I stepped back, ready to leave him to his slumbers. Vel stretched, waking from the soft sound of the door. He smiled drowsily at me.
“Good morning, Cabby. Very well, thank you for checking. It’s sweet of you.”
“I wasn’t checking on you.” Speaking under my breath, hoping no one downstairs heard me talking. “But … glad you’re okay. And quit calling me that. My name is Ripley.”
“You asked me to call you that.” His eyes widened in surprise.
“I did no such thing.”
“If you’ve changed your mind you need only tell me. No reason to lose your temper because you have a failing memory.”
“A what? I just told you what I want to be called.”
“There you go again.” He sighed. “Poor, confused señorita. You need a break. It’s the heat.”
“My name is Ripley,” I snarled, fighting not to raise my voice.
“Yes?”
“That’s what I want you to call me.”
His eyes widened. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
“I did!”
“When?”
“Maybe I didn’t spell out in exactly those words, but you knew what I meant.”
“Now you’re saying what I knew? When you cannot even communicate your own thoughts?”
“Just … shut up.” Fuming, I took a drink, laptop tucked under my arm. “How much do you know about hauntings?”
He was still smiling sweetly. “What’s it worth to you?”
“It’s worth your life—that I’ve saved twice. How’s that for starters?”
“Retroactive payment? I don’t recall reading anything about that in el contrato, señorita. Come in, won’t you? Why linger on thresholds? Unless you’re afraid of a little fox?”
“You already said you’d help. And no, I’m not afraid of you.”
“Then what keeps us apart? Your love of Moon?”
“My what?”
His smile broadened. “You don’t know shifters very well. Were you a virgin when they surrounded you in the dark?”
“Of course not.” Don’t start answering his questions. I bit my tongue.
“Then that wolf brute had already had his way with you? I thought I would have tasted him on you.” The smile slipped to an expression of gravity. “El canalla. If only we’d met sooner. I might have saved you as you were gracious enough to save me.”
“Uh… Whatever. Gideon isn’t a cad, or jerk or whatever it is—my high-school Spanish isn’t exactly perfecto. So any scheme you’re cooking up about wolves and how dreadful they are, I’m not buying. You obviously have a grudge. Actually…” I stepped into the room, shutting the door so I didn’t have to keep my voice so hushed. “Not a grudge. You were the one who started it by coming up and biting him. What do you get out of sending victims into the vampire pit?”
“Moi?” He touched his own chest as he had the night before, shocked at my accusation. “I started nothing. I was exploring my beat, enjoying the evening, when a couple of uncommonly muscled thugs began lobbing the hardest peaches at me. Do you know how much it hurts to be hit with an unripe peach traveling at a hundred miles an hour when you’re ten inches tall?”
“They were not going that fast.”
“Pitchers can throw that fast. No reason rock-brained behemoths can’t.”
“If you’d been hit by a hard peach traveling at a hundred miles an hour in that form, you probably wouldn’t even have survived.”
“Just one of many near-misses I’ve had recently, isn’t it? Including this morning, when my poor, precious, tiny body became the peach.”
“You weren’t going that fast either. And I told you I was sorry. You’re fine.”
“You are dreadfully judgmental. It wounds my soul to see the way you’ve turned against me to stay on their side.”
“Judgmental for what?”
“Are you a doctor? Did you do an X-ray? Did you even ask how I was feeling? Who are you to say I’m fine? It’s a judgement, plain as the crimson in your shiny locks.”
I just looked at him. He gazed back with sad, dark, reproachful eyes, filled with hurt and wounded pride. He could get more into that look than a cartoon character. I longed to punch him on his pointed nose.
“I feel like you should go,” I said calmly. “In fact, I don’t feel like you should talk to me anymore. Ever.”
“Have they done such a thorough job on you?”
“They haven’t even mentioned foxes! We have better things to talk about.” I lowered my voice. “Listen. You agreed to help and that’s great. More the merrier. There was no agreement about us hanging out when we’re not on a job. So go. We’ll be at the same house at sunset. You can hitch a ride if you want. Or meet us there.”
