Chapter 15
Julian
It was my second day of following Nathan around, and so far, I’d found nothing out of the ordinary. The shifter didn’t even have magical wards or charms around his home, which meant I’d been able to sneak in and scout the place out.
The inside was a shrine to his daughter.
There were photos of her everywhere. Molly at the beach.
Molly in a tutu. Molly with a giant stuffed bear at some amusement park, where someone had clearly tried to Photoshop his ex-wife out of the family picture.
Badly. Her outline still lingered like a cursed ghost.
There were also several more recent photos of Nathan and Molly with a familiar woman, this one not Photoshopped out. They looked like a happy family. This must be Marissa.
This morning Nathan had dropped his daughter Molly off at school, just like he had yesterday, and headed to his other gig, private security for a jewelry store downtown.
Nathan’s job was exceptionally monotonous. He just stood there by the door in his uniform all day, and I’d found myself distracted by everything else that was happening around him instead.
Despite being not too far away from Delerium, I was unfamiliar with the area.
I’d gotten too comfortable with my routine, and it had been some time since I’d gone out and actually explored the city.
Darlington had been changing at record speed since The Wall fell, and our magical town was exposed to the world.
It was technically a small city now, and with it came tons of new businesses.
A new restaurant called Rodízio Nocturne caught my eye with its elegant and mysterious front entrance.
I dug out my phone—I’d brought it today, just in case, even though it meant I couldn’t pop into or out of existence—and looked it up.
According to the website it was a Brazilian steakhouse that opened only after sunset, and where the servers might not be entirely human.
Here in Darlington, it was not uncommon for the servers to be non-human. But the way it was worded and the design of the website hinted that perhaps the owners and servers were vampires. Intriguing.
Vampires were creatures I wasn’t sure existed, and I’d been around for a very long time.
Dragons? Check.
Witches and wizards? Plenty of them.
Demons and incubi? Right here!
Nagas, minotaurs, and mermaids? Seen ‘em all.
Shifters? A dime a dozen.
But vampires were still in the realm of rumors and hearsay. If they were real, I’d guess it was because they were very private beings.
Before I could overthink it, I snapped a photo of the front of the restaurant and sent it to Lily.
Me: Ever been here?
She didn’t reply immediately, and Nathan was still standing by the jewelry store like a statue, so I tried to distract myself by doing some people-watching. Downtown Darlington was great for that.
A woman in a pencil skirt and heels strode past, phone pressed to her ear, her voice clipped and sharp.
She looked completely human, but the faint shimmer around her betrayed her true nature.
Siren. Probably working in finance. A trio of teens loitered near the café, laughing too loudly and sipping bubble tea.
Wasn’t it still school hours? A delivery driver parked his scooter and jogged into a café, returning a moment later with two packages of food.
But it was the man across the street in a neon safety vest who caught my attention.
He’d been there arranging and rearranging traffic cones around a pothole.
I had disguised myself as an old man reading his daily newspaper and settled onto a nearby bench.
Hours later he was still arranging and rearranging the same traffic cones.
I squinted, making the rods and cones in my eyes as sharp as those of an eagle. Sure enough, the pothole I’d assumed was there wasn’t.
Who the hell was he, and what was he doing here?
The phone in my pocket vibrated, and I picked up.
Lily: Nope. Never been. But it looks good.
Me: Want to go?
Lily: You trying to seduce me with steak?
Me: Don’t need steak for that. Just makes it easier. How about tonight?
There was a pause.
My eyes drifted up to check on Nathan. There was another security guard there now in the same uniform, and they were conversing.
Lily: Can’t tonight. Busy.
What, or who, was she busy with? It was a weeknight, and she didn’t have work.
I cut the ridiculous and jealous thoughts off before I could focus too much on them. Lily wasn’t mine. We were just friends with benefits.
Me: How about tomorrow?
She didn’t reply.
Movement at the front of the jewelry store caught my attention.
A car with a Speed Demon Cabs sticker on the side had stopped there, and Nathan was climbing into it.
He was leaving work early, and the other guy must be his replacement.
I disappeared into the nearest alleyway.
Once out of sight of prying eyes, I transformed myself into a large hawk, picked my phone and wallet up in my talons, and took to the sky.
It was much easier to track the cab from the air. Instead of heading toward Molly’s school, the cab dropped him off a block away from The Breach site. As in the wizard eating portal site.
It used to be a busy intersection. Now it was a roundabout with a squat little building in the center, barely more than a shack, and not the kind of place you’d expect a high-ranking EA rep from Rome to be working in.
But until headquarters coughed up the money to build something better, the Darlington branch insisted this was all they could afford.
The representatives they’d sent had rubbed everyone who was anyone the wrong way. And from what I knew, the experts here didn’t want anyone researching the portal at all, but argued that it should’ve been closed immediately. But when the head of the EA insisted on something, it got done.
Nathan didn’t go inside. He sat on a bench at the bus stop and made a call, shaking his knees nervously.
Shortly after he put away his phone, the EA researcher, the pale, skinny nerdy one from Rome with the glasses that kept sliding down his nose, scurried out of the containment building.
Behind him walked a young woman wearing a Darlington University hoodie and carrying a backpack, who looked rather put out.
She left, heading down the street even as the researcher joined Nathan on the bench.
Landing on an adjacent roof, I tried to send in a limb to have a listen. That part of my body lost substance, my soulstuff thinning to a whisper as I drifted toward them.
Until I hit a wall. And fuck! Did it burn!
I snatched my limb back, hissing as silently as I could.
When I peered over the edge, I saw the EA rep looking around to find who had intruded on his ward.
I was glad the apartment building I was on was a good eight stories tall, because he was searching around ground level.
Fuck.
Just because he was a researcher didn’t mean he was without magic. Especially someone sent by EA headquarters. He probably used canned spells. I was an idiot.
I grabbed my belongings, found the door to the stairwell, and made my way down like a normal person, all the while nursing my burned soul. But by the time I stepped out of the building, the bench was empty. The two of them were gone.
But guess who was standing behind an unmarked van, orange traffic cone in hand? You got it. Our friendly neighborhood stalker with the neon safety vest. He looked around, disappointment at losing them plain on his face.
You and me both, buddy. You and me both.
I hurried over to the spot where the two had been. This time, I looked like a teenager skipping school, skateboard in hand. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t find a trail. They were completely gone and there was magic involved.
I might not be able to follow Nathan, but I did get a good look at the traffic cone guy. And boy, did he look familiar.
It didn’t take too long searching through Delerium’s security footage to find him. He’d been hanging out around the club. I took a screenshot and sent it to Gina first, and then to Nathan like I hadn’t been following him around all day.
Gina replied first.
Gina: That’s the guy the witch’s family has watching the club.
Me: The one you were distracting on Sat?
Gina: Yup, that’s him.
Me: Thanks.
It wasn’t long before I got a reply back from Nathan as well, confirming what Gina had already told me. One mystery down, but now I had even more questions. Like what the hell was Nathan doing at The Breach site?
I didn’t like secrets. And I liked them least when a certain little witch might get hurt because of them.
The thought of Lily had me checking my phone again. She still hadn’t replied. My fingers itched to message her once more, but that sounded desperate even to me. That wasn’t who I was. What the hell was happening to me?
I shoved my phone into my pocket and started upstairs to my place. Maybe several rounds with my punching bag would fix things.