Watercolor Girl

12

Lev

Her shop’s driveway opens up and there are a few little spaces you can see people park on in her front yard. A small wooden sign at the end of the driveway announced the business with a small OPEN sign hung below it. My little Evie was bouncy and fidgety. Before I could get the truck in park she had bounced out of the seat pull me along, there were two doors, she chose the one on the far right front corner of the house. We walked in and there was an immediate squealing, it startled me.

“JELLLLLLY!!!!!!” And a tiny little woman was hugging my mate who still had a death grip on my hand. “Where ya been girl I haven’t seen you in months!” Her hair was formed into tight little locs that she pulled back with a bandana, they were multicolored but faded, she smelled like incense, very strongly of incense. She had bright sparkling blue eyes that sat behind small glasses. She was wearing ripped corduroy pants, a tank top, and an apron over that. She reminded me of a type of butcher. Her blue eyes moved to me “would this be why?” She said laughing.

“Rea, this is Lev. He’s a tattoo virgin.” I flushed a little.

“Well not for long, right.” She laughed again. “We doing more on your arm? Filling in some more of that bare skin?”

“No I don’t think so today. I have something else I want done. Do you have time?”

“Just had a 6 hour block cancel an hour in. I got all day for you.” Rea was friendly and cheery, it was infectious and she obviously had a soft spot for ‘Jelly’ as she called her. She looked at me kind of studying me.

“What do you want, guy.” I kind of faltered.

“I don’t really know.” Hesitating through it.

“Well what are you into? The dark s**t like you’re girl here? Girls? Cars? Cats?” She handed me a book and I flipped through the vast expanse of her portfolio of colorful flesh. “Give me a direction and I’ll start drawing.”

“I like… her.” Rea smiled a wide smile, and her red pencil hit the paper. She had something in her mouth she was rolling around. This place smelled sterile with wisps of incense. Evie sat smiling, still a death grip on my hand, staring out the window into the woods that wrapped around the house.

“Have you seen any more wolves, Rea?” Evie inquires.

“Big ass gray one a few times. Huge. Biggest wolf I have ever seen in my life. Caught it on one of the trail cams I have out there.” She never lifted her eyes from her drawing. I looked at Evie who was looking at me. She kept her eyes fixed on me while she chatted with her friend.

“Did this one seem sick?”

“Nooooo, not this one, it seemed alright.” Rea looked up at me.

“You seen the wolves out here yet?” I nodded, her eyes went back down and she continued to draw. “How big you looking to go with this and where do you want it placed, cowboy?”

“It depends what it is, size doesn’t matter. As big as it needs to be.” Rea smiled her big wide smile and her eyes sparkled. She looked at Evie.

“I like him.” And her eyes went back down to her drawing. I continued to flip through her book, she had a picture of Evie’s arm, her tree lady, her arm wasn’t as filled in then. She had a picture of Nox’s spider. In the very back of the book was a collage of pictures, different people. She had a picture of Evie laughing, her eyes closed, among several other people I’m guessing were customers at one time or another. It almost made me sad that I didn’t know this side of her, the many facets of my little warrior.

“Alright my friend. Here’s an idea for you. I can size it up and down and make changes. Just lemme know. I’m gonna step out and throw down a dart. Be back in 5.” She handed me her drawing. It was a semi silhouette of a woman against the moon, shaped obviously to match Evie, half of her was in shadow, the other half of her defined with little details, her eye, her lips, her long hair. She was dressed, or at least the half you could see, in tattered looking rags with little red splashes. Across her partially exposed stomach were red lines running from down into the area of her pelvis, she had similar lines along her legs and arms. The minute details were phenomenal. On the side in shadow, claws extended from her hand. In the other hand she held a tall wooden walking stick driven into the ground. Arms stretched out, a symbol of the pariah she’d been made.

“Does she know you’re…”

Evie shook her head.

“She just knows how to read people.” She didn’t ask to see it, and I loved every little piece of it.

“Well what do you think, cowboy?” I jumped, Rea laughed, hands on her knees type of belly laugh. “Well if you two weren’t made for each other. Jelly used to jump out of her skin anytime an ant farted.” A delivery truck pulled into the drive,

“Hey girl will you go grab that for me? I got needles coming in and I wanna get to stabbing this one.” Evie jumped up, brushed her lips across my forehead, and skipped out in her quiet way. Waving to the man getting out of the truck and making his way to the back of it. “Well?” She said popping another piece of candy into her mouth and rolling it around.

“I love it. All of it.” I handed it back to her.

“This is a rough kind of sketch. We’ll clean it up once I get going.”

“I trust you.” She looked at me.

