The theater was in a mazelike cluster of new shops catering to tourists on foot—sort of a mini-open-aired mall plopped beside the original downtown—but they had a special lot for the cinema, and I parked between a white truck and a rusting Toyota with a bumper sticker that said FOLLOW ME TO THE U.P., EH?
The engine cut out, and I looked across the van at Jenks in the new silence. The sound of slow crickets came in from the nearby empty field. He seemed nervous, his fingers quick as they fussed with the zipper on his pack. “You going to be okay?” I said, realizing this was the first time he had been on a run where he couldn’t just fly out of danger.
He nodded, the deep concern on his face appearing out of place on someone so young. Rustling in a bag, he pulled a bottle of maple syrup out from behind the seat. His green eyes met mine in the uncertain light, looking black. “Hey, um, when we get out, will you pretend to fix your shoe or something? I want to take care of the cameras on the back of the building, and a distraction might help.”
My gaze went to the bottle in his hand, then rose to his wary expression, not sure how a bottle of syrup was going to fix the cameras but willing to go along with it. “Sure.”
Relieved, he got out. I followed suit, leaning against the van to take off my shoe and shake a nonexistent pebble out. I watched Jenks with half my attention, understanding when he let out a trill of a whistle, anxiously touching his red hat as a curious, aggressive pixy zipped up to him in the cooling dusk.
I missed what was said, but Jenks returned looking satisfied, the bottle of maple syrup gone. “What?” I said as he waited for me to fall into step with him.
“They’ll put the cameras on loop for us when we leave the building,” he said, not taking my arm as Kisten or Nick might, but walking beside me with an odd closeness. The shops lining the thoroughfare were closed, but the theater had a small crowd of what were clearly locals, to judge by the amount of noisy banter. The movie showing had been out for three weeks in Cincy, but there must not be a lot to do up here.
We neared the ticket booth and my pulse quickened. “They’ll loop the cameras for a bottle of maple syrup?” I asked, voice hushed.
Jenks shrugged, glancing at the marquee. “Sure. That stuff is liquid gold.”
I dug in my bag for a twenty as I took that in. Maybe I could make more pimping maple syrup to pixies than running? We bought two tickets to the SF film, and after getting Jenks a bag of popcorn, we headed into the theater, immediately going out the emergency exit.
My eyes went to the cameras atop the building, catching the faintest glint of streetlight on pixy wings. Maybe it was a little overkill, but being placed at the theater if The Butterfly Shack’s alarms went off might be the difference between keeping my feet on the street and cooling them on a jail cot.
Together we made our way from the service entrances in back to the front, Jenks shedding clothes and handing them to me to stuff in my bag every few yards. It was terribly distracting, but I managed to avoid running into the Dumpsters and recycling bins. Upon reaching the shuttered tourist area, he was in his soft-soled boots and his skintight outfit. We had come out a few blocks from the theater, and it was creepy being on the street at night with everything closed, reminding me how far from home and out of my element I was. The Butterfly Shack was tucked into the end of a cul-de-sac, and we headed for it, feet silent on the cement.“Watch my back,” Jenks whispered, leaving me in a shadow while he twirled the long tool in his fingers into a blur, crouching to put his eyes even with the lock.
I gave him long glance, then turned to watch the empty foot street. No prob, Jenks, I thought. Sure, he was married, but I could look. “People,” I breathed, but he had heard and was already behind the scrawny bushes beside the door. They were butterfly bushes, if I guessed right, and scraggly. Any other business would have torn them out.
Shrinking into my shadow, I held my breath until the couple passed, the woman’s heels fast and the man griping they were going to miss the previews. Five seconds later Jenks was back at the door. A moment of tinkering, and he stood to carefully try the latch. It clicked open, a nice cheery green light blinking a welcome from the lock pad.
He grinned, jerking his head for me to join him. I slipped inside and moved to get out of his way. If there was more security, Jenks could tell better than I.
The door shut, leaving the wash of streetlight coming in the large windows. As smoothly as if on wings, Jenks glided past me. “Camera behind the mirror in the corner,” he said. “Can’t do anything about that one if I’m six feet tall. Let’s get him, get out, and hope for the best.”
