Dead and Breakfast

by Lily Webb

  “Selena? Are you okay?” Blair asked.

  “I-I’m fine. Other than my finger, anyway,” I said, still marveling at its deadened tip.

  “What did you see?”

  “Emile and the imposter. I saw their fight. Emile didn’t win,” I said, and Blair fell back against the table where the fake Emile’s blood still sat. “But he’s not dead! Or at least not as far as I could tell. The imposter knocked him out, and they were taking him upstairs somewhere, but that’s when the vision cut out. That’s why I was shouting.”

  “So they’re still here. Both of them,” Kiki whispered, one hand over her mouth.

  “And we don’t know where either of them are,” Jadis finished the uncomfortable thought for her. “We’re trapped.”

  “We can always lift the protective spells if we need to escape,” Blair pointed out, and though I was glad to hear that, it didn’t solve the problem.

  “But what about Feal and Emile? If they’re still alive, we can’t leave them in here with who or whatever that thing is!” I shouted.

  “We might not have to,” Blair said thoughtfully. “This isn’t adding up, and I’m not convinced the imposter ever wanted to hurt anyone. In Emile’s form with his powers, the imposter easily could’ve finished Emile off — and the rest of us, for that matter — but they didn’t. Instead, at least according to Selena’s visions, they trapped Feal somewhere and hauled an unconscious Emile upstairs. Why?”

  “Good point,” Jadis said. “That is weird, now that I think about it.”

  “Well, whatever the reason is, they’re targeting members of the inn’s staff,” I said. “First Feal, now Emile. That means any or all of the four of us could be next, and if they know about my visions — and they probably do — then I’d bet it’s me they’re after. If it weren’t for me showing up, no one would know what’s going on. Maybe they’re using Feal and Emile as bait to lure me.”

  “So, what do we do, then? We aren’t going to just hand you over to them,” Jadis asked, rubbing her arms against the chill that’d swept over her.

  “We have to figure out if everyone here is really who they say they are,” I said. “Someone’s hiding something. I don’t know who, but someone in this inn knows what’s going on.”

  Jadis turned to Blair. “Didn’t you say Delia was a paranormal scholar? Maybe we should ask her about this stuff,” she said, jabbing her thumb through the air at the frigid blood that’d given me my latest vision.

  Blair’s face illuminated like someone had plugged her into a wall outlet. “That’s genius! She probably knows about all kinds of creatures with abilities like this, and at the very least, I bet she could tell us what this liquid is and where it came from.”

  “Maybe, unless Delia’s the imposter,” I pointed out, and Blair’s face fell.

  “I don’t think she is, Selena,” Jadis argued. “We already know the copycat was down here fighting with Emile, right? And Delia had already gone to her room, so she couldn’t have been down here too.”

  I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t get there. Not yet. “Hm, maybe, but that also makes me wonder why she didn’t come downstairs when she heard all the commotion in the kitchen. She had to have heard it, right?”

  Blair shrugged. “Not necessarily. Sound carries through the hallways and staircases of the inn, but the rooms themselves are relatively soundproof. Except, apparently in Delia’s case, for any noise coming from nearby rooms.”

  “Huh. Well, regardless, I think it’s a good idea to play it safe for now. We don’t have any idea what we’re dealing with here, so there’s no guarantee that whoever is behind all this couldn’t have been in two places at once.”

  “That’s a good point,” Kiki agreed. “Why don’t we call her room and ask her to come down to the dining room? If she doesn’t answer or acts funny about it, we’ll know why.”

  “Oh, great idea!” Blair shouted. “I already promised her we would look into moving her to another room, so we can use that as an excuse. In the meantime, let’s put this stuff somewhere it can’t hurt anyone.” She waved her wand at the puddle of liquid, and it vanished before reappearing inside a glass vial that she then tucked in her robes. “Ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I sighed, and with their wands still drawn, just in case, the four of us slowly made our way back to the front desk on high alert.

