Miss Frost Saves The Sandman: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 3)

by Kristen Painter

  I talked to him as I got his dinner ready. “Cooper’s coming over.”

  Spider sat in front of his placemat and the velvet cat-Elvis painting and waited as patiently as he could. “Vampire man?”

  “No, not the vampire man. Cooper’s the other man. The elf.” I tucked my hair behind my ear so Spider could see it. “You know who he is. He has pointed ears like mine.”

  Spider tipped his head like he was seeing me for the first time. “Mama is kitty?”

  “No, not a kitty. An elf.” I crouched to put his dishes down. “Mama is an elf and Cooper is an elf.”

  But Spider was already eating and that was the end of that conversation. I gave his head a little scratch and went to the bedroom to change. Yoga pants were calling my name.

  Cooper showed up at six fifty-five, which was almost late for him. He held up a large brown-paper shopping bag. The mouthwatering aroma of barbeque wafted toward me. Smoke and spice and vinegar. My stomach growled.

  “I take it you’re ready to eat.”

  I grinned at him. Right now I wasn’t sure what was more attractive, him or the food. “Hungry. Big hungry.”

  His brow wrinkled. “What?”

  “Nothing. Come on in.”

  He set the bag on the kitchen table and pulled container after container out of it. I went to get plates and silverware.

  “So?” he said. “How did the signing go? Did Luna show up?”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t too bad.” I took a Dr Pepper out of the fridge for me and a beer for Cooper. I had started keeping a six-pack on hand for when he stopped by. Which was considerably easier than having blood around for Greyson. Because no. “We had a few words as she was leaving, but it’s over now so it’s fine.”

  “Words? Like what?”

  I handed him the beer. “She said I was afraid of her and didn’t like her, and I told her if she wanted me to like her, she should have thought about that before filling my head with her nightmares. I didn’t mention the one you had, because that might have been just a random nightmare. But mine have been too frequent.”

  “Agreed, and good for you.” He clinked his beer against my Dr Pepper. “What did she say to that?”

  I took a drink before answering. “She claimed she didn’t have anything to do with those nightmares.”

  He snorted. “Sure.”

  “That’s what I said. Anyway, Greyson walked her back to the Black Rose, where she’s staying, and by now I suspect she’s out to dinner with Tempus and you know what? Neither one of them is my problem anymore. So let’s eat.”

  He leaned in and kissed me. “Good idea.”

  We sat down and Cooper gave me the barbeque tour. There was brisket, pulled pork, and lots of ribs, plus coleslaw, baked beans, green beans with ham, cornbread, and pickles.

  I served myself a little of everything. “You did good, fireman.”

  “Thanks.” He heaped food onto his own plate, looking very pleased with himself.

  I stabbed a bite of pulled pork and lifted my fork to him. “Cheers.”

  “Cheers,” he answered.

  Then everything went black.

  I straightened with a groan. I felt like I’d been hit on the head. Not because my head hurt, but because everything felt off. I was groggy, like I’d just woken up. “What the snowballs just happened?”

  “Did we…” Cooper shook himself. “Did we pass out?”

  My fork was still in my hand. I lifted it to my mouth and touched my tongue to the pulled pork. “The food is cold.”

  He put his hand over his food like he was taking its temperature. “Mine too.”

  I rested the fork on the side of the plate. “Did I have some kind of magical accident?” Could my own magic have somehow reacted to the witch magic and caused me to blow a supernatural fuse?

  He squinted at me. “How could us blacking out have been your fault? We were passed out, not frozen.”

  I pulled the pouch out from under my T-shirt. “I had the witches make this for me as a protection against nightmares. I’m just wondering if witchcraft and winter magic might be like baking soda and vinegar. You know, maybe the two being too close together caused something to happen.”

  “I don’t think your magic and witchcraft work like that.” He looked at his watch. “We were out for almost three hours.”

  “Wow, that’s a long time. How on earth is that possible? Sanders is capable, but he wouldn’t have done that.” Then it hit me. “But Luna would have. She must have wanted to show me that she was more powerful than I was. That the witches’ magic was no match for her powers.”

