Gabe didn’t want her.
I knew it in my soul, especially since he’d gifted me part of his with our bonding.
Sooner than it would have taken for me to arrive by car, I touched down at Polk Bros Park inspiring calls of surprise and a surge of photographs from awestruck mortals. Dismissing my wings, I crossed the street to Navy Pier, veering right toward the famed seafood restaurant. There, I searched for a woman in pink.
When I didn’t see her, I tried calling the number back but it went straight to voicemail. After leaving two messages, I swore and ran my hands through my hair, racking my brain for what to do. Whoever had called had a sick sense of humor.
Making a second circuit of the area, I paused when a rank smell hit me in the face. The sort that stopped people in their tracks and made their eyes burn.
“Blurrrrrgh,” a man complained in passing. “What the fuck is that?”
“Must be old fish,” the woman in his company said.
My gut told me the stench hadn’t come from seafood, or any animal. Only two things came to mind that could make that sort of stench, and it was too sunny for it to be nossies.
Metal scraped metal and the awful odor intensified to nauseating heights.
That was not fish. It was the stink of old, rotting, bloated flesh.
“No! Don’t go that way!” I cried out toward the strolling couple, just as a wave of zombies spilled from the back of a parked van and rushed toward us.
I pushed forward with power and speed I hadn’t realized I possessed, throwing myself between the mortals and our assailants while channeling a Prismatic Barrier. They collided against it like June bugs splatting on a windshield, making grossly wet noises and losing clumps of flesh. These zombies were ripe as fuck, and the summer heat they’d endured in the truck hadn’t helped. Some dispersed into the crowd before anyone could comprehend what was happening. Humans screamed, racing away as zombies gave chase on surprisingly fast legs. The ones at the mall had not been this quick. These moved like living men, their muscles occasionally jerking in spasms.
No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. I reinforced the barrier with a continuous flow of magic, careful not to exhaust myself early. I needed a gun, but those weren’t issued until after the mid-term exam in Combat Shooting.
Gunshots echoed across the sidewalk and took down two of the zombies racing toward me. A third closed the distance as the mortals behind me clutched my shoulders and arms, shrieking in terror.
I had an opportunity to tear them both through the Twilight and across the street to safety.
“Hold on tight to me,” I warned them.
Moving the two humans wasn’t as difficult as transporting Gabe’s car a year ago. The barrier between the planes resisted at first, then it parted like a membrane and we were moving through it, crossing the road, reaching another intersection. We emerged, and it was there that I left them in safety before sprinting back to the scene of the attack.
Zombies had overcome a tourist with a camera. I’d been gone for seconds, but chaos had broken out and there was a wreck in the street behind me. A motorist must have struck a pedestrian as they fled from danger. I saw the zombie hot on her heels, ready to descend and devour the defenseless, bleeding body.
She’s not dead yet, I thought. The man behind the wheel sat there frozen for a time. Then he reversed and peeled off.
I ran toward her, shooting bolts of lightning. Both electrical streaks hit the zombie, the smell of sizzling meat joined the mélange of disgusting aromas.
Then more advanced on us. The woman’s blood was like a lure for them. At a glance I could see her leg had an open fracture that must have smelled absolutely mouthwatering to the horde.
More shots rang out, picking off five zombies faster than I could sling glamours. Before I could locate their source, a dark blur—my eyes barely registered more than a female silhouette—scissored between me and the remaining zombie in the pack, flying at the speed of light, landing on the zombie and taking it down to the ground with her thighs. In the same fluid motion, I heard the snap of the creature’s neck. Then my savior planted the muzzle of her gun against its forehead and blew it away.
Jada rose to her feet. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good. Now quick, tell me what you can do. Gabe mentioned you have a good Faerie Fire.”
“I do. It’s hot.”
“What else?” Jada took down another zombie with a head shot, wielding dual pistols better than Lara Croft. “Besides the lightning.”
“That’s it.”
She pushed a handgun into my hands, followed by five magazines. “Bullets first to conserve your glamour, then magic, unless your Faerie Fire is hot enough to incinerate in a flash. You don’t want shamblers stumbling around and causing a fire hazard.”
“Right.”
My hands were shaking, palms sweaty on the gun grip. I didn’t know Jada. I didn’t know her fighting style and I didn’t know how to read her for cues. Working with Gabriel came effortlessly, and facing off against a zombie horde without him petrified me.
“Where’s Gabriel?”
“Not sure. He didn’t answer his phone for me either. I came to help retrieve Ama and saw the attack from the air. Come on.”
I followed Jada into Navy Pier and hoped that wherever Ama and her spotter had gone, they were far, far away from here.
“Then Jada and I did an aerial sweep and took out all of the zombies we found,” I concluded for Sebastian. “Local security was quick to lock down the building so no one inside was infected, but the people out here…”
“Christ.” The big werewolf rubbed his face with one hand. “Why were you out here alone anyway?”
“I’m allowed to leave the campus by myself,” I said quickly, more defensively than I meant to.
“Of course.”
I didn’t fall for Sebastian’s forced smile. “But you still want to know why I was here.”
