1 Grim Tidings (19 page)

“I know I don’t have to tell you this, but men suck!” I threw open the front door to the condo in dramatic fashion.

I had expected Jerry to be on the couch waiting for me, Blue Moon ice cream in hand, a stack of sappy Blu-Rays on the coffee table, and open arms and ears to listen to my crappy, crappy day.

Jerry was on the couch all right, he just wasn’t alone. I couldn’t see his friend’s face – it being pressed against Jerry’s as they rolled around on the couch – but I recognized the figure all the same. Aidan.

“You have got to be kidding me!”

Aidan and Jerry scattered, both seeking opposite ends of the couch and – if their heaving chests were any indication – huge gulps of oxygen.

“I … um … it’s not what it looks like,” Jerry said, rubbing his hand through his hair and trying to straighten his shirt.

“Yeah,” Aidan agreed, mirroring Jerry’s movement as he tried to put himself back in order. “It was an accident.”

“An accident? What, did someone trip and accidentally stick their tongue in someone else’s mouth?”

“Don’t be crass,” Jerry chastised. “It was just one of those things
. I was watching television, waiting for you because I knew you were still upset about what happened. Where were you, by the way?”

“Working,” I snapped. “I’ve had a really crappy day.”

“You already said that, Bug.”

“Why?”
Aidan asked, instantly alert. “Did you run into another wraith?”

No, I had sex and then got jilted before the sun was barely up the next day. “No,” I shook my head. “It’s just been a bad day.”

“She was upset about the whole Griffin thing,” Jerry said. “She thinks he’s gone for good.” Jerry raised a hand to his heart. “It’s really sad. I think she really liked him.”

Something occurred to me. “Where were you last night?”

Jerry blinked, the change in conversation jolting him. “What?”

“Where were you last night?”

“I told you, I had a date.”

Jerry refused to meet my eyes, so I shifted my attention to Aidan. “Was it with you?”

Aidan shifted uncomfortably. “No.”

He was lying. “Oh, man! I just … I can’t … I am so pissed off!”

“Take it down a notch,” Jerry cautioned. “The last thing we need is the neighbors calling the cops. With our luck, Griffin will show up and things will get really ugly.”

He had no idea. “You know what?” I pointed at Jerry for emphasis, biting the inside of my lip to rein myself in. It wasn’t working. “You know what?”

“What?” Jerry asked, his eyes wide.

“I was going to tell you two to go for it,” I admitted. “Yesterday, when Aidan and I were waiting for Addie to die – before the wraith, before Griffin, before it all went to hell, figuratively not literally – I was going to tell him to go for it.”

“You were?” Aidan looked hopeful.

“I was.”

“And now?” Jerry looked worried.

“Now?
Now I just don’t care,” I said, flapping my arms in an effort to calm down. “I’ve had a really, really crappy two days. My head feels like it’s going to explode. And why? Why?”

Aidan’s face was blank. “Why?”

“Because of men,” I replied. “You all suck. You’re just big piles of muscles and … suck. You two couldn’t wait two weeks for me to get my head around this. No. You had to sneak around. And that just makes it worse.”

“Bug, you’re really worked up. Did something else happen?”

Aidan looked intrigued by the question. “He’s right. You’re dramatic, and annoying on a normal day, but you’re really out there right now. Like crazy out there. Is it that time of the month?”

Jerry shook his head. “Not for two weeks.”

Why is it whenever a woman gets worked up, men naturally assume PMS is involved?

“What happened?” Aidan
asked, his voice level.

Now I was the one playing defense. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Aidan said. “Now, what is this whole man diatribe about? Generally, I would agree with you about men, but something else is going on here. I know you too well to think otherwise.”

I placed my tongue in my cheek and shook my head. There was no way I was going to tell them.

“It’s about Griffin,” Jerry said finally.

“How do you know that?” I countered.

“Because, that’s what you were really upset about yesterday,” Jerry replied. “It wasn’t the wraith. It wasn’t killing the wraith. It was Griffin treating you like a leper. That’s what really upset you.”

“What makes you think that?”

Aidan arched an eyebrow. “Answering a question with a question is a dead giveaway,” he said. “You really like him, don’t you?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m just worried he’s going to tell someone what he saw.”

“And risk being locked up in the loony bin? I don’t see that happening,” Aidan said. “Neither do you. Something else happened.”

Jerry’s eyes sparked. “What happened after I left last night?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “I fell asleep on the couch, woke up and then moved to my bed. You would probably know that, though, if you’d bothered to come home.”

Guilt flooded Jerry’s cheeks. “I should have c
ome home,” he said. “I knew you were upset.”