“You sure you want to get this? The ink doesn’t come out, you know? It’s always gonna be there, even if she isn’t.” I looked out the window, there were several boxes stacked, Evie chatting with the driver, I’m guessing she’d done this before.”

“Positive.”

“Well alright where you want to put it.”

“Over my heart.” I didn’t take my eyes off of my little warrior with 100 names and lives I knew nothing about. Rea grabbed my hand, it stung but not like when Rayvn had put her mouth on me, I pulled back without thinking.

“It won’t hurt once I get the gloves on, but let’s get you in the chair.” Rea knew more about us then she let on, or maybe then Evie realized, because to me it was incredibly obvious. She knew us very well, I gathered.

I pulled my shirt off

“Ohhhhh boy something got you good there!”

“Sibling rivalry gone wrong.” She was copying and printing and wrapping pouring ink into little cups.

“Do you want any color in this?”

“Red”

“You two are too easy.” She pulled a red bottle out of one of the drawers of her toolbox filled with the tools of her trade. She pulled gloves on she pulled out a razor and splashed some antiseptic smelling stuff on my chest offering me one of her candies. “Smells better then that does.” I accepted, and she was correct, it certainly did smell better. She ran the razor with quick hands over my chest, it felt cold. She placed her stencil and pulled it off, looking at it. “Nope, you mind if we go just a smidgen bigger. I can get more detail on her and it’ll fit better, it’s either too small or you’re too big as it sits right now.”

I looked at her, “I trust you. Evie certainly does.” She wiped the purple stencil off my chest, pulled off her gloves and tossed them in a can next to the toolbox before getting up resizing reprinting, recopying and sitting back down, pulling on new gloves and replacing the stencil, peeling it off and examining it again.

“That’s it, right there. You wanna take a quick look.”

“It’s perfect.” Rea smiled. Picked up her machine, it buzzed, she adjusted it somehow, the tone of the buzzing changing as she made them, she dipped it into one of the many wells of black ink she’d set out.

“Alrighty, cowboy, here we go, and remember, it only hurts a little bit the first time.” She smiled with twinkling eyes.

Evangeline

It took longer then I thought to get all of Rea’s boxes up to the shop and inside. When I got back inside, Rea was working on Lev. He looked over his shoulder, at me and smiled. I sat in my usual spot by the window. Watching the woods. Occasionally watching Lev as he watched Rea do her thing. It took several hours, but I could sit in here all day. Listening to the humming of the machine. I don’t know why I loved it so much. I just did. It was a home away from home and had been since I first stumbled in the door.

“Rea your candy dish is empty.”

“Top drawer left side.” I filled her candy dish and snagged one. The simple green was too strong occasionally, the candy took the edge off. Rea worked steadily, 4 hours later and she stood up stretched her back and pulled her gloves off.

“Finished?”

“Just about.” Rea sprayed Lev’s chest, wiping it down gently. “Looks good to me. And I need a smoke.” She said waddling off towards the back where she goes to smoke. Lev sat up and stretched his arms and back.

“Is it what you expected?”

“Not as bad actually. I’ll punch the shader in the face though.” He chuckled. I grabbed another piece of candy.

“What color do you want?”

“Red, please.” I handed him one and he popped it in his mouth. Rea came back in stretching her arms.

“Alright let me get you wrapped up, cowboy.” She pulled out a roll of second skin type stuff and cut a few strips off. Peeling and placing and peeling while running down the aftercare instructions. “Buuuut, if your skin is anything like hers over there, ignore all that, leave this on until tomorrow night and you’ll be fine.” Lev pulled his shirt over his head. Thanking her. Her eyes turned to me.

“What can I do for you today my dear?”

“It’s just little. Can I borrow one of your fine point sharpies?”

“You know where they are.” Rea went about cleaning up Lev’s tattoo mess and setting it up all over for me. I grabbed one and handed it to Lev.

“Huh?”

Lev

She handed me a sharpie. And I stared at her confused.

“Huh?”

“You’re handwriting, here?” She said pointing to a blank spot under the tattoo on her chest.

“What do you want?”

“Whatever you want. The very first thing that comes to mind.”

I uncapped the marker and scribbled in my terrible left handed writing. It fit perfectly in the space. She smiled at me. Pulling my face down to kiss the tip of my nose, then bouncing over to Rea.

“You’re making my job too easy.” Rea didn’t go through the entire rigmarole like she had with mine. As soon as Evie sat in the chair it was like she was done. Cleaned up and stickered. I could understand why she enjoyed this process, and why she said it was addicting.

“Keep it on until tomorrow night, girly. You know the drill.”

Rea walked up seemingly reading my mind.

“First one’s free. That’s how I getcha.” She smiled that wide infectious smile. “Besides I still owe Jelly for the damn hog she dragged up here last time.” I looked at my tiny little mate, eyebrow raised.

