by Lisa Emme
I glared at him, crossing my arms. “Nash is more than my boyfriend. He’s my mate.”
“I believe it’s the other way around, is it not? You’re his mate?”
“What’s the difference?”
“You’re a vampire, Harry. Vampires don’t mate for life.”
“I’m only half a vampire, so maybe I’m different.”
Jonah shrugged, with a look that said he clearly thought I was fooling myself.
“I’m going home,” I said. “Are you going to give me a ride, or should I call a cab?”
“I’ll get the car.”
***
We rode back to the firehall in silence. When the car came to a stop, I threw open the door and hopped out. “Goodnight. Thanks for the ride,” I said curtly.
“Goodnight, Harry. Thank you for accompanying me this evening. It was a pleasure.”
Trying to stay angry, but thwarted by his polite demeanor, I almost cracked a smile. “You’re welcome.”
I turned to close the door, but Jonah’s voice rang out. “And Harry, I apologize for my forwardness. I never meant to insinuate that what you have with Nash is less than it is.”
“Okay…thanks.” I closed the door and hurried up the stairs. There was half a box of BMGs with my name on it and I needed the sugar fix.
Chapter Fourteen
“I don’t know how you can have so much sugar for breakfast,” Barbie said, shaking her head. “Doesn’t it make you feel sick?”
I looked down at my half-eaten piece of pecan pie and mug of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. “Not particularly. It’s good.” What can I say? I burn carbs quickly and lately, without a little energy top-up from Nash, I found I was craving carbs all the time. “So, give me the gory details,” I replied, pointing at the paper she had spread across the counter.
Barbie scanned Page Six, her eyes widening. “I don’t believe it.”
“What?”
“There isn’t a single picture of you.”
“Really?”
“Not a one.”
“Huh. I wonder how that happened?" I chewed on my lip, remembering Jonah’s mysterious assertion.
“I thought you’d be happy,” Barbie replied, her eyes alight. “Or maybe you secretly crave the limelight?”
“Oh no! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy about it. But I’m curious how it happened because the press were all over me last night.”
“You know what they say about a gift horse.’” Barbie folded up the paper, leaving it on the counter in case a customer wanted to read it.
“Somebody gave you a horse?" Tiffy looked around excitedly. She set down the tray of clean mugs she was carrying in from the kitchen.
“No, no horse. Sorry, Tiffy. It’s just an expression.”
Tiffy frowned and started putting the mugs away on the shelf. “You humans have strange expressions. It’s very confusing. The other day a man told me he needed his coffee fixed, but I couldn’t see anything that was broken.”
Holding back a laugh as best I could, I shook my head. “He didn’t say fixed, he said he needed his coffee fix. It meant he really wanted a coffee.”
“Then why did he not just say that? It would be much easier if everyone said what they meant.”
“You’re absolutely right, Tiffy,” Barbie agreed, patting her on the shoulder.
The bell on the door rang and Tess strode in, followed by Max. Both wore serious expressions. Tess slid in the booth across from me and Max joined her.
“We have to talk,” she said, eyes fixed on my pie.
I wrapped a hand protectively around my plate, sliding it closer. “What’s up? You both look so serious. This isn’t some sort of intervention, is it?" I pulled my hot chocolate mug a little closer too.
“Focus, Harry. I have something important to tell you.” Tess sat back, pausing for dramatic effect. “I’ve come up with a genius plan for Nash’s wolf.”
I looked at her skeptically and then glanced at Max. He shrugged, remaining silent.
“Okay, fire away. Let’s hear it.”
“So, we know the problem is that the wolf sees you as a low ranked member of the pack requiring protection.”
“Yeah, and thinks he can boss me around all the time.”
“Right. So, what we need to do is convince the wolf you’re his match and to do that, you’ll have to best him in a fight.”
“Yeah, but–”
“Just hear me out,” Tess continued, ignoring my protest. “You have to get him to submit to you and to do that, you have to be able to overpower him. And I have a plan how to do it.
