He handed me the cane. As he stepped past, he brushed up against me, a tingling kind of hug that made me want to throw my arms around him and never let go.
Chapter 31
Lynx loaded one short and one long staff in the trunk. There was already a pack filled with supplies and a large jug of water in there, but there was plenty of room for my two weapons. I added a short baton to be on the extra safe side.
Spook hopped in the backseat, so Lynx placed my remaining cane on the floor in the back. I stopped at the juniper tree and filled my pockets with berries. Once in the car, I retrieved the cane and poured some of the berries down the hidden hollow.
Lynx took a roundabout route to our destination. Maybe he thought someone would tail us, or maybe he wanted the Mustang noticed in other areas of town. When we parked, it was behind older, yet modern buildings, none of which looked residential. Some had lights indicating occupants and others were dark.
We walked. There were streetlights showing everyone our route, but Lynx didn’t seem too concerned.
We slinked through at least nine different alleyways, two behind restaurants. When we finally arrived at an apartment complex, we faced the back fence.
“Stay here until I give the all clear.” That fast he was gone, at least half cat, springing over the privacy fence.
I scooted along the boards, letting Spook track Lynx. I remembered to use the cane and limp slightly.
Lynx was back in short order. “There’s a dumpster a few yards ahead. If you climb the fence, you can use the dumpster to help you down this side.”
I didn’t need a dumpster. He’d shown me his cat trick for scaling a wall. I just had to use the staff as a pole to vault me to the top of the fence.
I backed up, checked to make sure there was nothing but desert and scrub visible and made the leap. Balancing on the top would not only be precarious, it would leave me silhouetted against the night, so I flipped over with just a light tap to support the proper arc.
The asphalt was harder than the dirt road behind the place, but I didn’t dare roll.
There was enough ambient light from the buildings to spot Lynx standing up against the fence, a darker shadow against the wooden planks.
He beckoned me. “Come on.”
Spook drifted through the fence without a problem and then trotted alongside us like a dog fully alive.
Amy and Ted’s apartment was on the ground floor in the back. Lynx must have opened the door earlier because we slipped right inside.
He flipped on a light. “I closed the curtains last time, although I searched the place without lights. Eventually the police will hunt for Ted and ask the neighbors the last time anyone saw any activity here, so don’t waste time.”
I had expected a dump, but Amy and Ted hadn’t spent a whole lot of time here lately. There was a couch, a fifty-inch flat panel on one wall and a coffee table. The lamp Lynx had turned on using the main switch was on a side table. A glass with old soda or maybe the dredges of an alcoholic drink was the only real sign of the former occupants in the living room.
“I’m sliding sideways.”
He nodded, inching closer to me. There was no need really. My body didn’t fall over. It just stood there, completely still. Once shifted, I stared back at us, realizing my body was barely breathing. No wonder it unnerved Lynx.
The light wasn’t necessary anymore. Everything took on the gray cast of In Between as I floated into the kitchen and dining area. There were rinsed dishes on the sideboard and a few dirty ones in the sink; a bowl and coffee cup. The coffee maker still contained a low ring of coffee, and something in the pantry was attracting flies.
I drifted to the bedroom.
There were no mysterious colors or sparks of light.
Spook growled once, sniffing heavily before retreating to the doorway.
The bedroom was large and messier than the front room. There were clothes across an unmade bed. The closet door was open, revealing both men’s and women’s clothing.
On the dresser, there was a picture of Amy and from the resemblance, her mother. They were both dressed to the nines, probably for Amy’s high school graduation. Amy looked several years younger in that picture compared to a more recent one where she posed with Ted.
I had never seen her alive, but even in a photograph, Amy beamed with color and life. Her rich auburn hair glinted in the sunlight and her smile was full of laughter. Her mom reminded me of someone, but I was positive I hadn’t known either of them. Maybe she just reminded me of Amy because although her hair was mostly a dark brown compared to Amy and she was much shorter, she had the same eyes and full smile.
There were two other shots with Amy and her boyfriend. Had I been in my physical body I would have smashed them to tiny bits. Being sideways and seeing Ted’s smiling face was too close to In Between, and the near permanent death I had experienced.
I turned and fled. I didn’t need air, not in this form, but I halted in the hallway, inspecting the bathroom while regaining my composure. Lynx was right. There was nothing here. There wasn’t even a bookshelf in the living room or first bedroom. If they had done any occult studying, it hadn’t happened recently.
The second bedroom was a hodgepodge, half lived-in, half storage. The closet had obviously been in use, mostly with Amy’s clothes. There was no bed in this room, but there was another dresser with junk, including jewelry, a notebook, and some textbooks strewn across the top. Resting on a biology book was an award certificate from a hospital Christmas party. Signatures ran along the bottom of the photo of people from the hospital. There was an open gift certificate envelope with, “Thank you for your hard work,” printed on it.
I recognized Nurse Sonya in the photo. It was impossible to tell who was a technician versus a nurse from the smocks, but the doctors wore lab jackets. The old guy who had been in charge of treating me was in the picture. I didn’t even know his name. He had probably done his best to save me.
