3.0 - Shadows In The Garden Hotel

by Krista Walsh

  The structure was far from a glamorous setting — a simple octagon, with benches lining each side and open walls except for the eight pillars at every corner — but the overhang of the tiled roof kept out most of the rain.

  She stepped inside, sank down on the bench at the back, and stared across the garden. With the police tape blocking the side door, no one was supposed to be out here, and the peace and quiet enveloped Allegra like her best fleece robe.

  And yet, the moment she was alone, without the distraction of a dozen voices prattling away around her, her thoughts rose to the surface of her mind, each one yelling over the others for precedence. She closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath to drown them out. After a few minutes, she finally succeeded.

  The world fell silent around her.

  Part of her wanted to use the time to pick through the tangle of thoughts and organize them into some sort of pattern, making them easier to deal with later. The other part of her worried that as soon as she stirred them up again, she would be caught in another mental deluge. So she focused on the wind, on the rain pattering against the wooden roof of the gazebo, on the scent of late-season asters wafting across the lawn.

  The smell brought Penny’s decomposed corpse to mind, the eyeless sockets staring up at her above a sneering mouth, the teeth flashing in a macabre grin. As though even in death, she was still the miserable woman Lee had described her to be.

  Allegra pushed the image away and combed her fingers through her hair, twisting the ends around her index finger to curl them against her shoulder. She didn’t care about the body. The murder was of no interest to her. She’d helped the police find the man who’d done it, which was more than she’d expected of herself. It wasn’t her fault if they hadn’t been able to find the evidence to charge him. She could pat herself on the back for her role and never think of it again.

  “Quiet out here, isn’t it?”

  Lee’s gruff voice tore Allegra out of her thoughts and sent her tumbling back to the present. She squared her shoulders and glared at him across the gazebo. He stood in the entrance, his hands braced on either side of the archway, one foot up on the floorboards.

  “Blissfully so,” she said, emphasizing each word so he could appreciate how much she didn’t want to be disturbed.

  Either not hearing her subtext or ignoring it, he lumbered further inside. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked the perimeter, staring into the rain as the droplets fell harder.

  “You on break?” he asked.

  Allegra huffed to release her impatience, but answered with a neutral, “I needed a break, yes. The salon was too close. Too many people speaking of inconsequential matters.”

  Lee sank down on the bench to Allegra’s right. She kept her legs crossed away from him and her body at an angle to discourage conversation, but even so, he stretched his legs out and tucked his hands behind his head, leaning against a pillar. Before she turned away from him, she noted the gray pallor of his skin and the circles under his eyes. It seemed she wasn’t the only one having trouble keeping up with routine.

  “I wasn’t in the middle of it like you were,” he said, “but the kitchen is a hub for gossip, so I’ve been hearing all about it. Hard to imagine we’ve come so far over so short a time. And you at the center of all of it.”

  “I would not go as far as that,” Allegra said, stiffening.

  “Why not?” he said. “In the thirteen years Penny’s been gone and those draugrs have been haunting the place, no one else has stepped up to get rid of them. You come here, ask a few questions, and within a week Penny’s been found, my favorite concierge has been hijacked for some kind of magic spell, and the dead suckers have been wiped off the face of the earth. That’s all you.”

  Allegra pressed her lips together to give herself time to think. She caught herself curling the ends of her hair around her fingers again, and shoved her hands between her knees to keep them still. “I thought it best that someone attempt to resolve the issue. Better than maintaining the status quo and leaving more people to die.”

  “No, no, you mistake me. I salute your initiative. You saw a problem and set out to fix it, no matter what other people might think of you. That’s an admirable quality to have.”

  Allegra wanted to tell him she’d done it to save her own skin, but decided to keep that bit of information to herself. If he wanted to think better of her than she knew about herself, why disillusion him?

  “I will say, though,” he continued, “I’m glad you made it out. That you weren’t one of those poor saps caught by the draugrs.”

  “Me?” Allegra asked, surprised by the sentiment. In her experience, most people she worked around wished her dead.

  Lee nodded. “I can tell you like to play up this image of a hoity-toity miss, but you’ve proved to me that you’re not afraid to tackle what has to be done or get your hands dirty while you do it. The world needs more people like you. I’m glad you didn’t die. I’m also glad you didn’t kill Cody.”

  Allegra met his gaze. With more honesty than she thought she was capable of, she said, “Me, as well.”

  Lee pushed himself to his feet and approached her, extending his hand. “I understand from Cody that you’re due to set out tomorrow morning. In case we don’t run into each other before then, it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Rossi, and I wish you all the best.”

  As he stared at her with his calm gray eyes, Allegra accepted his hand, not sure what to make of the gesture. His hand was cool, a nice contrast to her own uncomfortable warmth.

  Before she could process all he’d said, he left the gazebo and started across the lawn, fading into the rain.

  She rose to her feet and stood in the archway, staring over the lawn and up at the hotel, which appeared ghostly through the mist. The weather had picked up since she’d found cover, but she couldn’t delay going back inside much longer.

