Page 42 of Stalked By Shadows
I did another little jig, swinging my hips and bouncing into poses of all the video game characters I could ever remember. “We should probably go though…” It was getting late. “How time flies when you’re having fun, right?”
“It does,” Micah said. “I still have to walk the route first, it’s silly to go to the shop and then back out again into the heat.”
“That’s okay. I can carry the dress for Sky. If you’re okay with giving it to her? You have a bag we can put this in to protect it? I don’t want to get it all dirty.” I thought about the coat I had on and the heat outside. “I’ll leave the coat here, maybe you’ll let me wear it when it starts to get cold? I don’t want to sweat and cover it in my man stink right now.”
Micah gave me a faint smile and said, “Sure.” We wrapped up the dress and headed out to get something productive done for the day.
Chapter 14
Micah had not been kidding about ground to cover. We walked the entire Quarter and then some before arriving at the shop after five. Skylar waved and grinned at us from behind the register.
“Been busy?” Micah asked.
“A little. Tim and Brad left a half an hour ago. They helped get rid of the reporters. Good news is that we’ve had lots of sign-ups for your tours, and sold a bazillion T-shirts, which we need to restock. The new candles you brought in are gone too. Sorry, they smelled nice, so I put them out. The tomb shapes were a hoot, and everyone had to have one,” Sky chattered away like she had all the energy of a rabbit on a B-shot. “Hi Alex, good to see you back. Your head looks better.”
The glue was still firmly in place from Micah setting it last night. In fact he’d done so well I doubted it would scar at all. “Thanks, sorry it took us so long, we were mapping Micah’s route for tonight.”
“Oh, how exciting,” Sky said. “Did you see anything terrifying?”
I had actually, but didn’t want to share that. And it had been at the LaLaurie Mansion. We hadn’t even gotten close, but from half a block away I could see waves of some sort of black mass pouring from the windows. At first, I thought it was a fire and pointed it out to Micah who had looked confused. Then one of the black masses turned, more like a person than the shifting smoke of a fire, and seemed to stare at me, the darkness that was its writhing face looking like a nightmare of snakes in the bright light of the day. I had no interest in what the place looked like at night and instead begged Micah to skip by it as fast as possible.
“No knife wielding prostitutes,” I affirmed because I hadn’t sensed anything in the French Market other than that there was a lot of food there I had yet to try and wanted to. I held out the wrapped dress for Micah. “Do you want to?”
He flushed and took it. “Maybe later?”
“Um…” I looked at Sky.
She looked between the two of us. “What?”
“It’s something Micah made for you,” I said. Was he worried she wouldn’t like it? I couldn’t imagine not being floored by the skill and beauty of the dress. Even if it had been made for me and I’d never worn a dress in my life.
“Really?” Sky eyed the bag. “What is it?”
I took the bag back from Micah and handed it to Sky. She laid it on the counter and zipped it open. Her squeal of delight nearly broke my eardrums.
“Oh my God!” She untucked the dress from the bag and held it to her chest like she was modeling it. “Is this for real? This is amazing.” She looked at the door to the backroom. “I need to try this on. Is it really for me?”
Micah’s face was red and he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Yes. I made it for you. It was some experiments in fabrics, design, and color. The bodice is expandable too, like a corset only less restrictive, for after your surgery…”
Sky leapt from behind the counter to wrap her arms around Micah in a tight hug, which he didn’t return. She didn’t seem to care. She took the dress and headed toward the backroom. Then paused.
“Oh and so about the tour,” Sky said looking guilty. “I mean, I didn’t do anything, but Tim did and he said there were no limits. I began putting people on other days when I got here, but the damage was already done. I’m so sorry.”
Micah tilted his head like he was trying to understand what Sky was saying. “Huh?”
“There are twenty-two people scheduled for tonight’s tour,” Sky said in a rush.
“Um…” Wasn’t there a limit? Or was that only for the graveyard tours? “That’s a lot of people.”
Micah sighed. “I’ll have to cut a few stops off the trip. Too many people means too many questions and no time for photographs. I’ve never had a tour with more than fifteen at once.”
“Some of them might be reporters,” Sky added.
“What? Why?” I asked.
“Stupid, nosey…” Micah grumbled as he stalked his way to the backroom. Sky stared at me with wide eyes. I blinked at her wondering if I’d missed something.
“Reporters because of last night?” I finally asked.