Deadly Curiosities

by Gail Z. Martin

  Covered in blood, his clothes tattered and his hair matted with dirt and sawdust, he looked more like the victim of a bomb blast. One glance made it clear that no mortal could have survived his injuries.

  “You were under the crates when they fell,” I said.

  Sorren nodded. The moonlight was enough for me to see that just in the time since he had made his appearance, the gash on his face was nearly healed.

  “And it was a good thing you were not,” he replied. He went to take a step and his leg buckled under him. I reached forward to steady him, but Teag beat me to it, helping Sorren to the ground.

  Teag put his hand on Sorren’s shoulder and knelt down beside him. “You need to feed. You’re hurt and it’s almost dawn. Let’s not make this one of our usual arguments – we don’t have time,” Teag said, holding his arm in front of Sorren’s mouth. I had seen this before.

  Unfortunately, we’d had a couple of bad encounters that had given Teag and Sorren the chance to hash out this feeding thing. The good part was since that first time, Sorren treated Teag with a whole new level of respect and there was no question now that he was ‘family’.

  The fact that Sorren didn’t argue let me know just how badly he was hurt. He bit into Teag’s wrist, and took several gulps of blood. Then he drew back, leaving two neat, small punctures that were already healing. There were just a few small flecks of blood on Sorren’s lips. “Thank you,” he murmured. Up close, I could see the tautness in Sorren’s face and guessed that the pain was excruciating.

  Even such a short feeding seemed to give him strength, but Sorren faltered when Teag and I helped him stand.

  “Sorry. Bones take a bit longer to heal,” he said. With Teag under one arm and me under his other, we helped Sorren stand and moved as quickly as possible toward where we had left the car.

  I glanced at my watch. Dawn was only a few hours away. “Can you get to your safe resting place?” I asked. I don’t know what other threats lurked in the Charleston night for vampires, but if there were other would-be predators – human or supernatural – that were looking for prey, I doubted very much that Sorren would be up to the fight right now. “Let us take you back to the shop.”

  To my surprise, Sorren nodded. “I was thinking the same thing,” he admitted. The gash on his face had healed without a trace, and I guessed the same would be true for his scalp wounds, but from the way he slid into the back seat of the car, I could tell that every motion hurt. Teag and I shook out our jackets and splinters rained down on the road. I felt prickly all over, and I figured we had been peppered with tiny bits of wood and packing material.

  “There’s a package of hand wipes under the seat. You’d better wipe the blood off your face. If we get caught, you look like death warmed over,” I said, and winced at the utterly tactless, if true, description.

  “Indeed,” Sorren said, but I could hear amusement in his voice. “It would not do to attract attention.”

  Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt eyes on us until the car was outside the Navy yard perimeter.

  Could the supernatural reaction at the Covington building have activated ghostly activity at other locations? I wondered. If the demon could make objects with a bad history into maliciously haunted weapons of magical destruction, I figured it was possible.

  It didn’t seem smart to stick around long enough to find out. I made sure I was driving the speed limit, and I knew my headlights and tail lights worked, so there was no reason for anyone to stop us. Even so, I didn’t really start to breathe until we were back on King Street.

  Downtown Charleston was nearly deserted at this hour. I hoped that held for police patrols as well. I reminded myself that as the owner of Trifles and Folly, I had every right to be at my own shop any hour of the day or night, but I also knew that any cop worth his badge would wonder about three people showing up in the dead of night looking like they’d been in a gang war.

  A glance in my rearview mirror told me that Sorren was even more pale than usual. The wet wipe had removed the blood from his face, but there was no getting around his blood-soaked hair and stained clothing. Teag and I were cut and bloodied, our clothing torn, and we were bruised and covered in splinters and grime. No matter how hard I tried, I wouldn’t be able to come up with an even halfway plausible explanation for our appearance. I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to give one.

