Sleeper_Google, page 15
part #3 of Hunter Series
“Freaking magic,” Lee said with a shake of his head. He frowned up at Zoey. “I told you to stay away from faery magic. It always gets us in trouble.”
Zoey stared for a moment and then she looked back to Sarah. “How long does the spell last?” She reached over and put a hand on Lee’s shoulder. “Not that I’m unhappy to see you, old friend. It’s just…”
“I want my son back.” Quinn’s whole body was tense.
The queen was a bit more tactful. “You have a soccer game Thursday night and a project due. I’m not sure how the teachers at your school are going to handle something like this.”
Lee pointed to Quinn. “Don’t get your panties in a wad, Quinn. It’s all going to be all right. It can’t last forever, right? But while I’m out, I do want to talk to both of you about your parenting skills. The boy was not lying when he told you he didn’t drink the root beer. It was Rhys. Yes, sweet, everyone-adores-him Rhys drank that root beer, but no one believes me because I’m a kid and I sometimes get into trouble. Next time test his breath. My brother gets away with everything. And while we’re talking, let’s discuss this whole homework thing. I don’t need half the crap they’re teaching. I’ve lived a whole life and do you know what I never once used? Algebra. Cut that shit out now. The boy needs weapons training. And if that little shit wolf from the sixth grade comes after us one more time, I’m going to show him how easily his balls can get shoved up into his body cavity.”
Yeah, those anger issues might have been hereditary.
Quinn stood over Sarah. “I need my sweet son back now. Right now.”
Sarah held up a hand. “I have to research this, Dev. It’s not as simple as doing another spell. I think Liv’s on to something, but I can’t just take it back. This is heavenly magic. This is an old soul in a new body. I’m at a loss.”
“How does he remember the things he’s done as a child this time around?” Zoey asked. “When I visited him in Heaven before I came back to this plane, they told me this was a way to give his soul peace, that he would be able to live another life free of the confines of who he was before.”
“What she’s trying to say is being a lone wolf sucks ass,” Lee added. “The urge to be alone, to not let anyone in, it was always a war in my soul.” He looked up at Zoey. “Forget what I said before, darlin’. I’m cranky about the whole soul thing. You’re a good mom, Zoey. You’re everything I could want and I love Rhys and Evan, too. Hell, I even…I can’t. You’re going to have to figure that part out on your own.”
He loved Quinn. Given their history, I figured that would be hard to say.
“But I’m not at peace,” Lee continued, his eyes darkening. “It’s different, but the war is still…where’s Donovan?”
“Your dad is in the middle of an important meeting. A representative from one of the murdered demon’s family has come and demanded an audience. Marcus finally convinced Daniel he has to meet with him, but he wouldn’t allow the man on this plane. He’s in a neutral place and that means no cell towers,” Quinn explained. It was obvious he wasn’t accepting the fact that a somewhat salty lone wolf had taken over his son’s personality. “He’ll call us when he can. Until then, you should rest and stay in the condo until your Aunt Sarah figures out how to…put you back together properly.”
“I think what Dev is trying to say is we all need to remain calm,” Zoey interjected, throwing husband number two a pointed stare. “Can I talk to you for a moment, dear?”
Quinn turned and strode out, Zoey hard on his heels.
Lee reached up and scratched behind his ear, his hand moving rapidly before he sniffed and sat back, one hand on his belly. “So you’re Kelsey.”
Sarah and Liv went back to the kitchen, already planning their next attempts. Neil wandered in behind them. I was left alone with my father.
“Looks like it.” We kind of stared at each other for a long time, the silence oddly peaceful between us. “You have to dump my mom like that?”
I didn’t ask the question with a ton of bitterness. I was merely curious.
Lee shook his head and shot me a way too old for his nine-year-old body stare. “Your mama left me. She figured out I was a loner and decided I was a bad bet. My own mother had died a couple of years before and I was raising Zack on my own. I believe your mother thought I was trying to find a place to dump Zack so I could roam.”
