8. Never a Dull Moment
EIGHT
Never a Dull Moment
I was sure I’d killed him. His damn head had rolled away from his body, but the fae were scary powerful. The fact that he disappeared had me on edge.
I had finally made it back to the section of road by the ocean’s edge when an SUV pulled up beside me. It had an official police seal on the door. The passenger window slid down, and a concerned-looking Nick was there, waving me into his vehicle.
I dropped the huge duffle onto the floor of his SUV and then slid in, bone weary and shaky.
Nick didn’t pull back into traffic. He laid a warm hand on my frozen arm. “We were following you. The tracker stayed in the same spot so long, we chanced getting close enough to see you and instead found an empty road. Arthur recovered the tracker but you were gone.” The hand not touching me rubbed his forehead. “We’ve been frantic, trying to find you. Arthur went to Arwyn to see if she could get a vision of your whereabouts and I’ve been driving up and down these streets, searching everywhere.”
He closed his eyes a moment, squeezing my arm, and then continued. “Arthur broke into the back of your bookstore and Arwyn touched a few things. She said her visions seemed to be blocked. She saw you beside a truck, but then the vision went dark. She knew right away, from your perspective, though, that he was fae.”
He blew out a breath. “Collectively, we had a heart attack. You were taken by a fae serial killer? How were we supposed to stop him—hell, find him?”
His hand slid down to mine and he held it. “But then she touched your book—the one you left downstairs on the table—and she saw you walking on this road, a heavy duffle bag on your shoulder. And here you are.”
He paused, probably waiting for me to tell him what happened, but I wasn’t ready. I knew he could feel me trembling, so I asked, “Can you turn on the heat?”
“Of course.” He turned a knob and directed the vents at me. “I can drive you home.”
I shook my head, pointing down the road. “I need to get my Jeep. Thanks, though.”
“Okay.” He sounded unsure, but he put the SUV in gear and started driving.
We rode in silence, but I couldn’t shake the sound of the fae man’s gleeful whistling in my head. I wasn’t sure I ever would.
Nick pulled up beside my Jeep, which had a ticket under the windshield wiper. He got out when I did. “Here. I’ll take care of that.” He snapped the ticket out before folding it and sliding it into his pocket.
I nodded my thanks.
He gestured to the SUV. “Is that bag yours?”
Shaking my head, I climbed in my Jeep and turned the ignition. With a cough and a rattle, the engine fired. “Not mine,” I said. “That’s his. It’s filled with the tools he was going to use to torture and kill me. I didn’t want to leave it lying around.” I had to swallow the tightness in my throat. “I don’t want to think about him now, please. I’ll tell you later.”
“But—yeah, of course. You can tell us later.” He looked up and down the busy road. “I’ll follow you and then hang out, keep guard until we get this guy.”
I shook my head. “He’s gone now.” I put the Jeep into gear and started driving. I probably should have thanked him for the ride, but I was barely holding it together. I needed out of this skin. I needed to ride the air, high above it all, far from that clearing and that bag. Free from the fate he’d chosen for me.
I wasn’t sure how I made it home. I was shaking with the need to shift, to not be this person who could be overpowered and violated. Once I’d parked and closed the garage door behind me, the tremors lessened. I was in my safe place, surrounded by my books.
Trudging up the stairs, exhaustion swept over me. I stripped out of the clothes he’d stared at and touched, and felt the fire roll through me as I shifted. I hopped onto the window ledge and then soared out the window and over my forest. Gliding through the trees, I found my favorite pine, perched on a nice steady branch, and settled in for a long sleep.
A crow cawing nearby woke me at dusk. Jerk . Still, I needed to head back and get cleaned up so I could open on time. I was dragging from the lack of a full day’s rest, but a brisk shower ought to fix some of that.
Once I was cleaned and dressed, my hair back in its usual bun, I went to the main kitchen on the top floor. I hadn’t eaten yet, but my stomach was still a little wobbly. After staring in the refrigerator for far too long, I decided to just heat up a can of soup and call it good. It’d take care of the hunger pains—shifters needed to eat regularly—without overtaxing my currently sensitive stomach.
I headed downstairs a few minutes before eight and found a familiar silhouette on the porch. Not bothering with the outdoor light, I unlocked the door and stepped out into the cool night air. The wind must have been gusting straight off the ocean. The air smelled of salt and rain. I looked up at the thick clouds and wondered how long until it began.
Nick turned and smiled. “Hello again.” His deep rumble of a voice settled some of my lingering nerves.
Sitting on the top step, I nodded to him, an invitation to sit beside me. He did. The stairs on the old Victorian were wide, but so were his shoulders. We didn’t touch, but my right side was warmed by his presence.
“How are you feeling?” He glanced over and then went back to looking out over the city. He was giving me the room to share what I could.
