I ignored, for the moment, the fact that her overgrown fruit stand sounded a lot more like an underground leather dungeon. And then I tried to ignore the flush of blood that the previous thought had sent pumping through my body.
“I’ll be sure to drop by,” I said. “I’d love to check out the wares.”
Asher’s voice called out from the driveway. “Hey, put on a shirt, man. Have some shame.”
Olivia turned to see Asher and Gil coming, blushing again. “Oh. I should go. It was nice to meet you, Sterling. Promise you’ll come by the shop. And welcome to Silveropolis.”
I waved her off with a grin and a salute, then shot Asher a death glare as soon as she turned her back on me. He and Gil were loaded with brown paper bags. Oh, so they were out for a supply run. Good.
“Who was that? She was cute.”
“Don’t push your luck, kid. She likes me. I think.”
“Potential thrall, then? Does this mean you’ll stop bitching about potential starvation?”
I shoved him lightly in the chest. “Again. Don’t push your luck, kid.”
Gil grunted as he pushed past the both of us, setting down his bags on the cleanest part of the kitchen he could find. “We’ve got human food, at least. You’re not gonna die, Sterling. What’s a couple of frozen pizzas?”
I rubbed the heel of my hand against my forehead, rearranging my hair into something even messier. “Not for the long haul, no. I’m much happier feeding daily. Stronger, too. If we run into something out here, something that needs fighting, I’m going to need to be in actual fighting condition.” I coughed feebly. “If only I had two hale, hearty friends with plenty of thick, sweet blood to help me.”
Asher set down his paper bags, then flopped down onto the couch, slurping noisily on something out of a plastic cup. “Hell no, dude. You can starve.” He noticed me staring at the cup. “Oh. We found the only boba place in town. It’s not the worst. But yeah, who was the girl?”
“Olivia Everett,” I said, peering out the doorway before I shut it. No trace of her, or of any car besides our own. Must have moved fast. “Her family owns this pile of garbage. Or used to, at least. She just wanted to introduce herself, touch
base.”
Asher grinned. “Any chance she might have wanted to touch something else?”
I bundled up his blanket in one hand and threw it in his face. “You’re disgusting, kid. That’s no way to talk about my new girlfriend.”
Asher laughed and sputtered as he tried to detangle himself from the blanket. Gil shook his head and sighed. I frowned at him.
“Look at this guy being all serious and jaded just because he’s the only one here who isn’t going to die alone. That we know of.”
Gil rubbed his hair, half smiling, half grimacing. “Can we not talk about that right now? Gonna be a while before I can see her. Speaking of which, I should give her a call.” He pushed past me again, heading for the door, I guess for some privacy.
“Guess we’re not allowed to listen in,” Asher said, finally free of his blanket.
“You are a child.” I ruffled up his hair, then went for the groceries. “What did you find in town?”
“Besides frozen burritos and boba tea? Let’s see. The atmosphere’s pretty chilly. Small town. Population four thousand something, kind of place where everybody sort of knows everybody. I think it’s obvious that we’re not from around here. Funny looks, you know?”
“Oh, I know. I’m used to it.” I peered at a bag of almonds, sniffed it, then gnawed at a corner. Who needs scissors when you’ve got razors for teeth? “Any chatter? Did you pick up on anything useful?”
He leaned into the sofa, placing one hand behind his head. “What, did you think we just magically overheard people talking about the exact information we were looking for? Nope. Nothing. Just folks going about their everyday lives. Although, Gil did say that the air smelled off. He could sense it. Everybody’s tense. Everybody’s afraid.”
I tossed three almonds into my mouth, crunching on them as I chewed. “Hell, I’d be scared, too, if my neighbors started turning up dead and faceless. We’ve got to have some leads.”
Asher sifted around in his backpack. “I could see what I can pull up on the internet, check out some articles. There’s bound to be a bunch of stuff on the latest victim. Some reports of people going missing, too.”
Well and good, but they wouldn’t be the first people to go missing in Silveropolis, not in recent times. At least going missing implied you could still be found. The only ones the locals found had been very dead, and very faceless. They couldn’t possibly be wild animal attacks. Nothing out there that’s hungry enough to pounce on a human being eats just the face.
No. There was something definitively supernatural going on in Silveropolis, and not the fun kind of supernatural. Not an orgy with wood nymphs, or a unicorn tea party.
“I’ve got a better idea. Don’t get too comfortable, we’re heading out.”
Asher shut the lid of his laptop, then blinked up at me. “Where to?”