Keeper Chronicles: Awakening (9 page)

She snorted.
I probably won’t see him for another six years.

An ache pulled her eyes down. The cut on her hand from where she’d broken the beer bottle still hurt, and she washed it carefully. The skin was an angry pink, the stitches dark.

A knock at the door startled her, and she dropped the soapy loofa she’d been using. “Who is it?” A surge of hope filled her traitorous heart. He hadn’t left her in the night. He’d stayed with her.

“It’s Mia. Just wanted to make sure you were okay in there. It’s almost noon.”

Why was Mia bothering her about sleeping in? Dad was there. He could handle anything that needed done for another hour.

His death punched her, stealing away her breath and popping tears out of her eyes. Rebekah stumbled away from the showerhead until her back was against the cool tiles. No, he couldn’t take care of things. There was no one to do that but her, now.
Shit, shit, shit.
She had guests to care for, rooms that needed cleaning before the new arrivals showed up.

“I’ll be out in ten minutes,” she shouted. Before the deadline had passed, she finished showering, dried her hair, and dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a black sweater.

Mia waited for Rebekah at the top of the stairs, a steaming cup of cappuccino in her hands. “Take this.” The girl shoved the cup at Rebekah and pulled her into the master kitchen where a heaping plate of egg soufflé, a small stack of wholegrain crepes with fresh cream and raspberry jam, and a side of thick bacon waited. Mia pointed. “Sit. Eat.”

Rebekah did as the girl said, crunching into a thick piece of bacon. “What about...” she started to ask, but Mia shushed her.

“Don’t worry about anything. Breakfast was a success, as always, and everyone checked out this morning. We don’t have anyone coming in until Wednesday, so that gives you a little peace. Dylan even took care of the rooms for you.”

A flush rose to her cheeks as she thought about Dylan and what she’d say to him about Gabe. “Where is he?” she asked coolly.

Mia, her nails painted black with little stars, grinned and cocked her head to the side. “Out. Someone called from the shop. He’s there now waiting for them to finish his car.” She hesitated meaningfully. “Will he be leaving soon? You know, since I saw Gabe sneak out of your not-so-secret entrance early this morning?”

Rebekah wanted to die. “Nothing happened.”

Twirling a curl of hair around her fingers, Mia took a sip of her own coffee and arched an eyebrow. “You know, it’s okay if it did. No judging. He is smoking hot—you know, if you’re into the dark and brooding type.”

The wholegrain crepes practically melted in her mouth they were so soft, and she took another bite to keep from having to answer Mia. Although the girl had only worked at the bed-n-breakfast for four months, she felt like someone Rebekah could trust. A friend. Rebekah was going to need someone to help her run things at the b-n-b. Maybe Mia was that person.

“Fine,” she sighed, letting her fork clatter on her plate. “Something happened. But it was just once, and it’ll
never
happen again. Never.”

“Me thinks you doth protest too much.”

“I’m serious, Mia.”

“Okay, okay,” she laughed and held her hands up defensively. “I believe you. Sheesh. Is this about his fiancé?”

Rebekah nearly choked on her coffee and dabbed at her face with a napkin. “Fiancé? Gabe? He’s...engaged?”

“Was.” The sunlight sparkled off Mia’s eyes. “I was right. You do care about him.”

“Mia...”

“I heard about it from my parents. I guess it’d been big news around here at the time—her death. I’m surprised your dad didn’t say anything.”

Rebekah swirled the coffee in her cup and looked out the window. Gabe had had a fiancé. And she’d died. She wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. “How?”

Mia’s face darkened. “Boating accident up near the Killamook light. My mom said he was the one who found her when she washed ashore. They say...they say there wasn’t much left of her. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“No, probably not.” And he had saved her from that. Saved her from seeing her father in such a state. She hadn’t known it at the time, but he’d been doing her a favor while probably remembering his own loss. She owed him an apology.

“Why the long face?”

Pushing away from the table and what remained of her breakfast, she rubbed her arms for warmth and walked to the door. “I need to do something.”

Mia shouted at her back. “I think he’s at the lighthouse.”

