However, his answer made me blink in confusion because I had no idea what in the heck he was talking about and I expected a better answer than that from him. “What do you mean by client? What sort of client do you have coming?” I asked.
Please don’t let him mean date and he said client to try and spare my feelings. He could have sex with whomever he wanted, I just didn’t want to be around when he did it.
He looked up sharply and studied my face. Damn, I must have given something away in my voice. I kept my face as blank as I could, going for innocent. I meant it when I said I didn’t care who he had sex with, because I didn’t. I didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Dash, I didn’t know him well enough to feel much of anything towards him. I think what bothered me was knowing that he was supposed to have those feelings for me and, yet he seemed indifferent. A blow to the ego, that was.
“I have a few clients that have standing appointments, although, this one isn’t one of mine,” he said carefully. Yeah, he hadn’t bought my innocent look. I didn’t think I was very good at it because Quinton never bought it either.
I sighed and repeated my question, “What do you mean by client?”
I didn’t like repeating myself and wished he had simply answered my question the first time around.
“What is it exactly that you’re imagining it is that I do with these clients?” he asked and now he sounded amused.
I bit my bottom lip and looked away from him. Not because I was embarrassed, but because I was starting to get frustrated with him. Lately my frustration quickly turned to anger and then I lost all common sense and threw shit at people’s heads, injuring them. I didn’t want to cause Dash bodily harm, at least, not yet I didn’t.
“I’m a witch, Ariel,” he said softly, sweetly.
“As am I,” I replied. My reply was neither soft nor sweet. I’m afraid it came out a bit sullen.
Why was he telling me these things I already knew? If not for his tone of voice, I would have thought he was playing with me, laughing at me. But his tone was sweet, so I knew he wasn’t.
“I offer my services to people for a fee, and not a small one, either,” he said.
“What sort of services?” I asked suspiciously. Was he running some sort of one-man male prostitution ring out of his home? If so, I didn’t think I was going to be able to live here with him after all.
He sighed, heavily, sounding for all the world like he was beginning to lose patience with me.
“Damien, Julian and Quinton meet with clients here as well,” he shared. Finally, we were getting somewhere. “People come to us, looking for answers, looking for love, wanting riches, wanting all kinds of things. Children, sex, money, murder, love, fame, revenge. You name it and someone will pay money for us to help them get it. They pay for potions, spells, to have their cards read. The Council allows it for some reason, I think it has a lot to do with Quinton. People are afraid of him and we get away with a lot of things because of it.”
He finished covering the table in black cloth. He picked a box up from the floor and set it atop the table. Dash started pulling objects out at random. Slim, black and white candle sticks. A white BIC lighter and a deck of cards that was three times the size of a normal deck of cards. The tops of the cards were black with no words or images on them.
Tarot cards.
I pointed towards the deck and said excitedly, “Tyson promised to teach me but there has been no time.” I left out that there had been no time because I had been avoiding them.
I eyed the deck of cards wistfully. I had gone on a date once that had taken me to a carnival. I had been fascinated with the gypsy fortune teller woman and if I’d had my own money at the time I would have paid to have her do a reading for me. My date had thought her a fake and had dragged me out of there. I didn’t get my reading and I still wanted one. Though, I wasn’t entirely sure why. The future could be a frightening, dangerous thing and I was sure my future held some things I absolutely did not need to know anything about until they were happening. But, I was curious. Oh, so curious. About everything, and I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn everything they were willing to teach me.
“Have you ever had a reading done?” Dash asked as he set up the table. Candles in their holders, cards placed neatly off the side in a stack. I wanted to reach out and touch them, make sure they were real.
I shook my head in the negative and his gray eyes raked over my face, taking in my expression. He frowned deeply but let whatever he was frowning about go.
“This lady coming today is a real bitch,” he told me as he moved around the table, towards me. “She always asks for Quinton because she wants his cock. He’ll flirt with her, let her think she has a chance and she always comes back for more. She lusts after beauty, money and things she couldn’t afford on her own. So, she married a very rich old man. That old man died about eight months ago and all his money disappeared when he died. She keeps coming to us, hoping we can help her find the dead man’s money. The problem with her is, we aren’t a detective agency and we sure as fuck aren’t treasure hunters. She gets her cards read every week in hopes that something will change, with her money situation and with Quinton. She’s not going to like seeing me today and she really won’t want to see you.”
“What did I do?” I asked quietly while trying to digest the things he’d just told me.
He stopped in front of me and grinned huge. I blinked stupidly at him. I had never seen him smile before. It did wonders for his face and chased some of the demons out of his eyes.
“Nothing. Like Quinton is going to flirt with some bitch now that we have you,” his smile faded away, but the lightness didn’t leave his eyes. “You have no idea, do you?”
“No idea about what?” I asked, and he laughed again.
I opened my mouth to question him and he cut me off.
“We will have time afterwards,” he said. “I want you to stay and watch, learn something, if you can. After she’s gone, I will read the cards for you.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips, a nervous gesture. I badly wanted the opportunity to learn something new from them. I had been on my own for a while with my magic except for what I read about in books. I wanted to learn from someone real and not because I read about it in a dusty old book.
I liked Dash smiling at me. I liked this side of him, him wanting to do something nice for me, like taking the time to read my cards simply because he could tell it was something I desperately wanted.