A rush of elation washed over me. “Mom?” I questioned loudly, not fully believing that she was only a room away.
“Xoe?” she questioned back. Her voice was a little closer, like she had moved toward the base of the stairs.
I rushed down the hallway and barreled down the stairs. Sure enough, my mom was standing there, completely unharmed.
I threw my arms around her as soon as I reached her. My burns screamed out in pain, but I didn't care. “How?” I asked weakly with my chin resting on her shoulder.
She pulled away from me. “All of my furniture started floating, so I ran and hid in my closet, only the stuff in the closet was moving too. I vaguely remember something hitting me in the head, then I woke up, left the closet, and saw my room covered in slime. When I searched the rest of the house, you were gone.”
I gritted my teeth in frustration. My grandmother had tricked us. My mom was never in the dreamworld. I noticed blood in my mom's hair, and feared she might have a concussion. “You need to go to the hospital,” I demanded.
My mom stepped back and nodded. “Abel was about to take me.”
I sighed as I took in everyone else in the room. Abel was standing near the door, ready to leave for the hospital. Chase, Jason, and Lucy sat on the couch with Lucy in the middle, and Cynthia and Rose were smushed together on the love seat.
I looked at the witches in surprise. “What on earth are you two doing here?”
Cynthia wrung her hand in her lap nervously. “We came home from the grocery store to a trashed apartment. Someone had written I'll find you on the wall in ketchup. I tried to call you, but you didn't answer, so we came straight here.”
I pinched my brow in annoyance. With all of the excitement, I had completely forgotten about Nix. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the ordeal ahead.
First, I looked at Abel. “Take my mom to the hospital,” I ordered. “After she gets checked out, bring her someplace safe. Have Devin corral my new pack members, and bring them here. It's time to pay pack dues.”
Abel quirked an eyebrow, but didn't seem offended that I was ordering him around. “What are you planning?”
“This all ends now,” I said with a cold smile. “I'm not going to be bullied by my grandmother's ghost, or by a demon girl with a chip on her shoulder. We're going to summon Sam tonight. First we'll take care of my grandmother, then we'll move on to Nix.”
“And what do Emma and Siobhan have to do with any of this?” he pressed, still not moving to do as I'd bade him.
I glanced at Cynthia, who was quietly lecturing Rose for getting excited about summoning another demon. “Safety in numbers,” I said, not wanting to say out loud that I wanted extra wolves there in case Cynthia tried anything after we took care of Nix.
Abel glanced at the backs of the witches in question, then gave me a slight nod before turning to my mother. “Shall we?”
My mom nodded and went to stand by the door with him. Before they left, she turned back to me. “This demon you're summoning is your friend, right?” she asked nervously. “He won't try to hurt you?”
“He's Chase's brother,” I explained, avoiding the second question, since I really didn't know the answer.
Taking my reply at face value, my mom nodded and allowed Abel to escort her outside. A moment later I could hear a car start, followed by the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway. I breathed a sigh of relief. My mom was safer with Abel than with me. I was a living target.
How do you protect your loved ones when just being around you is a danger? Answer, you don't. You make someone else do it. I was hoping to do the same thing with Devin, Emma, and Siobhan. If I ended up incapacitated, I wanted my friends to stand a fighting chance.
If you want something done right, acquire worthwhile minions.
11
Devin had arrived with his two charges in record time. Siobhan was not happy about Emma being asked to come out in the wee hours of the morning when she had school to worry about. I had gently reminded her that if she had a problem with how I ran things, she could hoof it back to a larger pack where she'd have more responsibilities. She promptly shut up.
Emma, on the other hand, seemed elated by the whole situation, and was currently impersonating a cute, little jumping bean from her perch beside Lucy on the couch.
I was standing near Emma and Lucy, watching with my arms crossed as Rose and Cynthia poured salt all over my living room floor. At least they had the decency to remove the rug and coffee table, but the salt was still going to be a pain to clean up.
I turned my attention to Emma. “Why do I get the feeling that you have a million questions to ask right now?”
Her face cracked into a nervous grin as she touched her dark, curly hair self-consciously. “Is that a bad thing?”
I smiled in return, though on the inside I felt sick and nervous. “I was just going to say, if you have questions, feel free to ask them.”
Emma's face lit up at that. “Why are they pouring salt on the ground?”
“The type of magic they're using might attract other spirits,” I explained like I knew what I was talking about, even though it had just been explained to me moments before Emma arrived. “They need the circle to keep them from interfering.”
Emma looked confused. “So it's not to keep the demon in.”
I sighed, frustrated that everyone always assumed that all demons are evil. “That too,” I answered grudgingly.
“Can you be summoned like that?” she asked innocently.
I ground my teeth, thinking back to the only time I'd ever been summoned, though in reality I was carried up from the demon underground by ghosts. “I could if I was in the demon world,” I answered vaguely.
She looked behind her to verify that it was just us girls in the room. Jason, Devin, and Chase had gone to get supplies for the witches, and hadn't yet returned. “Is Chase's brother as cute as he is?” she asked in a hushed tone.
I was so stunned by her question that I laughed. She seemed so young, and I felt so old, making it hard to remember we were actually close in age.
