Phoenix in My Fortune (A Monster Haven Story Book 6) (11 page)

I gave him a gentle, reassuring smile I only half felt. “The bathroom doesn’t have any windows. I’ll be fine. Call Kam. I won’t be long.”

I wasn’t fine. Once I was alone in the bathroom, a fresh bout of the shakes hit me, and I tossed my cookies something fierce. But, hey. I was in the right place for it, and I was alone, so my pride didn’t take too much of a hit. After that, the shower was even more welcome.

When I came back in, Riley had hung a blanket over the window. “You can’t see him if he can’t see you,” he said.

We’d left the curtains open intentionally before. Riley was right there with me, and Sara and Maurice were keeping a lookout, so we’d hoped we could catch Shadow Man in the act. The risk to my safety had been minimal.

But now, knowing that he could get that close without any of my protectors realizing he was there, leaving myself open to Shadow Man’s potential gaze seemed foolhardy. I still didn’t think he could get inside. He may have destroyed the magic that had kept us safe, but my doors and windows had locks on them. If he tried to get in the old-fashioned way, like a burglar, everyone would hear him.

So, covering the windows behind a double wall of curtains and a blanket was a huge relief to me. More than anything, I needed sleep. I’d been too stubborn to realize that until now.

I kissed Riley on the cheek and gestured at the pink fabric tucked over the curtain rod. “Clever. I approve.”

He yawned. “Wish I’d done it earlier.” He patted the bed next to him.

I slid in between the cool sheets and pulled close to his warm body. “How’s everything over at Mom’s?”

“Nice and quiet.” He flicked off the light. “You okay now?”

“I’m better.” I flicked my tongue over the pulse in his neck. “Not sure how I’m going to sleep, though.”

In the pitch darkness, I felt the rumble in his chest as he pulled me closer. “We’ll just have to see what we can do to tire you out then.”

Eventually, I slept better than I had in weeks.

Chapter Eleven

After the events of the previous night, Maurice decided to call in additional muscle—although muscle was more of a figurative term. Granite might have been a better description.

Maurice’s ex-wife, Pansy, was long gone, but he and his brother-in-law, Phil, were still close. Phil and Pansy were gargoyles, impossible creatures that appeared to be formed from single chunks of rock. Phil was an especially large specimen with patches of moss growing on his roughly carved face.

I adored Phil, although I couldn’t understand a damn thing he said. When gargoyles spoke, the words were English, but in general, the sentences had no meaning to a human. Maurice understood them fine. Hell, everybody understood but me—even the other two humans in the house. Riley’s reaper ring sort of acted as a universal translator, and Mom—well, Mom was better at this Aegis thing than I was, probably because she’d been at it a lot longer. She knew a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Now that we were the only two Aegises left in the world, I’d been regretting my rash decision to refuse the training the Board had wanted to give me.

So far, flailing around and going by instinct had kept me alive, so maybe the intricacies of the gargoyle language or the care and feeding of miniature unicorns shouldn’t have been a high priority.

Phil showed up in time for breakfast the morning after Shadow Man had tapped on my window. Despite all the heavy hitters we had keeping watch, Shadow Man had waltzed right up to my window without confrontation. I doubted Phil would have any more luck in spotting him, but that was okay. Having him around not only made me feel a little safer, but it made me happy, too.

I didn’t have to understand Phil’s words to understand his intent.

“Gazebo latrine!” Phil threw his arms in the air when I opened the door, then gave me a hug so gentle, his stone arms felt like they were made of supple leather.

I returned the hug, grinning. “Welcome back, Phil.”

He let me go and gave me a soft pat on the shoulder, his stony face serious. “This corndog makes an albatross look anemic.” He sighed, and a puff of dust drifted out of his left nostril. He scanned the room, then stopped, his chunky eyebrows rising in excitement. “Botox!” He’d spotted Maurice in the kitchen and lumbered off to see him.

Their voices—one low and rumbly and the other higher-pitched and excited—rang from the kitchen, two brothers who hadn’t seen each other in a while eager to catch up.

I smiled, happy to have Phil around. Slipping into my room for some quiet, I pulled out my phone and the notes Sara gave me for the wedding we were planning. The florist appointment was in two hours, and I still didn’t have a color scheme from my bride.

The phone rang so many times, I expected voicemail to kick in, but a breathless voice answered, as if she’d had to scramble to pick up. “Fiona here.”

“Fiona. Hi. This is Zoey Donovan from Happily Ever After Weddings. Do you have a moment? I need to ask you a few questions.”

Someone said something in the background, and it sounded like a hand ran over the microphone in order to mute the sound. Muffled laughter leaked through, then Fiona came back in the same breathy voice. This time, it sounded more like a Marilyn Monroe impression than someone out of breath.

