by D. R. Perry
“Because she doesn’t know about all this. I believe Blaine’s tinfoil hat theory, that there’s an Extramagus messing with the school. Nox shouldn't get mixed up in that unwittingly.”
“I get it.” Josh shrugged. “But not everyone reacts the same when the going gets tough. If she’s like me, she will welcome a distraction. But Brodsky can’t call the Grim again for five more days.”
“Who knows what else he could call up, though.”
“Gotta check his apartment to find out. If he’s there, he'll cooperate, wouldn’t want to blow his cover by messing with us. If not, we might find Thurston’s evidence.” Josh shook his head. “Look, I’m not a brain like Lynn or a Boy Scout like Bobby. I’m dangerous in a fight, but that’s not all there is to being a wolf shifter. I know how to play a mission like this. Both Mom and Dad are Alphas. I cut my teeth on double-speak. But I don’t know Faeries. Bet you dollars to donuts Nox does.”
“Okay, fine. I still have a weird feeling about bringing her in on this, but I’ll let you decide. It’s bad enough Lynn got Olivia involved. She’s half-asleep all the time.”
“Why an owl shifter wants to be diurnal is beyond me.” He shook his head. “Crazy bird.”
“True story.”
“Leaping Luna, you sound like Baxter.” He shook his head, then walked along in silence briefly. “You should spend time with someone else for a change.”
“Huh?”
“Come out with me tomorrow night.” Josh turned to face me, walking backward when side-stepped and continued up the driveway.
“Um.” I chewed on my lower lip. I wasn’t sure about how Josh looked at me. It wasn’t romantic or lusty, just protective. Definitely not the way a girl wants to get asked out. “Where?”
“Dunno. Wherever.” He stopped at the circular part of the drive, near the huge house’s entrance. Nox stood with her back to us, gazing at the intricate woodwork on the top of the gabled roof.
“Hey, Nox, want to come out with us tomorrow night?”
“Sure!” She looked over her shoulder just as Josh turned. And there was the spark that had been missing from Josh’s face before. He said nothing, turning his head away from her before she could look him in the face. I was struck by how controlled he was. If that was the life of a wolf shifter Alpha, I felt more than a little sorry for him. Nox and I waited while Josh went inside.
“I didn’t expect this much of a difference.” I glanced at Nox’s backpack. “It seems like there shouldn’t be one at all.”
“That’s because our skins carry more than magic and shifting ability.” Nox scuffed the pale gravel coating the driveway with the toe of one boot. “They have ancestry in them, too. Little quirks and personality traits from generations back, compliments of all my forebears who wore it. The more ancestors, the stronger the magic.”
“Wow. Is it distracting?”
“Sometimes. It’s not like I hear most of them all the time, they just affect my mood. That and my appearance.” She smirked, then gestured at her torso. “I’m the first woman in my family to inherit it after twelve generations. My grandpa’s not happy that number thirteen’s a girl. His influence in there is the hardest part. He fights me on anything too feminine.”
“And I thought my life being forgotten by half of everyone sucks.” I realized that if she’d inherited it, she must have lost her father already.
“Guess I’m still getting used to it. The magic’s a huge benefit.” She smiled, but not with her eyes. “I was mundane before, so I love that part. I took to Water magic like a duck.”
We laughed together easily, a heartrending change in light of that morning’s horror. I still thought Nox shouldn’t get involved countering the person trying to wreck PPC. I thought about coincidence. Maybe involving Nox wasn’t up to me. I’d call my mother tomorrow, ask her about the future.
Josh came out of the door, wearing a navy-blue Campus Police shirt. He smiled, but the expression didn’t really touch his eyes until he glanced at Nox. That was another puzzle. Why ask me on a date when he was clearly more interested in the Kelpie? For some reason, I thought it’d be a bad idea to call him on the carpet right here and now.
The walk down the drive was quicker than the one up. We headed across Hope Street and down the hill on Rochambeau, then turned up a narrow driveway. We stood at the side door of a yellow sided triple-decker. Josh rang the bell for number three, the one with Brodsky’s name beside it. He waited, then rang again. No response. Then, he pressed the button for number one next to the name Kazynski. A voice came over the intercom.
