by Rain Oxford
Her dress was clean since the hospital had probably washed it, but if they found the note, why would they put it with her dress and not her wallet? The piece of paper wasn’t even a business card and the phone number hadn’t worked in a long time, so I was surprised the hospital didn’t throw it away. Maybe someone took her wallet and didn’t think anything of the note.
“I need to go to the hospital and check something out, but I can’t do that until six. I have a kid at home, so I can’t let you stay with me. I’ll check you into a hotel room and get back with you in the morning.”
“So you can help me?” she asked, hopeful.
“Definitely.” My phone rang and Henry’s name popped up on the screen, so I answered it.
“Why did Darwin just call me and ask questions about the response time of the NYPD to the alarm systems of different establishments?”
“How would you know that? You don’t live in New York.”
“That is what I told him. He said you directed him to me.”
“What establishments?”
“Veterinary clinics and zoos.”
My phone beeped softly. “Hang on.” I put him on hold and answered the incoming call. “Hello?”
“Whatever you do, if Darwin calls you, don’t tell him anything.”
“Hi, Maseré. What’s he up to this time?” Maseré Mason, Darwin’s father, was the strongest alpha wolf shifter in North America, yet no one would know it from his parenting techniques. He adored Darwin and treated the young shifter like a frail doll. I knew a lot of it stemmed from guilt over Darwin’s inability to be touched.
Any other father probably would have forced Darwin to be independent. Up until recently, Darwin had been unable to shift, and despite the unconditional love Maseré shoved down his throat, he was afraid his father would drive him off if his wolf was revealed. Unlike Darwin, who was extremely peaceful, his wolf was an alpha just as dominant as Maseré’s.
Personally, I thought there couldn’t have been a better parent for Darwin in the world. Instead of trying to make Darwin into a proper pack member, Maseré encouraged Darwin to be himself. No one had a mind quite like Darwin’s and Maseré never asked for anything else.
He was, however, a little overprotective.
“I have no idea, other than that he’s out for revenge.”
“Well, I definitely won’t tell him anything I don’t know about the NYPD. Got to go.” I hung up before he could argue and put Henry back on. “He’s looking for revenge.”
“I will help him then. Goodbye.”
“Yep. Bye.” I put my phone down. “Sorry. I have crazy friends.” We started for the door when my phone rang again. With a sigh, I opened the door for her. “My car is unlocked. I’ll be just a second.”
She went outside with a nod and I grabbed my phone. I recognized the number. “Hey, Dev,” Marcus said brightly.
When Marcus was sixteen, he witnessed his father kill his mother and police failed to protect him. I took him in until I graduated and between my instincts and his computer skills, we didn’t have any problem. He got enough temp jobs to feed his electronics addiction and once he was of legal age, he started his own private security business.
Then, while I was attending my fourth semester at Quintessence, he tracked me down and discovered the paranormal world. Soon after, he was shot by his father, Simon Sinclair, and the only way he could be saved was to be turned into a vampire.
“Hi. Everything okay?” I heard hushed speaking in the background. “Are you with Darwin?”
“Oh, yeah, we’re just… you know… hanging out. Playing an RPG on the comp---” I heard someone hit him and whisper something. “No… not on the computer. On the phone. We’re playing an RPG on our cell phones.”
“You both suck at lying. What do you need?” I looked out the glass front door to see Julia sitting safely in the passenger seat of my car.
“I just wanted to let you know that someone is on your tail. I haven’t been able to find out who because they screw up my tech.”
“Did you bug my office?”
“Of course not. I bugged your car.”
“I told you my magic would interfere.”
“Yeah, but everyone has a pattern of interference. Just trust me; someone with magic is following you. If I’m not off, at least three someones.” He was definitely thriving as a vampire, but he was still very paranoid. Although Maseré took Sinclair into custody and promised Marcus would never hear about the man again, Marcus had spent too much of his life looking over his shoulder to get over it quickly.
“Alright. I’ll keep an eye out. Just make sure Darwin doesn’t get in trouble,” I said. When he scoffed, I sighed. “Caught. Make sure he doesn’t get caught.”
“Can do. Thanks, Dev. Laters.” He hung up.
I put the phone in its harness, stepped outside, locked up, and got in the car. Ten minutes later, I pulled into a motel. “Is this okay?” I asked.
She looked down at her hands. “I don’t have any money.”
“I knew that. You left your wallet at home when you went out. Sit tight and don’t talk to anyone.”
“You think someone might be trying to hurt me?” she asked.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry. Lock the door.” I took my keys, got out, and went into the office.
* * *
The first thing I saw when I shut my apartment door behind me were big, weepy, amber eyes. Scott was standing in the corner, silently begging me to save him. “What did you do?”
“I went out into the hall and shifted.”
“Oh, that’s bad, Kitten. Did you get five or six years in time out?”
“Five minutes because I’m five.”
