Sebastian (Bowen Boys) (3 page)

She still had plenty of unemployment left, about
a year if she needed it, but she didn’t like not working. She was starting to feel listless and out of sorts and knew it was because she wasn’t working. Then there was the lack of sleep.

Ama could sleep for
only four hours a day, if that. And she needed to eat, a lot. Her species, she supposed, had a great deal to do with that in that she burned a great deal more energy than humans.

She thought of the Bowens and them knowing what she was.
Last of her kind? She thought she was but had no way of really knowing. She thought her mom was dead but wasn’t sure. And since she had no clue who her dad was, she just assumed he was dead, too. She wasn’t really sure what she’d been until about five years ago when someone had touched her, like the Bowens had, and called her an earth faerie.

The man had been very
nice. He’d told her that he’d seen others like her, but none of them had been a purebred as she was. He explained to her in great detail what was going to happen to her when she turned twenty-five and why, and he’d been dead on the money. After spending about a week with her, he’d simply disappeared, warning her that she must tell all those that figured out what she was that if they told anyone else they would die. He told her that most beings, if they’d ever heard of her, would know that anyway. She wondered what had ever happened to him.

Her thoughts turned to the man, Sebastian
, again. She’d tried her best not to think of the things he’d said to her, but it was hard. She really didn’t blame him for wanting to protect his parents; she might have done the same thing. But he’d caught her off guard being so mean to her after she’d had such a wonderful time with his parents. She supposed that by now George and Corrine had forgiven him and he was no longer going to get his hide stripped off him like they’d threatened. She smiled as she got back into the bed, realizing that she’d not seen anything in the paper because she wasn’t really reading it.

The phone started ringing again.
She knew that at midnight someone from the offices would come around and take it off the hook so that it didn’t bother anyone. She also knew that it was so that the woman at the desk could read her books without interruptions. Ama thought the woman read to escape whatever drama was going on at home, because sometimes she’d hear her arguing with someone on the phone. She didn’t know if she had children, but the person on the phone seemed to take great pleasure in making her cry nightly.

Finding a job was proving to be the biggest
hurdle she’d had in a while. Before she’d worked for the telemarketer she’d been a waitress, but since her face had decided to betray her, she’d had to find work that put her behind the scenes rather than in front of the customers. Even working in a pizza shop had been hard with having to go to the counter sometimes. People would stare at her and she’d be pissed. The manager finally told her one night, after there was a line of teenagers in to ask her about themselves, that she was more of a hindrance than a help to him. She left with her last check and an extra-large all the way that she’d given to some homeless man under the bridge.

S
he decided she was going to find a job tomorrow even if she had to put a bag over her head to do it.

The phone ringing woke her up. She looked at the clock above her bed and rolled out of it.
Whoever it was wanted the girl named Carol really bad. It was barely six in the morning and it was already starting. Gathering her things, she went to the shower just outside her room. Might as well get a start.

She was back only about ten minutes when
a girl, someone she’d never seen before, knocked on her open door. Ama looked at her, trying to remember if she actually knew her or not. The girl cleared that up in a hurry.

“Are you
, Ama? If you are, this guy’s been calling here. Says his name is Sebastian something. He wants you to call him back as soon as it’s convenient for you.” Ama started to tell her she didn’t know anyone by that name, but the girl spoke first. “He sounds kinda yummy. And nice, too. I’ll call him if you want me to.”

She remembered then
...Sebastian Bowen. “If he calls again, tell him that I’m not upset and I don’t want to talk to him. Tell him to stop bothering you.”

“Sure
, but he’s not bothering me. So you don’t want him? I can have him?”

Ama nodded and turned back to the newspaper
’s wanted ads. As the girl mumbled her thanks Ama stood up.

She was hitting the first place
by a little after seven. The guy took one look at her and simply shook his head. She was well on her way to the third place when she saw the Bowens again. Ducking down an alley, she waited until she was sure they were gone before she stepped out again. More problems like the ones she had with their son she didn’t need.

By lunchtime she’d hit five places and had only fill
ed out one application. She went into the restaurant of the Greek place down from the comic shop and ordered, and then went to the bathroom. The mirror over the sink seemed to mock her.

Her eyes were a very pretty shade of green
, and that was about all her looks said in a positive way. Closing her eyes, she willed her face to look like the humans saw it. When she opened them and looked, she was surprised again, like she was every time she saw the differences.

