I frowned at the implications. How could this thing be her shadow, her home, and a murderous creature all at the same time?
“It’s bigger on the inside,” Van murmured, seeming to read my mind.
Baba smiled at him. “Oh, yes. I almost forgot that you’ve graced us with your presence in the past. Not many leave our hospitality, you know.” Her eyes twinkled hungrily and the shadow quivered as if upset.
“Yeah, I didn’t like the bedsheets.”
“Not sure about you guys, but I have better things to do with my time than creeping each other out, so let’s make this constructive. What exactly is this book that we all want so badly? A client asked me to buy it. In fact, …” my voice trailed off as I had a thought. I looked from face to face. “Are one of you clowns my client? I’ve never actually met the guy.” I turned to address the two women. “Or gal.” Then my eyes shifted to the Gruffalo and Baba’s house, which both seemed to be sniffing the air again. What the hell were they doing? “Or thing.”
I could sense Gunnar’s tension as his head got a workout, flicking from one threat to the next.
“I have clients. I don’t hire others to do my dirty work,” Van sneered, glancing pointedly at Baba and the Huntress.
They shot dark looks back, but shook their heads with varying denials. “Right. And aren’t we all just an honest bunch of Girl Scouts…” I muttered. Only Van laughed. “So, that means one of you is double-playing the rest of us.” I let that sink in as they all shot thoughtful glares at each other. “Or… there is another schmuck out there waiting in the wings, no doubt laughing his or her ass off at us right now.” I offered, hoping to turn the three immortal psychopaths in another direction, if not at each other. After all, I really didn’t have any idea where the book was. No point losing my life over it. “You guys have any enemies needing some new accessories?”
They again appraised each other intensely, all holding secrets, no one speaking.
But we were suddenly interrupted as the Gruffalo finally got a solid lead on whatever he had been searching for. He let out a leonine spitting roar, spun on turned-out toes, and launched himself at his prey.
Me.
Gunnar howled in defiance.
The huntress laughed.
Van merely took a step back and folded his arms, letting things play out, as did Baba.
I lashed out with my whips of pure elemental fire and ice, and then morphed them into the crackling purple cords of quivering… whatever it was I had used against the Grimm-Liger Tag-team I had confronted a few months ago, and slammed them into the earth before me, causing the ground to shudder. Baba clapped lightly, and I squared off against my childhood Demon as Gunnar hunkered down low.
“There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo…” I chanted under my breath.
Chapter 20
Being in as many scraps as I had over the years, you come to realize a sixth sense, or maybe it’s just a combination of all your senses being analyzed by your subconscious, warning you of something just a bit louder than your natural fight-or-flight syndrome.
For example, although the Gruffalo was pounding towards us, he was actually staring over my shoulder, not at me.
I waited until the last second, realizing that the Gruffalo had no intentions of stopping to go around me, but that he simply was intending to pound over me… just like I would unknowingly step on a leaf while walking through the woods. No second thought. I need to step here. So, I’m going to step here. I have no inkling of concern for – or even an acknowledgment of – the leaf.
I was the leaf to the Gruffalo.
I dove out of the way at the last possible moment, lashing out with my whips at the monster’s feet. My whips slammed into his ankles, wrapping around them in a crackling coruscation of purple light and sizzling meat, and I yanked back, using my momentum to pull for all I was worth. After all, the thing was huge.
The Gruffalo roared in pain as his feet swept out from under him, sending him horn first into a tree, which cracked loudly before slowly toppling under his titanic weight. The tree and the Gruffalo crashed to the ground, and the Huntress screamed in fury.
Gunnar snarled pure venom at the Huntress as the Gruffalo tore at the earth, flinging away my whips of power with snarls of pain and outrage as he climbed to his feet. His golden eyes locked onto me for a heartbeat and he took a threatening step my way.
Then he abruptly grunted in pain as an invisible force slammed into him, sending him ass over teakettle a good fifty feet away. He careened off two more trees on his brief flight.
The cause of the abrupt impact coalesced into a figure on horseback.
