Page 38 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

Talking to the families went smoother than expected, but they didn’t find out anything new.

There weren’t many other teenager boys around, not in the city limits anyway, so it was possible that the next victim would be taken from one of the neighboring towns.

That would suck a little more than they wanted to admit if they didn’t find the incubus before he frenzied again.

Nathan asked Jim if he could just summon the kid—he was a full blown Awakened changeling now, after all—but the kid’s signal was too faint, probably because he was starving himself, and Jim couldn’t get a clear enough lock.

They would have to search the old fashioned way and hope that when they got closer, either Jim or Sasha or both would be able to sense him more clearly.

It was late afternoon when Nathan pulled the car up to the cemetery and parked. Solrin had said he was still there when Nathan texted him from Sasha’s phone. Well, Solrin had texted back ‘cemetery’ without further elaboration, so Nathan assumed that’s what he meant.

He couldn’t see any sign of the white-haired seal though, or any caretaker.

Nathan decided to check out the many mausoleums first, since they were most likely where Solrin would look for the nach’s lair, though he did pause to wonder why it was always the small towns that had creepy-ass burial grounds.

“Hey, Sol!” Nathan called inside one of them, and then thought better about that considering the nach might actually be here somewhere. He found nothing and went to the next one.

He took about two steps inside the second mausoleum before he was slammed back into the stone wall with a knife to his throat.

“It’s me!” Nathan cried as the distinctive figure of white and grey focused in front of his eyes. “I come in peace, I swear!” he added since the seal stared at him like he almost wasn’t sure who Nathan was.

Then Solrin stepped back, releasing Nathan and slipping his knife back into a rather well-concealed sheath inside one of his cargo pockets. “My apologies. I didn’t hear you. I tend to…act first,” he said with a jerk of his shoulders that might have been a shrug.

No really , Nathan wanted to say as he coughed up dust and lack of air from having the wind knocked out of him.

But in the end he couldn’t begrudge the guy an itchy trigger finger.

“Forget about it. No broken ribs,” he said, feeling where he would probably have a couple bruises on his back tomorrow.

“Just a broken ego. So,” he stepped away from the wall and gestured around him, “please tell me you didn’t spend all afternoon in these things. ”

Moving further into the mausoleum, which didn’t look all that different from the first one Nathan had entered, Solrin gave a passing glance over the walls, ceiling, and floor.

“I don’t see a problem with that,” he said plainly, “the cemetery is still the most likely place for a nachzehrer to dwell. I was looking for potential hiding places within these crypts, but…nothing so far.” He turned back to Nathan, his posture very stiff and straight for someone who bowed his head so often when he spoke.

“Well, no offence,” Nathan eyed the dusty building again, “but I don’t think this town is quite the type to have crypts with secret passageways. What you see is what you get. If the nach’s not here, maybe he went to an abandoned building or something instead. Did you talk to the caretaker again?”

Solrin frowned. “He was gone. But I remembered he said that he hadn’t noticed a missing or disrupted body for some time. The nachzehrer may have moved on, or, since they do not need to eat as often as a normal human, perhaps he merely waits for the other creature to make its next kill.”

“Glad to hear he’s not chowing down on corpses every night,” Nathan said, avoiding the subject of the other creature for now. “Of course, if he was, then a good old cemetery sit-in tonight probably would have solved the case.”

“Yes,” Solrin said in disappointment. “I suppose we can move on then. Where would you prefer to search next?” He stepped up close to Nathan, regarding him with that lone green eye piecing and direct, like he didn’t understand that sudden eye contact was unnerving.

“Uhh…well,” Nathan looked away, trying to think how best to get through this without messing things up for Jim and Sasha, or that incubus, “we should stay on this side of town since Jim and Sasha have the rest covered. We could grid it out, check every abandoned house and building systematically. Might take a while but it’d be the most efficient.

You think the nach would stay close by the cemetery in case he needed a quick meal?

” He looked back at Solrin who had yet to turn his gaze away from staring at Nathan’s face.

The white-haired seal retained that gaze as he answered, “Possibly. And your plan is sound. It is…nice…to have the assistance.”

