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Otherworld - Erin E.M. Hatton
Otherworld
Erin E. M. Hatton
Otherworld
Copyright © 2011 Erin E. M. Hatton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission from the publisher.
EPUB Version
ISBN-13: 978-1-77069-275-6
Word Alive Press
131 Cordite Road, Winnipeg, MB R3W 1S1
www.wordalivepress.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Hatton, Erin, 1978-
Otherworld / Erin E.M. Hatton.
ISBN 978-1-77069-221-3
I. Title.
PS8615.A783O85 2010 C813’.6 C2010-907893-4
Dedicated to my heavenly husband and my earthly one—
Who have both taught me so much about enduring love.
My favourite fairy tale was always Sleeping Beauty. The idea of a dashing prince coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress appealed to me, for obvious reasons. But I always wondered...what if the prince got there and the princess wasn’t as beautiful as he thought?
1 ![](scepub/chapters/1/images/image-PBLVMJV7.jpg)
The first time I saw him, I didn’t think that much of him. He seemed a little awkward, like the types who sometimes wander into our part of the city by accident. He might not have been looking, but I was always up for a challenge. With a calculated smile, I tucked my hair behind my ear and drew my fingertips down my neck to rest on my shoulder.
You lost?
I asked.
I’m looking for someone,
he said with a frown. He had nice eyebrows, I remember thinking. Heavy, dark, but not neanderthalish. He was tall and handsome, with brown hair, a strong, square jaw, a lean but broad build. Best of all, he had deep–set, sensitive eyes. I always paid attention to eyes. In hindsight, I think that’s because I was always looking for something there—a spark that said I’m alive!
I hadn’t found it before, not in the stone–dead eyes of Lucas’s thugs, nor in the haunted eyes of my usual patrons, not until that day.
That took me aback, seeing the aliveness in his eyes. But I was an actress. I had to be in my line of work. So I didn’t show any trace of surprise. I did my best slinky walk in a half–circle around him, forcing him to turn to keep up with me. He did, but there was something different about the way he responded. Not lewd, like other men. Not at all. His eyes stayed on my face.
Who are you looking for in a place like this?
I prodded. A second glance confirmed my original guess that he wasn’t from around here. He was well dressed, if a bit simply, in a black leather jacket, striped t–shirt, and jeans. The shoes gave it away—nice leather affairs from some designer store.
Would you believe, my true love?
he said with a laugh.
I laughed indulgently. I could be your true love, for a price.
I raised my eyebrow.
He took a long, appraising look. Not the kind of look other men would give me, raking their eyes from neck to toes and back again. No, he stared deep into my eyes, delving beneath the surface. Looking for something. I dropped my gaze, for once shaken.
No,
he said softly. Not the price I had in mind.
I pouted, unaccountably angered by the stranger’s slight. Well, a girl’s got to eat, you understand. If you’ll excuse me ...
A car was purring by, and if this guy wasn’t buying, I might still flag this other one down.
He gave a lopsided smile and put up his hands in surrender. "Alright, I won’t bother you. But I didn’t mean anything by it, you know. I’m waiting for her." The car moved on. I cursed silently, then turned back to the man. I was curious enough not to be angry.
This girl, has she got a name? I could keep an eye out for her.
He smiled. She wouldn’t remember the name I know. She must have a new one now.
I caught sight of a movement across the street. Sloane was coming to chase this guy away so other buyers wouldn’t scare off. Belatedly, I realized I was in trouble. The stranger had a talent for capturing attention, but I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Hey, listen,
I said brusquely. I’d love to chat all day, but I’ve got a job to do, so if you’re not interested ...
Ah, yes,
he said. What was that emotion in his eyes? Embarrassment? Judgement? Pity? Although it looked like any of these, I didn’t get the feeling it really was. To my surprise, he pulled out his wallet. Funny, he didn’t seem the buying type.
Surprised, I took the bills he put in my hand. Let’s go somewhere,
I said, shaking my head to ward off Sloane and turning on the toes of my stilettos.
No need,
he said. I’m merely paying you for the time I’ve taken up. Wouldn’t want to cause any trouble for you.
Are you some kind of cop?
I asked, squinting my eyes at him. I didn’t know whether or not to be insulted.
He laughed. If I was I’d have already slapped cuffs on you. No...I’m just a guy looking for his lost love.
He looked away down the street, but his eyes seemed to look further, to some point invisible from where we stood.
I didn’t really want to shoo him away, as intrigued as I was, but Sloane gave me a glare, and I sighed.
