by M. D. Massey
I suddenly realized Luther hadn’t revealed much about me to her. “Well, it’s complicated. And at the risk of sounding like a pompous ass, I’m kind of a one-off.”
“What is one-off?” she asked.
“You know—one of a kind, unique.”
She shook her head. “Luther is wise to keep you close, chudovishche.”
“Judo say what?”
Either my joke didn’t translate, or Sophia wasn’t in the mood for laughter. A worried look crossed her face, quickly resolving into a neutral expression. “Never mind, druid. Come, I should return and discuss what we saw here with Luther.”
“Right. Just give me a second to change back into my human form so I don’t have to rip a seat out to fit in the Corvette.”
Ten
Sophia Doroshenko dropped me off at the junkyard, peeling out of the parking lot without sparing me a glance or so much as a da svidania. Although I’d attempted small talk on the way back from the murder site, she’d only responded in grunts and small head movements. Obviously, she’d been spooked by what she’d seen of my Hyde-side at the overlook.
Not that it bothered me much—mostly because I thought she was an abrasive ass—but it might make things difficult if I needed her help at some point. Luther had obviously paired us together for a reason, but being an older vamp, his motives were often difficult to decipher. Deciding that nothing could be done for it, when I got home I put all thoughts of beautiful Ukrainian former-KGB vampires out of my mind and got ready for bed.
Before falling to sleep, I grabbed my laptop and did some research into Japanese folklore and yōkai, the Japanese word for supernatural creatures. That was one deep rabbit hole, to be sure. After doing a cursory review of the topic I gave up, slamming my laptop shut so I could get a few hours of sleep.
I’d just drifted off when I heard a woman’s laughter. I sat up in bed, wondering if I was dreaming. Then, I heard it again, coming from the yard.
“Jesse?” I asked, more to myself than aloud.
A playful, melodious voice carried through the walls of the shop from somewhere outside. “Colin, come sit with me. I’m lonely and I want to talk.”
A glance at my phone had me cursing, because it’d only been a few minutes since my head had hit the pillow. After tossing on a pair of jeans, I grabbed a jacket and slid into a pair of bearpaw house shoes Bells had gotten me for my birthday. Then, I slipped my phone in my pocket and marched out to the yard.
Jess was peeking at me from behind the druid tree with a mischievous look in her eyes. Thus far, she’d only appeared on this side when she was in contact with the oak. I hoped like hell that meant she couldn’t leave the confines of the grove.
“Jesse, for the love of all that’s sacred, I’m trying to get some sleep.”
She smiled innocently, batting her emerald-green eyes. “If you’d spend more time in the grove, you wouldn’t need so much sleep, silly. Come with me, and I’ll show you what the grove can do for you—and then maybe we can try a few other, more enjoyable things.”
I rubbed my eyes with my palms, mostly to hide the frustration I was feeling. “Honestly, Jesse, I can’t. I’m bone tired, and I only have the luxury of resting a few hours before I have to go at it again.”
My recently-dead ex narrowed her eyes at me and huffed. “It’s that Spanish hussy, isn’t it? She won’t let you come see me, because she’s jealous. You should tell her, I don’t mind sharing. The Galician slut can have you on this side, and I’ll enjoy the pleasure of your company while you’re in the grove. See? Then everybody’s happy.”
“Jess, I—it’s not that. There’s this kid who’s missing, and I have to find him.”
The dryad’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, I can help you with that! Tell me more about this very important case you’re on.”
I ran my fingers through my hair with a sigh. Aw, what the hell, I thought as I approached the tree. “You see, it’s like this—”
As I got closer, Jesse’s nose wrinkled and her lips pursed. “Eew! You smell like death—like spirits, actually. What have you been into?”
“About that, I sort of got into a wrestling match with a ghost.” I sniffed a pit, shrugging. “Guess I should’ve taken a bath—the thing did slobber all over me.”
“You think? Until you wash that stuff off and do a cleansing ritual, that ghost will be able to track you down wherever you go. No, that simply will not do.”
Jesse reached behind the tree’s trunk, keeping her fist closed as she brought her hand back into view. She held her hand in front of her face and opened her fingers, revealing a pile of green dust that sparkled slightly in the glow from the sodium lights across the yard. She blew on the dust, propelling it into a cloud that enveloped me completely.
“Jesse, what the hell?” I protested as I futilely batted at the dust particles in the air.
Despite my trepidation at being exposed to Jesse’s magic, as it turned out I had nothing to fear. As each mote of green dust touched my skin, it popped into nothingness with a tiny flash of magic, releasing a smell like the first spring shower, moss, and wildflowers. Within moments, my skin was magically scrubbed clean—plus I smelled like I’d been rolling around in a pile of air fresheners.
“See?” she crowed. “Now you don’t reek of dead things.”
I sniffed myself again. “Um, thanks… I think.”
Jesse responded with a tinkling of laughter as she sat amongst the tree’s roots, somehow managing to look very prim and proper for a mostly naked woman. As she settled in, she tucked her legs up under her, then adjusted and draped her mossy, leafy hair so it covered her breasts and pubic area.
