"I'll get you a towel…" But the coffee hovered in the air and splashed to the counter without touching Stephanie's arm or her white shirt sleeve. The stream froze until she repositioned the cup.
Stephanie appeared not to notice, her tongue stuck out in concentration. Of all the strange things Audrey had seen that day, that had to be the weirdest. She looked again at the girl, really seeing for the first time the slight aura of gold around her, barely visible under the glare of the kitchen lighting. She fit the description of the goddess, too, with her long dark brown hair and big brown eyes. Was her accent Greek? A slightly pointed chin and high cheekbones made her a delicate beauty and gave her a definite resemblance to Demeter from Audrey's dream.
How did I not notice before? And how do I get her to Maggie?
"So, ah, how long have you been in town?" Audrey asked.
"Not long."
Audrey opened her mouth to ask another question, but something sizzled and popped outside, and darkness fell over the restaurant. Behind them, the chef cursed. The slam of the door and blast of cold air told Audrey that had been the last straw.
So much for that review. This place'll be closed by morning.
Cece burst into the kitchen. "The transformer down the street just blew. The tables all have candles, so you girls should be okay. Just watch your step when carrying hot coffee and use the manual credit card slips in the drawer under the register. Luckily we're done cooking for the night, and try not to open the refrigerated dessert case for too long." Then she rushed out.
Stephanie's laugh eased the thickness of the tense silence. "She reminds me of someone."
"Who?"
"My mother, I think." She frowned. "I'm not sure. Ah, there we go." The coffee finished brewing, and she poured the last two cups, balancing them on a tray as she walked out to the dining room.
Audrey knew she should follow with her own guests' coffee, but she stood and watched the light on the coffee pot. The light that blinked without electricity. Then it went dark.
Damien sat at the darkened bar and watched the shadows of the wait staff as they moved through the flickering pools of candlelight. He wished he could clearly see the waitress who wasn't Audrey—she looked like the young woman he'd picked up that morning, but she'd never managed to turn fully so he could get a good look. It's funny how long ago that seems now.
"You need to put yourself out there," Charlie had told him. So here he was, at a new restaurant, waiting for a girl whom he didn't even know was available for pursuit. Sure, he had an excuse: he wanted to keep her up to date about the situation and tell her about the hit and run. But he had to be honest with himself, and he didn't want Maggie the True-Speller or whatever she was to figure it out before he could sort through his own feelings. Feelings he shouldn't be having considering he'd sworn off dating.
Something felt right about being near Audrey. Sure, the restaurant got spooky with the lights off, but it had a cozy, romantic feel. Or it would have if he could shake the spiderweb across the back of the neck sensation that something was wrong.
He kept looking out of the nearby windows, but only the sleet sparkling in the glow of the street lamps looked out of place. Luckily the ground was still warm from the previous day, and the temperature wasn't supposed to get too low. Otherwise it would be a nightmare for traffic the next day if the stuff stuck.
He turned his seat back toward the bar. Maybe he could get Audrey to join him for a drink after the shift was done, if not here, then at one of the bars or coffee shops nearby. Just to talk, of course.
"Another drink, sir?"
Damien shook his head. "Not right now."
"Waiting for the young lady?" the tall, gaunt man asked. Damien looked at him, surprised. That wasn't the bartender who had given him the first beer. This one had no hair, sharp eyes, and a narrow beak for a nose.
"I might be. Where'd the other guy go?"
"His shift has ended," the man intoned and lit a candle. The flash from the match highlighted the contours of his skeletal hands, and his pronouncement took on a sinister air.
The hair on the back of Damien's neck and arms stood to attention. Did more than four servers move among the tables? There were only four, right? He blinked, sure it was the lack of sleep and looked back at the bartender, that he'd made a mistake with his estimation of him as threatening. But the strange man gazed over the room, his lips parted in a slight smile. The smile vanished when their eyes met, but not before Damien saw the hint of something pointed.
A fang? What the hell? Halloween isn't for a few days yet. Maybe it's part of a costume, but who would go to work with vampire teeth?
He shook his head and watched the last customers, a couple in their early thirties, leave the restaurant. The wind had picked up, and the woman snuggled against her boyfriend. Damien sighed. Not for you, my friend, he told himself, but his mental words lacked conviction. Here he was in theoretical pursuit of a woman whom he didn't know anything about because of some wild case that Charlie had dragged him into. A case that might wreck his career. He wished for the thirtieth time that he had gotten tangled up in a normal case, not one involving goddesses, nymphs, and a young woman he couldn't stay away from.
"Good news, guy and gals," Cece told Tim, Stephanie, and Audrey when they went to clock out and collect tips. "We have enough cash to give you guys your tips tonight rather than wait 'til I can get to the bank tomorrow."
Audrey debated telling Cece that she quit—the restaurant wasn't going to last long enough to make a review worthwhile, and she felt bad about the deception—but she didn't want to cause a scene even though the only people in the restaurant were the four of them, Damien, and the bartender, who counted out the cash in that register. She'd told Cece that Damien was waiting for her, so with a wink, Cece had let him stay.
