Chapter 37

Death looked a little better after food and coffee. Tamara not so much.

I needed to learn what had happened to the rider. Briar Darque hadn’t known last night, but I hoped she would have learned something by now.

“Good timing, Craft,” she said. The sound of a radio and wind contending with her voice betrayed the fact she was driving. “I was headed your way. Have you seen your friend?”

An icy warning slid down my spine, chilling me. “Which friend?”

“The medical examiner, Tamara Greene. She’s not at work or at home.”

I glanced at where Tamara was fidgeting more than eating her toast—I didn’t have a lot in the house in the way of food, big surprise. Then I pointedly turned around so I couldn’t see her. Just in case.

I shrugged and in as an off-handed tone as possible said, “She’s probably having breakfast somewhere.”

“Her husband thought she might have gone to see you.”

Thanks, Ethan. “He’s her fiancé, actually.”

“Yeah, whatever. If you see her, let me know.”

“What’s going on?”

“The OMIH agent who went to the hospital yesterday? The nurse called me this morning. He’d dropped sixty pounds and grown talons. I had to ensure he didn’t turn ghoul in the middle of the surgical ward.”

The toast soured in my stomach. As in she killed him. I forced myself not to turn and look at Tamara’s drained figure.

Briar was still talking, though my brain didn’t want to accept her words. “Your friend wasn’t as badly hurt, but I’ve got to find her before she turns. Damn, I really thought we got the ghoul.”

“We did. I recognized Larid.”

“We couldn’t have. Ghouls are linked.”

Yeah, that was the standing assumption. The problem was that it didn’t apply in this case. Not that I could tell her how I knew that fact. “Have you ever hunted ghouls created by something from the wastes in the land of the dead?”

Briar was silent as she considered the possibility.

“Did you find out if they contained the rider before they released the body from the circle?”

“They didn’t. Fuck. So that thing is out there. I’ve never seen anyone ghoul out as fast as that official. If it’s because of that rider thing, we could be in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

Understatement.

“I’m pretty sure it can’t get far outside of a body. Do you know if anyone who came in contact with Larid was acting strange yesterday?”

“Why would I know that?”

“Well, if we’re going to find the rider, you’re going to have to ask around because the people at the OMIH won’t talk to me. You’re looking for someone who most likely didn’t respond to their own name and would have made some excuse to leave early. They wouldn’t have gone home last night and won’t be at work today.”

“That’s pretty specific, Craft.”

“I’ve been tracking the rider. It’s predictable,” I said, and hoped that the rider was holding true to pattern. Of course, it was a Sunday, so the possessed victim might not be missed yet. “Once you talk to the folks over at the OMIH, will you call and let me know what you learn?”

“Why?” The suspicion was so thick in her voice I could feel it through the phone.

“Well, for starters, if it is hurting my friend, I have a vested interest. I also have two clients who I already told we’d captured their husbands’ murderer and I’d rather not have to inform them it escaped.”

“Fine. If I find out anything and I have time, I’ll call, but you need to let me know if your friend shows up.”

“Right.” As Tamara was already here, “showing up” wasn’t an issue.

Briar hung up without saying good-bye.

“Do I want to know?” Tamara asked as I turned around.

“Probably not,” I said and tried to convince myself some of her grayish pallor was just my eyes recovering from my stepping into the land of the dead. But the color had returned to everything except Tamara. I could practically see her fading in front of me. The change can’t happen that fast.

I glanced at Death. He shook his head but I didn’t know if he was telling me there was nothing he could do to help or just confirming that Tamara wasn’t holding up well. He’d told me we had only hours. We’d lost what, thirty minutes of that?

I shoved the phone in my back pocket and paced across my kitchenette. I’d dressed while the coffee was brewing so my boots made dull thudding noises that accented the helpless feeling vibrating through me. There had to be something more I could do besides wait for Briar to call.

I might be able to trace that feeding tube of a thread back to the rider, but I’d have to be halfway across the chasm while tracing it who-knew-where in the city. Even if I could manage the mobility and not get beaten to a pulp by grave essence while leaving my psyche that open outside wards or a circle, I had no idea if Death could survive me taking his essence halfway across the chasm for who-knew-how-long. Well, I guess I won’t be going to Faerie anytime soon. Or possibly ever. Death’s plane didn’t exist there, which meant it was a no go.

My head snapped up and I stopped pacing, one foot hanging in the air before falling hard, the step forgotten. The land of the dead didn’t exist in Faerie either. If Death couldn’t reach his essence through a plane where he didn’t exist then it stood to reason the rider’s threads wouldn’t pass into a place where the land of the dead didn’t touch.

It was a stall tactic, but it would give us time. I looked at Tamara. “We have to take you to Faerie.”

