by Deanna Chase
“I assume Allcot took care of him,” I said.
“You have to ask?” I heard Willow say in the background.
“Just making sure,” I shot back.
She chuckled. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
Leo and Iris spent a few more minutes visiting until Imogen shooed them out. “Time for rest,” she said and hit a button on my drug machine. The sweet pain reliever kicked in, and in moments I was out, dead to the world in a deep, dark sleep.
24
I’d been at Imogen’s clinic for two more days and still hadn’t seen Dax. I’d been told he’d been in and out the entire time, but I was always asleep when he was by my side. The signs were there. He’d left folders from my inbox, flowers, a card, and even some fresh-baked, nonmagical cookies after he heard I’d been complaining about the ones Willow was force-feeding me to get my strength up. She meant well, it was just that I was tired of raisins, and those were a main ingredient in her Oat-Mend cookies. I was done.
I sat up in bed and flipped the top file open. It was a report from IT on Hailee’s phone. Everything I’d ever needed was in there. King’s phone number, Macer’s direct line, Strix’s actual bayou address. How’d she get all that information? I flipped the page and found pictures of her on a yacht in a teeny-tiny bikini. She had one arm around King and the other around an older man I didn’t recognize. He had his hand on her ass and was leaning in, kissing her neck. I turned the photo over and learned the man in the picture was Macer.
There was an entire stack of pictures devoted to Hailee’s attempts to woo the billionaire. Maybe she hadn’t been the innocent college girl I’d pegged her to be. I slammed the folder shut. It wouldn’t do anyone any good now. This morning we’d learned Hailee had perished after spending two days trying to recover from wounds incurred in the brawl outside’s Strix’s house. I couldn’t say I was upset about it. She’d been attacked by one of the vampires while trying to choke the life out of Iris, so it wasn’t as if she was blameless. But it was still hard to swallow.
The door swung open, and finally there was Dax.
He paused near the door and grinned at me. “You’re finally awake.”
“You look different.”
He nervously ran a hand over his thick hair and glanced down at his jean-clad body. “How so?”
“Your hair is darker. Thicker too, I think. And did you shave this morning?”
He nodded.
“Your five-o’clock shadow is coming in about six hours too early.” I scanned him from head to toe, and honestly, it wasn’t that I didn’t like what I saw. Because damn, he was looking fine as hell. It was just that it had been less than a week since I’d last seen him and suddenly he was resembling someone from a magazine cover. The dude was just hot. “Have you been working out and I just didn’t notice? I mean, look at those arms.”
He ran his hands over his forearms and closed his eyes as he seemed to gather himself. “Phoebs, there’s something you need to know.”
“Your voice is even deeper,” I said. “How is that—?”
“Phoebe.” He cut me off as I marveled at his appearance. “I’m trying to tell you something important.”
“Okay.” I sat up straighter and waited. “Shoot.”
He moved to sit on the edge of my bed. Then he took my hand in his large one. “The antidote didn’t seem to work on me.”
I blinked twice. “What?”
“You know, Tal and Imogen’s antidote… it didn’t knock out all the toxins in my bloodstream.”
“Okay.” I cleared my throat, trying not to let panic set in. “What does that mean exactly?”
“Well, I’m not going to go crazy if that’s what you’re asking,” he said with a soft smile.
I tightened my grip on his hand. “That’s something at least.”
“Yeah.” He let out a humorless chuckle. “But the toxin is the reason for all these changes.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That’s not… I thought the toxin was to make stronger, better, more ruthless soldiers.”
“It was, but the drug also enhanced other physical characteristics such as muscle tone and sometimes other random features such as hair and voice. Others are reporting growing a few inches or eye-color change.” He shrugged. “But the common denominator is muscle mass. Macer really was building an army, and a lucky few of us are stuck with the side effects.”
I raised one eyebrow. “If you have to be stuck with side effects, I can think of worse ones.”
He laughed. “True. But it’s disorienting when you’re used to seeing one person in the mirror and suddenly you’re something else.”
“Poor guy,” I said, only half teasing. “Do you want me to pretend I don’t notice your sexy arms or this thick hair that I want to run my hands through?”
“No,” he said, his voice suddenly husky. “Not at all.”
“Good, ’cause when I get out of here, I can’t wait to get my hands on you.”
Dax cupped my cheek, leaned down, and brushed his lips over mine. “Promise me that when I take you home, you’ll take it easy for a while.”
“You’re taking me to my home?” I asked. “What about yours?”
He shook his head. “I see how you dodged answering that.”
I just smiled up at him. “What can I say? I’m a Void agent.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard.” His eyes turned serious as he gazed down at me, brushing his fingertips over my jawline. “I haven’t said thank you yet.”
“For what?
“Saving my life. Don’t think I forgot that you literally took a bullet for me.”
“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way,” I said. “I mean, I would. You know I would. I just, I saw the gun and tried to shield you with my magic, but I guess Strix had been meaning to aim for me the whole time.”
He leaned up on one elbow and shook his head. “No, Phoebs. You did shield me, but not only that, you directed the bullet to go toward you and not anyone else. You took that bullet for all of us.”
