by Krista Walsh
Part of him wanted to go to her and make her talk out what was going through her mind, but the other part of him understood the danger of spending too much time in her company. Allegra Rossi was many things — beautiful, dangerous, seductive — but she was also emotionally detached. Even if the thought of Vera wasn’t enough to keep him away, he knew he would never stand a chance with a succubus.
He released a deep breath and passed his hand over his hair. His fingers came away damp with snow. “No matter what I agreed to, I won’t rush into any decision, Allegra. Capturing her is still not my first choice, and I’ll think it over very carefully before I act. My first priority is making sure this city is safe. If Deverill can help me with that, I’m not about to turn my nose up at him, but I promise I’ll look for other alternatives as I go.”
Allegra kept her back to him as she took a sip of water. “What is it about this town that makes the most rational of men act like fools? My brother, Jermaine, and now you. What is so special about this place that you must risk your lives for it?”
Her question came quietly, as though she wasn’t actually looking for a response, so Gabe remained silent and watched her process what he’d promised.
She drew back her shoulders, and when she turned around, he thought he caught a glimpse of sadness in her eyes before it melted away under her smile.
“I believe you will do the best you can, Gabriel, and I wish you luck. I am glad, though, that I will not be there to see how it ends.”
A spark of surprise shot through him. “You don’t want to see how this plays out?”
She shook her head. “Perhaps if you were handling it on your own, you would have won my curiosity, but you’ve involved John. As I told you the first time we met, I have no intention of becoming ensnared in anyone else’s troubles. I’ve designed my life around beauty and pleasure, and I will not risk what I have built by gambling away my life.” Allegra crossed the room toward him and slipped her arms around his neck. “I just hope you have not gambled away yours.”
Gabe’s arms wrapped around her waist of their own volition, the chain and the sleeves of his sweater dangling down over her legs, but he froze when she grabbed his hair and pulled his mouth toward hers. Her kiss was as warm as it had been the night before, and even without the fire in the grate, his blood burst into flame. He squeezed her tighter against him and moaned as her tongue, cool from the water, flicked over his bottom lip.
She pulled away with a smile and said, “Goodbye, Gabriel. While I have no wish to hear from you about any future problems, I do hope you’ll come by if you ever change your mind about our night together. That is if you survive what’s coming.”
He bowed his head and chuckled.
This woman.
She dragged her fingers along his jawline to draw his covered gaze up to meet hers. “If there is someone else, do not waste your life in hesitation. Time is short and the winters are cold. It is nicer to spend them with someone.”
Gabe pressed a kiss against Allegra’s forehead. “Thank you for your help.”
“I was not left with much choice,” she replied, but the words carried none of the hostility he might have expected them to.
Nodding, he squeezed her hand before he stepped into the hallway. He didn’t look back as she shut the door behind him.
***
Gabe considered taking the short way home, but the thought of sitting alone in his quiet apartment weighing his options made him want to tear out his hair, so he decided to walk. The responsibility sat heavily on his shoulders to do what was best for the city, for himself, and, if he listened to Allegra, for Ligeia.
And as if that weren’t enough, Allegra’s parting advice had dropped thoughts of possibilities and leaps of faith into his overburdened mind. Hopeful images flashed through his head of lazy days in bed, the snow falling past the window highlighting the red hair spilling across his chest, the clock on the wall ticking away the slow seconds of the day, while he lay warm and content next to the one person he could allow himself to be intimate with.
It didn’t matter that he had only spoken a few words to her. Vera represented everything he’d always dreamed of having and believed he never could.
Whether that was enough of a reason to intrude on her life was a question for the poets, which Gabe was not. All he knew was that his heart was guiding his footsteps down the road, regardless of what his rational mind had to say about it.
The strength of the snow had eased since this morning, and on every block, lights from the shops shone through the windows as businesses took the chance of opening their doors to catch a few sales. A hint of sun touched on the horizon, and the reflection on the snow cast a pale gold glitter across the street.
Gabe kept his attention on the scenery. He breathed the cold air deep into his lungs and shivered under the touch of the breeze on his neck. The snow crunched beneath his boots in a low rumble, like stepping through the crust that kept the world intact.
Because in that moment, the street was Gabe’s entire world, and he felt it starting to change. All he could focus on was the front door of the bookstore up ahead. The blue-gray paint brightened under the same golden glow of the daylight, as though the touch of sun carried more than life into its walls.
His blood bubbled with anticipation, jerking him forward even as his frayed nerves tugged him backward. A puppet of both his desire to approach and his longing to run, he released a deep breath that puffed out like a sparkling cloud in the frozen sky.
He imagined what he would say if he worked up the courage to knock.
She would remember him, he had no doubt about that. After everything they’d experienced, Jermaine’s “invisible entente” was bound together for the rest of their lives. But would she be resentful to see his familiar face in her shop? Or would she smile and show a hint of happiness that he’d come for her?
The uncertainty slowed him, and he paused at the end of the block. He rubbed his hands together and blew into his palms, less to warm them and more to dry the moisture that had beaded on his skin.
