Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
When Nick said his car was outside, he meant right outside.
He’d driven half up onto the sidewalk, and I recognized the area of town we were in as an industrial park halfway between a shopping mall and a freeway overpass.
I snorted to see the building labeled as a butcher’s.
There were assorted other cars parked in the street, clearly SoPa members who’d rushed in to help the Five Dragons, only to end up making the mess worse.
Nick paused next to the driver’s door, panting a bit as he dug in his pocket for his keys. His badge swung from his neck, flashing silver in the sunlight.
“You want me to drive?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I got it.”
“Okay.” I slid into the passenger seat when he unlocked the car. “If you pass out and crash, I’m going to give this whole rescue thing a one-star rating.”
“What’s the rating right now?” Nick asked, cracking a smile as he slammed the car into reverse, just barely missing a sedan parked behind him.
He sped off, only slowing when we passed a cop car going in the opposite direction.
The car didn’t have any lights or sirens going, and I wondered if that was because no one had called the cops on the fight we’d just had, or because the police knew the area was Five Dragons territory and just didn’t want to bother with pack violence.
“I was going to give you five out of five, since there was a pretty good chance I was going to get killed by an actual dragon, but you didn’t exactly stick the dismount, did you?”
“Everyone’s a critic,” Nick complained.
“When my life is on the line?” I said. “Yeah, I have some notes.”
“What’s the Windrose?” Nick asked. “She said it like it meant something. Who is he? Why does Jimena Torres think you’re him?”
Staring out at San Amaro, I said, “We have to talk about this?”
“Since you’re going around telling everyone you’re whatever it is, yes. What happened between yesterday and today?”
I winced, and he clearly caught me because he said, “You were already—No. Explain.”
“The four courts are always fighting over power. And way back before, it was even worse. The sort of wars that destroy kingdoms and leave nothing left behind.” I picked at my cuticle, staring down at my fingers to avoid looking up at Nick.
“So, they decided to have a mediator, a judge, someone who makes decisions they all have to abide by. It’s important the judge doesn’t come from any one court. ”
“And you grew up here, so that would make you a good candidate,” Nick said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I went to visit the Windrose because I had to tell him about Tim, remember? But when I got there, he was dead. The fae kings and queens wanted to fill the position before one of them used it as a chance for a power grab, so…”
“They grabbed the nearest, non-affiliated fae?”
“Exactly.” I glanced at him, expecting to see anger or irritation, but instead his eyes were half-lidded and he looked like he was about to pass out on the steering wheel. “Sweet hell, you okay? You sure you don’t want me to drive?”
“We’re almost there,” he said. We were a block away from my apartment, but I kept my eyes on him the whole time, sure we were about to crash and kill ourselves violently.
When he pulled into an empty parking spot against the curb, he sighed, leaning his head forward so his forehead touched the wheel. I could see his breath coming in short pants. His pallor was almost gray.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “This isn’t normal exhaustion.”
“Magic depletion,” Nick said. “I’ll be okay after some food.”
“Let’s get some,” I said. “I have a fridge full of it. Between you and Shannon, I was getting a complex about my lack of real food.”
Together, we stumbled into the building and then into the elevator. Jeffrey wasn’t around. The last thing I needed was him gloating right now. Propping Nick against the elevator wall, I pressed three and the creaking elevator rose. The groaning of the machinery distracted us from conversation.
At my floor, we got out and headed down the hall. I saw Laurel before Nick did and waved at her with the hand I wasn’t using to stabilize Nick. She’d been pacing in front of my door, gnawing on her thumbnail. Frowning at us, she took quick steps to get on his other side.
“What happened? Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” I said. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you use your key?”
“I wanted to talk to you before you went inside.”
I stopped in front of my door, keys held in my fingers. “Laurel?”
“So, we had to get her out of Meadowhaven since the director didn’t take my allegations too seriously,” Laurel said.
“Laurel,” I repeated. “What’s inside my apartment?”
“I’d take her with me, but I don’t have an elevator.”
Opening the door, two things struck me. The first was that I no longer had a living room.
I had a couch, a desk Laurel had shoved into the corner, and Shannon in a hospital bed.
She took up most of the room, and at least what little space there was left wasn’t taken up by monitors or anything else that beeped or wheezed.
The second thing was the disconcerting image of Shannon, the ghost, standing next to her body, squinting at it, her nose wrinkled.
