Flight from Mayhem (27 page)

Chai vocalized a question that I was thinking but hadn't wanted to ask. “What was your argument about?”

Tonya shrugged. “Does it really matter?” After a moment, she added, “My mother wanted me to go to college. Something she had never been able to do. I wanted to get married to my boyfriend. He was a pretty rough character and I was caught up in the excitement of being a rebel. And then he was caught trying to rob a bank and went to prison. I tried to defend him to Penelope, but she rubbed it in my face. I hated that she was right. I didn't want to admit that she had seen through him and that I hadn't. So I picked a fight and it escalated.”

“Family dynamics are never easy,” Ralph said, frowning. “I know, I'm going through a situation right now.”

“Family dynamics make for damned rough complications. Anyway, Penelope told me that I had to decide how I wanted to live my life. I could straighten up and take responsibility, or I could live it as a reactionary, rebelling against authority just for the sake of rebelling. I got pissed, and she told me to make a choice, so I packed a suitcase and took off. I crashed on a friend's couch in Aberdeen until I could find a job. Over the next few years I tried to sort out my feelings. Finally, I realized what an ass I had been and that Penelope had just wanted to make my life a little easier. So I went home, expecting her to jump for joy. When she didn't, I realized that some fences are hard to mend.”

As I listened to Tonya speak, it occurred to me that quite a lot of people had bad relationships with their parents. I had always assumed that it was easier among humans and Fae than among dragons, but apparently I was wrong. Family drama was family drama no matter where you were.

Tonya let out a soft laugh, then shrugged. “At least we ended on decent terms, even if things were never the way
they had been before I left. In fact, if I'm honest with myself, they weren't all that great, so I guess we ended better than we started. I always blamed her for driving my father away, but the truth is he just wasn't cut out to be a parent or a husband. He didn't even come to her funeral, although I notified him when she died. He sent me a sympathy card, but he didn't offer to come. I guess I'm alone, really.”

I realized Tonya was as lonely as I had been. Oh, she had friends in Port Townsend, but I had the feeling that, deep down, she felt isolated.

Wanting to change the mood, needing to lighten things up a little, I glanced at the clock again. It was eleven thirty. “I kind of want to go spy on Bette, to see if anybody takes the bait today.”

“I don't advise that,” said Ralph. “We have no way of knowing if he's going to be there today—the doppelgänger, that is. And frankly, I don't trust you to spy on the situation without giving yourself away.”

Tonya let out a sigh. “I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling tired. Ralph, if you would call the police in Port Townsend, I would appreciate it. You have my permission to forward any of the e-mails and the letters to them that they might need. Jack is scaring me.” She gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, then waved at Chai and Ralph before disappearing up the stairs to her bedroom.

After she was gone, Ralph motioned for me to sit down. “I didn't want to scare her while she was here, but the truth is this guy is a real nut job. I'm afraid for her life. I'm going to call the cops, and fill them in on everything. But for now, she needs to stay here.”

I could tell he wanted to say something else, and I thought I knew what it was. “You think he might have followed her down here? Do you think he knows she's here?”

Slowly, Ralph nodded. “I'm pretty sure that he's kept close tabs on her. I doubt if she made a move over the past
month that he hasn't noticed. In fact, I'm going to talk to Patrick and suggest that he sweep her house. I'm not a betting man, but I'll give you good odds that Skelton has bugged her house, if not installed a secret camera somewhere. From the nuances in the letters, I think he has erotomania. And that hardly ever ends well.”

“What's erotomania?” I wasn't familiar with all of the terms for stalkers and perverts.

Chai broke into the conversation. He had been listening from the door to the kitchen. “Someone who believes that the object of their affection is in love with them, when in fact the person may not even know they exist.”

“Oh, lovely.”

I yawned. Normally I didn't go to bed until around one thirty or two
P.M.
, but lately, things hadn't been all that normal. I found myself rubbing my eyes, as Chai leaned down behind my chair, his hands resting lightly on my shoulders.

“Little Sister, why don't you get some sleep? Go to bed early and rest. Ralph and I will finish up here, and then he can go home and sleep, too. Everything will be okay, wait and see.” His hands were warm against the tops of my shoulders and I found myself starting to drift.

“I think I might do that. If anybody calls and it's important, wake me up. Otherwise I'm going to set my alarm for six
P.M.
and get some extra sleep.”