Pausing, resisting and confronting the memories, I told him what had happened. All my life, people have tried to finish my sentences or made hurry-up gestures to get me to speak faster. All that ever did was make me more self-conscious and less likely to talk.
Nick, though, moved down a step so he could lean back on his elbows, his long legs stretched out down the stairs. He’d settled in to listen, with no push to hurry me along.
When I finished explaining what had happened, Nick looked over his shoulder at me, his gaze sympathetic. “Scary.”
I nodded.
He looked back down the dark hill. “Hopefully this will put your mind at ease. When the fae die in this realm, their bodies disappear and return to Faerie. You killed him. That’s why he’s gone. Which officially makes you a fae-vanquishing badass.”
I let out a chuff of breath and smiled at that assessment. At least I wouldn’t spend every day on edge, fearing I’d hear that whistle again.
“When Arwyn told us he was fae, my stomach dropped.” He sat forward, his elbows on his knees. “I don’t remember ever being that scared.” He scratched his short beard. “We just dropped on your doorstep, roped you into helping us out, and then lost you when you were in a fae serial killer’s truck. I don’t think I’ve prayed that hard since my high school girlfriend told me her period was late.”
He turned his body to the side, leaned up against the railing, and found my eyes in the dark. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I volunteered,” I reminded him
He nodded slowly. “You did. You left your safe, quiet home and volunteered to get up close and personal with a killer. What you did saved future victims from this guy. On their behalf and ours, thank you.”
We settled into a comfortable silence, during which the tension from reliving what had happened began to drain away. “I figured out how McKenna got away from him.”
He waited, eyebrows raised.
“It was dark, and she wasn’t wearing her glasses. She couldn’t see him, couldn’t get trapped in his eyes. He probably only a had a moment to do it when she looked into the truck. He didn’t snare her, and I bet that pissed him off.”
Nick nodded. “Blind luck.”
“Literally. So, do you need me to take you to where his truck is?”
He shook his head. “No need. We already found it. We think his death broke the ward hiding that section of the woods. We also found two bodies in the brush. At least we can give those families an answer and a body to bury.”
I sat with that a moment. Those poor families. “Do you know how long he’s been doing this in our realm?” It was terrifying, him having that kind of power and a complete lack of conscience.
“Arthur took the duffle bag to Arwyn. She passed out. She hadn’t even touched any of the weapons; just bringing it close to her put her on the ground. He called her boyfriend Declan to run over and take care of her. When she came to, she was swearing at Arthur for bringing that filth into her home. Apparently she kicked him out so she could sage the place.”
He grinned. “I would have loved to see little Arwyn kick my big cousin out. I’m told she’s scary powerful, so he went. The boyfriend called about an hour ago to tell Arthur she saw hundreds of dead, all over the world, for probably at least a century, based on the women’s clothing.”
A chill ran down my spine. That soup I’d eaten earlier threatened to reappear. So much horror. So much terror and death, all laid at the feet of one man who appeared to see it as a bit of fun.
I shivered and Nick moved closer, his warm, strong arm brushing up against me. Staring down at my white-knuckled hands clutched in my lap, I said, “I’m okay.”
He nodded. “I know. A car’s coming.”
I looked up at the headlights approaching. “Oh. That’s Malcolm. He’s one of my regulars.”
“I’ll let you get back to work then.” He stood and held out his hand, pulling me to my feet. We stared into each other’s eyes a moment and then he said, “Do you think I could take you to dinner sometime?”
Frozen, I realized too late that I was still holding his hand. Malcolm parked his car and got out, nodding an unsure greeting to us both.
“I’ll be right in,” I said and he passed us, moving into the bookstore. I looked down at our hands and considered the question. Did I want to spend more time alone with him? Finally, I asked, “What happened to your high school girlfriend?”
His grin warmed me down to my toes. “False alarm. We were using protection, but accidents can happen. Thankfully, in our case, one did not. Last I heard, she’d married her college sweetheart and was living in upstate New York.”
I heard my mother’s voice in my head again, telling me to live a little . It felt as though I’d been living a whole lot the last couple of days. Strangely, I didn’t hate it. Even more strangely, given my desire for solitude, I was finding the company of this particular gentleman caller welcomed.
“Okay,” I said quickly, not wanting to change my mind. “We can go to dinner.”
“Good.” He squeezed my hand. “I’m going to head home. I haven’t slept in a day and a half and I’m beat. I’ll contact you later to make a plan, okay?”
I nodded.
“Good. Oh, and Arwyn is going to be reaching out. She said something about wanting your help to find her sorcerer cousin.”
“Sorcerer?” There were actual sorcerers in the world? I’d thought they were only in high fantasy novels.
“That’s what she said.” He jogged down the steps. “Never a dull moment around here.”
I blew out a breath. “Can’t wait.”