There was no way in hell Lilith was walking back into the banquet room to face Gideon Black again without her.
She made one complete circuit of the bar, including the terrace that fronted the beach, but found no sign of Tasha.
Chanting an internal shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, Lilith charged out the front door and looked up and down the street. Parking space was precious, and Chill’s official lot had room for about twenty cars. Lilith saw no sign of movement there.
She walked north a few blocks and turned left down a side street, heading for the area the city had converted to public parking. A bald guy in a red plaid shirt and stained khakis slumped on a bench, muttering to himself while he had both hands lifted, palms up, waving them back and forth as if polishing an invisible screen.
“Hey,” she said. When he didn’t respond, she spoke louder. “Hey buddy, you see a woman come by in the last little bit? Blond, about five-six?”
His hands froze, and his head tilted to one side then the other as he regarded her. “They’re over there, and they want in.”
Lilith sighed. She had seen the likes of this guy too many times over the years. Too smart for his own good, probably underemployed and endlessly ignored by women. They came to the beach hoping to get lucky, but failed to see the hard truth that they weren’t any more likely to attract a woman while on vacation than they were in their normal habitat. The only difference between this guy and the others was that he had fallen too far into his own delusions for anything resembling mental health.
She smoothed a hand over her hair, tucked a stray lock behind her ear. “The woman,” she said again, “you see anybody?”
“They probably got her,” he said mournfully and turned his attention back to the sky.
“Who do you think got her?” she asked.
He pointed. “Them.”
She followed the invisible line from his hand upward to the power lines arcing across the street. Huge black crows perched side-by-side, filling every available inch, solid black shapes against the deep blue of the night sky.
Watch out for them crows. I seen big ‘uns today. Whoo-ee!
Lilith frowned. Benny was always yammering about crows, but they congregated all along the coast. Nothing special about that. There was probably a logical explanation for this particular nocturnal behavior, and if Lilith had a scientist handy or her smart phone, she’d dig up an answer, if only to shut up the annoying voice in the back of her head that screamed this is weird!
She didn’t have time for anomalies or sad drunks. There was enough high strangeness in her life that she had conjured all on her own, thank you very much.
Now, where the hell was Tasha McNeil?
In the distance, a car door slammed, followed by a string of curses and high-pitched laughter. It floated over the trees from the general direction of the parking lot. Twin beams of headlights cut the moist night air, and an engine revved.
Lilith broke into a jog.
A silver four-door Kia edged out of a parallel parking space and into the street. A finger of light from the street lamp illuminated Tasha’s determined face above the steering wheel.
“Tasha,” Lilith yelled, still running and waving her hands. “Wait!”
She trotted into the street, intersecting the Kia’s path. It screeched to a halt and avoided hitting Lilith by less than a foot. The driver’s side window buzzed down. Tasha stuck her head out and yelled, “What is it with you? Do you have a death wish or something?”
Lilith ran around to the side and rested her hands on the car door. “What’s the hurry?”
Tasha gestured toward the passenger seat. The redheaded woman sat with her head lolled against the headrest, her hands loose in her lap, her lips parted with a drizzle of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth.
“Had a bit too much?”
“No,” Tasha said firmly. “She’s sick.”
“Probably nothing a good night’s sleep and the hair of the dog won’t fix. Come back inside, and I’ll give you one of my hangover remedies.”
“She only had two drinks,” Tasha insisted, “and they were more frou-frou than booze.”
“Tolerances vary a lot from one person to the next,” Lilith said.
“There’s something wrong with her. I’m going to take her back to the hotel and see if they can find a doctor.”
Lilith shook her head. “Not at this hour. Not on a weekend.”
“I guess I could take her to the Emergency Room,” Tasha said, “but I just met her last week at the spa. I don’t even know if she has insurance.”
“She looks comfortable,” Lilith said, trying to keep the doubt from her voice. The redhead looked wrecked, but it wasn’t her issue. Gideon Black was probably wearing a hole in the banquet room carpeting about now. If she didn’t get Tasha back there soon, he’d send his weres after her.