She looked even more beautiful in person.
I'd seen her photograph, but it hadn't prepared me for the woman standing in front of me.
She was nervous.
Her heartbeat gave her away.
Yet her face remained calm.
Interesting.
There was something different about her eyes.
She was afraid, but she refused to let me see it.
I watched as she slowly regained her confidence.
She straightened her shoulders.
Lifted her chin.
And suddenly, the nervous woman who had entered my room disappeared.
In her place stood someone else.
Confident.
Seductive.
Almost playful.
I leaned back against the sofa and took another drag from my cigar.
"I'm here to de-stress."
She nodded.
I could tell she was trying to figure out what I wanted from her.
"Dance."
She paused.
Only for a second.
But I noticed.
I couldn't help wondering what she would choose.
There was something about her appearance that intrigued me.
The short green hair.
The black leather.
The boots instead of heels.
She looked like some kind of gothic fairy.
A dangerous one.
She turned toward the sound system.
I watched her closely.
She reached up to select a song.
And that's when I saw her back.
My body went completely still.
A large tattoo stretched across her upper back.
Bat-like wings spread across her shoulder blades, black feathers intertwined with delicate vines.
A dark red trail ran down the center of her back.
My eyes narrowed.
That wasn't a tattoo.
It was a seal.
An old one.
Very old.
I had seen markings like this before.
But never on a human.
The seal looked damaged.
Broken.
Someone had attempted to repair it, but the markings were still visible beneath the skin.
Impossible.
"Where did you get that?"
She stopped.
Her fingers remained above the sound system.
"What?"
I nodded toward her back.
"Your tattoo."
She glanced over her shoulder.
"Oh."
Her expression changed.
Just slightly.
"You like it?"
I didn't answer immediately.
I studied the markings.
"Who designed it?"
She shrugged.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"No."
She turned toward me.
"I've had it for as long as I can remember."
My interest sharpened.
"As long as you can remember?"
"Yeah."
She smiled as though she hadn't noticed the seriousness in my voice.
"Why? Is there something wrong with it?"
I leaned forward.
"Where did you get it?"
She hesitated.
"I told you. I don't know."
There was something about her answer that bothered me.
Not because I thought she was lying.
Because I believed her.
She genuinely didn't know.
I looked at the seal again.
Someone had put that mark on her.
Someone had either wanted to protect her…
Or contain something inside her.
Neither possibility was comforting.
"Interesting."
She tilted her head.
"Is that a good interesting or a bad interesting?"
A faint smile touched my lips.
"I haven't decided yet."
She stared at me for a moment.
Then she turned back toward the sound system.
The music began.
Slow.
Dark.
Seductive.
I watched as she reached for the pole in the middle of the room.
Her confidence returned instantly.
Her fingers wrapped around the metal.
And something about the way she looked at me told me she had forgotten the question I had just asked.
Or perhaps she wanted me to think she had.
I took another drag from my cigar.
Who are you, Rita Rain?
Because whatever that mark was…
She wasn't just an ordinary human.
And I intended to find out why.