“Drawn to Rockabill?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We figured that’s why there’s all the supes here. Power draws power,”
“Is that why you’re here?” she said, grinning.
I laughed. “Nope, I was born here. So, are we going to tell the others?”
She frowned. “The fewer people who know the truth, the safer we all are. If one of us falls into enemy hands, or even just babbles the truth, everyone would be looking for the creature and its power, not just the few people who already know the legend.”
I thought about what she had told me, and whether either Caleb or Iris or the others really needed to know it. Finally, I nodded, agreeing with her estimation that I needn’t tell anyone what she’d just told me. Yet.
“So do you trust me, Jane?” Blondie asked, suddenly serious.
Not answering her for a moment, I watched as Iris and Caleb finally managed to shove Anyan into the car and shut the door. Suddenly, I made my decision.
“Sure,” I said, smiling at her. “I trust you.”
She returned my smile, obviously relieved.
“Good,” the Original said, moving in for a hug.
Her arms went around me and I gave her my own hug. She felt lean and long against me, and I felt my libido cock a (bi)curious eyebrow. Telling it to hush, I waited till she’d released me.
“ ’Bout ready to go?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “I just have to text someone, and then make a quick call.”
As she walked away, I readied my phone. I waited, my fingers crossed that my plan would work, as Blondie talked with Caleb, her back to me. Then I hurriedly snapped a photo of her profile as she turned to talk to Iris. When she turned to cast a glance back at me, I snapped a full-on photo of her while pretending to text. The picture wasn’t great, with the sun behind her, but it would have to do.
Then I made my phone call.
“Hello?” came Ryu’s familiar voice.
“Hi, Ryu. It’s Jane,” I said, knowing he already knew that from his cell phone display screen, but saying it anyway.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, his voice worried.
“Sort of,” I said. “Actually, not really. Nell’s been turned into a baby, and Anyan into a dog. A real dog.”
“What?” he asked. “How?”
“Some ancient Alfar booby trap.”
“Do you need me to come there?”
“No,” I replied. “Actually, you’d better stay away. If there’s any more of these traps and we get taken out, we’ll need someone to come finish this. But if you’re here, we might lose you, too.”
“Okay,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy about it. “So, what do you need?”
“Caleb said you came here when I was in the coma?”
“Yes,” he said. I didn’t ask him why, or thank him. The others were all looking at me from where they stood by the car chatting, and I needed to make this quick.
“Did you meet Blondie when you were here?”
“Who?” he asked.
“The Original.”
“No,” he replied. “I was only there for a few hours, and she was off doing something when I was there. But I heard all about her.”
“I need you to check up on her. I doubt anyone else knows what she really is, so don’t go that route. Just ask around, as if she were any other suspect. Do your usual thing, but try the oldest beings you know, as well as the usual. I’m texting you a couple pictures of her.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything. I have to know we can trust her. Everyone else does, but there’s something odd. I can’t put my finger on it. I want to trust her, but I know there’s more than she’s telling us.”
“Are you sure? Anyan’s not exactly easy to fool,” Ryu warned.
“I know. But apparently she was the one basically keeping me alive. That’s a good way to gain trust, quickly, without deserving it,” I replied.
There was silence from the other end of the line, and then Ryu’s voice.
“True,” he said. “I’ll ask around. Just send me the pictures.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Call me as soon as you find out anything.”
“I will. But you’re sure you don’t need me?”
“No,” I said. “But I need this information more. And we need you safe, in the wings, in case we fail.”
Or in case Blondie really deserves my suspicions, I thought, as Iris waved to me to hurry as she and Caleb climbed into the front seats and Blondie climbed into the back with Anyan. She had to use her magic to keep the big dog from bolting past her to freedom.
“But I gotta go,” I said. “Call me?”
“Of course,” Ryu said. “I’ll get right on this.”
“Thanks, Ryu. Talk soon. Bye.”
“Bye. Take care.”
