Winds of Change Book Two

by Melissa Good

  “Hm.” Dar grunted softly.

  “Back in the day there was a butcher who lived in that house with his wife, and his factory. He made the best pork sausages in town and everyone bought from him. The butcher was happy, but as the years went on and he and his wife got older, he began to tire of her.”

  “I don’t think I want to listen to this one,” Kerry said. “I can see where it’s going.”

  “You want to duck out?” Dar asked. “It’s just a short walk back to the hotel.”

  Kerry thought about it then nodded. “It’s late. I’m tired and my mind is going in circles. Maybe we can try another tour tomorrow night.”

  “No problem.” Dar guided her away from the back of the crowd and down the next side street. As they moved along the music got louder. They saw bright lights and something big moving. “Hey, a parade.” She pointed. “That’s a lot more cheerful than creeps.”

  Kerry was glad to leave the spooks behind as they turned at the corner of Canal Street and saw a long cavalcade of floats and marchers, all in lurid, pungent colors, brass instruments blaring. “Oh yeah, this is better.” She eased in beside Dar near the edge of the street, smiling as one of the floats came even with them, full of revelers in masks. “Oh, those are pretty.”

  It was all very frenetic. Kerry wasn’t sure who or what the float was supposed to represent, but there were people on the floats who were throwing things to the crowd with distinct enthusiasm. Strings of beads, round metal bits, cups, stuffed animals.

  “Look out.” Dar’s reflexes saved her from being bonked by a flying disk. Then she put her hands up and found them ringed by strings of beads that wrapped around her wrists.

  “Hey, babe!” one of the float members yelled, looking right at her. “Smile!”

  Kerry did and was rewarded with a tossed cup. “Holy crap,” she said as the float passed. “What the hell is all this?”

  “They’re called throws.” Dar was laughing. “Hey, at least they didn’t ask you to take off your shirt.” She dropped the disk into Kerry’s cup, took the beads from her wrists and put them around her neck. “C’mon, hot stuff. Let’s see what other swag we can get.”

  The shadows fell away from Kerry’s thoughts and she grinned, seeing rows and rows of spectators also covered in beads, necklaces, and a range of other gaudy decorations. They were also yelling at the parade. “What are they all shouting?”‘

  “Morpheus,” Dar said. “That’s the group who’s doing this parade. Each parade is sponsored by a society of volunteers. They’re called krewes.”

  Kerry studied the oncoming marchers. “They just do this for fun?”

  “Yup.”

  “They don’t get paid?”

  “Nope. It’s all just to party.”

  Kerry blinked. “Wow. I think I like New Orleans.”

  The band marched by, playing their hearts out, sending brassy tones up into the night air as unicycle riders wove in and out of their ranks, tossing beads and glowing necklaces as they passed.

  “Jesus!” Kerry glanced down the road for the next float. “Oh, look at that. I want a stuffed animal.” She pointed at two women throwing the objects randomly.

  “No problem,” Dar responded gallantly, starting to unbutton her shirt.

  “No wait...not...Dar!” Kerry grabbed her clothing hastily. “I don’t want one that bad.”

  “I thought you liked me with my shirt off.”

  “Dar!”

  Dar chortled softly and put her arms around Kerry, giving her a hug. “Okay, hon.” She rocked them both back and forth. “How about a beer?”

  “Sure.” Kerry steered her toward an outdoor cafe. “That’s a lot safer than plush toys. All I need for this place is cash.” She fished a bill out of her pocket and pinned the waitress with an intent stare. “I don’t have to share my eye candy.”

  Dar started laughing out loud.

  Chapter Six

  IT WAS VERY late when they finally wandered back into the hotel lobby, arm in arm. Kerry felt amiably over stimulated, her ears still ringing from the music and a sense of pleasant displacement insulating her from the several mugs of beer she’d consumed.

  It smelled of wood and candles in the hall and there was a sense of age and decorum about the room, historic and different and reminding her oddly of some places she’d been in the Capitol. “Shouldn’t have had that last beer,” she said mournfully. “Time to park my ass in bed.”

