by Maher Tegan
"Hey, Dimitri." I took a seat on my favorite stool and hooked my feet through the rungs to pull it close to the bar. "It looks like you're having a good night. Has it been this peaceful all evening?"
Dimitri, a faerie with a flair for being colorful, was currently rocking electric-blue hair and wearing a hot pink tank top and matching board shorts. We didn't have the same dress code at the tiki that other staff people on the resort did, mostly because we wanted our guests to feel casual and relaxed, and it was too hot to be walking around in a black polo and black slacks.
"Hey, Dez," he replied smiling as he slid a coaster in front of me. "Are you doing beer or a cocktail?"
"A cocktail," I replied. "I just came from Mario's, and I'm so stuffed that there's no way I can hold a beer. I'll do a rum runner. Only one, though. I'm heading out to Mila’s tomorrow, and I don't want to be hung over."
He cocked his head at me. "You mean to tell me that you're actually walking away from a murder? Not that I'm not elated that you're doing it, but I am a little shocked."
At that, I whipped my head toward him, my heart beating triple time. "What do you mean, murder? I heard it was a drowning."
He chewed his lip and looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar as he popped an orange wedge and a cherry in my drink and slid it across the bar to me. “Then that’s what you should keep thinking. Forget about it, and enjoy your vacation.”
I dropped my head to the bar and clunked my forehead against the smooth wood. Blake had every tool at his disposal that he needed to deal with even that, and though it was hard, I was gonna walk away. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
Chapter 4
I sipped on my drink and tried not to focus on what Dimitri had told me. My curiosity got the better of me, though. When Dimitri finished pouring drinks for a group of gorgons, I motion him back over to me. I couldn't help but notice that he’d gone out of his way to give me a wide berth since he spilled the beans to me.
He leaned his elbow on the bar and raised a winged blue brow at me. “I already know what you’re going to ask, and I wish you wouldn’t.”
I ignored his wish. “Why do they think he was murdered? I'd heard it was a simple drowning. What changed?" I fiddled with my coaster, peeling apart the cardboard layers in an attempt to appear casual.
Dimitri shook his head. "Just leave it alone, Dez. It doesn't matter anyway. Blake already has a suspect. It's gonna be open and shut because the dead guy was seen arguing with some dude in the casino yesterday. The guy has no alibi. Security is investigating, but it looks to be pretty obvious. The suspect even had a ring belonging to the dead guy on him." He reached across the bar and squeezed my hand. "Let. It. Go. Thinking about it, I probably shouldn't have even said anything to you. Blake will skin me if he finds out I’m the one who ran my mouth.”
I pressed my lips together and gave him a tired smile. "As far as I can tell, I have no skin in the game. It's open and shut, like you said, so I'm just asking questions out of sheer morbid curiosity."
For the most part, that was true, too. I’d helped investigate several murders, but there had been extenuating circumstances each time. I'd either been the one to find the body, or somebody close to me had been involved. Though this situation sucked, it had nothing to do with me. We chatted for a bit before he had to go serve up some more drinks. As I’d vowed to myself, I cashed out after I finished my one drink and headed back to my cottage.
Before I'd talked to Dimitri, I’d considered walking home to help my huge meal settle. Now I'd lost my taste for a casual stroll, so I snapped my fingers and teleported back.
Tempest was already curled up on the couch when I got there, and she peeped an eye open when I appeared in the living room. "Where have you been? We finished eating like an hour ago."
I checked all the locks in the house and made sure all of my outside wards were set before shoving the tiramisu in the fridge and pouring myself a glass of iced tea. “I stopped by the tiki to have a drink before I came home."
She sat up and narrowed her eyes at me as she wrapped her tail around her paws. "And what else did you do? Something is definitely up. Don't you dare tell me that Dimitri or Elena needs you to work for them because that's not gonna happen."
I shook my head as I settled on the couch beside her. "Nope. As a matter of fact, Dimitri is all for me going on vacation. He and Bob have already worked out a schedule, so all my shifts are covered."
She studied me for a minute without saying anything. "Then why does something feel off with you?"
I shrugged and flipped on the TV with the remote. "I don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing off with me."
I flipped through the channels until I found a show about haunted castles. I really wanted to go to Europe, and unlike most normal people, I wanted to check out all the creepy things. I was having a hard time getting my mind to settle, though.
"So,” I said halfway through the episode, “it turns out that guy didn't drown. He was murdered.”
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Tempest exclaimed jumping up from where she'd been lying beside me. She scowled. "Don't you even think about it. We're going on vacation, and that's that. I haven't seen Chaos in months, and you need to spend some time with Cori, too. Before you know it, she and Alex are going to be married, and it won't be just the three of you anymore."
"Calm down," I said, my tone soft. She didn’t do well with change, and she missed her sister terribly. "I was just passing on the local gossip. I didn't say I was planning to do anything about it."
She sniffed. “Yeah, but I know you. You're going to end up sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong even though it doesn't need to be there."
"Nope, I'm not." Rather than argue with her, I turned the volume up on the TV and stared straight ahead at it. This episode was about the Tower of London, and it was the first stop on my list of castles I planned to visit.
