I shifted, trying to angle myself in a way where everything wouldn’t feel so godawful sore, but as soon as I moved, the spot I’d gotten kicked in the ribs acted up. I shifted back, preferring the shoulder pain and easier breathing.
“Lie on the couch if it’s so bad.” The way he snapped out the order, it seemed like he was more annoyed than I was at the inconvenience.
“I’m fine, thank you.” There was about as much warmth in my thanks as his offer.
He nodded toward where I was sitting. “I don’t feel like watching you bounce around on the chair.”
“Well, you’ll just have to deal with it until you spit out whatever it is you need to say.” I was hurt, and not just in body. Yes, I’d left, but he didn’t once even ask why. It was either rage at him or cry, and I didn’t cry. Or I didn’t used to. I certainly wasn’t doing it again now. My eyes might’ve burned from the effort, but I absolutely was not sitting here in front of him and breaking down—again. My utter lack of emotional control was becoming a bigger embarrassment than having had eight million dollars months ago and not being able to pay my bills.
“Goddamn it.” He was shaking his head and walking toward the supply closet. “Come with me.” He turned, expecting me to follow, and I didn’t think it was to get more pens.
“Why?” I knew where that closet led, and I was not going into that cellar place. I’d just made it out of one and I wasn’t pressing my luck. I was staying above ground for the foreseeable future unless I was dragged below. That might still be on the table, unfortunately.
He stepped back out and stared at me. “You know, you were a lot more fun when you had a death wish.”
“Sorry to be such a killjoy. Personal growth and all that. What’s down there that you want to show me?”
“Something that’ll fix you so I don’t have to watch you…” He waved a hand at where I sat.
His annoyance was barely a blip on my radar. “You’ve got something to heal me?” He had helped me heal before; I’d just been too out of it at the time to realize and remember. Now, that might be worth going into another basement for.
If the shit was about to hit the fan—and looking at the flying turds coming my way, I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands to rest up—I needed to be a hundred percent. Even then, without some spells, I was starting at a deficit against these leprechauns and who knew what else might be coming for me.
I stood and took a step but froze. It could be a trick. What if this was all a lure?
No. That didn’t make any sense. Kane didn’t have to lure me in. He would’ve killed me in the alley.
While I was still debating, he said, “For fuck’s sake, stay here and wait.”
I sat back down. I was too sore to keep climbing stairs anyway.
He walked back up a minute later and placed a bottle that looked a little like it could’ve been olive oil on the desk in front of me. “Rub that into your shoulders.”
I lifted the jar and then gave it a shake, expecting something magical to happen. It didn’t. “That’s it? This is the cure?”
“Yes.” His voice was as sharp as a razor.
I didn’t care if I was annoying him. I felt like utter shit, and I didn’t want to leave with the wrong stuff.
“Will it work on anything else?” It looked like massage oil. Maybe this wasn’t so special? I hoped it was better than stuff I could’ve bought at the bath shop.
“Like what?”
I stopped shaking the bottle and glanced at him. Why was he snapping at me now? “It was just a question.”
“Then why are you touching your side?” His eyes shot to my left side, where my free hand had settled.
Damn him. Who noticed every stupid detail? “I don’t know. I’m sore?”
“It’ll work for broken ribs.” He didn’t snap this time. “If you need more, let me know.”
I nodded, accepting the non-apology.
“So, what am I doing here?” I stood, bottle in hand, and made my way across the office, wondering if I could dab a little bit of this stuff on now.
“There are some things missing, things that cause people to kill other people.”
“Like what?” I asked, figuring it was best to know who else might come looking for things.
“A map was stolen from the leprechauns. A vial, containing blood of one of the strongest alpha werewolves to ever live, was stolen last night. A pendant was stolen from the vampires.”
I snorted, knowing who’d be upset about that one. Alexandria, the oh-so-pleasant vampire—her boyfriend would surely die way before her without that.
I’d uncorked the bottle as I listened and was trying to dab some on my shoulders while he talked. “What would I do with any of that?”
He stood and walked around the desk and then leaned against it. “Let’s just say the rest of us have very well established relationships, built over lengthy periods of time. Now, there’s a new girl on the block, a new Shadow Walker who’s stronger than any of her predecessors, and things go missing. There’s going to be an obvious suspicion in your direction.”
“It still doesn’t make any sense.” I dabbed more oil on my hand and tried to get another spot on my shoulder.
“Do you need help?” He said it in a way that made it clear he didn’t really want to help me at all.
“I’m fine.”
His lips flattened, as if he was annoyed I hadn’t taken him up on an offer he hadn’t wanted to make.
“All of these things combined would make it possible for a crawler to survive outside of the Shadowlands.”
I nearly dropped the bottle when my hands broke into an immediate tremble.
“It’s unsettling,” Kane said, as if thinking this was a perfectly normal response.
He thought it was my fear of crawlers. Of course he would. “Yeah, it’s terrifying.”
