by Ware Wilkins
“It’s only been a few days since you last told me to go to school,” I say as I shut the door behind me. With Ingrid here, I prefer at least the impression of privacy. Sometimes Dr. Winston can get loud enough that the door won’t make a difference. “This seems a little soon.”
“Sit down,” he growls, and I hear him. I mean really hear him. This isn’t the normal talk, and Dr. Winston is not making jokes. I sit my butt down immediately.
He moves slowly. As he grumbles and shuffles his way to his larger, comfortable office chair on the other side of the desk, I notice things I usually ignore. Like the curve at the top of his back. It seems more pronounced now. Or the spots on his hands, peppering the paper-thin skin. Hell, the fact that he’s shuffling instead of stepping. Dr. Winston was old when I was a kid and he first started cleaning my teeth.
I just got used to the white hair and the wrinkles and the grumpiness. They were just parts of him, small parts of a large sum. Except, as he groans and wheezes as he settles into the chair, they don’t seem small anymore. Dr. Winston seems old. Finite.
Step Five: Do not start crying. Whatever he talks to me about, I won’t cry.
Now I’m just lying to myself.
“Ingrid really is better at your job than you are,” he starts, and I want to laugh just to prove to both of us that I’m not afraid. I don’t, because I know neither of us would believe it.
“Maybe you should tell her to go to dental school.”
“Don’t tempt me. Ingrid’s a go-getter. She might actually listen to me.”
There should be a hundred potential snarky retorts on the tip of my tongue. All there is, though, is an apology I didn’t know I had in me to give. I hadn’t even known I’d needed to make it until now. But, gripping the armrests of my chair for reassurance, I say it. “I’m sorry I’m a disappointment, Dr. Winston. You’ve been nothing but generous and kind to me my whole life, and I haven’t done a single thing to earn it.”
“Shut up, you dope,” he replies, shooing away my sincere words. “You drew one of the short straws of life, Sadie.”
“Everyone has problems.”
“Yeah, true enough. But losing your parents so young, that sucks. And Oliver is a son of a bitch. Somehow that didn’t rub off on you--well, not too much, anyway. But you’ve been working hard since I’ve known you.”
There’s something happening in my heart. It’s tiny, like a crack that’s forming. But each word that Dr. Winston says to me chips away at it, making it bigger. Threatening a complete collapse. “I’ve been working hard and I’m still a dental assistant, Dr. Winston. Not even a full on hygienist. And, if I’m honest, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to go to school. Not with Ingrid and… um, everything else going on.”
“You mean like the werewolf who’s living with me and whining about you and that crazy ass vampire who called me to let me know you’d been with him all night?”
“Those would be the--” I shut up. Dr. Winston is a normal guy. He is not supposed to be in the know. There have been hints that maybe he was a bit wiser, like the forensic dentistry, but this…
“Uh, I don’t know how to respond to that.”
“Well, let’s cut the bullshit out first. I know you’re tangled in with the ‘others’ in the town. I know that you’ve been paying off a major debt to the tooth fairy and working as an unlicensed dentist at night.”
Heat blooms in my cheeks. “I haven’t been doing that for a few months. I’m all paid up. And I don’t think there is a license for working on non-human teeth. But how in the hell do you know all of this?”
He chuckles. “You aren’t the only one paying a debt to that good for nothing fairy. Man, she’s a real treat, isn’t she?”
The room spins and I squeeze my eyes shut. Tee, who looks like a demon who dresses in a pink tutu, tormented me with the payments I needed for years. I didn’t get enough out of that deal to justify the amount of life-crippling frustration I received with it, but maybe that’s just the way it is with shady deals. But I had summoned her on a fluke-- my target had been someone/thing a bit meatier. My goal had been vengeance.
How in the hell did Dr. Winston know of Tee? Half the paranormals I deal with don’t believe she exists, and they’re the freaking bogey men and women of human’s dreams. “What was your deal?”
“You never thought it was odd that no other dentists opened up shop in Grimloch?”
