“No, you keep it. You’re a dragon. It’s better for you to have it. You’re more powerful.”
“Fine,” he said.
We parted ways to pack.
It didn’t take me long to get everything all packed up. I hadn’t brought much stuff.
I was going to knock on the adjoining door and tell Naelen I was ready to get out of there when my phone rang. It was Logan.
“What’s up?” he said. “I saw you called me.”
“I was only going to ask if you found that lead on Cunningham yet,” I said.
“Antsy to go after him? I told you, Clarke, if you sit tight, I’ll be back—”
“Cunningham’s gone,” I said.
“What?” said Logan.
“Yeah, he cleared out. I think he was afraid of getting burned to ash by Naelen’s fire balls.”
“You went after him? I told you not to.”
“Well, you’re not the boss of me.” So, I sounded like a five-year-old. He deserved it.
He sighed heavily on the other end of the phone. “Look, the truth is, I’m kind of knee deep into something else anyway.”
“Something else?”
“Yeah, I would have made it back there to deal with Cunningham eventually, but I got this call about some nasty drakes I been tracking down for the past year or so, and if I don’t follow up on this now, I’m going to lose them.”
“So, you’re not even going after the lead you have?” I said. “You kidding me? You realize Naelen’s sister is being held captive by Cunningham?”
“Oh, hell. I forgot about that.”
“How could you forget?”
“Unlike you, I don’t think about him that much.”
“She’s an innocent girl, so no matter how it is you feel about Naelen—”
“Look, why don’t you just go see Eden Hudson in Maple View, Ohio, and tell her I sent you. She knows something about Cunningham,” said Logan.
“I’m supposed to show up at this person’s door?”
“Yeah,” said Logan. “That’s what I always do.”
“Wait, how do you know this woman?” I said. If this was one of Logan’s other conquests, I wasn’t so much sure I could handle it.
“From working,” said Logan.
“Did you, um… did you ever sleep with her?”
He laughed. “Didn’t know you cared.”
“I…” I bit down on my bottom lip.
Logan’s voice got soft. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, Clarke, but there aren’t any other girls, okay? I know you pester me to hook up with someone else. But you’re it for me. Always have been. Always will be. That’s all there is to it. So, no, I never slept with her. Never anyone but you.”
I was quiet. He’d said things similar to that before, but I’d never really believed him. I always thought he was trying to placate me, somehow soften the blow of his long absences by claiming fidelity to me, even though I was sure that was ridiculous. He was a red-blooded man, after all. Now, though, well…
“Logan,” I said in a hoarse voice, “I never asked you to—”
“Look, I should probably get back to hunting these drakes, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Eden Hudson,” he said. “I’ll text you the address.”
* * *
“So, you really think this lead that Logan’s got us chasing will pan out?” said Naelen as we boarded his jet.
“I know he wouldn’t steer us wrong,” I said. “This is where he would have gone if he hadn’t gotten… distracted.”
“Distracted, huh? That happen with him a lot?”
“You have no idea,” I muttered.
We settled into the big leather chairs on his plane.
“God,” Naelen muttered. “I’m going to need a drink.”
“So,” I said. “The guy who flies your plane? Was he just hanging out here waiting for us this whole time?”
“No, he took the jet home to Sea City,” said Naelen. “I called him earlier to tell him to fly it back down here. I originally told him he’d be flying us home, but I’ve just adjusted the itinerary since you told me about this lead.”
Naelen waited until we were in the air before he started mixing drinks. He offered me one, and since it had been a hell of a couple of days, I decided I’d take him up on it. He mixed me something simple, just rum and Coke, and he made it a little stronger than I would have liked, so I sipped it.
“What do you mean, I have no idea how distracted Logan is?” he asked as he settled in with his own drink, whiskey on the rocks.
“I think he has undiagnosed ADD,” I said. “He flits from one thing to the other. Can’t settle anywhere. Has to keep moving.”
“Can’t settle, huh?” said Naelen. “That why you guys broke up? Did you want to settle down?”
I sighed. It was amazing how easily he’d figured that out.
“Why do you put up with him, then? Why not just cut him out of your life?”
“He and I have a past. We knew each other when we were kids.”
“Yeah, you said. But so what? I knew lots of people when I was a kid that I don’t give the time of day now.”
“He helped me out with something. He helped my sister.”
“With what?”
“A thing is all,” I said. “Look, I know you don’t like him, but he’s a good friend. No matter what happens, I do know that I’ll have his back and he’ll have mine.”
“Unless he gets distracted.”
“Why do you hate him so much anyway?”
“I don’t hate him.” But Naelen sounded defensive. “Listen, maybe he and I rub each other the wrong way, but it’s nothing worse than that. I’m only talking about it because of you.”
“Me?”
“Look, Clarke, I know you have this crazy idea that I despise you or something, but I don’t. I’d consider you a friend. And I don’t think you hate me either. You seem to be softening towards me. You aren’t insulting me every three seconds.”
I laughed a little. “Well… we’ve been through some crazy stuff the past couple of days. And you haven’t been completely useless.”
