Deceptive Dime Store Demons, page 5
The owner was some gal who’d bought the establishment from the man who built the place. She’d remodeled the place back when I was a kid, replacing the seventies-style bright orange booths with modern blue-painted tables and black chairs with navy-blue fabric seats. The Coney Island decor was based, or so the rumor said, on the owner’s childhood in Long Island. Normally, due to their poorly wiped surfaces, I didn’t bother eating here, but now that Aggie had taken over as manager again, the tile floors gleamed from a recent polish, and I couldn’t miss the lemony fresh scent of bacteria-killing chemicals.
I headed up to the counter to order a soda and a bag of chips. Might as well have something to eat instead of coffee. After two helpings of Grandma’s seledka pod shuboi, I’d be good until I started work. Grandma added enough mayonnaise for days.
I was surprised to see a familiar face greet me. “Welcome to Barney’s, Natalya.”
“Long time no see, Brenna. I gotta be honest, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
The earth witch laughed, giving me a glimpse of the playful dimple in her right cheek. “My parents are surprised, too. I’m supposed to be living it up in Europe with my cushy teaching job at a medical school.”
After she admitted she should be teaching at some prestigious institution overseas, instead of punching buttons at a part-time gig, I felt a bit weird. Back when I’d first met her, not too long ago, she came off as mellow and pretty cool. If I hadn’t known what spells she could cast, I would’ve thought she was a Martha’s Vineyard socialite with chin-length dark hair and a willowy frame.
And yet she was still here. Was she still seeing Nick? I hoped so. Nick deserved to find someone who would love him for his true self.
Aggie appeared from the kitchen as Brenna finished ringing up my order.
“Hey, Nat. Whatcha doin’ here?” Seeing my best friend at her place of work always threw me off. Aggie rocked casual clothes all the time, but when she put on her managerial khaki pants and polo shirt, she transformed her Clark Kent style.
“You heard the Grantham place burned down?” I asked.
“Yeah, are they okay?” Aggie asked.
Even Brenna appeared concerned.
“They’re fine,” I said with a sigh, “but Farley’s set up camp at my place.”
“Ouch.” Aggie grimaced.
I gestured to the witch. “You weren’t kidding when you said you wanted to hire her, Aggie.”
“She’s horribly overqualified,” Aggie said with a snort.
“And underpaid,” Brenna added, her faint Southern accent coming through.
“Yes, that,” Aggie admitted, “but Brenna told me she’s the new Witches’ Guild rep for the area.”
I turned to Brenna, who winked at me. Now that was some news.
“After She Who Always Walks the Path veered close to the county, the guild wanted a presence from the sisterhood to watch out for trouble.”
“You mean watch over the South Toms River Pack,” I grumbled.
Brenna gave an apologetic smile. “That too.”
I picked up the tray with my order. “I guess I’d rather it be you than someone else with ill intent. Most spellcasters don’t have the pack’s best interests in mind.”
As I sat at the far table and munched on my chips, I considered the spellcasters. Every now and then, Thorn remarked that he’d spotted a warlock here or there, but they’d never interfered with pack business. That was still too close for my comfort. I looked forward to the day when everything quieted down in this town.
After killing my bag of chips and draining two servings of Coke, I played sudoku on my phone and checked my email five times. I even called Grandma to thank her for the food and made a call to Russia to give my aunt an earful about my cousin Yuri. After that, boredom snuck into Barney’s and sank its vicious teeth into my hide.
With the lunch crowd gone, afternoon eaters came and went. Which left me an opportunity to offer a hand or two.
“Stop feeling up the ketchup, Nat.” Aggie snuck up on me while I did the deed.
She caught me lining up the condiments on the tables. A big party had left, and I wanted to tidy up the tables. “I’m free help.”
Aggie frowned at the three bottles and separated them at uneven intervals.
“That’s pure evil,” I murmured.
“Don’t you need to go to work soon? Maybe go home?”
Home flashed before my eyes, but it didn’t feel that way.
“Fine.” As I gathered my things, I gave her the evil eye and plotted how I’d thwart her attempts next time.
With nowhere to go, I gave up and made my way toward the river to start my shift early. Might as well see if I could get some bonus hours in to pay off my debt sooner.
I pulled into the parking lot to find plenty of customers browsing the wares outside. I immediately spotted the short woman I’d met yesterday. This time, she wore an even brighter smile along with a mauve “Cats Are My Kids” T-shirt and enough multicolored clips in her dark brown hair to open a hair-clip mart.
“Good afternoon, Natalya!” She tucked her hands into her capri pants pockets. “You’re here rather early.”
After she answered questions from a customer about purchasing a kiln setup, I followed her into the cool confines of the store. We stopped briefly at the cash register so I could don one of the maroon aprons.
“When my sister told me she hired someone,” she said softly, “I was worried she’d brought on someone lazy, but you seem all right.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” I held back a chuckle. “My family taught me early that whether I work for a week or a single day, giving half the effort is as the same as giving no effort at all.”
“Wise words, indeed.”
I stared harder at the day demon, waiting to glimpse the layers of magic covering her, but Dayla appeared—hell, she smelled—like an average human. Even her toothy smile exuded sunshine.
