Tuesday: Welcome to Darkwater Who: Jade and Tilly Where: town, then the Darkwater Motor Inn When: late afternoon
Jade felt as if he'd been driving forever. He'd taken over the wheel from Tilly about three hours ago, and with the exception of one stop for gas and a restroom break, he'd been doing his best to get them to their destination quickly. It was possible that he was overly tired from the long road trip and crabby to boot; he hadn't had much at all to say today. They were approaching the Darkwater city limits along the endless coast road, and he was so relieved that he almost couldn't stand it. It wasn't that the scenery wasn't beautiful, more that he was too worn down to appreciate anything. He was almost glad that they didn't have an immediate assignment beyond keep an eye on what's going on in the area. Maybe they'd get the chance for some R & R for a few days. He wouldn't say no to that.
"The motel's not far from the marina, right?" he said, speaking up for the first time in about an hour. His voice sounded husky, and he cleared his throat.
The old pickup truck was not a smooth ride, even on a paved coastal road. Too many years of riding rough-shod over the rocky desert in New Mexico had shot the suspension all to hell. The powerful engine growled menacingly at cruising speed, a noise that Tilly had never managed to tinker out of the machine. Still, she was so used to that particular growl that it soothed her, and with Jade's prolonged silence, she'd drifted and dozed.
Still, she was a hunter, and when he spoke up, she woke up. "Hmm?" Tilly rubbed her eyes. They felt as dry as her home state, at the moment. She turned her face toward his cracked open window. The tang of salt on the air was strange. She really felt like she was in a different place. "Yeah," she said, pushing herself more upright and brushing her fiery hair back. "Should be easy to spot from the road."
Jade hadn't realized that Tilly had been drowsing, and he wasn't aware he'd awakened her. He'd thought she was just enjoying the silence and gazing out the window. "Seems like it's the only motel in town, if I remember right," he said. Just look at all that ocean, he thought. The coastal road ran right alongside it, and it was incredible to look at. He rolled his window down a little more so he could hear it better and breathe in the ocean air, then exhaled a sigh after he'd done that. Sea air or not, it was damned hot today. He hoped the motel had good air conditioning. He drove past the Welcome to Darkwater sign and a few restaurants and shops, and once they'd passed the marina entrance, he began looking around in earnest for a motel sign.
"There's the sign," she said, perking up a little bit at the nearness of a leg stretch. The road bent in toward the motel and she pushed herself upright as the monstrous orange-red truck turned into the lot. "They have to have better showers than that last place in Mexico, right?" They had driven up straight, taking turns driving when the other needed a break. It saved their little petty cash fund for emergencies, such as a breakdown and a tow, if necessary. It was a long way to take Tilly's old ride.
"The showers couldn't be any worse," Jade said with a tired sigh. The motel didn't look fancy, he saw as they got closer to it, but it looked nicer than a lot of chain motels they'd encountered on hunting trips. There were pots of flowers flanking the door to the office, a bird feeder hanging from the nearest tree, and everything looked clean and reasonably freshly painted. Hopefully that meant that the rooms were well-maintained, too. He parked the truck in the nearest open space to the office and turned his head to ask, "So we might be here a while. Want me to get connecting rooms instead of just one?" It had occurred to him to think that it might be weird for them to share a room all the time, even if they didn't sleep in the same bed. It wasn't like they were dating. He wasn't sure what they were sometimes, really.
Tilly knew she could be inscrutable, even with Jade. Things had been tense since the row they'd had the day after her mother's funeral, when both had accused the other of following them home. It had been up to Gen and Casey to rattle them out of their fighting stances and explain that they were friends, best friends. And maybe something more.
She didn't know how to process the fact that she had allowed them to be violated. How do you say you are sorry to someone who has had their brain tampered with by a demon? Jade had prodded her at first to scrape and search for those memories of the months before but she just couldn't. Every time she tried, she felt like she'd fall into a chasm of guilt.
Still, hard to read or not, her thoughts showed up plain as day from one freckled corner to another on her face. He wanted her to sleep alone? Sense caught up with her and she quickly swept aside her shock and panic with a chuckle. "I guess that might be nice. A little privacy. It's been a while." I was getting pretty used to you always being there. It was another one of those concessions she could never bring herself to say to him. She broke her gaze away from his face and craned around to grab her wallet out of her duffel bag. "I'll go pay," she said, shouldering the passenger side door open.
