I could have sworn Lily paled even more than her usual pallor. “That’s awful.”
“Right. So, I’m going back.”
Bill appeared from wherever he had been. I often didn’t know where he disappeared to, and he never explained. Right now, he stuffed a taco into his mouth. That wasn’t unexpected either. Around bites, he said, “You must learn not to interfere with fights that aren’t yours, Rue.”
“You must learn I always will,” I shot back. Surveying his outfit, I took in the polka dots at odds with the stripes and smiled. Refocusing on Lily, I found she had forgotten all about me as soon as Bill entered. The mutual adoration clouding the air was getting a bit thick. I waved a hand but couldn’t dispel it, so I went back to reading. “Orin wouldn’t tell me what year it all happened, so I’m finding out for myself.”
“He doesn’t want your interference,” Bill said.
I slapped the book closed, having memorized what I needed to know. “Bill, I thought you were impartial.”
“You delight in calling me a friend.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re saying you’re not?”
He grinned. “Outside of my duties here, I am your friend.”
“I’m your friend, too, Rue,” Lily hurried to add. Knowing the ghost, everyone was her friend, even people she hadn’t met before. Lily was that kind of light bubbly creature. I liked her because she was so opposite to the dark cynical thing that I was. Then again, maybe I wasn’t so skeptical as I sometimes liked to believe. After all, I trusted it would take but a moment of focused effort to right all the wrong that had been done to Orin and Pammie.
“Yes, Lily,” I said, in response to her assertion. “You are my friend, and whenever you want to toss Bill aside, I will introduce you to tons of eligible ghosts to spend eternity with.”
Lily’s eyes rounded. “You know other ghosts?”
Bill looked ready to banish every ghost on the planet other than Lily, and I smirked. “Calm down, Bill. You are constantly reading my thoughts, so you should have known I was teasing. No, Lily. I’m sorry. I don’t know any other ghosts. You see vampires and ghosts traditionally aren’t friends. Every one I’ve seen, you excluded, has run from me.”
Lily floated closer and tried patting my hand in comfort. She truly thought my feelings were hurt. I opened my mouth to tell her it made no difference to me when my cell phone dinged. Nathan was texting, and if it could at all, I’m sure my heart would have beat faster. Excitement washed over me each time I heard from him. No matter how often it happened, it took me by surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“Out on a date,” I texted back.
“With who! Where! I will—” The rest of the letters became nonsense. Remind me not to tease a jealous werewolf with so little control over his temper. I hoped he didn’t break his phone.
“Kidding. Won’t happen again. I love you.”
There was a long pause, and I kicked myself for my foolishness.
“I love you, too. Come to my apartment. Let me show you.”
“Working. I’ll see you later. Definitely.”
I hadn’t told Nathan about my decision to travel through time. One, he probably would try to stop me, and if he couldn’t, then he would want to come with me. This venture was risky, and I refused to endanger him. Since falling in love with Nathan, I felt more, which was an odd occurrence for a vampire. We lost our attachment to human emotion as time passed, but we did still learn to love. When that happened, let me tell you, it’s intense and magnified beyond anything humans experience.
“Be careful, Rue. There is something odd happening in New Orleans. I’ve heard the word ghoul thrown about, and I hope it’s not true.”
Nathan’s warning came on the heels of the library door being thrust open and slammed against the wall. A man almost as big as Nathan but with a wilder look in his eyes stalked over to Bill.
“You’ve got to help us,” the big man demanded, shaking Bill. I looked on in curiosity, not moving because no one could enter the library with intent to harm a patron who was already inside it. Whoever this crazy man was, he wasn’t there to hurt Bill—as if he could.
My slight of build friend removed the big man’s hands from his shoulders and serenely offered him something to drink.
“This is no time for tea, damn you!” The man shouted. “There are ghouls in New Orleans.”
That was the second time I had heard the word in a few minutes, and my curiosity grew. What exactly was a ghoul?