As I dragged myself up the stairs to my bedroom, I tried to sort out my feelings. I was worried about Tonya; I was upset over what had happened to Mary. I was mourning the bones of a child that I had never known. I was in a relationship with someone and feeling the first pangs of love, and had no clue of how to handle them. All the emotions swept in like a towering wave to wash over me and as I crawled beneath the covers, the sheets smooth against my skin, I wanted nothing more than to be wandering alone on the shore, unfettered by all these feelings.

*   *   *

C
hai woke me
up. At first, I wasn't sure what was going on because I wasn't used to seeing him in my bedroom. Normally, I woke from sleep as quickly as I fell into it. Head on the pillow, eyes closed. But I felt groggy and out of sorts as his voice penetrated the layers of fog in my mind.

“Shimmer, it's time to wake up. You need to come downstairs. Glenda's here and she wants to talk to you.”

Glenda?
Glenda who? And then the name pierced the fog and I realized who he was talking about. I shot up out of bed so fast that I almost knocked him over. It didn't even occur to me that I was standing there naked until Chai raked his gaze over me, a peculiar grin on his face.

“Oh, stop that. I know you don't think about me that way.” I pushed past him and stomped over to my dresser, yanking out a pair of panties. As I slipped them on, snapping them tight around my hips, Chai let out a low chuckle.

“No, in truth I don't. But that doesn't stop me from looking. Face it, Shimmer. You're a gorgeous woman—dragon—and it's not my fault that my parts stand at attention when I see you naked. But you can trust that I'll never make an effort to act on it.”

We stood there staring at each other, an awkward silence suddenly filling the room. Chai had never really remarked on my looks before, other than to tell me I was pretty or that the outfit I was wearing looked good. He swallowed, blushing.

“Well, then . . . I'd better get dressed.”

Looking relieved, he headed for the door. “I think that's best. I don't think the bitch from hell is going away until she talks to you. I could probably take care of her, if you wanted. But somehow I think that might make more trouble than it would be worth.” Abruptly, he turned and strode out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Muttering a few choice curses, I shoved my feet through the leg holes of my jeans and drew them up, fastening the snap
and zipping them quickly. I hurriedly hooked my bra and then slipped on a sweater, adjusting the cowl so that it wasn't choking me. I ran a brush through my hair to smooth it back, and thought about putting on boots, but I decided that it was my house, damn it, and if I wanted to go barefoot I would.

As I dashed down the staircase, I heard Tonya moving around in her room. I wanted to get Glenda out of there before she came down because I didn't trust Glenda around humans. I hurried into the living room, and sure enough—there she was. Decked out in her finest leather pants and halter top, wearing snakeskin ankle boots with heels a mile high, and carrying what looked like a high-end designer bag, Glenda was leaning against the back of the sofa, staring around the room with a smirk.

“What do you want?” I wasn't awake enough to be friendly, and I wasn't friendly enough to be polite.

“Is that how you greet all your houseguests?” She flashed me a smile but I could sense the bared teeth behind it. “I think we need to have a little talk.”

“Make an appointment at the office.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the wall, looking her up and down. When I really took the time to look at her, her beauty felt just a little too jaded. The expression in her eyes was a little too weary. I realized that Glenda wasn't just angry, she was tired.

“You'd like that, wouldn't you? I'm going to tell you this once: Break it off with Alex. He's coming back to me sooner or later, and the quicker you let go of him, the less it's going to hurt.”

“For your information, Alex and I have agreed to be exclusive. That doesn't sound like someone who wants to run back to their ex. And that's something you, as a succubus, can never, ever give him.” Two could play the snarky game. And I could play it better than she could.

“And I suppose like a good little dragon you said yes. That's all well and good, but he's going to get bored. I know Alex,
and he needs more excitement in this life than you can provide. I wanted to give you the chance to withdraw gracefully, but I see that you're not interested in listening to reason.”

I wondered if she really believed what she was saying. There had to be a part of her that knew Alex was done with her. “Are you serious? Do you really believe what you're saying? I don't understand you, Glenda. You weren't happy with him. He was miserable, so why do you want him back?”

“Who gives a damn about whether we were
happy
? Happiness is an illusion. The only thing that matters is that Alex is
mine
and you're trespassing on private property.” Her voice was so bitter that I knew there had to be something else behind this.

“Why are you so pissed off at me? I didn't steal him from you.” I shifted, wanting the conversation to be over with as soon as possible.