And with that, he hung up. I took a few seconds to attach the pictures to a message and send them to Ryu, and then I walked over to the car.
I really hope we can trust you, I thought at Blondie, as I felt her use just a smidgen of her huge strength to hold Anyan still as I climbed into the back seat.
Because otherwise we are totally fucked.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Although Anyan had hated getting in the car, he changed his tune when we started moving. He looked very happy sticking his head out the window over my shoulder, from where we’d coaxed him to jump into the very back of Caleb’s SUV. His soft fur against my cheek should have been comforting, but any such emotions were mitigated by the fact that he was panting, long ropes of saliva dripping from his mouth, and occasionally barking at passing street signs.
In other words, everything he did reminded me that the man I’d come to rely on was no longer lurking inside that dog. There was only kibble and slobber. Lots and lots of slobber.
As if on cue, from the seat beside me, Blondie apparated a handful of tissue and passed them over. She’d already apparated herself a long-sleeved T-shirt to wear over her wifebeater, undoubtedly not wanting to turn mortal heads. It was still well chilly here in Maine, despite spring nipping at Rockabill’s heels.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, as she gave me one of her disconcerting winks.
“Where should we head?” Caleb asked, his massive ram’s horns raking the ceiling of the SUV as he turned to look at Iris. She had her hand in her lover’s lap, something I normally wouldn’t have noticed.
But normally people wear pants when they’re driving, I thought, wiping a stray rivulet of Anyan’s spit off my earlobe as I replied to Caleb.
“Go to the town square. Everyone will already be there,” I told him.
We didn’t know where to head, as all we’d felt was a big boom. Nell would have been able to pinpoint the noise, but she was sucking down formula at the moment. So instead of relying on the gnome, we had to rely on Rockabill. Meanwhile, Iris tittered at my response, knowing small-town life as well as I did. And sure enough, when we arrived at Rockabill’s town square, there were already quite a few people milling about.
Caleb pulled rakishly across a few parking spots, and I was jumping out of the car before it was even completely stopped. Anyan followed me, scrabbling over the back seat and undoubtedly putting a few scratches in Caleb’s upholstery.
“Hi, Mr. Tanner! Mrs. Tanner!” I shouted across the square at our local baker and his wife. He waved back in return, but I also noticed Bob and Marge exchanging slightly panicked looks.
“What’s happening? What was that explosion?” I said, panting from running across the square.
“We’re not really too sure, yet,” Mr. Tanner started, looking to his wife for help. “We were having breakfast in the Trough—”
“All we know is we heard the bang,” Mrs. Tanner interrupted, nervously.
“And then Sheila and Herbert both got calls on their cell phones, and they raced out of the Trough going toward the B & B.”
I felt my stomach clench. Ever since Sheila and Herbert had taken ove
r the Black and White B & B—Nick and Nan’s little pun on Gray—it hadn’t been the same. Nick and Nan had been Jason’s grandparents, who’d raised him after he’d been abandoned by his own mother, a drug addict. I’d grown up running between my house and Jason’s, and the B & B had been as much my home as Jason’s. When Jason died, and Nick and Nan had passed away shortly after, the house had passed on to the nastier side of the family, Jason’s yuppie aunt and uncle, Sheila and Herbert, and their darling son Stuart. Otherwise known as the Bane of My Existence.
The New Grays, as they were still called after all these years, gutted the B & B. What had once been shabby, inviting, and comfortable was done over to reflect a colder, more corporate if elegant feeling. Unfortunately, what the Grays hadn’t considered was the fact that people don’t come to Maine looking for chrome and glass, softened only by the occasional Louis Quinze–replica arm chair. They want quilts, warm fires, and clapboard.
The Black and White B & B sank like a stone, making Stuart’s already unpleasant family even less friendly.
“What’s up?” Iris asked. My friends had come up behind me while I was thinking of Jason, his grandparents, and what had once been a home to me.
“It sounds like it came from the Grays’ place,” I said, after thanking my fellow Rockabillians and turning to face my friends.
