Honeymoon of the Dead (13 page)

Athena’s wisdom could be a nice change. Fierce and smart! Yeah, that’s more who I’d like to be.

We turned down Sixth Avenue and drove past the Metrodome, a covered stadium, which always looked to me like a supersized version of one of those old Jiffy Pop popcorn pans all filled up, except white instead of silver. Or maybe like a blimp had gotten stuck inside a round building. Anyway, it was one of the weirdest-looking downtown landmarks, in my opinion.

The speeds on the highway weren’t much better. We were in stop and-go traffic. Behind us, the sun set bright orange, complementing the endless line of deep red brake lights that stretched ahead.

“You realize you stopped talking, right, darling? It’s not like you. Are you okay?”

“Sorry, lost in thought,” I said, staring out at the steep bank along the shoulder. Barren lilac bushes, scrub trees, and tangled weeds grew wild along the upper edges to form a natural sound barrier for the neighborhoods that flanked the highway.

“I can’t wait to get back to the hotel and just relax,” Sebastian said.

Oh no, the hotel room! “Uh, oh . . . about that . . .” I started.

Sebastian’s face instantly crumpled into a deep scowl of suspicion. In the moment he took his eyes off the road, we nearly rear-ended the car stopped in front of us. Sebastian angrily laid on the horn.

I seriously didn’t want to tell him about the trashed room in the mood he was in, so instead I said cheerily, “We’ve been invited to a party.”

“A party?” Sebastian’s face lightened, but he still sounded very incredulous. “How . . . we’ve been here less than day; you work fast.”

“I happened to run into a friend at the Seward Cafe. It’s a full-moon ritual, but, trust me, it’s more like a party.” Or maybe everyone there will point at me when I walk in and shout, “Jezebel!” Though that still seemed slightly better than dealing with how Sebastian was going to freak when he saw the state I left the room in.

“Oh, well, sounds fun. We should stop back, anyhow. I still need to change.”

“Let’s go shopping!”

“What?”

“Seriously, we could go to the Mall of America, grab something to eat, and head over to my friend’s house in time for the party. I mean, the sun is already setting.” I checked the dashboard clock. “They’ll be starting in an hour. Perfect!”

Apparently, acting like things were decided made it so. As soon as he could, Sebastian turned us toward the Mall of America.

When I lived in the Cities I was never a huge fan of the place my friends called “the Sprawl.” But Sebastian had earlier confessed to secretly wanting to see the place that had been originally built to be the largest shopping center in the United States, so I knew it would be an easy sell. As an environmentalist, I tended to be ambivalent about the concept that bigger was better, and though I liked to shop as much as the next girl, there was something about the fluorescent lights and polished, slick surfaces of the mall that always made me bone tired after too long.

Still, I seemed to have postponed the whole hotel disaster. I could put up with the mall for that.

The building didn’t seem all that huge upon approach. It wasn’t any taller than four stories, and the empty, underdeveloped land all around confused my sense of proportion.

“Is that really it?” Sebastian asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

“Afraid so,” I agreed, as we pulled into the parking area of the mall and found a spot near the doors of the very top ramp, named after the state of Pennsylvania.

Once inside, the volume of stores was much more apparent. We found a coat for Sebastian, a fun winter hat for me, and, miracle of miracles, something half decent to eat at the food court that fit my vegetarian diet. Only briefly did I think I saw the bulky image of a troll or some otherworldly creature staring at us from behind the cash register at Long John Silver’s.

By the time we were back in the car headed for Courtney’s backyard full- moon ritual, Sebastian and I were smiling and laughing again.

It was amazing what a little retail therapy could do for a body.

 

 

Finding Courtney’s house from memory, however,
proved slightly more difficult. Luckily, Seward isn’t all that big, and it hadn’t changed much in the years I’d been away. In fact, the neighborhood probably hadn’t been substantially altered in decades given the size of the cottonwoods, silver maples, and other trees on the boulevard.

The area was largely residential. A lot of the houses were bungalows, mingled with two-story working class Victorians. The streetlights were on, casting pale yellow light on neatly shoveled sidewalks. Nearly every yard sported a campaign sign for a city council race, though there didn’t seem to be much contention, except to see which candidate was the most liberal. I even saw several Green and Socialist party supporters.

