Page 9 of A Wicked Dance of Obsidian and Light (Echoes of Darkness #1)

Four-story Victorian and Georgian-style red-brick buildings stick to one another on the street I live on. Some even have fake wrought iron balconies in front of the windows, complete with climbing ivy on the walls that turn red in winter, now a vivid green. I moved here not only because of the charm but also because it was affordable. The street is beautiful and picturesque; however, most apartment buildings need serious improvements.

Reaching the front door of my building, I say a prayer and hope the lock is still broken because I don’t have my keys. I grab the door handle and turn it down.

Dammit.

Out of all the days to fix the stupid lock, our lazy administrator chose today. I roll my eyes in annoyance and mentally prepare myself for my only solution. Pressing the intercom button right underneath my name, I wait patiently as it rings.

“Who is it?” Ms. Robbins asks, annoyance dripping from her tone. “If you’re trying to sell something, get lost!”

“No, Ms. Robbins, it’s me, Iris Harper. Your neighbor, from 4B. I lost my key. Can you please open the front door for me?” I cringe as I wait for her reply, not sure if she’s going to open it.

Ms. Robbins is a single woman in her sixties, living alone in 4A, the apartment next to mine. There are only two apartments on each floor. And unfortunately, she’s the only person living in this building that I know for sure is at home at all times. I also don’t think she has any family left because no one visits her, ever. So, I take it upon myself to do her grocery shopping each week because of her health condition. I also accompany her to the doctor every time she needs it.

Despite these things, she sometimes annoys the hell out of me; she’s all up in my business. I like to think of it as a love-hate situation. She complains tirelessly every time I watch TV that I’m throwing a party in my apartment and maybe even some orgies. As if. I wish I were that level of cool to host an orgy in my apartment. I guess the walls are a little too thin, or her hearing is a little too sharp for her age and for her own good, so she can sometimes hear me masturbating. Oh well. A girl has to live a little. I’m a virgin, not a nun in a convent.

“Fine!” she huffs loudly, slamming the intercom’s phone. I can already tell she has reached the limit of being annoyed for the day.

The door buzzes, and I finally enter the building and start climbing the stairs to the fourth floor. None of these historical buildings have an elevator, but I don’t usually mind. It’s like an extra workout in addition to running, martial arts, boxing, and combat training at the compound. Now, I feel like my legs have doubled in weight from the motorcycle ride, and I struggle a little to get to the fourth floor.

Reaching my door, I look for the extra key I keep under the mat in a fake pocket I sewed in myself. I have previously lost my keys in a lot of demon fights, so I had to make sure I can still get into my apartment at the end of my shift. Ms. Robbins’s door opens slightly, the chain lock keeping it in place. I can only see one of her eyes and a portion of the silver hair on her head, which she usually keeps in a bun, through the small gap.

Here it goes.

“You weren’t home this weekend. Where were you? And you should take better care of your belongings, young lady. What if a burglar finds the key you lost?” she mumbles angrily.

“Ms. Robbins, with all due respect, that’s none of your business. The key didn’t have the address on it, all right, so calm down. No one is going to break into this building,” I say, trying not to snap at her.

She annoys the hell out of me, but strangely, I’m fond of her cranky ass. She slams the door shut, and I can hear her mumbling profanities at me through the closed door. I roll my eyes while finally opening my door.

“WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?” the loud scream slices through the air, echoing off the walls and scaring me shitless. I clutch my chest above my heart, trying to still its rapid beating, and whip my head toward my cyan couch where Samantha, my best friend, is standing, an angry look painting her face. Near her, on the small wooden coffee table, sits a beautifully wrapped present, a gorgeous bouquet of black irises, and a box of the decadent cherries wrapped in chocolate.

“Jesus, Sam. You scared me to death.” I heave out a loud sigh, relieved that it’s her, not a banshee, and close the door. She has a spare key and always comes by whenever she feels like it. She also has taken it upon herself to keep the numerous plants she gifted me alive since I always forget to water them.

