The dizziness returned for a second and I cursed Reginald again for his antics. Just because I nearly killed him once, he felt the need to make my life miserable.
A café sat not too far into town. “Stay here,” I told Harry, and he obediently plopped his butt down. “Weird dog. I’ll bring you something.”
Glancing around for any sign Reginald and his horde of hunters followed me, then ducked inside to grab some breakfast and figure out my next move.
Chapter Three
Kate
Mama Lucy’s tea failed to keep the nightmares away last night, and I had to get out of the house. Saturday was my day to wander the town anyway, and do some running for Mama Lucy while I was out.
It was still early, and I’d skipped out on breakfast back at the mansion. Mama Lucy would’ve asked me questions, and I wasn’t ready to tell her about my dream.
It started as they often did, me flying around high above the clouds… but this time… this time the sky turned black, and it started raining. But it wasn’t water. It was worse, so much worse.
I shuddered thinking about it now and stared up at the clear blue sky overhead. No dark clouds here and no raining blood. The dream only got more horrifying from there, but I forced myself to think of something else as I headed towards the local café for some pancakes and OJ.
“Oh, hello,” I said when I spied the large black and white dog sitting outside.
He barked and wagged his tail, headbutting me until I patted his head.
“No collar, huh? Are you lost, boy?”
I glanced around, looking for any sign of an owner, but there wasn’t one around. He didn’t look like he was in bad shape. His fur was soft, despite it being extremely bushy. His eyes were bright and alert, and he seemed happy.
“Are you hungry? How about I get you something to eat and then I’ll take you home with me?”
The dog barked and I grinned. I’d get my breakfast to go and lead him back to Mama Lucy. The kids would love to have a dog around for a while, and Mama Lucy never said we couldn’t have a dog in the house.
I worried the furry beast would take off, but he circled twice and sank back down to the warm sidewalk, basking in the sun. I hurried inside and glanced around the café. It was busy with the usual faces, but I frowned to see a new one near the back corner. The town wasn’t large by any means, and I was good at remembering faces.
The guy, maybe a year or two older, sat with his back ramrod straight and glared out the front window. His face was pale, and he hadn’t touched a bite of the food in front of him. As I waited at the counter to order, my gaze kept going back to him… and for the strangest reason, I felt the urge to go talk to him.
“Morning, Kate,” Jimmy, the owner of the café said as he neared my stool at the counter.
“Morning,” I replied automatically, but barely turned my head.
“Ah, I see. Busy checking out the new guy in town?’ he teased.
“What, no I just… is he alright?” I whispered.
As if the guy heard me, he stiffened, and his gaze suddenly shot towards me.
“Not sure. Came in here this morning with that dog outside. Barely said enough to order some food,” Jimmy replied quietly. “Not sure I like the look of him, so you stay away from him, alright?”
“What if he needs help?”
“Kate, what would Mama Lucy think, huh?”
I frowned.
He was right, but at the same time, Mama Lucy taught us to look after each other in this town. He was in this town, and he looked like he needed help.
“Can I get an order of pancakes to go, please?” I ordered, even as I hopped off my stool.
Jimmy’s brow furrowed, but he wrote up the ticket and didn’t say another word as I slowly made my way towards the guy. The closer I came towards him, the more I had to stop myself from rushing to him and sliding into the booth across from him. What was wrong with me? He was attractive sure, with his sandy brown hair and its messy style and his piercing blue eyes, so pale they reminded me of ice in the winter.
“Can I help you?” he snapped.
I flinched.
I laughed nervously. “Sorry, I uh, I just hadn’t seen you around town before,” I mumbled. “I usually remember everyone, but you’re new. Passing through or coming to stay?”
His eyes narrowed, and I felt his annoyance hit me like a punch to the gut. “Why do you care?”
“Just curious is all.”
I breathed deeply through my nose and froze. What was that delicious smell? It was magnificent and tantalizing… was it his food? No, no Jimmy’s pancakes never smelled so good. Like all the holiday dinners mixed together.
I breathed again, and he tilted his head, watching me. I stopped sniffing the air, realizing what I was doing and that I probably looked like a crazy person. “Sorry, it’s been a weird morning.”
“Sure,” he said.
“Right, well, I just didn’t know if you needed help or something.” I watched him closely, but then my gaze shifted to the item resting against the seat beside him. It was wrapped in leather, but the light refracted off of something red and sparkling beneath it.
My shoulders tensed and the sensation of something trying to move beneath my skin had me stepping back quickly.
“Are you this weird around everyone you meet?” he asked annoyed.
“Uh, no… no… what is that?” I blurted out, pointing to the thing.
His hand automatically went to it, and he glared at me. “None of your business, little girl.”
“Little girl?” I snapped and fiddled with the silver bangle on my wrist. “Seriously? I’m just trying to be nice, and you’re going to bite my head off?”
“You haven’t exactly been nice.”
“I was worried about you. You look like someone’s chasing you,” I pointed out. “All I was going to say was if you needed help, I know someone you would be safe with.”
He glanced around as if I’d brought in a team of other people to corner him. “Who sent you?”
