“Mr. Gates,” a voice came from behind me. It took me a few moments to pull myself out of my thoughts again. Officer Mueller was talking to me. I barely registered his face. Older, scruffy, and a little overweight. He’d questioned me once already. That’s all I knew. He put a hand on my shoulder. “I know it’s not easy, but we need to know everything that you can tell us. This guy was stabbed by someone, and if you know anything, you’ve got to pull yourself together enough to tell us.”
I knew a lot of things. The most important thing I knew: they wouldn’t believe the truth. Not ever. The truth was that a giant unicorn stabbed this guy at the end of an alley. Why? What had he done that he deserved death? Those weren’t questions I wanted to try and answer at all. Not right then. Plumbing the depths of the unicorn psyche? Not a chance.
“I just found him like this. I checked his pulse. I didn’t think there was much of a chance of him being alive, but I had to check.”
Mueller nodded and scratched out something on his notepad. “You didn’t see anything else? Nobody was around? No footsteps or a wallet or anything like that?”
“I didn’t see anything.” I tore away from him and started down the alley. I had to get away from him, from that body, and from the smell of blood. And I definitely had to go get a change of pants.
“Mr. Gates!” Mueller was right there with me. He turned me around and stopped me there. “I know what you’re going through isn’t easy. No one likes seeing dead bodies. That’s why we need you to stay focused and work with us, all right? Because if somebody did this to that guy, we need to get whoever it is off the street so they can’t do this kind of thing again.”
I nodded. “I know. But I didn’t see anyone.” No one they could charge unless they wanted to call animal control. I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to be the animal control officer assigned to catch that thing. Did they have a mythical creatures unit? In California, I wouldn’t have been surprised. “It was just him, right where he is.”
“All right, kid.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I have your phone number, so if we need anything, someone’ll get in contact with you.”
“Okay.” I didn’t wait around for him to come up with any other topic of conversation or line of questioning. I just wanted to get home, stick the fucking tiramisu in the fridge, and pretend like I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Ever. In my whole life.
“Hey.” Another officer. I whipped around and stared her straight in the face as she jogged up to me. She stopped a little short, which was exactly what I wanted. “Mr. Gates—”
“I already told Officer Mueller everything I know.”
“I know.” She took another couple of steps closer and held out a beaded necklace. “This was over by the body. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t yours.”
“No.” I turned on my heel and got my ass out of there. I shouldn’t have been so short with her. She was trying to help. But I was just fucking done. Still, I had to take a look back over my shoulder. I was involved here. I’d seen and heard this guy in his last living moments. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just ignore the whole thing.
As I made to leave, I caught sight of the officer with the necklace out of the corner of my eye. She stood there, facing the wall with a cell phone pressed to her ear. Fine. Whatever. She had a call to make. But the way she kept looking from side to side, glancing back at the rest of the officers, and fidgeting to hide her face…it didn’t look right. I hesitated for a second or two, but I wasn’t about to go back into that shit storm. Especially for a half-cocked reason like this. I didn’t want to get in the cops’ way.
After all, they had a unicorn to catch.
Chapter Two
I heard the TV blaring on the other side of the apartment door. I groaned and leaned my head against the brass 3B. I didn’t want to deal with Terry. As much as I wanted to shove the fucking tiramisu down his throat and pin him to the floor for setting me up on that blind date, I had other things to deal with. Giant gray horny things.
I considered leaving. I could just go to a bar or a café or something and sit there for a while. There were half a dozen within walking distance of the apartment. But I only considered it for a second. I had to go home. Otherwise, it’d just be harder to explain to Terry why I was so late. And I couldn’t very well go anywhere public reeking of piss.
I turned the handle and stepped into my apartment. There was Terry, just where I expected him—on the couch. Considerably more naked than I expected him, but catching the occasional flash of dick was just a hazard of knowing Terry. It loses its shock value after the tenth or twentieth viewing.
At least he tossed a blanket over his lap before he started talking to me. “So, how did everything go? I see you’re back before midnight.”
“I got your tiramisu.” I chucked the take-out container at him. “That was far and away the highlight of the night.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He patted the cushion next to him, and grudgingly, I sat down. All I really wanted to do was go to bed and try to make sense of everything. But I knew the obligations involved with dating one of Terry’s men.
He stretched an arm out and around my shoulders. “Tell me what happened.”
“To sum it up, he’s a jackass.”
“I’ve dated Darren. He’s not a bad guy.”
“This is exactly why I don’t want you setting me up with anyone. It’s the same thing every damn time. If it doesn’t go well, you try to tell me why I’m wrong.”
He cringed. Good. “Sorry. What went wrong?”
“He wanted sex, which was fine. I was more than good with that, but he flat refused to use a condom. You know I don’t do bareback.”
“Yeah.”
“Then, once he found out that sex was off the table, he decided to back out on the bill.” It sounded worse like that, but it was my job to make sure Terry knew just how big of an asshole that guy was. “So we were done by eight.”
He patted me on the back. “I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t think Darren was like that. I wouldn’t have set you up with him if I knew.”
I wasn’t sure I trusted his sincerity, but I took what I could get. “It’s fine.”
