Katie glanced away from him, her cheeks flushing pink. They both knew what would happen if she said yes. It was the same thing that would have happened if he’d fed off her without the handcuffs. It was the same mistake they’d already made once, and the temptation to make it again almost felt like it had a physical weight.
“No,” said Katie. “You’ve had enough for now.”
“Sure,” said Jack. “Mind taking these handcuffs off me now?”
Katie nodded, and quickly moved to unlock the handcuffs, keeping as much space between their bodies as she could as she slid the key into the locks. Jack rubbed at his wrists as they came loose. He felt great, almost like he’d just had a strong coffee early in the morning, and he supposed that it wasn’t too far off in terms of an analogy.
“You can stay for a bit, if you want,” said Jack. “It’s been a while since we’ve really talked, Katie.”
She seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking her head.
“I shouldn’t,” she said. “I’m only here for this and to check in with Ryoko. Is she in the kitchen? I didn’t see her when I first came in.”
“I haven’t seen her all morning, actually,” said Jack.
Katie frowned at that. Jack followed her out into the basement, and after making sure that the secret door was closed properly, they headed upstairs. Ryoko wasn’t in the kitchen or in her bedroom in the servant’s chambers.
“She might have gone to the market,” said Jack.
“She goes on Mondays and Fridays,” said Katie. “Not today. And she usually sticks to her schedule.”
“Maybe she went for a walk?” asked Jack.
“In this weather?” Katie shook her head. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”
They searched the rest of the mansion, but Ryoko wasn’t anywhere to be found. Katie was frowning as they made their way downstairs and back into the foyer.
“Did anything happen last night?” asked Katie. “Anything out of the ordinary?”
Jack scratched the back of his neck.
“I got drunk at the bar,” he said. “Ryoko had to come pick me up and help me home.”
Katie set her hands on her hips and scrunched her face up.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that,” said Jack. “I didn’t have much choice. It’s the only thing that can handle my bloodthirst when it starts to get out of control.”
“So you were fucking drunk when you came back here?” asked Katie. “Which means that literally anything could have happened during the night.”
“That’s an exaggeration,” said Jack.
“There’s a good chance that there is an agent of the Order of Chaldea somewhere on the island right now, following up on all the chaos Mira caused,” countered Katie. “On top of that, even if it was just a mundane threat, you would have been sound asleep for it.”
“I wasn’t sleeping that soundly,” said Jack. “And we haven’t checked all of the likely places she could be. What about her uncle’s pizzeria?”
Katie raised an eyebrow, and after a second, she gave a small nod. “…Good thinking. Let’s go.”
She shouldered her way by him, hurrying toward the mansion’s front door. Jack scowled and followed behind her.
CHAPTER 4
The weather outside was bleak and gloomy. It was raining, but the precipitation seemed secondary to the thick, ground-level fog that had descended over the island. Katie had her headlights on and still had to drive at a crawl to keep the car on the road.
“Is this weather common?” asked Jack.
“It’s not uncommon,” said Katie. “Especially during this season. Lestaron Island is at the junction of several major air currents, meaning we get all sorts of crazy weather.”
Jack tried to look out the passenger side window, but he couldn’t see more than a foot or two beyond the car. He judged that they’d entered town as the street leveled out, and Katie had to drive even slower in anticipation of stop signs and traffic lights.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Katie.
“Why?” asked Jack.
Katie licked her lips and glanced over at him. Her hair was still damp from the rain, and it made her look cold and a little bedraggled.
“How well have you gotten to know Ryoko over the past few days?” asked Katie.
“How well have I gotten to know her?”
He frowned, thinking about it. He knew enough to guess that the next likeliest place she’d be was at her uncle’s restaurant. He also knew that his grandfather had once used dream weaving on her, the magic of wiping minds and intentional forgetfulness. What he didn’t know was the reason why.
