Chapter Twenty: Morning After

The digital alarm clock on my bedside table blinked 12:00 am.

Power must have gone out at some point during the night. Didn’t know what caused it, but now I had no idea what time it really was.

Wasn’t sure if I cared, either. My head was a little sore. I was probably dehydrated from drinking so much. I spotted a half empty bottle of water next to the clock. Couldn’t remember how long it had been there. Also, didn’t care. I grabbed it, screwed off the top, and drank the warm, stale water. Better than nothing.

My gaze travelled over the empty side of the bed next to me. Well, I didn’t really expect him to hang around. Hoping, maybe, but since when did my hope ever turn out well? I laid flat on my back, let my head sink into the pillow, and gave my body a good stretch. I ached. Good, fun aching, but aching nonetheless.

The front door opened and closed suddenly. I grabbed the sheet strewn across the bed to cover me—I didn’t know who the hell would just be strolling into my apartment, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want them to see me naked.

Minutes later, a familiar figure appeared in the doorway. He flashed me a crooked grin. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Toby?” Oh, hey, I remembered his name! Score!

He walked over with a paper bag in hand, and a tray with two coffees. “Wasn’t sure you’d be awake.” He sat on the bed next to me, balanced the tray on his knee, then leaned over to kiss me.

“I thought you were gone for good.”

Toby held the tray towards me, and I took a coffee. “You didn’t have much in the way of breakfast food around.”

I propped the pillow against the headboard, pulled myself into a sitting position, and leaned back. The coffee was hot, but brought a welcome jolt of energy. “I’m not usually a breakfast person. I’m bad about skipping meals.”

He pulled four wrapped packages from the paper bag—sandwiches or bagels or something—and took two. “Well, I like a good breakfast. I have a big appetite.”

“Yes, I remember.” I took another sip of my coffee.

“Do you?”

I glanced over at him and rolled my eyes. “Oh, please. I wasn’t that drunk. Of course I do.”

“You’re taking the werewolf thing really well, for a girl,” he said.

I wasn’t about to even touch the “for a girl” comment. “It freaks people out?”

“Usually. And if not, it’s ‘cause they’re groupies. That gets kinda weird.”

“Promise I’m not a groupie.” I took one of the wrapped packages, folded back the paper, and tore a piece of bagel to munch on.

“That’s refreshing.”

“Oh, right.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure it’s really tough having women all over you all the time.”

“It’s not without its pros,” he admitted. “Still. So.” He nodded toward the coffee in my hand, ready to change the subject. “Good surprise?”

I don’t think either of us really thought he was talking about coffee, and I hadn’t decided yet how I felt. On one hand, I wasn’t looking for anything beyond the previous night. I was still heartbroken and miserable. On the other, it at least felt good that someone wanted to stick around.

“I could get used to someone bringing me breakfast in bed,” I said instead. “When are you leaving?”

“I have to be at the airport in an hour. Gotta deliver the bad news.”

“Is someone going to break your kneecaps? Is that why you’re hiding out here?”

“No…” He took the coffee and bagel from me, and set them on the side table, then climbed on me. With a deep kiss, his fingers clasped the bed sheet and he drew it away from me.

I decided I was definitely going to make him late for his flight.

By the time Toby left—late for his flight, of course—it was afternoon. I finally fixed the alarm clock, took a shower, and then checked my messages. The one on my landline that I hoped maybe could have been Devlin turned out to be a telemarketer trying to “give” me a free plane ticket to Hawaii.

The two messages on my cell phone had me curious. Both were from Lilith. The first was a photo of a beat-up guy, and a message that I was to take it to the police should anything happen to her. The second was from a few hours later and she said she was fine. I called anyway.

“Hello?” she said as she answered.

“So I don’t have to call the police.”

“Oh. Briar. Hello.”

“Explain?”

She breathed in deeply, then exhaled. “I ran into some trouble on the way home last night.”

“Trouble from the hot guy whose picture you sent me?”

“No. But I’m fine now. Thank you for checking in.”

“Whoa, whoa—you don’t get off that easily. What happened?”

“Can we perhaps discuss it another time?”

“Why…cute guy still there?”

“Briar!”

Saints, she was uptight. “Just kidding.”

