Fall of Light (15 page)

He groaned and hugged her almost too tight, then unlatched the door and helped her out of the car.

The same waitress was working again.

“Hey,” she said. “I read your name off your credit card and rented one of your movies when I got off shift this morning. I watched it over lunch.”

Corvus smiled. “I wouldn't eat while watching any of them. Did you like it?”

“You were really scary!” she said.

“Thank you.”

“But I'm not scared of you now. I think that's strange. Oh, don't mean to hold you up. You guys want a table to yourself tonight, or are you joining someone?”

Corvus pointed toward the corner booth, where Magenta and Lauren sat, eating French fries and drinking soda.

“Her I've heard of,” said the waitress, nodding toward Lauren. “She was great as Bitsy in
Fooled Me Twice
. Is she really as nice as she was in the movie?”

“She is,” said Opal.

“Oh, good. We had a couple other stars in here around dinnertime, and they were—well, you don't need to hear. Please, seat yourselves. Here's some menus. I'll be right over to take your orders.”

“Thanks, Jenny,” said Corvus. He and Opal headed for Magenta and Lauren's booth. “Opal, you said something about new pages?”

“Yes. Sorry.” She fished a sheaf of marigold-colored paper out of her messenger bag and handed it to him. Opal slid in beside Magenta, and Corvus beside Lauren.

He took reading glasses out of his shirt pocket and skimmed through the pages. There were six. “I've never seen this before.”

“They were writing it last night, remember? In this same booth.”

“Any good?” Lauren asked.

He flipped back to the start and frowned. “I—”

Jenny came up, pencil poised over her order pad. “Steak?” Corvus asked, peering at her over his glasses.

“Sure. T-bone or top sirloin?”

“T-bone.”

“How you want that?”

“Medium rare. And a big salad if you have one.”

“Sorta,” she said. “Anything to drink?”

“A pitcher of coffee.” He flipped through the marigold pages. “Gotta stay awake awhile longer. Got some memorizing to do.”

“How about you, hon?” Jenny asked, turning to Opal.

For the first time Opal remembered her own hunger. It had been a long time since lunch, which she had barely had. She ordered a turkey sandwich, salad, and a glass of milk.

“Be right back,” said Jenny, and bustled off.

“So what did you figure out in the car after we left?” Lauren asked.

“Not much,” said Opal.

“Took you pretty long,” said Magenta.

Lauren kicked Magenta under the table. “Meanwhile, we're still trying to figure out what to do about the D.G.,” she said. “I don't want him to get to me again the way he did today. Tomorrow I'm safe, because we're not working together, but I think day after tomorrow, we're scheduled to do another forest shoot, if the weather cooperates. What I want to know is, are you
completely
unconscious the whole time he's here?”

“I don't remember anything about today, aside from sitting down to get made up, our fight, the dream about Opal,” he said, “and then waking up after the day was over.”

“I wonder if there's some part of you that remembers,” said Lauren.

“What's your point?” asked Opal.

“If they're two separate people, we have to figure out how to manipulate the D.G. without Corvus's help—if he's stuck down in the basement and can't affect the D.G. while he's in charge, that's no good. If there's some kind of connection, we might be able to get Corvus to work on the guy from inside. Assuming Corvus is on our side, and doesn't want the D.G. torturing us all day while he's gone. But if there's a connection, that might mean the D.G. could figure out everything we plan, so I don't know whether to talk about this anymore in front of him.”

“This film has been an eye-opener, and I've been here less than a week,” Corvus said.

“What do you mean, big guy?” asked Magenta. She sipped soda from the bottom of the glass through her straw.

Jenny came and put food down in front of Corvus and Opal.

Corvus salted his steak, sat with his fork poised, frowned at his food. “Why did I say that?” he asked himself. “I'll tell you why. My flight lands in Portland, and I'm in charge of my life, about to start work on a new project. Good step on my career path, a role with meat to it. I know I can do a good job. I've memorized the most current version of the script. I've got a good room right in town, with a bed that's big enough for me for once, and my trailer's decent. First weird thing I learn on this shoot: Opal can hypnotize me.”

