Friends without Benefits (Rise of the Discordant Book 4) Read online

  “Come on over to a booth,” she said, grabbing a glass of water from the bar and heading to the back corner. At least, I noticed, it was the opposite corner from where Elliot sat getting drunker and angrier. It upset me that there wasn’t much I could do on that front. The guy wasn’t lost. He was just no good.

  “You were right last night and I’m sorry if I was short with you. If the offer still stands, I need someone to talk to.”

  Donna’s apology took me by surprise, but I was glad to see that her head was a lot clearer than it had been for the last week.

  “Donna, my offer has no expiration date,” I said with what I hoped was a disarming smile. Although willing to talk, she was still pretty high strung. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Bogie was right,” she said with a grimace.

  “About what?”

  “Last week, when his Aunt Doris showed up, she brought me a letter. I didn’t think anyone else noticed, but Bogie did. It had the seal from my father’s house, but it wasn’t from my father.”

  “I see.” I vaguely remembered Bogie’s Aunt Doris speaking to Donna and Donna looking pretty pale, but considering that we had just survived the fallout from a rift being ripped open, I didn’t process what was happening at the time. “I can assume that the letter came from the one who was intended to…”

  “Yeah,” she said with a short huff. “I… He can’t, you know, knock me up or anything, but he won’t leave me alone either.”

  “Um…” I stammered. I wasn’t sure where this was going and briefly recalled a conversation we’d had not long ago that left me just as uncomfortable.

  “Okay, seriously, Seth, you’re like, the biggest prude,” she said and rolled her eyes at me. “No, I take that back. You are the second biggest. Desmond is worse. But anyway, just so you know, no, I’m not having sex dreams and that’s the problem.”

  “Uh… How… Um…”

  I’m pretty sure I was doing a fantastic impression of a fish. Calling me a prude wasn’t necessarily fair, but there were some things I just didn’t care to explore. Donna’s sex life was one of them. “What exactly do you mean by that’s the problem?”

  “My incubus shows up every night and wants to talk. He claims that we can’t do anything else because I put up a barrier when I had se… er, when I broke the curse. Not that I necessarily want to have sex with him. I mean, sure he’s hot. He’s an incubus, after all, and he shows up naked and…” she cut off and I wasn’t sure who was more flushed with embarrassment, her or me. “Anyway… the problem is that my own doomed love life has been going downhill for a while, but it’s gotten way worse since I opened that stupid letter and I had a bad feeling that I knew why.”

  She wasn’t the only one who had a bad feeling. I hadn’t dealt with many incubi before since they tend to stay in their own realm, but I’d learned quite a bit from Myrna over the years. A physical token from an incubus was bad news.

  “Last night he basically said that the only way we could be together was if he had a way of taking form here.”

  My initial concern for Donna’s well-being took a temporary backseat to my larger concern for the safety and continued existence of all of Blackbird. I must have conveyed my worry because Donna held up her hands and gave me a wounded look.

  “Oh, don’t worry. I know exactly what’s going on. Bogie was right. He’s trying to get me to open the portal. I’m not stupid, Seth. I know what will happen if we let even one Discordant slip through the fissure. But I’m kind of at my wits end. I can’t get rid of the guy and I’m pretty sure that he’s the reason for my string of bad luck.”

  “Hmm… I’m not sure about that,” I said, thinking about what she said. Certainly, a token from an incubus would strengthen their bond. From what I understood, tokens were a last ditch effort if a strong soul was too resistant to their charms. Donna’s situation was different.

  “I can’t come up with anything else,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “Unless I was cursed. Hey!” She bolted up from her slumped position and I could almost see the lightbulb light up over her head. “You don’t think I could have been double cursed, do you?”

  “Double cursed?”

  “I’ll bet that was it,” she muttered, ignoring my question. “I just need to figure out who did it and what they used.”

