by E. A. Copen
“So how’s that work? Doesn’t your head explode if you get two conflicting orders?”
He tilted his head to the side, considering me without an answer.
“Fine, Mr. Badass and Silent. I appreciate the assist, but next time, leave it to me.” I dusted some small rocks from my coat and frowned down at the large missing chunk. “What the hell was that thing? I’ve heard of alligator wings before, but usually they’re served in a Cajun kitchen and not tearing up wizards in the street.”
“A chimera.” Osric walked up to me and pointed at my car. “You might want to get out of here before someone notices all the damage to the road.”
I turned my head. The car was dented and scraped up pretty badly, and a huge hole had been torn in the roof, but it was probably still drivable. I’d get pulled over if a cop saw me, but I was practically home now so I thought I could make it.
When I turned back to tell Osric that, he’d vanished. Guess he wasn’t much for talking.
I sighed and trekked back to the car. The door groaned loudly when I pulled it open, but the engine had never died. I put the old girl in reverse, backed away from the pole, and carefully guided it the rest of the way home.
A chimera, Osric had said. Well, it was possible, though I’d never encountered one. Based on what I knew, chimeras were just fantastical creatures, a mixture of two or more animals. They didn’t occur naturally, that much I did know, which meant it probably served whomever had sent it after me. And that could be anyone.
Anyone except for Nyx or Osric. Since the queen had ordered him to keep me alive, there was no way she sent a chimera to kill me. Making chimeras wasn’t in a ghoul’s repertoire either, so he was out. Could be that Seth Emits guy I’d run into at the herb shop. Of course, the chimera wasn’t the first weird animal I’d run into all day. There had been that creepy ass baboon. It wasn’t a chimera though, and nothing had seemed magical about it. I couldn’t prove the two incidents were related, but it sure felt like more than just coincidence.
Then there was the god, Qebehsenuef. Beth’s boss. It was possible he was behind the weird animal appearances, but I didn’t think so. When I confronted him, he seemed shocked and scared. Then again, he wouldn’t be the first cowardly bad guy in history. I really needed to hit the search engines and see what I could find, both on him and these missing organs.
But first, I needed to have a heart-to-heart with Paula.
It was Friday, so the bar’s parking lot was mostly full. My spot under the rusty TENANTS ONLY sign remained empty. I dropped the car off and walked to the front door.
Loud rock music flooded out into the evening air when I pulled open the door. Rudy, Paula’s part-time bouncer, raised his beer to me from next to the door and scratched at his stomach-length red beard. He didn’t give me much attention, however, since he was mostly focused on one of the guys at the pool table who was being too friendly with a lady patron. Every table was full, and some folks had paired off to lean in corners, their conversations lit by neon and accented by the clack of pool balls, the clink of glasses, and Paula’s throaty voice shouting at someone not to cuss in the bar.
I picked an empty stool at the end of the counter and slid onto it. Paula came over and pulled the dish towel off her shoulder. “You look like you’ve had a bad day.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” I waited for her to pull a brown bottle from the ice chest and place it on the square napkin in front of me before adding, “Actually, maybe you do know.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Paula grabbed the bottle and pulled it away. I’d spoken too soon.
I met her eyes with a hard stare. “Could’ve told me who your friend was.”
The edges of her hard features softened and she slid the bottle back over to me. “Sorry about that, Laz. She ordered me not to. Didn’t think you’d meet with her if you knew who she was.”
Someone on the other side of the bar shouted for more beers. Paula turned around and growled at the other girl working the bar with her, a busty redhead in a low-cut tank top, Daisy Dukes, and cowboy boots. “You heard him, Lexi. Get the man a beer. And you…” She turned back to me. “Get your jaw off the floor before you start drooling on yourself like the rest of these idiots.” Someone objected to being called an idiot and she flipped them off. Classy joint, Paula’s.
“I knew you were looking for help, but however did you convince someone that pretty to come work for you?” I took a long pull from the beer.
