Cold Feet (Empathy in the PPNW Book 3)

by Olivia R. Burton

  “Because I’m hoping there’s another exit, one we won’t have to explain our way out of.”

  “You hope?”

  “Hey, genius, you’re the one who wandered down here alone and got stuck in fae webbing. You’re just lucky whatever left that isn’t still down here. You’d be spider food.”

  “Spider?” I squeaked, ceasing my tugging. Mel snorted, paused to look down at my phone. Switching it off, he plunged the cave into darkness. I fought the urge to squeak again.

  “Your phone’s almost dead. I have mine, hold on.”

  As he shuffled in place, my brain tried its best to be helpful which, thanks to it being a trolling jerk, was not in the least. My jerk brain presented me with images of dozens of giant spiders creeping up on us in the pitch black, making my breath come faster. When the light came on from Mel’s phone, I let out a wavering cry of relief. Mel just shook his head, pressing on.

  “I think I smell something this way, trees maybe. Could be the roots from above, but I don’t think so.”

  “I just want to go home and shower and eat some cupcakes. This is ridiculous.”

  “I can’t disagree with you,” he said, looking me over.

  We were silent for another stretch of time except for my futile tugging and grunting and whimpering. I managed to feel like I’d made some headway, at least peeling the fabric away from one nostril so I could breathe easier.

  “You said this is a spider? A big spider?”

  “I haven’t seen it, but I’m assuming so.”

  “You think it’s still here?” I asked. Mel shrugged, and I saw his body language shift, relax a bit.

  “If it is, we don’t have to worry about it for much longer. We’re almost out,”

  “Thank god.”

  “I’m glad you’re grateful,” he said, turning to smile at me. “But such a nickname isn’t necessary. Sir Mel The Awesome will do just fine.”

  “I’ll call you whatever you want if you get this crap off me.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “Ah, considering how it went the last time we held each other, that may not be the best idea.”

  ##

  Sarah helped me get rid of the shirt and the sticky mess. Following me into the bathroom with a big jug of some cleaner she promised would help, she shut the door, looked me over.

  “My, but you’re a sight.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, struggling slightly against the shirt. She laughed, popped the top on the cleaner and dumped some onto her hands over the sink. It smelled like citrus and vinegar and, even despite everything going on, it made my stomach growl. Laughing at my belly, Sarah leaned in, rubbed her hands over my arms, and unceremoniously yanked the shirt away. I cried out, but the pain was much less intense than the emotional turmoil I’d been put through walking into the house with clothing glued to my face. The pups hadn’t noticed, but Julian had certainly been trying to stifle laughing of his own.

  A few more tips of the jug, a few more rubs, two more good tugs, and I was free. Groaning as I caught a look at my reddened face in the mirror, I sighed. Sarah pointed at my shirt.

  “Strip. I’ll wash your clothes, get this junk out.”

  “Ah, thanks,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed at the proposition of stripping in front of her. She just stood calmly, watching me like I had all the sexuality of a department store mannequin. I had some trouble getting the shirt over my head without it sticking to the parts of my neck that she hadn’t cleaned. Sarah solved it pretty quickly, grabbing my chin and maneuvering my head around so she could rub her citrusy hands along my skin and kill the stickiness there.

  I felt like one of her kids, actually, and it wasn’t so bad. I realized, after she did the same to my legs as I took my pants off, that this was the reason she’d stayed. She’d known I wouldn’t be able to handle this problem myself, which meant she’d gotten to know me as a person pretty well for having only known me a few days.

  Once I was down to my undies, she smiled, tapping the jug.

  “Use what you need; I’ve got plenty and it’ll get all the gunk out.”

  “Thanks,” I said again, giving her a small nod. “How’d you know this would work?”

  “Old family recipe. We’ve lived on this property a long time and before the area started getting developed we had our fair share of strange fae popping up. You’re not the first girl to get a face full of some strange goop and need it clean off.” As she took my pants off the counter where I’d set them, she frowned down at the denim. Digging through the pockets, she pulled out my wallet and the folded up test results I’d found.

