by Devon Monk
“No, I put Crow’s power in a water bottle.”
“All the powers are missing, Piper.”
“All of them?” She blinked hard, and went a shade of green I hadn’t seen since Jean was in kindergarten and licked the bottom of her shoe on a dare.
During the field trip. To the dairy farm.
I really shouldn’t have been so proud of myself for making her fall for that.
“All of them?” she asked again.
“All of them.”
“I was just trying to get Crow’s.”
“You did,” Myra said. “And you also took the power of every other god in town.”
“Oh, crap.”
Oh crap, indeed.
“I didn’t mean to. You have to believe me. I never meant to take all the powers. Just Crow’s.”
“We believe you,” I said. She opened her mouth and I reached over and patted her hand. She waited, probably expecting words of wisdom or comfort.
“You done screwed up.”
Myra sighed.
Hey, I never said I was good at this kind of thing.
“But,” I said, “there were extenuating circumstances. You aren’t the only one who screwed up. Technically, Crow broke one of Ordinary’s rules. So technically Mithra could be considered correct for stepping in. Though technically, Ordinary is outside his influence and we’d rather he’d let us handle our own business just like all the other gods outside Ordinary do. We have rules for that too. Don’t worry. This could be much worse.”
“He wants to meet you,” Piper blurted out.
“Who?”
“Mithra. I just gave him the powers on my afternoon break. He said he wants to talk to you, Delaney, tomorrow. About the rules. About power. And he wants you to bring Ryder Bailey with you.”
I could not have been more shocked if a fish had suddenly ridden by on a bicycle. With an umbrella hat on its head.
“Ryder?” I finally said. Or thought I did. It came out more like a squeak.
“Did he say why he wanted to see Delaney and Ryder?” Good ol’ Myra. Nothing knocked her off her footing.
“He said it was Delaney’s job to make sure the rules of Ordinary aren’t broken. And he said he has questions he wants Ryder to answer.”
“Ryder doesn’t even know about the gods,” I said. “Or god power. He wouldn’t believe Mithra is a god. He is so not coming with me. No. No way.”
“I promised he would,” Piper said.
I groaned. “Why?”
“I thought he knew! He’s on the police force, and Myra and Jean and Roy know. Why wouldn’t he know about the gods?”
“Because we don’t share that kind of information easily,” Myra said.
“This is officially worse,” I muttered.
We were all silent.
“Has this ever happened before?” Piper asked in a small voice. “Has anyone ever screwed up as badly as this?”
“Oh, honey.” I gave her a firm pat on her hand. “You have no idea.”
“Right. Now. We’ll need a few more details.” Myra pulled out her tablet and tapped it to life. “About everything.”
“Then what?” Piper asked.
“Then we fix this,” I said with a lot more confidence than I felt.
Chapter 12
We went over the details of the water-bottle power heist for two hours. When she did it, who she talked to, how long she carried the power around like the most dangerous energy drink in the universe.
Piper insisted she went to meet with Mithra at the casino this afternoon and handed over the powers. I believed her. Myra took notes. We asked her every question in different ways about a dozen times. Got the same answers.
So when Myra wanted to follow me to my house so we could go over “just a few more details,” I told her no. I also suggested she go home, get some sleep, and that we’d worry about it in the morning.
I may have mentioned I spilled some of Ordinary’s secrets to Ryder. Not the god secrets. Or the creature secrets. But definitely the vampire secrets. Well, some of them.
Myra may have read me the riot act about our duty as Reeds and how keeping secrets was a huge part of those duties. And reminded me of Ryder’s possible involvement in murder, and my possible inability to think he was a suspect because of my heart’s definite involvement with him.
It was almost four o’clock in the morning by the time she was done going through all the reasons I shouldn’t have told Ryder there were vampires in town. She also wasn’t happy that I’d told him he’d have to get through me if he and his vampire-hunter buddies, or his vampire-friendly buddies, wanted near any kind of creature in this town.
I’d told her I thought it was worth the risk for him to know if it got us closer to Sven’s killer. She wasn’t mollified.
She had ended the conversation with, “I wish you didn’t love him, Delaney.”
“Because it puts Ordinary in danger?” I asked, rubbing my fingertips over my scalp and yawning. I was too tired to argue over the “love” part of her statement. Maybe even too tired to kid myself about that any more.
I loved him.
Stupid heart.
“No, you idiot. Because it puts you in danger.” Then she’d reached over and given me a quick, tight hug. “Sleep. I’ll see you later. Let’s think this over. Maybe we’ll both make better decisions in the morning. Or afternoon.”
Which was why I was surprised to be stumbling out of my bed and into my living room to answer the door at seven a.m.
The door wasn’t locked—I still wasn’t convinced I needed that kind of security in this town. I yanked it open. “This isn’t later. This is still way too earlier.”
“All right then,” Ryder said as his eyes took a quick detour to check out what I was wearing. “Huffing the hand-sanitizer a little early, aren’t we?”
I was suddenly very awake. And suddenly very aware I was wearing an over-sized T-shirt.
And nothing else.
“Ryder? You’re...um...you’re not Myra.”