“You trust me to show up?”
I snorted. “I don’t care if you show up. If you do, you honor your promise and we get extra help—great. If you don’t, we don’t ever have to see each other again—even better.”
“Well, they say you are your own harshest critic.” All melancholy. “But it would appear I’ve found out who mine is.”
“Really? I suspect there are other women out there right now who are just as glad you’re not in their bed as I would be to see you go.”
“You don’t mean that.” Silky smile returning. “You just shut yourself in a bedroom with me. But if you prefer to play games rather than admit how you feel I will follow your lead as—”
“You’re reminding me why I blasted you across the room.”
“You’re reminding me why I adore humans. It had been too long.”
“I’m glad of that for the sake of your victims at least.”
“Such a one-sided word. Lie down your burden, señorita, rest from your cares.” Nodding to the computer and beer can, he tossed back the sheet, inviting me into bed. He was extraordinarily not dressed. Boo.
“Sure. Only, I hadn’t wanted to bother you. That was the only reason I didn’t bring my wolf boyfriend up here to join me. Since you’re feeling up to it, it’s been crossing my mind lately that I’ve never tried a threesome. Hold that thought while I fetch Gideon.”
His smile froze.
I walked out and shut the door.
Nice one, Ripley. Smirking, I gave my phantom self a high-five and retired to my parents’ room.
40
I pulled up the long drive as the sun began to vanish below the horizon. The last shadows would soon fade to purple haze around the barn, fireflies would come out, and twilight would be upon us. First, I had to get the feral cats fed. And get this fox off my lap.
Gideon and Adam had followed on their motorcycles. Wade had joined me, riding in the passenger seat like a normal person. Hissing at the wolves, who contemptuously ignored him, Vel had leapt into the Volvo the moment he’d had a chance.
He’d started his journey on the dashboard. We’d had all the windows down in the sweltering car, so hot you couldn’t let your fingers touch metal of the seatbelt buckle, but, when I’d ordered him away from the windshield, he’d found the air most agreeable out my window.
Wade didn’t seem to mind him, which struck me as odd until I considered that Wade didn’t know any of what had gone on between Vel and I. Nor had Wade been the victim of his charms while he was in his human form—which they called being “in skin” as opposed to “in fur.”
So Vel rode sitting up with his forepaws on me and his muzzle out the window, his orange ears back in the wind, his black nose twitching.
I was set to ignore him once I dumped him outside. I’d no sooner opened the trunk than Vel dashed into the barn through the warped main doors, sanctuary to many feral cats, and I yelled at him.
He ignored me, black tip of his tail vanishing inside. Wade was trying to help so I asked him to please clean up around back, then I hurried after the fox.
No sign of vampires yet. Gideon and Adam were making a B-line for peach trees, as if they hadn’t fixed themselves an enormous steak supper an hour ago.
&nb
sp; The barn was gloomy, webbed, dusty, and hot. Moldy straw and rusted tools cluttered the place with petrified cattle droppings, empty rodent and bird nests, cat fur, and a tractor that should have been in a museum.
I had to squint in the gloom, sensibly dressed with contacts, jeans, and a plain T-shirt. A few sleek forms darted from the straw or off the work bench and away, streaking out the back at sound of me dragging open the edge of the door and bursting in.
I was getting worked up about Vel going after them, wanting to blast him again, when I realized he wasn’t there to harass timid cats. The fuzzy shape of him caught my eye in dusty dark as he climbed up the side of the hayloft ladder. He didn’t go up on the rungs like a dog can be taught to do. He was much too small for it. Instead, he ran up the side post as if climbing a telephone pole, even faster than a cat.
Was he after birds up there? Before changing his shape, he’d helped himself in the kitchen while we’d all been at the table for supper. He shouldn’t be hungry. Was he backing out on us? Meaning to hide and not come any farther on this mission? Then why not just take off across the field?
