Bad Seed Read online

  “You think we’re finished?” asked Sean at last, coolly. He wasn’t even sure what he was referring to—their relationship, the situation with Bethany, the current argument—but Dane grunted and replied.

  “I’m finished.”

  “So I should get the hell out.”

  “Glad it occurred to you, too,” said Dane. “And let the door hit you on the ass on your way out. Something to remember me by.”

  Chapter 14

  Sean wasn’t leaving. Dane kept his back to Sean but the professor wasn’t getting the hell out of the Lair. He gritted his teeth, adjusted the silver-coated machete on his wall. The professor was getting to be a pain in his ass, and worse, one he liked. Dane had never thought about having a sidekick before—he worked alone—but now Sean had forced the issue, Dane had liked having him around.

  But nothing good could come of this. Sean would get himself killed at worst, his heart broken and mind wiped at best. Dane knew enough about how things worked to know at this point, it wouldn’t matter if he never said a damn thing to the Order. They’d catch wind of Sean eventually, and unless he had the smarts to ask to join, they’d go after his mind anyway.

  “You can’t kick me out yet,” said Sean. “We haven’t followed up on what the Cauldwells told us.”

  “What makes you think I need you for that?”

  “Because apparently you can’t read.”

  Dane turned to glare at Sean but he was staring at Dane evenly, arms crossed, like he’d stated some fact instead of tried to poke a nerve. What Dane was going to do with the professor, he still didn’t know. But it would be easiest if Sean just left, walked out of his Lair and his life, went off and quietly had his mind tidied up by the Order. Not Dane’s problem, not Dane’s fault.

  “I can read, asshole,” he said.

  But Sean was crossing to his desk now.

  “I’d imagine there’s some legal database you can access. One quick search and we’ll know whether they filed those papers or not. Care to share it with me?”

  “Because the Order would be very happy to have your civilian eyes all over the fucking information.”

  “Does it matter? You’re having them wipe my mind anyway. Assuming they can do that.”

  With gritted teeth, Dane moved over to show Sean how to access what he wanted. The sooner he satisfied his curiosity, the sooner he’d get the fuck out.

  “Yeah, they can do that. I’m told it hurts like a—”

  “I’ll remember that you sent them,” said Sean, voice cold.

  Dane snorted.

  “You won’t remember a damn thing. They’ll take everything from our first kiss to when they show up at your door. You’ll probably go to the doctor to find out why you have a gigantic fucking hole in your memory, but they’ll find fuck-all. Back to your regularly scheduled boring life, the end.”

  “You’ll remember, though. Every time I drop in for a coffee, you’ll know we fucked and never be able to bring it up.”

  Dane was about to tell him to shut up when he turned and handed over the tablet.

  “Here you are. Adonia Cauldwell filed paperwork with the Guild of Green Growers, and their lawyer contacted the Order the next day, paperwork completed the day after that. All of this from about three months ago.”

  “Witches telling the truth? Not fucking likely.” But the information was all there, and had to be legit. “Shit. Figures I get stationed where even the friggin’ witches are law-abiding.”

  “Difficult to believe they didn’t have anything to do with Bethany’s death. They were in competition, they threatened her, and it was Bethany who was violating standards to begin with.”

  “But it’s on the record they were law-abiding,” said Dane, feeling a growl start in his throat. Just his fucking luck. “The Order would be livid if I did anything to them after they went through the right channels.”

  “I didn’t realize you knew such big words,” said Sean, leaning back in the chair.

  “I’m going to ignore that.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t. I’d like to see what you’d do to make me pay.”

  Dane glared at him and threw the tablet back onto the table. He’d have to make another report to the Order about all this, which was annoying, since one wasn’t due for another week. But they’d want to know immediately what he’d gotten himself into—particularly if Adonia decided to report him for an unofficial drop-by. The Order wouldn’t care as long as they had a heads-up about the issue.

  And then there was Sean. Dane didn’t want to report him. He really didn’t.

