“My reaction, Mr. Wannabe-psychiatrist, is that I’m pissed. I was raised here. This was my safe place, where I always went in my imagination when I wanted to feel good, protected. Now it’s gone, all gone. Everything is dangerous. Fairy tales are not just stories, they’re real. A scary story is no longer just a fairy tale. The monster does live under the bed and in the damn closet. I can’t stand it.”
“Aren’t you overreacting a little? Nothing has really changed. You are simply more aware.”
“I didn’t want to know. I wanted the boogie man to be my imagination.” Tears streamed down my face again.
Aiden turned my face to him, cradling it in his cool hands. “Tali. Do I look like a monster?”
I shook my head.
“Kiss me.”
I turned my face up to his. He kissed me, lightly at first, growing more insistent, intense. My knees grew weak, threatening to give way as waves of desire flew through me, promising to take over completely if he didn’t stop. I wrenched my head away, gasping for air. He was a monster of desire and he caught me up in it, distracted me, and I loved him for it.
“What are you, a magical seduction expert?”
“No, just your ordinary neighborhood vampire.”
“Right and I’m the damsel in distress. Who is going to rescue me?”
“Tali, I’m serious.”
Any warmth I’d felt after the kiss vanished like snow in the sun. “A vampire,” I said, my voice flat. “My boyfriend is a vampire. My life is so not happening. It can’t be. Shouldn’t you be wearing a cape and flying around? Oh, yeah. We did that already. Do you sleep in a coffin, drink blood and all that?” I held out my wrist. “Need a damn snack?”
Aiden recoiled as if I’d slapped him and looked at me as if I were someone he’d never met. He left as he’d come, silently and in an instant.
* * * *
The only thing left for me to do was check on the kids and go to bed. I’d managed to argue with Mumsie and with Aiden, and if JT had been around I would have pissed him off too. My world had changed, tilted on its axis, begun rotating the other direction. Yup, overdramatic, but that’s how I felt. Actually, I felt as if I’d run a marathon, an emotional race. I didn’t win.
I didn’t come out ahead in my dreams. Things chased me through the dark, I ran, chased back, they ran. Night turned to bright day but I still couldn’t see what was after me or where I ran.
* * * *
The next morning I browbeat JT into meeting me at the diner for coffee, lots of coffee. I wanted to tell him the latest theories, leaving out most of the monsters.
JT snorted. “Tell me you don’t believe that hogwash.”
“I don’t know what in hell I believe any longer. Did you ever hear anything from the autopsies?”
“Finally. It looks as if the fluids had solidified into a powder, which makes no sense. There has to be another explanation. It did not happen spontaneously, but no matter how it happened, it remains murder and is in my jurisdiction. Finding the killer is my job, not matter how squirrelly the forensic report—and despite black magic gossip. I see enough of that crap about the Rayburn place.”
I brightened up and stirred too much sugar and creamer into my coffee. The place might not have espresso but the regular coffee had strong enough legs to get up and walk. “What kind of reports?”
“The usual. Lights in the windows, strange noises, movements in the house, shadows on the windows.”
“Any signs of witchcraft?”
“I don’t know.” JT folded his arms across his chest, withdrawing. “I didn’t find any black hats or cats. We did run into a couple of dead animals—some sick kids’ idea of a pre-Halloween trick.” He took a gulp of his black coffee and sputtered when it burned his mouth.
“What if there really was something?”
“Like what, animal sacrifices under the full moon?”
“Stranger things have happened. Maybe not stranger, but you know what I mean.”
“Tali, if I blame every dead animal in the county on the presence of witchcraft or black magic, I’d be out of a job faster than a duck on a June bug.” He jumped when his pager beeped. I laughed.
He checked the number, dialed, and listened, conversing in monosyllables before he hung up. “Gotta go. Talk to you later.” He stood up.
I jumped out of the chair. “Where are you going? Can I go along? Is it something about the murders?” Damn. I sounded like a kid wanting to go on a fun house ride.