“First, we have to trap the wolf, so we’ll build a deep pit and lure him there with your scent. Once the wolf is trapped, you join him in the pit and force him to submit by–”
“You do realize so far your plan sounds like the scene right out of Ladyhawke, the movie?”
Tess blinked, looking shocked. After a minute, her expression turned thoughtful. “Oh yeah, I thought it seemed familiar,” she said, shrugging. “It doesn’t matter, it’s still a good plan.”
“Except in the movie Matthew Broderick’s character gets mauled by the wolf,” I replied, my voice rising in volume. I glanced around the shop, but the regulars were used to our antics. I lowered my voice anyway. “I don’t particularly want to get mauled.” I looked at Max. “And what’s your part in this?”
Max cleared his throat. “I’m just here for the coffee,” he replied with a grin. Tess swatted his arm. “Oh, and I can teach you how to use your TK as a shield and a weapon against the wolf.”
“I can?”
Max nodded. “You’re already instinctively doing it, you just don’t realize it. Like when you pushed the gun away the other night.”
I looked at him skeptically and then turned to Tess. “Okay, so let’s say I can use my telekinesis on the wolf, we still have to get him in the trap. It would have to be an awfully deep pit to keep a werewolf from jumping out. How are we supposed to build that?”
“I know someone who could help,” Tiffy answered quietly, her face blushing. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear.”
“That’s okay, Tiffy,” Tess replied. “We’ll take all the help we can get.”
“It’s my cousin, Peatie. He’s a ballybog. They love to dig. I bet he’d do it for a case of peanut butter and fill the hole back up like it never happened when you’re done.”
“Perfect!” Tess clapped her hands. “So, we’re all set then. We just need to wait until the next full moon–”
“The full moon, but that’s over a week away.” I heaved out a breath in frustration.
“We have to wait until the full moon, that way Nash is less likely to change back to his human form. The wolf will be too strong.”
“You’ll need to practice using your TK as well, and that will take some time,” added Max.
“Fine. I just hope this works.”
“It worked in the movie, didn’t it?" Tess’s hand flashed out, grabbing the plate with my pie. She helped herself to a big forkful, grinning as she stuffed it in her mouth.
I shook my head at her. I didn’t care about the pie. I’d lost my appetite.
***
“Harry! What are you doing? Didn’t you hear your phone?” Tess came striding into the back room of the flower shop all in a tizzy. It was a day later and I was up early working in the flower shop.
I patted my pockets and then shrugged. “I must have left it upstairs.”
“Well, come on. We have to go.”
“Go where?”
“Bryce has spotted the raven. He’s scoping out an apartment downtown.”
“There must be dozens of ravens around. How could he possibly know it’s the same one?”
“I don’t know, but c’mon. Let’s go check it out. You can drive.”
With a sigh, I dusted off my hands, brushing the little bits of moss into the trash can. I had been potting up some succulents into specially designed picture frames t
o make living hanging art. They looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I had totally ripped off the idea from this garden channel I follow on YouTube.
“Okay, I’ll come. But I have to go upstairs and grab my phone and the keys first.”
“Alright, alright. Can we just get going?”
***
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I squinted in the bright sun at the surrounding neighbourhood and the high-rise apartment the next block up. We were downtown, so parking wasn’t easy, and I had grabbed the first spot I could find, figuring we could hoof it the rest of the way. “This doesn’t look as posh a neighbourhood as all the others.”
“That’s the address Bryce sent. Maybe the area is, you know, gendering or whatever.” Tess popped her seatbelt and jumped out.
I climbed out, careful of the traffic whizzing by on my side of the truck. “I think the word you’re looking for is gentrifying.”
“Like I said,” Tess replied, rooting around in the backseat, pulling something out of her ‘go-bag’ as she called it. She lifted a small pair of binoculars up and focussed on the building ahead of us.
