by Ashlyn Chase
Dante wasn’t going to call him on the fact that the book wasn’t a rumor. He had seen it with his own eyes. But if he was in the same situation… Yeah, Noah needed to get his mind on something else besides questioning his own sanity.
“I get it. So you’d better clean up and put on your uniform.” Dante checked his watch. “We have another forty-five minutes before we have to leave, but we should get moving.”
As he walked to the bathroom to grab a shower, he couldn’t help wondering what the hell had happened to his brother and how to deal with it. Would just ignoring it make it go away?
Did he have the right to question his brother’s girlfriend, who seemed to have something to do with this? Listening briefly to his own heart, his inner wisdom quoted his mother. If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.
But if some sort of solution didn’t present itself soon, he might talk to their dad. That’s what he was there for. The head of the family always listened and was the last word on problems any of them faced.
He might not like it, but if Noah didn’t regain his memory, that’s what Dante would do.
Chapter 13
A crash from the living room met Noah’s ears. Half-dressed, he popped out of his bedroom and saw their front door in pieces and two strangers standing inside—only they weren’t strangers. Here in his living room were the two guys from Kizzy’s backyard. That was something he hadn’t remembered until now. These two guys had been after something…and Kizzy had stopped them. With magic.
“What the hell do you want?”
The older of the two strode right up to him. “Where’s the book?”
“Goddammit. Everyone’s asking me about a book. I don’t know anything about it. What book are you talking about? I have textbooks. I have cookbooks…” With a sweep of his hand, he gestured to their bookshelves. “I have all kinds of fiction, but I don’t know what book you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what we’re talking about. And it isn’t fiction. You were holding one of the books this morning at your girlfriend’s house.”
Noah tried to remember holding any kind of book this morning, but he couldn’t. He saw in his mind these two armed and dangerous thugs, coming after Kizzy. He had tried to block her, then she had done something behind his back that resulted in the two guys flying backward. They had been holding guns but dropped them. Then Kizzy had just extended her arms, and the weapons flew into her hands. She was a witch. He remembered that. He remembered teasing her about being a witch doctor.
Okay. He was getting some context, at last. So what the heck did these guys want with him? Were they after a book she had, thinking she’d given it to him?
The younger one leaned around Noah and asked, “Is there someone else here?”
“Yeah. My brother’s taking a shower.”
“Tell him to get dressed. Unless you can just hand us the book. Then we can be gone without his even seeing us or knowing we were here. That would be best for him.”
“What the hell do you mean by that? How did you find me, anyhow?”
The guy had a sinister smile. “I think you know.”
Noah had no idea, but he had to concentrate on getting them to leave. Maybe Kizzy knew how they learned his address. He’d ask her later. “As I recall, you lost your guns. I don’t know why you’re threatening me in my own home. It seems like you’re at a disadvantage here.”
“No. You’re at the disadvantage,” the elder one said. “You don’t know what else I might have at my disposal.”
Noah shrugged. “And you don’t know what I have at mine. I think you should go.”
At that moment, Dante exited the bathroom with a towel around his middle. He glanced at the living room. “Whoa. I didn’t know we had company.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call them company. They broke in here.”
The two strangers laughed. “Instead of making introductions, which would just be worse for you later, why don’t we just get to it? Where. Is. The. Book?” the older one demanded again.
Dante glanced at Noah. Noah said with firm conviction, “I don’t know what book you’re talking about. Seriously. I don’t.”
The intruders turned their gazes on Dante. The younger criminal said, “You know though, don’t you, towel boy?”
Dante scrunched the towel tighter. “No, I don’t. You want a book? What kind of book?”
The older one stomped his foot. “The book! Goddammit, the ancient book! It’s in Latin. It looks as if it’s leather-bound. Actually, it’s bound in skin. Human skin.”
“Gross.” Dante wrinkled his nose.
Noah had the same reaction. “Human skin? Why? Why would anyone bind a book in human skin?”
The two guys just laughed.
“Look, guys. We’re getting ready for work. We have to be there in less than half an hour. We’ll be missed if we’re not there. I have to go put on my uniform now.” Dante turned and strode down the hall.
“I’m coming with you,” the younger one said.
“Keep an eye on him,” the elder man ordered. “He knows something. I can tell.” Then the guy whirled on Noah and demanded, “If you want to keep your brother safe, you’ll hand over the book right now.”
Noah stared at the ceiling and tried counting to ten. This whole thing was frustrating as hell.
The older man decided to take a stroll through their apartment, and Noah followed him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out.”
“Not yet.”
Noah didn’t like violence. He didn’t want to get into a fist fight, but these two guys weren’t giving him much of a choice. He followed the man into the kitchen. The guy spotted his phone on the kitchen counter and grabbed it.
“Hey. Give that to me.”
The bastard smiled wickedly. “I don’t think so. I think there’s something on here you don’t want me to see. Maybe you had the book digitized?”
“Unless it’s an ebook, I don’t have it on there. I’ve never had a book digitized, and may I remind you, I don’t know what the fucking book is,” Noah yelled.