“I’m going on a domestic call and you don’t want to get involved, especially when you know the people concerned.”
I could see from his face that he’d said more than he meant to. “If it’s someone I know, maybe I can help defuse the situation. I’m not as threatening as the sheriff’s department.”
He shook his head. “It could get us both killed, you know, but come on.”
I ran for the door. “Let’s take my car. They won’t be instantly on guard when we drive up.”
“Go out past the Rayburn house to that little frame house right off the highway. I can’t believe I’m letting you do this.”
“What if I stay in the car and you go up to the house and do what you do. If it’s appropriate, you tell me to come up. Would that make you feel better?”
He frowned. “Not really but it will have to do.”
“Why are you being so pissy about my riding along? My God, you didn’t have to let me come. Besides, you let volunteers come all the time.”
“They have training and you’re driving, not riding. Plus if you get hurt, my ass is grass for bringing you at all.”
“Well, pardon me for living. Whose house are we going to, anyway?”
“It’s one of Choice Bergan’s rental houses. A gal and her two kids, moved here recently. She says she has a protection order against her ex and he’s here and won’t leave. She was with you at the contest.”
“Lyn? I hope she’s all right. No wonder she was bitchy at the contest, if her ex-husband was harassing her.”
We wheeled into the short gravel driveway next to the beat-up green Civic parked there.
Lyn stood in front of her front door, the girls looking out from behind her. Her eyes blazed and her hands clenched into fists on her hips. Her expression was so angry, she could probably shoot out dragon fire. Wind whipped her hair around her head like Medusa’s snakes.
“Don’t you dare call me that! You’re a coward, afraid of what I can do. You know the one thing keeping me from hurting you is the girls. Just because I can do things you can’t, that frighten you, my gifts don’t give you the right to threaten me.”
JT got out and walked toward them.
The muscular man planted in the middle of the scrabble yard had a medium build and was about the same age as JT, if you went by looks. As angry as Lyn, the veins in his neck bulged and his face turned red.
He spit out words in a rumbling bass. “I don’t know what you think you are doing, but these girls shouldn’t be around you and your magic stuff. I want them with me and my mama in Dallas. They shouldn’t be exposed to all this. Pretty soon you’ll have them lighting candles and chanting and such. It’s the devil’s work and you know it.” His words and dress were at odds. Colorful, grim tattoos circled his arms. He wore a black leather vest and pants that belonged astride a motorcycle. His long hair was tied into a ponytail.
At that point I leaped out of the car and ran up to stand by Lyn. It was as if I was back in my own front yard, hearing the same hurtful words out of Brian’s mouth as he kicked me out of my home, put me and my son on the street, literally escorted out of town. Now it was happening to someone else. I didn’t care if Lyn had real magical gifts or not. She was in the same situation I’d been in and no one had stood up for me.
“You leave her alone and her girls. She lives here now and in Love, Texas, we stand up for our own.”
Lyn stood looking at me with her mouth open, silent for once.
Her ex-husband was livid. “If
you accept her as one of your own, you’re as bad as she is. I’ve heard things about this town. The devil lives here and God’s wrath will rain down upon you, all of you.”
He marched to his car but then turned around. “This isn’t over. I’ll be back with help. I will not leave my children in this devil’s den of evil. You mark my words, you Satan’s whore.”
JT stepped up to the car. “If you’re smart, you’ll stay away from my county unless you go through the courts and take legal action. No more threatening defenseless women.”
Lyn’s ex-husband laughed. “She’s about as defenseless as a rattler.” He got into his car and spun gravel on his way out of the driveway.
Lyn whirled on me. “Now you’ve done it. He’s gone. I could have handled it but now he’ll be back again. What the hell are you doing here, butting your nose into my business?”
I stepped back from the fury in her expression. “I was—I wanted to help,” I stammered. “I’ve been in the same position—”
She interrupted me. “I don’t care. You leave me and mine alone. And about all that stuff you asked me to do for you, you take care of it yourself. I have better things to do than look after you.”
