Strange Fates Page 5

  “Some guy who worked in their labs,” he said. “Alex told me the water was perfect for it.”

  “Alex? Was he one of your marks?”

  “No, Alex was my friend,” Jasper insisted.

  “Where did you meet him?” I asked.

  “Around.”

  I frowned at his answer. “Be more specific. I just saved your life.”

  “He used to volunteer at this soup kitchen on Nicolett. I’d cruise by every few weeks to pick up a bag of groceries and we became friends,” he said. “He was working on something special.”

  “Special how?”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t really understand it, but it had something to do with the water.”

  I processed the information. My aunts were gathering wealth. Either that, or they just enjoyed the power over humans. “Anybody else know about this?”

  “Nobody,” he replied.

  “Make sure it stays that way,” I warned. “The Fates make that troll look like a teddy bear.” He gave me a sharp look and I added, “Or so I’ve heard.”

  “Anything for you,” he said. His look of hero worship made me squirm. I’d only disappoint him, eventually. Or get him killed. Or both.

  “What now?” I asked him.

  “I want to go home,” he whispered. “I want to forget it ever happened.”

  I gestured to the car. “What’s stopping you?”

  His face blanched. “It’s not mine. I don’t want it. I never want to see it again.” He broke into noisy sobs and I realized that he was even younger than he had first appeared.

  “C’mon, I’ll buy you breakfast,” I said. “And we’ll figure out what to do next.”

  He drove us to a restaurant called Hell’s Belles, which was a few blocks from the Greyhound station.

  The place was crowded with mortals and mages alike. All the tables facing the door were already occupied, so we had to settle for the counter.

  “Funny,” I said. The fry cook was a demon, and so was the waitress serving coffee at the counter.

  “What is?” Jasper asked.

  “The name,” I said. “Hell’s Belles, get it?” It was the perfect name for a demon-owned establishment.

  He shrugged. “Not really,” he said. He turned his attention to the menu.

  The prices were reasonable, though. Jasper ordered like he hadn’t had a decent meal in years. “And a hot chocolate, with lots of whipped cream,” he added.

  “Just coffee for me,” I said.

  The food came and the smell of hot biscuits and bacon made me regret not ordering anything. Jasper handed me one of his biscuits and shoved the little bowl of gravy at me. “You’ve got to try these.”

  The biscuits had been beaten into submission until they were melt-in-your-mouth fluffy. Everything was hot and fresh.

  The diner gradually emptied out until we were the only customers left.

  The older demon came over to refill my coffee. She had the eyes of an old basset hound, but the nose of a young one. She sniffed the air delicately. I hoped my disguise would hold. The coffee spilled over into the saucer as she scanned the diner, but she finally retreated to the kitchen.

  “How long have you been in Minneapolis?” I asked Jasper. It was a long shot, but maybe he had some useful information, besides the fairly old news that my aunts were looking for me.

  “About a year,” he said. He shuddered, remembering. “Tank and I ran away, but all our money was gone within two weeks. We thought we were so smart, breaking into the old fort.”

  He stared into his hot chocolate for a long time, but finally roused himself. “You know the rest. What about you?”

  “Just got into town,” I said.

  He leaned in closer and asked in a whisper, “How did you know? About the troll?”

  “I felt him,” I explained. “Trolls are predators. I know that hunted feeling like the back of my hand.”

  I glanced around cautiously, but we were the only customers. I was probably telling him more than I should have, but didn’t they say confession was good for the soul? Besides, Jasper would be on the next bus out of town. I’d make sure of it.

  He wrapped a couple of the biscuits in a paper napkin and put it in his pocket.

  I wasn’t hungry anymore, but I did the same.

  “You’re on the run?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Not anymore. No more running. I’m going to kill the people who murdered my mother and then kill myself.” He didn’t need to know the specific details, which were a little more complex. “I’m probably doing the world a favor.”

  He’d obviously heard it all before because my cold-blooded statement didn’t even faze him. He bit into his toast. “Sounds simple enough,” he said, between bites.

  “It won’t be.” Major understatement. “Now finish your breakfast.”

  I paid the check and put a healthy tip under my plate. It’s not smart to piss off a demon, especially if she’s stuck waiting tables.

  In the end, we drove to the bus terminal on Hawthorne, where I bought him a ticket to some Podunk city in Iowa.

  “Don’t come back,” I warned. “And if you say anything…” I left the threat unfinished.

  “I won’t,” he promised feverishly. He tossed me the car keys. “The Mustang’s yours if you want it. If not, leave it for the tow trucks to find.”

  He sounded sad and I wondered what waited for him at home if he was reluctant to leave Minneapolis. “It’s for your own good.”

  He stopped at the bus stairs. “Nyx, a lot of shitty stuff has been done in the name of good.”

  This from a guy who’d lured several people to their deaths. But he had a point.

  He boarded the bus and took a window seat. I stayed where I was until the Greyhound disappeared from sight.

  Chapter Six

  I left Jasper’s car at the bus station and picked up my Caddy. Something pulled me back to the lake I’d seen from Elizabeth’s house. I got lost twice, but I finally found her neighborhood. I parked the car a few blocks away and walked toward the water.

