The Second Premonition

by Tamara Geraeds

  “It can be very exciting,” the voice continues, “but you have to be careful showing magic to humans. It endangers us all.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but Charlie is the only one giving me any information. So I’ll have to explore if I want to know more.”

  “We can only tell you what you’re ready for.”

  “Okay, we’re done talking.” I speed up and turn the volume of the radio as loud as I can stand.

  After a soft, “I understand your frustration”, the voice goes quiet.

  I don’t feel like exploring on my own anymore, so I drive to Darkwood Manor.

  When I step into the kitchen, I freeze. There’s a fleshless corpse with a broom in its hand. I stare at it for quite some time, while it sweeps the kitchen floor. After that, it picks up a dishcloth and starts cleaning the kitchen cabinets.

  It hasn’t noticed me yet, and I’m afraid my voice will trigger its killer instinct, so I whisper, “Jeep?”

  A pat on my back provokes a yell. The skeleton doesn’t even look up.

  Jeep, the necromancer in my Shield, grins at me and lifts his bowler hat. “Good morning, master. How are you today?”

  “I’m f-“ I pause. “I’m not sure actually. A lot has happened.”

  He hums in confirmation. “Definitely. But we won.”

  “No, I mean after that.”

  He flops down in one of the chairs at the large table and pulls up his sleeves to reveal his magical tattoos. “Something happened?”

  “You could say that.” I look around. “Where are the others?”

  “Still resting, I guess. It was tiresome for us, too, you know.” He strokes the gruesome pictures on his bare arms. They’re pulsing faintly.

  I take an involuntary step back. “Are you okay?” The memory of his last attack is still fresh in my mind. I really don’t want to see him collapse on the floor again, pinned down by the other ghosts because of his thrashing.

  He lifts his hand, squeezing his eyes shut. His jaws tremble with the effort of keeping the ghosts trapped in his tattoos.

  The corpse at the kitchen counter drops the cloth and waves its arms around in wide arcs while its teeth rattle.

  “Vicky?” I yell. It’s the first name that pops into my head. The one that belongs to the loveliest ghost in my Shield.

  Jeep lets out a low grumble, then straightens up. “I’m okay.”

  I eye his arms suspiciously and relax when I see his tattoos have stopped moving. I point at the skeleton that’s resuming its domestic chores. “Who’s that?”

  “Oh, that’s just someone I found in the garden. I raised him by accident and thought I’d make him useful.”

  I mirror his grin. “I thought we couldn’t use our powers for personal gain. But since you’ve already started, would you mind accidentally raising some more helpers? I could use some to redecorate this place.” Although, now that I think about it, I could ask Charlie, Quinn and Simon, since they already know about magic.

  Jeep winks at me. “We can use magic for our own benefit, we’re just not supposed to.”

  My grin grows wider. “I see. Good thing I don’t know much about the rules yet.”

  “Ahem.”

  I whirl around and find D’Maeo standing behind me, his arms folded across his see-through chest. As the oldest of the Shield – counted in years lived, that is – he has assumed the role of the leader, or father of the group.

  “Oh, come on. Can’t we have a little fun in between all the fighting?”

  He raises a gray eyebrow. “All the fighting? You’ve barely seen anything, son. Say that again when you’re as old as me.”

  “No thanks. I plan on going straight to heaven when I die.”

  I turn back when D’Maeo vanishes. Jeep is moving his hands rapidly through the air in an attempt to get rid of the skeleton fast. In his haste, he makes some wrong moves, and the corpse stumbles back and forth, groaning.

  I take a seat and watch quietly. D’Maeo appears in the seat on the other end of the table. Jeep hasn’t noticed yet.

  “He’s already caught you, you know,” I say when the skeleton hits its toe against a kitchen cabinet with a clang.

  D’Maeo’s face scrunches up in an obvious attempt to keep his stern glare.

