Kissed by the Dark

by Donna Augustine

I let out a short laugh. Arrogant bastard. On the plus side, he didn’t think I was stupid—most of the time.

  He waved his hand in a rolling motion.

  “Do you think that it has anything to do with me?” I asked. “Like, maybe they have to stay in a certain perimeter?”

  “Yes. That has occurred to me.” He picked up his phone again, leaning back in his chair and swiping.

  Seriously? Did he not see the pitfalls of that? I got up and took his phone. He didn’t fight me for it, either, relinquishing it easily. I glanced down at the screen as I placed it on the table.

  “Blackjack?” He was gambling online while I feared for my life. I was crazy to say it, but now that I’d brought up the subject, he should be giving it his full attention. He clearly hadn’t thought this through or he wouldn’t be playing cards. “What if we find out that getting rid of me gets rid of them?”

  “Then we’ll find another way to get rid of them or start charging rent.” He pointed at his phone. “Can I get back to my game now?”

  I picked up his phone and moved it to the other side of the table, as if that would stop him if he really wanted it.

  “I’m a liability.” I definitely shouldn’t have just told him that. It was a confidence you’d only tell someone you trusted with your life. Why had I done that? A promise was only words.

  He didn’t respond, and I found myself staring at the ground. I lifted my gaze to see if I could read his normally unreadable expression.

  “For one,” he said. “I made a promise to you that I broke. You told me that you thought something bad was going to happen and I told you that everything was fine. It wasn’t.”

  He’d told me this before, but I hadn’t heard it like I was hearing it now. Just as my memory loss tormented me, this was his cross to bear, and it was no less painful. From the look in his eyes, it might’ve been even more so.

  The tension in the room swelled as I stared at him. I knew that when I wanted to reach out and comfort him, I was entering dangerous territory.

  I glanced at the table instead. It took another couple of seconds for the spell to break.

  “You quitting yet?” he asked, the playful jab back in his voice.

  “Nope.”

  I was slamming down another concoction when Leon appeared. As I saw him, a little part inside me hoped that something truly horrible had happened, something that would require me to not drink the decomposing body that sat waiting in a glass.

  Kane turned toward him, pulling his eyes away from his gambling. “What’s wrong?”

  Leon shrugged in a way that told me this was a common nuisance and not the calamity I’d hoped for. “Ernie, the police chief, is here.”

  Kane let out a sigh that said it all. “Okay, give me five minutes. She could use a break anyway.”

  I was too sick to show surprise, but I hadn’t thought he’d truly understood how horrific this was. My throat was raw and I’d wiped more tears from my eyes than when I’d lost my dog at ten.

  Leon nodded and left as Kane turned his attention back on me. “Anything?”

  I consciously tried to remember something. Anything. Even a hint. “Not yet.”

  “This one could take a little longer, so let’s wait it out for a bit. I’ve got to go handle the chief anyway.” He picked up the black concoction to put away for another day, and I didn’t try and stop him.

  He paused by the door, watching me as I got off the couch slowly.

  “You need help?” he asked, looking ready to come over, sweep me off my feet, and carry me if needed.

  I didn’t mind the idea of being carried, but the sweeping off my feet was a real concern. The more time I spent with him— when he wasn’t being an ass—the more I wanted to.

  And he thought I was maybe the worst person to ever live and didn’t trust me as far as he could throw me. He was probably waiting to help me because he didn’t want to leave me here alone.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  He waited for me to precede him, and I knew it was more about making sure I didn’t fall down the stairs than checking out my assets.

  He was already halfway up the stairs when I asked, “How’d the police chief get here, anyway? I thought this place was warded so no one could find it unless they had magic or something?” Or I’d thought Kane had said that. I’d gotten so much information in such a short time that I wasn’t certain of anything. It was one big confusion. I glanced back and realized maybe he had been multitasking when he had me go first. Worse, I liked that he was checking me out. I turned back around as if I hadn’t noticed.

