Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (10 page)

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes got watery again. “Believe me—I want Emily to get better as much as you do.”

She was right. There was no point in getting mad at her over this. She’d probably hated having to come here and bring the bad news. I’d just have to take this hit like all the others that had come my way lately.

I gave her a reassuring smile that I didn’t feel, but knew how to fake. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it figured out somehow.”

She put her hand on my arm. “Thanks, Melena. I did ask for them to give us a day so he doesn’t have to leave until tomorrow. It gives you a little time.”

I supposed I’d have to be grateful for that much.

Chapter Nine

Emily’s first steps were wobbly, but she made each one with the determination of a teenager who wanted to escape the adults as soon as possible. I worried about her falling, but Micah kept hold of her arm. He wanted to help her as much as he could before he had to leave—which would be in about an hour. We’d gone over everything I’d need to do in his absence. It wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought, but I would have preferred he’d stayed here in case there were any problems.

“Take that! I made it!” Emily gave us a triumphant grin.

“You’ll be better in no time,” I reassured her.

She shook her head. “Never thought I’d get so excited about walking to the bathroom.”

Hell, I was excited that I wouldn’t have to help her there anymore. The amount of grumbling I heard every time she’d had to go over the last couple of days was enough to test Job’s patience.

“One step at a time,” Micah said, still holding her arm. “For the next couple of days you’ll still need Mel’s help and no trying the stairs yet.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She yanked out of his hold. Then she slammed the bathroom door in our faces.

“So, any last words of wisdom, Obi Wan?” I asked Micah.

“I’ve written it all down for you in the notebook on the dining room table. Just don’t let her rush things and keep testing her recognition skills. She’s already doing better. I suspect each day you’ll see improvement.”

I nodded. “And six more doses of vamp blood, twice a day?”

“That should do it. After that she needs to finish healing on her own.” He glanced at the bathroom door. The sound of flushing had just come from inside.

I shoved my purse higher on my shoulder. “Well, I’ve got to head out to the herb shop, but I can sense Derrick coming up the drive now. If you could show him the ropes without killing him, I’d appreciate it.”

“For you, I’ll do my best.” His expression turned grave. “Be careful while I’m gone. We have no idea where Zoe is at the moment.”

I lifted my brows. “I’m more worried about who carried out the attack on the fae city. My gut instinct says this is only the beginning.”

It really bothered me that I had to sit around waiting for others to figure this one out. If a sensor had taken part in this attack, I’d be the most qualified to help with the investigation. But I had Emily. I couldn’t abandon her when she needed me the most.

“You’re probably right, but it will take time to find who’s behind it. I’ve been told they covered their tracks well.”

“Think it’s Zoe?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s difficult to say, though I don’t see what she’d have to gain by it. She needs that city as much as the rest of us do.”

“That’s a point.” I started down the stairs, but paused to look back at him. “You be careful too. From my experience in the Middle East, there can always be follow-on attacks. Sometimes the first one is just to weaken defenses.”

Micah’s face darkened. “I’ll keep that under consideration.”

***

Cori was out smoking a cigarette when I pulled up to the herb shop just before noon. I was late getting there, but I hadn’t wanted to miss out on Emily’s first steps.

“Hey, girl,” Cori said, walking up to me. “How’s Emily doing?”

I shoved my key into the lock of the herb shop door. “She’s recovering, slowly.”

Cori had wanted to come by the house, but I’d told her Emily wasn’t ready for visitors. In reality I just didn’t want anyone to have to compel her into not noticing how fast Emily was healing. It was bad enough Micah had to do it for my tattoo.

“I’m really sorry to hear about what happened. So many people hurt and the damage all over town is crazy. I don’t know how this place escaped it.” She gazed around our small shopping center.

