Where A Witch Goeth

Chapter 26: Sideways Blow

An hour later, I stared in the mirror, Minnie behind me. She raised her eyebrows and I nodded fiercely, then closed my eyes. I didn't open them again until the dull grating sound of the scissors rending my locks ceased. What I saw then made me almost cry. My long wavy chestnut mane was gone, and my hair hung limply below my chin with no style at all.

"You don't like it!" Minnie wailed. "I did what you asked!"

"I know, I've just never had my hair this short!" I wailed back. "I thought it would be...bouncy, but it's awful!"

"Hush now, it will wave up nicely when you wash it, it's just pulled straight from all that length." She turned on the sink and dunked my head under the water with more force than a revival preacher, and then she showed me how to pin up my damp tendrils for curling with bobby pins, instructing me to get dressed and do my makeup before taking them down.

The effect of a little wave was the difference between night and day. Carefully using a very old-fashioned curling iron that was just as likely to burn my hair off as curl it, I was able to touch up the curls around my face, and I decided I liked my Jazz Age bob after all. It looked super cute with a sparkly headband and my new dress. Van had taken to having new things delivered every few days because he knew I was reluctant to shop on his dime. I suspected Minnie was the one directing the choices, not the shop ladies, but she continued to deny that she had anything to do with it.

I floated downstairs to meet Van in the bar as was our usual custom now, but I found Ace waiting for me instead.

"Van is making his dining arrangements. He'll call the bar phone when he's ready for you to join him, and I am to escort you to his private suites," he told me, stubbing out his cigarette as I sat down on the barstool next to him. The vampires had all picked up on the fact that I didn't smoke. Evander and Ace were very gentlemanly about not forcing me to inhale their secondhand smoke. Darrow not so much. He still didn't like me.

I nodded my thanks to Ace and he rapped on the bar and ordered me a French 75, which was code for adding champagne to my gin cocktail.

"Light on the gin, heavy on the fizz," Ace told him because the vampires also paid attention to my favorite drink.

"Oh, you don't have to!" I exclaimed to the bartender.

"Nope, it's what the lady likes," Ace grinned. As the bartender turned away, Ace lowered his voice and said, "And after all, we are celebrating your engagement tonight, aren't we?"

"We already did that when I first arrived, didn't we?" I said brightly, folding my hands in my lap to keep from fidgeting with my fake engagement ring.

"I meant the real one," Ace said casually as he sipped his drink, grimaced. "Christ, Harry, don't we have anything better than this?"

The bartender shrugged. "This was today's shipment. The suppliers are your area, not mine."

"Fucking werewolves," Ace growled and downed the drink without enjoyment, rattling his ice as he frowned into his empty glass. "They smile to our faces, but send us shitty booze because they are growing tired of being our hired hunting pack."

While Ace complained about the booze, I was busy falling off my barstool.

"What do you mean, our real engagement?" I said to him. "Did Evander tell you that nonsense?"

Ace lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "He told me to ask Unger to send a wolf or two to liaison with the New York pack to find out what had become of your father and your sweetheart. He told me you were setting the lad aside, and you were to be his."

Oh, fuck. My drink arrived and I swallowed it automatically as a way to hide my shock. Why didn't I see this coming? Of course stupid, fucking macho Van would consider it his duty to undertake my break-up for me because he didn't like the idea of being "the other man" in the equation. Of course, stupid, fucking vampire Van would now consider me "his" and would act on my behalf without even consulting me. And of course, stupid fucking honorable Van was not at all joking about marriage. I imagine he thought deep down it was what I really desired, and I was simply protesting for the fun of it.