Right between her brows
was a diamond-shaped, emerald-looking mark. And from it there were intricate twists and curves that formed a line just above her eyebrows that were a darker green than the emerald. These lines extended down past her eyes and into her hairline, where they curved around her ears and then to the back of her neck to her back. A few smaller twists were on her throat, but weren’t as easy to see.

Her hands were clear of any marks as humans saw her
. But when she looked at herself, her complete self, she could see herself as she truly was. The same dark green lines were there, but with more diamond shapes in all the colors of the world. She doubted that if anyone saw these they’d ever believe they were done by a needle. They were too detailed, too brightly colored, and most assuredly not drawn by a human hand. Before she could think about her back, she heard someone coming toward the bathroom and closed her eyes again. The problem with looking at herself as they saw her was that they could see the real her. She was just splashing water on her face when the woman and a small child came in behind her.

The child was perhaps three or four
, but she stared at Ama like she could see her as she really was; which, according to Jacob, she more than likely could. Winking at her, Ama left them to their business and went to order her lunch. A large chicken gyro and fries later, she was headed back to a much shorter list than she’d hoped. As she walked into the last place on her list, she nearly turned around and left.

The man at the counter was big.
She never took her eyes off him as she moved toward him. This could go really badly for them both, because she was pretty sure he knew just what she was.

“Mistress.”
He bowed his head at her. “What is it I can help you with? I am at your service.”

She looked at the door.
She could just leave and he would simply have a story to tell. But she wanted a job, and he needed someone to wash dishes. Ama walked up to the counter and nodded to him.

“I’m
Amarizi Auburn. I need a job.” He nodded. “You have an ad in the paper that says you need a dishwasher. Have you filled it?”

He shook his head and smiled. “You’re an
earth faerie. It would be an honor to have you working the floor, mistress. The dishwasher job is for someone well beneath you.”

“No
, it’s not. I’m just Ama the dishwasher and nothing more. Got it?” He stared at her for several seconds, then threw back his head and laughed. She turned to the door to leave, nearly to the point of tears. He stopped her by calling her name.

“I’m sorry
, but we both know that you’re much more than Ama the dishwasher.” She shook her head, and he stared at her for a full minute before nodding. “All right. I need a dishwasher, and for your own reasons you need to work. Can you start tonight?” She nodded. “Come back around five and work until around two in the morning? The weekends are the busiest. I’ll need you later then.”

She nodded
, so grateful that she wanted to hug him, but only nodded again. He didn’t touch her when she was handed the application, and she was happy for that. He said his name was Peter Gunn, and Peter was a black bear.

Chapter 3

Sebastian was looking at the broken laptop when his assistant came in. Debby sat down across from him and sighed heavily. There was no way he was going to ask her what was wrong again.
He’d done that before and had been sucked into so much drama that he’d wanted to fire her. He looked up at her and asked her how sales were going.

“Great.
The new stuff is out on the shelves. I’m thinking of using my discount and getting the new unit you brought in for the readers. Man, that sucker can do it all.” He nodded and put the cover back on the dead laptop. He’d known it was a bust when it was brought to him, but said he’d give it a shot.

“I’m not going to be here after four.
My family is having a big dinner tonight and I want to be there on time.” He didn’t add that he was trying to score some major brownie points with his parents or that he’d been threatened by his brothers and sisters-in-law to be nice. “Will you have a problem closing up?”

“No. I guess not.”
He tried his best to look like he didn’t care. “Mark and I broke up today. He said that I was just too much for him.”

Sebastian
didn’t ask. He stood up to put the laptop on the shelf to give back to the man who’d brought it in. Who would do this to a computer that they’d paid over nine hundred dollars for was beyond him. The man had admitted to “accidently” dropping it out his car window. Really? Not likely. He realized that Debby was waiting on him to say something. He had no idea what she’d been saying to him.

“I don’t know
, Debby. What do you think?” He’d used this before on his dates when he’d tuned them out over dinner. It worked well for him so long as he tried to remember if he’d used it once already. They got sort of pissy when you repeated it several times over the salad.

“I just want him to marry me.
What makes men want to run in the other direction when a woman starts talking about weddings and children?” With her, Sebastian could think of a list a mile long, but kept his mouth shut as she continued. “I mean, it’s not like we just met, for crap’s sake. We’ve been dating for almost a whole month.”

A month? He
suddenly felt sorry for the guy. Debby could do a good job when she was focused, but there were times when he thought she would be better off working at a job where she had little contact with the outside world and simply lived in her own little world she had created. One that made her the queen of the universe and where no one told her no. She was scary weird. But she was good at selling, and that alone gave her job security.

