Smoke, Mirrors and Demons (The Carnival Society Book 1)

by Kat Cotton

  “Like you said about the knife throwing, it’s something you can’t explain.”

  He put his arm on my waist and gazed at my face in a strange way.

  “For someone with no experience, you really act like you know what you’re doing.”

  “Good instincts,” I said and pulled away from him.

  “Good instincts indeed.” But his voice sounded like he wouldn’t let go of this.

  We both stood in the middle of the stage, a decent distance between us but that space buzzed with something. I didn’t like that buzzing but I couldn’t walk away either. Damn him. Just the way his eyes flashed made me hot and bothered. I wanted to say something, do something, anything to break this thing between us.

  “Everything okay in here?” a voice called out.

  I spun around.

  When I saw who’d called out, my heart lurched. I shrunk away, trying to make myself smaller, invisible.

  That man, I knew him.

  Big Curly. Brother of Little Curly. Of course, Little Curly was over six feet tall while Big Curly wasn’t much taller than me. Carnie humor.

  I ducked behind Duke even though I doubted Big Curly would recognize me after all these years. I didn’t want to take any chances.

  Big Curly walked out before Duke could answer him.

  “That guy,” Duke said. “He was there the night Gretchen died.”

  He took off after Big Curly. I ran too. Big Curly was the last person I wanted to talk to but he might be a key in cracking this case.

  My past was becoming way too close.

  Chapter 18

  WE RAN AFTER BIG CURLY. Did he have something to hide? Is that why he left so quickly?

  I made a quick mental note that Duke seemed as interested in questioning him as I was. Not the actions of a guilty man.

  We caught up with Big Curly, leaning against a wall with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

  “Didn’t wanna interrupt your moment in there,” he said.

  I wanted to explain there was no moment but instead tried to hide behind Duke’s back, not wanting my face seen. I’d let Duke do the talking.

  “You worked on the show last month?” Duke asked.

  Big Curly scratched his head. “Yep, I did. Terrible business, that. Poor girl getting mauled.”

  “Did you see anything? Hear anything?” Duke crossed his arms.

  Big Curly shook his head but his gaze shifted to the ground. He had something to hide.

  “Nothing really.”

  “Anything? Any little thing?”

  “Are you cops?” he asked.

  “No, you idiot. I worked with Gretchen. Sequins & Daggers. We want to find out what exactly happened.”

  “Ah.” Big Curly scratched his head again. “There was something odd. I don’t wanna get mixed up with the cops, eh.”

  That made sense. Big Curly probably had a string of outstanding warrants longer than my arm. And anyway, carnie folk didn’t like getting mixed up with the police at the best of times. The officers handing the investigation had been given the names of everyone working that night but Big Curly would’ve been a temporary hire, probably didn’t even give his real name.

  “So? What did you see?” Duke asked.

  “A man’d like a drink to jolt his memory.”

  Before I could let him know that ten a.m. wasn’t a time for drinking, Duke had reached into the inside pocket of his coat and whipped out a flask. He handed it to Big Curly.

  Big Curly took the cigarette out of his mouth, still unlit, tucked it behind his ear then grabbed the flask. He pretty near chugged down the entire contents of that flask in one gulp. Made me hope that he wasn’t still working on the rigging. No one wants a tipsy rigger.

  “Ah, details are coming back to me.” He held the flask to his nose and sniffed. “What is this anyway?”

  “A brew from the old country, my friend,” Duke said. He took the flask from Big Curly and tightened the lid before stowing it back in his pocket.

  What old country? This conversation made no sense but Duke put his arm around Big Curly’s shoulder, the two of them best buddies all of a sudden.

  What had been in that flask?

  “Tell me the truth. What happened that night?” Duke asked.

  A glazed look came over Big Curly’s eyes. That wasn’t just from the booze. Still, getting the truth out of a carnie like Big Curly would be near impossible. Guys like him lied as a default, especially to outsiders. And no matter how much Duke thought of himself as a performer, to old hands he’d always be an outsider. There was something far too genteel about him. Duke could dress the part and he could talk the part but he had something missing deep in his belly.