“I’ll have you know, no, I’m cleaning.”

“Cleaning what? The place was spotless when I was there like two days ago.”

“I’m washing the walls.”

What a nut. “Okay. Glad you survived. See you Monday?”

“Of course. Goodbye Briar.”

She sounded weird. I didn’t know what her problem was—maybe she got really hammered the night before and now she had a hangover. But I was too tired to push, so I hung up.

I finally got dressed, and then started thinking. Always a dangerous thing… But Toby bought me breakfast, so maybe I could pick up a late lunch for Lil and go visit. She’d probably think I was still trying to come live with her, but in all honestly, I just really wanted to know if she was actually washing her damn walls…

Someone buzzed my apartment.

I had a momentarily flash to the man from the night before. I wish I knew his name…or what he was…or anything, really. My head told me that wasn’t him at the door, but my heart hoped for something else.

“Yes?” I said over the intercom.

“It’s meeee!”

Once again, my brain was right.

I hope she doesn’t have her suitcases with her, I thought as I buzzed her up. Of course, knowing Briar, she probably didn’t own suitcases—she’d have a garbage bag of her clothes.

She reached my door just as I opened it. After kicking off her shoes—a gesture that both surprised and pleased me because for once she wasn’t tracking dirt inside—she strolled into the living room and sat on the couch. She set a bag on the coffee table.

“I brought lunch,” Briar declared with a grin.

“Thank you, but I’ve already eaten.”

Her eyes grew wide, as if I’d actually hurt her feelings. “But…lunch. I thought it would be nice. I got cabbage rolls and perogies. They’re fresh.”

My previous assessment of her being a large kid seemed to be apt. I offered her a smile. “I’ll get some plates.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the gesture, and I hated the idea that she’d think me ungrateful. But I hadn’t really thought about food at all that day. My head was still whirling from the night before.

“Were you actually washing your walls?” she asked as she served the food onto the plates. It did smell wonderful, and my stomach rumbled a little.

I gestured to the bucket and sponge tucked on the other side of the room and pictures resting on the floor while the walls dried. “Yes.”

“So anything good happen after I left last night?”

“Well…I put Sebastian in a taxi and went home myself.”

“Did he say anything after…um…seeing Noelle?”

I didn’t think that’s what she’d intended to ask, but I pretended to take her words at face value. “We…discussed, briefly, him potentially moving on. I think you set an example for that.”

Her face reddened. “Oh.”

“Sebastian said the man was a customer?”

“From a few days ago. Toby. He’s gone back to…wherever he came from. I think he said Cleveland. He didn’t look like a Clevelander to me, though.”

“And what do Clevelanders look like, exactly?”

She shrugged. “Not like him. He looks more like…L.A. Or somewhere like that. So who was the hottie you sent me a picture of?”

“I…” It was my turn to blush slightly.

“Oh, saints, did you hook up with him?”

“No!” That answer came out a little more abrupt than mine usually did. I took a deep breath and lowered my voice before continuing. “I was on my way home and was…threatened but a few people. It wasn’t a safe situation. He tried to help me.”

“And got the shit kicked out of him? ‘Cause that’s what it looked like.”

“He was hit a few times, yes. But he more or less saved me—or at least distracted them long enough for me to save us both. He wouldn’t go to a hospital, so I brought him up here to make sure he was okay.”

“And then you hooked up with him?”

“Really, Briar. I’m not that irresponsible.”

“Hey, I’m not irresponsible!”

I winced. I shouldn’t have been so careless with my words. “I didn’t mean—”

“If I were irresponsible, I’d be turning into a werewolf right now.”

I paused and pondered that statement for a moment. No matter how I turned it over in my head, I couldn’t make sense of it. “Pardon me?”

“Toby. He’s a werewolf. And you know how lycanthropy is spread…it’s the gift that keeps on giving, like herpes.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t fathom what to say to that, so I closed it again.

“You do know how lycanthropy is often spread, right? I mean besides the bite?”

“Yes, I gathered.”

“Oh, good. I so didn’t want to have to explain that to you.”

I considered pointing out that just because I didn’t date much, that didn’t mean I was a nun, but I refrained from commenting on that.

“So what was your guy’s name?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“He didn’t tell you?”

