Walking in the Dark

by Donna Augustine

  I closed the distance to six inches. No one was telling me what to do. “I’ll fuck everyone in Boston if I want, because it’s none of your business and it has nothing to do with our arrangement.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  Collin chose that moment to walk in the door. I had no idea what he was here for because I didn’t even know what the meeting was about yet. “Oh look, another stud I can add to my stable,” I said under my breath but loud enough for Kane to hear but hopefully not Collin. I didn’t want to give Collin any crazy ideas.

  I went to walk toward Collin. It was the only excuse I had to give Kane my back at the moment. When I saw the glimmer in Collin’s eye, I realized that he’d probably heard me with his werewolf hearing. Nice going, Ollie.

  Kane beat me to him and stopped any awkward conversation from happening, at least between me and Collin.

  Kane and Collin stood about five feet apart, but instead of an awkward conversation, there was mostly awkward silence.

  Collin’s eyes went from me to Kane. “So, I see the two of you are back together.”

  And now we were back to awkward conversation. The way he said it made it sound like we were together together. Boy, was he wrong!

  Kane could handle that one. He was the one hovering and making it look bad.

  When I didn’t hear anything, I looked over where Kane was standing quietly. Nothing?

  Butch and Leon joined our little threesome just as two more men walked in. They were both slender and wearing black suits that had a slight vintage look. The one who appeared to be in his fifties had the blackest hair against pale skin.

  “That one is Rudy,” Leon whispered to me, noticing where I was looking. “You could consider him King Dick of the leprechauns. The loser behind him is his second.”

  The circle widened, accepting the two newcomers, who nodded at Kane and ignored me.

  Alexandria appeared next, with a blonde woman who was already showing fang. Alexandria was all smiles for Kane, fangs tucked away.

  We’d all formed a circle of sorts. I had Kane on my right, which I guessed proved that even though he didn’t like me, somehow, in this situation, we were still on the same side. Butch and Leon were close on my left. Jerry stayed back by the door, looking much meaner than I’d even imagined he could. Was he waiting for unexpected guests?

  Everybody was staring down everybody else, and I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a meeting or the beginning of a war.

  Collin was shooting daggers at Kane and Alexandria. Alexandria was shooting me the evil eye as I stood next to Kane, presumably because everyone seemed to think I slept with everybody. I must be sleeping with Kane too, because why not? The leprechauns were looking around at everyone like each person was their mortal enemy, except for me, who they ignored.

  I might’ve shot them a couple of hard looks because it was hard to not be bitter when you were held in a basement and tortured for a day.

  I did notice Rudy’s eyes dropped slightly when he looked toward Kane. Now what was that about? So there was one person here they weren’t willing to take on. Vampires? No problem. Werewolves? Got it covered. Kane? Nope, not someone they’d mess with. I tucked that little gem away.

  It was starting to make sense of why the meeting was down here, though. With all these guests and plenty of vitriol, the office would’ve felt like cramped quarters. I wouldn’t want this crew in my apartment either.

  Alexandria spoke first. “Why is she here?”

  Alexandria might’ve had a couple of reasons to dislike me. First, she was carrying a torch for Kane that would’ve put Lady Liberty’s to shame, and second, I might’ve turned her current boyfriend into a toddler. Shit happens.

  I shrugged in her direction. It was the best apology she was going to get from me. Her eyes narrowed, and I couldn’t blame her. It was a pretty lame effort on my part.

  “We’re all here for the same reasons,” Kane said, playing the role of peacemaker. It was sort of like watching a wolf tell a bunny everything was all okay.

  Alexandria’s fangs dropped. “She’s going to find our stuff? Where? In her back pocket?”

  I was a second from walking out of here. This wasn’t my problem. I would’ve too, if Kane didn’t grab my arm before he said, “She’s your best chance at getting your stuff back, so I’d play nice.”

  Alexandria put both hands on her hips and glared in my direction.