  Chapter Ten

  We gathered around the front desk like a terrified family of deer, and Kiki kept watch while Blair picked up the rotary phone’s handset and held it to her ear. Spinning the dial repeatedly, she called Delia’s room number, 312, and I held my breath as it rang.

  “Yes?” Delia answered, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

  “Ms. Rune, it’s Blair down at the front desk. I’m calling to let you know that we’ve worked out another room for you, as you requested,” Blair said confidently, as if nothing at all were wrong.

  “Oh, thank Lilith,” Delia sighed.

  “Are you ready to move now? I’d be happy to send Selena and Jadis up to help you move your things.”

  “That’s fine, yes. Just give me a few minutes to gather them?”

  “Sure. Call me back when you’re ready.”

  “Thanks again, Blair. Maybe now I’ll finally be able to get some work done,” Delia said and hung up.

  Blair set the handset back on the receiver and flashed me a smile. “Easy as that.”

  “Helping her move her things? That’s brilliant! That’ll get us into her room to see if there’s anything fishy going on in there,” I said.

  Blair winked at me. “Why do you think I offered?”

  Jadis frowned. “I dunno. I don’t think she’d let us in there if she had anything to hide.”

  “True, but who knows? She might just be trying to play it cool.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think she’d be so eager to let us in her room if she were hiding Emile’s unconscious body in there.”

  I shrugged. “Well, we’ll find out shortly, won’t we?”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Jadis said and turned to Blair. “But how are we going to keep ourselves safe in there alone with her?”

  “Kiki and I will wait for you on the floor below. If anything goes wrong, we’ll hear it and be there in a flash,” Blair said, but it didn’t sound like too safe of a plan to me. The copycat in the inn had already proven they were exceptionally stealthy, and I didn’t think it would take more than a few seconds for them to subdue Jadis and me. “I know it’s not perfect, but it’s the best we can do,” Blair said as if she’d picked up on my doubt.

  “What about the stuff in the vial? How are we going to ask her about that without it seeming suspicious? Don’t forget, she could be the imposter too.”

  Blair frowned. “Good question; I hadn’t thought of that. If she is the one behind all this, showing her the liquid might tip her off that we’re on to her. Then again, with the kitchen in its current state, the imposter has to know we’re circling around them by now, anyway. How couldn’t we be?”

  “That’s true,” Jadis said, “so they’re probably even more dangerous now. A cornered animal isn’t likely to be friendly.”

  “We don’t really have a choice,” Blair said. “Assuming she’s really Delia, she’s the only one here who has any chance of telling us what that stuff is. It’s a risk we have to take.”

  “Then we’ll just have to be as careful as we can,” I said, though I wasn’t sure that was possible. Blair was right; her plan to keep us safe wasn’t ideal, but it was the best we had. If Delia saw Blair and Kiki waiting in the hall with wands drawn, it probably wouldn’t go over well for any of us, so we had to risk going in alone.

  We stood around waiting, full of anxiety, for what seemed like forever until finally the front desk phone rang, shrill and alarming, making all of us jump.

  “That must be her,” Blair said and reached to answer it. “Front desk, this is Blair speaking.”

  “Blair, it’s Delia. I�
�m ready whenever you are.”

  “Perfect. I’ll send Selena and Jadis up now with luggage carts.”

  “Great,” Delia said and clicked off the line again. No one could accuse her of being indirect, though I wasn’t sure whether I liked that about her.

  Blair hung the phone up and reached into her robes for the vial. She handed it to me, and I shivered from the frigid liquid inside. “Be careful with that. Delia’s prickly, but I’ve found that she loves compliments, especially about her work, so try that. If you can charm Lox and Keez out of their stolen booty, I think you can handle Delia.”

  I tucked the vial into my pocket, hoping it didn’t break in the move. “We’ll see about that.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Blair said with a smile and waved her wand. Two gold-handled luggage carts appeared out of thin air in front of Jadis and I, complete with ugly, worn red carpet on their bottoms. “Take the elevator with these. I’d send you up magically, but I don’t want any tip-offs. You can move Delia to room 510. That should get her far enough away from Tara,” she said and handed me an iron room key, which I tucked into my pocket along with the vial.

