Charlotte After Dark

Chapter 16: Against Our Better Judgement

Cormac was perusing through piles of books, hastily pulling out collections of books in search of something when I entered the library. He was dressed in a tighter than normal dark green shirt and a pair of khaki pants. I was working on being more silent while I walked, to surprise him, but nothing seemed to get past him. I was dressed in some of the clothes Audra had loaned me until my clothing came in from Fabrice, but many of them were much too tight for my liking. I was dressed in a light gray skirt, the only article of clothing that wasn't skin tight, and a simple sweater that was a shade too tight for my liking.

"I hear you there, Charlotte," he said, not even looking at me and still focusing on finding whatever it was he was looking for.

"I guess I need to work on my cat-like reflexes," I responded like I was truly disappointed.

"Definitely don't quit your day job," he said. He seemed more distracted today than he had been just last night causing me to frown. With Cormac it felt like I was wading in a sea of uncertainty, not sure what kind of mood he may be in. I felt my fingers trace the line of my jaw where he had let his fingers linger too long the night before and my skin prickled once again as if he had just done it moments, and not hours, ago. I grabbed at the end of my braid, a nervous habit I still had.

I plopped myself on the dusty sofa, throwing tiny little particles of dust into the air as I settled myself.

"Are you going to talk to me about last night?" I asked, letting my fingers trace the spines of all the books I had read the night before, aching to pick up another. Words, facts, and stories floated around my head aimlessly as I read pages of books I hadn't read in hours in my head like it was nothing. Maybe it was a little weird, now that I thought about it.

Cormac looked up from one of the books he was reading like I had awoken him from a deep sleep.

"About last night..." he trailed off.

I looked up him with eager attention and waited for him to speak. He looked like the words we stuck in his throat like they had been when Gwendolen silenced him nights before. Remembering the night with Gwendolen gave me shivers, like I could feel any colder now that I was, well, dead.

"You know, that mysterious meeting you had that you forbade me from joining you?" I clarified.

His shoulders heaved like he let all the tension out of his body with a heavy sigh. "Oh, right," he replied in relief.

"Is there another last night we need to talk about?" I asked, playing with one of the golden tassels that lined the sofa's pillows and looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"No, don't think so," he said, abruptly closing the book in his hands and placing it on an empty spot on one of the shelves. He walked over to me, wiping the dust on his khakis before he sat down next to me.

"After our interaction with Gwendolen, I decided that I needed answers and I couldn't very well ask decent company to give me the answers I was-" he stopped himself midsentence. "Am looking for," he corrected himself.

"Did you get some answers?" I asked with expectant enthusiasm, stiffening myself in the seat.

He swum his arm and rested it on the back of the couch, bending it at the elbow while he put his weight on it. "The short answer? No," he remarked.

"And the long answer?" I pushed. It felt like I was pulling teeth to get a straight answer from him.

"You'll get the long answer when they get here tonight," he said.

I let out a disgruntled sigh. "Nothing is every straight-forward in this world, is it?" I asked.

"Of course not, that would make things too easy," he responded, amused with the slight twinge of a smile. "I'm just warning you that these two are..." he trailed off, trying to find the right words. "A little dubious. I can't say that that tracking them down was a great deal of fun."