Approaching Storm

by A. L. Kessler

  "Apparently there are things that not even you know." I nudged her. "He refused to tell me who the person was. It breeches some type of moral contract."

  She snorted. "A boogie man with a code of honor."

  "Yeah, I don't even know, but seriously I at least have some clue to go off of. Maybe I'll find a blood stain."

  Lee perked up at that. "Blood carries a scent."

  "Yeah, typically a copper smell."

  "No, no, like each creature has a different scent. If we can find the bloodstain, there might still be enough of a scent to tell what he was."

  "Well, then I guess it's a good thing I'm taking the werewolf with me tomorrow and not the sprite. Damn shame we bleached my porch." I winked at her. "This has been an adventurous week."

  "Well, we haven't had any excitement here in a while, I guess it's about time we have some."

  I raised my teacup. "To adventures."

  She clinked hers with mine. "To adventures."

  We finished our tea, and I headed into the spare bedroom. My heart ached at the idea that not long ago Zephyr and I were wrapped in each other's arms. I wanted that comfort tonight. The idea that Callister was now trying to convince my friends that he was actually my fiancée and that he wanted to take me home made me ill.

  I felt better with Zephyr by my side, because at least he knew what Callister was capable of. I knew nothing. I slipped out of my clothes and laid down on the bed. Wrapping the blankets around me, I could still smell him, and the world around me started to fade as sleep pulled me under. I held on to the scent and the warm memory of him. Hoping that it would be him that I dreamt of.

  Pain laced through me as my body failed to hold me. My arms gave out under my weight. I tried to command my wings to help lift me up, but nothing worked. The cold stone pressed against my naked body and my face as the world tried to disappear.

  Amaya…

  There was Zephyr's voice again. This time it was only in my head and not physically there.

  I tried to answer him, but I couldn't even form a thought after what happened. After everything Callister had done. Pain was the only thing I could remember.

  The world faded away, and Ikelos stood next to me, offering me a hand up. I was dressed now, jeans and a t-shirt, back to what I normally wore.

  "You're starting to remember."

  "This is barely more than normal." I shook my head. "I don't understand why all of this is blocked from me."

  Ike sighed. "It could be that you don't want to remember. Trauma does that to a person." He hung his head. "Memories aren't really my department. This is as much as I can do."

  "Why are you trying to help me?"

  He laughed. "Zephyr and I are good friends. The day he met you, his life changed. The day you disappeared, he broke. I want him back."

  "Zephyr's currently sitting in a human jail, being held for murder."

  Ike watched the scene in front of us, nothing but shadows moving around. "Learn to tear the veil down, and it'll show you your memories. I'll take care of Zephyr's problem." He disappeared.

  I watched the shapes move around, almost as if a curtain hid them. I turned away, maybe Ikelos was right, and I didn't want to remember. Clearly something awful happened that night.

  Chapter Twelve

  I woke the next morning to the smell of coffee. I followed the wonderful scent down to Lee's kitchen and smiled at the cup sitting on the counter. "Good morning."

  Lee pushed a plate of bacon, sausage, and eggs toward me. "Morning sunshine. We've got a long day ahead of us. Eat up so we can get going on our adventure."

  I laughed and started to eat the food she put in front of me. "I'm glad you're excited about going with me."

  "Hello, all I deal with is pack politics and the soda shop. I'm happy to help solve a murder and conspiracy in the town." She shoved some food into her mouth.

  I drank some of the coffee. "I have a question. When I first appeared here, did I say anything strange?"

  She raised a brow. "You were practically dead. You didn't really have anything to say."

  I nodded slightly and took a few bites. "I've been having dreams, and someone in one mentioned that maybe I don't want to remember."

  Lee's brows drew together. "You were in such bad shape when we found you that we didn't think you were going to live. You had damage all over your body, internal trauma, concussion. No one could even guess what happened to you. It's possible that your brain has shut things out, but I don't see why it would shut an entire life out, and not just that particular event."