  The storm had died, but the drifts were up to my shoulders in spots. The snow crunched beneath my feet as I walked. The tree branches were heavy with snow. I brushed against a pine and got a bunch of snow down the back of my neck for my carelessness.

  Each step became harder and harder as I waded through drift after drift. I was so cold it was as if my bones had frozen.

  What was compelling me to the lake?

  It was more than sheer curiosity. It was if someone had called to me and I had to answer the call.

  Finally, I reached the water. The surface was smooth and serene to the naked eye, but there was something in the black depths. Something waited. The ice in the lake cracked and boomed and I jumped.

  I heard a whisper. “Little minnow,” it said.

  The sound came from the water’s edge. “Show yourself.”

  The face of a naiad appeared. She was a blue so pale she was almost translucent, and her dark hair tangled about her shoulder like weeds. She had full, slightly fishy-looking lips, but I had to resist the urge to step closer to her.

  Rivulets of ice water dripped off her face, but she caught them with her long silvery tongue.

  “Come closer,” she beckoned. “I’m cold. Keep me warm.”

  I wanted to do a lot more than keep her warm, but naiads were dangerously sexy. I had enough magical blood to resist her blandishments, but mortals could not.

  “Greetings, Poseidon’s daughter,” I said, finally remembering the traditional greeting to water-dwellers. “None of your tricks, nymph,” I added. I wagged my finger at her but was careful to keep out of her reach.

  “Willow,” she said. “You may call me Willow.”

  “Nyx,” I said. I hadn’t conversed with a naiad for a long time, but that summer on the island of Capri, we’d lived with a colony of friendly naiads. They had tolerated a miniature male in their midst for my mother’s sake.

  “Your heart
belongs to another,” she said. She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. When she did, the necklace of worn stones she wore rattled. At least I thought they were stones. Some naiads liked to wear necklaces made of men’s teeth to show how many they’d seduced and killed.

  The rivulets of water turned to icicles, and she shivered.

  True love was often the only thing that kept a man from death by naiad. Or so I’d been told. “No, my heart is my own,” I said. “But I’m wise to your wily ways.”

  She turned to go, perhaps off to seek easier prey, but I stopped her. “Wait!” I said. “Willow, what’s down there?”

  “I’ll never tell,” she said. She giggled and put her hand on mine before she dove into the icy water without a backward glance.

  I heard someone walking through the snow, swearing, and then Elizabeth was standing behind me.

  “Who were you talking to?” Elizabeth asked.

  Had she sensed the nymph’s presence? Most mortals were clueless about magical beings, even when they were right in front of them. “I was talking to myself,” I said. “Bad habit, I’m afraid. How did you find me?”

  “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Why?” I asked. I sounded suspicious.

  “I need your help,” she said. “Rather desperately. I need you to find my brother Alex.”

  “I’m not a cop,” I said. “Or a private detective.”

  “I’ve already tried the police department and a detective. They didn’t find anything.” She stood there shivering and turning blue. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying.

  I knew then I would help her, even though it was against my better judgment. That name, though—I’d heard it recently.

  “You’re freezing,” I said. “Let’s find some place warm to talk.”

  “What were you doing out here?” Elizabeth scolded. “The lake’s not safe.”

  “I wasn’t planning on a dip,” I said. “It seems safe enough.” No matter what the naiad had tried to tempt me into, I wasn’t stupid enough to swim in frigid water.

  “Well, it’s not,” she snapped. “People die in weather like this. Get hurt, disoriented, lie down to sleep and freeze to death.”

  I was already lost, disoriented. “I’m touched by your concern,” I said sarcastically.

  Did Elizabeth have any idea of what kind of magic was guarding the lake? There was more than a water nymph living there.

  “Let’s get back to my house,” she said. She tugged on my hand to guide me away from the lake.

  My anger left as quickly as it had come. Even with swollen eyes, she looked cute in her red knit cap and mittens.

  She let out a hiccuping sob and I pulled her close, just to comfort her, but the embrace changed into something else. I had to kiss her. It was becoming a habit, this need to touch her.

  “You taste like honey,” I whispered.

  “My lip balm,” she replied.

  She was wildflowers and thistles, guaranteed to sting eventually. I kissed her again and we bumped teeth.

  She removed her lips from mine, too quickly. “Are you going to stick around?”

  “I’ve thought about it,” I said.

  She must have heard a warning in my voice not to press the issue, because she dropped the subject. “Let’s go back to the house. You must be hungry.”

  “I’ve already eaten,” I said. I grabbed her hand and she let me keep it. We walked back to the house hand in hand.

  Jenny was pacing on the front porch, a lit cigarette burning to ash in her hand. “I see you found him,” she said.

  Elizabeth dropped my hand. “I found him.”

  “Where did he wander off to?”

  “I needed some air,” I said.

  “For two days?” Jenny asked.

  Sarcasm was lost on her, so I tried the direct approach. “How about it’s none of your business?”

  I glanced at Elizabeth, but she didn’t comment.

  I felt uneasy in my own skin. It had been a long time since I’d been around people for an extended time. I’d been around them, I guess, but often I hadn’t actually interacted with them.

