Chapter Nine
"Say that you once bought a heart or new corneas…"
Olivia checked the IV, staring carefully at the plastic bag of fluids. Connected to the fluids by a needle was a twenty-year-old woman with short blonde hair and a narrow face. The room around the patient and Olivia was sterile and white. She pulled the crisp white sheets gently away from the patient's body then rolled up her nightgown to check the stitches across her abdomen. Everything was still neat and in its place. She sighed quietly, moving to cover the woman again. A small hand gripped hers. Olivia looked up into the patient's dark brown eyes.
"Can you tell her thank you?" she whispered. Olivia nodded her assurance as she tucked the sheets around the woman's shoulders. "I owe her so much for this."
"Your husband already paid for the surgery," Olivia reminded her, deciding to deliberately misinterpret her meaning. The blonde smiled faintly.
"I would be dead if it wasn't for her. We couldn't begin to afford Geneco's prices." Olivia nodded. She'd heard this story a hundred times. People who barely made enough to live on were forced into Geneco's organ financing program, draining them of their money. Or worse. The worst part was that Geneco targeted the poor because they could never pay the company back entirely. They would make regular payments until they died. There were alternatives but none of the black market companies dared to work in the city so close to Geneco.
Until Mercy.
"You need to rest now so your husband can take you home," Olivia told her gently. The woman nodded vaguely.
"But could you tell me what she's like? No one knows her but you."
"There's nothing you need to know," she replied firmly. It was time to leave the woman to her rest. Olivia headed for the door but was forced to pause by the woman's next words.
"I almost remember her face." The blonde ran her fingers over her right cheek. She stared at the wall as if she could see something there. "Green eye. She looked so empty." Olivia tugged open the door and hurried out into the hallway. There was silence in that sparsely decorated hall, carpet silencing her footsteps. The only thing on the wall was a mirror. That was the very last thing she wanted to see.
The zydrate the Graverobber gave her was not just to ease the pain of those who underwent surgery in her morgue. The drug affected the memories of those under its influence. That way when Mercy operated, hair pulled back and face bare, no one could remember exactly what she looked like. The woman in recovery was still a little under the influence. In no time she'd forget even those vague details.
Olivia paused in front of the mirror even though she didn't want to. Her blue eye studied the curtain over the right side of her face. Mercy. It was the Graverobber's fault that she even had a name. He had seen the shape of an 'M' in the configuration of her scars and the name had stuck. Olivia smiled bitterly. It was such a misnomer. There was no mercy to her other side, only a ruthless efficiency.
And you thought you could be normal. Olivia closed her eyes against that rogue thought. The last thing she needed was a conversation with herself. Well, technically, it was a conversation with her other self. You'd like to think that.
"Shut up," she whispered, turning away from the mirror.
It's funny how hard you try to separate us. But the Olivia who plays mother to Shilo is the same as the Mercy who kills people in alleys. Does that terrify you?
"I said shut up," Olivia snarled. A quiet chuckle whispered through her parted lips and she abruptly shut her mouth.
We aren't Jekyll and Hyde, Livvy. You choose to be me. Olivia swung her fist that the mirror and it shattered. Glass shredded her knuckles, bloodied shards falling to the ground.
"Oh, yes, brilliantly done, Livvy," she hissed in a self-deprecating tone. "Get into an argument and punch something sharp. Clearly the best course of action." She turned away from the mess of glass and strode down the hall. Perhaps later when she'd bandaged her hand and felt less like a sociopath, she'd clean up.
"Experiment with something living."
Shilo didn't know how but she had to get her dad and Livvy together. There were a lot of reasons and all of them were good. For one thing, it would get Livvy around more often. If things went really well then she might even move in. That was a selfish motivation on Shilo's part but she did have reason's that benefited them, too. They were clearly sexually interested in each other. She might be sixteen but she wasn't blind. When she'd walked in on her father and Livvy against a wall, the attraction had been obvious. Shilo had worried a little that her dad would never get over Marni and that it would keep him from seeing that Livvy was a pretty, living woman. The events of Thanksgiving had completely rid her of that concern. The way they'd whispered and laughed together screamed 'made for each other'. Sure they argued a little. That just added spice to the relationship.