“Calm yourself, my friend,” Bill said. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. Lily, get our guest something to drink, will you? The pink bottle. Rue, you were leaving.”
Several things occurred to me at that moment. One, only nonhumans could enter the paranormal library, so whoever the big man was, he wasn’t human. I hadn’t quite pinned down his scent. Two, Bill had emphasized “you” when he said the man had nothing to worry about. That must mean whatever these ghouls were, they weren’t interested in his kind. Three, and most annoying, Bill wanted to get rid of me.
Bill didn’t exactly uninvite people from the library, but he did make suggestions in his polite way, and you found yourself on your merry way whether you liked it or not. So, I was soon on the sidewalk treading away from the library. I paused a moment and sniffed the air. Nathan was right. There was an odd scent in the air, and it smelled very similar to death.
When my cell phone sounded again, it was a ring from Almonester. I tensed and answered. “Hel—”
“Why aren’t you at work? You don’t need the money? I gave you a chance when no one else did. No one likes vampires, so you should think about that when you decide not to show up.”
I neglected to inform him I could work for humans any time. The fact was, I wanted to stay near Orin and Pammie until I could help them. Who knew how Almonester would use them with me gone. Sure, that sounded arrogant, but I had sent Almonester rolling across the floor in humiliation once, and I would do it again. Funny, how he let me get away with it.
“I’ll be in soon,” I assured him, and when I hung up I decided there was no time like the present to go back to the past.
Chapter Four
Shift moaned, and I bent over him, stroking his head. We were situated in an interior room in an abandoned church. I glanced out in the hall, but sure enough sunlight gleamed all along the path to the exit.
“I’m sorry, Shift, but I can’t take you to Meris. We should have thought ahead to this possibility.”
A grunt of pain was all I got in response. I touched fingers to his forehead, and they came away moist. His hair was plastered to his head, and his clothes were also damp. I peeled his palm open and removed the crystal from it. In my hand, the piece held no energy, but I had willed myself not to resist Shift’s abilities so we could travel together.
“Sweetheart, can you hear me? I’m going to give you some of my blood. It will heal you.”
“We aren’t allowed.” His first words since we came back from two hundred years in the past. Orin and Pammie had been enslaved to Almonester that long.
“You weren’t allowed to use your power or take this crystal, but you did it. Let me help you. I promise you won’t become a vampire, and the effects will wear off. All it will do is heal your migraine.”
He forced his eyes open and then shut them, screaming in agony. I made my decision and extended my fangs to bite my wrist. Shift needed only a couple drops before he was sitting up and staring at me in wonder.
“That was like, wow!” His eyes were wide, and he thunked a fist to his head a few times. I captured his wrist.
“Don’t push your luck.”
“I’m all better. Your blood is like a miracle drug. They should sell it at the dollar store.”
I curled one side of my mouth. “Dollar store? My blood is worth two hundred dollars a drop easy.”
He chuckled. “Well, thanks and…”
“Don’t tell anyone about the blood.”
/> “Don’t tell anyone about the blood.”
We spoke the same time.
“Jinx,” he shouted. “I’m not going to tell anybody. We were gone too long, so I’m in big trouble.”
“Didn’t you bring us back to near the same time?”
“It’s daylight. We left at night.”
“I mean aside from that.”
“It’s been a week and a half.”
I gaped. “How can you tell?”
He shrugged. “I know time. It’s in my bones, and every time I use it, I get stronger.”
“You’ll be unstoppable one day.”
Pink tinged his cheeks. “Better face the music.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Something told me I was going to be in as much trouble as Shift. Nathan must be crazy about now. Neither Shift nor I brought along our cell phones because it didn’t make sense to have them in the past.
After I assured Shift I would be fine to wait out the day, he left me alone. I settled down on the floor and let sleep take me. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t slept more than five minutes before a gigantic wolf hovered over me panting and anxious. I stirred, feeling the lethargy of the dead holding me down. A wave of my arm was all I could manage, and my fingers tangled in Nathan’s fur. He seemed to grasp the situation right away and licked my face then dropped down beside me. We slept until nightfall.
