by Jane Hinchey
I cleared my throat. “And your parents? Are they in Redmeadows?”
He removed his hand, placing it back on the wheel and I missed his touch. He nodded. “Yeah. They don’t necessarily approve of my career choice. Mom wanted me to follow my love of food and be a chef or something. Dad wanted me to follow him into corporate. Neither of those paths was the right one for me, and of course, Grandma had my back. She helped me set up Black Hat.”
Ah, his logo of the woman in the long dress and parasol was a nod to his grandmother. I approved. “That was generous of her. And difficult, knowing she was going against her own daughter's wishes for you.”
“I guess.” He shrugged. “The store in Redmeadows was small. Tiny. And I did readings mostly. We didn’t have money for much stock and I needed to build up my clientele and credibility.”
“Your grandmother did readings too.” That’s why he’d left. When she died, he could feel her presence in the store as if she were physically there, sitting at her velvet-covered table, reading a client’s palm. And it hurt him. The memories were painful. So he’d packed up his shop and moved to Shadow Falls. I felt all of it as he talked about his past, then laughed again, apologizing for going on about it. This time I reached out and placed my hand on his arm.
“It’s okay. You need to talk and I need to listen.” We all have our roles in this life and in this moment in time, this was mine. To listen as he told me his story. No judgment, no fixing anything. Just listen. And try not to let myself be distracted by how much I wanted him.
We lapsed into silence, each lost in our own thoughts until he pulled into the school parking lot and killed the engine.
“Lucy…” Pushing his glasses to the top of his head, he rested a forearm across the steering wheel as he turned to face me. The light caught his eyes, making the flecks of gold brighter, dragging me in until I was drowning in the depths of them.
“Yes?” I kept my glasses in place, hiding my eyes from him, hiding the lust that was surely burning in my own.
He raised a hand to my face, tracing from cheekbone to jaw with his fingertips. A deep hunger flashed in his irises and my body responded in kind, a warmth flooding my abdomen.
A thud against the windscreen had both our heads snapping around. A ball bounced away, a young boy grinning sheepishly and calling out “sorry” as he retrieved the ball. Clearing my throat, I muttered, “We’d better get moving. Find Sarah and Brianna.”
“Right.” We climbed out of the van, doors slamming simultaneously. That was when it hit me. A tsunami of guilt, worry, fear, arrogance, evil. The vibration of hundreds of school kids, some good, some not. I wanted to hunt down the bullies, the cheats, the mean kids, and set them straight, for this was where it started, this was where evil got a foothold and grew like mold in a damp basement. Shaking off the sensations bombarding me, I followed Levi, who was heading toward a building named “Administration.”
“Wait!” I caught up with him. “What are you doing?”
“Going to the admin building. They can tell us what classes Sarah and Brianna are in.”
I shook my head. “We can find them ourselves. Through the talismans. Plus I don’t want others involved in this. The more people involved, the more complicated it gets, and a higher risk that something could go wrong.”
“What do you mean?” He stopped and I nearly bumped into him.
“We go in there and ask where the girls are. They want to know why. They may or may not give us that information—I’d say not since we’re not their parents and we’re not law enforcement. So then they’re suspicious. What are we doing? They start asking questions. Digging. Drawing attention.”
“Aaah. Gotcha. But…if we’re walking around the school, aren’t we going to be noticed? Isn’t someone, at some point, going to question what we’re doing here?”
“I’m going to use a light compulsion so that we won’t be noticed. We’ll be seen, but not noticed. But stay close to me, okay? I can’t stretch it too far.”
“Fucking awesome.” He grinned. “This is fucking awesome.”
I let Levi use his skills to track the talismans. Just like a muscle, magic had to be practiced and used to strengthen it. The more Levi used his magic, the stronger it would become. It was rare for a human to have such abilities and I knew that I’d have to teach him how to mask his magic so others couldn’t exploit it.
