Darkness Bound (26 page)

Already in the parking lot at Gabriel’s, she still had enough spirit to admire the wonderful flashing neon sign that was becoming the talk of the area.

They were definitely seeing an increase in business, not that Gabriel was willing to admit any connection.

“I’ll carry you, Jazz,” she said, grateful for even the sound of her own voice. She picked up the dog.

When she reached for her computer bag, the glow of
otherworldly eyes tucked into a dark side recess, next to the computer, made her jump.

She glanced at Jazzy, who rolled his eyes but settled down as if this were all normal. Skillywidden’s unspoken message was, “Here I am, make the best of it.”

Leigh shook her head. “You two are going to lose me my job.” The miniature cat tucked herself down into the computer bag as if to demonstrate that smart people didn’t get found out. Skillywidden was smart and she wasn’t leaving Leigh.

“You, Ms. Skillywidden, are a manipulator,” Leigh said, making a dash through the cold to the building.

With a wave of the hand, she shot through the bar toward her office. Gabriel called, “Hey, there, Leigh. Any trouble getting in? It’s too early for you to be here—as usual.”

“No trouble,” she said without turning around. “I kind of like the challenge of driving in this crud. You need to watch for black ice under the snow, though. Anyway, yesterday was a short day. I’ve got to catch up.”

“You don’t need to catch up anything,” Gabriel announced in his big, gritty voice, but Leigh only waved at him again.

But she didn’t get through the room fast enough to miss seeing Niles sitting alone with a mug of coffee between his hands. He didn’t say anything to her and she held her tongue.

Sally walked up to him and set down a huge plate of food.

Leigh heard Gabriel say, “Hey, Blue, come and warm up,” behind her.

This time she couldn’t manage any surprise that he
had followed her. She had been told she would be guarded at all times and apparently her guardians took their promises seriously.

She had nowhere to go but this place. It wasn’t as if she didn’t really like being here but she felt trapped nevertheless.

Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty, twenty-five. Leigh went over bills received and checked for payment. They were climbing out of the red, slowly but steadily, not that they didn’t have a long way to go.

She made two calls to the East Coast, to upstate New York where the day’s work was just starting for most businesses. Each time she hung up feeling satisfied. Her relationship with suppliers was on solid footing. She wasn’t above a good deal of haggling but both sides usually walked away happy.

Skillywidden remained in the now empty computer bag beneath the desk but gave Leigh’s leg the occasional pat to let her know she was still there. The cat wasn’t just a cat—Leigh wasn’t so earthbound she hadn’t figured that out.

She even had a couple of theories about why the animal was with her, the primary one being that she somehow communicated information about Leigh to someone else. If it hadn’t been Sally’s cat who moved in on Leigh, she might have been edgy about the deal, but she was starting to really enjoy Skillywidden. In fact, Jazzy and the cat slept together most of the time, always with the tiny one arranged so that Jazzy acted as a mattress. It was an amicable relationship.

The enormity of what she faced crashed in. Leigh folded her arms on the desk and put her head down. There
weren’t any guidebooks for people who found out they had fallen in love with a werehound and that they, themselves, might have some sort of weird power. Trapped didn’t really cover how she felt. Who could she talk to, other than Niles? And even being too physically close to him scrambled her logic.

Someone tapped on the door, waited a little, and came in. Swathed in her kitchen gear and already liberally coated in flour, Sally closed the door behind her. “G’morning, Leigh,” she said, much too cheerfully. “How’s it going?”

Leigh rubbed her eyes.

“Not so good?” Sally said. “Well, all that’s going to change.”

“What’s going to change?” Leigh gave Sally her full attention. She didn’t waver even when the cat appeared and sat on the desk with the look of an intelligent, attentive student about her.

“Your life,” Sally said, stroking the cat. “Try to be patient. I mustn’t forget to mention that Phoebe’s stopping by later. She’ll cheer you up. She was disappointed you couldn’t make it yesterday but she understands. Maybe Jan could come over and meet her.”

