by Nicole Thorn
“Should we break up?” Juniper asked. “Three and three, so we’re not a huge group.”
“Then the three without Zander will be screwed,” her sister said.
I shrugged. “I can take Aunt Kizzy and Juniper ‘round the back, if you think that’d work.”
“No,” Jasper said flatly, pulling Kizzy to his side. “With a potentially angry god lurking around, I don’t want to split up.”
“Fair enough.”
“Maybe Zander can go alone,” Jasmine suggested. “We can wait while he finds out what happened.”
“But what good would that do?” Juniper asked. “We don’t know if it was really Cerberus, and the only person who does, is currently in a freezer down at the morgue.”
An idea came to me as a smile bled across my face. It must have looked terrifying, because Juniper flinched. I would have tried to comfort her, but I didn’t know how. She wouldn’t want me to anyway.
“Zander,” I said. “Can you go find out where the body was taken? I can take care of the rest.”
His blond eyebrow arched up. “Meaning?”
“Just trust me.”
I suppose he did, because he kissed Jasmine goodbye, and then left to do as I asked him. The others wanted answers, and I felt like I should give them.
“I can ask the dead man who killed him,” I said.
They all looked mildly shocked. I said that. “Huh?” Jasmine asked.
I shrugged, sighing lazily. “My father is the king of the underworld. I can speak with the dead. Mostly only if they’re recently dead, and it helps if I have the body in front of me. Otherwise it’s like a needle in a haystack.”
They didn’t ask me anything after that. What could you say? Yeah, I could speak with dead people. When I had been little, I used to hear them on occasion. I used to talk to myself, and they would answer. The dead had been my friends before I knew what a friend was.
“Have you done it a lot?” Juniper asked me, her hand on the back of her neck.
“No,” I admitted. “I haven’t been around many dead people. But my father wanted me to know how to use what I have, so he helped me when I was younger. I can do this. I just need the body.”
We waited for Zander to come back, and he looked pleased when he did. He’d gotten the name of the place, as well as seven phone numbers he didn’t want. I watched him toss them in a bin, Jasmine glaring with offense and a cocky smirk. I could appreciate that level of smug.
The morgue was ten ‘miles’ away, and I had to trust Zander when he said how long it would take us to get there. Use the fucking metric system, you animals.
Zander had to Charm us past the people at the front desk, and we managed to steal some passes that would make random passersby not look twice at us. Jasmine found her chance to go all out, and stole a medical coat from a closet. It went almost down to her feet, but Zander got a kick out of it. If not for the cameras, I almost thought he would have dragged her into that closet for a few minutes of fun. That . . . and Jasper’s constant frown. That poor man, having to know that a mountain of a person violated his sister nightly.
“Can we just do this?” Jasper asked when Zander started looking at Jasmine with googly eyes. He had been right, because we didn’t really have time for cuddles and far off looks.
“I got the name,” Zander said. “We just need to find whichever fridge this Edd guy was shoved into. His face got pretty thrashed, so if anyone doesn’t wanna see it, you can guard the door.”
Juniper almost turned green as we walked.
Kizzy found the way to the room with the bodies, and we passed several employees on the way. For a moment, I thought that they would stop us and give us trouble, but they seemed too busy talking about some show they liked.
The room had a chill to it once we snuck in. Not surprising, but uncomfortable all the same.
“How do we do this?” Juniper asked.
Her brother shrugged. “Check until we find the man.”
We split apart and began looking at the little card in the front of every drawer that held one of the recently dead. While they didn’t tend to bug me unless I started it, I could still feel the death in the room. I hadn’t been around this many bodies before, and I didn’t realize that I would be able to feel the lack of life that soaked into the air. The unnatural stillness, or the ice that trickled along my skin.
A little tug made me leave one drawer, and called me to another one, just past Juniper. Almost like a voice, but only half there. When I concentrated, I could feel something different.
“Oh . . . ” I said to myself, making Juniper turn to me.