We’re a small town. We all know each other. There’s not room for another dentist. Those were all solid reasons. Except. Except that we’d been growing steadily for years, with people who wanted to be near Asheville and wanted real estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Except that one dentist for an entire town was crazy, unless that town was Dancer, Texas, Population 81. Dr. Winston was an asshole on top of that. If there was another option, people would flock to them in droves.
So he made sure there are no other options.
“How much do you owe?”
He shrugged. “I’m almost paid off. I’m a little jealous you paid yours off first.”
“You know what I got in return?”
His laugh is dry and humorless. “You made a poor deal, Sadie. But you’re young and it won’t ruin you forever.”
Something is clawing at the back of my mind. If he knows all of this about me, then my deal with Tee isn’t something she keeps confidential. I never asked her to, because I didn’t know she had other deals. She’d done a great job of making me feel, well, special. Like I was the only one she’d lower herself enough to bother with.
But Tee also knows I’m a bone witch. That’s obviously not as much of a secret as it should be, but it is still something I need to keep absolutely mum. If it were to slip to anyone, it would mean my short straw got a lot shorter. But how can I find out what he knows about me without giving the answer away in the process?
Like every other problem, I dodge this one for now. “Dr. Winston--”
“Doug, Sadie. You know my secret now, may as well be on a first name basis.” He coughs a bit and it is thick with mucous. I don’t like the rattle in his chest that accompanies it. It’s the winter, and it’s cold and flu season, but now that he seems so frail, a cold will make me fret.
“Doug.” I steeple my fingers, trying to stay focused. “How did you come to make a deal with Tee? I mean…” Who or what are you?
“What’s my flavor?” He gives me a wry grin. “Oh, I’m human like you.”
I’m human with some spice of my own. Bone magic gives a real kick. “Then how did you--” I flop my hands a bit, gesturing to everything. “Stumble into it?”
“Former hunter.”
The air stills in the office. This isn’t just a casual mention of the past. I’ve been worried out of my mind about hunters. Like bone witches, that’s an insta-kill profession. “Why did you quit?”
His pale face grows paler. “It is a bunch of horseshit. Once I realized we weren’t saving people and we were making the balance of things a lot worse, I found a way out.”
My mouth starts to form how, but Doug shakes his head. “Nope. That’s my story, Sadie, and I don’t much feel like sharing it. It’ll only be relevant after I tell you why I really called you into my office.”
CHAPTER TEN
There’s a part of me that’s screaming at his diversion. But I do it, too. All the time, in fact. If something is uncomfortable I tend to just mosey on to a new topic and hope no one calls me on my shit. In fact, I learned a lot of it from him, so how mad am I allowed to be? Instead, I sit--not patiently-- and wait for him to tell me what he called me in here for.
As if any news could be a bigger deal than what I’ve just learned from him.
“How can you just drop that bomb on me and expect me to let it go?”
His chuckle turns into a cough and I frown. “I don’t expect you to let it go, Sadie. You’ll pester the hell out of me, I’m sure. Just prepare to be disappointed. I’ve left that behind.”
“But I’ve known you fo
rever! You’ve always worked on my teeth!”
“You’ve known me all twenty-something years of your life. I’m old as dirt. It isn’t like I spent the first half of my life just sitting with my thumb up my ass waiting for you to be born. But this isn’t why I called you in here, so shut up and let me talk, will you?”
My jaw clamps shut. There’s something in his posture that suddenly has me on edge, like a knife being held at my neck.
Dr. Winston leans back, running a hand through his thin hair. “I’m dying, Sadie. Don’t start crying and don’t be sad. I’ve had a long life. I mean long. I’ve traveled, I’ve had a successful business, all that crap. I’m actually looking forward to it. But I never had a family, so my family is you, kid.”
I hear the truth underneath the awful bomb he’s dropping on me. He’s telling me he loves me. I don’t care. I’m still stuck on the “I’m dying” part.
“That’s just unacceptable,” I force out past the growing lump in my throat.