“She’s trying to derail you,” Aidan interrupted. “It’s a family trait. When in doubt, divert. What happened last night,
Aisling?”

“Oh, fine,” I blew out a sigh. “I had a guest after you left last night.”

“Griffin,” Aidan said.

“Griffin,” I agreed.

“I almost forgot,” Jerry said. “He was at the door when I was leaving last night.”

“And you left her alone with him?” Aidan was ticked.

Jerry waved off Aidan’s anger. “Did he want to tell you all was forgiven? He looked upset when I saw him at the door.”

“Not exactly,” I said. “He wanted to know more about what we are, why we exist at all. He was curious. Wouldn’t you be?”

“If that’s all that happened, you wouldn’t be this angry,” Jerry said. “Something else happened.”

I rubbed my hands over my hips, trying to decide what to do. It didn’t matter, Jerry could read my indecision.

“You slept with him,” Jerry guessed.

Aidan smirked. “You did, didn’t you?”

“No,” I fibbed. “What? That’s just preposterous.”

“Then why do you look like you just swallowed a bug?” Aidan asked.

Oh, well, great. “Fine,” I spat out. “I slept with him.”

“How was it?”

Perfect? “I’m not giving you sex details while my brother is in the room, the brother you were just making out with, by the way.”

“Aidan, go in the other room,” Jerry ordered.

“No way,” Aidan argued. “I want to hear, too.”

“This is beyond belief,” I growled. “I need some air.”

Aidan was on his feet. “Wait a second,” he said. “If you finally bagged your cop, why are you so upset?”

“Because the first thing he said to me this morning was that he needed to think,” I snapped. “Then he practically ran out of here like I had
the black death or something.”

Aidan’s face colored with an emotion I didn’t like: Pity. “Oh, man, I’m sorry.” He reached for me, but I took a step back, fleeing from the comfort he wanted to offer.

I could feel the tears threatening to spill over so I refused to let Aidan touch me. The minute he did, I would start to cry, and I wasn’t certain I would be able to stop. “I’m going to take a walk.”

“It’s late, Bug,” Jerry said. “Why don’t you just stay here and talk to us.”

I didn’t meet his eyes, turning so my back was to them. “Maybe, in a little while,” I said, hearing the tremble in my own voice and hating myself for it. “I just need some time to myself.”

I was already out the door, not bothering to shut it behind me, when I heard Aidan’s voice. “Let her go, Jerry. Just give her a few minutes. She doesn’t want to cry and if you go after her right now, it’s just going to make things worse. Give her a few minutes.”

I was down the steps and on the front walk within seconds, inhaling deeply to calm myself. It wasn’t Jerry’s fault, I reminded myself. He hadn’t made this situation. It was easier to be angry with Aidan, but it wasn’t his fault either. Griffin was my problem, and they couldn’t deal with it for me. I was the idiot here. It was rare that I found myself wishing I listened to what my father said – but now was one of those times.

There was nowhere to go – even if I wanted to. So, instead, I started pacing. Up and down the front walk, stopping when I got the street and then turning around and ambling back. My mind was busy, so I let it wander.

What was my problem? Was it really Aidan and Jerry? Sure, I was angry with Jerry for leaving me the previous evening, but I wasn’t angry because he sneaked away to see Aidan. My brother and Jerry seemed inevitable at this point; I had already readied myself for it. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

So, what was I really angry about? The petulant part of me knew I was angry because if Jerry hadn’t left last night, I wouldn’t have slept with Griffin and then had my heart crushed this morning when he walked away.

“Crap,” I grumbled. Jerry isn’t the bad friend. I am. I guess I had some apologizing to do.

I moved toward the front door to the building, every intention of making up with Jerry and Aidan propelling me forward, when two figures moved from the nearby shrubbery and cut me off from the door.

For a second – just a second – I thought they were Jerry and Aidan coming to find me after all.

I was wrong.

The figures were too tall. They were wrapped in dark cloaks, the only hint of skin visible coming from their unhuman white hands.

Wraiths.

I opened my mouth to yell, immediately thinking better of it. If I drew a crowd, the wraiths were likely to hurt anyone who crossed their path. I considered my other options.

I could run, but where? The wraiths knew I would circle back. They would just wait me out.

My keys were in my coat pocket and my car was in the parking lot. That seemed a safer bet.

“So, are you guys lost or something?” I asked the question and took a step back.

The wraiths remained still.

“There’s a great karaoke bar about two blocks over
. You guys would really fit in there. You should give it a try.”

The only sound coming from the wraiths was a low hiss. Maybe that’s how they communicate? Maybe I don’t really care. Another ten feet and I’ll be in the parking lot.