Siobhan watched us like a hawk from the love-seat, curling her loose red hair behind her ear like a student in deep observation. It was a little unnerving, but good, I guess, that she paid attention when her ward started talking about boys.
“No,” I answered, laughter still in my voice, despite the discomfort Siobhan was causing me, “but I'm biased because I hate him.”
Lucy laughed too. “He is pretty cute,” she commented, surprising me almost as much as Emma's question had.
Rose paused what she was doing and watched the exchange in awe, probably because we were talking about boys in front of her mom and another older woman. Though Cynthia seemed too distracted to pay attention like Siobhan was.
I would have pressed Lucy on the subject, making sure that she had no romantic designs on someone who'd set up my father to die, even if he'd done so unknowingly, but was interrupted as the boys finally returned from their mission.
Chase walked in ahead of the others. I moved out of the way so he could hand two plastic bags to Cynthia. “It's not easy to find blue candles at 3 am on a weekday,” he commented as Cynthia took the bags, then set them down so she could paw through their contents.
She seemed almost frantic as she pulled out five blue pillar candles and an enormous ball of twine, sweeping her unusually messy, chin-length hair off her face in irritation.
Jason approached and propped a large, simple-framed, wall-hanging mirror against the side of the couch, near where Cynthia crouched. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him in as Cynthia mumbled to herself, but he only shrugged.
Cynthia's nervousness made me feel jittery. I wasn't afraid of Sam, and she had no reason to be either, so why was she acting like we were embarking on a life-threatening journey?
Devin, who hadn't been carrying any loot himself, went into the kitchen and began grinding beans for coffee. It was a little rude of him to just presume he coul
d use my kitchen, but it was also 3am, and I didn't think any of us were going to make it through the night without caffeine. We could have taken the time to rest, but I wasn't about to leave my grandmother another opening to attack.
I walked around the arm of the couch, side-stepping the mirror to take a seat beside Lucy. I nudged her over so Chase could sit on my other side.
Cynthia handed Jason the candles. “Place them equidistantly around the salt circle,” she instructed. She placed the mirror in the center, face up, handling it gently like it was a revered object. “The mirror serves as a doorway,” she explained to the room in general. “It will allow him to come through without a full portal. The salt circle will keep him trapped.”
I didn't feel the need to tell her that Sam could probably travel outside of the circle with the help of his ghosts, as I doubted he would. I didn't see him intentionally placing his physical form anywhere near me until he knew I wouldn't harm him. The circle would keep me out just as much as it would keep him in.
I clenched my jaw at the thought of being near him. It really rankled me that I'd have to work with a demon I really wanted to pummel, or worse. Sensing my tension, Chase put his hand on my knee and squeezed, hitting that uncomfortable ticklish spot with absolute precision.
I squirmed away from his hand, glaring at him.
“Snap out of it,” he said with a wink. “We're one step closer to figuring everything out.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out. “With the help of your brother . . . ” I trailed off.
Chase looked at me apologetically. “I'm not terribly excited to see him either.”
Lucy leaned forward on the other side of me so she could see both of us. “Do you really think he'll help us just to get Xoe off his back?”
Chase nodded. “He makes his living dealing information. He can't do that if he's in hiding and no one can find him to ask.”
Lucy frowned. “So he'll help because it's cutting into his business, not because he feels bad or because he's your brother?”
Chase snorted. “Sam has never had much of a conscience. He only does something if it benefits him in some way.”
Judging by Chase's bitter tone, I guessed that he'd learned that lesson with Sam long ago, and more recent events had only confirmed it.
“So why did he leave us that folder of information?” I asked. “I don't see what he would have gained from that.”
Chase shrugged and frowned. “He's as unpredictable as he is self-absorbed.”
I frowned too, glad for once that I was an only child.
Cynthia, who'd been lighting the candles Jason had placed, rose and cast me an impatient look, just as Devin came into the room with several mugs of coffee placed on a tray. He went around the room handing everyone a mug, then very deliberately handed one to me.
I looked down at the mug, then laughed, seeing it was the one with a picture of a raven on it. The scrawled words beneath it read, “raven lunatic”.
He shrugged with a smile. “Seemed fitting.”
I smirked, not offended by his little jest since it lightened the mood of the situation.
Cynthia sipped her coffee, then sat cross-legged next to the mirror. “Xoe will need to be part of the circle,” she explained to everyone, as if to avoid eye contact with me. Curiouser and curiouser.
“We were actually going to have you draw from me,” Chase cut in.
Jason eyed me steadily from where he stood near Cynthia, daring me to argue.
“But you're not as powerful as her,” Cynthia argued for me. “It might not work. Alexandria was stronger than either of you, and it fatigued even her.”
I had an idea, one that Chase and Jason hopefully wouldn't be able to argue with. “What if you draw from both of us? Would that prevent me from becoming incapacitated?”
Cynthia's face scrunched in thought, emphasizing the heavy bags under her eyes. “It might work. You'd likely at least remain conscious.”
Rose, who had gone to sit by Siobhan, either not realizing that she was a werewolf, or not afraid of her regardless, cleared her throat. “I can help too, then no one will pass out.”