“She’s my niece.”
I almost choked on the beer. There wasn’t an ounce of resemblance between Paula and Lexi. Well, maybe if I looked really hard and past the permanent scowl pasted on Paula’s face, I could see a slight resemblance.
With the hard look of warning Paula was giving me, I made sure to avert my eyes. “Can’t fault a guy for looking.”
“Didn’t say you couldn’t look,” Paula said, wiping down a spot on the bar. “All the looking has tips at an all-time high tonight. All I’ve got to say about Lexi is that it’s a good thing she’s pretty because she doesn’t have much else going for her. She’s like you. Picks fights with the wrong people. Lucky for her, the job you’re doing will smooth things over with the Shadow Queen. Don’t mess it up, Laz, or more than just your head will be on the chopping block.”
I raised my bottle to her. “Do my best. Though if I was smart, I never would have accepted your friend’s job. You know the kind of creep she’s got working for her?”
Paula nodded.
“Guy sliced up my coat!” I lifted it so she could see.
Paula’s frown deepened. “Looks like more than a couple of obsidian daggers got you. Are those teeth marks?”
“Crocodile teeth,” I confirmed, lowering my coat. “I really don’t want to talk about it.” I took another long drink and Paula turned away to deal with another customer.
Lexi bent over to grab something under the bar.
Well, I guess the day wasn’t all bad. Call me a pig if you want. Maybe I am, but everyone at the bar was looking, so I figured I might as well enjoy the view too.
Paula turned back to me. “I have to go get something from the back. Make sure everyone behaves themselves, including Lexi?”
“Me?” I said in mock protest. “Since when do you pay me to watch your bar?”
“Just do it,” she said with a sigh, and then disappeared through the double doors that led to the back of the bar.
As soon as she was gone, I swiveled on the stool to look out at the place. I’d never seen it so full, even on its best day, though most of the clientele looked familiar. I guess everybody just decided today was a good day for a drink. Some pool balls clacked together loudly, drawing my attention to the table. I could go over and hustle the two guys there for a little cash, which I badly needed, but if Paula found out, she’d make me return all my winnings. In addition to the no cussing rule, she also had a no magic rule. Except, of course, when it came to her own.
My thoughts drifted back to Beth. She’d have hated a seedy place like Paula’s now, but back when I’d known her—really known her—this was exactly the kind of place we used to try to sneak into. Loud music, crowded, only a few overworked servers running around, too busy to check IDs. A place that’d be easy to get into a little trouble.
What had happened to her? She used to have a much more adventurous streak. At least, in my memories she did. Maybe that was just teenage rebellion rearing its head, and she’d evened out over the years. She’d settled down, had a nice career, a future. And what did I have? A record and a reputation in the supernatural world chafing my neck like a noose. Even becoming a Horseman hadn’t done me much good. Maybe playing it safe was better. I was old enough I should’ve have had steady work, friends. Hell, half the guys I met my own age were married with kids.
I had thought I wanted that life once. Before Lydia died. That’s when everything went wrong. Now, a flying alligator had eaten my car, I was a month late on the rent, and my sex life was a jumbled mess. Li
fe had gotten too complicated. Why couldn’t things be simple for once?
“Hey there.”
I turned my head to see Lexi flash me a smile.
She pointed to the beer in my hand. “You want me to get you a fresh one? Aunt Paula said she’d cover your tab today.”
I lifted the beer, which was still half-full. “I’m good.”
I thought maybe she’d move on to one of the other customers vying for her attention, but she folded her arms on the bar and hunched her shoulders, leaning forward. “You’re the wizard that lives upstairs?”
“Your auntie warn you about me, did she?”
She nodded and wrinkled her nose with another smile. “I’ve never met a wizard before. What kind of things do you do? You make fireballs and stuff?”
“Eh, not exactly.” I turned around in my seat. “How’d you wind up working for Paula?”
“Oh, you know.” Lexi shrugged. “I needed money and she needed help, so it worked out.