  “Got it,” I said, and Jadis and I wheeled the carts toward the elevator, wincing at their squealing, unoiled tires. Blair dragged the grate open and we awkwardly shuffled into the box with the carts, leaving less than a foot of distance between us. I reached around her to smash the button for the third floor.

  “Good luck,” Blair said as she slid the grate shut.

  I looked Jadis in the eye, and she gulped. For as cool and collected as she normally was, anxiety rolled off her in waves like an early morning fog, clouding over me and making me just as nervous. Chances were, we had nothing to worry about — like Jadis had said, Delia was already in her room when the battle between the two Emiles broke out, so she probably wasn’t the imposter — but I couldn’t be sure yet.

  The elevator lurched upward, forcing a gasp out of Jadis; she scoffed as soon as she realized what had scared her. “I can’t believe this. I’m never this jumpy.”

  “Well, to be fair, you don’t normally share a house with a magical kidnapper either,” I said, and we shared a laugh. What else could we do with this wild situation? When Blair offered me a position working at Kindred Spirits, I’d imagined myself checking people in and maybe cleaning a few rooms, not chasing down a mysterious, shape shifting snatcher.

  The elevator dinged when it reached the third floor, and though it took some contortionist-level maneuvering, Jadis and I opened the grate, untangle ourselves, and pull the luggage carts out of the elevator.

  My throat seemed to tighten further with each step I took toward room 312, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the vial in my pocket. Jadis and I came to a stop just outside the door, exchanged nervous glances, and I knocked.

  “Ms. Rune? Er, it’s Selena,” I called.

  “One moment!” she shouted back from somewhere deep in the room. Seizing the opportunity, I leaned against the door and strained to hear anything suspicious, but all I got were the sounds of Delia slinging bags around until I heard her stomping toward the door. I yanked back and tried to make it look like I hadn’t been up to anything.

  The lock clicked and the door flung open a second later, revealing Delia looking flustered but no less beautiful. “Oh, you have no idea how happy I am about this,” she said and broke into a wide smile. She jerked her thumb through the air toward Tara’s room. “My neighbor has been driving me insane. Anyway, come on in,” she said and stepped aside to allow Jadis and me to wheel our carts in.

  Delia’s room looked approximately the same size as the one I shared with Jadis, but a queen-sized bed piled high with Delia’s bags stood in the spot where two full-sized beds were in ours. A similar nightstand sat on the left side of the bed, where the room’s phone and a small lamp waited. On the far side of the room, under the only window, sat a small writing desk and chair, just big enough for one person to spread out and work.

  Between the three of us women, the two luggage carts, and the bed, there was barely enough room for us to move around, but Jadis and I eventually found a workable rhythm in which she passed me Delia’s bags and I loaded them onto the carts.

  “Any idea where we’re going? Blair didn’t mention which floor my new room is on,” Delia said.

  “Room 510,” I said, hoping she didn’t give us any pushback about it.

  “Hm, well, it’s not the floor with the best views, but at this point I’ll take anything that gets me away from Moan Rivers.”

  Realizing I didn’t have much time to ask her questions, I summoned the courage to strike up a conversation. Self-important people like Delia could rarely resist talking about themselves, so I figured that would be a good angle to try. “Blair told us you’re a paranormal scholar of some sort and working on a new book. What’s it about, if I can ask?”

  “Oh, it would bore you to tears, I’m sure,” Delia said from where she still stood by the front door, watching us haul her bags. Clearly, she wasn’t interested in helping us — not that that surprised me.

  “I dunno about that. I’m new to this magical stuff. I think it’s all fascinating.”

  Delia considered me for a moment, then shrugged. “Suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. The book is about the history of paranormal species that are extinct or nearly so, and how their descendants have evolved to survive.”

  “That doesn’t sound boring at all, actually,” Jadis said, and I eagerly nodded.

  “Yeah, that’s really cool. What kind of creatures are you focusing on?”

