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I study her carefully blank face, not sure if I believe her.
Before I can say anything, she looks out of the window, at the sky turning pink in the evening sun. “Do you want a ride home? I’ve got business at the port tonight.”
I’m a little hurt and immediately feel stupid because of it. I remind myself that I have no right to her. She probably fucks every girl that works for her. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
12. THOUGH SHALT NOT GROVEL IN THE DIRT LIKE AN ANIMAL
I sit on my bed for a long time after getting home, knees under my chin, unsure of what to do. Home feels grim and pessimistic after the night I had with Celeste. When I check the fridge, the blood bag I had in it has disappeared. I know who took it – Mav’s half of the room looks extra messy, which it always does when he's having a bad week. But I can't be mad, not after everything he’s been through. Especially not since it’s birthday tomorrow.
He looks like hell when he returns the next day, face bruised and his right eye swollen.
I grimace and give him his gifts: a hideous purple jacket from the thrift store that I knew he would love, a little bag of Ghostshade, and one of those kid’s magazines that come with a toy. “Happy third twenty-first birthday!”
He looks pained at the mention of having been twenty-one for three years but the magazine seems to cheer him up. After putting on the jacket and striking a few poses for me, he gleefully rips off the little plastic gun and shoots his first foam bullet at me. “Thanks, dude!”
“Did something happen? You look terrible” It’s a stupid question because, of course, something happened. But I don’t know what else to say.
He shakes his head and loads up another foam bullet. “Just fucked up a little. It’ll be fine.”
“Fucked up how?”
“Well, since you’re no longer doing their runs, Alastor asked me to do some and… Whatever, it’s stupid.”
“Just tell me, Mav, you know I don’t think it’s stupid.”
“Well, one of the guys I’ve been seeing works for the Municipal Bureau and I got him to check on my mom’s file for me, you know, because she still has to pay all those court fines. And she’s been falling behind.”
I shift my position on my mattress, watching Mav, who’s laid down and is aiming at a piece of gum that’s been stuck to the ceiling since I moved in. He squints.
“I wanted to help since it’s my fault. He said he really wanted to try witch blood, maybe we could work something out. And he said he’d pay market value, too. I didn’t even know that’s what Charon’s Veil are selling. Where do you even get witch blood from?”
Do I tell him? My stomach feels heavy. Hearing him talk about his mom nearly breaks my heart every time. “So what did you do?”
“I tried to set him up but Alastor said it was only for premium customers, limited supply, whatever. He just wouldn’t do it.”
I have an ominous feeling about where this is going. “So?”
“So the next delivery I was supposed to make… I ‘lost’.” He makes airquotes around the wordlost.Pushing himself up a little to look at me, he says, “I had no idea how much money that shit is worth. It’s nuts.”
Grimacing, I say, “Mav! Alastor is going to kill you.”
He shakes his head. “It’s fine, I’ve already spoken to him. I apologized and told him about mom. He said he understands and is letting me work it off if I do some of the more dangerous jobs. But,” He tilts his head from side to side, “I did kind of get made an example of.”
“I can see that. Have you visited your mom lately?”
He shakes his head.
“Well since it’s your birthday I thought I could take you out to the blood bank? We could swing by her house after.”
He doesn’t look at me, guilt on his face when he says, “I already took some of your blood from the fridge. I’ was going to refill it–”
“It’s alright, Mav. Sorry you’ve had a shit week.”
His third bullet bounces of the wall and hits me in the head.
***
After taking the bus and stopping by the blood bank, we walk through Hel holding tumblers of hepatitis-B infected O-positive blood. Some people swear that they can taste the difference between healthy and diseased blood but I don’t believe it. It’s all the same to me and blood that’s ineligible for human donations is a lot cheaper.
