Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, & Magic

by SM Reine

  “Unfortunately, it usually is. Darn! I just heard the garage door, so Father’s home. I better run. If you need to talk this weekend, give me a call.”

  “I will.”

  After we hung up, I took a few minutes to check my email and my Facebook account. I find it hilarious that Lony has 847 friends on her Facebook, and I have thirty-two. Well, at least I actually know and talk to all of mine. I answered a few messages and poked around online a bit, but when I heard my mother come home, I logged off.

  “You don’t need to order pizza,” my mother was saying to Aaron when I entered the kitchen. “There’s leftover casserole in the fridge. Heat that up.”

  Aaron shuffled out of the room in his stocking feet, muttering under his breath. Mom had kicked off her pumps and stood on one leg, massaging the ball of her foot.

  “Hi, Mom,” I said, walking to the fridge to get a Diet Pepsi. “Busy day?”

  “Oh, aren’t they all? I just stopped to get the car-charger for my Blackberry. I have two houses to show in Asbury, and then I’m going straight to the football game to see Lony cheer. Do you have plans tonight?”

  Mom slipped her shoes back on and opened the junk drawer. She extracted a tangle of chargers for various electronics and began to un-weave the one she needed from the mass.

  “No plans. Just homework.”

  She leveled her gazed on me. “Cady, you do realize you are the only teen in the Tri-State area who voluntarily does homework on a Friday night, right?”

  “I have to get it done tonight, so I can help Dad move tomorrow.”

  “Oh, no you’re not! Your father and I talked about it, and we don’t want you kids in the middle of this. We want you all to go find stuff to do with your friends tomorrow and stay away from here. He has enough people to help him.”

  “But, Mom,” I reasoned, standing with my hand on my hip, “We’re already in the middle of this. I can’t let Dad do this alone.”

  Mom let out an audible sigh and rubbed her temple. “Arcadia Marie, don’t argue with me. Think of your dad. This is going to be hard enough on him, he doesn’t need an audience.”

  I gritted my teeth to keep from talking back. There was no use in arguing with her when she made her mind up about something. I poured my soda into a glass of ice.

  “Maybe you and Lony should go shopping tomorrow,” she suggested. “It’ll be good for you to spend some time together.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was spend the day at the mall with Lony, but just then Lony flitted into the kitchen, so again, I held my tongue.

  “Hey, Mamasita!” Lony said, giving our mother a peck on the cheek. “Still coming to the game tonight?”

  “Of course, hun, but I’ll have to meet you there. Got an appointment right now. See you later!”

  Mom waved good-bye and ran out the door with her charger in hand.

  “Are you coming to the game tonight?” Lony asked, grabbing two sodas out of the fridge.

  “I didn’t plan on it. I have some homework to do,” I answered, sipping on my drink.

  “Only you would do homework on a Friday night,” Lony complained, stalking back to the living room.

  I went to my bedroom and spread my textbooks across the bed. I took studying very seriously, but then, I had to. I wasn’t one of those naturally gifted people who absorb knowledge without trying. I make good grades, but I need to work very hard to do it. College was still two years away, but I really wanted to get accepted to a school out of state. I had been thinking about someplace in New England, but recently, California sounded good, too. Really, I just wanted to get out of Iowa. Dubuque’s not so bad, but I didn’t want to spend my whole life here, either. I reached for my French book and set to work.

  The sky turned a bruised purple outside my window. I’d finished my French and history and was working on trigonometry when my dad poked his head in my bedroom door.

  “Hey, Bug,” he greeted. His work clothes were a bit dusty from hanging around job sites all day, and his eyes looked tired. My dad is a general contractor who builds homes and small commercial buildings. He’d been sleeping in the guest room ever since the big announcement was made. Not the most comfortable bed in the house.

  “Hi, Dad. What’s up?” I asked, trying to act casual, but not quite succeeding with the knot in my throat.

  “Just got home and it looks like everyone is gone except you and me.”

