This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

Chapter Fifteen

Audry walked into the subway, her thoughts full. She had finally met one of those poor men who had been attacked in Germany. His story corroborated with Rick’s story very well, but it was so sad.

Yet while she was going down the steps, Audry recognized someone coming up them. It looked just like Daisy. Her hair was the same honey color, same wavy thickness. Her face had the same shape, and she was wearing the kind of clothes she would have expected Daisy to wear, a loose dress that hardly clothed her, slip-on tennis shoes without socks, and a small purse. Her walk was animal like, how one would expect a wolf to move as it made its way through grass—only she was making her way through people. Audry stared for a full minute, but the woman did not even notice her. She just kept on going.

The craziest notion came into her head. Daisy was not a New Yorker and she really did not seem dressed for a New York kind of job. And though she walked with confidence as men whistled at her, she did not seem to be there to engage in any sort of interaction with them. So she was on task. Curious, Audry decided to follow her to see what she was doing in New York City, walking back up the steps a few paces behind Daisy.

Sticking her hand into her purse, preparing to use her tazer just in case as she followed the hardly-dressed woman down the street, Audry kept her distance. She knew the woman was dangerous. Rick had said as much. But Daisy just seemed to be following her nose rather than a set route, glancing at signs and at shops. She walked about a block from the subway, crossed the street, then she stepped into an alleyway. And though once or twice Daisy looked back, she did not seem to see Audry. Either Audry had blended into the crowd—doubtful as she was wearing the same tee shirt that Daisy had first met her in at the conference—or Silvia’s shadow spell worked on Daisy too.

What had Silvia said? It affected predators? Or maybe it just affected those who wanted to hurt her. Or perhaps it just affected cultists. Witches and moon worshippers were not that different.

As Daisy strolled beyond dumpsters and under steel balconies and fire escapes, going deeper into the alleyway until the street was nearly out of view, Audry stepped into a brick doorway, watching her from the shadow. This was weird. Was this a drug stop or—?

Then she saw Rick. He came into the alley from another way. Audry stared, blinking at him. Not dressed in his usual suit, he was wearing casual clothes with his hoodie up. He seemed to be rattled like someone needing a hit of whatever drug Daisy was selling. He did not see Daisy at first, his nose on the air like he was sniffing something out. For a moment, he almost looked Audry’s way. She ducked back further.

Wasn’t he supposed to be at Brown? That was three hours away in Rhode Island. What was he doing in New York? It wasn’t a weekend. He had to have classes. Also, he did not see Audry either as he walked in, though she would have been in full view for him. His eyes fixed right on Daisy as soon as he spotted her.

“You were not at your apartment,” he said to her. He was trembling like a drug addict, breathing shallowly. It was surprising. Perhaps Rick actually was on drugs and they had gotten it all wrong. Perhaps Daisy was his dealer. That would make sense. Especially with the pale desperation on his face.

“Someone is watching the apartment. I had to move,” Daisy said in her seductive drawl, her shoulders forming a casual shrug as she advanced on him like a predator. She didn’t take anything out of her tiny purse to give to him. He wasn’t fishing for his wallet to pay her.

Rick closed his eyes, almost sighing with relief. His eyes looked around the alley as if he were now searching for an escape route, still missing Audry for some reason. “It’s probably my friends.”

Daisy growled, which to Audry was entirely weird. The woman growls? Who growls? Even Silvia did not growl.

“I’ll give you my new address later,” she said, gently caressing her lips against his neck near his ear. “Somewhere closer to you with more privacy.”

Still no drugs exchanged, but she was coming onto him like a whore.

“We have to stop doing this, Daisy. I am not going back to the pack. You know this.” He sounded pathetic, addicted, and tired as she set her hands on his chest.

“But what about me?” Daisy put on her sexy act, stroking the blade of her fingers along his face and then running them through his hair. He closed his eyes, breathing harder. “We’re destined to be together. We are moon bonded.”

Such disgust filled Audry. This is what was happening. Audry inched back to leave. She didn’t need to see any more. It was not a drug exchange. It was just Rick and Daisy hooking up. As Audry headed quietly back to the main street, her mind growled about him.

So pathetic. Rick had gone back to Daisy, that slut. Was he also getting into cult stuff again? Or just that southern whore? Audry had honestly thought better of him. And though something in her shouted that she ought to call Rick out right there, something else screamed for her to mind her own business and get away—kind of in Rhett’s voice—reminding her that well-meaning people got hurt for simply associating with Rick Deacon. And Audry knew Daisy despised her. Daisy despised any woman who was even slightly friends with Rick. Audry could feel it way back then at the conference. Besides, their trysts were none of her business. Rick was grown man and he could make up his own mind about the women he spent time with. At least he was sticking to just the one.

