Chapter Four
I got up early on Saturday to find Jai Li already awake. I tucked her in with a bottle of orange juice and a new coloring book, then changed into my running outfit and tied on my trainers. Katie was still asleep. I was looking forward to unwinding a bit—lots of tension in the last few days. Katie had snuggled right up against me and did a few things that would have led to noise-making. I wasn’t comfortable with that while Jai Li was on a roll-away four feet away, so we settled in for a little smooching and a night of anxiety dreams.
Once I pushed through the doors out into the damp and foggy air, I started to feel a little better. I double-checked my fanny pack, making sure I had my phone, water and my wallet. Then I put on my ear buds and cranked up a long play list containing all my favorite thrash metal. By the time I was off the property, “Dragula” by Rob Zombie was pounding in my skull.
The music and the first mile of road added to my energy levels. I loved the way the ground felt beneath my feet, jarring my body with each long stride. Nothing too drastic, but enough to build a good solid rhythm. By the time the sun was burning off the wispy fog, the music had evolved to a section of retro-metal, led off by Judas Priest from like way back in the eighties.
I found my way to familiar streets. The second mile came and went before my shoulders began to loosen up. Mile three fell away in my wake, and I picked up speed listening to the Graceland Five and their punk version of Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds.” I was flying. The last hundred yards or so I was head-into-the-wind sprinting—sprinting directly into the Blank.
I slowed, letting my heart rate settle down, and looked around. The Blank was what the college kids called the part of town that had been practically abandoned. There were burned-out buildings, vacant and broken-down storefronts, and empty foundations where older buildings had once stood. Something about it sang to me.
This place was totally perfect for the movie we were working on. I spent twenty minutes shooting pictures on my cell phone and emailing them to Jennifer and Carl over at Flight Test. I told them we should totally do location shooting here for Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse. It would give the movie a level of authenticity we’d been lacking by only doing set shots. I was really excited. The morning was great. The afternoon, however—that was not looking to be a real fun-fest.
We got to the funeral later than I would have preferred. We were all dressed in our best outfits. Jai Li looked uncomfortable in the dress Katie had gotten her into—better her than me. Katie was dressed like a work day, so I followed suit. I had on my best jeans, concert shirt, and Docs. I’m not sure if Katie knew I had Gram and my hammers tucked behind the bench seat in my truck. After the last year, I wasn’t taking any chances. At least I didn’t make us all wear armor. It would suck if Ginny got all zombified and tried to eat the mourners. Not likely, but I was prepared, just in case. I kept replaying the conversation with Rolph. If there was something hinky about Ginny’s death, I didn’t want to be caught unaware.
We walked in a few minutes before the services were supposed to start, and I was surprised to see Skella was there. She waved us over and did some preliminary introductions. She was buried in a pack of local Bellingham folks—Hamsters, they called themselves—kids in college, or just out. Not that much younger than me, about five years or so, but worlds apart. Seemed Skella had met them at one of the local bars doing karaoke. Who’d’a thunk it---Our angsty Goth friend singing in front of a drunk crowd. I wonder if you could get Siouxsie and the Banshees via karaoke. After the funeral, they were going to commence an early night of drinking and singing to send Ginny on her long journey into the dark lands.
The service was short and sweet. Katie cried a little, but Jai Li surprised us both by really getting broken up over the whole deal. I don’t think anyone thought to say words like that when her sister Mei Hau had died. No closure, no group mourning. And the thing with Jimmy, that had been different—as much a party as a funeral. She’d been with her friends and there’d been music and dancing to go along with the grief. Here she just had the quiet and her own thoughts.
Jai Li huddled in my lap for a long time in that hard pew, long after the officials trundled out with the show casket. Ginny was going to be cremated. Katie sat snuggled up against us, talking to Jai Li in soft tones and stroking her hair while I rocked her. Her crying tapered off after a little bit and she hugged me tight before moving to Katie and holding her by the neck for a very long time.