  “Yeah, Lony is cheering at the game tonight. Mom went to see her. I don’t know where Aaron ran off to. I heard his truck leave about an hour ago.”

  My dad leaned against the door frame. He was still a handsome man, even if his waist was a little thicker and his hair a little thinner. His almond-colored eyes were exactly like mine.

  “It’s Friday night. Are you just going to do homework?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged, closing my book. “Do you have something else in mind?”

  “How would you like to go to a movie with your old man? We can see anything you want as long as it’s not a tear-jerker.”

  “I’d love to.” I’d always been a daddy’s girl.

  Chapter 4

  My mother got her way, and Saturday morning found me packed into the car with Lony and on our way to the mall. The official orders from both of our parents were to stay gone all day, but Dad said I could stop by his new place Sunday afternoon to help him settle in.

  It’s not like I hated my sister or anything…we just had nothing to talk about. It’s not like when we were little and inseparable. Then, she’d been my best friend, more than that even. We finished each other’s sentences and spoke in a secret language all our own. When our parents finally moved us into separate bedrooms at seven years old, it was six months before I stopped sneaking into Lony’s bed after our parents went to sleep.

  High school ruined everything. The summer before freshman year, puberty struck with a vengeance. We each gained five inches of height and added the perfect curves to compliment our slender frames. Lony loved her new body. She relished in the attention it brought her from boys at the public swimming pool. She would parade back and forth in front of the concession stand in her striped bikini, giving coy glances to the boys as she passed. I was slower to accept the changes. I’d always been more athletic than Lony, competing in cross country and track at school and gymnastics on the weekends at a local club. But the growth spurt had knocked me off my rhythm. That summer I spent almost every day at the YMCA reacquainting myself with my body and its limits. While I was too bulky to stay competitive in gymnastics, I was running sprints like Hermes. By the time school started, I was in great physical condition, ready to compete for a shot on the Varsity track team. Lony was ready to compete in a whole different way…she wanted the title of Most Popular Girl in School, and was willing to step on anyone to get it.

  Since we had an entire Saturday to kill and the Dubuque mall was pathetically inadequate, Lony crossed the bridge spanning the Mississippi River into Wisconsin, heading toward Madison. Three hours later, I sat outside a dressing room reading a comic book on my e-reader while my sister modeled a seemingly endless series of homecoming dresses for me.

  “You really should go to the dance. I mean, it’s Homecoming. Isn’t that like a right of passage or something?” She’d been badgering me the entire ride up to Madison about my lack of interest in school activities.

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” she rattled on. “I know like five guys who would take you if you wanted to go. If you were desperate, you could even ask Shawn. Not very romantic, but at least he can dance. What do you think of this one?”

  My sister stood before me in a rose-tinted halter dress with a dangerously low neckline.

  “I think you’d never get out of the house in it,” I muttered.

  Her face fell into a pout. “You’re right. Too bad, though. I look hot.”

  Lony slipped back into the dressing room to wriggle into something else. A moment later she was back out in a silvery-b
lue number, twirling in the three-way mirror.

  “What about that emo guy?” she asked.

  “Huh?”

  “You know…that guy you were walking with yesterday…Byron?”

  “Bryan,” I sighed. “What about him?”

  Lony planted her fists on her hips and gave me an exasperated look. “Aren’t you paying attention? You should ask him to Homecoming! I bet he looks good dressed up. Just don’t let him wear all black, it’s depressing.”

  “No, Lon,” I said, slipping my e-reader back in my bag. “I don’t want to go. I dance like an idiot, I hate the music they play, and there are no boys in school that I’m even remotely interested in.” My stomach ached with hunger, so I decided to move Lony along. “Maybe we should hit the food court. I’m starving.”

  “Fine,” she replied, even though clearly she was not. She gave the dress one last twirl. “But what do you think about this one?”

  “I don’t know. It’s kind of plain. I like it, but it’s not really your style.”

  “Yeah. You’re right. Well, give me a sec to change and we’ll go.”