“I did?” I asked, completely shocked. “I didn’t… I mean, I had no idea.”
“Get used to it, Kilsen. You’re a fucking hero.”
Hero or not, I still had a job to do. After seven days in the infirmary, I was released from Imogen’s care. By then everyone had gotten back to their regular lives, and I’d told Dax not to worry about picking me up. After he’d retrieved my car from the bayou, he’d left it in Imogen’s parking lot for when I needed it.
Today I was finally going to make my way out to River Road. I hadn’t forgotten about the tip Dax had received regarding my brother. And I’d had days lying in my room thinking about it. But I had a stop to make first.
The day was cooler than usual, the skies overcast and thick with the threat of rain. I loved it. The gloomy skies suited my mood perfectly. And if it rained, all the better. It would be like a cleansing to wash away all that had happened in the past few weeks.
The first drops started to fall just as I pulled into Simone’s driveway. Her small Caribbean-blue cottage was so happy looking set against the dark green of the bayou. I’d been told she’d woken with no memory of the attack or why she’d been in the library in the first place. I wanted to find out if that was true.
Armed with her notebook I’d found in the library the day after the attack, I stepped out of my car and made my way up her walk. Before I even made it onto her front porch, Simone opened the door and leaned in the doorway. Her dark curls were tied up with a brightly colored yellow-and-blue scarf, and she wore a matching sundress that complemented her dark skin.
“It’s about time you came to see me,” she said, her heavy Cajun accent making me smile as she waved me in. “I heard you had a couple of exciting weeks.”
“Just about as exciting as yours, only I remember what happened to me,” I said, stepping inside her air-conditioned home.
Her smile vanished. “They told you I didn’t remember?”
“Yes. Is that not
true?”
She shook her head, then took me by the hand and led me to her small kitchen table. Two glasses had already been filled with iced tea. “Sit.” She gestured to one of the glasses. “Drink up. I made it special for this visit.”
I did as I was told, then eyed her. “How did you know I was coming today?”
She just shrugged. “Swamp witches, we know these things.”
“Fair enough.” I placed her notebook on the table. “Want to tell me what happened that night?”
“There’s not much to tell. I was in the library waiting for you when Allcot’s vampire showed up.”
“Tanner?” I asked.
“No. His name is TR. I’d met him once before at a Cryrique benefit.” Her dark eyes narrowed with the memory. “He was very average: average height, light brown hair, dull brown eyes. He’d have been very forgetful if he hadn’t been leering at me and drooling on my cleavage.”
I grimaced. “Jeez. It’s always the harmless-looking ones that are the worst.”
“Always,” she agreed with a shake of her head. “First he tried flirting with me and wanted to give me a taste of that shit he sells. What do they call it? Scarlet?”
“Yeah. He really tried to get you to try it?” Simone wasn’t even a shifter. What was he trying to do, kill her? The answer was obvious. If he was offering a witch Scarlet, there was no other explanation.
“Yes. In fact, he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Finally I told him I wasn’t interested then grabbed it out of his hand and broke the needle. No one needs that crap. It kills.”
At least that explained why there had been a green syringe in her hand. TR, we’d learned, had also been Strix’s supplier. He’d been distributing the tainted drug as well as some that was pure to his regular clients. “Then what happened?”
“The son of a bitch lost his mind and attacked me. Told me to keep my trap shut, that no one was to know about the portals. Said Allcot sent him.”
Allcot, that piece of work. Had he really sent TR to kill Simone or just to stop her from sharing her information. If so, why? What did he care if I learned about some hypothetical portals? “Did he give you any clues as to why Allcot sent him?”
She shook her head. “No idea. The information I was trying to share with you is ancient magic, an area I’m interested in studying. I thought maybe we could look into it together.” She tapped the notebook I’d brought back to her. “Were you able to take a look at this?”
I let out a small chuckle. “Look at it, yes. Translate it, no. I was a little busy.”
“I figured that’s what you’d say.” She took a long sip of her iced tea, then flipped the book open. “See this?” She pointed to a small drawing that resembled an open door.
“Yeah.”
“It’s called the Window to the Other. It’s a portal to a parallel universe.”
“And what does that mean?” I studied the picture and the girl who stood in the middle of the portal with one foot in one universe and one in another. The half of her body that was in the second universe was hidden from the viewer.
“It means we all have two lives. One in this world and another in an alternate universe that depicts our lives had we made different choices at pivotal moments.”
I blinked a few times, trying to process what she’d just said. “Two paths, that’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes. And if we can open a window to another universe, would we want to? Should we? Would the temptation to see our lives in another light be too great for us? If we knew this existed, would we be able to resist?”
“I don’t have the answers to those questions.”
She shrugged. “Neither do I. But I find them fascinating. And now I want to know why Eadric Allcot wants to keep me from even asking them.”
