The Voodoo Killings (35 page)

Miranda must be Richan’s ghost. If she’d told him about Cameron, then there was a damn good chance she’d seen him murdered….

“It’s a shame, though. He really was quite a talent.” Richan checked his watch. “Be a dear and tell him I’ll take whatever he has left, will you?”

“Wait. If your ghost told you about Cameron, then you have to know—”

He stopped me with a shake of his head. “I have no interest in becoming involved.”

Before he could disappear into the crowd, I grabbed his arm. I slipped and almost fell—would have if I hadn’t managed to snag Samuel. I concentrated hard to block the noise and lights that were beating their way back into my head.

“How much money did you make off Cameron over the years? If you know who killed him, you need to tell me. You owe that much to him.”

Richan glanced down at my hand restraining him, then glared at me as if I were something distasteful.

“Ms. Strange, I know my limits. I strongly suggest you determine the same. Now let me go or I’ll tell you things about your future that will have you jumping off a pier before the end of the night.”

The open malice in his voice told me he’d do it, too. I let go.

He straightened his sleeve and slipped back into the crowd. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Evil and creepy all rolled into one.

I glanced towards where I thought I’d seen Aaron, but the crowd on the dance floor was in the way. Just then, Cameron turned from the bar and headed for me, carrying an overpriced bottle of water in one hand and what was obviously a drink in the other.

“Cameron, at what point did I say go ahead and order yourself a drink?”

“This?” He held it up. “You said I had to pretend to be normal. Me not ordering a drink is not normal.” He started for an empty table. I followed.

“I’m supposed to be your sober companion, which means no booze—” I lowered my voice. “Especially with your oozing chest wound.”

“It’s not oozing,” he said, and slid the drink across the table to me.

I lifted it and sniffed. Whisky sour.

“A thank you would be awesome,” Cameron said. “I managed to remember what you drink. I don’t remember breaking up with my girlfriend, but I remembered your taste in alcohol.”

I made a face at him but took a sip. I decided not to tell him about my chat with Samuel for now. Instead, I scanned for Aaron again. No sign of him…I shook my head. One afternoon of relapse and I was seeing things. And we needed to get out of here. I shotgunned my whisky sour and stood up. “Come on, Cameron, time for both of us to go—”

I caught a glimpse of blond hair in one of the booths along the far wall. It was Aaron, and he wasn’t alone. A shot of ice raced through me as I realized his companion had pink hair. Neon pink. “Son of a bitch.” How the hell dare she come here with my ex-boyfriend? I headed for them.

Cameron stepped in front of me.

“I just spotted Aaron,” I said.

“So?”

“He’s with someone. Get out of my way, Cameron.”

“New girlfriend? Old girlfriend? Co-worker? Kincaid, why do you care?” Cameron said, but he got out of my way.

Aaron’s back was to me, but Neon saw me coming. Her eyes went wide and she spilled some of her drink down the front of her dress.

Damn right I should make you nervous
.

Aaron glanced over his shoulder to see what was going on. I smiled as his eyes fell on me. I was so angry I ignored the music and lights pinging my senses raw.

“Aaron,” I said.

“Kincaid.” His voice was even, but I could tell I was about the last person he’d expected to run into here.

I waited for him to introduce me to his date. He didn’t. The silence drew out into awkward territory as he made it obvious he wasn’t going to explain.

I searched my memory for the name on Neon’s name tag….Morgan, that was it. “Morgan, I keep running into you everywhere lately.”

Her eyes widened, stagily. “Wow, Strange, you really know how to lower the tone in a place. Did they shut that joint down by the docks or something?”

I stared at Aaron, willing him to defend me. I could have cared less what Neon thought of me. But he just sat there. Neon leaned forward to whisper to him, her eyes never leaving mine….

Three words reached my ears.

Too much Otherside
.

She was laughing at me. Worse, Aaron smiled back at her.

After he’d come crawling back, after he’d begged me to help him work the case…Randall was right: I wasn’t anything to Aaron except a means to an end.

My tentative wall against the sensory overload came down. Lights, music and Neon’s laugh pierced me. I needed to get out of here—now. I stumbled as I turned on my heel, managing to grab the edge of the neighbouring table so I didn’t fall on my ass.

