Zombies Sold Separately (28 page)

When we finished eating we both declined dessert and I didn’t order the limoncello I would normally have gone with.

The plates were cleared away and the silence between us wasn’t a comfortable one. I knew he had something to say, and my senses told me I wasn’t going to like it.

“Nyx.” He looked uncomfortable as he cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking a lot about us.”

My face washed hot. I knew what was coming and I didn’t want to believe it.

“Last week, at the reception, it put a lot of things into perspective for me. It was a dose of reality.” Adam clasped his hands on the table and focused on me as he spoke. “We are literally from two different worlds.”

For the first time ever I was glad I couldn’t cry. At least not tears. The need to cry was strong, the pressure backing up behind my eyes. But the Drow part of me had no tears to shed.

It felt like it was coming from a long distance when my phone rang inside my purse. I just ignored it as I stared at Adam.

No words would come to me. I just listened to him, feeling an almost out of body sensation, as if he was talking with someone else.

“We would constantly be making up stories, living a lie when around my family and friends.” He looked down at his fingers and then back at me. “We could never go out together anywhere close to sundown. That means no night out on the town with friends. No dinners with family.” He paused. “I can’t even take you out to dinner and a Broadway show if we wanted to go to one.”

My back felt stiff and straight, my body frozen. This was happening and I barely comprehended it. Adam was breaking up with me.

“My parents could never meet yours.” Adam sighed. “You couldn’t join my family for anything that involves an overnight stay. Like going to the family’s Adirondack cabin with my parents and other family members, or whatever else involved the sunset or sunrise.”

Everything I’d thought before, everything I’d felt, started to crack then shatter.

“You would be a secret I couldn’t share,” he continued. “That’s not fair to either one of us.”

The desire to scream at Adam rose up within me so swift and strong that I could barely hold it back. How could he do this? From the beginning he knew what I am.
He knew.
But he continued seeing me and now he was breaking my heart.

“It’s not your fault,” he said. “It’s mine. I led you to believe it could work because I thought it could work.”

His words nearly made me split in half.

The air around us crackled. Water whirled inside our glasses like mini whirlpools. Our table shook, silverware rattling on the table. Wine sloshed over the lip of my wineglass and splashed onto the white tablecloth, staining it deep red. The whole room was shaking.

Adam looked around us then back at me with a stunned expression. He seemed to recognize that I was causing everything that was happening.

Embarrassed that I’d lost control like I had, I dragged my elemental magic back to me. When everything was calm again, I picked up my purse and stood.

“Thank you for lunch,” I said, managing to keep my voice from shaking like the room had been.

“Nyx, wait,” he said as he stood, too. “I don’t want it to end like this.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that when you first found out what I am,” I said and held up my hand before he could say anything else. “There’s nothing more to talk about.”

I turned and walked out of the restaurant, my heart breaking with every step I took.

“Nyx!” Adam called after me but he hadn’t gotten the bill yet from the waiter and was trying to pay it while calling after me.

A taxi was coming up the street and I ran to the curb and flagged it down. The cabby pulled into traffic just as Adam made it out of the restaurant.

TWENTY-FIVE

“Just drive,” I said to the driver as I told myself to breathe.

Breathe, Nyx.

I sucked in a lungful of air and let it out. I had to get myself together. For the life of me I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to be doing right now. And it was important, whatever it was.

Oh. The Sorcerer.

I glanced at my cell phone and saw that Adam and I had spent about an hour at lunch. The call I’d missed was from Olivia. I’d forgotten that the phone rang while Adam was … while Adam was breaking up with me.

I took another deep breath, trying to shift focus. The light blinked telling me I had a message and I saw that it was a text from Olivia:

Do you have the address for the meeting with the Sorcerer?

I’d forgotten. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten.

It was a quarter after two and Sun Lee hadn’t called with directions yet.

Just as I was about to dial her number, a call came through. I recognized it this time as the gallery.

When I answered, Sun Lee said, “My apologies, I only now received the address. Desmond was unavailable,” she said. “His loft is in the Gunther Building.” The southwest corner of Broome and Greene Streets in SoHo.

She gave me the apartment number and I thanked her before I told the cab driver where to go.

I clutched my purse to my chest, over my breaking heart. I tried to relax against the seat of the taxi but my muscles remained tense. I had a job to do and I needed to focus on that.

Not Adam.

We were almost there when I remembered I needed to tell Olivia. My brain just wasn’t cooperating with me right now.

Instead of sending her a text, I called and gave her the information. “Sorry,” I said. “Just got the address a few minutes ago.”

Olivia said she was on her way and would meet me there.

When the cab driver pulled up to the Gunther Building I tossed him a twenty, not caring that I’d just way overpaid him for the short drive.

It was a beautiful cast iron building, and I might have enjoyed looking at the architecture if I wasn’t so heartbroken.

I felt sick inside, a weighted awful feeling. I couldn’t stop seeing Adam’s face. Hearing his words.

When I stood in front of the elevators I straightened my spine, lifted my chin, and focused on the meeting. This was too important to screw up. Lives counted on me gaining the assistance of the Sorcerer Desmond.

Now that it was time to meet him, I felt the weight of the stones in my purse. Not the physical weight, but a weight on a different level. As if just having them with me put pressure on my head and shoulders, pushing me down to the floor. When I got on the elevator and the doors closed behind me the pressure seemed to increase with every level we passed until we reached the top floor.

