Page 17 of Incubus
"Schu's a good man. He came to his senses. Pulled himself together. But sometimes I wonder...if he's just waiting for Jim to turn out the same way."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because..." Nathan blinked, and he could see that other changeling's face, twisted and cruel in his corruption, "...the changeling that killed Schu's wife was her brother."
For a moment there were no other people in the plaza or on the streets. It was just Nathan sitting there, barely even feeling the presence of Sasha solid and warm beside him.
"Sorry," Nathan said, glancing aside at Sasha with a quick smile. "Didn't mean to get all sharing and caring there. Just figured you should know. Avery’s brother got taken out by sealsnot long after, but I know it doesn’t make things any easier on Schu. Might not be the best topic of conversation to bring up the next time you see him either."
Sasha snorted. "Yeah, probably not."
"Hey!”
Nathan looked over and saw that Jim had finally caught up to them. When he glanced back, Sasha was smiling somberly as if to say thank you for Nathan’s honesty. Nathan wasn’t really sure how to take that.
"So what’s next?" Jim asked once he had joined them at the fountain.
"I know it might seem like we haven't narrowed things down all that much,” Sasha said, “but at least we have a better idea of the places around the area we'll need to watch. I guess the best we can do now is grid ourselves out to cover the most ground and hope that the right girl comes along.”
Therightgirldidnot come along, at least not at any of the downtown restaurants and coffee houses that Nathan and the others frequented throughout the day. By the time they were pining for a late dinner, they still had no idea who they were supposed to be protecting.
“It's getting late. How can you two even eat right now?” Jim asked, picking at his food disinterestedly.
Nathan made a point of reaching over to steal one of his brother’s French fries. “We won’t be of any use to anyone starving ourselves,” he said, and tossed the fry into his mouth. “I hate this needle in a haystack crap as much as you do, Jim, okay? Every girl I look at has dark hair and blue eyes.”
In the restaurant they had settled at on Nicollet Avenue there were several girls fitting that description, but Sasha’s scanner hadn’t responded to any of them.
“Of courseyou’rea girl with black hair and blue eyes,” Nathan added. “We could always try using you as bait.”
“Very funny,” Jim said. He swatted at Nathan’s hand when he reached for another fry.
Sasha chuckled at the brothers’ antics, managing an impressive amount of levity and patience. “Next shift should start soon,” he said. “Once we’ve checked out the girls for that rotation, we can head out again. We’ll find her.”
They finished their food as amiably as they could, barely realizing when the shift finally started to change and the girls they had been watching were different. They didn’t even notice at first that the girl who came to collect their empty plates was not the same waitress who had taken their order.
“I’ll be back with your check,” she said, reaching over the table to take the empty dishes.
Jim smiled noncommittally.
Nathan sat back to give her room to take his plate.
Sashastared.
Nathan noticed the way Sasha’s attention had become trained on their waitress and turned to look after her as she walked away. Black hair. Blue eyes.Beautiful. She fit the profile perfectly. Sasha didn’t say anything, but as soon as the waitress was gone, he gestured Nathan and Jim closer and opened his coat to give them a peak at the flashing scanner.
“Holy shit, where’d she come from?” Jim gawked.
“The kitchen, dipstick,” Nathan said. “This is a good thing, right?”
Sasha patted the spot where the scanner was hidden inside his coat. “She’s our gal. I’d call that a good thing. She’s still here,for one. Which means the killer should be showing up about the time she gets off.”
“She’s bringing our check,” Jim said. “We can’t exactly stick around another four or more hours waiting for her shift to end.”
“Why not?" Nathan said, struck by a decidedly devilish idea. He grinned at his companions. "Dessert and a couple more rounds, boys?"
Jim frowned at the suggestion, but Sasha echoed Nathan’s grin in complete agreement.
The waitress was going to hate them by the end of the night, but if all went well, she would still be breathing in the morning.