Now where the hell did I leave Cameron? More noise and lights flooded in. This wasn’t good. Steady, Kincaid. Find Cameron, deal with the issue at hand…

A strong urge to pull a globe hit me—something, anything, to dull my senses before I exploded. I might pass out, but the Otherside would drown out everything else.

A hand fell on my shoulder. “Kincaid?”

It was Aaron. I refused to turn around. I’d either hit him or burst into tears.

“Kincaid, please look at me.” This time he didn’t leave me with a choice as he turned me around. I didn’t have the strength to stop him.

Concern was etched across his face, but also embarrassment. “What are you doing here?”

That stopped even one tear from falling. “Excuse me? What the hell am I doing here? My job. Making sure Cameron can stay sober for work functions that feature alcohol. Why the hell are you here with her?”

I caught the tick in the corner of his eye. Subtle, barely a twitch, but I knew what to look for. He was couching his answer. “She’s another practitioner who’s agreed to work with me.”

“So you sleep with every one of us?”

His composure dropped. “Of course not! I’ve been seeking out other practitioners because you said you were overusing Otherside.”

“So why did you just blow me off like some piece of trash? You
humiliated
me!” I was yelling and the room was whirling again. I steadied myself against the wall.

“It’s not like that,” Aaron said. “She said she’s got information on the case and she asked to meet me here. That’s it. Jesus, Kincaid.”

“You think I missed the way she laughed at me? And the way you just went along?”

“Kincaid, she has information I need. It wasn’t personal. How many times do I have to say it?”

“Until I believe you! You never once brought me somewhere like this.”

“What?”

“Not once, Aaron, the entire time I was seeing you.”

It was his turn to act as if he’d been slapped. “Kincaid, I never thought—”

“Never thought what?”

He met my eyes. “Look at yourself. You don’t exactly fit in here.”

I knew I didn’t fit in here, but to hear it said so bluntly…

I had to go. I needed to get Cameron out of here, and I wasn’t going to last much longer either. I turned to get away from Aaron and staggered. He caught me.

“Kincaid, what the hell are you not telling me?”

“Go back to the practitioner you’re not embarrassed to be seen with, Aaron. Ask her for help from now on. I’m done.”

“Kincaid, I don’t care about her, I care about you—”

“You’ve got a lousy way of showing it.”

“Kincaid?”

Saved by a zombie.

Cameron said, “Is there a problem?” His tone was light, but the look on his face was anything but.

Aaron stared at me hard, then let go. Backing away, he said, “No, no problem. Kincaid just slipped. Might want to start wearing flats. You’ve been stumbling a lot lately.”

Cameron slid his arm around my shoulder. “Washroom then exit,” I whispered.

“What the hell happened there?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Kincaid, whatever he said, it’s not your fault—”

I held up my hand to stop him. “You were right, I was wrong.”

Cameron frowned. “I said a lot of things tonight I shouldn’t have.”

“Having Aaron see me like this?” I shook my head. “It wasn’t worth it.” We reached the restrooms. “Cameron, I need a few minutes on my own.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea right now.”

“Just stay here. I promise, just a few minutes.”

Cameron looked as if he was about to argue, but I didn’t wait. Thank god for overpriced hipster-bar single-stall bathrooms….

I turned the faucet on and splashed cold water on my face. I checked my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were rimmed with red and I was really pale. I stuck my hands under the running water.

“You know the whole Aaron thing? It might not be any of my business—”

Nate. I closed my eyes and leaned over the sink. I thought about lecturing him on privacy, but I didn’t have the energy. Besides, he’d strategically forget whatever I said. “I take it you were listening?”

Nate took that as an invitation to materialize in front of me. He shrugged. “Voyeur, remember?”

I wiped my eyes. It only made them more red. “And what does your infinite wisdom tell you?”

“He cares,” Nate said, settling on the counter. “You called him on something I don’t think ever crossed his mind. Let’s face it, you aren’t exactly a touchy-feely, discuss-your-emotions type. And this isn’t exactly your scene.”

