Shapeshifted es-3

by Cassie Alexander

  “Yeah.” I nodded to prove it.

  “What was that about?”

  “A bad ex-boyfriend,” I lied.

  He grunted, crossing his arms over his gut. “We don’t want any trouble here. If he comes back, you’d best involve the cops.”

  “I will.”

  He squinted at me, then nodded and retreated into his house. His manly work here was done.

  And mine was just beginning.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I tried to go back to sleep after Jorgen’s intrusion, but it was hard. I’d never seen a Hound without the owner close behind, and it wasn’t like Dren to taunt in absentia. I knew from our shared past that he was more the hands-on-personal-touch type. Or hand, singular, since I’d accidentally taken one of his. It was unfair that I’d become the enemy for life of a creature that never had to die.

  I strongly doubted that Anna, the vampire who’d instituted the shun to protect me, would change her mind without warning me first, which made me wonder if she was okay. Was that maybe why Ti had broached the subject the other night? I should have asked more questions when I’d had the chance.

  I didn’t sleep again that night. I watched the clock tick by until the sun rose, and then I got up. Maybe I could be a day person after all—if I pretended the day was another night.

  By the time I brushed my teeth it was seven thirty. I could go out and get breakfast. The best diner in Port Cavell was two stops up the train line. Close enough that I could go there and drink a lot of coffee, and come back to the clinic station by nine for my escort with Hector. I singsonged his name a little bit in my mind, and I snorted at myself. I needed to get over my schoolgirl self. I’d managed to stuff down my libido for the past seven months. I could go a few more. Nothing had changed. Nothing. I put on clothes I wouldn’t mind getting indelible paint on, and walked out to the train.

  * * *

  On the weekend, it was almost nice this early. The train was nearly empty—there wasn’t anyplace exciting to go in the next two stops north, not on a hot weekend in July. Most people were staying home, sealed tight in air-conditioned bubbles, or standing in front of open fridges. I hopped off at the right stop, walked three blocks over, and went into the diner. I spotted someone wearing hospital green in a booth, facing away from me.

  I did what I always did when I saw someone in scrubs—I hurried up a bit, in case I knew them. I walked past their table and glanced back casually—this time, I did. It was Gina, leaning over to put her wallet inside her purse.

  “What’re you doing up this early?” I teased. I hadn’t seen Gina in seven months. My face lit up without thinking about it. She didn’t seem to hear me, so I tapped her table and waved. “Hey! What’re you doing here?”

  She jerked her head up, looking night-shift tired, and she reached out to protect the tip she’d left her waitress like I might steal it. “Getting breakfast.”

  “Gina—”

  “Hey.” Her hand found the Y4 badge on her chest, and she shoved it into her scrub’s breast pocket.

  “How’re you doing?” I pressed on.

  “What’s it to you?” Her bangs swung forward as she jerked her head in a slightly threatening way.

  “Gina—”

  “Just because you can read a badge doesn’t mean we’re friends.”

  “You don’t remember me?”

  She frowned deeply. “No. Should I?”

  I blinked. Oh, no. I’d told the Shadows I didn’t want them to change my memories—maybe instead they’d changed everyone else’s?

  “I’m sorry—I must have had you confused with someone else,” I said. It wasn’t worth Gina wondering who the Shadows had stolen away from her for the rest of her day. I’d been the one to choose remembering. I didn’t think she would have chosen to forget.

  Gina deflated. “Whatever.” I backed off, and she scooted out of her booth and walked toward the door.

  I stood there watching her, all my memories struggling to get free. We’d been friends, good friends. I’d helped her out a lot—we’d trusted each other. And now … she didn’t remember me. At all.

  I wished I’d thought to check if there was a ring on her ring finger now, if her were-bear boyfriend had finally proposed. I hoped she was happy, without me.

  “Miss—would you like a table? The next one down’s already been cleaned.” A waiter stopped in front of me and gestured to the next booth over.