“A hog, Evie.” She grinned at me, sheepishly almost.

“A-yeah, a hog. Big ass hog too and her tiny butt dragging it across my backyard. So freshly killed it might have been still kicking. I still have meat from it. Good jerky.” I shook my head rolling my eyes, and threw down 30 $20s.

“A tip then.” Nodding at her.

“Tipping makes it hurt less you know?” She smiled.

“It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Rea. I’m sure we’ll see you again soon.” She hugged Evie, tight. Whispering something in her ear low enough that I couldn’t hear it. Then she turned and hugged me just as tight. I liked Rea.

“Take care of her, cowboy. Ain’t a soul in the world looking after her.” She whispered in my ear, inhumanly quiet. I nodded at her. And thanked her again. She was careful when she hugged us to touch no skin.

Ronnie

I walked right on into the Alpha’s office like I owned the place. The little sigh of frustration gets me every time.

“Afternoon, Alpha! What can I help you out with today.” He motioned for me to sit and I obliged. “Finally met the wolf?” He nodded a bit slowly.

“I needed her report today.”

“Ohhh so the flower wore off early too then.”

“It sure did, but what is she.”

“She’s a wolf. Just like any of us.”

“She is not just like any of us.”

“She’s an asset. I can’t say for sure what it is. But it’s something that’s for sure.”

“Is she dangerous?”

“Nah I don’t think any more dangerous then any other wolf. She showed good restraint when I was poking at her. Tested her a few times walking back, when I strayed she barked to bring me back to ‘er”. She’s protective of her mate though. I wouldn’t mess with that. You want her do something make it about him. Like I told ya yesterday, only time she got salty with me was when I called him weak. She didn’t like that at all.”

“Would she be dangerous if someone hurt her mate?”

“Who wouldn’t be. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t be if someone hurt Luna. Then you’d be a liar.”

“What about if her mate hurt her?”

“Now that I don’t know. I couldn’t speak on it here nor there. You mean be dangerous to her mate?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think so. We’re programmed to love them. Iregardless of their flaws.” Alpha looked conflicted. Rubbing his chin.

“I don’t know what to make of her.”

“Well let me put it to ya this way. What do we know about her? We know she comes from old blood. Indian blood. We know she has the ability to survive immense bodily trauma, we both saw it, we both know if it were you or me we’d be dead and she don’t even have a scar, Alpha. Not one. And she was just barely out of puphood, she’s probably stronger now. We know the flower don’t affect her like it does everyone else.”

“She told me it locked her human out. And she’s smart, Ronnie. Some wolves, they’re all instinct. This one, she’s aware. She plans and postures. When she was in here, I told her we were probably going to need her help figuring this out. She gave me an ultimatum, went tit for tat if you will.”

“What did she want?” Alpha hesitated.

“A she wolf.”

“A she wolf? As a damn pet? What the heck she want a she wolf for?”

“No, a specific one. I haven’t figured it out yet but I’m pretty sure something happened with her mate and this she wolf yesterday.”

“Ohhhhh. Ohhhhhhh. She wouldn’t of been able to feel it on account of the flower, but that beta ain’t dumb. Why would he bring a frothy she wolf into his little wing up there? You’d be able to smell her a mile away.” I thought hard. Processing every little bit of the conversation. “Ohhhhhhhh. You think.” Alpha nodded. “I mean how? He’s prob one of the strongest wolves in this pack. That just don’t make sense.”

“I’ve never seen him put hands on a female. Dargan messes with him constantly, if she was rough enough, I think he would have just submitted. But I don’t know. I don’t know yet. That might not be it. He was messed up yesterday waiting for you guys. He wasn’t right.”

“Well yeah. They just mated what? Few days ago? You give him all of what comes with it, especially in the beginning, before it calms down, and you rip it out of him, which is basically what the flower did. It killed their connection and made her feel dead. Ya essentially killed off the other half of him. He wasn’t gonna be right.” I saw a pang of guilt run across Alpha’s face.

“I didn’t think of it that way.”

“Even if I were to take your Luna and bring her out there you wouldn’t feel what that wolf felt yesterday. If he didn’t lose it he’s stronger then I realized, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he messed around with that she wolf. When Rita went…” I had to pause. I still struggled to talk about my mate and acknowledge she was gone. “When Rita went, you search for that same feeling wherever you can. It ain’t the s*x, and you figure it out real fast. But you search for it anyway. Do you know this she wolf?”

“I do. Not well but of her.”

“She the type?”

“What type?”

“To put her hands on a mated wolf?” He nodded eyes far away.

