The Medusa Files, Case 2: Heart of Stone

by C. I. Black

“Less like shit. Although I did just spend six days with my mother. You?”

  “Not bad. Want to grab a coffee and commiserate?”

  “Absolutely.”

  * * *

  The Roasted Bean sat in a corner of a sky-rise’s lobby in the heart of the city centre, one block from the marshals’ office. It was Kate and Morgan’s usual spot for coffee when they were working and Morgan had suggested it out of habit—and perhaps with a little desire for something in her new crazy life to be normal. The building wasn’t nearly as upscale as Kincade Towers, its lobby utilitarian, decorated in various shades of brown and on the dark side. The Roasted Bean’s tables spilled past the small confines of the actual coffee shop, clustering in front of the display window and the window of the boutique dress shop next door.

  Kate sat at a table on the edge of the cluster, her back to a large, fake plant, and waved at Morgan as she approached. She looked better than when Morgan had seen her last. Her right eye wasn’t swollen shut, although the nasty bruise around it had turned a mottled green-brown and Kate hadn’t covered it up with makeup.

  “Wow, your face…” Kate’s smile faltered.

  Morgan brushed at the set of red welts on her cheek. She hadn’t gotten through the fight unscathed, either. Seven days ago, the welts had been bloody slashes. She’d also had a black and purple cheek from where Lachlin had punched her—to stop her from turning Gage to stone—along with a collection of other cuts, scrapes, and bruises. After a few sessions with the flighty woman, Hannah, and her healing magic, everything looked two weeks old or older instead of only a week.

  Except Morgan didn’t know if Kate was thinking about how fast Morgan had healed or if she didn’t remember Morgan getting injured in the first place. “How’s your mom?”

  Kate groaned. “Get your coffee and I’ll tell you all about it. I just shouldn’t have gone home.”

  “I could have told you that. Your mom was a mess all through our academy training.”

  “Now you remind me.”

  Morgan bought a coffee and returned to the table, adjusting her seat so her back wasn’t completely exposed to the flow of traffic going through the sky-rise’s lobby. “So your mom didn’t take the incident well?”

  “You’d have thought I was shot or something.”

  “You were kidnapped.” And by Kin, not that Kate would remember that. Whatever she’d seen that day, the glamour had changed it so her mind could make sense of it. When Morgan’s bullets had passed through the smoke demon’s body, Kate probably thought Morgan had missed, repeatedly. When the demon had split into two… Kate probably thought he had help and she just hadn’t gotten a good enough look at them so her mind made her think they were twins or something.

  Now Morgan understood why Gage had said it was difficult dealing with non-Kin. Even though Morgan had been there, she had no idea what the glamour had changed. How could they talk about what had happened without Morgan looking crazy?

  And that wasn’t the point—or at least not completely the point. As much as she hated using her friend, Morgan needed Kate’s FBI contact to confirm who Gage really was.

  Morgan glanced up. Her gaze had dropped to the black depths of her cup and she hadn’t even realized it.

  Kate stared at her, her mug pressed against her pursed lips. “Deep thoughts?”

  “You’re the one who’s supposed to be having deep thoughts. You did just survive six days with your mother.”

  “Remind me never to do that again.”

  But they both knew that wouldn’t happen. When work allowed, Kate drove the hour to her mother’s house every other weekend. She probably called her mother every day, something Morgan should really do more often, except her parents seemed happy to have their own space and were happy to give Morgan hers. And now that the world had been turned upside down, Morgan wasn’t sure what she could say to the people who’d adopted and raised her.

  “Earth to Morgan.”

  Morgan jerked her attention up from her coffee again. “Sorry. It’s been a complicated couple of days.”

  Kate’s expression darkened. “Yes, it has.”

  “You want to talk about it?” Maybe if Morgan got Kate talking, she’d be able to figure out what the glamour had changed in her mind and she could move ahead from there.

  “You want to tell me about the sunglasses?”