  When Jeep finally sees him, he drops his arms so suddenly that the skeleton crashes to the ground. Bones roll everywhere. A sound like dominoes falling fills the room. The head bounces a few times, before coming to a halt next to my chair. The jaw is still moving, making it look like it’s trying to eat my shoe.

  I get lost in a fit of laughter. Tears run down my cheeks. It gets worse when Jeep orders one arm to lift the head. He makes it bounce from left to right, making it look like it’s singing a happy tune.

  “Stop!” I yell, holding my stomach. “I can’t breathe.”

  “Yes, master,” the corpse says. The head bows and retreats.

  With a couple of hand gestures, Jeep puts the thing back together and it walks out of the back door.

  “Thanks,” I pant, wiping sweat off my forehead. “I needed that.”

  D’Maeo quickly hides his grin when Jeep sits down.

  “It was an accident,” the tattooed ghost repeats.

  I picture the dancing head and snort.

  CHAPTER 5

  The old ghost is the first one to pull a straight face. “But seriously. We shouldn’t use our powers for things like this.”

  “You’re probably right.” I reach into my jeans pocket. “Speaking of serious.” I hold up the new demon cards. The last urge to laugh disappears.

  D’Maeo leans closer. “You received another set?”

  “Last night. And I found out that Blackford isn’t what I always thought it was.”

  Jeep picks up the dishcloth dropped by the skeleton. “What does that mean?”

  My favorite voice answers before I can. “It means his veil is lifting.”

  I shiver when Vicky brushes past me and sits down.

  “Good,” D’Maeo says, sporting his fatherly smile. “That means your power will be fully developed soon. You’ll be stronger.”

  “If he can control it,” Jeep says with a look over his shoulder.

  Vicky touches my leg under the table, sending electric pulses through my body. “I can practice with him.”

  Taylar, the youngest of the ghosts with his total of fourteen lived years, materializes in the seat opposite her, brushing a white lock of hair from his forehead. “Of course you can.”

  “That would be great,” I respond before anyone else can object. I look into Vicky’s dazzling blue eyes that hold the power to read and control other people’s feelings. “I also wanted to ask you to come with me to my house. I need some help with that protection spell. And since spells are your specialty…”

  “Certainly, master,” she says. Her words sound indifferent, but there’s a sparkle in her eyes.

  She bends towards me and whispers, “I need to talk to you.”

  I lick my lips that have suddenly gone dry. “Can it wait until we leave?”

  With a soft rustle, Maël fades into view, making the Shield complete. She looks as stunning as ever, in her royal black dress with golden flowers and her golden cape.

  Vicky leans back in her chair. “No problem.”

  I frown, but decide to let it go. We’ll be alone soon enough.

  Feeling like a magician revealing a trick, I lay the Cards of Death on the table. “Two new cards, so someone else to save, I guess.”

  D’Maeo holds out his hand. “What’s on them?”

  “I haven’t really looked yet.” I shoot him an apologetic look. “Too busy figuring out the world, sorry.”

  I point at the cards. “Swirling demon symbols on the back. Nothing new there. Except for the color.” The symbols on the first set were blue, these are black. “Oh great.” I wrinkle my nose. “Disgusting looking black stuff on the front.” I slide it towards the o
ld ghost. “Maybe you can make out what it is.” I pick up the second card. “Well, at least this one is easy.” There’s a ten-pointed red star and a rectangle on it. “An explosion and a screen with some kind of code.” I hold the card up so everyone can see.

  Jeep squints at it. “Okay, so the Devil’s next victim will die in an explosion and has something to do with computers?”

  Vicky nods. “It’s a hacker.”

  “He coughs a lot?” Maël asks, shifting her gaze from Jeep to Vicky.

  Vicky and I snort. Then I see Maël’s surprised face and swallow my laughter. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. A hacker is someone who sneaks into someone else’s computer and steals information or plants a digital virus.” I take in her pensive look. “I thought you all adjusted to the time you li… exist in?”