“Preevyet?” The Russian greeting crackled with age and intercom static.
“Hi there. I’m from Providence Paranormal College, just here to check on Professor Brodsky upstairs.”
“Oh, go on in.” The words carried through on a heavily accented voice. “He not home, but you leave the note or something for him, da?”
“That’s right. Thanks.” Josh grabbed the doorknob just after it buzzed.
The narrow stairwell smelled strongly of wood polish. The door marked number one was on the left. A violin-shaped welcome mat sat in front of it, reminding me of a guard dog. We went up creaky stairs with low-pile carpet cushions on the risers. At the top, the door to number three stood open just a crack.
“Huh, odd.” Josh made a gesture from his forehead down to his chin. I had no idea what that meant, but Nox seemed to.
“Hide us,” she whispered.
I gathered shadows around us. Josh blinked, then gave a smirk and pointed at his stomach. Nox pulled her Kelpie skin out of the oilcloth pouch and tucked it under her shirt. The change was weird even after her explanation. After that, Josh turned toward the door, beckoning for us to follow as he pushed it open and went inside.
Brodsky’s apartment was dim, the only light coming through drawn shades and the door behind us. It was nearly silent, too. I almost jumped out of my skin when the refrigerator compressor came to life. Nox put a hand on my arm, calming me instantly like I was relaxing in a warm bath. No wonder she liked Water magic if that’s what it was like.
“Professor Brodsky?” Josh stood next to a combination coat and umbrella stand. A hat, coat, and long, black umbrella occupied half of it. “PPC Faculty sent me to see if there’s anything you need.” Josh glanced around, then leaned toward the hat on the rack. He closed his mouth, taking a long, deep breath through his nose. He’d be able to track Professor Brodsky if he got a recent enough scent, but he shook his head and ventured further into the apartment. We followed.
The living room had a sagging vintage couch in the middle. A crooked bundle of something brown and stick-like lay across it. I couldn’t figure out what it was until it moved. It was a Brownie, a Pure Faerie. They didn’t mingle with humans or reproduce by making changeling offspring. They were dangerous to talk to. If you asked them too many questions, they’d rope you into a contract just by answering. It was part and parcel with their inability to lie. A direct question counted as a contract. I hoped Josh understood that Seelie didn’t mean benevolent.
“Why does the scion of the Sons of Dennis smell like, Unseelie scum?” The Brownie sat up, blinking eyes that looked like knotholes. “Does he want to anger his parents?”
“I’m not angering anyone, wood-child.” Josh put his hands out, palms up. “It comes with going to college.”
“Yes, they let anyone in now. Not like the good days.” The Brownie’s voice was like twigs cracking underfoot. “Don’t you wish things hadn’t changed, wolf-child?”
“Days are days. We live how we have to.” Josh stared at the creature, unblinking. “I’d tell you to stay in the Under if you don’t like it, but you’re in a Summoner’s house.”
“Yes. His dreams are troubled and his night hours restless. Are you here to interfere with him?”
“What he does in his sleep is no concern to me.”
“Perhaps it should be. I smell the unliving on you, too. Another reminder of the old days.” The Brownie
stood, stretching to its full and spindly height. It looked like a bunch of extra-long bamboo come to life, like the Sawhorse in L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, except vertical. “Are you turning back to the old ways, courting an alliance with a vampire?”
“Just going to college, like I said.” Josh chuffed out a breath. “Vampires are more trouble than they’re worth.” Josh’s grin matched the condescending tone he cast at the Brownie. I understood the kind of bait he used here, but wasn’t sure it’d work. The Brownie hissed, its limbs crackling. “Surely your host has better control of himself than a vampire.”
“You’re wrong, Son of Dennis. Control, yes. Of the self, no. Don’t you want to know what I mean?”
“Of course, but I’ll never ask while a Summoner binds you.” Josh’s smile was as cold and distant as a crescent moon. “That just means he gets to control what you do with my contract.”
“You think you’re wise.” The Brownie’s posture became more rigid, a sign of relaxation for their kind. “But you err. It would be a Magus who’d own any contract we make this day.”