Ryoko, always so quiet and professional. Ryoko, the kind girl who’d helped Jack drunkenly stumble home without being judgmental about it. Had he not gotten the chance to know her yet? Or had he just not taken the chance that he’d been given?
Katie pulled into a parking spot on the street just outside of the pizzeria. She had a serious expression on her face and didn’t rush as they climbed out of the car and moved through the rain. The sign in the pizzeria’s front window said “CLOSED,” which was unusual, given the time of day. Jack tried the door and unsurprisingly, found that it was locked.
“Can you get it open?” asked Katie.
He nodded and took a slow breath, feeling for his blood essence. Normally, it would have been impossible for him to work his magic during the day, but the fog was extreme enough to put him just under the threshold for the cutoff of his abilities. Spectral Lockpick was a spell of Jack’s own formation, and casting it felt a little like creating an eleventh finger with an unusual amount of dexterity.
The lockpick formed as a dark crimson spike extending from Jack’s index finger. He slipped it into the door’s lock and contorted the shape until he’d found and triggered all of the tumblers into place. It took a few seconds of concentration and a drop of his stored blood essence to make it happen.
He opened the door slowly, but not slowly enough to keep from triggering the chime above the door. As he and Katie entered the pizzeria, a pair of strangers emerged from the backroom to greet them.
“Hey, we’re closed,” said a short olive-skinned man with straight black hair and a deformed ear. “Didn’t I tell you to flip the sign, Monty?”
The other man was the polar opposite of the first, standing close to seven feet tall, with pale skin, a shaved head, and a patchy red beard.
“I flipped the sign,” said the tall man, enunciating slowly. “Khumar. I… flipped the sign.”
The olive-skinned man squinted at the window with the sign and then made a noise.
“You did flip it,” he said. “So what the fuck are these two doing here?”
“Looking for a friend,” said Jack. “And I think a better question would be what you guys are doing here. I’ve met Kurt, the owner before, and neither of you are him.”
“We’re the new owners,” said the short man. “Right, Monty?”
“New… owners,” mumbled Monty, the pale giant.
“So why don’t the two of you get the fuck out of here,” continued the olive-skinned man. “Before we decide to get-”
The muffled scream of a girl came from the back room that the two men had just emerged from. It might have been the sound of a starting pistol for all the impetus Jack and Katie needed.
Katie rushed Khumar, the shorter man, slamming her shoulder into his chest and knocking him off his feet. Jack dropped into a fighting stance, wincing slightly as he considered his prospects against Monty’s hulking figure.
He tried throwing a jab at Monty’s head, but his opponent had no trouble staying out of his reach. Jack moved in a little closer, and only saw a blur of motion come from Monty’s arm and fist before feeling the impact against his skull and seeing stars as he collapsed to the ground.
It hurt. It hurt a lot. Jack had been able to pull off a spell outside, but the illumination had shifted in the few minutes since then. And the pizzeria had large, open win
dows and a glass door, all of which were facing the direction the sun currently was in the sky.
Even worse, Monty was pushing forward from the back of the room, forcing Jack to stumble backward toward the windows where the sun’s light was strongest. He was also stunned from Monty’s opening attack, which he doubted the huge man had even put his full strength into.
Katie was faring slightly better against Khumar, who she was almost of a height with. She had her guard up and was circling around him slowly, trying to draw him into making a mistake that she could easily capitalize on.
Jack dodged another punch from Monty, more by accident than intention. He saw an opening immediately after and took the chance to slam his fist into Monty’s stomach. The big man barely reacted to the impact, and Jack had to scramble to the side to avoid the swinging counterattack of his arm.
The movement put him in a better position, however. The side of the room was more shadowed than the middle, and Jack could feel his unhampered vampiric strength as he stepped into a darkened corner. Monty rushed forward and tried to grab him, and Jack managed to slam his knee upward into his ribs, which let out a satisfying crack.
Monty grunted in pain and wrapped his arms around Jack, lifting him into the air. Jack had enhanced strength, but when it came to wrestling, the size and weight difference between the two men was the more dominant factor.