It was what loners did. Lone wolves didn’t have families. They were a rare type of supernatural creature who was there to maintain balance when needed. A true lone wolf is more powerful than any alpha wolf, but has no need to form a pack or ties, so he can be used to keep powerful alphas in check. A lone wolf, if he happens to knock up some human, can also produce something even rarer.
Me.
“You might have mentioned to her that you were different.” From what I understood, my father truly was different. He’d never left his younger brother behind even though the need to roam must have been overwhelming.
He stood up and walked over to me. He put his hand on my chin and forced me to look into his eyes. “If I’d had even a hint that you existed, I would have come for you. Do you understand that? Even when I’m sleeping inside this new body of mine, I know you. Even though I’m only a child right now, I still come for you, daughter.”
I don’t cry. Well, I rarely do, but something threatened to break inside me and I had to hold it together. Tears shimmered when I thought about the fact that somehow, someway, though we’d been robbed of one relationship, we’d found another. And he did come for me. He crept out of bed and put himself in dangerous situations so he could find me and make sure I was okay.
I shook my head, unwilling to break down. “You can’t do that anymore. You’re human.”
“Am I?” His lips curled into a smile I’d never seen on his face before. “I don’t feel human. Things aren’t always as they seem. You should know that better than anyone else. Tell me why Marcus isn’t here. I don’t smell him anywhere on you.”
He stepped back and suddenly I knew the oddity of having a nine-year-old question my life choices.
“He’s with the king,” I managed to say.
“He’s with the king while we’re in the middle of a murder investigation and we got the heavenly trio up our asses? That’s when he decides to play politics again? I don’t think so. I want to find that vampire and then we’re going to have a talk about how he takes care of you.”
“Drink.” Trent walked out of the kitchen and passed me a beer, saving me for the second time in a twenty-four-hour period. He’d already taken the cap off. While I’d been getting the lowdown on how everything had gone to hell, Trent had found a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He sat down beside me and I had to force myself not to lean into him. “So how did the old guy end up coming out again?”
I turned to him. “You’re the only one here who doesn’t seem surprised.”
One broad shoulder shrugged. “Zoey always said Lee was reincarnated as one of her twins. Little Lee smells like old Lee. I’ve been that kid’s bodyguard since the day he was born and he’s always given me hell. Hey, old man, you’re the worst. I mean it. I told your mom she should spank you more.”
Adorable Little Lee’s middle finger came up. “Fuck you, Wilcox.” His mouth turned up in the smirkest grin, one I’d certainly never seen on my young friend. “Damn, it’s good to see you.”
They shook hands, one of those weird manly gestures. Trent leaned back, his arm going around the edge of the couch behind me. “It’s good to see you, too. And Marcus isn’t a bad guy, but her training is almost done. I’m going to take over much of her daily schedule. It’s time she embraced her wolf side.”
I heard the chime of the doorbell and wished Albert wasn’t so quick. I could have rushed to open the door.
“I can understand that somewhat. Let’s move on to you, son,” Lee said, his tone turning serious. “You want to explain why my daughter smells like you but doesn’t have your ring on her finger?”
“You can’t smell him on me.” My whole body had flushed. Like all of it. I could feel that embarrassment down to my toes. “I don’t care that you used to be a lone wolf. Now, you’re a nine-year-old and you have trouble catching a baseball. You do not have supersenses.”
Lee’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t I? You think I can’t tell that he’s been all over you? That I can’t see the way he’s looking at you and how you almost leaned against him when he sat down beside you. There are five chairs in this room, Wilcox. Why don’t you find your own?”
Trent relaxed back, crossing one leg over his knee and generally looking like the cat who ate the canary. “This one fits me so well.” He turned slightly toward me. “Hey, baby, did you talk to Quinn? I couldn’t use a rubber so I wanted to make sure we’re not pregnant.”
