Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Four

  I wanted to run, but something kept me rooted to the spot, and I could do nothing but watch as the strange boy approached me. He crossed the street without bothering to look for traffic, and a truck slammed on its brakes and honked at him. He tensed, but didn’t stop walking. When he reached the sidewalk about five yards in front of me, I got the intense urge to panic, scream, and flee, but my feet were glued to the cement.

  Then he was standing right in front of me and I could see the rippling muscle on his body, and I could smell the faint musky scent that reminded me of the woods. More than that though, was the fact that this close up, he seemed like the largest person I’d ever met, even though I knew he technically wasn’t. There was just something about the stranger’s presence that made him look larger and more powerful than he was, though he definitely wasn’t a weakling.

  I stared unflinchingly up into his pale blue eyes, even though I wanted nothing more than to turn around and run away screaming. Something about this guy scared me, and I wasn’t sure what it was. It might have been the creepy bodybuilder quality he possessed, or his creepy pale blue eyes that seemed to glow even in the daylight, or the fact that his dark hair was longer than typically suitable on a guy, nearly brushing his shoulders.

  People were watching us, and I wanted to call out and scream for help but his eyes were so entrancing that I couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, and couldn’t do anything. He just stared down at me, and I felt a shiver go down my spine as the urge to cross my arms over my chest built up. The strange boy was trouble, and now that I’d gotten a closer look at him, I realized he was less of a boy and more of a man–probably about twenty years old, compared to my fifteen and a half.

  His intense gaze was broken only when the cats waiting by the front door started to hiss and spit at him. He glared down at the cats, which settled at my feet, and his entire body started to tremble with barely repressed rage so intense I automatically took a step back.

  “W-what do you w-want from m-me?” I stuttered, looking anywhere but his intensely pale blue eyes. They gave me the creeps, and I didn’t want to look at them any longer than I had to.

  “I know what you are,” he snarled. “And don’t play stupid, because I know you know it too!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, feeling a sudden chill settle over my as I noticed the last of the lunch goers heading back inside. I was left alone with a possible rapist or murderer. “Who are you and what do you want with me?” I nearly screamed.

  He paused for a second, cocking his head to the side. “Don’t play stupid,” he warned again, sounding menacing and dangerous. “I don’t like games, and even if I did, I don’t have time to fool around. Now, who are you working with?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, getting more scared than I already was. Not only was he a stalker and possible rapist, he was delusional! The danger level of the situation sky-rocketed and I didn’t know how to defuse it.

  “Who are you working for?” he ground out tightly. “And don’t fucking play with me.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I shouted, causing the cats to growl dangerously at my feet. Their closeness comforted me a bit, and I got the courage to look him in the eyes again. “I’m not working with anyone, and I don’t know what you mean when you say you know what I am. What the hell do you think I am, stupid?”

  His hands clenched into dangerous fists, and I gave an involuntary shudder. “I know what you are. I wasn’t sure until just now when I saw the cats. They follow you everywhere, and they beg for your attention, and you and I both know why.” I just stared at him blankly, and after a minute of tense silence, he deflated a bit. When he wasn’t glaring at something, namely me, he looked much nicer and even a little sane. “You don’t know.” He sounded so surprised, like the thought of it hadn’t even crossed his mind. “I don’t believe it. You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

  “Of course not! You sound like a murderous raving lunatic! Of course the cats follow me; I’m nice to them,” I said, even though I was positive that wasn’t why they did it. “And I don’t know what you think I am, and I’m not working with anyone, and I think you need to back the hell off and leave me alone before I call the police and have you arrested!”

  He just stared at me for a minute, before laughing. “I don’t believe this.” He turned around and started pacing, rubbing his face angrily. “I can’t believe they were so fucking wrong about something like this. They wasted my valuable time!”

  The cats stopped growling at him, but their backs were arched, and they didn’t look happy to see him still here with me. I felt a surge of gratitude that they hadn’t abandoned me, and I crouched down low to stroke one from head to tail a few times. They all nuzzled against me affectionately, and one even began to purr.

  The young man stopped his pacing and he looked at me with a strange look on his face, almost like awe, or maybe even pity. “You really don’t know what you are,” he said, obviously surprised. “I would have thought seeing all those dead people would have clued you in, but I guess you’re just not smart enough to figure it out.”

  I was ready to snap at him for calling me stupid when I realized what else he’d said. “You know about the dead people?” I couldn’t help it. The words slipped out before I realized what I said, and I clapped my hand over my mouth, wishing I could take the words back. This guy was obviously crazy and I didn’t want him to know that I might be too.

  He scoffed. “Of course I know about the dead guys. They’re the ghosts of the people that haven’t yet passed over to the afterlife. You can see and hear them, therefore you can help them. You didn’t think you were the only one that knew about them, did you?”