Sam’s eyebrows shoot all the way to her hairline. “I scared you?” she asks incredulously. She lifts an angry finger toward me with murder in her eyes. “Don’t you dare scare me like that ever again! I tried calling you a thousand times, and you haven’t answered. I think I’ve left you at least two hundred voice messages and texts. What the hell, Iris? I thought you were dead. I was ready to go to the Order later today.”

Sam takes the present from the coffee table and stalks to the front door. Without wasting a second, she throws her arms around my neck, hugging me with all her strength. “Happy birthday, ho-bag! You better have a good explanation for ruining everything I had planned for you.”

“I can’t breathe,” I joke as I hug her back. We both know her physical strength is no match to mine, being a hellseeker and all. You wouldn’t want to get a tongue-lashing from her, though. She pulls back, one arm thrown over my shoulders, still holding the present in the other, and looks at me while analyzing my outfit.

“Why do you smell like a hot guy? And what the fuck are you wearing? Don’t get me wrong, you look hot as hell, but you usually wear black, and you could never afford these clothes on the salary you get from the Order.”

She narrows her eyes at me. Then they widen almost comically. “Oh, my Goddess! Did you finally lose your virginity and have mind-blowing sex all weekend long? Because if that’s the case, I fucking forgive you, and I need all the details like right this minute. Wait, let me open a bottle of wine first. You better start spilling, or I’m going to revoke your BFF in the whole wide world status!” She saunters to the kitchen, throws open the fridge, and starts looking for a bottle of wine.

I can’t help but smile at my spitfire of a best friend, Samantha Ambrose. Her hair, a gorgeous copper—as fiery as her personality—cascades to the middle of her back along with doll-like green eyes that sparkle like emeralds and red painted lips.

She’s only five-two in height but tough as nails and will set the world on fire for her friends. She’s also a light witch and draws all her power from earth-bound elements only; like all witches, she worships the goddess Hecate. Her knowledge of plants and the ability to quickly grow any flower, or anything green for that matter, makes her the most sought-after florist in Ashville. She owns the most successful flower boutique in our city and is already thinking about expanding.

I met her on my first day of high school, being newly enrolled in junior year. I was huddled in a corner of the girl’s bathroom, crying. Not even two hours in at that school, I had already become the target of the mean group of girls that also happened to be members of the Order. It was mandatory that we attended a normal high school on top of the classes and the battle training we went through at the compound.

The only difference between me and them was that I wasn’t pure-blooded. Every member is supposed to marry within the Order. If you leave and get married to a human, you will never be accepted back in, as the powers bestowed by the archangels are kept alive by pure bloodlines. A half-human who had their powers intact or could use the sanctified weapons was never heard of—until me.

As soon as my aunt saw how fast I healed after the car accident, she immediately told Grayson, and they tested me. I passed all their tests with flying colors. My acceptance in the Order was submitted to a Council vote, though. It took some convincing, but Grayson was fond of my mom before she left the Order, and he managed to persuade the Aureal Council members to accept me in the end. But even after they took me in, I was under a lot of scrutiny. I always had to work harder than anyone else to prove my worth.

On top of that, the lightborn were all naturally blonde, and I was the only one with black hair. I guess the genes I inherited from my human father were stronger on that front since my mother was blonde with pale, cerulean eyes. At least I had inherited half of her eye color, but the purple rings of my irises make me even more of a freak show in their eyes.

Needless to say, I became a target for Veronica and her pack of hyenas as soon as I arrived at the compound after being released from the hospital at the age of sixteen. There, with all the adults present almost all the time, I could avoid them. But at school, it was their turf.

That day, Veronica, Tessa, and Britney cornered me in the bathroom after biology class and started telling me I was brought into the Order just because Grayson pitied me and he would throw my ass out the door the minute he realized my tainted blood was worth nothing.

Hurt by their words, my insecurities started settling deep into my bones, so I just remained there in a corner of the bathroom, crying my eyes out. I felt my whole world crashing down, my deep emotional scars bleeding all over the bathroom floor. I had no one else aside from my aunt, and the fact that I couldn’t remember anything about my life before the accident filled me with crippling anxiety at every step.