“Where’s that?” Caleb asked. Iris’s eyes were watching me, undoubtedly aware of my feelings.
“It’s pretty close behind mine,” I answered the satyr, carefully keeping my voice neutral. “But you have to take a different road. I know the way.”
And Understatement of the Year goes to… Jane True! my brain said, snidely. The truth was, even now, after so many years, I still dreamed of that walk to and from Jason’s house. I knew that if I had to, I could easily have found my way to his place in the dark, in a snow storm, whatever.
It was a route carved into my heart, grooves of memory made permanent through both love and heartbreak.
We all trotted back across the square and loaded into Caleb’s SUV. We realized we’d forgotten doggie-Anyan only after we’d left the square. After turning around, we found him getting his ears scratched by Mr. Allen, Linda’s much nicer father. I threw open the door, and he jumped onto our laps in a miasma of flying fur and dog breath.
Why do you have to be a dog, you asshole? I thought. I knew it was unfair to blame Anyan for getting caught up in ancient Alfar booby traps, but I was still pissed off. I had a funny feeling I was going to need a hug pretty soon, and I wished very fervently it could have been Anyan’s arms administering said treatment.
Heading back up our route once we got the non-ghest barghest shoved into the back of the car, Caleb met my eyes in the rearview.
“What do you know about these Grays?” he asked. “Any connections to magic or anything?” As he finished talking, he hissed in a breath. Iris had her hand in his lap again, and I think she must have been squeezing his scrotum in warning.
Which is why pants are a plus, my virtue thought smugly, a statement my libido heartily disavowed.
“No,” I said. “It’s okay, Iris. I can talk about it.” The succubus looked back at me, concern etched on her features. Caleb’s face, which I could see in his rearview, looked confused.
“The Grays are the aunt and uncle of my… friend, Jason. The one who died.”
Caleb’s lips parted as he made an eep face, thinking he’d put his foot (or rather, hoof) straight in it.
“Jason and his grandparents were extraordinary people, and they were Wiccans. But they weren’t supernatural at all.” Unless kindness isn’t really human, which I’ve sometimes thought might be the case. “As for the people who live there now, these Grays are definitely not supernatural. They’re assholes, but they’re not supernatural. It makes no more sense that they’d be attacked than it made sense Gus was attacked.”
“So maybe it’s not them but their land,” Blondie said. “Maybe they’re sitting on top of something like we found at Gus’s.” We sat in silence, mulling that over for a bit.
“If I’m turned into a goat, I’m going to be very irate,” Caleb rumbled from the front seat. It was such an unexpectedly flippant comment coming from the usually sober satyr that we all sat in shock for a few seconds before tittering like school kids.
“If Jane becomes a seal, I’m gonna club her and make a hat,” Blondie added, making us all giggle harder. My laughter choked off, however, when she punctuated her joke by raking her nails over the top of my thigh.
“You’re just jealous because you’re an Original. You can’t get any more devolved,” I jibed, trying to recover my equilibrium as I poked the Mohawked woman in the ribs with a finger. She squirmed, and then poked me back.
“But what would I become?” Iris whined from the front. We all thought about that for a second.
“Vagina dentata?” Blondie hazarded. It didn’t make sense, but it didn’t matter. We were all laughing hilariously as we made our way to my once-and-former home.
I, for one, was grateful for the distraction.
Everybody got out of the car except for me. Caleb and Iris walked hand in hand together up to the edge of where Jason’s house had once stood. I simply stared, in horror.
I also noticed, with that weird attention to random detail that characterizes traumatic events, that the swishing of Iris’s hips beat almost in time with the flicking of Caleb’s goat tail.
Meanwhile, Anyan went to pee on some trees and then sniff at his own urine. Then Caleb moved to where Sheila, Herbert, and Stuart all stood, staring down at their house. Caleb pulled Sheila and Herbert aside, while Iris talked to Stuart. Blondie stood outside of the car for a moment, before noticing I hadn’t gotten out. She climbed back in to confront me.