  “Um… okay…”

  I still had no idea what she was talking about, but at least her determination improved her mood. It was certainly possible that she’d been cursed, but it was just as likely that she’d had a run of bad luck as well. It wasn’t uncommon. I’d seen more than my share of young people making poor relationship decisions over the years. For that matter, I’d made the worst decision of all.

  “I should be getting back to work,” she said with a look over her shoulder. The bar was starting to fill up. “You want another beer?”

  “No, I better not,” I said, already regretting the one I’d had. With nothing in my stomach, I was feeling somewhat lightheaded. “I’ll be back later tonight.”

  * * *

  Maybe it was the beer on an empty stomach or maybe it was the fact that I knew no one would be there, but I didn’t feel like going immediately home. Instead of heading north from the Five Penny, I went south, crossing the river at its lower bend. I found myself standing in front of the old mill. A soft glow, which would have been invisible to most people, came from what was left of the old loading docks.

  I could hear muttering and every so often, the light would flare up or grow dimmer. Occasionally this would be followed by a string of curses. I shook my head. Desmond had been at it since noon. Quite frankly, after he sent me a text to let me know that the quake had indeed weakened the barrier, I had expected to see at least one of the mystics helping him out. Certainly, Desmond’s job as a Warrior required that he put a stop to the threat of Discordant, but I was pretty sure this did not mean that it was something that he had to do alone.

  I passed through the barrier that we had put up to keep the locals out, making enough noise that I would not sneak up on Desmond. When he heard me, he looked up and frowned.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Funny,” I said with a light chuckle. “I came out here to ask you the same.”

  “I beg your pardon?” The frown lines on his face deepened and I shook my head.

  “Desmond, you’ve been out here for more than six hours.”

  “The earthquake was of a much stronger magnitude than those previous. I’m at a loss as to what we can do to strengthen our barrier.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” I said quietly. “Desmond, you had help putting this barrier up. What makes you think you can fix it on your own? Why didn’t you ask for help this time?”

  He eyed me warily.

  “I don’t know what component failed, Seth. Until I’ve got that figured out, asking for help would be useless.”

  “Or a different set of eyes could provide you with a fresh perspective,” I admonished.

  “Did you simply come out here to give me a hard time?” he asked, though I was relieved to hear the humor in his tone.

  “Mostly,” I countered, lightening my own voice. “Well, that and I needed a walk. I didn’t get a lunch today and I stopped in at the Penny.”

  “Oh?” Desmond looked up from his phone at that. “And were you able to talk to Donna?”

  “Actually, she was quite willing to talk. Apparently, the incubus who was supposed to…” I trailed off with a look and Desmond nodded, indicating there was no need to elaborate. “He managed to get a token to her.”

  At that, Desmond opened his mouth to protest, but I had been expecting as much and cut him off. “Donna isn’t dumb, Desmond. She figured out pretty quickly that it was a ruse to get her to open this fissure. She’s not going to open it, though she is convinced that he’s put a curse on her,” I added, but didn’t elaborate. Desmond and I had enough awkwardness between us without discussing Donna’s sex life.

  “No, I
would hope not,” he said with a long exhale. “Though if we have another couple quakes like this, it’s not going to matter much.”

  “Dammit!” I cursed. “I knew I forgot something. I got so caught up in applications today that I forgot I was going to investigate this fracking company. Something isn’t adding up. Didn’t the EPA come in and put a temporary hold on production after we sent them our findings?”

  After discovering the instabilities under Blackbird, thanks to the corners cut by the mill’s owners, Desmond, Betty, and I worked out a plausible story of how we came to discover the deception. We made sure to send it to the agency that was above the one who had originally okayed the mill’s compliance.

  “They did, but the courts struck down the ban claiming insufficient proof that fracking will further disrupt the damage.”

  “And an earthquake nearly every damned day isn’t sufficient proof?”

  I think my anger might have startled Desmond.

  “You and I both know that the arguments put forth by the city council were driven by fear. Fear that Down to Earth would pack up and take their fracking money elsewhere.”

