Mixed Feelings (Empathy in the PPNW Book 1) Read online

  I ate an entire candy bar before I hit the door and, as the sugar permeated my system, I started to feel a bit better. I wouldn’t have agreed to running a marathon, or even to watching someone else coordinate one, but I figured I could get through the evening without my head splitting in two and letting thousands of scorpions loose upon the city. I was maybe ten steps from my car, wondering about my sudden fascination of scorpions, when a familiar, liquid sensation oozed over the back of my neck, gripping my spine like an amorous slug. I froze, panic flaring up inside me as I spun around, convinced whatever had attacked me before had just shown up to finish the job.

  I saw nothing.

  The heavy, wet feeling was still there, terrifying me enough that I was having trouble concentrating. I didn’t wait to see if I was imagining things. I took off at a run toward the mini-mart. It wasn’t far; I was confident I could make it, even though running isn’t exactly a specialty of mine. Turns out, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was waiting for me in the shadows just before the front doors of the store.

  I yelped and skidded to a halt, dropping my bag of goodies. My heart tripped over itself as my lungs forced a tiny secondary yelp out through my lips. The blond creature from Bellevue took his time, stopping on the sidewalk directly between me and the lights of the mini-mart. I took one step back and he shook his head.

  “We didn’t properly meet before, Gwen.”

  “Shit,” I squeaked, frozen with one foot behind the other, my bag tipped on its side on the ground. It was late and, considering the fact that it was a bit frosty, with a dewy mist that couldn’t quite bring itself to be rain blanketing the area, I wasn’t going to bank on being noticed and saved. Who else but a sugar-mad empath would be out at this hour in this weather?

  Blondie just watched me, a small smile warping his closed lips. I tried for another step back and he laughed, tipping his face so the shadows and light conspired to reveal gleaming fangs and pull my attention straight to them. It made my skin crawl both because of the threat of it all and because his emotions shifting felt like lines of custard dribbling down my scalp. I stopped moving, looked around for anything that might be of help. The contents of my bag shifted suddenly, drawing my gaze and Blondie’s to it.

  One of my pints of ice cream rolled crookedly out, spinning in the narrow circle its shape demanded. I stared at my out of season treat for a second before letting out a terrified, unintentional laugh.

  “If any of my candy is broken, you’re paying for it,” I said, lifting my gaze. Blondie squinted at me, possibly confused by my bravado. I figured that, since he hadn’t flown forward and ripped my throat out, I should take that as a sign from the universe that it wasn’t yet my time to die. Plus, I had just come up with a plan. Sort of.

  I moved to my bag, crouching down to tuck everything back inside and make sure my candy and ice cream were safe from the giant bottles of excitable soda.

  “Everything looks fine,” I said as I stood up. I just had to keep him off my throat for another few seconds. “Which is better than I can say for you. I mean, you might want to see a dentist about those canines.”

  My plan walked around the corner behind me, eight teenagers chatting about music, games, and someone named Mrs. Gulbranson who, according to them, needed to take her fat old ass and die in a fire. Kids these days, so delicate with words. Blondie’s eyes flicked to the group as they approached, but he didn’t move. I didn’t move either, at least not until the kid at the front of the group was level with me.

  Abruptly, I reached out, grabbing her coat.

  “Hey!” I cried, dragging the word out, clinging close. “You know where there’s a grocery store around here?”

  The kids exploded into a chorus of irritated questions, demands that I back off, and slang that I didn’t recognize but that I could figure out easily from the annoyance and shock clamoring around the crowd. Blondie stayed where he was, but I made as big an ass of myself as I could.

  “I just need a grocery store, come on!”

  At least three of the kids ordered, “Let go!”

  “My friend here will juggle for you! Come on, let him show you.” I pointed at Blondie. “Get a good look, too! He’s quite the showman!”

  “Lady, what the hell! We don’t care about your friend!”

  “Let go of her!”

  “You’re crazy, stop!”

