He puffed out a burst of self-conscious breath. “You know, I could just leave instead of trying to be helpful.”
“Leaving might do both, really.” I gave him a sweet smile.
“I’m connected to the land where I live.” He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s an elf thing, when an elf, ah, settles down. So when that vampire…does it have a name?”
“Not one you need to know,” I said.
He nodded. He knew names had power. “I felt the rot of it…the evil of it when it touched Ordinary.”
“Anything else you could sense?” Myra had a pad in her hand and was taking notes.
“He was at the north side of town. Road’s End, maybe?”
That was right. I’d been jogging up by Road’s End when Lavius had appeared on the beach.
“How precise is your sense of vampires?” I asked.
“Vampires?” He shrugged. “I can tell they’re in town, but it’s not like I know where they are at all times. But that kind of evil is pretty easy to feel. He? It’s a he, or was a he at one time, right?”
“Yes,” Jean said.
“He radiates more darkness than Death does.”
“Death’s on vacation,” I said.
“Yes, but he’s still Death.” When I didn’t argue, Brown went on. “Death is…the grim reaper. Soul collector. Shepherd of the end days. That sort of power lingers like a shadow in him, rubs off on everything he touches, even while he’s on vacation. My kind are of the light, so Death will always radiate a darkness that I can taste, feel.”
“You think Death is evil just because it’s dark?” Jean asked skeptically.
Death, or Than, as he’d taken to being called while he was vacationing as a human, was reserved, high-mannered and formal. But he was also the delighted owner of a rundown kite shack.
He’d named the place HAPPYKITES, and even though the font choice on his logo made it look more like HAPPYKILLS, it was clear he enjoyed running a business that was a lot more frivolous than his godly day job.
“Death is not exactly evil,” Brown said. “But the vampire that came into town? That’s an ancient horror.”
I felt the chill of his words and the truth that they carried.
“We don’t like him,” Jean said. “If you feel anything like that again, horror, darkness, evil, you need to give one of us a call immediately.”
“I’ll do that. If I can be of any help, you’ll let me know.”
I raised one eyebrow. I was pretty sure getting an elf involved in the fight against Lavius wasn’t on the list of good ideas. Elves were creatures of light, and exposing him to that kind of horror, face-to-face might do him permanent damage.
“We will,” Jean said with a lot more enthusiasm than I would have.
“Doors aren’t the only thing I can put locks on.” He crouched down to arrange his tools and closed the box.
“You don’t mean the town do you?” I asked.
“Lock down Ordinary? Like keep a certain vampire out of it?” He shifted his gaze just over my shoulder and lost some of the humanness that he carried around himself like a shield.
Sometimes when the creatures in town let go of whatever they used to make them appear more human, a glimpse of the monster that lingered beneath the facade was revealed. But when Brown eased off on his control there was nothing but even more beauty that shone through, the kind of beauty that left his normal handsomeness in the dust.
Everything about him became sculpted and fluid, his skin luminous, his hair rich, his mouth soft and pliant, his muscles hard, lean, graceful and strong.
Despite myself, despite knowing he was a sneaky little thief who had an ego the size of a continent, I couldn’t help but lean toward him a bit, moth yearning for that beautiful flame.
“There are too many laws set in place, at the very root of creating this town. To lock it down….” He frowned, then blinked and seemed to remember where he was. The gorgeousness dimmed bit by bit. “Well.” His dimples made an appearance while all the rest of him faded back to that ridiculous, but tolerable, handsomeness. “I’d be willing to try it, but I’m pretty sure none of you would agree with what would have to be done to make it happen.”