  “Sure.” I stood by the booth meant for me. If I sat there alone after seeing Gina, that’d be no good for me. I reached out to tap the waiter’s shoulder as he walked away. “Actually—I’ll just get some coffee to go.”

  * * *

  I made it to the Divisadero station early. The fact that it was a weekend hadn’t stopped the marketplace at all; in fact, there were more people here, buying and selling goods.

  Waiting seemed dumb, and two blocks wasn’t that far. I angled around people, feeling much more at home among them in normal clothing instead of scrubs, and heard a familiar voice at the end of the aisle.

  “Who among you has not felt the evil eye? How long can you take the risk that someone has cast bad luck upon you?”

  I walked over to Olympio, and he waved low with his hand in acknowledgment that he saw me. So this was what he did to drum up business on weekends when the clinic was closed. He pointed at me. “You, woman—you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

  Because I had? The ghost of my former life. I made a face at him. “I couldn’t sleep last night.”

  “The curandero can give you a candle to burn to make you sleep like a contented child. He can chase the ghosts away from you.”

  “Can he prescribe me Ambien?” I asked.

  Olympio groaned and walked away. Something smelled like garlic over here—there was a grill running. I inhaled deeply and looked around. The rest of the people were ignoring Olympio. Either none of them needed ghost relief, or all of them had heard Olympio go on like this before. He sighed and dropped his act and came over to talk to me. “Man, I hope all these people meet the Donkey Lady. I wouldn’t feel bad if she ate all these disbelievers,” he said, louder at the end. The other people still ignored him. He rolled his eyes at them.

  I was close enough to him to smell garlic. “Olympio—what did you eat for breakfast?”

  “Nothing. I just slept with a head of garlic last night. And ate five raw pieces this morning.”

  It was his breath. Definitely his breath. I leaned away from him. “Did it occur to you that that’s why people are ignoring you?”

  He frowned. “You’re the one who told me there were vampires down here.”

  I held up my forefinger. “I never said anything about down here. I just meant in town.”

  “Same difference.”

  I hated that phrase—and I hated the fact that Olympio remembered our conversation about vampires. I’d been hoping that the Shadows would erase his memory of our conversation, but apparently they were too busy wiping minds of people whom I wanted to remember me. “And anyway, garlic doesn’t work on vampires.”

  “But silver and crosses do?” He raised his eyebrows, ready to throw anything he could back at me.

  “I’ve created a monster,” I said flatly.

  “You said you’d tell me more today.”

  “Here?” I looked around at the people surrounding us.

  He followed my gaze and grunted. “Later. But today, okay?”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  Olympio jerked his chin up. “Hey—don’t you want to ask if I know anything about your clinic? Your doctor was here earlier, asking.”

  “He’s not my doctor,” I shushed him, feeling my cheeks turning red.

  “When will you all be done? By Monday?” Olympio obliviously went on, luckily for me.

  “I don’t know. Maybe?”

  “I like it better when all the sick people come to the same place. It sucks bad enough on weekends here—I don’t want to have to do the market on weekdays too. The
owner of the pharmacy won’t let me stand in front of it. Says ‘no solicitors,’” Olympio said, obviously making fun of the other man’s Indian accent.

  “Yeah, well. We’re repainting today. If Dr. Tovar hasn’t done it all by the time I get there.” I could see him doing just that—coming in at five A.M. and doing everything before any volunteers arrived.

  Olympio nodded. “Let me know if you need an extra hand. Para el pago, of course.” I stared at him blankly. “For pay,” he said, for my sake.

  “Hell, I don’t think I’m getting paid for this. I must have been high on paint fumes when I agreed to come in extra.”

  Olympio laughed and pointed. I turned around, and Hector was walking up from behind me. “Ahhh, there you are, Nurse Spence. Eager to start off the day?”

  “Something like that,” I said, and walked in with him.