I knew the answer to that, even if I couldn’t tell Cori. Felisha maintained a spell on the whole building, protecting it from damage. The blast eradicated the spell, but it had held long enough to keep the structure intact until the worst of the wave passed. It hadn’t been designed to stand up against that kind of attack, but more for preservation of the place. It kept maintenance costs low. The fact that it had done a decent job of protecting the stores during the blast just turned out to be a bonus.

“Guess we got lucky.” I shrugged.

“Well,” she said, stubbing out her cigarette. “Guess I gotta get back to work. Let me know if you need anything, though.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at her and pulled the herb shop door open as she walked away.

As soon as I got inside, I started checking the inventory and getting things organized. A couple of shipments had come in yesterday right before Felisha left that would have to be sorted out. Some things would need to be better sealed and others thrown out. Two hours into it, my not-so-favorite troll walked into the shop. She made a habit out of stopping by at least once a week. Usually to give me a hard time.

I caught a whiff of her putrid scent—made worse by my heightened sense of smell—and fought the urge to plug my nose. The only thing that ever seemed to be clean on her body was her long reddish-orange hair. Even her dress had suspicious dark stains on the skirt. It was as if she’d wiped her hands on it too many times without washing them first. When she came up to the counter I stood behind, I had to lean over to see her.

She had her hands on her generous hips. That was never a good sign.

“What can I do for you, Bambi?” I asked.

It still gave me pleasure to call her by her first name. For months she refused to tell me what it was and no one else would either. A lot of fae were paranoid about giving their real name to anyone they didn’t trust. Eventually, she’d told me and explained the significance. It appeared that when her mother was pregnant with her, she’d craved deer the whole time and preferred the young ones for their tender flesh. Hence the name.

I really could have done without the back story, considering with trolls it meant they were catching the deer and eating them raw. With their bare fingers and sharp pointy nails. The image made me shudder every time I thought about it.

“So now yer blowin’ up fae cities, I see,” she said, giving me the evil eye.

My fingers curled. “There are plenty of witnesses who can testify to the fact I was here in Fairbanks when that happened.”

“Then it was a friend of yers. No tellin’ what plots ya sensors are up ta!” She beat her meaty fist against my counter.

“Look. I was injured in the blast, so was my foster daughter Emily, and my best friend’s mother died because of it. Not to mention Felisha’s father. Why would I do something that would hurt the people I care about? I don’t even know where this city is!”

“Ha!” Bambi harrumphed. “I knew ya’d get defensive. 'Tis a sign of guilt, ya know.”

“It’s also a sign of innocence,” I said, staring her down.

She grinned wide. “Yer too easy, girlie. Getting’ ya riled up is always the highlight of my week.”

She let out a full-bellied laugh. I waited for the cackling noise to end, looking up at the ceiling to avoid seeing her pointy teeth. In most cases, I could detect lies, but when someone was joking it didn’t always come to me clearly. Bambi played on that gray area quite well.

“Did you actually want to buy something today? We’re closing the store for a couple of weeks so this will be your last chance to get anything you need.”

She looked around at the various shelves. “Nah, I jus’ came ta talk to ya. Hopin’ ya’d find out who really did this and put a stop ta them. Jus’ like ya did in Juneau with the demons.”

I hadn’t done as much as I would have liked with the demons, but I couldn’t tell her that. Not many people were around for the final battle, and those of us who were didn’t talk about it.

“I’m afraid I’m out of this one.” I shook my head. “They’ll never let me near the fae city to investigate and I’ve got to take care of Emily.”

She clucked her tongue. “'Tis sorry I am ta see such a sweet girl hurt. Ya won’t be out of the fight long, though. There’s whispers amongst us sayin’ the explosion was more than it seemed. They’ll need ya. Jus’ wait 'n see!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “What do you mean?”

Bambi backed away toward the door. “'Tis not fer me ta say. I jus’ wanted ta give ya fair warnin’.”

“Oh!” She paused and lifted a finger at me. “When ya go, get me some salt while yer there.”

I glanced at a nearby shelf. “We have salt here.”

“'Tis not the same stuff.” She shook her head.