  “That’s where we’re going.” Dar guided her up the steps, giving a brief smile and nod to the room service waiter on his way down.

  “Evening, ladies.” He returned the greeting with a smile. “Anything I can bring you lovely gals tonight?”

  “Please don’t say ice cream, Dar. I’ve got too much beer in me,” Kerry muttered. “Not a good mix.”

  “How about some nice hot tea,” Dar said, “and a couple bottles of water.”

  “Surely!” The waiter smiled. “Be right up with it.”

  “Mmm...nice hot tea.” Kerry sighed. “You’re the best.”

  Dar unlocked the door and steered them both inside. She smiled when she saw their bed turned down and chocolate truffles placed neatly awaiting them.

  “Boy, that looks good.” Kerry kicked off her shoes. “I don’t know if I’m going to last for tea. I’m wiped.” She carefully untangled the many strands of beads from her neck and put them on the desk, adding the coins to them. “That was wild and crazy.”

  Dar pulled something from her pocket and dropped it next to Kerry’s booty. “There.”

  “Oh, you got one?” Kerry picked up the plush animal with a look of surprise. “I didn’t see you do that.”

  Dar chuckled.

  “Did you have to flash them for it?” Kerry peered at her from under very disheveled bangs. “Tell me the truth.”

  Dar obligingly came over, wrapping her arms around Kerry, gazing down into her eyes. “The truth is, I’d have stripped naked and covered myself in honey if it would made you happy.” She smiled at the gentle shift in Kerry’s expression. “But the truth also is that three people from the ILS New Orleans office were on that float and nearly split their pants rushing over to give me their toys.”

  Kerry fell against her and savored the hug that followed. “They recognized you?”

  “Oh yeah.” Dar laughed easily along with her. “Actually they said someone told them we were going to be here and they were on the lookout for us. You were getting beer at the time and they had to keep up with the float. They were bummed they missed you.”

  Kerry closed her eyes, glad the windows were sufficiently insulated that only a faint blare of horns and yells filtered through to them. She felt Dar start to peel her shirt off and merely smiled, enjoying the sensation of the room air hitting her bare skin between her shoulder blades.

  Dar’s fingers cradled the back of her head and their lips met.

  Kerry pulled back and deftly removed Dar’s shirt, then worked at the button on Dar’s jeans, the well worn and broken in fabric yielding easily to her fingers. The loosened denim slid down revealing Dar’s briefs, a pair Kerry had given her for Christmas that was sedately decorated with UNIX commands.

  Some people shopped for lingerie at Victoria’s Secrets, she shopped at Thinkgeeks.com, so did Dar, who gave her the Darth Vader boxer shorts she was currently in the process of losing, believing the statement—come to the dark side, we’ve got cookies!—seemed to fit her.

  Rampant nerdism.

  She had just removed the briefs from Dar’s hips, and they were making a slow move toward the bed when there was a knock at the door.

  “Ah, crap.”

  “Tea.” Kerry banged her head gently against Dar’s chest. “Why did we do that?”

  “We’re drunk.” Dar nudged her over to the bed and pulled the covers back. “G’wan. I’ll get it.” She pulled her shirt back on and tugged it down to an almost modest length and trudged over to the door.

  Kerry watched with a faint grin, and hal
f closed eyes, as Dar opened it to accept the tray, setting it down on the credenza and walking the bill back over to the waiter and closing him out of the room once he took it. Then she went back to the tray and opened one of the bottles of water, her figure outlined by the light from the window.

  “Here.” Dar brought two glasses back over. “I’ve been told if you stay hydrated, you get less of a hangover.” She sat down on the edge of the bed and offered Kerry one. “True?”

  “Never tried it, no idea.” Kerry drank the liquid anyway. “But it sure as hell can’t hurt, right? I figured you’d find some way of making that chocolate fizzy thing if waking up tomorrow’s too bad.”

  “Mm.” Dar put her glass down, then took Kerry’s and got rid of that, too. She pulled off her shirt and gave it a toss in the direction of the credenza. She licked her lips and slid under the covers. “Now. Where were we?”

