glass moment

She flashed the security guard a smile, peeled her fingers off of the wheel to wave to him as she drove back through the same gate she had every other time she’d been on campus. The ID she’d stolen from a co-ed in the Emerald City club a week after she’d arrived in town hung from the rear view mirror. A little piece of plastic that lent credence to her popping up here regularly. No eyebrows raised, nobody questioning why she was studying Whitmore House like she was committing every door and window to memory. No questions at all if she managed to get Enzo St. John out of there without him tearing a bloody swath through this campus the same way he’d apparently once done New York.

Mab’s smile fell the minute she was out of the guard’s sight. If her great-grandmother had just put an end to him then her great uncle would’ve been alive and the insanity that had come pouring into whatever space the grief had hollowed out in the old woman would never have appeared. A happy family in the Bronx, growing out of the blackmail business by now, into the sort of more legitimate areas of business.

A fairy tale she would never see.

This, instead, was the best case scenario. Mab could see the car in the lot ahead. Another pawn. Not an ounce of magic clinging to him but that was for the best. What she needed today, and it gave her a bit of an ache to admit it, was someone non-magical. A normal Joe, like her Joe. Able to go where she couldn’t, do what she was prevented from doing. Hopefully not being killed by someone looking to hide their secrets. Whitmore had plenty of them, hidden here in the centre of campus.

Teeth sinking into her lower lip, Mab saw her headlights bathe Mikey for a moment before she flipped them off. The others were going into this with their eyes wide open at least. Both had magic in their veins. Tobi she’d targeted on purpose, knowing the rumours about the Gemini coven. Cassie had been a lucky break. Either way they had some idea of what they were getting themselves into. They’d agreed to her bargains and hopefully both of them had enough power to knock any problem on its ass while she was trapped outside the invisible wall that had been set up here to keep anybody in her bloodline from getting their hands on their little pet vampire.

In a few short days they would head inside and Enzo would be free. There would be no more guilt about who she had used then. As soon as she handed Enzo off to her great-grandmother and got her hands on the spell that would bring Joseph back all of this would just melt away. Mikey, well, he’d have a lucky escape from her. All that the ephemeral friendship between them would bring him in the long run was misery.

She pulled up in front of him, flipping off the radio that had been squawking faintly in the background. Mab shut off the engine, slipping out of it. Leaning back against the side of the car she slanted him a grin. Swapping numbers after that lunch had seemed like a friendly gesture, but now it was just pulling Mikey in deeper. ”Evening. Muscles and a decent timekeeper. You’re a double threat huh?” she rasped lightly in greeting. Mab pressed her hands flat against the side of her car, drumming her fingers lightly against it’s side. ”I guess it’s a bonus for me and maybe a curse for you.” Definitely a curse for him.

Mab straightened up, dipping fingers into her pocket for the list she’d prepared as she walked towards him. Maybe she could’ve had Cassie and Tobi pick up what they needed from the admin building but the less anybody around here saw their faces the better. Mikey was a big unknown on campus, the sort of guy nobody would question if they found him poking around in a storage closet. She stopped inches in front of him, that scrap of white paper dangling from her fingers as she looked up into those dark eyes. ”Hope you didn’t mind me calling.” Huffing out a raspy little laugh, she tilted her head towards the building. ”I guess it’s kinda sexist but those heavy lifting jobs are easier if you’ve got help.” One trip in, hopefully, the two of them working their way into the storage closet to pick up uniforms, IDs from the office if she could manage it, although they weren’t gonna be half as helpful as the magic that could crackle out of Tobi and Cassie like sparks from a firework. The last few details to sell her plan.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 803

’Use them, they’re all tools in the end.’

Her great-grandmother’s crooned teachings had bitten deep when she’d been too young to see the real madness in any of them. All the girls in high school, the teachers even, the men and women who remained of all those who’d served the Meraviglias over the years. They were all dispensable in the end. Mab had seen the advantage to that, was willing to charm until she had them all wrapped around her little finger – less out of fear than her great-grandmother would’ve liked, but there all the same. Until Joseph.