  We were sitting in the bustling food court, surrounded by a circle of fast food places, when Lony started in again on my boring social life.

  “Why don’t you come out with me tonight?” Lony asked, dipping her French fry in mayonnaise before eating it. “A bunch of us are going out to the Mines of Spain. You should come. We never hang out anymore.”

  “That’s because we don’t have anything in common. It’s not personal; it’s just the way it is.”

  “No, you just have a thing against my friends. I don’t know why, they like you well enough.”

  “Well, you don’t like to do stuff with my friends, either.” I argued, shoving a forkful of salad in my mouth.

  “Not true! I went to the movies with you and Shawn just two weeks ago.”

  “Yeah, but Cane came with, and you made out with him the whole time. Do you even remember what movie we saw?”

  “So that’s it?” she asked, dramatically tossing her fry back onto her tray. “Are you jealous that I have a boyfriend and you don’t?”

  “Oh, please,” I muttered. I set my fork down. “How can you even ask that? Of course I’m not jealous of Cane. Maybe the reason I don’t like to hang out with you is because you’re constantly lecturing me. Back off!”

  I stood up from the table, dumped my garbage in the trash can and waited for Lony on a bench by the mall exit. If I’d had the keys to the car, I would’ve been tempted to leave without her. Lony followed a few minutes later, with a look of apology on her face.

  “I’m sorry, Cady,” she said. When I didn’t answer, she sat down on the bench next to me and continued. “I was being bossy again, wasn’t I? I don’t mean to be that way, but you’re my little sister.”

  I kicked my shoe at a scuff mark on the tiled floor. “Eight minutes does not make me your little sister,” I said for the thousandth time in my life. The familiar joke cut the tension between us somewhat, and I broke into a reluctant smile.

  Lony put her arm around me in a half-hug. “I just miss you, that’s all. We used to be best friends, and now I hardly see you. It shouldn’t matter that we have different friends and like different things. We’re twins, not clones.”

  “I know. I miss you, too,” I replied honestly.

  “So does that mean you’re gonna go out with me tonight? I promise if you’re miserable, we can go home.”

  Being miserable was virtually guaranteed, but I’m not one to fight a losing battle. “Fine…”

  With a triumphant grin, Lony pulled me off the bench and drove us home.

  Chapter 5

  Amy Sutherland, a friend of my sister’s, was in the middle of telling me a rather boring and overly-detailed story about a guy she met during the summer while working at a resort in the Wisconsin Dells. I pretended to be interested and wondered how much time I’d have to sit there before it was socially appropriate to ask Lony to take me home. We were hanging out on the hood of Amy’s Chevy in a small parking area at the Mines of Spain. At one point in time, the river bluffs along the Mississippi were full of lead, attracting miners to the area. After the minerals in the hills were exhausted, the state sectioned off the area as a nature preserve filled with hiking trails winding through the forest. Kids weren’t supposed to loiter there after dark, but that just added to the appeal.

  Amy didn’t need much encouragement to keep her chatter flowing. I nodded once in a while and made noises where appropriate. Something about her story made me doubt the existence of this summer dream boy. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine any guy finding her interesting enough to waste a whole summer on. My shoe rhythmically kicked her car tire to the beat of a song in my head.

  Twenty or thirty other kids from school were with us. If the DNR were to spot us while on patrol, they’d assume we were up to no good and kick us out. In reality, we were just a bunch of kids standing around and talking with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. I could see Lony leaning against Cane’s truck, pretending to thumb through his iPod for some music, but the glare fixed on her face along with her repeated glances in Cane’s direction told a different story. He stood talking with a petite redhead who came with some kids from Hempstead High. While I didn’t notice any outright flirting going on, I knew Lony must be jealous. Cane was easily the handsomest guy in our school. He had sun-streaked blond hair and soft green eyes. As he laughed a big throaty chuckle at something the girl said, I noticed his smile looked like something straight out of a toothpaste commercial. I could understand what some girls saw in him, even if he wasn’t my type.