The bell over the door sounded and she hopped up and ran out to the floor.
He was sure that the other employee could have handled it. All his employees were very knowledgeable about the products they sold, but Debby had to be right there. Sebastian decided that he was going to have to make some serious changes soon.

“It’s your dad. He wants to know if he can come back and talk to
you.” He looked at James, the other employee, and nodded. “Oh, and your mom is here, too, but she wants to just look around.”

Sebastian
was nearly around his work station when his dad came in the room. Before he could ask him if everything was all right, he was pulled into a hug that nearly took his breath away. Sebastian hugged his dad just as hard and felt the tears threaten. He’d missed his dad.

“I’m sorry
, son.” He patted him on the back before turning away. “I shouldn’t have…damn, I was a fool, just like your mom says to me daily.”

“No
, Dad, I was.” It had been almost a week since the conversation about the girl and the computer. “I should have given you more time with the computer, and I shouldn’t have said those things to either of you. You’ve no idea how horrible I’ve felt.”

“Me too, me too.
It’s been like a hole in my heart. I’m glad….” He took a deep breath. “I was wondering if you found Ama. She said that day that she wouldn’t be able to help us any, said that she wasn’t gonna come between a man and his son. She said a great deal more, but I won’t repeat it. Not that at the time I didn’t think you deserved it, but there you have it.”

Sebastian laughed.
He was pretty sure she had said a great deal. And his dad was right, he had deserved it. That and more. He’d blown up at her and she’d only fought back. His mom walked in as they were both sitting down.

“I was just asking
Sebastian here if he’d heard from Ama. I think he was about to tell us he’s right on top of it.” His dad looked at him. “Are you?”

“I tried to reach out to her
, but she told the operator that she was fine and that I wasn’t to bother her anymore.” He flushed when he thought of what else the operator had told him and had asked him, but decided that there was no way he was telling them that conversation. “She’s living at the ‘Y.’”

He was thinking about Sandy the operator and
some of the things she’d suggested he could do with her and to her when he realized that his parents were looking at each other oddly. There was something going on and he sat up in his chair and waited for them to get finished with whatever it was they were talking about. When his mom turned to him, she looked nervous.

“We need for you to find her for us, to tell her it’s okay that she help
ed us learn the computer like she did.” He started to tell her that he was going to do it when she spoke again. “There’s something about her that we found…she’s not like us, but she’s more than us. I can’t tell you any more than that, but she…I think she needs us.”

He looked at his dad
, hoping for more to go on, but he was nodding. “I told you I tried to talk to her and she told the woman who answers the phone that I wasn’t to contact her any more. She told me that there would be police involved if I did.”

Sebastian had been and still was a little upset about that part
, but he had been very threatening to her. He thought involving the police was a little much, but could see now if what his parents were telling him was true then maybe he’d frightened her more than he’d thought.

“Then we’ll go to Marc.
He would be able to make sure that we get to talk to her and—” Sebastian stood up and walked to his mom. “We need to find her. It’s really important to us. To all of us.”

“What is she?”
His mom looked at his dad, then back at him. Something was off here. When he started to ask her again, she shook her head.

“We can’t tell you that.
Not that I wouldn’t love to share this, but we can’t. It’s dangerous. Not for you but for us if we repeat what we’ve been given.”

“Mom, that makes no
sense. What did she make you promise? And what did she threaten you with?” He looked at his dad when she did. “Dad? What is it you’re not telling me?”

“I’m sorry
, son. You’ll just have to trust us. She’s very important to us and…well, to all of us. We want to make sure she’s all right.”

They left a little while later
, and he sat at his desk trying to figure out what to do now. He’d told them that he’d find the girl for them. He wasn’t sure why he just didn’t let them go to Marc with this. He was better equipped to find people, and he was just a computer person. Picking up the phone, he decided to ask him how to start.

“You have her name?”
He told him. “I can start a search for her and see…. Well what do you know? I found her. She’s working for a friend of yours, Peter Gunn. He already filed her work papers and such. She’s working for him at his place over on Main.”