When she pulled back, she took my hand and placed it in Katie’s lap and motioned for us to kiss. Katie smiled and leaned in, kissing me gently on the lips. This seemed to make Jai Li happy, and she wiped the tears from her face.
We were the last to leave the funeral home. I was surprised to find a car parked across three places in front of my truck and a second car parked in the drive behind my truck. It was Skella and the Hamsters.
“Oh dear,” Katie said, eyeing the crowd.
“We’re thinking you don’t understand the local customs,” one of the guys said, stepping toward us. “There’s a local pub, serves food, totally kid-friendly.”
I glanced at Katie and Jai Li, who both shrugged.
The guy held out his hand and I took it. “Sprocket,” he said.
Sprocket? Nice. He was small, you might say petite, with several obvious piercings. His hair was blond streaked with bright green swathes, with matching eyeshadow.
He pointed back at the crowd and called everyone out by name.
“Skella you know,” he said, pointing to where she hung in the back, holding a small tow-headed boy about a year old and talking with a rocking soccer mom type. “She’s holding Thing Two, who belongs to Scarlett there.” He pointed to the smoking-hot mom. “And the lucky guy beside her is Brian, holding Thing One.” That was a girl, a couple of years older than Thing Two.
“They have real names,” Sprocket said, conspiratorially, “but it bugs the crap out of Scarlett, so we have to call them that to help offset the imbalance she’s caused in the universe by being so freaking gorgeous.”
Brian laughed, but Scarlett frowned toward us.
“The guy in the driving gloves and goggles is Dante.”
Dante was about five-four and built like a football player, all muscle.
“On the other side of the car is Bianca,” he said, pointing to a pretty girl with shoulder length brown hair and a shy smile. She had a hat pulled down to her eyebrows like she was hiding from the world.
Then he turned and motioned with his head toward a tall brunette with waist length hair who looked like she was ready to whip this whole crew into shape. She had a bearing I liked, very subtle command. “And that’s Lilith.”
I nodded at each of them, and Katie said hello. We spent a few minutes shaking hands and introducing ourselves.
“So this pub lets in kids?” I asked, seeking confirmation from Scarlett, as she looked like the most responsible of the lot.
She smiled, taking Thing Two from Skella. “Brian has a band,” she said. “We go to Lucky’s all the time. They have good food and love when we bring in the kids. Is that your daughter?”
I looked over at Jai Li who was watching me intently. “Oh, yeah,” I said. “Totally. Funeral was hard on her.” I lowered my voice. “She lost her sister not that long ago.”
“Poor kid,” Scarlett said. “Death is hard at any age.”
We milled around and chatted for twenty more minutes before Brian said they had to get the kids some food soon or there’d be a national emergency. We got directions from Lilith and piled into the truck. Soon we were all walking into a really cool Irish pub with plank tables and a stage in the main room.
There were already a few folks in the place. The Hamsters grabbed a couple of tables near the stage and a few other folks came over to join us. Katie, Jai Li, and I sat on one end of the long picnic-style tables, and Scarlett sat beside us. Jai Li pulled out a couple of coloring books and crayons which she shared with Thing One, whose real name turned out to be Anastasia. Thing Two was really called Bard, after the archer in the Hobbit who killed the dragon, Smaug. Katie loved that one. I watched the kid, curious if he would live up to his name. Never hurts to know another dragon slayer.
Food appeared along with pitchers of water, iced tea, and beer. Dinner was family style, with lots of things like macaroni and cheese, lamb stew, soda bread, green beans, roasted potatoes, and stewed apples.
Once everyone had tucked in for a bit, the karaoke began. There were six or seven full tables by this point, mostly college kids. The songs started out just as you’d expect. Popular ballads and rock operas. We heard Rush, Styx, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Judas Priest, which I cheered for, and several other songs I didn’t know. Katie seemed to know all of them and sang along.
