I looked up at him and then motioned to the board. "Your brother seems to be near, or someone is messing with me."
He came around to where I was and looked down. His face paled a little bit. "He's just trying to mess with you." But he didn't sound so confident about it.
"You said you didn't think your brother would hurt me." I could hear the skepticism in my voice, but I was hoping he didn't.
He shook his head. "Cal isn't a saint, but he wouldn't hurt someone that I love."
I doubted that because Callister had been to our room the night I supposedly disappeared. I wondered what the two went through together that Zephyr thought he owed his brother undying trust. "Then why do you look so worried that he's here?"
"Because I haven't seen him since you disappeared." There was something in his voice I couldn't decipher. Something I wanted to ask about, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Something else was stirring deep inside me. "Promise me something."
"Anything." Zephyr turned me to look directly at him.
"You won't let him hurt me." I didn't know where the words came from, but I could barely choke them out. My throat and my chest felt tight like someone was trying to squeeze all the air out of me.
Zephyr pulled me into a hug, his strong arms holding me tight. "I won't let him hurt you. I promise."
I couldn't stop the tears, but I didn't know why they came. I couldn't say what Cal had done to me, or why I was so scared of him, but I knew that him coming was not a good sign.
After a few minutes, I pulled back, and he touched my cheek. "I think I need to go talk to my mother."
"I don't think we need to go that far. From what I'm gathering, your mother is a special piece of hell. Besides, you are taking me to the outskirts, remember?" I grinned. "Our first date."
He snorted. "I could have taken you out for dinner, but no, you want to go tromping around a deadly part of town."
I patted my gun. "I'm going to be just fine."
He shook his head and held his hand out. The blade he'd given me before appeared in his palm. This time the blade was covered with a sheath. "Hephaestus forged this, take care of it, and it'll never fail you."
I unsheathed it. "I'm not sure if I believe in gods."
"You don't have to believe in them; they exist regardless." He shook his head. "I had this made for you."
I looked at the etching on the blade; it resembled a bird feather. I ran a finger over the fine lines. "It's beautiful. I didn't get a chance to admire it yesterday, and it disappeared before I could clean it."
"I snagged it before I went back to the B&B. After learning about your wings, I didn't want another reminder for you."
I gave him a dull stare. "Wings," I said again. "I'm telling you, I don't have wings." I sheathed the blade. "Either way, thank you for the gift."
"First date, dangerous exploring, a gift of a blade. This is much more exciting now." He nudged me toward the road. "Are we walking all the way there?"
"No, we're going to pick up my car and drive. And what do you mean more exciting?" I glared at him. "Are you saying I used to be boring?"
He shook his head. "Oh no, our first date was sneaking around Mount Olympus avoiding Cal."
Yeah, right. I was going to let the talk about Mount Olympus go for now. "And why were we avoiding him?"
He hesitated. "Because you were actually supposed to be betrothed to him." He cringed and then held up his hands. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds."
I shook my head. "I don't know how this all was, but I feel like that just gives motivation to Cal."
"Motivation for what?"
"Whatever he's planning." I started across the street and looked back at him. "Are you coming?"
He took a few quick steps to catch up with me. I expected him to argue about Cal planning something, but he walked silently with me until we reached my garage.
I pulled up the door of the detached garage toward the back of my property. An old beat-up car sat there, and I heard Zephyr sigh.
"Let me guess, too human?" I asked with a smile.
He nodded. "Too human, can I just take you there?"
"You can just poof me in and out of places?"
He nodded. "I can because you're like me. You're a demigod."
My brows shot up. "I thought you couldn't tell me what I was."
"That's not exactly it, but you've got divine blood in you." He held his hand out.
"Why didn't you think to mention that earlier?" I glared at him. "That's at least a little bit of a clue."
He hesitated for a moment. "Because you keep insisting that you're human."
I just shook my head.
"Come on; this will be quicker." He glanced at the car. "And probably safer."
I motioned around us. "Have you seen any other cars on the road?"
"Nope, but that doesn't mean anything." He winked.
I finally took his hand, wrapping my fingers around his. The warmth spread through me, and I smiled. I remembered this. I examined his hand and saw the gold ring around his finger. I traced it with my other hand.
"My wedding band. I started wearing it when you disappeared." He shook his head. "You were already my wife in my heart; we just needed the ceremony to make it official."
I pressed my lips together. I vaguely remembered picking the rings out. "Heph foraged that too."
"He did. As a gift." He smiled. "You're remembering."
"Bits and pieces, yeah."
He pressed his forehead against mine. "That's good. Come on, let's go take a look around."
I held tight to his hand as the world around me started to shift and change. Everything became a blur before it faded into darkness. I held tight to Zephyr's hand until the colors started coming back and the world was whole again. I laughed for a moment. "That is amazing."
I looked around the overgrown outskirts of the city. Desert plants had taken over the roads and sidewalks of the area, giving it an eerie feel. The sun had already started setting here, casting everything in shadows. I'd only been out here once before, a few years ago when I was looking for a thief.