  Just to be on the safe side, I pulled into the alley behind the shop. Going in the front door was almost certain to attract attention. In the car, Teag gave Sorren his hoodie, which I hoped would obscure his features as well as his appearance from any of the security cameras keeping vigils over my neighbors’ rear doors.

  Teag stayed slouched in the car as I opened the door to the shop and let Sorren in. I hoped that meant anyone watching the tape would assume that if two figures entered, it would be Teag and me. No one knew Sorren, and we tried to keep it that way. Those questions were better avoided.

  “I can make it from here,” Sorren said. He smiled at me. “Thank Teag for me, and thank you for being willing to rescue me. It was foolhardy, but brave.”

  “Good partners are hard to come by,” I replied. “No one will bother you if you need to be down there for a while to recuperate.”

  He moved toward the steps to the shop’s basement where he had a hidden windowless room. I could see that he was still limping. “Don’t worry – when I’m ready, I’ll let myself out. Good night, Cassidy. Be careful.”

  I locked the door behind me and got back in the car. Teag didn’t sit up until we were out of the alley, just in case. “Think he’ll be okay?” Teag asked.

  I shrugged. “As you said, in almost six hundred years, I imagine he’s seen worse. He said to tell you ‘thanks’.” We rode most of the rest of the way in silence, exhausted.

  “Do you think other victims were killed at the warehouse?” Teag finally asked as we pulled up in back of his apartment.

  I frowned, then shook my head. “I don’t think so. We didn’t see evidence of other murders and I didn’t get any sense of them. I think Sorren was right – that was where Moran summoned the demon. Maybe he’s got a reason not to go back there. One thing’s certain: If those ghosts could have gone outside the building, I’m quite sure, with as angry as they were tonight, they would have done it.”

  “Then that means that somewhere else has got to be the site linked to the killings, and to whatever it was that the salvage crew found.” Teag said. I could hear the weariness in his voice. Now that the life or death drama was over, the adrenalin crash had taken a toll on me as well. I couldn’t wait to crawl into bed.

  “Maybe,” I replied. “All I know is, if it’s more dangerous than the warehouse, I vote for bringing more back-up.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  JUST MY LUCK: the next day was bright and clear, not too hot, and a perfect day for tourists to explore the Historic District. Teag and I were exhausted from the previous night. It had taken me an extra half an hour and a whole container of concealer to cover up the visible evidence of the fight at the warehouse.

  My entire body was bruised, and I was covered with cuts, scratches and nasty-looking claw marks.

  Teag wore a long-sleeved shirt despite how hot it was, and he moved like his back hurt. I remembered how the ghosts had shredded his shirt and the skin beneath it, and I winced just watching him move.

  It figured that for the first time all week, we were slammed with customers almost from the time I opened the door in the morning.

  “How long did it take to get all the sawdust out of your hair this morning?” Teag asked sotto voce.

  I rolled my eyes. “Who says I got it all out?” Sawdust was still sprinkled all over my bathroom floor from my attempts to get it out of my hair, my clothing, even my eyebrows.

  “Did you get rid of all the splinters?” I whispered.

  Teag sighed. “No, and I swear I’ve got them everywhere – and I do mean, everywhere.”

  “TMI!” I protested, b
ut I could relate. When I took off my clothes, fine splinters poked through the fabric of my jeans, my hoodie, even my socks. My whole body itched, and no amount of lotion had helped.

  Business was so brisk, I didn’t even have time to run out and pick up lunch, so we ordered pizza delivery and grabbed bites in between customers. All the while, my mind kept going over everything that happened at the warehouse. I was sure that the next step was finding out more about the missing salvage crew. There might be more unknowns, but that seemed to be the logical next step.

  Since I was functioning on only a few hours sleep, I promised myself that the elusive clues would surface once I got some rest. In the meantime, I tried to keep myself alert with conversation, coffee and a few trips to the washroom to splash cold water on my face when my energy began to droop.

  As the customers browsed, I wondered whether Sorren was still recovering in the lightless safe room beneath the shop. It wouldn’t be good for business if customers knew we had a vampire in the basement. I finally gave up worrying, and figured that Sorren would heal and feed again on his own schedule.

