her mention of what happened to me, Mom’s eyes filled with tears, and I realized I was going to have to stop my interrogation. I kissed her forehead lightly as I dropped a towel over her. “I need to go, Mom,” I told her. “I need to go see Doug, and do some other things.”
Mom didn’t question me, but I could see the concern in her eyes. “Stay safe, angel daughter,” she whispered softly.
I smiled at her. “Aha,” I laughed, “I’ve got a secret weapon. These.” With a theatrical flourish, I produced some ear-plugs I’d found in Mom’s bathroom cabinet. “Do your worst, bad guys,” I finished. I pressed another pair into her hands. “Keep these with you,” I insisted.
Leaving the bathroom, I bent down low to fish in the pantry for sustenance, my mind already going to Cleedaline. Carragheen sent her to me, without realizing. It’s like we were connected from the beginning. Now she was dead and her friend was trapped and scared. And alone. “I’ll find her,” I promised Blondie’s memory. “I’ll finish what you started, brave one.”
A wolf whistle behind me startled me.
“Hellooo, sunshine.” There was a deeply appreciative note in Doug’s voice and I could tell right away he was looking at my butt, stuck in the air as I search the lower shelves, where Mom keeps the good stuff.
I whacked my head on the shelf. “Jesus, Doug, what the hell’re you doing?”
He was leaning against the door jamb in black denim and a white tee, looking dark and menacing, except for the goofy smile splitting his rugged face. He wiggled a set of keys at me.
“Left them with me, remember? The keys to Blondie’s temporary home.”
I nodded silently, and checked him out. He was still a very respectable hunk of man, but he suddenly seemed more than that. He looked different, or maybe it was that I was different.
I felt a wave of fondness and gratitude looking at him. For saving me, for protecting Cleedaline. Maybe just for being a big, comforting presence in a freakin’ spooky couple of days.
And there was another thing. Mom’s never going to warn me off this guy.
But as I watched him, Carragheen’s rangy body and wolfish beauty floated before my eyes. Less buff, more ballet dancer. A warm flush crept up my neck at the thought.
Doug looked me quickly up and down. “Oh, sister,” he breathed. “What happened?”
“What?” I asked quickly, checking my reflection in the hall mirror, wondering if the horrors of Aegira had left some indelible stamp on my features.
“You look different,” he said, like he couldn’t quite work out how. “You look… loose.”
“Loose?” What?
“Y’know, relaxed. Did you go get some home town lovin’?” Doug was going for nonchalant but there was vulnerability in the question in his eyes.
“Maybe,” I hedged my bets. There was no way I could go into the Carragheen thing with Doug. Somehow I knew he wouldn’t approve of the whole married-with-a-kid thing. And he definitely wouldn’t like the sneaking around caves stuff. And I’m not sure at all how he would feel about another guy, period. “But enough small talk.”
I tried to sift through what I could actually tell Doug about what had happened over the last couple of days and came up with: not much. So I drilled him instead. “What’s been going on here? No-one snooping around?”
“’Round Blondie, y’mean?”
“Her name’s Cleedaline.” It was out before I could stop myself.
Doug paused. “Right,” he said. He looked at me carefully, weighing what he could read on my face. “Course it is. Strange name, Sheriff. And how d’ya know that?”
I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Forget it,” he let me off the hook. “Ask no questions.” But he looked like he really, really wanted to.
I smiled at him by way of reward. “Thanks, Doug. So what’s the gossip in town?”
“Man, this place is all lit up with Blondie,” he said, shaking his head sadly at me. “Who she is, where she went, what the hell Billy did to get her lost. Everyone knows, and Aldus is pissing his pants that he’s gonna get the rap for it all. Almost as much as Billy.”
“Huh.” What I’d expected really. At least no-one was asking crazy questions, trying to connect dots. “Thanks, Doug, for looking in on her. I’d better get going.”
“Where y’off to?” He had that looking-for-action face on that I’d seen too many times.
I hedged. “Why?”
“Oh, I dunno,” he started. “Wondered if you might need some company.”