Miss Nobody

Chapter 30

WHO ARE YOU?

Early Morning Day 15

The Sheriff and I spun around.

"Jonny?" The Sheriff shined his light on Diego.

Diego stood up straight and held his hand up to block the light.

"It's Diego," I told the Sheriff.

"Diego!" The Sheriff turned the light to his own face and Diego smiled. Kind of.

"I'll be damned. Jonny told me you got promoted." Diego and the Sheriff shook hands and did that man-hug thing.

I rolled my eyes in the dark.

"I didn't know you were in town." The Sheriff told Diego.

"I'm laying low."

"Trying to dodge some charges?" The Sheriff asked him. "You don't have anything to do with my missing Deputy or his Uncle by chance?"

My frown was unseen in the dark. My hands were slippery with his bloody ears. I inhaled, deep breathing my way out of the nausea. According to Jonny, I didn't kill the Deputy, and the last time I saw him he was alive but what did Jonny and his brother do with him? I was too distracted by pain and sex to get any real answers from Jonny. Was Keiran ever found after he made me summon a Demon?

Diego shrugged. "Doesn't sound familiar."

"Last person to see my Deputy was Jess." The Sheriff brought out his notebook and shuffled through the pages. "Have either of you seen her?"

I was the one that put her in a trance. Maybe now was the time to own up to what I did.

"She's in room eleven if you want to talk to her," Diego said before I turned myself in.

I couldn't ask Diego the questions I wanted in front of the Sheriff so I settled for a "hmm," of agreement. "She's probably sleeping right now though."

"My brothers' cabin blowing up woke everyone so I don't think it's a problem." Diego nodded to the bookshelf. "Your secret stash?" He glanced at me.

I shook my head, ignoring his insult. "Chef was into...something." I looked to the Sheriff for some help explaining the Magic books. "Jonny didn't tell you?"

Diego shook his head and stepped closer to the bookshelf. "Jonny's been real quiet since he met you." He slid a book from the shelf. "This is some hardcore shit."

The Sheriff scribbled in his notebook and put it away. "Chef's been collecting Magical writings for a long time."

Diego looked at him. "You know about this-" He gestured to the bookshelf. "-Magic?"

The Sheriff nodded and held up his Magic Detector. "I made this when I was in high school. It can detect Magic. The first time Jane and I plugged it in, it surged like crazy. I've modified it but it's still picking up an insane amount of Magic around here. As soon as I hit the property line it blinked faster."

The tiny red light blinked rapidly.

Diego nodded toward me. "What do you have to do with all this?" He looked me up and down. He blamed me for hurting Jonny. And probably Roman's death. And putting his nephew in danger. And the "missing" people that they had to take care of.

"What do you know about...Magic?" The Sheriff asked him.

"I know...other kinds of Magic," Diego answered cryptically.

The Sheriff looked over Diego's tattoos. "Death Magic."

Diego shrugged.

"So if your brother were actually dead, you could bring him back?"

Diego went back to the bookshelf. "Somethin' like that." He pulled out a few books and stacked them on the floor.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked the Sheriff.

He shrugged. "I don't know but it is Magic. I spoke to Doc, Jonny's in some kind of stasis. Not a coma exactly but-"

"He's frozen in time," Diego said from the closet. He pulled out another book and stacked it on his small pile. His eyes had a faraway look. "Reliving that last moment over and over." He looked at me, eyes low. "At least he's happy."

"How do I fix it?" Did he know this because of their twin thing?

Diego looked me up and down again. "Figure out what you did in the first place."

"And undo it." The Sheriff finished for him.

"How do I undo having sex?" I blurted out, "-I used the Sex Magic to heal myself, it had nothing to do with him."

The Sheriff looked at me eyes wide and turned to Diego. "He broke his deal?"

"Sex Magic." Diego picked up his small stack of books and came out of the closet, ignoring the Sheriff. He looked at me closer. "Like a Succubus."

I sighed. "I'm not a Succubus. There's two sides to every coin." From the folklore I knew about Succubi they stole people's energy to sustain their own. My Sex Magic gave mine and my partners energy freely to create something new, to give life to ideas or dreams.

He raised his eyebrows then squinted at me. "I'll take a look at these and get back to you." He headed to the door.

"Wait, please." I stood in front of him. "Please don't take the books out of here." I looked around the large room. "I have a bad feeling if they're removed-"

Diego stared at me, jaw clenched, he was pissed and didn't like what I was telling him.

The Sheriff looked around. "She might be right, knowing Chef he may have some kind of wards, it could be protecting the books."

"Fine." Diego strode to the kitchen instead.

The Sheriff pulled out his notebook and shuffled through it again.

I opened the book in my arms and read through the index. A few references to The Codex Gigas caught my eye. I headed into the kitchen.

Diego was looking through his stack of books and ignored me.

I whispered to him, "What happened to that big book from the ritual?"

He side-eyed me but didn't answer.

"Keiran? Jess?" I whispered as the Sheriff entered the room.

Diego's jaw tightened as he looked over the books.

"I'm going to find Jess. Come by the station later, I have a few more questions about your case." The Sheriff left before I could answer.

Diego walked to the window, making sure the Sheriff was gone. When the coast was clear he walked back to me. "Who the fuck are you?" He looked like he wanted to strangle me but moved back to his stack of books instead. "You come out of nowhere, my brother acts like a fucking fool and starts a war. He was three days away from being free." He shook his head. "And now he's in some kind of Magical coma. Bodies are adding up, Chef, Roman, a fucking cop. Word is you're pregnant with Chef's baby, or Keiran's, or Jonny's. I'm surprised Bishop isn't on that list, you seem real close with the Sheriff."

I glared at him, my blood boiling with his accusations. "Keiran is trying to kill me, he's the one that made me lose my memory in the first place and it was his fucking Demon that tried to drag me into Hell. I'm only pregnant because Jonny sent someone else's blood." I took a deep breath. "I mean, I'm not pregnant. I've only had sex with Jonny once since I was released from the fucking hospital a month ago. Not that it's any of your business." I took a step toward him, tears in my eyes. "I've been poisoned, shot, and stabbed, almost pulled into Hell. Did you know that's what Jonny was saving me from, an eternity of torture?"

He backed away from me, his face softening.

"Your sister is the one who sent me here and I'm grateful to her but I didn't sign up for this. If I knew Jonny would end up hurt, I wouldn't have come here." I slammed the book on the table, it fell to the ground as I turned to leave the room. Tears blurred my vision but I traveled the wood path from Chefs' rooms to my laundry tower countless times. The rising sun lit the way and I found my way back to my room quickly. I pulled the suitcase out from under my bed, mindlessly rolled my clothes and packed.

It didn't take long, the bag too small to take everything. Most of the clothing would be left behind, along with the necklace Jonny had placed around my neck. I placed it on the little table next to the bed, with the phone Jonny had given me. It didn't feel right to take any of it. I put the necklace the homeless lady had given me in the small zippered pocket of my purse and my vial from the grave digger between my boobs.

I walked down my steps one last time.

I didn't make it very far off the property before a cloth was pressed over my nose and mouth. My airway was obstructed and I tasted a sour bitter flavor from the cloth. The world went black.