I squinted, trying to see if I could catch any shadows of ghosts in the footage even though the logical side of me knew that most of the ghosts had enough common sense to hide from the cameras. I was more interested in whether or not you could do independent tours without a guide because I wanted to get a chance to bend a ghostly ear or two and get a real lesson in history. If I had to stick with the tour group, I’d draw more than just a few odd glances if I started talking to thin air out of the blue.
"I know you have these big plans to go interviewin’ ghosts,” Tempest said once the segment on Lady Jane Grey was over, "but what happens if they end up bein’ murderous or something? After all, you haven't really talked to anybody about this. And when I say anybody, I mean ghosts you can trust. I know there are real psychics out there, but we don't know any of them, and I'm not willing to take the word of some carnival hack that we’re not going to go over there and get turned inside out or something."
I grinned at her. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
She arched a furry brow at me. "My sense of adventure ends at eating chicken that sat out overnight. I have no desire to be ripped apart by some nutjob ghost with a mood on."
I gave her a little shove. “Don't be a baby. It'll be fun. You'll see."
By that point, I was so wrapped up in making a mental list of the castles I wanted to visit that I'd pretty much forgotten about the murder. My phone rang, and I dug around in the couch cushions to find it. At some point, it had slipped between the cracks and gotten away from me. After the third ring, I finally fished it out, worried I was going to miss the call. I smiled when I saw that it was Colin and slid my finger across the screen to answer.
"Hey, handsome," I said. "How was your day?"
"Hey, beautiful. My day was so-so. I spent most of it working on websites for some of the pack’s new business interests. I'm a little annoyed because I could've done that from there. I did go over some preliminary paperwork for a couple businesses the pack is considering taking over, and I also toured three properties that the pack is considering
buying, so I guess it wasn't a total waste of time."
Colin was the pack attorney, but he also filled in and did other things as needed. Usually, he could do most of his work from wherever he was at, but sometimes he had to go to court or do other things such as checking out new properties that required him to be there in person. I didn't even pretend to understand pack politics, so I usually just supported him in whatever he needed to do without asking a lot of questions.
"I assume you're still not going to be able to make it down this weekend?" I asked.
"No," he replied, his voice thick with regret. "The alpha is inducting some new members into the pack, and he wants me to be here for the celebration. I also need to sign some contracts with them because they own some businesses."
That was another weird thing about packs. Even though everybody was free to own their own businesses, they were expected to contribute something to the pack coffers. I wasn't a fan of people having to pay money just to exist in peace, but I also understood that it was a tradition that all pack members accepted and gladly participated in. There were a lot of benefits including protection, free legal services, and access to all of the pack's substantial power, so I guess in some ways it made sense.
"So how was your day?" he asked.
"Honestly?" I replied. "Not so fabulous. I had to deal with a rowdy pack of werewolf post grads throwing Nerf footballs around the tiki and acting the fools in general for most of the day, then I had to break them up when they were fighting. Then when I went down to relax on the beach, a kraken threw a lighthouse at me."
He laughed. "I'm almost afraid to ask about that last one. Do you mean like a real lighthouse?"
"Yep," I said popping the p. "That's exactly what I mean. It was just a little one, but it was still enough to rattle me. After all, it's not exactly like that's something you would expect to come at you when you’re sitting in the sand minding your own business.”
“Your life is truly bizarre sometimes,” he said in amazement. “I seriously don't know how you deal with all of that without losing your mind."
I went to the kitchen to refill my tea and grab the tiramisu, then propped my phone between my cheek and shoulder as I headed back to the couch. "To tell you the truth, I'm holding onto my sanity by a thread. I decided today that I'm going to take a vacation, and Blake told me to take at least two weeks. I agreed to a week, but now I'm rethinking that. Two weeks sounds delightful, or at least it will if you'll be able to take some time off with me."
He whistled. "Do I need to call and see if Hell froze over? You're seriously debating taking a full two weeks away from work?"
"Yes," Tempest called loud enough for him to hear. “She's not just debating it, she's going to do it. We’re goin’ up to Cori’s to hang out for a bit. I don't know what we’ll do after that, but whatever it is, we’ll be far away from here."
She gave me a satisfied smirk because she knew she had a co-conspirator in Colin.
I returned her smirk. "She's exactly right. How do you feel about going to Europe and touring some of those castles like we talked about?"
She drew her brows down at me. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind."
I grinned. "I know, but it's what I want to do. You're just gonna have to suck it up and put on your big girl pants because we’re going to do us some ghost hunting. That is, assuming Colin is down."
One of the many benefits of working at the Enchanted Coast was that there were portals to almost anywhere. Though I had the magic to teleport all three of us easily enough, I had to have been there in order to do it. If I hadn't seen the place, I couldn't get us there, plus it wouldn’t be wise to just teleport us to some public spot where we could be seen by non-magicals.
However, all we had to do was step into the portal with the intention of where we wanted to go in our minds, and that's where we’d land. It was a brilliant bit of magic that had taken several different paranormals to pull off. I'd used the portal to get to Abaddon’s Gate many times, but I’d never ventured further than the states. I figured now was as good a time as any.