I shook my head.

“Wow…that’s kinda sexy.”

So at least I’m not the only one who thought so…

“And he just disappeared into the night?”

“Yes.”

“Huh…” She munched on some perogies for awhile. “You know…” Her gaze slid to mine and lips formed a sly grin. “We could bring him back.”

“Briar, I’m not—”

“Not you. Me. Just a little something to draw him back in your life. Nothing coercive. I promise.”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you have a witness sample? Anything he…wrote on, or touched, or…hey, have you got any semen?”

“I didn’t have sex with him, for goodness sakes.”

She shrugged. “Fine, but when we get him back here, do yourself a favour and get some semen. Soak a string the length of his penis in it and—”

“Blood,” I quickly interrupted her. “I have blood.”

“Oooh. Kinky.”

I reached for my temple; a headache was definitely starting. “From cleaning the head wound.”

“Oh. Okay, that’ll do. Where?”

“I’ll get it,” I said, thinking that perhaps an extended walk to the kitchen trash receptacle would lend me time to reconsider what she was proposing. I didn’t like the idea of bringing magic into things, but…

But my morals aren’t helping me in this.

I’d barely slept. I couldn’t, for some reason. I just…had to see him again. I had to solve this mystery.

Just as I collected the blood-soaked gauze from the waste basket, I heard a phone ring in the other room. It was Briar’s.

“Ooh, Sebastian,” she said with a grin. She held up the phone for me to see. “Text message. I apparently need to call him ASAP. He used many exclamation points…”

Her attention averted, I was actually glad for the reprieve. I wasn’t sure her plan was such a good idea…

She dialled his number, pressed the phone to her ear, and a moment later was all smiles. “What’s up?”

I hung back, just out of the living room. I knew that she didn’t mind me there—indeed, if she did, she would have just asked me to leave, or go herself. But I still didn’t feel comfortable intruding.

“Uh huh?” she continued. She looked genuinely happy—I supposed whatever Sebastian said was good news. “Just tell me. What’s so great…”

The change in her eyes was almost imperceptible at first. A quick blink, and it was as if a different person looked back. Slowly her smile fell.

“That’s great.” Silence ticked by as she listened to the voice on the other line. “Yeah. No, that’s really awesome. Well, duh, I am the best. It’s almost like you’re surprised.”

She kept up the super happy voice, but when she blinked a few more times, I thought I caught the faint glint of tears on her eyelashes.

“That’s pretty much it, then, unless you have something else come up. Yep, we’ll—well, right now I’m kinda busy with Lil. Have fun though. Yeah, later.” She hung up her cell phone and gazed down at the coffee table blankly for a moment.

I stepped into the living room with slow steps. “Briar?”

She still didn’t look up at me. “Seems I’m like the very best hoodoo woman ever. I got Sebastian and Noelle back together. Imagine that.”

“Briar…I’m sorry.”

She shrugged casually and smiled up at me. “Whatever. That’s what he hired me for. I made good money. We should celebrate or something…though maybe not just in case I end up singing and drunk again.”

“We could do something else,” I offered. I hated the idea of her feeling so bad and being alone with her thoughts. “My treat.”

“Nah.” She rose, hooked her thumbs on the pockets of her worn jeans, and fidgeted for a moment. “I should probably go. You have to go back to your wall cleaning…and I have to drown and burn a doll-baby…” She went to pick up her shoes.

“You can’t do that,” I said as I started after her. “She didn’t—”

“Bitch deserves what’s coming to her,” Briar said. “How many other relationships do you think she’s destroyed? Boyfriends she’s cheated on? What goes around doesn’t come around, Lil, unless someone brings it. And believe me, it’s gone around and around and now it’s headed straight for her. I have a bottle of D.U.M.E. Oil I’ve never used. That’s about to change.”

I wanted to stop her, but I knew it was of little use. She might be lazy around the shop, but when it came to something like this…she was quite determined.

Briar had the door open and she was about to head into the hallway, when she glanced back at me. “Oh, here, hand me that bloody thing—I’ll take care of your boy too.”

“I…” I held back. “I don’t think so. Not right now.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself. But if you change your mind, let’s go with a Thursday or Friday, okay?” And with that, she left.