She squinted at the water. “I used to be a lifeguard. I thought the same thing.” She stuck her hand out at me, though her gaze didn’t shift from the rolling waves. “Holly.”
I took her hand. “Zoey.”
A pair of detectives—one a short brunette and the other a tall redheaded man—came through the crowd and divided us into groups. Riley and I were tagged to go north, and Mom and Darius were sent south. Each group had about ten people lined up to keep from missing any clues.
Progress was slow, but thorough. My calves hurt from walking in the sand. I kicked off my shoes to make it easier to walk and continued with them slung around my neck with the laces tied together. Before long, my feet were numb from the cold, but I had a better grip on the terrain with my toes than I did with shoes. My legs thanked me, even as my feet threatened anarchy.
I set my face in a determined grimace. I knew who’d taken those kids. I wasn’t going home until we found them, even if I had to put my shoes back on and crawl across the beach looking for clues.
We walked, scanning the sand beneath our feet. The salty, almost fishy scent of the bay normally calmed me and helped me think, but I barely registered it as I slogged down the beach. I was in the middle of the line, but the people on the ends were charged with checking the water on our left and the scrubby hills on our right. Parts of the beach were narrow and we had to scrabble over rocks. Other areas were so wide we had to spread out to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Holly the lifeguard stayed on the end, constantly scanning the water in case she spotted the kids were out there instead of on dry land.
We’d been at it for about forty-five minutes when Detective Diane’s radio crackled and she called to us to stop. She was too far away for me to hear what the voice on the radio said, but a cheer rose up from the people around her.
Good news, then.
“They found them!” Her face lit up with excitement, and she waved at everyone to head back the way we’d come. “The kids are all safe!”
Safe. Riley ran toward me, the expression on his face probably matching mine—relief mixed with confusion. Did Shadow Man let them go? Was the disappearance of the children unrelated? Had we completely overreacted?
We jogged back down the beach. My heart pounded more from anticipation of what we’d find out than from the exertion. Okay, it was also the exertion. After all the danger I’d already been through, I should have taken the lull in life-threatening danger to get in shape. Maybe take some classes and get some sweet ninja moves like Sara. I should have at least done a little yoga. I hadn’t done any of that, and now I was paying the price.
When we caught up, the kids were all shivering and wrapped in blankets while their parents hovered behind emergency workers who were checking the kids’ vital signs. Several reporters stood to the side, microphones clutched in their hands and cameras capturing the story.
Mom and Darius weaved through the crowd when they saw us, and Mom grabbed my elbows when she caught up to us. “Did you hear what happened?” Her eyes were wide and excited.
I shook my head. “All we know is the kids are safe. Where did they find them?”
She craned her neck left and right, then dragged me to the side where people wouldn’t hear her. “They were in a hole in the middle of the beach. I was the one who found them. I’d have fallen into the hole myself if Darius hadn’t caught me in time.”
Darius smiled. “The hole was covered with a blanket. I’ve lived in the woods enough times to recognize a trap when I see it.”
Mom released my elbow long enough to give him a dismissive wave. “Smarty pants.” When her hand returned to my skin, I realized it was like ice. “Darius pulled back the blanket and there they were, huddled together in the dark, about eight feet down.”
“Holy shit.” I let that sink in. Eight feet was crazy deep, especially for the beach. “They must have been standing in water.”
Darius nodded. “Shivering, wet and terrified.”
I checked to be sure Mom had pulled us far enough away from the crowd and took a few more steps away to be sure. Mom and the guys followed. I kept my voice low. “Was there any sign of him? What did the kids say?”
Mom sighed and let go of me. “The kids don’t know how they got there. Last thing they remember is listening to their teacher talk about sandpipers. Several said they remembered hearing flute music.”
I swallowed hard. “Flute music. That’s not in any of the Internet stories of Shadow Man. I’m sure it was him, though. I can feel it. Is he going off book?”