“If karaoke isn’t your thing, I think they still do drag queen bingo downtown,” I offered. “It’s proven to be a big hit. The waiting list is like two months long, but they’ll probably just let you guys in because of your ultra-cool outfits.”

I was only five feet away now. Oh, screw it.

“Or you could just crawl back into whatever holes you crawled out of and die like you should have from the beginning.”

My keys were out of my pocket now and I pressed the button to disengage the car’s locks. The wraiths must have realized what I was doing, because they were moving toward me now. I didn’t know anything could move that fast. They were on me before I could open the door, one set of hands gripping my left arm and jerking me in the opposite direction from the car.

The minute the hands were on me, I felt the same draining sensation I had in the hospital. I hit the ground, my arm sliding across the cement as I fought to keep my head from taking the brunt of the blow.

It took me a second to collect my wits, but when I did I managed to roll over onto my back. The wraiths were standing above me, like horror movie ghouls readying themselves to descend on their prey.

My arm was sore from the fall, but I pushed the pain out of my mind. “What do you want?”

The wraiths didn’t answer. Instead, they both took a step closer to me, in tandem,
as though they shared the same mind. It was eerie.

I wanted to screw my eyes shut so I couldn’t see what was about to happen. My mind traveled to Aidan for a second, because I knew he would be the one to find my body. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. It was something that would haunt him forever. My heart clenched in my chest. There was no way I was going to give these … things … the satisfaction of showing fear. They may kill me, but I wouldn’t let them scare me before they did it.

Instead, I braced for whatever was about to come – knowing it wouldn’t be good – and waited.

Everyone has to die. I wonder whose list I’m
on?

When you accept your inevitable death, it’s the waiting that becomes tedious. So why, after moving so fast, were the wraiths now moving slower than senior citizens at a Rihanna concert?

I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw the point of a knife slip through the chest of the wraith on my right and then disappear. For a moment, I thought I imagined it. Then the wraith howled and started to disintegrate – just like the one at the retirement home.

“What the … ?”

Once it was gone, and I saw a familiar face materialize in the dark, I realized what had happened. Aidan was there
with one of Jerry’s large cooking knives clenched in his hand and a look of absolute loathing on his face.

The other wraith turned from me and focused on Aidan – the more serious threat. The hiss it let loose sounded like a cry of mourning – but that could be my imagination running wild.

Aidan didn’t look particularly perturbed.

“I think you’re going to find that coming to my sister’s home was your first mistake,” he growled, pulling the knife back and slamming it into remaining wraith’s chest. He didn’t pull it out right away, though. Instead, he used it to pull the wraith closer to him. “I think you’re going to find that your second mistake was touching my sister.
Putting your filthy, stinking hands on her.”

Aidan wrenched the knife out of the wraith’s chest, watching with disinterest as it staggered to the ground before pieces started flaking off. Aidan kicked the wraith, causing it to explode into a poof of black dust, which started to dissipate on the wind.

Aidan fixed his concerned eyes on me. “That’s right, who’s the boss now?”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t tamp down the
sense of relief rushing through me. Aidan reached down, wrapped his hand around my wrist, and then tugged until I was on my feet and his arms were around me.

“You scared the shit out of me,” he said, burying his face in my hair. I could feel his heart pounding in his chest.

“I scared the shit out of myself,” I admitted.

“Are they gone?”

I glanced over Aidan’s shoulder and saw Jerry standing on the front porch, a tennis racket in his hand and a baseball helmet sheltering his head.

“They’re gone,” Aidan confirmed.

“It’s good for them,” Jerry said, rushing toward us. “I was just about to go medieval on their asses.”

Aidan couldn’t hide his smile. “It’s a good thing I got to them first then.”

Once Jerry got to us, he pushed Aidan out of the way and enveloped me in a huge hug. “Thank God I was here,” he said. “You could have died.”

I exchanged a wry look with Aidan, but patted Jerry’s back all the same. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Aidan glanced around, but – surprisingly – we hadn’t managed to draw a crowd. “I think we should get you inside and get you cleaned up.”

“What about this?” Jerry asked, pointing to the twin piles of ash on the ground.

“What about it?” Aidan asked. “No one is going to know what it is. Hopefully it will just blow away.”

He didn’t seem concerned, so Jerry merely shrugged.
“Sounds good to me. I don’t really want to sweep it up anyway.”

When we got back upstairs, Aidan helped me pull my coat off and handed it to Jerry. “Go get some peroxide and bandages.”

Jerry took the coat, holding it between two fingers, and frowned. “Well, this is ruined.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s ugly.”

I scowled.

“And there’s a big hole in the sleeve,” Jerry said, waggling his fingers through it so I would believe him.