  “No, really!” I said, pressing as close to the group as I could. One of the kids, as teenagers in this day and age do, had pulled his phone out, aimed it my way. I pointed spastically toward Blondie. “Look! Look at him! Any second now he’s—”

  Blondie spun stiffly, crossed the street without another word, and hustled away. I stayed huddled next to the lead girl, who was still trying to shove me back. Despite the fact that she was slapping and pushing at me, I stayed close as I made sure Blondie was really leaving, letting my breath catch up to me. One of the bigger boys finally decided he’d had enough and grabbed my arm, yanking me hard.

  “Jesus, lady! Take the hint!”

  I let his friend go, grabbed my bag off the ground, and made a mad dash for my car before the kids and their phone cameras were out of range. I was cool with ending up all over the internet by morning. It was certainly better than ending up in Blondie’s stomach.

  ***

  I was sitting in my house, in the dark, all alone, a handful of gummy treats pressed close to my mouth as I inhaled them like a squirrel. I couldn’t stop fidgeting, too scared to turn on anything that would draw attention to me. Sonny was happily snacking, occasionally ringing his bells or making tiny, curious noises. He was probably wondering why I was acting so strangely, but he at least had the tact not to ask about it.

  How had Blondie found me? Would he be back? Would I be safe if he showed up at my home? Would Laurel and Hardy’s promise of coming to me when I needed them—which hadn’t been true the first time I’d seen Blondie—come through? Would the candy thief protect me?

  Despite my mood, I snorted into the empty living room. At most, the little bastard would probably leave a sticky note with a sad face on my mangled corpse. Then it'd eat all the delicious food I'd just bought.

  Cramming the last of the candy into my mouth, I got up, padding as silently as I could down the hall to my office. I dialed Mel’s number, staying out of sight of the window as I did. I’d seen enough action movies to know the danger there.

  “Gwen?” Mel answered after only two rings.

  “Can vampires just come into your home, or do they have to be invited?”

  “What?” he asked after a beat.

  “Vampires! Could one walk into my home without an invitation?”

  “If… if they’re even healthy enough to walk, sure. What are you talking about? Did something happen?”

  “Almost! I went to the store to get—” I faltered, fearing briefly that Chloe might get wind of what I’d bought and make me throw it all away and replace it with rutabagas and seaweed. “Supplies. The thing from Bellevue just showed up! I barely made it out of there alive!”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Here? My house here? You don’t—”

  “Yep. Where else?” Mel hung up, not giving me the chance to argue. I blinked down at the phone, desperately torn between glee at the fact that someone would soon be around to protect me from any attacking creatures of the night and irritation over that someone being Mel. I consoled myself with chocolate.

  I had no idea where Mel had been, but it took him around a half hour to arrive. I stayed huddled on my couch under a blanket with my candy, staring through the bars of Sonny’s massive cage and out the front window. It was hard to miss Mel’s SUV as it pulled up along the curb, taking up half my tiny street. I jumped and sprinted to the door, yanking it open before he even made it up my walkway. He stopped just inside the door, looking around. I could see the cord of Merrin’s necklace poking out of his collar and I realized I hadn’t even considered how miserable I would have been h
ad he not still been wearing it.

  “Why aren’t there any lights on?”

  “I was scared,” I said, shutting the door.

  “Of me seeing how bad you look in that outfit? Because darkness won’t stop that, sweetheart.”

  I scoffed, scowled, and flipped on the light. It wasn’t that bad, I thought. My clothes were a bit stained, the pants baggy around the crotch, but I hadn’t dribbled any food on my shirt for once. I mean, not tonight, anyway.

  “Shut up,” I said after a few seconds, glaring at him.

  “So, will we be sharing a bed?” he asked, waving a hand towards the hall.

  “Who says you’re sleeping over?”

  “It’s late. You need protection.” He glanced back at me, waggling his brows. “And you really should take any chance you get to take off those clothes.”

  “You know, I’m going to just go stay at Chloe’s instead. Get out.”

  Mel laughed. “What do you think she’s going to do to keep you safe? She’s not a werewolf.”

