Flight From Death

  Tonya crooked her eyebrows. “Funny you should ask. I was just thinking we should talk to Degoba Jones. If anybody can help us, it will be him.” She pulled out her cell phone.

  “Who’s that?” Alex leaned over and sniffed the chips. “Do you know that as long as I’ve lived, I’ve never had a chance to taste a potato chip? They weren’t around when I was turned. Always liked the way they sound, though.”

  “You aren’t missing a lot. They’re filled with carbs and really greasy. Degoba is his nickname—I’m not even sure anybody knows what his real name is. He’s a local legend. His mother was from one of the Salish tribes. Grew up over in the Quinault area. Degoba is the man to ask about local myths, creatures, urban legends from the area. He stores up stories like a vacuum sucks up dirt.” She was on her phone the next minute, calling him.

  Ralph and Patrick chose that moment to tromp back through the door. They were carrying several bags of groceries, though Patrick’s turned out to mostly be bottled blood. He’d also bought a bouquet of flowers for Tonya, as a thank-you gift. She motioned for him to put them on the counter while she finished her phone call.

  Ralph emptied a bag filled with more chips, chocolate, cookies, and crackers on the counter, along with a couple six-packs of Flying Horse. I stared at the energy drink and the image of a puppy on espresso crossed my mind, but I repressed the urge to snicker. Ralph didn’t need me cutting his ego by suggesting he was still a wolf cub.

  Tonya hung up. “Degoba said to come on over in an hour. He’s just finishing his dinner now. Wow, Ralph, you really have an appetite.”

  He motioned to the pile. “Both you and Shimmer, feel free to dig in. I bought this for all three of us. Just leave my Flying Horse alone.” His grin was infectious.

  “I don’t think you have much to worry about in that capacity.” I picked up a package of beef jerky and opened it, sliding a couple of the pieces out into my hand. “So, this Degoba Jones . . . he’ll believe us about what’s happening?

  “Oh, he’ll believe us. That thing I told you about, that I met in the battery? Degoba was the first person I trusted to talk about it. He didn’t say much but warned me to stay away from the area. I have a feeling he knew what it was but didn’t want to scare me at that point.” She set her book off to the side so no one could spill crumbs on it and meandered over to the counter, where she picked up the bag of oatmeal cookies. “Let’s go relax in the living room till it’s time to go over to his house. We all need a little time-out and we can tell Patrick the good news—such as it is.”

  We followed her in and, once we were all curled up on the sofa and in her armchairs, we told Patrick and Ralph what Paris had said. Patrick looked more relieved than anything else.

  “I don’t care if Puff the Magic Dragon flew down and lit the thing on fire, I’m just glad the actual cause of record is something that I can collect on. I’m beginning to hate that house. That sucks, actually, because I loved it when I bought it. It seemed like the perfect getaway . . .” He stared morosely at the bottle of blood in his hand, and I thought it was a good thing vampires couldn’t get drunk because if he could, he’d probably be plowing through the bottles.

  “So, this Degoba Jones . . .” Ralph leaned forward. “He’s good at what he does? He’s a shaman?”

  “I don’t know that I’d call him that.” Tonya leaned back and put her feet up on the ottoman. She frowned. “He’s . . . he can work energy, though he won’t talk much about it. But he’s . . . I think he’s a spiritwalker.”

  “What’s a spiritwalker?” I had never heard the term, and both Patrick and Ralph looked confused. Alex, on the other hand, was nodding.

  “We had them in Australia. They walk connected to the land in a way that isn’t witchcraft, nor is it some woo-woo white-light and fluff-bunny business. They are so keyed into the land around them that they might as well be part of it. Half the time they can blend into the landscape so well, you’d think they could turn invisible.”

  “I’m not sure they can’t.” Tonya wrapped her knees beneath her, tucking a light throw around her shoulders. The room wasn’t cold, but the winter chill still hung in the air. “Degoba won’t tell anybody about his birth, where he came from, or how old he is. I’d place him around fifty, but you never can tell, especially with someone in touch with magic.”

