Wayward Devils (Souls of the Road #4)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

S hamrock, Texas, went all out to show off its connection to Ireland. The bars were pubs, the local sport team was the Leprechauns, and every business had green clovers painted in the corners of the windows.

Only a couple thousand people lived in the town, which covered all of two miles.

The single-story, horseshoe-shaped motel where we stopped had Shamrock in its name but was painted in the red, white, and blue of the Texas flag. Huge, single stars were painted on the doors, each one facing the parking lot.

It might not have Irish in it, but it did have air-conditioning.

It also allowed pets.

Abbi settled with Lorde on the couch that pulled out into a bed, the controller for the television already in her hand.

“I like cartoons,” she announced, as if we’d never met.

Lu and I hadn’t said much since the truck, both of us silently carrying our duffles in and placing them on the bed.

“Do you want to shower first?” I asked.

She glanced at the bathroom, then at me. I didn’t know how to fix this. Didn’t know what words would make this right, make us right again.

“Lu…”

She picked up her duffle. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

The door closed with a click. The squeak of spigots was covered by a rush of water. Curtain rings rattled, and the sound of the water’s steady stream changed with her movements.

I wiped my face and scrubbed at my hair, grabbing the roots and tugging.

“It’s nice here.” Abbi pushed buttons, flipping between a huge animated purple octopus and a puppet that I assumed was a blue mouse.

The volume was muted, but Abbi moved her lips like she was speaking along with them.

“It’s cooler than outside,” I said. “The water runs. There’s electricity.”

“And it’s a lucky motel.”

I scrubbed at my jaw, my beard thick enough to itch. “Why?”

“Because everything here is lucky.” She spared me a second’s worth of a glance before going back to changing channels. “Why are you mad at Lula?”

“I’m not mad at her.”

“Is she mad at you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You aren’t very good at arguing. I think she’s worried.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, facing the door, and rubbed my neck. “It’s been years since we’ve been…angry—this angry—with something the other did. I’m out of practice.”

I was also tired, hot, worried.

Stressed, I supposed was the new term for it everyone used.

We had spent a damn long century unable to really communicate. It shouldn’t be a surprise that being together again came with some knots to work out.

Back in Oklahoma, I’d thought Lula ignoring her hunger for blood had been what was wrong. But now...I had a bad feeling it was something more.

“I’d just like things to be normal,” I said. “To be...easy, I guess. But every time I open my mouth, I’m shoving my boot in it. It used to be...”

“Easy?” Abbi asked.

“No, not easy. When I was alive before, both of us were young and trying to make our way in the world. Then all those years with me a spirit and her half vampire…”

I shook my head. “Not easy.”

But we’d been together. We’d done everything we could do to stay together. We’d faced every monster, every god, every devil, and always reached for the other, holding tight.

“Different, though,” I said. “We didn’t…doubt each other. Knew what we wanted. What we were fighting for.”

She hadn’t said she loved me.

Maybe she hadn’t heard me over the air rushing through the windows.

Maybe she was too angry to say it.

One misunderstanding didn’t mean she would stop loving me. I’d been trying to keep her safe. She had to know that.

I tugged on my hair again then let my hands drop.

“How did we lose that?”

Birthdays were normal. They marked a time of love, and those who loved you holding you dear. Giving that to Lula, I hoped, would be a celebration of the life we were building toward, instead of the death we’d been living through.

She met with the hunter who tried to kill her. The hunter who shot Lorde.

“Fragile,” I whispered. How could I prove to her I could hold my own?

“It can be easy again,” Abbi said softly. “All you have to do is kiss the Blarney Stone and make a wish. Then it will come true, and everything will be easy forever.”

I let out a breath. “At best, that rock gives you luck, Abbi. It doesn’t grant wishes.”

She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t believe in magic very much, do you?”

“Of course I do. But a rock in the middle of Shamrock, Texas, isn’t going to solve our problems. If that stone does have real magic, don’t you wonder where that magic comes from, and how much it costs to use it?”

She squinted at me like I’d lost my mind. “It comes from Ireland, Brogan. It costs a kiss and a wish. You need to try it. Maybe Lula would love you again if you wished for it.”

The door to the bathroom opened.

No, it shut. Lula was thrawan . She was silent as the fog when she wanted to be. I wondered how much she’d overheard.

From the carefully blank mask she wore, I knew she had heard all of it.

I held her gaze. “I want that. Can we talk about this, love? I won’t break. Let me help with whatever it is you’re trying to get from the hunter.”

Her lips parted. For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me what was going on. What she had wanted from Hatcher, and why she’d risked meeting with him without telling me.

I knew it wasn’t his death—she hadn’t called him there to kill him. If she had, he would be dead.

So why would she put herself in his sights again?

“Lu?”

She cleared her throat. “I’m going for a walk. Alone,” she added. “I’m not meeting anyone. I just need…I just need some time.”

“All right,” I said more calmly than I felt. “Abbi wants to see the stone. Maybe we can all…”

“You can go without me.” She gave me a faint smile that didn’t reach her eyes and walked to the door.

