Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, & Magic

by SM Reine

  Simon pointed and shouted, “Pass those guys.”

  Paying no attention to the solid double yellow line in the center of the road, Temi roared around three cars before veering back into our lane. I clutched the back of her seat, my fingers like talons. We were approaching town, and the speed limit had already dropped to thirty-five, but we were going seventy.

  Was there some rule about not getting into a sports car with anyone crazier than oneself? If there wasn’t, there ought to be.

  We passed four more cars before slowing for a light. I was half surprised she didn’t run it, but Simon was pointing again. Up ahead, beyond a few other cars, the two motorcycles had come into view. Metal detector thieves or not, they were obeying the speed limit.

  I leaned forward between the seats. “What are you planning to do when we catch them?”

  “I haven’t come up with a plan yet,” Simon admitted.

  I groaned, flopped back into the seat, and pulled out my phone again.

  “Who are you calling?” Simon asked.

  “I’m texting Sarah.”

  “About what?”

  “Gonna relay that client’s shipping information to her,” I said. “If we get killed, I’d hate for some coffee shop owner in Maine to be forever wondering what happened to his order.”

  Simon gave me his Coyote smirk. “Yeah, that’d be my biggest concern related to our deaths too.”

  “Just... shut up and come up with your plan.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Our high-speed chase ended with us sitting in front of Cuppers, the Jag parked between a dented Toyota with plastic duct-taped over a missing window and a Volkswagen bug even older than our van. Lots of tourists visited Prescott, and some people from Phoenix had second homes up there, but I felt conspicuous in the fancy car anyway. Of course, that could have to do with the way we had roared around the corner and into the parking space, causing the collective eyebrow raising of numerous people sitting at outdoor tables, sipping their lattes.

  The motorcycles were parked farther up the street in front of the Hotel Vendome. We’d arrived in time to watch the owners walk inside—rather Temi had watched them walk inside while Simon and I kept our heads down so they wouldn’t spot us.

  “You didn’t see their faces?” I asked. She’d described them as tall, slender, and clad in black leather, but I’d already digested that much when they cruised by the campground. “They took off their helmets, didn’t they?”

  “They did, but they were wearing black wool caps that covered most of their hair, and they didn’t turn this way so I could see their faces.”

  “Black wool caps?” Simon crinkled his nose.

  My reaction was similar. Sure, it got nippy at night there in the fall, but the afternoon sun beating down upon us had passersby wearing T-shirts.

  “Yes,” Temi said.

  “Both of them?” Simon asked. “That’s a weird fashion statement.”

  I almost giggled when Temi gave a head-to-toe consideration of his messy hair, 80s T-shirt, torn jeans, and dust-covered socks and sandals. “Yes,” was all she said. She’d never been one for overt insults.

  Simon didn’t notice the slight anyway. He must have been mulling over something, for he soon blurted, “Maybe they’re Vulcans.”

  “Pardon?” Temi asked.

  I covered my eyes with my hand but explained. “Aliens from Star Trek.”

  “With pointed ears,” Simon added. “In the episodes where the away team traveled back in time or to a planet that wasn’t familiar with Vulcans, Mr. Spock would always wear hats or wool caps to hide his ears and eyebrows. The best episode was City on the Edge of Forever when Spock showed up on old Earth without a hat, and Kirk tried to explain his ears to the police by saying his head had been caught in a mechanical rice picker as a child.” Simon grinned in fond reverence for this memory.

  I whispered, “You were closer to impressing Temi when you weren’t talking to her.”

  Simon seemed to remember he was in the presence of a pretty girl and flushed over his geeky faux pas. Temi merely appeared amused.

  “Uhm, were the Vulcans carrying anything?” Simon outlined the precise dimensions of his prized metal detector before I could tell him to stop calling the riders that.

  I hadn’t noticed anything big enough to qualify strapped to their saddlebags, and Temi confirmed my suspicion. “They weren’t carrying anything.”

  Simon sank back in the seat. “Damn, where is it?”

  “Maybe they were done using it so they left it back by that mine,” I said.

  “Mine?” Temi asked mildly, reminding me that we hadn’t filled her in on anything. She’d been a good sport to go tearing off after the motorcycles without any information.

  “We can give you the details over d—dinner,” Simon said, his deflation from seconds before fading as he smiled hopefully at her.

  “Can we figure out what we’re going to do here first? If anything? Because if not, I’m going to spend some of our client’s money on a mocha.” I waved toward the coffee shop.

  “We were at the sheriff’s department for a couple of hours,” Simon said. “Maybe our Harley guys already came back to town and dropped off their purloined goods.”

  “That’s a lot for them to have done, considering we left them with slashed tires.”

  Temi’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t think your mother gave me all the details about this business of yours.”

  “That’s a given,” I said. “This is kind of... extracurricular though.”

  “As in we’re using our free time to try and get back the $5,000 piece of equipment those people stole,” Simon said.

  “Are you sure it was them?”

  “We weren’t exactly parked at the head of some popular hiking trail,” Simon said. “There wasn’t anyone else out there.”