He gritted his teeth as he felt Monty wrapping an arm around his neck from behind, putting him in a solid headlock. Almost instantly, black spots began to dance across his field of view, warning signs of his impending loss of consciousness. If he didn’t act soon, the fight would be over.
Jack tried to stay calm as he focused his blood essence, casting Spectral Hand and focusing it out of the base of his palm. He reached backward, desperately trying to use the shadowy tendril to strike Monty’s face or something else vital enough to distract him. The big man let out a low growl and squeezed tighter, unfazed.
He needed a better solution, and he didn’t have one. Or did he? Jack focused on what he remembered from the library book on Thomas Aquinas. He stretched his awareness throughout every inch of his body, trying to will himself into fading out of existence as the book had described and as he’d seen Mira do on multiple occasions.
Monty screamed. Jack fell forward out of his grasp. He was relatively sure that the spell had failed, but he’d still gotten enough effect out of it to surprise his opponent, apparently. Jack pulled himself to his feet, and then immediately froze when he saw how Katie’s fight had gone.
She was down on her knees in front of Khumar, who had the barrel of a pistol pressed against the side of her head. He looked at Jack and slowly shook his head, making a soft, almost inaudible tutting noise.
“Don’t try anything else,” said Khumar. “I mean it. This situation is already a mess, and I wouldn’t hesitate to take drastic measures.”
“Don’t listen to him, Jack!” snapped Katie. “He’ll shoot me anyway. Make sure they don’t get away.”
“Girl, what kind of person do you think I am?” asked Khumar. “Monty, go bring the car around. Hurry.”
The big man hesitated for a moment, and then hurried outside. Jack took the opportunity to take a step in Khumar’s direction.
“Don’t move,” said Khumar. “I won’t kill her if you cooperate. But I most certainly will, if you don’t.”
He tapped the barrel of the pistol a couple of times against Katie’s head, probably a little harder than he needed to. She continued to alternate between scowling at the wall and shooting annoyed glances in Jack’s direction.
“What are you even doing here?” asked Jack. “You don’t seem like you’re from the island. Why attack a pizzeria, of all places?”
A car horn honked outside. Khumar nodded cordially to Jack, and then slowly started toward the door, alternating between pointing the gun at each of them. He broke into a run as soon as he was outside. Jack hurried to the window, but he didn’t make it in time to catch a glimpse of the escape vehicle through the fog.
Katie was already in the back room by the time Jack made it there. What he saw as he slipped through the door stopped him in his tracks. Kurt, Ryoko’s uncle, was lying prone in the back of the small storage room, with a far too large pool of blood surrounding his unmoving body.
Ryoko was on the other side of the room, near the door. She was clad only in her underwear and hugged her knees tight to her chest. Her maid uniform lay scattered across the floor, the dress torn in such a way as to make it obvious that it had been ripped off her.
“I’m sorry…” whispered Ryoko. “I’m so sorry…”
CHAPTER 5
“Ryoko…” whispered Katie. “Please. Can you tell us what happened? Or what you know about those men?”
They’d gently guided her out of the storage room and away from her uncle’s body. Jack had called 911 at Katie’s suggestion, and they’d both decided that there was no way for them to get out of staying at the crime scene and officially becoming part of the investigation.
Ryoko had gone totally silent after the first apology she’d spoken when they’d found her. Jack had given her his sweatshirt to wear, but it didn’t seem like enough. He was pacing back and forth across the floor, his teeth gritted, hands clenching and unclenching. Khumar’s smirking face was burned into his memory. It was already a foregone conclusion that he’d be tracking both men down and making them pay.
“Jack,” said Katie. “I hope you aren’t thinking of doing anything stupid.”
“No, not stupid,” said Jack. “Just what’s necessary.”
Katie stood up and walked over to him. She grabbed him by the shoulder and roughly turned him so that he was facing her.