“Lula?”

The door was open, heat shouldering into the room.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I am.” She waited to see if I believed her.

“Okay. But we can…”

“I’ll be back soon.” Then she shut the door behind her.

The sound of the air conditioner chugging against the Texas heat was suddenly very loud.

“I don’t think she’s okay,” Abbi said in a small voice.

“Yeah.”

I wanted to follow, to slip through the walls and drift down the street by her side. I wanted to watch over her like I had for years and years.

She used to want me there with her, when I was a spirit. But now that I was flesh?

Fragile.

I blew out a breath. “I’m going for a walk.”

“To the Blarney Stone?”

“No, just a walk.”

“To follow Lula like she doesn’t want you to?”

“Abbi.”

She scrambled off the couch. “I know I’m not a people the way you and Lula are, but I can see things. Let’s go to the Blarney Stone and make a wish and lick— kiss —it and get luck smashed all over our mouths.”

She patted Lorde, who was taking up most of the couch, her black fur ruffling under the blast of the air conditioner.

“There might be ice cream too,” she said. “Don’t you think there might be ice cream?”

“You should stay here, Abbi.”

“I want to go. Me and Hado. Where are you, Hado?” She lifted the bed cover, peering under the bed.

“Hado and you should stay here with Lorde,” I tried again.

“No.” She lifted and dropped the two flat pillows, then rounded the bed and opened dresser drawers. “Stop hiding, Hado.”

“Abbi.”

“It will just take me a minute—”

“Stay.”

A knock on the door cut off her reply. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh.”

“Who?” I whispered.

She shook her head.

“Danger?”

She shook her head again but bit her bottom lip.

The knock rattled. “Hello. Hello, in there,” a woman’s voice lilted. “Is this a bad time?”

“No!” Abbi slapped her hands over her mouth.

I rolled my eyes and walked to the door. I peered through the peephole.

“Oh, there you are,” the woman outside said. “Hello.”

She looked to be in her sixties. Her long, curly hair was a mix of blonde and gray. She’d pulled most of it back away from her face and clipped small brown feathers onto the waves in front of her shoulder.

Her yellow sleeveless shirt had the logo of a honky tonk printed across it.

“Brogan? Is it Brogan?” She leaned closer.

She shouldn’t be able to see me through the peephole, but she looked right at me.

“I asked Julie at the desk, and she said a tall hunk of a man had checked in, and there you are! I have a flyer. For you. You and Lula.”

She dug in a satchel hanging off one shoulder and produced a paper, which she waved.

“Limited time deal. You don’t want to miss this.”

How did she know our names? We never used our real names when checking in to hotels.

“We’re not interested,” I said.

Abbi made a little sound, and the woman tipped her head.

“It will only take a minute, I promise. You’ll be doing me a favor, really. I don’t have to bring people to the bar, but I do have to give away all of the flyers. It isn’t a big town, Mr. Gauge, and we overprinted our flyers by a lot.” She shook the satchel. “A great lot.”

“Sorry,” I said. “Still not interested.”

“Did I mention ice cream? The best in a hundred miles.”

“Ice cream?” Abbi whispered.

“Buy one and you get an extra scoop for free,” the woman said.

“Two scoops?” Abbi rocked up onto her toes, every inch of her absolutely straining toward the door. “Ice cream, Brogan,” she hiss-whispered. “Half of it’s free! I’ll share.”

“You don’t have to share,” the woman said. “I can give each of you a flyer. I can give each of you two flyers.”

Abbi had been whispering. Either the motel door was made of paper, or the woman had unnatural hearing. Supernatural hearing.

“Do you know her?” I asked Abbi.

“I’ve heard her before. She’s nice. I think she worships me.” She gave me a huge grin.

“Worships you.”

“Or the moon,” she said.

“So, she’s not a vampire, a monster, a god?” I asked.

“No?”

“Why can she hear us through the door?”

“Probably magic,” she said. “Or the door is really thin. She’s not bad, Brogan. I’ve heard her before. She’s nice. She won’t hurt us. I promise.”

I sighed and opened the door.

The woman jerked back and pressed fingers to her chest. “My goodness.”

“What are you?” I demanded.

“A local citizen? Well, I work here, but I live up the road a bit. I’m supposed to handle the marketing, but you can see how that’s going.”

She shook the bag again and it crinkled, paper shifting.

I was good at spotting gods. She didn’t have that look about her—didn’t have the glow of power. I could identify most supernaturals.

But I’d been spotting them while I was in spirit form, not in flesh. While having a body brought with it pleasures and advantages, there were some spirit-enhanced senses I missed.

“Let me guess. You have an offer we can’t refuse.”

“It’s a bar?” she said. “With an attached ice cream shop? A strange match, I’ll admit, but in small towns, it works better when people join together. Don’t you think?”

“I think we don’t need what you’re selling.”

“Have you been to the Blarney Stone? The community has done a fine job of setting it up in a nice little spot on Main Street. Great signage. I think you’d be impressed.”