  “They could be using the legal route to cover for the fact they killed her,” said Sean, breaking into his thoughts.

  Dane stiffened.

  “Thought of that,” he said. “Doesn’t matter without evidence. Don’t even know how she died. Ned never mentioned a spell. I’m out, professor.”

  “Sean,” he said, standing. He took a step toward Dane, which really he should know by now made Dane defensive. Dane tensed further. “And I don’t think that’s it. Drop it because of paperwork? I saw how you were itching to fight Hazel. You’d come up with an excuse later. If you dug into it further, you’d find a reason anyway.”

  Dane refused to flinch away from Sean’s closeness. Their bodies were inches apart, Sean’s face set, serious. He wasn’t going to drop this.

  “You think they’re in this mess, don’t you?”

  “When are witches not?” asked Dane.

  “I agree with you. Her death was too weird. Points to someone who’s capable of that, and at the moment there just aren’t any other leads.”

  “I’m not investigating a harmless dead person with you.”

  “Then let me investigate it. You can handle it how you want. All I ask is for thanks to be delivered to my house in the form of—”

  “No. You need to drop this, Sean.” Dane couldn’t believe the words were out of his mouth, but he clamped down anything further. The professor did not need to know how much Dane cared about him. He had a feeling if Sean stuck around, he’d get himself badly hurt or killed. And suddenly, that mattered to Dane. A lot. He disgusted himself.

  “What,” said Sean, eyes narrowing, “you think it’s your Order?”

  “No.” Dane planted a hand on Sean’s chest and pushed him away, then retreated to the far weapons wall. He couldn’t stand being so near Sean right now, not when he wanted to do things to him, conflicting things, aggressive things.

  “Why else would you drop it unless you think they’re behind her death?”

  “Oh, fuck off.”

  “It makes sense,” said Sean. “The Order would want this wrapped up neatly before it got to be a big issue, and the bureaucracy holds all that up. Why they didn’t send you to do it is another mystery. Unless they did?”

  “I didn’t kill that woman.” Dane didn’t know why he was arguing this. “And I’m done with this. I’m done with you here nagging me. Get out of my Lair.”

  “They did it behind your back,” said Sean.

  Dane turned on him.

  “I should listen to the asshole who’s only here to get into my pants?”

  “Whoa,” said Ned from Dane’s left. The ghost floated in slowly, almost hesitantly. “Have I walked into a lovers’ quarrel?”

  “You can fuck right off, too,” said Dane, just as Sean said, “No.”

  “I’ll wait it out, then,” said Ned, and drifted off to a corner, where he took off his hat and examined the brim. Dane decided at that moment he hated everyone. Why they couldn’t just get out of his way and let him handle things, he didn’t understand. It pissed him off.

  “Look, professor,” he said, turning back to Sean. “I know this is all very exciting for you, but you’re about to go in way over your head, and—what, Ned?”

  “Nothing,” said the ghost, stifling his laughter.

  “You can’t take it back,” said Dane. “Once you’re in, you’re in deep. All the way.”

  “Should this be
turning me on?” asked Sean.

  “It’s turning me on,” said Ned.

  “You can’t—you’re a ghost,” said Dane, then to Sean, “No, you fucking idiot, it’s supposed to be scaring you. You can think the Order had some random woman killed but not that it’s dangerous to fuck with?”

  Sean sighed.

  “I have you to guide me. Not my fault you suck at it.”

  Dane clenched his hands into fists.

  “No, you don’t,” he said, not feeling the least bit guilty at the look on Sean’s face. “You don’t have me.”

  “Come on,” said Sean, recovering fast. “If you didn’t care about me at least a little, you would have told the Order to wipe my mind by now.” He paused. “Right?”

  Dane glared at Sean until his denial turned back to disbelief and then pain again.

  “Shit,” said Sean after a time. He ran fingers around his mouth for a moment, eyes taking in the room before fixing on Dane again. “You’re breaking up with me.”