  “These?” Morgan reached for her shades, uncertain what to say. The truth would make her look crazy, but she didn’t know if she could take them off for a whole conversation. Kate would certainly notice something was wrong when Morgan refused to make eye contact.

  “Yeah, those. What’s with them? You put them on in the rain as soon as… you know, everything was taken care of.”

  And by ‘taken care of’ she meant the smoke demon had been killed. God, lying to her best friend was the worst. “It’s a little difficult to explain.”

  “Speaking of difficult to explain…” Kate leaned forward. “Did you see anything that day?”

  “Did I what?”

  “See anything?” Kate asked, her voice low. “Anything strange?”

  Everything within Morgan froze. “What do you mean by strange?”

  “You have to promise you won’t think I’m crazy.”

  “I promise.” Maybe Gage had been wrong. There were tons of people in psychiatric wards who babbled about impossible, crazy things. Perhaps that’s what happened to the non-Kin when the glamour didn’t work. Or maybe Gage had lied… again.

  And if Kate did remember, did this mean Morgan had a full ally in all this? “What did you see?”

  Kate took a sip of her coffee, her hands trembling. “I’m not sure. When I try to think about it, everything gets muddied. But I remember that man, the one who kidnapped me. He wasn’t right.” She hugged her cup between both hands, but her trembling didn’t ease.

  “Can you remember what wasn’t right about it?”

  “Everything. Nothing.” She met Morgan’s gaze through the sunglasses. “I’m losing my mind, I know it. I just… Your bullets went right through him. They had to. You don’t miss, not that close. Morgan, tell me you didn’t miss.”

  “I—” Here it was. The moment where she could reveal all and know for certain there was someone in this chaos she could trust. But she couldn’t turn Kate’s world upside down just so she had someone to talk to. That wasn’t fair, no matter how desperately Morgan wanted it. “I must have missed.”

  “Missed.” The muscles in Kate’s jaw twitched.

  “Yes.”

  Kate’s eyes narrowed. “You were less than ten feet away. My ten-year-old nephew wouldn’t have missed.”

  “It was raining.” But Morgan knew as soon as the words had left her mouth Kate wouldn’t believe them. They’d trained together at the academy and had worked together for years. Kate knew Morgan’s abilities almost as well as Morgan did. They had to. Their job required them to put their lives in each other’s hands, and you didn’t do that if you didn’t know your partner was capable.

  “You saw it, too,” Kate said.

  “I don’t know what I saw.”

  “Yes, you do. Why are you lying?”

  “Kate, I—”

  “It has something to do with your FBI hotties, doesn’t it? What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure.” There had to be a way to convince Kate she hadn’t seen what she’d seen, and yet a part of Morgan didn’t want to. This was her opening to get Kate to help her find out about Gage.

  “Bullshit.” Kate shoved to her feet and grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair. “I thought we were friends.”

  Morgan scrambled out of her seat and grabbed Kate’s wrist, sloshing her coffee on the table. “We are.”

  “Then tell me what the hell is going on. Tell me how you could possibly miss that man. That man who somehow turned into two men. How that man turned into a dozen identical men on the other side of the distillery.” Kate leaned close. “Tell me why your eyes don’t look right even
through those sunglasses.”

  Morgan jerked her gaze from Kate’s. Two businessmen a few tables over were staring at them. So was a woman pouring cream into her cup on the other side of the café’s window.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kate asked, her voice low again.

  “You’re not going to believe me.”

  “Try me.”

  Morgan was still having a hard time believing it and she was living it. “Fine, but let’s sit before we draw any more attention.”

  Kate glared at the businessmen openly staring at them and eased into her chair.

  Morgan sat and took a long swig of her coffee. “What you saw in the old distillery was real. All of it.”

  “How?”

  Because the world was messed up? “I don’t know.”

  Kate raised an eyebrow, her mouth set in a hard line.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is, the things we think are fantasy, fairy tales, or myths are real. That man… that creature in the distillery was a smoke demon.” Morgan glanced over Kate’s shoulder at the businessmen. They’d returned to their conversation, thank goodness.

