“Could it be suicide?” Kyle asked.
The cat yowled.
Laylea found her eyes drawn to the dead tree that clanged.
Kyle persisted, “Why would she want to die?”
Absently, as she crossed to the six-foot tall painting, Laylea suggested, “maybe she had no KJ to live for.”
The cat screamed, spitting and clawing at her cage. Kyle smelled it when she ripped a claw from one paw. The scent set his brain on fire. He wanted blood even if the cat’s blood smelled wrong. Like a piece of cheesecake left sitting out overnight, he wanted the blood even knowing it would make him sick.
He closed his eyes, “She cut herself.”
“I’m not surprised.” Laylea felt around the sides of the painting’s frame.
“I can smell the blood.”
She froze for only a second. “So stop breathing. You don’t really need to, do you?” Laylea found a catch on the left hand side of the frame.
“It makes me feel human.”
She pushed the catch. “You’re not.”
He stopped talking, stopped breathing. She looked back at him as if to apologize but the painting hinged open revealing a steel door with a submarine type wheel set in its center. Kyle forgot about the blood.
Laylea shoved the flailing crate out of the way with one foot. She leaned on the wheel until it began to spin. Three spins popped the door open with a hiss. Stale air seeped out, redolent with the stink of herbs used for relaxation, hypnosis, and astral projection.
“Kyle,” Laylea stumbled back a step as she got a look inside the cold room. “Mrs. Cull has skeletons in her closet.”
He inhaled to joke, “The blood runes didn’t tell us that?”
The cat’s sour panic overwhelmed the smell of its sweet rusty blood. Kyle grimaced. Then waves of dark scents washed over him from the closet and he opened his eyes. Two skeletons hung in a room lined with crumbling books, black and white photos, and dozens of objects pulsing with a dark aura that reminded him of Irina.
“Is this room what drew me here?”
Laylea reached up to lift something off a hook on the door. “Wasn’t your stakeout near here?”
“No.” He said, wondering at the journey he took last night when now it hurt to shake his head. “Nowhere near here. After I dusted Irina, I ran to the Warren Park precinct. Maybe I was gonna turn myself in or I don’t know. But the smell of all the people there scared me.”
Laylea turned away from the closet of wonders, a gold chain clutched in one fist. The chain featured a bloodstone charm and a yellowed card attached with blue yarn. “And you came here after that?”
“No. Well, almost. I walked all night, Lee.” He used the name even though he now knew it wasn’t the right one. “I walked up here, probably reached this very block before some impulse drew me south again. I was so tired and already sweating, my bones aching for blood, but I walked. Until I found myself at The Office. I couldn’t go in. I was drawn to the door but I dragged myself away to the back. I was going to just peek in, satisfy this urge, but Amal came crashing through the back gate carrying a worn leather suitcase covered with destination stickers. I ducked back, meaning to hide behind the dumpster but I hit my head on some extrusion of brick and blacked out. When I woke, the compulsion drew me south toward DePaul’s campus. I could have peeked in on you and Bailey in your studio.”
Laylea’s hand slid up to her collar.
Pink tears slid down Kyle’s face. “I wanted to go home. I wanted to see Jeannie and KJ one last time before the sun came up but I wasn’t allowed. I had to come here. I stumbled back north to this neighborhood, to this building, waiting for the sun to rise and end everything. My feet just kept moving and I had to keep up, until you found me.”
“Kyle, when she bit you, did Irina give you anything?”
“Other than her blood and all of her horrific memories?”
“You have her memories?”
Kyle chuckled. “When I took her life, that’s what I got. Her life. Every moment of silence is filled with the screams of her victims or her own soul. If I shut my eyes I see her journey, like I have all these lost memories slowly coming back to me. And all the time I feel the draw of that key.”
“You got her curse.” Laylea ran to the kitchen. She slipped the bloodstone necklace over her head, then filled a glass of water at the sink and drained it. It wasn’t cold enough. She opened the freezer.
And slammed it shut again. “Did she know what lock the key opened? Did she know and bring it here anyway?”