Riley put his arm around me. “Either that or the Pied Piper really did come to town.” He kissed my cheek. “I’ll be right back. Gonna see if I can get more info.”
He took off in the direction of the line of ambulances. Before the Board had reassigned Riley to be my bodyguard, he’d supplemented his reaper income as an EMT. Apparently, bodyguard paid better than reaper, so he’d been able to quit the EMT gig to keep a closer eye on me.
Mom watched him go. “I think you’re right. It was Shadow Man—or at least one of his followers. We were meant to see this. He didn’t hurt those kids, not really. It was a warning to us. He wants us to know he’s here.”
My chest felt tight. I had to agree with her. Shadow Man appearing at the end of my driveway, then in the background on the news a few hours later was no coincidence. He was sending us a clear message: the reprieve was over. He was coming for us.
I thought I’d accepted that fact before we left the house. After all, I’d seen Shadow Man with my own eyes and, despite the surreal quality of the experience, I never doubted for a second that he’d been there. I’d called in the troops. And when we’d watched the news, I hadn’t questioned seeing Shadow Man in the background.
I didn’t think for a second there was any other cause for those missing children. But so far, he hadn’t been leaving us a lot of clues to follow to track him down.
When Riley returned, he wrapped both arms around me and held on for a moment before pulling away. “Tony’s working today. He said...” Riley trailed off, a thoughtful expression furrowing his brow. “He said that all six kids smelled like they’d been rolling around in a pile of gingerbread.”
Darius looked startled, which was interesting, since I couldn’t recall his ever looking startled before. “Gingerbread? How truly bizarre.”
I had to agree with his assessment. “What does it mean?”
Riley shrugged. “Beats me. But it’s the only real clue we have.”
“But...” Mom hesitated, her face thoughtful. “In all the research we did on Shadow Man, we never found mention of odd smells—gingerbread or otherwise.”
She was right. Queasy stomachs, occasional nosebleeds, paranoia, chills—nothing about odd aromas. “Maybe it was one of his lackeys. Is there a type of Hidden I don’t know about that smells like baked goods?”
Mom shook her head. “I saw a movie once where angels were supposed to smell like chocolate chip cookies.”
“You think that’s it?” Riley asked. “Angels saved the kids and left them smelling like a pastry shop?”
“Not likely.” Darius folded his arms across his broad chest. “There hasn’t been an angel sighting in over forty years. And they smell like dusty books, not food.”
Mom gave him a questioning look, and he refused to make eye contact. Weird. I’d never thought about Darius having a past before he met Mom. Looked like he not only had one, it was a doozy and he didn’t want to talk about it.
Gradually, the crowd thinned and the parking lot emptied. The ambulances carried off their shivering cargo with parents following in their own vehicles. With the kids gone, the media cleared out, since the police weren’t talking in front of the cameras.
I considered dragging everyone back to the hole where Mom and Darius had found the kids, but the police had it cordoned
off, and if there’d been anything immediately easy to spot, Darius would have already found it anyway.
We’d have to go home and regroup. We still couldn’t rule out an unrelated kidnapping, but Mom and I both felt the truth in our guts, even if we couldn’t prove Shadow Man had done it. But he’d left us several clues. If we could figure out his game, maybe we could stop him from taking anyone else.
By the time we made it home, I was starving. The smell of something rich and savory cooking in my kitchen hit me head-on the minute my foot touched the front porch. My mouth watered, my stomach rumbled and my heart sped with joy. The smells could only mean that Maurice and Sara were home.
I threw the door open, grinning, and grabbed Sara as she was trying to come out. Her arms were more muscular than they used to be, and I was still getting used to maneuvering around her new horns, but demon or not, she was my best friend, and I’d missed her. I hadn’t let go yet before Maurice moved in and hugged us both.
“We saw you on the news,” Sara said once we’d disengaged. “Since nobody was here, we turned on the TV and there you were, standing in the background on the beach.”
Maurice nodded. “You looked cold. I made chicken soup. Anybody hungry?”