“Oh?” Lauren glanced at Opal, eyebrows up.

Opal shrugged. “Not on purpose. Just so he could lie still comfortably while I was changing him into Dark God.”

“I'm helpless in her hands,” Corvus said. He straightened to his full height, which was impressive, sitting or standing. He shook his head slowly. “Long time since I've been helpless for anybody. I hate that.”

“How come you can hypnotize him?” Magenta asked. “Is that part of your general witchiness?”

“I guess,” Opal said.

“Wait,” said Corvus. “You're a witch?”

“Close enough.”

Corvus glanced at Lauren and Magenta. “Not news to them,” he said to himself. “Okay. Maybe I knew it, too. So anyway, that's the first step to my discovery that I don't rule my own life. Now this other person is running around wearing my—wearing me, and alienating my coworkers and friends.”

“You could leave,” Opal said. “While you're still you. I'll drive you to Portland if you want.”

“Breach my contract? Mess up this multimillion-dollar production and screw over everybody working on it?”

“Yep,” said Opal.

“I don't think so. Talk about a career-killing move.”

Opal had the impulse to stick it out, too. The shoot had to end sometime. They might be able to figure out how to deal with the Invader, keep him tame enough to work with. He was her best creation to date, though she couldn't take full credit for him.

“Is this movie going to be any good?” she asked the others.

“It'll be okay if they don't completely screw it up in post,” said Magenta. “Nothing everybody hasn't seen before, but that's good, if it's something everybody wants to see again.”

“Like everything I've done so far,” Corvus said. “Anyway, in terms of career, I'm working my way toward where I want to be. Maybe next picture, I get to wear my own face, who knows? I know that's not likely; not many roles written for seven-foot leading men, but it could happen, right?”

“If anybody can do it, it's you,” Lauren said. “You've got a great face. I wonder if Travis and Beth would write you a picture.”

“To get to that point,” he said, “I should probably get through this picture first. Agreed?”

The women looked at each other and nodded.

“All right, then. I vote we wait and see what happens tomorrow. Though I'm not looking forward to it.” He sighed and settled into eating.

Opal had finished her sandwich. She checked her watch—after midnight—then opened her messenger bag to search for her cell phone, even though she was sure her mother had already gone to bed.

Lauren leaned across Magenta and touched Opal's arm. “Sorry to change the subject,” she said. “But there he is.”

“Who?” Opal asked.

“The ex.” She nodded toward the front of the restaurant. “I wonder how long he's been here.”

They all looked. A dark-haired man was sitting at the counter with a mug of coffee in front of him. He held something in his hand, stared down at it. It winked.

“Is that a mirror?” Magenta asked.

“Subtle, isn't he?” said Lauren.

“Who is he?”

“The guy who's stalking me, Norman Davis.”

“You have a stalker?” Magenta said.

“Yep. Not just trendy, but nerve-racking.”

“Do you know what he wants? An autograph?” asked Corvus.

“Not hardly,” said Lauren, while Magenta said, “He's a movie star, big guy, not an autograph hound.”

“Oh?” Corvus looked at the back of Norman's head again. He frowned.

“He was the male lead's sidekick in
Fooled Me Twice
,” said Magenta. “Mr. Comic Relief. The B-story romance with Lauren's character.”

“Oh. That was a charming subplot,” Corvus said.

“You've actually seen the movie?” Lauren said.

“Of course. I like to know who I'm going to be working with. You were great. He was good,” Corvus said.

“Thanks. Yeah. Snowed me enough I said yes when he wanted to take the relationship outside the script.”

Jenny leaned forward at the counter, smiled at Norman while she refilled his coffee mug, laughed at something he said. She gestured past his shoulder toward their table and asked a question. Norman shook his head without turning around.