Time seemed to slow down as I watched Josh’s eyebrows raise quizzically. Just as he opened his mouth, Nox surged forward, breaking free of my hiding spell. She slapped him hard across the face before he could speak.
“How dare you?!” She glowered at him with such a show of anguish and raw pain that I almost dropped my shadows.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did wrong.” Josh looked as surprised as I felt, eyebrows like apostrophes accenting his wide eyes.
“We had a deal, and you go slumming it with a Summoner-bound Brownie?” She tapped one booted toe heavily on the hardwood floor, making a hollow, dead, wooden sound. “Don’t let the creature’s flattery go to your head. But with a target that big, how could it miss?”
The Brownie clattered and rustled and snapped in its unique expression of distress. It backed away, tumbling over the couch to land behind it. I heard a wooden skitter as it rushed to escape the confrontation. A hint of movement only I could see in one dark corner of the room told me it’d gone to ground. Brownies were earth-aligned Faeries. Water magic wielded by an Unseelie creature was the only thing that could banish them from this realm for a year and a day. If that happened to this one, it’d breach Brodsky’s contract. The Sidhe Queen would punish the Brownie harshly. It’d do anything to avoid such a fate.
“Is that enough information to satisfy our contract, Kelpie?” Josh stared Nox right in the eye, his upper lip curling in a snarl. His fists clenched in rage. He wasn’t faking any of it. Her insult had stung more than the slap. I wondered whether she knew.
“Not yet. You look around and find anything you can. I’ll keep this sorry excuse for a chip off your shoulder.” Nox turned to face the corner, hand outstretched in the Brownie’s direction.
“Fine.” Josh strode toward the small hall leading to the bath and bedrooms. I followed him, knowing the Brownie wouldn’t notice Umbral magic while Nox stood over it.
In the hall, he paused, then took the left door into a bathroom with a shower stall. A single shelf held towels, soap, and anti-dandruff shampoo. The medicine cabinet contained Tylenol, a toothbrush, and a series of sleep-aids. These ranged in strength from over-the-counter to prescriptions that got heavier the further forward in time the dates got. Whatever trouble Brodsky had with sleep started in midsummer.
Josh picked up the most recent bottle, dated December 1st. He shook it, holding it up to the light. It was half-full. Professor Brodsky had stopped using pharmacological sleep methods after exams. I made a mental note to add that to the tinfoil hat notebook.
I had to step into the shower to let Josh out of the bathroom, then followed him across the hall, into an office. A shelf of textbooks and lab manuals lined one wall, all from classes Brodsky taught. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The desk had a paperweight with Umbral energy inside it. I’d recognize that anywhere, of course. Something about it was familiar. It shimmered like my amulet, an item crafted to let Psychics use magic or let Magi be Psychic. It might connect to the Grim, but its energy was faint. I pulled out my phone to tell Josh to check the paperweight.
Josh moved along to Brodsky’s bedroom before he got the text. He tapped his phone, then hit Send. He’d check it after the bedroom. Josh had already taken off his jacket and shirt before I realized what he was doing. He was going to scent everything in wolf form. I looked away to give him privacy. When I heard the click of wolf paws on hardwood, I turned around.
Josh sniffed everything he could reach, which was most of it. He was rangy as a wolf which made him about my height on his hind legs. After he checked the bedroom, Josh went back to the office. I watched him sniff the paperweight, then flinch away in a backward half-jump. I stayed in the office as he checked the bathroom then went back to the bedroom. When he appeared in the hallway on two legs and fully dressed, I followed him back to the living room.
Nox hadn’t moved from the spot she’d taken up earlier. Even her arm was in the same position. Just as I was about to check for magical influence, she lowered it.
“Don’t ask the twig any stupid questions, wolf.” She strode to the front door and stood by the hat rack. “Say bye-bye and get out of here. Once you answer my questions, our deal is done.”
Josh turned to face the Brownie’s corner. They crept out of the shadow, creaking and crackling as they crawled to the couch. The Brownie reminded me of a stick bug. Once stretched out across the threadbare cushions, they looked up at Josh again.