“What you did was worse. You encouraged him to leave me. And so did Bette, that old bitch. You're both going to be sorry.” And with that, she reached into her purse and pulled out something wrapped in her hand. With a quick flick of the wrist, she sent it flying.
A rock. Damn.
And then, before I could make a move, the rock smashed through the central glass in my aquarium.

I let out a scream as hundreds of gallons of water began to pour into my living room along with all my fish, including Coolray, my pet jellyfish. Glenda laughed as the rush of water rapidly began to saturate my floors, carpeting, and furniture. Then, before I could attack her, she vanished.

At that moment Tonya appeared on the stairs, her eyes wide. “What the hell is going on?” And then she saw what was happening and stopped in her tracks.

Chai had already sprung into action, grabbing a pan as he tried valiantly to save some of my fish. With relief, I saw him scoop up Coolray, but there were so many other fish swimming around my living room that I knew we wouldn't be able to catch them all before they died.

Anger ricocheted through me, breaking my paralysis. I headed to the kitchen in search of another pan. And then there was a zap as a jolt ran through me. The water had managed to short out some of the electronics in the room, splashing against the outlets that were placed lower on the wall. The jolt didn't hurt me, and it certainly wouldn't affect Chai, but I yelled for Tonya to stay where she was. I crawled on the sofa to get away from the ankle-deep water that was now spreading into the kitchen.

“Motherfucking son of a bitch,” I shouted as fish began to float to the surface. The electrical shorts had apparently been enough to kill some of them. “I am going to kill that bitch of a succubus, if it's the last thing I do.”

At that moment, my cell phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. It was Ralph. As I jabbed the Talk button, Chai let out another shout and I glanced over in his direction. He had managed to reach the stairs, where my octopus was trying to pull itself out of the water. Grateful that Wriggly had survived, I brought the phone to my ear.

“Ralph, I'm going to have to talk to you later. We have something of an emergency going on here.”

“Unless somebody's dead, you need to get to the office
now
. I just stopped by Bette's houseboat. Somebody tore up the place, and I can't find her anywhere. Her cell phone was on the floor, smashed to bits. I have a feeling our doppelgänger figured out our plan. I think it abducted her.”

I stared at the phone, panic washing over me. Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Setting down the pan, I turned to Chai and Tonya. “The doppelgänger has Bette.” And then, overwhelmed by everything that had happened, I burst into tears.

C
hai was the
first to speak. “Get moving. Tonya and I will take care of this mess, and then I will meet you at the office. Just go.”

“I can't drive, I don't have my license yet and I don't have a car.” Furious that I had let it go this long, I waded through the ankle-deep water toward the front door. I had no clue where my purse was and I didn't have time to look for it.

“Let me grab my purse, I'll drive you.” Tonya raced back up the stairs.

I yanked open the front door and a rush of water flooded out and down the stairs, swirling around my ankles as it flowed out of the living room. I ignored the fact that my fish were splashing around, trying to breathe, and that my jeans were soaked through, and took the porch stairs in a single jump, landing on the sidewalk below. Tonya was right behind me, keys in one hand, my purse in the other. As she tossed me the bag, she held out her key fob, unlocking the car doors. I slid into the passenger side and fastened my seat
belt. She slammed the door, jamming the keys into the ignition as she turned the engine. Without another word, she eased out of the driveway and we headed toward the office.

We were halfway there when I managed to find my voice. “I knew it was a bad idea. I knew we shouldn't have let her go ahead with it. Alex won't be able to wake up for hours. What the hell are we going to do?”

“We'll take things one step at a time. First, you'll call Chase Johnson. You tell him what's going on. They will probably meet you over at her boat, to make sure that it wasn't some run-of-the-mill burglar. You should check the community center as well. Someone there might have seen something. But you need to stay calm because panic isn't going to help anything.”

She was right, all panic would do would be to make things worse. I did my best to calm my breathing and clear my head.

“I don't understand how the creature knew what we were up to. If Bette never said who she worked for, why would it be suspicious? Or was it just in a panic, looking for a new victim as soon as possible?”

“I don't know, and there's no way to tell at this point. We just have to focus on finding her.” She paused. “I should have brought my cards with me. Maybe Chai can bring them down to the office?”

“I'll give him a call. He can just lock up the house and we'll deal with the mess later.” All my anger at Glenda had vanished for the moment, overwhelmed by my sorrow over my fish and my worry about Bette. I pulled out my phone. Chai answered almost immediately. “Hey, lock the doors and bring Tonya's cards to the office, would you?”