"That sounds amazing," he said, enthusiasm lacing his tone. "I can probably leave here Sunday, so that would give us a week and a half to do whatever we want. I assume things have slowed down there, then?"
I bit my lip before I answered him. He tended to worry about me even though there really wasn't any cause for him to, so I didn't really want to tell him about the murder, especially considering it seemed Blake had it wrapped up. Still, if I didn't tell him, Blake would. In fact, I was surprised he didn't already know about it since he was the attorney of record for the resort. He wasn't the only one, though, so I had to assume that Blake had contacted one of the others in an attempt to keep it from me.
"I don't know if it's exactly accurate to say it's calmed down," I said, picking at one of the tassels on my afghan. "They found a body out in the mangroves this morning. At first, they thought it was a drowning, but apparently it was murder."
Before he could say anything, I rushed to reassure him that I had no intention of getting involved. "Don't worry though. I'm not touching the situation with a ten-foot pole. Come tomorrow morning, I'm off like a prom dress. Mila can't leave till tomorrow afternoon because she's watering her neighbor’s plants and taking care of her cat while she's on vacation, but there are a few things I need to pick up at Abaddon's Gate before I go. I'm planning on getting up and heading straight out so that I can have breakfast at the diner. I might even text Michael to see if he's available. I haven't hung out with him in a couple of weeks, and it would be nice to catch up."
“That would be awesome,” Tempest said, hopping off the couch and doing a little lap around the end table in her excitement. “Text him as soon as you hang up.”
I smiled at her exuberance. She had a semi-crush on Michael’s wolf familiar, Rocky.
Colin went quiet for a second, and I checked to make sure he hadn’t hung up. "I'm really proud of you, Des. And I can't wait to go watch you talk to zany ghosts."
I smiled, excitement coursing through me just thinking about all the fun we were going to have. "It's going to be a blast. I'm going to get off here and start making plans so we can get as much in as possible. Love you."
Once we disconnected, I turned back to the TV and hit play.
Twenty minutes later, my internal warnings went off. Somebody was trying to breach my wards. Since I had them set to let Blake, Dimitri, or Bob and his family cross, it worried me a little bit. It was nearly midnight, and I had no idea why anybody would be coming to see me that late. Rather than let them down for some random stranger, I put another one in place — one that would allow me to see through the shield but would prevent them from seeing in.
I slid into my flip-flops and unlocked my door, magic ready at my fingertips.
"What are you doing?" Tempest asked sleepily, picking her head up off the couch.
"Somebody activated my wards. I'm going to go out and see who it is."
I pulled the door open but before I could step out she scurried around in front of me and puffed herself up.
"Are you out of your mind? You have no idea who that might be. You can't just go running out there in the middle of the night."
I raise my brows at her. Obviously she'd been watching too many ghost stories. "I'm sure it's probably just somebody that's gotten lost and wandered away from the resort." It wasn't common for that to happen, but it wasn't completely out of the norm either.
She glared at me. "Fine, but if you get attacked by some demonic shadow figure, don't expect me to jump in and try to save you."
I rolled my eyes. "Noted."
Since my house was invisible through the new shield, I flipped on my porch light and tromped across my yard. Of all the people I expected to see, Amber and Dax, my merpeople friends and regulars at the tiki, were at the bottom of the list. However, there they stood. Worry and fear were obvious on Amber's pretty face, and Dax’s jaw was set in a hard line. Though they were perfectl
y capable of swapping their fins for human legs, they weren’t huge fans of doing it, and I couldn't imagine what had driven them to do it in the middle of the night.
I waved my hand and muttered a few words to release my ward on that side of the house. "Amber. Dax. What are you two doing here? Are the kids okay? Did something happen?"
Amber jumped as I suddenly became visible to her when my ward dropped. She rushed forward and pulled me into a hug. "The kids are fine, but we've got a problem. Dax’s brother has just been arrested for murder, and Blake isn't listening to reason. You've got to help us."
I sighed. So much for vacation.
Chapter 5
"Come on inside," I said, motioning toward the house. "There's no need for us to stand out here in the dark when we have a perfectly good house with a fresh pitcher of tea. Or wine. Your choice. From the looks of things, I think that’s what I’m going with."
They followed me inside, and I offered them something to drink. While I poured them tea and poured myself a glass of wine, they took a seat at my small, wooden kitchen table.
"I'm really sorry to drag you into this," Dax said, "but I don't know who else to turn to."
I handed them their drinks, then joined them at the table. Tempest hopped up on the fourth chair and glanced at them expectantly. "It's probably best if you start at the beginning. Why do they think Jackson killed someone? I assume he’s the brother you’re referring to?" Dax came from a large family, but the only one who came to the resort on a semi-regular basis was Jackson, his youngest brother.
Amber sighed. "Because they got into an argument at the casino. You know how Jackson likes to gamble, and he's a bit of a hothead. This isn't the first time he's gotten into trouble over poker, but it's the first time he's ever been accused of murdering somebody over it."
I took a drink of my tea. "What were they arguing about? It must've been something big if they think he was willing to kill the guy over it."