“Tess,” I said, coming to stand beside her. “I think we might be too late.”
“What? Why?”
“Look!” I pointed to the street in front of the apartment. It was awash with flashing lights.
“Crap! What are the cops doing here?" Tess scowled, jamming the binoculars back in her bag and slamming the door. She started off down the sidewalk at a jog.
“Wait for me,” I yelled after her, pausing to lock the truck.
I caught up to her at the corner, but only because she had to wait for the light to change. A crowd had begun to gather on the sidewalk in front of the building, held back by some uniform officers and a barrier of yellow crime scene tape. All the action appeared to be happening out in the middle of the street, directly in front of the building.
“Maybe it’s a car accident,” I said, shading my eyes. I should have grabbed my sunglasses. Lately, bright lights had been bothering me.
We drew closer, joining the edge of the crowd. Tess started chatting people up, trying to find out what was going on.
I found a shaded spot close to the building and waited. I didn’t need to ask. I already knew someone was dead.
“Harry!”
“Over here,” I said, waving at Tess.
“Everyone’s saying there was a jumper.” Tess trotted up beside me.
“I most certainly did not jump,” the ghost standing next to Tess replied indignantly.
I raised an eyebrow at the assertion, but otherwise tried not to acknowledge the spectre.
“Maybe we can slip inside the building while the police are busy outside.”
“Slip in where? We don’t even know if this is the right place.” I glanced around at the growing crowd. “Oh, crap! What’s he doing here?”
“Harry, I ask you to not give my identity away at this time.” Jonah’s British accent came through stronger when he was speaking in my head. I startled in surprise at the intrusion.
“Who’s here?" Tess craned her neck, looking around.
“No one. I thought I saw the reporter who’s always hounding me.” I didn’t like fibbing to Tess, but Jonah must have had a reason for wanting to remain anonymous. I wondered how he appeared to the rest of the crowd. He just looked like Jonah to me. Dressed in black jeans, V-neck shirt, and a light-weight, dark blue windbreaker, he was casually sexy in his dark sunglasses.
“So, you think I’m sexy?” Laughter rang through with Jonah’s words.
“Get out of my head,” I replied, pushing the words out and hopefully into his.
He visibly winced. “No need to yell, luv.”
“Are you listening to me?" Tess grabbed my arm, giving it a shake.
“Sorry, what?”
“I said, let’s cross the street and see if we can spot the raven anywhere.”
“Raven? What do you want with my raven? You leave him alone.” The ghost floated menacingly in front of me.
Cripes! Between Brit vampires talking in my head and ghosts only I could hear, it was a wonder I didn’t go crazy.
Sensing something, Tess looked at me in concern. “Are you okay? You’re acting weird, even for you.”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I replied, searching for Jonah, but he had disappeared into the crowd again. “I don’t think we need to worry about the raven. We’re at the right place.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s the cat burglar lying dead on the pavement over there.”
“I prefer ‘high-rise heist artist’,” the ghost replied, making a face. “I can’t abide cats.”
“His ghost is here? Now?" Tess smiled. “This is perfect! Ask him what apartment he lives in. What did he do with all the loot?”
“That’s very sexist of your friend to assume I’m a man.”
“SHE thinks you’re sexist,” I said to Tess.
“Oh, sorry.” Tess glanced around sheepishly. “No offense meant.”
Just then, another police car, this time unmarked, pulled up on the street in front of us.
“Double crap!” I said, pulling Tess back further into the shadows. “Now Nash is here.”
Nash got out of the car and paused, surveying the crowd. I ducked behind a pillar out of sight.
After a few moments, Tess smirked. “You can come out now. He’s gone.”
“Don’t give me that look. You don’t want to have to deal with him either. He’s more apt to boss you around and kick you off the crime scene than he is me. I don’t have to listen to him.”
“You’re right. So, let’s hurry. We can scope out the thief’s apartment while the cops try and figure out which balcony the smudge on the pavement belonged to.”
