Dark Pact Read online

  Reading their words, smelling the herbal scents that had hitched a ride along with the package, I laughed. And felt better. A lot better. There were five small spray bottles, like travel spray. Thin, easily hidden in a pocket.

  One long pump and then two for good measure, was written in a small tag tied to the top. Easily removed, and allowed me to keep the purpose secret.

  I went and looked out in the parking lot again. For lunchtime, it was pretty dead. So I locked the door, pulled the blinds, and went into my back office and locked that door for good measure. Then I sat on the futon, pulled out my phone, started a timer and sprayed myself three times in the face.

  When I opened my eyes again, I scrabbled for my phone. Three minutes, and fifty seven seconds. So three minute was a good time frame. And I didn’t remember a thing after I sprayed myself in the face. At least I smelled good. I washed my face and hands off, and tucked the spray into my front pocket. It looked like body spray. And since I was supposedly a witch, I could claim it was something I made. You know, if I was searched at all at some point. Lavender and vanilla were the top notes, so it disguised whatever was in this well.

  I made a promise right then and there to go spend more time in Deadwood, to learn what I needed to learn. But right now, I had to plan my escape. This would help me get away from Delgado and whatever goons he brought, if I was fast. I left the Closed sign on the door, although I checked my email. I’d sent out a couple of invoices, and what do you know? The bank account told me that they’d been paid.

  Amazing. Perhaps things were looking up.

  Zachary had gotten back to me, to let me know that he had in fact spoken with Tuesday, wished me luck in my endeavors, and appreciated the information I’d gotten for him.

  With the spray helping my exit strategy, I got to work on the rest of it. Making a few phone calls after scanning the local For Sale ads got me what I needed. I needed to be ready to go. Like, walk out the door and go. I stopped, thinking. Should I tell Tuesday? She’d been an ally. I liked Levi—well my girly bits liked Levi—but I didn’t feel sure about him like I felt, for the most part, about Tuesday.

  Oh, shit. If I left, I needed to take the damn pistol. I couldn’t leave that here. So when I left that afternoon to pick up the things I’d bought, I took it with me, feeling like I was carrying a rattlesnake in my pocket. It made me jumpy as hell—like I was putting out a beacon or something to all the non-humans in the area.

  But I reminded myself that Caleb had carried this for who knew how long in a paper bag. So maybe there was no beacon.

  I picked up both the items I bought, and went back to the house. It was still daylight, so that gave me the chance to get things sorted in my garage. No matter where I went, Baby, the Chief, and the Sin Bin were coming with me.

  Which could be a weak spot, but there were some things a girl couldn’t compromise on.

  Next was my room. I started packing. As I was adding yet more tee shirts to the bag, I stopped. This was my whole life. My entire life. And I was going to toss it into a couple of bags and boxes, and leave it.

  Goddamn that Alfonso Delgado. I was going to get out of this, and I was going to make him pay for doing this shit to me. Arrogant asshat. Get out of this, and then plot revenge.

  “Good plan, Deana,” I said. Then I zipped up my bags and brought them to the car. As I was getting the back of Baby loaded up, my cell rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Deana?” It was Caleb, and he sounded weak.

  “Oh my god, Caleb, what’s going on?”

  “It’s time. But I need you to come and see me.”

  “Where are you?” As much crap as he’d tossed onto me, he’d also made it possible for me to leave, and be comfortable. I couldn’t forget that. He hadn’t just tossed me to the wolves, dragons, vampires, and all the other things that would want what I had.

  “I’m at the Santa Monica pier. Under it, in fact. On the southern side. Please come, Deana,” he said.

  “On my way,” I said. Sliding into the front seat, I sped out of the house and up the highway. He sounded bad. I’m glad he’d reconsidered on the whole going off to die like a cat, hidden and alone.

