Night Terrors (Sarah Beauhall Book 4) (38 page)

“Same with you, right?”

He nodded. “Let me get some things together and we can meet back here. I’ll arrange to have Katie driven down to Kent. I think we can hire an ambulance. Dena will know who we can call.”

Dena was Melanie’s girlfriend. She was an EMT and drove an ambulance.

“Let me get Skella to cart me around,” I said.

Bub sat up. “I get to go too, right?”

“Absolutely, big guy. You’re my ace in the hole.”

He grinned broadly, showing off most of his business teeth and hopped down off the table. “I’ll go tell Trisha that I’ll be gone a bit,” he said, scampering toward the barracks where she lived with the troll twins. “So the boys don’t worry when I’m gone.”

“Good idea,” I said, feeling my heart lighten.

Jimmy was already on the porch heading into the house.

“Tell Gunther, will ya?” I called after him.

He waved at me over his shoulder and went into the house.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Skella to make arrangements. While I was at it, I thought maybe I’d call Rolph. See if he wanted in.

I’d love to take Qindra, but she’s off with Stuart.

I started making a list in my head as I walked out to the smithy. I wanted a few things just in case, including my armor. I called Julie, warned her that Skella and I were coming out and that we’d explain everything when we got out there.

I just hoped that this didn’t turn into a true cluster fuck. God knew I was okay risking my own neck, but taking others into that crazy place had me nervous.

But I was not letting her go. Not if I had to scour every square inch of that hellish place.

Besides, what could go wrong? I was asking for help. That’s what I’d been doing wrong all along, right? This had to be the best thing.

I was running out of time.

Fifty-five

Stuart watched Qindra as she spoke to the concierge at The Governor hotel in downtown Portland. She’d booked the Lewis and Clarke Suite—a two-bedroom suite which caused him to wonder about the signals she was sending. If Sarah had been right about Qindra liking him, what did this mean? Not that he needed things to move along too quickly, it was just strange to be sharing a suite, but not a room.

Was there any chance he was leaving this city without kissing her? He knew there was much more that he wanted to do to her, but he just couldn’t tell if she wanted him in the same way.

“It’s a short walk from here,” she said, breaking his thoughts. He blushed which drew a curious look from her, but she didn’t pursue it.

“What time is our meeting?” he asked, checking his watch. The drive down had taken nearly four hours, longer than they’d anticipated, but the company was good and they talked a lot. He couldn’t really remember much about the subjects, but her voice filled his head in a way that left him feeling drunk.

If anyone had asked him a year ago if he’d be all googlie-eyed over the dragon’s witch, he’d have decked ’em for the thought. Now he just wondered what this breathtaking beauty could possibly see in him.

“I’ve called Mr. Philips,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “He’s offered to send a car around at six.”

“Or we could walk?”

She shrugged. “Walking is nice, but we still have time to kill either way. We could just go upstairs, have a drink …” She threw him a sultry look that made his brain stop working momentarily.

God, was he reading that right? Why was this so damn hard?

“It’s entirely up to you,” she continued, when he didn’t say anything.

That was sultry, right? Not shy, not demure? His mind ran about ten thousand miles an hour. Signals and innuendo. How was he supposed to understand what was going on in that amazing mind of her?

He looked at her face, gauging her, trying to discern her mood, her thoughts. Maybe it was time to throw caution to the wind. In an obtuse and defensible way.

“I’m afraid if we were alone in the suite for several hours things could get a little out of control.”

He blushed again, but he meant it. She was intoxicating.

She stood a head taller than him, but he didn’t mind. She was beautiful and smart, elegant and way, way out of his league.

Of course he’d carried her out of that house in the fall. She seemed quite pleased then. And since, their conversations had been like dancing—exotic and enticing.

“Why don’t we take our chances?” she said, leaning in and kissing him ever so lightly on the lips.

Magic was all he could imagine, the way the fireworks were going off in his head. He just stared at her numbly as she took his hand and led him back to the elevators.

“Perhaps we’ll skip dinner altogether,” she said as she pushed the elevator button.

His brain finally lurched into gear. She’d kissed him. That was definitely an opening move. Did he dare try it himself? He took a deep breath and plunged ahead.

