Darkness Shifting: Tides of Darkness Book One

by Sarah Blair

  “Oh, right. Tinkerbell, you are fabulous.” Sidney smiled.

  Williams’ looks. Megan’s personality.

  “Mr. Mitch! Up. Up. Up. Up!” Caroline threw herself at the chief. She was the mirror image of Megan, with her mother’s strawberry-blonde ringlets, but she’d inherited her father’s carefree spirit. Mitch swung her up and Sidney got a waft of marshmallow scent.

  Having only turned three, Caroline was right on the bridge between baby and little girl. Sidney didn’t miss how Mitch’s face brightened when those chubby arms went around his neck for a hug.

  He’d never had his own kids, and Sidney wasn’t even sure he wanted any. The idea of having children of her own terrified her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like kids, they were just way too much responsibility. Plus, her job was dangerous, and she knew how it felt to grow up without a mother. It was better to play with someone else’s kids and then give them back.

  “Get over here, you little monkey.” Williams grabbed Caroline and blew a raspberry on her tummy.

  She screamed and laughed. “I’m not a monkey. I’m Tinkerbell!”

  “No, I’M Tinkerbell.” Rachel stomped her foot.

  “ME!”

  “You’re both monkeys, maybe I’ll send you to the zoo.” Williams scooped up Rachel in his other arm like a sack of flour, then swept everyone inside and kicked the door shut.

  “Who are you?” Caroline asked when she noticed Banks.

  Megan came in from the kitchen, barefoot with a tea towel thrown over her shoulder. Even in jeans and a t-shirt, she could be a supermodel. She paused to greet her husband with a lingering kiss.

  “Eww! No, mommy, you’ll get cooties!” Rachel yelled.

  “Cooties? What is this cootie business?” Williams asked.

  “Dinner’s ready. Go get them washed up while I say hello to everybody,” she said to her husband.

  “I’ll give you monkey cooties.” Williams made monkey noises while he carried the girls into the kitchen. Megan watched them for a second.

  “And no wings at the table,” she called out.

  “It’s like having three kids,” Mitch said.

  “They’re a mess.” She shook her head, grinning.

  “How are you?” Megan gave Sidney a good squeeze. She smelled like fresh lemons and verbena.

  “Fine.” If she ever had a sister, Megan would be the one she would have picked out.

  Sidney was definitely not the domestic type, so she admired her greatly for the way she managed her home. It carried over into the rest of her life as well. Megan was a mother to everyone. Sometimes it was unnerving the way she could take one glance at her and know something was wrong. She stared at Sidney for a second and then gave her another squeeze before she planted a quick kiss on Mitch’s cheek.

  “Good to see you,” she said. “I’m glad you all came.”

  “Thanks for having us.” Mitch stepped aside to introduce Banks. “This is our new Medical Examiner Dr. Jackson Banks.”

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” Banks offered his hand.

  Megan shook his hand, but held on for a second and squinted. “Are you from Savannah?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Born and raised. Did the accent give me away?” Banks showed off his pearly whites.

  “Do you happen to have a cousin named Kelli?”

  “I do, on my mother’s side.”

  Megan laughed. “She’s my sorority sister! Alpha Gamma Delta.”

  “Go Squirrels!” Banks grinned. “What a small world, we’re practically family.”

  “What happened to your face? Are you okay?” Megan leaned in closer to check Banks’ jaw.

  “Runaway gurney,” Banks said without even blinking. “First and last time I’ll forget to set the break on that thing, I swear.”

  “Oh no! I’ll get you an ice pack. Come on in, everybody. The Merlot should be done breathing, and I just pulled out the lasagna. Make yourselves at home.”

  They followed her through the living room and into the kitchen where the table was already set. Crayon drawings and name tracing sheets fluttered as Megan opened the freezer to grab a princess shaped ice pack. Rachel and Caroline shared a stool to reach the sink, and Williams stood behind them getting more water on the floor than they did.

  “Girls, say hello to Dr. Jack.” Megan handed the ice pack to him.