  “Is he married? Family?” Ralph was on his second Flying Horse. He’d already had a couple venti cups of coffee and if I didn’t know how much caffeine the werewolf normally downed during the day, I’d be worried about him. But I knew he could handle it.

  “Not that I know of. If he ever did have a wife and kids, he never speaks about them. We can figure out our next step after talking to him.” She shuddered. “Why do I have a feeling it may lead to a trip to the battery?”

  A shiver ran up my spine as I remembered the pictures. It looked bad enough during the daylight. Visiting at night, even with two vampires in the mix? Not exactly what I would call a good time.

  “Pretend you didn’t say that and maybe it won’t happen. That place looks as welcoming as a black hole. Worse, in fact, because most black holes don’t have any consciousness. This one seems to.” I finished off the package of jerky and reached over to snag a couple cookies from her.

  Right about then, there was a rustle in the air next to me and Chai shimmered into view. He coughed and looked around, clearly confused. “Um, when last we spoke, wasn’t I in somebody else’s house? The vampire’s?” He spotted Patrick and gave him a wave. “His house?”

  “Yeah, there was a fire. The ghost set the curtains on fire and we had to . . . oh, never mind, it’s convoluted and was one horrendous headache but the upshot is, we’re staying here with Tonya. And in about twenty minutes, we’re heading out to meet a . . . what did you call him, Tonya?”

  She shook her head. “Spiritwalker. That’s what he calls himself, so that’s what I call him.”

  Chai scratched his head, then shrugged and cautiously eased himself down on one end of the sofa. He was a big man—djinn—and I knew that he was always a little touchy about furniture and whether it would hold his weight.

  We puttered for a few more minutes, making small talk, but everybody was antsy. The energy of the town was odd—isolated. It covered us like a soft shroud that seemed to cut off the rest of the world.

  Finally, as if sensing we needed to be on the move, Tonya stood. “It’s almost eight. We can stop at Rayhill’s Espresso on the way over.”

  We trooped out to the cars, sorting out that Patrick would ride with Tonya, and the four of us—Chai, Alex, Ralph, and I—would follow in the Range Rover. I stared up at the sky. The clouds parted briefly, and the icy shimmer of stars glittered down, cold and distant.

  I climbed in the passenger seat, hoping to hell Degoba would have some answers for us. Alex put the car into gear and we eased onto the silent street behind Tonya, inching our way through the low-rolling mist that shrouded the road. The stars vanished as another army of clouds rolled in, ready to lay siege to the city. The feel of the rain-soaked air set in, and I shivered as the sound of a foghorn echoed mournfully in the distance. All around us, I could feel creatures hidden in the shadows, and they watched us as we crawled down the road. Not all of them were friendly, and some of them felt downright dangerous. The land here was old, and humans were young, and the creatures lurking in the shadows knew that they were truly the ones at the top of the totem pole. Sometimes, Earthside seemed even more daunting than the Dragon Reaches.

  CHAPTER 14

  Degoba Jones lived a ways out—not exactly in the country, but given the size of Port Townsend, he might as well have been rural. Tonya navigated the dark two-lane road like a champion and we made it there about fifteen minutes later. As we got out of the car, I realized that—had I not known about the town—I wouldn’t have realized Port Townsend existed. A mere fifteen-minute drive had plunged us into the forest.

  The lights coming from within the old farmhouse shone with a warm and we
lcoming glow. I shivered as we followed Tonya up the porch steps. The forest was thick on either side and I really didn’t fancy being out here in the dark alone.

  Degoba opened the door as soon as Tonya raised her hand to knock, ushering us in with a gracious smile. He was a tall, thin man, with long black hair that hung sleekly back in a ponytail. His eyes were brown, and his skin naturally tanned, and as I gazed into his face, I had the sense he’d been around a long time, if not in body—then in soul.

  Alex and Patrick stood outside. Degoba looked at them closely for a moment, then solemnly touched the door frame. “My house and I welcome you for this evening.” Which meant that he was going to rescind his invitation after we left, not a bad idea given the nature of vampires and that he had never met either of these two men.

  The living room was part cowboy style, part . . . something. A golden retriever lay curled in the corner. He looked up, then growled a little as Patrick walked in. Dogs and cats weren’t usually very friendly with vampires, but the dog raced over to Alex and jumped up on him, his front paws bracing against Alex’s shoulders.