Audry went back to the subway to go to NYU, though she thought about calling Matthew to let him know Daisy was in the area. Maybe later.

Moaning, Rick said with a skyward stare, unaware they had been watched. “I don’t even know if that is real. Honestly. Kurt said—”

“Kurt is not an expert in moon bonding,” Daisy stroked her hands up Rick’s arms and along the scar near his neck. “You know what it feels like. You know what we have.”

“With real stuff, we are not compatible,” Rick said with a whine, nearly shaking while he struggled to withstand her touches as they stirred something inside him, and he knew it would lead to sex if he did not stop it now. He had gone back to that Brooklyn apartment so many times… He felt pathetic. This was a chance to make a break. “We hardly know each other for pity’s sake. I mean—”

Daisy kissed him.

He leaned in, unable to resist. They kissed for several seconds, passionately clinging to each other, nearly clawing one another to get to the other. She was already fiddling with his belt. When they broke apart to breathe, Rick rested his head against her shoulder while her hands rubbed down into his pants. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“You belong to me,” Daisy said, kissing him again and opening her shirt to remind him why. With her ample breasts exposed for him, he kissed them, hungry for her. She held his head, rubbing her fingers through his hair.

“Come with me,” she whispered, her hands loosening his pants again. “Come with me. I know where we can make love.”

“I can’t. I can’t…” Rick breathlessly panted, still kissing her like it hurt to resist, even as she unzipped the front to his jeans. “I shouldn’t. Not again. We can’t keep doing this. I’ll get you pregnant, if I haven’t already.”

“You’re mine. You belong with me.” She lifted her skirt, leaning into him while wrapping one leg around his waist, and pushed down his briefs.

Impassioned, he pressed her against the alley wall bricks, heavily making out with her as he gave in to his addiction.

A cat knocked over some trashcans in the alleyway.

Rick immediately let go of her and ran off, zipping his pants closed.

“Damn cat,” Daisy muttered, jerking her skirt down. She looked for Rick, but he was already gone.

*

Her mind now more solidly set on getting married, mostly in disgust at seeing Rick get back with his slutty whore ex, Audry went about to finish all the wedding details. She and Hogan had finally chosen a date, and they were getting their wedding photo taken tomorrow afternoon to add to the invitations. Things were falling into place. Everything was going right. And to prove it, Audry also got an invitation to another Africa trip with a professor down in Tanzania in the Ngorongoro National Park, a dream of hers when she was younger.

Wistfully, she gazed at the invitation, knowing she would have to turn it down as she would be getting married during that time. Though Hogan would be game to go to such a trip, her family would have a fit if she put off the wedding for yet another journey to Africa. Instead, she would have to write a polite letter thanking the professor for the offer, and also give him a wedding invitation even though he would not be able to attend the ceremony. It did not do well to burn bridges after all. One day she might be invited back to Ngorongoro.

Walking from a café where she just had lunch, wrapped in her jacket against the cold of autumn and carrying the samples of fabric for the bridesmaids dresses, realizing her first two picks for bridesmaids were indisposed due to a baby and being hunted by homicidal witches, Audry wondered if she ought to call her old childhood friends to stand in their stead. And she wondered if Silvia would get offended by that. She’d have to text her and Jessica to find out.

“Hey,” someone called out in her direction.

Audry kept on going. There were a lot of people on the street after all. That could be for anybody.

“Hey Artemis,” that someone said.

Audry stiffened and looked back.

Charlene walked toward her with another woman a few steps behind her. Isis’s eyes were fixed peevishly on Audry, the woman dress as usual like she wanted to star in a Beyoncé music video, with bronzed skin and tons of makeup. But the woman behind her was completely different. Entirely conservative in her appearance and manner, she had a peaches and cream complexion and straight brown hair. Probably another goddess like Cara.

Sticking her hand into her purse to get her pepper spray, Audry turned around to face them. “Stay back.”

Charlene halted. “What the hell is wrong with you? I just want to help.”

“No, you don’t,” Audry shot back, her hand wrapping around the pepper spray canister. “You are here because you want to punish Hogan. You want him miserable for leaving you. You stalked him. You doxed him. Give it up and get a life.”

Baring her bright white teeth, Charlene seemed to snarl. So much hate was in her eyes. And the other woman glanced at Charlene as if to agree with Audry. However, that woman stepped forward and said, “That may be true for her, but