  “You do want her help, don’t you? If you don’t, feel free to leave,” Kane said, and I guessed he didn’t feel quite so satisfied with just her silence.

  She didn’t say anything; she didn’t move, either. Yeah, that was about as good as it was going to get with her.

  Rudy stepped forward. “Is she even capable of getting a spell to find our map?”

  Now I was an incompetent? “Well, that’s certainly not going to inspire me to get anything for you. And considering past events, I’m not sure if I’d be rushing me back into the Shadowlands.” I left my meaning hanging in the air. I also made it sound like it wasn’t already on my to-do list. There was still at least one leprechaun roaming out there that was going to get a nice surprise once I got some magic back.

  “When is she going in?” Collin asked, a little too interested. What? Now he wanted to anchor me? Little late there, buddy.

  Kane moved closer until his arm was brushing mine. “When I say so.”

  “We should all be there when she gets it,” Rudy said.

  “But you won’t be. I’ll call another meeting once we have the spell. You can be there for that. In the meantime, no one makes a move on her.”

  Ahhh, now I understood the real reason for this meeting. I’d just officially been placed underneath the Kane protection umbrella.

  “You have something to discuss with her, you discuss it with me. No one so much as goes near her. No one touches her—in any way.” He walked away and headed up toward his office.

  Kane left while I stared at his back. Then I realized we were all staring at his back. It was hard not to after that.

  Okay then, he was really serious about me not sleeping around. Good to know. Might’ve been better off agreeing in private to his terms, and then perhaps my face wouldn’t feel like the surface of Mars, but I got the picture. I was pretty sure everyone got the picture.

  I stood there, frozen, perhaps even slightly stunned at his upper-handedness, as the meeting’s participants cleared out without getting any closer to me than they had been.

  “What are you going to do?” Butch asked from beside me, the room empty but for the four of us.

  I turned toward him. “What do you mean, what am I going to do? Did you just see what he did? The spectacle he made? Then walks off like it was nothing?” My mouth was hanging open as I waved my hand toward the closed door of the office, my face still feeling hot enough to roast marshmallows.

  “Why aren’t you following him and fixing this?” Butch asked.

  “Fixing what? He barely wants to speak to me.”

  Butch let out a long sigh before answering. “He’s mad about how you left. Now you follow him and fight with him some more until you resolve your issues.”

  I took a step toward Jerry and the door. “I can’t go up there. He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

  “So, you’re a quitter? That’s what you’re saying?” Leon asked, clearly disapproving of my answer.

  “I am not a quitter.” I took another step toward the door.

  “He’s up there. Here you are.” Butch shrugged. “Looks like quitting to me. I thought you’d given up on quitting?”

  “There’s nothing I can do.” I held my hands up in surrender and took two more steps.

  “If you fuck something up, you fix it,” Leon said, sounding like my third-grade teacher, minus maybe the cursing.

  “I can’t fix this.”

  Leon nudged Butch with his elbow. “She’s quitting. She’s a quitter.”

  Butch shook his hea
d disapprovingly. “She’s quitting.”

  “I’m not quitting.” I was temporarily retreating.

  “Still quitting,” they said together.

  “No. I’m, ‘still alive.’ That’s the saying, and it’s true. I’ve been surviving against all odds using my own judgment. Still alive.”

  Butch let out a very long and noisy sigh. “Still quitting.”

  Leon nodded. “Yep, still quitting.”

  “How about ‘still leaving’?”

  Butch elbowed Leon. “I think that’s the same as quitting. What do you think?”

  I already saw Leon’s answer coming, but I didn’t hear it, since I was out the door.

  Chapter 10

  I pulled the keys out of my pocket and was juggling a pizza outside my building when Kane pulled up in yet another black luxury car. Or at least it looked expensive. I didn’t know cars enough to be sure. He leaned over and pushed the door open.

  “Get in. Leave the pizza.”