The girls had edged out the door and come to stand by their mother. Lyn whipped her head around and shot a glance at the girls that sent them running back into the house.
JT looked stormy himself. “We came because you or one of the girls called for help. If you don’t need help, that’s fine. You have the right to come to the courthouse and file a complaint. If you don’t feel as if you’re in danger, we’ll leave.”
“Fine. You leave. I’ll take care of my own problems. I always have.”
I stood with my mouth open, staring after Lyn as she slammed her way into her house. Now I was sure of it. Two people lived in that body, the one who called for help and this hellion. I felt bad. I was thinking of her in the same way her husband talked to her.
I moved to follow her, ask for an explanation, when I ran into a barrier at the porch. Something I couldn’t see stopped me cold. Nausea shot through me. I doubled over, spinning to the left barely in time to miss vomiting all over the porch. I grew dizzy and fell forward until JT grabbed my arm and jerked me back. The nausea and dizziness instantly disappeared as quickly as they came.
“What is wrong with you? See if I ever take you with me again.” He looked concerned in spite of his sharp words.
I gasped for air, looking back at the house. It was closed in on itself, as if no one lived there. When I could speak, I cleared my throat, still tasting bile. “I don’t know. I’ll be all right in a minute, I think. I’m not sure what happened.”
But I knew. Lyn had done it. I bet I got off easy. I don’t know how, but she caused it.
Chapter Twenty-three
The next few days passed without incident. Saturday dawned crisp and cool, like a fall day should. I still didn’t know why Cass had been kidnapped, or a good reason for Lyn to be so volatile, but I carried on anyway because the Masked Ball was going to happen, and I had to be ready. Since Lyn had dropped the balls she’d offered to carry, it was up to me and anyone else I could talk into helping, like my poor defenseless children, mother, and best friend.
“Mom? Mom?” Sean yelled down from a ladder. “Does this look right?” Rusty hung onto the bottom of the ladder to keep it steady. Sean had a death grip on a swag of grass above the door.
“Looks good, honey, but don’t lean over too far.”
The Civic Center Ballroom had never looked so grand. The color theme was red and black with touches of white, to avoid the much-overdone orange and black. Instead of spraying the grasses silver, my first thought, I’d gone for white. The entire room was draped in red. A king-size Venetian mask was fastened above and on each side of the stage. They were red, white, and black, as were the smaller ones scatted up and down the red walls.
Mumsie stood back to critically examine the mask placement on the walls. “What about that spot on the east wall under the tall windows? Don’t you think it needs something else? The red swallows the light.”
“Try a couple of the white sprays and see if that brightens it up. They’d reflect the light, not absorb it.”
I arranged masks on sticks in vases on the tables sitting on either side of the main entrance. As a charity event for the local Casa organization, the ball was always well attended, especially by those professions who wanted their charity works to be high profile. The more money you paid, the closer to the food and dance floor your table.
The tables for food, wine, and chocolate stood in front of the wall opposite the stage. By nightfall, an ice sculpture of a rose and bouquets of roses would grace the tables. Blooms and More had confirmed their deliveries, the champagne truffles had arrived, and Renée had the food well in hand.
The Queen’s court was on stage, practicing the arrangement for the introduction in the middle of the festivities. The Love County Queen, Princess, and Duchess—plus runners-up from each contest—always watched the festivities from the stage, on thrones and in chairs draped in black. They already had their masks.
In front of the stage, the Classical Gas band had set up and would be playing sixties through eighties classic pop and rock with a little country thrown in like “Mustang Sally”—which I’d never classified as country myself—and the “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”
I spotted Lyn’s jumble of bright curls by the stage where she watched her children like a hawk and studiously ignored me. I wished I could read her mind. I had to find out more about her. Cherilyn came up behind me and I jumped.
“Tense much?”
“If everyone you knew sneaked up on you all the time, you’d be agitated too.”