“Absolutely not,” Cynthia snapped instantly.
Rose crossed her arms, not noticing that doing so invaded the bubble of personal space between her and Siobhan even further. “Mom, there's a circle. I'm not going to be in any danger.”
Cynthia shook her head, looking almost panicked again. “That's what we thought with the other demon.”
“Yeah,” Rose argued, “but Xoe's grandmother let that one out, and she's not here.”
Cynthia glanced at me, and I suddenly understood what she was worried about. She thought I'd pull the same thing as my grandmother, and free the summoned demon.
“You wanted me to be unconscious for this,” I accused.
Cynthia cringed, then finally met my eyes. “Can you blame me?”
I really couldn't. She'd lost her daughter and husband because of my grandmother, and here I was, looking just like Alexandria, with the same sort of powers, making Cynthia summon another demon.
I slumped back against the couch cushions, feeling defeated. “What would make you feel better about this?”
Cynthia's eyes widened in surprise. “The fact that you asked that is a good start.”
I mentally slapped myself. I could be such a bulldozer sometimes, oblivious to how it might affect people. She didn't trust me because I did more ordering than asking.
“You can draw all of the energy from me,” I said finally. “I'll go to sleep and you'll have nothing to worry about.”
“No,” Chase and Jason said in unison.
Cynthia shook her head and held up her hand to silence them. “No, it's okay, I'll draw from both of you. Rose can help.”
I was momentarily stunned by her sudden change of heart. Who knew being nice to people could be so beneficial? I'd have to try it more often.
I gave her a genuine smile. “Thank you.”
She nodded, seemingly unsure of her offer, but she didn't rescind it.
Chase and I both stood. “So what do we do?” I asked.
Max chose that moment to come stumbling down the stairway, still looking half asleep with his sandy hair sticking out in all different directions around his freckled face. He went to stand next to Jason. “What did I miss?” he asked groggily.
“A lot,” several of us said in unison.
He shrank back at our tone. “Geez, I see all of you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
Lucy smiled sweetly at him. “Most of us haven't even been to bed yet, you slacker.”
Max shrugged. “I take my naps where I can find them.”
Cynthia cleared her throat and stood, drawing our attention back to her. “We'll need to sit around the circle,” she explained. “Xoe,” she said, finally looking at me, “you'll be to my right since you'll provide more energy than Chase, and my right hand is dominant. Chase will be to my left, and Rose will sit across from me. We'll tie the twine around our wrists and use it to link our hands since we won't be able to reach each other with how large the circle is.”
“Why can't we just hold the twine?” I asked, not liking the idea of being tied together.
“If one of you still ends up losing consciousness, you might let go,” she explained, sounding far less nervous than before. “We need to keep the circle solid.”
“Okay,” I conceded, placing my mug on the end table next to Emma. I took Chase's and did the same. “What will everyone else do?”
Cynthia shrugged. “They just wait and jump in if things get out of hand.”
Devin, who'd been listening from the sidelines, grabbed a pair of scissors from the little table where my mom and I usually left our daily belongings, then rejoined us to retrieve the ball of twine. “How long?” he asked, referring to the twine.
“Two feet each should be good,” Cynthia replied. “We'll need four strands.”
“I can count,” Devin mumbled under his
breath, but Cynthia either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore him.
She took a seat outside the salt circle, facing inward. Chase, Rose, and I joined her. I watched Chase from across the circle, reminding myself that this was all just as hard on him. It was easy to forget since he didn't show it.
Devin handed us each a piece of twine, then he and Lucy set to helping everyone tie one end of each piece around our wrists.
Devin leaned close to me as he tied mine loosely, so as not to agitate my burns. “Are you sure about this?” he whispered.
I nodded, though really I wasn't. Not because I was afraid of Sam, but because if he wasn't willing to help, I wouldn't know what to do next. This had to work.
“What is the demon's full name?” Cynthia asked once we were all secured and Devin and Lucy had stepped away.
“Samuel Agne,” Chase replied.
Cynthia nodded in acceptance. “Rose and I will both envision the name. It's better to envision the demon's appearance, but as we've never seen him, the name will have to do.”
“So should Chase and I visualize his appearance?” I asked.
Cynthia shrugged and closed her eyes. “It can't hurt.”
I was about to question whether or not she knew what she was doing, then I felt a strange tugging sensation. Kind of like being in a wind tunnel, except the sensation moved in two directions at once, and there wasn't actually any wind. My natural instinct was to fight against the tugging feeling.
Cynthia opened one eye to look at me. “You have to let us draw your energy or it isn't going to work.”
I gulped, then nodded hesitantly. I hadn't thought about what it might feel like to give my energy to someone, and I was pretty sure I didn't like it.
I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm my racing heart, and this time when the tugging came, I pushed energy back at it. The energy flowed outward invisibly, and I was pleased to find that I could control how much I gave, at least for the time being.
Cynthia and Rose gasped as the energy hit them. There was a little bit of spillover from the other side, letting me know that Chase was contributing as well. His energy felt different than mine, cool and reserved where mine was fiery and unpredictable.
Gone Ghost Page 10