Vivyka decided she was never getting pregnant. Or, if she did, she would simply force it to stay inside her until it was at least two and potty trained. New children always caused chaos, but this week they receive three from an overcrowded orphanage in Oraunt. The worst part was that all three of them were under a year old. She was tired of screaming babies and dirty diapers. But now, after nine o'clock at night, the last of the children were finally asleep, and she began picking up the playroom in blissful silence.
The quiet didn’t last long. Two minutes later a skinny boy, with red curls and a face full of freckles, appeared in the doorway, wringing his hands. “Um… Vivva?”
Dropping a few toys into a wooden box painted with rainbows, she turn and went to him. “Dirk, you’re supposed to be in bed.” She tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice, but only partially succeeded.
“I know,” he said softly, blinking up at her with big brown eyes. “But Maddy said there’s a monster, and it’s gonna eat me.”
“Do you think I’d let a monster come in here and eat you?”
He scrunched up his face, thinking about it for a moment. “No,” he said finally.
“So no need to worry.” She reached down and scooped him up. “Now, back in bed.”
He wrapped his little arms around her neck as she carried him upstairs and through a door on the left. “Vivva,” he said when she laid him down. “Can I have a cookie?”
“I can have one too!” Madelyn cried from the next bed over. She had snuck into the boys’ room again. Vivyka was too wary to bother making her go back to the girls’ room tonight.
“No,” Vivyka told them. “You can both have one tomorrow. Right now it’s bedtime.”
Madelyn huffed while Dirk looked disappointed but nodded.
“Are you gonna get the monster?” Madelyn asked, her plump little finger twirling a lock of her long blonde curls.
“There’s no monster,” Vivyka assured her.
“Uh huh!” Madelyn insisted, her hazel eyes growing wide. “I heard him walking and his tummy growled.”
“I think you’re just hearing the wind, Maddy.”
“No! It’s real, I heard him!”
“Okay, okay,” Vivyka said, pacifying the willful child. “I’ll go check, but you be quiet now or you’re gonna wake the others.”
“Come back when you kill him, kay?” Dirk whispered.
“I will.”
She left and waited at the bottom of the stairs for a minute, then headed back up. But a few steps from the top, there was a knock at the front door.
“Oh, by the gods!” she swore under her breath.
On her way she passed a window in the foyer and she grimaced at her reflection. Her mahogany hair was falling out of her messy bun, and any make-up she may have put on that morning had long worn off. She sighed. Well, hopefully it wasn’t the man of her dreams at the door, she thought wryly.
Close enough. Though he was twice her age and already married, he was the best man she had ever known. And for a guy in his forties, he was gorgeous and well muscled. If only she could find a younger version for herself, and preferably blond. His shoulder length brown hair was held back at the nap of his neck since he was on duty, though she thought it looked better loose, framing his strong jaw.
She smiled warmly at Captain Bennett, but it quickly turned into a frown as she noticed the woman in his arms. “What…?”
Falcon moved past her and sat the girl on the couch in the main room. She stayed there, hugging herself and crying silently. He walked back into the foyer. “Where’s Jules? I thought she was staying late tonight.”
“I talked her into leaving a while ago. She was tired. It's been a really long day.”
“Okay, can you stay with her until Jules gets here?”
Vivyka nodded. “Yeah, but don't worry about Julia. We have a few healing potions left. What happened?”
“Sorry Viv, no time to explain,” he told her, and then he was gone.
This was the third person Falcon had brought to the orphanage since Priest Hale—the only overnight healer—passed away. It was after the Goddess of Healing’s temple hours and Julia would be able to heal them with her mage healing spell, if it were simple injuries. They need to replace him already, Vivyka thought. Two weeks of this was long enough.
She returned to the doorway of the main room and looked at the woman. She had long black hair with bangs and smudged eyeliner around smokey eyes. Her lips were red, some of which was blood, and her left eye was starting to swell and bruise. A healing potion wouldn’t be able to do anything for the eye, that would take a healing cleric.
Poor girl, she thought as she took a deep breath and approached slowly. “It’s okay now,” she said gently. “I’m just gonna get some stuff to fix you up.”
Returning moments later, Vivyka found the woman now dry-eyed and staring blankly at the floor. She handed her a tiny pink bottle, then knelt before her with a bowl of warm water and a washcloth. Once the woman was finished drinking the sweet liquid, the glass vanished, and Vivyka began washing off the dried blood and dirt from her face. “What's your name?”
“Ember,” she answered shakily.
“I’m Vivyka,” she returned. After a moment of silence, she asked, “What happened?”
“I was performing… at Raulk’s Tavern. Afterwards, this man, he seemed so nice… he said he wanted to show me something.” She swallowed hard. “He was so beautiful… and I was just… mesmerized… I was so stupid to go with him. I don’t usually do stuff like that… I don’t, I swear!”
Vivyka nodded. I've been there, she thought, but out loud said, “Go on.”
“He… he led me to the alley and—” A sob cut off her words.
Vivyka put a hand on hers. “It’s okay now. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
After a moment, Ember sniffed and nodded.
“What’d he look like?” Vivyka asked.
