by Emily Walker
“Where’s Chloe?” he managed to ask Deidra.
“You look like hell,” she said.
“Chloe, where’s Chloe?”
“Ash said she called in sick and then he took off. I was already here drinking, so I just started working for her.”
“Let me see your phone,” he yelled at her.
“Dude, chill here.”
He called her and got no answer. The phone was ringing, he could hear the tone she had put for him. It was an inside joke from high school. She’d been there. He followed the sound to the back of the bar and saw her purse in its usual spot. She hadn’t called in sick. He was too late. Now what the hell was he going to do?
“Think, think,” he said to himself as he ran back out to the truck, trying not to see the dented bumper in front of it and the smashed out headlight.
Where would Ash take her? He went back to her house to see if he could find any clues. He stopped himself because she’d been taken from work, so that didn’t really make any sense. Okay, he would go to the police. Maybe they would help. He turned the truck in that direction, not holding his breath that they’d actually do anything for him.
Chloe woke up and put a hand to her head. It hurt. What the hell had happened to her? She couldn’t move her legs, and looking down she realized they were tied together. She was in Ash’s car. Now she remembered he’d knocked her out. He was humming as he drove and hitting his leg along to his own beat.
It had been before her shift when she went into his office to confront him. She’d put the lighter down on his desk and her hands on her hips. “Why were you at my house last night, and why don’t I remember anything?”
“My Zippo. Chloe, thank you so much. It was stolen from me and I didn’t know what happened to it. Maybe you took it last night if you don’t remember anything, you party girl,” he’d joked. “Were you hitting the sauce on the job last night?” He’d laughed.
“No, Ash, I wasn’t. I know you know what’s going on. I want to know what’s going on and why you were at my house last night.”
“Well, Chloe.” His expression had turned dark. “It’s like this.” He’d stood from behind his desk, walked up to her, and hit her as hard as he could, knocking her to the floor. Now she was in the passenger side of his car and the only thing she could think to do was shift. She did without thinking, shrank down into the bird, and flew at him, going for his eyes with her beak.
“Chill out, little bird.” He swatted at her. “You aren’t just going to hurt me if you wreck this car. Isn’t that right, Zazie love?”
She stopped flying at his head and flew to the back of the car where the hatchback was. Sure enough, Zazie was tied up back there and looked up at her. “Hi, sweetheart, I’m sorry. He knows where my kid is.”
Chloe tilted her head, not sure what that meant, but flew back up to the front and shifted back, glad she always shifted in her clothes. The first few times Layla had shifted she ended up naked in front of someone, embarrassing herself. It was a strange time to think of that. “Why the hell do you have her tied up in your trunk?”
“Same as you, she knows who I am now. I’m terribly sorry about knocking you out, Chloe. I panicked.”
“So your name is not Ash Manning?”
“Well, it is now and has been since I was eighteen. I quietly made my way in Woodland Creek, first working for a bar, then buying one.”
“It’s not Ash Manning, though, I always thought that was such a strange name.”
“Let me tell you a little story of a boy named Draven Thomas, son of two very different parents. One, his father a wolf shifter who hated daily that his only son, a very impressionable fourteen-year-old wasn’t a shifter. Two, his mother a very powerful wizard who hated the fact that her same son wasn’t coming into his magic. Now this boy, he loved his parents very much and tried to make them happy doing all their dark deeds. Trust me, with Mother there were plenty of dark deeds to be done. Finally, he’d gotten his mother’s attention when he turned fifteen and his magic started to show, but for some reason she needed another son. That’s when Samuel came into my life.”
“Oh my God,” Zazie said from the back of the car. “You’re Sarmia’s boy.”
“Yes, and you know what happened to Sarmia?” Ash yelled, almost running off the road. “When your darling boy was old enough to sleep with his foster mother, he did, and my father killed her in his wolf form and ate her heart.”
“No, my son wouldn’t do something so foul.” She squirmed around and tried to sit up. Chloe could see her head pop up every once in a while over the back seat.
“You don’t know what my baby brother would have done, Zazie, you don’t know how much dark magic she put into him. He was her dark slave until she died. Once she was gone, he was gone. I don’t really know where.”
“No,” Zazie screamed and wiggled harder.
“Yes,” Ash said and didn’t say another word about it. Chloe was trapped until they got to a stopping point, so she had to grin and bear it.
“So you birthed my sworn enemy, Z, way to go. Now let’s get to my main goal in life, and that’s showing the world that shifters are real. Once you’re exposed, humans will either kill you or love you. I don’t care. I know that my mother’s death was ruled an animal attack and my father got off completely free. He ate her heart,” Ash yelled again, swerving a little in the anger he was feeling.
“What good will it do showing the world shifters exist now?”
“They can’t hide, Chloe. The humans will come up with tests. They’ll want to know if their kids are being taught by a shifter, if they’re sharing a meal with one. They will find a way to expose them all and then no shifters will be able to get away with what my father did, ever.”
“Is that why you shot at me, shot Layla?”
