The Haunting (Immortals) (18 page)

Nick slowly released Mai and they took a step back. Any embarrassment she might have felt was now replaced with worry over Jenna.

“Do you think something’s happened to her?” Mai asked Nick, nodding to the door.

“I don’t know. How well do you know her? Is she the kind to not show up to work without calling first?”

“I don’t know her well, but my impression is that she’s not.” Mai knocked on the door again. “Jenna? Are you in there?” She grabbed the knob and turned. Locked.

“I’ll be right back.”

As Mai watched, Nick closed his eyes and grew very still. As it did the night before, the air around him shimmered as he projected himself into the spiritual plane.

She waited beside him, wondering where he was, what he was seeing and when he’d be back.

She was so deep into her speculation, she didn’t notice his return until his eyes opened.

“She’s in there, but her energy pattern is faint. I picked up other patterns as well, but nothing I recognized.” He paused. “We need to get in there.”

“Maybe you could change yourself into a roach or something and crawl under the door,” she suggested.

He stared at her as if she’d sprouted a horn from the center of her forehead. “There are limits to what I can do, thank God. About as small as I go is a hawk. Now, if you want larger, like a bear, to break down the door—that I can do.”

“Maybe we should just see if Will has a key.” She started back to her apartment, Nick following on her heels.

She went into the kitchen and found Will’s phone number taped to her refrigerator door. She picked up the phone and punched in his number.

It rang several times and Mai was afraid she was about to get his machine when he answered. “I told you, baby, I need a few minutes to recharge.”

“Will?”

There was an obvious pause on the other end. “Who is this?”

“It’s Mai, in 14-B.”

“Oh, Mai. Sorry. I thought you were someone else. Not that I’m not happy you called. I am. I’m thrilled. I—”

“Will, I need your help,” Mai interrupted. “I think Jenna Renfield in 14-A might be in trouble. I’m pretty sure she’s in her apartment, but she’s not answering her door.”

“Maybe she’s upset and doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Maybe. But what if she’s so upset about Sarah’s disappearance that she’s gone and done something horrible and now needs emergency medical care? You’re the only one with a key.”

She heard him swear beneath his breath.

“I’m on my way up.”

“Thank you.” Mai disconnected the phone and turned to Nick. “Well, he’s coming, but he’s not happy about it.”

“As long as he’s on his way.”

They went back to Jenna’s door to wait for Will. Nightmare visions raced through Mai’s mind and she prayed they found Jenna asleep or drunk.

A loud dinging announced the arrival of the elevator and when the doors opened, Will stepped off. He was looking a bit haggard, but not so tired he couldn’t shoot a dark look at Nick when he saw him standing beside Mai.

He knocked loudly on Jenna’s door and then put his ear to the door, listening. After knocking a second time, he pulled his ring of keys from his pocket and within seconds had the door unlocked.

“Ms. Renfield,” he called as he pushed the door slowly open. “It’s Will Johnson. Are you here? Ms. Renf—fuck!”

Alarm shot through Mai. She shoved past Will to see what had caught his attention. The large wall mirror had shattered into a billion pieces and lying amid the broken glass on the floor was Jenna.

“Oh no.” Mai rushed over to Jenna, whose body lay below the shattered mirror and had hundreds of tiny shards of glass stuck in it. She was covered in blood, but none of the wounds seemed bad enough to explain why she wasn’t responding.

Mai gingerly felt for a pulse at the woman’s neck and almost collapsed with relief when she felt a beat. “She’s alive. We need to call an ambulance.”

Nick hurried to Jenna’s phone and made the call while Mai lightly held her hand. “It’s okay, Jenna. You’re going to be all right.” Mai had no idea whether it was true, but knew if Jenna could hear her, it was important that she believe it.

“Ambulance is on its way,” Nick said a moment later, coming over to squat next to Mai.

“What the hell is going on here?” Will was staring at what was left of the mirror, looking shocked and distressed. Mai ignored him and watched Nick as he walked around the apartment.

“No signs of an intruder,” he said, returning to her side.