You can do this. She’s not that scary.
After all, it wasn’t so incredible that she might accept an invitation to grab a coffee. Even his maternal grandmother, a lovely woman with the misfortune of having the odd snake growing in her hair, had managed to find a man who loved snakes. Anything was possible.
His heart thudded and his throat tightened, but he steeled his spine and strode the last steps toward the door. The shop was closed and the lights inside were off, shrouding the books in silence — much like the mistress who kept them.
He exhaled slowly. In weather like this, it wasn’t likely that Vera had gone anywhere, unless it was to take her dogs for a walk. But he couldn’t bring himself to walk away without being certain, not while he still had his courage.
His nerves uncoiled under his skin as he raised his hand and knocked on the door. They grew worse as he waited, the minutes passing. He knocked again. Nothing.
In the silence of the evening, he burst into a laugh. The Fates had kicked his ass once more. Still, he’d made a start, and that had to count for something.
The tension washed out of his body, leaving him loose and light-headed, and he crossed the street to the dark alley beside a home décor boutique where no one would be able to see him rift away.
His limbs felt loose with relief, but beneath the giddiness lurked a trace of disappointment, and he clung to it.
Disappointment was good. It told him just how much he wanted to do what he’d dreaded, and assured him that, given the opportunity, he would take another chance.
The realization made him smile, and the smile remained on his face as he cut a doorway in the street and went home.
***
When Gabe’s video call connected with Percy, he found his friend glaring into the camera. Percy’s fingers were tapping against the desk, and the tension drawing his shoulders toward his ears gave away his impatience.
“Finally,�
�� Percy greeted him. “I haven’t heard from you in days. You can’t just cut me out of things in the middle and then ignore all my messages. Did you catch the siren?”
“Not yet,” Gabe replied. “You were right, though. Ligeia was imprisoned under the river for the last two hundred years. I actually met the jinni who trapped her.”
Percy held up a hand. “Wait. A jinni? And who’s Ligeia? You’ve left me out of the loop, man.”
Gabe pressed his hands together and pointed his fingers at the screen. “I know, and I’m sorry about that. I wish I’d had you in my ear to help me wade through this mess. I don’t know if I’ve made a huge mistake or made the only decision I could.”
“Tell me,” said Percy.
Gabe repeated the story John had shared on his visit and went through everything that had followed, including what had happened during Gabe’s return visit. At no point did Percy’s frown leave his face. If anything, it darkened over the course of the story. By the time Gabe reached the part about accepting John’s deal and Allegra’s reaction, Percy had crossed his arms and sat glowering.
“I can’t believe you left me behind,” he said.
“What would you have suggested I do?”
Percy rested his chin in his cupped palm. “Oh, I have no idea about whether you should have taken him up on the deal or not — you’re making a choice between a sexy succubus, a cheating jinni, and a furious siren. The real reason you’re having doubts is likely because you know Allegra and therefore her opinion carries more weight. Take all that out of it and go with your gut.”
His words opened Gabe’s mind to a few possibilities, but before he had a chance to think through them, Percy continued, “But, man, you left me out of the revelation. The strength of the epiphany of who this monster is and why she was locked up for so many years. It’s the story that’s fascinating. Getting it secondhand rubs the luster out of the moment.” He dropped his hands into his lap. “I need to get out of this city. Nothing exciting ever happens here. Do you know how long I’ve been researching the supernatural and paranormal? All my life. Yet the only time I’ve actually experienced a real event, it’s been in your little out-of-the-way place, and then I only got to see it through a screen. How is that fair?”
“Because if you were here, you’d have run into every situation like an over-eager research student and gotten yourself killed. I, for one, prefer you keep your distance.” Percy’s eyebrows rose, but Gabe refused to apologize for the truth. Instead, he tried to lessen any condescension in his statement by adding, “It doesn’t make you any less essential for what we need to do.”
Percy hmphed. “Just keeps me at arm’s length from the fun.”
“And the danger,” Gabe pointed out. “I have a feeling we’re about to see plenty of it.”
As the conversation shifted back into the seriousness of their reality, Percy’s frown — which Gabe suspected was more for exaggerated theatrics than anything — disappeared.
“Knowing why she was trapped, and how much effort went into catching her the first time, kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?” his friend said. “But now that you’ve heard Allegra’s suggestions and John’s, what are you going to do?”
Gabe hefted the chain John had given him in his palms. The metal rattled against itself, and his conscience twinged. He leaned over to the end of the futon and set the chain on the kitchen table, knocking his empty leather sheath to the ground. The gaping hole where the blade should have been stared at him accusingly. He picked it up and ran his fingers over the thick stitches, imagining the missing blade with its intricately designed handle sitting at the bottom of the river next to the rest of the broken chains that had once tied down one of New Haven’s greatest threats.
Ligeia had proved that human weapons would be useless to stop her. Either he chained her with John’s magic, or he froze her with his own.
“I’m going to have to go back out there armed with what I have. As much as I hate to say it, I might have to play it by ear and go with the choice that makes the most sense.” He swallowed hard. “And hope I don’t end up regretting whatever that choice might be.”