His name was still enough to twist Mab’s gut into knots. Joseph was meant to be practically like family but in the end her great-grandmother had shown no compassion towards him. He had been a tool too, one that would hammer shut the door on her freedom. Each drop of blood that splashed onto the floor of the car had been the sound of another nail in the coffin Mab was pretty sure she wouldn’t escape, not even with Enzo St. John broken out of his cell here. It wasn’t going to end with the vampire, Chiara’s madness had burned its way too deep for that.

Mab liked to think that the air here tasted of her freedom but that was just a lie she kept wrapped around herself to keep herself sane. Mental fingers pulled it tight as she climbed out of her car. Mikey would be free after this at least, and hopefully none the wiser about just what she was dragging him into. She wasn’t her great-grandmother, she wouldn’t exact some nasty little price from him. That was the real difference between the two of them. She was never going to give in to that side of herself and end up the same way, twisted and insane, snatching up as many pawns as possible to try and turn them to her side, all in some vain, foolish hope that did nothing but sustain that twisted misery of a life.

She tipped her head, slanting a smile back at Mikey, that edge of warmth there that barely sank into the surface these days. A mask on a marble statue. ”It’s appreciated.” There was an edge of honesty to that at least. Reliable tools were the handiest. Another twist of her gut at that. Like Tobi and maybe Cassie, alright the girl too, he was too good a person to get caught up in the nightmare of her family. Like Joseph. All of them scarred for getting within a dozen yards of her in the end.

Trying to leave her regrets at the side of the car Mab pulled away from it and trailed forwards with her list held out between her fingers. She watched him with cool eyes as he read it. Enough brains there behind a grizzled face to see the dubious edge to it. Mab laughed all the same, the sound low and throaty as she hooked her arm in Mikey’s to lead him towards the building. ”Illegal? What do you think I am, Mikey? A criminal? No.” The warmth sank a little deeper into her voice as she bumped her with her hip. ”I wouldn’t drag you into anything against the law. I’m not that kinda girl, promise.” Without an ounce of shame she dragged her finger in a cross over her heart – it wasn’t like she could possibly damn herself anymore, after all.

Her chin tipped down, that little tilt of the head coming again. He wasn’t really wrong about any of it. The less he knew about all of this was certainly the better. Mikey didn’t belong bound up in the sort of corrupt power her family had always relied on, he certainly didn’t deserve to end up in a cell for this. ”It’s a favour. Some situation’s cropped up with the school and someone my family knows from way back when it caught up in it. This is gonna help them out, that’s all.” Pulling her hand from his arm for a second Mab looked up all wide eyes and dimples. ”If you wanna back out, I’m not gonna kick and scream about it. I can get it myself, you were just gonna save my back and some time.” And prevent her from setting off every possible magical alarm they had in the place. They only needed to suspect that something was up and St. John could disappear forever, leaving Joseph stranded either upstairs, or down.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 752

Mikey hadn’t puckered the same way that Cassie had, but Mab could see tension in that little smile he flashed her. Something inside of him was ringing a little warning bell – not a full five alarm, or he’d likely have bolted the minute he started to realise that something was rotten in the state of Virginia. She could have curled a hand around his forearm, told him not to worry, she’d handle it herself, cut him free now, but that would have just left her at a loose end. It was a juggling act, let one of the fish on her hooks go and she would have to talk another into doing more.

The thought of delaying even further left that sick feeling crawling up her throat again. She wasn’t her great-grandmother, these deceptions didn’t always come easy to her, not even when they were supposed to get her all she had ever wanted. So, Mab thought bitterly, she had to keep playing them. Once it was done they’d all have what they wanted from the deal, except, perhaps, for Mikey. All he was doing was a ‘favour’ for a friend.

And risking his neck doing it apparently.

There probably weren’t many more outward signs of a criminal than there were a witch. Rough edges had practically been visible on Mikey that first time though. The wariness, something in those dark eyes and the muscle bound frame that reminded me of a stray dog she’d tried to sneak into the house as a kid. Like they were sizing you up, trying to decide whether the hand held out to them was going to offer salvation or a beating. The dog hadn’t lasted the day, Chiara would never stand for it, but Mikey had stuck around, agreed to come.