Between customers, Lexi and I struck up a casual conversation. She seemed like a nice girl, a recent graduate from college, a business major with no real drive to work in business. She’d done it because everyone told her she should. The conversation was topical, maybe even a little on the flirty side, but that just seemed to be in her nature, something she was doing with every guy who wasn’t there with someone else. Either way, it felt good to talk to someone who didn’t expect something of me and didn’t want me to have to fix something for them. A guy could get used to that.
She spoke to me a little less once Paula came back, but just enough to keep me at the bar, even after my beer was gone. I got the distinct feeling Paula didn’t like us talking, but she made no move to intervene.
The night sped on, and I forgot all about the research I was supposed to be doing until it was almost midnight. I stood from the bar stool and let the blood flow back into my legs. My back popped with a resounding crack as I stretched. “Well, ladies, I think it’s time I called it a night.”
Paula looked up from where she was wiping down a recently vacated table. “You ought to get on home too, Lexi. I’ll finish up here.”
I left the two of them to close up shop and trudged up the stairs to my apartment. The hallway felt dreary, the air heavy and ominous like before a lightning strike. I chalked it up to being tired and unlocked my door.
It was dark inside. The sink was full of dishes I hadn’t had time to do, and the clock on the stove was still off by an hour. I kept meaning to turn that back. Normally, such little things didn’t bother me, but I knew they’d bothered Odette, and her absence made them all the more noticeable.
Odette. I’d barely thought about her all day. Maybe working was better than sitting around in a drunken pit of despair and self-loathing. Now that I wasn’t working, memories and feelings risked flooding back in. Feelings I still wasn’t sure were real. To find out, I’d need to ask another fae, and I really didn’t want to talk to Paula about it.
I was in the middle of adjusting the clock on the stove when I heard the screech of tires outside followed by the crunch of metal and the shattering of glass. I ran to the window over the sink and threw it open, leaning out for a better look. A white sedan lay upside down, the roof crushed. A red truck with a dented hood sat off to the side. The driver’s side door of the truck opened and one of the patrons I’d seen in the bar stumbled out.
Paula came running out of the bar. Screaming Lexi’s name, she dashed for the car. I watched, helpless a story above, as a dark shadow swept out the passenger side of the car and disappeared into the night. Hoping to get a better look, I activated my Soul Sight, but the shadow was no more visible that way. What I did see was the viridian soul in the driver’s seat of the car flicker and go out.
Chapter Nine
I didn’t know the officers who showed up to the scene. They took Paula aside to get her statement, and I think that’s the only reason she didn’t claw her way through the twisted wreckage after her niece.
A group of guys from the bar was busy trying to push the wrecked car onto its side so they could reach her. The first responders had already pronounced her dead, but nobody could get to her body to remove it. I wanted to go help, but the crowd around her was already too big, and the cops were pulling people away to take their statements. I wouldn’t be much help trying to rescue her body.
Instead, I walked the perimeter of the property, looking for signs of the shadowy mist and coming up empty. I almost doubted I’d even seen it. After all, it had been dark, and I was tired and dehydrated. It could’ve been a trick of the light on an overworked brain. If it’d been any other day and I was of any other use doing anything else, I would’ve just let it go, but I couldn’t stand the idea of doing nothing.
It was only after I’d walked the entire block twice and found nothing that I returned and found a familiar black Escalade blocking the entrance to the parking lot. What was Detective Emma Knight doing there?
Then it hit me. The accident, it wasn’t the first suspicious accident in town.
I rushed past the Escalade and shoved my way past a few gawkers to find my way blocked by police tape. They’d gotten the car turned back over and managed to extract Lexi’s body, placing it on a gurney and covering it with a bloodstained white sheet. Paula sat in a heap near the front of the bar, her head in her hands. Emma and Moses were talking to the first responding officer. Actually, it looked more like Emma was grilling him. Even in the dim flashing lights of the police emergency lights, I could see him lift his cap to wipe away sweat, and Emma’s posture was aggressive.