That’s how Sam found me. She entered the bathroom like a tornado, lifted me from the floor, and hugged me. I had never seen her before in my life. She told me she was sure a poor soul had been hurt, since those grade-A bitches left the bathroom with stupid, smug-looking faces.

Sam immediately adopted me as her best friend; from that moment forward, we’ve been attached at the hip. She’s like a beacon of light, filling all the dark corners of my life with warmth and laughter. She also hexed Veronica and her pack of hyenas every time they tried bullying me. I love her fiercely, just like a sister. She’s family.

Still at the door, I open the beautifully wrapped present Sam passed me. In the sage-colored box is a dagger with a white hilt, an intricate serpent carved around it and the sheath. “Wow, Sam. Is this real ivory? I have no words; this is stunning. Thank you! You shouldn’t have spent so much money on me.” Tears threaten to spill from my eyes because my best friend knows me so well.

“Don’t get emotional on me, and don’t tell me what to do with my money. It’s vintage; I found it in that small store you like to shop at near the Raven district. The man that runs the store made me a really good deal. Now, where’s the wine? You don’t have any in the fridge.”

I wipe at my eyes, place the dagger on the entryway table, and take off my shoes, joining Sam in the kitchen. “What time is it? Is it even noon? Are we going to start drinking this early?”

She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Since when do we judge day drinking? I mean, is there really such a thing as a wrong hour to start drinking wine? Besides, we haven’t even celebrated your birthday.”

She does have a point, and this isn’t a discussion I can have without alcohol in my system, anyway. I open the cabinet door under the sink and take out a bottle of Chardonnay from my stash, passing it to her. “Put it in the freezer; it’ll get cold faster. Can you also order a pizza while I go pee really fast?” I ask, already making my way to the bathroom in the small hallway.

The walls I pass are full of black-and-white and colorful photos of me, Sam, my aunt, and the few old ones I could find with my mother in my aunt’s house. There’s even one with me and Noah from before he left. Even if it’s hard to admit, I miss him fiercely, and I’m still mad that he hasn’t contacted me since he left five years ago.

We are both smiling in the photo as if we didn’t have a care in the world. He has his arm wrapped around my shoulder, hugging me to his side, and we are sitting next to his piece-of-shit truck that always broke down when he needed it most. Sam took that photo. I don’t have any memories from my life before, so I like to surround myself with the memories I made since I was allowed to leave the hospital. I don’t want to forget ever again.

“Maybe you can eat pizza with that goddess body of yours, but with my height and how big my butt already is, I’ll order a salad for me. I swear to Hecate, I hate you for being able to eat whatever the fuck you want without gaining an ounce of weight, you bitch!” Sam yells at me, still in the kitchen since I can hear her rummaging through my drawers, probably looking for the pizza flyers.

“What are you talking about, crazy? Your butt looks amazing! I wish I had a butt like yours; mine is as flat as a pancake. Trust me, you’re going to need pizza with that wine for what I’m about to tell you,” I bellow through the half-closed door of the bathroom while I take care of my business.

My small bathroom doesn’t have a claw-foot bathtub, but it’s enough for me. It has a walk-in shower that can barely fit two people—not that I have ever tried to shower with anybody else—and a sage counter. A round vintage mirror I found at the small antique store near the Raven District hangs above it. It’s very French country chic, and I love it. I quickly wash my hands and amble back to the living room.

“I ordered a large pepperoni pizza. Now spill. I want to know everything. But make it fast; I left Trish in charge of the boutique. We both know she’s amazing at caring for the flowers and can whip a mean bouquet out of anything, but she has very low people skills. I don’t want her scaring the customers,” Sam says as she pats the empty seat on the couch next to her.

By the time I finish telling her about everything that happened since I last saw her on Friday night, we have already eaten the whole pizza, the box discarded on the coffee table, and have drank almost all the wine in the bottle. I’m tiptoeing the tipsy line, but I’m careful to not get drunk. I still have to go to the headquarters and report to Grayson.