“Until we meet next, Son of Dennis.” They quivered like a bird’s nest in a strong breeze.
“Yes. Hopefully, under very different circumstances.” He grinned.
“Indeed, we shall. And the Kelpie, too.” It stiffened.
What could the Brownie mean? I wracked my brain, then remembered that Brownies had the Faerie version of Precognition. Mom always said they knew which way the winds of fate blew.
I kept to the shadows until we got back to campus, which was better than getting in the middle of the weird tension between Josh and Nox. We made plans to meet down at The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden the next night. Josh spoke with a stiff formality that hung on him like a necktie, or maybe a noose.
I wasn’t going out with him alone. Nox might not come after the spat in Brodsky’s apartment, but that made no difference. I sent texts to the rest of the tinfoil hat crew, then went back to my room to check my homework. The Umbral magic in the alliance medallion faded as the moon rose. I recorded it in my workbook, wondering whether I’d have time to repeat the imbuing exercise over the weekend. At least Professor Thurston would have to accept my excuses if I couldn’t.
Chapter Thirteen
Henry
India Point Park was cold on Saturday, but I didn’t care. I had to do something besides think about Maddie and pushing her away for her own good. I wasn’t sure she was the type of girl who’d let herself be pushed. Maybe when this Grim business was over, I’d leave Rhode Island. Greenland was a decent place for vampires, and I’d never seen the Northern Lights.
I walked across the bridge over Interstate 195, following the zig-zag ramp leading down to the park. The red brick steps at the bottom were new since the last time I’d been there. I didn’t bother following the path bordering the greenish-brown expanse of late-winter grass. The snow had mostly melted though gray and black mottled piles edged the area. India Point Park was open, with no shade, not a good place for a vampire to hang around after three in the morning. Luckily for me, it was only thirty minutes after sunset.
Blaine stood by the dock facing the water. If he shifted where he was, his nose would rest on the wood, leaving the rest of his body on the oblong lawn that hosted sunlit festivals and concerts I’d never attend. I let my boots stomp and squelch in the damp so he’d hear my approach. Even though he couldn’t breathe fire in human form, I didn’t want to startle him. That’d just make him regret agreeing to accept my help.
“Hey, Henry.” Blaine�
�s voice blew back over his shoulder, carried on the harbor breeze. “Fangs for joining me.”
“Aww, how cute, Trogdor. That’s the oldest vampire joke in the history of the English language.” I stood next to him, crossing my arms in a parody of his posture.
“Knock it off, Baxter. We need to get this done pronto so I can meet everyone.”
“Oh.” I sighed. “It’s a group outing, now?”
“Seems like you almost want Maddie out with some other guy on her own.” Blaine shook his head. “What’s your beef, man?”
“None.” I shrugged. “I’m a vampire. Beef tastes like cardboard now.”
“You poor thing. Still, you know what I mean.” He gave me a sidelong glance.
“I’m not going to the shindig or hootenanny or whatever you youngsters call it.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Not even with Maddie doing the inviting?” His eyebrow did the Mr. Spock shuffle. “I’ll bet she sent your text first.”
“She shouldn’t have invited me. I’m bad news.” I managed not to sigh by clenching my jaw.
“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’re going to do the whole brooding-vampire thing. That trope’s more tired than a hibernating bear shifter.”
“There’s a reason we brood, you know.” I shook my head. Blaine couldn’t possibly understand.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. The whole ‘I’m dangerous, stay away from me and find a nice normal guy’ thing.” Blaine chuckled. I blinked, surprised because he sounded about as rueful as I felt. “I get it. I turn into a scaly beast with fiery halitosis. Almost everyone I meet is highly flammable. Danger, Will Robinson.”
“So why get on my case if you get the whole threat-to-your-loved-ones thing?”
“Because it’s more bull than a Minotaur. Ladies know what they want, and in this day and age, they go after it. The guy from the wrong side of wherever nobly giving up on love so the girl can ‘stay good’ is so 1985. Of course, you came of age then, so I shouldn’t be surprised.” Blaine kicked at the ground, rucking up some grass under the toe of his boot. He stared down instead of out.