  While she waited to see if the rain would let up, she thought about Lee’s perception of her. Did she really come across as a woman willing to put herself through the trouble of helping people in need? It was the first time anyone had told her so — she’d never imagined anyone would ever consider it — but if that was the case, she would have to ensure that any hint of such a do-gooder personality was buried. People who believed you would do things for them always expected you to do so.

  She leaned against the archway and reflected on the lessons she’d learned growing up. Her aunt had always told her to remain cold. She would be at risk if she allowed anyone to know what she was or to come inside her personal space. She had to keep her distance. To stay removed. That was the only way she could survive.

  And she had done so. She’d reached a certain degree of success by focusing only on herself and leaving others to clean up their own messes. Now she had done something greater and for the sake of other people. From what she’d witnessed of human nature, she was supposed to feel good about that.

  Instead, she felt as though she were falling down a dark well. Her self-perception was skewed, and she was no longer comfortable in her own skin. She’d found herself wanting things it had never occurred to her to want. She’d met people she enjoyed spending time with, when all she’d ever wanted was to be by herself. She didn’t enjoy these changes — didn’t understand them — and wanted nothing more than for her life to return to normal.

  No, Lee was mistaken. He saw what he wanted to see, but the truth was that she had acted on her own behalf and no one else’s, and she would continue to do so. She had to consider herself a priority; otherwise, what was the point?

  Squaring her shoulders against the questions that would be coming from Courtney, Katie, and the other models when she returned, Allegra stepped into the rain.

  Halfway to the side door, she stopped. A trickle of autumn rainwater drizzled from the top of her neck down to the small of her back.

  She had heard something.

  She tilted her head to pick up the sound again beyond the patter of rain on the grou
nd, and it repeated, louder this time. Her exposed skin rippled with goosebumps. A shiver began deep in her heels and vibrated to the top of her head.

  Footsteps were shuffling through the grass, then crunching across the gravel. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed nothing, and yet when she turned away, the sound grew clearer, closer.

  Impossible.

  She held her breath to better hear the noise, but the echo of her heartbeat took up the space, pounding in her ears.

  Someone was behind her. Watching her.

  Slowly, she turned her head to the left to see if she could spot it. A tall shape loomed in the corner of her eye. Someone standing behind her, a hand reaching for her.

  Allegra broke into a run and threw herself under the police tape into the hotel.

  16

  Allegra hurried into the sitting room. On finding the space empty, she released the breath she’d been holding.

  She closed the door and sagged against it, rolling her gaze toward the molded ceiling as she worked to get control of her breath. Her lungs fought against her, spasming, forcing out the air trapped inside them and not allowing her to draw in a breath deep enough to replace it. Spots appeared in her vision, and she squeezed her eyes shut to clear them.

  Control yourself, Allegra. This behavior is unacceptable.

  She needed to get a hold of herself if she wanted to make sense of what she’d seen.

  She had cast the spell. She had sensed the moment when the connection between the corpse and the draugrs had snapped. Seven hells, the effect had been powerful enough to throw her to the ground. And yet to deny what had reached for her in the garden would be to turn her back on likely danger.

  She knew now that it had been foolish to believe she’d rid herself of the problem. The draugr that had fed on her was no longer relying on the corpse. It had shifted to a living, powerful food source.

  So why had it disappeared for so long?

  Why did it only come back when Tim returned?

  The idea that had floated through her mind earlier that day squeezed her heart, and she leaned against the wall, her muscles too shaky to hold herself up. It was possible he had kept his head low enough and his sphere of influence small enough to go unnoticed among the magic users of New Haven. If he was a necromancer and was controlling these monsters, it made sense that they would return when he did.

  And if he saw Allegra as a threat, then she wouldn’t be safe until she found a way to tear the draugrs apart.

  She sat for another five minutes in the sitting room to make sure her legs weren’t trembling before she returned to the photo shoot in the salon.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Courtney demanded on her entrance. “We’ve been waiting for you for fifteen minutes. And what on earth happened to you? Katie’s going to need at least half an hour to put you back together.”

  Allegra didn’t bother to reply. She sat down at Katie’s makeup table as casually as if she’d been the one waiting for everyone else. Her mind was too busy working up a plan of how to stay alive to pay any attention to the blatherings of someone as irrelevant as her production manager.

  When Matthew popped in to see how everything was going, Allegra found herself tempted to tell him about what she’d seen so he could also be on alert, but her feet remained rooted to the floor. He would sense the creature if it came close, she had no doubt, and he would be smart enough not to look.

  When Courtney wrapped up the morning shoot around one o’clock, Allegra walked out of the room behind the others — ignoring their sideways glances at her odd behavior. She spotted Cody across the lobby. He met her gaze and pushed himself away from the reception desk, his hands beating a steady rhythm against his thighs. His eyes were wide as he jogged across the marble tiles toward her.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to come out. You’re not going to believe what just happened,” he said. “I saw one of those monster things in the kitchen. Real as you are right now.” He gave a tense laugh and cupped the back of his neck, shaking his head. “I’m not going to lie, it gave me a shock. I thought you said they were gone.”