Riley and Darius groaned and headed for the kitchen. Mom kissed the closet monster’s cheek, patted Sara on the arm and followed the guys.
I stepped away from my friends for a good look at them. Maurice, especially, appeared different somehow, in a way I couldn’t immediately place. Then it hit me. “You’re tan!”
He grinned so wide I thought his jaw would break off. “I got to be in the sun! Australia has so much open space, I actually walked around during the day. Outside!”
His skin wasn’t exactly a normal color. It had started as a mottled, pale gray, but now it was darker and didn’t look so translucent, all the way to his pointed ears and sparsely haired skull. Even his enormous yellow eyes were different, though the difference was more from an inner glow than any cosmetic difference. I was glad to see he’d stopped wearing the plain, presentable dress shirts and polos Sara had tried to get him to wear a few months ago. He’d returned to draping his tall, lanky figure in a bright Hawaiian shirt and yellow-and-green-striped chef’s pants.
“A month of sunshine looks fantastic on you,” I said, squeezing his arm.
I returned my attention to Sara and gave her a closer look. Gone were the tailored suits and perfectly arranged hair. Sara had embraced her newly acquired demonhood with open arms. She’d let her silver hair grow out and left it hanging loose down her back. The sun hadn’t altered the color of her glittering gold skin, but how she chose to cover that skin had changed. She wore a loose-fitting skirt with colorful, hand-painted aboriginal pictures on it and what appeared to be a red and gold scarf that she’d wrapped around her waist, then crossed to cover her breasts and tied behind her neck. Her stomach was bare, revealing a brand new piercing in her belly button. A tiny golden sun with a ruby in the center sparkled up at me.
She was a brand new person.
Sara laughed at the disbelief on my face. “Oh, come on,” she said. “I was on vacation.”
I sobered. “Seriously. You are breathtaking.” How much of the change in my friend was acceptance of her new form, and how much was due to the love of a good monster? It filled me with joy to think Maurice’s quirky ways had mellowed her out.
She put an arm around my shoulders in a half hug. “Thank you. I’m getting used to it.” She led me toward the kitchen and the sound of clinking bowls.
The soup was delicious and warmed me as much as having my house full again of people I loved.
Maurice took a bite of buttery, cheesy biscuit. “When’s Kam coming home?”
Darius brushed a crumb from his shirt. “She texted a few minutes ago. We should see her before lunch tomorrow.”
I scowled. “I told her not to drive straight through.”
He shrugged. “Nobody tells Kam what to do any more than they tell you what to do.”
He made an excellent point.
Sara yawned and pushed her bowl away. “I’m going to crash soon. Fill us in on what’s going on.”
Maurice scraped his chair as he rose. “That, I think, will require pie.”
I sighed. Yeah. So good to have them home.
Chapter Three
No telling how fast Kam had to have driven to get home as quickly as she did, but she arrived hours before lunch the next day. She jumped out of her pickup truck in a pair of white go-go boots, an orange and pink mini dress, and with a long white scarf tied in her dark hair.
Kam had brought the ‘60s home with her.
The clothing and the exuberant attitude were a far cry from the lonely vagrant I’d pictured—stopping in every town, picking up work where she could, maybe helping someone in need before her secret was discovered and she had to move on, accompanied by sad walking-away music.
I shook my head. No wait. That was The Incredible Hulk.
Kam had been out chasing escaped souls for freelance pay. She’d taken the removal of one of her three magic gems better than I had, apparently. I had to stop thinking of her as having been maimed. She was doing fine, apparently.
“Hello, foxy people!” She made the rounds, hugging each of us, pausing to admire Sara’s new look, then ended with me. She pressed her forehead against mine. “You okay?” She kept her voice low so no one else would hear. “Are you freaking out?”
I smiled and shook my head. “I’m okay. We knew he’d show up eventually. I was ready.”
“So, are we keeping you at home again, out of harm’s way?” She glanced sideways to see who was listening.