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Then he turned to Will. “Why don’t you go
down and wait for the ambulance so you can show them up?”

Will turned as if in a daze to look at Nick and then slowly nodded. He cast one last worried glance at the mirror and then left.

“What do you think happened?” Mai asked Nick as soon as Will was out of hearing distance.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait until she wakes up and can tell us.”

To Mai, it felt as if the ambulance took forever to arrive, but then the next couple of hours passed in a rapid blur. She and Nick followed the ambulance to the hospital and answered as many questions as they could. Then they spent another hour in the waiting room before having a chance to talk to the doctor. It had been a short conversation.

“We don’t know what’s wrong with her,” the doctor had said. “She has cuts that are obviously from the mirror, but otherwise she’s fine physically. No evidence of head trauma or anything else. No reason why she shouldn’t be awake—and yet she’s not. We’ll run tests and see what we find. I realize you’re not family, but if there’s anything more you can tell me about her, that would help—is she a shape-shifter? Wood nymph? Witch? Is there any reason to believe her condition is the result of a magic spell?”

Mai exchanged looks with Nick before shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

He nodded. “That’s okay. I’ll have a magic specialist take a look at her just to be safe. Based on what you’ve told me about her sister, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem is psychological. Unable to deal with the loss, she may have simply retreated into herself. We’ll do everything we can for her. In the meantime, you might as well go home. I can call you if there’s a change in her condition. Just leave your names and numbers at the desk.”

Mai and Nick opted to stay in the waiting room a little longer, on the chance that Jenna woke. By late afternoon, however, they conceded there was really nothing they could do.

“Hey, you okay?” Nick asked moments later as they rode in the cab.

“I feel so bad for them. First Sarah and now Jenna.”

She was frustrated. She couldn’t solve her own problems. How was she supposed to help someone else?

“I know,” Nick agreed as the cab turned a corner. Mai looked out the window and saw that they weren’t returning to her apartment.

“Where are we going?”

“My place. And before you jump to the wrong conclusion, we’re going there because I’d like to change into my own clothes.”

When the cab finally stopped, they paid the driver and got out. Mai did a double take as she looked up at the building in front of her. “You live here?”

The building was definitely upper-end living.

“You sound surprised.”

“I am.” At his raised eyebrows, she realized how her comment might have sounded. “What I mean is that it’s just not what I expected.”

He took her hand and again she felt that warm sizzle of awareness. Inside, Mai looked around the lavish lobby area. The floors looked to be made of marble, not tile. The walls were painted in a textured pattern, unlike the drab plain walls of her own building.

There were two elevators instead of one and Mai watched Nick enter a code into the keypad of one, realizing that this must be a private elevator.

Mai had always considered herself to be more worldly than her upbringing, but the more she saw of how Nick lived, the more she felt like the country bumpkin.

They rode the elevator to the top and when the doors opened, Mai found herself looking at the large, well-decorated open living area of his apartment. The living room alone had to be larger than her entire apartment.

Mai checked to make sure her mouth wasn’t hanging open as she stepped into the place and looked around.

“This is really nice,” she said. “Big. You live here alone?”

“No. I have a roommate.”

As if on cue, one of the bedroom doors opened and an attractive, slightly rumpled-looking woman stepped out wearing only a T-shirt. She gave Mai a quick look before turning all of her attention to Nick. “Hiya, Nick.”

“Hey, Pamela. How are you?” He gestured to Mai. “Mai, this is Pamela. Pamela, this is Mai.”

“Hi,” Pamela said, but made no move to shake hands.

Mai was too stunned to make the gesture. This was Nick’s roommate? What exactly was the nature of their living arrangement? And why did she care? Just because she’d had sex with the guy this morning didn’t mean they were dating or anything. Okay, he’d said they were dating, but still. It had been one dinner, she reminded herself. One dinner and sex, she amended. If anyone should be upset, it was Pamela. Her roommate had come home with another woman in tow.

Feeling Nick’s gaze on her, Mai looked at him, doing her best to keep her expression neutral. She must have failed because he furrowed his brow in surprise. She thought she caught the faintest hint of a smile touch his lips.