  * * *

  He was wearing a dark green button-down workshirt and jeans. It felt strange to be walking beside him without his tweed coat on. A few other people at the market offered him condolences about the clinic; others shot dark looks at me. I found myself looking for excuses to talk to him, ones that weren’t related to vampires.

  “So what was that tithe thing yesterday about?”

  Hector sighed. “You don’t give up, do you?”

  “I’ve been told it’s part of my charm.”

  “By who?” he asked, with a rueful smile.

  “People,” I deflected. “Possibly crazy people. But—about the tithe—”

  “Okay, okay.” He waved his hands to stop me. “You’ve worn me down. The Three Crosses are building a new church in a warehouse two miles down.”

  “I take it Maldonado isn’t a Catholic?”

  Hector shook his head. “No. He believes in Santa Muerte. Which I normally find hard to condemn—if people find comfort in her, I won’t take that away from them. Lord knows we get little enough comfort down here. If faith helps, and they feel the real church isn’t helping, I don’t care where they find it from. It’s better than drugs or booze. But I do mind the extortion.”

  “What, it’s not really a tithe?” I said, feigning disbelief.

  Hector snorted. “When your priest is also a gang leader, it’s usually a bad sign. Maldonado is not what he seems.” Hector slowed and I slowed with him.

  “How well do you know him?” I asked.

  “What makes you think I know him?” Hector stopped entirely and looked at me.

  “The love notes on the clinic walls. Unless he does that to everybody…” I let my implications fade. There was the deal with the cross tattoos and the vampire tattoos, of course, but it went beyond that. That, plus Hector’s face right now—it all came into focus for me. “He seems like the kind of person who does what he wants, takes what he wants. If he wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.” I paused to think. “So instead he must want something from you. Which implies that you have a relationship.”

  The look on Hector’s face said I’d hit a raw nerve. I decided to go for broke, minus vampires. “Hector, what happens on the seventeenth?”

  His expression, already clouded, became more so, and he hung his head. “I’m sorry, Edie. I don’t want to talk about it.” He started walking again, and was quiet on our way in.

  At least for once he didn’t try to tell me I was crazy. And I noticed he didn’t deny a thing.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The volunteers who’d arrived before me had already gotten started on the next wall. It was taking several coats of paint to cover up the vibrant artwork, and while I knew we needed to cover them up on principle alone, not to mention for gang-affiliation reasons, it did seem a shame to ruin them all.

  Then I remembered the sliced-up table in the first patient receiving room, which sobered me. It was a clear warning that anyone who worked here, or wanted to come here as a patient, could be sliced up like that too.

  Hector had brought us face masks to wear, and a fan, which we’d set up in the corner for all the good it’d do. We left the front door open, and as we worked, applying coat after coat, other people trickled in to help.

  Even with the work to do, I was getting sleepy. I hoped Jorgen visiting wouldn’t become a nightly affair. It was weird on a lot of levels. Where was Dren? I held the brush the wrong way, pressed too hard against the wall, and it slipped out of my hand. Like a fool, I tried to catch it as it fell, and wound up making a bigger mess.

  Catrina danced away from the paint spatter and tsked at me. “I don’t know why he stands up for you. You’re a drain on all our time.”

  I had had to ask one of the medical assistants—usually Eduardo, because he was nicer to me—to come in and translate a lot for me this past week. I retrieved my brush and turned toward her to apologize, but she went on.

  “You couldn’t even stay in last night and rest up for this—even though you slept in two hours longer than anyone else. No, you had to go out and party, and now you’re useless here. Can’t even put paint on a wall.”

  She turned back to her spot before I could contradict her. Her hand flowed up the wall expertly, and I could see the strange tattoo on the ring-finger knuckle of her right hand as she brought the brush back down.

  “He … stands up for me?” I said aloud, more to myself than her.

  “Rationalizes you, more like.” She whirled on me, her voice low. Her short dark hair held a snowfall of white paint. “Don’t you be getting any ideas—” she warned, punctuating herself with the brush.