  “But wouldn’t we have had nightmares?”

  “Not me.” I touched the pouch again. “Not if this was working right. And she knew about it, so she had to do something different.”

  “But I didn’t have any magic protecting me, so I could have had nightmares. And I didn’t.”

  “Then I don’t know.” I put my hands flat on the table. “This doesn’t make any sense. If she didn’t knock us out, then who did? Again, Sanders is certainly powerful enough to do it, but why would he?”

  “Maybe we weren’t the only ones affected. Give me a sec.” He pulled his phone out and called someone. “Robbie, it’s Cooper. Did anything weird just happen at the station?” He nodded a few times and said, “Uh huh.” Then, “Same here. Okay, thanks.”

  He hung up. “It wasn’t just us. Everyone at the station got knocked out too.”

  “Okay, this is beyond weird. Even for this town.” I got up from the table. “We need to figure out what’s happening, and the only way I can think to do that is to talk to Sanders. But first I’m going to check on Juniper, Buttercup, and Holly.”

  “Good idea.” He got up and went with me.

  I knocked on the doors of my friends and employees, then stood back to see who’d answer first. Buttercup won. She was wearing a headset with a slim black mic that curved around her cheek, and carrying a game controller. And true to her style, she wore Mario Brothers pajama pants and a Labyrinth T-shirt.

  “Hey.” She was wide-eyed and chewing her lip as she stepped into the hall. “Something weird just happened to me.”

  “Us too.”

  Holly opened her door and peeked out. She looked worried. “H-hey.”

  I felt for her. “Did you just take an involuntary nap?”

  Her eyes widened. “Yes. How did you know?”

  “It happened to all of us.” Juniper still hadn’t answered so I knocked again.

  “She’s at Pete’s,” Buttercup said. “Probably just waking up. Because that’s what happened, right? We all fell asleep.”

  “Yes,” Cooper said. “That’s exactly what happened.”

  “Why?” Buttercup asked.

  I shook my head. “That’s what we’d like to know. I’m going upstairs to talk to Sanders right now. Do either of you want to come?”

  Holly shook her head. “No. He intimidates me. Sorry.”

  “No problem. See you in the morning.” He intimidated me, too, now that I’d seen him angry. As Holly closed her door, I turned to Buttercup. “What about you?”

  “No can do. My guild is mad at me because I’ve been non-responsive for the last three hours and we were in the middle of a raid. I need to come up with a believable excuse.”

  I looked at her. “Any of them live in Nocturne Falls?”

  “Nope. Osaka, Detroit, San Diego, Toronto…they’re all over, but none in town.”

  And none of them had been asleep. Interesting.

  “Tell them there was a gas leak in the building and you had to evacuate,” Cooper said. “Orders of the fire department.”

  Buttercup smiled. “Okay, that should work. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. As she went back inside, he tipped his head toward the elevator. “You want my company or would you rather talk to Sanders alone?”

  “I’d be happy to have your company.” Whatever had happened, Cooper might as well find out with me. And
having him along would boost my courage. Safety in numbers and all that—not that I thought Sanders had been behind the strange nap. I just wasn’t sure how he’d take to being questioned about it.

  We rode the elevator up to the third floor. At the company suite, I knocked on the door. I had to knock a second time before Olive finally answered. She was in a bathrobe and her hair was loose and a little messy.

  “Sorry to wake you,” I said.

  “Sorry to be asleep. That wasn’t my plan. This was my first night off in a long time and I was finally going to finish the book I’ve been trying to read all year, but I apparently drifted off a few pages in.” She frowned. “Not often I get a night to myself.”

  I felt for her, I really did. “I can imagine. And again, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I need to speak to Sanders.”

  She smoothed her hair behind her ears. “Can I ask what this is about? He doesn’t like to be woken up.”

  If she’d been asleep, she had no idea what had just happened. I wasn’t in the mood to explain myself twice. “Please just get him and then I’ll fill you both in.”

