2
A
fter a quick change, half a bottle of leave-in conditioner, and a smelly cab ride, I made it to work ten minutes late.
The Buncha Books sign glowed in the low afternoon light, the neon letters drawing the unsuspecting into its snare. I followed its beacon and trekked through the crowded prison yard of torture and overpriced retail.
The outlet center sprang to life this time of year and the bookstore was no exception. Everyone and their mother was taking advantage of the holiday sales. The company tech nerd stood behind his booth by the door, demonstrating the latest apps on electronic reading tablets. Children broke free from their parents' leashes and ran around the store.
The aesthetics appeared to have changed overnight at the J-O-B. Jazzy Christmas music blared through the PA system, red bows and wreaths decorated the floor displays, pillars, and bookshelves. A group of historical actors in their Colonial garb sat at a folding table, gift-wrapping presents for customers. The aroma of coffee grounds, pumpkin spice, and peppermint made the air so thick I could almost chew it.
I raced through the center aisle to the customer service desk with the hope of avoiding my superiors. Luck wasn't on my side today, because Linda, the store manager, stood behind the desk helping an elderly customer. While she was distracted, I slipped past her and clocked in on the opposite computer. Just when I was about to make my great escape, she spoke.
“Sam, you do realize your shift started at four, right?”
I paused mid step. I was
so
close. “Yes, I'm sorry. Something came up.”
When the customer left the counter, Linda turned to me. “A lot of things tend to come up with you these days. The Christmas run is beginning and I need reliable people to handle the crowds. If that's a problem for you, then I'm afraidâ”
“Her car got wrecked in a storm, Linda. Come on, you never had car trouble before? Cut her a little slack.” A low voice said behind us, and I didn't need to see who it was. I felt his presence as soon as I entered the store, the second the cab pulled into the shopping center.
I turned around and saw Caleb leaning against the desk, with a bear claw doughnut in one hand and twirling his name tag necklace with the other. He wore his standard uniform: tan khakis, white polo shirt, and a cocky smirk. The five o'clock shadow around his jaw looked more like twelve-thirty. The light brown strands of his hair fell over his eyes, bending at the jaw.
Yep, Caleb Baker, king of extreme bed hair, was on the mend and back in action. Having influence over the opposite sex was one of the few perks of being a Cambion. He could look like fresh road kill, yet Linda's clouded vision only saw the man of her dreams.
“Oh sure, Caleb, naturally you would take her side.” Smoothing her dreadlocks in place, she leaned closer to him in playful flirtation.
“Of course, but ten minutes never hurt anyone, has it?” He grinned, biting his lip.
Caleb never had much shame when it came to flirting, and waking up from a coma only three days prior hadn't weakened his game. However, that talent was getting me out of the hot seat right now, so I kept quiet.
With a blink, Linda looked at me as if surprised I was still there. “Well, go on, Sam. Don't be later than you need to be.”
I slid by Caleb while our eyes locked for an eternal second. “Thanks,” I whispered.
“No problem,” he replied, and our fingertips connected for the briefest touch.
Though I saw Caleb yesterday, it felt like much longer, maybe due to all that had happened during the turkey day of doom. Things were tense between us now because of obligations and secrets we had to keep, and being this close to each other was nothing short of sweet torture.
Our empathic link had turned us into a pair of conjoined twins, moving in sync to a beat the beings inside us orchestrated. We were even beginning to dress alike, or maybe that was due to the employee dress code at our job.
By the time I reached the café, I was past the respectable limit of tardy, and Alicia Holloway, fellow serving wench and classmate, had no qualms about telling me about it. She had every reason to be stressed out. Our very pregnant café manager only showed up to work every lunar eclipse, leaving us baristas to man the battle stations on our own.
Angry as Alicia was, it was hard to take a person seriously who looked like a brown Precious Moments doll. Not that I had room to talk, but I just wanted to pinch her cheeks and play with her twisty braids.
I'd been acting suspect to everyone and I needed to make amends somehow, so I might as well start with her. She recently got her learner's permit and I used that fact to my advantage. Promising her driving lessons smoothed back some of her ruffled feathers, and we were able to work in civil harmony.
“You know Malik Davis ran away from home,” she prompted, pulling gingerbread cookies out of the oven.
“I heard,” I grumbled.
“I saw the police come by the school, but no one's seen him,” she added.
In actuality,
no one
had seen the
real
Malik Davis in over three months, but that was something only Caleb, Tobias, and I knew about. I doubted anyone would find Malik's bodyâTobias was good at making things disappear, including himself.
Thinking of Tobias made me thankful for the memory loss. Just for a few glorious minutes, I could forget the Big Bad who hid in the shadows, namely a shape-shifting incubus with a score to settle. I hadn't seen Tobias in hours, but it didn't mean he wasn't around. He could be anywhere,
become anyone
, what with being the ultimate master of disguise and manipulation and all. If he could go so far as to disguise himself as my dead classmate and live with his family, then nothing was off limits.
“I'm sure he'll show up eventually,” I assured as I chugged down a shot of espresso.
“How are you holding up?” she asked. “I mean, I know you and Malik were close and all that.”
I almost spat out my drink. “What? No we weren't. Malik was always pushing up on me, not the other way around. If you haven't noticed, I already have a boyfriend.” I pointed in the direction of the music department.
“I've noticed, but have you?” she asked, and I didn't ignore the venom in her tone. It threw me off guard to have this usually happy little cherub catch an attitude, so I called her on it.
“Don't tell me you have a crush on Malik, do you?”