“You got off easy. You’d better turn around and do it before your dad gives you more time,” I said. As if realizing what he was doing, he jerked around to face the wall. I went to the kitchen, where Henry was standing by the fridge with his head on the counter. There was a shredded parenting book all over the floor. “I don’t know how well those work on shifter kids.”
“He’s been in there for an hour,” he said, standing up straight and facing me. His expression was more distraught than Scott’s. “The book says not to let him out until he’s done the full time facing the corner.”
“Have you tried modifying it? Maybe give him ten minutes but let him face any way he wants. Does he know why what he did was wrong?”
“The book says to make him tell me what he did wrong.”
“He told me he went outside and shifted, so he knows what he did. Does he know why it was wrong? You took him out of the ‘wild’ of the human world and he spent months running around free at the university. In less than three months, he’s going to go back into the paranormal environment.”
“He must know why he can’t shift around humans.”
“These parenting books are just suggestions and guidelines based on human psychology. You know how he thinks more than anyone, but you can’t reach him unless he knows why what he did was wrong. I would make sure if I were you.”
“You have a case?” Henry asked, turning his attention to the noodles he was preparing on the stove for Scott’s lunch.
“Looks like it. A woman named Julia Emerson came to the office this morning wanting help. She was involved in a car accident two years ago and woke up in the hospital four days ago with amnesia. Since then, she remembered having an argument with her husband and trying to drive to his workplace.”
“And you suspect foul play?” he asked.
“How did you know?”
“Because you have her name, so the only way you wouldn’t know everything you need to know about her already is if her files were removed.”
“I think you’re going to be perfect for the job,” I said. I looked over to see Scott with his face against the wall. He was also tapping rhythmically with his hand on the back of his neck. “I’m going to the hospital to see if anyone remembers anything. It looks like she might have been in a
coma for two years. I’m glad to get back to human cases. Do you want to come?”
“Not this time.” He didn’t want to leave Scott twice in one day. “Unless you think you’ll need help.”
“No, I got it. I’m pretty sure it’s been five minutes.”
“You can come out now, Kitten,” Henry said. The five-year-old didn’t move; he just kept tapping the back of his neck.
“Did Darwin ever get back to you with the records the Foxes took?” After Luana and Matheus took Scott from Henry, they dropped the baby off at an orphanage and tricked Henry into believing he killed his own wife. Since this wasn’t the first time they convinced him that he killed someone and that his jaguar was out of control, he agreed to stay away from his son for the baby’s safety. Only when he got Scott back did he realize how bad the child’s situation had been.
Joshua and Janet Fox did numerous experiments on Scott, somehow knowing he was a paranormal. How much they knew, how they got their information, what they did exactly, and why they did it was still unknown.
When Scott had hurt his arm at the university because he was running in the hall and ran over an ice patch, Darwin and I took him to the infirmary. He took one look at the medical equipment and exam table and started screaming. The only one who could calm him was Henry.
“No, not yet. It looks like they were notoriously bad at computers, so they kept everything on paper, and their records were almost entirely destroyed in a fire set on purpose right before they were busted. We may never know.”
There was a way to find out; I had offered several times to induce a vision to show me what he went through, but Darwin insisted that was the worst thing I could do, considering the experiments were designed for a paranormal.
“Well, you know what to do to help him get better.”
His eyes widened slightly as if I said something completely insane. “You met Matheus and Luanna. I have no idea how to comfort him.”
“Of course you do; do the opposite of everything they did. Just hug him, compliment him, and tell him how important he is to you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Tell him you love him even when he does things that are wrong and always tell him when you’re proud of him. And when in doubt, call Maseré.”
* * *
I almost decided not to go to the hospital after watching the news. One of the main roads between my apartment and the hospital had collapsed for no apparent reason. There was also an increase in the number of car crashes, either because people witnessed strange lights or a cluster of four or five cars would suddenly stall out in the middle of the road.
Instead, I just told Henry to call me if the situation got more serious or if they figured out what exactly was going on. As I stepped off the stairwell onto the first floor, a trashcan started wobbling. I reached out and stopped it with my hand instinctively. The only reasonable conclusion was that some critter had crawled inside before Kate brought it in from the alley. Cautiously, expecting a scared animal to jump out, I lifted the lid.
It was empty.
And then the lights started blinking out. “Seriously?” I asked aloud. Nothing answered me back, so I replaced the lid and left.
The traffic was backed up, but I didn’t see anything particularly wrong. At half past six, I arrived at the hospital and parked in the visitor lot. I would have called, but my phones had been fried, smashed, submerged in water, and taken into evidence dozens of times in the past five years. Needless to say, I lost a lot of numbers.
On the way in, I paused, sensing that I was being watched. Of course, I was in a public place, so I was bound to be seen. I figured I was just being paranoid after what Marcus said.
There were a number of people sitting in the waiting room, but nobody looked terribly rushed. I didn’t recognize any of the nurses behind the desk. “Can I help you?” one of the nurses asked.
“Is Karen Greenfield working tonight?” I knew she was, it was just more polite to ask. Since I never read the woman’s mind, I couldn’t track her.