  She yawned, then nodded. “All right. Give me a few minutes. Like I said, he won’t be happy.”

  She shut the door. Cooper and I looked at each other. I shrugged. “I really hope he can explain this.”

  “And if he can’t? If he wasn’t the one who caused it?”

  “Then…I guess we assume it was Luna. Maybe the witches know something. Or have a way of pinpointing who was behind the magic that made us all sleep.”

  The door opened and Olive reappeared. “He’s not here. He must still be out with Luna.”

  Even better. If she’d done something, he’d know. “Call him. This is important.”

  She sighed. “Let me get my phone.” She wandered off again, this time leaving the door open. She returned with the phone in her hand but she was shaking her head, a very perturbed expression on her face. “He’s not answering. I told you that woman was trouble. She probably asked him to turn it off.”

  I glanced at Cooper as a new thought formed in my head. “If he’s that deep into his date with Luna, would he have done something like that?”

  Cooper shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Done something like what?” Olive asked.

  I had no choice but to tell her now. “I guess you wouldn’t know this because you were sleeping, but for the last three hours, most of us have been asleep.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she just stared at me. “So have I. I don’t follow.”

  “We’ve been asleep against our will. And when I say most of us, I mean probably the whole town.” Sure, all I really knew was the firehouse, myself, Cooper, Holly, and Buttercup, but I had said probably.

  She looked confused. “I still don’t know what you’re getting at.”

  “We were involuntarily asleep. Something, or more likely someone, knocked us out with some kind of magic or spell. And I’m here because I want to ask Sanders about it. If anyone could do something like that, it’s the Sandman.”

  Her mouth opened and she nodded like realization had just struck. “Of course. Huh. I don’t know what to tell you. He’s out with Luna, so…” Her mouth firmed into a hard line. “He’s out with Luna. And probably wanted to be alone with her, so he put everyone in town to sleep.”

  I frowned. “Would he do that?”

  “Under her influence? He’d do just about anything. Or he might just be showing off for her. Either way, it’s a good example of why I didn’t want her around.”

  “Great,” Cooper muttered.

  “I know,” Olive answered. “But no one ever listens to me.”

  I raised my brows. “I couldn’t exactly forbid him to see her.”

  Olive raised a hand. “I understand, I do, but I said she was bad news and now this. Just proves my point is all.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. And I wasn’t going to apologize for doing my job the way I saw fit. “I guess we’ll see you in the morning. I can wait to talk to him until then, but I will be talking to him about this. He can’t just knock the whole town out and think it’s okay.”

  She hmphed. “Good luck making him see it that way.”

  “I’m sure it won’t be easy, but I’m going to say what I have to say.”

  She nodded. “Good for you. See you in the morning.”

  As she closed the door, I turned to Cooper. “So our date was interrupted because of his date.”

  “I don’t like it,” he said. “It’s an abuse of his power. You should tell your father about this. Can you imagine the havoc this has caused in town? The Ellinghams aren’t going to be happy.”

  “No, I don’t suppose they will be. Maybe Sanders will apologize.” But I doubted it. I sighed. Sanders’ visit was becoming one of my least favorite things that had happened since I’d become manager. And that was saying something. “How about I pack that barbeque into the fridge and we eat it tomorrow night? It’ll heat up. In fact, you can do it with your summer elf magic. Right now, all I want to do is go to bed.”

  He slipped his arm around my waist. “Sounds good to me. C’mon, I’ll help you clean up.”

  By the time the food was put away and I’d kissed Cooper goodnight (more than once, which is why it took so long), I was ready for everything to get back to normal. I changed into my pajamas, scooped Spider into my arms and headed for bed.

  As tired as I was, I couldn’t quite sleep. I grabbed my e-reader and flipped through the books I’d downloaded, finally landing on a juicy murder mystery I’d been meaning to get to.

  The book was good. So good that I lost track of time, and when I came up for air it was nearly two in the morning. “Snowballs.”