  A stone formed in Allegra’s stomach and sat there like an expanding lump.

  “Cody, did you look directly at it?”

  “It was hard not to. It was just standing beside the freezer, staring at me.” His nostrils flared. “Man, it was ugly. All gray-skinned and bony, like a walking skeleton. Pretty sure a piece of his nose dropped off in front of me.” The tremor of his babble belied his assumed levity, and Allegra rested her hand on his shoulder.

  She hoped it was the same draugr that had followed her in the garden, but if so, who else was it feeding on that it had been lurking in the kitchen?

  “Is Lee all right? Did you see him downstairs?”

  Cody’s brow furrowed. “No, he wasn’t there. I saw something else, though, and I don’t know what to make of it.”

  “What was it?”

  “Get out of my way,” Tim’s yell came from the direction of the bar. He lumbered into the lobby, and his gaze fell on Allegra. A menacing grin broke through his red-faced rage, and he pointed a finger in her direction. “You.”

  He shoved aside a female guest who had just reached the bottom of the stairs and stormed across the marble tiles. Allegra glanced to either side of her, looking for a way out, wishing there weren’t so many people around so she could fight back. Her demon urges strained to throw herself at him, to press her mouth against his and devour his tangy energy, but she dragged it down. She couldn’t afford to make her situation worse.

  When Tim stood within a foot of her, the reek of alcohol made her turn her face away. “You ruined my life, you bitch,” he growled. “Because of you, no one will talk to me. My staff doesn’t respect me. They’re afraid of me. Everyone’s watching me. I want you out of my hotel, is that clear? I want you far away. As long as you’re here, nowhere in this hotel is safe from me. I will find you.”

  Allegra’s breath caught in her throat, and she grew lightheaded. She flinched away as he raised his hand against her, but Cody grabbed his arm. Tim struggled to free himself, but by then two other men had come up and wrestled him to the floor.

  Tim roared, his face pressed against the marble. Someone grabbed Allegra’s hand. She jumped, then turned to find Courtney beside her. Her producer tugged her away from the chaos into the safety of the sitting room.

  “What a drunken idiot,” Courtney said, peering around the corner at the ongoing scene. “Of course everyone is watching him. What did he think would happen if he came back here?”

  Allegra stood with her and watched as the men wrangled Tim back to his feet and released him once he appeared to calm down. He jerked away from them and staggered back to the bar.

  Courtney turned to her and crossed her arms. “Are you all right?”

  Allegra nodded. “It was a…misunderstanding.”

  “I’ll bet. I imagine you win all kinds of friends by accusing them of murder.” Allegra cast her a glance and Courtney shrugged. “Word gets around. Although based on how he’s acting right now, I don’t know if he has the brains to commit murder and get it away with it for ten years.” She glanced in the direction Tim had disappeared, then looked at her watch. “Take a few minutes to get yourself together, then we need to get back to work.”

  She walked away, and Allegra sank into a chair. Her heart had slowed after she’d walked away from Tim, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he had cursed her with those words. That the draugr he’d sent after her would run out of patience.

  Only after she’d calmed down did she realize she’d never had a chance to ask Cody what else he’d seen.

  ***

  The rest of the day passed by quickly and without any further drama.

  The afternoon session took place in the salon as well, giving Allegra a good view of the lobby, which was a constant flood of activity as people checked out. Snippets of conversation she overheard suggested the constant bad weather was driving peopl
e away, but Allegra guessed Tim’s bad press didn’t help matters at all. From what she could see, only the Grace team and a few other stragglers were remaining in the hotel until Saturday. Few people seemed to be checking in.

  She suspected it would take more than a few spreads in the next edition of Grace to bring people back to the Garden.

  In the rush, concierges in their dark green uniforms handled luggage and guided guests to their cabs, but she never spotted Cody.

  Concern for him prevented her from paying attention to the shoot. Fear and confusion had oozed out of his skin during their conversation, and Allegra regretted their interruption. She wished she could have gone after him to find out what he’d seen, but she hadn’t wanted to test Courtney’s impatience further. Not while she was trying so hard to maintain a facade of normalcy. She reassured herself that Cody was in no danger — even if he had seen the draugr, it would be after her, not him. It would want to try to finish what it had begun.

  As soon as Courtney released them for the day, Allegra headed up to her room to pack. After Tim’s warning that morning, she had no desire to remain a guest. She would find Cody once her bags were together, and then she would return to the privacy of her home to deal with the draugr when it came for her.

  Laughter echoed down the corridor from one of the other rooms, and Allegra jumped at the sound, then cursed her own weakness. A draugr might be capable of many things, but she doubted laughing was one of them. She needed to relax and to think through the situation with a calm head.

  But although she did her best to focus on each step of her packing — folding the clothes she’d brought with her and securing the Grace outfits in their protective plastic skins with the hope that a few of the damaged dresses might be salvaged — her mind kept sliding back to what Cody had said.

  The draugr in the kitchen had obviously left him shaken, but whatever else he’d seen had been strange enough for him to mention it. What could be stranger than a draugr?