“No.” Kyle shut his eyes to search his new memories. “She just knew that once she got to Chicago, all the rules changed. The key became stronger than the curse compelling her to protect it. That’s why she could let me take it off. It took every ounce of will she had to keep from killing me when I cut it. Her kiss could have easily turned into a bite.”
“Her kiss did turn into a bite. Only you didn’t have the key anymore. Dee had the key.” Laylea rubbed at her collar. “Dee took the key with her to free Bailey from the Warren Park precinct. He brought it to me here. We took it to The Office. We took it right where it wanted to be. We meant to bring it to Orin at the brownie’s resale shop. But, I took us across the street to The Office instead.”
She stared at the freezer door, her mind’s eye seeing straight through, shutting out the memory of last night.
Kyle took in a rasping breath. “I was following you.”
Laylea nodded. “You were following the key.”
“Why did the key take you to The Office?” Even as he asked, a hint of the answer sparked in his mind.
Laylea worried the bloodstone resting on her chest. She returned to the pantry as she spoke. “It wanted to open the box.”
9
Demons
“What box?” From the ice in her voice, he knew he didn’t want to find the answer in his own mind. But he had little choice.
Laylea took four mason jars from the pantry. She opened and wrinkled her nose at the liquid inside each as she set them on the old kitchen table. Kyle could barely hear her unnaturally quiet voice over the cat’s yowling.
“Bailey didn’t question me when I turned away from the pawn shop. He opened the door to The Office, held it while I fished quarters from my collar. The rusty half-moon hung low over the West Loop by that point. I stared, enthralled as only a shapeshifter can be. Having no woman’s moon time, I imagine sometimes that my furry form is informed by the moon. That bloody moon should have told me more.”
Kyle arched in a seizure, but cried out all the same, “You went in. You went inside to see Jukebox Beth dancing.”
Laylea spun to face him. She looked down at her healed knuckles. “You drank my blood. You have my memories too?”
The seizure passed, leaving Kyle sweating on the soaking mattress. “Not everything. I know your name isn’t Lee Woodford but I don’t know your real last name.”
Laylea gasped. She dropped into puppy and right back into girl.
“Bet you want to cut my head off now.”
“No. You’re a father.”
“A father who doesn’t dare go anywhere near his daughter.”
“A father doesn’t have to be near his daughter to protect her.”
“Your father is far away.” Kyle’s upper body cramped up, his hands curling into claws as the knowledge sparked through his spine. “He and the mom are fighting The Consortium to keep them from experimenting on you.” His eyes blazed. “And Bailey.”
Laylea pushed away from the table. “Think about what happened last night. At The Office.”
The teasing understanding that Bailey was not as he seemed slipped into the ether as the sound of Benny Goodman’s clarinet surged through his mind.
Laylea spelled it out as he remembered the moments, “Beth swayed in the darkness of the bar, one gnarled hand tapping to the beat on her precious jukebox, the other gripping the wet napkin around a gin and tonic. I hopped up on the corner stool and laid my t
wo quarters in line with the other tolls forming a figure eight there on the bar. The old crazy lady opened her eyes and we bopped together to Benny Goodman’s orchestra.”
Kyle said, “You asked her ’How’s Louis?’ and her face sparked alive. She leaned in and whispered, ‘He knows the words to Cheek to Cheek.’ And you took out Irina’s necklace.” His hand gripped his neck as memories of Irina’s years wearing the silver against her skin surged to the fore.
“Captain Morioka saw it.” Even in the roughly sketched memory Kyle felt the pull of the key, the fear of Morioka getting it. But the captain’s face drained. “It terrified her.”
Laylea took up the thread as she made her way around the small apartment. “I don’t know if you’ll remember it this way but for me, everything slowed down then. I didn’t look around, but I was aware of everyone in the bar as this hand-forged key dangled from my fist. Jeffrey and Cal drank together in the far corner while some of the other regulars danced. A passel of post-teens laughed uproariously over some bullshit at the front tables. And the deep oaken bar itself hosted as many wyrdos as I’ve ever seen in there at once. Lucio, the snazzy brownie who keeps trying to sell you precious gems for Jeannie, was totally focused on a nearly empty glass at the far curve of the bar. Next to him this dark black little girl—”
Kyle interrupted as the name shot like a spike into his skull, “Diejuste. Jane Diejuste.”