Was she being that obvious? Rebekah grabbed a coat near the door and put it on as she walked outside into the brisk October air. She didn’t know what she was going to say to him when she saw him or what she wanted out of him, but she had to talk to him. Her heart quickened as she walked the gravel road connecting the b-n-b to the lighthouse. He always made her crazy, stole her powers for rational thought. Yet when the light became visible around the bend, breaking through the cover of pine trees, she stopped.

The beacon light was darkened and wouldn’t be lit until nightfall, much further down the road. A patrol car was parked out front, probably his, though no one was in sight. For an instant, she imagined him sitting up in the watch room, waiting, as her father had done for decades before him. Did she really want to walk down that path some more with the nights spent waiting up, wondering when he’d come inside or whether some poacher had shot him during a bust? Dylan was kind and thoughtful. Rebekah deserved someone like him. Someone who would be there for her every night without taking advantage of her sorrow.

“Beks...?” The door to the tower opened and Gabe stepped out, buttoning up his tan uniform shirt. He’d changed clothes since she’d seen him last. His curly black hair was still wet from a shower and clung to his head. “What are you doing here?”

She crossed her arms. “
Me
? What are
you
doing here?”

He tucked his shirt in. “I’m stationed here now. Looks like we’re going to see a lot of each other.” To her surprise, a little heat flashed in his dimpled cheeks. “I mean, with our clothes on. Of course. Last night...”

Rebekah jumped in before he had a chance to finish that sentence. “Was a mistake. One which will never be repeated.”

The glare he cast her way could have turned flesh to stone. All the humor and humanity vanished from his tone. “What makes you think I wanted a repeat performance? I thought sneaking out made things plenty clear.”

“So you fucked me out of some kind of sense of obligation, is that it?” She shoved him—a short, jab of a shove punctuating the question. “You think your cock’s a magic wand that’ll make my father’s death all right? You’re such an arrogant prick!”‘

She shoved him again, harder this time, but he didn’t move.

Gabe put his hands on his hips and smiled down at her. “Well, aren’t you going to say thank you?”

Rebekah kneed him between the legs as hard as she could. “You’re welcome.”

She stormed back up the gravel drive to the b-n-b. What had she been thinking? How could she have been stupid enough to think he’d want anything more than meaningless sex? She’d sworn never to let him hurt her again, yet there she’d gone allowing him take advantage of her vulnerability. How could she have ever imagined he’d be someone she could spend her life with?

Rebekah almost didn’t duck in time to avoid being decapitated. A brown streak with massive teeth snarled as it jumped for her head, leaping out of the brush at the side of the trail. Ducking, she dropped down to her knees as it sailed overhead, its claws raking across her back. She screamed.

The animal skidded in the gravel, its snarl less of a warning and more of a promise of violence. Rebekah ran. Ignoring the burning in her back as best she could, she sprinted back up the trail to her house, praying that she’d make it there in time as the animal started running after her. Her heart raced, fear giving speed to her movements. This shouldn’t be happening. Most animals wouldn’t attack without provocation. She had heard of animal attacks over the years, but had never thought to be a victim of one herself.

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, she froze.

What chased her wasn’t an animal, at least not in the conventional sense. It had the sturdy frame of a pit bull, but where there should have been a single head there were three instead. Three heads. That wasn’t possible. Animals didn’t have multiple heads, at least not and survive long after birth. Nature wouldn’t allow such an abomination.

The thing stopped about a foot away and growled, revealing razor-sharp teeth much longer than any normal dog’s. She backed up slowly, not wanting to tempt it by running. She needed a stick or heavy rock or something. The dog-monster-thing shifted so that it was between her and a fallen tree limb.
I’m dead.

Two things happened at once: the door to the b-n-b opened and Mia ran out, her hand glowing red like it was on fire; and Gabe materialized down the road, holding a crossbow. The dog creature jumped for Rebekah’s throat. She closed her eyes and ducked.

Nothing happened.

The thing yelped like a real dog might. When Rebekah opened her eyes, it lay collapsed on the driveway. Its skin smoked and an arrow pierced its eye. At least now it only had one head. “Wha...what was that?” she asked as she hyperventilated, her entire body trembling.

Instead of looking at Rebekah and answering, Mia did the most perplexing thing imaginable: she looked at Gabe. “You...were attacked by a dog.” The chef took Rebekah’s arm and led her back toward the house, away from the dog and away from Gabe.