  “Do you chase monsters out of closets like Daddy and Aunt Sidney?” Caroline asked.

  “He’s a doctor, honey. He works at the hospital,” Megan explained as she transferred Caroline from the stool to her booster seat at the table.

  “Do you see people’s guts?” Rachel climbed up into her own seat across from Caroline.

  “Sometimes,” Banks said.

  Williams set her plate of lasagna down and put on a goofy voice, “Eat your great big plate of greasy, grimy, gopher guts.”

  “Gross!” Rachel giggled.

  Megan elbowed Sidney and spoke out of the side of her mouth, “He’s cute, right?”

  She shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Oh, come on! Didn’t Graham mention wanting to go out? I told him to ask you.”

  Sidney kept her voice down to a low whisper. “He’s the doctor you wanted to set me up with?”

  “It would have been perfect, but something tells me you’re not his type.” Megan shrugged. “No straight guy knows the Alpha Gamma Delta mascot is a squirrel. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still go out!”

  Sidney held out her plate while Megan piled it high with pasta. “Not happening.”

  “Ohh, come on. It could be fun.” Megan dragged her to the other end of the counter where she poured the wine.

  Sidney glanced over at Mitch as he helped himself to some pasta. His forehead creased slightly as he noticed her stare. She turned back to Megan. “I’m not looking for anything right now, that’s all.”

  “Why not?” Megan gasped and grabbed Sidney’s arm. “Are you seeing somebody?”

  “What? I—

  “Who is it? Do I know him?”

  “Oh, God. It’s not even a thing, okay?”

  “What are you girls whispering about over here?” Mitch set his plate on the counter. He turned and rested his hand on Sidney’s waist as he reached past her to grab a glass of wine.

  “Nothing,” Sidney said. Megan’s eyes flicked downward to Mitch’s hand, and she choked as she took a sip from her own glass. Sidney glared hard at her.

  Williams came over and patted his wife on the back. “Honey pie, I know you like the Merlot, but take it easy okay?”

  The two men took their wine and sat down with Banks at the table.

  “You guys get started,” Megan said. “I’m going to show Sidney that new, dress I bought.”

  Megan dragged her up the first flight of stairs into a pale pink room with purple wooden letters spelling out C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E over a white wrought iron day bed. Sidney flopped down on the white tufted duvet.

  “If you’re going to say anything that doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, I don’t want to hear it.” Sidney told her.

  “Please. You don’t have kids, neither of us have time for movies, and my book club only gets together for an excuse to day drink and not pass the Bechdel Test. And we all know what happens at your day job stays at your day job, so there’s nothing else to discuss.” Megan paced in front of her on the faded pink rug with a cream fleur de lis pattern. “What’s going on with you and Mitch?”

  Sidney grabbed a squishy pink elephant from the bed and tried to hide her smile.

  Megan’s eyes rounded. “Are you in loooove?”

  “No! I don’t know.” She hugged the elephant. “Maybe?”

  “You so are! How did this happen?”

  Sidney hitched her shoulder up and let it drop. “We’ve been keeping things casual, but I think last night it finally got serious.”

  It fluttered her insides to even speak the words.

  “How could you not tell me this?”

  “We work together. It’
s complicated.”

  “And now it’s a thing?”

  “I think so, yeah.”

  Megan sat down next to her. For a second, Sidney felt like she was back in boarding school telling her roommate how she’d lost her virginity to a boy called Theodore Hutchins III.

  “What changed?”

  “We talked about what we both wanted. We went to bed. He made me breakfast.”

  “Why this face then?” Megan put her hand on Sidney’s knee. “You look like you’re stuck in the middle of a crosswalk with the business end of a cab heading for you. People in love are supposed to smile.”

  Sidney took Megan’s place pacing on the rug.

  “This is the first time I’ve ever said anything about it out loud.” She sighed. “I haven’t been this close with anyone since my parents were killed. Mitch is different. He takes care of me—he made me omelets for fuck’s sake. But he’s also our boss. What if things get weird? What if it doesn’t work? What if it does work? What if I love him and something awful happens? It’ll be all my fault.”