I luckily didn't have to venture much further in than this. I took a deep breath and started walking through the brush that was hiding the roads. The houses were far back from the sidewalk, and it was like they all got a sale on iron rod gates because that's what lined the streets.
Zephyr pulled me close to him. "I don't like it here."
"Yes, but I need to see who sent the vampire after me." I took another step down the road, and the wind kicked up. I glanced at Zephyr, and he shook his head.
"Not me, come on poulaki, we need to go back." He gently tugged on my arm. I glanced around us to see what it was that was frightening him, but whatever it was, only he could see it.
I slipped my hand out of his. "Then go, you little chicken shit." I took a few steps away from him, but he took one step to keep up with me.
"Like hell I'm leaving you here alone."
A woman laughed, and we both spun around. She leaned against one of the iron fences. Black leather squeezed her cleavage up and her waist in, tiny black shorts were ripped at the ends leaving her tight ass cheeks almost on display. She lifted a leg up and placed a bare foot on the bar.
"What do we have here?" she asked, glancing at Zephyr and me. "Two lovers out for an adventure?"
I licked my lips. "I'm looking for information on a vampire that I hear was from out here."
She rolled her eyes and picked at her nails as if she was bored. "We have a lot of those here, Joseph and the deputy keep them pretty much out of the city."
She pushed off the gate and walked over to me. "Are you looking to be a donor?" She went to wrap a hand around the back of my neck, but I stepped away from her.
"No, the vampire tried to kill me last night."
She froze at my words. "There are no plots to kill
people in Normalcy. We all hate the main town, but the people in it are welcome to their delusions." She crossed her arms which only pushed her breasts up higher. "Now, if you want to know why he went after you, you need to talk to the boss. He knows everything about the outskirts."
"Where do I find him?" I wasn't going to go on a wild goose chase to get my information, but if I could easily meet with him, that would change my mind.
She smiled at me. "He owns an…establishment."
"What kind of establishment?" I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice, but I was failing.
"You can find it just outside the border of town." She glanced me up and down. "You'll have to go through the rest of the outskirts to make it there."
I glanced at Zephyr, he could take us there, but she didn't need to know about his special ability. "Then I guess we should get going so we can find this place."
Zephyr nodded and put a hand on my back to guide me further down the road. I glanced back at the woman, and she was making her way into the house.
"I don't like this place," he muttered. "Why are you doing this again?"
"To find out who sent the vampire after me, remember? To see if we can't figure out who killed Maverick."
He sighed. "I could just bring you home and solve all of this."
"This is home, for now." I turned to face him. "Okay?"
He nodded. "Okay. I guess." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Let's skip the walking."
The world around me swirled in colors, and I closed my eyes. When we reappeared, we stood in front of a brick building. The red hadn't faded over the years and didn't look like elements had touched it. A sign hung above the door with reading 'Cave of Wonders' in a scrolling font and a hookah coming off the top of the 's.' A small window with tinted glass sat to the left of it.
"Huh, I didn't think we had anything like this here." I put my hands on my hips and cocked them to one side.
Zephyr wrapped his arm around me. "Because this isn't a mortal's place. This is surrounded by magic and power. You wouldn't have been able to find it because you didn't know it existed. Since the woman told us about it, the magic that hides it doesn't work."
I nodded slightly. "Like what Davina uses on the town?"
"Similar, but much more powerful." We walked up, and he put his hand on the doorknob. He hesitated with his hand curled over the knob.
"Why are you hesitating, aren't you part god?"
He let out a choked laugh. "Yeah, but I feel another deity hanging around, and I'm worried about what I'll find when I open this door."
That wasn't reassuring to me. I touched the blade at my side and sighed. "Okay, let's do this."
He turned the knob, and the door swung inwards.
We walked into a lounge that was made up of semicircles full of pillows, each with a table in the middle of them. Tall pipes with colorful tubes swirling from them sat on each tabletop. I looked at the small crowd and titled my head to the side. Some looked almost asleep while smoking, and the others were nearly on top of each other dry humping.
"Magic," Zephyr whispered from behind me. "This isn't an ordinary place."
"And that you would be right about." A voice came from behind us, and we both spun around to see a tall man holding a glass of red liquid. His fingers curled around the glass, cradling it like the most precious thing he owned. As he moved toward us, the liquid in the glass didn't swish like wine, it was much too thick and clung to the side of the glass.
Blood.
I met his gaze, and he quirked his lips up enough to show the tips of his fangs. Lovely. "We were told we could talk to 'the boss' here and find out some information."
His smile faded at that. He looked at me then Zephyr and quirked a brow. "And what information would that be? Here I thought I had two people of Normalcy that had a sense of adventure."
"Hate to burst your bubble, but I've had enough adventure the last couple days. A local-to-these-parts vampire tried to kill me."
His grip tightened on the wine glass. "Come with me; we'll talk about this in the office. I don't want you scaring away my clients."