Had Asher somehow gotten these things? No. I’d asked him so many times how he’d gotten out, and every time he said he didn’t know. He’d been in the Shadowlands and then in my room. Maybe I was crazy, but I’d believed him when he said he hadn’t known.
I dabbed more oil on my fingers and was liberally slathering it on me now. It wasn’t like I had to worry about my clothes. They were already filthy. “If you don’t think I took them, why am I here?”
“Because you can get a spell to find those things.”
Ahhh, and here we were. Maybe I wasn’t in such a bad spot after all. Somebody just got dealt pocket aces. “Why would I do that?”
“Because I’m the only one in this world who can keep you alive. You leave here without me backing you and it’s going to be one basement after another until eventually someone decides to leave you in a ditch somewhere.” Now he smiled, but it wasn’t one of his nice, warm, welcoming ones. He was smiling because he had the straight flush.
“What are you proposing?” It was pretty clear, but at this point, I wanted it chiseled in stone.
“We work together, for as long as it takes.”
I nodded. This was not the time to go there, and yet, thinking back to how he treated me when I’d come here asking to work together, I couldn’t stop myself. “You want to work with me?”
His eyebrows rose. “I’m throwing you a lifeline. You’re not in a position to gloat.”
I was the one smiling now. “And yet I strangely feel like doing just that. What a mystery.” I wasn’t sure if he was amused or annoyed, but I knew I had to lock some more details down before he gave me the boot for being obnoxious. “If we are going to be back working together, it can’t only be for what you need.”
“You think keeping you alive is one-sided?”
“I need to be able to get some spells, too.” Spells that would keep my lights on.
“Then get them. I won’t stop you.”
I wanted to dance around the office, but I wouldn’t. I’d wait until I got out of here and then dance around my building, the one I might be able to keep.
I was back to dabbing oil
as an excuse to be distracted while I got my wits about me when I realized the stuff was actually working.
I lifted the bottle, still not impressed by its appearance but nodding in a silent nice job. It was as gracious as I was willing to be at the moment, considering Kane might’ve been willing to kill me in the alley, and might still want to kill me if he found out about Asher. He’d get a thank you when I was sure I was going to live past this week.
He shrugged, as if to say, Not a big deal. “You look like shit, by the way.”
“Sorry. I didn’t have time to pretty up before you stopped by.”
“I tried calling ahead of time but you didn’t answer.”
I shifted and then laughed for no other reason than I was still alive and I had Kane watching my back again. Considering the whopper of a secret I was hiding, I shouldn’t have been so happy about that.
“When do we start?”
When he didn’t answer right away, I looked his way and caught him staring at where I’d inadvertently lifted my shirt up slightly. I’d been trying to get to my ribs, but let it drop quickly when I saw the bruises he was staring at, the dark purple that ran up my side.
“Soon. Butch will drive you home.” He stood and walked toward the door, leaving me in his office alone.
What? Had he expected me to fight them off or something? I couldn’t win with Kane. Right as I think we’re getting to a place we might be able to work with each other, he gets all weird again.
Butch and Leon walked in a couple of minutes after Kane had left.
Butch walked over and stopped in front of me. “Heard someone needed a ride home?” Leon stopped beside him.
I smiled, happy to see the two of them but not sure about my reception.
Leon gave me a once-over. “Looking a little worse for wear but…”
He smiled, and then all three of us said in unison, “Still alive.”
I was back!
Chapter 8
“You’re sure you didn’t take anything?”
“I told you I didn’t.” Asher looked up from where he resided on the couch in the apartment. The TV had been one long marathon of Grey’s Anatomy since I’d gotten back, and there were five empty containers of Ben and Jerry’s Rocky Road, the last one lying on its side with a spoon resting in it. A pizza box was beside them, and Asher’s stomach had seen flatter days. If I judged the amount of time he’d been sitting here by episodes, he’d been like this since I disappeared.
“You said he wouldn’t work with you anymore.” He got up and stomped over to the refrigerator and took out another Ben and Jerry’s and then walked back to flop down on the couch.
After I left the Underground last night, I’d thought I’d have more time to break the news to Asher slowly. That was before I got the message to be there for a meeting at ten tonight.
“Asher, I have to. I can’t keep repeating the whys, not unless you really want to see me lose my mind—for good this time.” I’d been explaining since I got back. I’d always thought the crawlers would be the ones to make me lose my mind. Although, technically, Asher might be a crawler. Maybe this had always been the grand plan? Send out their strongest and nag me into submission.
“With him? You have to go back with him?” He dug into his newest Ben and Jerry’s.
I leaned over on the counter that divided the kitchen from the living area, wondering what would happen if I knocked my head against it. “Yes. I have to work with him. He’s the best shot of getting me in and out of the Shadowlands in one piece.” I kept my voice calm as I explained this—again.
A strong person would be able to endure. Apparently, I must not be that strong, because if he kept this up, I might have to pull another disappearing act. Or at least dream of one. Maybe if I could make enough money, I could pay the bills and leave him here? He’d be okay. I’d get his groceries delivered and rig the place with fire alarms. He’d probably survive.