  “There was a man hanging around backstage that night. Never seen him before. All tall and stringy-like. I thought he was maybe a reporter so I didn’t say nuffin’ just kept my eye on him. He seemed mighty strange though, eyes darting around all over the place and a weird feel about him.”

  The words rolled off Big Curly’s tongue as though he had no control over what he said.

  “He was loitering while Gretchen went to her change room?”

  “Right outside. I never saw him go in but at that point in the festivities, I didn’t have time for careful surveillance, you know. But yep, facts are he was in the right spot.”

  Duke nodded.

  “What did he look like?” I asked. I needed a description but that turned Big Curly’s focus on me. He screwed up his face in thought, peering at me like trying to place who I was. Maybe I was paranoid. Maybe he was just trying to recall the man’s features, but I didn’t like that close scrutiny.

  “He had a big hooked nose,” Big Curly continued, his words rushing out. “Sharp-like. He could’ve cut paper with that nose. Little beady eyes. Kept his face in the shadows so I couldn’t get a good look at him but those beady little eyes kinda bore into you, you know what I’m saying. Those weren’t earthly eyes. And he wore a big coat, kinda like the one you’re wearing.”

  Duke nodded.

  A big coat, that’d let you get away with carrying a lot of stuff secreted on your person.

  “Afterward, in all the kerfuffle when your lady was found, he wasn’t around. Disappeared into the night.”

  That wasn’t so strange. The whole crew would’ve been in disarray after the body had been found. In the shock and confusion, anyone not directly involved in the show would want to get the hell out of the place. It didn’t make them guilty, not of the murder anyway. There were a bunch of reasons someone would be loitering around backstage. Looking for a chance to pocket valuables left in the change rooms or a sexual interest in one of the performers. A bigger troupe would have backstage security but a small operation like Sequins & Daggers didn’t have the staff numbers for that. Venues had their own security but they protected the venue not the performers.

  “Anything else?” Duke asked.

  “He wasn’t human. He was one of them. You’d know what I mean.”

  My stomach clenched. Talking to Big Curly hadn’t been a smart move.

  “One of what?” Duke asked.

  “The others. The bad ‘uns. Ya girlfriend here knows all about them, eh?”

  My chest tightened, the breath squeezed out of me. Big Curly knew who I was. He knew way too much. My worst fears crushed around me. I thought I’d been so clever, constructing this new life and putting up all kinds of barricades only to have them crumple at the slightest contact with the past.

  I studied Duke’s face. The information that the killer wasn’t human didn’t seem to surprise him.

  I waited for it all to fall to pieces, for Big Curly to reveal everything he knew about me. Then a strange look crossed Big Curly’s face. Even though his eyes seemed unfocused, his gaze turned to me.

  “It’s after you,” he said, in a voice much deeper than normal. “You have the blood.”

  I shivered and took a step back. What the hell was Big Curly talking about? What blood?

  Every
thing about this creeped me out. What would a demon want with me?

  Then I remembered the hip flask. Whatever Duke had given him must’ve been pretty darn strong to have Big Curly ranting like that. I turned to Duke, studying him for a minute. Had it just been booze in that flask? Because whatever Duke had given him had him singing like a canary. And Big Curly wasn’t one for talking.

  Duke just smiled at him.

  “You’ll forget we ever spoke to you,” he said.

  Big Curly gave a slow nod as Duke moved away from him.

  Then he shook himself as though he had something on him. He looked around and his eyes came back into focus. He reached up for the cigarette behind his ear and put it between his lips.

  The persuasion powers, of course. Duke had used them and Big Curly had sang like a canary. All doubt about those powers was gone from my mind.

  Big Curly got out a lighter then looked us up and down as though seeing us for the first time.

  “Can I help you folk with something?” he asked.