“Of course. Is everything all right? How can I help?”

“Everything’s fine. But I really need some idea of your color scheme. I have to see the florist today.”

“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment. “Do you have any recommendations? I like a lot of colors. Purple. Yellow. Green. Red. How many colors can I have?”

I sat on the edge of my bed, suppressing a sigh. The only thing worse than an inflexible bride was one who didn’t know what she wanted. “It’s your wedding. You can have as many colors as you like. Personally, I’d recommend two contrasting colors and possibly an accent color. More than that can cause you to lose cohesion.”

“So, yellow, green and purple, maybe?”

Someone in the background giggled.

Maybe I’d caught her at a bad time. She seemed to have a lot going on around her. “Those are good colors. How about purple and green with yellow as an accent? Or purple and yellow with the green as an accent.”

“Hold on.” Her ridiculous, whispery voice mumbled something away from the phone, someone else answered and Fiona came back. “Purple and yellow with a lime green accent. How’s that?”

“I think that would be very pretty.” Sara would have hated it, but Sara had put me in charge, so too bad. “I’ll make it happen.”

“Wonderful. I can’t wait to see all the plans you’ve made.” The more she spoke, the more I pictured Marilyn holding her skirt down over a vent. Any second this woman would start talking about how much she adored finding new places to wear diamonds.

I held back a snicker. “If I have any more questions, is there a better time to call you? I’m afraid I caught you when you were busy.”

“No, this was fine. I just have my...assistant here with me. Any time is fine. Whatever you need.”

“All right then. Thanks so much for your help. I’ll be in touch.”

“See you real soon!” She hung up.

I decided then that journalists were weird. But I’d worked with plenty of weird people before, so this particular brand wasn’t any odder than the rest.

I stuffed my notes and phone into my magical handbag of holding and stuck my head into the hallway. “Riley, you ready?”

Riley appeared from down the hall, his hair still wet from his recent shower. “Are you sure about this shirt?” He plucked at the lime green polo shirt I’d set out for him.

I pretended to scrutinize his entire outfit, circling around him with one finger pressed against my lips. I resisted the urge to pinch his butt. “The shirt is fine, but don’t you have anything more exciting than brown shoes? Something in a purple or a lavender? Orange bowling shoes would go really nicely with these jeans.”

He glanced over his shoulder at me, his face carefully arranged to look indignant. “Are you checking out my ass? I’m not a piece of meat, you know.”

I stopped resisting and pinched. “Sure you are.”

He spun around and grabbed my wrists, his voice bellowing like a musketeer issuing a challenge to a duel. “Such insolence shall not go unpunished, madam!”

He pressed me against the wall. At first, the kiss was possessive and staged, part of the silly game we’d been playing. All at once, the mood shifted and the kiss deepened. His grip loosened on my hands, and I pulled one free to wrap my fingers in his damp hair. The scents of his shower gel and shampoo mingled together in a citrusy, clean smell that made me want to get him dirty all over again.

When he pulled away, he sounded as breathless as I felt. “But not now. Now we’ve got an appointment.” He let me go.

I made a pouty face. “Stupid florist.” I stomped out the front door, tossing my hair in my best angry supermodel impression.

We had several stops to make, but the florist was the first. It was next to a café, so Riley grabbed a table and ordered a cup of coffee while he waited for me to finish. From where he sat, he was able to see the shop’s front door. No one could go in or out without his knowledge. I was safe enough, and he would be right there if anything happened. But we were in the middle of Sausalito in daylight. Chances were slim that Shadow Man would show up in a crowd and harm me.

Besides. The appointment wouldn’t take long. I had a list.

Margy Spitzwieler always did a fabulous job on the weddings we contracted her for.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the notes I’d already prepared. “How’s this look?” I handed the paper to her.

Her mouth formed a big O and her hand grabbed mine. “What’s this I see?” She held my ring up to the light. “When did you get engaged?”

I grinned. “A couple of months ago. You remember that EMT I was dating?”

She covered my hand with both of hers and gave it a warm squeeze. “I do remember. He’s a hottie. Was it a really romantic proposal?”

I had to make an effort to keep my smile from fading at the question. Everybody wanted to know how he’d proposed. People like Margy, who’d probably never experienced anything more supernatural than mother’s intuition when her kid was sneaking a cookie two rooms away, could never hear the real story.

I couldn’t tell her that a carriage drawn by two flying horses had picked us up off the mountain top and flew us over San Francisco to look at Christmas lights from high above, circled the zoo, China Town, the piers and Ghirardelli Square, then dropped us off on top of the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the sun come up.

As the sun rose, the clouds below us had turned pink. Only the tallest buildings broke through and sat with us on top of the world in the direction of the city. In the other direction, the tips of the tallest hills grew like tiny bushes peeping through fluffy snow. We were utterly alone, the only occupants in the entire world when he dropped to one knee on the cold, painted metal walkway.