When I rose, I found Nathan leaning against a half destroyed wall several rooms away from the one I had slept in. He was in human form, naked, with his back to me and arms folded over his chest. One couldn’t miss the anger in the air because it stretched out toward me, accusing and condemning.
“Where were you?” he said without turning around. “You weren’t in New Orleans. In fact, you were nowhere. You didn’t exist.”
“I had to take care of something.” I moved up behind him and touched his back. The muscles there bunched with tension. I tried smoothing them and failed. The sound of cracking wood reached me. Nathan gripped the crumbling windowsill, doing more damage. I touched his arm. “I’m here, Nathan.”
“I was worried.”
Pressing my face against his back, I encircled his waist and shut my eyes. “I’m sorry, Nathan.”
He turned and hugged me so tight I thought he would break a few bones. My feet left the floor, and I let him hold on until he had his fill. Then he set me on my feet and raised my chin. The seriousness in his expression and the darkness around his eyes gave me a hint of what he had dealt with for a week and a half when he didn’t know what had happened to me.
“I’m not trying to get in your way. I have some idea of the nature of the vampire and you in particular, Rue. You’re independent. I get that. You’re strong. In time, you’ll be far stronger than I am. But please, for Pete’s sake, just tell me something. Anything. So I don’t think you’re—”
“Shh, big guy.” I stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips. The rush of love I felt for him hadn’t lessened in two hundred years. Stroking fingers through his hair, I looked into his eyes and was genuinely sorry I had treated him this way. Nathan was special, and I wanted to nurture our relationship not hurt it or him. “It won’t happen again. You’ll always know what’s going on with me from now on. Deal?”
A whisper of a smile appeared, that old boundless enthusiasm that was my boyfriend and one of the things I loved about him. “Deal, after you make it up to me.”
“I have a couple errands to run.”
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Peckish, but also I wanted to drop by The Rusty Ankle to check in. I imagine I’ve lost my job by now.”
“What job?”
I stared at him. “Okay, I missed a lot of time, but it’s wasn’t so much you should have forgotten. The Rusty Ankle, Nathan. Almonester?”
At his continued blank expression, a suspicion crept over me, and I had to check it out.
“Nathan, can I meet you at your place later? I promise I won’t disappear again.”
“Our place. You’ve been living with me six months now, Rue. You can call it home!”
“Six months…” I murmured. “Of course. I’ll see you at home. Give me a couple hours?”
“Done.” He kissed me again. “And if you don’t show, I will hunt you down just as I did this afternoon. I knew the moment you came back. Oh, and you can talk to me about why I couldn’t scent you before when you get to the apartment.”
I think I agreed, but I was too distracted with this new information. Going to the past meant changing Orin and Pammie’s future. That was a given, but I hadn’t thought in terms of altering my own.
Nathan soaked up a few more kisses and hugs then let me go. In truth, I was doing a good bit of the soaking as well. Then I was on my way. First, I took care of my basic needs—blood. Afterward, I headed over to Oak Street to The Rusty Ankle, the bar where I sometimes worked.
I expected to see the usual display. Instead, the sign read Stanley Brothers Dry Cleaners. Gazing up and down the street, I wondered if I had the address right. Yet, I had been there too many times to get it wrong. Why would anyone dump a dry cleaners right here, and who were the Stanley Brothers?
The sign above the door didn’t even appear new, and the painted ninety-nine cent Tuesdays on the window had scraped off from a couple edges. This place had been here a while.
I opened the door and put one foot across the threshold. The squat, sweating man behind the counter, who was helping another customer, pointed a finger at me. “Hold it right there.” He waved the thick, sausage-like finger in a gesture that seemed to say get lost. “Not you.”
I glanced over my shoulder, but there was no one behind me. “You’re talking to me?”