  “I’m most interested in mountainous species like yetis and ice elementals.”

  Yetis were real? I had to stop myself from blurting out the question. Not that I thought Delia was lying — if anyone would know, it would be someone like her — but I still couldn’t believe it. I’d always assumed parents made up the myth of yetis to scare their kids on camping trips, but then again, I’d also thought witches and vampires weren’t real until I arrived in Starfall Valley.

  “So, are one or both extinct?” Jadis asked to cover for me.

  “Not yet, though they’re close, specifically the elementals. With all the technological advancement in Starfall and the accompanying development of the surrounding area, the elementals are getting pushed further and further from their natural habitats and dying out.”

  “That’s terrible,” I said, and I meant it. I didn’t really know what an elemental was, but anyone or anything being forced from their environment didn’t sit right with me.

  “I wish more people around here thought the same thing, but the rich tech guys running the show don’t agree,” Delia said and sighed.

  I wouldn’t have guessed that Starfall Valley, in its remote mountain location, would be an ideal hub for tech wunderkinds. Then again, as I’d learned repeatedly since coming to the town, appearances could deceive. Maybe Starfall’s obscure position gave them the requisite anonymity to carry out their genius experiments without pesky government oversight.

  “What kind of stuff do these tech companies do here?” I asked.

  “Big data mining, mostly.”

  Apparently, there weren’t that many differences between Starfall and Denver.

  “I see. Hey, you know what? Speaking of rare stuff, I’m glad we met up because I found this, er, liquid and I dunno what it is. You have any ideas?” I asked as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the vial. I held it out to Delia in my palm.

  She took the glass tube from me, held it up to the light, and twirled it to examine its contents. “Hm, can’t say that I do. It’s freezing, though.”

  “Yeah, super weird.”

  Delia swirled the contents of the vial, unable to take her eyes away. “Where did you find this?”

  “Down in the kitchen,” I admitted, and instantly regretted it. Oh well, the mercury was out of the thermometer now.

  “You just found it lying around?”

  “Well, actually, it was si
tting in a puddle on one of the tables. There was a bit of a, uh, scuffle in the kitchen earlier,” I said, testing the waters. Blair said Delia might not have heard the commotion, but I needed Delia to convince me she hadn’t.

  Delia abruptly stopped swishing the vial’s insides and looked me dead in the eye. “What kind of scuffle?”

  “Oh, nothing major. Just a little vampire fight. They made a gigantic mess of the kitchen, but I’m sure Blair and Kiki will have it all cleaned up before morning. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it.”

  A deep, rumbling moan echoed through the wall shared between Delia and Tara’s rooms. Delia rolled her eyes so hard it must’ve hurt. “Are you kidding? How could I hear anything over her?” she asked, and I honestly couldn’t tell whether she’d sidestepped my veiled accusation or if she really hadn’t heard. But then confusion spread across Delia’s face like a plague. “Wait, there’s only one vampire in this inn, or at least as far as I knew.”

  That didn’t seem like something an imposter would say. In fact, the more I talked to Delia, the more I believed Jadis was right about her being innocent. “Apparently not,” I said. “You haven’t heard or seen anything strange since you’ve been up here, have you?”

  “What? No. I’ve been in here trying to work since I saw you two and Blair down at the front desk. Granted, I’ve gotten nothing done thanks to my lovely neighbor, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  Well, unless Delia really had the ability to be in two places at once — which I doubted — I had no choice but to believe she’d been in her room for the last couple of hours, which meant she couldn’t be the imposter we were hunting. So, I changed the subject.

  “What do you think’s going on next door? I dunno about you, but I’ve never heard of any kind of surgery that would be so painful it would make the patient moan and scream about it for days on end.”

  Delia threw her hands up in the air. “I swear to Lilith, if I knew, I’d tell you, but I can only guess. Some rumors floating around town say Tara tried to cast a curse on some other rich socialite who crossed her, but it backfired and literally blew up in her face, which is presumably why she needed all that work done. So, I guess it’s possible she could be in that much pain.”