“We all know the best way to do that is with tongues and wandering hands,” Luke said. “I really don’t want to rain on your parade – I’m telling the truth this time – but Max wants us to be on top of our game because he’s convinced undercover police officers are sneaking around. He sent me to ask that you stick close to the parking lot until everyone is gone.” The look Luke shot me was one of pure sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
Kade sighed as he glanced at me. “I can quit.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. The moment had already passed. “It’s fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “You have a job to do. I understand.”
“Oh, don’t make it sound as if the world is coming to an end,” Luke whined. “I’ll feel guilty if that happens.”
“Yeah, guilt isn’t the emotion I’m getting from you,” Kade said, running his hand down the back of my head as he pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. He wisely avoided my mouth. It would feel like too much of a tease if he went that route. “I think you’re enjoying this a little.”
“Maybe a little,” Luke conceded. “I don’t want Poet upset, though, so I’m only enjoying the part where you’re worked up. I’ll keep her company while you’re gone. That should make you feel better.”
“How?”
“I’ll make sure she shaves her legs and gets all pretty for when you’re done,” Luke replied, his smile bright. “Anticipation is half the fun.”
“It had better be,” Kade grumbled, moving in the direction of the main tent. “After all of this, I’ll cry if I don’t get to the actual fun part.”
“SO, TELL me what’s going on with Tall, Dark and Grumpy,” Luke instructed, sitting across from me at the picnic table and shoving a beer in my direction. We’d left Kade ten minutes earlier, but I was still fixated on the moment we let slip through our fingers. “He seems even more annoying than usual.”
“He’s just upset.” I twisted the top on the beer and guzzled half of it before risking a glance at Luke. “We’re both upset because you have rotten timing.”
“I’ll buy some of that,” Luke said. “Something else is going on, though.”
He can always read my moods. It’s sweet … and frustrating. “What makes you say that?” I can turn avoidance into an art form if I’m motivated.
“I know what you’re doing, and that never works on me, so I have no idea why you even try to snow me,” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “If you want me to spell it out, Kade seems worked up by more than the possibility of sex, and you’re lost in your head. What gives?”
“Something happened tonight.”
“Yeah, Kade shoved his tongue in your mouth and was prepared to go all caveman and drag you to your trailer,” Luke said. “I saw that.”
“Not that.” I told him about my conversation with Melissa, being careful to leave nothing out. Unlike Kade, who was still learning the nuances of the paranormal world, Luke understood everything.
“I won’t let you die,” he announced, his eyes narrowing as he searched the area for potential threats. “That’s not going to happen on my watch.”
Even when I’m angry with him I love him beyond reason. “She didn’t say I was going to die,” I cautioned. “She just warned that I was a target.”
“We both know what that means,” Luke said. “If she saw you get attacked and survive she would’ve let it go. She only feels propelled to warn you because she knows you’re going to die.
“Well, let me tell you something, missy,” he continued. “That’s not going to happen as long as I’m drawing breath – and if I die before you I expect you to want to die, too, so that won’t be an issue. I don’t care if I have to tie myself to you. I’m not letting you out of my sight until we put Lincoln in the rearview mirror. I’ve always hated this town. Now I really hate it.”
“You’re going to tie us together?”
“That’s what I said.”
“That should make the sex Kade and I finally have more interesting,” I teased, earning a small smile from Luke. “She warned me because it’s possible to change the outcome. I have to be vigilant.”
“You have to let others help you,” Luke corrected. “I’m not messing around here. I’ve resigned myself to losing part of you to Security Studmuffin. I won’t lose anything else.”
I reached over and grabbed his hand, giving it a good squeeze as I locked gazes with him. “I love you no matter what. You know that, right?”
“I love you more.” Luke’s eyes were glassy. “I love you the most.”
I let loose with an exasperated sigh. “It’s not a competition, Luke.”
“It is a competition,” Luke countered, his eyes moving to the busy circus grounds as Kade led the guests off the premises. “I always win when I compete. You know that.”
“I do know that,” I said, meeting Kade’s eyes as he passed. He offered a small wave before shooting Luke a dirty look.
“Don’t let her get drunk,” Kade shouted out. “I want her firing on all cylinders when I get back there.”
“No promises,” Luke yelled back, although he offered Kade a thumbs-up. “I’ll make sure she’s washed, powdered and oiled for you.”
I made a face as Kade smiled and continued toward the parking lot. “Wouldn’t oil and powder work against each other?”
“Only if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Luke replied. “I happen to know what I’m doing. I’m a genius.”
“So you’ve told me.”
Luke’s expression turned serious. “We’ll get through this. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you either.”
“You’re the other half of my heart,” Luke said, his voice cracking. “I know I tease you, but … you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
My eyes flooded with tears. “Luke, don’t say things like that. You’re going to make me cry.” I surreptitiously swiped a falling tear. “I don’t want puffy eyes.”
“Yes, you have to look good for your big night,” Luke said, grazing his thumb against my cheek as he swiped the moisture away. “I meant what I said, though. I’ll love you forever.”