  I had not meant to read that long, but I hadn’t gotten sleepy. I turned the e-reader off, set it next to my phone on my nightstand and closed my eyes. But sleep didn’t come. I was wide awake. Exhausted, but not sleepy. What was going on? I’d never had insomnia. Was this it? Must have been the stress of the day.

  Spider was snoring softly at the bottom of the bed. Clearly, he wasn’t having sleep issues. The little bugger. I sighed loudly and tried to sleep again.

  An hour went by. I know because I checked the time on my phone twice. Then I played games on my phone (leveled up twice in Candy Crush, thank you very much) until I ran out of lives, then logged onto Facebook to see if reading through the news feed would finally make me tired.

  It didn’t.

  When I couldn’t take being in bed and not sleeping anymore, I got up and went out to the living room and turned on the Home Shopping channel. I made myself a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich (with some rainbow sprinkles for crunch) and took it to the couch. I grabbed the throw off the back and tucked myself in. I figured the combination of carbs and the drone of voices ought to get me snoring. But by the time my sandwich was gone, everything they were selling had started to sound really good and I was more wide awake than ever.

  This wasn’t good. I changed the channel, putting on an old black and white movie. I lay down again to get comfy. Yep, this would definitely make me sleepy.

  Except nope.

  I stared at the screen, oddly invested in whether or not the chorus girl got the part and the guy.

  Spider joined me, curling up in front of me where I lay. It was sweet, but I knew he wanted belly rubs. I obliged. What else was I going to do?

  A knock at my window nearly startled me off the couch. The light from the television made it impossible to see but there was only one person who thought my fire escape doubled as a door.

  Greyson.

  I got up to open the window, careful not to disturb Spider. “You realize showing up on my fire escape at this hour could qualify you as a stalker.”

  His eyes gleamed with amusement. “I saw the light of the television. I wouldn’t have come up if you weren’t awake.”

  “Maybe Spider was watching it.”

  He squinted. “Your cat watches TV?”

&
nbsp; “No.” I gave him a look. My patience was thinning with the lack of sleep. “What’s up?”

  He gave my pajamas a once over before answering. “Nothing. I just saw you were up so I thought I’d see if everything was okay. Is it?”

  That was sweet of him. I felt bad I’d been a little cross. “Yeah, I guess. Just can’t sleep.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around tonight.”

  “Really? That’s odd. But then maybe it isn’t. I don’t know what’s what anymore.” I ran my fingers over the neck of my top, catching them on the ribbon holding the magic pouch. “Hey, you don’t think that the stuff the witches used in the nightmare protection spell could be keeping me awake, do you?”

  “I don’t think so. But I guess anything is possible.”

  I leaned against the window. I should invite him in, but then that might really end my chance of sleep. “You said a lot of other people weren’t sleeping tonight? How do you know? You go around looking in a lot of windows?”

  He laughed. “No. I’ve just seen a lot of lights on tonight that I don’t normally.”

  What the tundra was going on? More of Sanders’ tricks? “Normally? Are you usually up all night? I mean, I know you’re a vampire but you have to sleep sometime—and since you’re also up during the day, I just figured you were on more standard human hours.”

  “Not exactly. Vampires don’t need the same amount of sleep as most supernaturals. When I do sleep, it tends to be during daylight hours. Even though I can daywalk, being awake when the sun is up never feels completely right.”

  “I see. Well, you really must not need to sleep after that three-hour nap we all had earlier.”

  His expression screwed up into a question. “What three-hour nap?”

  Greyson wasn’t a kidder, but I still had to ask. “You’re teasing me, right?”

  “No. I really don’t know what you mean.”

  I blinked at him. “The whole town blacked out this evening from about seven to ten, most likely due to Sanders wanting ‘alone time’ with Luna. How were you the special snowflake who stayed awake?”

  He did a little random pointing thing with his index finger. “You remember that conversation we just had about daysleep and how vampires aren’t like other supernaturals when it comes to that sort of thing?”