I drew in a breath, held it for five, then let it out. “I can’t really screw things up any more than I already have, can I?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong—Aaron’s being a dick. Part guilt because he let you get fired and figured you’d be cool with it because he wasn’t an active participant. And then he shows up at a place like this with someone else.” He shrugged. “Hard to explain that one away.”

“From where I was standing, it looked like he was embarrassed to know me.”

“It’ll blow over, K. He figured you’d have forgiven him by now, and you haven’t. Like I said, he’s being a dick.”

“What if I don’t want it to blow over this time, Nate?”

I couldn’t tell what Nate was thinking as he stared at me. Finally, he said, “You push and push and push people away, K. I get it. It’s easier that way for people like us.”

“What do you mean, ‘people like us’?”

“The kind who can’t help but self-destruct.”

I was about to disagree but then thought about the mess I’d managed to reduce myself to.

“Seriously,” Nate asked, “are you going to be okay?”

I nodded. “Okay” might be an overstatement, but I knew what I had to do. “Want to give me a couple minutes alone here? I need to collect my thoughts.”

He gave me a sidelong glance.

“Trust me, Nate. I’m about to do something really stupid and you don’t want to be here.”

For a moment it looked as though he might argue with me. Which would be completely out of character. Finally, he said, “Nothing too stupid?”

“Not off the scale, anyway. But it’s something I have to do on my own. It’ll only take me a minute. Promise.”

I waited until he’d vanished before pulling my china marker out of my purse. The bathroom mirror in here wasn’t set, but I didn’t think that’d be a problem.

Hand shaking, I wrote
Gideon Lawrence
across the glass. I knew I couldn’t keep living like this, and the alternative? I didn’t want to think about that right now.

In less than a minute he was there, in the mirror. His expression shifted from mildly pissed to neutral as he took in my appearance. “Somehow I don’t think you’re calling me to deliver a message from Max,” he said.

My mouth was dry and part of me wanted to run screaming.

Gideon’s eyes flashed black. “You know, I do have other things on my plate besides answering every practitioner who writes my damned name on glass whenever they happen to swing by a mirror.”

Steady, Kincaid, steady. This was the only way. “You said you could show me how to see Otherside without a globe?” I could barely hear my own voice.

“And?”

“Is it true?”

He regarded me, his eyes shifting to a ghost-grey blue. He gave me a slow nod. “I can do that, and a great deal more. Why?”

Come on, Kincaid, not the time for pride. I took a big breath. This was the only way.

“Because I need help,” I said.

Gideon watched me as I tried not to shake. “My terms?”

I nodded.

Apparently a nod was enough. Gideon materialized in front of me.

Before I could move back or rethink my course of action, he placed a hand on either side of my head in the kind of grip I’d only thought a poltergeist capable of. I gasped at the cold.

Gideon’s eyes glittered black and the barest trace of a smile passed over his lips. “Brace yourself, Kincaid. This is going to hurt.”

CHAPTER 21

PERSONAL DEMONS

I’m amazed I walked out of Club 9 on my own two feet. “This is going to hurt” had been an understatement.

“Lousy ghost barely stuck around to see if I was okay,” I said, mostly to see if my ears still worked. They did. Whatever Gideon had done to me had blocked out the bar noise. The lights weren’t bothering me either. The son of a bitch had kept his word. For some reason, that pissed me off more than the pain he’d inflicted.

Cameron had been watching me closely ever since I stumbled out of the bathroom. I’d refused to tell him what had happened. But Nate had taken it upon himself to do that.

“Of all the stupid, reckless, idiotic stunts,” Nate whispered in my ear.

“Be really nice if you’d shut up about now, Nate.” Miraculously, he did.

Cameron still wasn’t letting me walk unassisted. I focused on seeing the Otherside in the way that Gideon had instructed, and Cameron’s bindings flared, showing every little gold thread winding
through his skin. I barely had to think about it. Whatever he’d done to me had worked. I could see Otherside without tapping the barrier.

“He might be an evil son of a bitch, but he held up his end of the bargain, Nate,” I said.

“Great, just fucking fantastic, K. I hope you remember that real fucking well when he asks you to pay up.”

“Will you two stop arguing and tell me where we’re going?” Cameron said.