“If that’s true you’ll give me those cheerleading photographs to make me feel better.” It was a quick conversational turn, but I wasn’t above using potential tragedy to get what I wanted.
“Oh, that was low,” Luke muttered, shaking his head. “Just for that I’m going to show them to Kade as soon as he gets back here.”
“If you do that I’ll wrestle you down in the dirt until your clothes are ruined.”
“That’s the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Luke looked affronted. “Here I am being all sweet and you go off and say something like that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You should be sorry.”
“I still want those photos,” I said.
“Learn to live with disappointment.”
I launched myself over the table, taking Luke by surprise as he giggled. He managed to get his hands around my wrists before I got a hold of him. It was an immature moment, but I think we both needed it to head off the serious thoughts plaguing us.
The happy moment was fleeting because a blood-curdling scream cut through the night air, causing everyone in the vicinity to shift his or her attention toward the parking lot. A murmur went up through the slow-moving crowd, but they remained calm until a second scream erupted.
Then everyone panicked, additional screams joining the fray as the terrified guests began pushing toward the parking lot, creating a stampede. They didn’t realize they were heading toward danger, not running from it.
“Oh … crud.”
22
Twenty-Two
“What do we do?” Luke was on his feet, his gaze intense.
“We help,” I said, scurrying in the direction of the panicking guests.
“How?”
“By working together,” Raven interjected, appearing at my side with Nixie and Naida in tow.
We hovered on the safe side of the barrier, making sure we didn’t get swept into the mayhem. “I heard the screams.”
“They’re going to trample each other,” I said, cringing as a small child was knocked to his knees. I started to move forward, intent on helping as the boy’s terrified mother tried to protect her son, but Seth swooped in from the other side and lifted the boy off the ground while using his impressive muscle mass to shelter the duo from the crowd. He was in human form, but shirtless, which led me to believe he’d raced over from the main tent when he heard the melee.
“How are we going to work together to stop this?” Luke asked. “It’s too late. It’s already out of control.”
“You’re always such a defeatist,” Raven chided, shaking her head and causing the moonlight to bounce off her silver highlights. “It doesn’t matter, though, because you can’t do anything to help. This is a job only the women can handle.”
I knew what she was talking about without voicing the obvious question. “We need to cast a net.”
“What kind of net?” Luke was getting shrill as the screams from the parking lot multiplied. “If you want to herd them like fish I think you’re going to suffocate them … although, does anyone have any tartar sauce?”
“Your sense of humor rears its ugly head at the worst of times,” Raven snapped. “Go help the others in the parking lot. We’ll handle the rest.”
Luke didn’t look convinced. In fact, his eyes roamed my face and I could see the indecision reflected back at me. He didn’t want to leave because he worried I would die if he wasn’t around to watch my every move. “I’ll help here.”
“Go,” I prodded, offering his wrist a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be fine.”
“You heard her,” Raven barked. “She’ll be fine. We have to do this now.”
“But … .”
“Go, Luke!”
Luke shot me one more worried look before scorching Raven with a hateful glare. I had no doubt those two would be tussling later, but I couldn’t think about that now.
“What are we going to do?” Naida asked, narrowing her eyes. “We don’t have time to gather enough power to cast a calming spell. These people may be freaking out, but someone is bound to see a light show, even if we try to hide it.”
“We don’t need to cast a net,” I replied. “We’ve already cast one.”
“We have?” Nixie wrinkled her ski-slope nose. “When did we do that?”
“The dreamcatcher, you moron,” Raven said, cuffing the back of Nixie’s head and earning twin looks of disgust from both pixies. I had a feeling they would be joining Luke in his vendetta against the surly House of Mirrors maven before the evening ended. “All we need to do is tap into the dreamcatcher and shift the power.”
“Won’t that leave us open to attack?” Naida asked.
She had a point. We also didn’t have a choice. “We can reset the dreamcatcher once everyone is out of here. Even if we can’t … it’s only one night. We’ve survived worse.”
“Let’s hope everyone survives this,” Raven said, reaching for my hand. We aren’t friendly, but we are professionals. “If this goes really badly, it’s going to be a public relations nightmare.”
“Plus people could die,” I said.
“That, too.”
I closed my eyes as Raven tightened her grip on my hand. Naida took the other while Nixie positioned herself on the other side of her sister. We were used to working in tandem, so our magic flowed together relatively quickly.
In truth, I don’t have a lot of power. Everything I have is some form of mental manipulation. Raven and Naida are the true power centers. Nixie adds a little bit of juice, but she’s better with potions and powders. My gift is directing the power the others supply.
Raven usually likes to approach a spell with a little delicacy, but she rammed a surge of magic into the dreamcatcher to spark it to life. Only those magically inclined could see the line, so none of the running guests so much as glanced in our direction as the dreamcatcher flared to life.
Naida pulsed a sense of calm into the dreamcatcher, exhaling heavily as she used her power to ostensibly sing a lullaby that no one could hear but everyone felt. Her temper was notorious, but she’d managed to control emotions before. Once everyone spent an entire day crying after she watched The Notebook. It took us hours to figure out what was wrong, and Luke was convinced it was PMS run amok.