Audrey watched Cece count out Tim's tips. Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out to check the caller in case it was Kyle. She simultaneously anticipated and dreaded the conversation. Nope. Madame Lucia.
"Excuse me," she murmured and walked to the far corner of the restaurant.
"I'm sorry I missed you," Lucia said. "A client came in earlier than expected, which makes me a horrible psychic, I know. How was your day, dear?"
Audrey didn't know whether to laugh or cry—when was the last time Kyle had started a conversation asking about her? Never. She sighed. "Weirder and weirder, but I met a nice guy."
"I'm sure Kyle will like him if you do, although I wouldn't be too worried about him."
"Yeah, yeah, I haven't figured that part out yet. I may have to consult you about that. But the new guy is tied in with all this, too."
"I would tell you my premonitions, but I don't want to concern you."
Audrey leaned against the wall by the kitchen doors. She bit her tongue over the flood of questions she wanted to ask, ones that would make her seem crazy to her coworkers who didn't know what was going on. "Did you find anything out about the spirit guide?"
"All I could find out is she wasn't ready for you. You arrived before you were supposed to."
"What does that mean?"
"You were destined to be a dream weaver, but you went through before your designated time. The rift seems to be working both ways. That may be how you ended up so close to one of the portals."
Audrey took a deep breath. "What should I do?" About everything.
"I don't know. I have some books that I can look through when I get back home, and I'll tell you tomorrow."
"Thanks. That would be great."
"Just please be careful, Dream Weaver. We are in a powerful time right now for those who would cause mischief."
"I will be very careful, I promise." Audrey looked at Damien and smiled. "I'll have good protection tonight."
She hung up and pushed herself off the wall to walk back toward the register.
Something reached out of the kitchen and grabbed her wrist in a cold, steely grasp. She looked down to see a very white hand w
ith black fingernails. It was attached to a long arm in a dark sleeve, but in the gloom, she couldn't see who it belonged to. Not that she cared—she pulled back as hard as she could, but it may as well have been made of metal.
"Hey, let go!"
It pulled her so hard through the swinging metal doors that she banged her head on one of them. The pain faded into blackness.
8
Audrey's cry drove Damien to his feet. The barstool crashed to the floor behind him, but when he got to the kitchen, he only saw one candle flickering on the metal counter top by the sink.
"Audrey?" he called.
He tried to dash around the center station but tripped on something. He rolled over to find himself looking into the glazed eyes of a corpse. The man's dress said it was one of the line cooks. Poor guy—yet another casualty of the strangeness they'd gotten caught up in.
"Don't come in," he shouted to the rest of the restaurant wait staff, who crowded the door. "Someone call 911."
He pulled out his flashlight and darted around the kitchen, both hoping he'd find her and fearing he'd find her body. Satisfied she couldn't be in there, he ran to the back door, but the alley was empty.
"Do you see anything?" the other female server called.
"No…" He turned around and saw her face clearly for the first time all evening in the flickering glow of the candlelight, and recognition jolted through him. "You stay inside."
Damien sprinted through the alley past dumpsters and piles of garbage bags, which took on monstrous shapes in the gloom. When he looked out on the street, he didn't even see the tail-lights of a car. Whoever had taken Audrey was long gone.
"Looking for something? Or should I say someone?"
He turned around to see the spooky bartender standing behind him. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?"
An eloquent shrug, hands with tapered fingers and black fingernails palm-up. "I was inside the whole time, my friend. You saw me. You were sitting right there."
"That doesn't eliminate you as an accomplice."
Another shrug, this time with a full smile…and a full set of fangs.
What the hell?
"If you want to see her again, stay out of this," the—whatever it was—continued. "There are powers at work with which no mortal should interfere." With that, he melted into the shadows.
I did not just see that. Damien's training kicked in and prevented him from being paralyzed with shock and fear. Make sure the other civilians are safe, then… He kept himself from running into the street after whoever had taken her—again, it was too late. He did run out of the alley and back to the front of the restaurant, and as expected, there was nothing overtly suspicious. When he entered, he sighed with relief to see the others still waiting inside.
"Did you find her?" asked the female server who looked so familiar. She and the G.M. huddled by the dessert case, both out of reach of the kitchen and away from the windows.
"No, she's gone." He looked at the young waitress. "But I have some questions for you."
"Wait, are you sure?" the G.M. asked him. "Maybe she went out for a smoke break?"
"She doesn't smoke," Damien snapped. "And time is of the essence. I need to talk to your servers. Both of them, but her first."
"Fine, but not for too long. I can't lose any more wait staff, but…" She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I just don't know what to think. I guess now we have to call the police."
Damien held up his badge, and he didn't care if she saw he held it so tightly his grip turned his knuckles white with frustration. "Didn't you call 911?"
"We thought you might be able to catch them. I'm telling you, Officer, people around here listen to their police scanners, and this place doesn't need any more bad press."
"Give me a second." Damien turned so she wouldn't see the fury on his face. He flipped his phone out and made a short call to Charlie, who didn’t manage to say hello before Damien told him, "I'm at that new restaurant near the tracks, Bistro Moderne. Audrey's been kidnapped. I found Persephone. Call Maggie. And we need an ambulance, probably someone from the medical examiner office."