“I do.”
“I was looking for Ama.”
His expression softened. “What made you think she’d be here?”
“A woman called because she recognized Ama in one of the trees and my number was on the flyers. We used mine since my phone is always on me, and Gabe can’t answer his while shifted.”
“Ah.” Sebastian glanced around, dark brows jammed together tight. “Mind giving me that number?”
“Not at all.”
I opened up my call log and read the number out. Sebastian tapped it into a note file then tucked his iPhone away, not before I noticed his wallpaper was a shot of him and Simon at the beach, both grinning. I never took either of them for the sort to own a Selfie Stick.
They really were the most adorable couple.
“Sky!”
Gabriel’s raven voice reached me before he even touched down, transitioning from bird to man in a lunge. His arms wrapped around me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” I tried to assure him, because I felt a shudder go through his body, and he was squeezing me too tight to breathe.
“I’ll leave you two for a moment,” Sebastian said. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“We won’t,” Gabriel said, his breath warm against my hair. After Sebastian was gone, he took me by the shoulders and leaned back to gaze down at me. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m really okay.”
“Did you see Ama?”
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t see the person who called either.”
“Can I have your phone for a second?”
He skimmed down my recent call list, passing his number, Sam’s, and then tapping the unfamiliar number. Then he started wandering toward the pile of corpses, listening and watching. The two injured survivors had been swept into quarantine and inoculated, but none of them had been wearing a pink dress. Neither had any of the zombies we put down.
Appearing satisfied, Gabriel returned after a second circuit and returned the phone to me.
&nbs
p; Another hour passed before Sebastian released us from the scene. Jada volunteered to linger while Gabriel and I flew back to campus. We headed directly for his apartment.
“Every time I come home,” he said, stepping inside, “I hope she’s here waiting for me, sitting on one of her perches or shitting on the couch. Tearing up magazines or books because she’s pissed at me. Something, you know?”
I shut the door behind us and wrapped both arms around his waist. “We’ll find her, Gabe.”
“I hope so. Thank you for going out there to look for her, but next time, baby, wait for me, okay?”
“All right.”
Now that I had Gabriel home and to myself for a while, his face a rare sight in our apartment for the past week, I put together enough manicotti for him and Sam.
I couldn’t find his baby, but I could at least make him dinner.
17
Sometimes Rainbows Carry Storms
My stomach roiled with anxiety as I stood outside of Simon’s office bright and early Friday morning.
I hadn’t done anything wrong, but there weren’t many reasons for them to call me in for a chat two days after my unfortunate visit to Navy Pier.
“Come on in, Skylar,” Sebastian said once he opened the door.
“Um, thanks.”
Rather than sitting behind his desk, Simon had taken up a position on the couch. He smiled and gestured for me to sit in one of the heavy armchairs opposite it. I wondered how many terrified students had warmed these seats over the years.
“Thirsty?” Sebastian asked, passing me a mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino.
I eyed it with suspicion. “How’d you know what I like?”
“You’re a fae. I took a shot in the dark that anything sweet would do the job.”
“Oh.”
He passed a latte to Simon then sat next to him.
I took a long pull, letting sweetness and cookie crumbs console me before I spoke. “Okay, Doom and Gloom. How much trouble am I in?”
“None,” Simon said. “Not with us, anyway. We called you here because we think someone set you up for that attack, Sky.”
“Huh?”
“The phone number used to contact you belongs to a young bear shifter. Marie Kandinsky went missing about three days prior to the attack. No one has seen her.”
“I don’t know the name. Is she a student?”
“No. Sorry, that was misleading. When you’re as old as I am, everyone is young,” Simon chuckled, but his humor died swiftly. “No, Marie was an elementary teacher in Wisconsin. Nice lady who hasn’t been in her classroom since Friday.”
I frowned. “Which means she may have been missing since then.”
“Precisely.”
“It turns out other shifters have also vanished in the last few weeks,” Sebastian said. “I can’t think of why a woman would be in Chicago a hundred miles from home without so much as calling in sick to work.”
“We also couldn’t find a woman wearing pink in any of the security feeds. We went through them and at the time the call was made, nada. But we did find something else you should see.”
Simon turned his laptop around on the desk and brought up security camera footage. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking for amidst the many people walking past, but then I spotted her: a familiar woman sitting under one of the covered tables at the restaurant. All the air in my lungs left in a rush.
“That’s Tricia.”
“We thought so as well.”
“I knew that voice sounded familiar, but I was so focused on finally getting Ama back that I didn’t think about it. I’m so stupid.”
Freshman year, Tricia had left school and joined up with the Hidden Court, helping them during the vampire attacks on the city. She was as much responsible for Holly’s forced transformation as the vampire who’d bitten her.
“Don’t blame yourself, Sky, you couldn’t have known. But this changes things,” Sebastian said.
I nodded. “There’s two possibilities from this, right? Either she took advantage of Ama’s disappearance to lure me into a trap or she has the bird and used her to lure me into a trap.”
“Right,” Sebastian said. “Shitty as this may sound, I’m hoping for option one. I hate to think of that sweet girl in the wrong hands.”