“It’s working,” Nixie said, her voice small. “They’re slowing.”
It was working. I opened my eyes and found the previously scattering guests had slowed their pace and were now shuffling quietly toward the exit, almost as if in a trance. “Good job,” I murmured, continuing to direct the power. “It shouldn’t take long to clear this place out.”
“Then what?” Nixie asked.
“Then we have to find out what happened in the parking lot that set off the screaming in the first place.”
“ANOTHER one?”
The body on the ground at the south edge of the parking lot was covered in blood and missing both feet. The eyes were gone, too, although I’d come to expect that. The victim was female, her long dark hair fanning out in waves against the pavement. Blood seeped into her hair, and while I couldn’t see the discoloration I knew it was there.
“The guests who were parked here didn’t see the body until they pulled out,” Kade explained, rubbing the back of his neck as he studied the dead woman. “They didn’t stop until someone else caught sight of the body. That woman screamed … and then someone else screamed … .”
“And then everyone bolted for the parking lot,” Luke finished. “It was a nightmare. I barely got out alive.”
I shifted my eyes to the flashing police lights at the parking lot entrance. Detective Brewer said something to two uniformed officers before shifting his attention in our direction. He didn’t look happy.
“That is one pissed-off man.”
“I think he looks hot when he’s angry,” Luke said. “That’s probably a good thing, because I’ve yet to see him smile.”
“Would you smile if you were knee-deep in eyeless bodies?” Raven asked, making a face as she studied the victim. “What’s with the corn husks in the eyes? I don’t get it. That’s an ancient pagan thing, and no one has worshipped those gods in this area for centuries.”
I shrugged. “All three of the victims had the same thing. I didn’t see the second one in person, so I’m only going by what I saw in Brewer’s mind.”
“Shh.” Kade lifted his finger to his lips. “He’s on his way over here. You don’t want him to hear something like that.”
Raven snorted. “It’s not as though it matters,” she said. “We’re going to have to wipe that guy’s memory before leaving town. He’s too suspicious. We won’t have a choice.”
Kade flicked his eyes to me. “Is that true?”
I refused to lie to him, at least not about this. “Probably.”
“You said that was a violation,” Kade argued.
“It also might be a necessity,” I said, shaking my head when he opened his mouth to argue further. “He’s here.”
Kade pressed his lips together as Brewer joined our group. He was unhappy, but he wouldn’t call attention to the problem in front of an audience.
“Well, I’m seeing a lot of you folks these days, aren’t I?” Brewer glanced between the assembled faces before focusing on me. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“She wasn’t out here, so she doesn’t know what happened,” Kade replied, his protective instincts kicking in. “She was in her trailer when the body was discovered.”
“What about when the body was shoved under the truck?” Brewer asked.
“Do you even know when that happened?” Raven challenged. She wasn’t nearly as enamored with the grim detective as Luke, who kept flashing of flirty smiles in Brewer’s direction while preening to make sure the limited light caught his best angles. “Don’t you need to conduct an autopsy to determine t
hat?”
“You’re Raven, right? You run the House of Mirrors?” Brewer met most of the performers during his tour.
Raven nodded.
“When I want your opinion I’ll ask for it,” Brewer said. He clearly meant business tonight. “The body is still warm. That means it hasn’t been here long. Can everyone account for their whereabouts for the past three hours?”
“It’s a circus,” Raven replied dryly. “We’re circus performers. We were working.”
“Can anyone vouch for that?”
“Just the people who saw me in the House of Mirrors,” Raven answered. “There were about a thousand of them who went through there during that period. I didn’t think to get names, though. Shucks.”
Brewer obviously didn’t like her tone. “Thank you for your time, Raven. You can leave. If I have further questions I’ll track you down.”
“You know where to find me,” Raven sang out, adding a little extra swing to her hips as she sashayed away.
“Staring at herself in the mirror,” Luke grumbled under his breath, his anger from earlier returning.
“What about you, Luke?”
“I handled the animals tonight and worked on the trapeze,” Luke replied. “When I was done in front of the crowd I took Tony back to the animal tent and then ran into Max. He asked me to find Kade, so that’s what I did. After tracking him down I had a beer with Poet in front of her trailer, and that’s where we were when the screaming started.”
“And where did you find Kade when you went looking for him?” Brewer asked, jotting something in the small notebook he carried.
“With his lips fused to Poet’s in front of her tent,” Luke replied, annoyed. His crush appeared to be running out of steam. “They were feeling each other up and groping in the dark. I watched them for a minute or so before interrupting. It was like a soap opera without the musical montage.”
“Luke!” I was glad it was dark, because I could feel my cheeks burning.
“I see,” Brewer said, his tone clipped as he glanced between Kade and me. “Were you two together the entire night?”
“I was in the big tent for the show, but left early because I wanted to see Poet,” Kade replied. “Most of my evening was spent walking the midway and watching the big show.”
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