“What?”
I put my hands on a drawer, running my fingers along the edges. “This one just died. Three hours and seven minutes ago.”
Her eyebrows knitted. “How do you know that?”
“I don’t know.” I pulled it open without even reading the card attached. Juniper flinched when the body bag appeared, and I hadn’t even opened it yet. “Turn around, luv.”
She did.
The man did not have a face or a throat anymore. Red stood out violently, torn and opened up. He would have bled to death quickly, and that made me feel slightly better. I didn’t want him to suffer unless he hurt Cerberus.
The others gathered around, and no one could quite look at the body. I couldn’t blame them, because I didn’t want to look either. My eyes closed, and I attempted to make contact.
“Sorry, mate,” I said. “But you’re very, very dead. If you’ve got a moment, we need your help. Can you pop in for a tick?”
Instantly, I felt the tension in the room. They couldn’t hear the man when he showed up, but I could.
“What is this?” a frightened echo asked me.
My eyes opened, and I smiled. “It’s all right, sir,” I said. “Try and stay calm.”
“Calm?” he shouted, making my ears ring. “How am I supposed to stay calm when a fucking freak dog attacked me. Look at my face!”
I cleared my throat, and zipped up the bag, hoping to make it better.
Zander’s eyes darted around, trying to see something he couldn’t. “What’s happening?”
I held a hand up. “He’s here, and I don’t think he knows he’s dead yet.”
“Dead!” the man yelled. “I’m dead?”
“I’m very sorry,” I deadpanned. “But yes. If you help us out, I’ll see to it that my father gets you set up comfortably in the underworld.”
“What? Who’s your father?” he asked.
“Hades. Now, can you—”
“HADES?”
I groaned, wishing that I got a less frantic ghost to deal with. The others looked so lost, but it would have been too complicated to have keep explaining what happened. So, I just focused on the important bit, because I could fix it later.
“Edd,” I said slowly. “I understand that this is all really confusing to you, but can you walk me through what happened? We’re trying to find the dog who killed you, and it would be nice if you could help so that other people don’t die.”
He took a few seconds, and I almost thought I lost him. Then I heard him sigh. “I was bringing up some food a customer ordered. All I remember was a blond guy answering the door, and then I saw a puppy walk up. I love dogs, and I bent to pet him. Then some other guy screamed something that I couldn’t understand, and the dog freaked out. He jumped at me and . . . that was it. I barely saw that he had three fucking heads!”
“So, Cerberus was given the order to take out the witness. That seems a little cruel for Hermes . . . ” I said, thinking out loud. Maybe not though. A means to an end. The gods had done worse.
“Where does that leave us?” Juniper asked.
I looked at Juniper, feeling tired all of the sudden. “Well, dearie, I believe they call this square one.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Hotel Rooms = Worst Nightmare
Juniper
“Let’s stop here for tonight,” Jasmine said, thus ensuring
her painful, slow death. We parked outside a hotel. A nice hotel, sure, but still a hotel. Where other people have slept. And done things in. In rooms that other people had the keys to. What kind of sister is she that she thought this was a good idea?
“Um, how about not?” I said. “We could just go back home.”
Jasmine turned around in her seat so that she could look at me. It already felt like a tight fit in the backseat, so her having the comfort of moving around did nothing to lessen my irritation. “How about not?” she said in a mocking tone. “It’s a three-hour drive back home, and another three hours just to come here tomorrow. The hotel is right there. All convenient and stuff. There is no point in wasting six hours.”
I glowered at her, and she glared back at me. I didn’t want to tell her why we couldn’t stay there. Not with Verin in the car, already thinking so many bad things about me. I knew that I was a freak. I didn’t need him staring at me to push the point home. “All right then! That’s settled. Kizzy, why don’t you and I go get us some rooms?” Zander asked, clapping his hands together.
The two of them departed rather quickly. Almost like they didn’t want to see what would happen in the car.