Oh...alright. Good luck with that,
I said. I turned my back on whatever good bye he might have given. But I did look back over my shoulder to watch him walk away.
I had thought him awkward, but he wasn’t. It was me that was awkward, out of place. It wasn’t that he didn’t belong in my part of town. It was as if he carried a world with him of which I was not a part. For a wistful moment, I wanted to be.
—
That’s a good take, Emma,
Lucas Fulbright said with a smile on his devilishly handsome face. Glints of grey amid the dark of his hair sparked in the light cast by the old warehouse lamps. He inclined his muscular frame back in the chair with the confident poise of a man who owned the world. As well he might, since he practically did. He was one of the richest, most powerful men in all the earth, even if he’d had to sell his soul to get there.
He waved the wad of bills in front of him, letting them fan back and forth impressively. Best thing I ever did, taking you in as a kid. If half of you girls could do in a week what Emma did tonight, you’d be in much better shape. As it is, Holly, you practically cost me money out there tonight. You’ll not be getting your bit this morning. Sloane, take Emma to her room and make sure you take good care of her. Holly, I’ll deal with you personally.
With a pleased smile, Sloane ushered me towards the back of the big storage room that served as Lucas’s office. He was pleased because he would be well rewarded for making sure I worked hard. My room was a small converted office upstairs in the warehouse. It was a hole in the wall—little more than a cubicle—but it was better than most. It was private, for starters. I ranked a big real bed instead of a camp cot, and a goose down duvet, though it had no cover. I had a few changes of clothes and a dresser with a mirror, and my own table with two chairs. I was good at my job, and the good ones got the perks.
Good care in our outfit meant a few things. I got a nice hot shower—the best girls got to shower first, and used up all the hot water. I got a better breakfast, too. But most of all, it meant Ambrosia. That was worth more than the shower and the breakfast and the bed put together. I could do without food, sleep, maybe even oxygen as long as I got Ambrosia. I didn’t know what it was, really. Probably some kind of heroin hybrid. I only know I was raised on it like mother’s milk, and I couldn’t live without it.
There were some nights I didn’t do well enough, and I was denied my dose. Those were the darkest days, where I lay in waking nightmares, shaking in the broken bars of light that came through my closed curtains. I did my best to make sure those nights were few and far between, so I would never have to feel that way again.
I rushed through my shower and breakfast, barely noticing the steaming hot water and the delicious food. I put on the first thing I pulled from my drawer, a worn red silky robe with a small hole developing on the seam.
My last client had been a latecomer—a slow one at that—and I felt the need of Ambrosia keenly after the wait. It was like a dark haze at first that leached what little enjoyment existed in my world. If this was ignored—and this would only ever be forcibly, for no one would voluntarily endure it—the longing became more insistent, like a mist that becomes a strangling monster. The beast of addiction blotted out all other thoughts, until satiated.
Impatient, I waited for Sloane to return to my room. I was tapping my black–manicured fingernails on the table with a sound that would have been annoying to me, had I not been so preoccupied.
At last, Sloane came in with a negligent knock never meant to be answered. He pulled out the other chair, twirling it around so he could straddle the back. I’d never known him to sit in a chair properly.
Alright, girl,
he said gruffly, pushing up his sleeves over burly tattooed forearms. He eyed my tapping fingers with a grim look. Don’t get your knickers in a twist.
He pulled out a zippered case, seeming to take forever as he slipped out a filled syringe. My arm was already laid on the table, face up. I didn’t even notice the prick of the needle. Some of the newer girls said the injections bothered them, but for me, it was a part of life, no more notable than clipping one’s toenails.
Sleep well, princess,
Sloane said with a smile, zipping up the case and tapping it gently on the table before sliding it into his pocket and standing. I headed for the bed before I lost track of where I was.
Rolling over between the sheets, I curled my knees up against my chest and stared at the wall. This was the worst part—the waiting. It was the time between, when the longing had been answered and the drug not yet taken effect. It was the moment of clarity for me, that brief window where I was alone with my true thoughts.
Sometimes I wondered about my history—my unremembered parents, the childhood I must have had. I thought about Lucas, sometimes thankful he took me in, more often cursing him. This morning, though, it was the stranger’s face that came to me.
He intrigued me more than I had let myself think. He was eye–catching, certainly, and to be attracted to someone in my line of work was a rare pleasure. But it was more than the obvious physical side of things. I couldn’t shake the attraction of his personality. I felt as though I had seen a glimpse of his soul—his beautiful, multi–faceted soul. It was something I had never imagined existed.