  “It’s a weird glitch,” he said. “He’s got some leprechaun blood in him. Warding places so people don’t find things doesn’t work on leprechauns, even if there’s only a drop of the blood running through their veins. They’re like hound dogs. They sniff out magic miles away.”

  “The police chief is a leprechaun?”

  “No. Leprechaun numbers always remain constant. If one dies, one can be born. They can only fill one spot. But a few hundred years ago, twins were conceived. There was only one true leprechaun born, but the other ended up with a touch of magic too because it was in the blood. The magic from that drop has lingered for generations. It’s a very rare occurrence.”

  “I thought Flip was half-leprechaun?”

  “She is, but she has no leprechaun magic.”

  I got to the top step, not realizing how heavy the door was when Kane stepped close behind me, his front brushing my back as he reached past me to open it. The last time we’d been close in that spot it had gotten a little hot and heavy, and I found some more pep in my step to move into the office.

  Kane walked over to the window overlooking the Underground and waved a hand to Leon. “Don’t mention the leprechaun thing to the chief. He has no idea.”

  The worn leather couch was a perfect seat to watch this spectacle happen. A tiny drop of blood and he could still sense this place? I found it absolutely amazing.

  A minute later, a man, with a few extra pounds in his midsection and a bit of frost in his reddish hair, appeared in the door.

  “Ernie, what can I do for you?” Kane asked, as he shifted some piles of papers around his desk. Just another day of business, as if he hadn’t been in the basement feeding me magical concoctions that sent up plumes of smoke and smelled like bats flying at midnight.

  Ernie walked farther into the room, nodding in my direction before turning to Kane.

  “Kane, I know some weird things happen here—so weird my guys pretend they don’t even know about this place, or this street”—he threw his hands up as the absurdity seemed to strike him—“or even the few blocks around it. And I’ve got this funny feeling you know what the hell is going on. Don’t tell me you don’t know about the monsters.” His cheeks were rosy from blood pressure that was probably popping up like a bad game of Whac-A-Mole, and the sheen on his forehead said his nerves were worn down to nubs.

  I liked Ernie immediately. He wasn’t aggressive, and I could sense he was slightly intimidated by the way Kane took over a room, but he stood his ground anyway.

  Kane stopped moving about the office and walked around to perch on the front of his desk, folding his arms as he measured his words.

  The dilemma was as clear and painful as a busted nose. Too much information could start a stampede of shit our way, worse than a herd of buffalo. But Kane clearly liked Ernie. I could tell because he was willing to speak to him. I’d noticed in the last week that you could measure how much Kane liked somebody by the number of syllables he was willing to spare.

  “If I could explain to you what was happening, I would,” Kane said. “I can’t. Honestly, I’m not sure you’d want to know anyway.”

  Ernie’s shoulders dropped while he reassessed his approach, looking like a person trying to size up if he could swim to shore or not. “Can you tell me this? Should I get my guys out of here? They want to stay and help, but I’m figuring this to be something that’s a one-way ticket
to hell.”

  “In the long term, I don’t know how much leaving will help. Short term, it might be a good idea.”

  “I’ll tell my guys,” Ernie said, in a voice that sounded as if Kane had sent him to his demise.

  “This doesn’t come back my way.”

  Ernie nodded. “It won’t.” He glanced over at me and then back to Kane. “You staying?”

  Kane had the nerve to laugh, as if Ernie had asked the devil himself if he was going to leave hell because he couldn’t take the heat. “Of course I’m staying. I don’t get pushed out. I do the pushing.”

  Ernie left and Kane looked over to me.

  I shook my head, letting him know that I still hadn’t remembered a thing.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was three in the morning. That was what my clock said when I woke to Kane standing at the foot of my bed. Again. It was so reminiscent of him showing up after my last blackout that I immediately thought back to what I’d done last night. Lain in bed feeling like garbage for five hours. Figured that I’d remember every lousy minute of that.