  “That’s the part that I really don’t get. Desmond, I work for the unemployment office. I see the numbers. Down to Earth hasn’t created a single job for Blackbird’s residents. Not only that, but the workforce that they brought with them has done nothing, and I mean literally nothing to boost the economy. They aren’t staying in hotels, they haven’t paid for housing, and I sure as hell haven’t seen anyone new hanging around the Five Penny.”

  The more my argument turned into a rant, the angrier I became. I had begun pacing, mindful to stay clear of the sinkhole, though truth be told, my mood had swung so far to black that I almost wished a stray Discordant would pop up out of the fissure and try me. Rationally, I knew I probably just needed to eat. I swung back around, intending to tell Desmond exactly that, but there was something odd, well, odder than usual about his expression. The ever-present worry was there, working my anger back up to a frenzied pitch, but there was something else. Was that a hint of a smile?

  “What?” I barked and immediately flinched at my own snappish tone.

  “Nothing,” he said, holding his hands up defensively, but if anything, the amusement he was trying and failing to hide was growing.

  “Desmond, you’re laughing at me.”

  “No! I’m not. It… it’s just… I’ve never seen you angry, I guess,” he said with a soft chuckle. “You were always the one to keep my temper in check.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m hungry and this fracking business…wait…”

  I caught the anomaly in his phrasing and seconds later, his mirth vanished in a cloud of panicked anxiety.

  “Seth, never mind. I…” he mumbled, but I hardly heard him over the dam breaking in my own mind.

  “You’re talking about before, aren’t you?”

  The Creator had said that we had known each other in previous lives. Desmond knew something about this. It was our soul familiarity that kept Amara from taking mine. I’d hoped that eventually I’d be able to ask him about it, but ever since then, Desmond had been wary of me and my martyr soul, which had caused something of a rift to open between us. I’d be lying if I said my own stubborn attitude had nothing to do with that, but it no longer mattered.

  “Seth, I don’t know if it would be a good idea…”

  Images, blurred and confused at first, began to take form. I saw flashes of the past. Desmond turning to me with a wide smile. He looked much the same as now, a little younger, perhaps, but dressed in a loose smock and trousers of rough woven cotton. He took my hand and I looked down, shocked to see how tiny it was in his and that the skin was actually several shades darker than Desmond’s. He lifted my hand to his lips. As he pressed a gentle kiss to the back of my fingers, the past became crystal clear.

  I was Sarah. The only woman Desmond ever loved.

  Chapter 3

  The Intervention

  Donna sat up and blinked. She was no longer in her bed or in her room, or in Blackbird, for that matter. The bright, sandy beach was nowhere she had been before. Reclining back on his elbows just a few feet away was her incubus. She was growing used to his lack of clothing and modesty, but still marveled at the fact that living within a dream made him impervious to things like sand being wedged into uncomfortable places.

  “I brought you something.”

  Donna raised her eyebrows.

  “You did? I don’t see anything.”

  Between the lack of clothing and expansive, empty beach, there wasn’t much of a place that he could hide anything. Unless it was something very small…

  She stomped down hard on that line of thinking and chastised her heart for the sudden flutter. What had gotten into her?

  “Don’t you?” he asked, stretching in a practiced way that was meant to seem effortless and draw her attention.

  “Oh, so are you saying all of this is for me?”

  “Of course,” he said with a wink.

  “To do with as I please?”

  At that, he gave a wistful sigh.

  “If only we could.”

  His words were like a bucket of ice water that stopped the fluttering and sent her waterlogged heart plummeting.

  “I see,” she said tersely and got up to walk along the edge of the surf, determined to get at least some pleasure out of the artificial paradise. She’d barely taken two steps before he appeared at her side.

  “Where are you going?”

  “For a walk.”

  “Okay, I can do that,” he said, falling into step beside her. She did her best to ignore him, but it wasn’t long before the combined silence and his unwavering gaze began to drive her mad.