He turned back to Pamela before she could be certain. “Is Dave here?” he asked.

Pamela had padded into the kitchen to grab a bottled water. She took a swallow and gestured to the bedroom. “Yeah. He’s still in bed.”

Nick walked over to the closed door and gave it a sharp rap. “Dave. Come out here. I want you to meet someone.”

Nick walked back to Mai, gesturing to the door. “That’s my roommate. Pamela is a…friend…of his.”

From the way he said it, he’d meant “friend with benefits.” Mai cast a glance at Pamela. She’d obviously caught the innuendo and gave Mai a wink before raising the water bottle to take another long drink.

Just then the door to the same bedroom opened again and a man stepped out wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. He was as tall as Nick with similar, if longer, brown hair and the same muscled physique. He looked at Mai and a slow smile came to his lips, instantly transforming him into one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. He had a compelling smile that invited one to smile back.

He came toward her, holding out his hand. “Well, hello. This is indeed a pleasure. How do you and Nick know each other?”

Nick stepped forward and extracted her hand from Dave’s when he held on to it a little too long. Dave’s smile only grew larger.

“Mai’s a reporter and she came to see me the other day about a story she’s doing. We’ve been seeing each other since,” Nick replied.

“Really?” Dave asked with a devilish smile, which he aimed at Nick, who grumbled something under his breath.

Mai thought she should say something to break the tension. “So, you two work together?”

“Work together and play together, so to speak,” Dave said. “We’ve been best friends ever since fifth grade when Nick kept Leo Greywolf from beating the crap out of me for kissing his girlfriend.”

“Only because I liked your mom’s cooking. Dave’s mom is the best cook in the village and she always invited me over for dinner,” Nick told Mai. “If I let something happen to Dave, she’d stop inviting me over.”

Dave gave a shout of genuine laughter. “My mother loves
you and you know it. The only thing she would have done to you if something happened to me is ask you to move into my room. You’re like a son to her.”

Nick grinned. “I’m the son she never had.”

“No, you’re the daughter she never had.”

“Watch it,” Nick warned.

Dave looked him up and down. “Know how I know you’re gay?” he asked, stealing the line from the movie
40-Year-Old Virgin
. “Where’d you get that outfit?”

Reminded of what he was wearing, Nick grimaced. “Long story.”

At that moment, Pamela finished her bottle of water and placed it on the counter. “I’m going back to bed,” she announced, walking across the room. “You coming?” she asked Dave when she reached his door.

“Be right there,” he said without bothering to turn around. His attention was focused solidly on Mai and only Nick noticed the small pout that touched Pamela’s lips.

Nick decided he’d had enough. “If you’ll excuse us,” he said, leading Mai toward the door to his room.

Dave shot him a knowing smile. “Not at all. Mai, it was nice meeting you.”

As they entered his room, Nick thanked the gods house-keeping service had come in. His bed was made and the room was clean.

“Have a seat anywhere,” he said, going to his dresser to find boxers, undershirt and socks. He carried them to the attached bathroom and laid them on the counter.

As he searched through his closet for pants and a shirt, he noticed Mai taking in the room, checking out everything.

He carried his clothes into the bathroom and closed the door.

“How does your back feel?” Mai asked through the door. “We should have had the doctor look at your wounds while we were at the hospital.”

“No need. Everything’s mostly healed already.”

“But last night it looked so bad.”

“I told you, I heal fast.” He pulled on his jeans but hadn’t zipped them yet because he didn’t like the way the waistband cut across his stomach when he bent to put on his socks.

“I wish Jenna could heal that fast,” Mai said. “What if the doctor is right and the reason she’s not waking up is psychological?”

“Okay.” He wondered where she was going with this.

“Wouldn’t that make it something you could help with? I mean, your father is a shaman and you said he was training you—so you must know how to do…what ever it is you do.”

Her statement caught him so off guard that he opened the door to stare at her, forgetting about his pants.

“You want me to do what?”

Only once did she allow her gaze to drop to his open zipper before resolutely keeping it trained on his face. “I want you to…do that thing you do.”