“Open this!” the man demanded.
They stared each other down for several moments. Sick of this idiot making demands, Noah said, “I’ve had enough of your shit. Get out, or I’ll escort you out.”
At that moment Dante appeared, cinching up his belt. The younger guy followed close on his heels.
“I’m telling you to get out,” Noah yelled.
“Interesting. He didn’t get riled until I picked up his phone.” The blond man, speaking evenly, as if noting the results of an experiment, tipped the phone back and forth in his hand.
“I think anybody would feel that way about a phone they kept their contacts in,” Dante said. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t want us calling any of your friends.”
The guy tucked Noah’s phone in his inner jacket pocket. “I’ll just keep this. Unless you want to use it to call that girlfriend of yours. She knows where the book is.”
Dante looked at him imploringly. “Is this something Kizzy could tell them over the phone?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Yes,” the older one said. “Call your girlfriend, and ask her where the book is. If she can tell us, then maybe we can avoid harming you two.”
Dante laughed. “How are you going to harm us? I haven’t seen a weapon.”
The guy pulled something out of his boot. “Oh? You mean this?”
He had some kind of pistol with a long, thin black barrel, and now it was pointed at Noah.
“Don’t tell him anything, Bro,” Noah said. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about, and Kizzy probably doesn’t either. Leave her out of this.”
The younger guy looked surprised. “You were there this morning! She had the book and tossed it to you. How are you claiming neither of you know where nor
even what the book is? Liars!”
Dante looked from the pistol to Noah and back. “I don’t know, Bro. I think you’d better tell them something. Or get Kizzy on the phone. Maybe she knows enough to get them off our backs.”
Noah noticed the guy who wasn’t holding the pistol moving toward Dante. Unfortunately, a wooden block with a butcher knife was closer to the guy than to his brother.
“Listen to your brother. He’s making sense,” the elder one said.
“Fine. I’ll call my girlfriend. But let’s all leave the kitchen.”
“Okay.” The older guy nodded to the younger.
The young guy lunged for the knife and grabbed it before Dante could. Then he moved behind Dante and, with the blade pointing at his back, said, “March!”
* * *
“Kizzy? It’s Noah.”
She was glad to hear his voice, but something was wrong. It was higher pitched and seemed to tremble a bit. “Noah? Are you okay?”
“Not really. There are some guys here that claim I have some kind of book that belongs to them. I don’t think I do, but they won’t leave without some kind of explanation. They think you might know more about it.”
“Oh shit…”
“Kizzy!” Her father had heard her swear.
She strode toward his voice and pressed the speaker button on the phone at the same time. When she saw him in the living room, she held her finger in front of her lips, showing him he needed to be quiet.
“Who are these guys, Noah?”
“I don’t know.” After a brief pause, he answered, “They said to call them ‘the entity.’”
Kizzy’s eyes widened, and her father’s face fell. “Oh no. Please let me speak to them.”
Her father reached for the phone, and she swiveled at the waist, keeping it away from him.
“Hang on,” Noah said. “I’m putting you on speaker.”
A familiar voice said, “Hello again. Kizzy, is it? That’s an odd name for an odd girl.”
Damn. It was one of the brutes from that morning. She shouldn’t have let them get away.
“If I’d known you’d be bothering my boyfriend for something he doesn’t have, I wouldn’t have let you run off—like cowards.”
“Oh? And what would you have done instead?”
“Why should I tell you? I might still want to do it.”
The guy laughed. “I don’t think you will. You see, I have hostages. I have a gun trained on your boyfriend, and my partner is holding a knife to his brother’s neck. It’s a big knife too. I’ve seen him use one like it on animals and reptiles—he has sliced living things in half, all the way through and down the middle, without blinking. He’s quite deadly.”
“Noah?” she said, her voice suddenly an octave higher. “Is he telling the truth? Are they holding you at gun and knifepoint?”
“Yes, but don’t let that influence you.”
She almost dropped the phone. “Don’t let…”
Her father grabbed for it again. She got herself under control and stayed out of his reach. He wouldn’t negotiate with these guys. He’d tell them to go ahead and do anything they wanted to the Fierros.
“Look, I’ll cooperate. Don’t hurt them. They’re completely innocent. They know nothing about any books. Noah just happened to be visiting me this morning. He still doesn’t know about—anything.”
“Kizzy,” Noah’s voice announced. “Don’t give him what he wants. My brother and I know how to get out of this.”
Both members of the entity laughed. “Your boyfriend is very much at a disadvantage. I think he’s trying to be a hero. You won’t let him sacrifice himself though, will you?”
“Of course I won’t.” Kizzy managed to click the speaker function off before her father could answer for her. He took off into the next room. Maybe he was getting Nick, but there was nothing a PI could do that she couldn’t. She strode back into the kitchen. “Now, let’s talk terms.”
Suddenly, Kizzy heard a loud explosion over the phone, and then silence. She gasped. “Noah?”