“I shot at you because you were motivated to shift by fear. I thought Brent would be the first to start spreading the word through Woodland Creek. Once everyone here knew, the world would know soon after, but no. He just happened to be a wizard, sort of, and not tell anyone. Next time it will be much more public. There won’t be any way to hide.”
“Why did you kill Layla then, if you’re just trying to expose shifters?” she asked.
“Simple, I missed.”
“But you hit her,” Chloe said. Frustrated tears ran down her cheeks.
“I know, but since I was aiming around her, I missed.”
“You hit her right in the heart, Ash, how was that not intentional?” Chloe didn’t buy it and in the back of her mind she wondered if he had taken Layla’s body for some sick reason. Maybe he wanted to see what made shifters tick. It was possible, he’d done nothing but prove he was insane. They continued on past the university toward a small cluster of apartment buildings and stand-alone rentals. He pulled into the driveway of one and hit the garage button. It opened and he drove the car inside.
“Why are we at Layla’s place?” Layla rented the house during the school year so she was just right down the road from the college. She stayed with her mom when she wasn’t in school, so they gave her really cheap rent in the off time to just come and make sure the house stayed clean.
“Because I killed her and no one will think to look for you here.” He was so matter-of-fact with his answers. It bothered Chloe that he was right, no one was going to look for them there.
“So what do you intend to do?”
“Let’s just say it involves your little family of shifters and a very public affair.”
“You asshole, why would you involve my parents?”
“Really, because I want to. It’s not about being mean to you, it just kind of worked out that way.”
He was making her angry now with his dumb replies. Of course it was about her. Her parents had never done anything to be targeted by his strange mission. “I think you are doing it to hurt me, Ash. I’ve never been anything but nice to you.”
“It’s not personal, Chloe, you’re a dirty shifter bitch just like my dad
was a dirty shifter jackass and I’m just bringing a little justice to the world.”
He pulled a gun out and held it to Zazie’s head as they walked inside the house. Layla’s house hadn’t been touched since their last day there right after exams. It was still empty, and the chairs were up on the table where she’d cleaned them right before leaving.
“I will kill her if you try anything, Chloe. You understand. Don’t shift, don’t scream, don’t do anything.”
She didn’t want Zazie to get hurt and she knew she couldn’t shift. It would have been a really good time for Zazie to get her magic back. She raised her eyebrows at her and waited for him to tie them to chairs. He made sure to bind the ropes around them tightly. She was scared and she felt a shift coming on, but she fought it. Since he killed Layla, there was no doubt he’d kill Zazie. She could tell he didn’t like her at all and was probably just looking for a reason.
He sat down across from them and held the gun on Zazie. What was he going to do, sit there forever? There was no way he could carry out his master plan while he was holding them hostage. It dawned on her, he didn’t have a plan. She’d taken him by surprise and while he’d planned to have Zazie, a shifter wasn’t something he’d counted on. It was possible she could use it to her advantage if she could just think of something.
Brent pulled into the police station parking lot and raced inside. He tried not to yell because he knew they’d more than likely put him in handcuffs if he came in all excitable. He walked up to the administrative assistant and smiled.
“I need to speak to the chief, please. It’s kind of an emergency.”
“Brent, what the hell is it now?” He was standing there behind him listening. Well, that had been easier than he thought it’d be.
“Something is going on. I think Ash Manning killed Layla Adams and now he has Chloe.”
“Why would he have Chloe? Ash Manning doesn’t seem like the type of person who would just up and kidnap people,” Rickman said. He clearly didn’t want to listen to anything Brent had to say.
“It sounds crazy, but he did it. He killed Layla. I don’t know why, but Chloe was close to finding out it was him, so he’s taken her. Don’t you get it? If we don’t get there, he’s going to kill her.”
“You want to report her missing then?”
“Yes, can’t you understand me?” Brent was getting frustrated with the police. Why wouldn’t they just listen to him? It wasn’t like he wasn’t a good kid, he’d always obeyed the law, and he was old enough that they should be taking him seriously.
“You can’t if it’s not been twenty-four hours. Come back and report her missing tomorrow.”
“She’ll be dead by then,” he yelled, but the chief was already walking back to his office. It looked like they were on their own and he didn’t know what the hell to do.
He walked outside the police station and dragged a hand down his face. He got ready to go to his truck when he heard someone talking to him.
“Hey, kid, don’t look at me.”
He turned to see a police officer who looked close to his age standing on the corner of the building.
“I said don’t look at me, damn it.” The officer stomped his foot and Brent turned away from him. He could see out the corner of his eye that he’d flattened himself against the side of the building and was looking back and forth while he talked to him. It was really funny looking, especially since no one inside was paying the least bit of attention.
“Okay, I’m not looking at you.”
“This whole Layla case isn’t adding up. It reeks of magic, and not the fluffy kind, the dark shit.”
“Okay, so you know something about Ash?” He glanced over at the guy, who held up a hand.
“Don’t look!”
“Okay, sorry.” He walked a little forward and put his hands over his face so he looked like he was just hating life outside the station. Nothing out of the ordinary going on.