He stepped closer to her, placing a hand on the small of her back and pulled her to him. This time the kiss lasted until the elevator chimed its arrival.

“Oh, my. That was nice,” she said, smiling at him, a hint of color rising in her cheeks. “Let’s do that more, with a bit of privacy.”

She pulled him into the elevator and slipped her card in to unlock the suite before she was kissing him with a passion and energy he couldn’t remember ever experiencing with any other woman.

When the elevator door opened, she kicked off her heels and ran down the hall ahead of him, laughing like a schoolgirl.

He picked up her shoes and made it to the door just as she got it opened. He followed her into a huge room. It was two adjoining suites with a conference table in the middle, in case they needed to take a meeting, he supposed.

He dropped the shoes by the door and swept her into his arms, kissing her while he carried her around the table.

“My room,” she whispered to him, starting to pull at the buttons of his shirt. “The view’s better.”

“Oh, the view from here is marvelous,” he said, covering her mouth with his.

To hell with the dragon, he thought. They could see Sawyer in the morning.

Fifty-six

Jimmy, Bub, and I drove down to Kent, swung by the apartment, and grabbed Katie’s mirror before heading over to the school. We waited until after six—had to make sure the place was abandoned before we got started.

Katie was in the ambulance with Dena and Melanie in the back of the school while I snuck Jimmy and Bub into her classroom. There had been a substitute in here for the last month or so since Katie had fallen, and the room had an odd vibe. None of the posters had been replaced or anything, and the classroom looked the same, but there was someone else’s energy in the room. Another person led this menagerie of children. It made my heart heavier than I anticipated.

I set Katie’s mirror up in the back of the classroom and called Skella on my cell. Within a few minutes she was in the classroom with us, adjusting a rather bulky fanny pack. She just glared at me, daring me to say something, but I declined. Really didn’t go with her Goth outfit, but the bright purple was quite pretty.

I hadn’t turned in Katie’s keys, and the school hadn’t asked. I figure they were still too freaked out to contact me for something that trivial. I walked around the room, explaining things to Skella, Jimmy, and Bub, pointing out pictures and such that Katie had favored.

I stopped at her desk and opened the drawer where she’d kept her purse and pictures of me. It was empty except for a box of crackers. I coughed to cover up the sudden pain in my chest. Where were those pictures?

“There’s a box back here with Katie’s name on it,” Bub said, calling Jimmy and me back to the long case where the children stored their jackets and lunch boxes. Jimmy picked up the box with Katie’s name on it, opened it, and found the pictures inside, along with a stack of drawings her students had made.

“Guess they were going to send these home to us,” I said, repacking the box.

Jimmy watched me for a second and patted me on the shoulder. He was decked out in a shirt of Kevlar with plate over the top it, strap on plating over his jeans like football pads, and his sword in a sheath at his side. His helmet sat on one of the desks within easy reach, and he had a horseman’s hammer over one shoulder, slung opposite how I had Gram over my shoulder. He was a righty, and me a lefty. I had on my chain, jeans, Doc Martens, and my hammers on my hips. I wish I had the shield, but that was at Nidhogg’s place, over in Qindra’s secret research facility. I think it doubled as her bedroom as well.

Regardless, I was feeling a little naked, but I had the book in my pack. I had to tell Jimmy at some point. The book was my beacon. I planned to hold it in my right hand, like I’d seen that statue in the dead lands. A beacon to guide me through the dark wild lands. I had a hunch that once I was through the mirror, the book would act differently. At least that was the theory.

“Is this where she fell?” Jimmy asked, pushing open the bathroom door and flicking on the light.

The room felt a lot smaller than the last time I’d been in there. It looked the same with the supply cabinet pushed against the wall like it should.

“You think she’s stuck in here somewhere?” Skella asked, poking her head around the door frame. “Like stuck in with the toilet paper or something?”

Jimmy shot her a look, and Bub laughed a crackly little titter.

“Doubtful,” I said. “But we can’t assume. I’m willing to bet she was here a while, maybe even while Qindra and I explored the place, before we found the …”

I paused. Show time.