  Except the dead guy, I thought. “What do you want to do then, Simon? We might have been able to knock on the door and chat with them if you hadn’t stabbed their tires, but as it is, I don’t think it’s wise for us to get anywhere near them.”

  “Why don’t we get coffee and sit at the outdoor tables until those two leave again?” Simon waved at the hotel. “They didn’t have any take-out bags with them, so they probably have to go out to get dinner. Once they’re gone, we’ll sneak up and look in their rooms.”

  “That place doesn’t have many rooms,” I said. “We’d probably get questioned if we sauntered in. Besides, how would we search their rooms without a key? My archaeology classes didn’t even cover how to break into ancient tombs, much less modern hotel rooms.”

  “Once it gets dark, we could climb up to the balcony and start looking in windows.”

  Temi was following all of this, her elbow on the back of her seat, her thumb and forefinger making an L-shape to cup her jaw.

  “This is why I don’t give my mother the details,” I told her.

  “Do you regularly do illegal things?” she asked.

  “No,” Simon said. “We’re not the villains here. We’re upright citizens.”

  “For upright citizens, we have a lot of condiments in the van that we didn’t pay for.”

  “How many times are you going to bring up that pepper shaker?” Simon asked.

  “There’s mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup too.”

  Since the conversation wasn’t going anywhere—and nobody was getting out so I could use either of the doors—I climbed over the side and headed for the coffee shop. Now that I’d been thinking of chocolate, I wanted a mocha whether we were staking out the hotel or not. A moment later, Temi and Simon followed me. We ordered our drinks, and I eyed the sandwiches and salads on the menu, but we had peanut butter and jelly and a bag of carrots back at the campsite. Why spend money eating out, when we had such a health mecca at our disposal?

  We sat at an outdoor table near the sidewalk and positioned Temi so she could watch the Vendome. I still wasn’t sure if these people would recognize Simon or me, but Temi couldn’t have bee
n anticipated. Every now and then, though, one of the coffee shop patrons would give her a curious look, as if wondering if she might be some familiar celebrity. Temi either didn’t notice or pretended not to notice.

  “Someone in a black cap walked past a window,” she said.

  “Oh?” I didn’t turn my head, though I was tempted.

  “One of them pulled the shade down on the second-floor room at the front.” Temi nodded toward the brick wall on the side of the building.

  “Good,” Simon said. “We know which room they’re staying in now.”

  “And that they might be doing something they don’t want anyone to see,” I mused. “It won’t be fully dark for a couple of hours. No need to pull down the shades for the night.” Though I supposed they could be dealing with glare on the TV. Still... the sun shouldn’t be shining in that window. Maple trees bright with yellow leaves shaded the building.

  “Cuppers closes in a half hour,” Simon said.

  I sipped my mocha, determined to enjoy its smooth richness, even if we were on a stake out. “I doubt they’ll kick us off their front patio.”

  “No, but it might look suspicious when we’re the only ones lurking here.”

  “We’re not lurking, we’re drinking.” I squinted at him. “Why? Are you going to propose some new course of delinquency?”

  “I had the thought that if someone pushed over one of the bikes, an alarm might go off and they’d run down to check, maybe without thinking to lock their room door. Or doors. You think they’re staying together?”

  “So far, all we know is that they like motorcycles and the color black. I’m not sure there’s enough there to make guesses about rooming preferences. Also, I think you’ve done enough damage to their bikes. You’re going to get throttled if one of them catches up with you.” The sun had dropped below the western mountains. It might not be dark for a while, but I was ready to check my email, curl up with a book, and forget this day had happened. “We could accept our losses and go back to the campground. There are some estate sales I want to check on tomorrow. That ought to prove more profitable than roaming around the mountains with metal detectors.”

  Simon scowled at me. “We’ve found some good stuff with my tools and my research.”

  “They walked out the front door.” Temi slipped a pair of sunglasses out of her purse and donned them.

  I kept myself from whirling in my seat to stare. Simon’s hands clenched the edge of the table, but he showed similar restraint. Though we still hadn’t filled Temi in on what was going on, she calmly sipped her chai tea, going along with our spy mission.

  “They’re not heading to the bikes,” she said. “They’re walking this way.”

  “Erk?” It made sense since downtown with all its restaurants and pubs was a few blocks to the north, and there wasn’t anything besides houses to the south, but if they strolled right past us...

  I shifted in my chair so my back would be to the sidewalk. Simon pulled out his smartphone and bent his head over the display. Temi continued to sip her tea, the sunglasses hiding her eyes.

  “You might want to sneak a peek when they pass,” she murmured. “They’re... unusual.”

  “How so? Aside from their matching caps?”

  “Handsome, but there’s something...” Temi’s face shifted toward a woman sitting on the porch with a laptop and her dog.

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The Harley pair came into view, still wearing their black leather pants and jackets as well as the caps. I made a show of studying my phone, too, though tried my best to sneak that peek Temi had suggested. They strode by without speaking, and I didn’t glimpse more than the sides of their faces. Elegant was the word that came to my mind, both for their features and their movement. I had a hard time putting a finger on anything distinct, but Temi was right. They were an unusual pair.