I had turned away when Spook floated over to one corner of the room and sniffed along the carpet. It must be the place on the carpet where Lynx had smelled old burn.
Maybe Amy had called the demon from here, maybe she hadn’t. I looked back at the photos. Amy was quite striking in her party dress. I spotted Paul, the technician. He was in the back of the lineup with his head down, probably looking at his phone. The vamps were nowhere to be seen in the daylight photo.
The light in the living room went out, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I returned to my body with a whoosh. Lynx had a tight hold on one arm. “People passed by. You got anything? Do you need more time?”
I shook my head. “Let’s roll.”
“Hold tight. We’ll leave a different way than we came in.”
We exited the kitchen sliding door, and then Lynx trotted down a path that led to the front of the complex. From there, we hiked back to the car by strolling along the front of the buildings.
When we were nestled safely inside, I said, “There was a picture of Amy and her mother in there. Did you see it?”
His ear twitched. “I noticed the frames and her with her boyfriend. White Feather has an ear with the cops. His brother Gordon is on the force. Amy’s next of kin listed was the boyfriend. But if the mom is still alive, we better check her out.”
When we pulled up to a place called The Owl, I guessed Lynx had decided to eat before meeting the others. I wanted to argue in favor of getting to Espy without wasting any more time, but I had to admit that after my sideways exercise, I was even hungrier than usual.
Spook didn’t follow us this time.
Lynx knew the secret to opening a side door that was boarded closed. Once inside, he led the way through a dim hallway to another locked door.
Strangely, behind that door was a regular seating area with a bar along one side. There were no other customers in the place, but I remembered to use the cane as though for balance.
“Burger okay?” he asked me, sliding into a booth.
>
“Sure. I’m easy.”
He grinned at me. The candles flickered oddly, merging his cat shadow with his human face. It made me a little queasy when I glared at him for taking my statement suggestively. His foot touched mine under the table, and the wobbling images firmed into a steadier, normal looking Lynx.
“Illusion candles,” he explained. He moved his foot away, and the uneven image returned. I played footsie with him, locking my ankles around his, grateful when the blurred images stilled.
“You’re easy too,” I said with a straight face.
A very plump lady came through a swinging door behind the bar. “The usual?” she called out. Her hair was not premature gray like mine; it was albino white. That couldn’t be the reason for its lack of color though because her skin was a rich Hispanic hue. Maybe her appearance was just another lie caused by the illusion candles.
“Two,” Lynx said. “We’re in a hurry, and we’ll eat at The Monastery later.”
“We’re eating twice?”
“Not really. That’s to let Angel know that we’re planning to take the back way to Tino’s other restaurant. The Monastery is fancier. Costs more even though the food here is just as good. This place is better for most meets or talking business with Tino. Adriel and White Feather will meet us at The Monastery, but it’s better if we don’t all come in together. They’ll arrive separately.”
Before I could ask who Tino might be, a guy emerged from the door behind the bar. He was well over six feet, bald as a day-old baby and chewing on a wooden skewer. A shiny silver quetzal earring glinted long from one earlobe. He leaned on the bar, chewing away. “Business good?” His deep voice rumbled across the tile floor and skittered up the legs of the table.
I shivered, wondering how he managed such a timbre that had a life of its own.
“Might need to move things around,” Lynx answered casually.
“Someone hiking on the trails?”
“Good tracker hunting out of season.”
I decoded the conversation to mean that we might have to move Espy because someone was hunting her, but maybe Lynx was a big-game hunter and just talking shop.
Angel reappeared from the door carrying a platter with two of the largest burgers I’d ever seen. They dripped green chile and cheese from the sides. She set them down alongside two sodas and a basket of fries that even Lynx probably couldn’t finish on his own.
I started eating.
Angel swung back out with a bag instead of a check. “Tino says to deliver. She likes his burgers.”
“Smart.” Lynx nodded around a mouthful of fries.
Now I was positive they were talking about Espy because I wasn’t planning on eating another burger, and Adriel wouldn’t need it if she was at the other restaurant.
When we finished licking the last of the burgers from our fingers, Lynx stood and wrapped his fingers around mine. I froze in momentary shock, not sure what to make of his open display of affection. His hand was warm and steady, a force of emotion that hit me as strong as any touch had In Between.
The lights flicked off. The place went pitch black. My grip tightened around my staff, ready to swing. Lynx, expecting my reaction, held tight and brushed against me lightly, a quick reassuring touch of his body.
He then glided away, tugging me after him.
My sense of direction was pretty good. We walked to the edge of the bar or perhaps just behind it. When Lynx stepped down, he stayed close and squeezed my fingers so I wouldn’t miss the step. As soon as the door snicked shut behind me, lights snapped on.
We were in a stone stairwell with a ceiling that was lower starting at the third step. I followed his crouched form down the steps.
“I don’t like relying on Tino’s lights, so I stashed a couple of flashlights down here just in case. Don’t worry though; we can make it in the dark if we have to.”