Still staring at Norman, Lauren said, “Will you guys leave with me?”

“Sure. Anyway, we have to, don't we? I've got the car,” said Opal.

“Oh. Yeah,” said Lauren. She smiled.

“Corvus will pretend he's your boyfriend,” Opal said.

“I will?” said Corvus. “Of course I will, if that's what you want.”

“Not sure that's a good idea,” Lauren said. “I know Norm is whacked. I don't know exactly how. He might get weird and destructive toward you, as well as me, if he thinks we're together. Anyway, tabloids will be announcing you two as a couple any day now, right?” She smiled at Corvus and Opal.

“Are there actual press leaks on this shoot?” asked Magenta. “Erika is irritating, but she doesn't seem to have sent out a story yet. We had some security scares in the Makeup trailer, but I haven't seen anything in the tabloids about this shoot yet, and yeah, I'm checking out the
World Weekly News
and the
Enquirer
every time I'm at a cash register in the supermarket.”

“I could start some stories,” said Lauren.

“Please don't,” Opal said. “Been down that road. Hated it.”

“Really?” Lauren asked.

“That was with Gerry?” Corvus said.

“Gerry who?” asked Magenta.

“Gerard Shelley.” Opal hunched her shoulders. Her relationship with Gerry hadn't ended badly. They were still friends, but he had moved on. Really, so had she; she'd been working with Corvus by the time she and Gerry wished each other well. The tabloids had invented their own sour ending. “Why do you know about that, Corr?”

“I told you, I research the people I work with.”

“You hooked up with Gerry?” Lauren said. “I worked with him once. One tiny scene. I was a funny library lady and he had a question. He's awesome. Or—does it turn out he's not?”

“No. He's a good guy,” Opal said.

Jenny came by with a coffeepot and a pitcher of cola, offered refills. She glanced over her shoulder toward the counter, then looked at Lauren.

“Sweetie, we're not together any longer, and I'm totally uninterested in him,” Lauren told her. “So please don't tell him what I'm doing or who with, okay?”

Jenny flushed. “He said he wanted to surprise you.”

“Yes, but not in a good way.”

“Oh,” said the waitress. “I'm sorry.”

“No way you could know that. He's an actor. It's his job to convince people he's nice. Underneath—well, my advice would be don't go there, but it's up to you.”

Jenny's eyes widened. “No.” She gave her head one shake. “I wasn't even thinking that. I thought you were a couple.”

“Nope. So don't tell him any more about me than you have to, okay?”

“All right. Boy, having you guys around sure makes life interesting.”

“We live for that,” said Lauren with a grin. Jenny topped off everybody's drinks and went away again.

“Well, I've got pages,” Corvus said. “Or does the other guy need to memorize them?” He shuddered.

“He knows what you know,” Lauren said. “We found that out today. If you get your lines in your head, he can get to them. Hmm. That may answer my earlier question. You guys are connected somehow. Any plans we make with you, he can figure out, maybe. That's not good.”

Opal dropped her hands to her thighs and fisted them under the table. She needed to talk to her mother. The previous Christmas, her sister had done a strange spell that revealed how people connected to each other in her family, and Opal had seen strings leading from her mother to everyone else. If she could connect to Corvus that way, maybe she could talk to him, even while he was submerged under the Invader. She dug out her cell phone. “Excuse me,” she said. “Gotta make a call.”

“Don't go too far,” Lauren said. “Please.”

“Right out front,” said Opal. “I'll keep an eye on you through the glass.”

They all watched her leave, and she realized everyone was depending on her. It felt like she was back at home, herding her younger siblings around, being their mother because Mama wasn't really good at that, listening to every complaint, fixing things that went wrong. Familiar, and in a way almost sweet, and also annoying.

She stood just to the side of the door. She could see the back booth from there, and she also saw Norman's profile. He was handsome, and looked grumpy.