Indie, astride Grimm. We all stared, dumbfounded.
The unicorn’s pearlescent, gnarly horn glistened with black blood where it had impaled the Gruffalo. His hooves flickered with silver fire, and his feathered mane flared out like that icky dinosaur from Jurassic Park. The one that spat poison at people. A drop of the black blood fell from the horn, and quick as a snake, Grimm’s tongue shot out to catch the nourishment with a contented neigh. For a millisecond, we locked gazes, and I noticed that she was just as confused as me, looking almost delirious with exhaustion or struggle of some kind. Being around all five of us was overwhelming her constraint. Then she and the unicorn flickered out of existence without a trace. I blinked. That was new.
A tense silence grew for a moment before anyone spoke. “I approve of her mount. I shall take it,” the Huntress stated matter-of-factly.
“She had the book,” Van growled.
But Baba was shaking her head with a slight frown. I let out a small sigh. Baba had seen Indie yesterday and knew she didn’t have it. Thank God. I couldn’t imagine all three of these punks going after Indie at once. I needed to get them pointed in another direction. Immediately.
“No, she doesn’t. Trust me.” Van laughed snidely. I shot him a glare. “She touched it last night when she tried to buy it at the auction. The auction that one or all of you crazies obviously attended, to steal and murder everyone involved, for your precious book.”
Not one of them had a look of chagrin on their face. Whether that was because they were innocent, or literally cared nothing for the human lives that had been taken, I didn’t yet know.
“It’s just like me,” I continued. “I have a trace of the book’s residual whatever it is on me as a result of touching the case left at the murder scene. So does the Grimm you just had the pleasure of meeting.” They watched me thoughtfully, and I flicked out an accusatory finger. “So does she.” I pointed at Baba. The two growled at her, sensing the air with their various powers, and seeming to confirm the truth to my words.
“The question is, who has the book? If we’re all here looking for it, chances are favorable that there really is another player in the game laughing his or her ass off. If one of us already had it, we would be long gone by now,” I said.
They studied each other, nodding slowly.
“How vested are you guys on getting it, because I would really like to buy it. My client was willing to pay quite a bit for it, although he didn’t inform me of competitors, or what the… book truly was.” I waited, but no one deemed my words worthy of a response.
Then they began to banter back and forth with various forms of grotesque harm against anyone who got in their way over the next few days. “Right,” I interrupted. “I’ll take that as pretty fucking vested. Well, until next time. I would say it’s been a pleasure, but…” I waved my hand vaguely, glancing at the Gruffalo who still hadn’t gotten up but was beginning to stir. “Someone really needs to go tuck that Gruffalo back in bed.”
“Lions do not consort with prey,” the Huntress sniffed disdainfully, and she and the Gruffalo simply vanished.
Van watched the air she had vacated for a second before turning to me. “I’m out too, but I’ll be seeing you and your wolfpup again. Soon.” His eyes swiveled to study Gunnar. “You look fun, boy. We should play hide and seek sometime.” He patted his crossbow hun
grily. Gunnar growled. Van let out a laugh, winked, and with a faint pop of oily smoke, disappeared also.
Which left us alone with the witch. “Coincidentally, I heard of a delicious bake sale tonight. Perhaps you could join me? The cookies are supposed to be mouthwatering…” She drew out the word like an infomercial.
I had a vague feeling I would not appreciate her choices of cookies, given the nature of her stories. “No, thanks.”
“I’ll pick you up at your toy store tomorrow night, Nathaniel. I would like to discuss some things in private also.” Leaving me no time to respond, she and her familiar simply faded from existence like dissipating fog.
Chapter 21
Gunnar loped up beside me, panting lightly. His eye was a vivid scar across the unblemished white fur of an otherwise perfect specimen of a giant freaking wolf. Making him look wilder, darker, grimmer… harder. He watched me in silence. Damn single eye made it look accusatory, so I scowled back.
Indie and Grimm suddenly appeared behind Gunnar on the heels of a bolt of obsidian lightning. Thunder seemed to immediately shatter the trees around us and Gunnar yelped in terror, tail tucked between his legs.