“I want to see the Blarney Stone,” Abbi said. “And ice cream. Please. We’ll take two flyers. Maybe four? Is four okay?”

“Four is wonderful. I’m happy to give you a dozen.” The woman tried to peer around me to get a look at Abbi.

“Would you allow me to step…” She blinked. “Oh. Oh, you’re…”

I wedged more of my bulk into the opening, hiding Abbi. “Just hand me the flyers.”

“She’s...um, she’s very pretty,” the woman said.

I was sure she hesitated because Abbi had darker skin than either me or Lula.

“Is she your...daughter?”

“Family!” Abbi said from behind me. Like, right behind me. She’d snuck up and was trying to shove her face past my thigh.

“Abbi,” I growled. “Don’t.”

“Just. Move, Brogan.” She pushed, then huffed. Then she pinched the back of my knee. Hard.

“Hey,” I yelped and jumped.

She smooshed into the open space of the door.

“Hi! I’m Abbi, and I really like ice cream. Brogan is my family, he’s taking me on a road trip, and he didn’t steal me. But I really, really do like ice cream, so can I have some?”

The woman blinked and her hand fluttered up to touch the feathers caught in her hair, her gaze cutting between the little twerp and me.

“Abbi,” she said, “it is wonderful to meet you. My name is Franny. Welcome here. Welcome with all my heart.”

“Thank you,” Abbi said. “Can I have the ice cream papers?”

“Oh, of course. Here.” She pulled out a handful of the flyers and bent them all in half short-wise, then length-wise. She held them out like she was luring a skittish squirrel with a handful of nuts.

“Coupons for ice cream. Also, more than ice cream, but if you bring them to the ice cream shop, and Billy is there, he’ll make sure you get the best scoops in Texas.”

“Thank you,” Abbi said. She tipped her head sideways and considered the woman. “Do you know me?”

“We haven’t met. Not until now.”

“Do I know Billy?”

“I don’t think so.”

“How will he know the best ice cream for me?”

“You can taste each one and decide for yourself.”

“That’s ginchy. Isn’t that ginchy, Brogan?”

“Stop saying ginchy,” I said. “Thank you for the flyers, Franny. Good-bye, now.”

I shoved the door, but Abbi was fast, the little fink.

She slipped out and stood in front of Franny.

“I think I’d like you to take me to the Blarney Stone. Me and Brogan. Our dog needs to cool off because she’s really furry, and Texas is hot for fur.”

“Abbi, let’s not bother the nice lady.”

“Oh, it’s no bother. I enjoy showing people around the place. Route 66 goes right through here, did you know that? Showing off Shamrock is no bother.”

“It’s no bother,” Abbi repeated, her eyes innocent, like she didn’t know she was getting away with doing exactly what she’d been begging to do.

“I think it’s time for a...a nap. You need a nap, Abbi.”

“I’m not tired, and you were going to go on a walk without me even though I wanted to see the Blarney Stone. So now you can go on your walk, and I can go with Franny to see the magic stone. Keen!”

“I really don’t mind,” Franny insisted. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you my phone number so you can contact me in case you want to talk to her.”

“I am not going to let her out of my sight with a stranger.”

“But your walk,” Abbi said. “What about your super-important walk?”

“My walk can wait.” I glanced at the room, grabbed Abbi’s purple backpack, which mewled, and handed it to her. “Stay, Lorde,” I said.

Lorde lifted her head, yawned, and lay back down.

I’d already put water out for her, and she’d done her business, so I knew she’d be fine sleeping in the cool room for however long it took me to drag Abbi away from the stone.

I locked the door. Abbi wrestled into her backpack then took my hand. “Thank you. This is going to be so fun!”

“So fun,” I said. Then to Franny, “How far is it?”

“Just a few blocks from here. Are you comfortable walking?”

“Yes.”

“In those shoes?”

“Something wrong with my boots?”

“No, but it is hot. We can stop for water, if you want. You look a bit flushed.”

“I don’t want water.”

“Ice cream,” Abbi repeated for the millionth time. “That will keep us cold. We can get ice cream. Even if it’s not the best, I bet it will be good.”

“Wonderful,” Franny said. “Follow me.”

She started across the parking lot like a woman on a mission.

“This motel has been here since 1959. It’s changed names, of course. It used to advertise having the luxury of televisions in powder rooms. There used to be a heated pool, right here in the middle of the parking lot. Why, I don’t know how cars didn’t end up in the middle of it.”

She prattled on, pointing at the horseshoe building behind us, then went on about a water tower and gas station.

“Thank you,” Abbi said quietly.

I grunted.

“I’ll give you my free scoop. The first one anyway.” I knew she was apologizing, or maybe just acknowledging that I was in a mood.

It was hard to think of her as a conniving little deity sometimes, especially when she delighted in being a child most of the time.

But it was easy to remember she was our friend and had wriggled her way into my heart. She meant well. Even when ice cream was on the line.

“I’ll let you pick the second scoop,” she said, squeezing my hand.

I squeezed hers back. “You’d better.”