I followed to the ladder while a few more cats scattered. Listening to the rustle above, I hesitated, then started to climb, keeping quiet.
Halfway up, I heard the bone-twisting sound of the change. I paused, but kept going, emerging to see Vel on his hands and knees in the ancient hay, panting with the effort or pain of the transformation.
I’d never been up here before, finding it surprisingly free of webs and debris. Dried hay scattered around a broken old laundry basket full of folded clothes, a dusty sleeping bag, and multiple cardboard boxes with objects from shoes and a flashlight handle to books and a raincoat poking out the top.
Head and shoulders above the floor of the loft, still standing on the frail ladder, I looked around. Vel heaved a breath and sat back on the sleeping bag, reaching into the laundry basket.
I blinked against dust. “Do you live here?”
He jumped, tossing the shirt he’d just grabbed into the air and pivoting to face me as if expecting an attack.
“Earth Mother, what are you doing?” he panted.
“Uh… What are you doing? Sorry. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you. I always move carefully around the cats.”
He grabbed the graphic T again, shaking it out. He muttered what I thought for a second was cursing in Spanish. It wasn’t Spanish—or English.
Concerned about the ladder, I climbed the rest of the way to sit on the edge of the loft while Vel pulled on shirt and underwear and tugged dark jeans from his basket.
“Are you going to help us?” I asked, watching him after I’d settled.
“What do you think? Getting dressed with thumbs so I can steal your car?”
I shrugged. “More likely than you actually being reliable.”
“You don’t know anything about me.” He lay on his back on the sleeping bag to pull on the pants.
“Oh, you’ve showed me quite a bit. But, if you really are going to help, I’m impressed. That’s you getting me back on the surprise factor.”
“I’m coming to stake that vampire.” He sat up. A rummage in a cardboard box produced a few slender wooden stakes.
Adam and Gideon had whittled a handful of replacements to their lost stash that morning from tree branches—no matter that we’d agreed not to destroy vampires we hunted tonight.
“That’s not the kind of help we need,” I said. “He might be all that gets us through these houses.”
“You’ll find a way.”
“Are you mad about him throwing you to the wolves last night?”
No answer.
“You really thought he was your friend? Helping him get victims into the pit? Free run of the place? Vampires aren’t anyone’s friend. Not his fault. If you stake him, you’ll be our enemy again.”
“‘Again’?” he sneered. “Like I’m not now?”
“You don’t have to be. Up to you.”
“Tell that to the thugs.” He dropped a pair of sandals back in the box and reached for trail shoes and socks.
“Don’t destroy Fulco,” I said. “Not while we need him. Once we’ve cleaned up Midway City, do whatever you want.”
He snorted. “You do realize at this rate that’s not happening? And you’re the weak link? You’re the enemy on the inside more than a fox or a vampire. They might have been too smitten to notice last night but just wait until the honeymoon is over.” He laced up the shoes.
“They know I haven’t done this before. We’ll be fine.”
“Sure you will.” He shifted to hands and knees and came over to me, much too close. “You’ll just go on pretending you haven’t lost powers and nothing is wrong and if you work together you’ll clean up town with a fast horse and a gunfight at the end.”
I shied away, stunned, glad it was dark. “I’m casting just fine—”
“I’m not talking about bright lights and unlocking doors.” He sat against me, thigh along mine, chest touching my shoulder, speaking in my ear. “We could tell you didn’t know what you were doing the moment you walked right in without even casting a circle.”
I caught my breath. God, casting a circle—of course. I knew that much. Totally elementary.
Vel went on. “Then he had to steal glimpses inside your awareness to see that you had lost something more than just your parents when they died. He said you were lost—and keeping it a secret. I know better. You’ve lost a power, some way you could have plowed through the job with no help—if only things hadn’t gone wrong. So what went wrong, señorita?” Words hissing in my ear. Hot and close while my pulse pounded and I stared at my own knees.
“How big is it?” His voice dropped even more, growing silkier and more seductive. “The sort of secret that’s an embarrassing hang-up? Or the sort that could get you all killed?”