Lee stood up, pointing at him. “I swear to god if you get my baby girl knocked up…”
I stood up as well and turned and walked out rather than screaming at the top of my lungs. I was pretty sure every inch of my skin was flaming pink. The day had been shitty and surreal.
I made it to the hallway when I saw Casey coming my way.
He waved a printout. “Hey, boss, I found our girl and she’s a hooker. It’s the Larissa chick. I even found an ad for her services on the Dark Web. Apparently there’s a whole underbelly of supernatural ads and shit there. Very clever, too. Larissa Dymone, erotic artist. Her tagline is Demons do it better. Got her address and everything. I set up an appointment for myself. I thought that might be the way we ensure she talks and all.”
I pulled the paper from his hand and kept on walking.
“Uh, Kels, do you have any cash? I don’t think this is why Henri gave me a Visa.” Casey jogged to keep up with me. “From the looks of this, demon hookers are expensive.”
I kept on walking. Sadly, a little time with a hooker would be the least embarrassing thing to happen to me all day.
* * * *
“You know a thank you would be nice.” Casey had managed to catch up to me when I’d stopped off at my apartment. “Maybe a ‘good job, Casey. You worked hard and that needs to be appreciated.’”
I’d stopped by my apartment to pick up a couple of guns. I’d known Marcus wouldn’t be there, but I could almost see him standing in the living room, staring out over the city like he did so often.
The apartment had been completely silent, but it was changed utterly. In the few hours I’d been in the queen’s penthouse, someone had moved all of Marcus’s personal items out of our apartment. His clothes and books and toiletries were all gone.
It was as though he’d simply vanished, and I wondered if he even intended to say good-bye.
I hadn’t been able to stay there. I needed a distraction and the best one I could think of was work. I’d headed out then and there, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of Casey.
If only Casey could vanish, then I would be blissfully alone.
“Hey,” he shouted as I turned the Jeep onto the street I needed. “You could also watch the hairpin turns. I don’t need to die twice. What crawled up your butt and died?”
“Not died,” I corrected. “Came back to life.”
I wish I’d have thought to steal Liv. I needed my BFF. My life had gone topsy-turvy and she was my reasonable girl. Liv was the one who listened to me bitch and then consoled me.
“You wanna talk about it?”
I frowned his way. “No, I do not.”
“Okay.”
He fiddled with the radio. He was only satisfied when he’d found some whiny man rock.
“My dad came back.” I have no idea why I said the words. They came out totally of their own accord.
Casey sat up. “Are you serious? Why are we running? We need to go back to the compound. We need to warn everyone. Your dad is a wanted criminal.”
The man who’d raised me had many fans. That’s kind of what happened when you got a name as a ruthless, merciless hunter who didn’t discriminate between dangerous supernaturals and perfectly harmless ones. The man who raised me simply killed them all. “Not John Atwood. As far as I know he was never dead. I’m talking about my bio dad who seems serious about protecting my nonexistent virtue.”
“Ah, he heard about you doing the nasty with Trent, huh?”
“How do you know about that?”
“I heard it from Jan, the witch who runs the coffee shop on the sixth floor, and she heard it from one of the bartenders at Ether, who I’m pretty sure heard it from the bodyguard they put on the room so no one rushed in while Trent was howling and shit.”
“Howling?”
“Yeah, I guess fucking while you’ve got a silver sword shoved through your body hurts and stuff,” Casey said with a shrug. “It got intense and some of the wolves were either worried or amused. It can be hard to tell. Turn right up here. She’s in those apartments.”
The thought of Trent howling in pain made my heart twist. How much had he sacrificed to save me?
“I doubt he was howling in pain,” a familiar voice said.
I nearly screamed as a small body sat up in the backseat of my Jeep.
“Goddamn it, Lee. You cannot do that. You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack,” I yelled and then stared Casey’s way. “You didn’t realize he was hiding in the back?”
