Mixed Feelings (Empathy in the PPNW Book 1) (19 page)

“
Mrs. Kraus, hello. I
’m Mel and this is Gwen. We
spoke on the phone?”

“
Come in,
”
Mrs. Kraus said
absently
,
walking off into
the house
.

“
Okay,
” Mel said, throwing me a confused look.

“Something’
s
not right here
,
” I
whispered. Alarm bells were
clanging
through my head, making me
want to turn and run back to the car. Mel ignored m
e,
following
Mrs. Kraus
inside
. I
swore under my breath and went after him.
Mel wasn
’t worried and, while I was sure
this was a very bad idea, I figured I needed to trust the man. He was a
werewolf and a private eye; he’d probably walked into stranger situations and
come out unscathed.

“Would you like tea?” Mrs.
Kraus asked in her hollow voice. I looked around,
finding
nothing suspicious in the
tidy living room or the kitchen beyond. Mel followed her, completely at ease,
but I hung back for a few seconds, pushing my empathy outward in an attempt
to figure
out what was going on.

My range isn
’t huge but I can shift it, pushing
the radius outward with myself at the center or at the edge. I pushed it to the
far end of the house and found that I could feel exactly one set of emotions
within my range. They weren’t human and, while they felt strangely familiar, I
couldn’t have put a label on them if my life depended on it.

My heart pounded as I started
to wonder if maybe it would.

“
Mel?
” I called, backing towards the door. He twisted slightly to look my way
just
as a man stepped around the
corner ahead of him, a baseball bat in his hand. “
Mel!
”

He flinched
at my tone, turning
back toward the kitchen just
in time to get a face full of lumber.

I yelped, darting
forward on instinct, even
though there was no earthly thing I could do to help. The man moved with the
swing,
shifting
his position as if he’d hit
Mel again. To my surprise, Mel didn’t go down. He stumbled a bit, brought a
hand to his face as if he’d been hit with a spitball to the cheek
,
and swore, but he didn’t fall. When the man
went
to swing again, Mel
straightened,
towering over
him
,
and
growled
.

I stopped moving immediately,
lurching
as the sound seeped under my
skin like smoke, settled in my belly like lead. Mel’s attacker didn’t seem to
notice. His eyes were unfocused, staring into the distance as he kept swinging.
This time, Mel caught the bat. As Mel yanked the weapon out of the smaller
man’s grip, a girl spoke from behind me.

“I had not anticipated a
werewolf,” she said. Her voice was light, a bit bored. I didn’
t ge
t the chance to turn and see
what she looked like; her arms came around me quickly, one wrapping around my
waist, one pressing over my eyes. I shrieked, tried to struggle, but her grip
was iron. Her fingers parted slightly over my left eye, letting me see Mel as
he
turned
to me, shock naked on his
face. He growled again but my captor
wasn
’t intimidated
.

“Hand the bat back or I break
her neck.”

I whimpered. Mel watched me,
tension singing through him. He fought with the decision while I str
uggled
, my normal irritation with him amplified tenfold by
the situation
.

“
Just
give it back!”
I
urged,
at a loss as to why he would even consider keeping the damn thing. The attack
had seemed to irritate him at best, but
I
was in mortal peril. Mel
flicked his gaze to my face briefly before holding the bat out to the side. His
attacker
took
it,
lifting it
across his shoulder, though he didn’t swing.

The girl waved her hand
forward, leaving my face uncovered for a moment.

“
Vis,
” she hissed, flicking her fingers like she was flinging water. The man
shifted his grip on the bat and swung again in one smooth move. This time, Mel
went down hard.

“
No, no, no,
”
I
wailed,
struggling
in the girl’s grip as if she might let me run to Mel and see if he was okay.
Without him, I was toast.

“
Better,
” she said. “
Now we
’
r
e all alone.” We both winced at the sound of a window
breaking and watched in stillness as the man with the bat
crumpled
in a heap on the floor.
A colorful,
feather-tipped dart
stuck
out of his cheek. “
Or not.
”

The room was silent for a few
seconds before a familiar voice called, “
Gwen, you okay?
”

I had to take a second to
process before I called, “
Chloe?
”

“Stop speaking,” my captor
snapped
. Her hand shifted from my belly upward and she
gripped the sides of my face hard enough that I was afraid my skull would pop.
I let out a whine and reached up in an attempt to pry her off, but her grip was
no less sure than before. She mumbled one more word I didn’t understand and
it
speared a shard of pain through my head. My vision
short-circuited and everything went black.

Chapter Fourteen

This time, I woke up in my
own bed. I was alone, it was dark, but I could hear the TV in the living room.
My head was killing me and my stomach felt cavernous. I wanted ice cream,
candy, sugar. As I rolled onto my side to clutch at my head and whimper, I felt
Chloe close in from the hall.