“So do I,” I said, once again finding myself conflicted about the man who’d just helped save my life and the lives of my loved ones. How could he order an attack on a harmless—well, seemingly pleasant—swamp witch one day and then step up the moment I called asking for help? Of course, I had asked Pandora for help, and when it came to Pandora, everyone knew she was Allcot’s weakness. He’d do anything for her, just like I’d do anything for Dax.
“There’s a lot going on behind those dark eyes of yours, Agent Kilsen.”
“Just inner turmoil,” I said, shaking my head. “I know you’re supposed to believe people when they show you who they are the first time. My problem is that some of them keep showing me radically different versions.”
She tilted her head to the side and studied me. “But are they really showing you different people?”
Were they? I wasn’t sure.
“Just think about it,” she said.
“I will.”
“Good. Now, is there anything else I can help you with today?” She was already standing up, and I took that as my cue to stand as well.
“Yes. Do you think these portals are real?”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I think, it only matters what is real.”
I sucked in a breath and tried not to say something stupid or refer to her as Yoda. Instead, I asked, “Have you seen one?”
“No. But I believe you may have.”
She was referring to the area across the street from the Greek revival-style Creole townhome I shared with Willow. Six weeks ago, my brother had come back into my life after being missing for eight years with no explanation. Then he’d disappeared into thin air right before my eyes. I hadn’t seen a window or any portal though. Seth had simply been there one minute and gone the next. “I’m not so sure,” I said. “I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but it doesn’t feel probable, or at least it didn’t until I learned Allcot doesn’t want this information out.”
“It’s interesting how when someone is desperate to keep something secret, their goal becomes nearly impossible, don’t you think?”
I couldn’t help but agree.
25
The skies had opened up and drenched southeastern Louisiana while I’d been having iced tea with the swamp witch. We’d discussed the possibilities of a portal, or some sort of earthbound wormhole or even an opening to another dimension here on earth, like heaven or hell or something in between.
Simone was still speculating that Seth was living in another parallel universe. I was half convinced I’d dreamed the entire thing. I’d have stuck with that if my brother hadn’t actually been there when we’d fought a sorceress who’d been planning to suck the life out of my best friend. None of that had been an illusion. I had the scars to prove it.
By the time I left, I was just as confused as ever and was dying to call Allcot on his bullshit… again. The idea of him ordering one of his shady vamps to attack Simone made my stomach turn. One of these days, I was going to learn there was no honor buried deep inside that arrogant vampire. No matter how many good deeds he racked up, he was still an opportunistic bully who didn’t deserve my trust.
But instead of turning my car back toward the city, I pointed it toward River Road. That tip that Dax heard about my brother would haunt me unless I checked to see for myself. Who knew? Maybe my wild-goose chase in regard to portals and magical windows would prove to be utter nonsense. Maybe my brother really was living on an old plantation, and for whatever reason he felt like he couldn’t get in touch.
If that was the case, I was going to remedy that fear today.
The sun started to peek out from behind the clouds just as I reached River Road. I made a left turn and headed west, keeping my eyes peeled. Most of the restored plantations had already been turned into tourist spots. A few appeared to be deserted, but a handful were definitely lived in. I stopped by two. At the first one I chatted with a stay-at-home dad. At the second one I spoke with a house manager. Neither had seen or heard of my brother, but both admitted that because the plantations aren’t all that close to each other, they didn’t interact with their neighbors as much as they’d like. If Seth was new to the area, they probably
hadn’t met him yet.
I thanked them both for their time and continued on. After three more stops and three more misses, I was ready to turn around and head back to New Orleans. That was my intention when I pulled into the circular driveway of a run-down plantation. But before I could turn around, I spotted a little boy with brown hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a lanky body that was the spitting image of Seth when we’d been kids.
My foot hit the brake, and my car came to an abrupt stop as I watched the little boy run across the yard toward me, calling for his dad.
“Daddy, Daddy, who’s that?”
The kid pointed right at me. Somehow I’d managed to get out of my car and was standing in front of the kid, staring at him in awe. The resemblance was uncanny.
“Phoebe?” Seth’s voice penetrated my foggy brain. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I…” I cleared my throat and moved toward him, letting my anger fortify me. “I came looking for you. I think the real question is what the hell are you doing here? Can’t you just pick up a phone and say, ‘Hey Phoebs, I’m down here on River Road with my family. Don’t worry, we’re great, and visit soon.’ Or is it the ‘visit soon’ part that gives you hives?”
“That’s not—” He shook his head, dropped the ball he was holding, and placed both hands on my shoulders as he moved me backward. “You can’t be here.”
I dug my heels into the dirt. “Why not? Are you scared to introduce me to your son? It’s obvious he’s yours, you know. Or what? Will your wife not approve of a vampire hunter? I’m not here for money. I can take care of myself, you know. All I want to know is that you’re okay and have a little glimpse into your life. What’s wrong with that?”
“That’s what’s wrong with that.” He spun me around and pointed at a woman who was dressed in a peach-colored cotton dress with white polka dots and flip-flops who, despite the unfortunate fashion choices, could’ve been my doppelgänger.
“Sweet Jesus, please don’t tell me that woman is your wife. Is that why you don’t want me around?”