What Shilo needed was a plan. She had to find a way to get Livvy and her dad alone together without wanting to find a distraction. Of course, the only thing they did alone together was argue and that wasn't any good. Then again, the last time they'd argued her father had looked like he was an inch from kissing Livvy. Maybe arguing really was the way to go.
It took her a few days to construct exactly what she would say to her father that would inevitably spark an argument. Finally she had it. About an hour before Livvy would show up at the gate, Shilo was playing chess with her father. It had become a habit for him to spend time with her before Livvy got there. She figured it was because he didn't want to feel left out of her life. For most of her childhood Shilo never knew just how lonely her dad was. Now she was beginning to figure it out. Hopefully with her help, he wouldn't be so lonely anymore.
"Um, dad?" she asked tentatively as he captured one of her pawns. "Could I ask you something?"
"Of course you can, Shi," he said, glancing up at her anxious face. "You know you can ask me anything."
"I just wondered if you were looking after yourself. I mean, it's not like you're ancient or anything but you are older and your health is important," Shilo rambled as she made a rather stupid move with her bishop. He captured it a moment later with a fond smile on his face.
"I'm perfectly healthy, Shilo. What brought this on?" She stared at the board, considering.
"Well, I was talking to Livvy last week and she said some things that worried me." This was only partly true. They had talked last week about a certain subject but she hadn't immediately thought of her father. She'd thought of him later when she concocted this whole plan.
"What sort of things?" She heard the frown in his voice as she made her next move. Shilo pretended to be hesitant about what she said next so he wouldn't get suspicious.
"Sex, mostly." He cleared his throat.
"Oh?" She nodded quickly, meeting his eyes.
"The thing is there are a ton of things that could kill you and sex actually works to prevent some of them. It strengthens the immune system and it's great exercise. Plus, did you know that a guy who has sex twice a week greatly reduces the risk of a fatal heart attack? I mean, it's a seriously good thing but you don't have sex. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to think about you and… all that. But what if you drop dead because you were too busy looking after me to get a girlfriend?" She'd never seen her dad's eyes that wide. He looked as though she'd hit him with a shovel. It was almost worth talking about sex in front of him to see his stunned expression.
"Did you talk to… to Olivia about this?" he asked faintly. She shrugged.
"Well, we didn't talk about you specifically. It was mostly just girl talk with some facts throw in. That's what Livvy said anyway. She said it was normal for women to talk about sex a lot since they either aren't getting any or they're not getting the right kind." Her dad started coughing violently then. She reached over to pat his back, deeply concerned. She'd wanted to get him annoyed at Livvy, not coughing up a lung. "Dad?"
"It's nothing, Shi," he assured her, gently squeezing her hand. Then his cheeks flushed as what they had previously been discussing came back to him. "You don't have to worry about my, er, health. I'm in fine shape without… all that."
"Are you sure?" Shilo asked uncertainly. "Maybe we should ask Livvy if she knows anyone - "
"No!" he exclaimed, hastily cutting her off. "No, I'm fine. Now, uh, why don't you clean up while I go check to see if Olivia's here."
"But dad," Shilo began but he didn't hear her as he fled the room. "She won't be here for another twenty minutes at least." She waited a few seconds before grinning. If that didn't get Livvy and her dad to argue, nothing would.
"Can't get it up if the girl's breathing?"
Olivia had no idea what was waiting for her as she walked up the steps to the front door. She was digging in her bag to make sure she'd remembered to bring extra thread. Shilo had started her very own quilt and Olivia wanted to have everything she needed on hand. Since she was looking down, she didn't see Nathan's face when he opened the door.