The only thing Leigh knew for sure was that she didn’t want someone else, least of all her sister, dragged into this. “Let’s put that off for a bit. The weather’s awful and I’d just as soon Jan didn’t drive around in it.” She wanted to keep Jan away until she felt it was safer for her to be here—if that ever happened.

As it was, Jan called every day and the conversation always went the same way. Leigh should move in with Jan and Gib.

The calls from Gib were even more disturbing. He never missed an opportunity to tell her it wasn’t safe for her to be alone at Two Chimneys and she should get rid of the place.

Sally sat down opposite Leigh, who looked sideways at the floor.

“Can I help you with something?” Sally asked.

Leigh shook her head, no. “Everything’s fine,” she said.

“That’s not a fib?” Sally said. “You aren’t only trying to make me feel better? You don’t have to do that.”

Leigh sighed.

The little office hadn’t warmed up yet and Leigh shivered.

“C’mon,” Sally said. “You look exhausted and freezing. Hot coffee and hot food for you. Let’s go.” The woman’s husky voice comforted Leigh, maybe because it sounded so familiar.

“I have a little problem,” Leigh said.

“Skillywidden? I knew she’d start coming to work with you. Don’t worry about her, she won’t bother anyone. She likes you, Jazzy, too, so I guess you’ve got a happy family. Gabriel will be happy to have her around.”

Leigh stared at Sally. “Do you know anything about me that I ought to know? I keep feeling as if I’m more of a mystery to myself than to you,” she said, not caring whether it was wise to be so open.

Sally got up again. “You and I both know your life is changing. You will have to be very careful as we go forward and that means you can’t try to stop Niles from guiding you. Please don’t forget you have powerful friends even though you don’t know all of them.”

Leigh bowed her head. “After we met, you told me I’d come to the right place for me. That this is where I’m supposed to be—here on Whidbey and at Two Chimneys. Why?”

“You should already know that.” She leaned forward. “You are different. The vapors of Chimney Rocks are from the realm of your ancestors. You see them because you are Deseron. Later that will be explained to you in more detail. You see the colors of the veil, the veil the fae consider their property. It divides the human from the paranormal and creatures like you and me are the only ones who actually see the substance of that separation. I am fae. You are Deseron, but don’t worry about that now. I don’t know how many there are like you but there are more. Of that I’m sure. And now you are needed to help restore balance to a world that is out of control. Right here on Whidbey.”

Leigh swallowed. “Deseron?” she said softly.

“Let’s go,” Sally said. “There’s a lot to be covered and not much time to do it. We have reached the crisis.”

Leigh’s heart sank lower. But, at the same time, she wanted to see Niles, to be near him.

She followed Sally, who went straight to Niles’s table.

She couldn’t look away from him. He stared back, inviting, questioning, but wary. He was the same man she had met and wanted to be with, the man she admired. Niles was the man she loved, but she didn’t know what she should do about it.

Dr. Saul VanDoren walked in, the shoulders of his long, black coat dusted with snow. A collection of other local men joined him, including some of the regulars at Gabriel’s.

The glance between the doctor and Niles, then the nonverbal communication with Gabriel and the arrival of Cliff Ames from the kitchen, as if he had been given a silent message, all put Leigh on guard.

Sally stood still and so did Leigh.

“Something’s happened,” Leigh said softly. “It’s bad.”

“Mmm. You see Saul and Niles? That is unusual. They would not normally speak in confidence to each other like that.”

Dr. Saul spoke quietly to Niles, Blue sitting close beside him. They closed Gabriel and Cliff out of the soft conversation.

Leigh frowned at the two men. “I can’t see why.”

Sally smiled a little. “Now that you have met the type of vampire to be feared—as most of them are—surely you see how it is that most of us like Dr. Saul. He is a good man who hates what he is.”