“He was… big, with blond hair and… stunning blue eyes…”
Vivyka heard the front door open and stood. “Wait here. I’ll be right back,” she said and hurried into the foyer. “Sera,” she greeted in surprise. She glanced at Matt, standing behind her friend, and stiffened. Her stomach knotted when she saw the smudge of dirt on his face. She looked at his short blond hair, his light blue eyes, and his large muscular build. Maybe he hadn’t changed after all. “What are you doing here?” she asked, looking back at Sera.
“I was on my way to Raulk’s Tavern when I saw Falcon,” Sera told her. “He said there was an injured woman. I came to help.”
“Why were you going there?” Vivyka tried to keep her voice light and curious.
“I was going to meet Matt. He went to the concert. I was meeting him afterwards when the crowd thinned out. And it wasn’t really my kind of music.”
Vivyka nodded as her stomach clenched tighter.
Sera started to look worried. “Where’s the woman?”
“In here.” Vivyka led them through into the main room, keeping an eye on Ember, waiting for her reaction to Matt. Tears immediately stung her eyes when the woman gasped at seeing him. Vivyka’s jaw tightened. She should have known he wouldn’t change.
But then Ember got off the couch and rushed to him. She threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “Thank you!” she said fervently. “I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up. Thank you so much!”
He stepped away. “You okay?”
She beamed at him. “Yes.”
He gave a small nod.
Sera walked closer. “I’m a healing cleric. I’m going to heal you, okay?” When Ember agreed, Sera placed her hands on the woman’s face and murmured a few words under her breath. The bruises and swelling disappeared instantly. “You should rest for a little while,” she said, taking her hands away. “Are you staying at an inn or with someone?”
“Inn.”
“Are you traveling with anyone?”
Ember shook her head.
“You can stay here,” Vivyka offered. The last thing the woman needed tonight was to be alone. “Use my room. I’ll sleep with the kids.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
Sera started leading Ember away when Vivyka remembered Dirk and Madelyn. “Oh Sera…”
“Yes?”
“Can you tell Dirk that there’s no monster down here?” she asked, unable to help a quick glance at Matt.
“Of course,” Sera said, and disappeared up the stairs with the woman.
“You thought it was me, didn’t you?” Matt asked quietly.
She didn’t look at him. “Yeah, well… wasn’t far fetched.”
“Once a monster, always a monster, right?”
She shrugged. “Who was the guy?”
“Falcon said he was from out of town. But he’s behind bars now.” His voice was calm, controlled as it always was these days. “It was strange,” he mused. “Like being on the other side of a mirror.”
She huffed a humorless laugh. “Fighting yourself?” she asked as an old memory of him beating her in an alley came to mind. She crossed her arms, unconsciously resting a hand on the ribs he had once broken.
Matt took a deep breath. “Fighting someone I used to be,” he corrected. “But Falcon came along a minute later. She would have been fine without me.” He pulled out his silver cigarette case from the breast pocket of his sleeveless jacket. “Tell Sera I’m outside.”
“Sure,” she mumbled and he left.
Sera was back a moment later. “Ember will be fine, and Dirk says he wants you to tell him,” she reported with a soft laugh.
“Okay.”
Sera studied her friend and smiled sadly. “He has changed,” she assured her quietly.
“Yeah, I know,” Vivyka said. It was lie. She didn’t think she would ever truly believe that.
Sera hugged her close for a moment. “Sorry it scared you.”
“I’m fine,” Vivyka said, trying to sound casual and easy, even though she knew Sera could feel her emotions with her divine empathy. “He’s outside by the way.”
Sera’s eyes were filled with compassion and understanding, as they always were. She sighed. “Thanks. I’ll see you later,” she said, then gave her friend a light kiss and left.
Vivyka watched her leave, praying once again that Sera was right, that Matt wouldn’t hurt her. She was the kindest, sweetest woman in the world, and Vivyka couldn’t bare the thought of him treating Sera the way he had once treated her. She knew from personal experience that he could be nice, he had been nice to her most the time they were together, but when he got angry… she shivered at the thought. She worried that maybe Sera just hadn’t pissed him off yet. What would happen when she inevitably did?
She let it go the best she could as headed back upstairs. Dirk and Madelyn were both sitting up in bed, waiting for her, when she walked into the room. “Sera was right, no monster,” she told them. She sat down on Dirk’s bed and pulled the tie out of her hair. “But how about I sleep in here, just to be safe?”
He smiled widely and snuggled close as soon as she laid down. “Ni-night, Vivva.”
“Goodnight.”
“I don’t think you looked everywhere,” Madelyn said in her usual superior tone.
“There’s no monster, Maddy.”
“Well, hopefully you can wake up fast if the monster comes back,” Madelyn said. “Otherwise he’s gonna eat us.”
“There’s no monster,” Vivyka repeated.
“I heard him myself,” Madelyn insisted. “And he’s—”
“Maddy, go to sleep.”
“But—”
“No. Sleep. Now,” Vivyka said firmly.
Dirk put a finger to his lips. “Shhhhhh!”
Vivyka smiled and hugged him closer while Madelyn flopped back onto her bed and sighed heavily.