She looked like she wanted to say something, but the whole situation was so far from okay, I shook my head.
With a shrug, she raised both hands and mimed zipping her lips.
When we were teenagers and being annoying, she would actually reach over and pretend to zip our lips shut. It had been horrifying as a sixteen-year-old to have your foster mom do something so juvenile, so at least for me, it had worked.
“I brought food!” Laurel said. She helped me get Nick inside and we squeezed past the bed to let him collapse on the couch. “He doesn’t look good, Parker. Is he a cop?”
She was eyeing the badge with a frown. I nodded, “Nicholas King, Laurel Perez, my sister. Laurel, this is Nick. My, uh—” I wanted to say boyfriend, but were we still together? “The guy who rescued me from the Five Dragons.”
“The Five Dragons?” Laurel hissed. “Athena’s tit, Parker. You said you were staying out of wolf politics.”
“Look, can we do this after he gets fed? He said something about magic depletion,” I said. “Where’s the food?”
“Kitchen. Magic depletion? You’re going to need more than a sandwich.”
Pulling out her cellphone, she texted someone and then leaned over to grab Nick’s wrist, taking his pulse while staring at the clock app on her phone. “Let me guess, alchemist?”
“Nicholas King,” I called from the kitchen.
“Nicholas King.” She smiled. “Hi, I’m Laurel Perez, the head priestess of the Kitchen Witches of East San Amaro.”
“Hi,” Nick said, his face waxy, a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. “Nice to meet you.”
“You can’t do anything by halves, can you, Parker?” she muttered, grabbing the plate of food I’d prepared. She must have felt really guilty about saddling me with Shannon because she’d brought every type of pastry her shop offered and half the sandwiches on the menu.
Giving the plate to Nick, she hovered her hands over his head, then his chest and traced down his legs. Sucking in a breath through her teeth, she muttered, “You used every single drop. I thought they taught you Kings better than that.”
“It was kind of an emergency,” Nick said. Some color was coming back into his face and he didn’t look quite so gray anymore. His eyes cut to me. “Someone reported a cop was kidnapped. It took a little untangling to realize it was only a PI pretending to be a cop.”
“How’d you find me, anyway?” I asked, eating one of Laurel’s croissant sandwiches. I was pretty sure she made it with actual manna, but she said it was just homemade aioli.
“Uh, a tracing spell.” Nick flushed, his warm brown skin going slightly pink. He looked up at the ceiling, avoiding my eyes.
“Wait, a tracing spell?” I raised my eyebrows, suspicion narrowing my gaze. “What did you have of mine? Did you take my underwear or something pervy?”
“You were in my car,” Nick huffed. “I found a few strands of your hair.”
Shaking my head, I said, “Pervert. I bet you stole my toothbrush or something.”
“You use your toothbrush?” Laurel sounded doubtful.
I glanced at her and rolled my eyes. “I am an adult, Laurel.”
“Sure,” she said, eyes on her phone. She texted rapidly, and I glanced back at Nick, nearly dropping my sandwich.
“Jesus Christ,” I swore.
Laurel and Nick both frowned at me, the tension in the room skyrocketing as they looked for whatever danger had set me off. I waved a hand, and they relaxed.
“Mom, you can’t do that,” I said.
Shannon had stuck her head into Nick’s chest, and when I spoke, she yanked herself out and looked at me in surprise. “You called me Mom.”
“A slip of the tongue,” I said. “Get out of his chest.”
“Tell Laurel to make sure she doesn’t forget the spices if she’s doing a magic smoothie.” Shannon stepped back from Nick.
Nick’s eyebrows were up in confusion and Laurel had that picked-last-for-kickball look which meant she was trying to make the best of a bad situation. “Shannon’s here?”
I pointed to the middle of the living room where Shannon had retreated to stand next to her body. Laurel squinted, like she was trying to see, but eventually her shoulders slumped.
“Shannon, your foster mom?” Nick asked. “Oh, yeah, what’s up with the body in your living room?”
With his color returning, he was back to being a cop who was actually good at his job. His eyes ran over the whole setup, and he tilted his head, the inevitable question of if she was supposed to be here arising. He glanced at me, a frown wrinkling his brow.