My gut tightened. This was more loosey-goosey than even I liked. “The back?” I whispered, cataloging the silent shelves and displays of Amazon rain forest stuffed animals and expensive books on how to design a garden for wildlife. It smelled wonderful, rich with subtle perfumes of exotic flowers and vines filtering out from behind an obvious pair of glass doors. But it was cold. The tourist season wouldn’t officially begin till next week, and I was sure they kept the temp low at night to extend the life of the insects.
Jenks slipped to the back, making me feel clumsy behind him. I wondered if he would even show up on the camera, he moved so stealthily. The soft sucking sound of the outer glass door of the casual airlock was loud, and Jenks held it for me, his eyes wide to take in what little light there was. Nervous, I ducked under his arm, breathing deeply of the scent of moist dirt. Jenks opened the second door, and the sound of running water joined it. My shoulders eased despite my tension, and I hastened to keep up as he entered the walk-through exhibit.
It was a two-story-tall room, glass-walled from ten feet up. The night was a black ceiling festooned with vines and hanging planters of musky smelling petunias and jewel-like begonias. Maybe forty feet long and fifteen feet wide, the room made a narrow slice of another continent. And it was cold. I clasped my shoulders and looked at Jenks, worried.
“Jax?” Jenks called, the hope in his voice heartrending. “Are you here? It’s me, Dad.”
Dad, I thought in envy. What I would have given to have heard that directed at me when I needed it. I shoved the ugly feeling aside, happy that Jax had a dad who was able to rescue his ass. Growing up was hard enough without having to pull yourself out of whatever mess you got yourself into when your decisions were faster than your brain. Or your feet.
There was a chirp from the incubators tucked out of the way. My brows rose, and Jenks stiffened. “There,” I said breathlessly, pointing. “Under that cupboard, where the heat lamp is.”
“Jax!” Jenks whispered, padding down the slate slabs edged with moss. “Are you okay?”
A grin heavy with relief came over me when, with a sprinkling of glowing dust, a pixy darted out from under the cupboard. It was Jax, and he zipped around us, wings clattering. He was okay. Hell, he was more than okay. He looked great.
“Ms. Morgan!” the young pixy cried, lighting the small space with his excitement and zipping around my head like an insane firefly. “You’re alive? We thought you were dead! Where’s my dad?” He rose to the ceiling, then dropped. “Dad?”
Jenks stared, transfixed at his son darting over the exhibit. He opened his mouth, then closed it, clearly struggling to find a way to touch his son without hurting him. “Jax…” he whispered, his eyes both young and old—pained and filled with joy.
Jax let out a startled chirp, slamming back a good two feet before he caught himself. “Dad!” he shouted, pixy dust slipping from him. “What happened? You’re big!”
Jenks’s hand shook as his son landed on it. “I got big to find you. It’s too cold to be out without somewhere to go. And it’s not safe for Ms. Morgan to be out of Cincinnati unescorted.”
I made a face, chafing at the truth, though we hadn’t even seen a vampire, much less a hungry one. They didn’t like small towns. “Jax,” I said impatiently, “where’s Nick?”
The small pixy’s eyes widened and the dust slipping from him turned thin. “They took him. I can show you were he is. Holy crap, he’ll be glad to see you! We didn’t know you were alive, Ms. Morgan. We thought you were dead!”
That was the second time he had said it, and I blinked in understanding. Oh God. Nick had called the night Al snapped the familiar bond between us. Al answered my phone and told Nick I belonged to him. Then the media thought I’d died on the boat Kisten blew up. Nick thought I was dead. That’s why he had never called. That’s why he didn’t tell me he was back on the solstice. That’s why he cleared out his apartment and left. He thought I was dead.
“God help me,” I whispered, reaching out for the filthy incubator full of butterfly pupa. The budded rose left on my doorstep in the jelly jar with the pentagram of protection on it had been from him. Nick hadn’t left me. He thought I had died.
“Rache?”
I straightened when Jenks tentatively touched my arm. “I’m okay,” I whispered, though I was far from it. I’d deal with it later. “We have to go,” I said, turning away.
“Wait,” Jax exclaimed, dropping down to the floor and peering under the cupboard. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty…”