Grim and Bear It

Jake

Despite sitting in a back corner booth at Café Eleonora, I could feel eyes on us. I knew Mina jumping ship was still a source of constant gossip, and Paris replacing her meant people were wondering what would happen next. Didn't help that Paris and I sat on the same side of the booth-neither of us comfortable with our backs to the front door-as we nursed our drinks. I picked the bite-sized brownie off the top of my whipped cream and popped it in my mouth, a perfect treat after the sandwich I'd just inhaled.

Unlike Mina, Paris didn't sneer at or judge my sugar addiction, just toyed with the wooden stick she used to mix honey into her tea. It was bittersweet. I missed working with my best friend, but I was glad Paris kept to herself. My head was a mess right now.

A wave of guilt washed over me at treating Paris like a stranger. I grabbed the second brownie bite and offered it to her as a silent peace offering. She looked up at me, then down at my hand and shook her head. "Probably for the best," I admitted, popping it in my mouth. After I'd swallowed, I added, "Sugar is going to be my downfall."

I paused, my cup halfway to my mouth, then checked my watch. "Have you eaten today? It's nearly two."

"I'm fine. I had an apple." Her stomach betrayed her by grumbling. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, as if asking for patience. "I forgot to bring my lunch. I'll eat when I get home."

"What do you want? I'll buy you lunch."

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Paris-"

"I have food allergies and intolerances. A lot of them. I prefer to make my own meals."

I angled to face her. "Why didn't you tell me? We don't have to stay here."

She touched my forearm. "I'm fine. Let's talk and finish our drinks, then we'll go."

"Okay." I shifted in the booth, looking down at my cup as if it had answers. "When I was eighteen, my girlfriend Poppy and her entire immediate family disappeared. My dad and stepmom told us they had moved without a forwarding address, but I heard them talking about it a few nights later when I couldn't sleep. Magnolia had said that what happened to them was a tragedy and my dad replied, 'if only we could've done something to prevent it.'

I tapped on the table. "I'd known in my gut Poppy hadn't just moved and I wanted answers. When I confronted my folks, they both denied knowing anything more. So, I joined SHAP the next week despite my dad's reservations. My mom and her parents had started at my age, too. I figured maybe with SHAP's resources at my fingertips, I'd discover what really happened." I picked at the edge of my paper cup. "And maybe I could keep whatever happened to her and her family from happening to someone else."

Paris stared out the front window, looking like she wasn't paying attention, but I knew it meant she was listening extra hard. "And did you figure out what happened to her?"

I nodded. "On Sunday I learned she's a grim reaper."

Paris didn't react immediately, instead sitting with the information for a long moment. If Eliza were here, she'd complain that Paris wasn't interested, that she was just listening to be polite and not engage. This is where my sister and I disagreed. Uninterested Paris would change the subject. Quiet Paris was what made her a great SHAP agent.

Like me, she'd started in the research and technology department, then worked her way up to active fieldwork. She was a natural, despite this being only her first active agent job. I wasn't sure if I could've handled the body count of this case while being a newbie.

She glanced over at me and nodded, whatever expression on my face confirming her suspicions. "Why can you see her, and I can't?"

I hesitated with answering this time, taking a long sip of chocolate-peppermint coffee. There was something very comforting about the taste, and everything was better with caffeine. Especially since I wasn't sleeping.

"She said she's checked up on me before, but recently was the first time I'd seen her. She says I'm not on her list of souls to collect. Maybe we can only see each other because of"-I took another sip and cleared the emotion from my throat "the nature of our relationship."

"Soul mates?"

I leaned back in the booth. "I don't know, it sounds ridiculous. I'm not even sure I believe in the concept of soul mates."

"You live with a ghost."

I laughed, more breath than sound. "Somehow that's easier to believe than I can only see Poppy because we're soul mates." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I knew she was my person the moment we met. Nothing has changed about that in twelve years. So why can I only see her now?"

Paris studied me for a moment, her shrewd gaze too knowing to be comfortable. "If we remove the soul mate equation, then why can you see her?"

I ran a hand over my face. "Means this is my last mission."

She nodded once, already knowing that I wouldn't walk away. That's what made her a great agent. "We better make it count."

I drained the rest of my coffee. "We're stopping at your house so you can grab some food and some inside info." I stood, using my cane and the table to help push me up, then waited for her to follow. "Inside info?"

"There's a neighbor of yours who may be able to help put some pieces together, if we're lucky." I gave her a long look.

Realization dawned and she hurried to her feet. "No one can know," she whispered. "They'll throw out the case." "I'm aware. But we're just going for your lunch, remember?"

Paris lived on the first floor of Countryside Village Apartments, which housed mostly SHAP agents and ghosts. A former hotel-turned-hospital-turned-apartments, it still had early nineteenth-century charm with modern conveniences (or inconveniences, if one was referring to the perpetually broken elevator). As expected, Reggie was in the lounge area to the right of the foyer, cuddled up with his partner Clint as they played a game of chess.

Reggie's eyes widened and he gestured up, indicating Mina's apartment. I nodded once, pointing toward the door Paris was opening with her key. He whispered to Clint, then disappeared.

Even though the exchange had been silent, I looked around. A shadow moved underneath Doris Manalin's door across the hall. I clenched my jaw. That woman was a nuisance.

Paris held the door open for me and locked it behind her, staring through her peephole. "No doubt Doris will slip a pamphlet preaching about purity culture under my door tomorrow. Might even make an offhand remark about my new gentleman caller." She stepped away from her door and shook her head. "I would move, but I hate moving more than I hate her meddling."

I laughed. "Mina and you should compare notes. She really is after the young women in this building." I cringed. "Speaking of Mina, I haven't told her about Poppy."

Paris dropped her keys into a bowl on a small half table next to the door. "I won't be the one to break the confidence."