But as surely as he had shown me his soul, he had seen mine. I felt as though he had examined every black and twisted part of me when he’d looked so long into my eyes. Now that I was here in my bed, away from the glamour and bravado of my act, my eyes started with sudden tears. I dashed them away with anger at my weakness. He didn’t know me—let him try to judge!
But I knew it wasn’t the stranger judging me. It was me. That was the other thing I thought about before the Ambrosia took its hold. After the puzzle of my past, the hate–love I felt for Lucas, and whatever interesting event that came my way in the course of a night on the street, the guilt always came like a landslide that covered all else.
It was bad enough on a normal morning, when all I had to hold up against my life was the gritty underworld of Lucas’s kingdom. But today it was unbearable. Today I had seen a thing that negated all my flimsy comparisons. I knew beyond doubt now that there was something good and pure, a touchstone to aspire to, a mirror to show me my faults. There was a bright world that stood as a foil for my dark shadow life. And the stranger embodied it.
His face was the last thing I remembered—with more clarity even than memories of people I’d known all my life—before the Ambrosia took me in its pleasant arms of oblivion.
—
It was two in the morning when I slid my legs out of the car onto the slick street. Raining. Ugh. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long before I was out of the rain again. I caught Sloane’s eye with a reassuring glance and took up my post as the car drove away with a swish of water from a puddle. He looked back with some indefinable expression. I followed the gruff tilt of his chin, and it was then that I saw the figure leaning against the streetlight across the road.
His brown hair was spiked with rain, but I recognized him at once. The stranger. My heart did an uneven two–step until I willed my lungs to exhale again. Stupid girl, I told myself, even as I fought to control the smile that rose as he pushed away from the post and strolled across the shiny black pavement.
Sloane recognized him too, I could tell by his expression. He half rose from his seat under an awning nearby, but I waved him off. The man was close enough now that I could see his face. He had a little half smile that I couldn’t quite read. I didn’t know why he’d come back, but some part of me was ridiculously elated that he had.
Came back for more?
I was unable to resist. To be honest, I hoped he had come back for more than just talk.
More of your company, at least.
He raised his eyes to the teeming rain, and drops glistened in his dark eyelashes. Nice evening, isn’t it?
I lifted an eyebrow with a puzzled laugh. I’ve seen nicer weather, and two in the morning doesn’t exactly count as evening anymore.
I don’t suppose it does.
So you’d like my company?
I prodded, looking up through my own now–wet eyelashes.
Hmmm. How about some coffee, or is that too suburban for you?
I laughed out loud this time. No, I enjoy coffee from time to time.
Then my face fell slightly. Of course ...
I wouldn’t dream of taking your time without compensation, Miss ...
he let his words hang like a question.
Delaney,
I answered without hesitation. Emma Delaney.
Now that was odd. I never gave my own name out to a client. Sometimes it was Sugar, or something innocent like Sarah or Jane, or dark and mysterious like Natasha. Sometimes it was a name the client supplied. Most often it was no name at all. But never, ever Emma. And certainly never Delaney. What was it about this guy?
He pulled out a sizeable wad of bills and passed it to me. No quick, shifty, shame–filled exchange. No ostentatious flaunting that demanded extra services. He put it in my hand matter–of–factly and smiled.
For the pleasure of your time, Miss Delaney.
Emma, please.
Emma.
There was a strange look in his eyes as he said my name—a soft pain that astonished me.
He held out his arm, and I shook away the thought. Suddenly, I wanted to know his name. I’d never cared before. Coffee, then, Mr. ...
I fished, stashing the money in my bustier and putting my hand through the crook of his elbow like we were a courting couple in the olden days.
Kynsey,
he replied, seeming pleased. Cale Kynsey.
He took me into the little all–night diner just down the street, and we had to pass by Sloane’s bench on the way. The burly man’s eyebrows nearly went up to his hairline, if he’d had any hair. Then he shrugged as if to say you know what you’re doing, kid.
I could only imagine what he was thinking when we turned into the diner.
The fluorescent lights and cheery music were a little off–putting after what I was used to. A waitress came to take our order, the kind of woman who looked like she was thirty but was probably eighteen. I guessed she had a couple of little kids at home she was raising by herself. She looked weary.
Cale ordered coffee for us both, and pie, kindly inquiring what I would like. No one had asked me that in a long time. He thanked the waitress warmly, and I noticed that she walked a little straighter when she left.
Silence fell over the table, and Cale leaned back comfortably in his seat, smiling at me.
So, any luck finding your true love?
I asked with a light laugh, awkward under his scrutiny. I flipped my chin–length hair and fluffed the