Ah yes, no one likes talk of murder to cloud the judgment of their clientele. I tried not to roll my eyes as Zephyr nudged me to follow the vampire.
We walked into a well-lit office, and he motioned for us to sit on the couch against the wall. "I'm Lex, and I run not only this establishment, but I'm also head of the vampires here in the outskirts."
Now that we were in better light, not only could I see that he was tall, but his hair was almost white and his eyes a beautiful shade of blue. His slenderness also worked magic on his face, making it a sculpture of sharp angles.
"There was a vampire waiting for me in my home, he tried to kill me, and might have succeeded had Zephyr not been there to help."
Lex sat behind his desk and placed his wine glass down. "I know what you people think of us there, but we are not all crazed monsters. None of my vampires would have gone after you without an excuse or a reason."
"What if someone paid them to?" Zephyr asked. "Are you guys above paid for hire killing?"
The vampire chuckled, and it sent a shiver down my back. "Is anyone? Would you kill for the right price?"
Zephyr stayed silent, and I wondered if he'd killed for money before. The way Davina had talked about it, he'd done a fair share of killing.
"Back on subject." I quickly described the vampire for him, and Lex sat back and patiently listened to me.
"I know him. He was in here the other night with a man, they refused any of the magic-laced tobacco and sat in the back and talked for about an hour."
"What did the man look like?"
He shrugged. "He had a scar over one eye, that's all I remember."
Callister? Could it really be? Zephyr seemed to sit up a bit straighter at the small description. My heart pounded in my chest.
"I take it that you know this man?"
"Possibly, thank you for the information. I have another question for you. Someone murdered Sheriff Maverick, do you happen to know who would have done that?"
Lex shook his head. "Maverick was down here about a week ago; he was hoping that a dark witch down here had a love potion. That's all I know. The people down here don't particularly like the human, so honestly, it could have been anyone."
I sighed and stood. "Thank you."
Lex was suddenly in front of me. "You've been down here before, haven't you?" He brushed a hand over my cheek.
Zephyr grabbed Lex's wrist. "Don't touch her."
"Let's go." I turned away from the vampire.
Zephyr let go and put his hand on my shoulder, taking us out of the hookah bar and home to Normalcy. We appeared in my yard, and I let out a long sigh. "That didn't get us far."
"Yes, it did, we know that Callister has been here." He paced a few feet in front of my small garden. "I think I need to go visit my brother."
"I think you're crazy and that if you do go visit him, you might not come back," I growled at him and then put my hands over my mouth.
He grinned at me. "Are you going to miss me?" He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer.
I debated my answer. "Yeah, I think I will."
"Don't worry; it'll be a quick visit. I'll be back before tomorrow night." He kissed me gently. "And you, my poulaki, need to crawl into bed and get some sleep."
I sighed. "I don't want to rest. I want to get to the bottom of all of this."
"And you won't be able to do that if you're exhausted."
I glanced at my watch. "Okay, a quick nap and then I'll see what else I can dig up about Maverick and see why someone would want to kill him."
"Do you think he was looking for a spell to help woo you?" He pulled away from me. "I don't know how I'd feel about that."
I shrugged. "If he did, it doesn't matter now, because he's dead."
He nodded. "Okay, that's fair. I'll be back, okay?"
"Okay. Don't let him hurt you."
He snorted. "He won't hurt me." He disappeared. I wondered where his brother lived, and dread filled me. Callister had already tried to hurt him once, I knew that, but I couldn't remember what happened or how I knew.
I wrapped my arms around myself and rubbed my skin, trying to stay warm. I didn't want to be alone knowing Callister was lurking around somewhere.
I looked at the house and then the road. I was going to go the only other place I felt at ease in this town. The soda shop.
Chapter Six
I walked into the soda shop to see Teal behind the counter instead of her usual table. "I know it's just about closing time but -"
"I'll get you a Calm Yourself." She turned around and grabbed a large foam cup and started making the soda concoction.
I smiled as I watched her work. I knew I should have been crawling into bed and getting some rest, but really what's better than a soda right before the place closes.
She turned around and set the cup in front of me. "No caffeine, because you don't get any this late at night."
I snorted. "Yes, mom."
"Girl, someone has to take care of you, and if it's not me or Lee, who's it going to be?"
Zephyr popped into my head, and I smiled. But on the other hand, Zephyr had been gone for the last five years. "Okay, you're right. Thank you." I sipped the soda and sighed. "Teal, what do you think about Zephyr?"
She started to wipe down the counter. "I think that he's dangerous, but not to you. He seems to think that you need protecting. You don't though. At least not from the things here in Normalcy."
"Ever feel like the whole world is hiding a secret from you?"
Teal turned to me and smiled. "Honey, we are the secret kept from the world. You just happen to live in-between worlds."
I sighed and put my head on the bar.
Lee came out of the back office. "If you want my advice, go get laid, take some stress off yourself, and figure things out later."
I wasn't even sure when the last time I had sex was. "I don't think sleeping with Zephyr is a good idea."
Approaching Storm (Normalcy Book 1) Page 6