The dog hadn’t strained away as she picked it up and carried it into the house but it had struggled in her lap the minute he’d set eyes on her great-grandmother, Mab imagined Mikey would do the same, the simple restraint of an arm hooked in his not enough when it came to that witch. The corner of her mouth ticked higher before her expression was purposefully softened. ”You don’t want the cops sniffing around … I get that. Trust me I don’t really wanna end up behind bars either, so, you can trust me Mikey. Any blame comes back for anything – and it won’t – I’ll fall on my sword, tell them I sweet talked you into it.” Mab felt that prickle of a lie in her throat. It wasn’t the cops they had to worry about – the ones on campus could barely find their own asses with both hands and a map – if they got caught then the Augustines would be the big issue. A nightmare Mikey was never gonna anticipate.

Don’t worry, Mikey, we’re just stealing from the sort of people who would lock you into a different kind of cell and maybe torture you a dozen different ways before they got you bit.

Mab shivered slightly, pressing closer to Mikey’s side like it was the cold that got her and not the thought of what she was gonna send people into while she waited on the side lines, hands and gut knotted up while her future sat on a line she couldn’t get near. She snorted faintly as a flutter of lashes was pretty much all it had to get him caving. Mab reached up and patted his cheek lightly. ”You’re a good guy Mikey,” she said lightly, more truth to it than she was used to giving. ”Come on, maybe I’ll take you out for an ice cream when we’re done … celebrate.” When they were finally done there wouldn’t be any celebration, she’d disappear, leaving behind the price they’d extracted from her and hopefully St John’s body behind.

Security should’ve been tight but the card she’d lifted from a drunk cleaner at Campbell’s the week before had the door into the building clicking open with just a tiny flash of a greenlight. Unlike the coed’s ID, this one was programmed for most of the places the students weren’t meant to go. ”I think it’s just along here,” Mab murmured as she drew Mikey inside and down a hallway. The storage closet closest to the ‘labs’ was just at the end of the hallway. She could feel the power in the air, crackling over her skin in a warning as she stopped outside the door. Just another step or two and she’d be setting off all sorts of alarms.

Another tap of the card and the door was swinging open. Mab went to step in but that wall of power was right there in front of her face, leaving her to go pale. ”You wanna pack them up? Pass out what we need?” she asked hoarsely. Lifting her chin towards the shelves, she encouraged Mikey to step inside and start grabbing what was on the list. That power felt like it was growing, the sound filling her head as she gripped onto the door frame, watching him. Her breathing kicked up a notch, heat and colour draining from her skin as the pain started. A warning that she needed to get out that she didn’t pay attention to. Mab swayed, there were footsteps in the distance, the heavy footfalls of people on a patrol. The groan slipped out of her. ”We need to m-move,” she managed to warn Mikey a moment before that groan turned into a yelp. The footsteps began to run as Mab desperately threw her hands out to take the boxes from him.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 938

If her great-grandmother had been in earshot that promise to take the blame would’ve been a lie. Her family didn’t take the blame for anything, hadn’t since her ancestors had turned guilt into a way to leverage people. Money, power, fame, it all stemmed from that desire to trade on other people’s shame and misery. Chiara Meraviglia would’ve smiled to see a man like this taken down, all that obvious power rendered weak like Samson getting his head shorn – Mikey Buckley heading back to jail with his tail between his muscular legs.

If.

The old woman wasn’t here. She was back in the ivory tower of that slowly crumbling house, wringing her hands as someone else she had on the hook went out and did her dirty work. Mikey’s muttered ‘fine’ stuck in her throat like a fish bone, ran through her bones like ice. Everybody around him manipulating him in the end, leaving him suffering because he had the shitty fortune to wake up to find her standing over him in the woods. Mab swallowed that weakness back. When they came back out this door Mikey’s part would be done. He could go back out to the woods and tempt the next villain into finally destroying him.