  I pushed the eggs around the plate. "Yeah, that doesn't make much sense, does it?"

  "Have you asked Zephyr about it?"

  "He doesn't know what happened. Callister told him something, but he won't share, and honestly, I don't trust Callister enough to think he's telling the truth."

  She snorted. "I wouldn't trust the guy as far as I could throw him."

  I rolled my eyes. "You could throw him pretty damn far."

  "You know what I mean, May. I don't trust him."

  That made the two of us. I finished shoving food in my mouth and downing the coffee. "Okay, where's the first place we need to go?"

  She gathered the plates. "Let's start walking and check out the houses with white picket fences. Making our way toward Davina's house. When we get there, we talk to her."

  It sounded like a solid plan. I went and got my shoes on and grabbed my bag. "Okay, let's get going then."

  We walked out into the warm weather, and I smiled as the sun seemed to chase away the fears from the nightmares. I closed my eyes and just stood there soaking up the warmth.

  "Earth to May, come on, there are a lot of white fences in this town." She grabbed my arm and dragged me along.

  I laughed. "Sorry, I'm just enjoying the sunshine for a moment."

  "Yeah, it has been a few days since we've seen some."

  That was my fault, according to Zephyr, it was my mood that was making the storms roll in. I had put two and two together before, but I never really cared that much. Most of the time the sun was shining. It was just this last week that the clouds barely seemed to break.

  Maybe I was less worried today than I was yesterday or the day before. Ike had put a little bit of my tension at ease because of the dream and the fact that he promised to take care of Zephyr.

  Lee grabbed my arm and dragged me away from my sunny spot in her driveway to the sidewalk so we could start our quest for a blood splatter that may or may not exist.

  Three hours later, I was coming to terms with how many white fences were in Normalcy and was wondering if I could decree something where each house had to have a different color fence. The idea of rainbow fences made me chuckle as Lee and I leaned against the brick wall of the tiny firehouse.

  "Seriously, how many houses are in this damn town?" Lee leaned her head back. "Three hours and we don't even have an inkling of where Maverick was actually killed. Are you sure it was a white fence?"

  I rolled my eyes. "I don't know; it could have been eggshell."

  She hit me on the shoulder, and I snorted. "Yes, it was a white fence."

  "This is a wild goose chase."

  "It's the best I have to go off of right now. There's no other way to figure out what he is. It's not like he flat out told us."

  She nodded. "Hamish seems to be on his side. Maybe he knew?"

  "I don't know, and there's not a lot of supernatural creatures who become hunters. It's like a code of honor kind of thing." I sighed in frustration. "We're at such a dead end."

  "Maybe not." Lee pushed off the side of the firehouse and motioned down the street. "Who's that sneaking around?"

  I looked and saw Allie walking down the street. Her feet shuffled quickly across the sidewalk, and her head turned from side to side as if she was making sure
there was no one around.

  "She's from the outskirts. We talked to her about Maverick. He killed her sister."

  "Motive," Lee whispered to me and started moving forward.

  "She didn't know who it was though." I walked with her, but we stopped as Allie stopped at a house with a white fence, one we hadn't gotten to yet.

  Lee nudged me forward. Allie went into the yard and up to the door. I stood by the gate and waited for her to turn around.

  When no one answered the door, she turned around. "Oh, May." She gave me a nervous smile.

  "What brings you back into town?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even. Lee was standing a few feet behind me staring down at the ground. I ignored her and kept my attention on Allie.

  She dug a note out of her pocket and handed it to me. "I was told to come to this address. That there was something I needed to know."

  "So you just came back into the city?" I found it odd, but took the note and looked at it. I swallowed at the signature. "Your sister's name."

  She nodded. "Her handwriting too."

  "Didn't you cremate her?" That was the typical thing to do when a supernatural person died. It kept weird things from happening.