  “Oh hey, I had forgotten I’d even found those. Mel’s test results,” I explained.

  “You need them?”

  “I don’t think so, but you never know.”

  “I’ll leave them out on the desk.” She bundled my clothes up, turning the gooey sides against themselves so she was just touching the outside of a cloth ball. Pausing with her hand on the door, she twisted to meet my eyes. “You two okay?”

  I looked around, lost. “Are you talking to my tits?”

  She let out a quick, sharp laugh and shook her head. “You and Mel. Things seem less awkward than earlier.”

  “Yeah, we had a big fight and then he rescued me from my own stupidity. I think we’re doing a little better.”

  “Good,” she said with a big smile.

  ##

  Sure enough, I’d lost a chunk of hair at the back of my head. It wasn’t so noticeable that I looked like I was balding and couldn’t admit it, but I was willing to bet Chloe would still comment on it first thing when I got back. At least I was clean and no longer covered in shiny gunk, though.

  I made my way out to the kitchen, found the tub of cupcakes Sarah had left on the counter and peeled the top off. As I took a bite of the morsel (frosting first, of course), it occurred to me that Sarah probably wouldn’t have kept chocolate in the house if it were bad for her children. I moved around into the living room as I munched, noting the lack of activity. Finding Mel sitting alone on the couch, laptop open on his knees, I leaned over the back, looked at his screen. He smelled like citrus and soap and I found the scents comforting.

  “What’cha doing?”

  “Getting chocolate saliva on my shirt from the sound of it,” he commented. I looked down, saw a crumb on his shoulder, picked it up and ate it.

  “Is that Wikipedia?”

  “Yep,” he said.

  “You’re looking up our spider thing on Wikipedia?”

  “Yeah,” he said, twisting to look up at me. I stuffed the rest of the cake into my mouth, did my best to chew without getting any other bits of spittle on him. Mel watched me, unfazed by my rudeness.

  “Why?” he asked finally. I shrugged.

  “It’s barely correct about real life things, why would it know about this?”

  “No, you’d be surprised what people put there labeled as myth that’s actually true.”

  “Hunh,” I grunted, standing to move around the couch. I plopped down next to him, turned the computer so could see it easier, and knocked his hand out of the way to scroll.

  “You think the web was from one of these unktomi things?”

  “Makes sense” Mel said, handing me the laptop. He pushed to his feet, moved across the room to fiddle with the stereo, but didn’t say anything else. I watched him, waiting for him to explain, but giving up after a minute. I scanned the article, picking out paragraphs and sentences that seemed important here and there, and came away with a picture of a creature that seemed like it might be just what we were looking for.

  “Spider thing, occasionally human shaped, eats babies, poops webbing—well, that makes me feel loads better about getting myself caught up in that tunnel—tricks people into believing stuff that isn’t true? Sounds like a winner.”

  “It’s the eats babies part that I’m most worried about.”

  “Why?” I asked, setting the laptop aside. “It’s ju
st grown-ups missing so far.”

  “Yes, but grown-up pairs, couples. People who could make babies.”

  I thought about what he’d said for a second, feeling like my brain couldn’t get a handle on what he was saying, before I grimaced when it all punched me right in the frontal lobe.

  “Oh, ugh. You think this thing is taking people and forcing them to make…it dinner? Gross.”

  “I think it’s no coincidence we’ve found two dead men but no women. I think it’s not interested in the men past a means to an end.”

  “But we only found one man out at the center, the other was buried—poorly, but buried—in the tunnels. Why would it hide one, but not the other?”

  “I have no idea. Those tunnels are endless, I doubt it ran out of places to put a body.” His words reminded me of what I’d found before I’d gone spelunking.

  “Hey, I found your—well, Thom’s test results.”

  “What?” Mel asked, still positioned across the room, arms crossed tightly across his chest. I wondered why he was acting so squirrelly. The family seemed to be gone, out for another walk through the forest, and we were alone. The topic of baby-making other-beings couldn’t have had him that spooked.