  I glimpsed Asher looking down from the window above. Shit. I took a slice out but left the rest before Asher decided to come downstairs.

  The car started pulling away before I’d finished shutting the door, and I took a sad look back at my abandoned dinner.

  Kane looked over at me, eating my greasy slice without even a napkin. “Don’t get grease on my seats.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll wipe it on my clothes first,” I said, and then added an eye roll as I kept eating. “Where we going?”

  “We’ll be there soon.”

  Okay, then. This was business. Didn’t matter if he was unpleasant. It was how I should be viewing our relationship too, and there were no hard feelings in business. I was getting what I needed out of this deal. We both were. Plus, as long as he needed me, it meant I had some security from the rest of the crazies while I rebuilt my finances. That was the only thing that mattered.

  He didn’t say anything for the rest of the ride, and I didn’t either, because I didn’t care. Nope, not me. I could do this silent stuff too.

  We pulled into a clearing thirty minutes later. Whatever this place was, it looked like nothing but a barren field, except for the vintage Caddy idling nearby containing two familiar faces.

  “Why are Butch and Leon here?” I asked, as Kane pulled up beside them.

  He wasn’t all warmth and sunshine, but at least he answered. “In case we get company. While you’re in there, I’ve literally got one hand tied up keeping you anchored. I don’t want to be in a situation where I have to let go.”

  “Why would we get company? Aren’t you sort of in control of the rest of them?”

  He turned to me before getting out of the car. This time, he didn’t look cold or annoyed. He looked concerned. “There’s other things out there that might’ve heard about this by now. We’ve got to be ready for an ambush.”

  He waited for an acknowledgement from me before he got out of the car.

  I nodded, as I needed another minute to get my words back.

  Okay, so maybe I wasn’t as safe as I’d thought. That might’ve been useful information to have as I was strolling down the street last night, thinking the worst was behind me.

  Not that I’d say that to Kane. We had enough beef between us. I wasn’t adding another pound of chopped meat to it, or as Asher would order, beef tenderloin.

  I followed him out of the car.

  Butch and Leon got out of the Caddy with the smell of fast food accompanying them, and each with a bag of Wendy’s.

  “I threw out my pizza and now I have to watch them eat Wendy’s?”

  “What? We can’t eat and stand around at the same time?” Butch asked. Leon said nothing, just shoved some more fries in his mouth.

  I walked over and put my hand out. “If you don’t bring enough for everyone, you don’t bring it.”

  Butch’s smile sank as he dug through his bag and grabbed a half-full sleeve of fries. “Thank you,” I said, as if he’d really wanted to give them to me.

  “What about him? Aren’t you going to take some from him?” Butch called after me as I went to look around the clearing.

  “Nope. I’m good.”

  Butch grumbled as Leon laughed. I ignored them as I took a walk around, really absorbing the place.

  It felt like I hadn’t done this in a decade, but it had only been months. Still, I needed this to go smoothly. There was a lot at stake right now, and I wasn’t walking out empty-handed.

  As I continued to look the place over, I could feel that something was off with the crawlers. It was subtle—the way they turned their heads away when my eyes landed on them. The twitchiness of their steps.

  Kane walked over where I was finishing my fries. “They seem skittish tonight,” I said, before I ate the last of the salty goodness.

  “I agree,” he said, with no attitude and no ego. Even if we weren’t going to be friends anymore, it was nice to know in times like this, we could stop biting each other’s heads off.

  “Any ideas?” I caught sight of a little bunny-looking crawler. Smaller than what I’d need to get in, but that wasn’t what caught my eye. It looked like it was fighting with another small crawler. Now that was something I’d never seen before.

  “No.” He also watched the two fight, and I could have sworn there was a tiny grimace pulling at his lips.

  Whatever was going on, it didn’t matter—hopefully. It was time to get down to business. I found a nice, big crawler that could open up a doorway into the Shadowlands.