  “Because you loved him?”

  Sidney strangled the elephant and nodded.

  “Oh, honey. I can’t pretend to know what it feels like to lose your parents like that. I hate that it happened to you. But I do know what it’s like to be afraid of losing the person you love. Every time Graham walks out that door, I say a prayer he’ll walk back through it just one more time.”

  Sidney gnawed on her bottom lip while she considered her friend’s words. Megan got up and hugged her hard.

  “The thing is, if you stay focused on the fear, you miss out on all the good times. The end will come, no matter what. It’s inevitable. All you can do is take whatever moments you’re given together and appreciate them for what they are.”

  She pulled back and gave Sidney a small shake. “Be happy. God knows, you of all people deserve it.”

  “Thanks.” Sidney gave her a reluctant smile.

  “Okay? Good.” Megan took the elephant and tossed it back on the bed. “Let’s go before dinner gets cold.

  Twenty

  “Ms. Megan, your lasagna is absolutely delicious,” Banks said.

  “Aww, thanks.” Megan placed the dish in the middle of the table. “Feel free to have seconds if you want.”

  Mitch dished out some more. “Seriously, you could freeze this stuff and sell it.”

  Sidney sat down across from Mitch and dug into her own plate.

  “That’s what I keep telling her.” Williams spoke with his mouth full. “We’d be billionaires. Forget all that trust fund business from dear Aunt Rosie.”

  The wine bottle next to his plate tipped over and dropped off the table. It hit the floor with a loud bang, but didn’t shatter.

  Williams jumped up. “You guys saw that, right? I didn’t even touch it. I swear this place is haunted.”

  Sidney choked on her pasta. He glared at her.

  “What?”

  She fanned her mouth. “Hot.”

  “Shh, Graham.” Megan smacked his arm, then spoke up in a cheerful voice, “Daddy’s just being silly. There are no ghosts in this house.”

  “Spectral apparitions,” Rachel said.

  The cheerful tone in Megan’s voice didn’t match the nasty look she gave her husband. “Tub time, let’s go!”

  She clapped her hands and chaos erupted momentarily while she cleared the girls’ plates and herded them upstairs.

  “I’m gonna have to call Peters to come bless this place again.” Williams took care of the empty wine bottle and grabbed another one.

  Sidney hid her smile behind her napkin. She wasn’t ready to reveal to Williams what Renny had said about Aunt Rose. Messing with him was too much fun.

  “No more for me, thanks.” Mitch waved his hand at his wine glass. “Lake and I have to head out soon.”

  “Head out where?” Sidney asked.

  “I told Dimitrius you’d stop by to apologize.”

  She scowled. “Apologize for what?”

  “You punched him in the face, for one thing. Then, he sent his men over to do us a favor and you beat the shit out of them.”

  “Hold on, you punched Dimitrius in the face?” Williams gawked.

  “There’s a chance I may have overreacted to some news.” Sidney gulped down the last of her wine.

  Williams gave everyone a refill except the chief. “What news?”

  Sidney exchanged a desperate look with Mitch. She didn’t even know where to begin.

  Williams waited for more information, but it didn’t come. “Well?”

  Sidney took another long sip of her wine and stared into her glass. “Dimitrius says I’m descended from some kind of goddess or something. I have magical blood, and that’s why I didn’t change into a werewolf.”

  “Really,” he said. Williams took a moment to study his plate before he got up and took it to the sink.

  Sidney picked at the last few bites of her lasagna while she waited for whatever joke she knew was coming. There was no way he would let this one slide.

  He came and sat back down. “So, when’s your letter from Hogwarts coming?”

  “Shut up.” She threw her napkin at his head.

  “That actually makes some sense,” Banks jumped in. “Not the letter from Hogwarts I mean, but the bloodline thing, from a genetic point of view. You could have inherited some type of gene, or mutation in your DNA that would repel this particular virus.”

  “Like what?” Mitch asked.