“Oh, thank you very much.” He chuckled, sipping his drink.
“No, I pegged you as this prissy rich boy, but you’re actually much more capable than I gave you credit for.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did my ears deceive me, or did you compliment me?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Would you consider me a friend, then, Clarke?”
“Friends,” I said, turning the word over in my mouth. “Sure. We’re friends.”
“Well, as a friend, I think Logan makes you unhappy. I don’t like seeing you unhappy.”
I took a sip of my rum and Coke. “It’s not that he makes me unhappy exactly…”
“Sad,” he said. “I would say sad is the word. You get this look in your eyes when you talk about him. Kind of a deep-down hurt look. He did a number on you.”
“He didn’t. I don’t get a look like that.”
Naelen shrugged.
“He helped my sister out. He helped her out in a big way. I’ll always owe him.”
“It’s about your sister, then?”
“No, it’s about…” I sighed. “I told you I didn’t want to talk about him.”
“You really care about your sister, don’t you?”
“I look after her. She needs… she hasn’t had things easy.”
“Neither have you. You seem to take care of yourself.”
“Well, I have to. Because she needs me. If we both flaked out, we’d be dead.”
He laughed a little. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”
“You do?”
“I’d do anything for Reign. I remember when she was a baby, at first I didn’t like her, because she was squirmy and red and cried. Cried and cried and cried. She’d be up lying in her bedroom, bawling her head off for ages. But then one day, I went up there. I wanted to shut he
r up. The minute I picked her up… everything changed.”
“Wait,” I said. “Your sister was left all alone?”
“My parents weren’t much interested in anything except each other,” he said.
“God,” I said.
He shrugged. “I took care of her. I was her favorite, and everyone knew it. But it was only because I paid attention to her. I held her and rocked her and made her bottles and changed her diapers. When she was older, I was the one she came to when she skinned her knee or when she had nightmares. She relied on me. And when someone’s relying on you, it changes something in you. Makes you brave. Like, if there was no one else around, you’d hide from the monsters under the bed. But having your kid sister worried about them means that you’re pulling up the bedspread to show her how nothing’s there and telling her not to be scared.”
I nodded. “That’s it exactly.”
“She’s depending on you,” he said. “You have to step up.”
I shook my head slowly. “I can’t believe your parents didn’t—”
“I’m sorry I brought it up,” he muttered. “I don’t much want to talk about them.”
“Oh,” I said. “Sorry.”
He cocked his head at me. “Seems we both have our sore points, hmm?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.
He downed the rest of his drink and got up. “I’m going to get a refill. You want anything?”
* * *
“So, what do you know about this Eden woman?” asked Naelen.
We were in yet another rental car. We’d been able to land the jet at a commercial airport this time, and it had been much easier finding a rental. Now we were following the GPS on my phone to Eden’s house. We were close.
“I don’t know anything,” I said. “I know that Logan met her on a job and that she knows something about Cunningham. Couldn’t be more in the dark about it. I don’t even know if she knows we’re coming. It would be just like Logan not to call ahead and warn her that we’re coming, you know?”
“Great,” said Naelen. “So, we’re showing up unannounced on a stranger’s doorstep?”
“I hope not,” I said.
“Well, maybe we should find someplace to stay for the night,” said Naelen. “Call on her in the morning. It’s getting to be late.”
“It’s not even dinner time,” I said.
“Will be soon,” said Naelen. “It’s not the right time to show up at someone’s house. She’s not going to be inclined to want to talk to us. I bet we just have to come back tomorrow anyway.”
“Well, I thought you’d want to get the information as quickly as possible. Get Cunningham as fast as we can.”
“Even if we do find it all out this evening, there’s no way my pilot’s flying us anywhere else tonight,” said Naelen. “We’re stuck here for the night regardless.”
I considered. “Well, I think we should go see her anyway. If it’s a bad time for her, we’ll just come back.”
“You don’t think we’ll piss her off?” said Naelen.
“I hope not,” I said. “Hopefully Logan did something good for her. Saved her from something terrible. Hopefully, she’ll be grateful to him and open to us.”
The GPS piped up then to tell us to take a turn.
Naelen put on his blinker and took the turn.
The GPS then informed us that our destination was on the right.
“Oh, wow, I didn’t realize we were so close,” he said.
I pointed. “Must be that house?” It was one of those split levels, where the levels are staggered, and the basement is half above the ground. The kind of house that has a split staircase in the foyer, with one small set of stairs going down and the other going up. It had white siding and a swing set in the front yard. Three cars were parked in the driveway. Looked pretty normal.
Naelen pulled the rental car over and parked on the street in front of the house. “Okay,” he said.
“Okay,” I said.
He turned off the car and took the keys out of the ignition.
I opened the door and got out of the car.
“You go first,” said Naelen, getting out too.
I glanced at him. “Gee, thanks.”
“Hey, I don’t even know Logan.”
I took a deep breath. I was feeling a little nervous. It wasn’t as bad as facing down a rogue dragon or even Cunningham, but it wasn’t great. I took a step forward.
Ouch.
Damn it, I kept forgetting my leg was hurt.