When she was met with no sound at all, she cried louder, “Noah!”
Nick rushed into the room with Brandee. She grabbed Kizzy’s hand. “Let’s go!”
Kizzy found herself floating in a cool, hazy place, still holding onto Brandee. Everything was surreal. She seemed to be staring at the immediate aftermath of a giant explosion. Flames leapt from pieces of wood, which were tumbling everywhere, like matchsticks falling to earth. Sparks and smoke flew upward from a dark cloud.
Strangely, out of that, two birds appeared. They were glowing white, but as they flew, they turned brown with the exception of their tails. Almost like the fire they had flown out of, the long feathers were orange, yellow, and red.
“What… Where are the Fierros?” she asked the minor goddess.
Brandee just nodded toward the birds.
“That’s them? Noah and Dante? Are they all right?”
“Yes. They will be.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, then realized he was much smaller than earlier when he’d shown her his bird form. “He looks different than he did when he shifted before.”
“He was full grown. He’s a baby bird again. They both are. They’re flying home.”
“Home? Where is that?”
“The family home in the South End. I’m not at liberty to share anything more.”
“That’s all right. As long as I know they’re okay.” She let out a breath in a whoosh. “I know where to find them. Thank you.”
Brandee nodded, and they reappeared in an unfamiliar kitchen.
“Where are we? Is this their parents’ house?”
“No, it’s mine. I want you to see where the other book is hidden now.” With a flick of her head, she indicated that Kizzy should follow her. “Since we all agreed the books are safer kept apart, Nick and I are guarding it with our very long lives, right here in our own home on Beacon Hill.”
In what looked like a library, Brandee pulled a certain book’s spine, like a lever. A hidden door sprang open, revealing a small panic room.
“My husband built it before we got together. Now that he has me, he doesn’t really need it, but we have it to use for a sort of paranormal underground railroad or, when necessary, when the kids need a time-out.”
Kizzy’s brows shot up.
Brandee burst out laughing. “Kidding! They don’t even know it exists.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m grateful to you, but I also really want to see Noah. I have to know he’s all right.”
“Yes, you should explain events—to the best of your ability—to their parents. Leave out the part about the books, of course. The Fierros will know what to do for them, but I imagine they’d like to know something about what happened to their sons.”
“Can’t the guys shift back and explain it themselves?”
“Not for a few months.”
“Months!”
“Well, several weeks, at least. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but the Fierros can fill you in. Do you have their contact information?”
“I was supposed to go there this weekend for Sunday dinner. I guess I can look them up online.”
“Good. Then I’ll leave you to it.”
In the blink of an eye, Kizzy was in her own kitchen again.
* * *
Mallory hadn’t been able to reach Dante all afternoon. Maybe his phone’s battery needed to be charged. She had hoped to talk to him before he went in to work at six. She hated to call him at the station, but she really wanted to talk about her parents coming home and let him know what he should and shouldn’t say to them. She probably had a few days, it wasn’t an emergency… But she didn’t know how many days he would be on duty.
“Shoot. I really wanted to talk to him.” Who else could she talk to?
Maybe Mrs. Fierro—er, Gabriella, Dante’s mother? Would she understand? She certainly knew what it was like to be a parent of someone with a paranormal secret. Maybe she’d be the perfect person to talk to.
She took a deep breath, remembering that Dante programmed their phone number into her contacts as well as his own and Noah’s personal numbers. Maybe she should call Noah. No. He was on the same schedule.
Don’t be a chickenshit, Mallory. Call Gabriella. She brought up her name and connected.
“Hello?” Gabriella answered in a musical voice.
“Hi, Mrs.—I mean Gabriella,” Mallory said. “I was just wondering if you were busy.”
“Well…”
The long pause concerned her. Mallory began to backpedal. “If you’re tied up right now, it’s okay. I can wait.”
“No, darling. You don’t need to wait. In fact, it might be a good idea for you to come over.”
“Come over? I was just thinking we could chat on the phone.”
“Oh? Are you busy? If you only have time for a phone call, that’s fine, but I have something to show you…something important. It may take a while to explain. Can you come for dinner?”
Dinner. She hadn’t even thought about dinner yet. It would be nice to have a home-cooked meal, other than her own crappy cooking, and talk face-to-face about paranormal things.
“Yeah, I’d like to come to dinner if it’s really okay. I didn’t mean to invite myself over.”
“You didn’t.” Gabriella chuckled. “I invited you. Just now.”
Mallory giggled. “I guess you did. I’ll just need a few minutes to get there. When are you planning on having dinner?”
“Whenever you get here. I have some leftover manicotti I can reheat. Antonio will be out with his old firefighting buddies for the evening, so it will just be the two of us. They’re going to a Red Sox night game. I’d like the company.”
Mallory felt better knowing that she wasn’t an imposition. Also, it sounded like they’d get some privacy. “Thanks. I’ll see you in thirty or forty minutes, probably.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to it.”
* * *
Gabriella hung up the phone and turned to her husband, who was placing bits of raw meat into the birdcage.