  “That’s why your bullets went right through him.”

  “Yes.”

  “So demons are real?”

  “And ogres and fairies and monsters and I don’t know what else.”

  “And you? How are you involved? How do you know?”

  Ice slid into Morgan’s gut. This was it. The moment of truth. “Remember when I got stabbed four months ago?”

  The hardness edging Kate’s expression softened and she nodded.

  Morgan clutched her cup. She couldn’t believe she was going to say this out loud. “The shock of it awoke something in me, something from my biological mother. I started seeing things, thought I was going crazy.”

  “That’s why you moved, wouldn’t tell me your new address, and shut yourself off. God, Morgan, I think I would have understood.”

  Morgan looked at Kate over the rim of her glasses.

  “Okay, maybe I wouldn’t have, but you shouldn’t have had to go through that alone.”

  “I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea what was happening until Gage showed up and you were kidnapped.” And then everything made sense, in a sick, horror-movie kind of way.

  “And Gage is one of these…”

  “Kin,” Morgan said. “They’re called Kin and a powerful… force”—she couldn’t bring herself to say magic in front of Kate—“keeps non-Kin from remembering them.”

  “So how come I remember?”

  “I don’t know. Gage said you wouldn’t.”

  “And Gage is how you know about these Kin?” Kate asked.

  “Which is my problem. I know Kin are real because I… I’m…” God, she just had to say it. Rip the bandage off. But if she confessed it to Kate, then it really was real. She couldn’t pretend it wasn’t. Not that she could at the moment. If she lost control people turned to stone, but telling Kate the truth was one step too far. Morgan wouldn’t be able to even pretend with her friend that it wasn’t real.

  “Hey.” Kate reached across the table and Morgan took her hand. “You’re Morgan Jacobs. My best friend. Anything else is incidental.”

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to say that.”

  “What? You’re going to tell me you’re an ogre? Kind of obvious before you get your first coffee in the morning.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “I’m not an ogre.”

  “Oooo, you’re a fairy with pink sparkly wings, leaving glitter dust everywhere you go.” Now the smile went all the way.

  Morgan bit back a laugh. “Wouldn’t you just love that. Can you see me with pink sparkly wings?”

  “Your mom would think it’s fabulous.”

  “You’re taking this awfully well.”

  Kate’s smile faded. “I know I saw something crazy, something inhuman at the distillery. Your explanation at least doesn’t include me having lost my mind.”

  “But it’s not just the guy who kidnapped you. It’s me. I’m now inhu—”

  Kate squeezed Morgan’s hand. “I’ve known you since high school. You’ve gotten me into and out of more trouble than I can remember. And you did it again just a few days ago. Hey, so my friend’s bio parents are a little unusual.”

  “Just my mother.”

  “You’re the same Morgan Jacobs I grew up with.”

  “Sure, and now I can turn things to stone with my gaze.”

  Kate’s eyes flashed wide. “You what?”

  “Apparently my biological mother was a gorgon.”

  “A what?”

  “A gorgon. Medusa was a gorgon.”

  “Medusa?” One of the businessmen glanced up and Kate leaned closer. “As in fangs and snake hair?”

  “I’ve been told I don’t have snake hair.”

  “That’s a relief.”

  “What? You could be my friend if I had sparkly wings but not if I had snake hair?” This was the most ridiculous conversation she’d ever had.

  “Hell, no. Snake hair is a deal breaker.” Kate’s smile glimmered in her eyes again, but Morgan wasn’t sure if she was just making light of the situation so she didn’t run screaming from the café. “So a gorgon, hunh?”

  “That’s what I’ve been told.”

  “By Special Agent Gage.”

  “Yes. And that I believe—”

  “But you’re not sure about other things he’s said,” Kate said.

  “I know he’s keeping secrets.” She just didn’t know how big or how dangerous.

  “You want me to do a little discreet checking around on him?”

  “Would you?” Relief flooded Morgan. She hadn’t realized how important it was to have Kate on her side and to not be in this alone.

  “What are friends for?”