“
Gwen?
”

In response, I let out a
wordless groan.

“
Good, you
are
awake,
” she said quietly. I felt
the bed sag before her hand brushed over my cheek. “
I
’m not wearing the necklace this time. Mel’s here, so I figured it’s
best he keep it.”

“What happened?”

“You were attacked. Both of
you. You’
re safe now.
”

“… did you shoot someone?”

“Tranquilized them. There’s a
difference.”

I paused to process this
information, opening my eyes to find that I was looking at her denim-clad hip. “
I don
’t know what’s going on.”

“Not surprising. Come on, Mel
should be back any minute with food and you’ll need to eat.”

That got me moving, though I
didn’t like it much. Chloe bundled me into slippers and my robe and helped me
out into the living room
,
where I sank onto the couch.
I was exhausted again—still? Who could even tell after the week I’
d had.

“Mel called Amy and she came
by, did what she could. Merrin wasn’
t answe
ring, but we did our best. Whatever got you last time,
it got you worse this time.”

“I remember…” I trailed off,
licked my lips, and swallowed
;
I could drool like a hungry
baby while asleep, but without threat to my pillow, my mouth was dry as a bone.
“I remember Mel getting hit with a bat. Then you shot—”

“
Tranq
’
d.
”

“Whatever. You were there.
And then I passed out. What happened?”

“That’s most of it. The…
girl...
that had you was scared of guns. I threatened her and
she scurried off.”

“That’s it?”

“Not really, but you’re in no
shape right now.”
The door opened and Mel came in
carrying a large paper sack, his face lighting up when
he saw me.

“Figured you for dead,
Arthur.”

“
Shut up
.
”

“
I
’
m t
he one with the food,” he
said, passing us to head into the kitchen. “
I
’d be nicer to me if I were you.”

“That doesn’
t look like a pizza
,
” I pointed out
.

“
No,
”
Chloe
agreed.
“
So?
”

“
So
unless that’s something equally as delicious,
I
’m under no obligation to be nicer,” I explained. Chloe rolled her eyes
but didn’
t
bother arguing with my logic
.
I turned to find Mel looking through my cabinets. “What’s
he doing?”

“
Well, he
’s a mature, responsible
adult, so he’s probably assuming we’re going to want to eat our food on plates
with utensils.”
Catching my look, Chloe laughed.
“Mel, just grab some forks.”

Mel turned to her. “
But
—” Pausing as he noticed my expression, he
nodded. “Right.” Within seconds, he was seated on the floor across the coffee
table from me, opening the paper bag and bringing out little cardboard boxes of
food that I recognized from one of Chloe’
s favorite pan-Asian
vegan places. I was too hungry to bother inspecting the containers; I
just
went with the one closest to me and flipped it open.
Stabbing into the mystery meal, I began shoveling it vaguely toward my mouth,
relieved when my aim was true and I didn’t mash sauce and vegetables against my
eye. After three mouthfuls, I was humming with pleasure when I figured out it
was noodles and orangey meat-replacement.
I
’d
managed to pick a container without vegetables; maybe my luck was turning.

I managed to finish off a box
and a half of food along with three wontons before Chloe patted my thigh.

“
Better?
”

“
Eh,
”
I groaned
, unwilling to say yes lest
she make me trade in my sweet and sour for cabbage and carrots. We ate in
silence for a few more minutes before the fog in my brain finally cleared enough
that I felt human again. “Explain exactly what happened today. Yesterday? How
long was I out this time?”

“Several hours.”

Something occurred to me and
I went stiff, looking at the clock. “Did we get the kid? The one Merrin—”

“They didn’t show,” Mel assured
me. “I called in another favor and had a friend patrol the area and hang around
the house in plainclothes. Francie said a woman did indeed bring her son out to
her red sedan around three-fifteen, but that she buckled him in and left
without incident.”

“What if—”

“She followed them to the
mall and made sure they were fine, and promised to check up on them for a few
days. We didn’t exactly do it the way we meant to, but we did manage to stop
another kidnapping.”

I settled back against the
couch, trying to heave out the worry still twisting my guts into knots. After a
few seconds I caught Mel’s eye again. “Do you just sleep with so many women in
hopes some of them will turn out to be cops who will do your detective work for
you?”

“Not
just
, no.” He
winked. “But that is a side benefit.”

I shook my head as if the
situation was grave. “All those poor women suffering just so you don’t have to
work hard.”

“You’ve got me all wrong,
Gwen. Working long and hard is what I do best,” Mel said, catching my eye.
Chloe laughed at the tension that ran through me, my gaze glued to his. My
brain seemed to shut down for a moment, sprinting away from the opportunity to
make another cutting remark and toward the memory of standing next to Mel in
the dark the night before.