Moses glanced my way, and I waved at him. He said something to Emma, who shot me a death glare before turning back to the officer she was grilling. Without any further exchange, Moses left Emma’s side and stepped toward me, waving me forward.
“Tell me everything’s there,” I said as I ducked the police tape.
I didn’t have to tell Moses what I meant. There was only one case both of us were working.
His cheeks sagged. “Far as we can tell, everything is still there, but there’s a reason we’ve got a ring of officers around the body.” He nodded to Lexi’s body. “We’re not letting it out of our sight.”
“If nothing’s missing, then why are you guys here?”
“Because the time of death was midnight,” he explained, “and it was an accident. That makes it similar enough in pattern to the rest of them.”
Midnight? No one had mentioned that the previous deaths had occurred at midnight. That seemed significant. If there was something magical going on with the bodies or the body parts, then it could be the time the organs were harvested were significant, or maybe the time of death.
“Don’t sweat it, Lazarus,” Moses said, patting my back. “We only have a range for the time of death with all but two of the previous victims. The one before Ross had his accident on camera with a time stamp, and Ross had his off-duty dash cam running. We don’t know for sure the other deaths happened at exactly midnight, but three out of six have for sure.”
We passed the wrecked car. The truck must’ve really been speeding to have made it flip over like that.
“How many were car accidents?” I asked.
“Just the two. One’s electrocution. Another fell down some stairs.” He shook his head. “It feels random. If the victims weren’t all accidents, I’d almost say we had a serial killer on our hands.”
There had to be a pattern, even if we couldn’t see it. Maybe I knew something they didn’t. I had spent the better part of the evening chatting with Lexi. What did I know about the girl I’d just met? For one, she was Paula’s niece, which meant she was fae. I had no way of knowing if the other victims were fae, but it was possible some or all of them were. The only way to know would be to have another fae look at the bodies and identify them through any glamor that they might be wearing. Paula could do that.
I glanced over to where she sat in the shadow of her bar. She’d stopped crying, but she hadn’t move
d, choosing instead to stare at a crack in the pavement. No, she was in no shape to be looking at mangled bodies. That left me.
In theory, I could identify fae since their souls should’ve been a different color than human souls. At least, that’s what I’d theorized when I looked at Osric and Nyx’s souls. They’d been a shade of green tinged with black. Of course, since the victims were dead, they probably didn’t have their souls anymore, making my Soul Vision worthless.
I could ask Osric, but this case was unrelated to the other as far as I knew, and his queen had only commanded him to work with me to recover her box. He could refuse to help, and be well within his rights to do so. I’d either have to traumatize poor Paula further to test my theory or find another fae.
“You keep thinking that hard and your brain’ll boil,” Moses said, tucking his fingers through his belt loop. “What’s on your mind?”
I shook my head. “Just looking for a pattern. I might have something, though it’s just a hunch.” I nodded toward the bloody body on the gurney. “Lexi was fae.”
“Fae?” Moses grunted. “You mean like a fairy?”
Moses and Emma were privy to gods, having encountered one themselves, and even a limited amount of magic, but I forgot I hadn’t yet told them fae were real. To Moses’ credit, he took the news in stride, simply removing his cap to scratch his head and sticking out his bottom lip. “Emma’s not going to be happy to learn there are more of you supernatural types out there.”
“I’m not fae.”
“Nope, but you are a magician.”
“Wizard,” I corrected and feigned offense by pressing a hand to my chest. “I don’t do disappearing rabbits.”
Moses sighed, but I saw the corners of his lips quirk up as if he wanted to smile but the muscles of his face just wouldn’t cooperate. “So you think the other victims might be fae?”
“Can’t rule it out until I know for sure,” I said with a shrug. “Which means bringing someone in who can see through glamour. I know a few people I can ask, but I can’t contact them until tomorrow morning.”