“I don’t know what the fuck to say, honestly,” Sam mumbles incredulously as she stares at me, a half-empty wine glass in her hand, her right leg resting underneath her floral sundress on the couch.

I tuck my hair behind my ear and roll the slender stem of the empty glass between my fingers before placing it on the table. “Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I kept telling myself after waking up in Kaiden’s penthouse.” Taking the box of black cherries dipped in chocolate from the coffee table, I open it and extend it toward Sam. We each take one. I moan at the explosion of flavor on my taste buds.

“These are so fucking good,” Sam says, reaching for the box to take another one.

I swat her hand, scowling. “You know the rules. By the way, were you here when the bouquet got delivered?”

She throws me a dirty look, and then her eyebrows furrow. “Um, no…the bouquet and the box of chocolates were already on the table when I came to check up on you.”

“That’s weird,” I muse. “Maybe Ms. Robbins let the delivery guy in and used my spare key.”

“So how big was his dick really? I need some new material for my nightly one-on-one sessions, if you know what I mean.” She waggles her eyebrows, a shit-eating grin taking over her face.

I cross my legs and roll my eyes at her. “I haven’t seen his dick, Sam. He had his jeans on. Now, can you please concentrate? My whole life can change today after the report I’m going to give Grayson.”

“C’mon, don’t be a prude. I want to know,” she whines, slapping my thigh with her left hand.

“Oh my GOD! Fine! Based on the massive hard-on he was sporting under his jeans, I would say his dick is epically big. Are you satisfied? Can we start talking about important stuff now?” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’m fucked. If I don’t lie, they’re going to kick my ass out of the Order. And how else will I be able to explain the situation?”

“If I were you, I would tell Grayson about the umbra thing that attacked you. I wouldn’t tell him everything, though. Of course, you should keep out the fact that you almost lost your virginity to a hot Elite demon, and that you even met him. Maybe also keep out the portal-to-Hell part until you know more. I don’t want to be caught in an angels-versus-demons war. I’m too young to die! And you can’t die a virgin!” she exclaims dramatically.

“I don’t know, Sam…I still don’t know what to do.” I start chewing my bottom lip nervously.

She rolls her eyes while sipping from her glass. “Listen, whatever you decide, I’m going to be here for you, okay? And if they want to kick you out, then so be it. It’s going to be their loss. You know that aside from Noah, I never liked any of those elitist Order stuck-up bitches, right? They all think they’re above every other being out there. You bent over backwards to prove yourself, but they never fully accepted you anyway. Just because your hair is not blonde and your blood is not pure. What the fuck does pure even mean anyway?”

Her phone pings with a text message, breaking the silence that settles between us as we both think of a way out of this crazy situation. She checks the screen, and her gaze flicks back at me. “Did Kaiden say anything more about you being the target?”

“He said I was important somehow, that I’m a piece of the puzzle or something like that.”

“That’s pretty vague,” she muses.

Biting my bottom lip, I saw it between my teeth. “There’s a big library at the compound where I can search for information about ancient demons. I’ll see if I can find something about the umbra demons in there. Maybe Aunt Josephine will help me with that.”

Sam stands up from the couch and walks to the front door. I follow her there. “All right then, it’s settled. You do that and let me know how it goes. I need to get back to the flower boutique. Hopefully, Trish didn’t scare all the customers away.” She hugs me quickly. “And don’t think that just because you almost died, I forgive you for ditching me on Saturday night. You’re going out to Sin with me next weekend. We need to celebrate your birthday,” she lets me know matter-of-factly.

“Fine. Jeez, you have a one-track mind,” I mumble under my breath while holding the door for her.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” She winks at me as she exits. “Text me after you talk to Grayson,” she half-yells, descending the stairs. “Oh, and your birthday cake is in the fridge. I stress ate half of it.”

“I will. After I get a new phone,” I shoot back before closing the apartment door.

Assuming Grayson doesn’t kick my ass to the curb straight into a boring human life.