“What, that you’re my family? Tough, Sadie.”
Scowling, I shake my head, refusing to break down. “No. That you’re dying. Why are you telling me this?” It’s selfish, but I wish I didn’t know. I’m certain that there are people who like knowing this stuff, who want to live each day fully with the people they are about to lose. But my relationship to Dr. Winston isn’t like that; yes, he’s right--we’re family. He’s also one of the cornerstones of my life. No matter what else is going on, I know I can show up to work, be grumbled at, and go home. Now he’s pulling the sheet out from under me.
“I’m telling you this because I can’t leave you my damned practice if you aren’t a dentist. I’m going to have to add it to my estate, and you’re the beneficiary. I’m telling you that you don’t have to go to dental school, but for the love of all that is holy, promise me that you’ll use the money to set you and Ingrid up so I won’t have to worry.”
“You won’t be able to worry, you’ll be dead. I’m spending it all on blackjack and hookers.”
Dr. Winston’s shoulders lift, his face turning red, but then he lets it all go with a big sigh. “I have something for before then.” On his desk is this large, ornate box. He grabs it. I expect him to open the top, but he flips it over and presses something on the bottom. A small hidden compartment opens and something slides into his waiting palm. After resituating the box, he unfurls a long necklace with a large, uncut gem at the bottom. “This is a tool from when I was a hunter. It glows when other hunters are around. It was supposed to help us keep from stepping on each other’s toes on a mission, or know if there was help we could call in nearby.” He reaches across the desk, but the desk is so wide I have to lift from my chair to grab the necklace.
“I checked it the other day when we had that new patient. Do you remember? The one with that ridiculous red lipstick?”
“She’s a hunter?”
“It wasn’t glowing. But she’s looking for something, because she wasn’t interested in getting a root canal.”
“Funny. Abe and I ran into her at Tiffany’s one night, and both Tiffany and Abe thought something was off about her, too. I haven’t seen her since.”
His mouth is pulled so tight in a grimace it’s almost disappeared. “Keep an eye out, then. I know it’s been glowing more and more each week for a few months. There are more hunters here than I ever thought would be in one, small location like Grimloch.”
“Do you know why they’re here?”
“Aside from Grimloch being a beacon for paranormals? No. No clue. I’m not connected to that life in any way anymore.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Don’t be daft. Because you need it more than I do. I have enough experience to know that trouble’s coming, Sadie, and you seem to always be in the middle of it. Use that to keep safe.”
Reluctantly, I slide it over my head with shaking hands. Its weight is a strange comfort. I finger the gem. It’s a dark, dusty purple. Like something you’d find in a new-age shop, with incense and all that stuff. The weight of it is reassuring, but also painful. It will be a constant reminder of a truth that I’m not prepared to deal with: Dr. Winston won’t always be here.
“Thanks.”
“Here’s another thing.” He slides me a scrap of paper.
When I look at it, I see some names and numbers scrawled. I recognize two of them-- they’re witches, and they were patients of mine when I was running my late night clinic. “What’s this?”
“Think of them as magic midwives. Ingrid’s smarter than you most days, but she should be seeing someone about the baby.”
“How do you know she’s not going to a regular doctor?”
“Because I was lucky enough to have this same chat with Abraham when you moved him into my house. He was going to smell the truth anyway.”
A smidge of me is jealous that Abe got to hear this truth first. “As long as you didn’t promise to leave him all your money.”
Dr. Winston cracks a big smile. It makes him seem younger which makes me breathe a bit easier. “You’ll have to fight him for it. My money is on the wolf.” He snorts. “Heh. Money on the wolf.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” But I laugh, if only because the situation needs some levity. “I’ll help Ingrid find a witch.”
He nods. “One last thing.”
I wait, hands clasped tight around the necklace.
“Abe’s a nice boy.”
I clench the purple stone a little harder, tasting bile with a hint of shame. “I know he is. Benji and I aren’t--”
He waves me off. “I didn’t finish. Abe’s a nice boy, but he’s in a place where… well, would you want Ingrid to fall in love with someone in the lowest part of their life? Right now, when she’s already got too much to sort in her own life?”