“What? No one,” I muttered. “I came in to get breakfast for me and that dog, but then I was told that dog is yours so just getting food for myself.”
“Harry, his name is Harry,” he grunted as if I offended him by not knowing the dog’s name.
“Maybe you should get a collar for your dog,” I shot back.
“That’s none of your business.”
“You’re right, totally right.”
It took another second to take in his weird look, the long leather trench coat, and the torn-up shirt beneath, and his pants. They weren’t jeans. He was wearing knee-high leather boots, and… were those breeches?
“Did you come from a convention?”
“Now you’re going to insult what I’m wearing? You’re great at making new friends, aren’t you?”
My hands curled into fists at my sides, and the strangest urge to smack him across the face hit me. I stopped myself short and backed away.
“You know what, never mind. I didn’t want to help you or your dog anyway. Crazy, paranoid freak,” I mumbled and stalked away.
I paid for my pancakes and grumbled as I stepped outside. I gave Harry a long scratch behind the ears and stomped down the sidewalk. I’d eat my breakfast in the small park then do my running for Mama Lucy.
That guy, he was such an asshole. All I tried to do was help. My steps slowed, and I frowned realizing he might have been right. I had acted weirdly. I’d been sniffing the air like a dog. And that thing with him, what had it done to me? A shiver shot down my spine as flashes of my dream last night hit me again.
Didn’t matter. I’d never see him again. I’d do my running, go home, and try to catch up on some sleep and pray that whatever strange crap was going on with me was nothing more than a fluke.
Chapter Four
Craig
I left a twenty on the table, picked up the wrapped sword, and without touching anything on my plate, or waiting for change, headed out of the c
afé. I’d pocketed a pancake for Harry at least, and he gobbled it up as soon as I offered it to him.
“Who is she?” I whispered to him, watching the weird girl walk down the sidewalk.
At first, I thought she was some townie who was going to hit on me. Happened before, but then she’d been sniffing the air. Sniffing it, intently, and I’d watched as her gaze zeroed in on the sword. The idea crossed my mind she was a witch of some kind, sent after me by Reginald, but she was a piss poor one if that was the case. No witch was that clumsy.
And then I saw the bracelet on her arm.
She was no witch, not even close. She was exactly who I needed, and she was storming off through town.
I patted my leg and Harry fell into step beside me. I carried the sword over my shoulder, keeping my eyes trained on that head of black hair. The conversation replayed over and over in my head, and each time, I found another thing that made me curious about who she was. Her eyes were intense as she’d spoken to me, but at the same time, she seemed so unsure of herself. What was someone like her doing in this tiny town anyway? As far as I knew, there were none in these parts. They rarely frequented the human realm, not wanting to risk exposure.
Many centuries ago it happened, and it was disastrous for their kind. They were still rebuilding, and yet one of their own was out here wandering the streets of some mountain town in Colorado.
The runes on that bracelet were old, older than many I’d seen before on one like her. She had no guards following her that I could see. Was it possible she was really on her own? My luck might be holding out, and I picked up the pace.
When she’d sniffed the air, I thought at first, she was being weird, but now I realized if she was what I thought she was, then the glass shard in my pocket had been what she smelled. I couldn’t lose her. She might be my only chance to track down the rest of the shards.
The girl turned off the sidewalk, and my gut dropped thinking I lost her, but then Harry barked and took off through the small crowd, and I caught the end of his bushy tail disappearing into a small park.
I couldn’t run and hoped he would slow her down. Warmth spread from the wound at my side, and I knew it opened up. I healed slower thanks to my human half, but usually, it didn’t take this long. And never before had I needed stitches to aid in the closing of a wound.
Whenever I saw Reginald again, I’d have to pay him back in kind.
Harry’s barking guided me through the tiny park where a small playground was set off to the side, and a few art pieces were displayed, popping out here and there amongst the bushes. I clutched at my side, grimacing as the pain grew and my feet staggered.
“Hi again,” I heard the girl say, laughing at the dog. “Where’s your mean old owner, huh?”
I tried to call out, but the words stuck in my throat. I collapsed to the ground, coughing and hacking as a chill spread through my bones. What the hell was this?
“Hello?” the girl called out. No one else was in the park that I could hear. Harry barked and a few seconds later, I saw his furry feet before my eyes.
“Oh God!” The girl was there, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me to my feet. “You idiot!”
“Idiot?” I managed to rasp, trying to get to my feet with her help—and the dog’s.
“Yes, idiot. I asked if you needed help and you chased me off by being an asshole,” she snapped.
Her anger made me grin, and I tried to laugh, not exactly sure what was funny about this situation. I might be dying, but all I could do was laugh.
“Come on, we’re getting you to a hospital.”
“No,” I growled, and she stiffened, but didn’t run off. “No hospital.”
“What’s wrong with you anyway?”
I couldn’t find the words again and pointed to my side. She shoved away my shirt and gasped.
“That’s a lot of blood. Ok, I’m taking you to my place. Can you walk?”
“Where… where is your place?”
“Not far, but there’s a woman there, she can help you.”