“Yeah, Jane had Seb enthralled with whatever she’s saying. Your partner, Dee, looking like she’s been run over by a hearse, stood beyond them arguing at Captain Morioka who had eyes for nothing but—“
“The key,” Kyle breathed.
Laylea dragged her hands along the ridges of the radiator. She stepped over Kyle’s chain.
He repeated, “The key.” He dug the nails of one hand into his thigh as his head arched back again. He squeezed his eyes shut tight. “You pulled your hand back but Orin was too quick. He snatched the key and pulled the blue cloth off of . . .” Kyle snarled and Laylea tripped backwards to get away. The snarl contorted his voice as he continued. “. . . a wooden box secured with iron bindings in the shape of tree limbs and leaves. Faces were trapped among the leaves, carved into the wood screaming. Every wyrdo’s head turned as Orin fit the key into the tiny padlock. From across the room you heard Morioka whisper, ‘Onioka.’ You froze but Bailey reached for the box.” The snarl faded as Kyle reached for some evasive memory of Bailey.
Laylea grunted. “That box called out to all of us.” She dropped loudly into the comfy chair by the bookshelf holding Laura Ingalls Wilder beside antique volumes of grunt magic, valuable tomes on transformation, astral projection, and consciousness transference.
“Bailey—” Kyle began.
Laylea cut him off. “Amal, carrying a suitcase of all things, raced in from the back screaming ‘Stop!’ Dee echoed him and that caught Orin’s attention, but it was too late.”
“He turned the key.” Again Kyle flinched at the remembered burning on his neck.
Laylea pulled a book from the shelves and threw it near the cat. “Orin turned the key and a monster exploded from the box.”
“Onioka.” Kyle breathed.
“Yes. Whoever the hell he is, Morioka knows him.” She continued, “The box, the key, and the padlock all flew in different directions. So did Orin, Junior, and me. Bailey leapt out to battle the monster, but this scaled and furry Buffalo headed demon faced the back of the bar, away from us. I grabbed Bailey’s arms, hugged him still as Dee leapt in front of Morioka. Nobody else moved.”
“Except Jukebox Beth,” Kyle added. “Her fingers kept tapping to Moonglow.”
Laylea hadn’t remembered she’d heard that. She flipped through the gilt edged pages of a book entitled Attracting and Meeting Your Astral Familiars. “What I remember is my brother and I getting a close-up view of the demon’s ass as he grew tall enough to hit the ceiling with his horns. Has my blood given you that image?”
“It has now. Thanks.”
“I think he would have kept growing if the ceiling wasn’t there to stop him. And the smell of him. Like he hadn’t showered in millennia. He cracked his neck and stretched. Thank gods he didn’t start doing yoga because I did not want to be on the backside of downward dog.”
Kyle watched as she threw another book over the cat’s crate. “You don’t want to remember what happened next.”
“Dee happened next.” She threw another book.
“Dee’s gift is a good thing. When she sees the pallor around someone, it gives them time to change, to confess their sins so they can cross over more easily.”
“Woohoo! A banshee’s giving me time to clear my conscience before I die. Said no one ever.”
“I said it.” The hint of a laugh crossed Kyle’s lips. “And then failed to have the grace to die.”
“No, you did the dying all right. You just didn’t traverse the veil and gauntlet.”
He considered this. “I’m a wyrdo. Does that mean someone will explain that to me now?”
“Sure.” Lee pulled a book from the shelves. “And the handbook will also tell you how the mass of a twelve pound terrier transforms into a hundred pound person and back.”
“Please remind me what happened to Onioka.”
“Don’t you already know?”
“No. Your memories are harder. Irina’s just keep uploading into my brain uninvited.” He looked away from Laylea. “Maybe because I drank more from her.”