Jasper looked at me. “Juni, this really is the best option. Do you want to spend another six hours in the car, at least? There’s no guarantee that we’ll find Cerberus and Hermes tomorrow.”
“Sure, we will,” Verin said, chipper as ever. I switched from glaring at Jasper to glaring at him. He gave me a cheeky smile that did nothing to lessen my irritation. I would just have to kill all of them painfully slow. That’s the only option at this point, I think.
“I don’t want to stay in a hotel,” I said to Jasper. I hadn’t stayed in a room like that since we lived in one. Even that had been a motel that should have been shut down. Just thinking about it made my skin crawl. The last thing I wanted was a repeat of that wonderful experience, only higher up off the ground.
Jasper shrugged. “I’d rather be in my bed too, but that’s not going to happen, because you know this really is the only option.”
We stared at each other for a little while longer. I did know that, but that didn’t mean I had to accept my fate. I’d almost rather sleep in the car than in that hotel. At least I knew the last time the car had been cleaned. If not for the almost certain death I would face for doing something so stupid, I would’ve done it too.
“Fine,” I finally said.
Jasmine beamed, and I glared at her while she hung off the back of her seat to hug our brother. “Thanks, Jasp!”
“I hate both of you,” I said.
“That’s not true,” Jasmine said. “You can’t lie to me about stuff like that. Not when I have a super-hot, empathic boyfriend.”
Jasper sighed. “Let’s not talk about that right now, okay?”
“I mean, he knows all, and tells me everything,” Jasmine went on, ignoring poor Jasper. “Sure, sometimes I want to bash his too good-looking face in, especially when he moves my stuff without my permission, but otherwise, I love him. Lots. He is perfect. And looks good with a sword. I’m so close to getting him to pose shirtless with it for some pictures on my phone, so that I can always remember it.”
“Oh gods,” Jasper whispered
I shook my head. “Too far, Jazzy. Too far.”
Verin smirked, like a bastard. I shoved his shoulder. “What the hell is so funny to you?”
“Nothing,” he said.
Jasmine grinned, still hanging over the back of her seat. “I bet you would look good with a sword too. Not nearly as hot as Zander, but decent.”
“I would look amazing. What’s wrong with you?” Verin said.
“Should never have let her leave the house,” Jasper said, shaking his head. “I knew better, and I ignored those instincts. Now look what happens?”
“This is what you get for making me stay here,” I told him. “Jazzy, keep talking about Zander shirtless.”
Jasmine made an ‘mmm’ sound that had our brother wanting to stick something through his eye. “He’s so pretty,” Jasmine said. “Like . . . I seriously thought about hiding all his shirts, just for the fun of it.”
Jasper sighed, staring at the ceiling. Verin smirked again, and I wanted to shove his shoulder a second time, but Zander and Kizzy returned. We climbed out of the car. Zander insisted on taking up most of the bags, but he let Jasper grab his and Kizzy’s. Verin didn’t receive any such permission, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“Everything worked out?” Zander asked us.
Jasmine nodded. “Yep. Juni is going to stay in a hotel, and Jasp wants to kill you again. Sorry. It couldn’t be helped.”
Jasmine flitted into the hotel while Zander and Jasper looked at each other. They liked each other. They were actually good friends, but the friendship sometimes got strained when one remembered that the other did things to their sister. Such as now. I squirmed, wanting to get this over with.
Kizzy put her hand on Jasper’s shoulder, and he glanced down at her. “Here’s our room key,” she said. “Why don’t you head on up?” He took the key and did as she asked, giving Zander another look on his way into the hotel. In all fairness, Zander gave him a look first.
Kizzy turned to me and handed me another room key. “Here’s your and Verin’s.”
“Um, what?” I asked before she could turn away and escape. Verin plucked the card from my hand, and examined it. The little prick would pay for that later, but right then, I had a demigod to deal with.
