chapter THIRTY
Courtney sat next to Samuel on a love seat at The Chapel. Her mother was right; I barely recognized her from the picture she had given me. But I had a good idea what to look for in people, knew to look at the features and not the overall appearance. Her bottom lip was slightly fuller than the top, her button nose a little too short. She was a cute girl. Yes, cute was the word the came to mind. Next came “pretty,” but I imagined her playing an adorable little mouse in a childhood play.
Her photograph revealed her to be the girl next door. Flesh and blood showed her as very cyber-Goth. A chain strung from her nostril to the cartilage at the top of her left ear. Three more silver hoops glinted in each of her ears, which were showcased by unruly bright pink pigtails. She wore a black corset that gave the illusion of more chest than she truly had and a black micro skirt that would give the world a show if she moved carelessly. Pink leg warmers that looked like a shaggy dog had been skinned to make them stretched from her ankles to just above her knees.
She threw her head back and laughed, loud and seductive, at something Samuel had said.
I rolled my eyes at Vittorio; she was trying way too hard.
Samuel lightly stroked her neck, and she shivered under the touch. The adoration in her eyes made it plain that she was in love with him - or thought she was. Beneath the sexuality of her outfit, I thought she might be a virgin, and despised Samuel for preying on her.
Courtney studied me and smiled. The smile reached her eyes, and confidence radiated from her. I had expected her to be unsure of herself, lost, looking for meaning in her life as a runaway, but she knew exactly what she wanted and what she was doing. She wanted in the coven, and saw Samuel as her way in. The love was an act, so good an act that it had even fooled me.
Vittorio spoke first. “Courtney, I would like to introduce you to my love, Elena.”
She shook my hand with a firm grip, impressing and shocking me even more. “Nice to meet you, Elena.”
“I think we’ll leave you ladies to talk for a while,” Samuel said, standing to give me his seat, then walked to the other side of the balcony with Vittorio.
“How’d you snag Vittorio?” Courtney asked me. No beating around the bush for this girl.
“I honestly don’t know.” It was mostly truth. Had it not been for our power, I really wouldn’t know.
“Is he going to bring you into the coven?”
“Maybe. I’m still learning about it, so I’m not even sure I want to join.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to be part of something like that?” She raised her eyebrows.
“Like what?” I asked.
“A family who accepts you no matter what?”
“I haven’t been big on family in quite a while. Just more people to screw you over.”
Seeming to sense she was on thin ice, she changed the subject. What had this girl been through to give her such a strong character at such a young age? “So what do you do?”
I decided to be honest with her. Courtney obviously wouldn’t take bullshit from anyone, and I sensed that playing it straight with her would get me further than playing coy. “I’m a private investigator.”
Her eyes widened and she took deep breaths to control whatever emotion that conjured in her.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Courtney. Your mother hired me to find you. She’s worried sick about you.”
“You can’t make me go back home. I’m nineteen. That makes me legally an adult.”
“I know, and I”m not going to make you. But you should at least call your mom and let her know you’re okay.”
“Why should I? I hate her, and she hates me.”
I grabbed her arm without thinking. “You don’t know how lucky you are to have a mother who loves you as much as she does. Don’t you ever let me hear you say you hate her again.”
“What the hell? Get your hands off me,” Courtney snarled.
“I would give anything to have my mother alive. Anything. And here you are, mother alive and worried about you, acting like an ungrateful little snot.” I let her go, and she just stared at me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to your mother.”
Courtney stood up, walked to Samuel and said something to him, then left. I hoped she was going outside to call her mom, and that I hadn’t made a gigantic mess of things with her.