  “Do you ever knock?” I sat up, shoving hair gone wild out of my face.

  “No.”

  “Well, don’t you think maybe—”

  “Before you start, we’ve had this fight before and I won.” He walked over to the closet and started flipping through it.

  “So what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, sitting up, glad I’d slept in a t-shirt. “And why are you going through my things? Have you no boundaries?”

  “To answer your first question, just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean I have to re-win a previously won fight.”

  “How do I know you won? Maybe you’re trying to trick me.”

  “Clearly I wouldn’t have to trick you. And to your second question, I hardly see what getting you moving has to do with boundaries.” He turned to me, clearly annoyed as he said, “Where are your jeans?”

  “In the dresser drawers where people put them.” I got there before he could flip through my drawers and hustled him out of the way. “Where are we going at three in the morning?”

  He leaned against the doorframe as he watched me shuffling through my clothes. “I’ve got a location on Harg.”

  I didn’t need to ask why. I’d been wondering myself where Harg was. The only “why” I had was why it had taken this long. Or had it?

  I grabbed a black t-shirt and my darkest pair of jeans. Clothes in hand, I shooed Kane away with my hand. “Get out. I’ll be dressed in two minutes.”

  “Get out?” he asked, looking at my hand as if he found it alien. “Are you shooing me from your room?”

  “Yes. If you can barge in, I can kick you out.”

  He smirked, sending a little buzz of awareness through me. No one should look that sexy and arrogant at the same time.

  Luckily, he left before I invited him to stay.

  “How many cars do you own?” I asked ten minutes later, my hands on the wheel of his Tesla.

  “Too many to drive. Turn right,” he said, looking at a dot on his phone.

  “Is that him?” I asked.

  “It’s the person following him. Turn left.” He reached over and shifted the wheel more when I almost clipped the curb. “How many times have you driven?” he asked.

  “Enough.”

  “Let me guess, you didn’t care to carpool?” he asked, referring to the crawlers that used to hover all over me.

  “Not really.” They’d nearly driven me to a breakdown, but that wasn’t a topic I felt like delving into. I had more pressing matters. “How long have you been following him and why are you bringing me now?”

  “Maybe I just found him?” He didn’t look up from his phone as he watched the dot. “Turn right.”

  Sure he did. I swung right. “I’m glad we’ve come to a place where we can be so open and sharing with the flow of information.”

  “I’d answer your questions, but I can’t remember all the details right now.” He gasped loudly. “I must’ve blacked out,” he said with fake shock in his voice.

  The teasing didn’t make the urge to punch him go away. “Awfully convenient,” I said, throwing his words back at him. “You do know deep down that you can be a real ass, right?”

  “I consider it one of my better qualities.” He pointed to the side of the road. “Park. We need to go on foot from here.”

  He pocketed his phone as if he hadn’t just given me a harsh dig and I hadn’t called him an ass.

  I got out of the car, convinced there was something seriously off with him. “Can’t you act like a considerate person for any length of time?”

  He ducked in between houses, and I followed him.

  “You mean considerate and sensitive like Vincent?” he asked, keeping his voice low. “Sensitive and considerate doesn’t keep people alive.”

  Vincent? Were we really back to that? What was Kane’s beef with him? I would’ve asked him, except he put his finger to his lips and pointed forward. Harg was close.

  We crossed the street, coming upon a cemetery. It had an iron fence, the kind that didn’t have a good spot to place your foot unless your legs were six feet long.

  Kane turned and, with his hands on my waist, lifted me over. Then he was beside me, grabbing my hand and pulling me up from where I’d landed awkwardly, even though I’d gotten over first. Definitely not human.

  We walked slowly then stopped behind some shrubbery that divided the different areas, Harg clearly in view a hundred feet away.

  He was standing in a clearing that was surrounded by smaller mausoleums that looked as if they could’ve been designed by one of our gargoyles. He appeared to be talking to someone, but no one was there. The closest crawler was a good twenty feet away, and looking in the wrong direction.