“You okay?” said Naelen, offering me his arm. “If you want to go to a doctor or hospital or something—”
“It’s bandaged. It’s fine,” I said.
“He made you stab yourself.”
“I didn’t do it very deep,” I said. But I took his arm anyway. It was easier if I didn’t have to put too much pressure on it. Together, we made our way across the lawn to the front door of the house.
I took a deep breath, and then I knocked on the door.
Oh, man. What was I going to say? I should have practiced this. Now it was going to come out of my mouth all wrong and I was going to sound like an idiot.
The door opened. A pretty brunette stood there in a blue t-shirt and jeans. “Yes?”
“Um, Eden Hudson?” I said.
“That is me,” said the brunette. “Do I know you?”
“You don’t,” I said. “But you know Logan Gray.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you’re friends of Logan’s?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We came because he said that you might know something that’s important. We’re trying to help somebody.”
“Logan’s always trying to help,” she said, smiling. “You guys better come in. You can stay for dinner, and stay overnight if you want.”
“Uh… overnight?” I said. “That would be a huge imposition—”
“Don’t be silly. We have tons of room,” she said. “I’ll just tell Jocelyn to make sure there are clean sheets in the guest room. You two are a couple right?” She gestured to where I was clutching Naelen’s arm.
I let go of him as if he burned me. “No,” I said. “We are not a couple. Not at all.”
“Oops,” said Eden, grinning. “Silly me. Well, you’d make a cute one. But it’s not a problem. We have two guest rooms.” She raised her voice. “Hey, Jocelyn?”
“Yeah?” called a female voice from within.
“There fresh sheets on the guest beds?” Eden called. She stepped away from the door. “Come in, come in,” she said to both of us.
Naelen and I exchanged a glance. Then, unsure of what to do, we stepped inside.
Eden closed the door behind us.
We were standing in the middle of a landing. Stairs went down into the basement on our right. On our left, they ascended into the upper level of the house, just as I’d predicted.
A woman appeared at the bottom of the steps. She had red hair. “Yeah, they’ve got fresh sheets. We got company?” She saw us. “Oh, hi!”
“They’re friends of Logan’s,” said Eden.
“Great,” said the redhead, who I figured must be Jocelyn. She clambered up the steps. “Gosh, so nice to meet you both. I’d stay and talk, but I’m wrangling toddlers. I better get back before they destroy everything.” She ran down the steps again, waving.
Eden started up the steps. “Come with me.”
We followed her.
“So, that’s Jocelyn,” said Eden. “She’s with the kids. And our husband Brian is in the kitchen, cooking. I’ll just pop my head in and tell him you guys are here.”
The kitchen was right off the top of the steps.
Our husband?
“Who was at the door?” called a male voice, probably Brian.
“Friends of Logan’s,” said Eden, going into the kitchen. “They’re staying for dinner and overnight.”
“Oh, great,” said Brian.
“I’m just going to set some new plates,” said Eden coming out of the kitchen and squee
zing past us.
A man with glasses, wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, came out behind her. “Hey there.” He offered me his hand.
“Hi,” I shook with him. “I’m, um, Clarke.”
“Clarke, nice to meet you. I’m Brian,” he said. He offered his hand to Naelen. “You are?”
“Naelen,” said Naelen. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah,” said Brian, grinning. “You met my wives already. Did you meet the kids?”
Wives?
“Wives?” said Naelen, looking confused.
“Oh, didn’t Logan tell you we were poly?” said Brian.
* * *
“My night to put the kids down,” said Brian, as he got up from the table.
We were just finishing up dinner, which had been a boisterous affair. The two toddlers—Courtney and Nick—seemed about the same age, and I could only assume had different mothers. They were excited little kids who made lots of noise and smashed their food around. They both seemed pretty happy, and I wasn’t one to judge, considering my own childhood could probably be termed, er, traumatic, and I’d turned out just fine.
Eden and Jocelyn wiped the kids faces and handed them over to their dad. The three of them disappeared.
Jocelyn started to clear plates from the table.
“Hey,” said Eden. “It’s my night to wash up.”
“I’ll get this,” said Jocelyn. “You talk to our guests. You know Logan the best.”
“Really?” said Eden. “You sure? Because I can definitely do it.”
“You can do it tomorrow. We’ll just switch,” said Jocelyn. “Not a big deal.” She grinned and headed into the kitchen with her arms full of dishes.
“Thanks!” Eden called after her and then turned to us. “So, go ahead. You’ve got questions. Everyone always does.”
“Uh… about what?” I said, looking at Naelen for help.
Naelen was busy crumpling his napkin up and not looking at me.
“It’s okay,” said Eden. “We know our family is peculiar. Ask away.” She settled back in her chair, arms crossed, grinning.
Naelen set down his napkin. It was a tight ball. He didn’t say anything.
I didn’t say anything.
“It’s fine,” said Naelen finally. “I caught a couple episodes of that TV show, so, I get it.”
“Oh, it’s not a religious thing,” said Eden. “We’re not polygamous, we’re polyamorous.”
Smoke (The Slayer Chronicles Book 1) Page 15