  Chapter 19

  WE WENT BACK TO THE warehouse. Before we even entered, I could hear the strains of Nuno on the piano accordion. Unlike the tunes he usually played, the music coming from the warehouse stirred something melancholic in my soul. I wasn’t sure I wanted to intrude. Not with him in a mood like that. But Duke walked on in, not concerned at all.

  “We need to pin down the routine today,” Duke said. “Time’s a ticking.”

  When we got inside, I looked around for Lilly but she wasn’t there.

  By the time I got changed and ready to rehearse, she’d arrived looking bleary-eyed from the night before.

  “Are we going to do a full run through?” she asked.

  “Not today but I want Jayne’s routine fixed. She’s made a lot of progress but we can’t rely on her the way we did Gretchen. Also, I think the performance space is smaller than we’d accounted for.”

  “But we have the specs,” Lilly said. “How can it be smaller?”

  Duke shrugged. “The rigging is set up differently to how I’d expected. That makes the outer perimeter less usable than I thought. It’s not going to be a big deal. You and Nuno need to go in and check it out though.”

  Lilly nodded. Nuno stopped playing the piano accordion and came to join us.

  “I don’t see you practicing the knife throwing,” Lilly said.

  “That’s not something that needs practice. It’s instinct.”

  I sighed and jumped up in the air, catching the hoop in my hands. I ignored the pain that had built up in my muscles. I needed to do a perfect swan. Even being 99% close to perfect wasn’t enough, not just for Duke but for me as well.

  Sounds mixed in the air. Duke had put on the music for my training but Nuno played the piano accordion at the other end of the warehouse and Lilly sang in the kitchen. Outside, metal scrapped like a chain blowing in the wind. I tried to block out all sounds except for my music.

  I’d just done one perfect flip on the hoop when I began feeling it, the sharp pain in my temples, the chills in my body. I pushed myself up into a seated position, going through the routine to fight off the vision. I held on tight, the wooziness making it difficult. I tried creating the white light to protect myself but as much as I tried, there were holes in that light. I’d never known that to happen before.

  Even if I wanted to fight this vision, it wouldn’t let me, as though what it had to tell me was too urgent. Fighting just weakened me.

  I shut my eyes. I’d guarded myself against visions and all the other things for years, holding back that side of me but now I’d opened the door. Maybe there was no more holding back.

  Something was coming. It approached the outside of the building. The scraping noise hadn’t been a chain or metal. It’d been claws against the walls.

  When it got inside, there’d be blood. Lots of blood. The metallic smell of blood flooded the studio, making me feel like I was drowning. I needed to stop this thing before it attacked.

  The pain left me as suddenly as it’d started.

  “Let me down,” I called out.

  Duke glared at me but did what I said. As soon as I got close enough to the floor, I jumped and rushed for the door.

  “Come back,” Duke called as I ran to the door.

  I reached the entranceway as the door opened. What entered the room wasn’t human. I could smell it and I could sense it. He wore a cap that cast shadows over his face and a coat with the collar pulled up. I had no idea what the face he hid looked like and I didn’t want to see it.

  Before I could stop him, he charged into the warehouse. He didn’t get far though, as I coathangered him around the neck. I had no issue with fighting dirty. He staggered under my hold, twisting and turning, but couldn’t free himself. Then he raised his hand and the claws came out. Long, sharp razor claws that’d make Freddy Kruger scream.

  I unhooked my arm and stumbled backward.

  This demon was far stronger than the one who’d attacked at my house. It’d take more than a sprinkle of salt to stop him.

  The demon rushed at Duke with those razors swinging. I blinked but didn’t have time to think too hard.

  I thought Duke would run from the demon but he stood his ground, feet planted ready to fight. He locked eyes with the demon and the demon stopped in its tracks.

  I froze too. What had Duke done? No demon stopped like that.

  It didn’t take long for the demon to get back into action. If Duke stayed where he was, he’d get slashed.

  “Move,” I screamed.

  Nuno rushed for the atrium. He’d be trapped if the demon went for him up there but instead he threw something down to Duke. But the demon had spun around and came for me instead.