“God no. That would be a terrible decision. How could she be sure it was love and not despera--” I shut my mouth real fast. “Okay. I hear you.”
“No, you don’t. Not yet. You’re like my kid, so of course anything I say, you’re just gonna do the opposite of it. It’s how you learn. But maybe some part of this will stick in that head of yours, Sadie, and you won’t chase away a boy who could be a really good friend for you. He’ll need a friend like you, too.”
“But… just friends.”
“I can’t tell you what to do, Sadie. I don’t want to. I know you’ve wanted him for a long time. But just remember that wanting someone isn’t the same as needing them.”
I let this sink in, frustrated with the volumes of information he’s just dumped on me. If my brain was a cup, it would be dangerously close to sloshing over right now. This day has been banana balls crazy. It started with the cats--
Oh. “Do hunters ever kill cats?”
His eyes narrow. “What?”
“This morning, as I was leaving, I discovered a…” the words stick in my mouth, leaving a vile taste. I force myself to go on. “A bunch of cats hanging in trees. Like, from nooses. I was going to tell Benji about it tonight, because I figure it’s, well, I don’t know what the hell it is. A warning, maybe? From hunters?”
Dr. Winston stiffens. For a brief moment, his old age disappears and I can see the hunter he once was. It’s in the strong set of his shoulders and the sharp, thoughtful look on his face. Like he’s preparing for battle. “I’ve never heard of it, but I suppose it could be. When I was hunting, I’d never want a target to even know I was there. But if they think you’re suspect, perhaps they’re just trying to scare you into being stupid.”
“Stupid how?”
“Doing magic, probably. It’s easier to trace fresh spells.”
The magic in me hums in response, like it hears him and wants out. The magic still likes to lie, saying if we eliminate them all, it won’t matter that they tracked it. “Right. Okay. Benji and I can look tonight with this.” I hold up the necklace, ignoring the new demand to cast spells crawling under my skin. “And I’ll warn Alec.”
“Be careful, Sad
ie.”
“I always am.”
“You never are.”
“You’re an ass.”
He shrugs. What a bastard. “Now get to work and stop being late. I saved all the nastiest chores for you.”
“Of course you did.”
* * * * *
Ingrid waits for me as I clean up. She’s reclined on the patient chair, eyes shut and hands rubbing slow circles over her baby bump. “Was he hard on you today?”
“Who?” The heat from the oven we use to bake tools has me sweating. It’s the last step of the sterilization process, and as soon as it’s finished we can head out.
“Doug.”
“Oh.” I know she means about being late. But really, I know Dr. Winston and I both share an understanding that I am kind of a crappy employee. There are certain things I rock at. I can get his set up ready to go in seconds and just the way he likes it. I’m willing to deal with mountains of paperwork. Eventually, at least. There’s no job I’m not willing to tackle, so I’ll clean the bathrooms or vomit from a patient with a sensitive gag reflex and not complain. But I’m also chronically running late or asking for forgiveness. “No, he wasn’t hard on me.”
She frowns. “You were in his office for a long time.”
I’ve always assumed that he was so lenient on me because of my parents. After today’s conversation, I know that’s still true, but it isn’t the whole story. “He…” How much can I share of his story? It’s something he’s kept so well hidden that I think I might be the only one in town who knows his secret. Maybe the only person on earth. Ingrid’s usually level headed. Far more than I am, for sure. But she’s not been since discovering she’s pregnant, and hunters are a big deal. If I was a paranormal carrying a baby into a very uncertain future, I wouldn’t take the news of a former hunter living in my town well, even if he was kind. It feels wrong to tell her that part of the conversation.
Before I can come up with a reason for being in his office so long, Ingrid’s eyes widen and stare. It’s creepily similar to her father’s eyes when he’s having a vision. I can’t help but notice her hand holding onto her bump as she stares vacantly through me.
