17. Seventeen #2
“I’ll have the Banana Banshee,” I said, casting Knox a side-eyed look. The drinks were so kitschy that I had to think he would opt for a beer just so he wouldn’t have to say one of the names.
“I’ll have a S’mores Martini,” he said, catching me by surprise. I didn’t realize I was gaping until he looked at me. Jack was already on his way to the bar. He hadn’t blanched at all when Knox had made his selection. “What? They’re good.”
“I know they’re good. I thought you were going to pull the dude thing and get a beer.”
“You don’t know me.” A small smile played at the corners of his mouth. “How could I order a beer when I really want the martini? Not after that speech you just made about being your authentic self.”
I sighed. “She’s a good person. She just wants so badly to be one of the cool kids. I don’t have the heart to tell her that the kids she sees as cool are really nerds.”
Knox chuckled. “She’ll be fine. She’s a little intense right now — I’m not sure I understand everything about her past — but she was born to live in a city like this one.”
“Yeah.” I looked over at the bar where Jack had Charlie wrapped in his arms. He swayed back and forth, whispering to her. Whatever it was made her grin. “She seems to bounce back fast.”
“What do you know about her?”
I shrugged. “She’s with the Legacy Foundation. She’s what’s called a chimera.”
“I’m familiar with chimeras. They’re not very powerful.”
“She’s the exception. All her magic, all those bits and pieces, formed something really special in her. It was enough to take out a crazy powerful witch. I mean, Erzulie put herself in a decades-long slumber to hide Charlie in the system. That means the loas were worried about Sybil.”
“Really?” Knox made an odd face. “I always thought Erzulie got fed up with Papa Legba and decided to take a break from him.”
“That was the story they told.”
“Then this witch was really something if they were all working together.” Knox looked impressed as he turned to look at Charlie. “Have you seen her in action?”
“Not fully. She doesn’t strike me as the sort who will put her magic on display willy-nilly.”
“Probably not.” He rested his elbows on the table and looked directly at me. “What do you think about what happened this evening on the riverwalk? Was that the real Axeman?”
I’d been expecting the question. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know. It was a real threat, but that doesn’t mean it was the Axeman. Either the current or former one,” I added.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he prodded. “It doesn’t matter if you’re right. I want to know.”
“Why?”
“Because you have better instincts than anyone I’ve met.”
I smiled before I realized how I was going to react. “Is that you flirting with me?”
He smiled in return. “When I decide to flirt with you, you’ll know.”
Wait … what did he mean by that?
“I’m serious,” he continued. “You figure things out in a different way than most people and paranormals. I want to know what you think.”
It was a struggle, but I pushed the talk of flirting out of my mind. “It’s possible the original Axeman was paranormal, and that’s why he was never caught.”
Knox nodded, thoughtfully. “Do you think the other paranormals of the time took him out when they figured out who he was?”
“I’ve considered that,” I admitted. “It seems to me, if that happened, we would have heard the stories. I haven’t heard anything about that, have you?”
He shook his head. “My mother is too plugged in not to have heard.”
“Unless whoever did it made a pact or something to keep the story on the downlow.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know.” I held out my hands. “There is another possibility.”
“What’s that?”
“The Axeman was a human who died. He had a heart attack, or he was hit by a truck or something. He was taken out of the equation. His soul didn’t like that. He wasn’t done. So it came back fifty years ago when it managed to possess someone else and was evicted from that body. Now he’s back again.”
I was grim as I leaned into him. If I wasn’t very much mistaken, his nostrils flared in that moment, as if my scent overwhelmed him. I’d never given much thought to what I smelled like to other paranormals. I did now.
He didn’t pull away from me. Instead, he stared hard into my eyes. The air between us pulsed with energy.
I had to focus to remember what I was going to say to him.
“You were saying,” he prodded when I sat there like an idiot a bit too long.
“That thing on the riverwalk,” I said, remembering. “There was a magic under that of the coven tonight. It was strong, and it was malevolent. That thing might have been interested in what they were doing, but they were never in control of it.”
He tilted his head, and our faces were still inches apart. “What do you think it was?” he asked.
“I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.”
“Yeah. We will.” He only pulled back when Jack and Charlie arrived with our drinks.
I was shaken to my core but managed to smile at Charlie, who had a knowing look on her face. When I darted a glance to Toni, I found her grinning. She’d been watching the whole thing.
I had no idea what this was supposed to mean. Any of it. For the first time in a long time, however, I didn’t feel as if I had firm footing. I was desperate to get it back.