  She shook her head. "No, we buried her. That's what she wanted."

  "I hope we're not walking into a zombie situation. I don't know if anyone can raise a zombie without a head," Lee muttered. "But this is getting strange."

  I looked over at her, and she was still staring straight at the ground. "What?"

  "Well, I figured most of the blood would have washed away, but I was hoping for a bit of scent."

  I nodded. "Okay."

  "Well, there's not blood, but there's a hell of an outline."

  I walked back over and looked down. Allie joined me. Someone seemed to have taken the time and care to outline a full blood splatter.

  "Do you like my gift?" Someone spoke, and we all jumped and turned.

  Ike stood there, his hands in his pockets and his hair sticking up as if he just rolled out of bed. He had no wings on his back and looked human. He yawned. "It's my little way of helping. I wasn't sure if you'd be able to find the blood splatter."

  Lee looked at me, and Allie's face turned bright red. She snatched the note out of my hand and marched over to Ike and shoved the note at him. "Did you write this?"

  He looked down at it and held his hand up. "No, I had nothing to do with that."

  I looked at him. "You're in town for Zephyr?"

  He nodded. "Zephyr called me for bail. So hopefully I can magic the money he needs and we simply get a 'don't skip town' speech and walk out of jail."

  That would be nice. "Okay, you go get him, and we'll figure out Allie's note."

  Ike gave a little bow and then disappeared. Lee looked at me. "Friend of yours?"

  I nodded. "Pretty sure he's a dream god. That's all I've got."

  Lee nodded. "We didn't need his help." She rolled her eyes and bent down to the blood splatter. I saw her sniffing the ground and turned to look at Allie.

  Allie shook her head and went back to the house and started pounding on the door. I ran up after her and grabbed her hand. "Woah, woah, woah. If they didn't answer the first five bangs, they aren't going to answer-"

  The door swung open without anyone on the other side. Lee swallowed so hard behind us that I heard her. I glanced at her. "Big bad wolf is scared?"

  "Have you not see horror movies, this ends with all of us dead."

  Allie snorted. "Don't be silly; we're all monsters here."

  I wasn't going to argue, but I was pretty sure that monsters ended up dead in the horror movies as well.

  We walked in and looked around. Sunlight streamed into the house across the dusty floor. I paused as something pulsed against me.

  "Magic," Allie said. "But what kind?"

  I shook my head. "I'm not going to find out, let' go get Davina, and we can all figure it out."

  Allie nodded, and Lee turned to leave. The sound of the door slamming shut was almost deafening. My heart jumped, and we turned to the window. If we could break the glass, we could get out.

  Someone appeared between us and the window, blocking our only escape. The woman crossed her arms and smiled at us. I half expected pointed teeth to go with the twisted smile.

  "Allie, I see you got my note." She moved towards us, and we all stepped backward.

  I stared at the woman. "Why are you sending Allie notes?" There was something about her. Something that made me want to go to her, yet there was that logical fear inside my stomach that made me act on instinct.

  "Because I knew you'd follow her, Amaya."

  I started to argue with the name, but I couldn't. I looked at the woman, truly looked at her for a moment. Beautiful brown hair tumbled down her shoulders, her bright green eyes glinted in the sunlight, and her smile went from twisted to kind.

  I took another step back, and Lee grabbed my wrist. "Ananke," I hissed.

  She smiled. "Yes, dear. It's time for you to come home."

  "Not with you, you crazy bitch." I wasn't even sure where the venom in my voice came from.

  "I could answer your murder questions and free Zephyr. You two could live happily ever after together, finally."

  I had a feeling it was going to be in death, but I kept my mouth shut. Zephyr appeared with Ike in front of us. "I hate to tell you this, mother, but I don't need your help."

  Relief swept through me as Ananke faded away without another word. Allie let out a sob, and I turned to her before I could address Zephyr and Ike.

  "What's wrong?"