His stubble had been a bite against her fingers, reminding her of those mornings in hotel rooms on the road. Joseph waking up, his smile slanting just a heartbeat before his mouth had found hers, the stubble that had grown in overnight grazing her skin, leaving that hot tingle in its wake. The memory left her voice rougher than it had been a moment before. ”A stiff drink then.” Maybe they’d both need it. A toast to a job well done and the end of an acquaintanceship that would only poison his life if it continued.

Step one went well. The card reading, the door sliding open almost soundlessly to let them inside. It didn’t leave her fingers any warmer as Mab closed them around the card. Maybe it was the guilt, more likely it was the power in the air. Oppressive, seeming to cling to her skin like a spider’s web, ready to tighten if she stepped over the threshold and into that room. ”You didn’t see all those teenagers on the way in?” she asked tightly, trying to inject a little humour into a voice gone tight. ”It’s a college Mikey, they have admin buildings in colleges. That’s all it is and this is just a janitor’s closet.” One that would give her the means for Tobi and Cassie to get further into the building, storming through those lines to end all of this.

Could St. John hear them out here? The question had a laugh trying to fight its way free of her throat but it had already closed up, the magic a choke chain on her. Another prisoner, just like Mikey. Just like Kai Parker. All of them caught up somewhere they couldn’t get out of. Only one was meant to get free.

Her hand went to come up and touch his elbow in gratitude but Mikey was giving her another ‘fine’ as he stepped inside. Moments later she was clinging onto the door frame, trying to stop herself from pitching over that thin line. ”Nothing, it’s n-n-nothing. Just g-get everything, we’ll g-get out of here. H-hurry up.” A bite in her voice but it was weaker. Her eyes were dark pools in the white of her face as she nudged at him again. It was like she was in a tunnel, moving molasses slow while everybody else swept in at full speed. The ringing in her ears was growing, the world around her shrinking until all she saw was Mikey moving towards her with the box under his arm.

Knees almost going out from under her as he touched her shoulder, Mab tried to turn. She needed to get away from it, every alarm in the real secret part of this building was probably shrieking, radios squawking as the order was sent out. Mab leaned into Mikey, her legs rubbery, her grip on his arm weak until the shout went up and then she gripped. ” Antenati, prestatemi il potere delle fiamme. Che ci proteggano da coloro che detengono ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno.” Her other hand was coming up, heat already rising in her palm, smoking from the floor but Mikey was there first. Her hand swiped at the man’s throat. Only thin bloody lines appeared, not the startling torrent of blood, but the man fell anyway.

Kanima? There were plenty of creatures who fed on the same things her family did. Shame, guilt, the tragedy of crimes left unpunished and the lizard creatures of South America were the most vicious of them. Mab stumbled as she scrambled back with him. ”Don’t wait for the next, go!” This time the strength was there, her fingers tangling in his sleeve as she started forward. Voices came from behind them again, the crackle of flames rising in the room where they had been, but Mab was fumbling with the card, slapping it against the lock as she bolted out into the night. She had what she needed but maybe she’d tipped her hand in getting it.

She didn’t slow until she was back at the car, letting go of him finally to bend over. Hands braced against her thighs, Mab sucked in air, trying to blow out that tingle of magic that wasn’t her own with each exhalation. After a moment she looked up at him, a poker face in place but a hint of that apology shining through in green eyes. ”You’ve been holding back some secrets, huh Mikey?” Well, that made two of them didn’t it.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 960
Translation: Ancestors, lend me the power of the flames. Let them shield us from those who hold what we need.

As they always did, the lies began to stack up now. Keep the truth from them all. Don’t let them see their role as sheep in what you’re doing. Her great-grandmother had pushed her ways on her. Bullshit, it was all bullshit! The times weren’t the same as they had been when Chiara Meraviglia had first slithered onto her thrown. Then, their entire world had been the neighbourhood in the Bronx. People had feared them enough not to question them. Poke your nose into things and you would be found in a barrel somewhere, a broken doll, bloodied and disjointed. They were threats that were understood and obeyed. Threats with teeth.