“How so?”

“'Tis special salt.” She grinned.

Felisha occasionally ordered special herbs from the city that were somehow more enhanced that what we could get elsewhere. Guess salt was another one of those things.

“Fine.
If
I go there, I’ll get you your salt.”

It was better to appease the woman so she’d leave. There was no way the fae would let me near their reservation, especially after a sensor attacked it.

“Ya be sure ya do!”

Faster than should have been possible for such a short woman, she was gone.

Chapter Ten

Three days later Emily and I sat eating popcorn and watching movies. She’d improved a lot physically over the last few days. There was still the occasional stumble and her cognitive abilities weren’t at a hundred percent, but I was glad to see her getting better. Especially since she’d taken her last dose of prescribed vamp blood that morning.

I cleared my throat and looked at Emily.

A car had just turned onto the lane leading to our house. I’d known who was coming since it was a half-mile out, but I wanted to see if she caught it. Emily saw my inquisitive look and stared in the direction of the door. This was her latest test.

Her forehead creased, but then her eyes lit up. “It’s Hunter out there.”

Normally, she didn’t rejoice at his arrival, but being able to sense him from two hundred meters out was a big deal. Her range had almost doubled since yesterday.

“I think I’m going to let him come in this time,” she said slowly, as if testing the idea.

“It would be good if you could be a little nicer to him. He did bring you to the hospital when you got injured and he’s sent flowers here every day since you got home. That’s a big improvement from the dead bunnies on full moons.”

Plus, they made the house smell better.

“Yeah.” She straightened her ponytail—which left her bald spot completely open. “I guess we can see if he wants to watch movies with us.”

I winced. It was our chick flick night. Hunter would have to
really
like Emily to stay for that.

“If it’s what you want,” I said, getting up to answer the door. He wasn’t far from it now.

“Hey, Mel?” Emily called out.

I looked back at her. “Yeah.”

“If he manages to stick around for at least an hour, he can have a piece of my chocolate cake.”

My lips twitched. “That’s very generous of you.”

***

The three of us were eating chocolate cake while making valiant attempts not to cry at the end of “A Walk to Remember.” Somehow, Emily’s head had come to rest on Hunter’s shoulder. Her eyes looked a little misty, but she hadn’t shed any tears.

I couldn’t decide if Hunter wasn’t crying because he was that tough or because most of his concentration was on Emily. The happiness wafting off the young werewolf was rather overwhelming. Maybe I was supposed to be enforcing space between the two of them, but they looked so sweet together I couldn’t do it. We could all use a night of normalcy after so many troubles lately.

As for my reaction to the movie, one tear might have escaped my eye, but I blamed it on Sable’s fur. The shape-shifter kitty had come in for the night and curled up in my lap an hour before. I’d been petting her ever since.

“I don’t get it,” Emily said, sitting up. Hunter looked disappointed at the break in contact. “Why would he want to stay with her after finding out she was going to die? He was just setting himself up for a lot of pain.”

I gave her a meaningful look. “Because sometimes even a short period of happiness with someone you love is better than none at all.”

“You can’t count your situation with Lucas.” She paused to pull her hair from its ponytail and let it fall loose. “He’ll come back…eventually. Then you’ll be happy again.”

She ducked her head at the warning look I gave her.

“Even if he couldn’t come back, I wouldn’t regret my time with him. When you fall in love with someone and they return those feelings, it’s indescribable. It’s like you’ve found the one thing you didn’t even know you were looking for. A connection to another person that is so powerful it leaves a mark on your soul. Even if fate separates you, it’s worth every bit of the heartache that comes later.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “You really believe that!”

She wasn’t just surprised at my declaration. Up to this point her truth meter hadn’t been working. This was her way of indicating the ability was back. I’d told her Hunter had figured out what she was, but we’d decided she should still keep a low profile. No need for her to get too comfortable around him and start slipping with other sups who might be less understanding.