  “Brother Bear . . . get down.” Degoba snapped his fingers.

  The dog whimpered and, after giving Alex a big lick across the face, did as he was told. He returned to his bed in the corner, but he kept looking over as if to say, You really want to pet me, don’t you?

  “Brother Bear?” Tonya asked. “I didn’t know you found a new dog.”

  “I didn’t till recently. Brother found me—I call him BB for short. He was guarding a bear cub when I found him. A black she-bear had wandered off to forage for food, I guess, and her cub managed to get himself lost. BB was standing there, guarding the cub. I got too close and he growled, but I convinced him that mama bear would be back in a few minutes and guided the dog over to a bluff behind a huckleberry bush.”

  “Did the mother bear come back?” Stories like this always captured my interest.

  “She sure enough did. Five minutes later, the mother meandered back, found the cub, and gave him a good talking-to. Don’t you think that cubs don’t get scolded. Then she firmly escorted him back to wherever she’d made her lair.” Degoba smiled fondly at BB. “Brother Bear didn’t have a collar and was mighty thin, so I brought him home. Vet said he wasn’t microchipped and that he was a little underweight, so . . . here he is.”

  I glanced around. The walls of the house were wood—not like a log cabin with round logs, but they were composed of long slats of what looked like light oak. Open beams reinforced the vaulted ceilings, and in the living room, big bay windows overlooked the yard. The rooms were open and spacious. I could see the kitchen from the living room and the study, as well.

  The art on the walls was a mixture of Native American and Celtic, and felt like an eclectic—if appropriate—mix. One entire wall was lined with built-in bookshelves, fashioned around a tall window. A banquette was tucked beneath the glass, cushioned with a rich red upholstery.

  The place was cluttered in a tidy, busy way, as if nothing here went unused. A stack of magazines were all marked with Post-it notes throughout their pages, and a notebook sat near them, with pages of handwritten notes neatly printed across the paper.

  The smell of beef stew—I could tell it was beef stew because that had become a current favorite meal of mine—hung heavy in the air. My mouth watered as I took a deep breath, inhaling the fragrant aroma.

  “You want a bowl, Shimmer?” Degoba’s eyes crinkled with laughter. “I can tell an appreciative sniff, all right. I’ve got stew and fresh-baked rolls in the kitchen. Ralph, Tonya? What about you?” He didn’t bother asking Alex and Patrick, and neither one seemed to take offense. Alex had told me it wasn’t considered bad manners to leave vampires out of food offers, especially given that food made them sick as a dog if they swallowed even a bite.

  “I’d love a bowl.” I stood. “Would you like some help?”

  “No, sit and be at rest.” He stood and headed for the kitchen. BB raised his head, letting out a hopeful whine. “No, Mr. BB, you may not help yourself to people food. Keep these good folks company while I play host.”

  The minute Degoba was out of the room, BB jumped up and launched himself at Alex, wriggling as the vampire laughed and petted him.

  “You remind me of my Goldy,” Alex said, ruffling BB’s fur and giving him a good scrubbing on the side. “I miss her, I do.”

  “You had a dog?” Tonya glanced up at him. “I didn’t think most vampires kept pets.”

  “Most of us don’t. They live such short lives and it hurts to lose so many. Then again, we can give homes to a long string of otherwise orphaned critters.” He held BB’s chin, gazing into the dog’s eyes. “This is a right smart one, tell you that. Goldy, she was my best friend for twelve good years. She was my dog before I was turned. The person who turned me . . . killed her. I never forgave them that. I paid them back, too.”

  BB let out a little whimper and nosed Alex’s hand again, licking it, then went back to curl up in his bed. The dog was clearly enchanted. Something about the vampire struck a chord in Brother Bear’s nature.

  A few minutes later, Degoba was back, stew in hand. He set the tray down on the coffee table and handed out thick mugs of stew, along with a tray filled with soft rolls and fresh butter. I lost myself in the scent for a moment, then in the taste. Even though we’d eaten, the stress must have gotten to us because I was hungry as hell, and both Tonya and Ralph seemed to be feeling the same way. Degoba waited for us to take the edge off before speaking.