  “I’d just taken off your briefs and you were...ah, yeah.”

  She felt the straps on her bra come loose and then Dar’s thigh slipped between hers. She gave herself over to the growing passion that burned its way through the alcohol and brought life into sharp, sensual focus. It brought a lightness to her thoughts and any memories of earlier shadows vaporized as Dar put her knowledge of Kerry’s body to good use.

  They were part of each other in this moment and this moment was the only thing she knew or cared about. Kerry felt the aching tension start to escalate and it brought a rush of adrenaline with it, making her ferociously happy.

  Hangovers and ghosts be damned.

  DAR OPENED HER eyes, half lifting her head off the pillow. After a moment of silence she blinked, not sure what had wakened her.

  It was dark and quiet in the room, soft creaks and pops sounding at irregular intervals. It was raining outside and she heard a faint rumble of thunder, but that was it. She glanced over at her bedmate, finding Kerry curled half on her side and half on her stomach, her arm wrapped around her pillow, very sound asleep.

  “Hmph.” She settled back down on her side and put her arm around Kerry’s waist. Without waking, Kerry seemed to sense the pressure and shifted a little, moving closer and pressing against Dar with a faint sound of contentment.

  That made Dar smile. She closed her eyes, glad at least that her head seemed to be fairly clear and there were no obvious aftereffects of their fun evening. She’d had a hangover once or twice in her life and hadn’t enjoyed it, but she didn’t regret spending the night letting her hair down with Kerry either.

  Sometimes you just had to do that. Dar exhaled and let her body relax, but halfway through that she stopped as she got the uncanny sense that something was watching her, a prickling of the shoulder blades that made her nape hairs lift.

  Imagination? Dar lifted her head and turned, looking back over her shoulder at the window, fully expecting to find nothing and shocked breathless when she saw a shadowy figure on the balcony looking in.

  For a long moment, she froze. Then instinct took over and she slid out from under the covers and stood up to put herself between the window and Kerry.

  She straightened up to her full height and squared her shoulders, flexing her hands a little as she took a deep breath and a step toward the window. The figure was dark, tall, and indistinct, and though she couldn’t see the features, she knew it was looking right at her.

  It occurred to her, somewhat belatedly, that facing an unknown intruder stark naked wasn’t the smartest thing she could do, but she had no intention of taking the time to put clothes on when that same intruder could burst in the doors and...

  Well, it would have to go through her to get to Kerry. Expecting fear but finding only fierce determination instead, she flexed her hands again and took another step forward, spreading her arms out to present as threatening a defense as she could. Blood rushed to her skin and sent a warm flush through her muscles.

  The figure moved as she did and she drew in a breath to let out a yell when thunder, followed by lightning, made her jump. It bathed her in light and she blinked from it. When it faded, the figure was gone.

  Gone.

  Dar walked to the double French doors and put her hands against them, looking out onto the long balcony beyond. She saw the length of it and the emptiness echoed in her senses as her heart rate started to slow back down.

  “Dar?”

  Dar stifled a yelp, sucking in air abruptly before she turned around to see Kerry sitting up in bed, her bare upper torso visible in the faint light. “Ah.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kerry cleared her throat of its huskiness. “You okay?”

  Dar came back over and sat on the bed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Storm out there. Woke me up.” She ran a slightly shaking hand through her hair. “Whew.”

  Kerry touched her arm, closing her fingers around it. “That last blast woke me up, too,” she said. “You sure you’re okay? You look a little freaked out.”

  Dar turned and pulled one knee up, resting her hands on it as she studied Kerry’s face. “I thought I saw someone out on the balcony.”

  Kerry jerked in surprise. “What?” She looked in reflex at the window. “I don’t see anything out there.”

  “No, not now,” Dar said. “When I woke up I looked over there and saw someone standing outside. Then after that big flash, it was gone.”

  “It.” Kerry repeated, after a pensive moment of mutual silence. “What did it look like?”

  Dar lay back down and pulled the covers up, the cool air of the room giving her goose bumps. “Couldn’t see detail. Just something tall and dark, maybe in an overcoat or something. But it might have just been a shadow, Ker, because it wasn’t there when I went to the window.”