“This was your old neighborhood, wasn’t it?” Sebastian said. The dash lights illuminated a crooked, appreciative smile.

“You can tell, huh?”

He nodded.

As we turned the corner, I spotted my old apartment. The lights were on, and the shadows of people moved around inside. “Slow down,” I told Sebastian.

He pressed the brake. “Did you spot it?”

“Not exactly. That’s my old place,” I pointed at the brick house with the wraparound porch. “I lived downstairs.” Where there were new curtains and new tenants and no trace of anything to connect me, but I could almost still smell the basil herbs from my garden drying in bundles over the porcelain kitchen sink and hear Barney sharpening her claws on the eight-foot tall “kitty condo.”

“Looks nice,” Sebastian said, his foot tapping the accelerator. “Any sign of this place we’re looking for?”

I glanced behind me one last time, and wondered if old Mister Pete, the landlord, ever fixed the downspout so the basement didn’t flood every time it rained.

We drove around the block one more time, and, this time, as we scanned the narrow spaces between the houses, I spotted the flicker of firelight. We pulled into the first open spot we found.

Having seen my old place, I wasn’t in a hurry to get out, however. A sense of foreboding, almost like a Spidey-sense, tingled at the back of my neck. Courtney’s house looked both familiar and very different. Had she painted the trim or was it always that deep shade of purple and I had never noticed when I lived here? “Are you sure about this?” I asked.

“I thought you wanted to go,” Sebastian said, his hand hovering over the key.

“I do, but I haven’t seen any of these people in years.” And there was the whole scandal, but I didn’t mention that.

Sebastian nodded, waiting. “Honestly, I’m just as happy to go back to the hotel, myself.”

The hotel. That cinched it. I reached for the door. “Yeah, well, the ritual won’t last longer than an hour or so. I suppose it’ll be fun.” Pretty much anything would be more fun than the moment Sebastian saw the mess Lilith made of the room.

As we made our way down the block, Sebastian grabbed my hand. “Is everything okay?”

What to say here?

I mean, I hated to lie, but if I’d wanted to get into this before we’d already be on our way back to Saint Paul. “Uh, well, I suppose you’ll find out if I don’t tell you,” I started.

Before I could go on, Sebastian took me by the arm and spun me so we faced each other. His face was shadowed with concern under the streetlight, and his breath came in a white cloud, “What?
What?
”

“I used to be lovers with one of the guys in Courtney’s coven. I kind of broke up his relationship with my friend Liza, and, uh, people might remember because of the whole love spell deal. Bad witch. Dark magic. I feel terrible.”

The tension evaporated from his posture, and he gave me a vaguely quizzical look. “Oh, is that all? The way you’ve been acting I was convinced it was something much more serious.”

You mean like the hotel? But I just shrugged. “It was a pretty big deal at the time. The coven ended up hiving off over me!”

“Trust me, no one remembers.”

“How can you be so sure?” I tucked my arm into his and we continued making our careful way toward Courtney’s house on slippery sidewalk.

“Because. There’s always a new ‘it’ scandal. Most people’s memories for that sort of thing are mercifully short. If everyone remembered every inappropriate sexual encounter I ever had . . .” He shrugged. “Please. It’s yesterday’s news.”

Now I was wondering what constituted “inappropriate” to a vampire. I resolved to ask him about it later. We’d come to the door. Courtney or one of her housemates had made an ivy wreath in the shape of a pentacle. Sprigs of mistletoe were scattered among the dark, spiky leaves.

It was totally the sort of thing I would have done in my craftier days.

“I hope you’re right. I hope they’ve forgotten everything.”

The moonlight suited Sebastian, of course. Somehow the darkness glowed on his skin, and deepened the color of his hair. Such a beautiful creature of the night, my husband.

“I could use my glamour and distract them,” he said.

“Not necessary. They’ll like you,” I said. I rang the bell and hopped anxiously up and down on my toes. Sebastian put an arm around me to quell my nervousness. He was just kissing the top of my head, when the door swung open. It was Courtney. She squinted at me in that do-I-know-you? look, until I remembered how much I’d changed, what with the dyed-black pixie cut, Goth outfit, and purple eyes.