  Once I got to the pier, I got Baby parked and ran down along the south side of the pier. I’d heard the water in the background, and the pier opened up so that you could walk under it once you hit the water. Thankfully, there was still sunlight, and I hurried through the maze of pilings, looking for him.

  He was sitting against a piling with his feet in the water. I kneeled down, and couldn’t contain my gasp. He was pale, and looked like every bit of the two hundred years old he was. In his lap lay a drum, and a small leather wrapped mallet was in his other hand.

  Caleb looked over when he realized I was there. “That was… fast.”

  “Sounded like I needed to be.”

  A smile appeared briefly. “Yes, I think you do. Will you play for me?” His hand nudged the drum.

  “Caleb, I don’t—”

  “It should be played by someone who cares,” he said. “I think you care.”

  “I do.” Tears welled in my eyes. I eased the drum from his hand, and fumbled a bit, getting a hold on it. It was a round hand drum with a loop at the top. I slid my fingers through the loop and then took the mallet.

  “Just play. Softly.” Caleb’s eyes were closed. “I need a rhythm.”

  I hit the drum with the mallet a few times.

  “Faster,” Caleb said.

  Picking up the tempo, I nearly dropped the drum when he began to sing. His eyes were closed, and in the darkened area under the pier, I could see that he had tears tracking down his face.

  California being what it is, no one even batted an eye that the two of us were here making the song of a dying man. I kept an eye out, because the last thing Caleb needed was someone taking a picture or video of this moment.

  His head turned to me and he opened his eyes as he sang. His voice got softer, and then it drifted. His hand lifted and stilled my hand that held the mallet. “Thank you,” he said. “I could have… done this myself, but I found I wanted to see you once more, câpân.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked. He’d called me that before.

  “You can… look it up… later. It just means I think highly of you. That is all.” His eyes held mine, and then he looked out at the water. “She’s… here.”

  “What?” I whipped around.

  Sure enough. I could see the head, and then the body of a woman in the waves. “Who is she?” I whispered.

  “Yareli, the water lady,” Caleb said.

  I glanced at him. He was smiling. It was a genuine smile, one of love. I looked at the woman again. She wasn’t coming any closer.

  Caleb put his arm on mine and I realized that he was trying to stand. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “Going in the water,” he said, still smiling, but sounding more his old self. “And you’re… helping me. The drum is yours, Deana. Think of me.” His other hand grasped my arm as well, and then he reached up and patted my head.

  Then he faced the water, and I’ll be damned if he didn’t stand straight. “When Yareli and I are done, she will come to your home. Be out back, on the canal.”

  “What? Why? What are you talking about?”

  “I am sorry I didn’t know this before, Deana. I haven’t seen my water lady for some time. But she came to me last night, and we were able to speak.” The way he said ‘my water lady’ made the tears leak right out of my eyes as though they had a mind of their own. He took a step forward, and then another, his hand gripping my arm tightly. I helped him, and I could see that the woman in the water had lifted up her arms in a welcome.

  We kept going to her. When the water was over my knees, we were close, and Caleb kneeled down and went into her arms.

  “Caleb,” she said, her voice low, musical in a way that fit with the song he’d just sung. Then she looked up at me, and smiled, but her teeth were sharp points. She was as scary
as the vampires. “Thank you for bringing him to me.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “Yareli will come to you,” Caleb said, turning to look at me. “She has something to do first, but she will come to you. Go home, now, Deana. And wait.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “We will go,” Yareli said, moving to put her arm around Caleb’s shoulders and turn him toward the open ocean. Then she said something to him in a language I couldn’t understand, and he smiled. His entire face glowed.

  “Go,” Yareli said to me. “We must go now. I will come later.” She gave her smile again, and then towed Caleb further out.

  I felt like I should be saying something, doing something, but this was obviously planned, and Caleb had smiled more than once in a way I’d never seen him smile. I watched as she carefully swam with him, and he let his head lie on her shoulder in one of the most tender things I’d ever seen. I watched as they swam out further, and further, their heads hard to see among the waves, and the setting sun.

