Dark Demon Rising: Whisperings Paranormal Mystery book seven (29 page)
Read Dark Demon Rising: Whisperings Paranormal Mystery book seven Online
Authors: Linda Welch
All
kinds of delicious scenarios tripped through my mind’s eye. “Mm,
interesting.
What is it?” I asked breathily.
“It
involves my hand and your beautiful derriere.”
After
a stunned silence, I hooted. My Royal was back, the sweet, strong, confident
man I loved with his wicked sense of humor intact. “Pu-lease. Not the spanking
thing again. As if.”
I
laughed as his arm snaked around my back and folded me over his knees.
“You
wouldn’t dare! Not to an injured woman!”
“You
seem fairly chipper to me.” He positioned me back on the couch. “But one of
these days, Tiff. One of these days. . . .”
I
wanted to go home to be with Mac. I hoped to find Jack and Mel there, though
they’d give me hell. When a mother misplaces then finds a child, first she
embraces him, then yells at him for wandering off, for the anguish he caused
her. I am as much their child as they are mine and I deserved everything they
threw at me, though it would make me feel guiltier than I already did.
I
also wanted to see Maggie but was barefoot or as good as. Royal reminded me I
stuffed an old pair of tennis shoes under his truck’s seat when I changed them
for heels for a meeting with a client. Old, stained, the heels worn and split,
I meant to throw them out but forgot.
I
kept my window open as we drove to Maggie’s house. The snow damped odors and
not everything I did smell was pleasant. As always, the dog food factory stank,
but I inhaled the smell anyway. Aromas from a bakery were heavenly; I sniffed
deeply, and sighed. Home again, absorbing a riot of sensation.
Royal
parked and I slid from the cab. Puddles and half-frozen slush made the sidewalk
treacherous and traction uncertain, and my shoes were soaked in less than a
minute, but I enjoyed every step. I loved the feel of my shoes splatting in the
mush. I relished the chilly air and snow falling on my head. I paused and
turned my face up to let the white flakes settle on my face, and licked them
from my lips.
Maggie’s
blue Mini sat outside the garage. I squelched along the path and knocked on the
door.
“Yes?”
Maggie said as she opened the door, with absolutely no recognition in her eyes;
then they got big. “Tiff? Oh my god, you made it!”
She
hurtled at me, her arms wrapped my waist, her head thudded on my breastbone.
Bemused, I held my arms away from my sides.
“I
am so glad to see you,” she said into my chest.
My
throat felt tight. I slowly brought my arms in and around her shoulders. I
dipped my head so my cheek rested on her hair. I’d never hugged a woman before,
never been embraced by one.
With
another squeeze, she stepped away and I released her with a curious sense of
loss.
“I
want to. . . .” I faltered, then continued, “I used you, Maggie, and I
apologize. I put you through a lot.”
Moisture
made her eyes shine. “I would have done the same. I wish I could remember. Each
time I listen to the recording, the more it feels as if I dreamed it up.” She
looked down, scuffed her shoe in the snow, looked up again with a shy smile. “I
don’t suppose we can go back. Seeing everything I’ve forgotten will be cool.”
I
expected the suggestion, although not this soon after her return. “You can’t. You
were allowed in because Royal wouldn’t go without you and it wanted Royal to destroy
Shan.”
“Did
he?”
“Not
personally. Rain’s plan worked, she and River killed Shan and Arthemy. But
Royal was the catalyst, he made everything happen when he went Downside. It’s
the way it works sometimes.”
Her
eyes sparkled. “You are going to tell me, aren’t you?”
I
cocked my head at the street where Royal’s white truck idled at the curb. “Royal’s
waiting and . . . I need to get home.”
Maggie
rubbed her hands together and hugged herself as the icy air bit into her. “Then
could we, maybe, meet for coffee? Not at Beanz, though.”
I
smiled as I said, “I’d like to,” and meant it. “If it includes pastries. We’ll talk
then.”
“In
a coffee shop? We’ll be heard.”
“Nah.
If anyone listens in, they’ll think we’re role playing a fantasy game.”
“If
only they knew.” She chuckled in her throat. “I’ll call you.”
“Give
me a day to. . . .” I paused before snorting. “I was going to say give me a day
or two to settle in my skin.”
She
grinned. “You’re a riot, Tiff. See you later.”
“Later,
Maggie.”
I
walked to Royal’s pickup.
Curiosity
did tempt me back to Downside. My head swam with visions: wraiths, a siren, a
vampire, strange and amazing creatures for which I had no names, in a world
with a red sky. But I also remembered there are people who can shape magic and
use it to conjure demons, calculating red eyes watching from the shadows, and
the black aurae clinging to so many inhabitants.
I
would not return Downside.
Maryanne
rushed in the hall when Royal used his key to open the front door. She smiled,
saw me and her jaw dropped. I didn’t know her well but she still came at me
with a huge smile and open arms.
She
stopped herself, no doubt believing she greeted a frail invalid who shouldn’t
be squeezed or at all overwhelmed.
“I
am
so
happy to see you, Tiff,” she gushed. “You should rest, but we’ll catch
up when you’re feeling better.” She grabbed her coat off the coat-rack and
said, “I let Mac outside,” as she went through the door.
Anticipating
a reunion with Mac made me feel light inside. I could have bounced. And that’s
when my luck ran out.
“Oh
all the thoughtless, uncaring. . . . I can’t find the words.” Jack thrust one
shoulder at me and jerked his face aside.
Actually,
he had no difficulty finding the words, as he proved during the next few
minutes.