Nathan realized that he had just been given the closest thing to a ‘thank you’ this guy was probably capable of. So he grinned at Solrin, took the chance of patting him on the back a moment, and said, “Hey, man, any time. Always safer to hunt together.”

It surprised Nathan that Solrin reacted more favorably to his antics this time, not exactly smiling in reply, but not dismissing Nathan either.

As they began their search, Nathan pressed Solrin for details on nachs since he hadn’t heard of that particular brand of zombie before today.

He discovered that if they found it, the nach would most likely be ‘sleeping’ since it was still light out.

Daylight wouldn’t kill or even hurt it, but nachs preferred darkness overall and needed to spend a little time in the earth each day.

They checked through a few old buildings. There was a surprising amount of them, but then it was a tiny little town in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere, so there was bound to be places left behind from people moving away.

About the time they were checking out an old barn that they actually had to make a pretty good trek to get to, Nathan started feeling antsy that Solrin wasn’t talking.

Nathan couldn’t think of anything else to ask about nachs so the conversation had lulled some time ago. He really hated long awkward silences.

“So, uhh…” he started in, surprised when Solrin suddenly turned to him.

“Nathan, may I…” He trailed, realizing he had spoken over the top of Nathan’s words. “Sorry, you were going to say something?”

“Nah,” Nathan smiled crookedly, “I was just gonna small-talk, man. What were you gonna ask?”

Solrin nodded, more to himself, which he seemed to do a lot whenever he was unsure of what to say, which also seemed to be often.

“Oh, I…I was just…wondering.” He paused there, as if that was a suitable place for his sentence to stop, just staring at Nathan again.

Then he bit his lip and turned around to continue searching the barn. “Never mind.”

“Whoa, wait.” Nathan walked after him, reaching a hand to grab Solrin’s shoulder before thinking better of it.

“If you wanna ask something, shoot. Is it case-related or personal?” Frankly, Nathan didn’t care either way since he just wanted to get Solrin talking more in general.

They would never win this guy over if they finished the hunt in silence.

Slowing as he neared an aged ladder leading up to the loft above, Solrin turned back to Nathan. His face would have almost been impassive if he wasn’t frowning. When he finally replied, his words were blunt.

“You do not come across as homosexual.”

Nathan choked, “Uhhh…okay,” not really sure how to respond to that, “…thanks?”

Solrin’s frown deepened. “I only mean…” He trailed again, searching for the right words.

“Nah, I think I get it,” Nathan held up a hand so Solrin wouldn’t sprain something trying to think of a better way to word that, “and you’re not all that wrong either.

See…Sasha’s the first and so far only time I’ve ever been interested in another guy.

Took me by surprise, that’s for sure. I don’t even really think about it anymore.

Stopped being weird to me a long time ago. ”

Something sparked in that green eye for a moment and for the first time Nathan felt like Solrin was actually looking at him instead of through him. “You have been together a long time?” he asked.

Nathan considered that. What was long? It sure seemed long to him, the longest relationship he had ever had, to be honest, even though it hadn’t been a year yet.

“I don’t know,” he said, “a few months? Feels longer. In a good way,” he put in quickly, despite thinking briefly of the Veil.

“I was a little resistant at first, but Sasha’s more persistent than I am stubborn, and that’s saying something. It all worked out.”

Solrin nodded, as if Nathan had just explained a very profound paradox, which Nathan supposed his relationship with Sasha sort of was. “And your brother had no problem with this?”

Nathan snorted. “I’d almost bet that if I hadn’t wised up when I did, Jim would have been the one pushing me Sasha’s direction.”

“I see. I do not suppose…” he began carefully, head bowing for the first time in a while as he looked away from Nathan, “that you and your brother are not fully blood related?”

Nathan’s first thought was, ‘huh?’ followed by a swift ‘oh shit’ if that question meant Solrin could in any way sense the fae blood in Jim’s veins. “Dude, fully and completely. Why do you ask?”

There was no doubt that Solrin wanted to be honest with Nathan, but he pulled back anyway, said, “No reason,” and turned to climb up the rickety ladder.

Nathan knew he would have to get Solrin to come back to that subject eventually, but not yet. “Wouldn’t the nach hide out closer to the ground?” he asked, mainly because he didn’t really want to climb that thing.

“We should look everywhere. The other creature may have left clues as well.”