“What’s up, babydoll?” she asked. “Something’s wrong. C’mon, spill.”
I turned to face her and, to my horror, tears welled up in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks. It was stupid to cry in front of someone I was having investigated, but I couldn’t help it.
Blondie leaned over to close her open car door, and then turned back to me. Next thing I knew she was hugging me, her arms like steel despite their slenderness. But she was warm, and her long-sleeved shirt was soft. I accepted the hug gratefully.
“Cry it out, babycakes,” she purred. So I did. Then I cried some more. And then I kept crying, until even I was beginning to think it was a little bit ridiculous.
It’s just that seeing Jason’s house gone had shaken me up, badly. So badly, in fact, that it had taken a few moments to register.
“What h-h-h-happened?” I finally managed to choke out, my voice snotty.
“I dunno. You lost your shit before I could find out,” Blondie said, her smile taking the harsh edge off her words.
“It’s gone,” I said, finally iterating what had been going through my head since we drove up Jason’s former driveway.
“The house? Yep, it appears to be. Now are you going to tell me whose house it really was?”
I sat back rubbing my face on my sleeves until Blondie handed me a tissue she found in Caleb’s glove compartment. Blowing my nose noisily, I tried to think of where to begin.
“The house used to be owned by my boyfriend,” I said, finally. “Well, by his grandparents. His name was Jason. And we grew up together.”
How lame does that sound? I thought, hating having to tell this story. Because it always sounded lame: a bad episode of a bad teen drama. Girl and boy love each other, like, for real, yo! But then they, like, lose each other and it’s wicked sad. Seriously. Cut to awesome new song! Rock out!
“So what happened?” Blondie prompted.
“You have to understand. We were… we were everything to each other. I don’t know if I can explain it…”
“You were lovers?”
“Yes. But also siblings. Gods, that sounds creepy. But it’s true. We were together pretty much all the time, from the moment Jason moved here to when he… when he died.”
> Blondie grimaced, putting an arm around me so we were cuddling side-by-side like necking teenagers.
“When did he die?”
“Years ago. I was just eighteen. We were still in high school. It was an accident, but also my fault.” Even now I couldn’t believe how easily I said that, and how I could say it and know it without feeling like I needed to go bury myself alive in order to repent.
“How was it your fault, if it was an accident?”
“He caught me swimming. I’d kept it a secret, even from him. Everyone growing up around here knows you can’t swim in our waters, let alone anywhere near the Sow. But he saw my clothes. And he went in after me.”
Blondie and I were silent for a long while.
“Wow,” she said, eventually.
“Yes,” I replied.
“You do know it wasn’t really—”
“My fault?” I finished for her. “Yes, I understand, now, that I didn’t cause Jason’s death, in the sense that I didn’t push him in. I had no idea he’d find me. But it doesn’t change the fact that he died that night, and it was because he found my clothes on that beach.”
She frowned at me, and I sighed.
“I do understand that it’s not entirely my fault, now. I’ve come to terms with that. But his death and the circumstances aren’t something I’m gonna forget either.”
“That’s intense, babydoll. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“And you still have a connection to the family? The house?”
“The family, no. His grandparents died pretty soon after Jason did. Their hearts were broken: It’s like all the life went out of them. The people who took it over are Grays, but they’re not family. At least not to me. But the house…” I trailed off, unable to finish.
“The house was something,” she said, her turn to finish my sentence.
“Exactly. It feels sometimes like Jason’s been wiped off the face of Rockabill. Nobody talks about him anymore. Nobody seems to remember. I know people do, and most of them are avoiding the subject because they’re trying to be nice to me. But it feels like he never existed, sometimes.” Blondie nodded, letting me talk. “And sometimes, when that feeling got really bad, I’d drive by here. Or walk from my house, just like I used to when I would meet him. It was… something,” I said, echoing Blondie’s words.
Eye of the Tempest (Jane True) Page 13