By the time Mab had been born her great-grandmother had been nobody, but the crazy old woman in the ramshackle house. She had grown up trying those same threats when she had to, failing so much of the time in keeping those subtleties that it had been easier to pull her away from it all. Keep teaching her at home, make sure she understood the ways. Screw her up so badly that manipulation was now all she knew. Smile child, smile and lie to them, get what you need from them. Then walk away and let the world burn around them while the flames of the consequences of your actions didn’t touch you.

Did it matter that Mystic Falls would burn with those flames when she left? It shouldn’t have done. Tobi, Cassie, Mikey, they were nothing to her, yet as Mikey started to guide her from the building there was that bite of guilt. Her great-grandmother was wrong, the people they ruined mattered. They had lives, people who loved them the way she had done Joseph. There were consequences she couldn’t brush off.

With sweat coursing down her back she raised her hand, calling every ounce of heat the ancestors could provide, setting fire to the building. She hadn’t anticipated Mikey wading hip deep into this with a power of his own, green eyes narrowing, her vision blurring at the edges as he had the security guard falling in an instant. Mab held on harder, the spell taking a little of the steam out of her. ”Italian, not Spanish. M-my family …” Like explaining where they were from was going to answer all the questions that would bubble up out of him. Mab knew they were coming, knew he was owed some of the answers, even if she should just take what he’d held on to and walk away.

Realising what he was left her with her own questions, but he didn’t owe her the answers to those. She had seen what she’d wanted to and had been prepared to use it. Would knowing in advance have changed how she did this? Mab only considered it for a moment before she scrambled back from the conflagration she’d started and hollered at him to do the same. No. That was something she would have used, she wouldn’t have needed to. Not now, and later? Later might get him killed and she wasn’t planning on having any more bodies on her conscience.

The air outside started to blow away the effects of the spell inside. Bracing muscles that still twitched with that power that had almost dropped her. The cold sweat drying on her skin as she bent over, drawing in breath after breath, blowing out that weakness with each exhalation. Her shoulders remained hunched, the muscles in her chest still trembling like a horse’s sides after a race. The ringing in her ears had faded at least enough to hear the snap in his voice as he glared at her. From a distance, there was a decent brain behind that pretty face, even if he didn’t let it show.

Her laugh rolled out low, dry. No, no, he shouldn’t have done. None of them should have trusted her, but it was far too late for that. ”I didn’t lie. We came to the school for those things. I needed your help to get them. What part of that was a lie, Mikey?” The part where she’d promised they weren’t breaking the law, where she’d squirmed past his determination to keep his nose clean. Where she’d now left him as a criminal again.

Slowly, she straightened up, dragging her hands back over her face, brushing that slick of cold sweat into her hair as she watched him pace like a caged animal. That description must have been true at some point. ”Yeah, I’m some kind of a fuckin’ witch,” she echoed back. ”I guess it takes a thing to know one. A kanima huh? You kept that quiet, although I guess one shared meal really isn’t enough time to play you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” Mab lifted her chin, taking a slow step towards where the box sat atop the car. She flipped the lid back, poked through it before she grunted an agreement. ”It’s all there. I’ve got you to thank for that.” She had freedom to thank him for too. Without Mikey’s help she would’ve been laid out on the floor in there like a fucking sack of potatoes for the Augustines to scoop up.

Leaving the box for a moment she approached him slowly, wary enough of the claws to keep an eye on his hands now. She was tempted to pat his cheek, to offer that beer again, but she was smart enough to know when she’d pushed her luck too far. ”Don’t worry Mikey. This was a one off. I’m done. No more shit to drag you into.” Her brows rose slowly, figuring this was the part where he’d back away from her. That childhood warning of not sticking your fingers into the sockets ringing like a bell in his head – don’t go looking to get zapped. ”Thank you.” Maybe a little honesty ringing in the words. His use had come to an end, she wasn’t her great-grandmother, she wouldn’t keep wringing him out until there was nothing left.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY (Finish with yours?) * Word Count: 1008