  “Which means she’s not an insufferable ass. I’m better off—”

  “Relax, I’ll sleep in the guest room. Unless your extra rooms are just filled to the brim with cases and pallets of Hostess cupcakes?”

  “I wish,” I said, taking a second to genuinely fantasize about the idea. I didn’t let the reality of the candy thief intrude, either; I just pictured myself rolling around in piles of spongy sugar and frosting like Scrooge McDuck in his money vault. Mel shook his head at me and strolled across the living room to take a seat in the center of the couch, draping his arms along the back. “Tell me more about what happened, what this thing looked like.”

  “It just looked human. It definitely wasn’t, but you couldn’t tell by looking at it. He just looked like… you know, a man. Except for the fangs.”

  “That doesn’t narrow things down. Plenty of non-human creatures look human. Except those of us who,” Mel gestured broadly to his body, lifting one brow, “look like gods.”

  “Get out,” I said again. Mel laughed, settling his arm back across the couch.

  “Tell me everything he did, everything he said. What happened?”

  Sighing, I gave in, sitting down as far from him as I could before recounting my entire near-death experience. Mel listened patiently; he didn’t make any smart remarks or ask to get me naked again. It wasn’t as bad as I expected.

  “So he didn’t get close to you?” Mel asked as I finished.

  “Nope. Only people who did were the kids. Why?”

  “Because if he grabbed you or rubbed up against you, I might have been able to pick up a scent, tell you if I recognize what he is. As things are now, we still have no idea.” Mel’s face went tight with thought, the fingers of his left hand drumming twice along the couch. “Can you get ahold of your fairy contacts? What were you calling them? Harpo and Chico?”

  “Laurel and Hardy. No, they didn’t give me a way to contact them. They said they’d show up when I need them, but that hasn’t worked out so far.”

  “For the fae, the definition of ‘need’ can vary wildly. Look, I’ll hang with you for the next few days, until this gets sorted out. Make sure you don’t get smacked around again.”

  “And what do I have to give you in return?”

  Mel shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You can owe me something later.”

  “No.” I held up both hands. “You either do this out of the goodness of your heart—assuming you have one—or I’ll… I don’t know. Buy a gun or something. I’m not owing you anything. Besides, we don’t even know if this thing wants to hurt me. He didn’t exactly leap on my skull and rip out my spine earlier. He kind of seemed like he wanted to talk.”

  “Maybe he wanted to talk about how he was going to leap onto your spine and rip your skull out.”

  “I’m not owing you anything,” I repeated, refusing to give into the fear that he might have been right. We squared off for a bit before Mel broke, laughing as he put a hand up.

  “Okay. Anything you say. This is your show. In fact, to that end, what’s our next move?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you want to go with me to meet the parents of the other missing children? Do you think you learned enough to go it on your own?”

  “I don’t know anything.”

  “Yes, but that’s nothing new.”

  “I mean—dammit.” I propped my elbow up on my knee, resting my chin in my hand as I considered what had happened so far. I’d been hired to find some missing children for an ugly pair of fairies. I’d stopped a kidnapping—or at least, I hoped I had. I realized I’d never actually asked if that had worked out.

  “Hey.” I sat up straight again. “We stopped Blondie from kidnapping that kid, right? He didn’t leave me for dead to nab the little one and bolt?”

  “Right. I had Amy make sure after I dropped you off at Chloe’s.”

  “Oh, thank god. At least that went right. We should talk to Merrin again, see if she can give us another hint. If you’re sticking to my side until this is done, then I won’t be alone when she calls again. You and I can get to the place before Blondie does and you can wolf out and take him down.”

  Mel regarded me for a moment, then nodded once. “Not a bad plan, assuming Merrin can actually help.”

  “We’ll go see her first thing tom—ah, shit. I have appointments in the morning.” I bit my lip, thinking of Loraine. I’d give her a free session next week if necessary, but I figured keeping Seattle’s children safe was going to have to take precedence. “This is more important, I think. I’ll have Chloe reschedule my earlier clients for, what do you think? Monday?”

  “Optimistic. I like it.”

