Dead Letter Day (6 page)

He started loading up his hardware. “Ask him or I will ask him for you.” His tone was mild, but there was steel beneath it.

I pulled the blankets up around my shoulders. I felt like each one of my limbs weighed about a bazillion pounds. “Fine. I’ll ask.”

“And see if you can find out what was with those ginormous crows while you’re at it, okay?” He shoved his hair back and put on his cap.

I shuddered. I hate crows. I’ve never been a fan, but after I’d been attacked by a flock of them at the behest of an evil
bruja
a few weeks ago, they were pretty darn low on my list of favorite species. “Yes, boss. Anything else?”

“Yeah.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Feel better.”

I glared at him. How dare he use sweetness on me like that?

AS MUCH AS I WANTED TO STAY IN BED FOR THE ENTIRE day, it simply wasn’t going to happen. First and foremost, Paul was out there somewhere.

It was entirely possible he needed some werewolf “me time,” and it wasn’t like he could check into a spa to do that. I was going to feel like a total fool if after rattling everyone’s cages, he showed up in a few days all refreshed and at one with his wolfiness. On the other hand, I’d feel a hell of a lot worse if he was in trouble and I’d done nothing. It was damn
sure his precious pack wasn’t going to do anything and what was up with that anyway?

I knew I needed to check in with Meredith. She’d started out acting nonchalant about not having seen Paul and then progressed pretty quickly through the phases of witchy worriedness. Denial. Secret scrying. Charm and amulet manufacture and, finally, random spellcasting. I didn’t really want to find out what stages might come next. I was equally sure that the rest of Sacramento didn’t want to find out either.

I picked up my cell and punched the speed dial for her number.

“Did you find him?” she asked, her voice breathless.

My heart clenched a bit. What the hell was up with that? Normally I’d get irritated about the lack of greeting or any niceties or at least give her a hard time about it. Instead I was feeling a little
verklempt
about how worried she was. “Sorry. No. I didn’t. No one I spoke to in the Pack has seen him for a while either, though.”

“What are they doing about it?”

“Nothing that I know of. The general consensus is that he’s spending a little alone time.” I decided to leave out the bit about Chuck wanting Paul to get his priorities straight. It sounded a little too much like they might have a failure to communicate and I’m a big enough fan of old Paul Newman movies to know how that can turn out.

“I’m coming over.”

I sighed. It wasn’t like she was waiting for an invitation. She was coming whether I wanted her to or not. “I’ll start the tea.”

I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW TO HANDLE THE MEREDITH situation while I took my shower. The farther she kept away
from all this, the better, as far as I was concerned. She wasn’t reasonable when it came to Paul, anymore than he was reasonable when it came to her. We needed to approach this with clear heads. After all, I still wasn’t entirely certain there was any situation to do anything about.

It wouldn’t hurt to come up with an assignment for Meredith that might keep her busy and not sticking her nose, or foot or wand for that matter, into places where those things didn’t belong.

Meredith arrived right as I dropped two tea bags into mugs of water that I’d microwaved. She looked in horror at what I set on the breakfast bar of Norah’s and my tiny kitchen, shook her head, got up and dumped both mugs down the sink. Then she proceeded to pull bags of things out of her purse and start a complicated process in the kitchen.

Fine by me. My ego is not even loosely tied to my cooking or tea-making abilities. Good thing. I’d have even lower self-esteem than I already had.

“I can’t decide which is worse,” Meredith said as she carefully measured something that looked way too much like weed into a teapot. “Thinking that he’s hurt or in trouble, or thinking that he’s blowing me off.”

“Has he ever been out of touch for this long?” I asked. I sniffed. The aroma coming off her tea was amazing, sort of flowery and sweet, but with a spicy note to it. Maybe there was more to tea than putting a dried-out packet of Lipton’s into a mug of hot water.

“Not recently. Back in the beginning…Well, you remember how he was.” Meredith grinned.

I did. It had actually been kind of fun to see Paul all discombobulated and tongue-tied whenever Meredith waltzed into McClannigan’s. In all fairness, she didn’t really
waltz. She more strode in like a tiger looking for prey. Anyway, then he’d get all cranky because he was all flustered and stomp off. It had been terrifically entertaining. “I do, indeed. When exactly did that change?”

“It was a process.” Her attention was back on the tea now, which she was pouring through something. “I don’t think I could put an exact date on it, but even if we didn’t talk every day of the past few months, I always knew where he was. And vice versa.”

“And it’s been how long since you heard from him?”

Meredith bit her lip and thought for a second. “I think I talked to him twice after…well, you know, what happened down in Oakdale.”

Oh, she meant after I suddenly started shooting lightning bolts from my fingertips. “So it really hasn’t been that long. Maybe he did go off to think for a while.”

“I really think he would have told me first, if for no other reason than to avoid exactly this situation. If he’s really off being wolfy, can you imagine how pissed he’s going to be when he comes back and realizes we’ve been poking around like this?”

Reasonably pissed, in my own approximation. “I can see it upsetting him somewhat.”

Meredith started adding honey and lemon to my cup. “I think that’s an understatement.”

I did, too.