But even I wasn’t foolish enough to trust a demon.
“May I ask a question?” Might as well get some answers, since Dayla came off as less prickly than Mimi.
“Sure thing.” She paused before checking the tag on a beautiful stone wolf with a butterfly perched on its nose.
“Mimi seems like she has everything under control on the Midnight Barge. She could even move that cloaked lady in the day store over to the barge to work the register. Why did she want more help?”
That got an exasperated sigh. “She’s always wanted more. More profits. More extravagant customers. A customer a day would suit me just fine.”
“Sounds like you’re the kind of girl that likes the simple life.”
“Pretty much. We had a better life back in Canada. I had a gorgeous tree farm with Japanese maples and Christmas trees.”
I grinned. Nothing beat fresh fir and spruce trees for the holidays.
Dayla continued with an annoyed expression. “We made a tidy profit until She Who Always Walks the Path veered away. After that, we earned less money, and she dragged me to this town.”
“Why didn’t you stay behind?” It sounded like Dayla had made a home for herself. Why give it up?
“Because no matter how much your family drives you crazy, they’re still family. My sister and I are two sides of a coin that will never agree to anything, but we can never be apart.”
As someone with a sibling, I could relate. Time to earn my keep. “Where would you like me to start?”
“Not sure. Pretty soon, the day shift will end. Why don’t you go down the aisles and tidy up?”
When I hurried to get to work, I caught her amused giggle.
Did I appear a little too eager to clean?
With a bounce in my step, I began my task, pausing here and there to direct customers. Next, I found my nirvana. My place of bliss. I arranged the wares back into perfect lines.
Right around eight in the evening, as the sun touched the horizon, I kept working and waited for the customers to do their strange shuffle to the exits. But the couple next to me continued to debate the placement in their home of an absolutely hideous set of ceramic plates the color of blended bird shit. An elderly man examining sake drinking cups kept picking up and putting down the same cup.
I glanced outside. The sky deepened to rosy pinks, a shiver coursed over me, and the wolf within me whined. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t spot Dayla outside or in the store. A quick check at the rear of the mart revealed the back office doors had switched places.
This store made as much sense as the ingredient labels on the cheap processed food from the Dollar Mart.
Cautiously, I approached the back door, taking my time to turn the doorknob and venture outside. Instead of seeing twilight and a sky blossoming with starlight and choppy clouds, I saw the sun slowly descending as if the star clawed its way to the horizon. The air was far more humid, thick with dampness that weighed heavily in my chest with each breath. An ominous fog gathered on the riverbank. I couldn’t make out whether the Midnight Barge had arrived until my feet touched the hard surface of what had to be the pier’s rough planks.
A powerful urge to go back the way I came flicked at me. Wasn’t I here to do my job and not get myself killed? And yet curiosity, and the drive to perform my duties on the barge, propelled me forward until I reached the plank. Once I boarded the ship, I waited for the night demon to appear, but she remained elusive while I scanned the Main Deck’s interior. Everything appeared in its place until I came to the third room. An empty spot in a display caught my eye, and my stomach dropped.
Had someone purchased the whistle during the daytime?
No, I’d stood here until the final night customer departed, and no one had bought the mysterious dog whistle. I searched through the room. Maybe a new creature I hadn’t met before had cleaned up the shop and misplaced it.
But not a single fingerprint or a trace of a scent marked the passage of a cleaner or a thief.
So what in the hairy hell happened?
I hurried out to the Main Deck to find my employer standing next to the railing.
“We have a problem. The whistle’s—”
I paused at the sight of Mademoiselle Midnight’s ashen face as she pointed to the riverbank. The fog appeared to part at her command.
Nestled among the tall grass, cattails, and wild geraniums lay the prone figure of a dead body.
Chapter 6
My heart jumped up to my throat, did a double somersault, then bounded into the water. I didn’t speak. I raced down the plank and along the muddy riverbank, flicking away cattails and river brush to amble my way to the fallen form.
As I got closer though, I slowed down.
This didn’t seem like a regular body. As I crept toward the figure, I expected to find telltale signs someone had passed. Death had a smell you never forgot. And yet something far deeper seeped into my nostrils and coursed along my tongue: the heady, woodsy scent of the high full moon when I walked as a wolf and the full bloom of nightshade on the darkest nights. All these things pulsed through me.
I peered at the poor creature that lay on its back. It wore nothing more than a simple black T-shirt and a pair of jeans. The body appeared to be a male humanoid, but its skin had turned a sickly shade of gray that grew darker with each second. Was it a man or a woman? The glint from a river pebble’s shine caught my eyes. The smooth rock was strung on the vine from a moonflower plant and wrapped around the creature’s ankle. Even the short strands of its hair resembled moonflower vines.
How peculiar.
I reached forward with a shudder. I mean, damn, maybe I should try to perform CPR. As much my entire being cringed at the idea of putting my mouth on someone else’s and breathing life into them, doing the right thing far outweighed my own fears.
I pressed my hand against its back. Could I be mistaken, and it lived?