We found ourselves in a wide corridor, lockers on either side. One locker on the left was decorated with hearts and cards and on the floor in front of it, lots and lots of flowers and a candle or two. Emily’s locker. The students had made a memorial of it.
“They’re coming this way,” Levi told me. “Their energy is really strong and getting stronger.”
“Good work.” I grabbed hold of his hand to stop him. We’d wait here. Let them come to us. If Emily’s locker was here, then Sarah’s and Brianna’s weren’t far away. Sure enough, a bell rang and the hallway was flooded with students. I pulled us off to the side, next to Emily’s locker, and waited.
They rounded the corner, linked arm in arm. As they drew closer I knew why they were here. The attention. Sarah loved the attention. Brianna not so much, but she didn’t want to be alone. I paused for a moment, letting my attention settle on Sarah to get a better read on her. She was a people pleaser, would go along with almost anything to keep everyone else happy. She wanted a career in medicine. She often had a distorted view of what was right—in her quest to make everyone happy she often did the wrong thing…either for herself or her friends.
Interesting. I could feel the discord in her. Her grief over the loss of Emily, but her delight at being the center of attention because of it. This was new for her, I realized. In the past she’d been in the background, always putting everyone else before herself, so she didn’t get the attention she secretly craved.
Switching my attention to Brianna, I read her too, wincing slightly at what I discovered. She had a lot of scars from her youth and didn’t trust easily, but she would do anything for her best friends. Emily and Sarah. Brianna had a smart head on her shoulders and a strong personality. She knew how to stand up for herself and had plans for a career in politics.
“Ladies.” Stepping forward, I dropped the compulsion enough so that they were aware of me. Surprise crossed their faces and I smiled. “You both must be exemplary students, coming to school the day after your friend was killed.”
Guilt not only flashed across their faces, it swarmed their auras like a heavy fog.
“I guess I didn’t explain myself clearly enough when we gave you those talismans.” Nodding at their wrists, I continued, “But the creature that killed Sarah? It wants you. And while those bracelets will help to stop it from finding you, if it is here, waiting, and sees you? You’re toast.”
I turned to Levi. “Did that make sense to you? I mean, was I clear? Because I’m not sure they’re getting it.”
“Sounded clear enough to me.” Levi nodded. “Girls? Make sense to you?”
“You said it would hide us,” Sarah said, twisting the bracelet on her arm.
“I also said to stay put. Keep a low profile. This soul stealer needs both of your souls to make his stay here permanent. We need to stop that from happening. The bracelet doesn’t make you invisible, it just stops him from tracing your energy. So please, for all that is holy, go home. Stay there. Inside.”
“We will. Come on, Sarah, let’s get out of here. I knew this was a bad idea.” Grabbing Sarah’s hand, Brianna dragged her away.
“Do we follow them?” Levi asked, watching the girls scurry off down the hallway.
“Nah. I’ve got something else here I need to take care of. I’ll meet you by the van.”
“Oh?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, Levi. Wait outside for me. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
Sensing he was going to argue with me, I pushed a little compulsion his way and waited until he was out of view before hunting down English teacher Ray Blinds
. His energy had been niggling at me ever since I’d stepped foot in this building and I couldn’t leave without paying him a little visit. I found him in his classroom, flicking through his phone as his students scribbled madly at their desks.
His head snapped around as I walked in and I made sure I was fully visible to him but shielded from the students, who didn’t react to my presence whatsoever.
“Ray Blinds.” It wasn’t a question.
“Who are you? What are you doing here? We’re in the middle of a test.” His belligerent tone irked me.
“Relax, they don’t know I’m here.” I sat on the corner of his desk and looked at him. A middle-aged man, overweight, hated his job, hated his life, and took it out on his wife in repeated drunken rages. He opened his mouth to speak, but I shushed him.