“So, what’d you do with the other two hours?”
“What?”
He pointed to the microwave clock. “It’s after ten. It shouldn’t have taken you that long to get home.”
“Right. Yeah.” Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “I got caught up in some business. Had to talk to the cops.”
“What?” He just sat there, blinking. I didn’t have any capacity to come up with a convincing enough lie, but I wished I’d tried harder, looking at his face. “You must have had one hell of a night. What was the deal with the cops? Darren didn’t hurt you, did he? I swear, I’ll kill that bastard.”
“It’s fine.” I’d already stopped him, but I put my hand on his knee to buy myself more time. I had to come up with something good. “I…well, I found a dead guy. I called the cops, and they had a bunch of questions.” I cut him off before he could respond. “I promise I’ll fill you in, but right now I just want to try and get some sleep.” I started toward my bedroom but turned around in the doorway. “If you want to stay here, that’d be good. Just for tonight.”
“Yeah.” He smiled and saluted me. “Night.”
He didn’t need to know it was a killer unicorn that had me looking for company.
* * * *
I woke up at six. Way too early for human function. My head throbbed with pain. It would have been acceptable if I’d had a hangover, but there was no damned reason for it.
Well, other than the death. I knew that was it. I hadn’t been able to think about anything else the whole night. Awake or dreaming, it didn’t matter. I just saw that guy on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and I saw the unicorn. Huge and silver, with his horn dripping red.
I had to force myself not to think about it too hard or in too much detail. Otherwise, I’d
be forcing myself not to puke. I wouldn’t win that battle. It was bad enough that I’d gotten blood on my shoes. I didn’t know if I’d be able to wear them again. Not without remembering it. Even once I got all the bloodstains off…I would still know.
I slipped out of my bedroom, trying to be as quiet as possible. Terry was about the worst morning person I’d ever met. I didn’t need his attitude on top of everything else. I just went through the basic things. My morning ritual, so practiced that even a giant murderous unicorn couldn’t screw it up. Grab the mug. Nuke the water. Pour in too much instant coffee. Sugar. Milk. Table.
I stared out the window at the waking city. The first few cars on the road. Drunks wandering home. Or to the next bar, more likely. Bare, sparse reds and pinks and peaches tinting the clouds. It was a redder sun here than in Montana. More smoke or smog or whatever it was. It made the whole city blush.
Including the unicorn. The same one as last night, standing in an alley across the street. I tried to blink it away, tried to rub the vision of it out of my eyes. It was a memory. It was the stress. It was a lack of sleep. But it was there, standing outside my window. I couldn’t even find comfort thinking it might be a different one. Unicorns weren’t real. I knew that until I saw one. But I certainly didn’t need two running around.
I pulled my gaze away from the window and gave it a few moments to leave. But it didn’t. Well, it didn’t stare up at me, anyway. It didn’t know I was there. Or it didn’t show that it knew I was there. I kept watching, waiting for someone to see it. You can get away with a lot in a big city, but I couldn’t imagine that a unicorn would go unnoticed. But it did. After a few minutes, it turned and galloped away down the alley, out of sight.
I clapped a hand to my mouth and forced each breath in and out of my nose. I just had to keep breathing. The creature from my dreams had run out into the real world, horn glinting bloody red in the sunrise. It couldn’t exist. But it did. How? Why was it here? Why did it follow me? Was I next? My headache just kept getting worse and worse the longer I thought about it, but I couldn’t shut the ideas out.
“God, why do you get up so early?”
Terry. Damn. “It’s not by choice. Go back to bed.”
“No. I’ll never get back to sleep, anyway.” Terry stretched up, yawning, as he walked over to me. He stole a drink of my coffee and then twisted his face up in disgust. “God, that’s way too fucking strong.”
“You always say that.”
“And I’m always right.”
“Then stop drinking my coffee.” Terry was a good distraction. I could get lost in his stupid prattle, even if he was a nuisance. “You know where the mugs are. If you want a cup, help yourself.”
“So you’re pleasant.” He flipped the faucet on and let it run, splashing his hand through it while the water heated. “What crawled up your butt?”
“Nothing. I’m just still stressed out over last night. I could barely sleep.”
“Well, I don’t blame you for that.” He popped the mug into the microwave, jammed it on for a couple of minutes, then turned and leaned against the counter. “I know you didn’t want to talk about it last night, but damn. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.”
“Yeah.” So much for a distraction. I should have figured that he’d want to talk about it. I had promised to explain. “It’s all kind of blurry.” Bullshit. I could see everything in perfect clarity: the way the light hit the unicorn’s coat, the blood flying down onto the pavement, and the gleam on the silvery blade of a horn. “I just heard this moaning, and when I went to look for it, I found this guy. When I checked his pulse, there was nothing.”
Terry nodded, sitting across from me, his mug billowing steam. “God, that’s gotta suck. Did you find out who the guy was?”
I shook my head. “The cops looked, but they didn’t find a wallet or a driver’s license or anything like that. I guess they’ll ID him at the morgue.”
Terry nodded. “So, like, how did he die?”