They were up to the porch by the time Rebekah had her wits together enough to ask a question. “But, the heads? I don’t understand.” She rolled her shoulders, her back burning.

Mia took her inside and sat her on the couch next to the cold fireplace. “Heads?” the girl asked. “What do you mean?”

“It had three heads instead of one. I
saw
it.”

Mia winced and sat on the couch. “Sorry. That was my fault. I wanted to help you get through these first days a little easier, so I slipped some herbs in your coffee. It’s an old family recipe for melancholy. Every once in a while, people hallucinate. That must have been what happened.”

“I was hallucinating?” Rebekah rubbed her eyes.

The girl nodded. “Yes.”

“And I saw a three-headed dog?”

“That about sums it up.”

Rebekah took a breath. “And you didn’t’ see them—the heads?”

Black-streaked pigtails swished back and forth. “Nope. Just the one.”

Letting her head collapse into her hands, she massaged her temples and replayed every detail of the attack. No matter how hard she tried not to see the other heads, she did anyway. Three heads—it’s what her eyes had seen. But then she’d once tripped on some stuff in college that had made her see glowing little creatures and disembodied heads floating around the dorm, so maybe Mia was right. It could have been a hallucination.

Mia stood up and went into the other room, bringing back a small mortar and pestle a few minutes later. “My mom is an alternative healer,” the girl explained, “and my sisters and I grew up learning about the curative properties of herbs. It’s what inspired me to become a chef. This remedy that I’m making now is a natural anti-inflammatory mixed with some pain killers and an anti-biotic to kill any infections from that scratch. Lay down, and I’ll put it on for you.”

Rebekah hesitated. “It’s not going to make me hallucinate, right?”

“This? No.” The girl grinned, her white teeth flashing with a grin. “Though if you want to have fun some tonight, I’ve got a killer brownie recipe.”

The scratches on her back burned like hot coals. What could it hurt? Taking her sweater off, she succumbed to Mia’s demands and lay across the couch. Rebekah winced. The salve was cool and sucked away the heat of the injury. Closing her eyes, she relaxed and was asleep within a matter of seconds.

Chapter Nine

“That was close, Keeper. Too close.” Mia glared at Gabe with her hands on her hips. She looked like a petulant fairy. An angry, petulant fairy. Any moment smoke would start streaming from her ears. “She could’ve died.”

“Don’t you think I know that, witch?” Gabe snapped and returned back to the task of disposing of the demon’s body before someone decided to walk up the drive to visit the lighthouse. For years Keepers had thought to burn the corpses, but most demons have an essence of fire in them. Sometimes a good pyre was enough to bring them back to life. No, the best way to dispose of the bodies was to cut them up and submerge the separate pieces in water blessed by no less than a Bishop. Old man Lorek had kept a basin in the storage shed for just that purpose. Gabe would have to use that now.

“Then why don’t you seem to care?”

Taking the cerberus by the legs, he slung it over his shoulders and began walking. Why wouldn’t she just go away? “We’ve got a first-order on the loose and it’s almost assumed human form. Until it’s destroyed, these lesser demons are going to be drawn here, where the gateway’s still open. Find an excuse to stay at the house for a few weeks, at least. I’ve taken over Lorek’s post at the lighthouse, but even I can’t be awake all day.”

Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout. “I don’t work for you, you know. I don’t have to follow your orders.”

Gabe turned on her. “Your coven raised that third-order and let it loose to feed up and down the western coast for months until we stepped in and killed it. Eight people died. So, yeah, you’ll do what I say and you won’t argue, or you may wake up to find the next demon in your bed, wearing you as a shirt.”

“I don’t know what she sees in you,” Mia said to his back.

He stiffened. If his hearing wasn’t extra sensitive, he wouldn’t have heard. Probably Mia knew that and was trying to get a reaction from him. Well, she’d just have to wait. He wasn’t in the mood to indulge. With Halloween coming up next week, the Keepers were on alert. Nothing was worse than having a breach at a time when wearing demon and monster costumes was not only a possibility but a requirement. All he needed was some housewife opening her door to a ghoul, only to find that instead of a cute child in a costume, she was faced with a real monster who thought she was the candy treat.