple for my taste, but I tried to convince myself that her scent wasn’t important. She wasn’t here to smell good. She was here to distract me, just like Liza had. To provide me with a bit of release or separation from reality.
As Cora came to greet me, holding herself in far too alluring a manner, I started to wonder what Persephone was up to. I half expected to get a call from her about the dagger, but she’d been MIA the entire day. Looking at Cora in all her exotic beauty made me think of Persephone and her demanding, aqua stare. I hardly knew the woman, but she was far more interesting than the one standing before me. She was more interesting than Liza and all those who came before her. All those empty relationships.
“So?” Cora spoke with a seductive gaze. “I’m here. What now?”
What now? I barely knew the answer to that question at the moment and it was irritating to not know so many things. Looking at Cora’s sexually posed body in her tight dress, I couldn’t deny the physical reaction I was having. But how much longer was that behavior really going to work in my favor?
4
Persephone Grant
. . .
I sat in a cushioned chair, legs curled up into the small space between the arms, drifting in and out of sleep with a quiet TV screen being the only source of light in the dark hospital room. What was supposed to be a short visit had turned into something that had consumed my entire day. Now I was still there well into the night listening to my sister’s labored breathing two feet away from me.
I slowly adjusted myself, putting my feet on the ground to lean over onto the edge of my sister’s bed. Looking at her, she seemed to be sleeping, so I tried to get comfortable, crossing my arms on the mattress and resting my head atop them in an effort to relax, but as soon as I closed my eyes again, I felt my sister stir. I raised my head to look at her, chiding myself for waking her when I saw her eyes open into slits.
“Seph?” she said in a raspy, tired voice, turning her head to look at me.
I took her hand gently between mine, smiling. “Hey, Artemis,” I whispered.
“What are you still doing here? It’s so late.”
“Didn’t have anywhere else to be,” I lied.
“No, no. You always have somewhere better to be than here. I’m a bore.”
“Artemis, you’re not a bore. I wanted to be here.”
“Well, I want you out there.” She turned her hand over, coiling her fingers around mine as she forced a fatigued smile. “Not here wasting away with me. Have you even eaten? You look so hungry.”
“How can someonelookhungry?”
“I’m your sister. I can see it. Go eat. Go sleep in your own bed. I forbid you from staying here all night trying to sleep on that stupid chair.”
“I don’t need--”
“Go,” she said as sternly as her throat would allow, pulling her hand from my grip just to point a finger at me.
I lowered my head for a moment, biting my tongue to refrain from saying what I really wanted to. It took a matter of seconds for my tongue to free itself, though. Words spilled out before I could catch them.
“This wouldn’t be happening if he was here,” I muttered.
“Don’t do that again,” my sister exhaled.
“What? He could come and turn this around if he wanted to and he--”
“Stop it,” she said. “He’s not here. We can’t control everything that happens to us. I’m not angry. You shouldn’t be either. This is no one’s fault. If it weren’t for him, we would have never gotten a chance to live these lives we’ve been given. You know that.”
As always, I regretted saying anything and to take back the mood it had filled the room with, I nodded, smiling at my sister as I pretended to let the matter go.
“Now go home and get some rest,” she continued, touching the side of my face with her cold hand.