"Hey there," she said casually, relieved when she saw the extra spool of thread. Then she was jerked into the house and the relieved feeling went away. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's with the manhandling?"
"Do you know what my daughter asked me before you got here?" he demanded with a scowl. Olivia stared blankly at him.
"How the hell should I know? I just got here."
"She asked about my sexual health." Olivia choked, eyes snapping wide open. She would absolutely not think about Nathan and the word sex in the same sentence. No thoughts. No thoughts at all.
"Well, then. You've had an eventful day," she commented lightly. His scowl deepened.
"She asked because you put the idea in her head."
"I did not!" she protested, trying very hard not to sputter.
"Did you or did you not have a talk about sex with Shilo?" he questioned. She shifted from foot to foot, glancing away from his face.
"Oh, that. Well, yes we did discuss it a little," she admitted.
"It seems you discussed it at some length." Olivia decided that the only way she could keep her mind out of the gutter during this talk was to never look him directly in the eye. She went instead to the coat rack and set down her back as she pulled off her jacket.
"She was curious," Olivia defended.
"And you thought it appropriate to discuss all the health benefits for men?" he demanded. She rolled her eyes.
"There are benefits for both parties and I mentioned both. I'm an equal opportunity girl." She hung her coat up in the rack and then proceeded to straighten out the wrinkles.
"From now on you should consider not mentioning either," Nathan said in a voice that made it clear that he wasn't suggesting so much as ordering.
"She's a hormonal teenager. The subject will come up from time to time." Then she added something very stupid to the argument, "Just because you're sexually dead doesn't mean she isn't interested." Olivia felt like smacking herself the second it came out of her mouth.
"Excuse me?" he growled. She turned around to apologize but one look at his dangerous green eyes had her fumbling for words. The growl certainly hadn't helped her frame of mind.
"Uh, that didn't come out right," she mumbled, stepping back as he approached her. She had to stop when her head bumped against the coat rack. When he reached up and removed his glasses, Olivia felt an irrational surge of panic.
"Shilo mentioned something else you told her," he said quietly. His voice had deepened into something dangerous and wicked. She inched away from the coat rack, ending up against the wall instead. It wasn't much of an improvement. She tried to move a little further away but Nathan fenced her in with his arms.
"Oh?" she squeaked. Olivia glanced at his hands on the wall, long fingers splayed against wallpaper. Those hands would catch her long before she tried to duck under his arms. She was stuck. He casually set his glasses down on the table beneath the coat rack before circling her throat with his right hand.
"You told her that women talk about sex because they either aren't getting any or they're not getting the right kind." There was something inherently sinful about Nathan saying 'getting any' in that harsh, growling voice. His thumb skimmed her jaw. "Tell me, Olivia, which is it for you?" She stared at him with wide eyes. This wasn't scaring her nearly as much as it should be. What concerned her was the fact that a very dark part of her was responding to Nathan. Something about his eyes, his voice… She began imagining what it would be like to give in to the voice she ignored when murder wasn't involved.
"You're asking for trouble," she murmured, unable to keep the shadows out of her voice as it lowered to a tone that was all too dangerous.
"Am I?" Olivia felt her control slip when his warm breath moved across her cheek. She gripped his vest and jerked hard, twisting him around so their positions were reversed.
"Yes, you are," she whispered as her mouth hovered over his. "I haven't gotten any in a long, long time, Nathan. It makes me edgy." Olivia walked her fingers up his shirt until she could feel the warm hollow of his throat and just the beginning of his chest hair. She swiftly pressed her left cheek against his as she whispered into his ear, "Don't tempt me."
And what the fuck did she think she was doing, exactly? Olivia came back to herself and backed off immediately. She couldn't believe she just did that. She'd allowed herself to indulge in what her other half had wanted instead of being good. Olivia cleared her throat. "I, uh, I'm just going to… go see Shilo," she mumbled, grabbing her back and sprinting up the stairs.
The heat would go away. She would make it go away.