Now Jade would have to worry that he'd offended her, he realized as he took in her expression. It was too late to take the words back, though, and maybe he shouldn't want to. Might be nice not to feel like he had to be on his best roommate-type behavior, lounge around with most of his clothes off, stink up the bathroom on occasion without feeling sheepish about it. "Be sure to get connecting ones," he said. "That way we can hang with the middle door open. It'd be like a suite." He didn't protest about her paying, because they got reimbursed for expenses anyway.
He opened the driver's side door and slid out of the truck, sighing and stretching and then walking to the far edge of the parking lot to look around. If he craned his neck just so, he could see the ocean, which was awesome. He was already thinking about walking down there and taking it all in at some point, feeling the sea breeze in his hair. Jade stood there, not realizing how much time had passed, feeling as if weariness was holding him in place, his sneaker-clad feet plastered to the pavement. His entire body was vibrating from the long drive; he muffled a yawn with the back of one hand, his brown eyes bleary as he waited for Tilly to get them rooms.
Cash exchanged hands and she was a little surprised that the desk manager didn't ask for her license. Hmm, so the place was a little bit anonymous. She supposed she liked that, given their business with this town. Two keys in hand, she crossed the parking lot toward Jade. She could tell just from his posture that he was sort of drifting, thinking about stuff. She'd been a hunter long enough to know that it didn't mean he was any less jumpy, so she crunched the gravel of the lot under her boots as she approached. As she cruised up beside him, she pushed her bright hair out of her eyes. There was a wind, that was for sure, and it made her wish she'd thought to put a hair elastic around her wrist. "Can you see the ocean from there?"
Jade turned his head to look at her and smiled, tiredly but a smile nonetheless. "Barely," he said. "If you kinda look to the right and stretch a little... see it?" He pointed in the appropriate direction, hoping to help her out. "I bet you could almost hear it from here when it's quiet." Which it really wasn't now, at the end of the afternoon where there was traffic and the faint sounds of a busy marina down the hill. "Looks like a perfect small town so far," he remarked of Darkwater, "and that usually means trouble." He was being facetious, but how often had that turned out to be true? "We set then?" he asked, seeing the keys in her hand.
A certain grimness flitted over her face, it was enough to tell Jade that she thought he was right about the possibility of trouble. She held up two sets of keys. "Yeah, connected rooms. Six and seven. Any preference?"
She had been reassured by the manager that the rooms were clean, the water pressure was good and the TVs all worked. He even promised remote controls. More than anything, Tilly hoped the AC worked. Though there was a bit of a breeze, it was hot here. She was used to hot, but damn, it was hot. She started to back toward the rooms. "C'mon, let's get under some shade."
"Nah, I don't care," Jade said when she asked him if he had a preference as to which room he occupied. "I 'magine they're just alike." He was of the same opinion she was, although she hadn't expressed it out loud: the AC had damn well better kick some ass. He hadn't thought it was supposed to be this hot in Oregon, especially by the coast. He began ambling across the parking lot after her, pausing to pull his huge duffel bag out of the back of the truck. "If you want, I'll get yours once we get the doors unlocked," he offered, waiting for her to either hand him a key or open the room doors so they could go inside.
"I've got it," she said, reaching through the passenger door to tug out a old battered army duffel that had belonged to her dad. Or possibly her grandfather, she'd never gotten the story. Once she tugged it free, she tossed him the key for door number seven. Six was closer to the soda machine, anyway. Slinging the duffel over her shoulder, she reached her door and unlocked it. Inside, the room was not exactly blessedly cool, but it was a lot better than the outside world. She dropped her bag down and crossed to the connecting door. She unlocked her side and drummed her fingers against the door on his side. The room wasn't so bad. It didn't stink of cigarettes or mold, those were both pluses. It had a slightly nautical theme to the decor, which she supposed made sense.