“Of course. I'll meet you there.” He hung up before I could say anything else.

Unfortunately, traffic was thick, and there had been a nasty fender bender in the middle of an intersection. As we sat there waiting for the tow trucks to clear the area, I began
to fret. We were still far enough from the office that it would take me a while to get there if I ran, but there was no way of knowing how long it was going to take for us to get through the quagmire of traffic.

“Some days it feels like everything is just falling apart,” Tonya said. “Just breathe, and we'll get through this as soon as we can.”

“Does this happen to humans a lot? Everything happening at the same time?” Right now, Earthside looked far less glamorous than it had twenty-four hours ago.

Tonya gave me a sideways look. “I know you're grumpy, and I know it's because you're scared for Bette and you're mad at Glenda. But sometimes, shit just happens. It's part of living in the human world. Don't dragons have the same problem?”

I didn't want to admit it, but finally I nodded. “I guess we do. I've just never been part of society enough to notice. Whenever anything went wrong after I left the orphanage, it was easy enough to just pick up stakes and move on, to leave the chaos behind.”

“You really didn't have any roots back in the Dragon Reaches, did you?”

I ducked my head, staring at my hands. After a few minutes, I answered. “Not really. Once the Lost and Foundling releases you, you're on your own. And if you have no background and no relatives, you're really and truly alone. I would sometimes wander the countryside for months without speaking to a single person. I kept to myself and kept away from the populated areas. I didn't mind so much, usually. I'm good with my own company. But sometimes, I would pass by an isolated house or a dreyerie and I would see the lights inside, and it would hit me how much I wanted a home of my own. Just to gather around a table with a group of people who wanted me there. Those times, they were hard.”

Tonya said nothing and I glanced over at her. I was surprised to see a single tear trickling down her cheek. “Are you all right?”

She sniffled and dashed away the tear. “I'm just sorry that you had to go through that. And given the life span of dragons, even though you're young, it sounds like you have spent so many years alone. I'm glad you're here now, and I'm glad that you have friends. People you care enough about drop everything and run to help. And you know, if something happened to you, we would come running.”

The tow trucks eased the cars out of the center of the road as we sat there. Another couple of minutes and the congestion began to thin out as we edged forward, turning onto a side street. Another five minutes and we were traveling at a decent clip down a back road. And a few minutes after that, Tonya pulled into the parking lot at the office. We dashed out of the car and into the building.

Ralph was waiting at the front desk. He glanced at us—both Tonya and I had jeans that were soaked up past our knees. Chai was leaning against Bette's desk, Tonya's cards in hand. He thrust them at her and she grabbed them and headed into one of the conference rooms. Ralph and I followed, with Chai behind us.

“Chai told me what happened at your house. I'm sorry. Glenda's off her rocker for sure. Will insurance cover the damage?”

“I have no idea. I don't exactly have insurance against an angry succubus.” I shrugged. “But leave that for later. It doesn't matter right now. Tell us what happened with Bette.”

“I headed over to her houseboat. I knew she was supposed to leave for the community center before I got there, but I had borrowed a book from her that she asked me to return. She told me just to leave it in the box she set out for packages next to her door. But when I got there the door was ajar, and I knew something was wrong. Bette never leaves her houseboat unlocked when she's gone. When I peeked in, I saw the place was trashed.”

“How do you know it was the doppelgänger? How do you know it wasn't some burglar that broke in?”

“Her cell phone was on the floor and it had been smashed. I called down to the community center and asked if she was there. They said she never showed up. I looked everywhere in the boat and she was nowhere to be found. Her purse was missing, as well. I know, because she's very attached to that leopard-print satchel and never goes anywhere without it. I couldn't find it anywhere. I also found a roll of duct tape on the floor. It wasn't new—about half of it looks to be missing.”

“Have you called Chase yet?”

Ralph nodded. “He and his men are on their way to her boat. I didn't want to leave the office without someone here. Tonya, do you mind staying here in case someone calls? Shimmer and I should head over to Bette's boat and meet the cops there.”

“Not at all. Go. Take Chai with you, since Alex is still asleep.” She glanced at the clock. “When is sunset tonight?”

“Around seven fifty. Damn daylight saving time.” Ralph pushed back his chair. “Chai, Shimmer, let's get moving. Tonya, in case anybody calls about Bette, or on the off chance that she manages to get a call through to us, let us know immediately.”