“What is this place?” I kept my voice low because he did, plus the situation seemed to call for it with the way the stone and dirt tunnel echoed back on us. The smell of dirt wasn’t unpleasant. A stream of air swept past with enough of a breeze to keep it from becoming completely claustrophobic.
“It’s part of an old Spanish monastery. Tino’s other restaurant is the main building, but the place was a huge complex, its own little sheltered city a long time ago. Tino made it his business to buy up any buildings still standing that were a part of the complex. I worked for him for a few years mapping it out. Some of the old buildings are directly connected by these tunnels, but others were built side-by-side and are only up top. Parts of them, probably used for livestock, were torn down a long time ago, but he’s bought and reconnected a lot of it.”
“Why?”
“He bought the old monastery for the restaurant it is now. While cleaning it up, he musta found the records for the place because there ain’t no way he could have figured out some of the stuff he did all on his own. He bought up the old dormitories, the chapels, a library, a school room, and some other stuff. If you plot out his restaurants, The Monastery is the center with the various buildings like arms.”
“Wow.”
“Not all of them were connected by tunnels, and he didn’t reconnect all of the existing tunnels anyway. A couple of his places attract groupies and gangs. I’ve never found a tunnel at those places, but they were a part of the old complex.”
He hadn’t really answered why Tino had bought all the places and connected some and not others. Maybe he didn’t know.
The tunnel opened up into a wider area with multiple offshoots. Would that the space be only an old chapel or library rather than catacombs. Several wall spaces contained small offerings and statues. The plastered over rectangles and a lone gate leading to more of the same made it clear the place was a house for the dead.
The underground graveyard was rather creepy, probably more so for me because wisps of ghosts drifted past us. It wasn’t like In Between; I couldn’t make out any features, but given that New Mexico was dry as a desert skull, the gray mist couldn’t be true fog. Lynx shied away from the forms, too.
“Because you helped map it, you get to use it?” I guessed.
He flashed me his self-satisfied cat-has-the-cream expression. “I’d use it anyway, but Tino’s good people. He knows about us shifters and the rest of the magicals. He’s got something himself, but I haven’t figured out just what yet. This place has more than one safe house. Only rule is that the vamps can’t use it. He doesn’t have anything against them except they are dangerous, and he doesn’t want to fight them over the territory.”
“I can see where a vampire might consider this a nice homey atmosphere.” It was underground, dark and protected. I shivered.
When we climbed up, this time using a set of packed dirt stairs, we entered a long hallway with broken and missing tiles. It quickly led us to a very old chapel. There was a place for an altar, but nothing remained except a rounded out area and a piece of a crumbling ledge. What might have once been stained glass windows were filled in with adobe bricks. “The ceiling isn’t a dome on the outside like it is in here,” Lynx said. “On the outside it’s a square building with just the front accessible so no one has a clue this is here. No doors or windows in this section.” He hurried through as if the lack of exits bothered him.
Blue and white paint had once been an angel on the ceiling, but it was now a half-halo, an arm and part of a dress.
We traveled underground again, changing directions twice. At the top of the next set of stone stairs, there was a large room with three additional arched exits crumbling under dust and age.
“There’s another restaurant several buildings over.” He waved at the exit on our left.
This particular room looked newer and was swept cleaner than the previous ones, but it was crowded with what might have been the remains of the other buildings. There were at least three statues of praying saints and a large table that was probably an old altar. Only two carved legs remained, so someone had taken the time to
prop the side with no legs against a set of adobe bricks that formed a shelf along one partially tiled wall. No plaster remained on the bricks; they just hung on the wall, pieces of straw and dirt.
Gilded paint on several items was now little more than tarnished brown specks. An old chandelier, the type that required real candles, rested on the floor. Deep niches three-quarters of the way up the walls still held candelabra and half-melted candles.
As we exited beneath an arched doorway, I swear the gargoyle perched on the edge blinked at me. Must have been the dusty light. The half-bat, half-dog stone statue was an odd, mismatched piece for a monastery, but Lynx did say that Tino had reclaimed several old buildings. Some of them had to have been used as something other than a monastery at some point.
We were almost through the next corridor when Spook showed up, nearly giving me a heart attack. He nipped at my jeans, chiding me for leaving him behind. “I didn’t know we were going this way,” I told him.
Lynx looked back and shook his head. “That dog is spooky.”
Spook wagged his tail in happy acknowledgment.
The next doorway was obviously the back of a building in use. The wooden staircase with thick, scuffed planks led to a second floor. The space housed two simple bedrooms with a modern bath. Muted kitchen noise floated up from the floor below. “This is the back of The Monastery restaurant, second floor. The other half of the second floor is behind this wall. It’s a balcony where the musicians play on weekends. There’s an emergency exit that way, but we don’t use it because of the crowds.
“The first floor is the dining area. There aren’t any meeting rooms like at The Owl, but it’s easy to come and go here without being noticed because it looks like you’re just coming for a meal and then leaving a couple of hours later.”
The second bedroom had a hidden doorway. The stairway past the door was tight.
Ghost Shadow (Moon Shadow Series Book 4) Page 19