The Edifice

17. Accusations and Explanations

His smell reaches me before the sound of his approach. That stench of molten tar he poisons his lungs with. It's a stark contrast to the sickly sweet vapor the Otis's childish peers preferred.

Unmistakable and oddly comforting.

I crawl out from behind the hedging that borders the mansion's front lawn as he comes to a halt at the gates.

The air stills as Lee Noble meets my eyes.

The thick hooded jackets layered over his loose sleepwear are no less dilapidated than the clothes he'd worn to the funeral just two days ago. He looks half asleep too. Thick black bags hang beneath two bloodshot eyes, but nevertheless his gaze is as piercing as ever as it flicks from me to the enormous house behind.

"Not what I meant when I said I'd seeing you again, Liv. I'll be honest," he says finally, hoarse voice cracking the tense silence between us.

I'm reminded of the first time we met as his penetrating gaze dissects the scene before him. A shout of agony and thrill escapes the mansion but Lee seems unimpressed.

"Been making friends?" The question is frigid with accusation.

"Lee?"

"Who the fuck are you, Olivia?"

The sharpness in his voice cuts like whip.

"Excuse me?" I gape at him.

"You show up days after my father dies, mysteriously receiving his every fucking penny. You break into my house. Follow me around all day and now you're here. Calling me from the same party as my ex? Yeah, I don't fucking buy it."

"What? You think I'm stalking you?" I ask in disbelief.

"Well, aren't you?" Lee's draws himself to his full towering height. The embers smoldering at the tip of his cigarette burst up along the shaft like fiery cracks through stone, but he barely seems to notice the paper burning through his fingertips..

"I already told you," I protest, equal parts frightened and pissed off by the magician's moody narcissism.

And I had told him. Over the phone after he'd stopped sleepily hurling curses long enough to recognize my voice. He'd been silent as he'd stayed on the line to make sure I slipped from Zagan's room unharmed. Stayed on the line as I'd hid out in the empty lawn, jumping at shadows. Only the faintest sound of his breathing had kept me company as he'd made the twenty minute journey out to pick me up.

Now it was clear exactly where his mind had been during that long period of quiet.

"Yeah, you told me. With no proof. So what are you? Shapeshifter? Succubus without a father figure? I've tried your kind before and sorry, I'm not interested."

My fingers itch to slap the expression of condescension from his face. "You think I'd want to be around you anymore than I have to be? Really? I have work today, Lee. I have my medication at home! There's no time for this."

He huffs in satisfaction as though I'd just given him the exact answer he'd expected. "You don't look so Earthen right now, Olivia. I have all the time in the Edifice."

"Well I'm not exactly wearing my old clothes right now, am I?" I growl angrily, but Lee seems far from convinced. His pupils are slightly glassy, unfocused. As though he's not looking at me but... in me. Through me.

"What's your favorite Britney album?"

"Excuse me?"

"If you're from Earth, you have a favorite Britney album. What is it?"