“I don’t know. Stabbed, I guess. He had a big hole in his stomach and there was blood…” I let it float off while I got control of myself again. No need to puke at the breakfast table. “It’s not like there was a lot going on. It was just so surreal.” Partially because of the unicorn. Which was now hanging around outside my apartment. “It makes me think my dad was right about carrying a gun.”
“You don’t need to go that far. Just calm down.”
“I’m not going to actually go out and get a gun. I’m just fucking freaked right now.”
Terry grabbed my hand. “Really, are you okay? I mean, I know you’re not right now, but are you going to be? In the long run.”
“Yeah. I think. I guess I don’t know for sure, do I?”
“But what do you think? Do you need to, like, go to a therapist or something?”
Shit. He was being sincere and worried and… I had to figure a way out of this. “I don’t think I need to take it that far.”
He nodded and pulled back. “Okay. Just remember that I’m here if you need something.”
“I know.” I faked a big yawn and took a glance out the window. No unicorn. Thank God. “Look, we’re both up. Do you want to go get breakfast? I can’t pay for much, but we can go out for coffee and bagels and shit.”
“Um, yeah. Sure.” He slammed back the rest of his mug and set it in the sink. “Just let me take a piss.”
“Great. Totally needed to know that.” He wandered off. I got up and dumped the rest of my coffee down the sink. My stomach wasn’t settled enough for this, and I just needed to get out of my apartment. Yeah, I owed Terry a little bit for sticking around and putting up with me getting up at the butt crack of dawn. But mostly, I just wanted to get somewhere where the fucking unicorn didn’t know where I was.
Of course, it would probably follow me.
* * * *
Steam rose from our cardboard cups. I gnawed on a toasted poppy-seed bagel. Out here, among other people, with actual bright sunlight filling the city, everything seemed much more peaceful. Even the big silver unicorn running around stabbing people seemed like less of a threat.
That just meant I had the bad date to focus on. I leaned back in my chair. “Do you think Carl would pick up if I tried to call him?”
Terry leaned forward, eyebrows arched up high. “Why in gay hell would you ever want to call that cheating pus bag?”
“He wasn’t that bad. He just slipped up.” I took a bite out of my bagel and gestured at Terry with it. “Besides, it was just a one-night stand. It wasn’t like he loved the guy or anything.”
“You’re rationalizing.”
“Maybe I’m seeing clearly.”
He gave me “the stare.” I didn’t get it often, but I’d seen Terry use it enough times to know exactly what it meant. Jesus Christ, Tony. Sometimes, you can be a real idiot.
I replied before he even said a word. “As opposed to your perfect judgment? Or do I have to remind you of the time you tried to dye your hair leopard print?”
“One, my hair looked fantastic in leopard print, and two, you had a bad date. That’s no reason to go back on all your senses and try to get together with Carl again.”
“You set me up on the bad date, remember?”
“Look, you know I’m sorry about that. But you need to breathe and calm down and all that other cliché shit.” He smiled, way too wide and goofy and overdone. But he gave up when he realized that he wasn’t exactly convincing me. I saw it on his face. “Fine. Let’s say you go back to Carl. Then what happens?”
“Then I can start over. Try to forget everything.”
He nodded and sipped his coffee. Bastard. I knew he wasn’t done with this. Not by a long, long way. “All right, fine. What happens when he says he has to work late, or he has to cancel a date? You can trust him, knowing that he went and slept around on you before?”
“I wouldn’t call one guy sleeping around.”
“You’re avoiding answering. Now tell me, com
pletely honest, no horseshit: could you trust him enough to go back to dating him?”
Of course I wanted to say I could. Carl was smart, a chemistry major. And we’d been good together, until he cheated. But that initial flare died out. I knew the real answer to Terry’s question. I didn’t know it until after Terry, apparently, but I knew it.
“Fine. You’re right.” I let my head fall and bang against the table. The napkin holder bounced and clattered to the floor. “My love life is officially over.”
“Don’t talk like that. You just need to find a decent guy. Not a slime sucker like Carl.”
“I got dumped by a slime sucker. What does that say about my quality as a man?”
“You dumped him, remember?”
I sighed and picked up the napkin dispenser. “What does it really matter? Either way, I wasn’t good enough.”
Terry just shook his head. Real helpful. “Look, you have one more day off, right?”
“No more blind dates. And I mean ever, not just tonight.” As though that would actually stick longer than a few months.
“It’s not a blind date. We’re going to go out. Just us. Drinking at a bar or a club or something. And I’m paying, and I don’t want to hear anything about how it makes you feel uncomfortable. You’re going to need a lot of money to get liquored up enough, and a lot of money is something I happen to have.”
Finally, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “After last night, I think you owe me a few drinks. I even brought you your fucking tiramisu.”
He grinned. “I think you got ripped off. It never even tried to cop a feel, let alone fuck me.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder a few times. “Now, why don’t we finish breakfast, then go back to your place and sleep. ’Cause I intend to keep you out way past your bedtime.”
“Wonderful.” Yeah, I was sarcastic. Way sarcastic. But it was just one of my jobs in this relationship. I probably would have a good time. Probably. Maybe.
Silverfall Page 2