“Listen up, Ray, it’s your lucky day because most people like you don’t get this warning. Usually, you turn up to the gates of Hell and meet me there. I’m giving you the opportunity to redeem yourself before that happens.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Ray! Language, there are children present.” I laughed at the sudden panic emanating from him as he looked beyond me to his students. Tempting as it was to play this game with him, I knew Levi was waiting outside for me, so I had to hurry it along. Leaning forward, I placed my hand on his head and played him a compilation of his own memories, of all the times he’d hit his wife, of her screams, her cries, and his indifference.
“See that shit there, Ray? That’s what earns you a spot in Hell. I mean right now, at this point in time you wouldn’t be in the pit, but you’d be in a cell enduring eternal torture. Like what, you ask? Oh, things like, let me see, being beaten daily by demons—only to heal and have it start all over again the next day. No? Doesn’t appeal? What about having your hands cut off? Not just the once, mind you. We’re about eternal damnation. We’d cut them off, wait for them to grow back—because we can do that in Hell—and then cut them off again. Are you recognizing a theme here, Ray?”
He gulped, paling, but I wasn’t finished. “And if you killed her, Ray? If you went too far? That would get you into the pit. The fire pit. Where you will burn, forever. No healing, no reprieve, just your flesh melting from your bones over and over. You open your mouth to scream and flames crawl down your throat, burning your lungs, consuming you from the inside out. Sound like a good time, Ray?” He shook his head, terror in his eyes.
“You know who I am, Ray?” I leaned forward, my face inches from his, letting him see the hellfire burning in my eyes.
“You’re Satan,” he whispered.
“I prefer Lucifer, but damn straight I am.” Straightening, I slid off his desk and moved behind him, tracing my fingers across his shoulders, a black mist following, feeling him shudder. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Ray, my man. You are going to give up the booze. Starting now. Ditch the flask in your drawer, the bottle in your glove box, and that bar you have set up at home? Tonight you take a sledgehammer to it. You will apologize to your wife and mean it. You will woo her and love her like you did when you proposed, for Lord help her, she still loves you. You will never raise a hand, or even your voice, to her ever again. You’re unhappy with your life, with your job? That’s not her fault. You’re not a tree. Fucking move. Do something about it. Take that course you’ve been thinking about. Become a counselor. Take control and take accountability.”
“I will,” he whispered, throat clogged with emotion.
“And remember this, Raymond, when your time on Earth is up and your spirit crosses, I will know, and I will come for you. Or not. Let’s hope we don’t meet again, eh?”
Patting him on the shoulder, I sauntered out of the classroom, confident Ray Blinds was on a new path.
10
It was two days with zero action. The first day I spent with Levi, hanging out in his shop, watching as he did readings and impressed me all over again with his skills. I wondered if he knew his grandmother was here. She stood behind him, several feet away, as if knowing that if she moved closer, he’d sense her. The way he’d talked about her I got the impression he didn’t know she visited him. The minute the thought entered my mind that I should ask him, her hazel eyes clashed with mine and she shook her head. I decided to leave it be. After all, it wasn’t my business.
The second day I ventured out alone. Strolling through Shadow Falls Square, I’d stopped and listened in when three old men, sitting at a bus stop, were reminiscing about the old days. The old days where they’d planned heists. I would have crossed to them then and there and tagged them for Hell if I hadn’t known the truth. That the heists were always foiled before they got off the ground, for all three men had a weakness for the ladies. They’d start casing a joint, but the eye candy was too distracting and they couldn’t get themselves organized enough to follow through. I couldn’t hold back the laugh at their plight. Each man had married one of the girls from the three heists they’d intended to pull off. The women had unwittingly stopped them from a life of crime.
I also noticed that everywhere I went, Dacian followed. He kept his distance and I was done chasing him for answers. I couldn’t control what he thought of me, even though it was wrong. I’d tried to convince him of my good intentions, tried to get him to remember our past, but he was too stubborn to believe me. Plus I had more important things to worry about.