  “Hard to do that when we weren’t even going out to begin with, but yeah, I want you out of here.”

  “I didn’t mean we were going out. I meant our…partnership. Professionally,” said Sean, sounding very wounded.

  “I’m not going to keep fucking you, either. What’s the point? You’ll forget it all.” Dane crossed his arms and tilted his head up a little, wanting to be intimidating, for Sean to take him seriously. To turn and walk out that door, away from all the weird shit and back to a normal life. “If you want me to thank you for your help, well, I guess you already accepted it. Last night. Good enough?”

  Sean stared at Dane, mouth slightly open, like he couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “We were working so well together,” he said.

  “Yeah, but you’re too much work not to kill.”

  Dane waited for Sean to keep arguing, to try to convince him they shouldn’t part ways, but the professor swallowed after a moment. Shit, the look in his eyes was awful, so Dane focused on his forehead instead.

  “Didn’t want to think she was right about you stabbing me in the back,” said Sean at last. “But you proved that fast. I’ll just go home and patiently await my mind-wipe, then.” He retreated to the stairs, muttered something profane Dane didn’t catch, and disappeared up into Crypt Coffee.

  Dane stared at the stairs for a long time. He hated that he knew he was going to miss Sean, that he was going to have a hell of a time serving him coffee after this.

  “Damn,” said Ned, interrupting his private misery. “I liked him.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe I’ll ask him out sometime.”

  “Not likely,” said Ned. He drifted over to the pine ashes and bent to poke them with a finger. “Even if you did, I wouldn’t be able to talk to him again. Which is a shame, as I did like him. You two would have done all right as partners.”

  Dane wrestled with the urge to go ahead and send Ned on to the afterlife. He’d be alone, finally, no one telling him shit, but then he’d have to see another person look him in the eye as he betrayed them, and that was a bit much in one day, even for him.

  “He’s too good for me,” he said instead. It was true. Dane hated it. “Now, what the hell did you even want?”

  Chapter 15

  Nobody came for him. Sean braced himself as best he could, got himself mentally ready for it, and the days passed by, yet no one showed up. No Order member came to his door to deliver him from his memories, and Dane sure as hell didn’t show up. But then, Sean doubted Dane was the sort to ask for forgiveness anyway.

  He documented what had happened, saved a physical copy in with his students’ papers just in case, and left the file on his laptop someplace the Order would find if they searched. He made sure it wasn’t obvious, but wasn’t too difficult to find—it might be the only thing that would keep them from locating and destroying the physical copy of his past two weeks. And whatever else was in store, Sean had no intention of losing that time and never knowing what had happened.

  After that he tried to go back to work. Teaching was duller than ever, and he found himself wondering how many of his students were related to someone in the Order, how many of the people he passed in the grocery store were part of a magically inclined sect. He saw things everywhere now, and it irritated him, and made him feel so alone.

  Sean didn’t understand why Dane had to push him away.

  He drove past Crypt Coffee once, even considered stopping in. But he didn’t think he could do it, look Dane in those dark, dangerous eyes, and provoke him. Sean hurt too much to want to start anything. So he retreated to his work like the coward he was, and buried himself in mythology. No digging into Bethany or her business or the Cauldwells. Just normal work, like Dane had said. It was practically a punishment.

  The weather turned cold, the days trickled slowly by, and Sean was left to wonder why no one from the Order had shown up. Either the mind-wiping was a lie, or Dane hadn’t mentioned him. And there could be only one reason for that, as far as Sean was concerned—Dane still cared.

  Knowing that made everything hurt more.

  Sean debated seeing a therapist, but he couldn’t imagine how he’d explain his few weeks with Dane, so he settled for wandering around the park area of campus and trying to soak in the last of the green before autumn stole all the leaves from the trees and flowers. Occasionally he ran into some colleague he hadn’t spoken to in a while and they chatted. Mostly he sat alone with a to go from the Campus Jo, wondering what the hell he was doing with his life.