“Touchy, touchy. You’re as nervous as a Chihuahua on crack. What’s wrong with you?”
Sarcasm melted off my words. “Well, I don’t know. What do you think could make me that way, certainly not murder or kidnapping or any of the other stuff that’s been happening? I’m no closer to understanding what’s going on now than I was last week. JT doesn’t seem to be, either. I don’t know if someone else will break into my house, or try to run me down, or do something worse. I don’t know why.”
“Okay.” Cherilyn grabbed me by the arm. Why did people always grab me? “I’m taking you to your house and you will take a long bubble bath before you get dressed and come back. Things are going fine, everything is in place, and you promised to show me the mask you did for yourself.”
She dragged me out the main entrance and manhandled me into her car. Once home, I got into the tub. She brought me a glass of zinfandel and settled down to find something on the computer. Chaos kept sticking his paws under the door but couldn’t chase kitten-friendly bubbles with the door shut.
When I figured I’d turned into enough of a prune and heard Mumsie come home, I got out, dried off, and wrapped up in my terry robe. Wine and hot water relieved some of the tension that knotted every muscle in my body.
I walked into the kitchen. “Where’s Sean? Didn’t he and Rusty come home with you? I thought we were fixing snacks before they go out to trick-or-treat?” More trick than treat, I was sure.
Mumsie reached to retrieve coffee from the canister. “Rusty’s mom is taking them out for pizza and then they plan to dress up and head out from his house. They both want to shock us with their costumes later, they said.”
“Now what? I bought him a costume, I thought.”
“I’m sure he will alter it until he thinks it’s suitably gruesome, you know how boys are at his age.”
“Not really, but I’m sure he’ll teach me. Is your costume ready?”
Mumsie sounded a little down. “It’s ready if I decide to come. But Cass isn’t sure if she wants to go, and I know she won’t stay here by herself, so I’m going to wait to make a decision.”
“I’ll go talk to her in a minute, see if I can convince her to show up rather than stay here and make you miss out.”
“It’s not as if I h
ave a date. It used to be more fun when I had your dad to dance with. You, on the other hand, have to show up like a good hostess so let’s see your costume.”
Her wistful tone of voice took me off guard and I gave her a quick hug. She still missed my dad.
I stuck with the color theme for my costume, a white-on-black embroidered tea gown with lace insets, a white mask rimmed by black feathers. The dress clung just right, the square neck flattering. I had a red stole, my hair on top of my head, tendrils trailing. I posed in front of the mirror, a vulnerable girl from more innocent times. Maybe not a girl, but the dress was becoming and elegant without being restrictive. I thought I might actually survive without needing to change into jeans.
Mumsie came in, a jewelry box in her hand, and stopped. “You look like a picture of your great-grandmother before World War I. I have the perfect jewelry which will also offer protection.”
I opened the box and nestled inside were a silver and jet necklace, earrings, and ring, all carved with the same Celtic design. Next to the other jewelry was the most elaborate silver comb in the same design. Now I felt everything was at peace somehow, complete.
Cass was in the kitchen.
“I know,” she said, not looking up from the book she was reading. “Mumsie wants to go to the party so I have to go too. It’s okay, but I might not dress up.”
I knew better than to argue.
“Come show me too,” Cherilyn yelled from the other room. I figured she wanted a break from my slow dial-up modem. She looked up when I walked in. “Oh, honey, that’s striking. You look like a character out of a Merchant Ivory film. Wow. Where did you find that dress and jewelry?”
“The dress is from The Barefoot Bohemian, that vintage place over in Paris that I like. If it’s unusual, it’s there. Mumsie had the jewelry, family stuff. Isn’t it too much? I feel like I stepped back in time, became someone else.”
That was overdramatic. I shook myself, went to the bedroom, and took off the dress and jewelry to put my jeans back on. I had a couple of hours before I had to be at the ballroom to greet guests, and I had to eat something before champagne-filled chocolates called my name.
Carol Shenold - Tali Cates 02 - Bloody Murder Page 17