The soul stealer had gone quiet. I knew he was here somewhere—I could feel him, like a tiny splinter buried under your skin that you can’t quite get a grip on to pull out. And this particular splinter was in my side, where the glowing sword had sliced into me. My best guess was the sword belonged to the soul stealer. He’d left it with the zombie ghosts to use against me. Which meant he must have another weapon, a stronger weapon in case the sword failed. Yet the energy bolt he threw at us at the bar was powerless against me, so why hadn’t he used his backup weapon? Getting a feel for my strengths and weaknesses perhaps?
I’d considered going back to Hell, to instruct Ashliel into doing some research, but I was reluctant to leave this realm, even for a quick trip home. As soon as I did, the humans would be vulnerable. It had nothing to do with my desire not to leave Levi’s side. Nothing at all.
“All that frowning will give you wrinkles.” Dacian fell into step beside me and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.
“Unlikely, but thanks for the concern.” We continued the walk in silence. It was a beautiful spring day, white puffy clouds in the sky, warm enough to take off your jacket and enjoy the sunshine. I sat on a bench and did just that. Tilting my head back I basked in the glow of the sun. I felt Dacian sit next to me but didn’t bother opening my eyes.
“Why are you here?” I asked him.
“I told you—” he began, but I cut him off.
“No. Today. Here. Now. Why are you here now?”
I heard the rustle of his clothing, guessed he had shrugged his shoulders. Tilting my head, I squinted one eye open to look at him. He had one arm stretched out along the bench, his hand inches from my hair. He was looking at me.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.” I grinned. He smiled in return, the first smile since he’d been here, and it reminded me of old times.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “You’re stubborn and a pain in my ass and you don’t do what I’d expect. You’re an enigma and I can’t fucking work you out.”
“You know me, Dacian. It’s in that thick head of yours somewhere. I wish I knew what my brothers did to you so I could undo it.”
“Why do you think they did something to me? Because you think you’re so unforgettable?” It was back. The snark. I sighed, closing my eyes again.
“I’m not saying we had an epic love affair. We were friends for a very long time. You trained me to fight. We have a lot of memories together. It makes no sense that you can’t recall a single one.”
He was silent and I didn’t push. You could lead a horse to water and all that.
�
��What you’re doing here?” he finally said. “Guiding souls onto the right path, steering them from evil. That’s…admirable.”
“Thanks.” Not bothering to open my eyes, I asked, “Does this mean you believe me when I say I’m not evil?”
“Maybe.” His reluctance was palpable, but I’d take what I could get at this point. We were making progress. He was sitting by my side and we were having a conversation rather than fighting each other. Which reminded me.
“Do you still have the sword? The one the zombie ghosts had?”
Barking out a laugh, he shifted his hand, touching my hair. “Zombie ghosts?” I kept still, feeling his fingers thread through the strands, before sliding free. Then he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and studying the ground in front of him.
“I have never had a ghost bite me before,” I said defensively. “Zombie ghosts fit. And stop avoiding the question—do you have the sword or not?” If he’d given it to my brothers…well, I wasn’t sure what I’d do about it, besides being pissed off.
“I have it. Why?”
“Because it did this.” I jumped up, positioned myself in front of him and lifted my shirt to reveal the thin white scar. He reached his hand out to trace it, but I backed away. I didn’t want his touch—this wasn’t the Dacian I remembered.
“You didn’t heal.” His dark eyes met mine, puzzled.
I shook my head. “Not properly. I mean I’m okay now, it’s all good, but the scar never went away.”
“Interesting.” His hand reached up to his shoulder and I hurriedly stepped backward, worried he was going to draw the sword and use it against me. Instead, he rubbed his hand around the back of his neck and sighed. “You think it was the sword?”
“What else could it be? The only reason my tattoo stuck is because of the enchantment we put in the ink. And believe me, it hurt like a son of a bitch getting that done.”