  Kerry studied the glass. “Or maybe whatever it was got scared when they saw a six foot plus tall buff naked woman lunging at them.” She gave her soulmate a fond look. “That’d be enough to scare off a robber, don’t you think?”

  Dar’s dark eyebrow hiked.

  “But you know,” Kerry said. “I think I saw something like that in the garden we walked in. Just tall and all shadowy.”

  They regarded each other in silence again. “You mean, not a real thing?” Dar said, hesitantly. “As in, a ghost?”

  Kerry shrugged. “It was there and then it wasn’t. I don’t know. I don’t know what you saw, but it sounds like what I saw, and it was full of creepitude.” She paused. “So what’s creepier? A ghost or some guy following us around and climbing up on our balcony?”

  “That puts it in perspective doesn’t it?” Dar said. She gave Kerry a wry look. “I don’t know, Ker. Maybe it was neither. Could have just been my imagination.”

  “Mm. That’s what I thought in the garden, too.”

  Dar pondered the idea quietly. What did she see? Shadows? Her imagination? Nothing? A real intruder trying to get in their hotel room? Should she call the front desk, the cops, or a psychiatrist? “I dunno,” she finally said. “I don’t really want to get dressed and go out in the rain to see if whatever it was left footprints.”

  Kerry settled back down next to her and put her head on Dar’s shoulder. “What exactly were you planning to do running out like that in your altogether, sweetie?” she asked, consciously trying to lighten the conversation. “I mean, what if it had actually been a burglar?”

  “Damned if I know,” Dar admitted with a faint smile. “All I was thinking about was staying between whatever it was and you.”

  “You’re such a super hero.” Kerry tickled her navel and felt the motion as Dar chuckled silently. “I’m going to get you those Superman panties I saw on the Internet the other day.” She looked over to find herself being watched by those pale eyes almost glowing with affection. “And besides all that, you sure are my hero.”

  Dar stuck her tongue out.

  “Anyway, we’ll check out the floor out there when we have coffee tomorrow,” Kerry said. “Hopefully this headache I’ve got will be gone by then. Teach me to mix bourbon and beer.”

  Dar tucked the covers ar
ound the both of them and shut her eyes. The rumble of thunder slowly lulled her back into some level of relaxation while she allowed her mind to ponder what had happened. She felt the warmth of Kerry’s breath against the side of her neck and the gentle motion of the edge of her thumb making idle patterns against her bare skin. She knew a moment of deep echo, a wash of familiarity that seemed ancient and new all at the same time.

  Weird.

  What had she intended on doing? Rushing out onto the balcony and drop kicking the damn thing? Dar had to smile at herself, if only in self deprecation. What if it was a ghost? Should she have been afraid of it? She hadn’t been. Or maybe it had happened so fast she hadn’t had time to be scared either way.

  Oh well.

  New Orleans was known for odd things. They’d half jokingly gone out looking for ghosts and she was now ready to internally accept that maybe they’d seen something unexplained.

  Or maybe they both just had good imaginations. Dar dismissed the events and snuggled up tighter with Kerry, content to leave any other analysis until morning when sunlight and coffee might put a completely different slant on things.

  One eye opened and she regarded Kerry. Unless she had to go find an egg cream. Her eye closed again and now the silence returned, broken only by two sets of quiet breathing.

  AS IT HAPPENED, no egg cream was needed. Kerry picked up her cup of coffee and sipped from it, enjoying the cool air and the completely ghost free balcony. She was dressed in a pair of ragged old jeans and a royal blue sweatshirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows,

  There were no scuffs or footprints, but then it rained all night and she doubted there would have been any anyway. Kerry studied the long stretch of empty ground as she sipped from her cup, trying to sort out in her head what had gone on.

  Dar was not an easily suggestible person. She had an imagination, certainly, but she was so logic driven, Kerry often suspected her daydreams were formed from Ethernet packet encapsulation schemes where her own mind tended to be far more flexible in that regard.