Nicola smiled and hopped off the couch to come sit next to me. I winced a little when she threw her arm around my shoulder, the scratch marks left by the owl flaring with pain. I just smiled back and shook my head, not knowing what else to do.
“This is going to be fun,” Nicola said. “Trust me. What you and I need are a few drinks to forget all this nonsense. Let’s go out, let loose a little, and deal with saving the world tomorrow.”
I let her drag me to my feet, and I followed her upstairs to get changed. Just as I’d promised, I switched my warm woolen sweater out for a plain black hoodie. That was as far as I was willing to go to conform to whatever passed for style these days. Nicola could play dress-up all she wanted; I’d rather be comfortable. Plus, if things went even half as badly as I assumed they would, I wanted to be ready to fight. The entity behind the Black Fog wasn’t done with us. Somehow I didn’t think it was going to give us the night off just because Nicola wanted to go out and party.
“Car’s waiting,” Nicola said from the doorway. She’d changed into leather pants and a slinky top that showed enough skin to make me want to groan and tell her to put on something more sensible. I kept my mouth shut, and instead followed her downstairs. We told a surprised and confused Ada we were going out for a few hours, then hurried through the chilly night air to pile into the back of the SUV.
The driver stopped to let us out in front of the same bar we’d been to earlier that week, and we repeated the process of breezing in past the lineup to get inside with little more than a smile from Nicola. The place was already packed, lights down low, music pumping at an obnoxiously high volume. Nicola led me through the crowd to where a group of similarly dressed girls — none of which looked old enough to even be allowed inside a licensed establishment in the first place – dominated a table in the VIP section. They chided Nicola for her recent absence, ignoring me completely while they poured champagne into a flute for their friend.
“Sorry,” Nicola said, passing the champagne over to me. “My friends can be a little catty. Don’t take it personally. They’ll be cool since you’re with me.”
“Not to sound like a bitch or anything,” I said, “but whether or not they like me is far from the top of my list of priorities. I’m here to keep you safe. Just do me a favor and don’t do anything crazy tonight. Okay?”
“No promises,” she said with a grin. Then her expression softened a little. “But I will try.”
I faded into the background. Sitting just off to the side of the group of giggling girls, I did my best to ignore them, only sipping at my champagne so I didn’t accidentally get drunk. It would’ve been easy to just kick back with a few beers and drink away my problems. This time, however, I was determined not to make any stupid mistakes. It was dangerous enough having left the relative safety of the Chalet in the first place. The last thing I needed to do was delay my reaction time any further by throwing alcohol into the mix. When Nicola and her friends decided to move onto the dance floor, I stayed behind and set my largely untouched champagne on the table. As expensive as it had no doubt been, it wasn’t to my tastes. Call me low class, but I’d rather drink cheap red plonk with an animal on the bottle than pay for the fancy stuff any day. It tickled my nose and was far too tart.
I checked my phone and was a little concerned to see I had no new messages. I’d texted Nathan earlier to ask if he would come to the bar to help me watch Nicola, but it seemed he was too busy to respond. I considered trying to get hold of Eric to thank him for pointing us in the direction of that healer, but now that I was already in the bar I wasn’t sure I wanted to socialize at all. I felt like a chaperone at a high school dance. Having to lean in close to someone in order to hold a normal conversation just seemed like too much work. Plus, I didn’t want to give off the wrong impression. The more I thought about it, the more I was glad Nathan hadn’t shown up. He was a nice enough guy, but nothing romantic was ever going to happen there.
Nicola emerged from the crowd, a huge grin on her face and sweat glistening on her brow. She practically radiated carefree happiness, and when she grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet in an attempt to drag me onto the dance floor, I almost couldn’t resist.
“Come on,” she said. “Relax a little. Come dance with us.”
I looked past her to the group of girls dominating the dance floor. Surrounding dancers gave them a wide berth, except for the few guys who tried to slip through and grind on one of them before being rejected by the entire posse. I felt less worried about Nicola now that I saw that this really was a girl’s night out. Not that it did anything to change my feeling about getting out on the dance floor.
“Maybe later,” I said. “I’m still tired from what happened today. That cougar really did a number on my leg. I know it looks completely healed, but I’m still in a lot of pain.”
Nicola looked down, as though just remembering I’d been injured in the first place. Her smile faded into a frown. She chewed her lip and stood there, seemingly at a loss for what to say.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We’re here now. Go out and have fun with your friends. I’ll be watching from over here.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “Now that we’re here, I feel kinda selfish. I’m sorry for dragging you out tonight. If you really want, we can go home now. All of this is just really fucking me up in the head, you know? It’s a lot to take in all at once.”
“Trust me, I know.” I nodded sympathetically. “I’ve been where you are now. It gets better. You’re going to need time to come to grips with everything, but it’ll happen. Tomorrow morning will come soon enough, and then you and I will have to start hunting this thing down for real. This might be your last chance to relax for a while. Take advantage of it, but like I said before, don’t do anything stupid.”
“You’re sure?” she asked hesitantly.
“I’m sure.”