He closed the phone. "There. They've been called. They'll be here soon." He gestured for Persephone to follow him away from the kitchen to the now-empty bar. "Don't look back there," he told her. "You won't like what you see."
He guessed he wouldn’t, either. He hadn’t seen the original bartender leave, which meant there may be another body like the one in the kitchen. If the cause of death was what he suspected, he knew the medical examiner would have fun trying to figure that one out. Or maybe he'd worked with Charlie before. But vampires? Every neuron in the skeptical part of his brain told him that this was all impossible, that he must be dreaming or Charlie was playing the most elaborate Halloween prank ever. But he knew what he had seen, who he had talked, to and—most importantly—he had to focus on his one lead to finding Audrey.
Persephone sat on a stool and stuck her lower lip out. "You don't know anything about me."
He took a deep breath to keep from snapping at her. She seemed strangely unconcerned for having witnessed a kidnapping and possibly two murders. "You're right. I know nothing of your kind. But I do know there are lots of people looking for you right now. And maybe some non-people, too." The flashing lights from outside illuminated her in alternating red and blue, and she looked like the ethereal being she claimed to be.
A tear rolled down her cheek. "I was lost. You left me in that awful place with all those people, and I wanted to leave. So I did."
"How did you get out of a locked ward?"
She shrugged. "The machines here run on energy. It doesn't take much to figure them out. A little zap in the right place, and they open right up."
It figured. And her explanation was annoyingly logical. "That's a nice trick. And where did you get the clothes for work tonight?"
"I didn't have any. Cece was so desperate for help, she loaned me some of hers. That sweat suit was hideous."
Before he could say anything else, Maggie's and Charlie's simultaneous cries interrupted him.
"Persephone!"
"Is that her?"
Maggie shoved him out of the way to get to the girl. She cupped Persephone's cheek and looked into her eyes.
"Are you okay? What happened?"
The young goddess moved from tears to sobs, and Damien turned away. He rubbed his arm. Maggie was stronger than she looked.
"Crocodile tears," he muttered.
"Not too impressed with her, are you?" asked Charlie.
"I'm not concerned about her at all, if that's what you mean." He choked out the words, "They got Audrey."
"The coffee shop girl?"
"She worked here as a waitress." Damien loosened his fists, which he didn't remember clenching. Why was Charlie being so obtuse? Probably because he was near Maggie.
"And look at you all dressed up, you dog." Charlie playfully punched him on the arm.
Damien winced. "It didn't matter. They took her."
"Who's they?"
Damien looked at his friend, willing him to clue back in. "Would you believe vampires?"
Charlie's concerned expression didn't change. "I'll keep an open mind."
"Then look behind the bar."
Charlie walked to the swinging door on the side of the bar and peered over it. His face went white, and he disappeared briefly from view when he went through and knelt to get a closer look.
"I might believe vampires after all," he conceded after he joined Damien at a table. "One bartender, dead, seemingly drained of blood with two classic puncture wounds at the left carotid artery." He flipped his notebook open and made notes. "They're not even trying to be subtle."
"I'm going to take Persephone back to my place," Maggie told them.
Charlie shook his head. "Not until we question her. She was a witness to all of it." He held up a hand to forestall Maggie's protest. "I don't care if she's a goddess, she might have seen something, and I'm very interested
in her perspective if what Damien and I suspect is true."
Maggie waved Persephone over and gestured for her to take the fourth seat at the table. Charlie flipped to a blank sheet in his notebook and started the questioning.
"Name?"
"P. Stephanie Smith," she replied with a smirk.
"Okay, residence?"
"In the eternal summer from March through October. In the underworld for the winter months."
"Use my address," Maggie said and reeled off the street address of a condo in one of the nicer Decatur complexes.
Charlie raised his eyebrows but didn't comment. "Did you notice anything out of the ordinary tonight?"
Persephone shrugged. "I don't know. It was my first night, so everything was new and strange. The only weird thing was that the power went out."
"Did you notice any non-human creatures in the restaurant?"
"That's gonna look interesting in your report," Damien muttered. Why wasn't he getting to the good stuff?
The goddess shook her head. "But I wasn't paying that much attention. We were really busy."
"Can you think of anything that might help us find Audrey or figure out what happened to her?"
Damien watched Persephone to see if she was lying.
Her eyes filled with tears again. "No. I'm not here by choice, remember? I don't know who brought me here or why. I just want to go home." She looked at Maggie. "Can we go now?"
"I see what you mean," Charlie told Damien. They watched the two women walk away. "She may know something, but we're not getting it out of her. She's also scared stiff."
"I bet they were after her, not Audrey." That at least made logical sense. As for the rest of it... He remembered his grandmother telling him that there were things he couldn’t even imagine in the supernatural world.
His grandmother… Crap. She’d believed all that airy fairy shit, and look where it had gotten her. Damien punched Charlie on the arm. He heard the desperation in his own voice but had to make damn sure all this crazy stuff was real before he jumped down the rabbit hole, too. "Okay really, you can stop playing these games now."
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