“Regardless of how this happened,” she said slowly, “it’s partially your fault. If you’d been awake this morning, you could have talked to her. Figured out what was going on.”
“Which is all the more reason why I should—”
“You need to shut the fuck up and do what you can to comfort Ryoko.” Katie’s fingers squeezed into his shoulder. “She needs help right now. Not misguided anger and vengeance.”
Jack took a slow breath and nodded. Ryoko was sitting in one of the chairs, her arms clutched around herself, gaze locked on the floor. Jack walked over to her and pulled a chair up beside her.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered.
“Sorry for what?” asked Jack. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Ryoko. Those men…”
He felt his rage again, and it formed into a lump in his throat. No, he wouldn’t go after the men immediately. But he would make them pay, regardless of what Katie thought about it or whether it was a good idea.
“Sheriff’s department!” shouted a voice from outside. “Nobody move!”
Bruce, Katie’s fiancé and Lesser Town’s deputy sheriff, stormed into the pizzeria, gun drawn and expression cold. He scanned the room, and his demeanor instantly changed when he saw Katie standing by the bar. He holstered his pistol and rushed over to her.
Bruce embraced Katie, giving her a tight hug. Bruce was tall with tanned skin and a muscular build, and it annoyed Jack how secure Katie looked in his arms. He glanced away as Bruce cupped her face and followed the hug up with a long kiss.
“What happened here?” snapped Bruce, his body language shifting back into that of an authority.
“We don’t have all the details yet,” said Katie. “We came looking for Ryoko after—”
“No!” snapped Bruce, cutting Katie off, much to Jack’s amazement. When did Katie ever let someone cut her off? Bruce jabbed a finger at Jack, his eyes narrowing into a glare.
“What?” asked Jack. “You think I’m the culprit here?”
“I think you might be,” said Bruce. “And I want to hear your explanation, first.”
Jack gritted his teeth. He started to ball his hand into a fist, but Ryoko’s fingers pressed into his palm before he could. He looked down at her in the chair and saw a worried look on her face.<
br />
“I don’t need an explanation,” said Jack. “I couldn’t find Ryoko this morning, so I went looking for her. I called Katie to come help, and she suggested we come to the pizzeria and check here.”
He’d altered the order of events slightly, but doubted that Katie would mind, especially if it explained away what she’d been doing at the mansion so early in the morning. Bruce’s expression was still cold and suspicious, and after a few seconds, he glanced toward the back room.
“Is that where the body is?” he asked.
“It’s Ryoko’s uncle,” hissed Katie. “Not just a body.”
“How did he die?” asked Bruce in a level voice.
“You’re the sheriff’s deputy,” said Jack. “I think you’re the one who is going to have to figure that out.”
It was a cheap, frustrated remark, and it felt all the more hollow given that Jack knew it wasn’t true. He was the one who’d be taking responsibility, regardless of what the sheriff or anyone else ended up doing.
Bruce pulled away from Katie and stomped over toward him. The deputy jabbed a finger at him again, holding his gaze.
“How many incidents does this make, Jack?” asked Bruce. “You’ve been on Lestaron Island for what? Two weeks now? And you’ve been involved with how many disappearances and deaths?”
“Bruce,” said Katie. “Take it easy.”
Bruce ignored her. He moved in even closer, bringing his face within inches of Jack’s. It took all the willpower Jack had to keep from saying or doing something to trigger the other man into a fight.
“I know that something is off about you, Jack,” whispered Bruce. “And I’m going to find out what. I fucking swear I will.”
“You’re paranoid,” said Jack. “Stick to doing your job, deputy.”
Ryoko pulled on his hand. He took a step back from Bruce and sat down in the chair next to her. From outside, he could see the lights of an ambulance as it pulled up outside the pizzeria.
“Can you go with Ryoko, Jack?” asked Katie. “I should probably stay here.”
Shadow Form (Dark Impulse Book 2) Page 3