  “So, tell me what brings you here? You told me a little on the phone, Tonya, but I want to hear it from their mouths.” He motioned for us to go ahead. Patrick glanced at us, then took the reins. He told Degoba what had happened up until he’d called us, and then we took over. Ralph had brought his laptop and opened it to show Degoba some of the pictures and recordings we’d managed to pick up. I told him about Lacy and discovering her skeleton and everything else we’d found out—including the murder weapon. We also filled him in on the Gypsy curse, and then about what we’d figured out tonight.

  When we finished, he motioned for us to be silent while he wandered around the room, picking up first one object, then another. He paused over a rock that he was holding, staring at it as if he were listening to it, then moved on to what looked like a simple wooden wand, still possessing the bark of whatever tree it had been made from.

  I polished off my stew and rolls, quietly carrying my plate into the kitchen. Tonya brought in hers and Ralph’s and we rinsed the dishes and set them to dry on the counter. The kitchen was as rustic as the living room but still had a polished feel with up-to-date appliances and the obligatory window overlooking the side yard.

  “I like him.” I kept my voice soft so as not to distract him if he could hear us. “I like his thoughtfulness—he’s deliberate. Not hasty.”

  “Degoba has been exceptionally helpful to my family and the crowd I hang with over the years.” She frowned. “I think he’s had some pretty rough tragedies in his past, but I doubt he’ll ever tell us. He intrigues me.” She paused, then caught my eye and blushed.

  “You like him.”

  “He’s old enough to be my father.”

  “Does that matter? Age is so inconsequential in the Supe community. Unless someone’s way too young, I don’t think that it should matter among humans either, do you? Look at . . . well, you don’t know her but the receptionist who basically runs our agency? Her name’s Bette and she’s a Melusine.”

  “What’s a Melusine? I’m familiar with a lot of Supes but . . .”

  “She’s a water-spirit who can change into a snake. She looks like . . . well, Alex calls her a biker grandma, but she’s super-sexual and has a line of lovers a mile long. A lot of them ask her to marry them, too, but she’s a free spirit. She and Alex used to go together until they discovered they made better friends than lovers.” I grinned. “She dates everybody from twenty-two-year-old humans to, hell . . . I guess a thousand-y
ear-old Fae?”

  Tonya laughed. “I wish it were that simple among humans. They call women who date men a lot older than themselves gold diggers, and they call women who date younger men cougars—and it’s not used in a complimentary fashion.” Her eyes twinkled as she added, “What about you and Alex? How long have you been together?”

  It was my turn to blush. “How did you know?”

  “It’s plain as the nose on your face, Shimmer. You and he are constantly giving each other ‘the look.’ You can’t lie to me about your feelings for him.”

  I hadn’t been aware of that. “Well, yeah . . . We . . . not long. Not long at all. When I first got here I was dating someone, but he and I weren’t on the same page. We’re friends and want to stay that way. Alex . . . from the start we were noticing each other but there was a complication, recently removed.”

  “What about Chai? You and he ever . . . ?” Tonya peeked back in the living room. Apparently Degoba was still meditating.

  “Chai’s the older brother I never had. He and I . . .” I shuddered. “Even thinking about kissing him that way feels just wrong. And I know he feels the same way about me.”

  “So that’s why he calls you ‘Little Sister’? I get it. I have a couple male friends like that.” She paused as Degoba called for us. “Looks like he’s ready. Let’s go see what he has to say.”

  And with that, we headed back into the living room.

  • • •

  Degoba motioned for us to sit down. “I think you’re right. You’re dealing with a forest wight. They’re mean, and nasty, and to be honest, if it weren’t for it taking up residence in Patrick’s house, I’d say leave the hell enough alone. The danger isn’t a joke. But it looks like we have to try something.”

  “We?” Tonya asked hopefully. “Does that mean you’ll help us?”

  Degoba rolled his eyes. “Oh, child, I really don’t want to take this on, but you’ve come to me for help and the spirits tell me I have to answer. Yes, I will help you. But the first thing we have to do is to break up the hive.”