  Flashes and shimmers bounced around my peripheral vision but I had no time to worry about them. This thing needed to be destroyed.

  I couldn’t use my powers. Not now and not here. I’d fight but I’d do it my way.

  The demon came at me but I jumped, using the hoop to swing from him. He slashed at me. Pain ripped through my thigh but I ignored it.

  Duke rushed at the demon, spraying it with something. I had no idea what but it was ineffectual. The demon kept coming for me.

  I flipped through the air, hoping my twists and turns would confuse the beast. But that pain in my leg made it impossible for me to land properly and I slumped to the floor.

  The demon advanced, seeing me weakened.

  I struggled to my feet. The danger he’d done to me slowed me down. I couldn’t fight and I couldn’t escape. I’d hoped I had enough brute strength to defeat him but I’d been stupid. Those claws were deadly weapons.

  The demon hulked over me, going for his final move. Before he could strike, he reared away.

  Duke had climbed on his back, taunting him.

  He’d done that to save me, to get the demon away. Only the demon shook him off and Duke tumbled to the floor. Now Duke was the one in danger. He couldn’t fight that thing.

  He’d surely die.

  My chest hurt. It hurt so bad. Duke couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him.

  The power I’d hidden for so long rushed to the surface. I’d faced dozens of criminals without ever using that power but this beast was no human threat. It took power to defeat power.

  My body trembled then a flood of words flew from me. I’d only ever done this once before and I’d never wanted to do it again. But I couldn’t stop.

  The words seemed drawn from something beyond me, as though I was just a conduit for them. I sure as hell had no knowledge of the language coming from my mouth. I had no knowledge of their power or even how to stop them. The words spewed out with a force of their own.

  My body shuddered. I grab hold of the sofa to steady myself.

  The demon stopped in mid lurch, seeming to pause in mid-air for a few seconds before dropping to the floor.

  The words still flowed from me as the demon convulsed on the floor.

  My arms ached and my legs shook.
I wasn’t sure how long I could even contain this power. I’d done everything I could to repress it. I’d spent ten years making myself normal. And all it took was one little demon to ruin it all.

  Then a flash of light flooded the warehouse, red light almost blindingly bright. I shut my eyes to stop the pain. When I opened them again, the demon was gone. Nothing left but his cap sitting near Duke’s chair.

  Oh shit.

  I looked around the room. Who’d seen that?

  Lilly and Nuno stared at me while Duke wandered around, distracted. He picked up the cap and put it on his head.

  I’d known this was a bad idea. One of the worst. Call it a circus or a carnival or whatever the hell you want, it all means one thing. Bad news.

  “I told you,” Lilly said to Duke. “I told you she was the one.”

  I wanted ask what she’d told him but I lost all strength. I could barely stand.

  “You’re bleeding,” Duke said.

  I looked down and saw the blood spurting from a wound on my leg, my tights completely shredded. It was only when I saw the wound that the pain hit me.

  Chapter 20

  “YOU NEED A COMPRESS to stop the bleeding,” said Lilly. “That’s a mess.”

  “She needs more than a compress.” Duke put his arms around me, intending to scoop me up off the floor.

  “I’m fine,” I said, pushing him away. “I can walk on my own.”

  I made a move to stand on my own but my head swam so that I clutched out for something to steady myself. That something was Duke’s arm. My chest hurt and I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.

  This wasn’t me. I didn’t get swoony.

  This time I didn’t fight when Duke picked me up. He pulled me against his chest and wrapped his arms around me. Those arms felt so strong and secure. I held him tight around the neck, well I had to or I’d have fallen. That’s what I told myself. I tried to ignore the scent of him, so close to my nose and the warmth of those arms.

  I groaned as he put me down on the sofa, the pain ripping down my leg.

  “Are you okay?” Duke asked.

  I nodded, the nausea rising in my stomach. “Are you okay?” I managed to say even though my mouth felt full of cotton.