“Or maybe because you dusted her and she’s not accessing them anymore.” She tossed a book to him. “Read that. It’s actually a good one. Not like the rest of this crap.” She threw another book that hit the corner of the crate, turning it so they could see the cat inside again. And she could see them. “It’s no big deal, Methuselah. Everyone dies. One of the blessings of life is we don’t know when. But Dee does. She’s a banshee and she sees a kind of fuzzy aura around anyone who’s gonna die soon. Or in the case of The Office last night, everyone who’s gonna die soon. She looked at me. She looked at my brother. I saw Dee look around at every face in the bar and see a pallor.”
Laylea pulled her knees up to her chest. “It wasn’t so bad for me. But the brownies all look so young even though they’ve lived forever. And Dee ages slowly too. They maybe thought they were a little immortal. But me, I’m a terrier. I’m only expected to live, at best, thirteen to fifteen years and I turned fifteen last spring. I’m ready.” She fell silent, flipping through the pages of a thin book. “Well, I’m prepared.
Kyle tried to reach out to her. “Laylea.”
“You don’t get to use my real name. You may know it but I’m Lee to you.” She jumped up from the chair. “Morioka’s gigantic demon friend, Onioka, lectured us in some gobbledygook language and when no one answered, he swiped at the bar. Broke glasses and the beer pulls, dented the wood. The little girl, Jane, hopped off her stool to avoid the debris. She didn’t know Lucio’s karma would have protected them both. This little girl, like ten years old, right? She waves at the nine-foot demon and says hi. Bailey took advantage of the distraction to push away from me. He snuck over to the front tables and sent out—He searched for the key.”
A memory and Laylea’s grief hit Kyle in the solar plexus. “You couldn’t have stopped him.”
She ignored him. “My focus was on Bailey. Until Onioka reached over to wrench Beth from her jukebox. He held her over his head, drinking the blood dripping from her thigh like he was a kid caught in the rain. Then he snapped her and tossed her away.”
Kyle heard it all as Laylea had. Beth’s spine shattering. The scattering quarters as she slid across the bar. A clean crack and a thump as her body slammed into the jukebox and fell to the floor. And over it all, Beth’s beloved machine, never skipping, played her favorite song.
“And my heart beats so that I can hardly—” he sang.
Laylea strode back to the closet. “I felt Bailey winding up. But Dee beat him to it.”
“She did her thing!” Kyle cried
.
“She keened. Bottles shattered on the shelves behind the bar. The lights flared and sparks flew as thunder echoed from alcoves around the room. Onioka threw a fireball at Dee but the brownies—Orin helping Bailey search, Lucio still on his barstool, Amal at the arch to the back hallway—they all snapped as one and the fire dissolved.”
Kyle guessed. “Onioka had very bad karma.”
“Puff.” She punched one of the skeletons. “I was scared, Kyle. More scared than when you mistook my hand for a jawbreaker just now. But in the moment the brownies beat this demon’s attack, all my fear left. The boogeyman’s son must have felt the same, because he walked around this monster, brazen as day, to pick up the box. He faced the demon and the demon froze. Not like he was momentarily startled or anything. This fuzzy headed freak stopped moving. At all.”
She reached up to a take a black leather-bound book from a top shelf in the hidden vault.
Kyle picked up the thread of her tale. “Junior said ‘It’s time to go back.’ You didn’t know who he was talking to. Maybe the demon? But he had the box. Your brother and Orin were getting the key. You leapt for the bar. You jumped to a stool and reached for a beer pull to swing over to Seb’s side. But the stool was covered in glass and liquor and the beer pull snapped off in your hand. You tumbled backwards. You flailed, sure you were going to die.” He stared up at her as Laylea’s thoughts dripped into his consciousness. “But you knew your death would increase Dee’s power. She’d mourn that growing storm into an unstoppable hurricane and shove the demon back into the box.”
Laylea looked up from the writing in the journal. She caught his eyes and shrugged. “Then I didn’t hit the floor. My back didn’t break like Beth’s.”
“Orin caught you.”
“He shoved me up over the bar and I changed as I fell. Seb huddled behind a line of kegs. He held the padlock in one muscled palm. I grabbed it with my teeth and bounced from his thigh to his shoulder to leap back onto the bar top.”
Laylea: A Wyrdos Tale Page 6