Mel
didn’t either. “I waited and
waited
outside the Magnusen house. I
thought you passed on so I headed home. Do you know how I felt, thinking that?
Have you ever mourned anyone? Really mourned? Felt your whole world come
apart?”
Shrunk
to two inches tall, I imagined giants Mel and Jack glaring down at me. “Guys.”
I began in a weak voice, but their outrage overpowered me.
I
hadn’t made it to the kitchen three minutes later. Jack and Mel barred the hall.
I was stuck until they finished their tirade, unless I walked through them. I
understood Jack and Mel as I never had before. I knew the loneliness and
frustration a shade experienced and saw them through new eyes, with a new
appreciation. They wanted to rant at me? So be it.
I’d
already apologized, when I managed to stutter the words, but they weren’t through
by a long way.
“That
is enough,” Royal roared.
Jack
and Mel started. I almost came out of my shoes.
“Tiff
had no choice. She wanted to find you but I did not let her. I refused to spend
precious time no doubt explaining what we must do. I have stood here watching
as, I am sure, you pour guilt on her head.” He finished by barking, “No more!
She has been through enough!”
He
took my elbow. “Come, my love.” And whisked me right through Jack and in the
kitchen.
I
imagined Jack and Mel with their mouths still open, frozen immobile by Royal’s
outburst. I was no less shocked. “How did you know?”
“I
guessed after a minute or two of seeing you with your feet rooted to the floor
and a scolded puppy look in your eyes.”
Royal
not only spoke to my roommates who were invisible to him, he surmised what they
were doing. It was the ultimate confirmation he acknowledged them as real
people who impact my life.
I’d
kept my eye on the door to the kitchen all the time my roommates laid into me,
expecting my boy to arrive. In the kitchen, I saw why he had not: the pet hatch
was down. We interrupted Maryanne when we came home and she forgot to open it.
Royal
opened the hatch and in Mac roared, a miniature locomotive, ears flat, an evil look
in his squinted eyes.
Then
he saw me, stopped, and stared. He gave me a long, disapproving look from under
his eyebrows and bumbled across the kitchen to sniff my shoes.
I
sat on the kitchen chair and picked him up. “
Oof.
What has Royal been
feeding you?” I call him my little boy, but Mac’s a big Scottie at thirty
pounds and I swore he weighed more now. He settled on my knees and didn’t
struggle. Not immediately.
I
watched my roommates, my heart swelling with gratitude and genuine affection, determined
to hold on to the Jack and Mel hidden behind unchanging expressions and
whispering voices. “I’m glad I got to see you as you really are,” I told them.
“
I’m
glad you’re back in your body,” Mel said.
“Yeah.
You were one whiny ghost,” Jack said hesitantly with one eye on Royal.
I
parodied a whisper. “Guess what, Jack? He can’t hear you.”
“I
know!”
“But
I can tell him.”
“Go
ahead.” Jack twisted away with one hand on his hip. “I’m not afraid of him.”
I
sniggered.
“I
didn’t think she was all that whiny,” Mel protested.
“You
did. She drove you up the wall as much as she did me. Worse than teaching a
child with three legs to walk.”
“You’re
the expert on whiny, Mister Snarky.”
“Huh.
You think so? Then I know what I’m talking about.”
Royal
stood beside me with his hand on my shoulder. I put my hand over his and
squeezed.
I
concentrated. Warmth, and the demon heat from Royal’s hand; its weight and that
of my chunky dog. Mac’s hair, wiry with a soft undercoat, as I pushed my
fingers through. The firm wood seat under my buttocks, the hard tile floor my
feet rested on. Royal’s sandalwood and amber scent, a lingering hint of stale coffee
grounds, and MacKlutzy’s moderately stinky odor. Someone needed a bath.
I
smiled, stroked my dog and listened to my friends verbally tear each other to
shreds.
It
was good to be home.
mysterious ways.
When
I finished
A Conspiracy of Demons
, one sentence haunted me: when Gia
said, “There are still deep, dark places where Man has never set foot.” I
wanted to explore this place as a potential story about the Dark Cousins.
Tentatively titled Downside, it was supposed to be about a new character going
head-to-head with the Dark Cousins. But the story, and Downside, changed as I
wrote. Humans crept in with the many other weird and wonderful creatures which
call Downside home. Rain went in her own direction, one which didn’t involve or
even include the Cousins. The title became
Downside Rain
and was published
December, 2013, followed by
Baelfleur
in November, 2014.
I
didn’t know whether I’d write another Whisperings book, but the Muse struck
again when I received some sad news. My Scottish terrier Duncan was diagnosed
with incurable cancer. I sat at my laptop and piled my grief on Tiff’s
shoulders. I wrote of her learning Mac was dying, and how her imagination went
into overdrive as she thought about taking him to the clinic for the last time
and leaving, her eyes swimming with tears.
And
a bullet came out of nowhere.
Really,
I had no idea why
that
happened. Naturally I had to investigate Tiff’s
shooting, who did it, and why. As the story took shape and the identity of
Tiff’s nastiest adversary was revealed, I knew Tiff and Royal would be going
Downside, where the Dark Cousins hid. And Whisperings book seven,
Dark Demon
Rising
, was born.
If
you want to know more about Downside and its peculiar inhabitants, you’ll find
them in
Downside Rain
and
Baelfleur.
Whisperings
Paranormal Mysteries
Whisperings
Shorts
Downside
Novels
Dark
Urban Fantasy Short Story Collection
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