“It’s Garnet,” I said, untangling myself briefly from Sebastian to point to my chest. I tried to look like the blond, natural-fiber-wearing Green witch I used to be. “Garnet Lacey.”

Her nose wrinkled for a moment, and then she clapped her hands excitedly.

“Garnet! Oh! I’m so happy to see you! Larkin said you might come!”

Much about Courtney was an exclamation point. She had big auburn curls, a large smile, and a brilliant green gown. Dimples punctuated a pleasantly round face, and she had an ample, though not overly large figure.

“This is my husband, Sebastian,” I said.

“Oh, my, my!” Courtney nearly drooled as she scooped an arm under Sebastian’s and all but dragged him inside. “Oh, do come in, darling.”

The door would have slammed in my face had I not caught the jamb with my toe. I rolled my eyes: Courtney hadn’t changed much, it seemed. Sebastian twisted in Courtney’s grip to give me a help-me glance.

Meanwhile Courtney was busily introducing Sebastian around as if he were the returning prodigal, not me. After leaving my coat in the pile on the built- in parson’s bench, I trailed about two steps behind, mostly because the circle of friends seemed to close around them before I could squeeze in.

Like Courtney herself, the house was cheerful and exuberantly homey. The walls were painted bold colors, deep maroons and dark gold, which were probably historically accurate as the woodwork had been painted glossy white. Eleven-foot ceilings held tulip-shaded chandeliers. Likewise, her furniture was large, overstuffed, and comfortable looking. She had a collection of witchy-related knickknacks tucked into wall alcoves and on shelves of glass-fronted built-in buffets. She had glass unicorns and statues of delicately winged fairies that held tiny magic wands. An ammonite fossil was propped next to a reproduction of the squat, lumpy form of the Venus of Willendorf.

The house was crowded in more ways than one. People milled about, and I expended a lot of energy trying not to get jostled.

I was also sort of grateful that my complete change in appearance made me somewhat less recognizable. A few people squinted in my direction, when Courtney gestured, but their gaze never quite landed on me, like they couldn’t discern the old me under my new look. My overtly Goth attire was catching a few disapproving stares, though, and I tugged at the lace on my shirt trying to hold back the desire to explain in a very loud voice that it was just a disguise, honest! Smoothing the cap of my short, dark locks self-consciously, I fell further behind Courtney’s procession as I avoided the press of people.

Though there was no music, there was plenty of noise. Everyone chattered excitedly and now and again laughter would erupt from some corner.

I felt very left out. I’d been expecting a grand reaction, and all I got was indifference and blank stares. Sebastian was right. My old crowd had moved on, forgotten me. Much like Minneapolis and its changed landscape, it made me feel disoriented and lost.

Sebastian kept bending around, trying to find me in the crowd. I’d drifted farther away than I’d meant to, sort of hoping to see a familiar face of my own, some kind of sign that this world wasn’t completely lost to me.

Lilith rumbled protectively.

As though prompted by jealousy, Athena’s strength settled around my shoulders. The combination made my stomach unsettle even more, and I sat down on the edge of a sofa. Hard.

“Well, if it isn’t Garnet Lacey. I hardly recognized you under all that tarty makeup, although I guess I should have. Showing your true colors finally, girl?”

It was, of course, Liza. My old, good friend from whom I’d stolen Larkin. I guessed I was going to get that big reaction I’d wanted, after all.

I wished Larkin had told me
she’d
be here. If I’d known, I never would have come, wrecked hotel or not. Where was that weasel Larkin, anyway? I needed to give him a piece of my mind.

“Uh, hi, Liza,” I said, cringing as I awaited the firestorm of her fury.

She hadn’t changed all that much in the years I’d been away. Though still quite slender, Liza was a little plumper in the hips, like maybe all the trauma of the breakup had led to a lot of late- night, desperate ice-cream pints. She’d changed her hair; it was longer now. Plus, her dark brown locks were now shoulder length with highlighted stripes of auburn and burnt gold. It was a good look on her, honestly. I wished her face wasn’t all blotchy and scrunched with anger, so I could tell her so.