  “You found what?” Mel repeated. I frowned at him, waved my hand vaguely back toward my room.

  “I found your test results; they’d just left them in that room that led to the cave. I think they’d been sitting there since we handed them over.”

  “Let me see them.”

  “Sure, come on,” I pushed to my feet, padded toward the bedroom. Mel hesitated, before I heard the lid to the laptop shut and turned to watch him walk quickly to catch up. Once we were in my room, I grabbed the folded up page off the desk, held it out. Mel took it, still just outside arm’s reach, and looked it over. I wondered why he wasn’t invading my space as I watched him bring it to his face, close his eyes. Taking a sniff, he held his breath, let it out, and then unfolded it and sniffed it again, quicker.

  “Something here,” he mumbled and I stepped forward as if I could smell it, too. I watched the frustration cross his face before he sighed, tossing the paper in the garbage next to me. “It smells kind of like parts of the cave, but it’s really faint. I may just still have the cave scent in my nose. I might be imagining it.”

  “What do you smell in the cave?”

  “Nothing. Well, I mean, something, but I can’t be sure what. It’s faint, barely there. Again, I can’t even be sure I’m smelling anything and not imagining it. The cave was musty, the paper doesn’t smell like that, but I can’t... Dammit.”

  “Maybe we can get Sarah to sniff it.” I grinned toothily.

  He glared over at me, but didn’t engage my teasing. The room was silent for a bit, before I shifted my weight, jerked my chin at him.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I can’t figure this out. This unktomi is the only thing that makes sense, but why haven’t I even smelled it? The only scents in the center at all are human. If there’s some spider fae wandering the place, kidnapping women, why haven’t I smelled it or seen it? Why haven’t I heard giant, scrabbling, hairy legs thumping around underneath the floorboards?”

  “You think Tough Love has Poe-style floorboards and there’s something lurking underneath?” When Mel didn’t focus on me enough to address my joke, I pushed it a step further. “The Tell-Tale Thorax. No?”

  On a sigh of irritation, Mel looked around fitfully, moved to sit on the edge of the bed. I watched him, figuring he was too distracted and hadn’t heard me at all. Just as well; I could tell the joke again with Sarah and Julian around and pretend I’d just thought of it.

  Leaning my butt on the desk, I watched him as he hunched forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at the floor. His brow was furrowed, his lips quirked in frustration. A possibility occurred to me and I made a thoughtful sound.

  “What if you have seen it and smelled it but you don’t know it?”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, it tricks people. What if it caught what you were right off and it’s tricking you into thinking it’s just human? If it knows you’re a werewolf, it’s going to know what you can do and it’s going to work around that for self-preservation. Sarah said her family’s been here for ages. I’d bet the rest of the cupcakes that werewolves and unk-whatsits have squared off before.” Snapping my fingers, I pointed at him. “That’s probably why I keep feeling drunk! You say it’s nothing, but I can sense it because it has different emotions. What if it doesn’t know, just looking at me, that I’m not just a normal human? Did you know?”

  “I knew pretty early on you’re weird, yeah.”

  I ignored the dig. “But I mean, did you know I was fae-style weird? Like, with extra powers? Do I smell or look different?”

  “No, you smell human.”

  "That's it!" I cried, excited at the prospect. I closed in, standing in front of him like I had the other night, just within touching distance. “If it can smell you but not me, it’s not going to know to trick me out of sensing it!”

  Mel sat back and looked up at me. Brow creased, he searched my face before he groaned, swiping his hand down his face like he had to wipe something irritating away.

  “That’s so annoying it has to be true.”

  “How is it annoying?”

  “That means I’m useless. If I can’t sense it, I can’t stop it. It could walk right up to me and kiss me on the mouth and I would just assume it’s happy to see me.”

  “But I wouldn’t.” I grinned, patting his head. “Stick with me and you’ll know when it’s around.”

  “You’re sure you’ll know?”

  “I feel drunk every time it comes by. The first time was in the exam room. I got woozy as hell. There were a few times in session where I got sorta…I don’t know, googly-eyed. I just figured I was going blind with rage over something you’d said, honestly, but what if this thing was around? What if it was there when we—” I cut myself off, wondering if I was picking up that can of worms again. Mel lifted a brow, watching me.