  “An example is the Delta-32 gene mutation. A virus needs to latch on to a host’s cell in order to replicate. Different types of human cells have different shaped receptors. A receptor from a virus would have to match up in order to latch on.”

  “You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole?” Mitch asked.

  “Exactly. To use that example, people who have the Delta-32 mutation have round receptor sites while a virus like the Bubonic Plague has square receptors. Therefore, people who carry this gene mutation from both parents are immune to infection by that particular type of virus. It’s extremely rare, but it’s plausible.”

  “What if someone has the mutation from only one parent?” Sidney asked.

  “Then, they might get infected or become a carrier, but not necessarily die.”

  “How do you know if someone has this gene?”

  “It would show up in a DNA profile.” Banks shrugged. “That’s not to say there’s no magical elements involved in your case. But maybe a little science and magic both?”

  Mitch nodded, then turned to Williams. “What did you find out about the tattoos?”

  “Do you know how many people out there have Army tattoos? It’s ridiculous. If we had a unit number or a special slogan, that would be helpful. The national database came up with thousands of hits. I’ll need more specifics or it’ll take forever to go through.”

  “I’m still waiting on the ink results,” Banks said. “If they were in the same unit together, it’s likely they got them done at the same time, or at least by the same artist. The ink should match.”

  “The only commonalities are the tattoos and the unusual physiology of the bodies,” Sidney said. “The M.O. on how they were killed is completely different.”

  “I’d like to know why the two guys who killed Tom reverted to human form after death, while the Doe from the subway and the one from this morning maintained their animal form. Are we dealing with two different species?” the chief asked.

  “It’s more likely a different form of the pathogen.” Banks sat back in his chair, using his hands to help demonstrate his point. “Once a virus latches on to a host cell, it injects its own DNA into the cell’s nucleus and reprograms it to behave differently. Viruses change and adapt all the time to survive. It’s why there’s a new flu shot every year. Maybe this virus mutated from the time it infected one set of bodies to the next?”

  “Like in Outbreak,” Williams said.

  They all turned to stare at him. “The virus i
n Outbreak that killed Patrick Dempsey and his girlfriend wasn’t airborne. But the one the pet shop dude got when that monkey bit him in Cedar Creek was airborne, which is why you should always, always, get the hell out if anybody starts coughing in a movie theater.”

  Banks nodded. “Something like that, yes.”

  Mitch’s cell phone rang and he checked the ID before he answered. “Hey, Peters.”

  “Oh, tell him to call me this weekend,” Williams said.

  Mitch held up a finger and his forehead creased. “Dammit. Yeah, we’ll be right down.”

  He hung up and pushed his chair back.

  “What’s going on?” Sidney asked.

  “The WIF he’s been monitoring just disappeared,” Mitch said.

  “WIF?” Banks asked.

  “Wee Irish Fellow,” Williams said. “If they hear the word Leprechaun, they go nuts, and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that Irish temper. See this scar?”

  He pulled up his pant leg and showed off a white mark on the side of his knee. “Those bags of gold hurt like a bitch, man.”

  “Williams, drop off Banks and see what you can do to help Peters. Lake, I’ll drop you by the club.”

  Sidney opened her mouth to protest, but Mitch cut her off.

  “It’s not up for discussion.”

  She pushed back from the table and put her plate in the sink.

  “Is his club in that old church over on 6th Avenue?” Williams asked.

  “Bitten,” Mitch said.

  Sidney made a face. “Why couldn’t he come up with a better name?”

  “I know, right?” Williams jumped in. “So cliché.”

  “Completely unoriginal. Like he can’t afford a marketing team? There’s a million other things they could have called it.”

  “Club Emo,” Williams said.

  A smile twitched on Sidney’s mouth. “Therapy.”

  “Asylum.”

  “Trauma.”

  “Bleeding Heart.”

  Sidney waved her hand like she was motioning to a huge sign in the sky. “POE’S.”

  Williams lost it as they all made their way to the front door.

  Banks turned to the chief. “They always like this?”

  “Honey, we gotta go!” Williams called up the stairs.