Lockhart's Legacy (Vespari Lockhart Book 1) (14 page)

“Oh,” she said, seeing him. She relaxed and dropped her rifle back to the ground, sitting upright. “You’re back.”

“Y-y-you let me wander,” he replied.

“Yeah. I
let
you. You don’t know what you were like.” Wynonna shook her head. “Was it worth it? You see anything worthwhile?”

“Yeah, w-w-we were headed in the right d-d-d-direction, before we g-got off course”

“And whose fault is that?”

He ignored her and pointed toward Missoula. “Let’s s-s-stop off there for the night.”

His apprentice stood up and stretched her arms over her head. “Fine by me. I could use a good bed for the night.”

Lockhart’s stomach growled.

“And sounds like you could use some food,” Wynonna said. “I managed to get you to swallow some water, but you wouldn’t eat.”

The vespari nodded. “Then l-l-lets go.”

Each gathered up their things and soon left the spot where Lockhart had woken up from his mad lotus vision. They entered Missoula just before the sun crept below the horizon’s line, and they headed straight for the inn clearly marked at the center of town. On the way there, they didn’t see many people. Missoula hadn’t changed much since his last visit. The town was small even for the standards of the desert. Along the way, he spotted the saloon, the general store, and the well where he and Wynonna both refilled their canteens.  Once they were set, they entered the inn and found a man behind a counter.

“We n-n-need a room,” Lockhart told the man, wasting no time.

“Make that two rooms,” Wynonna corrected him. “We’re not sharing.”

The vespari looked at his apprentice, raising an eyebrow.

“I need my own bed, Cory,” she told him. “You talk in your sleep.”

Lockhart relented before he even began. He nodded to the innkeeper.

“Alright,” the man told them. “That’ll be two silver rounds then.”

Lockhart pulled a single round from his pouch and then waited for Wynonna to do the same. She dropped hers on the counter in front of Lockhart and turned around, leaning her back against the counter. The vespari picked hers up and handed both to the innkeeper. The man behind the counter then reached down and grabbed two keys. Just then, an attractive young woman came down the stairs.

“Ah. Dorothy,” the innkeeper said to her. “Would you show these two to their rooms?”

The young woman nodded and took the keys from the innkeeper. “Of course.” She turned to Lockhart and Wynonna. “Please follow me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Wynonna said, moving ahead of Lockhart.

He trudged along behind the two women, as they walked up the creaky, wooden stairs. At the top, Dorothy guided them down a hall, which had room doors on one side and windows out to the town on the opposite. Dorothy soon stopped at a door and unlocked it with one of the keys.

“Here is the first room,” the young woman said.

“You take this one, Cory,” Wynonna told Lockhart, not taking her eyes off the young woman. “Dorothy can show me to the next one.”

“Fine,” he replied. “W-w-which one w-w-will you be in?”

“She will be around the corner, two doors down,” Dorothy informed him, handing Lockhart his key.

The vespari took it and entered the room. As he did, Wynonna looped her arm through Dorothy’s.

“Now let’s see if we can find this room, huh?” she told the young woman.

Too tired to stay awake much longer, Lockhart closed his bedroom door, dropped his bag to the ground, and shed a few articles of clothing before collapsing on the bed. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

***

Early the next morning, Lockhart woke to a ray of light shining in through his window. He groaned, opening his eyes and shifting in an attempt to avoid the sun’s glaring light. It wasn’t enough, so he forced himself to sit upright. Yawning and scratching his scalp, he stretched out his legs, which had hung partially off the bed all night. After picking up his hat that had fallen off upon hitting the mattress, Lockhart stood and moved to the door. Plopping his hat on his head, he opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

Ready to leave, he needed to get Wynonna up, so they could get on the move. The mad lotus-induced visions had left him a trail to follow, and he didn’t want to let the beldams slip any further away than they already had. Finding the door that Dorothy had indicated, Lockhart rapped his knuckles against the wood. After a few minutes, there was no response. Maybe she’d got up first and had let him sleep. Either way, she didn’t seem to be there. Walking toward the stairs, he soon looked over the railing to see a few other travelers who were staying in the inn. They were eating breakfast at a series of tables set out on the first floor, and Dorothy served them plates and glasses of water. Maybe the young woman had seen Wynonna, he thought.

Heading down the stairs, the vespari approached her as she left a plate on one of the tables. “You s-s-seen the woman I c-c-came in with?” he asked.

Dorothy looked flustered and rapidly shook her head. “No. Of course not. Why would I have seen her?”

“Uh, I j-j-just thought--”

“I haven’t seen her. Not since last night.” With that, Dorothy turned and left, disappearing into the kitchen.

Wondering what that strange encounter had been about, he shook his head and decided to forget Wynonna for the moment and go check the general store for supplies. With his bullet count dwindling, he really needed to find more. The only problem was that he was now down to four silver rounds after the night at the inn. If the store even had any bullets of his caliber in, hopefully those would be enough.

Leaving the inn behind, Lockhart went outside and headed down the street. Though the sun was out, there was still a chill to the air. The combination of being that far north and the early morning hour stood in stark contrast to the typical desert temperatures, but he wasn’t complaining. He’d had more than enough heat for a lifetime.

Within a few minutes, he arrived at the store and found the owner to be in the process of opening it. The man stood at the door and unlatched the lock before turning around and heading back to his stocks. Lockhart stepped onto the wooden porch in front of the store and twisted the knob, swinging the door open. The general store owner turned around in surprise.

“Oh,” the man said. “Didn’t expect anyone in here so soon.”

“L-l-looking for bullets,” he told him.

The storeowner narrowed his eyes and looked him over. “Bullets? What for?”

“I’m a vespari,” Lockhart said.