"Lucky seven," Jade said with a smile, unlocking his door and heading inside. The first thing he did after dropping his duffel on the floor was to head to the AC unit next to the window and make sure the dial was turned to its coolest possible setting. Once he'd done that, he stood up and looked around. It was a standard motel room with a table and two chairs near the window, bed, night tables, floor lamp, dresser and television. The bathroom had the sink and a large mirror in an open alcove and the toilet and shower in its own little room with a door. Everything looked clean, and it didn't smell bad, so Jade was satisfied. He moved to the connecting door and unlocked his side when he heard Tilly drumming on it with her fingers, then pulled the door open. "Not bad, huh?" he inquired.
"No, not at all," she said, a smile stealing in. "We could have done an awful lot worse." And they had, in the past. Though she still longed for her home in the desert, she found that when she thought about comfortable living, it was the townhouse in New Orleans she missed. For the first time in her entire life, she'd had time to be something other than a hunter scratching a meager existence out in the harsh abandoned world of her youth. With Casey and Gen fueling their eagerness, Tilly had bought herself a couple of dresses and actually went dancing. She'd seen her first Mardi Gras and to be watched over by a pretty sober Jade when she'd overdone the bourbon part of Bourbon Street. She nearly winced from the sudden ache for Gen and Casey. "I'm going to call Gen, really quick," she said, turning away from her partner. His cousin always liked to know where they were. "Then maybe we can go find some food?"
"Okay," Jade said gamely, although he would just about as soon have had a nap instead. They had been driving a long time without eating, though. "Yeah, tell her I said hi." He had two choices while he waited for Tilly to make the call: he could collapse on his bed like he'd been shot and lie there until she was ready to go, or he could freshen up a little. He knew that if he got horizontal, he wouldn't want to get up, so he headed for the bathroom instead, stepping inside to relieve himself and then exiting to the sink area to wash his hands and splash water on his face. A long road trip could be even more tiring than vigorous hunting, surprisingly enough. The cool water perked him up a little, as well as the thought of fresh seafood. He'd never been this far Northwest, but it was the coast. There had to be good eating to be had around here.
Maybe calling Gen was a bit of a mistake because the girl could talk. Apparently there was a lot going on in New Orleans, and between her and Casey. Tilly had to smile because the subtext was there. Casey was dating again and Gen hated it. She had to worry about him. She tended to wait up. But the truth was, as Tilly knew it, that Gen was lonelier than ever without her cousin and the redhead around. Whenever Casey wasn't focused entirely on Gen, the poor girl felt a little under-appreciated. Tilly knew it was only because Gen carried a pretty obvious torch for Casey. She also knew that Case wasn't totally oblivious to the girl he called his Lil' Sis. He just took his role as Jade's Best Friend really seriously. It was one of those things that made Casey wonderful, in Tilly's book.
Twenty minutes later, claiming that she was going to die of starvation, she managed to get off the phone with Gen. She poked her head into Jade's room and called out. "They're still alive, are you?"
Jade had turned on the television to try to find some local news, local weather, all that stuff. Evidently there was a bit of a heat wave going on in Darkwater. He was glad to know that it wasn't always this hot here in the summer. He'd perched on the end of the bed, valiantly resisting the temptation to lie down as he listened to the faint drone of Tilly's voice from the next room, and he was sitting glassy-eyed and drowsy. "Barely," he said, looking over at her when she stuck her head through the connecting door. "We're gonna have to go now, before I fall asleep," he told her. "Any news?" He pushed up from the bed with a sigh, taking his room key off the dresser where he'd put it and stuffing it into his pocket.
"Casey's dating someone and he won't bring her home to Gen. So Gen thinks it's a vampire or a demon or something else unsavory. She suggested the other woman might be a Hooters waitress." Tilly stepped further into the room and offered him a hand to tug him up. "I'm ready, let's just go. Walk with me, talk about stuff and I'll find up a great place to eat." It was her gift, a supernatural intuition. However, it came with a catch. She could find anyone or anything that they needed, as long as she wasn't thinking about it. Small talk wasn't exactly Jade's forte, but he was learning how this trick worked and sometimes he'd play along.