I burst out laughing.
Gunnar shifted back to human form, face red. “You can’t tell me that didn’t startle you.”
“Actually, I can. She does it all the time. The Unicorn kept following her around everywhere after she died. But the disappearing act is new.”
“I thought it was yours.”
“I, not it,” Grimm grumbled, causing Gunnar to flinch again.
“Jesus. I didn’t know you could talk, too. I thought only Gruff could talk.” Gruff was Death’s horse. The Pale Horse of the Apocalypse.
“I speak only when necessary. The conversations I have with myself are infinitely more intellectually invigorating…” Gunnar scowled with his one eye.
Indie smiled weakly, patting Grimm on the neck. “Easy, old one. No harm…” her voice was like velvet, but she looked on the verge of collapse, with now prominent dark rings under her eyes. Grimm began to relax, flicking his mane of feathers before suddenly going rigid and kneeling to the ground so fast he practically fell down.
Then Indie folded, eyes rolling back in her head as she fell from Grimm’s back. Gunnar caught her, barely.
He was closer, that was all. And he had been in my way. Still, a small part of me muttered dark thoughts as I saw the giant almost naked man catch and curl up around my fiancé. At least he was wearing some form of spandex biker shorts or something. Anything was better than that time I had caught him in Underdog underwear.
Look, Gunnar was infatuated with Ashley, and even without her, he would never do anything untoward. But…
He was different now. And he was holding my fiancé. With his ridiculous muscles and bulletproof beard.
I shook off the dark thoughts, telling myself it was simply because I was afraid of why she had passed out in the first place.
Gunnar stood with ease, turning to face me, and I froze. The front of his boxer-briefs was a giant wolf’s head, with the nose directly where his… look, use your imagination.
“Really?” His face flashed red as he glanced down at himself. I held out my arms for him to hand Indie over. I very pointedly didn’t look at his package, which was almost impossible due to the emphasis of the wolf snout. Jesus…
“Ashley likes them,” he muttered defensively, carrying her over towards me. He took a big whiff of Indie, eye squinted in thought. “She smells healthy. Pulse normal. Temperature normal. I think she’s just exhausted. Or perhaps that drink has lingering effects?” He added as an afterthought, face suddenly tightening as he no doubt worried for Ashley.
I nodded. “Don’t worry. Ashley’s probably fine. She’s a werewolf now. Stronger than she used to be. You don’t need to be as paranoid about her safety as you once were.”
Gunnar nodded, handing Indie over to my arms. “Right. Because she was attacked by a werewolf… while I was helping you…” The words weren’t meant as an attack, but the undertone was heavy, underlining our earlier conversation.
I ignored it, adjusting Indie’s weight. “Let’s go. And put on some damn clothes to cover that up. You look ridiculous.” He grumbled something under his breath, opening up the drawstring backpack he carried with him at all times to withdraw a change of clothes. “Oh, and grab my bow too.”
Indie stirred, eyes drifting open in a weak flutter. “I just wanted… answers. To… whatever it is that happened last night…”
“Indie, you are wanted for questioning as a murder suspect, or very close to it. You can’t just go traipsing about at random.”
She smiled weakly. “I didn’t. I was… hidden…” She took a slow breath, voice growing fainter. “Don’t… don’t pretend you saw me, Maker… My Maker…” and her head lolled to the side, curling into my chest with a soft whimper.
I glanced at Grimm. “And why exactly did you let her talk you into this?”
He nickered back. “She’s safe with me…” he said cryptically.
I hesitated, thinking about that. “You’re right. She didn’t shift. Can you help her control her powers?”
“If the situation requires it.” I frowned. “Sometimes the situation may require the opposite. I’ll be there for her then, also.” I nodded, resuming my stride. He followed me beside Gunnar as we headed back to the car.
“Was the invisible thing you or her?”
“Me, but in time, she will be able to also.” I remembered the sensation of eyes on my back as we walked, and having chalked it up to nature being nature, had ignored it. Then when the three evil musketeers had appeared, I had assumed my senses had been picking up on one or all of them. I hadn’t suspected Indie.