“Yes, but she can’t have personal visits.”
“It’s not personal. I’m a private investigator.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“No, she’s not, but I can’t discuss cases openly.” It was a lie; while I wasn’t a cop and could talk to whoever I wanted, I still valued discretion.
“Devon?” I turned to see Karen.
She was a young woman with dark brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail and chocolate-colored eyes. She was thin, since she lived primarily on coffee and bagels and was only off her feet when she slept.
Before I could say anything, she moved to hug me. I jumped back and put out my hands to stop her. “Wait, wait.” She did, and her expression changed from happy to despondent. I pointed to her scrubs, which had vomit down the front.
“Oh, right,” she said, laughing. “It’s good to see you, Devon. Follow me.”
“Are you still with Pinocchio?”
She snorted. “I don’t know what your problem with Pinajé is.”
My problem was that Pinajé was fae and never told his girlfriend. At the time I met him, I was able to tell what he was, but I avoided paranormals. Furthermore, his reckless behavior was what made it so difficult to solve her case. I thought it was his tribe that was stalking her, when it was actually her human high school sweetheart. Pinajé’s family was more progressive than I had taken them for and they were okay with Karen being in the family.
I followed her to the locker room and waited outside while she changed. “How can I help you?” she asked when she came out.
“A woman named Julia Emerson woke up here four days ago. She is approximately five-six, a hundred and fifteen pounds, blond, and blue-eyed. She also has amnesia and has possibly been in a coma for the past two years. Her records were deleted.”
She frowned at me. “I’m not going to ask how you know that last part. I don’t recognize the name, but the only person who woke from a coma in the last week here was a burn victim. His coma was medically induced and he doesn’t fit your description. We have six people in long-term comas, but none of them match, either.”
“Have you noticed anyone strange hanging around any of the patients?”
“No. If her records were removed, it’s probably because someone didn’t want her to be identified and it’s probably an inside job. Now, I just work here, so I have nothing else I can tell you. Let me page Dr. Yu, who can tell you anything about our coma patients. Even if she was listed as a Jane Doe, Dr. Yu can tell you if we’ve had anyone matching that description.”
“Great.” Before I could say anything else, my phone rang. We both turned away from each other and I answered my phone. “This is Sanders,” I said when I answered it.
“Devon Sanders?”
“Yes.” I frowned at the concern in the young woman’s voice.
“This is the Rhode Island Hospital. Your wife was admitted to the emergency room with---”
“I don’t have a wife. I have a mother, though.”
“It’s Regina Sanders. Is she not your---”
“No, she’s not my wife and her name isn’t Sanders. I’ll be there in thirty seconds.” I hung up and turned to Karen, who was just finishing typing something into her phone. “My ex has just been admitted.”
She took me back to the front desk and got the room number without incident. The woman who had talked to me earlier gave me a dirty look, but she didn’t say anything. Although I was probably not supposed to be allowed to see her, I was still her emergency contact and she apparently told them I was her husband.
“You’re going to have to act a lot more afraid than that,” she whispered as soon as we were in the elevator.
“What?”
“You look like you’re going in there to kill someone. If anyone asks, just tell them you’re here to see your wife and you need to look like you love her. She was attacked and they don’t know who did it, so someone is going to call security if yo
u don’t stop glaring.”
“This is my worried face when I’m thinking of Regina.”
“Well, brush up on your acting skills, then, because that’s not going to cut it.”
I closed my eyes and thought of Amelia. Darwin’s fiancée was naïve and demure to a fault and no one could be angry with her. I realized then that my fists were clenched and deliberately relaxed the tension in my hands, arms shoulders, and face. The lights flickered right before the elevator jolted and stopped. “Are you kidding?”
The emergency light was red.
“I don’t… this must be just a quick loss of power. Someone will already be coming to fix this,” Karen said.
I pressed my ear to the wall and released my magic. I felt people all around us for about ten seconds before I pulled back and vowed to never do that in a hospital again for the rest of my life. The misery, anger, pain, and panic were too strong and prevented me from getting anything on anyone in particular. “The other elevator is stopped as well, but there’s no one on it.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m an investigator. No one is worried about us at the moment, but someone will realize the elevators aren’t working soon. I think this is to stall us.”
“That’s a very paranoid assumption. Does this happen to you a lot?”
“This is mundane.” My phone rang for what felt like the hundredth time since I got back to work. “Give me a minute. This is Sanders.”
“Haven’t you heard of something called ‘caller ID’?”
Although I hadn’t checked the name on the phone before answering, I recognized the irritated alpha’s voice. “Yes, Maseré, I have. Did you need something? I don’t know anything about whatever Darwin is up to.”
“I had Jefferson, one of my pack members, keep an eye on Regina after Gale targeted her in case she figured out something about the paranormal world. She was just attacked by an unknown wizard. Jefferson was able to save her, but I thought you should know.”
“I appreciate you letting me know. I’m stuck in an elevator about twenty feet away from her.”
“I’ll make a call and have you out in a few minutes.”