“Jim, I have to show you something. Skella, can you and Bub grab the mirror and set it up back here?”

She nodded, and they walked back to Katie’s desk where we’d left the mirror from our apartment.

I opened my saddlebags and pulled out the diary, wrapped in Katie’s scarf. I peeled it back, letting the book show, but keeping a safety net between my fingers and all that magic.

At first Jimmy was confused, looking at me, then the book. Then recognition kicked in. He took a step back while reaching his hand out, like he wanted to take the book. The look on his face spoke more of horror, however.

“Where did you get that?” he asked, his voice quavering. “You had no right.”

I lowered my arm, letting the book ride against my thigh.

“I didn’t,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “We found this in here,” I motioned to the cabinet. “Shoved under that cabinet, after Katie had been taken to the hospital and before they reopened the classroom. Back when Qindra and I came to check it out.”

Jimmy sat down on the closed toilet lid and covered his face with his hands. “Then she did take it from the house.” It wasn’t a question.

“Looks like it,” I said. “She was angry, Jim. Mad that you’d kept secrets from her. You know Deidre showed this to her?”

His head snapped up and he glared at me, his mouth open and his eyes wide.

“Apparently not,” I continued. I leaned back against the cabinet and crossed my arms with the book tucked against my breasts. “Look, Jim. What’s done is done. You can ground her, yell at her, whatever you need to do, but after we bring her home. You know? Anger won’t help us here. Hell, it’s likely to draw more monsters. I need you calm and focused. We need to find her before it’s too late.”

There are some men who are petty, and some who are scared. Jimmy was a man of resolve. His baby sister was in trouble and we had a plan and a path forward. Nothing else mattered. At least I hoped.

“Damn it,” he breathed, standing. “I can’t tell you how much this sucks.”

“Aye,” I agreed.

“You think this is what caused the explosion, her going dark, the whole nine-yards?”

I explained to him about my experiments with the book. About the way it showed up in the Sideways with the Viking woman, then with the statue in the village there at the end of my last journey.

“It’s a beacon for her,” I said, feeling it in my gut. “She was searching for the book, searching for me. I think we can use it, let it send out its mystical signal or whatever the hell it does and see what happens.”

“Can I touch it?” he asked. His eyes were haunted. This was his mother’s book, and it had killed him, stopped his heart. Now here I was, not blood, and I could handle it. He was hurt and frustrated.

“I wouldn’t advise it, Jim. Deep breath.”

His shoulders slumped and he relaxed his fists.

“We’re ready out here,” Skella said, poking her head into the room. “If you don’t get moving, Bub’s gonna eat one of these desks.”

Jimmy looked at me, nodded once, and walked out of the room, putting as much distance between me and the book as he could and still leave the bathroom.

“When this is over, we’ll talk about the book,” he said, putting on his helmet. “Maybe I’ll get to stab a few things on the way to finding her.”

Skella gave me a wincing look, and I shrugged at her.

“Be careful what you wish for,” I said.

Skella went to the mirror, touched the surface, and teased the silver surface of the Sideways. “Give me a minute to find what I’m looking for,” she said, sliding her hand across the mirror like flipping pages. “Getting to the Sideways isn’t that hard, but we want to make sure we are anchored so we can get back home.”

“Are you sure it’s safe for you to follow us?” Bub asked, stepping next to me and slipping his clawed hand into mine.

I think he was a little scared.

“That’s what you’re here for, big guy. If we can’t get back for some reason, you’re gonna port back here with Skella and have her open the mirror again.”

He looked up at me, his little round head reminding me even more strongly of a Muppet. “Are you sure about this?”

“Definitely,” I said, grinning down at him. “You’re a badass kobold. With you with us, and your ability to teleport, we are so covered.”

He smiled at me and nodded.

“So, we start with the other side of here?” Skella asked. “Then follow any leads we can find after, right?”

“Yep, that’s the plan.”

Jimmy walked over to the pack he’d brought and opened it up, pulling out a teddy bear and strapping it to the bicep of his shield arm with a velcro tie. Then he wrapped a scarf around his neck, one I recognized from pictures of Katie when she was a kid.