“It only made sense,” Kizzy said, shrugging. “Zander and Jasmine wanted to share a room, and so did Jasper and me.”
“You could have gotten me my own room!” I shouted.
Zander spoke up, smiling softly, “But then there wouldn’t be anyone to protect you if something went wrong. This way, Verin can make sure that you don’t die horribly in the night.”
I looked back at Verin, who had an eyebrow cocked. “That is true. I shall make sure that nothing mutilates you while we sleep.”
“How the fuck are you going to make sure nothing mutilates me if you’re sleeping?” I asked.
He smiled.
“Until this is over, I think it best that the humans aren’t left alone,” Zander said. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” He still had that mischievous look in his eye, so I decided to go on the attack.
“You just want to screw my sister without the embarrassment of having your sister knowing what you’re doing,” I said.
Zander laughed, the bastard, and started walking away, all chill and stuff. I thought about attacking him, but Verin stopped me with a hand on my elbow. I glared at him until he dropped his hand, and crossed my arms over my chest. “What?” I asked with all the hostility in the world.
“It’s one night,” Verin said.
True. It would be one awful, long, tedious night. I bet he snored. I bet he was the most obnoxious sleeper that I would ever have to deal with. Not that I would have to deal with anyone else. Huffing in annoyance, I turned on my heel and marched toward the hotel. I felt him fall into step behind me, and wanted to do some more snarling. The three rooms all occupied the same floor, it the same hallway. Jasper had left his door open, so that Kizzy would be able to find him easily. Their room looked nice, with a king-sized bed covered in beige sheets, and a small table in the corner for eating, or working.
Before we had been standing there for too long, the door across the hall burst open, and Jasmine jumped out, excited as hell. I noticed Zander laying back on the bed, like he had just been abandoned. Good. That’s what he gets.
Jasmine’s room looked almost exactly like Jasper and Kizzy’s. She flitted around the hallway, just excited to be alive, and then disappeared back into her room.
I would get my revenge for all of this.
Verin’s and my room waited down the hall, not next to the others. It made me squirmy. I could see the present. If something went wrong, then being a couple of doors down wouldn’t stop me from knowing. It still made m
e squirmy. Maybe because this hotel felt so much bigger than our house, and I wouldn’t necessarily know if something went wrong, like I would at home.
Suddenly, I missed our attack hydra a whole hell of a lot.
Verin slid the card into the door, and it swung open. The space looked similar to the other two rooms in the paint scheme. Generic beige and white. Only this room didn’t have a neat little table to get work done on. A desk had been shoved into the corner, with a tiny swivel light on it that would probably get hot. And it had two beds.
I took a deep breath before stepping into the room after Verin. He flipped the light switch. The room didn’t look any better in the light than it had in the dark. Verin flopped down on the bed closest to the door without hesitation, and put his hands behind his head, looking utterly relaxed.
I glared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“You know what,” I said. Based on the look he gave me, he didn’t. He seemed too comfortable while I felt this uncomfortable, and it wasn’t fair of me to be angry about it. I closed the door, and then had to face the fact that I would be stuck in this hotel room with him until morning.
Gods save us.
I laid my suitcase down on the floor and unzipped it, removing the clothes that I had brought for tomorrow. Slacks and a shirt, neatly folded so that they wouldn’t get wrinkled. I got the clothes on the hanger, and then put them in the closet. There. Now I knew they wouldn’t have any wrinkles on them.
“We should order room service,” Verin said. I had felt him watching me the entire time I got my clothes situated, and didn’t enjoy what he had to be thinking.
“I don’t want room service,” I said dismissively.
“Sure, you do,” he said, grabbing the menu. “We haven’t eaten since leaving that restaurant hours ago. You hardly ate anything there.” He started naming things off the menu, and I ignored him as I started pulling the covers back and really looking at the sheets to make sure they had been cleaned.
“What are you doing?” Verin asked.
“Looking for signs that these haven’t been cleaned,” I said.