I could never tell Margy any of that.

“It was very sweet.” I hated lying. “He had the restaurant tie the ring around my napkin. He said he wanted to ask me at the beginning of dinner instead of waiting till dessert, like most people, because he was afraid he’d be too nervous to eat otherwise.” I smiled again and gently reclaimed my hand.

She made an
aww
face, like when a puppy rolled over on its back and licked a kitten’s head. “That’s adorable. What a sweetheart.”

I nodded. “I think I have to agree with you, there.” I pulled out my list. “Unfortunately, my wedding isn’t set yet. I have to do this one first.” I handed the notes to her.

She wrinkled her brow as she read. “Interesting choice of colors. I think I can work with this.” She ran her finger down the page. “You want limes and plums in the centerpieces? That’s...” She paused, looking for the right word. She didn’t find it. “Okay, then.”

I smiled. “Trust me. It’ll be fabulous.” In the car ride over, I’d worked on some of the details, since I finally knew what colors I was working with. The plums and limes were inspired, and I thought I might use it again for my own wedding.

She bobbed her head, and her blond pixie-cut fell over one eye. “A fabulous bowl of fruit.”

“I’m sure you’ll find the perfect way to set them off. You’re an artist.”

Margy’s eyes twinkled. “Leave it to me.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear.” Grinning, I glanced out the window.

My grin froze. A tall, lanky man in a trench coat the color of dried blood walked past the window, keeping pace with the crowd. As he passed me, he swung his head to look at me with his orange eyes. The slash of his mouth turned up in an ominous smile. He turned his head forward, dismissing me, and disappeared down the street into the crowd.

Sweat trickled down the back of my neck, and I glanced at my wrist as if I wore a watch. “Margy, I’m sorry to be in such a rush, but I have to get to another appointment. Do you have everything you need?”

She flicked her gaze to my bare wrist and narrowed her eyes. “Sure. I can handle it from here. Are you all right?”

I was already moving toward the door. “Oh, sure. I just have a lot to do.”

She lifted an arm to wave as I bolted out the door. I knew she thought I was crazy, but I couldn’t do anything about it right that minute. Maybe I could make something up later to cover my weird behavior, but for the moment, I had to get out of there.

Riley’s eyes widened when he saw me. “That was fast.”

I scanned the area, my stomach doing acrobatics and my skin prickling with goosebumps. “He was here. He walked past the window and looked right at me.” My breath caught in my chest, panic making me work to draw in air.

Riley rose so fast, his metal chair clattered to the ground. “Where did he go?”

I tilted my chin in the direction Shadow Man had gone. “He disappeared, though. I think he was doing a flyby to let me know he could do it.” I sucked in another breath, trying to steady myself.

“We need to get you off the street.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction we’d parked the car.

I didn’t argue. He tugged me down the sidewalk, and I did my best to keep up in my high heels. At the crosswalk, we paused for the light to change. I tried to catch my breath while we waited. Riley swiveled his head left and right, trying to see everything at once. When the light changed, we practically flew over the crosswalk. He didn’t slow the pace until we stopped in front of my car and he shoved me inside.

I buckled myself in and shivered.

Riley slid into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the curb. “Broad daylight in a public place. What
is
this guy?”

“Scary, that’s what he is,” I said. “He’s scary.” I bit my lip while I thought about it. “But that’s all he’s done so far. He hasn’t hurt anybody yet. Why?”

Riley shrugged. “Maybe he just hasn’t gotten to that part yet.”

I glanced out the window and watched the shops roll past. “Yeah. Maybe.” I pulled out my phone and checked the time. “I hate to say this, but we have to hit Sara’s house next. The Realtor will be there in half an hour.”

Riley scowled. “You’re not still planning to meet with him?”

“Honey, I have to. Sara can’t do it. She’s counting on me.”

He groaned and moved into the left lane. “Fine. But you no longer get to go to meetings without me, no matter how close by I am.”

I nodded, though I knew it didn’t much matter whether he was with me or not. If Margy had been able to see the scary-ass creature walking past her shop window, she sure as hell would have at least commented. If Shadow Man decided to attack me in public with Riley standing next to me, I doubted Riley would be able to see him. And he couldn’t stop what he couldn’t see.

None of that changed anything, though. I refused to stay home. I’d already played that game in the past, and I wasn’t prepared to live like that again. And I wasn’t going anywhere by myself, even if Riley couldn’t see where the danger was coming from.

It all left me feeling alone while in the company of my fiancé and the entire city of Sausalito.

We pulled into Sara’s driveway and let ourselves into her house with the key she’d given me. I reached into my magic bag and pulled out the paperwork Sara had prepared that gave me power of attorney over her property.