  “I’ve done all the basics but can’t get past that. He is FBI, but I can’t get anything else on him and I don’t know anything about this Special Investigations task force that he’s a part of.”

  “I know just the ex to talk to.” Kate straightened. “Speak of the devil. Hottie number two just walked through the door.”

  Morgan turned in her chair and met Lachlin’s gaze on the other side of the lobby. He cocked his head to the side and offered a lazy smile. A spark of attraction shot through her and burned into her core. The smile turned wicked. “That’s not Lachlin.”

  “Sure looks like him.”

  “It’s his twin.”

  “My God, there’s two of them?”

  Eoin stalked toward them, a leopard on the prowl, oozing raw sex.

  “Oh, wow,” Kate said, her voice breathy.

  Eoin stopped at their table, glanced at Kate—who whimpered—and turned his pale gaze on Morgan. “Morgan.” He purred her name, sending shivers racing over her.

  Was it getting hot in here?

  She clenched her jaw against the sensation. Eoin was a murder suspect. That, and while the promise of his charm made all of her nerves ignite with anticipation, she wasn’t sure she liked the idea she was being manipulated. “That’s Deputy Marshal Jacobs, Mr. Kincade.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows. Yep, Lachlin was from that family. The one that owned a quarter of the town, along with pieces of many other towns in this country and others.

  “But Deputy Marshal is so impersonal. What does my brother call you?” His lips slid into a soft pout.

  Even that looked sexy on him. Now all she could think about were his lips, how they’d feel under hers, how his hungry mouth would claim her, devour her, send her into mind-shattering bliss.

  Good God! Pull it together.

  “Her friends call her Morgan,” Kate said.

  “And am I a friend?” Eoin asked.

  Oh yes, and more.

  “Sure.” Kate giggled.

  No, wait. She had to fight this. Lachlin and Gage weren’t here to save her and if Eoin really had murdered Scarlet, Morgan didn’t think he’d hesitate to kill her or Kate.
And she’d be damned if something happened to her best friend. “Deputy Marshal would be best. What are you doing here?”

  “Visiting a friend.” Eoin raised a sculpted eyebrow and another shiver of anticipation shuddered down to Morgan’s core. “I can do that, can’t I?”

  She caught a moan in her throat, swallowed it back, and stood, instinct sliding her hand to her hip for the gun that Gage still had. “And if you know what’s best, you’ll pull back on the charm.”

  “Is that a challenge?” His wicked smile returned and he leaned close. “I like a challenge.”

  Fire licked around Morgan’s eyes. She tipped her sunglasses down and leveled her gaze on him. “Don’t push me.”

  “You wouldn’t kill someone from one of the Thirteen Houses.” He slid a finger along her jaw.

  She seized his hand and twisted it into a painful wrist lock. “I don’t care if your father is the Pope. Fuck with me and mine and I will end you.”

  The fire burned across her cheeks, threatening to explode. She wasn’t going to hold it back for much longer. If she didn’t look away and get ahold of her emotions, she really was going to kill him.

  Eoin jerked his hand and she released it. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”

  A new wave of desire pounded over her, stealing her breath. She was drowning in sensation, in want. A touch, a glance, even just a thought, and she’d fall into mindless, orgasmic bliss. He had to finish it, fulfill her in the way only he could, but she teetered on the edge, painfully close, aching, burning. God, just a touch.

  “I can make you mine,” he said, his voice caressing her, tipping her closer then jerking her back.

  Yes, she wanted to be his. Anything for the glorious sensations he promised. A moan grew in her throat, but like the promise of the orgasm quivering through her, it stalled, caught on a breath she no longer had.

  He slid his hand along her cheek and into her hair, drawing a shudder. “I could keep you here, you know, on the edge, never fulfilled.”

  Her world spiraled into a pinpoint where his hand touched her body. Hot, so hot. She couldn’t think past the burning. She was on fire and it wasn’t her unwanted abilities. Please, God.

  “I could take you right here on the table in front of your friend and you wouldn’t care. Not until I released you.”