“Dr. Saul is a vampire?” Leigh said. She stared at the man. “Of course, I should have wondered about him. He isn’t like anyone else I ever met. Today I might well have asked questions—with everything else that’s happened.”

“Vampires and werehounds—but even more so, werewolves—do not make relaxed alliances. Werewolves and vampires hate each other. With the hounds it is a more a cautious ambivalence between them.”

A small assortment of regulars slammed through the front doors, puffing with exertion and excitement.

“What is it?” Gabriel said loudly.

“There have been more disappearances since last night,” one man said. “Violet has gone again. A woman from the new bakery, and a waitress, and a woman who tends bar at Passage Point north of Langley.”

Passage Point was one of those places people stayed away from unless they were looking for action, the kind of action that could be more than many were ready to risk.

Sally murmured, “I was afraid of this. I’ve been waiting for it.”

Leigh swallowed, watching Gabriel’s face. “Is Molly okay?”

He looked over her head. “Molly’s decided she needs a break. She’s in Seattle thinking things through.” He finished on a note of finality that didn’t invite further questions. “At least we know Rose is all right, even if she has run off to Alaska. That’s something.”

Niles and Dr. Saul kept a definite distance between them but stared at each other. She sensed they were wary of each other. Blue disappeared, and a moment later Sean entered the bar in his place.

Sean cleared his throat. “We don’t see Cody Willet in here very often,” he said to Niles, who followed the direction of Sean’s stare to a nondescript gray-haired man standing a little apart from the group of regulars.

“Yeah,” was all Niles commented.

The phone on the bar rang and Gabriel hurried to pick it up.

Sean joined them with another man Leigh would make a bet was a member of the werehound team. This one also had an awesome physique. His face was that of a Scandinavian, open, light blue eyes, regular features, but his hair was a very dark blond and curly all the way past the collar of his crew-necked sweater. He stood like a panther ready to pounce.

Niles held a hand toward Leigh. It was an invitation and the ultimate opportunity to declare herself or deny
him. She glanced at Sally, who smiled, rolling in her lips as if she was trying not to laugh.

“You are a puzzle,” Leigh whispered, but she went to stand near Niles. She did not take his hand.

She hadn’t been prepared for the deep intensity of his gaze, or the inward dip at the corners of his mouth that turned into a soft smile.

Leigh realized the one reaction missing, the one that would have sent her running: triumph. But she felt a flash of triumph herself. She had shown that she was not afraid of Niles. Her stomach dipped. Could she overcome that fear or was she only pretending to herself?

“Meet Innes,” Niles said to Leigh, indicating the man with light blue eyes. “He is a close friend.”

When she offered him her hand, Innes hesitated before shaking it. His reaction could only be described as wary.

They nodded at each other but Leigh got no smile from the man.

Gabriel hung up the phone and rejoined them. “Lenny from Passage Point.” He let out a loud breath. “No one’s gone missing. They all took off in Violet’s van. Girls’ sleepover at some B&B in Port Townsend. They’ll be back by tonight. You folks should have checked with Lenny first—he gave his girl the time off and Violet and the woman who owns the bakery can go where they like, when they like.”

Leigh saw Sally frown before she hurried off toward the kitchen.

“Finish your breakfast,” Leigh told Niles, giving his plate a fleeting glance. A raw egg filled a well in the middle of what looked like a mound of raw ground beef. “What’s that?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Steak tartare,” Gabriel said. “Niles has elevated tastes. It’s his favorite start to the day. Puts hair on your chest, right, Niles?”

Niles nodded, not looking too amused by the comment.

The phone rang again and since Leigh was closer she told Gabriel, “I’ll get it. I hope there’s hot coffee somewhere. Sally used that to lure me out here.”

By the time she picked up the phone a large cinnamon roll dripping frosting and smelling like ambrosia was plopped down on the bar by a smiling Sally, along with a huge mug of coffee with the thick cream Leigh favored still spinning like whipped butter-colored marshmallow on the top.