“Him yeah. She’s had it out for him for quite awhile. Before they were mating age. He never had any interest in anyone, didn’t even seem to look at females that way. If you teased, he was always waiting for his mate and he didn’t seem ashamed of that.”

“Goddess be and she gave him the one his brother took. What a dang mess these two are.”

“They fit though. It almost feels like a really cruel joke on them, until you see them together. Then it just makes sense. Like a pair has never been more suited for each other ever.”

“You know what I think you aught to be doing, Alpha. You aught to be looking into the history of her clan. You know we’re all infinite. We just go on and on, from one life to the next. Goddess pairs us with our wolf and assigns us our mate in each life. You might learn something about her, if you can find her wolf going way back. And I think you aught to find a new spot for that she wolf, if it happened like we think it might have. These two are old souls with history.”

Evangeline

I sat in the passenger’s seat, again, his hand on my thigh drawing little circles.

“Where to now?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Don’t scratch it.”

“It’s itchy.”

“Slap it! It won’t Itch long. It’s just healing.”

“Why doesn’t yours itch?”

“It’s small. Easier to heal.”

“Do you like it?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t looked at it.”

“Well how do you know if you’re gonna like it if you haven’t even looked it?!”

“Because you put it there.”

“It could be anything!!”

“I hope it’s a millipede.” He laughed, big enough to show his canines. I loved them. I loved when he smiled or laughed and I got flashes of them. I loved his angular jaw and his dark facial hair. I loved his hands, his very calloused and hard hands. I loved his arms, the way the short sleeves on his shirt hugged them so you could see the definition of the muscle underneath, and I loved being in them.

“What is it with you and millipedes?” Still laughing. He hasn’t turned the GPS back on. So it wasn’t telling me where we were going but we were heading away from the pack territory, further out then where Rea was. I knew from my wanders there were mountains this way, but very little as far as civilization went. “When are you gonna look at it?”

“When it’s healed.”

“So tomorrow night?”

“Yep.”

“Did you see mine?”

“Nope.”

“Do you want to?”

“When it’s healed.”

“You’re ridiculous.” He turned and smiled at me. Slapping at his chest.

“Is it 4 hours worth of millipedes?” He howled. Reaching his hand down besides me and unbuckling my seat belt before sliding me over to the center seat beside him. He kissed my forehead.

“I love you, you know.”

“Not nearly as much as I love you.”

Lev

“Not nearly as much as I love you.”

A comfortable silence fell around us. And I contemplated that statement hard. I wonder how I would have reacted if the situations were reversed. Feeling empty wasn’t an excuse. She had to have felt the same, and she didn’t bone the old guy in the woods. I wonder if I would have let her explain, or if the explanation would have even mattered to me. The thought of someone even putting their hands on her drew an immense wave of jealousy and anger, but to think of everything else that transpired, the places my mouth went, if that was her with someone else. A wave of nausea rumbled through my stomach and I felt it turn, her hand hit the dash to brace herself before I even hit the break, I threw it in park and rolled out, vomiting up bile and heaving on the side of a nearly desolate two lane snaking up a mountain. She was beside me; her hand on my back.

“How did you know?” I retched out between heaves.

“Because I can feel everything you feel.” She said quietly and gently.

“Why don’t I feel you like that.” I snapped at her. She pulled back and when I looked up at her face read hurt.

“I don’t know.” I sucked in air, trying to normalize my breathing while the heaves got lesser and lesser.

“Who are you, Evangeline?! What are you?!” She backed away. Her face had gone blank and revealed nothing to me. Her arms were wrapped around her chest, almost like she was holding herself, not so much like she was angry. Til roared in my head, displeased greatly by the way I’d just spoke to her. I looked in her eyes and it was still her, deep brown with flecks of gold. She turned with impossible speed running into the wood line I sprinted off behind her, passing articles of her clothing, boots, her shirt, her pants just inside the woodline. It was like she was gone before they even hit the ground. I dropped to the ground beside her pants. I wasn’t going to catch her. My head in my hands again. I grabbed them, folding them neatly before getting up and collecting the rest of her discarded clothing, folding them meticulously, as I’d seen her do and placing them under a tree some 15 or 20 feet inside the tree line. I found no socks, so I grabbed a pair out of her bag and left them in her boots like she had done when she took them off before we went running, and before she went off with Ronnie. I folded a hoodie and left it there too because it was colder up here. “You’re ruining this.” Til lashed out. I got back in the truck and threw it in drive, continuing up the mountain.

“I KNOW.” - “Why can’t you just let her be her.” - “I don’t know, Til. I don’t know. I don’t know why I just snapped at her.” I slapped at my chest, it was so itchy, but oddly it helped. “You’re being selfish.” - “WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” - “figure it out.” And he receded and left me to my own thoughts. Driving very much alone. Up a mountain.