He leaned a little back on one hip, his hand in his front pocket and the devil in his eyes. “Nope.”
“Why are you here? Is there an emergency?”
“I’m here to apologize, which, frankly, might be now a dozen times I’ve done that in the last few days. I’m thinking of asking for a cumulative discount on your forgiveness.”
“Apologize? What for this time? No, wait. Don’t answer.” I dragged my fingers through my hair which, oops, made the shirt lift a little, then pressed fingertips against my eyes. “All right. I’m gonna need coffee for this. And pants. Come on in.”
“Don’t get dressed on my account.”
I meandered over to the bedroom. “Start the coffee, would you? And make it strong.”He shut the door behind him and I did the same. I gazed at my unmade bed, the soft blankets that looked so inviting, and sighed.
Clothing was a T-shirt and jeans. I brushed my teeth, hair, and put on deodorant. It gave me enough time to guess what Ryder was apologizing for.
For lying. For not telling me who his boss was. For not telling me more about the agency he was working for.
For dumping me?
No, he’d already apologized for that. Several times.
Or there was the possibility he was apologizing for something new. Some problem I’d have to deal with on about a minute and a half of sleep.
Great.
I needed boots for this conversation.
I strolled out to the sound of voices. Myra, Jean, Crow, and Ryder all lounged around my living room, drinking my coffee and chatting away like this was a book club.
Myra looked relaxed and well rested, when I knew she’d gotten the same amount of sleep as I had.
How did she do that?
“Okay. Who decided to throw a party at my house without telling me? And could you please un-invite me?”
Crow chuckled, but Jean stuck her hand straight up above her head, elbow locked. “I did. We did. Before you get all
crabby about it, we’re not going to let you do what you did last time.”
“Do what which last time I did what?”
“Get shot while you were trying to solve a case.”
I inhaled against the fist of frustration that clogged my throat. Jean and Myra still hadn’t let that go. I really needed them to stop hovering like I was one brick shy of a Jenga collapse.
“I’m not going to get shot. Have I ever been shot before then? No. That was sort of a one-time deal. It’s not going to happen again.”
“We’re not just worried about guns,” Myra said in a now-now-calm-down voice I sort of hated. “There’s a lot going on in town and I decided we need to talk about it. All of us.”
“No.” I glared at her. There were two people in this room I didn’t want in the middle of the conversation about the missing god power or the ongoing murder investigation. Ryder and Crow.
“We agreed on this,” she said.
“When?”
“Last night when we discussed it.”
“Was I awake? Maybe I nodded off and you thought I was just nodding.”
She gave me a look that said she didn’t think I was funny. Ryder pointed at the Chewbacca cup on the table. “Caffeinate. We’ll figure it out.”
It was so close to what I’d told Piper last night, I almost laughed. “Fine,” I said, even though it was not at all fine. I sat and took a drink.
Lots of sugar, favorite cup, coffee strong enough to be used as an interrogation device.
Perfect.
I took a second gulp and glanced at Ryder.
He winked at me.
Winked.
My heart got all warm and gooey.
“I thought you were going to apologize for something.”
“I am.”
“Well?”
He made a circle with his fingers, indicating everyone in my house. “Pretty much this.”
“This intervention was your idea?”
He tipped his head with an eyebrow raised. “Well, I’ve been recently reminded, at length, that I’m a part of the police force. Since I have taken vows to look after Ordinary, there was no getting out of this team-building exercise. Although I don’t see Roy here.”
“Team Go Away and Let Delaney Sleep?” I asked Myra. She ignored me.
“Roy’s keeping an eye on the station. And because it needs to be said,” she turned her attention to Ryder, “Delaney told me about the conversation you had with her, Ryder. That you know there are vampires in town.”
Jean tensed up and Crow laughed. Crow tried to cover his glee with a cough that totally didn’t work.
I muttered, “‘Laugh it up...’”
“...‘Fuzzball’,” Ryder finished for me.
I lifted my Chewy cup in a toast. That was an old Star Wars reference. Not a lot of people got it these days.
“As we all know, we’re dealing with a murder in town that involved a vampire,” Myra went on like a kindergarten teacher who refused to give in to her students’ antics. “We understand you have some information that could be useful to our case.”
That teasing glimmer in Ryder’s eyes faded. “I already made it clear to Delaney that I didn’t have anything more to say on that unless she was willing to answer a few questions for me.”
“No,” I said.
“What questions?” Jean asked.
“Are there more vampires in town? Who are they? Who is their leader? How can I contact them?”
“That’s easy,” Crow said.
“No!” all us Reed girls chorused at once.
Crow sniffed. “Spoil sports.”
“You are still on my shit list,” I reminded him.
He made a raspberry sound. “You love me and you know it.”
“We are not at liberty to share that information,” Myra said. How was it that she was acting more like the police chief than I was? Could it be that I was still tired, possibly muddled because half of this conversation involved my not-ex, long-time-crush hotty of a boyfriend, and also that I hadn’t had nearly enough coffee yet?
Yes. Yes, it could.
“You understand that the persons of interest trust us to act in their behalf,” Myra said. “We’ve sworn to keep them safe and keep their confidence. We won’t break that trust.”