Nicola let go of my hands and went back to join her friends. I’ve got to say, I was touched. I wasn’t sure if the girl had had it in her, but she’d showed a surprising amount of emotional maturity in offering for us to go home. I hadn’t been lying when I told her I understood what she was going through. I thought back to some of my early encounters with the supernatural. Even coming to terms with the fact that I could use magic had been traumatic enough. The first time I’d encountered a supernatural being was when a vampire had tried turning me into its feeding slave. That first time had almost been my last. I’d barely escaped with my life, and it had taken me years to get over the nightmares that still sometimes haunted me in the darkest hours of night.
While Nicola seemed to be able to dance all night, I lost energy quickly. Trying to keep myself awake, I went to the bar to get a 7-Up. The fizzy sweetness perked me up a little, but I still felt like I was dead on my feet. I couldn’t wait until it was time to get back in the car and go home. As out of it as I’d been after my vision in the sweat lodge, I couldn’t exactly say I’d had a restful night by the fire. Going back to the chalet to climb into bed and cover myself with a big heavy duvet seemed like the sweetest thing in the world just then.
I checked the time. It was shortly after one o’clock in the morning. Closing time would roll around fairly soon. Unless Nicola was determined to go to some kind of crazy after-party, sleep was so close I could practically feel the feathery softness of my pillow.
I returned to the table to discover that the girls had returned from the dance floor and gone back to drinking. Two new bottles of champagne had been delivered, and one of the girls was eagerly filling glasses. She nearly sloshed champagne all over me when I grabbed her by the arm and turned her around to face me.
“Where’s Nicola?” I asked.
“What’s it to you, skank?” the girl spat, laughing as she shrugged free of my grip.
“Her father is paying me to protect her,” I said sternly. “She was just dancing with you a minute ago. Where the fuck did she go?”
“Calm your tits. I don’t know where she w
ent, okay?” the girl said. “Wherever she is, it’s none of my business. Maybe she went off with that guy that was staring at her the whole time we were dancing.”
“What guy?” I asked. "What did he look like? Did he seem normal? Did he talk to any of you?”
“He was as normal as any of the other losers in here,” said one of the other girls. “But Nicola has never exactly been picky when it comes to guys, if you know what I mean.”
This provoked a round of laughter from the table. What the hell was wrong with these girls? Their friend was missing, and all they could do was joke about it.
Knowing I wasn’t going to get anything useful from them, I set out across the bar. Déjà Vu hit me like a freight train, and the first thing I did was head to the bathroom. I gave the women’s a cursory inspection, then barged into the men’s room. The last thing I wanted to see was Nicola riding some guy in exchange for free coke, but at least that was something I could’ve dealt with. I checked in every stall, pissing off several guys before realizing that Nicola wasn’t in there.
I went back into the bar and scanned the crowd. It was impossible to make out individual faces among the flashing lights and the constant movement. I worked my way around the edge of the crowd, searching desperately for Nicola’s familiar face. She’d promised me she wouldn’t do anything stupid, dammit. After everything we’d been through together, I’d thought I could trust her. Who the hell was she to abuse my trust like this? At this point, I was the only thing protecting her from certain death, and she couldn’t even take it seriously enough to let me know that she wanted to go off with some guy? Of all the stupid reasons one of my clients had gotten themselves killed, this was turning out to be the worst.
Desperate now, I worked my way over to the DJ booth. A girl gave me stink-eye when I elbowed her aside, but I didn’t care. Without bothering to ask the DJ’s permission, I pushed him out of the way too. I then leaned in to grab hold of the microphone. It took smashing several buttons on his sound mixer before I finally hit the one that activated the mic.
“Nicola Bloedermeyer,” I said, my voice booming over the PA system. “Nicola, if you’re in here somewhere, get your ass up to the DJ booth right now. Nicola, please… if you can hear this, let me know you’re okay,”
The DJ got over his hesitation to use force on a woman, finally grabbing my arm and yanking the microphone out of my hand. I saw bouncers already edging their way through the crowd to come get me, and I didn’t think they’d stop to let me explain my reasons for making such a desperate move. Either way, there was no sign of Nicola. If she’d heard me, she was ignoring me on purpose. After how things had gone the last time we talked, I just couldn’t believe that was the case.
I hopped down off the stage and went to the back door by the washrooms. I exited to the alley, scanning both directions. There was no sign of the girl, nor any clear indication of which way she could have been taken. I couldn’t be certain that someone actually had taken her against her will, but it was starting to look like the most obvious answer.
I ran out to the street, too panicked to notice the cold while I stood on the sidewalk. My breath hung in the air while I tried to decide what to do next. The streets were dead silent. Other than the dull thump of the music from the club behind me, the village was completely quiet. The sound of smashing glass prompted me to start running down the street towards the source, but it turned out to be nothing more than two drunk guys who hollered loudly a few times before veering off towards one of the nearby hotels.
Remembering Ada’s pentacle, I dug the chain out of my shirt and let the little wooden charm dangle in front of me before I flushed energy into it. The charm should have swung out towards whatever direction Nicola had gone, but it just hung dead and useless. Not more than twenty minutes could have passed since I’d lost sight of her, so she couldn’t be too far away. If the pentacle couldn’t lock onto her, it meant she was being shielded or… well, I wasn’t ready to think about that just yet.