  “Hey,” Matt Kutch called out, “Anyone want to go for a walk?”

  “Not on the cliffs!” Lony replied. “I’ll go if we stay in the low areas.”

  Everyone in Dubuque knew how dangerous the Mines of Spain could be at night. Every few years, some teenager would accidentally fall off one of the cliffs or drown in the Mississippi River which rolled on the edge of the park. Usually, those incidents involved alcohol, which was thankfully absent tonight, but even a sober person could misjudge the footing on the narrow trails and tumble down the rocks.

  “Wanna walk?” Amy asked me. I glanced around and it seemed only Matt, Lony and Cane were planning to go. I had no intention of letting my sister leave me here with a bunch of kids I hardly knew.

  “Okay,” I shrugged, sliding off the hood of the car.

  Amy and I followed Matt onto the dark trail surrounded by tall trees in full foliage. He had a large flashlight from his glove box that he used to illuminate the trail and keep us from stumbling too much. Cane also had a small flashlight, but it wasn’t long before he and Lony started to lag behind. I peeked back every few minutes to make sure I could still see their beam following in the distance.

  “I’m surprised you came out tonight, Cady,” Matt commented. “I never see you outside of school.” I really didn’t know Matt all that well, and if it weren’t for being Lony’s sister, he probably wouldn’t even know my name. My impression of the tall, gangly boy was formed in the one class we’d had together our freshman year. Matt tried to hide is complete inability to do algebra by goofing off, driving our teacher insane. Truthfully, I thought he could be obnoxious when he had an audience around to encourage him, but he didn’t seem too bad when he let his guard down and acted like himself.

  “Well, Lony kind of made me,” I answered, picking a leaf off of a low-hanging limb and twirling it between my palms.

  Matt and I made awkward conversation while Amy tagged at our heels, complaining about the mosquitoes.

  We had been hiking for a while when I started to hear raised voices behind us. Lony and Cane were arguing, but I couldn’t make out the words.

  “Jeez, all they do is fight,” Amy muttered.

  Amy was right. Lony and Cane preferred bickering as their main form of communication. My entire family was getting sick of listening to it. Lony had a quick temper, and clueless C
ane couldn’t stop himself from setting her off. Most of their arguments revolved around something he said or didn’t say, did or didn’t do, that Lony took personally. I suspected her issue tonight revolved around the cute redhead he’d been talking to back in the parking lot. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel the need to run out and get a boyfriend. It looked like too much aggravation.

  The trail opened up into a clearing as it drew closer to the Mississippi. Railroad tracks snaked their way along the edges of the river on both sides. Dubuque actually sits at the corner of three states: Iowa on the west side of the river, Wisconsin and Illinois on the east. Across the mile-wide river, the Illinois bluffs were dark and peaceful under the bright moonlight.

  Matt led us over to a couple of boulders to wait for Lony and Cane to catch up. Amy started in on a story about a recent concert she attended where she snuck backstage to meet the band, and the drummer taught her to do a drum roll. From the expression on his face, Matt wasn’t buying it any more than I was. I kept my ear out for my sister. I could see her and Cane about fifty yards away walking along the tracks toward us. I still couldn’t hear what the argument was about, but the whiney tone in Lon’s voice echoed off the valley walls and I thought she might be crying.

  Beyond Amy’s talking, I detected what sounded like the rumble of a boat motor in the distance. My eyes scanned the water, but I didn’t see anything. I couldn’t imagine why a boat would be on the river in the dark. The Mississippi was notoriously dangerous. The rumble got louder, closer...surely I’d be able to spot a boat that big even in the darkness. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Sound travels oddly, almost deceptively, on the river valley. Sound waves bounce off the limestone cliffs and roll over the water strangely. When the rumble turned into a roar, Matt and I looked at each other with wide-eyes.

  In the end, it was the spotlight blazing down the track, not the roar of the engine which alerted me to the train rounding the limestone curve of the cliff at the river’s edge, less than two hundred yards from my sister.