The dryad patted the ground next to her. “Come, sit—and tell me about this ghost, and how it fits into your case.”
Something in the spell she’d cast made me feel strangely refreshed, like I’d slept a couple of hours rather than a few minutes. The sudden burst of energy I felt made me much more amenable to conversation. Still, I wondered if she was exerting some subtle influence over me. Nothing to do for it now. I may as well humor her so I can get back to sleep.
“I suppose I can spare a few moments,” I replied.
Rather than sitting next to her, I plopped down on a stack of tires, which earned me a brief frown that was gone almost before it had registered. Jesse sat very still, staring at me with enraptured interest as I described the events of the past two days. She was trying very hard to get on my good side, it seemed.
“Was the vampire girl pretty?” she asked with a glint in her eye.
“She’s a higher vampire, Jesse—they’re all pretty.”
“As pretty as me?”
“Honestly, no.” My eyes searched the ground in front of me as I replied. “To me, you always had a beauty that surpassed other women.” Even now, when your current form is freaking me out.
Her voice practically burst with self-satisfaction as she responded. “Oh, good answer, slugger. Nice to see you haven’t lost your charm.” She paused for a moment, then her eyes tightened as the smile faded from her lips. “Now, regarding this ghost—I learned quite a bit about ghosts, wraiths, and specters during the time I was one myself.”
I waited for more, but apparently my every interaction with Jesse now required an equal exchange of attention. “Yes? Please, continue.” So I can go back to bed.
Jesse smiled coyly at me. “I just wanted to make sure I had your undivided adoration.”
“Don’t you mean attention?”
“Certainly, that too. Anyway, it sounds as though what you encountered earlier is a yūrei. Yes, I believe that’s what it was.”
Again, I waited for her to continue to some logical conclusion, but she seemed to be intent on making me drag every last bit of information from her. “Fine, Jess, I’ll play your game. Would you please tell me what a yūrei is?”
She laid a smooth green hand on her chest. “Why, I thought you’d never ask. A yūrei is a Japanese ghost, of a kind that’s typically created when
someone is murdered. They are completely preoccupied with seeking vengeance, and will not rest until they achieve their goal.”
“Well, shit. Do you think the thing will try to find me and attack me again?”
Jesse’s eyes searched the leafy branches overhead. “Maybe? But chances are good that he won’t be able to find you, now that you’ve been cleansed by the grove’s magic.”
“That’s good news. Is there anything else I should know?”
“Hmm, let me think.” She bobbled her head back and forth in a witless manner that was quite unlike the Jesse I’d known before. That woman had been much more staid and serious, and hated it when girls played dumb around guys. She curled a lock of leafy hair around her finger as she replied. “Well, you might keep an eye out for other yōkai, because one tends to beget the other.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, your ghost may have been killed by something terrible, something much darker and more frightening than the yūrei you encountered. I mean, duh—if a human had killed that guy, don’t you think the ghost would have already dealt with them and moved on?”
“I never thought of that, to be honest.”
“See, silly? That’s why you need to visit me more often.”
I decided to change the subject. “How’s Nameless doing?”
She gazed at her fingernails. “Wasting away. The grove will kill him eventually—which, incidentally, would be a violation of your agreement. Wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit, but chances are good the raven would lay a nasty curse on you because of it.”
“I think I know someone who might be interested in him. Give me a few days to find this kid, and then I’ll deal with the bird.” I placed my hands on my knees, pushing myself up as I stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I really need to get some sleep.”
“And I keep telling you, if you’d spend more time in the grove you wouldn’t need so much sleep.”
“For the moment, I’ll just have to take your word for it. Right now, I want to do things the old-fashioned way, with a pillow and mattress.”
The dryad who was and wasn’t Jesse purred like a kitten. “I can think of a few things for us to do that are right up that alley, slugger.” She stood, swishing her hips seductively. “And I promise, you’ll be fresh as the morning dew when we’re done.”
“I, uh—some other time, I think.”
“Suit yourself. When you come to your senses, you know where to find me.”
“Goodnight, Jesse.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. Then she slowly sashayed her way behind the tree trunk, providing me with a full-length view of her backside as she departed.
Funny how her hair only covers her nakedness when she wants it to.
Not that I was complaining or anything. I’d loved and lusted after that body for years, after all. Well, not that body precisely, but one nearly identical to it in shape and form.
“My very own Poison Ivy,” I muttered. “I wonder if her kiss would be poison, too?”
A lilting laugh echoed from a place both near and far away. “Only one way to find out…”
Shit. Better watch what I say around here from now on.
Lost in my thoughts as I headed back to my room, I didn’t see Bells sitting on the loading dock until I was almost on top of her. Her head hung low, and her face was hidden by locks of dark wavy hair.
“So, your girlfriend found a way to come back to life, eh? I honestly thought it was a golem, and you were playing at some seriously sick shit. But it’s really her, isn’t it?”
“Bells, I’m so sorry. I was going to tell you, I swear.” It sounded lame, but it was the truth.
Her legs dangled off the edge of the dock, and she tapped a heel against the concrete in a slow rhythm. “How long since she came back?”