Everything Kam did was exaggerated. It was part of her charm. But she also understood me. She knew being stuck at home for my own safety had nearly driven me crazy the last time. If I were in prison, Kam would be the first to smuggle in a hacksaw baked into a cake to break me out. Kam had been kept in a box for most of a century. Nobody understood the twitchy feel of being confined like she did.
“Not this time,” I whispered, then raised my voice so everyone would hear me. “I’m not hiding out. This is the last battle, and I will not wait for it to come to me this time.” Behind me, Darius let out an irritated chuff. I spun around and gave him a nice solid stink-eye. “Not negotiable. I will hunt this bastard down if I have to. And I refuse to let anybody or anything dictate whether I can do my own grocery shopping and take in my own dry cleaning.”
Kam winked at me. “Understood. I’ve got your back.”
I knew she did.
Maurice whipped up a bunch of sandwiches and a huge pot of tomato basil soup, and we all sat around the table, feasting and planning for war.
Mom pushed her spoon around in her bowl. “Do you think he’s on his own this time or should we expect minions?”
“Expect the worst, hope for the best.” Riley reached for a second sandwich. “We’ll double check the invisibility bubble in the backyard. Make sure there aren’t any holes. Maybe talk to the fairies about reinforcing the fairy ring around the property. Double check that it’s all secure.” He took a bite, chewed with a thoughtful look on his face, then swallowed. “We should keep a full-time watch on the property’s perimeter in case we get a bunch of those cultists again.”
Darius grunted in agreement. “Glad we fixed the roof last month. Looks like I’ll be spending time up there again.”
Maurice gave him a half-threatening glare. “Try not to knock any more shingles off this time.”
Darius’s dark face split into a gleaming smile. “I’ll be careful.”
Maurice couldn’t keep the glare for long, and his lips curled in a smile. “See that you are.”
The fondness the mothman and the closet monster shared had grown over time, and the goofy looks they gave each other filled my heart.
In the beginning, Darius had been hard, gruff and not particularly likeable. Now, I couldn’t imagine not having him around.
Plus, he made my mom happy. Since they’d moved into their own place, it was a lot easier to be pleased for them. Not living in the same house with them took away the ick factor. In fact, I’d spent more time with both Mom and Darius since they’d gone to the cabin than I had while living under the same roof with them, trying to avoid awkward moments.
By the time we finished lunch, we had something of a plan—as well as some rules. For safety, a team of at least two people would always be positioned as lookout, keeping an eye on our property either for a tall, thin man in a dark red suit, or suspicious Hidden wandering around my yard causing trouble. Mom and I were no longer allowed to go anywhere alone outside of the fairy ring surrounding the house. Riley, Kam or—during the day—Darius had to be with us.
So, yay. I could still go out and buy bread and tampons, but I had to have a magically charged buddy go with me to do it. Sara had turned out to be pretty kick-ass when the zombie apocalypse played out in my yard, but she couldn’t pass for human anymore. Spending sprees with Sara would be limited to websites or television shopping channels now—a fact that broke my heart, in spite of being proud of how well she’d embraced her new situation.
We still didn’t know what we were up against, exactly, so the third rule was simple, but crucial.
“Nobody approaches this Shadow Man alone.” I swung around and fixed Darius with a hard stare. “Nobody.”
He opened his mouth to object, then snapped it shut. The muscles in his jaw tensed in a hard line. I didn’t alter my expression and, finally, he nodded once. “As you wish, Aegis.” One side of his mouth lifted in a barely perceptible smile. “I’ll call for backup if I spot him.”
I returned his smile. “That’s all I ask. Thank you.”
So, three simple rules.
The plan wasn’t complex, either. We’d researched the hell out of the fictional Shadow Man while we’d been waiting for him to turn up. Now that he was here, we had to be more proactive in our research. We all agreed he’d kidnapped the children practically in our backyard to get our attention. Well, now he had it.
Phoenix in My Fortune (A Monster Haven Story Book 6) Page 3