“So,” I said, stammering for
a moment as I tried to regain my dignity. “What went down?” Realizing the
double entendre in what I’d just said, I squeezed my eyes shut. “At
the—earlier!”

Rather than look at either
one of them, I slid my empty carton onto the table and grabbed another. Chloe
let me stew for a few seconds, her emotions practically vibrating with delight
at my embarrassment. I put all my attention into picking around the vegetables
in the chow mein, refusing to admit anything pleasant about Mel had even
crossed my mind.

“I was in the car,” she said
finally, a trace of laughter still threading through her voice. “And, of
course, I didn’t know how long you guys were going to take, so I told myself, ‘
Chloe, you
’re gonna go for a walk.’”
She took a second to grab a quick bite of her food and I tried to analyze the
barest hint of anomaly I was feeling within her. She had no reason to lie and
it didn’t exactly feel like deception, but it was odd nonetheless. I decided my
brain had just been whacked around my skull too much and brushed it off as
Chloe continued.

“I was
in
front of the house when you yelled at Mel. I went up, looked through
the window to see what was going on
,
and saw
him get hit.
I went around the back to see
if I could sneak in that way, but their door was locked. I broke the window,
tranquilized the man and his wife
,
and then unlocked the door
and came in.”

“
Hold up,
” I said, swallowing hastily. “Question. Why the hell
do you have a tranq gun? Why the hell did you bring it with you?”

“You were attacked. Twice
now. I figured having some sort of protection was
smart.
”

“
But a
gun
?
” I demanded. “
You
’
re
a vegan!
”

“
I don
’t shoot animals,” Chloe said, taking a small bite of
broccoli.

“What the hell do you shoot?”

“Targets?” I could tell from
her tone she thought the question was a stupid one.
“
I
’ve been shooting since I was
little.
”

“
Tranquilizers?
”

“That was… I happened to be
carrying both.”

“Both?” I balked at her, my
brain running in circles. In less than a week, I’d run into my childhood
nightmares, been mistaken for someone with a mistress, nearly had my brain
sucked out my eyeballs—
twice!
—and considered having sex with Mel. Now I was sitting across from
the most liberal, compassionate person I’d ever met
,
talking with her about how she owns
and shoots
guns.

We
see each other nearly every day, spend countless
lunches and movie dates together, and she’s never mentioned this hobby. It made
me wonder if I should start randomly asking her if she did anything else
supremely out of character.

Chloe, you don
’t happen to collect human
heads, do you? Oh
,
no reason,
I
’m just asking
.

Dropping my gaze down to look
at my food, I let out a breath. Did it really matter that Chloe probably had a
subscription to
Guns and Gams
magazine and spent her weekends away from
me shooting things and ogling ladies? I’d known about the latter, but did I
really need to focus so hard on the former? It had saved my life, after all.

“
You okay?
”
Chloe asked, patting my knee.
“You look a little green. Did
you accidentally eat a chunk of broccoli?”

Mel chuckled around a bite of
his own food and I met Chloe’s gaze with a frown.
“Just
finish explaining what happened.”

Chloe let it go a beat, still
masking her mockery as concern before laughing and continuing her story.

“
I
came inside, hid around the corner in case I wasn’t the only one with a
gun, and told her to let you go or I’
d shoot her.
I guess she took me pretty seriously.”

“She just dropped me and
bolted?” I wondered if hitting the floor like a sack of potatoes accounted for
feeling bruised and achy.

“
Well,
not at first
.
Even after she knocked you out, she
didn
’
t
want to let you go.
You were
—
ah
—a bit too heavy for her to hold up, I guess, because when I
looked again, you two were on the floor. She had you propped up like a
human
shield and I told her again
that if she didn’t back off, I’
d shoot her.
”

“We should have called the
police,” I mumbled, irritated that Chloe had been forced to deal with my being
held hostage.
I twitched as twin
bolts
of electric displeasure arced out of Mel and Chloe to
light up my insides.

“They wouldn’t have reacted
well to finding pod-people tranquilized into oblivion, an injured werewolf on
the floor, and some crazy woman with the power to enchant a baseball bat trying
to suck your brains out through your ears.”

She had a point about the
cops, but the rest still made no sense.

“
I still don
’
t understand
why the parents called us
over and asked for our help if they were just going—”

“Those people weren’t the
Krauses
,
” Chloe explained.
“The mail on the counter and the pictures on the walls say they’re the
Windhams—I made sure they were okay before we left, by the way—and
I’m pretty sure they were just used to get to you.”

“Well, that’
s just
great
.
”
Sighing, I
plopped
my chow mein on the coffee table. “
I don
’t think I can do this anymore.”