  “When we what?”

  “When we were...” I trailed off, feeling my shoulders rise and my mouth quirk in a nervous smile. “You know. In bed.”

  Mel’s expression remained blank for a few seconds before realization exploded across his face. His eyes went wide, his mouth worked as if he was trying to express something his vocal cords wanted to keep silent. After a second, he let out a strangled laugh, lowered his head into his hands.

  “I can’t fucking believe this,” he said. I frowned down at him.

  “What?”

  His laughter continued, low and breathy. I glanced around the room, wondering what I was missing. After a few more seconds it died down but he didn’t move.

  “I really thought you were just disgusted by me,” he admitted into his hands. I rolled my eyes.

  “Usually I am, but not this week. I’ve had fun this week. And not just because of the food.”

  “Good to know,” he said, his words muffled by his palms. I hunched over, trying to get look at his face to see if I could tell what he was feeling. Finally, I dropped to the floor in front of him, sitting back on my heels and patting the side of his arm in hopes he’d understand I was trying to make eye contact.

  “You’ve never cared what I think before, what’s the problem now?” I asked, sitting back on my heels. Mel lifted his head out of his hands, propping his chin on his folded fists. Sighing, he caught my eye, looking dejected, but didn’t explain. After a bit, I reached out, knocking my knuckles against his knee.

  “Come on,” I encouraged.

  “I-I…wasn’t lying. In the garden,” he said, his gaze sliding to focus on some point beyond my back.

  “About what?”

  “About...” He swallowed, took a deep breath. “The last time I’ve had sex. It was with Norma.”

  “So?”

  “So...” He trailed off. His gaze dipped downward, to the floor between us. He bit hi
s lip for a moment, hard, from the looks of it. “After her death, I’ve had some trouble getting my mojo back.”

  “But things are good now, right?” I mimed boxing toward his face. “You’re back in fighting shape thanks to Officer Amazon?”

  “No,” Mel whispered, as if he didn’t want me to hear it at all “She and I...” He let out another laugh, high and quick. “She wasn’t into the Statham look.”

  “So you screwed up your chance?”

  “On purpose. I got nervous.”

  “Really?” I demanded, a smile splitting my lips. “How’d you even know?”

  “Know I’d screw up?”

  “Know she wouldn’t like you all manly and rugged.”

  “It’s a talent I have.”

  “It’s a wonder I’ve never see you on Star Search.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly, shutting his eyes. I watched him, considered his handsome face. While I could admit I was out of my depth without emotions to back up my meager body language literacy, I could tell he was feeling bad about himself. I found myself inching closer, wanting to comfort him. I flashed back to the night at the center, how nice it had felt to kiss him even before the part where we’d been rolling around groping each other. I’d spent most of the time I’d known Mel loathing him, but I’d actually really enjoyed his company since we’d started pretending to be a miserable married couple.

  Maybe things could be different and we could get along. Maybe Chloe wasn’t just yanking my chain and it would be worth it to sleep with Mel. She wasn’t the only one who insisted showing him a good time was indeed a good time. Maybe it could just happen and his confidence would reassert itself and then he and I could be friends. Just two friends who helped each other with work and who didn’t suffer because one of us was constantly hitting on each other.

  Really, what I was about to propose was for the good of the friendship, I told myself.

  “Well, I was lying,” I said as I pushed to my knees, my thighs bumping his shins. He opened his eyes as I spoke, his brows lifting when he found me so close. “I’m not really Batman.”

  He smiled, let out another quiet laugh. I pushed forward, holding his eye until just before I pressed my lips to his. As he had been before, he was hesitant, making it difficult to deepen the kiss. I slid my hands up the backs of his arms, over his shoulders, to cup his face. He let me, dropping his hands away from his chin as I pressed forward, parting my lips. Almost reluctantly, he mirrored me, and I tipped my head, letting out a little sigh as our tongues met.