  Then they disappeared. And the tears flowed freely.

  Chapter Sixteen

  How long I stood there, looking at the now-empty ocean, I didn’t know. But then I remembered—Caleb had told me to go home, and wait by the canal. I ran back to Baby, and was lucky I didn’t get a ticket on the way home.

  When I came racing through the kitchen, worried I’d missed Yareli, I saw that Tuesday was up.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked.

  “Come out on the deck with me, and don’t talk. Afterwards, I’ll tell you everything, but not right now.”

  One thing I’ll say for Tuesday, she didn’t ask a lot of questions when things needed to be done. She followed me, and I went out on the deck, and then down to the gate that led to our small landing on the canal. I sat down, and waited.

  “What are we doing?” Tuesday asked.

  “Waiting,” I said.

  “Okay.”

  The night was still, with only a few birds still flying over, making small noises of settling in for the night. The water was calm, and then I heard a slap, like someone was paddling. Then another, and I looked down the canal.

  Something was coming toward us. I’d bet my NoMo spray it was the water lady. But I didn’t move, or say anything.

  “What is that?” Tuesday whispered.

  “A friend. Maybe,” I whispered back.

  Yareli swam into view. Now I could see that she had a tail. Holy shit.

  “Is Caleb all right?” I asked, not sure how to ask.

  “He has moved on,” she said, smiling. Her sharp teeth glinted in the moonlight. I felt, rather than saw, Tuesday’s start at the teeth. They were the sort of teeth that a shark would envy, but they were thin, and needle sharp.

  “Take care of him,” I said.

  “I shall,” she inclined her head.

  I was glad to know that I hadn’t offended her.

  “Caleb told me of your search. And that you must have answers at the next moonrise. Is that so?” Her accent was like nothing I’d ever heard before.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Then at the next moonrise, I shall be here. I shall share my story with those who need to hear it. You will bring them here?” She reached out of the water to touch my shoe.

  I will never be able to describe what I felt when she touched me. It was like I’d stuck a fork in a light socket (which I did when I was young because I wanted my hair to be curlier, and someone told me in second grade that was how you got it), and yet it didn’t hurt, but felt… wonderful. My descriptions, however, didn’t do it justice.

  “I will. You know what—who—I am looking for?” I asked hardly daring to believe what I was hearing, and hardly able to focus because in her touch I felt the open ocean, and riding the waves in the moon with a silence around me that was like singing.

  She removed her hand, making a circle in the water. “I know what you are looking for. I will return and share that. I will even share of my blood, for the truth.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “You helped Caleb,” she said. “That is important.”

  “I wanted to,” I said.

  “Who is—“ Tuesday began, but I elbowed her and she didn’t finish her question.

  “Next moonrise,” Yareli said again, and then she ducked under the water. I looked for her, but I didn’t see her. I heard the slap of her tail in the distance.

  “Wow,” Tuesday said. “For someone who claims not to know a great deal about the witchy side of your family, you get around. Was that really a mermaid?”

  “I think so. She didn’t tell me anything about herself. Caleb called her the water lady.”

  “Who’s Caleb?”

  “A client of mine. He passed away recently,” I tried to keep my voice steady. “He came to me asking for help.”

  “What was he?”

  “A Native American spirit,” I said, not wanting to share more about him.

  Tuesday nodded. “I find the spirits who come to the human world interesting.”

  “He was,” I said, walking back to the house.

  “So what’s next?”

  “Let’s call Delgado, and Levi—and we have to tell Delgado that he can’t bring anyone,” I said.

  “He’ll never go for that.”

  “We’ll tell him he gets to meet a mermaid,” I replied. “You think that might interest him enough?”

  “It might,” she said thoughtfully. “Let’s go call him now.”

  “Let me, please,” I said. “Even if he’s skeptical, he won’t be able to resist what he thinks is my last ditch effort.”

