Kane walked over and patted Collin on the back. Collin shifting forward was the only sign it might’ve been a slightly aggressive pat.
“Collin, how’s it going?” Kane asked, acting as if he hadn’t shoved Collin a foot forward.
“Good.”
“Great. Do you have a moment?” Kane’s hand was now resting on his shoulder, making it clear he was getting a moment whether Collin had it to spare or not.
Considering Collin had been easy enough at the meeting, there must’ve been some old business between the two.
Butch and Leon filled the gap as Kane walked Collin away.
“Well, at least you’re still…” Butch’s words trailed off, but I knew what he’d been about to say.
“Still alive,” I finished, starting to understand how that might’ve started in the first place.
“Still alive,” Leon said.
“See you guys later,” I said, walking off as I heard them continue to talk.
“Did that feel natural to you? Do you think she forced it?” Butch asked.
“No. She definitely didn’t. It’s just going to take a little time, is all. Even the first time, she didn’t take to it right away. She had to get nearly killed before it went smoothly. Considering how things are going, I think we’ll get there.”
I went to my rooms, hoping for a few minutes of peace before Kane showed and I had to go whisper to communicate with crawlers.
Chapter Sixteen
I stopped beside Flip, who was tossing back a shot at the bar at four in the morning. She did a little shiver as she placed the glass down. Then she glanced over at me before saying, “Two more,” to the gargoyle tending bar. It was clear that hadn’t been her first shot, or her second. Might not have been the third, either, but I wasn’t sure what kind of tolerance a half-fairy, half-leprechaun who was a hundred pounds soaking wet would have.
I rested my elbows on the bar as the gargoyle poured a clear liquid into the glasses in front of us. “I hope that’s for me.” I wasn’t sure there was an AA that could handle Flip.
“You look like you need it. And if what I’ve heard is accurate, you definitely do.”
That was the understatement of the year. Now that helping crawlers through had moved from the abstract to reality, a fast charbroil seemed a better option. The message to Harg had been sent, and the doomsday clock was officially ticking down. I had about forty-eight hours before I began bringing over the monsters that might end the world.
She lifted her glass and held it up, waiting for me to take the other.
I did, thinking a stiff drink might be the only thing that would knock me out. “Do I want to know what this stuff is?”
“Probably not.”
I clinked glasses with her and tossed it back. I put the glass down feeling like I’d just swallowed lava and it was tracing a path to my stomach. I waved my hand over my glass when the gargoyle would’ve refilled it.
“I know why I can’t sleep. What’s your occasion?” I asked, once I was sure that the liquid was going to stay where I put it.
Flip pointed at her glass, signaling a refill, and then threw that one back as well. She dropped the glass back onto the bar, declaring, “It’s the end of the world.”
As if the news were conspiring with her, a grey-haired man with some years showing around the eyes came on the big screen. Looking almost too gleeful, he declared, “It’s the end of the world. That’s what’s happening. We’ve been preparing for this for years. We tried to warn everyone, but no one wanted to listen. Well, now, some of us will survive, the true believers.” The longer he talked, the more excited he got. He pointed at the camera. “But most of you will die.”
The reporter, probably half his age, and even less than that if you deducted for gullibility, hung on his every word. “Do you know what these monsters are? Are they aliens?”
“No. The people screaming fanatically about Area 51 are nut cases.” He leaned his face closer to the screen, his eyes rounded, pupils dilated. “This is the devil coming for all you sinners.”
I heard a vampire in the corner whimper. What the fuck? Was everyone losing their mind? Yeah, they were freaking ugly monsters, and yes, it was alarming to see them. But the devil? These people had to get a grip. And they’d had the nerve to give Shadow Walkers the nickname paper dolls? I’d sat beside these things every day for years.
I signaled for another shot of liquid lava. I threw it down and turned to Flip. “I’ll see you later. I’m going to try and get some sleep.”
I hoped this time it worked out better with the aid of whatever the hell that drink had been. I’d just made it to the stairwell when Zee popped up in front of me.
“Where?” she asked the air. “Okay, good.”
“Hey, Zee,” I said, and tried to walk around her, hoping this was a coincidence. I was too exhausted for this today, and I didn’t care what business we had anymore. I had too many balls in the air as it was.
She wrapped her hand around my wrist and tugged me upstairs, not giving me a choice. The chick was as unmovable as the stone she looked to be carved from. It couldn’t be luck that I’d done this very thing to the witch not days ago.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Sixth floor. We’ve got problems. I’ve been thinking of this for days, and I know what I feel.” She was certainly feeling a lot of whatever it was, judging from her frantic pace.
“What problems?” I tugged on my wrist, but I wasn’t sure she noticed. “Do we need to run the whole way?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there,” she said, not slowing down.
The invisible person who’d answered Zee must’ve also alerted Kane, because he was standing in the hall outside his apartment when we got to the sixth floor. His eyes ran over me like he expected a missing limb, or maybe a pair of horns.
Zee said nothing to him as she tugged me along, no chance of getting loose. It was like being towed behind a giant boulder.