I sighed. Everyone loved that damn bird, and she loved everyone back unless they were me.
“Pilar sensed she was safe, so I think that’s the more likely option,” I said.
“There’s also the matter of the attack itself,” Simon said. “Unless Tricia has become an accomplished necromancer in the past two years—a feat even I would be hard-pressed to accomplish—then the zombie presence means she’s working with our Plague Doctor.”
That made things even scarier. “You’re right. Still, I don’t understand why she has it out for me. I've never done anything to her.”
“Nothing at all? Think hard, Sky,” Simon urged.
“Nothing. I was kind to her in class. Aside from foiling Carmilla’s scheme, I never personally slighted Tricia. So maybe this was revenge against me for taking away her last master. She’s working alongside this necromancer as his student and saw an opportunity to get back at me.”
“Whatever her reasons, at least we know she’s involved,” Sebastian said. “That’s more info than we had yesterday.”
“What happens now?”
“No more going off campus alone,” Simon replied.
“What?” I sat up straight, spine rigid. “But I’m in the same class as all the other sentinels.”
Simon held up a hand. “The change in the rules doesn’t apply only to you, Sky. As of now, all unlicensed junior sentinels have to travel in pairs. Safety in numbers.”
I sighed. “It’s not an awful idea. Some of my friends are already carpooling together to the hospital.”
Sebastian glanced at me. “Burke and Augustine, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Shifters going missing, especially since this virus affects us…it’s too much of a coincidence. We can’t risk any of you.”
“I get it, Sebastian, and I understand. Was that all?” It came out clipped, brusquer than I intended.
“For now. If you get any more calls about Ama—”
“I know. I’ll let you know first so we can run checks on the number.”
“We all want her found,” Simon said, rising and offering me a hand. In spite of my annoyance at the situation, I took it. His grip was warm, and the reassuring squeeze he gave my fingers before releasing them me reminded me of my father. “Keep up the good work in class and keep your friends up to date. When we learn more, we’ll let you know.”
Disappointed, I returned home and tiptoed around Sam on the couch. He’d vacated the guest bedroom that morning in preparation for their father’s arrival.
By evening, we’d have a house full of Fujimoto men for the indefinite future. Shit.
I took out more meat to thaw. I’d seen the Fujimoto patriarch at the dinner table before, and the man could put away a meal. Common sense told me to enlist Lia for aid. She was the master of cooking for large groups.
As I hauled out the cookware to put together a quick breakfast for the guys, a subtle buzz of electrical power traced over my arms. It felt like a passing storm, both familiar and powerful.
Dain.
I moved to the door and opened it to find my mentor in the hallway. Ama perched on his shoulder, glowing and vibrant and so colorful I wanted to cry.
I could have thrown my arms around him or kissed her, or maybe reversed it.
“Ama? Dain, how—where—?”
“I found her in Tir na Nog, and I suspect she’s been there from the beginning.” When he turned his head, Ama touched her beak to his nose, and then I saw it. Ears. She had pointed little fluffy tufts of feathers that looked like griffin ears. Her feathers shone as radiant as sunshine against her golden chest and her orange tummy glittered.
I reached for her instin
ctively. She nipped me, as usual, proving this bird was the one true Ama.
Then I remembered her daddy.
“Gabe! Gabe, Sam! Guys, Ama is home!” I shouted over my shoulder. Sam stumbled to his feet off of the couch and Gabe practically flew from the bedroom. I moved out of the way before either guy could trample me.
“Ama?” Sam was on one side. “Oh, fuck, it’s really her.”
“She’s…she’s so bright.” Gabe stared at her, the perplexed lift of his brows almost comical. Then he reached for her, and she danced beyond his fingertips.
I watched my mate’s shoulders drop. His features clouded with pain.
“Now, now,” Dain chided gently. He turned his head and whispered to her, speaking in the magical language of the fae. I understood it, but he whispered too softly for me to hear. Afterward, he scooped her from his shoulder and offered her to Gabe.
He hesitated, but he took her into his arms and hugged her tight, and Ama tucked the top of her head beneath his chin. Her eyes closed in bliss. “Thank you, Dain.”
This was the reunion I’d wanted to see since the moment I returned home and saw she was missing.
I turned to the fae lord after Sam and Gabriel babbled out more of their gratitude. “Thank you, Dain. Thank you so much.”
“Think nothing of it.”
“Why does she look so different, and how did she get out of here?”
“It would seem that little Ama found her way through the Twilight. It happens rarely, but it does occur on occasion. And once there, she earned a faerie sponsor. Again, also rare.”
I blinked at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means Ama is as much a fae as you are,” Sam answered, staring.
Dain smiled. “A very ancient faerie looked after Ama and guarded her while she was a denizen of our realm. Of course, I do have the power to rescind the gift, if you would like. She could be a normal parrot again.”
“And if we leave her as she is?” Gabe asked.
“As long as certain conditions are met, Amaterasu will no longer age. She will live on and on for many generations.”
The Plague Doctor (The Paranormal University Files: Skylar Book 4) Page 14