Which was actually incredible.
“Thanks, Grimm.” He shook his head. After a few steps, I called over my shoulder. “When you guys are talking to each other, do you call each other Grimm at every opportunity? Because I totally would.”
There was no answer. I glanced back, and noticed that Grimm was simply gone. Gunnar merely shrugged. After a few minutes, Gunnar spoke. “I’m out, Nate. Done hunting, and done with whatever craziness you have going on. I’ve got my hands full.”
I looked at him. “Yeah. Especially since it’s a full moon soon. Ashley have plans?” Gunnar looked thoughtful, and none too pleased.
Gunnar didn’t want to get involved. I understood that, but it seemed Van really had an interest in him. And I could use the help. But only if absolutely necessary. “You know, I’ve got a good thing now. Ashley. The Pack. Have you ever considered that you are the chaos factor?”
“That’s ridiculous,” I argued over my shoulder. Then, remembering his underwear, I smiled to myself. “By the way, Indie got Ashley something. She should have gotten it in the mail by now.”
Gunnar chuckled. “Yeah. My werewolf wears Underoos panties,” he chuckled. “Ashley liked ‘em.” I nodded, glad I had moved the topic to more mundane conversation. But Gunnar wasn’t so easily distracted. He increased his pace until he was walking beside me. “It doesn’t change anything, Nate. I’ve got other things going on. You’ve got Alucard to help you out now. Last time I helped you out, I lost an eye,” he added drily.
I would have thrown up my arms if I hadn’t been holding Indie. “But this is totally unrelated! The Grimms were after you just as much as me.” Gunnar arched an eyebrow. “Okay, fine. They were after you a bit less intently than me.”
He nodded, smiling at my admission of the truth. “I need to find out what the hell this book is. Why they all want it.”
“Ask Pandora,” he answered casually.
I blinked. Then I nodded at him. “Bros.” He smiled back, rolling his eye.
“Even though you aren’t getting involved, I would be on the lookout for the Volkswagen.” A confused look painted his face. “I refuse to call him by his rightful name.”
“Oh, Van Helsing.” Gunnar nodded, eye tightening. He stroked his beard wit
h a meaty hand. “I’ll be waiting for him with open arms… as will my pack.”
I chuckled at the mental image. Now, off to see Pandora…
And my parents’ ghosts.
Chapter 22
Indie had slept the whole way home to Chateau Falco, and she was now tucked away in bed, still sleeping like the dead. She had darker rings under her eyes now, and her breathing seemed more labored than normal. Maybe she was coming down with a cold or something. I sat in my office, tapping my lips as I waited for Alucard to show up. He was picking up Misha’s daughters, the troublesome duo I had nicknamed The Reds. We had an appointment later and I wanted them close by. I found myself fidgeting with the strap to my satchel beside the chair.
Because I kept thinking about the black book sitting inside.
Through the Looking-Glass.
After much debating, I finally poured a severely watered-down whisky since I didn’t want to bring any monsters to life. I settled into the chair, smiling as I successfully counted to ten without looking at the book. I did it five times, with only a quick peek between each, and then finally convinced myself that I had overcome the urge, and that this was merely the next step in the process now.
Check the back of the book for a reply.
Which was ridiculous to say aloud.
But… in my world, one never truly knew what was possible and what was not.
I opened the book, and slowly flipped to the back. I took a deep breath, and flipped over the page to reveal the comment I had jotted down last night.
And I almost threw it across the room, burning it to ashes on the way for good measure. But I didn’t. My fingers were locked onto the book as if held rigid with fear, as I read the four words.
Are you really there?
I shivered, shaking my head too quickly. “No, no, no…” The possibilities raced through my mind like a dealer shuffling cards. Was the book possessed by some Demon or supernatural creature? Was it a prank from someone in the household? I hadn’t locked it up, so it was possible that Alucard had done it to be funny.
Silver Tongue: A Novel in The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 4) Page 10