  “We do,” Vicky answers. “But we don’t have much experience with computers. Maël is the oldest. She knows about computers, but the internet is still a mystery to her.”

  I wonder why Vicky is telling me this, instead of Maël. The African queen never has problems speaking up.

  Vicky senses my confusion and falls quiet. She looks me in the eye, tries to make me feel something, but I turn my head before she can. I want to find out more about the Cards of Death first.

  “So we’re looking for a hacker that will die in an explosion,” I summarize. “What else have we got, D’Maeo?”

  The gray-haired man has taken out his sword and is trying to scrape the black stuff off of the second card.

  We watch him in silence for a while.

  “I’ve almost got it.” He pushes down harder and cuts through the substance.

  I lean closer. “It’s working.”

  He gives it one more swipe and holds up the card.

  We all gasp. It’s cut in half and there’s still so much dark goo on it that we can’t see the pictures under it.

  I drop my head in my hands and swallow a curse. “What do we do now?”

  “I guess we’ll just have to find a hacker with demon protection?”

  Waiting for other ideas, I look from one ghost to the other.

  Maël’s gaze is fixed on what’s left of the card.

  “Do you have a better idea, Maël?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “No, look. It’s mending itself.”

  “Thank goodness.” I flop back in my chair.

  “I think I know what it is,” D’Maeo says. “The black stuff.” He throws the card back to me. “It’s pitch.”

  “Pitch? You mean like tar?”

  “Yes.”

  I touch the surface. “So how do we get rid of it?”

  Jeep scratches his tattoos. “Heat it up, I think.”

  All heads turn to him.

  “I used to help the clown in our circus to strengthen his barrels with pitch. You heat it up to liquefy it.”

  My mouth drops open. “You were in a circus?”

  He crosses his arms over his chest. “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “He was a puppeteer, if you know what I mean,” Vicky whispers from the corner of her mouth.

  Pictures of dancing skeletons form before my eyes. “I can imagine what that must have looked like,” I grin. “People trying to find out what the trick was.”

  He cocks his head and stares in the distance. “It was kind of fun.”

  My hand holding the card gets warmer. It’s like it wants to tell me I should hurry. I turn my attention back to it. “So we have to heat it up. But we tried a flame last time, and almost burned up the card. What other options do we have?”

  Vicky flips her black hair over her shoulder. The blonde tips almost touch my face. “You could use a hair dryer.”

  I smile at her. “That’s a great idea!” I get up, but swallow my enthusiasm immediately. “I don’t think we have one here, do we? It’s not like you guys need it anymore.”

  Maël pats the mountain of dark curls on her head. “No, we wake up like this.”

  I’m curious about this ‘ghosts that sleep’ thing, but I don’t have time to ask them about it now. We have another soul to save.

  “I guess I’ll have to go back home then. Are you still coming with me, Vicky?”

  She’s already on her feet. “Of course.”

  Taylar rolls his eyes, but I ignore him. “Maybe you guys can find out if there’s a way for us to communicate when we’re not together. Or even better, a way for me to summon you to wherever I am, when I’m in trouble.”

  D’Maeo bows his head. “We will do our best.”

  I thank them and leave the mansion with Vicky at my side and tingles running through my whole body.

  It’s a miracle that I don’t crash Phoenix, with Vicky sitting beside me and a whole new Blackford unfolding itself before me. I hit the brakes hard when a young woman flies out of the window of a house and over my roof.

  “What was that?” I yell.

  Vicky is in stitches. “You should’ve seen your face.”

  “Very funny,” I grumble, easing back onto the road.

  Vicky yawns and stretches so far that her hands go through the roof. “That was nothing to be scared of. Just a fairy.”

  I snort. “Oh right, nothing strange about that.”

  She cocks her head and shoots me her sweetest smile. “I’m sorry. I know it’s all very strange at first.” She taps my leg. New shivers run through me. My leg trembles so bad that my foot almost hits the brake again. Vicky pretends not to notice, but I know she can feel everything I feel. The twitch in the left corner of her mouth tells me she’s enjoying this. “You’ll get used to it, babe.”