  “You’re learning,” Tuesday said. “Very good, Deana.”

  I dialed his number. It didn’t even ring once before he answered.

  “Ms. Deana. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to hear from you. What news from the investigative world?”

  “I have found the killer,” I said.

  “Really?” His voice changed. He was shocked.

  I was right. That bastard. He didn’t think I’d manage it. Well, suck on that, asshat. I couldn’t stop the grin that crossed my face. He couldn’t see me, anyway. “Yes. And I have secured a promise of verification like you were able to get from Kel.”

  “Really?” he asked again.

  Alfonso Delgado hadn’t been lost for words since I’d met him. I felt a deep and vicious satisfaction that he’d repeated himself twice already.

  “Yes. You need to come here as soon as you wake tomorrow. My witness will be here at moonrise—that’s her word, and I figure you know what she means—and you need to come alone.”

  “No.”

  “Yes. Otherwise, you will not get to hear from a mermaid.”

  He laughed then. “Are there really such things? Are you really so desperate?”

  “Tell him,” I handed the phone to Tuesday.

  “I saw her,” Tuesday said. “She is as Deana says.”

  I didn’t know what he said, but it made Tuesday smile, too. This was a red letter night all around in the fuck you department. She handed the phone back.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “I will be there. My men will wait in the car.”

  “Levi and Tuesday will be there. And you will be able to verify.”

  “We shall see,” Delgado was no longer sounding smooth and delighted. “I will see you tomorrow at just before moonrise, Deana.”

  Oh, I wasn’t Ms. Deana anymore? It was all I could do not to laugh in his ear. What a baby! A dangerous, temper-tantrum throwing baby, if I had to make a guess. This was not on his agenda for sure, and while I didn’t think I’d need to spray him and run, perhaps I should consider leaving. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that. “I’ll be waiting. At my home.”

  He hung up.

  I looked at Tuesday and we both stood in the kitchen laughing so hard we cried. Her tears were pink, which was disconcerting. Finally, we were both able to talk.

  “I must thank you,�
�� she said.

  “For what?”

  “This is far better than rending him to pieces. He’ll be in pieces, and I won’t have to lift a finger.”

  “Revenge is sweet, isn’t it?” I grinned.

  “Are you sure that the mermaid has the information you need?”

  I nodded.

  “How?”

  “That I can’t get into, but I’m sure. And hey, it’s my life on the line, right?”

  “True,” Tuesday nodded. “We should call Levi.”

  “You can do that,” I said, feeling shy. I didn’t think encouraging my own thoughts was a good idea.

  She gave me a look and took out her own phone. As she walked away from me, talking with Levi, I went into the family room and collapsed on the couch. For the first time since Kel had walked into my office, I felt I could breathe, that impending doom wasn’t about to fall on my head.

  Not that I was sure I’d escaped all manner of doom, but it didn’t feel like it was going to happen no matter what.

  Tuesday came back over. “Levi wants to know if he can share my area at the dawning. He’s worried that Delgado will try something. He wants to be here before Delgado shows up.”

  I was touched. “Yeah, that would be great. Delgado’s pissed. I get the feeling no one tells him no very often.”

  “Exactly,” Tuesday said, walking away again. Then she came back, her call done. “He’s on his way over. We will not let Delgado harm you. You’re doing as you agreed to—”

  “I didn’t agree to shit. I was told what I’d be doing by that highhanded asshat!” My peace was gone instantly in a flash of anger.

  “True. You were told. But you didn’t shirk from it, and you are offering him what he said he must have.”

  “I hope it’s enough,” I said.

  “It will be. If it is not, I shall rend him to pieces,” her voice was flat and angry.

  “Tuesday, even after I’m in the clear with Delgado, I’m leaving,” I said, surprising myself. Shit. I hadn’t meant to say that.

  “To where?” she asked.

  “I have a place. Do you want to come with me?”