Most of the folks were decent enough, but it wasn’t until this old drag queen got up on the stage that things shifted gears. The crowd cheered and whistled, and the lights dimmed a bit.
Scarlett rolled her eyes at me and leaned in. “Mimi,” she said. “One of the local divas.”
She wasn’t joking. The first note out of Mimi’s mouth was pure smoke. Before I had time to set my beer down, fire rained down on the audience. Katie sat up straighter and paid attention. Mimi started out with a little Etta James, slipped into Patsy Cline and ended a four-song set with a heart-palpitating version of “Suspicious Minds” that the King himself would have approved.
The coincidence jarred me.
I’d been listening to a version of that this morning. And it wasn’t just the fact she chose that song. It was the way she looked over at our table when she sang it. The Hamsters were apoplectic, stamping and cheering as she wound through the last chords, but I swear she was staring right at me.
The energy in the room was nuts. I looked over at Katie who was looking at me, a very perplexed expression on her face.
“I think she was singing to you,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “And did you feel the way the music flowed over the room? There was something there. Something powerful—like magic powerful.”
I glanced up to see Sprocket watching us and grinning. I leaned in and spoke in Katie’s ear. “We should meet this Mimi. There is definitely something spooky about her.”
Katie nodded.
Back in the fall, when I’d first held the vial of blood mead Qindra had showed me, there had been a tingle like a low current of electricity. Fafnir’s ring had a similar buzz that only seemed to affect women. Gram was a different level of magic, more aligned to me, or my kind of sympathetic magic, I guess—makers, blacksmiths, warriors. This magic felt like it was in Katie’s camp, and by the look on her face, she was bothered.
No one else seemed to notice, however. Mimi bowed off the stage and made way for two guys who were flipping through the catalog. There was a distinct break in the flow. I doubt they wanted to start so soon after this Mimi had left the stage. Tough act to follow.
I got up, kissing Jai Li on the top of the head, and stood with my hand on Katie’s shoulder. Mimi was working her way around a couple of tables and making a beeline to the Hamsters. They crowded her, cheering and making a real hullabaloo.
Mimi caught my eye as Sprocket was hugging her and she winked at me. I had to really consider for a moment. She was dressed like a woman and appeared to be in her sixties, but I was pretty sure she was a guy. Drag Queen for sure. But everyone called her ‘she’ and honestly the pronoun seemed to fit in my brain, so who was I to judge.
After a few minutes with the Hamsters, Mimi excused herself and walked over to us. “Do I know you folks from somewhere?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, don’t think so.”
“You sing really well,” Katie offered.
Mimi laughed. “Best karaoke singer in Bellingham, I suspect. Sprocket says you folks are alumni of Western. Maybe I’ve seen you around campus.”
“Not that I’m aware,” I said. She felt harmless. I’ve been in the presence of some badass magical stuff. Mimi just felt like any other person. No special vibe there. Must just be the singing, and maybe I’m paranoid.
Mimi and Katie talked about music and I took Jai Li out onto the dance floor during a fairly decent rendition of “YMCA” by four college girls. Jai Li laughed and laughed, mainly at my expense, but it was totally worth it. The tears from earlier in the day were put away for a while.
By the time we were ready to go, everyone was besties. Katie was getting along well with Mimi, and Jai Li was coloring like a fiend with Anastasia. I was deep into conversation with Sprocket and Dante over the finer points of the local beers, and a sense of tranquility settled over the joint. There was a camaraderie here. These people were a family as much as folks of Black Briar were. It was a comfortable feeling.
Still, something about Mimi tangled in my brain. I suddenly had a memory of Charlie with the Mordred crew, telling us how one of his cohorts had jumped from Deception Pass, and that the only person with him was a woman with a five o’clock shadow. Why did Mimi bring forth that memory? I watched her as she laughed with the others. She looked over at me, making eye contact, and the runes on my scalp tingled. Who was this individual? And I wondered how she felt about avocados.