“No!” she said a little too quickly.
I gasped. “Omigod, you do!”
“Shut up. I do not.” Her face bunched in an adorable pout as she continued wiping down the work area.
Oh, Tobias was gonna pay for this. Not only had he been masquerading as one of the biggest man-whores on campus, he managed to enchant every female in school, including the trusting sophomore who was now giving me the side-eye. At least I knew the root of the problem wasn't entirely my fault, so I could work with a clear conscience.
Â
After we shut down, the employees piled up at the entrance while Linda did the last minute sweep of the store.
We huddled in the vestibule, watching the lights in each department go out one by one. My eyes stayed glued to Caleb who spoke to me in code without moving his lips. I understood every word; I could feel the energy, the unexpressed emotion rushing off his body in waves, and being in cramped quarters with a dozen other people made the vibe that much more naughty.
His hands rested at his sides, clenching and unclenching in a strange rhythm. Color drenched his eyes, the sentient being behind them adding his two cents in our nonverbal conversation. Caleb was having a time making Capone behave, if the constant fidgeting was anything to go by. My own sentient being was eager as well, and if Lilith had her way, Caleb and I would be mated officially by now instead of this song and dance we had going on.
When Linda returned, we all filed out into the cold night. The crew scattered to their cars as I stood under the awning, waiting for the blue Chrysler that wasn't there. Julie Marshall was a bona fide soccer mom, but her chauffeuring duties were getting rusty these days.
Soft flurries fell at a slant across my vision and the world blurred into patches of gray. It wasn't cold enough for the snow to really stick, but a thin overlay of white covered the empty parking lot.
Alicia's dad waited in his SUV by the curb and the engine revved to life when he spotted her.
“Remember, driving lessons!” Alicia yelled, or rather threatened, as she climbed into the passenger's side. The van pulled away and more cars fled the premises before I could ask for a ride.
As I was on the brink of losing all feeling in my toes, Caleb drifted next to me. Flurries speckled his hair and his ears and cheeks were glowing bright red. Tall and lanky as he was, Caleb was a cutie, although a few minutes inside a tanning bed wouldn't kill him. If I squinted, I'd lose him in the snow.
“You coming or what?” he asked.
“I'm waiting for my mom,” I answered.
“She's not coming.”
I flinched, and not from the cold. “What?”
“I called her an hour ago and told her I was taking you home.”
“Did you now? And she agreed?” That didn't sound like Mom at all.
“Yep. She trusts me with you. She knows I won't do anything reckless. Plus, she's got us clocked.” He pulled up his coat sleeve and checked his watch. “We have fifteenâno, thirteen minutes before she's coming after me with a pair of hedge clippers and a can of kerosene. âHomemade birth control,' she says.”
Now that sounded more like Mom.
“Come on. It's cold out here. Second-guess all this in the car.” He led me to his Jeep, which sat in the far end of the shopping center. His hand slipped over mine; his thumb working the circulation back into my fingers.
“You all right?” he asked.
I glanced up to a pair of violet eyes that spoke of concern. “Not really,” I mumbled. “Did you pick me up from school today?”
“No. Why?”
“I'm trying to figure out how I got home.”
He looked confused. “How did you get to work?”
“I took a cab,” I said while my mind continued to work in the reverse gear. “I don't know much before that, because I blacked out again. I woke up in my room, on the ceiling.”
He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me carefully. “Really? Is Lilith okay?”
I shrank back, appalled. “
Lilith
? Shouldn't you be worried about
me
?”
“Yeah, I'll get to that in a minute. Did she tell you what hurt her?” Before I could ask, he continued. “The last time Capone was out on the town, he did the same thing.” To show his point, he pushed the hair out of his face and revealed the bruised lump on his forehead, one of many battle scars from the Thanksgiving demon war. “You know when you're feeling hurt and vulnerable you curl up in a ball? Well, the spirits tend to climb and do this weird perching thing when they're really scared. They like being in high places and observing. Gives them a sense of control when something goes wrong. So, I gotta ask, what went wrong with Lilith? What freaked her out?”
“I don't know. She won't tell me.” I rubbed my face in large circles. “Oh, and how about this, my bracelet was cut off. I found it on my front door. Angie's gonna be so pissed. And Mom is gonna kill me.” I showed Caleb my wrist and the twist-tie I stole from the breadbox to fasten the bracelet back together.
Caleb appraised my craftwork then centered his attention on me. “What's the last thing you remember before the blackout?”
“I remember sitting at my table at lunch then I saw . . . ugh, I can't remember. It's like right there on the tip of my tongue.” I scrunched up my face in concentration, almost straining my muscles to get one flash of a memory. Then one hit me. “You put olive oil around my school. When did you do that?”
“Oh. Yeah, right,” he admitted. “Saturday night. Got my brothers to help me out. I even covered the area around the store so we won't have to worry about Tobias showing up here. Are you mad?” His plump bottom lip pushed out in a pout, begging me to crush it between my teeth like a ripe grape.
“No. One less problem for me to worry about.” With that thought in mind, I surveyed the parking lot. Everything seemed fine, but that was always when weird stuff happened. “We have to be careful. Tobias is still out there.”
While he opened the car door for me, I noticed a huge dent on the side that reached all the way to the front bumper. The curve around the wheel was crushed inward; the black paint had flaked off, exposing the metalwork underneath. “Somebody got you good. That sucks; you just got your car back from the shop.”
He looked to where I pointed and frowned. “Yeah, I have to take it in for another paint job.”