“I resent being called a smudge. I would never have committed suicide. Why would I do that when I was one score away from retiring to Alaska?”
“Alaska?" I looked at the ghost in surprise. “Why Alaska? Oh, never mind.” I shook my head. “Listen, you realize you’re dead, right? And that’s your body over there in the middle of the road? So maybe you didn’t jump, maybe you were climbing up the building and fell.”
“Bite your tongue. I am an accomplished climber. I would never fall.”
I huffed out a breath in exasperation. I don’t think I’d ever met such a prickly person, dead or alive. “Okay, fine. Whatever. But you are dead. You’re basically a smudge on the pavement. If you didn’t jump and you didn’t fall, how did you get there?”
“Why someone must have thrown me over the balcony, of course.”
“Great, so you remember. Who was it?”
“I…I…” The ghost blinked her filmy eyes. “I don’t remember.”
“Okay, so let’s start with something easier. What’s your name and address?”
Scoffing at the easy question, she folded her arms. “Cyndy, that’s with two ‘Y’s’. Bar– …hey, wait a minute. Why do you want to know? And what do you plan to do to Lucifer?”
“Lucifer?" I glanced around uneasily. Having recently had a bad run-in with one of his minions, I was understandably a little jumpy about the name.
“What’s going on?" Tess whispered impatiently.
I shushed her and turned back to Cyndy. “Listen, we don’t want to do anything to your bird. My friend is a private detective hired by the insurance company to try and find all the stuff you stole.”
“I prefer to think of it as redistributed.”
“Redistributed, then.”
“I give a percentage of what I take to charity.”
“Great, so you’re a high-rise Robin Hood. Anyway, we were only interested in the crow–”
“He’s a raven.”
“Right, sorry. We were only interested in the raven because we noticed a connection between him and you. We spotted you together on some surveillance video.”
“And you naturally assumed we were working together? Who makes that kind of
leap of logic?”
“Uh, you’re dead and I’m talking to you. Weird is kind of my wheelhouse, don’t you think?”
Cyndy shrugged, conceding the point.
“Can we hurry it up here?" Tess crossed her arms impatiently. “Nash is going to figure it out soon and then we’ll have missed our chance to get in the apartment.”
“Why do you want to go in my apartment?”
“I told you, we want to find all the stuff you stole for the insurance company. You don’t need it anymore, so why don’t you tell me where it is?”
Cyndy’s brow furrowed in thought. We’d have to hurry before she fizzled out. I could already feel the drain she was making on my powers as I drip fed her enough juice to remain visible.
“I’ll make you a deal,” she finally said. “Promise you’ll look after Lucifer and I’ll tell you where to find all the jewelry I stole. I can’t give you the cash, because it’s already long gone.”
“Look after him? Look after him how? Isn’t he a wild bird?”
“He is, but he’s been too acclimated to human contact. I’m afraid I’ve spoiled him. He needs someone to watch out for him. Make sure he gets enough to eat and has someplace warm in winter.”
“Okay. I can do that. I live in a building with a rooftop garden, I could set him up a nice little roost or whatever up there. He’d be free to come and go.”
“Perfect.” Cyndy smiled and held out her hand. After a moment, when I didn’t move to shake it, her eyes widened. “Oh, yeah. I guess that won’t work, will it?" She pulled her hand back and held it up to her face, wiggling her fingers. She was quickly becoming less opaque.
“Listen. I don’t know how much longer you’ll be able to hold form. Tell me where to find the jewelry.”
“My apartment is fifteen-ten.”
“Fifteen-ten. Okay, let’s go.”
The police had yet to cordon off the entrance to the building, instead focussing on the location of the body. We nodded to the officer standing at the entrance, and he made no move to stop us from entering.
The elevator doors were sliding shut when a voice called out, “Hold the door, please!” Recognizing the voice, I scrambled to find the “Close Door” button, pushing it multiple times.