  Jenny ground out her cigarette. “I’m going to hit the gym,” she said and went inside.

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Elizabeth said.

  I nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t wander off again. At least not until you tell me about your brother Alex.” I realized where I’d heard the name. From Jasper. Someone once said there were no coincidences. “I’m not making any promises, you know.”

  “I know.” She sat down next to me, but was careful to sit far enough away that we weren’t touching.

  “About six months ago, Alex got a new job,” Elizabeth began. “He’s in R and D, cutting-edge stuff. My brother is brilliant.”

  “What’s the name of the company he works for?” I asked.

  “Parsi Enterprises,” she said.

  “What do they do?” For one thing, they bottled that sugary orange soda that Gaston guzzled down. I was almost certain that Alex had worked for my aunts. He wasn’t their first employee to disappear and he wouldn’t be the last, but it sent my nerve endings screaming.

  “He never told me,” she admitted. “He was secretive about his work, but he was in research and development.”

  She was silent, and I realized she was getting to something she wasn’t looking forward to telling me.

  “And then?”

  “He was gone. Without a word.”

  “What made you think it was something sinister?” I finally asked. “Maybe he’s shacked up in the Bahamas with some girl.”

  It sounded like the story she was telling me was true, but I couldn’t be sure.

  “Alex would never leave without telling me first,” she said. “Not unless someone forced him.”

  “Family money?” I asked. It was a reasonable question. In my experience, people did horrible things for cash.

  “Some,” she replied. “But it’s not enough to kill him over.”

  She might be surprised what someone would do for a few bucks.

  “Can you think of anybody who would have a grudge? Ex-girlfriend? Someone Alex used to be friends with?”

  “Everyone likes Alex,” she said.

  “What did you do after you realized he disappeared?”

  She sniffled and looked away in embarrassment. “The usual. I called the cops, hired a private investigator, but nothing helped.”

  “Whose house is it, really?” I asked. “And is Alex really your brother?”

  For a second she looked like I’d punched her, but she recovered quickly. “I’m sorry for lying to you. Alex is my brother and the owner of the house.”

  “Do you trust him? Your brother?”

  “He would do anything for me,” she said quickly. “He would never leave without telling me. Alex has simply vanished.”

  “So why were you inviting strangers into your home?” I asked her. Something about her story didn’t make sense, but maybe I was missing something.

  “What do you mean? You were injured. I was trying to help you,” she said. The hurt in her voice made me feel like a jerk.

  Jenny had let me know I wasn’t the first stray Elizabeth had brought home, but I didn’t want to bring that up now, not when Elizabeth’s tears still clung to her eyelashes.

  “I came to Minneapolis for a reason,” I said. I didn’t want to tell her too much. The less she knew, the better. “And I haven’t accomplished that goal yet.”

  “I understand,” she said. “I’ll just have to find Alex on my own.”

  I thought of how I’d met her, in the bathroom of the Red Dragon with that sketchy guy Brad. “I’m not saying I won’t help you,” I said. “But you have to be honest with me.”

  She nodded. “That’s fair.”

  “Are you okay here by yourself?” I asked.

  “I’m not alone,” she said. “There’s Jenny.” She hesitated. “You could stay here, too.”

&nbs
p; “Not a good idea,” I said. I didn’t want her anywhere near the trouble that was bound to start once my aunts realized I was here. I’d crash at the Dead House until I figured out something else.

  “The offer stands,” she said.

  “What about your parents?” I said.

  “They’re dead,” she said baldly.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Where are your parents?”

  “Both dead,” I replied. I actually had no idea about my father, but I assumed that after all this time he was gone.

  “Were you close to them?”

  “To my mother,” I said. “I never knew my father.”

  “Tough to lose your only parent,” she said.

  I put my arm around her. “We’re both orphans.”

  “Not exactly the best thing to have in common,” she commented wryly.

  I dropped my arm. “It’s something,” I said.

  “Yes, it is definitely something.” She took my hand and held it tightly. I wanted to hang on, to pretend, just for a second, that something more was possible, but there wasn’t going to be a happy ending to my story, just a blood-drenched one.

  Chapter Seven

  Elizabeth stared out the window at the snow falling. I’d never realized before that there could be so many different ways for it to snow. This time, the snow was well behaved, dropping from the sky in dainty swirls.

  The view was gorgeous, but I don’t think she really saw it.

  “Are you guys hungry?” Jenny asked.

  “It’s really coming down out there,” Elizabeth said.

  I nodded. “Do you want to go out tonight?”

  I wasn’t keen on the idea of fighting the weather; from the looks of it, neither was Elizabeth.

  “You can’t go out in this,” Jenny interjected. She acted more like Elizabeth’s jailer than her roommate.

  Contrarily, I said, “Why not? It’s better than sitting around all night.”

  “I’d rather stay here,” Elizabeth said. She shot me a pleading look out of those green eyes of hers and I was lost.

  I smiled at her. “If that’s what you want.”

  Jenny snorted in derision, but I pretended to ignore her.

  “It’s too cold anyway,” I said.

  “I’ll build a fire,” Elizabeth said.