“I think he would have taken the time to send me some kind of message to avoid that. It’s not like he doesn’t know us. He knows we’ll worry. Or, at least, that I will.” She set the mug down in front of me.

I took a sip. It was heaven. “I worry, too.”

Meredith made a face. “If pushed. That mother hen instinct isn’t exactly your thing, though.”

True enough. I was more than happy for people to take care of themselves. Most of the time, I felt barely able to take care of myself, much less anybody else. Plus, my plate was more than full with my own problems. I didn’t have the time or the energy to go out seeking other people’s problems to solve.

“Speaking of which, have you had any more episodes?” She held fingers out in front of her like she was zapping someone.

I was about to say no, but then remembered the weird glow around my hands when I’d pulled Ted away from that car this morning. “Sort of.”

“How can you sort of shoot electricity from your fingers? That seems like an all-or-nothing proposition.” She wrapped her hangs around her mug.

“I more sort of glowed.” I paused. “Right after I shot the lightning bolts.”

Meredith set her mug down and cocked her head to one side. “You were glowing?”

That didn’t sound right. “Just my hands.”

Meredith frowned. “For how long?”

“Just until I barfed.” There. That was so much more me than glowing.

Meredith sighed. “I think I need more information.”

I filled her in as best as I could, leaving out the crows. Everyone thinks I’m paranoid about them. They might be right, although just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t actually out to get me.

“So what did you feel when your hands were glowing?” she asked after I explained the sequence of events.

I put my head down on the counter. “Please, no. Not feelings. I’m so bad with those.”

Meredith smiled. “Try.”

I blew out a breath and tried to remember what I’d been feeling. “I guess concerned. I thought that car was going to hit Ted.”

Meredith nodded her head. “So a car is about to run over your lover and you experienced concern.” She rubbed at a crease in her forehead with her thumb. “Try not to be such a drama queen, Melina.”

“It surprised me, too,” I offered.

“Concerned and surprised, then.”

“That sounds about right.”

“And how about in the cemetery in Oakdale. How were you feeling then?”

I swallowed. I didn’t like to think too hard about that night in the cemetery. I didn’t want to call up the sensations of panic and devastation that had howled through me like a very, very ill wind. “I’d say concerned and surprised then, too.” That should cover it, right?

“Melina.” Meredith sounded disappointed in me.

I looked up from my tea. “What?”

Her face didn’t look disappointed. It looked sad. “Didn’t you learn anything that night?”

“Of course I did. I learned that I can sometimes shoot lightning bolts from my fingertips. It was very handy.” Silly witch.

Meredith shook her head. “Dig a little deeper. It won’t kill you.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. “Fine. I was terrified. I thought she might kill Ted right in front of me and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it.” I was surprised at the way my throat clogged up as I said it.

Meredith went very still as if she was trying not to frighten a wild animal. “And this morning?”

“We already went over this morning. I think we settled
on concerned and surprised.” How much did she expect from me?

“Because you thought Ted was in danger.” She gathered up her thick hair and started twisting it into a bun.

Ohhh. I saw what she was going for. “So you think love has given me new abilities?” I laughed. “I don’t think it works that way.”

She shrugged. “You don’t really know how it works, do you?”

True that. I hadn’t exactly been issued a manual at any point along my path of Messengerdom and my main source of information, Mae, had died months earlier. I didn’t even have anyone to ask. Still, it didn’t sound possible to me. “I don’t think an emotional state can do that. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Can you think of another explanation? In both cases, you were worried about Ted, and let’s face it, you love him.” She smiled a little, then the smile faded and she looked sad again.

Oh. We were talking about love. Her love was missing, possibly in danger or possibly simply staying away from her. I put my hand over hers. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard.” Damn. Were those tears pricking at the back of my eyelids?

Meredith stared at me and snatched her hand away as if I had burnt it. Oh, no. Had I? Had I zapped her without knowing? I held my hands up in front of my face. Nope. No glow.

“What is it? What happened?” I asked.

Meredith’s eyes were wide. “I’ve never seen you do that before.”

“Do what?” If I hadn’t zapped her, had I done something else? Did I have even more new abilities that I didn’t know about yet?

“Express…empathy, I guess.” She still looked shocked.

“Oh, come on. I’m a better friend than that.” At least, I thought I was. Of course, I was also pretty convinced I was a badass and lately I’d been getting dizzy after attending my mother’s spin class and getting weepy because my friend was lovesick.

“I didn’t say you weren’t a good friend. You’re an excellent friend. You’re usually not very touchy-feely. At all.” Now she was peering at me like I was some sort of interesting specimen under a glass.

This was the problem with letting people into your life. They figured too much out about you. I wasn’t sure I liked Meredith having my number this completely.

She was right. I’m not touchy-feely. I’m not a hugger. Along with the senses I gained when I became a Messenger, my regular ones became even more acute. I see, smell, taste, hear and feel things with a lot more intensity than most people. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by something as simple as the smell of someone else’s shampoo or the heat of their hand on my arm. It made it easier to keep a little bit of a moat around me. I was way better now at handling those senses, but the moat thing had become a habit that I’d never seen any real reason to break. I mean, why let people in too close when they might be able to hurt you so easily?

“Sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay, but what the hell is going on with you?” I wished she would stop staring at me like that.