  In between sales, I surreptitiously began making notes on a list by the register of key points we knew about all the haunted objects. The day sailed by, and I gauged how time passed by how full the coffee pot was. Finally, I was down to the dregs, of the day, the pot, and my energy level.

  Five o’clock rolled around, and the last customers chose their treasures, paid the bill, and ambled off in search of dinner. I followed the last shopper to the door, chatting about restaurant recommendations – hard to go wrong with Charleston’s fantastic options – and turned the lock when I closed the door behind her. With a sigh of relief, I flipped the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’ and sagged against the door frame.

  “I swear today was forty-eight hours long,” I said. I let my head rest against the wood and immediately regretted it. There was a goose egg the size of a large marble under my hair where one of the bolts had hit me. Every muscle ached, and my head throbbed.

  “You’re just out of practice,” Teag teased. Despite his teasing, he had dark shadows under his eyes and looked haggard. He moved stiffly, and I knew he probably hurt as much as I did.

  “How badly was your back scratched up?” I asked.

  Teag grimaced. “I have welts everywhere from all the stuff that fell on us. My back looks like a tiger used it as a scratching post. Anthony had to work late last night so he didn’t come over, but I’m going to have to think of how to explain this that doesn’t include breaking and entering.”

  Anthony’s position as a lawyer meant that Teag couldn’t always be completely forthcoming about our activities. We both thought Anthony suspected that we sometimes bent the rules, especially about things like trespassing, and intentionally did not press for details to avoid conflict with his conscience and his law license. “You could always say we went to play paintball as a teambuilding activity,” I chuckled. “Leave him his plausible deniability.”

  “That explains the bruises, but not the scratches.” He paused. “I guess I can say I fell on one of those serrated gratings.” Teag sighed. “That’s the only thing I dislike about what we do. I hate not telling Anthony the whole truth.”

  “He’s safer not knowing,” I replied.

  Teag gave a lopsided smile. “He could handle it.” I could see from his expression it was time to change the subject. “So… what were you working on every time the customers walked away to browse?”

  I walked back to the paper I had next to the register and waved it at him. “Looking for points of similarity between the haunted items. Any thoughts?”

  He chuckled and walked over to the table where he usually served clients and withdrew another scribbled list. “Great minds think alike I guess.”

  “Come up with anything?”

  “Maybe. I’m thinking the location we didn’t get to,” Teag said. “I checked out the address, and it’s some kind of self-storage company, now defunct.” He paused. “Remember, Rebecca said the Foo dog statue had been in storage? Nothing new on the salvage crew though, I was too tired last night to follow-up.”

  “We have some work to do,” I agreed. “Is Anthony expecting you for dinner?”

  He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. He’s still tied up with that big case and that means sporadic late nights for a while. Good for me being able to keep odd hours without having to explain, but lousy in the relationship department.”

  My last semi-serious relationship had been with a young doctor at St. Francis hospital, and the love affair had foundered because of his long, unpredictable hours. I sincerely hoped that Teag and Anthony could adjust and make it work. “Does that mean you’re available for dinner?”

  “Works for me.”

  “Want to pick up take-out and then see what we can find out about the missing salvage team? Maybe we can see if there is any connection to the storage unit.” I suggested.

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  Teag paused. “Should we check on Sorren? I mean, shouldn’t we do something more to help him recover his strength?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I think you did your part. He’d tell us if things were dire.”

  Teag shrugged. “I don’t know. He looked pretty ragged when we got back.”

  I agreed, but since Sorren had never stayed in the safe room before, I had no prior experience to go on. “Tell you what. It’s still early. The sun hasn’t even set yet, so he’s not awake. Maybe we can stop by after supper and at least knock on the door and see if he needs something.”