With no idea what to do next, I dug out my phone and began furiously messaging anyone who might be able to help.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Can I help you?” Nathan’s boss asked in a surly tone.
I couldn’t blame her for being annoyed. After all, I was huddled in the doorway of her shop when she arrived to open up for the day. I’d spent the entire night wandering around the village, hoping to stumble upon Nicola by pure chance. Eventually, I’d given up hope, seeking refuge in front of the shop to wait in the hopes that Nathan would be in early to gear up for one of his tours. Neither he nor Eric had returned any of my messages or phone calls. I’d had nowhere else to turn, and I was exhausted from searching aimlessly for Nicola. Worse, in order to keep from freezing to death, I’d had to burn a low-level warming spell for the last three hours. Combined with a total lack of sleep, I was utterly exhausted.
I scrambled to my feet. “I’m so sorry, but I really need to talk to Nathan. What time does he come in today?”
The woman pushed past me to unlock the door. She glared at me as if she could make me disappear if she concentrated hard enough. Pity must have taken hold, because she finally sighed and gestured me for to go in ahead of her. I waited for her to deactivate the alarm system, then followed her to the back where she began filling the coffee machine.
“Nathan should have been here an hour ago,” she said. “He’s leading a tour today.”
“That’s impossible,” I said. “I’ve been waiting longer than that. He definitely hasn’t been here.”
The woman shrugged and frowned. “I don’t know what to tell you. This town’s not exactly famous for its reliable employees. Whatever problem you have with Nathan is none of my business, but if he hasn’t shown up yet, I’m going to have to find someone else to run his tour. You can wait here until he shows up if you want, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
I eyed the coffee maker wondering if I could get a cup. Maybe if I offered to help out around the shop a little while I waited, Nathan’s boss might help me get in touch with him. It was a long shot, but there was a chance he’d pick up the phone if he saw her number instead of mine. I couldn’t think of a reason for him to be ducking my calls. It was worrying that he hadn’t so much as sent me a text message over the last six hours.
Before I could offer my assistance, the bell over the front door jingled. Nathan came strolling in looking considerably worse for wear.
“I know, I know,” he said, not seeing me hovering in the background. “Sorry I’m late, Nancy. My damn truck wouldn’t start this morning.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I just checked voicemail, and it turns out the group canceled anyways. Not that it excuses you for not showing up, but at least you didn’t screw me over this time. Don’t know if I can say the same for your girlfriend over there.”
Nathan was confused until he turned his head and saw me standing there staring at him.
“Alex?” He asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Checked your phone in the last few hours?” I snapped. “Nicola is gone. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all night.”
Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked drawn and tired, as though he hadn’t slept at all that night. There were dark bags under his eyes, and I realized he was still in the same clothes he’d been wearing the last time I’d seen him.
He waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, I was out all night. Went to visit some friends. Things kinda got out of hand.”
He motioned for me to move out of earshot of his boss, so I followed him into the back loading area.
“I thought you were going to try to get some answers,” I said.
“I did go to get answers,” he said defensively. “Before that, I had to drive all the way out to the trailhead to pick up those snowmobiles we left stashed in the woods so I could bring you to the healer. I didn’t get back until after midnight.”
I couldn’t keep my frustration from spilling into my voice. “And then you thought you’d party with your friends?”
“I didn’t go just to party,” Nathan said. “The guy I went to talk to knows his shit. If anyone in this town has an idea what’s going on, it’s him. He’s not exactly the most stable kind of guy, though. When he’s focused on partying, that’s all he wants to do. I was hoping I could ride it out, maybe get some answers by morning. The last couple of days have been hard on me too, Alex. I’m sorry Nicola is gone, but I don’t understand how you lost track of her again.”
I didn’t want to admit that I’d taken her to the bar, but I didn’t see any way around it. If Nathan was going to help me find her, he needed all the details. To his credit, he didn’t criticize me for letting Alex leave the chalet. Judging by what he’d told me about how he’d spent the night himself, avoiding parties in Whistler was like hiding from the sun in the dessert. Theoretically possible, but not very realistic.
“I have no idea what to do,” I said. “I have a charmed pentacle that should be able to track her, but it’s not working. The only reason that would happen is that she’s dead or being shielded by something. I’m worried someone took her. If they haven’t killed her yet, it’s only a matter of time. I don’t care what else you have to do today, you have to help me with this.”
“Looks like you’re in luck,” Nathan said. “We only had the one tour booked for today, so my schedule just freed up completely. I have an idea where we can look. Unfortunately, it involves going back out on the snowmobiles. Think you can handle it?”
“Do I have a choice?”
Nathan shook his head. “Not that I can see. It was a rough night, but I did learn a few useful things. My friend thinks he has an idea of where the Black Fog is seeping into the world. If this thing has Nicola and is holding her hostage, this is probably where we’ll find her.”
Black Ice (Black Records Book 3) Page 19