“It’s dead,” Mademoiselle Midnight said behind me.
My heart stumbled at her unexpected arrival, but I remained steady.
“Was this one of our customers?” I managed to ask with cotton in my mouth. I had yet to have a customer knock off in my store.
“No, it was my night guard,” she said somberly. “It patrols the ship during the daytime until the barge opens.”
“Damn.” I backed up, careful to look around me for any evidence from the fight that occurred. “Is the thief still here?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. During the daytime, I sleep deeply.”
Other than the gurgles of frogs and the buzzing from bothersome mosquitos, nothing stirred along the Toms River.
Mud leaked into my clean shoes, but I ignored the unpleasant, yet cool sensation. Safety first. Panic button later.
I glanced down at the body. If someone had stolen the whistle, they also knew how to take out the night guard. I had to understand what the night guard could do before I considered the worst. “What kind of creature is this?”
“It’s made from night things.”
“Night things?”
“I gathered shadows formed from the moonlight, intertwined the moon’s reflection on the water, and gave it breath from nightshade.” She folded her arms as if everyone did that kind of thing.
I gave a nod. Calling the police wasn’t an option at this point. The creature wasn’t a human, thank goodness, but a problem remained. During the daytime, something had broken into the Midnight Barge, plowed through the poor night guard, then stolen the dog whistle.
“Could that fairy have done this?” I asked.
“Maybe. Her powers aren’t strong enough to take out a night guard during the half-moon, but if she had help, she could.”
The fairy had a good enough motive to do this, but as I scanned the riverbank for signs of the intruder’s escape path, I only found a set of large footprints. These appeared far larger than a human’s, and the fairy I’d seen the other day wore Louboutins no larger than the span of my hand.
No new scents other than the overwhelming river muck, either.
The clouds parted, and more shadows receded. I could see more evidence of the fight, but it was the growing frown on Mademoiselle Midnight’s face that caught my attention. Around the body, I spied spots where the cattails appeared split open. What had caused that?
It wasn’t the cattails that set off alarm bells, but another set of prints in the mud, buried between the river plants. It was a set of paw prints large enough to be a werewolf’s.
Chapter 7
Two more night guards arrived from the barge to do the night demon’s bidding. They had a similar appearance as the first creature, but they stared at us with vacant expressions and black stones for eyes. My chest grew tighter and tighter as one guard removed the body while the other waited. I wished I knew what had happened.
“Secure the boat,” she said to the other one.
As I watched the night guard return to the boat, I wondered if this place wasn’t safe anymore. Not once in my time with Bill had anyone broken into The Bends. Of course, after watching Bill’s thrift store defend itself during the attack from the basilisks, I had a better idea what tricks and such the goblin kept from me.
Unfortunately, the Midnight Barge didn’t employ such measures.
I hungered to track the larger footprints and the pawprints to see where they led.
“What would you like for me to do?” I asked her. “Do we need to close the store for the night?”
“The store will open, Nadia.” She stared silver-tipped daggers at the pawprints I’d seen. “But you won’t be working here tonight. You and your people have already caused enough trouble.”
“My people?” I shuffled back from her. “You believe my pack would do this?”
“That’s a werewolf print.” She scoffed and the deep purples in her peplum top deepened. “Have you seen any coyotes or wolves shopping for deals along the river? You probably told one of your friends to come take it, didn’t you? With one blow, you can call Cerberus and the hellhound could drive Diana and her hunting dogs elsewhere.”
Her short height stretched upward until her black eyes met mine. Thunderclouds snapped and hissed in her irises as her tiny mouth opened to reveal teeth like jagged shards of glass. Her fingers flexed, revealing the brightened and smoldering tips of her fingers.
“If I believed you’d be capable of stealing the whistle, I would’ve ripped you in two,” she snapped. “But someone else did it. You’re going to find out who it was.”
I stumbled backward. A growl formed in my chest, but I stopped myself.
I had no idea what havoc real-life demons could unleash, and my internal organs didn’t want a demonstration. I’d seen The Exorcist, thank you very much. While a head-spinning demon might not faze me, one vomiting pea soup sure as hell would.
“Fourteen days. That’s all the time I’ll give you.” She began to walk away but paused. “Nora, don’t bother showing up tomorrow evening or the day after unless you have the whistle or evidence of the true culprit.”
She took another two steps away from me before the fog along the riverbank swept through and sucked her away.
At this point, I knew she deliberately used the wrong name to fuck with me. And I didn’t like it.
Instead of sitting around like a damn fool and wondering what to do next, I did what any werewolf with OCD would do: I made a beeline to my car to compose myself. But no amount of wet wipes or deep breaths would calm my racing heart. As hard as I tried to scrap away the mud and my encounter with Mademoiselle Midnight, I couldn’t stop thinking about her sharp teeth or her smoke-tinged claws waiting to strike.
She’d nipped me for a reason. It was a warning. All werewolves established a hierarchy that way: give a bite to the wolves you need to keep in line, and in doing so, her true self gave me a glimmer of her infernal powers. I damn well knew she could’ve struck me dead. Instead, now I had a deal with a devil.