  "There was a small moment of hope in me that she was still alive. That somehow she'd managed to survive what that monster did."

  I wasn't sure how one would survive a head removal, but I awkwardly pulled her into a hug. "Maverick got what he deserved."

  "Then why are you trying so hard to figure out who murdered him?"

  I paused before I answered, "Because I want to know the motivation behind it. We could have another murderer here in town." The reason had changed, but Maverick's murder needed to be solved.

  Lee cleared her throat. "Let's get out of this creepy house."

  Lee, Allie, and Ike all walked out. I started to follow, but Zephyr grabbed my hand.

  I faced him and saw a gentle smile on his face. "Are you okay?"

  I touched his cheek. "I'm fine, just a bit of a scare is all."

  "Ike told me about your dream." His smile faded. "About the veil keeping you from remembering. You don't want to see what's behind there." His brows drew together. "I would do anything to spare you from remembering what Callister did."

  I leaned up and kissed him quickly. "We don't know if Callister told you the truth. Let's focus on solving this and then we can worry about your family."

  He nodded and pulled me into a hug. "The deputy really thinks it's me."

  "Yeah, but we'll prove him wrong soon enough. We know there's a witness, we know that Maverick wasn't actually human, and we know that he killed his victims with hunter weapons. We've got a lot going for us, we just need to know who killed Maverick and we can clear your name."

  Zephyr nodded. "Hamish is gathering evidence against me. Ike has provided me an alibi for Maverick's murder, but even that seems a bit suspicious."

  We walked out, and Lee raised a brow at our hands being together. "I see someone is gaining trust."

  "Well, we at least know he's not out to kidnap me, just throwing that out there."

  Zephyr snorted. "Yeah, I'd rather have you willingly."

  His words struck a chord with me, and heat flooded through my body. I tried to shake off the effect, but I knew my cheeks turned red.

  Lee didn't miss it either, and she covered her face. "I don't even want to think about you two together."

  "Where's Allie and Ike?" I asked, changing the subject.

 
; "Ike took Allie back to her car. He wanted to make sure she got there safely and was okay to drive." Lee motioned to the ground at the outline we'd found earlier. "A tiny bit of scent left, what I caught wasn't something I was expecting."

  I glanced at her. "What was it?"

  "Shifter."

  "Shifters aren't typically hunters."

  She shook her head. "No, they aren't."

  Zephyr sighed. "What's she doing here?"

  I looked over to see Davina walking toward us. Her arms were crossed, and she didn't look happy at all.

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten before I put on my best smile and faced her. "What's up?"

  "I got reports that someone was sneaking around my rental property." She shoved a finger at the house we were just in. "That is private property."

  We all glanced at each other, and Lee shuffled so her feet were over the outline on the sidewalk.

  "We weren't sneaking around. Someone got a letter to meet her dead sister here, so we came with her to make sure she was safe. The door swung open, we walked in, nothing there, and we walked out."

  She narrowed her eyes at me. "You're hiding something."

  "You're one to talk about hiding things," Zephyr snapped, and I put a hand on his chest.

  "Woah there."

  Davina put her hands on her hips. "What on earth are you talking about?"

  "Exactly what kind of spell do you have on this place that makes it so May can't leave?" he snarled. "You're the one who wards this town; it has to be your magic."

  A look of guilt crossed her face, and she looked at me. "Discovered that, have you?"

  I nodded. "Nothing like being trapped."

  "Look, I don't have time to explain it right now. I was coming to check on the house. Stay away from my house. I'm due to meet someone in Salt Lake soon. I'll chat with you when I get back."

  Zephyr stepped in front of me. "Your word you will tell May the truth."

  "My word," she snapped, and I knew that she couldn't break it. She walked off, and I looked at Zephyr.

  "Do you think she can fix it?"

  Zephyr opened his mouth to answer, but Lee cut him off. "I don't know. It sounded like it wasn't a temporary thing."