A woman? I needed to know who, or what, but my mind became a muddled mess. My arm draped over her shoulders, and she started to lead me away, but the leather-wrapped sword was on the ground.
“Wait!”
“What?”
I nodded to the sword on the ground. “Can’t… can’t leave it.”
“Seriously? You could be dying, and you’re worried about that thing?”
“Priorities,” I mumbled, and she glared at me. I removed my arm and Harry helped me stay standing as she bent to pick it up. I was about to apologize for it being so heavy, worried she might not be able to carry it around, but she hoisted it easily into her arms, and then put my arm back around her shoulders. “Who the hell are you?”
“That’s not very nice to ask the person helping you.”
I winced with every step we took back down the park trail and out to the sidewalk. She held me up and carried that sword as if we weighed nothing. If I doubted what she was a few seconds ago, I didn’t any longer.
But the question remained if she knew what she was.
I guess I’d have no choice, but to let her take me back to this woman and hope it wasn’t a trap.
“What is this place?” I grunted when we finally reached an huge old, mansion smack dab in the middle of town. “You live here?’
“Yes, now I told you to stop talking and save your strength,” she scolded.
I grinned. “I’m fine, perfectly fine.”
She glanced worriedly at my side, and I knew that was clearly not the case. “You should’ve just let me take you a hospital,” she muttered.
“No, no hospitals,” I growled again, but weaker, much weaker. “They don’t do well treating patients like me.”
“Oh, you mean stubborn jackasses?”
“You’re funny you know that?” I squinted at her as my vision blurred. “And kind of cute when you’re mad.”
She opened her mouth to say something else, but I didn’t hear it. It was like someone put cotton in my ears and my legs gave out, too.
I crashed to the ground, and Harry started licking my face.
I tried to lift a hand to pet him, but it didn’t reach.
All I could do was lay there, on a stone path, and stare up at the sky.
Chapter Five
Kate
“Idiot!” I snapped again as I rushed up the front steps and into the house. “Mama Lucy!”
“Kate, what’s the matter?” she asked, rushing out of the kitchen.
A few of the kids followed, but one look at the panic on my face and she sent them back outside to play.
“Kate?’
I grabbed her hand and dragged her outside with me. “He needs your help.”
Mama Lucy’s face darkened the second they landed on the guy. “Where did you find him? What happened?”
“At the café,” I rasped as she ran to his side and knelt down.
Harry promptly sat back on his butt watching contently.
“I tried to talk to him, but he was being rude, and then he followed me, and I saw the blood, but he said no hospital.”
“Take a breath, Kate,” Mama Lucy ordered gently. “Help me get him inside.”
“No hospital?” I asked confused.
“No, not for this. Come on.”
She grabbed his feet, and I hefted him up at the shoulders. Together, we managed to get him up the few wooden steps, and inside the living room with pocket doors she slid closed.
Then she was back at his side as he laid on the couch, peeling back his coat and lifted his shirt. The wound looked awful, not that I’d seen many wounds before in my life… or none, really.
“Is it supposed to look like that? All weird and oozing?”
“No. Whatever stabbed him was poisoned.”
“Stabbed? Poisoned?” I stared intently at the guy’s face. “What’s going on? Why would someone stab him?”
Something pawed at the door, and I rushed to op
en it thinking it would be one of the kids, but it was Harry, dragging that huge sword behind him by the hilt.
I picked it up for him, and he trotted to sit by the guy’s head. I leaned the sword against the wall, more concerned with him surviving than the trinket he had with him. Who walked around with a sword anyway?
“Kate, I need you to grab me a few things from the shop,” Mama Lucy said, poking and prodding around the wound with her fingers.
I gagged and turned away, not wanting to see what was happening to the wound.
“Grab a pen and paper, it’s going to be quite a few items.”
I nodded and rushed out of the room to find a paper and pen. I peeked out back, but all the kids were still out there playing and laughing in the garden, safe and sound and not seeing that ghastly wound.
I ran back to Mama Lucy and jotted down everything she told me.
“What is this stuff?” I asked, staring at the list. “I’m not sure they sell this at the pharmacy.”
“You’re not going to the pharmacy,” she informed me, her brow crinkled so deep I wondered if it would un-crinkle. “He needs different help besides the medicine of men.”
I blinked a few times before muttering, “What? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know, but I have no time to explain right now.” She removed a gold coin from the pocket of her skirt, and my eyes went straight to it.
The urge to snatch it out of her hands grew in me suddenly. I forced myself to back away.
“I need you to go to the herbalist shop three blocks over, you know the one.”
“I’ve never gone there before. You said I wasn’t allowed to,” I whispered, my still eyes transfixed by that gold coin in her hand.
“And now I’m telling you to go there. Take this,” she said and grabbed my hand, setting the coin in my palm.
It was heavy, not physically, but I couldn’t describe what it did to me. I rolled my shoulders and broke out in a cold sweat.
“Kate, look at me.”
The power in those words made my eyes whip to her, and I shook my head. “Sorry, right, the shop.”
“Give this coin to the woman behind the counter along with the list. She’ll give you what you need. And hurry. Your friend doesn’t have much time.”
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