“You need to talk to Deidra Smalls. She saw something that morning that she can’t remember. It’s like her memory has been wiped. I know she’s a druggie, but she’d gone by Layla’s that morning, her mother’s house, to ask her for drugs. She was trying to score and she saw something out back. When she tries to talk about it, it’s like there’s a hole there. She wasn’t high, so it must be magic, but you didn’t hear it from me.”
The policeman inched back along the wall until he was almost at the edge of the building. He watched him. “Is that it?”
“Yes, that’s it. Get the hell out of here.” The policeman stayed flat on the wall until he got to the back of the building and then he leapt behind it. There wasn’t really any reason for it. No one had seen him that Brent could tell, but now he really needed to talk to Deidra and figure out what the hell she knew. He went back to the Barcade again, hoping she was still there.
He didn’t know that officer’s name but felt like he looked familiar. Maybe they’d gone to high school together. Luckily, Deidra was still at work when he got there. The place was still busy because it was almost dinner time and she was the only one working, so naturally most of the customers looked unhappy.
“Brent, did you find Chloe? Like what the hell. I’m not supposed to be working right now.”
“I need to know what you saw the morning Layla died, Deidra, and don’t try to say nothing because the police told me you were trying to score.”
“Look, I walked behind her mother’s house, I saw her with someone and then it’s blank. I don’t know who it was. I don’t know how I got back to my house. I just know when I next remembered something I was back at my house.”
“You went and you saw something.”
“I know and it scared me, apparently, because I’ve wiped it from my brain. I can’t help you. If I could I would, I don’t like that she’s dead. We were pals, but it’s just blank when I think about that morning. I can’t remember anything.”
“I know a way we can help you remember if you’d be willing to try it,” Brent said.
“Dude, I already tried taking acid, it didn’t help,” she said.
“No, I was talking about magic.”
“Magic doesn’t exist. It’s all drugs and special mirrors.”
“Will you at least try? It’s important. They’ve got Chloe now and that means you’ll have to work all her shifts.”
“Oh, hell no, give me a minute.” She went into the kitchen. “Louie, an emergency has come up and you’ve gotta run this bitch until Ash gets back.”
“Are you kidding me, Deidra? Who’s going to cook?”
“I see Sasha back there, let her do it.” Louie’s girlfriend was sitting on the food prep counter and waved at them. She shrugged.
“Yeah, I’ll cook. We can handle it, Deidra, go get your fix.”
“It’s an actual emergency this time. Chloe’s missing.”
They didn’t believe her, just waved her off even with Brent standing beside her, nodding at everything she told them. It didn’t matter she was going with him.
“Let’s go.” He grabbed her and she jerked away from him.
“Dude, I took at least a Xanax and a half, I can’t move that fast.”
He ran and started the truck, pulling up to pick her up when she made it to the edge of the parking lot. She climbed in painfully slow and he headed to his grandmother’s place. She had to be able to reverse whatever the wizard had done to make her forget.
Deidra managed to fall asleep on the way, and he was careful not to drive too fast. He’d only done minor damage to his truck when he wrecked it, but he wasn’t in the mood to do it again. He couldn’t believe she was asleep, but he had never taken Xanax. They pulled up in front of Madame Visionary and he shook her probably a little more violently than necessary.
“Get up, we’re here.”
“What in the world are you doing here, Brent? Who is this?” His grandmother gestured to Deidra, who’d sleepily walked into the house passing by her and sat on the couch, looking stoned out of her m
ind. Regina had her full fortune-teller outfit on, and he was shocked at the difference.
Her hair was up under a scarf and that weird crown sat on her head. She had long gold earrings that touched her shoulders, and a dress that covered her whole body like a tent. There was a fake piercing in her nose and her makeup was bright blue and went all the way up to her eyebrows.
“Grandmother, you look weird.”
“I just finished with a client, honey. Now what is the meaning of this? Why does this girl look like you picked her up on the side of the road?”
“Okay, this is Deidra and she was there the morning Layla died. She can’t remember, but she saw something. I think her memory has been wiped of just that incident. Chloe’s missing, Grandmother. I think Ash has her and he’s going to kill her. If she knows something that can help us find her, then I need to know it.”
“Okay, I’ll try, but it might be hard to bring her memory back not knowing what type of spell he used. Inevitably it will be dark magic, which is harder to crack, but I’m always up for a challenge. Let’s see what we can do.”
“Thanks.”
He watched as Regina moved around Deidra, who seemed oblivious that someone was even looking at her. It was amazing she was able to function. She was staring into her eyes, and he hoped she was attempting to figure out what spell had been done.
“Okay, I need some theme music.” She went over to the stereo and turned on a Fleetwood Mac song. Once it was going, she was dancing around Deidra. It was the strangest thing he’d seen. Well, at least for that day. She danced by her a few times and then she touched her. With her hand on her arm and her eyes closed, she continued to dance and he realized it had gotten even weirder.
Suddenly her eyes flew open. “I’ve got it,” she said. “Turn the music off, would you.”
He rushed over to the stereo and turned the music off, noticing Deidra still didn’t look like she knew or cared what was going on.