His head dropped and he went silent as I looked at the clock on the wall. If I made it past the next few minutes, I had a shot of some peace tonight. I could always get lucky and he’d lock himself in his room again, but I was afraid to hope for too much.
There was a loud groan before he kicked in again, smothering my dreams. “But you said he wouldn’t work with you?”
Nope. This was looking like it would be another marathon. “I told you, that changed.”
“And that’s where you were all this time? I was worried sick about you.”
I didn’t doubt he had been. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I sent you a message on your phone, you know, that little box I gave you? I’d thought you’d gotten it.” Now that was an outright lie. I’d had to go get a new phone this morning.
“You know I don’t know what to do with that thing.” He stood and started pacing the living room. I watched him walk his familiar path. “I should go with you. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I won’t be alone.”
He froze in his tracks, his eyes dropping, as if that was the biggest part of the problem.
“You shouldn’t be alone with him.”
Maybe I could just knock myself unconscious? “You say that, but you don’t ever say why.”
“You should trust me enough to believe me without explanations. I saved you. You’re the reason I’m probably here.” He turned on his heel and paced in the other direction.
I stayed where I was, my gut twisting. Neither of us knew how he’d ended up in this world, but there was no denying that Asher’s theory might hold some water. The timing of when he’d cast the spell to keep the crawlers at bay for me, and him ending up here… It was definitely suspicious.
At some point, the phrase “I saved you” had started to feel like an anchor, the chain attached to it wrapped snugly around my throat. It was true, though. He’d saved me, and I felt like the most ungrateful person ever born, even as I felt like he was drowning me alive.
But I’d protect him for as long as I could, just as he’d protected me. “Asher, you know you have to keep a low profile. Some people might not understand about you.”
“Him. You mean he might not.”
“I don’t know for sure, but it’s safer this way.”
I hurried toward the door, in part to get away from Asher and his incessant badgering and also because I needed to call a car if I was going to get to the meeting on time.
“Are you coming back tonight?” he asked with a desperate whine as I opened the door to leave.
“Yes, I think so, but don’t wait up or get nervous if I don’t.” I hoped I wouldn’t. If I still had my car, I’d be tempted to sleep in it.
He started moaning again as I left, and I told myself the same thing I’d been telling myself for months. At some point, he’d get the hang of being human-ish, and then he could start a life of his own. If I had to help him until then, I owed him that much and more. But damn was I starting to wonder if he’d ever get the hang of it.
Chapter 9
I assumed that the meeting I’d been called to for tonight would take place in Kane’s office, and would be a small gathering of maybe four or five of us. When Jerry opened the door to the Underground, the place was empty. For the Underground to be emptied at ten at night, there was something bigger going down.
Kane walked out of his office and down the stairs, and from his expression, or lack of it, I knew the temperature hadn’t gone up between us at all. I didn’t know why I thought things might improve, but tonight’s forecast looked like it was ice cold with a chance of frostbite.
Butch and Leon walked down the stairs behind him, looking serious but without the frost warnings. When Leon mouthed, Still alive, it took a little of the chill from the room.
As far as Kane? It didn’t matter if it got better. I was wasting too much energy worrying about it. I’d dig myself out of this mess and start getting spells I could sell. If Kane hated me, there was nothing to be done about it. We had a working relationship, and that was all I ever wanted anyway
, so who cared if he was distant? Actually, it would make things easier. No emotional entanglements, just as it should be. I certainly wasn’t going to beg his forgiveness. Nope.
I kept my shoulders squared, my chin up and face blank. I could be just as cold as he was.
Kane didn’t acknowledge me and walked over to talk to Jerry as Butch and Leon came and stood beside me.
Butch was looking a little confused now. “Why do you look like you’re going to cry?”
“What are you talking about? I do not.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glanced over at Kane. It didn’t look like he’d heard him.
Butch scowled. “Nah, you definitely look weepy. You and Kane fighting?”
“Shut up. I’m not upset about anything.” What the hell? I’d always thought I had a poker face. No wonder I lost every time I played.
“You do seem a bit off,” Leon said, because of course he had to add his two cents.
“I’m fine. Now shut up.”
Kane walked back over to us, and Butch and Leon must’ve taken pity on me, because they managed to not say anything else.
Kane’s expression was as frosty as ever, and then it changed suddenly into irritation as it settled on me. “What? You get into a fight with your boyfriend or something?”
“None of your business,” I snapped.
“She’s fighting with one of her boyfriends,” Butch said, seemingly amused at his little joke.
It had the opposite effect on Kane. “How many men are you sleeping with?”
One of the best cures I’d ever found for wanting to cry was wanting to scream, and I was ready to blow my stack now. “Since you’re so interested, probably about five, give or take a dozen, depending on the week. That’s the problem. I’m upset because I can’t decide who to fuck tonight.”
He’d ended up only a foot away from me as he said, “While you’re working with me, you’ll stop whoring yourself out. I don’t need to be worried about who you’re having pillow talk with.”
Walking in the Dark Page 5