“How do you know about casting a circle? You’re not a caster.”
“If you want a secret you’re entitled. If you want help surviving out there, admitting to others where you’re lacking might be a start. Look at me.”
I looked, leaning away at the same time so I could try to meet his eyes in now deeper darkness, streaks of sunlight no longer piercing gaps in the walls. The fireflies would be out. Wade might have already fed the cats. The wolves would be waiting for the vampire or feasting on peaches.
Vel gazed at me in the dark. I didn’t owe him anything.
I could figure this out and do this work no matter what had happened to me. I was still a witch. But I gulped and looked down, throat painful. “They always wanted me to work with them because of what they called my blessing. It wasn’t. It was a curse.”
41
I looked into darkness of the open space before us. Vel kept silent, so close I felt his breath on my neck.
“Ever seen The Sixth Sense?” I asked. “That was me: seeing dead people. They had to use spells and rituals, working hard to connect and build the skills to communicate. Not me. I saw spirits everywhere. Like it or not. It was something about their magic, their own energy and powers coming together into me. I don’t know how or why. Over the years, I learned to block it out, hold it at bay. Half of my magical education seemed to be about coping with it. Then they were killed. And…” Shuddering breath.
“It stopped,” Vel said softly in my ear.
I nodded. “Flip of a switch. I haven’t seen a spirit since the night they died. I haven’t seen the hauntings in Midway City. I didn’t see anything in the house last night other than undead and you—and images the vampires put in my head.” Another breath, voice shrinking for the most painful admission: “I don’t know what to do. I thought finding other people with experience would help, and it would come back. That it was just the shock or something. But it hasn’t come back and…”
“And your escorts are hardly trained professionals to make up for your own shortcomings?”
I swallowed.
“There, there…” Vel patted my back. His tone w
as so condescending it made me feel a bit better. “When you put it that way, I doubt it would do them any good to know. You’ve lost something they don’t know you ever had. Logical to pretend it never existed. Your parents had no such gift and they managed. Or, rather, they did until they didn’t, and were viciously murdered by one of their houses.”
“I need it back,” I whispered. “It was the only edge I had. If I can see and talk to spirits and understand what they need and how we can help, that’s most of the battle. Clearing up Midway City with me on the spirits, the wolves on the undead, and all of us working together to handle demons, would be a relative cake walk. If I can just get it back. Without the curse…” A helpless shrug. “I’m not even doing anything at this rate.”
“What did I say? Weakest link. But at least you’re good for something. They’ve all noticed that.” His hands slipped around my waist, lips hot on my skin as he nibbled my neck.
“Hey!” I jerked away. “You jackass. If you take advantage of me again—” I fell off.
Funny, I hadn’t thought I would run out of room. I hit the ladder, leaned forward, and next thing I knew I was sliding off the edge.
I yelled, grabbed the ladder post, and Vel caught my arm. Quick as a fox, he shifted his grip, seized me under the arms, then pulled me onto the loft floor in the dark.
“Ripley?” Wade called from outside.
“I’m okay! On my way out!” I scrambled across the floor, drawing up my legs to be away from the edge.
As if nothing had happened, Vel’s lips found mine in the dark.
“Let go,” I snapped, making my palms blaze with yellow light that I thought would scare him off.
He followed my momentum to shove me onto my back on the floor, hands on my shoulders, pinning me flat as he leaned over, looking into my eyes in this new glow like candlelight.
“You did me a good turn. I’ll do you one.” Voice a breath in my face. “I’ll help you tonight until I get a chance to stake that bastard—”
“You will not. We want Fulco’s help.”
“—but if you have any brains you won’t keep bothering about your parents’ way of doing things or worrying about undead since the sheepdogs can wrangle those. Just focus on getting your curse back if you want any chance in hell to beat the demons of Midway City. And get it back fast. You might not always have a loyal fox at your side to keep you from falling.” He shoved off of me, returning to his boxes to fish out a couple of items. Pocketknife, flashlight, I’m not sure what else.
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