  “Can you see who he’s talking to?” Kane whispered.

  Now I knew why I’d gotten an invite. How many times had he tried to figure out this mystery before bringing me in?

  Although I wasn’t going to be much help. I stared, not believing my eyes. How could I not see anything? I saw all the monsters, always. I kept staring, but there was nothing there. What was he talking to?

  “No. There’s nothing…” I narrowed my eyes. “Wait.”

  “What?” Kane’s eyes fixed on me, looking as if he wished he could crawl into my head and see for me.

  “There’s a shimmer in the air. Kind of like when a portal opens.” I fixed my stare on one spot and tried to focus better. Nothing else was showing.

  “Is it in a shape? Can you make out a form?” he asked, wanting more information, and he didn’t want to wait for it.

  “No. It’s blotchy.” The moonlight shimmered against it here and there, but it was impossible to make out a perimeter or what I was actually looking at.

  I heard a crawler hiss ten feet away and turned toward it. It growled before running off, like the shepherd it resembled. Seconds later, it was in front of Harg, who turned in our direction, seeming to stare right at me. I didn’t know if he’d come for us or how ugly this moment might get.

  We waited, and at that moment I thought about what Kane had just said about Vincent, and knew in my gut it was true. I was glad it was Kane beside me and not Vincent.

  Then Harg did what I least expected: he nodded in acknowledgement and walked away.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Kane was leaning against the bar, and Dana kept her eyes transfixed on his lips as he spoke. Dana, the witch who’d tortured me. She lifted her fingers and trailed them down his bicep before leaving them resting on the forearm he had leaned on the bar. Their bodies angled toward each other as if they were a couple.

  I focused my eyes back on my sandwich. Trying to not stare, I ate my lunch while everyone else ate their dinner. That was what happened when you had to get your sleep piecemeal.

  I was going to eat my meal here. It didn’t matter if Kane was in the room, and flirting with enemy number one. She used to be down around three or
four, but after further consideration, I’d decided to bump her up the ranks due to being irritating.

  “Her fingers are still in action,” Flip said as she ate across from me. “Would you like a play-by-play so you don’t have to look? Because it might get awkward if you punch her in the face, considering you aren’t together anymore, by your choice.”

  “No.” I bit into a piece of bread that tasted like it had come from the recycling bin, and knew it wasn’t the cook. It was the atmosphere. “Yes.”

  “So is that a no, or a yes, you want a play-by-play?” I could hear the hesitation in her voice.

  I looked up at her with both eyebrows nearly touching my scalp. “Yes.”

  “Just wanted to check, is all.” Flip took a couple more bites of her dinner, her eyes wandering around but always lapping back to Kane. “I didn’t think you even liked him anymore. You always seem to be fighting.”

  “I don’t. Just watch.” I couldn’t explain it myself, and if I tried, my skin was going to burn. I couldn’t tell her how when I walked into a room, he was the first person I searched out. Why? I didn’t know myself. It didn’t make any sense. It had to be blocked memories leaking through somehow. What else could it be?

  I heard Flip shifting around in her seat, and I looked up to see her biting her lip. It couldn’t be more obvious that she wanted to say something but was holding back. Flip holding back was like trying to stop a tidal wave. You couldn’t do it. Best you could do was brace for the impact.

  “What?”

  “Left hand just came in play.” She was starting to sound like a boxing commentator.

  “His left or her left?” I asked, leaning forward.

  “His left. He just gave her waist a squeeze.”

  He might as well make out with Dana right there at the bar. I put my sandwich down as my fingers shook, trying to remain as calm as I could. Accidentally breaking something would definitely be awkward.

  “Keep eating. People are looking,” Flip said, then laughed like we were joking about something.

  I picked the sandwich back up, smiling like Flip was the funniest person I’d ever met. I chewed and then swallowed what felt like a bowling ball.