Then I spent the next few hours dreaming that a giant, vinegar-scented salad monster was chasing me around the town square and trying to stab me with a magical dagger.
Even in my dreams, it's never dull in Dead End.
10
Jack
Jack drove
Jack worried
Damn.
[I'm not sure how to do this properly, and I'm definitely not talking about myself in the third person like some idiot, so I'll just type up my notes about what happened, and maybe Tess can fill in any gaps later. She's the storyteller; I'm just a soldier-turned-private eye. Anyway, here goes. - Jack]
I worried about Tess the whole way from her house to mine. She'd been too tired and in too much pain to even argue with me about drinking the vinegar, which was so unlike her that her headache must have been worse than she'd admitted.
She'd also refused to go to the hospital. Hospital bills were not in the budget this month, apparently. And when I'd told her I'd be glad to pay for it—I had all that gold from Atlantis, after all—she'd narrowed her eyes at me and pointed at the door, in a silent command to get out.
I got out.
For a pawnshop owner, she'd have made a fine general in the rebel army.
Now, I just needed to come to terms with the reality of a dead ancestor come to life and hanging out in my living room. Or a spare bedroom. It wasn't like I could kick him out, after all. The current house was only a hundred years old or so, but it was built on the property he'd originally owned and built a farmstead on back in the day. So did that mean it technically belonged to him? Did resurrection affect property ownership?
Did it matter?
No. No, it did not.
He was family.
The evidence was clear enough on that, even though I wasn't about to take the rest of what he'd said at face value. To begin with, I'd stolen nothing from the Fae. Second, anything involving Kal'andel na Garanwyn, High Prince of the High House, Unseelie Court, was almost sure to be sketchy. The Fae lord was more dangerous than any other I'd encountered—and I'd run into a lot of Fae during my time with the rebels.
When I pulled into my driveway, Susan and Jed were sitting on the porch steps, and she was … laughing?
Susan wasn't the type to relax while on duty, especially when the town was under threat of imminent destruction, but evidently my great-whatever granddad was entertaining. Or charming.
I don't trust charming, entertaining people.
I rested my head on the steering wheel and thought a few of the words I'd never say around Tess, and then I firmed my resolve and got out of the truck. They both stood to greet me, but I noticed Jed looked a lot more tired than he had at the station.
Maybe Susan's driving had scared a few more years off his life. I didn't bring it up, though. Plenty of other things to talk about, and I'd probably look pretty rough if I'd been turned into a statue for three centuries too.
"About time," Susan said. "Tess okay?"
"She's not. She tried this drink-vinegar thing that Granny Josephine texted her about, and now she's going to nap, but refused to go to the doctor." I could feel my own head hurting. This worrying about specific people, as opposed to protecting humanity in general, was fairly new to me, and I wasn't sure I liked it.
Jed folded his arms and gave me a stern look. "In my day, we took care of our women."
Susan sighed. "Listen, Mr. Shepherd. This is all going to go a lot easier if you quit saying things like 'in my day' and 'our women.' Women aren't property these days. We can vote and everything."
His eyes widened. "Why would you want to fill your head with politics? The fairer sex is meant to be cherished and loved, so you can care for our children and homes."
Susan's mouth fell open, but before she could respond, Mackenzie roared up on my bike. Alone, at least, but I'd be happy to see the back of him. I'd promised to help with Iona, though, who was a gentle girl who didn't deserve to suffer for her brother's crimes.
And, knowing Logan Mackenzie, there were definitely crimes involved. He might even have stolen the damn dagger himself.
"Hey, Jack. Turns out people in this townlikeyou. Never would have believed that if I hadn't seen it for myself," Logan said, sauntering over.