Four eyes, two hazel and two dark brown, looked at me with equal amounts of confusion. Yeah, I guess that comment came from nowhere if you weren’t inside my head. I explained my logic. Death gave a begrudging nod as I spelled out my thoughts, but Tamara’s sunken eyes rounded until they dominated her face.

“I know you stumbled into a pocket of Faerie once, but even if we could get back there, would I be any better off or just in a different kind of danger?” Tamara asked, pushing her uneaten toast aside.

Crap. We were going to have to have the Faerie discussion. I really didn’t want to have that conversation, but the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that she’d stop transforming as soon as she was in Faerie. Slivers of the land of the dead slipped into the Bloom, so she’d have to go to Faerie proper.

Pulling out my phone, I tried Rianna’s cell. She had no reason to leave Faerie today, so I wasn’t surprised when an operator announced that the customer I was trying to reach was out of range. Faerie didn’t have cell towers.

“We need to talk to Caleb,” I said, heading to the door that connected my apartment with the main portion of the house. I also effectively avoided having to discuss the “F” issue for a couple more minutes.

Tamara stood slowly, as if she were trying to haul six hundred pounds instead of her skeletally thin form. I chewed at my bottom lip as I watched her dragging steps. Faerie will work. We just had to get her there. An added bonus? No way would Briar find Tamara in Faerie.

Death moved to follow.

I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Would you wait for me here?”

“Embarrassed to be seen with me?”

“It’s not that. We need to get Tamara to Faerie pronto, which means getting everyone moving with as little explanation as possible.” And explaining who Death was—especially since I didn’t have a name to introduce him with—would slow everything down. Tamara was so ill she’d accepted my explanation that he was an old friend without further prying, but Holly would press me.

He studied me, and I had the feeling he saw more than I liked. I squirmed. He knew me too well, and I could feel his gaze peeling back layers. Then he leaned forward and kissed the top of my head. “Just make sure you’re being honest with yourself in your reasoning.”

I watched him walk back into my apartment. I really was just in a hurry, wasn’t I? I was fine with my friends meeting him. Just not right now. Right?

I didn’t have time to think about it as I hurried to catch up with Tamara. We reached the bottom of the stairs and I pushed open the door. “Caleb?”

It was still fairly early, but he usually started working in his studio earlier than I preferred waking—which was one reason the studio ceiling had a soundproofing charm. But the garage-turned-studio was dark. Today apparently wasn’t an early day.

“Hello? Caleb? Holly? Anyone home?”

I glanced out the front window. Both of their cars were here. I headed for the back of the house. I hated waking Caleb, but as I couldn’t enter Faerie without cutting Death off from his life essence, Caleb was the only person who could take Tamara.

As Tamara and I turned the corner into the back hall, Caleb’s door opened, but it wasn’t Caleb who stepped out.

Holly, wearing one of Caleb’s shirts and nothing else, froze.

For a moment no one said anything. And then Tamara shook her head and muttered, “It’s like walking into a den of bunnies around here.”

That effectively broke the shocked silence.

“Uh, good morning?” Holly said, holding the button-up shirt closed with one hand, her other smoothing her tousled hair. She smiled, but the expression was a cringing flash of teeth as her eyes darted toward the elusive safety of her own bedroom door farther down the hall.

Oh yeah, it wasn’t the air of the revelry; my housemates were definitely sleeping together. This could get awkward. Unless I ignore the entire situation.

“I’m going to be in the living room. Can you see if Caleb’s awake?”

Holly glanced back at the room she’d been trying to sneak out of. “I’m sure he’ll be there in a minute.”

It was more like five minutes, but both he and Holly were fully dressed when they joined us. Holly may have been too shocked or embarrassed to notice Tamara’s condition a few minutes earlier, but she didn’t miss it now.

I gave as quick and condensed a version of events and my plans as possible. When I finished, no one looked terribly convinced.

“Where am I supposed to take her in Faerie?” Caleb asked.

I had an answer to that, I just didn’t like it. “I own some…property, in Faerie.” And by property I meant a castle, but that was beside the point.

The admission earned an eyebrow lift from Caleb and a “You what?” from Holly.

Tamara shook her head, “What is going on? Why would you own property in Faerie? Hell, how would you own property?”

Cards on the table time. I pulled the charm free of my shirt and lifted the chain over my head. “I, uh, well, you see,” I said as my skin gave off its own light.

Tamara blinked. “You’re fae?” She leaned back against the couch. “And I thought I was the one keeping secrets.” She placed a hand over her too thin stomach. Then she turned to Holly. “Alex figured it out already, but I’m pregnant. Or I was. Do you think…?” Her eyes shimmered with tears ready to spill over.

I bit my lips. Tamara was the one with the medical degree; if anyone knew, it would be her. Holly pushed out of her chair and joined Tamara on the couch. She wrapped her arms around the other woman.

“It’s going to work out,” she said, hugging Tamara. “We’ll find this rider thing on this side, and you’ll be safe in Faerie.”