The man’s eyes opened wide now. “A vespari, you say? You here cause of the killings?”

Lockhart shook his head. “Didn’t know a-a-about a-a-any killings?”

“But you’re going to investigate, aren’t you?”

“No t-t-time. Heading north.”

The man sighed and moved behind the counter. “Well, we’ve got bullets, but I’m afraid they aren’t for sale.”

“Why not?”

He placed his hands flat on the counter. “Seems the only leverage I got. Our people died. Our town’ll die too if someone doesn’t do something. You take care of our problem, I’ll see that you get a reward and I’ll give you what bullets I have too.”

Lockhart now took his turn to sigh. He could use more bullets, and he certainly needed more silver rounds, but his time might very well be running short. There was no telling when the beldams would extract their next batch of energy from him. Nor did he have any idea how long until they sucked him dry. Regardless, he wouldn’t be able to kill the beldams, let alone the Gentleman, if he didn’t have any bullets when he got there. Besides, he couldn’t stand to take on any more guilt. He knew he had to help those people.

“F-f-fine,” Lockhart eventually replied. “I’ll take the j-j-job. What is it?”

“You may know we have a quarry just outside town,” the man began.

Lockhart nodded.

“Well, a group of workers were killed there about a week back.”

“Where are th-th-the bodies? C-c-can I see them?”

“‘Fraid not. There wasn’t much left, and they already buried what they could find.”

“And y-y-you don’t know what k-k-k-killed ‘em?

He shook his head. “No one saw it, and no one knows what could’ve done those kinds of injuries.”

“Quarries e-e-east of town, right?”

The shop owner nodded. “If you can figure out what killed those men and deal with it, I’ll make sure to get a reward together from the others in town. I know they’ll be grateful.”

“F-f-fine,” Lockhart said. “I’ll look into it, and be back s-s-soon.”

The vespari left the general store and returned to the inn. If they really were going to hunt whatever had killed the miners at the quarry, Wynonna should be there to learn from it. He moved past the others eating on the lower level and scaled the stairs. Going to his apprentice’s door, he knocked on the wood once again. And again, there was no answer from her.

He hadn’t seen her outside, and she wasn’t in the inn’s lobby. She had to be there. He pressed his ear up to the door. He heard something inside, but he couldn’t say what. He just knew she was in there. Lockhart decided he had waited long enough. They had to go, so he tried the knob of Wynonna’s door. She hadn’t locked it. He told himself that she’d relinquished any right to privacy by wasting his time.

“Come o-o-on, Wynonna,” he said, entering. “Time to--”

Lockhart stopped, seeing his apprentice naked on the bed, sitting on top of a young man, and writhing up and down. Upon hearing him, she stopped her movement and twisted her head part way around.

“Bit busy here, Cory,” she said.

“Who’s that?” the young man under her asked.

“Shut up,” she told him. To Lockhart, “I’ll be out when I’m done here.”

Flustered, the vespari backed up and shut the door. He waited out in the hall, pacing back and forth for a few minutes. When his embarrassment subsided, irritation replaced it. He soon stopped pacing and took up a position opposite Wynonna’s room. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms, staring at the door and waiting for her to hurry up.

Another few minutes, and the door swung open. The young man, only partially clothed and looking sheepish, stepped out, refusing to make eye contact with Lockhart. He carried the rest of his clothes in his arms and disappeared down the hall, leaving the door open.

Lockhart pushed himself off the wall and stepped inside Wynonna’s room. His apprentice was only partially dressed as well, but she was finishing throwing her clothes on, when he entered.

“Ever hear of knocking, Cory?” she asked him.

“I told you not to c-call me that.” He shook his head. “And I d-d-did knock. You d-d-didn’t answer.”

“Oh, yeah?” Wynonna threw the orange and black poncho over her head and combed back her hair with her fingers. “And now you know why… Cory. I was busy.”

“Who was th-th-that?” Lockhart asked, gesturing after the young man.

Wynonna shrugged. “Some guy.”

“You d-d-don’t even know his n-n-name?”

“Didn’t need his name. Not what I was after, not that what I was after is any of your business.”

“It is my b-b-business. Y-y-you’re my apprentice. You’re m-my responsibility now.”

“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But, I think I can take care of myself. Your responsibility is to teach me how to kill monsters, not how to live my life and not who to spend my time with.” Wynonna picked up her rifle. “So, if you’re done with whatever this is, how about we keep moving, huh, Cory?”

Lockhart glared at her. He didn’t have the capacity for this. “F-f-fine,” he replied, heading out into the hall. “W-w-we’ve got a j-j-job anyway.”

Following him, Wynonna said, “I thought we were just going to keep going north.”

“General store o-o-owner has some b-b-bullets,” Lockhart explained. “Won’t sell ‘em un-un-unless we deal with something.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“D-d-don’t know yet. N-n-no one saw it.”

“How’re we supposed to figure it out then?”

“They t-t-told me w-w-where it killed last. We’ll ch-ch-check there.”

“Where?” she asked as they started down the stairs.

“Quarry outside t-t-town.”

Wynonna sighed. “Okay. Seems like a waste of time, but whatever.”

They hit the bottom steps and continued toward the door. Lockhart spotted Dorothy once again on the way out, and she gave them both the same embarrassed look as before.

“Bye, Dorothy,” Wynonna told the woman with a wink.

Dorothy blushed and turned away without saying anything.

The two got to the pair of doors, and Lockhart pulled one open, holding it for Wynonna. She didn’t seem to appreciate the gesture. She ignored the door he’d opened and instead pushed through the other, walking past him.

“I can operate a door, thanks,” she told him, as she passed.

Lockhart sighed and joined her outside. “What w-w-was that about?”

“What was what about?” Wynonna replied.

“With the g-girl.”