As we headed out the door, I found myself praying that a burglar had found Bette at home. Because she stood a better chance against a thief than against the doppelgänger.

*   *   *

C
hase Johnson and
his men were waiting at the boat for us. I had been to Bette's houseboat a few times, and had seriously thought about buying one for myself. But I needed more space, and I would never be happy being cramped inside such a small vessel. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a boat that I could take out into the sound to make it easier when I wanted to go swimming in my natural form.

“I'll wait on the dock—that place looks too small to fit me along with everybody else,” Chai said.

We nodded, leaving him right outside as the rest of us cautiously entered the boat, trying not to disturb anything.

Chase motioned us in. “Come on in. We've taken all the evidence we can find. There are so many fingerprints in here that it would be useless to check them all. Anyway, we're pretty sure it's the doppelgänger.”

My blood froze. “Why do you say that?”

“First thing, I called the bank. Her savings account has been wiped clean, at least the one attached to her checking. Apparently she had several other accounts, and those are still safe. I told the bank to freeze all of her other assets.”

“Then the creature was looking for money as quick as he could get it. How the hell did he work so fast? Wait . . . she never made it to the Community Action Council. So . . . it had to be waiting for her.” We explained to Chase what our plan had been.

“I wish you had checked with me first. But then again, I'm not sure what else we could've done. Are you sure that she wasn't in contact with the doppelgänger before this and didn't know it? That it didn't overhear her talking about the case?”

I thought it over. Who had been around when we had been making plans? Tonya, but there was no worry with her. No, there had been somebody else . . . someone who . . .

“There's only been one person that I can think of who knows about all of this. And who might know that Bette was going to try to lure the creature out. But there is no way that she would betray us.” I glanced over at Ralph. “I'm thinking of Gerta, the Golden Frog. She was there when we were talking about this, although I think that Bette had taken her in the back to lie down.”

Ralph paled. “I think I'm having the beginnings of a horrible thought. We need to contact Talamh Lonrach Oll. We need to find out if Gerta is still out there.”

“What's going on?” I wasn't tracking his thought process.

“What if the doppelgänger was still there when we got
to Stone Weaver's house? What if it had killed not only Stone Weaver, but Gerta?”

I felt like he had punched me in the gut. Slowly lowering myself into a chair, I whispered, “Oh no. You're thinking that we brought back the doppelgänger instead of Gerta? Please don't tell me that we could have made such a huge mistake. How could she have cried golden tears? I didn't think that doppelgängers could assume the powers of the creatures they kill and mimic.”

“There's a whole lot we don't know about them.” Ralph was growing more pale by the second. “And when you think about it, we jumped to the idea that we're dealing with the doppelgänger. Suppose there are more types than one? Suppose that we are dealing with a creature that has powers similar to a doppelgänger but isn't the same? What then?”

His suppositions ricocheted through me. He was right. We hadn't even bothered to think of any other possibilities. We had jumped directly on the idea that we were dealing with a doppelgänger, and even then—we had assumed we knew everything that doppelgängers were capable of. I let out a sigh and stared at the table, not knowing what to say.

Chase was listening to us, and now he leaned his hands on the table, staring into my eyes. “Do you mean to tell me that you might have made a mistake? That we might not be dealing with a doppelgänger at all?”

“It appears that might be the case. I'm not sure.” I stumbled over my words. If only Alex were here to take control of the situation. He knew how to talk to humans better than I did. And Ralph wasn't being much help. While the man was brilliant, he was socially awkward and right now he seemed wrapped up in tapping away on that stupid tablet of his. I swallowed, trying to think of something to say.

“One thing is obvious,” Chase said, his voice softening. “Whatever we are facing, it can take on the visage of its victims. And it's dangerous, and greedy.”

“Do you think Bette's phone was broken by accident, or
on purpose?” I tried to think of some practical question that could give us some sort of information or lead.

“Oh, I'm pretty sure that it was broken on purpose. It looks like something heavy and hard stepped on it. I'm guessing somebody wearing boots.” He relented then, sitting down opposite me. “So tell me, if it's not a doppelgänger, then what else could it be?”

That was a question to which I had no answer. I looked over at Ralph. “Do you have any idea?”

He shrugged. “Offhand, no. But you know what? Tonya, who is back at the office, has that wonderful bestiary. Remember? The book she had up in Port Townsend?”