Kane didn’t ask what was going on. He stood beside his apartment door, allowing us to enter first. He shut the door after Zee had tugged me into the living room. The place had too many lights on for him to have just gotten up. Was I the only person in this building who was interested in trying to get some sleep? It was the middle of the night.
“What’s so important?” Kane asked as he joined us in the center of his living room.
“This cannot leave us,” Zee said to him before turning to me. “His apartment is off-limits to listening in. He did some funny stuff so we can only hear when he specifically calls us.”
Kane let out a sigh, clearly not in the mood to entertain Zee’s demands. “Tell me.”
Zee didn’t shoot for another nondisclosure, but wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in between the two of them. “There is something not normal in her head. I felt it. I know I did.”
“We tested her for spells. It was negative.” He turned and was walking away from us, toward where he left his phone on the table.
I took Zee’s words a bit more to heart. I’d accepted Kane’s pronouncement as gospel, but why? There could definitely be things he didn’t know. I didn’t trust him in any other area, and yet I’d taken that information and simply accepted it?
I would’ve taken up the fight, but Zee didn’t go down that easy, following him across the room. “I felt it. Gargoyles can sense magic on a much more sensitive level than any other creature. You know this.”
He turned. “Then tell me how it got past the test?”
“Whoever did this is top of the food chain. Maybe it’s not just blocking memories but woven into the fabric of her mind. I don’t know, but it’s there, and you need to fix her.” Zee popped a hip out and pointed at me, as she stared at Kane.
I’d never seen a standoff between Kane and another person, other than myself, and I was too desperate to count. If I wasn’t trying to stay alive most of the time, I might not have stood up to Kane either. First, you had no real idea of what you we
re standing up against, since I doubted very much Kane was human. Second, even if we gave him the benefit of the doubt and threw him in the human column, Kane was the type of person you knew was made of tougher stuff than the general population. It was in the way he never seemed to fear anyone or anything, as if he’d shown up, fought the war, and won fifty times already, while the rest of us were still figuring out how to load the gun.
But there was Zee, taking another determined step toward him. “You either try and fix her or we’re going on strike. And I speak for all the gargoyles here.”
Whoa. Could Zee really declare that? The set of her stone shoulders made me think so. A slight breeze would’ve toppled me at that moment. This was serious shit going down.
Kane raised an eyebrow, losing interest in his phone. “Are you sure you want to threaten me?”
Holy granite, I hoped Zee knew what she was doing, because as tough as she said gargoyles were, Kane looked like he was about to come down like a sledgehammer and dust her.
“I’m willing to die on this hill.” There was no waver, no flicker of fear. She meant it.
I saw a flicker of doubt flash in Kane. A drop in him was torrential rain to a normal person. He was rethinking his position, and not because he was worried about her or a strike. The way he walked over and leaned on the back of the couch wasn’t someone who was scared. I knew what he was thinking because I was thinking it too. Zee believed so much that her conviction was hard to turn away from; it was the kind of belief that ended wars—or started them.
“If it is a spell, is there something you can try?” I asked, not for Zee but myself. If there was a stone we could turn over, I wanted it turned.
Kane glanced at me. “Yes. None of it pleasant.”
He was giving me the choice. If I said I wanted to try, he’d try with me.
It wasn’t a question. For a chance to get my memory back? To know exactly what happened? I’d do anything short of death. “I don’t care how unpleasant. I’ll try anything.”
I turned to Zee, not sure if there was a way to express what her standing her ground meant to me.
She smiled, as if she already knew. “Don’t worry, girlie—you’re going to be paying me back in spades once we get this fixed.”
I nodded. “I hope so.”
We didn’t start until the next morning, which was good, considering some people actually had to sleep.
Kane strolled in while I was sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and said, “Have you eaten yet?”
I shook my head, thinking he was going to ask if I wanted breakfast first.
He didn’t. “Good. Let’s get started.”
I jumped up, ready to go, even though that didn’t sound good at all.
We made our way down to his office, into the closet, and down the darkest stairwell ever until we landed in some medieval-looking room. It was a cross between a dungeon and the sort of spot a mad scientist might hang out.
“What is this place?” I was guessing the Underground was right above us, but the aesthetics made it feel like it was an alternate universe.
“It’s the only place that I know the magic won’t leak out and cause a problem if things go badly.”
I ran a hand over the stone walls as he watched. “Why?”
“The walls, the floor, and the ceiling have all been warded more times than I can keep count of.”
The heavy door that led to the stairwell creaked open, and Butch walked in. “What’s going on? I saw Zee watching you two and then head off to pace in the alley.”
“Zee thinks Ollie’s memory is gone because of magic.” Kane’s voice didn’t reveal whether he thought it were possible to fix me with potions or if we were down here for shits and giggles.
Butch nodded, keeping his features neutral as well, following Kane’s lead. “Okay then.”
I leaned my elbows on the stone table in the center, one of the only pieces of furniture in the place. I tried to not think about whether sacrifices had been performed on this thing, and if I’d be next.
Kane slid back a panel, revealing all sorts of bottles sitting on shelves carved into the stone.
We’d just taken a definite turn toward mad scientist. Better than dungeon, and I was ready for any potion he threw at me that could possibly fix me.