She had a job.
He had no idea why that surprised him, but it did. He supposed it had to do with his parents wanting to find her, and him thinking that she owed them money or something. He supposed that she could still owe them, but she had a job, so that helped. He thanked his brother and decided to have pizza for lunch.

~~~

“You’re doing a great job, mistress.” She looked at Peter and didn’t even bother trying to ask him again just to call her Ama. He seemed to be sort of old fashioned, and she was kind of sweet on him anyway. He was like the dad she’d never had. She smiled at him.

“It’s not hard.
Scrape, rinse, and load. Then when they come out the other side, stack and put away.” He laughed with her. “I like it and it’s paying the bills.”

She had started looking at apartments
yesterday. She needed to get something that was more in line with her hours. She wasn’t getting back until well after lock-up, and that was going to be a problem soon. The lady who ran the night desk was retiring soon, and Ama needed something more anyway. She also wanted something of her own.

“I’ve heard of a place you can stay
, too. I wish you’d let me put you up. It would be an honor.” She shook her head, and he nodded as he continued. “It’s not much, just a room with a bath. But it’s a month-to-month place, and you won’t need to put down a deposit. I know the owner.”

“Do you think they’ll care?”
She flushed, hating that she had to ask if someone was going to freak out when they first saw her. He shook his head and laughed.

“Nah, he won’t care.
Nice guy, and isn’t human either. And since I know you, there’s no reason for you to have any contact with him. I told him you were a nice kid, just needed a little help. You’ll just have to pay him once a month and that’ll be the end of your relationship with him.”

She nodded and he was called away.
She was just pulling on her coat when she heard him laugh. He had a laugh that made a person smile. She was out the door and into the street a few minutes later.

He’d given her the address
, so she headed over there. She didn’t have a lot of stuff, just clothes and a few things like that, but as far as furniture went, nothing at all. She was standing in front of the building when something felt as if it touched her. She looked around and didn’t see anything, but looked back at the building. There was something off about it.

Ama walked closer to the large brick building
, trying to decide if whatever she’d felt had been good or bad, when she heard a muffled scream. Not thinking about anything but getting to where it had come from, she came upon a man holding a woman against the wall, tearing at her clothes.

“You should really let her go.”
The man turned to her and stilled. “I mean, she doesn’t look to me like she’s happy with whatever it is you think you’re going to do to her. So let her go. Please.”

“Get the fuck out of here before you’re next.”
She nodded, thinking that he’d have to be really stupid if he thought she was going to wait until he finished with the woman just so she could have a turn. She took several steps to him before he pulled the woman to his chest and put a knife to her throat. Ama stopped just a few feet from him.

“You really shouldn’t do this. I mean
, she doesn’t want this, and neither do I.” He pressed the knife harder into the woman’s throat, and Ama shrugged. “You should have listened.”

The
woman went limp just as Ama had told her to, and she closed her eyes. Reaching for the man, Ama grabbed his arm that held the knife and jerked him hard. She knew that she’d hurt him because he started screaming the moment she pulled him forward and away from the woman. A sharp pain in her arm made her wince, but she tossed the man away from her at the same moment his knife fell to the ground. As soon as he hit the wall, she knew that she’d thrown him just a little too hard. She heard the crush of his bones, and then he fell to the earth. Before she looked at him, she turned to the woman who now held the knife in her hands. This was not going to go well.

“Are you hurt?”
Ama had to ask her three times before she said she was. “I’d very much like for you to put the knife down before someone gets hurt.”

“He was going to rape me.”
Ama nodded at her softly spoken statement. “He was going to kill me, wasn’t he?”

“More than likely.
Can you put the knife down please?” The woman looked at it as if she hadn’t realized she had it. When it dropped to the ground, Ama took a deep breath and kicked it away. “Do you have a cell phone that you can use to call the police? I think he’s hurt badly.”

He was but that didn’t matter right now.
The girl nodded, walked to where she’d been held, and picked up her purse. While she dialed the number, Ama went to the man. She had to help him if she could.

He
was breathing, but just barely. Looking at the girl who was finally falling apart, screaming at the police that a man had tried to kill her, Ama turned back to the man and put her hand on him. She felt the power surge through her in seconds. The man stirred a little, then looked up at her.

“What the fuck did you do to me?”
She didn’t say anything but backed up. He watched her for several seconds before he closed his eyes again. Ama stood between them both and waited for the siren.

The first officer on the scene walked to them with his gun out.
He had both her and the woman put their hands up.

By the time the third cruiser showed up
, the man was being treated. Mary Scott, the woman, was also having her wounds looked at. Apparently, she’d been coming home from work downtown when he’d grabbed her before going into her apartment. She lived in the building that Ama was going to be living in, too.