He scowled. “Yeah. Not you!”
I wasn’t one to be scared off by pungent body odor when I needed information, so I strode into the shop anyway. “Since I’ve never been here before, I’m going to assume you’re having a bad day.”
The woman at the counter eyed the man I assumed was one of the Stanleys and turned to me. “The attitudes here are atrocious, but their prices are good, and they’re fast, so I put up with it.”
She didn’t tell him thank you on her way out, and he didn’t offer any either. Some place. When we were alone in the shop, Stanley beat one fist on the counter. “Get out, vampire.”
“Ah, now we come down to it. You’ve got a problem with what I am.”
“That’s right.” He pointed over my shoulder, and I looked at the wall. The simple sign read We don’t serve vampires.
“You actually have it right out in the opening like that?”
“The humans think it’s a joke, but it’s not. Get out.”
I moved closer the counter rather than be intimidated to leave. “What are you?”
“Busy.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m not leaving until you tell me.”
“I can make you go.”
“Give it a try, pal.” For some reason, I was spoiling for a fight. Lately, things in that arena had been dull. Bill, who taught me to defend myself and do damage if necessary, had been slacking since he met Lily. A woman needed to work off a bit of angst every now and then. Hmm, perhaps I would make Nathan my new sparring partner. He didn’t need much skill to take out an enemy, but he was pretty darn good either way.
“I’m a goblin,” the man said after his face had gone through several shades of red. “Satisfied? Now leave.”
My stomach tightened hearing the word. He did smell similar to Almonester, but I hadn’t wanted to jump to conclusions. “Do you know Almonester?”
I know, right? You think one should know them all. Prejudice is not limited to humans.
“Never heard of the guy.”
“Are you saying that just to get rid of me?”
He grunted in response and began pulling clear plastic over a man’s suit jacket. His actions and his business didn’t say greedy goblin, which confused me.
“Your kind is into money, aren’t you? If that woman was sayin
g you have good prices, it usually means they’re low. Are you glamouring your customers to think they’re getting great deals?”
Still no answer, but I recalled the sign on the window. Ninety-nine cent Tuesdays didn’t speak to ripping off customers, and I knew I wasn’t glamoured.
“Goblins don’t glamour,” he grumbled in offense.
“No, you trick and entrap with magic.”
He eyed me. “I can call my brothers, and we’ll deal with you together.”
“I’m looking for someone,” I said, and he threw his hands up. Behind me, a bell dinged, and I spun around at lightning speed. Orin stood in the doorway. He was dressed in a business suit, and he smiled when his gaze met mine. No recognition lit there at all. He moved to the counter and stood beside me.
“I’m so glad I caught you open,” he said to Stanley.
“I’m shutting down in twenty minutes. Make it fast.”
I stared at Orin. “Don’t you know me, Orin?”
He leaned one elbow on the counter. “I should, beautiful lady like yourself. Can I buy you a drink, Miss…?”
Taking in his pressed suit and tie, shined shoes, and neatly cut hair, I might have mistaken him for a businessman. Perhaps I wasn’t mistaken at all. “Rue Darrow. You don’t remember me? Where’s Pammie? Is she free from Almonester as well?”
His eyebrows creased. “I’m not sure how you know me, but I’ve never seen you before. I don’t know a Pammie or an Almonester. Sorry.”
A thrill raced through me. “Then it worked! You’re free.”
I zipped out of the store, leaving a very confused Orin and an irritated Stanley. To make sure Pammie was also fine, I opened my senses to pick up her scent. After a couple hours, I believed I got a bite in the Garden District. While I stood in the shadows under a tree, I watched Pammie leave a mansion-sized house on the arm of a man. She appeared painfully thin, and my hopes were dashed. Had she gotten rid of one master for another?
The man started in alarm when I appeared in front of the two of them. Pammie, who had been smiling up into the man’s face and teetering a little on high heels, pushed him behind her and raised a hand to me.
Night Fever (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 3) Page 3