“You didn’t either.” Casey had gone a lovely shade of paler than usual.
Lee sat up, unfolding his small body from where he’d been hiding. He held up a tiny leaf. “Magically reinforced herbs. I steal them from the apothecary on twelve. Keep a stash of them in my bedroom. Masks my scent, but only works for twenty minutes or so. You would have caught me soon enough, darlin’. Don’t be upset. I just want to spend some time with you before they find a way to shove me back down deep.”
I tried to focus on the road in front of me. “They’re working on it.”
“Sarah and Liv are,” Lee replied. “I think they’re going to talk to the coven about it. I don’t think this happens often. They’re also trying to figure out how to get Neil to remember, but I don’t think that’s going to work the way they hope it does.”
“Why not?”
“Magic’s a funny thing. A spell like this—a white one—will only really work if the person you’re casting the spell on wants it to work,” my dad explained. “Neil’s will comes into play in a white spell. I think his will could be working against the spell.”
That actually made sense to me. “You don’t think he wants to remember.”
“I know Neil often runs from the things that scare him. He might not even realize it, but I think he doesn’t want to know what happened to him. He doesn’t want to face it. I don’t know that a white spell is going to work.”
“We have to try something,” I replied, attempting to focus on the road again. I wasn’t even all that surprised that my dad had found his way into my Jeep. He didn’t need to be an old soul to do that. Little Lee had been able to do stuff like that all on his own. “How did you know who I was? I get that you retained the memories of your life, but you never met me. You said it yourself. You didn’t know I existed.”
“But I did. I spent time on the Heaven plane. One of the things I saw there was you.” He leaned forward, a small hand on my shoulder. “While I was there I saw many things. It was like my whole life and all its possibilities were all around me. I saw the people I’d been, saw what will happen to me this time. I saw it all in great detail, and I remember how it felt to know. Now it’s all fuzzy, like I know I saw it, know something’s waiting for me, but I can’t remember anything but you. It’s like I held on to that one memory because I didn’t want to forget it. Because even though I knew I would be a child, I wanted so much to be your dad no matter what body I was in.”
Like I could remember those children of mine. Those little monsters jumping on the bed.
“That’s beautiful,” Casey said. “It makes me miss my dad.”
I tried to ignore him, looking at Lee through the rearview mirror. “But you remember the past.”
“Yes,” he replied. “Look, sweetheart, I don’t know how long I have. I kind of hope this wears off at some point and I’m back to being me. There’s a reason I chose to do this and it wasn’t to be the old me in a new body. But if that happens and I go back to not remembering anything, there are some things I need to tell you.”
“There are questions I have, too.” I couldn’t stop thinking about what Marcus had told me. Was I chasing after the wrong revenge? Did my father want revenge at all?
How much time did we have? God, I’d run out of that place like my pants were on fire and all because I was embarrassed. How many people got the chance to talk to their dead fathers?
“This is the apartment complex,” Casey said quietly. He pointed to a nicely kept set of buildings. It looked like Larissa the hooker did pretty well for herself. “Uhm, if you two want to talk, I could go in and question the suspect.”
More likely he would end up using his hour with the hooker for doing what hookers did. I knew Casey. He’s a good kid and he would try, but if Larissa Dymone had half a brain and anything at all to do with killing Lester, she would see right through Casey. She would pull some big old demon eyes on him, maybe show some of her extra bits, and then stab his ass with a stake. And by ass I really mean heart.
The talk with my dad would have to wait. I pulled into the parking lot.
I did have a job to do, after all. “Did she give you a gate code when you set up the appointment?”
“Yeah. She also told me where to park. She’s organized. Pretty too. The pictures on her website are way better than the one we pulled off the security camera,” Casey assured me as he passed me the code.
I pushed it in and the ornate doors began to swing open. “You mean her hooker glamour shots are better than the ones taken on the night she might or might not have killed someone? Shocking.”