  Despite his anger, and the fact that he terrified me, I was intrigued enough to lean in closer. “Do you see them too?” I asked eagerly. Right now I didn’t feel like running so much as I felt like pressing him for answers. “Can you hear them and speak to them? Do they ask you for your help?”

  He looked offended. “Hell no I don’t see those dead fucks! What the hell do you think I am?”

  “I have no clue,” I said with a frown. “I don’t know what you are, and I don’t know what I am. Who are you, and what do you want with me? What do you know about my dead guys?”

  He narrowed his eyes at me again. “You really don’t have the slightest clue what I’m talking about, do you? You know, that’s actually pretty pathetic. I mean, even the stupid ones usually guess right by this point in their lives. Whether they’re wrong or right, they’ve at least formulated a pretty good idea of their powers.”

  “Powers?” I was completely lost. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  He snorted. “Jesus Christ, you’re a necromancer! You probably don’t have the slightest clue what that is, do you? I don’t know why I’m even here. You’re obviously not the person we’re looking for.” He turned around and hopped off the sidewalk and into the road. “Have a nice life,” he called out over his shoulder with a sarcastic smile. “I hope you get smarter in the future.”

  I glared at his back until he disappeared around the corner, leaving me standing with the cats and nobody else. They meowed comfortingly, and I glanced down at them. “I don’t suppose you guys know what the hell just happened?”

  That strange man obviously had anger issues and thought that I was someone or something I wasn’t, but he called me something. A necromancer. And I had no idea what that was, but I was sure I’d heard it before. Right now, I wanted to go home and search for that word, but I couldn’t, because Susan was home with Jessica, and she’d probably call the truancy officers on me.

  The library was right across the street to the high school, and I jogged across the parking lot. The blast of cold air hit me so suddenly that I almost gasped. I’d always loved the library, because it was quiet, cool, and peaceful, and the staff loved me. In the first years of my foster care, I spent
quite a bit of my time here, reading old books and doing research just for fun and information.

  I headed upstairs where there were two rows of computers, and the lady at the front desk lifted thick eyebrows and smiled. “Aren’t you supposed to be in some kind of math class right now?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve got something more important to worry about,” I said, hoping she couldn’t see how freaked out the stranger’s visit had made me. “Can I get on one of the computers for a bit? I’ve got a little bit of personal research to do.”

  “Sure, help yourself, Sweetheart. As you can see, we’re not exactly busy right now.” She watched me sit down at the nearest computer and she frowned. “Are you alright? You look a little shaken.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “I just have some things to figure out, and I hope I can find it here.”

  She nodded and left me to my searching. She eyed the cat winding around my feet with interest, but didn’t say anything. Pets weren’t allowed in the library unless it was a Seeing Eye dog, but she made an exception for me, almost like she knew I couldn’t control the cats anymore than I could control the moon or the sunrise.

  I typed the word necromancer into a search engine, and sat back and sifted through the results, looking for something that looked like it wasn’t done by a ten year old. Finally, a black webpage with red lettering caught my attention, and I read through the page, with a growing feeling of dread. I read a small paragraph at the bottom of the page and my stomach dropped to the floor.

  A necromancer is a being that can see and even communicate with the spirits of the deceased. They are usually female, with powers over the dead. Any necromancer, with practice, could force the soul of a dead person into a corpse, reanimating it for a short time. Powerful enough necromancers may even be able to return the dead to life, though this perversion of magic is looked down upon.

  A necromancer could summon the dead and speak to the ghosts of those that had died and not moved on. I saw the dead, and I could certainly talk to them. I’d done it several times in the past, but nobody believed me when I said I saw those spirits. If they were usually female, did that mean that my mother was a necromancer as well? I had to get it from somewhere, right?

  I clicked out of the page, not wanting to see more, and I put my head in my hands. This cannot be happening. I am not some freak that can raise the fucking dead! What the hell kind of person can do that? It’s not normal, and it certainly isn’t desirable. Can I give this power up?

  Then I remembered something. Something that my mother gave to me a very long time ago, shortly before she died. Do I still have it? It was probably packed way in my closet somewhere, collecting dust and other debris. Right now, I could picture the necklace in my eyes.

  She said that I would need it some day. Was this that day? If so, she knew what I was, and she hadn’t bothered to tell me before she died. It’s not her fault she was killed. It’s the other driver’s fault I don’t have a mother to explain this to me!

  With a sigh, I turned off the computer. Then I nudged the sleeping cat at my feet, and tried to ignore the stares as he followed me out into the parking lot. From there, I headed home, willing to risk Susan’s wrath, because there was something I needed to find, and I needed to find it now. Strangely enough, as I walked home, I found myself thinking about the strange man. He obviously knew about what I was, and if I could find him, I could ask him some more questions.

  And hopefully this time he would give me answers, instead of hostile glares.