15
Saying the words aloud brought home the reality of Gabe’s position. While Percy swung off-screen and started tapping away, mumbling to himself about options, Gabe thought about what he had to do.
He’d been ready to see Ligeia as some kind of feral animal, no different than the hellhound he’d pursued last month. According to John, she’d been a hungry, thoughtless being even before he trapped her, and her recent killing spree had only seemed to prove that she hadn’t changed at all during her time-out session. So Gabe had thought he had no choice but to kill her or trap her again.
But now Allegra’s suggestion that he take the time to find out if there were more to the story was nagging at him. He didn’t want to think of the siren as a rationally thinking being. It would only complicate what he had to do. Did he have an obligation to try to speak with her?
I already did try, he argued to himself. In light of Allegra’s reprimand, though, the argument fell flat.
Of course, even if he wanted to try again, he wasn’t confident that his resistance to the siren song would last long enough to convince Ligeia he didn’t mean to hurt her. The only way he saw it working was if the woman wanted to talk, and so far she hadn’t come across as overly chatty.
Gabe’s stomach roiled, and the taste of river water crept up from the pit of his stomach. He swallowed it down, and with it, the pity that threatened to awaken in his core.
He pushed off the futon and went to the fridge. When he pulled open the door, he turned away from the sudden glare, and it took him a moment to realize what had happened. The light was on.
He nudged the door closed and flipped the switch for the ceiling light. A warm glow washed over the ugly kitchen table and scratched countertops.
A hum of anticipation buzzed through his veins as he twisted the hot water tap on the kitchen sink. He stuck his fingers into the stream and jerked his hand back with a curse. Apparently the power hadn’t been on long enough for the hot water tank to fill.
The shower would have to wait.
He stared up at the ceiling light and wondered what it meant that his electricity had come back. Sure, the people at the power plant had been working to get the grids up around the hospitals and main streets, but he doubted they would have busted their asses to restore his area of town so soon. Maybe he wasn’t giving them enough credit, but the city officials hadn’t been too quick to clear away the flooding last spring.
So if it wasn’t the power plant folks, and the storm hadn’t abated, it suggested that the strength of the storm must have waned. Was Ligeia weakening, or had she redirected the storm to another part of town?
Gabe adjusted his sunglasses and allowed that train of thought to slip away. He had to stay focused on the elements he could control, and the siren’s influence over the storm was not one of them. Solving one problem would solve the other. He just had to stay focused.
He grabbed a beer — blissfully cold — and returned to his computer to finish formulating the plan.
As he sat down, he saw that Percy had swung back into view, his head bobbing with enthusiasm as he clacked away, his eyes focused off-screen. He didn’t seem to notice that Gabe had returned, which led Gabe to believe he hadn’t noticed that he’d disappeared for a while. Percy Sparkes gave a new definition to the term “hyper-focused.”
“All right, I think I’ve got this figured out,” he said. “I’m going to be in your head, which means you need one ear without the earplug. To prevent both of us from hearing the diva’s spine-tingling solo, I’ve figured out a white noise frequency that should drown her out. I’ll hack into the harbor’s security camera, and I’ll also watch what’s going on through your glasses camera. Hopefully with a second set of eyes on the situation, I can help you spot an opportunity to trap her. That all make sense?”
Gabe nodded, his
stomach tightening against the ice in his guts. He didn’t know if it came from the beer or nerves. He swallowed another sip, but his insides heaved, and he set his drink on the table.
He would have preferred it if Percy stayed away from the siren in every manner, but his friend had put his foot down. Considering he had already figured out how to watch the show through the security camera, Gabe didn’t see any point in keeping him out of the rest of it. He’d told Percy that under no circumstances was he to listen or try to analyze the siren’s song. Percy had agreed, and for once, Gabe believed him. The survival instinct that kept Percy from testing whether Gabe’s stony gaze would work through the computer screen had obviously kicked in for this scenario, too.
“Great,” his friend continued. “So you’ll have the chain ready, but, Gabe, man, what if you can’t get a shot? Will you hit her with the eyes?”
Gabe tugged at his collar to liberate the air stuck in his throat, then cupped his palm around the back of his neck. “Yes. If it comes to it, I’ll hit her with the eyes.”
He prayed he wouldn’t have to.
“Excellent. Then what do you say — do we do this now and get it over with, or do you have to down a shot or six first?”
Gabe grimaced. “Under the circumstances, sobriety is probably the smarter idea. Let’s just get this done.”
He clipped on the headset and adjusted the camera over his ear, but he left the tiny screen on the coffee table. He didn’t want to see that blue wiggling energy again. He also doubted he’d need it. Now that they’d already made their acquaintance, he suspected Ligeia would come say hi as soon as he stepped onto the ice.
He grabbed his coat from the table and, remembering John’s suggestion and the pins-and-needles sensation of the chain, tugged a pair of leather gloves tightly over his fingers.
You’ve faced her before, you can do it again. You know what you need to do if it comes to it.