“How could I possibly be safe in Faerie?” A tear slipped down her cheek. “No offense,” she said, nodding to Caleb and then as if an afterthought, to me. “How can you be fae?”

“It’s a long story that we don’t have time for.”

Holly gave Tamara a squeeze. “As we’re all confessing our secrets, the reason I’ve been a little weird lately? I kind of got addicted to Faerie food.”

Tamara gave a start, and fear pooled in her sunken eyes, dragged at her lips so that they twitched.

Holly just held her. “Don’t worry. Faerie is actually really very nice. Just don’t eat the food. It looks good, but it’s made out of toadstools.” She stuck out her tongue, making it sound like a joke.

Caleb pushed out of his chair. “Okay, the share-fest you girls have going on is great, but I think we need an actual plan. Al, if you own the property, why don’t you take Tamara? I don’t know where your property is.”

“I can’t go to Faerie without potentially deadly consequences. I can’t even enter the Bloom right now.”

Anyone human would have questioned me, but Caleb was fae and there had been no wiggle room in my statement. “Okay. I’m assuming you inherited something that is currently in Limbo?”

I nodded. “Get a message to Rianna. She can take Tamara the rest of the way.” Once he was in the Bloom, the bartender would be able to pass along the message. I still wasn’t sure how it worked, but Rianna usually appeared about five minutes after I let the bartender know I was looking for her.

Caleb nodded and looked down at Tamara’s miserable form where she leaned against Holly, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Ready?”

Tamara looked up. “This is really the only way?”

“It’s the best I can come up with,” I said. “But it’s only a stall tactic. It won’t cure you but it should stop the transformation. It will give you a little time to rest as well. There’s a brownie named Ms. B who runs my property, let her know you’re my friend, and that you’re human so can’t eat Faerie food.”

“I’ll pack you a care package,” Holly said, pushing off the couch. She disappeared into the kitchen and the sound of drawers and cabinets opening followed. With Holly eating all her meals at the Bloom and Caleb eating at least half of his there, I wondered how much food they actually had around the house.

I slid my necklace back over my head, letting the charm fall under my shirt and between my breasts. The glow cut off abruptly, at least to me. Tamara just stared.

“Why are you still all shimmery?”

Great. “It’s a fae perception charm. People see what they believe they’ll see.” Which meant she now saw me as fae. Will that change our friendship? I cringed inwardly, but before I started worrying about what might happen, I needed to find the rider or she’d either be a ghoul or stuck in Faerie. I turned to Caleb. “Can you ask Rianna to meet me at the Tongues for the Dead office once she gets Tamara situated?”

He nodded, and we both looked at Tamara, who had curled in on herself. She looked so small and deflated that she barely resembled the strong, take-charge woman I knew.

“We’re going to stop the rider,” I said, wishing I had something more reassuring to say. “You just take care of yourself.” I almost added and the baby but I was afraid she’d break down again.

“What do I tell Ethan? We promised never to lie to each other or to keep secrets. But I’m thinking saying ‘Sweetie, I’m turning into a monster, so I’m going to hide at Alex’s place in Faerie until the bad guy is caught’ won’t go over well.”

I was so not the person to ask about relationship issues. “Tell him what you have to?”

She sighed, fumbling with her phone but not making the call.

“I’d wait until you’re almost to the Bloom though—Briar is looking for you, and you don’t want her to find you.”

“Right.” She shoved the phone in her pocket without hesitation. That clearly wasn’t a call she wanted to make. I didn’t blame her.

“This should do it,” Holly said as she reentered the room with two reusable grocery sacks filled with boxes and cans. “I threw in a couple of paperbacks and my supersecret stash of chocolate, so you should be set until we can get this straightened out.”

Despite Holly’s perky optimism, Tamara didn’t look the least bit cheered. Caleb helped her to her feet and we made quick good-byes. The door had barely clicked closed when Holly whirled around, all the softness gone from her face.

“What can I do to help?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m sure someone from the OMIH headquarters was infected, so unless the rider has already killed that host and moved on, we need to figure out who on the staff is missing or has been acting erratically. Or we need to figure out where the rider is most likely to go next.” Assuming it wasn’t planning to come after me again, but after everything that had happened, I guessed it would be trying to keep a low profile. Which would make it harder to find.

If the rider had killed off its latest victim, one of the collectors would know. Maybe they’d know who it had taken next. Of course, convincing the gray man or the raver to help would be quite a trick. Death may be able to persuade them. Thinking about Death, I glanced toward the stairs. Tamara was safely on her way to Faerie now, which meant no more excuses. I took a deep breath.

“Uh, Holly,” I said, and then had to stop because my tongue was paralyzed, stuck to the roof of my mouth. She gave me a questioning head tilt. I swallowed and straightened. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”