“I don’t know, ask Laurel. This morning, Shannon was at her very expensive facility and not messing with my Feng Shui.” I gestured with my sandwich, a few greens falling out of the croissant before I protectively brought it close again.
“Well, Parker told me Shannon’s night nurse was trying to kill her,” Laurel said to Nick. She pointed at the plate in his hands. “Keep eating. So I went to her facility to check, but they don’t take the word of incorporeal spirits, so my only option was to take her home with me.”
“How did you even get her out of there?” I asked.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Laurel said. “I wanted to take her to my apartment, but you can see that would be hard since I don’t have an elevator.”
“She rented a U-Haul,” Shannon said. “Strapped me into it like I was a refrigerator.”
“A U-Haul?” I said to Laurel. “And you’re always complaining I’m the irresponsible one. Why’d they even let you take her like that?”
“She’s literally haunting them, Parker. They’d have helped me put her into a wheelbarrow if it got her off the property.” Laurel went into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of artisanal potato chips.
“Wait, how did you know her night nurse was trying to kill her?” Nick said. “Why didn’t you report it to the police?”
“So, a few days ago, I began seeing Shannon’s spirit. Ghost?” I looked to Shannon, who shrugged. “Anyway, she told me.”
“No. I’m done. You’re telling me you’re seeing your foster mom’s ghost.” Nick looked at the body and amended, “Spirit. Who told you her night nurse is trying to kill her. Why?”
“Some sort of cult,” I said. “I’ll be honest, with everything else going on, I figured I’d get to the cult thing when Shannon wasn’t in danger anymore.”
“If she’s killing residents, then the police should investigate,” Nick said stubbornly.
“Can we have a time out?” I said. “Laurel, Shannon can’t stay here. I’m getting evicted.”
“No!” Laurel pointed at me. “You have a time out. You’re getting evicted?
Explain! And since when do you have a hot alchemist just chilling on your couch?
And what’s this nonsense about the Five Dragons?
I mean, SoPa is one thing, but I don’t even like driving through Five Dragons’ territory.
Do I need to be setting up wards? I should call the coven. ”
When she paused for breath, I waited to see if she had any more hysteria to get out. She shook her head, lips tight.
“Okay,” I said. “So, this is Nicholas King. He’s almost dead on my couch because a few days ago, he asked me to look into a serial killer draining paranormals of their magic.
I went sniffing around and it turns out Dieter, the SoPa I was looking into for work, was feeding the serial killer fae.
Then he tried to get the Five Dragons to kill me before I could expose him to Malik.
And you probably don’t need wards because one of the Five Dragons alphas let us go, so I think we’re good. ”
“So, Mister Hot Cop decided to rescue you out of the goodness of his heart?” Laurel arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
She squinted at Nick and crossed her arms.
“I don’t know, we were dating for a while,” I admitted.
“Can we talk about that later?” Nick asked. He looked better, but still a little like a half-drowned kitten. “Maybe with less family in the living room?”
“I mean, it’s up to you if you want a kitchen witch thinking you did me wrong,” I said. “I don’t even like for her to think I was the one who left the toilet seat up.”
Someone knocked on the door and Laurel shuffled around Shannon’s bed, opening the door before I could warn her to check who it was first. On the other side was a petite redhead who I immediately recognized as the witch gunning for Laurel’s job.
She grinned at Laurel and the expression was a far cry from the Machiavellian menace I’d seen at the coffee shop. It was, instead, a little girl looking into a toy store. Hopeful and yearning all at once. Oh.
“Thanks, Kalie,” Laurel said. She reached out and clasped Kalie’s hand, causing the other woman to blush hot. Glancing down at their entwined fingers, she tightened her grip and bit her lip.
“Do you need help?” Kalie asked.
“No, no,” Laurel said. “My brother can handle this.”
“You’re sure?” Kalie said.
“Yeah, I’ll call you later,” Laurel said. She held the door open and watched Kalie walk down the hall.
I exchanged a look with Nick. He seemed mostly confused, but when I wiggled by eyebrows, he shrugged. The man, for all his good qualities, didn’t know Laurel like I did, though.
She closed the door and slid the chain back on. Her smile was one of those sappy sweet expressions that deserved a lot of ribbing, so I obliged.
“Just to be clear, you’re giving me crap about my love life, and you slept with your arch-nemesis?”
“You”—Laurel glared at me—“are the worst.”