  It was a Thursday, a week after Dane had tossed him out of his Lair, and though it was three in the afternoon Sean was already done for the day. He only had one class to teach, a 103 at one o’clock, and he was trying to avoid going home yet. He sipped at his standard coffee with seasonal flavor pump, startled to see a police officer pass by him.

  He didn’t know why he did it, but Sean stood and followed. The uniformed man approached a group of students, who pointed him in the direction of another professor, a woman walking pointedly from the Campus Jo to the science building. Sean followed until the officer introduced himself, then ducked behind a nearby statue and tried to look like he was doing anything other than listening in.

  “Uh, yes, I teach basic plant biology. Is there some problem with one of my students?”

  “No, professor,” said the officer. Sean heard him sniffling loudly in the cold. “I have a few questions for you about the plants, if you don’t mind. We got our guys to do some research, thought we’d confirm with you.”

  “Can it wait? I’ve got a class right now and…”

  Sean glanced around the statue as she trailed off and recognized professor Sandra Miles, looking deeply concerned. The cop was scratching something onto a notepad.

  “Seeds and pits,” he said. “What can you tell me about them?”

  “I don’t understand…”

  “Are they really poison?” asked the cop, sounding impatient despite the fact he wasn’t late for his own class. Sean knew the pain of being late to a room full of students and did not envy Sandra.

  “Are you talking about cyanide?” she asked. “It’s found in things like apricot pits, cherry stones, apple seeds…but only in very small quantities.”

  “How small?” asked the officer, then, dead serious, “Can you kill a man with them?”

  Sandra laughed so loudly and abruptly Sean winced and ducked down some, fearful the officer would look around to see if that had drawn any attention to them.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but what is this about?”

  “If you could just answer the question…”

  “No, you can’t kill anyone with a few fruit pits! I mean, you’d have to eat a lot of them—think in the range of ten or more—and who would do that?”

  “What about apple seeds?” asked the officer.

  Sandra’s laughter faded some.

  “You’d have to eat hundreds. It’s just…not a thing you use to kill anyone. Is that what y
ou’re asking me all this for? Has there been a death with cherry stones? Don’t you have experts?”

  “All right, Mrs. Miles—”

  “Doctor, and I’m not married, thanks.”

  “Look, I’m investigating a suspicious death, nothing too recent. We’ve had some strange evidence come up, and yes, we have specialists, but I want to know what you know. Is it possible to distill the cyanide from the seeds?”

  Sandra paused, and Sean grew nervous. He was drinking his coffee too fast. He pulled out his phone, pretending to be in the middle of a very engaging text conversation. Hopefully the cop wasn’t looking too closely at the surroundings.

  “Well, yes,” said Sandra. “We could do it here on campus. And no, I haven’t seen anyone trying. Or anyone grinding seeds or anything weird like that. Is this about one of my students?”

  “Nobody’s asked you any of these questions I’ve been asking, nobody’s borrowed any supplies related to anything to do with this?”

  “No,” said Sandra. Sean risked another peek at her, arms crossed, frowning at the officer. “Really. Are you investigating a coworker? Is there some problem with the department?”

  “Anything else you can think of related to any of this?” asked the cop, then, when Sandra said nothing, he sighed. “This isn’t anything to worry about. Chances are you won’t hear about it again. You’re in no danger, Ms. Miles.”

  “Doctor.”

  “Well, if you’ve got nothing else, you can get back to your class.”

  “Thanks,” said Sandra in a mutter, and Sean hurried to tip his coffee back, drink the last few drops. When he pulled the waxy mug back down he could see the police officer walking off through campus, and Sandra disappearing through the door to the science building. Sean blinked, processing.

  He still wasn’t over anything that happened. That had to be why he immediately thought this all had to do with Bethany. Cyanide? Suspicious death? He walked to a trash can and pitched his empty coffee cup, searching Bethany’s name on his phone as he went. He hadn’t gone looking for any information in so long, and he wasn’t expecting to find anything new.