I released a sharp sigh. “A while—weeks, in fact. She showed up when I planted the acorn in the yard, right after all that shit happened with Gunnarson.”
Bells tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “You mean that tree—? You know what, it’s not important right now. What matters is that your ex-girlfriend has been living in your backyard for weeks, and you didn’t even have the balls—much less, the courtesy—to tell me.”
I sat down heavily a few feet from her, legs crossed with my back against a metal pillar. “I haven’t even told Finnegas. In fact, the only person besides you who knows is Maureen, and that’s because she saw her one day when she was looking for me in the yard.”
“Oh yeah? What did Maureen have to say about it?”
I glanced around nervously. “Not here, alright?” I grabbed my phone from my pocket and typed a few words in my text app, sending it to Belladonna’s phone.
I don’t evN knO f she iz Jesse. Can't TLK hEr. She iz listening.
Belladonna pulled her buzzing phone from her handbag and glanced at it. Her eyes closed and her lips pressed into a tight line. She opened her eyes and hopped off the dock, her stance wide as she gripped her phone so tight I thought it might break.
“You know, I’m going through some shit right now too. And, damn it, I really needed you over the last few weeks.” I thought I might have seen tears welling up in her eyes, but I couldn’t be certain. “And here I thought I’d done something wrong, but all this time you were hanging out with your ex.”
“Bells, it’s not like that…” I said. I stood to cross the gap between us, but stopped myself as I remembered my earlier experience with her in the yard.
Belladonna growled at my reticence—or cowardice, take your pick—then stormed away toward the parking lot. Halfway there, she stopped and looked back at me.
“You know what, Colin? You may not see what’s going on here, but I do. I’ve been competing with her ghost since I met you, and fool that I am, I thought eventually I’d win your heart. I mean, how hard can it be to beat out a ghost? But that thing?” She pointed at the tree that towered over the junkyard. “How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?”
I honestly didn’t have an answer for her. “All I can say is that I’m sorry, Bells.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m sorry too. When you figure it out, don’t bother calling, alright?”
As I watched her go, I was certain she meant what she said. Maybe I should have chased her; I’d never been good at reading situations like that. But deep down inside, doubt and indecision won out over duty and good intentions.
The question is, do I even want to chase her?
In all truth, I couldn’t say.
I was closing and locking the entrance gate when a dark blue unmarked police cruiser pulled into the junkyard parking lot. I felt like an idiot standing there in my bear paw slippers, but that seemed to be the theme of the day so I went with it. Leaning against the gate, I greeted the stout, stern-looking officer as she exited her vehicle.
“Sergeant Klein, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you to my doorstep this evening?”
She glanced at my shoes with a smirk. “Nice. Do you wear jammies with footsies, too?”
I ignored the barb, knowing it was a friendly jab and nothing more. “Come on in, I’ll put some coffee on.”
She waved off my offer with a frown. “Naw, I can’t stay. I’m working late ’cause another one turned up missing. In fact, that’s why I came to see you. Didn’t want to speak over the phone, because who the hell knows who’s listening, right?”
“If you only knew, Sergeant.”
Klein arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, well, I don’t want to know. My life’s become too complicated as it is since I met you, so leave me out of anything that’s not need to know, alright? Anyway, this latest missing persons report just came in this morning, and I volunteered to conduct the interview. Unlike the others, this guy had family close by.”
I stretched and stifled a yawn. Damned spell sure wore off quick. “You mean the others didn’t?”
“Am I boring you, McCool? Shit, i
sn’t that what I just said? No, none of the other men who’ve gone missing were native to the area. Every last one of them was here on a student visa or H-1B1.”
“What’s an H-1B1?”
She scratched her nose with the back of her hand. “Work visa for smart people. All these missing persons were foreign nationals, either here for grad studies or they were professionals working for domestic corporations.”
“Meaning, if they went missing they might not be noticed right away.”
“Right. People would notice, but they also might assume they got homesick and took a quick trip back home. Could take weeks for the company to figure things out, notify the family members, and so on. Kind of makes for a good victim profile, except for the fact that foreign governments don’t take too kindly to their citizens disappearing on U.S. soil.”
I massaged my temples, hoping it would perk me up. “Still, it’s kind of a weird pattern for a serial killer to choose. Missing persons cases like that could become high-profile really quick.”
Klein sniffed and rubbed her nose. “Damned allergies, makes me wish I’d never moved to Austin. Anyway, I haven’t told you the real kicker.”
“You found a connection between the victims?”
“Officially they’re not victims yet, but yeah.” Klein paused and cocked her head. “You’re looking at me weird, McCool. I take it they’re definitely all victims—am I right?”
“Um, no comment. So, what’s the connection?”
Klein grabbed a wad of Kleenex from her pocket and blew her nose loudly. “Gah! Can’t take antihistamines on the job, because they put me right to sleep.” She tucked the tissues in her jacket pocket before continuing. “Alright, so the girl I interviewed today told me her brother had been blabbing non-stop about going on a date with some girl he met online. We checked his browser cache and found he’d joined this dating site, NipponMatch-dot-com. It apparently caters to Japanese expats, as well as American Japanophiles with a penchant for dating Japanese men and women.”