  With that, we finished closing up for the night and slipped out the back. It was a beautiful evening, so we decided to walk a few blocks to Forbidden City, our favorite Chinese restaurant. It was busy when we got there, and I was glad we weren’t trying to get a table.

  Fortunately, the owner, Jay Chau, likes us. Jay saw us in the doorway and waved. “Long time, no see!”

  he said, crossing the room to give me a hug and shake hands with Teag.“Business looks good, Jay,” I complimented, looking around the packed dining room.

  He gave me a broad wink. “Thanks to friends like you, it stays busy. Give me a moment, and I’ll get your reservation ready,” he said in a voice that would carry to the two parties that were waiting for a table. “Just take-out tonight, Jay,” I said. “Been a long day and we’re ready to crash.”

  “Too bad,” he said with a grin. “I had the best table in the house for you. Keeps your backs to the wall. You’d see everyone who comes in.”

  “You’ve been watching old mobster movies again, haven’t you, Jay?” Teag joked.

  Jay shrugged, palms up, as if to say ‘busted’. “I can’t help myself. Scarface was on late night cable, followed by Wise Guys. They’re my favorites.”

  From a certain angle, Jay had a slight resemblance to Al Pacino, if Pacino was about thirty-five years old and Asian. He played it up with a penchant for wearing black, and on weekends, he sometimes even sported a pin-striped suit.

  “Are those your folks?” I asked, with a nod to a well-dressed older couple whose table was heaped with far more food than I could imagine them eating. It looked as if the entire menu had been brought out, though the man and woman were rail thin.

  “Yep,” Jay said. “And you know what? Now that Forbidden City is a big success, my father claims my career switch was originally his idea.”

  As the only son of immigrants, Jay had followed his parents’ prodding and gone to medical school.

  He’d hated every minute of it, and dropped out, following his dream of running a restaurant. Originally, his parents hadn’t been thrilled.

  “How’s the food truck doing?” I asked as Jay handed out menus.

  He grinned broadly. “Very well. You’ve seen it?”

  “It’s hard to miss a truck painted with a huge Chinese dragon on the side,” I said with a smile. “Not to mention the big kite you put up when the truck sets up shop.”

  “Let me give you a minu
te to decide, and I’ll be back to take your order,” Jay said. Jay always went out of his way to give us the VIP treatment, and I think he also enjoyed a chance to chat a little with friends.

  “Don’t go. I’m too tired to think,” I said, closing my menu. “I’ll have my regular.” Teag put his menu on top of mine. “Me too.”

  Jay was back in a flash with our orders, and we headed back to the store. Sorren didn’t answer our knock, so we drove back to my house. Baxter was thrilled to see us and even happier for a few pieces of stir-fried broccoli, which he considered a treat. Go figure.

  We ate first, since we were both starved. I opened a bottle of wine, and poured us each a glass. We pushed the dinner dishes out of the way and pulled out the lists we had made.

  “What have you got?” he asked.

  “All the pieces had some kind of tragedy in their history,” I said, looking at the first item on my list.

  Teag nodded. “True. But given the age of the stuff we sell at the store, there have to be loads of other pieces with a sad story associated with them and they aren’t haunted.”

  “That we know of,” I replied, and Teag shrugged to concede the point.

  “None of the pieces that came from Trifles and Folly seemed haunted when they were in the shop,” he added.

  “But they reacted in the presence of a strongly haunted item, like the Foo dog,” I agreed.

  “We don’t know what link – if any – exists between the men who were killed near the Navy yard and the haunted objects,” Teag said, consulting his list.

  “If our guess is right and Jimmy and Kevin were buying – or stealing – items from places in the Navy yard, maybe even the self-storage place, we don’t know whether any of their objects have been haunted.”

  “Which means that there could be incidents happening that we haven’t heard about,” Teag replied.

  I gave him a look. “The only reason we know about the haunted objects is because Rebecca knew my reputation and a bunch of items were all together at Gardenia Landing. Trinket was an accident.” The idea that there could be other haunted items whose owners had no idea what to do was really frightening.