When I thought it was a bump on the head that had stolen my memory, I hadn’t been happy about it, but I’d been able to live with it. I’d fallen or something. It had just happened. No malice and no one’s fault. Even if I’d been attacked or mugged, and I’d gotten injured, it would’ve been easier to handle, an unintended consequence of living the life I had.
But this might not be an accident. Some bastard had possibly stolen months of my life, and that drastically changed my feelings on the matter. Anger boiled up, mixed with a determination that I wouldn’t just accept this slight along with all the others. It was enough. It was too much.
“Do you think it’s the witches?” Butch asked as Kane stood in front of his bottles.
I waited to hear what Kane said. The witches had already been added to the list I’d made last night, and would remain there no matter what his answer was.
“I’m not sure if it’s anyone,” Kane replied. “If it is, though, they wouldn’t have the magical chops to do something like this. If they were involved, they were puppets.”
“What about the vampires?” Butch asked, his list similar to mine, if in a different order.
Kane pulled down a bottle from the top shelf. “They don’t have spells.”
Butch took a couple of steps away from Kane and glanced at me. I mouthed, Leprechauns.
Butch cleared his throat. “What about leprechauns? They kidnapped her once already, and they have magic.”
“Not the right kind of magic,” Kane said.
Good thing I wasn’t crossing anyone off my list with his answers, or I’d have no suspects left.
Butch looked at the bottle Kane was holding. “You sure about that one?” It wasn’t the question but the way he asked it that had me worried.
“I’m not sure about anything other than if Zee is correct, we aren’t going to dislodge the magic with anything weak,” Kane said.
If this and if that. I got it. He was going through the motions but wasn’t necessarily buying it. He was kicking the magical tires. As long as he kicked the tires while he helped me, I was fine with it. I didn’t need a best friend or a boyfriend—I needed my memory back.
Kane walked over, glass bottle in hand. He pulled the stopper out and a plume of smoke escaped. “This is going to make you sick.” He held it out to me. “Make sure you drink it all.”
I took the bottle and breathed in and out quickly, trying to psych myself up to swallow it.
“Why can’t she just rattle around in that brain for a cure?” Butch asked, eyeing the concoction I was about to chug.
“Because if what Zee said is accurate, what’s going on in there might be blocking access to those spells,” Kane replied. “She’ll probably be able to shadow walk, but that’s it.”
They, whoever they were, had stolen my magic too?
I couldn’t have taken the potion quicker. I chugged back the foul liquid and was relieved when I found Butch holding out a flask to chase it. I took a swallow of his and handed it back. It was almost harder to hold down than the potion.
I ran my arm across my mouth. “What was that?”
“Special whisky blend. Good stuff, right?”
I gave him a halfhearted shrug. That was as good as it was going to get while I fought my gag reflex. It had been worse than the smoking potion. A couple of deep breaths later, I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to throw up. “How long does this take to work?”
“It’s nearly instant if it does.” Kane walked back to the shelves and grabbed a pail that was on a lower shelf. He turned and put it beside me.
I poked around in my head, checking to see if I’d missed all the memories flooding back somehow, but found nothing. I shook my
head at Butch, who looked like he was still holding out hope.
I looked down at the pail. “What’s that for?” I asked.
“In case you don’t make it to the bathroom over there.” Kane pointed off to the side.
I was about to say I wasn’t going to be needing it when I had to do a mad dash. The upside of my day was that my hair was already in a ponytail. I didn’t straighten back up until after every last sip of coffee I’d had that morning had left me in the most violent fashion.
I walked out of the bathroom and Butch held the flask out to me again. I took it, ready to drink gasoline after that potion came back up.
I took the edge of my shirt and tried to wipe off the opening of the flask before handing it back this time.
Butch pointed at the flask. “You can hang on to that.”
I straightened, eyes still watery from getting sick. “What else you got?”
Kane didn’t say anything, but he stared at me as if he were seeing someone he’d missed. He walked over for another flask.
“You sure?” Butch asked.
“Positive,” I said. “I’m going to get my memory back, and then I’m going to kill whoever stole it from me.”
Chapter Seventeen
I scanned the Underground as I sat in the booth, waiting for a magical miracle to strike and one of the potions I’d drunk to have a delayed reaction and actually work. Someone in this room could’ve been behind the spell that had obliterated my memory, and here I sat, eating a salad like a sitting duck, no idea who was friend or foe. I could’ve been brushing shoulders with the asshole and not know.
Flip slid into the booth and took in my sweatshirt and yoga pants that looked like they’d been slept in—plus the disheveled hair that was mostly in a ponytail and the dark circles under my eyes—before stating the obvious: “You don’t look so hot.”
I wasn’t sure if it was my green skin or lack of sleep.
“Rough sleep.” I hadn’t realized that the vomiting wouldn’t be the end of the side effects. Muscle cramps had interrupted the few hours of sleep I’d tried to slip in that afternoon. To top it off, I’d been trying to eat a salad to get something in my stomach when Kane walked out of his office, followed by a very happy-looking witch named Dana.
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