  Then Kane’s hand on my shoulder stopped me. I turned, expecting to see company. It was still just us. Leon was sitting on a boulder eight feet away, munching on his French fries while Butch gave him dirty looks.

  “Stay alert when you go in and get out as quick as possible. If the crawlers are acting strange here, it might be worse in there.”

  “I doubt it’ll be as bad as when I went in and got your spell.” If he thought I was going to believe he was worried now, he must’ve thought I was as green as Ireland grass in the spring. He’d pretty much thrown me out of his office when I asked to work with him again. Then he went to the trouble of making sure no one else would work with me. Not to mention his oh-so-sweet personality lately. Yeah, I could do without the false concern.

  I held up my right hand. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get started.”

  He took my hand without further comment, his expression back to a more palatable reality.

  I made quick work of calling the crawler over and entering the Shadowlands.

  It was bleak and dreary, and I’d missed the place like a dentist missed cavities. As I breathed, I could feel the potent magic in the air seeping into my pores and filling my lungs. I thought of the retired Shadow Walker I’d tracked down, trying to remember her name. Sherry something or other had been scrawled above the address I’d gotten. The thing I couldn’t forget was the craving for magic she’d shown. Was that what it would be like for me after a while? Did it become an addiction? I took another breath, leaned my head back as the magic poured over me, and wondered if I’d care if it did become addictive, as long as I could get this fix.

  A squeeze on my hand got me back to business, as if he knew I’d been goofing off a bit. I looked around the place, and just as I’d feared, they were acting strangely in here too. They were keeping their distance and had a twitchy appearance. A larger one, who looked sort of like a gorilla, even curled its lip back at another one of their kind.

  What the hell?

  Didn’t matter. I had two goals. One for Kane and one for me. My goal was more pressing. I needed cash and I needed it yesterday. Maybe I could ask for cash? Who knew? Maybe you really could get a money tree?

  I found a slender one that stood about three feet tall and walked on its hind legs. I called it over in a firm voice, not messing around.

  “I need a spell to make money.” It shifted its head sideways and then skipped off.

  So much for the money tree. Probably for the best. I wasn’t sure
where I could plant it where Asher wouldn’t have found it and spent it, anyway.

  I targeted my next crawler. A little guy hiding behind a rock. On the small side, but all the other ones were keeping a healthy distance. I was starting to wonder if whatever Asher had done to keep them away from me in my world had also bled over into his.

  Either way, I didn’t like the vibes I was getting from them. Time to get what I could and get out.

  “I need a spell to find something.” The creature gave a little shiver but then offered up the words. The whole time it was saying them, I noticed the other crawlers inching in.

  Instead of gathering around where I’d exit, they were circling where I already was. As soon as the spell settled in my mind, I slowly eased away, not wanting to set off any prey instincts in them with a full-out run.

  They didn’t follow me. They seemed more interested in each other, like there was a division of some sort between the two groups. The handful on my left hissed. The gathering on my right replied with the same, some of them curling back their lips. None of them seemed to care about me.

  Either way, I didn’t want to be in the middle of this fight. This was going to go bad, and quick. I had way too many problems all on my own. When the smallest crawler shot flames out of its mouth toward a hulking one opposite it, I knew it was time to run.

  I sprang toward the place I’d entered, but not before I felt the flames licking at me. I didn’t think I was the intended target, but I was definitely getting my share of the heat.

  I stumbled out of the Shadowlands and dropped to the ground immediately, yanking out of Kane’s grip so I could roll.

  Kane followed me down, patting out the flames on my clothes.

  “What the hell happened?” he asked once I wasn’t combusting any longer. Butch and Leon were beside him.

  Kane grabbed my hand, hoisting me to my feet again, and I could feel my shirt hanging open in the back.

  “There was something definitely off. I went in and…” Had that been right? “It seems like they’re attacking each other.”

  “Why would they do that?” Butch asked.