  Fortunately, they walked past without any glances to the side. None of us moved until they’d crossed the intersection toward Courthouse Square. Then Simon pushed back his chair, stirring the fallen leaves dusting the patio.

  “Time to visit that vacated room.”

  “Temi,” I said, “I don’t suppose you’d like to inquire about lodgings while Simon here asks to use the restroom?” I’d help him get in to snoop around, but I wasn’t going to break down any doors for him. He’d have to figure that out on his own.

  “It depends.” Temi rose from the table. “Have I been hired yet?”

  “Yes,” Simon said.

  I lifted a hand. “We’re going to discuss it. It’d be more like some kind of profit-sharing gig though. We don’t make enough to have salaried employees.” I thought about adding that she probably wouldn’t earn enough to cover the insurance payment on that car every month, but Simon was already jogging up the street.

  “Perhaps a trial period then?” Temi asked.

  “We’ll see.”

  I hustled after Simon and up the steps onto a colonial-style porch with white columns at each corner. There was a balcony in a similar style above us. I wasn’t sure how old the building was, though I seemed to remember some trivia about most of Prescott burning in a fire in the early 1900s, but it had that quaint historic feel to it. When we entered the hotel, there were a few people sipping drinks at the small bar to the left, laughing and smiling as they chatted with the bartender and each other. There wasn’t anyone standing behind the reception desk on the other side of the foyer. To the right of the desk, a set of stairs led up to the second level.

  I waved Temi toward the bar. All I wanted was for her to block the bartender’s view as we headed for the stairs, but for verisimilitude I added, “Want to order us a couple of drinks?”

  She waved back. Her six feet in height proved adequate for blocking views, so Simon and I slipped over to the carpeted stairs and climbed to the second floor. Despite having knowledge of the resident ghost, I’d never been inside the building. It only had about thirty rooms, though, so it wasn’t hard to find the one that matched up to that corner window.

  The hotel had old-fashioned locks instead of key-card deals, so I tried the knob, not expecting it to open. To my surprise, it did. I would have opened it carefully, peeking in to make sure nobody waited inside—and that the room wasn’t full of bodies or tools for turning people into bodies—but Simon lacked my patience. He brushed past me and pushed through the doorway.

  The room held a quilted double bed with nightstands, a dresser with a television, an armchair, and a door leading to a bathroom, not much more. If there was a metal detector or anything larger than the pair of messenger bags on the bed, it wasn’t apparent. That didn’t keep Simon from stalking about and flopping to his belly on the floor in search of his Dirt Viper. I headed for the window, so I could watch for the return of our motorcycle men. I should have given Temi my phone number so she could text me if they walked in the front door or if any other trouble headed our way. Obviously I needed more practice at acts of espionage.

  “Nothing.” Simon climbed to his feet. “What could they have done with it?” He opened the drawer in one of the bedside tables.

  I snorted. “Unless that metal detector had a secret folding option you never showed me, it’s not going to be in a drawer.”

  “I know that, but maybe there’s other evidence. Like a picture of them standing beside my Dirt Viper like a fisherman holding up his prize catch.”

  “You’re attributing entirely too much value to that metal detector.”

  “Nothing in here except a bible. I’ll check the bathroom. Maybe they were showering with it.”

  “Kinky,” I remarked and, for no reason other than curiosity, opened the drawer on the bedside table closest to me. A soft golden glow emanated from within. “Uh.”

  “What is it?” Simon almost knocked me over in his haste to peer inside.

  “Not a bible,” I said, my voice on the squeaky side. The glow was coming from a golden disk about three times the diameter of a silver dollar. I wasn’t a numi
smatics expert, but I’d seen a lot of old coins since we’d started our business, and I hadn’t seen anything like this. I’d studied four ancient languages in school, in addition to modern Greek, and the runes weren’t anything familiar. The picture in the center looked like a brain. Given the decapitated man we’d left in the mine, that disturbed me more than it might in other circumstances. The glowing aspect of the coin was slightly disturbing too. Still, I couldn’t take my eyes from it, and my interest in these Harley riders tripled. Was this some ancient artifact they’d unearthed? Something with historical or cultural significance?

  “I’ll say.” Simon poked a finger into the drawer, as if to pick up the coin, but he pulled it out again without touching it. “How did they make it glow? There’s no such thing as radioactive coins, is there?”

  “Some sort of... tritium or phosphorescent application? Like they use for watches? I’ve never heard of coins treated with that though.”

  Simon pulled his phone out to take a picture. This time I didn’t object. This would be perfect for the blog, especially if it turned out to be something old instead of some modern gewgaw created for... well, I had no idea, but the idea of researching it intrigued me.

  I was about to check the window again when my own phone chirped. Text message. I didn’t recognize the number but the, “GET OUT!!!” was easy enough to understand.

  “Come on,” I whispered and shoved the drawer shut. “We have to—”

  The door swung inward.

  CHAPTER 5

  The two men stood in the doorway, their jaws slack, seemingly as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Actually, I wasn’t so much surprised as chagrinned.