  In an attempt to get rid of the overwhelming urge to jump the bones she doesn’t have anymore, I change the subject. “There’s something I don’t understand. We had to save Mr. Timson in order to prevent the Devil from escaping Hell. We did, yet here we have a new set of cards. Another person to save. Why?”

  “Maybe the Devil needs more than one soul?”

  I sigh. “I knew it wasn’t over.” That angel could have told me though.

  “We didn’t know,” the voice answers.

  “Whatever.”

  “Huh?” Vicky turns to me with raised eyebrows.

  I wave my hand at her. “I wasn’t talking to you, babe. It’s that voice again.”

  My cheeks warm up when I realize I accidentally called her babe. Lucky for me she chooses to ignore it.

  “You mean that angel guy?”

  “Angel guy?” the voice responds.

  I pretend to focus on taking the turn onto Willow Lane.

  “Aren’t you going to correct her?” the voice asks.

  “Why?” I retort, turning right and pulling into my driveway. “As long as you don’t give me your name, I’m fine with calling you the angel guy. It’s a pretty accurate description, isn’t it?” I wink at Vicky.

  Chuckling, we get out and walk to the front door.

  A figure is moving from left to right in the living room. There’s the distant hum of an unrecognizable song.

  I turn to the beautiful girl next to me. “As much as I would love to introduce you to my mother, I think it would be better to keep you a secret.”

  Her eyes twinkle. “A naughty secret?”

  I cough. “Maybe.”

  “And how are we supposed to protect your house with your mom in it?”

  My hand, reaching for the front door, falls back down. “Right. Good point.” I think for a moment. “We can try to get the pitch off the card and wait until Mom leaves.”

  “Bad idea,” the voice interrupts. “Remember the premonition with the demon coming through your window?”

  “Yes, of course. How could I forget? That thing killed us both.”

  “You need to protect the house before that happens.”

  I look at Vicky again. “We’ll have to do the spell as soon as possible. Any ideas?”

  Mom’s singing carries throu
gh the door. Vicky smiles at me. “Leave it to me.”

  CHAPTER 6

  “Mom, I’m home!”

  She whirls around in surprise. “Oh, I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Vicky sniggers. “I wonder why.”

  Mom turns down the volume of the music. “The new floor is already done. You want to see it?”

  “Of course.”

  We follow her upstairs. The new floor on the landing is all shiny. No scratches anywhere. My bedroom has the same dark wood and to my surprise, all my furniture has already been put back in place.

  I walk through to the bathroom, where I suppress the memory of the person or creature trying to electrocute me. “This is very nice.”

  Mom is beaming at me. “It’s laminate. Much better for a bathroom they said.”

  I want to answer, but Vicky blocks my view. She steps in front of Mom and looks her in the eye.

  Mom falls silent.

  I turn around so I won’t have to watch her getting hypnotized, or whatever you call it when someone forces an emotion onto you. “It’s really great. They must have worked fast.”

  “They did.”

  I jump at Mom’s voice and peer at Vicky. Is she already done?

  Mom kisses me on the cheek. “I’m going to the bakery, honey. I have a sudden craving for chocolate croissants.” She notices my expression. “What’s wrong? You don’t want me to go? You can come with me?”

  “No, that’s okay,” I answer a bit too fast. “You should go have lunch with Mona. I’ll be fine here.”

  Her face lights up. “That’s a great idea! I’ll call her right now. See you later, honey.”

  She almost flies out of my room and down the stairs.

  I turn to Vicky, who has a smug look on her face. “I didn’t know you could also give people cravings.”

  “Sure, that’s also a feeling.”

  “How did you know what to go for?”

  She just taps her head with her finger.

  I stare at her, amazed at how awesome she is.

  “You helped, too,” she assures me. “By suggesting lunch. That will take her longer. We’ll have time to heat up the card.”