“Fine,” I sighed. No matter what Jerry said, I loved that coat. It was a simple, lightweight canvas accessory
, but it was easy to move in, and it made my hips look smaller. That was a win for me.

Jerry shoved the coat in the trash and then disappeared into the bathroom. Once he was gone, I risked a look at Aidan’s face. He had been angry when he killed the wraiths – and a little hopped up in the minutes after it happened. Now, though? He seemed calm. Looks could be deceiving.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“I’m fine,” Aidan replied, running his hands over my arms and shoulders as he looked for other injuries. “What hurts?”

I didn’t think everything was an appropriate answer, so I shrugged. “My arm.”

Aidan wrinkled his nose as he took a closer look at the shredded skin on my elbow. “I can see that. Once we clean it out it should be okay. It’s going to hurt for a few days, though.”

That was better than the alternative.

“What else hurts?” Aidan asked.

Since I had been running on adrenaline, I didn’t have time to think about it before. Now that he mentioned it, though, some definite aches and pains were starting to make themselves known.

“My knee,” I admitted.

“This one?” Aidan moved his hands down gently, making sure he wasn’t about to cause me undue pain. Once his hands hit a sore spot, though, I couldn’t help but yelp. “Sorry,” Aidan said. “You need to take your pants off.”

“Um, no.”

Aidan held his hands up. “I’m your brother – and I’m gay. Trust me, I don’t want to see anything you have to offer.”

He had a point.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “This is still all kinds of weird.”

“We could go to the hospital,” Aidan offered. “Unfortunately, once your name is flagged in the system – looking like someone beat the crap out of you, by the way – that’s probably going to show up in whatever little database Detective
Dinglefritz is using to monitor you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled my pants down – silently thanking the gods (yes, all of them) that I had worn boy short panties instead of a thong today.
“Detective Dinglefritz?”

“That’s his new name,” Aidan growled.

It fit.

Aidan helped me pull the jeans off the rest of the way when fatigue forced me to sink back down onto the couch. There was an ugly red welt growing across my right knee. The skin wasn’t broken, but it was going to hurt in the morning.
Aidan’s face was almost as red as my knee when he saw it – but I could tell it was rage fueling him.

“I’m going to beat that guy to within an inch of his life,” he said.

“Who? You already killed them.”

“Not them,” Aidan said.
“Detective Dinglefritz. This is all his fault.”

I wasn’t Griffin’s biggest fan right now, but even I couldn’t fathom how this was his fault.
“How so?”

“If you hadn’t been mad at him you wouldn’t have yelled at me and stormed out into a big wraith trap,” Aidan replied.

That sounded reasonable.

“Fine, we’ll go with that.”

“I TALKED
to Dad,” Aidan said the next morning. He had insisted on spending the night, so all three of us had slept in my bedroom because Aidan refused to leave my side and Jerry didn’t want to be alone in case wraiths infiltrated the condo in the middle of the night.

The three of us were now sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast.

“What did he say?”

“He’s not happy,” Aidan replied.

One look at his face told me that was an understatement. “Well, we’ve killed three wraiths in less than forty-eight hours; that’s got to make him happy.”

Aidan cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s the way he sees it.”

“What else did he say?”

“We have to be there for dinner tonight because he wants to talk about things,” Aidan said. “Oh, and you’re excused from work for the next few days.”

“I’m fine,” I protested.

“It took you five minutes to walk the twenty feet from your bedroom to the kitchen this morning,” Aidan pointed out. “And you stopped drinking liquids last night because it hurt too much to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh, God,” Jerry said, smacking the side of his face with his hand. “Does it burn when you pee? Did Detective Dinglefritz give you the clap?”

It wasn’t funny, but I couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up.

“Not because of that,” Aidan snapped. “Because it hurts for her to sit down on the toilet. She’s a girl, they don’t go standing up.”

Realization – and relief – washed over Jerry’s face. “Well, that’s good to know.”

In what world? I was uncomfortable with the conversation thread, though, so I changed it. “You didn’t tell him anything else, did you?”

Aidan looked confused. “Like what? If you’re asking
whether I told him about Jerry and me, that would be a big, fat no. It’s none of his business. It’s none of any of their business. And, quite frankly, I’m going to be pissed off if you tell them. I’ll tell them when I’m ready.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

I was really close to hating men again – even when the man presently irritating me was acting like a woman.

“I think she’s talking about Detective Dinglefritz,” Jerry supplied.

“Oh,” Aidan said. “No, of course I didn’t tell Dad about that ass sleeping with you and then ditching you the next morning. He’d have a heart attack.”

Well, that was a relief.

“I told Redmond, though,” Aidan added. “He’s planning revenge even as we speak.”

Crap.