"I will tell her," I defended, a sharp sting of guilt shooting across my chest.

Paris nodded and walked to the kitchen. "You don't need to explain your personal decisions to me. As long as they don't threaten my safety." She pulled a bowl from her fridge and grabbed a fork from her utensil drawer. "Can I offer you anything?"

"I'm good."

When the knock came, Paris hurried to the door, opening it to reveal Mina and a nosy Reggie. "Hi, I'm Mina, your upstairs neighbor?"

Technically, Reggie's brother Alan was the apartment right below Mina, but Paris was only one door over.

"Yes, hi! What can I help you with?" Paris returned.

"My toilet was running and I wanted to make sure it wasn't leaking into your place. I don't think you're directly below my bathroom, but I wanted to double check."

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Mina would never come check on a neighbor. She'd send Reggie to do it.

"Thanks for checking," Paris returned. "Come in; we'll take a look."

Mina stepped in and Paris closed the door on Reggie, who just walked through it anyway.

"Nice cover," I said.

Mina smirked at me and shook her head. "I had like two seconds to come up with something." This time, I did laugh. Mina turned to Reggie. "Don't you have a hot man to make out with?"

"And miss whatever's happening here? Not a chance, Mi Minita. Anyway, I don't sleep. I can hang with Clint when all the drama is over."

Mina rolled her eyes and looked at Paris. "Never house a ghost agent. They're an invasive species. This one's not even mine!"

Reggie put a hand on his hip. "Says the woman who—"

"Going to interrupt you before this goes further," I said, looking between them. "Reggie, if you want plausible deniability, leave."

He huffed, then waved, walking through the door.

"Let's check that bathroom," Paris said, motioning for us to follow her to the back of the apartment to her bedroom. She closed the door and turned on a white noise machine on her nightstand. "I don't trust that Doris doesn't have some listening device at my front door right now."

"Maybe it's a good thing the elevator is always broken," Mina said. "Harder to sneak up on me."

I leaned against the wall, looking at Mina. "We're digging, finding a lot of suppliers. Getting them off the streets."

She held up a hand and looked between Paris and me. "You're aware that telling me anything could get this case dismissed?"

I nodded. "We need your help."

"I put everything in the case report." I stared at her for a long moment, our argument silent and short. She sighed and crossed her arms, a sign of her acquiescence.

"You watch a lot of true crime," I explained. "Let's say you had a batch of...special cocaine. And you wanted to do a trial run and see how people reacted." She narrowed her eyes. "Okay..."

"Would you cut it with fentanyl and why?"

She frowned. "If I wanted to test how people reacted to 'special cocaine,' why would I cut it with fentanyl? That would defeat the purpose of the test."

Paris and I exchanged a look. Exactly what we had said. "A solid point."

"But," she continued, "the people running these trials? They're low level. Just doing the grunt work. They're probably not the ones messing with the product. Something's happening in distribution or higher."

"It still doesn't make sense. It's like we're playing two different games at two different stadiums with one ball," I grumbled.

Paris looked between us. "Maybe that's it." She pointed at me with her fork. "Whoever is making the drugs isn't the one testing them. Maybe there are two games going on here."

Mina stared at her for a beat. "Okay, fuck the pretense. So you've got oral venom laced with fentanyl. The two most popular uses for oral venom are to make hybrids and as an overall 'health tonic.' What's curious is why they're calling it Vixen."

"It's a sexy, alluring word," Paris explained. "Both a promise and a tease. Great marketing."

"If someone found a way to make a cure-all without turning people into vampires, they'd change the entire world," I said. "They could sell it to the highest bidder."

"Countries would go to war for that kind of technology," Paris added.

Mina nodded and pointed at her. "Yes. Good call. But until someone develops a synthetic, it doesn't matter. Can't risk turning people into vampires." "And the fentanyl?" I reminded.

"My unprofessional opinion?" Mina asked. I nodded. "Sabotage. Someone on the inside has their own plan."

"I bet whoever is sabotaging the trials is behind the threats to you. By locking up the suppliers, you shook up their plan," Paris suggested.

I winced. I hadn't told Mina about that either. "Mina "

"Oh, you have three seconds to explain before I call Magnolia and tell her," Mina warned.

"Don't call Magnolia, she'll flip."

"I know. So talk."

I glanced at Paris, who managed to look sheepish and amused at the same time. She shoved another forkful of food in her mouth and pretended to look out the window. Too bad her curtains were still closed. "I've gotten a few threatening emails warning me off the Vixen search is all," I explained.

Mina blinked at me. "And?"

"What makes you think there's an and?"

She raised both eyebrows at me. "Because you're basically my brother. Let's go, Jake." She pulled out her cell, her thumb hovering over the screen.

"Eliza thinks someone was in her house the other day."

Mina twirled her hand in the air, motioning me to continue.

"And there are some demons who tried to kill me."

"There it is." She just shook her head. "And you got pissy with me for not telling you about Carma, who was just trying to get me naked and not kill me."

Paris pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to cover a smile. She cleared her throat. "They tried to crush my car with a dumpster today."

"You have to put your family in a safe house," Mina warned. "And we need to send ghosts with you. Call my dad. If you don't, I will."

opened my mouth to argue, but what could I say? That having ghosts around Poppy may be counterproductive because we couldn't be seen publicly together? If she ended up in a report, it could jeopardize too many things. "We don't know that someone was in Eliza's house. We don't have any proof that they're after them. So far, it's only me," I explained. "Without solid, substantial proof, Jim's hands are tied."

Mina tugged at her faux hawk and grunted. "Fine. But literally, the first warning."

"Of course. I'm stubborn, not stupid."

Mina shot a look to Paris. "The first warning."

Paris nodded. "You have my word."