  “All right. I’m gonna call her and then go to bed.” At his look, I clarified. “Alone. I don’t care what you do, but do it quietly. We’ll go see Merrin first thing.”

  “Aye, aye, Boss.”

  I rolled my eyes, wishing there had been any other way at all to ensure my safety.

  Chapter Eleven

  I woke to Chloe sitting on the edge of my bed, brushing my hair off my face and saying my name. Cracking one eye open within the sea of my pillows, I grunted. Chloe laughed, pressed down the pillow that was puffed around my face, and leaned down to look into my eyes.

  “How is it possible you’re not suffocating?”

  I grunted again, forcing my heavy body to roll over. Perking up when I noticed that Chloe held a reusable cup from The Internets in her hand, I got my elbows under me and sat up. “That hot chocolate? For me?”

  “Only if you get up!” Chloe pushed to her feet, yanked the covers off my body, and headed for the hall. I whined, dropped back down onto the pillow, and figured sleep was the cure for the common morning. “I’ll send Mel in to wake you up if I don’t hear the shower in five minutes!” Chloe called.

  Dammit.

  After I was cleaned and dressed, I headed out to the kitchen and found that Chloe had made herself at home while I was busy. My kitchen looked… used. I was unaware such a thing was possible.

  “I don’t understand. What’s that thing on the other thing? Why does the first thing have food in it?” I asked from the doorway.

  “Tofu scramble,” Chloe said, reaching into a bowl of sliced apple and bringing a piece up to her shoulder, where it disappeared. I peered around her and caught sight of Sonny chewing happily on his breakfast. Just for a second, I worried that she was trying to seduce him away from me.

  “That sounds gooey,” I said finally.

  She laughed and pulled the pan off the stove, dumping the whole thing onto a plate to her right. Despite my opinion on the merits of a mix of vegetables and tofu, I was pleased to see that she’d at least thought to prepare a bunch of potatoes to go with it. I could probably pick those out of the rest if necessary.

  “If you don’t love it, I’ll eat Sonny.”

  I frowned at that. “I don’t think I like that ultimatum.”

  “Don’t worry,�
�� she said, sliding the plate onto my dining table next to the cup she’d used to lure me out of bed. “You’ll love it.”

  I discovered somewhere around the fourth forkful that I did love it. There was some blend of spices in there that I wasn’t even sure I had in the house, and the addition of carbs made it impossible not to enjoy. I’ll give vegans one thing: they love their carbs almost as much as I do. Once I was as conscious as possible, given the godawful hour, I jerked my chin at Chloe, remembering for once to swallow before speaking.

  “Where’s Mel?”

  “Out running around.”

  “I didn’t know werewolves had to exercise,” I said.

  Chloe shook her head, chuckling. “No, he’s—”

  The front door squeaked an announcement that someone had arrived and I had to assume from the lack of emotion it was Mel. I took the opportunity to stuff my face some more as Chloe leaned back in her chair, looked down the long kitchen, and gave him a little wave.

  “She’s up, almost ready. We’ll head to Merrin’s in five.”

  Mel approached, his gaze darting between the two of us. “You didn’t make me anything?”

  “Here.” Chloe handed him her half-empty plate and got to her feet. “I’m going to try to call Jeremy one more time to reschedule. He didn’t answer when I called earlier.” Digging her phone out of her pocket, she headed out into the living room. Mel hunkered down and we ate quickly in silence together. It was a photo finish and Mel, still chewing, grabbed my plate and carried both to the sink.

  I watched him as he gave them a quick rinse, loaded them into the dishwasher, and then turned to me. I couldn’t quite get over the fact that the man I despised most in the world was standing in my kitchen, acting borderline domestic.

  “Ready?”

  “I guess,” I said, wondering if I was going to have to reconsider my opinion of him. He continued to surprise me by being decent and, honestly, I was kind of starting to dig it.

  We were on our way to Merrin’s before long, Mel driving, Chloe in the front seat of his SUV. I sat in the middle of the second row, deciding to feel like I was being chauffeured instead of protected like the president's daughter or something.