  I exhaled loudly. “I’m trying hard to fit in. Honest.”

  She puckered her face in disappointment. “Try harder,” she said, then turned back toward her piece of wall.

  * * *

  At noon, I was going over the last cross for the first time when Hector came in with food and beer. People congregated in groups, like they knew one another, because they all did. Feeling awkward, I took my burrito and slunk outside.

  Olympio sat on the steps, eating chips and holding a to-go cup from the place that we’d gotten lunch. “Hector hook you up?” I asked him.

  “Yeah. You all done?” he asked, looking back.

  “Almost.” I sat down beside him. “You could have come inside to help too, you know.”

  “I can’t go inside. It’d diminish my don.”

  “What is that, even?”

  “It’s my gift, as a curandero.” He gestured grandly out at the street in front of us.

  “Well, then, of course.” I looked back at the wall outside. The paint didn’t cover as well out here as it had inside. It’d need another two coats for sure. “We’ll probably be back to normal on Monday. Whatever normal is.”

  Olympio cocked his head at me. “I wasn’t kidding about the ghost. You sound down, mija.”

  “What’s it to you, mijo?” I asked back.

  His eyebrows rose.

  “That’s right. I know three words of Spanish. The other two are curse words, though.”

  Olympio grinned, showing me a mouth full of chips. “I could teach you more.”

  “Curse words?” I laughed out loud, and he did too. It felt good.

  “More Spanish. Not curse words,” he amended.

  “Sure,” I said and nodded. “It’d be useful.”

  “There’d be a small fee, of course.”

  “Of course.” I took a big bite of my burrito and chewed it.

  “Can you tell me about the vampires now?”

  I sighed with regret. I should have watched myself better. “They’re sort of like the ones you see on TV. Or read about in books. You’ll probably never meet one. The end.”

  Olympio screwed up his face. “You have to tell me more than that. How many are there? Where did you meet them? Did they bite you?”

  I twisted my lips sideways. “There’s a bunch of them. More than you’d care to think about. I met them where I used to work, at my old hospital.”

  “They were there for the blood?” Olympio guessed.

  “Something like that.�
� I folded the wrapper back over the end of my burrito, my appetite gone. “I got fired, and now I don’t know where they are anymore.”

  “But you’re looking for them now. Why?”

  “I didn’t promise to tell you that,” I said, setting the burrito down. I wished I’d brought out my Coke. “Your turn. Are the Reina de la Noche really run by a queen?”

  His eyes widened, and he got a silly grin. “Oh, yeah. But here’s the thing—no one’s ever seen her.”

  “Really?”

  “Seen her and lived. Even her own people don’t know what she looks like. She’s like a ghost.” He squinted at me. “Or a vampire? The teeth and the blood of the Reinas—is that what you think?”

  I shrugged mysteriously, trying to act like I knew more than I did, while still desperate to hear him go on. “You tell me.”

  “Whoa. Whoa.” He set his cup down. “Then all the stories would be real. They say she killed all of the Port Boyz gang in one night—that’s how the Reinas got their territory.”

  That did sound like a vampire, if, and only if, it were real. I could see the stories he’d heard through his mind.

  “They said she ripped their heads off. I didn’t believe it—how could a girl rip off anyone’s head? But—”

  I waved my hands for him to slow down. “People make up stuff all the time. And it’s always been cool to have other people scared of you. Right?”

  He closed his mouth, trapping all his previously outlandish stories inside, and nodded. “Yeah. Right.”

  We were quiet then, eating. The sun was beating down, and everything was still. People were walking in and out of a small store a few corners down, and behind us was a low hum of conversations I couldn’t understand, but right now it seemed like it was just the two of us sitting outside, Olympio, me, and a few brave ants.

  And whatever was moaning across the street from us in the storm drain.

  “You cannot tell me that you don’t hear that,” I told Olympio.

  “What?”