Jade snorted laughter. "In Gen's opinion, being a Hooters waitress would be worse than being a demon." Especially if it was someone who was dating Casey. He couldn't help but wonder when Gen was going to completely lose control and throw herself at the guy. Ordinarily his cousin wasn't overly shy when she wanted someone, but there were a lot of extenuating circumstances, he knew. "Alright," he agreed when she said they should just go and she'd find the perfect restaurant. They exited the room and he pulled on the door to make sure it was locked. "So I was watchin' the local news," he said, "and the good news is, it isn't usually this hot here." He could feel waves of heat rising from the black-topped parking lot of the motel, already.
"It's not that bad," Tilly said, easily falling into step beside him. She turned her blue eyes on his side profile, finding that this worked better if she didn't pay too close attention to their surroundings. After a moment's hesitation, she looped her arm through his so that her wandering feet would tow him along as well. "It's not as humid here as it was in New Orleans." It had been winter time when they were there, though. Now it was the first blush of summer. She paid no attention when they crossed the parking lot and stepped over the little concrete curbs onto the sidewalk. She drew them to a stop at the lights there, and pushed the button. "I hope we don't have to stick around here until the winter though. Two southern bugs like us? We'll freeze solid."
"I think it's pretty warm, myself," Jade disagreed. Not that he wasn't used to the heat considering where he'd lived all his life, but he hadn't been expecting it this far north. He smiled faintly and glanced at her when she took his arm, then turned his attention back to their surroundings so he wouldn't fall over his own feet. That'd be suave. "But yeah, not like New Orleans, really." He couldn't even really contemplate what it might be like to be here during the winter, probably because it was just June. It would be unusual if they had to stay here that long. Of course, it was unusual for them to be sent somewhere with no specific instructions, either. "Guess we'll see," he said as he waited for the light to change so they could cross the street.
When the light changed, Tilly stepped off the curb but didn't even look to see that the traffic had actually stopped. She was daydreaming about snowflakes like the ones you see in Christmas movies. It spawned a thought. "Why don't they ever makes Christmas movies in states that never see snow? Like Christmas in the desert, right? I mean, you get the odd year when a few flakes might fall but nothing really festive like that. Did it ever snow in Labadieville?"
When they made it to the other side, she didn't follow the sidewalk long, instead she gently tugged him toward the boardwalk, headed down toward the marina. The scent of the ocean was a little sharper down this way. You could almost taste the salt. Still, Tilly looked at Jade, not their surroundings.
"Nah, we never saw snow," Jade told her when she asked if it had ever snowed in the small Louisiana town where he'd grown up. "I've been told that there've been flurries there before, back before I was born. It never really gets cold enough for anything to stick." He grinned at her musings about Christmas movies and said, "It'd be totally strange to see snow and cactuses. Cacti? That's why." He was mostly looking at her, too, only glancing forward enough to make sure they weren't about to run into something. Her psychic location had fascinated him ever since he'd found out what she could do, and he was curious to see where they'd end up.
"It's surreal to see," Tilly said in response to his comment about snow and cacti. "I've seen it snow a little in Romita. Just blows around for a few minutes but it doesn't stay. It's super rare, it doesn't even get that cold there in the winter. As for her gift, well Jade made it easy. From almost the beginning, he was comfortable to be around. Well, from their second beginning, anyways. Even though she couldn't reclaim the memories of their first months together, she had quickly understood why she had brought him so deeply into her life. Her mother, their home, the struggling diner along a dried up highway. Thinking about it made her tighten her arm through his, just for a brief second.
Their feet were clomping down a plank boardwalk and the smell of the ocean was sharper as they descended toward it. However, there was also a lovely smell on the air. It was spicy cooking fish and Tilly thought she could almost taste the zesty lemon garnishing it from here. She didn't need her gift to lead her on, her nose and her rumbling belly did the trick. "Mmm," she said, looking away from Jade. "That smells good. How about there?"
"Perfect," Jade said; like her, he'd been able to smell the place from several yards away. Any restaurant that smelled that delicious had to be a winner, he thought. It looked as if they'd be able to sit and look out over the ocean, too, which was a bonus. "I think that's just the thing after drivin' all day." He loped ahead of her so he could pull the door open for her, letting even more of that wonderful seafood aroma out. An excellent meal, a bit of chilling out back at the hotel and then a good night's sleep. He had the feeling that they'd be recovered and raring to go after that.