I found the apartment number of the loft and knocked on the door. It occurred to me then that I’d forgotten about waiting for Olivia, that I was supposed to go to the Sorcerer with her. Maybe as long as she showed up, it didn’t matter if we arrived at the same time or not.

A sound came from inside the loft, like someone was brushing up against the door to look out the peephole. I realized I was holding my breath, hoping the Sorcerer wouldn’t realize he had a paranorm on his doorstep and that something could be up, before I had a chance to talk with him. The Magi had said he wouldn’t be happy about being found. Her exact words were that he’d be angry.

Not promising.

The rattle of a chain lock, the sound of a bolt lock, and the twist of a lock on the door handle were loud in the stillness of the corridor as I waited. The door squeaked as it opened and Fae bells jangled.

Terrific. The door was warded and he’d know I wasn’t totally human the moment I stepped over the threshold.

I barely had time to think that over when I registered the Sorcerer himself. I’d been expecting someone older, maybe even someone with a few wrinkles and gray hair.

What I didn’t expect was a man who looked to be in his early forties with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and a day’s growth of stubble on his cheeks. He was startlingly good-looking and in incredibly good shape with a swimmer’s build. His naked chest had a slight sheen of sweat and his Levis fit him a little loose around the hips and thighs.

I’d never expected to find a hot Sorcerer.

His blue-gray eyes had a wild, excited, impatient look to them and he had a smudge of green paint on his cheek as well as on his bare chest.

“Desmond?” I said. “I’m Nicole Carter.”

“Hurry on then.” He gestured with his hand for me to come into the loft.

His fingers were stained brown and green and he held a paintbrush in his left hand. Behind him I saw a tall painting of a Siren in song. The Siren had a slight greenish tint to her skin like my friend Nadia had when she was in full song. The painting was so lifelike and looked so much like Nadia, gorgeous thick red hair and all.

Behind it were at least a dozen paintings lining the plain white walls, leaning up against the red couches, and any other available space in the somewhat sterile room. Mostly outdoor scenes with meadows, lakes, mountains, forests.

“I’m in the middle of a thought and I need to get back to my painting until the thought is on canvas.” His accent sounded Scottish yet not.

He turned away. “Allow me a few—”

The moment I followed him through the doorway the warding bells jangled like crazy. The door slammed behind me and I heard all three locks click or bolt into place.

Desmond whirled to face me, his hands raised. Green electrical currents sizzled and snapped from paint-stained fingertip to fingertip. His paintbrush hit the wood floor and rattled as it rolled away.

My heart pounded and I got ready to throw an air shield around me. I should have expected this.

His eyes looked wild and it passed through my mind that I might be facing a crazed being.

“What are you?” His words came out like he was gritting his teeth, as if holding onto his magic like trying to rein in a horse with a piece of ribbon.

“I’m Drow.” I kept very still as I spoke and clenched the strap of my purse. “My real name is Nyx Ciar.”

“Dark Elves cannot come out in the light. Yet my magic tells me you are speaking the truth.” Desmond looked incredulous. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

Rather than go into details immediately, I just said, “The Magi sent me to find a Sorcerer named Desmond. So here I am.”

“The Magi?” The look of disbelief on his features was even stronger now. “Why would the Magi send Elves to me, much less one of the Dark Elves?”

A spark of anger stirred in me. Bigot.

I held back from gritting my own teeth. “I don’t know why the Magi think you can help us but that’s why I’m here.”

He narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean
us
?”

“My partner should be here any moment now.” I should have waited for Olivia. Although maybe not. She didn’t take well to being threatened, by magic or by any other means. “She’s human and her name is Olivia. We’re private investigators.”

The Sorcerer had backed up so that there was about five feet between us now. He hadn’t lowered his hands. “A human?”

“Yes.” I still hadn’t moved, afraid he’d shoot me with a little green bolt if I did. Maybe a big green bolt.

The electrical sizzle between his fingers went away. “Why not?” he said, gesturing with his hands while he spoke. “Why not send the whole damned city here?”

I relaxed a little. “I—”

A loud knock at the door cut me off and the Sorcerer raised his hands. Electricity crackled again. “Get out of my way.”

“Yes, sir,” I mumbled and moved aside from the door.

The Sorcerer flicked his fingers in the air and the locks undid themselves one at a time. He used his magic to open the door, staying a good ten feet away. His hands were in a ready position, but the electrical charge seemed to be in the “off” position.

The door swung open and Olivia stood in the hallway. A startled expression crossed her features, which surprised me. Very little caught Olivia off guard. The look vanished.

“You didn’t wait for me,” she said and took a step forward.

The warding bells went totally nuts. I would have chocked it up to the handgun holstered at her side underneath her Mets jacket, but there was something about the ferocity in the way the bells rang.

“No!” Desmond shouted.

The door slammed in Olivia’s face. Every one of the locks slid into place.

“What the hell?” Olivia pounded on the door. “Let me in,” came her muffled voice, “or I swear I’ll take this door down.”

Desmond whirled to face me. “You brought one of them here. To my sanctuary. What have you done?”

Stunned, I looked from the Sorcerer to the door and back. “What’s going on? That’s my partner, Olivia. She was an NYPD cop. She’s one of the good guys.”

“She’s evil.” Desmond said in a growl. “They got to your partner.”

“What?” I repeated, dumfounded.

“Twenty years I’ve been safe, then
you
show up at my door.” Desmond turned away and rushed to a closet, jerked the doors open. He yanked a Yankees sweatshirt over his head and slid on a pair of hiking boots, no socks. “We must get out of here before they come.” He pulled on a jacket but didn’t bother to zip it.