  “So, do you have a name?” Donna purposefully looked out over the setting sun and the beautiful fiery rainbow it made on the water’s surface, determined to stay strong and not give in.

  “Like clothing, Fa Be’yoh doesn’t seem to believe that there’s a need for names.”

  At the reminder of his nakedness, her head turned on instinct. Donna was sure she saw a smug smile ghost across his face.

  “Well that’s just stupid,” Donna huffed. “Names don’t cost anything and he gets to have one.”

  “Your mother named him.”

  “Really?” Donna snorted. Suddenly, her father’s odd name made sense.

  “Really,” he nodded. “There’s magic in names, you know.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” she grumbled, wondering, not for the first time, why her mother had to choose to give her a name that clearly meant virgin. “Whatever. I’m tired of calling you hey you, so I’m going to call you Inky.”

  “Inky?” he asked, scrunching up his nose.

  “Inky, as in short for Incubus.”

  “You can’t do any better than that?”

  “Oh I see how it is,” Donna said and rolled her eyes. She had thought the name was quite clever. “You’re fine to have no name and then as soon as I give you one you become a name critic. Okay then, you’re now Blinky.”

  “Blinky? Blinky’s worse than Inky”

  “Pinky?”

  “I don’t think-”

  “Fine! I’m calling you Clyde, no more objections!”

  “But that doesn’t even-” he began to protest, but Donna held up her hand.

  “You are Clyde. Get used to it.”

  “If you insist,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “So, why are we walking?”

  “Because we can’t do anything else,” Donna snapped.

  “Can’t we?”

  She stopped and turned, not daring to think that the words meant what she thought they did.

  “You tell me.”

  She cringed at the breathy anticipation. What had gotten into her? This guy was nothing more than an incorporeal Discordant who wasn’t even capable of doing the only thing incubi were known to do. She should have ignored him. She should have strengthened her wards to keep him out of her dreams. There w
as no way that any of this could end in anything but trouble.

  Yet…

  “Ow!”

  Had she been paying attention, Donna might have noticed the tree that had sprang up impossibly from the sandy surf before running head-on into it.

  * * *

  “Dammit!”

  Through my watery eyes, I saw a blurred expanse of green and brown and figured out that I’d managed to sleepwalk out to the back yard. At least I wasn’t far from the house. I hadn’t made it into the woods, mainly because I’d run directly into one of the giant pine trees that ringed the yard. Already, an angry bump was forming on my forehead and it was tender. I hoped we had some ice in the freezer so I wouldn’t have to waste a bag of frozen peas. At least the girls were at work and no one was around to witness me walking head first into a tree.

  Or so I thought.

  Because the universe is not kind, Betty and Louise were sitting at the kitchen table, a pot of coffee between the two of them.

  “Um… isn’t it Thursday?” I asked once my heart slowed down and crawled out of my throat. The clock on the microwave said it was early afternoon. Betty should have been at the bakery and Louise should still be at the bank.

  “Bogie’s keeping an eye on my shop.”

  “I took the afternoon off.”

  “Why? What’d I miss?” I asked and grabbed a mug out of the cupboard, hoping that Betty made the coffee. My hands were still shaking from the scare as I poured a cup.

  “Donna,” Louise started with a deep breath and a tone that I recognized as her “serious business” voice. “I think it’s time we had a talk.”

  “About?”

  My own voice was snippy, but already, I wasn’t liking the direction this was headed in. For the two of them to take time off from work, especially Louise, they had to have felt it was important. Personally, I didn’t need a well-meaning but poorly executed intervention on top of everything else. Besides, one sip and it was clear that Louise had made the coffee.

  “About you, honey,” Betty answered. No doubt to keep Louise from immediately saying something to piss me off. She could be pretty blunt. “Your efforts to hide the fact that something is wrong aren’t working and we’re worried about you.”