Ryder took his time studying her serene face, then shifted his gaze to Jean for a bit, then finally to me. “None of you are going to tell me anything I want to know?”
“If you would answer our questions, we might be able to facilitate a meeting with someone in town who could help you,” I said.
It wasn’t quite a bluff, wasn’t quite a promise. I was however, certain that Rossi would be more than happy to let Ryder know he was the big bad vampire in town. Rossi enjoyed threatening people he didn’t like, and he most certainly didn’t like Ryder.
Plus, I was pretty sure I’d agreed to let him be around when we questioned Ryder.
Ryder’s shoulders shifted as he leaned forward to put his empty coffee cup on the table. When he sat back, he looked like he’d made up his mind.
“Anyone want to tell me why the glassblower is here?” he asked.
“Maybe I’m a vampire,” Crow said.
“Nope,” I said.
Crow just shrugged and gave Ryder a wide grin. “Maybe I’m something else.”
“This isn’t about you.” I finished off the last of my coffee and sighed. “Jean, did you bring the photos?”
She pulled a folder out of her messenger bag and handed it to me. I sorted through the video surveillance shots. She’d done a great job cleaning up the images. The snap of the hand with the ring was particularly clear.
It looked familiar to me. Where had I seen that ring before?
“These are the images we got off of the surveillance camera outside Joe Boy’s.” I passed the folder to Ryder.
He opened it and studied the images.
“You said you know it was a group of vampire hunters that killed Sven. We can trace that ring, and will find the man who had his hand around Sven’s mouth. We’ll bring him in. But you could save us a lot of time, and do some good in building a positive position with the vampires in town if you would just tell us everything you know about this.”
Ryder held his breath a minute, deciding.
“His name is Rick Mortin. The man who is a part of the vampire hunters. He’s the head of the hunters sent to Ordinary. I can’t make out enough of that ring to recognize it.”
“Vampire hunters.”
“Yes. We didn’t know they were doing anything more than reconnaissance. We’d been tipped off that they’d be heading this way earlier in the year. I was supposed to keep my eyes out for them. Intercept them before they contacted any of the targets.”
“Targets?” Jean asked. “Holy shit, Ryder. Who the hell do you work for?”
The waves of disappointment and anger radiating off Jean was pretty hard to watch. She had always idolized Ryder as the perfect upstanding guy. The guy she wanted to see date her oldest sister, and make a happily ever after with me.
But that wasn’t how it ever worked in real life.
“I work with an agency that reaches out to supernaturals and creates lines of open communication for the continued peace and advantages to our respective races.”
“Tell me that’s not an acronym,” she muttered. “No, wait. Just tell me the name of your agency.”
“I work with the Department of Paranormal Protection.”
“Thought they were unfunded back in Eisenhower’s days,” Crow said. “Some kind of internal nut jobs tried to take over?”
Ryder didn’t quite cover his surprise at Crow’s knowledge. “Not exactly. There was a...change of leadership and the agency was reenacted under the Homeland Security act. The department has been functioning in various capacities since 1910.”
“Hunting vampires?” Jean asked.
“We don’t hunt.”
“Oh, are we back to lying already? That’s no fun,”
Crow said.
“We don’t hunt to kill or eradicate, though, yes, there is a history of that in the early days of the agency. There are splinter groups who cling to the idea of human superiority and purity. Groups like the vampire hunters who came to town.”
“Splinter groups,” Myra said. “Are they a part of the Department of Paranormal Protection?
“No. They are unsanctioned. We take every action possible to shut them down.”
“Every?” Crow asked and even though no one had brought it up yet, we were all wondering just how black ops his black ops agency was. Would they kill the members of the vampire hunter group?
“There are rules and orders we follow,” Ryder said. “We try to respect our nation’s laws.”
“But you kill people.” The way Crow said it, and the way Ryder didn’t react to it, was answer enough.
“Okay,” I said. “You are cleared to use deadly force if necessary. That’s not that different than what we do on the police force. Those men who were in the bar before Sven was killed were part of a dangerous splinter group, right? Not just a group of friends who decided to become ghost busters?”
“We—I hadn’t thought so. They are in good standing with the department, and weren’t out of their rights to put eyes on the inhabitants here.”
“You work for DoPP?” Jean asked. “Or with them?”
“Neither. I’m...freelance.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I’m the local boy, know the town, know the people in it. Educated. The agency is always on the lookout for people they can hire to be liaisons if a sighting is confirmed.”
“Sven’s death was a sighting?” Jean asked. “No, wait, those splinter group guys were here before Sven died. What made them think vampires were in town?”
That was a very good question.
We all waited silently for Ryder to answer it.
“There was a boat that capsized a couple years back.”
I knew exactly where he was going with this. We’d tried to squash the story, spin it so the wider news stations didn’t pick it up. We must have missed something. Or Ryder’s group had good ears and caught the gossip and statements that the survivors shared with friends and family.
“Eight tourists on board,” he continued, “all of them non-swimmers. They reported their rescuers dove to save them, eyes glowing in the dark water. Said they had incredible strength and agility, including one who dragged two unconscious people up from the deep at the same time.”